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1JazzDanceForChildren
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8Welcome to the beginning of the #paradise channel.
9[4:19 AM] General Grievance: anywho
10[4:19 AM] General Grievance: to anyone who is concerned
11[4:19 AM] General Grievance: here's a basic synopsis of the story i've been simmering on for some-odd a decade
12[4:19 AM] General Grievance: to simplify it, imma break it down into 6 parts
13[4:19 AM] General Grievance: technically it would make more sense to break it into half and then into halves and quarters
14but yeah
15[4:19 AM] General Grievance: so, part 1
16[4:19 AM] General Grievance: long time ago, god gets killed by satan
17[4:19 AM] General Grievance: hard cut present day, protagonist guy sean gets sucked into what he thinks is an alternate world
18[4:19 AM] General Grievance: in this world, a bunch of humans are preparing for a war against the demons of hell who are preparing to invade heaven and use earth as the inbetween
19[4:19 AM] General Grievance: their leader is a lady named guraiya, and she has a boytoy fiance named lance who's not all that special but has high status due to their attachment
20guraiya tells lance to bring sean and some troops to where he landed to figure out what's going on
21one of the troops is a peppy girl named yata who wants to make friends with everyone and tries to do the same with sean, which catches him off guard but he doesn't think much of it
22when they get there, a mysterious old dude suddenly shows up in the same way that sean did
23and he starts killing the troops using powers demons would normally have (dark magic)
24yata protects sean, which further confounds him since he's been alone his whole life and never felt any affection, any is baffled that yata would act like this to someone she just met
25in the scuffle, yata comes in contact with a metal ball that turns to a sort of sentient fluid that latches to her skin and starts taking over her body, but when sean tries to help she tells him to get out of there to safety
26and he's moved enough that he fights the old dude
27eventually yata recovers, and the metal has fully bonded with her body, giving her metallic skin while letting her shapeshift parts of her body or the whole thing
28during the fight, yata unconsciously bonds her body to sean's, temporarily fusing them; sean now wears yata like metal armor, but he's fully in control (unless he mentally trades places with yata which he can do on the fly), and any injuries sean takes (to the metal or his skin) is only felt like him, which is perfect for him since this way yata won't be putting herself at risk
29they beat the old guy, but when he dies a purple mist comes out of his body and enters sean's
30sean rips the armor off his body (which turns back into yata) and it's revealed that the purple thing is a demon; it was possessing the old guy (revealed to be sean's dad) and is now using sean as host(edited)
31[4:20 AM] General Grievance: yata and possessed-sean fight, and yata overpowers him
32the demon leaves sean's body and tries to enter yata's but sean gets in the way, saying he'll take beatings as many times as he needs to if it'll keep yata safe
33so instead the demon possesses one of the troops from reinforcements that had been sent their way, and in doing so essentially kills the guy from the inside to permanently hijack the body for his own to gain physical form, with the original body turning to stone and peeling off like a shell
34the demon reveals himself to be lucifer, and he and sean fight some more, with sean eventually winning (with the help of guraiya who shows up as backup)
35sean and yata then train with guraiya and lance to master their new powers (it turns out sean has the same potential that the good guys, the Saints, have, and basically has the power of angels, or "light magic")
36[4:20 AM] General Grievance: after training a bunch, sean and yata go off to an island where they discover a makeshift portal connecting hell to earth has been made
37lucifer's wife, sin, comes out with a litany of demons and sean fights them off
38another demon comes out, but this one, mercury, declares himself the enemy of sin and the other demons, and he begrudgingly teams up with sean to fight sin and her troops
39while sean and mercury win, sean is tricked and pulled into hell by demons on the other side of the portal, and mercury chases after him to save him, after which sin destroys the portal on earth's side, disconnecting the two
40mercury saves sean and reveals that humans can't endure in hell, but by having a demon (mercury) possess him, he can manage
41the only way for them to get back to earth is to go through another portal that was being developed, which turns out to be where sean entered the world from
42on the way, mercury explains backstory of hell, how lucifer and other angels got booted down and lucifer planned to get back to heaven somehow, until one day a young boy made entirely of metal dropped from the portal to heaven in the sky
43lucifer adopted the boy, naming him chronos, and eventually learned that chronos could create holes between heaven and hell from thin air, albeit small ones that would quickly close
44lucifer theorized that chronos could use this power to force open the one-way stable portal connecting heaven to hell, which was how he killed god; however, the connection wasn't stable enough for lucifer or his troops to safely pass through it
45back in the present, chronos (now grown up) shows up with a group of androids he's developed with the Metal (which his body continuously generates and he can separate from at will) and he sics one of the androids of sean
46sean beats him, but the android tricks him and yata into feeling sorry for him, and ends up killing yata
47[4:20 AM] General Grievance: this causes sean's powers to mutate, the metal turning red and his body covered in flames, which makes him go berserk and slaughter the android
48but then chronos and the others show up and surround him; sean tells mercury to get out of there, which he does, and sean dies
49[4:20 AM] General Grievance: sean and yata both end up in heaven, which is extremely sparse with no one populating it, and they manage to contact guraiya and tell her of her predicament
50she uses a technique to sacrifice her life for the both of theirs, leaving lance in charge of the saints, who are wary of his leadership but eventually come around
51sean and yata return to hell and reunite with mercury, making their way to the portal
52but the only way to open it is for sean and mercury to separate; sean would normally die without mercury possessing him, but in his enraged state, sean's flames of rage protect him in hell
53and they determine that they need to get sean mad (genuinely mad, otherwise his power wouldn't trigger)
54so mercury reveals that the world they're in is a recreation of events that occurred a thousand years prior to sean's time; the humans are just reflections of people who lived back then, while the demons are the originals who were sealed into this reality
55and in the real world, mercury had killed the real yata the same way lucifer killed that rando, by possessing her and killing her from the inside out (basically the most horrifyingly painful way to die)
56mercury keeps goading sean with the details until he goes berserk, but at the same time mercury's sobbing that he wants sean to kill him and set him free from his sin
57(which inspired the first bit of concept art I ever had anyone do for me)
58[4:21 AM] General Grievance: 
59
60[4:21 AM] General Grievance: so mercury activates the portal but right after sean slams his fist through mercury's gut, but it's not enough to kill him
61but then yata takes over sean's body and empathizes with mercury, asking why he'd be gloating about the act but then crying over it
62so mercury explains his backstory, that he was lucifer's natural-born son who lucifer resented due to his kindhearted nature, and once chronos appeared he deferred all his attention to him
63in the real world 1000 years ago, the demons successfully invaded earth, and mercury killed yata; after the fact he went to lucifer expecting praise, but instead lucifer revealed his disdain for him
64guraiya then showed up and saved him from lucifer's wrath; guraiya had already sealed all of the other demons into the alternate world (an orb of Metal, identical to the one the one that infected yata in the fake world), and with mercury's help she seals mercury and lucifer as well
65back in the present, sean's about to forgive mercury, but the innocuous diamond on his forehead violently reacts and starts destroying his body, only giving mercury time to apologize before he dies in a manner identical to possession
66from the shell of mercury's body emerges a demonic clone of sean, death, who explains that mercury was essentially used as a time bomb by lucifer in the event of his death, and death contains the dna and energy of lucifer, mercury and sean combined
67death manages to escape through the portal along with a bunch of demons while sean is trapped on the other side, eventually though sean manages to force the portal open, similar to chronos's power
68back on earth, lance and the demons and chronos and his androids (backed up by sin and the demons) are about to clash, but sean arrives right before they do and rips through chronos's forces before killing him
69[4:21 AM] General Grievance: tired from the fight, lance encourages him to rest while they fight sin and the demons
70so sean does just that, but awakes to find that death had slaughtered not only all of the saints (including lance) but the demons as well (including sin, who views him as her "son" through lucifer)
71this tips sean further over the edge, turning his flames black and forcing yata into the recesses of his mind, unable to talk him down
72sean and death duke it out but death has the upper hand since sean is an uncontrollable rage monster
73eventually sean calms down just long enough for yata to mentally punch him upside the face and talk him down, telling him that even if everyone else he cares about keeps dying, no one can force her to separate from him
74the two reconcile and sean unlocks the power to rip open a portal to heaven with his bare hands, something chronos couldn't even manage, and calls guraiya's spirit, who possesses him and ascends his power further, letting him control the metal with the same fluidity of control yata and chronos could
75he then calmly and coolly thrashes death, who in turn goes berserk and tries to ape sean's power by ripping open a hole to hell, but it's faulty and the demons that come out are reduces to gaseous sludge
76death tries to escape back to the stable portal to hell, but sean chases him down; before he can kill death, though, he accidentally triggers the portal's secondary purpose as a gateway back to the real world
77death escapes, with sean following shortly after, but as soon as sean comes out, death manages to release all of the demons trapped inside
78[4:21 AM] General Grievance: sean then goes to fight death, but finds all of the demons who had died have been revived (dying inside the fake world was only a temporarily death, basically storing them in a deeper layer until they could be released)
79meaning lucifer, sin and chronos are all alive again
80lucifer permanently fuses with death, and afterwards kills chronos who he no longer deemed useful
81sean and lucifer (now going by his proper title of satan) fight and sean manages to have the upper hand; in his frustration and humiliation, satan starts consuming the souls of the other demons around them to power him up, causing them to panic
82suddenly a revived mercury shows up and gives a speech to talk the demons into joining sean so they can finally redeem themselves, so they all possess mercury who fights by sean's side
83after a long three-way fight, satan is momentarily victorious, so sean suggests that mercury possess him, which he does
84the combination of yata, guraiya and mercury in his body causes his powers to mutate and ascend even further, and he completely thrashes satan
85satan is infuriated that he's being beaten by "god's messenger boy", but sean suggests to satan that everything was planned by god (chronos dropped down from heaven, god didn't resist when he died, etc) and that god was just preparing to pass on the torch to someone else, which horrifies satan
86and sean announces that he's the successor to god, finishing off satan
87[4:22 AM] General Grievance: before satan dies, he remembers his friendship with god, who had promised that they would always be friends no matter what happened (despite satan's eventual betrayal) and satan comes to terms with the fact that he was wrong, dying at peace with himself
88sean opens a portal to hell for the demons (minus mercury) to return home to(edited)
89but then it's revealed that because the metal world was destroyed, yata and guraiya's spirits are fading, so sean gives a tearful goodbye to both, telling yata he loves her
90as they fade away, mercury asks what they'll do next, and sean says he wants to find the real versions of them
91so with sean's portal-opening powers now nullified (yata managed to pass a portion of the Metal on to him that now lives in his bloodstream, which he can slightly control but not to the same level he once could), he and mercury depart to the island where the other portal was, with sean hoping he could travel through hell to get to heaven so he can find yata
92[4:22 AM] General Grievance: and thaaaaaaat's part 1
93[4:22 AM] General Grievance: :laundry:
94[4:22 AM] General Grievance: also i left out some characters and plot points for the sake of brevity
95it helps that it's by far the longest part so the others wouldn't take quite as long to get through
96[4:22 AM] General Grievance: ---
97[4:22 AM] General Grievance: Part 2: Is Sean blind AND stupid?
98[4:22 AM] General Grievance: sean and mercury head off to the island, and sean sees that with the bit of metal yata left him, he can shoot it out of his body at his will and shape it into a weapon, but he can't open portals and making armor with it doesn't provide him any sort of substantial power increase(edited)
99when they get to the island, they pass through into hell (with mercury possessing sean so he'll be safe)
100only to find it being besieged by skeletal angels
101who are attacking fleeing demons
102one of the demons notices sean and points him out to the others, and they all converge at him at once
103the impact of hundreds of thousands of demons hurling into his body knocks him out cold, and since the demons are all fighting over control of his body, sean's reduced to a feral beast of instinct
104and the excess amount of dark energy inside him turns his skin and hair black and causes him to sprout translucent horns, wings and a tail
105the feral sean fights off the angels, but is overwhelmed and is forced to retreat
106while the demons fight among themselves, mercury calls them out for hijacking the body of the man who just saved them and gets them to calm down
107when he asks what's going on, he's approached by a group of demons who were able to see into the future, albeit not with pinpoint accuracy
108and they suggest that they're being attacked by a species known as the Fallen
109while Sean's "holy magic" god-like powers were unlocked when light and dark peacefully coexisted inside him, the Fallen are born from light and darkness being forced together, creating an abomination
110they also explain that the Fallen act in a hive mind, taking orders from a single puppetmaster, the original source of the blight who contaminated other angels to do his bidding
111back in control, sean (with the demons in tow) heads to the portal to heaven, but a group of Fallen appear to stop them
112[4:22 AM] General Grievance: multiple demons (preestablished characters, not randos) come out from Sean's body and sacrifice themselves so he can keep going, which touches him enough to view the demons other than mercury as more than an inherently evil force
113so he jettisons them all from his body just before he passes into heaven so they can be safe in hell, then seals the portal behind him so the fallen in heaven can't enter hell
114[4:23 AM] General Grievance: but then sean sees he's surrounded by millions of the Fallen
115one of them, Malachi, speaks for them and names their master, someone named "Goddess"
116while sean tries to escape, a Fallen tries to possess him, and he learns that with enough willpower he can not only reject them, but peer into their mind without their consent, and uses this to find out where goddess is
117as sean becomes overwhelmed, mercury flies out of him and away to distract the Fallen so he can get away (seeing how mercury can fly and sean can't)
118sean makes his way to an alley and is caught by a small troop of Fallen
119while he dispatches most of them, the last one he's shocked to recognize as Lance, who doesn't recognize him (brainwashing aside, Sean had met the "fake" Lance and this one never met him)
120Lance tries to possess him, and in doing so Sean is able to meld his memories of Lance into Lance's mind
121Lance emerges from Sean's body, half normal looking and half deformed
122Sean's memories of him were able to partially "cure" him, but they weren't strong enough to fully subdue the Fallen side of him
123Lance tries to tell Sean what he knows (his memories are mixed, thinking he's the fake lance, but the "real" lance's memories start merging with his own), but the Fallen Lance takes control long enough to kill himself to stop himself from talking
124as Lance dies, he asks Sean that if he sees Guraiya, tell her he forgives her for everything
125Sean tracks down Mercury, who's been captured by the Fallen; their presence in Heaven has poisoned the air, similar to the effect of Hell on humans causing him to, while not die, become sickly and weakened when not in Sean's body
126[4:23 AM] General Grievance: Sean ambushes them and saves Mercury, but the two are outnumbered and Mercury collapses before he can enter Sean's body
127just as the two are about to be attacked, an enigmatic man appears from nowhere and stands in the way, telling sean to run and that he'll watch his back
128as sean flees, the man incapacitates all of the Fallen with ease before disappearing as simply as he appeared
129Sean makes his way to the citadel he saw in the vision
130and in the darkness, sees Guraiya on the throne
131though distraught, he steels himself to facing the truth even if it means having to fight Guraiya, and he approaches her...
132...only to see up close that she's unconscious and chained to the chair
133he manages to free her and has her possess his body, merging his memories of her so she recognizes who he and mercury are
134suddenly someone calls out from behind the door that Sean had fallen for the bait
135and it's Yata, revealing herself to be Goddess
136which causes Sean's knees to buckle and for him to only be able to utter her name, which shocks her, causing her to ask how he knows that name
137the other Fallen arrive, but Yata tells them to stand down, and she decides she'll possess Sean and use his power to force open the portal between heaven and earth so she and the Fallen can invade
138inside Sean's mind Mercury tries to fight her off while Sean remains catatonic; with little other option, Guraiya makes Sean hit his head into a wall, rendering all of them unconscious
139[4:23 AM] General Grievance: while unconscious, yata's and sean's memories intermingle and sean is able to see the past of the original yata
140whose great grandmother was one of the original Saints, but who was raped by some vagrant and forced by her husband to cast the child into the street, who would be brought into an orphanage
141generations later Yata would be born, with but a smidgen of Saint blood in her against her knowledge
142she decided to join the Saints among their non-powered troops because she wanted to make a difference and help people
143but when the demons attacked, it was a massacre
144she ran into guraiya, who had callously told her to be a good soldier and fight, even if it meant her death
145terrified, she ran away, only to be possessed by mercury, who brutally tore her soul from her body and killed her
146upon dying, she was sent to a heaven with no God, now ruled by a kangaroo court gladly sending people to hell for the meekest of crimes to keep its population down
147and she was imprisoned in a chamber to be cast into hell, but before she could be sent down, the war ended, guraiya passed away and became the new ruler of Heaven, and reformed the laws
148only Yata had been totally forgotten about, so she lingered in solitary confinement for a full century
149she tried to break out of the prison chamber, but it was designed to be immune to all damage but dark magic attacks once it had arrived in hell
150she forced and forced herself, and due to her saint lineage, a tiny sliver of mercury's dark essence had remained with her when she died, allowing her to trigger dark magic, but her forcing it corrupted her, turning her into the first Fallen
151still retaining her good nature, fear and sadness, she fled into heaven (now a run-down dump, as since guraiya had permanently closed off hell, all of the evil people of earth now populated heaven instead) and tried to find a way to prove her innocence
152[4:24 AM] General Grievance: along the way, she stumbled across a young mugger; she pushed him away by touching his forehead, causing him to violently transform into her first underling who immediately wished to serve her, but she fled in terror
153once in heaven, she learned of her great grandmother's fate, and grew disgusted by the likes of humans, angels and demons, deeming all of them corrupt and wicked, with her being the only creature that existed outside of that trinity
154she decided she would find a way to reform heaven to cure it of its corruption
155at which point she was encountered by the young angel once again, who this time she accepted; after asking what his name is, he sinisterly smirked and says “Whatever you want it to be”, and as the full weight of her power dawned on her, she dubbed him “Malachi”(edited)
156the two began spreading through heaven, gradually corrupting other angels into Fallen, until the entirety of Heaven was under Yata's control, at which point she besieged guraiya's citadel
157she tried to corrupt guraiya, but she was able to repel Yata's influence with her mental fortitude, so instead yata chained her there and reduced her to a comatose state
158yata then wakes up in control of sean's body surrounded by the Fallen; before the others can wake up too, she uses him to open the portal to earth, allowing the Fallen to swarm through and start possessing and killing humans
159when Yata leaves Sean's body, Sean tells Yata he saw her memories and how horrible her life was, and he laments he wasn't there to protect her when she needed him, but she still has no clue how she knows who he is and is unnerved by how someone still thinks of her as how she was as a human when she wants to forget about that part of herself
160mercury, fed up that sean can't get his act together, takes control of sean's body and fights yata, taunting and goading her and making her realize she's fighting the demon who killed her in the first place, enraging her
161[4:24 AM] General Grievance: eventually he yells at guraiya to make sean get together, but guraiya asks mercury to think of how sean must feel with yata, the first person to ever show him any sense of worth, now rejects him and despises him
162which makes mercury realize that sean had been keeping his pain a secret from mercury and was trying to maintain a facade of courage when really he was a house of cards ready to crumble
163so mercury begs guraiya to fight in his stead, and she battles yata
164meanwhile inside sean's mind, mercury slaps sean around and tells him that even if yata is no longer with him, he's not alone anymore since he has guraiya and himself, which snaps sean out of it
165before sean can fight yata, yata heads off to earth
166[4:24 AM] General Grievance: sean heads out of the portal, but it's too late to save earth; billions of souls killed by the fallen rush through at once, so sean seals the portal so they can't be harmed by the fallen all now in earth
167sean freefalls from the sky down to the ground and tears through the army of Fallen gathered to fight him until Yata arrives
168while still shaken, Sean exclaims that while Yata had saved him, he has Guraiya and Mercury with him so he's not fully alone anymore, and that he'll "save" Yata from her despair the same way she saved him
169the two duke it out, and eventually Sean manages to merge his memories with Yata, his memories strong enough for the good version of her he remembers to fully return(edited)
170before they can celebrate, a gigantic monster made of plantlife emerges from the earth, having been summoned and created by Yata before their fight
171it consumes all of the Fallen as well as Yata, attaching her to its forehead like an accessory
172Sean tries to fight it, but can't overpower it
173Yata tells him he has to kill her if he wants to save the world
174Sean halfheartedly attacks, but the creature casually stops the attack and, sucking the earth dry of energy, causes it to crumble and explode, with guraiya's power intervening to protect sean from the vacuum of space
175Yata tells Sean about how even if she lives, she'll have to endure with the memories of all the crimes she committed, and begs Sean to kill her to set her free from the pain, which Sean finally reluctantly agrees to
176he opens a portal to hell and summons all of the demons, who possess him once more, elevating him to his highest power once again
177before he deals the final blow, mercury and guraiya restrain the creature so sean can give a last tearful goodbye to yata, and while yata is sealed to the creature, she's able to limply move her arms to embrace him as the two say goodbye
178[4:24 AM] General Grievance: sean releases an energy blast so powerful by using all of the demons as a living energy source (sacrificing them in the process) that not only are the creature and yata destroyed, but all of existence with it
179Sean decides he's going to start the universe over again, while Mercury heads off to hell to rebuild there
180hard cut millennia later; a haggard Sean now has the title of God (with Guraiya, barely aged, as his confidante and second in command) while a barely aged Mercury now has the title of Satan
181the two meet again in Heaven as old friends, and Sean tells Mercury that he's come to realize that the previous God probably wasn't the first as well, and that they'll be continuing in a cycle  forever, that as long as there's good in the universe, so too must exist evil
182meaning he needs mercury to kill him and be that evil
183mercury promises to do so, and the two part as friends
184shortly after, the armies of hell invade heaven and a massive battle ensues
185guraiya faces off against a grinning demon who tells her she doesn't have to fight him as sean and mercury are probably finishing up, causing her to realize that he's to mercury what she is to sean and that he knows the truth
186in sean's citadel, a weary sean collapses in his chair and congratulates mercury on a battle well won, and commands him to finish it
187mercury blasts sean, shedding his mortal flesh and revealing his young soul beneath; sean tells him to finish it and mercury, sobbing, continues attacking and finishes sean off, leaving only mercury sobbing in the throne room
188[4:25 AM] General Grievance: *I squeeze gats plays
189[4:25 AM] General Grievance: ---
190[4:25 AM] General Grievance: Part 3: They revocer teh isotrope but they don't
191[4:25 AM] General Grievance: so after Mercury kills Sean, he calls off the war and decides that the cycle doesn't need to keep going and decides he'll rule over heaven, albeit not using the title of God
192and has Guraiya by his side as well as his demon confidante, a guy named Muizel
193as it turns out, gods have the power to create "custom souls", essentially defining whatever aspects of a being that they desire, and any gaps not filled in are chosen by random as would a normal birth
194and it was through this method that Sean created Muizel to act as Mercury's confidante (Muizel also has vibrant bushy orange hair, which is a memento of Beelzebub for Mercury)
195so after mercury rules for a while, he begins to miss sean and yata
196so he creates a custom soul who's a sort of what-if of their child, designed to look like their daughter
197he sends it off and doesn't designate when the child will be born, deciding he'd rather be surprised one day by her appearance
198a while later, one night Mercury senses a presence in the chamber where the custom souls are created
199he goes down and finds the enigmatic man who saved sean previously during the Fallen crisis (though mercury had never gotten a good look at him)
200he introduces himself as Faust, then intimidates Mercury by revealing that not only does he know things from Mercury and Sean's time (which only Mercury and Guraiya should've been alive long enough to see), but he claims to have been alive since the beginning of time
201he beats Mercury into submission and tells him to run off, which Mercury does; Faust then finishes creating four custom souls and together they vanish without a trace
202[4:25 AM] General Grievance: Mercury confides what he saw with Muizel, and becomes a nervous wreck
203after a year, Mercury is anxious and worried Faust will strike again, and sends Muizel on reconnaissance to Earth should Faust decide to strike there first
204Muizel descends to Earth and figures he'll grab a random human to steal their body (he doesn't have much scruples)
205and by sheer happenstance he jumps into the body of the child Mercury had created, now 15 years old, the cosmic coincidence of it filling him with riotous glee(edited)
206the child, Sophine, lives in an age of Earth where humans have essentially conditioned themselves to not feel emotion and to live in balance of good and evil, not tipping one side or the other
207and they all live in a massive isolated city while the rest of the "uncivilized" world lives on the outskirts in squalor
208sophine wants to fit in with her peers, but constant nightly nightmares keep her on edge at all times and keep her from tranquility
209the following morning, Muizel reveals himself to Sophine, and discovers that possessing her renders her unconscious even if he leaves her body, due to some bizarre frailty of her mind
210he tells her that everything she knows about good, evil, heaven and hell is a lie, and that she's the "daughter of god"
211and goads her into reluctantly going along with his teachings
212at first she's highly resistant and tries to use trickery to get her parents (the humans who birthed her, though her genes are a match for sean and yata's, not theirs) to help her, but muizel sees through it and makes a deal with her that she can live her normal life if she earnestly listens to him during the weekends
213which she agrees to
214[4:25 AM] General Grievance: as time goes by, she begins to see more and more wisdom in what muizel's saying, that the world is shallow and hollow
215one day while contemplating to herself, she's almost hit by an oncoming car, but muizel emerges from her body and pushes her out of the way, getting hit himself
216which she is baffled by, having assumed him some "evil demon" up until now
217with onlookers approaching and worried he'll be killed for being a demon, she brings him home and has him rest on her bed
218at which point her mother comes home and learns what's been going on, and reveals that she knew from the start that sophine wasn't her biological child
219her father thought of her as some sort of miracle, while her mother resented her and considered her a cursed demon child, and seeing her carrying around an actual demon is the final proof of things
220with her statements validating all of muizel's claims, she knocks her mother unconscious and tells muizel she fully believes him
221he's too weak to move on his own, so sophine trusts him enough to let him hijack her body to get them both out of there
222the two of them escape the city and travel to the wildlands, where muizel drops off sophine for a while as he gets things acclimated for him to train her further
223during this time, she learns more about the nature of good and evil, how "sins" are subjective, etc.
224at one point having to save a child by killing a man holding her over a cliff
225she jumps to save the child but is about to fall off, but muizel arrives just in time to save the two of them and congratulates her on completing the "moral" portion of her training
226he then takes them to an abandoned hospital and trains sophine further in her magical abilities that she's inherited through her blood, as well as training her in combat with pistols (a more modern weapon she's more suited for)
227as they train together, they bond even more and become inseparable
228[4:26 AM] General Grievance: and muizel tells sophine about mercury, who he considers his best friend and who he trusts with his life and has unwavering faith in
229meanwhile back in heaven, faust and his four custom souls (who he dubs the "Mythos") perform a sneak attack on Mercury in his chamber, killing all of his guards and subduing Mercury
230"Mercury" appears before the masses and announces he's giving up his crown and relinquishing it to Faust
231but this is an imposter, one of the Mythos named Mephane with the power to transform into the complete likeness of those whose blood he drinks
232leaving Mercury in a weakened state confined by the other Mythos
233as Muizel continues training Sophine, he teaches her how to open portals with her bare hands, then attempts to teach her how to perform magic,
234however, in her mind muizel had encountered another soul inhabiting her body
235a "twin" of sophine, accidentally created by a simple mishap when Mercury was creating them
236muizel names her "Concertia", and she is permanently bound to Sophine's body, unable to take control and unable to communicate with anyone (until Muizel had come along)
237however, Concertia's presence inside Sophine disrupts her attempts to produce magic, nearly transforming her into a Fallen
238Muizel recognizes what's happening from Mercury's stories and possesses Sophine to stop it, enraged that Concertia unintentionally threatened Sophine's life
239so Muizel straps Sophine to a table and, with her complete trust, performs a spell to forcibly rip Concertia from her body
240but due to his inexperience and lack of knowledge on the matter, the process leaves a scar on Sophine (and Concertia's) faces and nearly kills Sophine, which dampers his usually upbeat whacky mood and makes him dour, ashamed that twice now he almost let sophine get killed, but he doesn't tell sophine the truth about concertia's existence
241[4:26 AM] General Grievance: shortly after, Faust shows up at the abandoned hospital and reveals himself to Sophine; he's bemused that Muizel didn't tell Sophine the truth about Concertia and suggests he's there to kill Muizel, so Sophine tries to fight Faust but is hopelessly outmatched by him
242Muizel hears the ruckus and comes to help, but is too terrified to walk in the room and waits from outside
243Faust reveals that he has the power to control electricity and fries Sophine, but a battered and wounded Sophine tells Faust she'll trade her life for Muizel's
244Faust almost kills her, but Muizel finally jumps in, his vigor restored and claiming that his true purpose is to protect sophine
245he fights Faust, but Faust is somehow not only able to seemingly teleport around the room, but each time he does so his wounds are fully healed, so muizel can't keep a constant beat on him
246faust goads him by taunting how mercury fell before him, and losing focus, muizel has one of his arms sliced off
247it's revealed that faust is somehow able to slip in and out of dimensions at will, hence why he's able to dodge attacks constantly
248sophine tries to open a portal to heaven for her and muizel to escape through, but somehow faust's presence corrupts the portal, converting it into a vacuuming black hole
249sophine is almost sucked in, but muizel knocks her out of the way, getting his lower torso sucked in instead
250sophine grabs his remaining arm and tries to pull him out, but muizel says that his final test for her is that she needs to let go
251because sophine's not strong enough to pull him out and he doesn't want her to get sucked in with him too
252she sobs that she can't imagine living life without muizel anymore and that if she lives, he lives, and if he dies, she dies, and begs him to help her
253muizel is touched, but refuses to let sophine gets hurt, so he pulls her in, headbutts her into unconsciousness, and tosses her far enough away
254and he's sucked into the hole with a smile on his face
255[4:26 AM] General Grievance: sophine wakes shortly after, both faust and muizel gone, and after a spout of denial, slowly realizes that she killed muizel and wails in despair
256she tries to hold a funeral for him, but again collapses in sorrow over his grave, begging him to tell her what she should do
257back in heaven, faust had recovered concertia and has her open a stable portal as a part of some plan of his
258he figures that since his body weakens the dimensional barrier around him enough for him to slip in and out at will, it's that reason that when sophine tore open a hole between dimensions, she ended up ripping a hole so deep that she created a hole in existence where nothing sucked inside can ever return
259so in order to neutralize this ability of his, he stabs himself with a blade made of the Metal
260concertia opens the portal and faust casts a spell he dubs "Oblivion's Call", and says that with it he's going to save the world
261[4:26 AM] General Grievance: :endcc:
262[4:26 AM] General Grievance: (of that part)
263[4:26 AM] General Grievance: ---
264[4:26 AM] General Grievance: Part 4: Who stole my pizza rolls
265[4:26 AM] General Grievance: Sophine makes her way back to the human city, offering herself up to them in a bid of rage and defeatism
266she's strung up, ready to get burnt alive (her parents are right there among the crowd ready to kill her for good measure)
267when Faust shows up, spooks the humans into believing he's an angel or demon or who knows what, and tells them that they need to stop living bland, milquetoast lives and embrace their inner good/evil natures or else they're going to start dropping like flies
268(some of the humans had been spontaneously dying, and they blamed sophine for it up until now)
269so the humans start rioting, and in the chaos Faust grabs Sophine and slips in between dimensions with her in tow
270taking her to a surreal, ethereal plane he dubs the "World Between Worlds", which exists in the crack between dimensions
271he informs her that heaven, hell and earth aren't the only worlds, and that millions upon millions of worlds exist, some connected to each other like heaven hell and earth but most completely separate from each other
272she gets out of faust's grip, but her body can't handle existing in the plane without faust holding her so she's forcibly and painfully ejected into a random dimension
273Faust catches her and, after goading her by revealing that her ripping open a portal is what created the hole that killed muizel, injects her with a fluid that cuts off a majority of her power
274then for good measure he drops her from the sky to the land below, also tossing down a few Metal pistols (at Concertia's behest so that should they fight, they'd be evenly matched)
275a figure rushes out to catch her, but he's too late and sophine dies upon impact on the ground, but her soul emerges from her body and takes form in this world
276[4:26 AM] General Grievance: she comes to and is met by the only denizen of the realm, a male wisp-like humanoid who calls himself Chaos
277and he also calls the world they're in Chaos
278sophine talks to chaos and ascertains that if she travels to the end of the world, she may find a way to get out of there
279chaos reveals that long ago, faust saved his life
280sophine goes off on her journey alone, but is quickly joined by chaos, who feels like helping her can give his empty life meaning
281meanwhile in heaven, the curse faust created sucks in the souls of those who are perfectly balanced, and in exchange for every billion, reconstitutes the soul of someone who had fully died
282and should start with the most powerful being in existence and move down from there
283faust expects the first revival to be either sean or lucifer, but it's none other than yata, who upon gaining her bearings is horrified that she's alive and wishes she was still dead
284and when she's told it's been ages since sean died, she becomes an emotional mess
285faust tries to goad her into willingly joining him, but she flatly refuses; once he suggests reviving sean in return, though, her fortitude crumbles and she's about to give in
286but then she hears a report that sean had just been brought back to life, and yata realizes that faust would've revived him regardless
287sean and yata reunite and together plan to escape from under faust's nose
288[4:27 AM] General Grievance: back in chaos, concertia appears and fights sophine, blocking chaos off
289and reveals her connection to sophine and that muizel lied about her existence
290concertia's about to kill sophine but chaos, having had an epiphany that dying for a cause will finally give his life meaning, takes a bullet for sophine, enraging her and filling concertia with overwhelming guilt (since she had considered herself the unquestionable "good guy" in the situation)
291chaos died in sophine's arms and sopine, now embittered, swears that her purpose is to kill faust and heads off on her own
292back in heaven, mercury meets concertia and realizes she's the "daughter" of yata and sean he created (not knowing of sophine's existence and assuming her the "true" one)
293the two become attached, and faust exploits this, getting mercury to work for him or else he'll torture and kill concertia
294so while sean and yata are escaping through underground tunnels, mercury meets them and they have a joyful reunion
295mercury gives instructions for them to escape through hell, which the two take on good faith; afterwards it's revealed faust fed this plan to mercury, who feels horribly guilty about tricking his friends
296[4:27 AM] General Grievance: meanwhile, not all of the angels are in support of faust's coup, with a faction led by guraiya ready to reclaim the crown
297before that though, guraiya breaks into the royal citadel on her own and dives into the portal reviving souls, and uses its power to pull lance out
298the two escape and reconvene with guraiya's army, but guraiya discovers to her horror that lance is still split between his normal and Fallen selves, with the two constantly combatting for control over his body
299guraiya, her second-in-command (a royal angel named alder), lance, and all of her troops get ready to wage war with faust and his loyal troops
300sean and yata descend into hell, assuming that faust is hiding there and that's where they can fight him
301sophine makes it to the end of chaos and, finding a portal at the end, jumps through
302and faust summons his four mythos, telling them it's time to get to work
303[4:27 AM] General Grievance: :endcc:
304[4:27 AM] General Grievance: diamond is crash
305
306---(edited)
307[4:29 AM] General Grievance: Part 5: Everyone Dies
308[4:29 AM] General Grievance: so as soon as sophine enters through the portal, she ends up in a mirrored version of chaos (the corresponding world to chaos, a la heaven/hell), and is almost immediately killed
309but she's saved by a stranger jumping in
310she thinks he's dead and her survivor's guilt triggers and she yells at him, but then the guy springs up and runs off, turns out he's alive
311she catches up and apologizes, and he tells her he's the creation of his master, a man named doctor torchauve (one of faust's mythos)(edited)
312who one day kicked him out in a fit of rage
313as he has no name, she names him frankie, and sophine, deciding she's done of letting other people die for her, decides she's going to protect him
314and the two set off to torchauve's laboratory, where sophine thinks she may find answers on how to escape and get to heaven
315in hell, sean and yata are approached by faust, who tries to go along with mercury's lie (and sean recognizes faust from way back when)
316faust warns them of a demon who supposedly still roams hell, then tells them he'll be waiting for them at the old palace of hell (pandemonium)
317as they journey on, they encounter a demon, but he's timid, terrified of them at first, but befriends them, calling himself per'jhan
318after a while of traveling together, sean collapses from drastic dehydration
319per'jhan reveals himself as one of faust's mythos, having cursed him on their first meeting and ever since has been indirectly draining him of fluids, leaving him a weakened husk
320yata fights per'jhan, who wholeheartedly believes he was simply brought back to life by faust, not created whole-cloth by him
321[4:29 AM] General Grievance: yata suggests that his memories, specifically of his beloved (who he's supposedly serving faust in exchange for her revival) have all been created by faust, which shatters his resolve and he flees
322yata journeys along carrying a weakened sean along the way, now promising she'll be the one to protect him
323while resting in a cave, she's ambushed by a wolf, who can somehow breathe fire
324after a brief skirmish, the wolf transforms into a man, volchaign (the last of the mythos), who apologizes for being given the wrong scent, having followed a blade that guraiya had earlier given yata
325and he departs
326yata eventually meets back up with per'jhan,who has decided that whether or not faust is telling the truth, the only hope he has is in choosing to believe in him, as not doing so would mean his beloved isn't real and it'd be a moot point
327during the fight, faust shows up with a human-sized marionette that can move on its own, which per'jhan sees as his beloved (a mental trigger faust had built into him), and this tips per'jhan firmly into believing faust
328yata has to fight off both per'jhan and the marionette (whose arms are blades), and cornered, she subconsciously awakens her fallen personality, which was not destroyed but merely laid dormant
329at the same time, lance all the way in heaven goes berserk, transforming fully into his fallen side and attacking guraiya's army; guraiya subdues him but deduces that yata's fallen side has returned, which is the worst possible scenario
330fallen yata tears through per'jhan and the marionette, but yata manages to regain control just in time to save sean (who had earlier been tossed into a river to rehydrate him, but he was at the risk of drowning)
331yata doesn't tell sean the truth of how she killed per'jhan, and the two continue their journey to the palace
332[4:30 AM] General Grievance: in heaven, guraiya and her army approach a forest, and she and lance become trapped inside when a barrier of fire suddenly appears, separating them from the rest of her troops (and gradually moving inward into the forest to burn them alive)
333volchaign initially attacks from afar with arrows in his human form, but just when guraiya thinks she has her opponent figured out, he appears in his wolf form and the two have a vicious fight, with lance barely able to act due to having to focus on keeping his fallen side at bay
334during this time, guraiya flashes back to how lance was given to her as a child as an arranged marriage deal in exchange for a lord's finances, and guraiya's parents had just died so she was in an emotionally hollow state; shortly after lance's parents died, leaving him in her care, and while initially cold to him, she grew to like him as a useless but endearing servant, eventually learning to empathize with him and falling in love with him despite his numerous faults
335volchaign, seeing that guraiya is getting gravely wounded by focusing on protecting lance, is annoyed that his victory won't be true and gives guraiya an ultimatum: leave lance to die and he'll let her escape to fight another day, otherwise he'll kill them both
336and he departs to the center of the forest
337[4:30 AM] General Grievance: fallen lance then takes over and talks guraiya into cooperating on a plan (since he wants to stay alive to protect the fallen yata, who his mental connection is constantly telling him is in danger)
338volchaign is approached by just guraiya, leaving him flabbergasted and infuriated that she'd give up her life to protect someone so weak, as in her weakened state he can easily kill her and then finishing lance off will be child's play
339and when asked why she'd do so much for someone so weak, guraiya says that that's just who he is, and that if she could stop loving him for as simple a reason as that, she'd have left him a long time ago
340volchaign decides it's pointless talking, and he and guraiya fight, with guraiya managing to beat him down in his wolf form with her bare hands
341she leaves him in the burning fire and he's burned to death by his own flames
342she then manages to find the hole in the flames that fallen lance was able to blast his way through, but he's attempted to flee and is far in the distance
343choosing between alerting her army of her survival (and risk lance leaving her sight and being unable to track him) and chase down lance, she goes with the latter and bolts after him
344alder and guraiya's army assume she's dead, and alder nobly states he's going to keep fighting to avenge guraiya
345nearby, mephane (the fourth of the mythos and faust's most personal and loyal) comes across a man who suddenly appeared in heaven
346and it's a fallen version of alder, who says he's "back to kill faust"
347[4:30 AM] General Grievance: in the meantime, another person is revived from faust's portal
348and it's lucifer
349who is about to be taken in custody, but is able to move on his own (despite him supposed to be unconscious without being injected with a serum to fully revive him), and it's revealed that yahweh (the earlier god who lucifer killed and his former best friend) is awake in his body and piloting it
350fleeing from faust, he realizes that there are other dimensions and rips his way to a new one he had never been before
351faust tries chasing him, and attempts to use a technique that will let him exist in all dimensions at once (which he calls "Omnipresence"), but it taxes him physically (and also makes him vulnerable to the screams of agony of all across all worlds), leaving him in a shellshocked state
352yahweh speaks to sin and chronos (both also awake in lucifer's body) and they agree on trying to find a way to awaken lucifer
353sophine and frankie are continuing towards torchauve's lab when torchauve shows up; frankie professes his allegiance to sophine, so torchauve reveals a switch, igniting a bomb inside frankie and brutally killing him, leaving sophine crumbling at her knees
354torchauve taunts and nearly kills her, but yahweh arrives just in time to save her
355when he sees she's afraid, he warmly tells her he'll protect her
356which are the exact wrong words she needed to hear
357and she remembers muizel, chaos and frankie all saying things along those lines and all dying horrible deaths
358which results in one of my favorite scenes i've ever written (and one of the few from the second half i've put into written form, which I really should do for more of it)
359[4:32 AM] General Grievance: SOPHINE
360No...go away. Leave me alone.
361YAHWEH
362What? Did I do something wrong? I’m so-
363SOPHINE
364You don’t understand. Everyone...everyone I’ve ever come into contact with...anyone who’s ever tried to help me...everyone who’s called me their friend...is dead, because of me. They’ve all died to protect me. I’ve had to watch everyone I love die right before my eyes. And I...I...
365_Sophine looks up at Yahweh; she has completely lost all composure. Tears are flowing down her eyes, her nose is running, her body is shaking, and she is a broken mess of utter despair.
366SOPHINE
367...I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE!!! If I have to choose between watching the people I love die, and just dying myself...I’D RATHER JUST DIE!!
368Yahweh gazes down at Sophine with an expression of soft, delicate sympathy.
369YAHWEH
370You poor thing. You’ve lost so much, haven’t you?
371Sophine looks down away from his gaze and falls to her knees, continuing to sob. Yahweh kneels and lightly places his hand on her shoulder.
372YAHWEH
373Then allow me to amend my promise to this: I swear, no matter what happens, I will not die.
374[4:32 AM] General Grievance: SOPHINE
375How do you know?!
376Yahweh is taken aback, releasing his hand.
377SOPHINE
378That’s what they all said! They all said that they’d never leave me, that we’d always be together! And now they’re all dead! What makes you think you’re any different?!
379Yahweh pauses and looks unsure of himself. After a few seconds of thought, he releases a suppressed sigh.
380YAHWEH
381You’re right, Sophine; I can’t make any guarantees about that. I don’t have all of the answers. But you can’t just give up on yourself either. You can’t die here. So please, I’m begging you, just one last time, choose to believe. Please...have faith.
382Sophine’s eyes widen as Yahweh speaks those last two words.
383MUIZEL (V.O.)
384Have faith...
385Her eyes well up once more; she closes her eyes, and she cups her hand over her mouth. A few seconds pass until she finally regains her composure.
386SOPHINE
387All right...all right. I’ll have faith...one last time.
388[4:32 AM] General Grievance: [seriously, that "I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!" is one of those things I desperately want someone to do art of because it's one of my favorite, most emotionally raw moments]
389[4:32 AM] General Grievance: deciding he's outgunned, torchauve flees back to his laboratory
390sophine wants to take chase, but yahweh stops her, telling her that she's still in no condition to fight, physically or mentally, since she's still bottling up her grief from frankie dying just minutes prior, and he tells her to let it out
391[4:33 AM] General Grievance: SOPHINE
392Frankie...Frankie! Oh, Frankie...
393As she continues to cry, her sorrow turns to rage.
394SOPHINE
395Damn it...damn it, damn it! I can’t...
396Sophine pulls at her hair and looks up into the sky as she screams.
397SOPHINE
398...I can’t protect anyone!!
399She turns to face Yahweh, a hint of malice in her eyes and voice.
400SOPHINE
401And I don’t know why I think it’ll be any different with you.
402She slowly takes a pistol from her pocket and places it against her head, her hand shaking all the while.
403SOPHINE
404Why should I even bother? I should just end it, right now.
405Yahweh is not fazed; he continues to speak calmly and clearly.
406YAHWEH
407Sophine, I can’t pretend to have known any of your friends, but...they loved you, didn’t they?
408The tears running down Sophine’s eyes suddenly flow faster, and her lips quiver. She closes her eyes and snivels as she speaks, her voice coming out as a strained squeak.
409SOPHINE
410...Yes!
411YAHWEH
412Then do you think this is what they wanted? For you to take your own life? For you to give in to your despair? They didn’t sacrifice themselves so you could die; they did it so you could live!
413SOPHINE
414But...it hurts! It hurts too much!
415YAHWEH
416I know it hurts, Sophine. Fight it. Endure. Live. If not for your sake...then for theirs!!
417Sophine’s eyes widen and her shaking hand loses its grip on the gun, causing it to fall to the ground. She cups her hands around her mouth as her knees buckle. A hand grasps her shoulder; she looks up to see Yahweh gently holding her. She gradually lowers her hands to her side and, falling into his arms, lets out a heartfelt and prolonged wail.
418[4:33 AM] General Grievance: anywhoooo
419[4:33 AM] General Grievance: mephane brings the fallen alder to faust, who deduces from what alder says that at some point in the future, after he fights alder and his troops and beats them, he's going to toss alder into some dimension where time doesn't flow properly, and after some time alder will transform into a fallen and break back into heaven, which due to the time inconsistencies had occurred hours prior
420he makes a deal with the fallen alder to work for him momentarily in exchange for [fallen] yata's hand
421shortly after, mephane speaks to him in private, and, telling faust he promised him no secrets between them, faust reveals that he's still haunted by the screams he heard when attempting omnipresence, and that he had expected the war to die down with guraiya's supposed death
422[4:33 AM] General Grievance: and he realizes that at some point sophine will arrive and reboot the universe just like sean did by nuking it all, and then another god will appear and do the same, and it'll continue in an endless loop that faust will be forced to remain a spectator to
423and he decides that he'll create a massive hole in existence that will consume all of reality, ending the cycle of pain and rebirth forever
424he assumes mephane will turn against him, as he'd never agree to such a mad plan that would kill him and everyone in existence
425mephane responds that since faust created him and gave him life, only faust has the right to decide when that life should end and how it should be used
426which touches faust, who promises he'll never doubt mephane ever again
427meanwhile, guraiya catches up with the fallen lance and talks with him, coming to terms with the fact that the fallen lance isn't inherently evil and merely wants to protect his "goddess", who he loves more than anyone in the world
428guraiya talks him into keeping quiet within lance's body, promising him that she can get them to meet up with yata so he can decide for himself whether she's happier normal or as a fallen
429and if he decides she's happier as a fallen, he can slaughter her and sean
430but she's certain that he won't lie and will concede to the truth if she's happier as herself
431and he agrees, letting the normal lance take full control of his body again
432the two depart for a massive tower that faust has constructed which he is now using as his base of operations
433in hell, sean and yata arrive at the palace, where they encounter none other than mercury
434[4:33 AM] General Grievance: who goads sean and admits he betrayed him
435after some verbal back and forth, sean deduces that he's not the real mercury but an imposter
436forcing mephane to reveal himself
437but when mephane reveals that he obtains someone's appearance by drinking their blood and mimic's mercury's body again to show him in agony, sean goes berserk and rushes him, only for mephane to somehow teleport around him and clutch yata, drinking her blood
438sean goes even more nuts and tries to fight mephane, who takes on yata's form (and memories), giggling to himself about how much better her body and mind are for fighting him
439eventually mephane is contacted by faust, who arrives to pick him up
440leaving a weakened sean and yata behind
441however, they discover a vial of a serum faust intentionally left behind which recovers sean's full strength that faust had sealed off, allowing him to open holes in dimensions once again to return to heaven and track faust down
442[4:34 AM] General Grievance: meanwhile, sophine and faust make it to torchauve's laboratory
443they force their way inside and corner him, at which point chronos takes over yahweh's mind so he can fight torchauve and his army of stone clones created through his powers
444chronos talks sophine into running back into the lab to find the serum to awaken lucifer, as if they wait too long his consciousness could be lost inside his body forever
445so sophine reluctantly goes back to the lab to grab the serum (taking three vials, but during a rumble caused by the fight outside, she loses one of the vials that shatters)
446after fighting for a while, sin takes over and continues the fight with torchauve, eventually defeating him
447sophine injects the serum into yahweh's body, causing the others' consciousness to regress back into his mind and for lucifer to awaken
448however, torchauve's not dead and pins the two down
449lucifer tries to attack him, but because he had made peace with himself and renounced his former ways, his access to dark magic has been sealed off, rendering him powerless
450but then faust detonates a set of bombs from within the laboratory to torchauve's shock and horror; he attempts to keep his lab standing (while sophine and lucifer flee)
451he sees faust and expects he'll help him, but when he sees the remote in faust's hand and his cheeky grin, torchauve realizes the truth and cusses him out before he's buried in the rubble
452(this being a culmination of a growing resentment between the two, where torchauve had been planning to supplant faust while faust knew all along and thought of torchauve as a cocky idiot he couldn't wait to dispose of, albeit one he had intentionally made that way)
453[4:34 AM] General Grievance: sophine finds a serum left by faust that could reawaken lucifer's powers, but could potentially kill him; determined to redeem himself and make himself useful, lucifer injects it
454he sees visions of chronos, sin and yahweh taunting him for the horrible crimes he committed, and when he attempts to convince his vision of yahweh why he deserves power again, the vision of yahweh condones him that he's still being selfish after all this time, thinking about his redemption, his purpose, etc.
455so instead lucifer swears he'll act as a knight to sophine, making her the center of his life and no longer focusing on himself; the vision turns into one of himself, revealing it to be a manifestation of his own doubts, fears and guilt which he has managed to defeat
456lucifer awakens with his full power returned and swears to serve as sophine's knight; while she accepts she tells him of yahweh's promise to not die and of all the shit she's gone through, and the two promise to protect one another
457sophine also finds another serum left behind by faust, similar to the one sean had that recovers her full powers again, allowing her to rip open a portal to heaven
458and she and lucifer go through, with all parties converging on the tower at heaven
459[4:34 AM] General Grievance: ...where faust has called concertia, mercury and mephane to the roof of
460he tells concertia to open a massive portal, and reveals his intention to create a hole in existence that will swallow all of reality
461while he's distracted, concertia shoots him, causing him to fall over and die much to her and mercury's shock
462as they celebrate, faust suddenly appears behind them, fully healed and with a smarmy grin
463while concertia is stunned and says she killed him, faust casually asks "you mean like this?" and kills himself over and over, instantly appearing right after
464[4:34 AM] General Grievance: "You get it? You get it, you get it, you get it, you get it, you get it?! I. CAN'T. DIE!!"
465[4:34 AM] General Grievance: and faust reveals that one additional aspect of his abilities (that the first ever god created him with) is that when he dies, his soul is sent to the dimension of oblivion, where all deceased souls float in an eternal golden haze for all of eternity
466except unlike others, faust's consciousness stays intact, meaning he'll just recover and can use his powers to slip back into whatever dimension he was in
467concertia lunges at him with the Metal knife he gave her, figuring that it's the only thing that can kill him
468showing a hint of genuine concern and tension, he knocks her down while mephane pins mercury down
469and when she asks why he gave her the knife in the first place if she didn't want to use it to kill him, he smiles cheek to cheek and says that he didn't want her to kill him; he wanted to see her try
470and he fries her with his electricity
471utterly defeated and with faust threatening to torture both her and mercury forever without letting them die, concertia figures that all of mercury's friends who are coming (sean, guraiya, etc) are the only hope of stopping faust; when they get there, if they can defeat him and close the hole, all will be well, and if they fail, then she'll just die, and she doesn't want to live in a world where she has to make the only person who's ever cared for him suffer just for existing herself
472so much to mercury's horror, she agrees, tearing open a massive hole in existence to faust's delight, who claims that the time has finally come for all things to end
473[4:34 AM] General Grievance: to be concluded
474[4:34 AM] General Grievance: to be concluded
475phew
476that part is fucking long
477and yeah I could probably chop that down into even further pieces
478next time on dragon ball z
479the ending, and it's a doozy
480[8:37 PM] General Grievance: okey doke
481[8:37 PM] General Grievance: time to finish this up
482[8:38 PM] General Grievance: Part 6: G'bye, Ganon
483[8:38 PM] General Grievance: guraiya's old army, now lead by alder, is stationed outside of faust's tower, ready to invade it
484[8:39 PM] General Grievance: guraiya and lance have infiltrated their forces disguised in hoods, as when guraiya saw alder's leadership, she decided it best she remain "dead" and should pass the torch to the next generation
485[8:39 PM] General Grievance: as soon as sean and yata emerge from hell into heaven, the fallen lance momentarily takes over to tell guraiya that she's arrived in heaven and she's on her way (she and sean are moving towards the tower at breakneck speed)
486[8:41 PM] General Grievance: meanwhile, mephane disguised in yata's form enters alder's tent and, while initially seduces him, temporarily paralyzes him by drinking his blood and injects a serum into his body that will later allow his transformation into a fallen
487[8:41 PM] General Grievance: as mephane leaves his tent, guraiya spots him and, thinking it's yata, takes chase, though fallen lance (inside lance's mind) talks to him for the first time and tells him that even he should be able to detect that she's a fake
488[8:41 PM] General Grievance: they try to get her attention before she enters the tower but she transforms back into mephane before their eyes before vanishing inside
489[8:42 PM] General Grievance: meanwhile, the portal sophine opened back to heaven spits her out high in the sky
490[8:42 PM] General Grievance: she panicks as she's freefalling but notices the gaping hole in existence in the sky
491[8:43 PM] General Grievance: and before she can react to that, she sees faust, who smirks at her, and in a fit of rage she unleashes a massive magical attack his way, which impresses him towards how powerful she's become
492[8:43 PM] General Grievance: mephane intervenes and, using one of his abilities to produce gas from his wrists, puts all of his energy into creating a wall of gas that forms into a solid object, blocking the blow
493[8:44 PM] General Grievance: he then covers the top of the tower with a dome of the substance so none others can fly up and see the hole, and will have to invade from the ground up
494[8:44 PM] General Grievance: exhausted, sophine plummets to the ground but is saved by lucifer who lands her safely
495[8:45 PM] General Grievance: as he watches over her recovering (she's still beat from the fight with torchauve so she's out for a few hours), faust appears before them to intimidate lucifer (who, while understanding how powerful faust is, keeps his calm), and faust leaves again
496[8:45 PM] General Grievance: once sophine wakes up, lucifer tells her she can't be so reckless and makes her promise that she won't exert herself again until her fight with faust
497[8:46 PM] General Grievance: sean and yata arrive at the tower, and the three parties (guraiya/lance/alder/the full army, sean and yata, sophine and lucifer) enter from three different entry points
498[8:46 PM] General Grievance: sophine and lucifer are met by a massive army, as is guraiya's group
499[8:47 PM] General Grievance: alder leads his troops onward to fight off faust's troops, with guraiya and lance joining
500[8:47 PM] General Grievance: faust appears before sophine and casually chats with her, offering to take her up to the top of the tower to have their fight now (as opposed to having her climb all the way up and fight all those inside the tower to get to him)
501[8:47 PM] General Grievance: however, faust won't take lucifer with him, leaving him to fight his men down below
502[8:48 PM] General Grievance: lucifer tells sophine to go with faust, but sophine yells at lucifer, telling him he promised not to sacrifice himself for her
503[8:48 PM] General Grievance: but he says some promises must be broken to protect those they care about
504[8:48 PM] General Grievance: and runs off to fight faust's men
505[8:48 PM] General Grievance: sophine starts crying and, remembering everyone else who died for her, thinks that she never asked anyone to die for her and angrily chases off after lucifer, leaping into the fray
506[8:49 PM] General Grievance: when lucifer yells at her for using her energy before fighting faust, she repeats his line about breaking promises to protect those you care about, which he's touched by
507[8:49 PM] General Grievance: and the two fight faust's troops together as faust watches invisibly from above with satisfaction
508[8:49 PM] General Grievance: meanwhile, sean and yata are only met by one man
509[8:49 PM] General Grievance: the fallen alder
510[8:50 PM] General Grievance: who goads sean about how yata lied to him about her fallen side still existing, which sean staunchly refuses
511[8:50 PM] General Grievance: and sean furiously battles fallen alder, refusing to let him "take" her from him again
512[8:51 PM] General Grievance: overwhelmed by faust's troops, sophine has lucifer take them high into the domed room they're in and, after gathering a massive amount of energy, releases it all at once in a charged bullet that detonates and produces an explosion that engulfs the entire room, killing all of faust's men and leaving faust cackling in hysterics at the majesty of it all
513[8:51 PM] General Grievance: as lucifer brings down an exhausted sophine, he offers one last time to take her up with him, but she says that she'll stay by lucifer's side no matter what comes their way
514[8:52 PM] General Grievance: which faust accepts and leaves, making them question whether or not he's really some pure evil monster
515[8:52 PM] General Grievance: sean continues fighting fallen alder, while fallen yata awakens in yata's mind and tries to take control; as yata screams in pain, sean loses focus long enough for fallen alder to pierce his body and slash it wide open, nearly splitting him in two
516[8:53 PM] General Grievance: unable to control fallen yata anymore, yata explodes with energy as her fallen personality takes over once again
517[8:53 PM] General Grievance: which triggers fallen lance to explosively transform (despite having remained calm up until now due to his promise with guraiya) and, desperately searching for a way to get to his goddess, rushes out of the other side of the room
518[8:54 PM] General Grievance: which is triggered by a bomb that faust had placed, blowing the room up and killing allied and enemy troops alike
519[8:54 PM] General Grievance: guraiya, having been chasing after lance, manages to escape the explosions
520[8:54 PM] General Grievance: alder, noticing guraiya and chasing after her, is not so lucky and is almost caught up in them, but is nabbed by faust, who takes him to the dimension where time is warped so he can close the loop and avoid a paradox
521[8:55 PM] General Grievance: fallen yata thanks fallen alder for disposing of sean, but she then violently kills him, saying that a voice in her head wouldn't quiet down until she did so
522[8:55 PM] General Grievance: she tries to maintain control, but regular yata manages to overpower her, but not before fallen yata confidently remarks that no matter what she does, she'll be inside her and ready to take control again at any time
523[8:56 PM] General Grievance: yata desperately flies through the tower with sean, hoping to find someone to save him (even figuring she'll serve faust if he'll save sean's life)
524[8:56 PM] General Grievance: guraiya talks fallen lance into letting lance take over again, as normal yata would be terrified him and she wants to protect her to, so he concedes, telling her he'll kill them all if anything bad happens to her
525[8:57 PM] General Grievance: the two stairwells they were ascending converge into a large chamber where the four of them meet back up (much to the surprise of each other), and guraiya manages to just barely bring sean back from the brink of death
526[8:58 PM] General Grievance: in the aftermath, yata sits alone in the corner and solemnly contemplates while fallen lance surveys the situation and, seeing yata an emotional wreck, figures that guraiya was wrong after all and she's happier as goddess
527[8:58 PM] General Grievance: before he can act, yata slices off one of her hands, which are the origin point of her fallen corruption
528[8:59 PM] General Grievance: she tells sean the truth that the fallen yata was still in her, and begs someone to cut off the other hand to save her
529[8:59 PM] General Grievance: and fallen lance realizes that the fallen yata makes the normal yata miserable
530[8:59 PM] General Grievance: he transforms into his fallen persona and has a heart to heart with yata, confirming that all of her friends make her happier than she could be as a despot and a tyrant
531[8:59 PM] General Grievance: so he swears to finish the job
532[9:00 PM] General Grievance: fallen yata manages to take over briefly and demands fallen lance to kill them all, and seeing her for a pitiful angry wretch, he proclaims yata to be "his goddess" and that she makes her unhappy, which he can never allow
533[9:01 PM] General Grievance: after saying his goodbyes (as destroying fallen yata permanently will most likely destroy him as well), yata thanks him and smiles, and he thinks to himself that that's all he ever wanted
534[9:01 PM] General Grievance: and he cuts off her hand, causing him to evaporate from lance's body, a smile on his face as he fazes away
535[9:01 PM] General Grievance: guraiya patches up yata, and the four prepare to move up to the next part of the tower
536[9:02 PM] General Grievance: meanwhile, sophine and lucifer rest in a similar chamber on their side of the tower, and sophine tells lucifer how she desperately wants to meet her parents but believes she won't because she's certain she's going to be killed when she fights faust
537[9:02 PM] General Grievance: so lucifer encourages her to live long enough to see them
538[9:02 PM] General Grievance: all parties move to the next tier of the tower
539[9:03 PM] General Grievance: on sean, yata, guraiya and lance's side, they see the remainder of faust's army, twice the size of what guraiya's group had fought previously
540[9:03 PM] General Grievance: sean reveals that in his eons as god, he was planning a way to revive the reflections contained back in the metal world, still lingering in the metal inside him
541[9:03 PM] General Grievance: and he learned he could bring them to life in the real world, but only temporarily
542[9:04 PM] General Grievance: so he does so, producing physical versions of the reflections of yata, guraiya, lance, and all the saints whose memories were recreated in the metal world
543[9:04 PM] General Grievance: sean, needing closure for not fighting by their side against the demons inside the metal world, joins them in fighting faust's troops while the other three look for the exit
544[9:05 PM] General Grievance: on sophine and lucifer's side, they are encountered only by mephane
545[9:06 PM] General Grievance: who initially calmly tries to talk with them, but when lucifer suggests he and sophine will keep moving, he casually but firmly tells him they're not, as he's to keep them from progressing
546NEW MESSAGES
547[9:06 PM] General Grievance: and while he'd rather do so calmly, he can do so with violence if need be
548[9:06 PM] General Grievance: while talking, mephane reveals two of his powers to them
549[9:07 PM] General Grievance: one is that, when in pure darkness, he can instantaneously move to two points not interrupted by light
550[9:07 PM] General Grievance: the other being that when he drinks someone's blood, he can transform into their likeness while also taking their memories (the accuracy/length of memory dependent on how much blood is drunk)
551[9:08 PM] General Grievance: he also reveals that faust has strapped an electrical system to his arms, allowing him to control the lighting in all of the chambers of the tower by opening or closing a finger (with each finger assigned to a different room), and mephane showing his religious devotion to faust by commenting that the wires makes him look like faust (with faust's electrical symbols appearing the same)
552[9:08 PM] General Grievance: lucifer has sophine bolt past mephane while lucifer keeps him busy
553[9:09 PM] General Grievance: before sophine can reach the doorway, mephane turns the light off so he can warp in front of her to block her path, and reveals his third power, to produce gas from his wrists
554[9:10 PM] General Grievance: the gas he can produce can literally have any properties; poisonous, power-increasing, whatever he feels like doing
555[9:10 PM] General Grievance: lucifer thinks that's impossible, but because faust designed him that way, he's capable of it
556[9:10 PM] General Grievance: and while lucifer considers his powers potentially stronger than those of faust, he'd never turn against him due to his eternal loyalty towards him
557[9:11 PM] General Grievance: guraiya, lance and yata manage to find the way out of their chamber and call sean, who says goodbye to the alternate yata and co. before joining back up with the other group
558[9:11 PM] General Grievance: mephane receives a call from faust; sophine and lucifer try to take advantage of his distraction to attack him, but he casually incapacitates both with a paralysis gas that renders them completely immobile
559[9:12 PM] General Grievance: faust tells mephane to return back to the top of the tower
560[9:12 PM] General Grievance: so mephane leaves, leaving lucifer terrified that he's the most difficult threat they may need to cope with
561[9:12 PM] General Grievance: as all parties move further up the tower, they enter a completely dark room
562[9:12 PM] General Grievance: lucifer has sophine stay back as he approaches oncoming noises
563[9:12 PM] General Grievance: and meets with sean and his group
564[9:13 PM] General Grievance: while the others are ready to attack upon seeing faust, sean has them hold; he sees sorrow and repentance in lucifer's eyes, and reaches out a hand, telling the others that lucifer will be helping them
565[9:13 PM] General Grievance: the others remain incredulous though sean decides to trust him
566[9:13 PM] General Grievance: lucifer calls out sophine, and gradually sean puts the pieces together
567[9:14 PM] General Grievance: he and sophine, meeting for the first time, have an emotional moment, followed by yata and sophine, with sophine bawling in yata's arms after seeing yata's bandaged severed hands
568[9:15 PM] General Grievance: with all parties finally reunited (except mercury, who sean isn't certain whether or not he's on their side), they prepare to move on
569[9:15 PM] General Grievance: when suddenly lucifer screams out in pain and has spasms, causing yata and guraiya to hold sophine back
570[9:15 PM] General Grievance: lucifer suddenly lunges at sean and attacks him
571[9:15 PM] General Grievance: sean is baffled why when he was certain lucifer had changed, but looks into his glowing red eyes and realizes that Death is alive inside him and has hijacked control of his body
572[9:16 PM] General Grievance: Sean tries to talk Death out of fighting him, saying they need to work together to beat Faust, but Death says he doesn't care, as his two orders upon birth were to fuse with Lucifer and kill his killer, and that even should the world end, he'll be satisfied if he fulfills his purpose
573[9:16 PM] General Grievance: with no other choice, sean fights him, but not wanting to hurt lucifer's body, death overpowers him
574[9:17 PM] General Grievance: sean manages to call out to sin from within lucifer's body as well, who wrestles for control and manages to rip death's soul out of lucifer's body
575[9:17 PM] General Grievance: sean rips open a portal to hell, and sin flings death into it, which sean then seals shut
576[9:18 PM] General Grievance: while confident he'll waste away there (his soul was rapidly decaying when outside of lucifer's body), death somehow manages to rip a portal back towards heaven, with the implication that stewing in the same body as yahweh gave him the ability to perfect his portals
577[9:18 PM] General Grievance: death lunges at sean once again, but "lucifer" grabs death by the throat
578[9:18 PM] General Grievance: and reveals that the one in control of his body is yahweh
579[9:19 PM] General Grievance: who, after being disgusted with himself for pinning lucifer as the scapegoat of the world's evils, had settled on sin as the "true" evil one
580[9:19 PM] General Grievance: but speaking with her, he was able to determine even she had some goodness to her
581[9:19 PM] General Grievance: but death was pure evil incarnate, with no redeeming value to him, so he could get some catharsis for his shame by killing him
582[9:20 PM] General Grievance: and thus tears death's head from his body, destroying him permanently (with any of lucifer's power stolen with him returning to lucifer's body)
583[9:20 PM] General Grievance: and
584[9:20 PM] General Grievance: now i'm taking a break
585[9:20 PM] General Grievance: and will finish the last part later
586[9:20 PM] General Grievance: because I had forgotten how much stuff happens in the last part, woof