The Lightbringer sparkled and MT swung it upward. "Seal of Light !!" he cried, and a sword composed entirely of light formed and fell, skewering the Caryatid. It had no visible effect, and the Caryatid ignored it. After a moment, it faded away.

MT frowned. "Damn. It was worth a shot..."

Switching to the Plan B that should have been Plan A, MT re-gripped the shining blade and charged straight at the Caryatid. "Mauve! Spell! Now!" he shouted over his shoulder, ending his charge with a flying leap, bringing his sword down on the Caryatid in a two-handed swing backed by as much force as he could muster.

"That command is just vague enough to work!" Mauve cried, leaping towards the Caryatid. She pressed her palms together and then slowly drew them apart, grinning madly as a web of magic energy formed between her fingers like a luminescent cat's cradle. She blew lightly on the spiderwebby object, and it sailed out of her hands and landed on the blade of MT's sword. The Lightbringer erupted into an even greater blinding white glow, the blade being wrapped in pure light magic. Mauve made a slight movement of her hand, and a transparent shield formed itself around Mammothtank as well.

"Now for the finale!" Mauve sang. She forced the remainder of her MP into one attack. "Combustion!"

It was an MP overload. A pillar of white fire burst into existence around the Caryatid with the speed of an explosion, glowing tongues of flame licking at the ceiling. It would only last a few seconds (literally) on Mauve's remaining MP, but it sure looked cool. Hopefully it'd at least stun her so MT, Flare, and Phil-Mike could finish her off.

"Having vaguely-defined magical powers rocks!"

Mammoth struck with the Seal of Light, but the Caryatid ignored the blow, the glowing spectral blade having no effect.

Mauve leapt to his assistance, wrapping light magic about Mammoth's blade and a shield about his body. Burning MP like kindling, she made her final move. The air about the Caryatid exploded into flames, a white-hot inferno stretching towards the ceiling high above.

A pillar of fire, the mad Caryatid still spoke.

"When the feeble cinder of the Sun finally gutters out, the light from all the dead stars finally passing, the darkness will remain. I will endure. The taint of Chaos is soaked into every inch of the Temple and yet I endure. You shall not unmake me, to preserve myself is my primary purpose. Past light, past hope, past reason, I persist!"

Arhra was not being helpful at this stage, occupied by Hydra, now back to a humanoid shape, climbing clumsily out of a pit.

"So what have you been up to?" Arhra asked. She saw Hydra taking a deep breath and then quickly added "Say it in one sentence or less."

"I was chasing my shadow because after you wounded her she tried to heal in the sea of darkness that lies beneath this chamber and it turned out she was feeding on the darkness in my soul or repressed fears or something along those lines so then I poured out all my existential angst which made her grow really huge, but then I knew the extent of my darkness and it also made her really sluggish so I beat her up using the boost that the cathartic purging all that whining gave me and powers I tricked your shadow into giving to me and then I ate her." Hydra patted her noticably bulging stomach contentedly.

"Uh... good for you!" As far as Arhra was concerned, what happened in Shadow Temple stayed in Shadow Temple.

"And I trust you."

Arhra squirmed. Before she could answer, Sarhras crawled from the broken shadow behind Arhra, another darkness following her. Arhra's expression settled into one of resolve.

"You're too late." Arhra told her doppelganger, not looking back. "This is the end. Goodbye."

She turned slightly and pointed one hand at her shadow. A burst of crimson light blasted out and Sarhras collapsed, remains falling and dissolving back into the darkness, tendrils of shadowstuff pulling her in.

Their beautiful spirit blazing forth, the amazing combination of an aquamancer and a hobbit leapt forwards. Phil-mike pierced the shadows, sweeping their might magic lightning imbued five iron in a tremendous stroke. It bore an uncanny resemblance to the dreaded Eagle Éclair Strike.

It hit like a hammer of thunder, the Caryatid staggering and the shadows wailing. Flare's Mega-Flare flared out in quite a mega way and Mammoth leapt into the air, sweeping his shining blade in a two handed blow.

The whispering darkness shrieked and fell silent, the wavering double outline of the Temple jerking crazily. The Caryatid collapsed, body shredding open and black ichor pouring from the thinning frame, far more than it could possibly contain. The Temple rumbled and around the pits, the floor began falling in. Blocks fell from the ceiling and inky shadows seeped out of every crack in the the wall. There was a sensation of sudden pressure and the double image of the two Temples was blinking in and out of existence.

"Y'see." Arhra said, "This is what happens when I don't spend half the battle screwing around with some containment spell of dubious purpose. Let's get out of here before -"

* * *

Unknown to the NPFers, events were transpiring at the Wind Temple.

A very familiar sphinx was lying in wait near the entrance. She had been pleased, for the League of Enemies she had been instrumental in creating had succeeded in attracting some potential recruits who fulfilled the low entry requirements of having a grudge against one or more of the NPFers.

Deciding it was most likely they'd be headed for the Wind Temple next (Who'd ever heard of an adventuring group going Earth, Water, Fire, Shadow?), the League had set an ambush.

Several hours of idle waiting later the sphinx was vexed. She contented herself with the fact they'd have to head here next.

Then the Wind Temple exploded, rogue hurricanes spilling out of the ruin.

It was a bad day.

* * *

The NPfers had escaped the Shadow Temple. It had been very exciting!

They stood, looking out towards the barrier the ring of Temples enclosed. In the distance, they could see a dusty vortex of air, twisters spinning around it. With four of the five Temples gone, the last one had collapsed under the strain of supporting the barrier.

The barrier became more visible, stains creeping across its surface. The great dome dulled, a honey comb pattern appearing. It wavered, the time discrepancy seemed to fade in and out across sections of it. With a sound like distant thunder, it gave, cracking along the hexagons, disintegrating fragments raining down. The Gate of Chaos was no longer isolated by the seals, no longer cast a half second into the future.

Arhra was beaming. A headache she'd had for most of the quest had just eased. "The barier has fallen. The way to the Gate is open!"

* * *

On the other side of the barrier, the Herald of the End Times watched it collapse.

"The barrier has fallen. The way to the Gate is open!"

The Knight of the Many Rayed Star lifted the Heart of Chaos from where it hung about her neck. It glittered like a dark jewel as the Herald regarded it for a moment.

"The hour of doom is upon us. I stand before the Gate dreaming of ruin and in accordance with my will the flimsy Seals of Law have been cast down. Now only the Key remains. By rule of Chaos I summon the Invisible Moon. Let the power of the Heart call to it so that the full might of the Herald may finally be realised."

The Herald turned to look at the tiny speck of darkness that was the Invisible Moon and then held the Heart aloft.

"Come unto me!"

* * *

Where the NPFers stood, the ground suddenly rumbled. Where the barrier had stood, at the very center, a pillar of fire stabbed into the sky.

It was wrong, deeply wrong. Even as the tower of many hued flame blinded the eye, it cast the land into shadow. The sky blackened as if there was the onset of sudden night, the stars, dimly and warily peering down, sharing the sky with the still bright Sun. A spot of deeper darkness on a black sky, its corona at the edge of vision, the tiny speck of the Invisible Moon was growing larger.

The scene practically had a certain word written on it in small, alarming letters.


"That..." Arhra began. "..the..." She tried to start again. "What we have to do is..."

She suddenly broke down into hysterical laughter. Possibly something inside had snapped like a twig.

It looked like someone else would have to take charge.

OOC: And this would be the jump in point for any returnees.

Arhra got drop-kicked. Hard too, like sending Arhra a couple hundred feet ahead. IC stood him her place, looking like he has seen a few battles since he last saw the group. "Sorry about the wait on me, I had to take care of some things." IC said, stretching. He was looking ahead with determination. Those that were weaked will would sure be scared shitless.

Too bad IC had balls of steel, he might to have liked to felt fear once in a while.

"No use standing here guys, lets move it. We have a herald to kill." IC finished off, running off in front of the group, grabbing Arhra as he passed her.

A pillar of screamingness tore through the air and collided heavily with the ground, ripping open space to reveal a train stop. Somebody who looked suspiciously like Mesden stalked through the rip, which promptly dissapeared.

"Okay, who the hell is trying to destroy the world before I can take it over?"

Not-Mesden snapped her fingers, and was suddenly surrounded by no less than ten [http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showt...=60125]doglike humanoids[/url] in light armor with morningstars. To those sensitive to such things, they had a strong aura of law.

"I'll let my Despots handle this for me. Oh, how I love paladin variants. Page 75," Not-Mesden added, waving a pamphlet in the air before disappearing back into the rip, which re-opened long enough for her to step through.

Nikose and Sunose hopped up out of Mauve's Shadow. "Hiya! Did we miss anything?" Nik asked with strawberry jam covered lips.

Sunose just shook his head, sighing in frustration.

"Nikose! IC! Newb! You're back!" Mauve said happily. "Although, Nikose? Why were you..." She looked down at her shadow, from whence Nikose and Sunose had come. "Okay, y'know, on second thought I don't want to know."

She shrugged.

"Anyway, you're just in time to witness a giant meteor destroy the universe while Ahrha has a mental breakdown," Mauve continued, examining a chip in her fingernail gained during her Shadow Mauve fight. "As for what you missed, there was a whole bunch of stuff involving evil shadows, and some Caryatid killing, and stuff like that. I'm sure it'll all be on the NPF Avatars 4 DVD, once it's released. I hear they're trying to get it released on BluRay this time, too."



She dug into her pockets, looking for a way to remedy the massive MP loss that was starting to make her feel a tad lightheaded. Not to mention the fact that she had been hadokened only ten minutes ago.

"Guess I'd better shape up pretty quick," she sighed, finding a pack of Skittles. "IC seems to know where we're going and I doubt this Herald is gonna give up if we ask her politely." She followed after the Chocobo Man, although at a much slower pace than the one he was traveling at.

Nikose caught up beside Mauve, and proceeded to hand her a Strawberry Jam Sandwhich in a plastic bag, and swiftly bent and kissed the back of her hand. "I hope this helps." he then drew out Nenyel into a baseball Bat, and winked to Mauve. "We can always knock the meteor back out into space if we need to." he then skipped off to chat with Not-Mesden.

Unfortunately for Nikose, Not-Mesden had already boarded the train. Did he have a train ticket with which to get on?

Meanwhile, the pernicious paladin platoon followed the bird-man.

IC slowed. He noticed the distance wasn't reacting normally at all. Something about this place was slowing them down. Then he had an idea on how to cut down the run-time of the place. He slowed his pace a bit so the other NPFers could catch up. Then he pulled out the Wind Edge with his free hand. However something about the weapon seemed different.

Maybe it was all that energy flowing off of it.

IC reared back in mid-step, and hurled it forward. The magic of the Wind Edge prevented most energies in affecting it. The distance modifying crap also didn't do jack, as the Wind Edge sailed course normally. "Pick up the pace!" IC shouted, running after the Wind Edge, hoping the trail it left would be unaffected by this crap.