The air was noticably warmer as Alpha closed the distance across the isle. It also got warmer and more toxic as he rose in elevation. He could feel flecks of ash pelting his face as he flew and was fortunate that breathing was optional for him.

"The weather is terrible today," Ms. Nettle commented. Her voice seemed to become more staticky the closer Alpha got to the elemental. Likely due to atmospheric interference from all the lightning in the ash cloud.

Speaking of which, the ash cloud elemental stood tall and imposing atop the volcano, but it hadn't been looking in Alpha's direction. Something else had captured its attention. The brute appeared to be charging up for an electrical discharge when Alpha powered through it with a sonic boom. He could smell the coppery scent of strong electricity as he left a hole in the elemental's body. It roared loudly, but it seemed to be more out of frustration than pain. The hole in its chest quickly billowed closed and the elemental turned its attention toward Alpha instead of the helicopter it had been about to zap.

"*static* did that *static* from? The *static* must have blocked its approach. No way they are going to last out here!" said Ms. Nettle as her comms recovered from their proximity to the ash cloud elemental.

Alpha could see that the helicopter appeared to be of the overly-rich-tourist variety. The type full of people who had more money than common sense. Even now it hovered dangerously close to the ash cloud elemental as the people inside snapped pictures. Even the fire and lava elementals below had taken notice and might be close enough to pelt it with dangerous projectiles.

As the hero took in the entire scene, the ash cloud elemental had begun charging up for yet another electrical attack.

---

Ash Cloud Elemental:
https://www.deviantart.com/yro...-Elemental-442739046

Fire Elemental:
https://www.deviantart.com/jav...-elemental-152966805

Lava Elemental:
https://images.squarespace-cdn...l+by+Svetlin+Velinov

Alpha inserted himself between the helicopter and the ash cloud elemental. He would take the electrical discharge if need be. Some people seemed determined to prove themselves too stupid to live, but that didn't mean that Alpha abandoned them to die. He'd limit the sarcasm to just rolling his eyes, too.

"GET OUT OF HERE!" he bellowed as loudly as he could. He had no idea if they'd be able to hear him over the volcano and the elementals (much less if they'd bother to obey) but he had to try something. "NOW!!"

While Alpha imposed his body between the helicopter and the ash cloud elemental and yelled for the people to fly to safety, the helicopter merely rotated in place so that the occupants could get better snapshots of the hero flying out in the firestorm. If they could hear him, it didn't show.

"Maybe you could try to-" With a deafening crackle, the elemental unleashed its electricity at the defiant superhero and the radio cut out. The electricity hit him like a ton of bricks and he could feel the charge of the blast all the way into his bones. Luckily Alpha was tough enough to take such a hit, but might not be able to weather such blasts indefinitely. It definitely hurt.

With such a loud and powerful blast hitting within such close proximity to the helicopter, the pilot finally seemed to get the hint and turned away toward the shore. It had dawdled too long, however, and the lava and fire elementals were now throwing projectiles at the flying machine. The fire elementals aimed balls of flame at it, threatening to obscure the pilot's view. The spinning helicopter blades blew most of the flames safely away from their intended target, but they were still dangerous. The lava elementals were chucking clumps of superheated rock. These were much more likely to cause issues. One such rock cracked the windshield. Another hit the helicopter's rear rotor, causing it to spin dangerously. It looked like it might spin out into the side of the volcano soon if it couldn't gain control.

Meanwhile, the ash cloud elemental wasn't finished with Alpha yet. It roared loud enough to make Alpha's teeth rattle, then reached out a massive hand in his direction. The billowing black hand was charged with superheated ash and electrical currents. Easy enough for Alpha to dodge. But only if he wanted to leave the helicopter to its own fate...

There was no question in Alpha's mind; he had to catch that helicopter. It might mean taking a hit from the ash elemental, but what choice did he have?

He swooped under the helicopter and grabbed it by the underside of the cabin section. The tail would have snapped off if he grabbed that, and the skids would just come loose in his hands. Helicopters were surprisingly fragile in their own way, and Alpha had caught enough of them in his time to know how easily they came apart. Unfortunately, that also meant that if it took the hit from the elemental, it might also come apart. He did his best to get distance from the thing, but some manner of impact seemed almost inevitable...!

Alpha - in the air

Alpha managed to catch the helicopter easily enough, considering it was spinning in circles at the time. By the time he had it steady there were hand-shaped dents in its siding, but it was more or less still intact. Unfortunately for Alpha, the fact that he had needed to reduce his speed to safely catch the occupied helicopter meant that the ash cloud elemental had been able to grip him between its sooty fingers. The superhero was caught around the waist.

Superheated ash scorched his flesh and crackling electricity jolted through his skin leaving a coppery taste in his mouth. The electricity arced off of the helicopter and to the ground below. Luckily the helicopter's hull acted as a faraday cage, protecting those inside from the worst of the electricity. But Alpha was not inside. He was outside. And even though the constant electric flow was not as harmful as the charged blast from earlier, it was still annoying, distracting, and painful.

As he struggled to pull free from the elemental's grasp, the creature's soot-cloud-aura began to envelop Alpha, making it difficult to see his surroundings. He was constantly pelted by a whirlwind of smoke, ash, and large dust particles. What's more, the lesser elementals on the ground below were still trying to pelt him with projectiles. Rocks, fireballs, and half-liquified minerals pelted the powerful hero without any sign of stopping. Eventually the helicopter would succumb to damage even if Alpha himself didn't.

As he looked around to figure out what his next move should be, he would spot something peculiar through the sooty air. A lone figure near the water's edge far below. Was that... Sea Witch?

---

[From: Pahoehoe Island - Under the Sea]

Sea Witch - on the shore

When Klythie poked her head out of the water and her camera could see what was happening with Alpha about half a mile up the mountain, she heard Ms. Nettle comment, "Okay, good. He's still alive. For now. Got any ideas for an assist?" She could see Alpha caught around the waist by the ash cloud elemental. He was holding a damaged helicopter and electricity was arcing off in all directions. It was clear that Alpha was taking a beating.

What was curious though was that as Alpha struggled to pull against the colossal elemental's grip, he was actually managing to drag it slowly away from the volcano's cinder cone.

>  From Training

Meg shot through the air, over the shore, and she was aimed directly at the helicopter.  As she moved, a cloak unfolded around her body and an opaque mask like the face of a doll appeared over her face.  Little flickers appeared all around her as numerous eyes entered and left threespace; puffs of dust appeared in the ground all around her as she kicked off with limbs entering threespace to help guide her path and stop her from shooting right past the entire crater; she only weighed about 110 lbs, but she massed well over 300 tons, and at the moment, her total kinetic energy was a bit terrifying, and her velocity hard to check.

She closed in on the helicopter and Alpha, and limbs poised to enter threespace to grab the helicopter.  The elementals were going to undoubtably make this very painful for her, but she'd endured worse-- much worse.  But she was determined to rescue the poor tourists, and if she was able to get the chopper clear, Alpha would be free to fight back with all his power.

Well, that was the theory, anyway.

"Nom d'un nom!" Klythie exclaimed when she saw the fight in progress. It came out in a wet splutter, as she was quickly clearing her body of seawater to breathe air at the same time. She'd never really been a spectator to a super-fight, nor had she been involved in anything approaching this scale. This was quickly followed up with "Zut!" when she sort-of-saw the form of Doll approaching the fracas as well.

"Ahh..." she tried to focus on Ms. Nettle's question as she focused her three eyes on the ash cloud, looking for a weakness or for magic that she could try to depower or scramble from the ocean's surface. "Electricity is not my strong suit Ms. Nettle. Would it help or harm to fire a jet of water at that cloud from here?"

"Hmm. Help, I think," replied Ms. Nettle to Sea Witch's question. Her voice lacked certainty, but it still sounded relatively confident. "Especially if you aim at the arm that has Alpha. I think it might help short-circuit the lightning in that appendage and lessen the voltage blasting at Alpha and Doll."

Ms. Nettle was really wishing they had everyone patched into the same comms, because Runesmith or Ogre probably knew more about the inner workings of extreme voltages than she did herself. She would have been much more confident if they were talking power lines, outlets, or computer circuitry.

Slowly Alpha dragged the helicopter closer to the ground, where the occupants could hopefully get out and run for cover. He wasn't getting it clear of the elemental's wrath without help, though. He was fantastically strong, but the animate ash cloud was somehow just as strong. And the electrical arcing didn't help him (or the helicopter) in the slightest.

This was not a good feeling. He'd never lost a direct competition of strength before. And while he wasn't exactly losing this game of tug-o-war, he wasn't exactly winning it, either. The elemental was slowly being dragged off the mountain, but it wasn't letting go.

Alpha redoubled his efforts. He was going to get the helicopter clear of danger, damn it. He gritted his teeth and pulled against the elemental with everything he had.

"Well then, leave it to me!" Klythie might not be the most powerful mage out there, but if there was one medium she knew how to work it in, it was the ocean. She made a stirring gesture with her wand, creating a little waterspout with the seawater in front of her, then suddenly jerked it upward, causing a jet of water to fire out from its center and fly toward the arm of the ashy creature holding Alpha.

Alpha was having trouble, and part of it was surely leverage.  Meg was strong, of course, but even more than being strong, she had exactly that-- leverage.  Oh, there would be things thrown at the part of her the elementals could see at some point.  There would be electricity passing through her body, but the parts of her body that the electricity could arc to weren't grounded...

Hm.  It might arc from her to the ground, possibly.  But she could keep her body fairly high above it, so that should be all right.  Hopefully.

And it wouldn't kill her-- not this kind of thing.  It might hurt, but she'd endured pain before, and so much more of it.  And she'd do that, to save the civilians in the helicopter.

She shot up the island towards Alpha, slowing herself down as she went, kicking up more clouds of dust and dirt in the area around her even as her apparent body flew through the air.  And when she was close enough, she reached out to grab the helicopter around the cabin, the landing struts and the tail...

Well, from her viewpoint.

Threespace observers wouldn't see exactly what was happening-- just Doll's masked form slowing to a halt in midair near the endangered helicopter, and then a number of strangely-iridescent blue and red bands growing at various place around it, carefully placed to avoid contact with any of the rotors, but forcing the doors to remain shut for the safety of the passengers.

"Backing you up, Alpha!" she said to that worthy, but the voice was strangely-distorted, echoingly deep, multitonal.  It didn't come from the part of her body that others thought of as "Meg Wilson"-- it emerged from a strange ripple in space that briefly appeared near Alpha's head.

"I'll get the chopper-- you take care of the elementals!"

In the chaos of the fight, having extra speaking-mouths was quite useful.

"You're a doll, Doll!"

Alpha let the chopper go, taking it fully on faith that Doll would be able to handle it. He didn't know that much about her, but she seemed confident enough in her abilities that he didn't doubt her. After all, he knew a lot about having confidence in one's abilities.

The elemental had solidified enough to grab him. That ran both ways. The elemental's arm, at least, was solid enough that Alpha could fight back. In a sudden burst of movement, he charged straight up the elemental's arm, smashing at it with both fists.

He didn't know if the damage would be permanent or not, but it would hurt the thing.

Many things began to happen all at once. Doll grabbed the chopper just as Sea Witch's jet of water began to "short-circuit" the ash cloud elemental's electrified arm. Alpha and Doll could immediately feel a reduction in the electrical charges coursing through their bodies. There were still occasional jolts, but it was magnitudes more safe to be near the helicopter now.

With Doll taking hold of the helicopter, Alpha could more easily unleash his full strength without worrying about collateral damage too. The superhero flew directly up the elemental's arm, through Sea witch's stream of water, and out through the area where the elemental's shoulder would be. The elemental's arm was reduced to dissipating ash and it turned to Alpha to roar in frustration. A veritable hurricane of hot embers and thick smoke were spewed in Alpha's direction as the elemental threatened to deafen the man. It swung its other arm to swat at alpha, but it would be much easier to avoid now that he wasn't carrying a delicate load.

Speaking of which, Doll now held onto a helicopter containing a handful of people. Using her senses, she could see that inside were a pilot, three adult passengers, a teenage girl and a young boy. Thankfully they were all buckled in so that their injuries were relatively minor, but they were still getting dinged up pretty badly from loose items in the aircraft. Its rotors were still spinning at about half power, but they were bent and the helicopter certainly would not be able to fly if let go. With the ash cloud elemental currently distracted, Doll only had to contend with the fire and lava elementals below for the moment.

There were roughly a dozen close enough to be considered a threat, and two dozen more closing in. The longer Doll dwelled in the area, and the more elementals that congregated in one spot, the more furious it seemed they were becoming. The lava elementals had started by throwing rocks, but their projectiles were getting bigger and hotter. The fire elementals also seemed to be stoking, getting hotter, more intense. The fireballs they were flinging were becoming more like lines of fire, and would likely eventually become full blown flamethrowers! Doll would need to decide what to do with her cargo before the rocks broke it open or the fires overheated it. Not to mention that Doll had her own safety to consider as well.

From the beach, Sea witch could see all of this unfolding. Doll was currently halfway up the mountain, getting surrounded by elementals. While Alpha flew near the peak of the volcano, drawing the ash cloud elemental's ire.

There really was no question about it-- Doll couldn't stay and fight.  A mouth inside the helicopter spoke.

"Okay, listen, everybody stay calm, and stay strapped in.  I'm sorry if this is rough, but I'm going to get you to safety, all right?  It's going to be all right."

"Safety" was relative, though-- there just wasn't any on this island.  She headed for the coastline as fast as she could, still holding the crippled chopper in the air.

"I've got civilians here!" she called to the others, her voice manifesting from space, distorted and deep. "Can anyone help me get them clear?"

If not, well... she might be able to manage the ocean well enough.  Tricky, though.

From: The Sanctum - The Training Arena

Fraejia got Doll close enough to do what she needed and then headed to start her patches of ice so that they could get this volcano under control.  She began at the first designated spot, channeling her power to cool and then freeze the first patch.  As she did Fraejia etched the rune for Relay into the patch with an ice claw she formed.  She added two last rune to the mix, the Esperish ones, for TIME HALTED.

Once she was satisfied with the first patch Fraejia moved ahead to the next location where she used the claw to etch the runes for LISTEN, MOVE, and TEMPO into the very rock leaving ice in the etching.  This set a pattern as Fraejia began to rapidly form the same patterns at each appropriate location.  When she was finished, she went back to report, Fraejia created another runic array that connected TIME HALTED to it's matches.  When she was sure everyone was clear of the area about to be devastated Fraejia changed TIME HALTED to TIME FLOWING.  The instant she did the patches of ice started to expand rapidly up the runic arrays and shortly thereafter all Hell broke loose as the hellish heat of part of the volcano turned into the frozen Hell of Cocytus with the resulting cataclysmic reaction that had been hoped for.

<<From: Training Arena>>

Mirage drove the brimstonite construct swiftly, keeping it as low as she could, to avoid the chance of them being spotted. She also did not want to go too high, in case her passenger was alarmed. While she knew personally that there was no risk of her construct vanishing unless she was rendered unconscious, she could understand if someone was a little nervous at the thought of a fast moving vehicle suddenly disappearing beneath them.

The trip to the island did not take long. It was hard to estimate how fast the construct moved, but pretty bloody fast would be a reasonable guess. Once they were close enough to see what was going on, Mirage pointed the construct along the beach, and came zooming to a sharp stop close to where Sea Witch was lending support to the battle above.

"Last stop! All change!" She said with a degree of cheerfulness. And waved Sea Witch over. "All right, let's get down to it. First things first!" She wove her hands intricately in the air, and the runes under her skin seethed in an unsettling manner. Around the group, a sphere formed. Inside, looking out, everything was muted. Colours were grey, with just a hint of their original shade. Sound was also muted, as if coming from beneath water.

"This is an invisibilty sphere. I've put the focus point about a foot or so above your head," She addressed Runesmith "And it is not too difficult for me to keep it in play. I could explain the physics, but you might not like it. This is demonic illusion magic, so it doesn't really obey all the laws we might know. Let's just say that you can see out, but nobody can see in. While it is active, all they see is the scenery. You and Sea Witch here should be effectively invisible. If you stay inside the bubble. It's got a radius of about three meters, or whatever that is in feet. Never could do that in me head. It should hide you from anything down under the waves, and we can leave it on for whatever follows if we need to." Her smile was reassuring, though the fangs did not help with that. "So long as you do not do anything to draw too much attention, like causing a huge explosion at your feet, I think you'll be undetectable. Now if you'll excuse me rushing off, I've got some elementals to destroy!"

And with that, after making sure her illusion of invisibility was locked in place, she hopped back onto the construct and levitated. She did not get too close to the action though. She simply steeled herself, and began making more arcane gestures.

At first, nothing happened. And then there was a strange musical note in the air. Then another, an ethereal arpeggio developing. This was followed by a brassy fanfare, all too familiar to those who enjoyed a little sci-fi television to relax to...

It came hurtling out of the sky, but not in actual size. Nevertheless, it was still a good thirty yards long, and the swwooossshhh noise it made was very loud. The starship Enterprise - the original, of course - swooped across the field of battle, then turned on a dime, to return the way it had come. As it flew above the elementals that were threatening to completely surround Doll and her precious civilian cargo, Mirage jerked one hand downwards. From within her flying illusion, there came a torrent of projectiles - cricketball sized chunks of brimstonite, moving extremely fast, and falling in such numbers as to be a veritable hailstorm. They tore into the elementals, but the aim was good enough to not put Doll or the others at risk of friendly fire. And, while the elementals were obviously made of fire, brimstonite was the raw material of the Demon Dimension. Blistering, sulphrous heat was the norm there, and lava elemental fire provided no protection against it.

Mirage kept the spell up, repeatedly strafing the elementals, hacking them to pieces, or drawing their attention - either was fine with her.

The music was possibly overkill, though...

Klythie began swimming quickly toward the coastline as she took in the situation. And there was a lot to take in! She wished Ms. Nettle was on hand to give more instructions, but she was just one woman, she couldn't be in everyone's ear at once. She'd just have to figure out something on the fly. Throwing up some sheets of water to block the fire zinging through the air might help.

Then Mirage suddenly sped ahead of her and waved her toward the beach. Klythie wasn't too sure what to make of that, but if the woman had a plan then she'd support it, so she obligingly cut her way rapidly through the ocean to cover the rest of the distance. Her many tentacles could propel her quite quickly when she wasn't concentrating on magic at the same time.

She expected to get some kind of briefing or instruction, but was put into a bubble centered on Runesmith instead, told about that, and then left alone with the magical foxgirl. "I-- okay," she said too late. She then looked to Runesmith, and, remembering her earlier issues, gave her a reassuring smile despite the chaos around them. "We're the infiltration team then? Lead the way, mademoiselle."

Note: The events of this post span about twenty minutes-worth of time. I am skipping ahead a bit to keep things exciting.

---

Alpha, Doll, Mirage

With Mirage combining her visual illusions with her solidified constructs, she provided some much needed relief for Doll. The fire and lava elementals around her suddenly had another target to occupy their attention. A target that never seemed to be damaged by any fire or rocks flung its way. It seemed the elementals were not smart enough to realize the starship Enterprise was just an illusion. Especially since it was pelting them with projectiles that actually dealt damage in return.

The lava elementals were having chunks broken off of their hides and oozing liquified minerals from within their bodies. No pain seemed to be registering, but they were most certainly taking damage. It was much less clear if the fire elementals were being hurt, since their bodies were not nearly as solid. Holes would get poked through them, then immediately heal back up. After a while though, it seemed the repeated pummeling was causing them to shrink in size.

By the time Doll managed to maneuver through the horde to the safety of the ocean, many of the elementals were heavily damage, but few were completely destroyed. Any of her tentacles that got singed could cool off in the ocean waves. Throughout the entire battle Alpha managed to maintain the ash cloud elemental's attention as well. The Enterprise distracted it from time to time, but that would just give Alpha a good opportunity to fly directly through its face and draw its ire all over again. It was difficult to tell if the ash cloud elemental was actually taking any permanent damage from all of Alpha's blows, but there was a good chance that it would slowly shrink over time if the blows continued long enough. Granted, it was possible the smoke and ash spewing from the volcano might be revitalizing it too though...

Before the question could be fully explored, the ground began to give way.

See below. Doll, you have made it to the shore again, but still have the helicopter.

---

Ice Queen, Sea Witch, Runesmith

Working together, the trio of talented ladies were able to quickly get the effect they were going for. With Sea Witch locating underwater caves, Runesmith calculating optimal placements, and Ice Queen forming the rune-ice, they were soon ready to activate their trap. And after returning to the surface to make sure all was clear, they did just that.

See below.

---

Everyone

With the ice trap active, its effects began to manifest almost instantly. Firstly, there was a cracking sound that stretched across an entire side of the small island. It was slow and echoey, like in a movie when a glacier is breaking in half. And then the cracking sound gave way to rumbling as the north side of the island began rolling in avalanche form toward the sea. Most of the debris did not actually go out into the water, but rather sunk down several dozen feet before settling again, enormous dust clouds filling the air. Luckily the wind was blowing it away from most of the group, but there would likely be dust in the air for quite some time.

It seemed the island collapse did a great job of clearing out the elementals in the area though. A few still straggled here and there, but most were buried in the debris, if not outright obliterated by the shifting rocks. For the moment, that path was clear. At least as clear as one could hope for. It may not last though if new elementals decided to maneuver in, or the lava from the top of the mountain decided to start pouring into the newly created lowland.

"Okay, listen," said Meg.  "You should have some kind of life rafts or something in here.  You can't stay here, but we're going to try and help get you away."

She tried contacting the Sanctum, to see if anyone could come and get the civilians clear so she could go back to help the others.

The effort of holding a steady focus, of maintaining a clear mental image of how she wanted the fragmenting volcanic island to settle was monumental; a task made even more precarious by the frantic flailing of her beastial side. Keeping the whole mass from sliding into the deep, while allowing it to split apart enough to allow the magma to seep out beneath the waves, took every bit of her willpower. If it weren't for the efforts of those around her, keeping the hellish creatures and their elemental compatriots at bay and keeping the foxkin out of sight, it would have been an exercise in futility that would have ended in her death. Yet, as the north face of the island dimpled and then slid into the sea, Amelia stood firm on a foundation of solid light, hands and chains pressed to frozen plinths of salt water cutting over sea and shore. Ahead of her, tidal forces gave rise to massive waves, but the threat of being washed away was neutralized as the waters parted around her.

As the ocean breeze scattered the billowing dust, Amelia paused to take stock of the situation. The plan had hardly been executed the way she had originally laid it out, another example in a long line of confirmations that such expectations faced immediate death when enacted in real time. However, as the 'kin surveyed the ruination wrought on the enemy forces, her spirit was buoyed by a sense of pride and appreciation for what had been accomplished. As if a claw of godlike proportions had reached down from the heavens and raked the island, giant fissures had split open and swallowed most of their enemies. Those remaining now had to battle the tempestuous surge, as the ocean raced to reclaim the space the volcano had stolen from it.

"Now there's one for the history books," Amelia stated, though through the mask and helmet, hissing steam, and roaring tide it wasn't likely she was heard. Regaredless, it was time to move forward with phase 2 of the operation, so she Willed the MOVE Runes to seize in place for as long as they could. Judging from the feedback she received through the LISTEN Runes, she estimated they had a half hour to make it to the portal and handle the situation there before the matrices reached their limit and gave in to the weight they were holding back. Once that happened, the collapse of the island would resume, uncontrolled, and likely result in the formation of an underwater caldera where there now was land.

As Guard coiled its various ends back up, she waved down her companions and motioned that they should advance past the ruined beach and into the core. With the battlefield now firmly tilted in their favor, most of their foes either defeated or distracted, and the magma escaping beneath the surface of the water, it was time to act decisively. Taking a deep breath, she found that it no longer felt like steel bands were being tightened around her ribcage; what before seemed a suicidally impossible task now was simply a matter of properly sorting the variables and combining the group's powers to reach a workable solution.

As she moved to the edge of the hardlight platform, she found that rallying her Will to control the splitting of the island had the additional effect of helping her reign in the terror of her beast side. Now, with all her mental faculties fully unleashed, it was much easier to resume parallel processing. Bounding into the air, she activated the MOVE and LOCUS Runes in her boots, arresting all their momentum and locking them into place relative the earth as she reached her jump's apex. This froze her footwear in place several feet above the ground, but only for a moment as she began to alternate which boot was "locked". It took quite a bit of mental flexibility to properly activate the Runes in the heels versus the ones at the balls of her feet, but by rolling the timing she was able to "air walk" as if she were moving across a firm surface. Within a dozen steps she had the rhythm, and picked up the pace to a run, then a dash.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:11, Tue 30 May 2023.

With the elementals pulverised enough to give Doll the chance to escape with her civilian cargo, Mirage was able to take a moment to view the mayhem. But only a moment. As soon as the volcano began the long slump into the sea, and people started to move, she could see what was needed. On her brimstonite disk, she zoomed down towards the sea, where she could see Runesmith - and presumably not far away, Ice Queen and Sea Witch, racing to escape the landslide. Mirage knew the danger, she had watched documentaries on Mount St Helens. This was not as catastrophic an explosion and avalanche, but nobody wanted to be underneath it, all the same.

She zoomed down towards Runesmith, and held a hand out. "Up here!" Getting her on the disk meant they could zoom above the carnage, as opposed from running away from it. If the others were nearby, they would certainly be given the same offer of assistance.

But there was something else. Some other threat. The volcano and the elementals had been very bad news, yes, but this was worse. Every fiber of her being could feel it. Emenating from nearby, all the more powerfully now the volcano was breaking apart, was the feeling of evil. Not bad things, not terror, not even the sort of nightmares that made her wake up at night in a cold sweat. This was real, palpable, evil. And if she could feel it, then there was every chance that it could feel her...

The elemental was damaged, but could probably reform itself given sufficient time. So Alpha needed to deny it that time as much as possible. He increased his speed and flew back and forth through the ash cloud creature, hitting a different spot every time. He hoped to disperse it more than he already had. If he could scatter it on the wind, it might not be able to reform.

Fraejia glided along ice she created beneath her face, Ice which promptly fell apart into what was likely the only snow this place had ever seen as she moved ahead.  She was easily able to keep pace with Mirage as she flew on her disk as they reached where the others were.  She landed and quickly put on the protective suit that was made for her so they could enter the volcano and end the threat inside.

It didn't take Fraejia long to get the suit on but she didn't feel very comfortable in it.  She much preferred her normal attire and figured simply forming some ice armor around herself would suffice but this was a volcano and she was not taking chances where her natural weakness was involved.  Finished with her preparations Fraejia said, "Alright, let's get this over with," as she called up ice beneath her feet and began to glide along after her teammates.

To: Inside the Volcano
This message was last edited by the player at 14:29, Mon 05 June 2023.

The magic here was so intense that Klythie wound up squinting with her third eye, a strange sight considering it was mounted vertically in her forehead. The one sense being so overwhelmed made it hard to focus with the others, so she was grateful that Amelia and Mirage were guiding her pretty directly. "Thanks!" she called back to Mirage as she took the offered hand up. She was ready for action, but still had to get where she was needed to do it.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:29, Sat 03 June 2023.

Everyone

The ash cloud elemental was at least temporarily (and possibly permanently) scattered and discombobulated by Alpha's fast and unrelenting attacks. The sparse fire and lava elementals still in the area were easily chilled out by Ice Queen or drenched by Sea Witch. And with Doll's observations and Mirage's constructs, scaling the ruined mountainside was not much trouble, despite all the loose debris.

With the elementals more or less dealt with, it wasn't difficult everyone to find their way to access the ancient ruins inside the volcano. The side of the volcano that possessed a brand new boiling lagoon also had a gaping hole in the side of it exposing several carved hallways and stairways giving access to the area they sought.

Alpha, Doll, Ice Queen, Mirage, Runesmith, and Sea Witch are being moved to the new "Inside the Volcano" thread.