If Mesia had stayed for just a few moments longer she would have noticed something strange. The runes did come into contact with with the now defunct Krylo/Haeru, and they did break what had been repaired, returning the moderator to her (more or less) natural state.

However, the rune immediately remended.

Something beyond simple changes to surface runes had been altered.

The moderator had given up... and due to his strange abilities, even more uncanny than his regeneration, any attempts to 'fix' him were quickly dismissed.

However--Raiden's actions had drawn the attention of the creators, and there was one in particular who looked onto it in scrutiny. One who saw Krylo fall, and one who didn't give a damn about the rules governing his kind.

"Pyros...isn't exactly on the best terms with his father. However, it isn't Pyros or Mesden that needs to talk to their father, it's me.

"Really though, you shouldn't be that worried about what would happen if Raiden stepped in. For all intents and purposes, Raiden already has the power of a creator. However, he still isn't officially recognized as one. That little technicality is what is preventing them from intervening." Ecurt was about to continue, but suddenly froze.

"Then again...maybe I have underestimated one of them..."

With a frown, he turned to Pyros. "Change of plans. Pyros, you and I need to be going. Grab Pedro if you can too-we'll need his talents as well."

OOC: No no, see, that was me role-playing the character of Fifthfiend, popping in and saying, Oh man, the things you people get up to down here!*

Eh? Eh?

NOT OOC: Fifthfiend dusted himself off, stuck his tongue out at Pyros, and turned to face the towering menace that was Raiden. Brow furrowed and fiery aspect to his eye, he coiled himself to strike.

"Yoink!" he cried as he zipped back, high-tailing it for the (marginally) saner enclaves of forumdom!

*Cause see! If I was actually the incarnated personification of my fictitious forum-self, happening upon his fellow forumites locked in a high-stakes battle for the fate of all creation, why, that's just the sort of thing my avatar-me would say!

"What the spork?"

Pyros turned to Ecurt. "Fine then. I'll take you to him. But don't expect to not, not be kicked about with a boot the size of wyoming." Pyros waved his hand and a small portal appeared, from which a radiant light poured out of. "I mean, you've heard of the jackheeled boots of Tyranny, these are the Aceheeled boots of Omnipitanny! Also, he may kill you on the spot. But hey, this is more amusing than the other plans of action."

Pyros said with a sigh as he picked up Ecurt by his shirt, and hurled him in. "Also, if he asks, It's all Raiden's fault!"

The rocky ropes sprung out of the Earth and wrapped around the Wizard’s now obscure four armed shape. The spikes seem to twist and tighten, constricting the movement of the Wizard… for a few seconds. A brown glow seemed to emanate from the Wizard a second later, and the stone turned to dust. What was the point of that? It’s not like he actually… The Wizard then noticed that Raiden had already subdued both the Dragon’s Bane and Krylo in those few short seconds. …Damn.

The Wizard thought about this for a few seconds and started to feel his surroundings. The scream of the barren land they were on echoed in his ears, the tearing of the fabric of reality present in his subconscious. He seemed to stand still for another few seconds, motionless, trying to forget the pain and anguish of the world around him. It blurred his eyesight and warped reality for a few seconds, before the Wizard was again in control of his senses. He noticed that quite a bit of combat was going on, but many others seemed to be planning. He saw someone that had not yet broken out of their stone coffin, and sighed slightly. What the hell is the matter with that guy? I would think he would have enjoyed this fight, but he hasn’t done anything in a long time.

The Wizard strode over to where Mauve, Ecurt, and Pyros had gathered. It seemed that Pyros was taking Ecurt to meet his father, for who knows what suicidal reason. With another sigh, the malformed shape of the Wizard meandered over to Mauve. He threw up all four of his hands in defeat and asked her, “So… do you have any idea how we are going to get out of this alive?”
--------------------------------------------
The Light Wizard had tried desperately to hide his Chaos Spear behind his back for the beginning of the fight, but it seemed that the ploy had not worked. Had not worked at all. With a sigh, he focused his attention on the Thunder God, his eyes starting to glow, a manic glee behind them. Light radiated from his body, shining and pure. His ivory colored cloak rose in the air, as though disrupted by some unseen force. The once pure glow from the Light Wizard seemed to warp and twist. The light gained a sinister aura around it, and suddenly the glow seemed to expand. The perverted light started to quickly descend upon the Thunder God, a blast of pure holy magic meant to draw attention to the White Wizard.

Pyros then scratched his head, remembering he was missing something. Or someone. Then it hit him. He heated up the air under Pedro's feet to launch him into the air, and then threw him into the portal.

Then Twiddy came up to ask a question and Pyros just threw him in for no real reason.

Then, with his tasks done, Pyros sat down and had some Sake.

"Oh wonderful, I see you are using this increased power responsibly. I guess I'll have to take a different tack if I wish to affect this battle."

He moved his goggles up off of his eyes, and stared around the house. The manifestation of pure sight where his eyes should have been, it was as though he were casting the spell constantly. A closet door showed the indications he was looking for. He put the goggles back on, filtering things down to just what most people saw, put his gloves back on, and opened the closet. Unless his sight had failed him, he was now heading into a realm of all the traumatic events which had shaped Pyros' life. If he could help Pyros overcome a few of them, it might make him saner, and more help in the battle.

Of course, one might be wondering what had happened to Arhra during this time. After all, the last that had been seen of the petite girl had been her vanishing into a pit along with Raiden when POS had blasted the pair with his Negative Heart Crusher. The lack of an explosion indicated that she probably wasn't dead. On the other hand, they had changed planets since then. Maybe even now Arhra was trying to get back to the battlefield with an intergalactic rowboat. Actually, she wasn't, but its nice to consider the possiblities.

Haeru's planetary shift manevour had translated everyone into a location very close to where they had been at the Temple. Thus, Arhra was underground. However, she had appeared in an air pocket and then pursued a course of action she decided had great relevance to the current situation.

Everything had just come to fruition.

The ground heaved as a hole opened. Strangeness leaked out, residue of the chaotic magic that Arhra had used while entombed in the earth. Grass turned crystalline, flowers screamed and spat blood at one another, bugs exploded and a rich, heady smell wafted out. It remained to be seen what unthinkable dreams of things that were not meant to be that a mind unfettered by ordered thought had wrought.

Something that looked rather like a mole climbed out. It ranked low on the 'unspeakable horrors that man was not meant to know' scale. Especially since it appeared to be wearing a slightly battered tophat. A few other underground denizens crawled out and clustered around its edges. Some were mole-like, some like other burrowing animals, others were vaguely wormy and a few were quasi-reptiles.

If Arhra had been trying to create a horrifying army of chaos-spawn, she'd failed miserably. In fact, they were cute in their own weird way. Still, something dramatic might be salvaged. An infernal piping and the deep beat of drums in the dark began. Arhra rose into view, bourne aloft upon a palaquin carried by several of the creatures.

She sat, with stately and regal mien, upon a throne of warped design, whorling patterns carved into its ebon surface seeming to shift before one's very eyes. Upon her head she wore a crown of chaos - a freakish fusion of stone, metal, and living wood and bone, flaming and flowing, liquid jewels of light adorning it. Chaos burned in her eyes, ancient and primeval.

Arhra then spoiled everything by waving cheerily and bursting out, "Hello everyone! Guess what! They made me their queen!" Arhra indicated the various creatures around her which burbled happily to one another with barely understandable voices. She looked thoughtful for a moment before continuing, "Well, I had to explain it to them and I'm not sure they entirely grasped the concept.... but I'm still royalty! And do you know what that means Raiden?" Arhra plunged on with a statcato rush of words, "It means I am more important than you!"

OOC: Raiden, do NOT godmode my actions.

IC: "Chaos...Order...these things hold no meaning in their own right, but are integral components of the Balance I am charged with protecting."

"Raiden." he said, although the word he spoke was actually Raiden's True Name, "By slaying those who champion Chaos, you have tilted the balance in favor of Law. Furthermore, your actions have caused innocent people to be hurt, making those actions evil and putting you under my jurisdiction. Now you shall pay for your transgressions."

A simple glance told the Dark Arbiter that Raiden was not actually here, only small manifestations of his will, divine avatars on a small scale. Something was beefing Raiden up, and with the power of Reality itself behind him, he knew he could handle this. The others had done well, distracting the Thunder God, and now it was time to end this.

"I am, in a sense, a guardian. For the balance of the universe to be preserved, my existence is necessary. Thus, trying your trick on me will be futile." A polite warning first.

Dragonsbane raised one hand, and glowing golden light blossomed in the palm, "Come, Raiden." again, it was actually the True Name spoken, "Errant Thunder God, I summon you by the power vested in me to manifest entirely upon this mortal plane, in the form of one incarnation."

The spell roiled through Raiden's being, pulling his stormlike power into a crackling maelstrom of lightning that funneled down and inward, pouring into one form...

Sub-Pyros called out from his spot on the couch. "I wouldn't do that, if I were you."

He then rolled over and stretched, then began scratching Kitty Pyros's back. "You see, Pyros doesn't like people digging around. Especially not us. Or you."

Asheth agreed from her la-z-boy. "Yeah. Makes it a pain to do any spring cleaning around here. Just yesterday I was cleaning around the cupboards and all of a sudden a giant claw came out of a box of cheerios and slashed at me!"

Kitty Pyros had only one thing to say. "Meeoww!" (MEEEOW!")

Naymedo looked back.

"So you're saying we just sit and wait for this to become more of a disaster? I don't know about you three, but I'd prefer to help him get over his traumatic childhood than to sit around helplessly."

Sub-Pyros sighed. "I would love to stop Raiden just as much as you do, but there are things best left untouched. Solving Pyros's mental anguish won't make him any more or less powerful. Odds are, it will make him weaker. In an ordered world, such as Raiden strives for right now, Pyros would be weaker."

Sub flicked a button on the remote and the TV's image changed to that of when Pyros was shown to Raiden and Co.

"Pyros is the youngest of the Creator's gods, and one of the youngest gods of that period. He wasn't even be able to fight Raiden when Raiden was normal. And yet now he boasts strength great enough to challenge normal Raiden. Not this UberRaiden, though. His insanity has driven him to reach greater heights than the order the creator created would allow him, which in turn has also created the very chaotic world we live in. Perhaps, eventually he will come to grips with his own insanity. But as he is now, he stands a better chance. So leave him be."

Sub-Pyros flicked the channel back to the live feed, as Pyros watched the others do their myriad 'surefire' plans to destroy Raiden.

"Mmmm...good sake."

"Then there is no way for me to help here. Tyrant's minions have probably already turned back. I'll see if I can help somewhere else."

Naymedo left Pyros' mind and flitted about, finally settling into Mesia's head.

"...GET OUT OF HERE YOU FOOL! I'VE HAD ENOUGH PROBLEMS ALREADY WITHOUT ANOTHER PIECE OF YOU!" Came the immediate response.

Naymedo simply sat quietly, making his power available to the goddess if she wanted it. He knew that she was upset with him becuase of the attempt on the gate, but perhaps if he was able to explain later she'd only be angry at Tyrant.

Raiden was being attacked by incredible offenses on all sides. Mesden was grinding her hand into the back of his neck, tearing through his defenses. Meanwhile, Dragonsbane was attempting to force him into a single physical body.

They were both powerful, and DB had the conceptual powers on his side...but Raiden was a concept as well.

His rune lashed out at DB's attempts, quickly rewriting the rules of the technique as quickly as the rules changed from its evil nature. Instead, he transferred the power of the attack over to Mesden, releasing himself from her hold.

He moved quickly off to the side, regenning the damage done to him.

"You may be a defender of evil, but I am a keeper of order. You intend to alter the greatest form of order? How prideful a move that was."

IC pounced then, having been holding himself up on the ceiling for a while now. After his flashy entrance and charge, when Raiden let loose that wave attack, IC had launched to the ceiling to avoid it, and held there until he saw his moment, and that moment was now.

As Raiden finished off the last of his sentence, IC swung with the Wind Edge, having launching himself from his position as Raiden stepped to the side, aiming for where he was going, and striking for the head.

Haeru found herself standing in a strangly black world. There was no light, and though she could feel ground beneath her, she could not see it, though her own body was completely clear to her. She turned to look about and saw a stark white shadow of herself cast on the ground--it was featureless. Indeed, the only thing marking it as ground at all was the shadow. It looked almost like a tear in reality. Nothing was revealed.

"Well you certainly got more attractive," came a strangely familiar voice from behind her, "...I wonder if it would be incest or masturbation..."

She turned, pulling her guns out as she did so, but all she saw was herself... before Rhiya's chaos wave had affected her. The other her stood a ways away wearing a T-shirt and jeans with an odd smile on his face.

"...The hell...?" she asked no one in particular, the confusion evident in her face and voice.

He ignored the question however and walked forward, "But you've given up, too. Let yourself lay here dying... or maybe you're already dead. I haven't checked recently..."

"What?"

"You gave up. You're dyi..." his eyes glazed over for a second as and his gaze seemed to move through her, only to suddenly refocus, "No. No, you're dead. Very very dead. You stopped fighting."

"And what am I supposed to do?! He tore me apart, even with all the power from the bracelet, I never stood a chance... and he must have fixed my rune like he sa..." she started only to be cut off by the sound of short loud laughter.

"Fixed your rune? You never had any broken runes... YOU broke that, and it's only remained fixed because YOU gave up and allowed yourself to die... you know, it wouldn't have been necessary under normal conditions, but that goddess of spirits or whatever asinine thing Thomas made, she put your rune back how it was... and then you 'fixed' it again. Subconciously. You. Gave. Up. It's pathetic really... I never remembered being such a pussy," his voice moved from happy to disgusted and angry.

"I couldn't fight him anymore... I don't have anything to fight him with... Even Mauve Mage could fight him better than I could at this point, and all she's been good for is collecting gore from my kills!"

The other Krylo sighed, "That's entirely untrue. Let me explain something to you... you aren't like the others. They're characters created by players. Players of a massive game. Myself and Thomas and a few others... we're the 'coders' the 'creators' the 'adminship' if you will. There's one higher than all of us who forbid us to take direct control... that's why Raiden exists, but I'm sure you know that. However, what you may not know is that Raiden went on a rampage like this once before, and it took our direct interference to stop him. ...Other Gods were created by Thomas. Beings unruled by players and far too powerful to be left to their own devices..."

"Yeah yeah, I've heard the history of Godhood, blah blah blah," Haeru replied getting a bit irritated, "What's your point?"

The man just chuckled again, "My point is this... You're neither a god, nor a normal mortal. You're an avatar. I coded myself into this system... and that's you. You have some limited control of your own rune system, even without me, as a side effect... meaning you didn't have to die. You could have just altered your rune back through force of will, but you didn't. However, that's not important. What's important is that you're a part of me... and I'm a creator..."

"What...?"

"You'll understand in a minute... just walk over here and take my hand. There's a superpowerful being that needs to be stopped... before it kills your friends. They really don't stand a chance against it..."

"You may be a defender of evil, but I am a keeper of order. You intend to alter the greatest form of order? How prideful a move that was."

With this, Phoenix the Raksha lunged forward at Raiden's exposed side, taking the beleaugered thundergod by yet another flanking angle. The blue-crystal blade of Absolution of Desire sang through the air with the sound of fine crystal grinding agaisnt steel.

"Keeping it all for youself, are you? Order is subjective by nature, as is chaos. You fight for nothing. That is why you must die, for you have exceeded your usefulness." She explained calmly.

In a faroff plane of existance, a lone figure sat in near darkness. The only light that existed in this place at this precise moment in time was a soft blue glow radiating from a rectangular screen, which the person seemed to be watching. The cool light reflected off the figure's facial features, revealing it to be a woman who slightly resembled Mauve. Blue light glinted off the lenses of her eyeglasses as the Creator lazilly scanned through various goings-on in several dimensions, as they appeared in little windows on the glowing screen.

If someone was watching over the Creator's shoulder, they would notice that one of the smaller windows showed Mauve Mage, just standing around as Raiden and the other forumites did their various things. But the Creator was paying very little attention to this particular window.

On a much larger window near the center of the screen, Haeru was having a chat with her Creator. Originally, Mauve's Creator had pulled the scene up on the monitor because it wasn't often that one of her kind had a heart-to-heart with their creations. It was against the rules. Now, however, the lady Creator was watching because Haeru had unknowingly hit a nerve.

"...Even Mauve Mage could fight him better than I could at this point, and all she's been good for is collecting gore from my kills," the woman pouted. The Real Krylo just sighed in disappointment. The Real Mauve, however, had stronger feelings. In other dimensions, several of her less-important creations became violently ill as an after-effect of her irritation.

Muttering obscenities to herself, the Creator tapped a few keys on the death-black keyboard. A small white window popped up on the screen. Her long fingers moved quickly across the keys:

"NOTE TO SELF: WHEN KRYLO/HAERU REGAINS MALE GENITALIA, HAVE MAUVE KICK HIM. HARD."

----------------
Meanwhile, in the battlefield, Mauve wondered why she had the sudden urge to set fire to Haeru's bloody corpse.

After Pyros had thrown Ecurt with such an undignified manner into his portal, he had thought that would have been the end of the travelling. However, instead of appearing right before Pyros' father, he instead discovered himself at the entrance of the God's Pantheon.

"Somehow...I pictured this place different." Indeed, he had expected something out of a Disney movie, with clouds and Roman architecture, and people in togas. Instead, he found himself in a wide open area filled with fountains of ambrosia, grand tables of food, and strange art pieces-if anything, it looked to be sort of a museum banquet-and the people walking around, chatting with each other, and staring at Ecurt were dressed very modern (though, why so many of them looked like Krylo, he did not bother to ask-some things were better left unanswered).

Of course, there was more to the God's Pantheon than just that place; halls leading to many different rooms could be seen, while in the very center was a giant staircase that seemed to go up to nowhere. Without a doubt, it led to a VIP lounge, where the person he was looking for must be.

"Let's go." he said, suddenly helping up Pedro and Twiddy, after they too had been thrown into this realm. "It's time to meet the big...Twiddy, what're you doing here?"

---

Pyros thought he had gotten away. Well, he was wrong. Just when he thought he was safe to sip his sake, a cane emerged from the portal and pulled him in by his neck.

Lifestyles of the Rich and Godly!
 

"HEY!" Pyros growled when he went through the still open portal. "Knew I shoulda closed that..."

Pyros calmly dusted himself off and capped his bottle of sake. "Fine. Fine. If you want me present at your funeral, then very well. Just don't expect me to intercede on your behalf. Unless of course, you got something to bargain with. And take note I'm facing Twiddy on this because I KNOW you don't have anything Ecurt."

Despite the fact it was largely Pyros's own doing for that, he led them down the Auroralian manor. "Take note this place's insides are largely dependant on the person watching them, other than their clothes and the strange pieces of art. They have no taste at all, huh?"

Pyros stopped to grab a leg of lamb as they kept going past countless tables and a myriad of gods. "Also, it don't always have this much food. Today's Gorgonspielocknessday, commemoration of when the Creator of the southwestern hemisphere got tired of being booted aroud by the creator you want to talk to, and created boxing gloves. Shoulda seen the fight. It was like Jackie Chan Vs. Bruce lee! Except both fighters sucked ass."

It seemed as if there was nothing in this world but tables, gods, and fraternizing, but Pyros continued to lead them around. Finally, it did seem that the surroundings had changed somewhat, and the food and ornations seemed to reflect that of the Japanese+ gods, In this case Raiden and Co. It would be noted that the tablecloths were the same color as Mesden's dress, and there was an enormous amount of Candles with larger than normal flame. Of course, these were the tofu candles, and hardly in honor of anything.

The bastards.

It was here that the trio bumped into some well known faces. Suijin, who'd featured somewhat in NPFAVA2:LuvLuvAsheth, was the first to spot the out of place visitors.

"PYROS! What? Why? AGAIN?" Suijin stammered, as she wore what could only be described as a catholic schoolgirl/Swedish clog dancer outfit. "Pyros! You can't keep bringing mortals up here when I'm not in my toga! It's bad enough that three of my largest cults were disbanded after I dressed up as Britney Spears last halloween..."

"See guys? I told you, no taste whatsoever. They mostly wear on earth what humans expect them to wear, not what they actually like to wear. Also, I have always found that rule to suck ass. You think I always like to be wearing Cloud's outfit in battles? Well, I do, but sometimes it get's sweaty and the smell starts to get to me."

"And what are THEY doing here? Aren't those the mortals from that horrid trip to Poseidon's castle? Why do you bring the sight of them to my vision! I think I'm going to vomit! That's it, next Tsunami that's made i'm telling the survivor's it's all Pyros's fault!"

Edit: Woot! 100th post! I'd like to thank Ecurt, who should totally put me in his next NPF SPOTlight, Raiden, for being sparky, and Krylo, for enforcing a 100 post limit!

Another being hunched in front of the soft glow of a screen, "It seems some of the others are happily engaged in their repeated breaking of the fourth wall." it said to itself, musing on the past events.

Back on the battlefield, Arhra muttered to herself, "Referring to the fourth wall breaks the fourth wall."

"Yes, quite." the watcher said, "Hmmm.... Ah yes, I might as well make use of that. I haven't really had a good chance to use it. Better handle the clothing too. Two cases of nudity were more than enough..." A few keystrokes and it was done.

Arhra quite frankly didn't know what to do. Raiden had not opposed her declaration of superior importance so it must be true. However, that had not yet resulted in Raiden's defeat somehow. Monarchy had failed. That could only mean one thing. Raiden was a dirty, dirty republican!

The possibility that her claim had absolutely no relevance to the current situation was discarded as being too unflattering. There was only one option left - she'd have to give Raiden a royal beatdown.

She stood up, stepping down from her throne, neatly leaving her conjured crown on the seat. The underground things that she had somehow become the ruler of burbled their fanfare, heaping praise upon their queen. It was then one of their statements struck a cord - "Hail Queen! Whose towering presence we give praise to!"

Now, only by the standards of freaky short burrowing animal things could Arhra be called tall. Her newest incarnation was not gifted with great stature. However, one hearing that statement, Arhra felt an odd feeling come over her. Casting her mind back to when she had last felt a similiar sensation, a madman's smile crossed her face. Of course, the curse Rhiya's chaos wave had wrought upon her, changing her height with others' words.

Regally, she spun back and declared, "Continue to compliment me on my height."

Her newly acquired minions looked at her blankly until one finally realised what she meant and replied, "Yea oh tall one!" The others slowly joined in in a hubbub of hastily crafted sentences.

Feeling a sudden shortness of breath and constriction, Arhra recalled that the curse unfortunately didn't affect clothing. Not wanting to burst out of her clothing in front of everyone, Arhra awkwardly leapt into the hole she'd emerged from, hastily calling up her chaotic magic. "Resize!" she yelled out of sight, a flash and a number of doves suddenly coming out of the hole. From the cursing also coming out, evidently it didn't have the desired effect.

A short stream of increasingly frantic words later, Arhra finally called out "Transform!" in desperation. A moment's silence and she emerged, muttering to herself about bare midriffs. By appearance, it seemed the sailor fuku had transformed into an (admittedly skimpier) battle costume. Perhaps Arhra had undergone a full magical girl transformation while in the hole. Judging by the look on her face, asking her would probably result in decapitation.

But at least Arhra had what she wanted - clothes that would resize themselves. With her reappearance, her servants erupted into a new flurry of cheers. Arhra herself just charged Raiden with no further ado. Already she was almost of a height with him and growing. A simple enough plan - obviously Raiden was only capable of directing so much power at once or they'd all be dead already and so siphoning off his power with physical contact would hamper him. Hands outreached to grab the god, she leapt.