Valvatorez

This is a two-part event, with an introductory post leading into it.

The first post will be from Valvatorez, as a swarm of Prinnies and a handful of humanoid daemon refugees, show up at Daybreak, somehow slipping inside. Odds are, this is the work of the Seers letting them in, as they foresaw their arrival. The Prinnies then rush around the school in a panic, asking for and seeking out Valvatorez in particular, but pleading their case to anyone who will listen. The creatures reveal that something terrible is happening in Hades, where many Prinnies are being rounded up and hauled away for purposes unknown. None of those taken are seen again. Worse, one agent from Hades' elite Abbadon Group, and formerly one of Emizel's bodyguards, arrives to inform him of troubles in Hades after encountering a sight of something he shouldn't have. Having barely escaped with his life along with the Prinnies, he sought to inform Emizel of what he saw.

Both the claims of the Prinnies, and what the bodyguard saw represent an inherent breakdown of Hades' principles and a failure of its laws. It means something is very, very wrong, and it cannot be left to stand, even if it means going back to Hades and standing against Death King Hugo himself. On principle, Valvatorez cannot allow his rival to fall so far, even though he lacks the strength of his Tyrant self, and Emizel wants to see for himself what's going on.

Meanwhile, Christo verifies information through his own angelic sources, and gets word of something bad going down in Celestia. The archangels of Celestia are quickly losing patience with humanity especially thanks to the rise of the Third Herald, and seek to activate Armageddon, their superweapon that could annihilate humankind and a fair portion of the Outlands if used. Intended to be a weapon of last resort in the coming of Nightfall to thwart a possible daemonic victory, Armageddon poses a rather obvious existential threat. I do not believe that needs to be elaborated on, given its name. Either way, the only way to stop Celestia from activating the weapon is to convince them that the situation on Earth has stabilized, removing any clear and present danger from the equation.

All of this leads to the inevitable: a confrontation in Hades itself, which is the first part of the event.

Part One: The Liberation of Hades

Daybreak forces and volunteers will arrive in the Outland known as Hades; a place with a startlingly similar sense of style to Valvatorez's office. It looks like a place where Halloween Gothic never goes out of style, and the daemons there love and embrace that sense of style. That said, the populace of Hades is incredibly diverse, filled with humanoid daemons of many types, as well as plenty of monsters.

When the away teams arrive, Hades will be in a state of upheaval, bordering on outright civil war. Many daemons, and particularly the fearsome Reapers, will be backing Death King Hugo's forces. However, there are resisting daemons of many stripes fighting back against them, citing Hugo's reign being brutal and tyrannical as of late. Well, moreso than usual, sorta. Curiously, Hugo's forces are backed up by strange automatons that don't really seem to bother responding to Reapers or loyalist daemons... and in fact, maybe the ones giving orders. And this causes no end of consternation for the loyalist forces, and in fact, may jump at a chance to off the androids if given an opportunity.

This paints a strange, confusing picture, and even loyalist daemons might find the arrival of Daybreak, Emizel, and Valvatorez incredibly fortunate. Though loathe to accept the help of humans, some Loyalist daemons will point the team toward the Blight House, the seat of Death King Hugo's power, asking them to help Hugo, but they are unable to aid them directly, lest something terrible happens.

The initial battle against Loyalist daemons and androids is open to all who wish to fight against comically crazy daemons in over the top battles. It's meant to be zany and ridiculous in terms of the artillery being thrown around and give characters a chance to be Badass.

The Boss Fight thread takes a select group of characters including Valvatorez and Emizel to the Blight House to confront Death King Hugo and demand answers for what's going on. The Blight House is heavily guarded by several androids, including a mysterious one painted in black and red that stands behind Hugo like a shadow.

Once inside, Death King Hugo will stubbornly refuse to give any explanation for his actions, and forces a confrontation with his own son, his old rival, and whoever stands with them. Armed with powerful magic and a strong scythe arm, the daemon is a powerful and difficult opponent, but curiously, he ends up not coming off as the threat Valvatorez built him up to be. Hugo reveals that he has nothing left after being defeated, and by that point, the team should figure out to take out the black and red android, whose resistance is surprisingly token.

At that point, Hugo will speak more freely, revealing that Hades had been suffering from having its magical power siphoned from under their noses. By the time they noticed, with the daemons getting weaker and his own power waning, a strange figure, calling himself Judge Nemo, came before Hugo with a group of androids, declaring a takeover. If Hugo resisted, Hades would be wiped out by Nemo's killer androids, and they would then be sent to Daybreak to murder Hugo's only son, leaving Hugo to rule naught but ashes. Valvatorez notes that Hugo was so weakened that it's not much of a surprise that he was all but at the mercy of Judge Nemo's androids.

At that point, the black and red android's eye springs back to life, and sends a holographic projection of what appears to be a man. He greets the team in the least sincere way possible, mocks Hugo for his failure, and then turns his attention to Valvatorez, who is the one he really seemed to be waiting for.

Taunting the team and Valvatorez specifically, he reveals that he is in a specific part of the Outlands, gathering energy from various sources to power his ultimate weapon, Fear the Great, with the intention of annihilating humankind, Hades, and swaths of the Outlands in one fell swoop, and all but creating a Nightfall of his own. Nemo refuses being called a Herald, however, as such a title he feels is beneath him. He reveals he has been draining daemonic energy from Hades and other parts of the Outlands, as well as from human souls... and finally, an old, legendary daemonic weapon. The weapon is a sword called Yoshitsuna, a semi-intelligent weapon that refuses to submit to being wielded by anyone it deems unworthy; in a sense, not too different from Excalibur. Valvatorez immediately recognizes it as the sword he wielded as a Tyrant, and that it had abandoned him four hundred years ago, no longer responding to his calls.

Nemo reveals his location and challenges Valvatorez and the others to come and try to stop him, noting that they will fail anyway, just as Valvatorez did four hundred years ago. A disquieting notion, with the voice of Nemo revealing he seems to have quite intimate knowledge of that.

But for now, Hades has been liberated from immediate threat, and the news will quickly spread, but the weakened residents of Hades are unable to strike back at Nemo directly. The truth rapidly spreads, about Nemo's incursion, how Hugo was effectively muzzled, and that the humans from Daybreak Academy and the old, infamous traitor Valvatorez were their saviors. Puzzled by these events, the residents of Hades firmly wish Daybreak luck in defeating Nemo so their home can be rightfully restored.

Unfortunately, word of Hades' weakening and Nemo's machinations will make its way to Celestia, and the bad actors there. Hearing the news of Fear the Great's possible activation strengthens Archangel Vulcanus's position to abandon humankind, and even potentially annihilate humankind with Armageddon before Fear the Great can siphon enough power to do even more damage. This adds a pressure timer known only to Christo at first to push the success of the raid against Fear the Great.

The boss fight against Hugo is more closed, meant for Val, Emizel, and a handful of others, possibly including Christo. Hugo is formidable and strong even while drained, but he's no match for the team.

The larger reveal after the battle itself is more open for reaction, planning, and such.

Part Two: A Promise Unforgotten

After some preparation time and rest, Daybreak again sets out into the Outlands, at the seat of Nemo's power. Upon arriving at the base of Fear the Great, a towering structure resembling a massive cannon, they will be greeted by Nemo, in a seeming phantasmal projection form. Clever individuals will pretty much immediately be able to identify him as some kind of absurdly powerful wraith, powered by unfathomable hatred, not of the living in general, but of humanity and daemons specifically.

He will essentially taunt everyone, stating that all will pay for her death, and then dare them to climb Fear the Great and face him down. People might be able to put together who he's referring to, based on knowing Valvatorez's history, and what happened four hundred years ago. If not, Nemo will reveal as such once the boss fight team reaches the summit, including revealing that he was the enemy officer that Artina treated that resulted in her execution as a traitor. Clearly, her death and suffering for her selfless love for humankind was the major catalyst in his soul not finding peace in death.

After Nemo's taunting, he will summon more daemons and monsters like those in Hades, though made of an inky, black substance that has strange properties. These creatures, as it turns out, are entirely constructed out of the very concept of malice, and are unthinking, unfeeling beings of Nemo's pure hatred and will fight tirelessly and endlessly.

Atop Fear the Great, the boss group will confront Nemo, whose hatred and rage will boil over and turn him into an immensely powerful being, tapping into the energies stored in Fear the Great to bolster himself. He will be an immensely powerful opponent, but generally speaking he will be focused on trying to make Valvatorez suffer. A now mad, screaming wraith, he spends the fight blaming humankind for doing this to him, the death of Artina, and that Valvatorez failed to bring her justice by not hunting down and punishing those responsible. Arguing back at him will prove effective like weapons, driving him deeper into madness where he might make more mistakes.

As the fight wears on, wards on Fear the Great will weaken, thus allowing players to start cutting off access to its supplies of power. A magical tether set to drain the Outlands can be cut and destroyed, as can a collection vessel for human souls. Destroying the vessels frees the souls, returning them to the proper cycles. Finally, with the other sources destroyed, the barrier keeping Yoshitsuna in place can be broken... and once done, Valvatorez will call the blade back to him, and it will accept him once more.

Each seal broken will make Nemo more furious and malicious, but not truly any stronger, and he can be brought to his knees with enough force.

This boss fight is for signup only, and will contain Valvatorez and Emizel in the main brawl, with Christo acting as support. Nemo will also summon additional Malice foes in the fight as cannon fodder. Valvatorez will likely act as the vanguard because Nemo wants to break him most of all, but it's a chaotic battle.

Once exhausted, Nemo's wraith will finally regain some semblance of sense that he had as a mortal, realizing the damage he has done. He will attempt to destroy Fear the Great by throwing himself into it and using his soul as a catalyst to disable it forever as atonement. ...This does not stand for Valvatorez and Emizel, who will press him to actually atone by working as a Prinny to try to make the better world Artina would actually want. Warning Nemo that his atonement will be arduous, painful, and miserable, the ghost of a man relents and realizes absolute destruction of his soul would be the coward's way out. Submitting himself to Emizel, the young Reaper will sever his soul from his wraith form, preparing him for his purgatorial punishments while granting him brief peace.

Fear the Great will then be summarily powered down by Daybreak staff, and destroyed by magical means when it is safe to do so. Following the destruction of Fear the Great and its siphoning, the power taken from Hades and other realms of the Outlands will flow back where it belongs, restoring them to their past glory. Daybreak's forces will be hailed as heroes of Hades, revered figures and friends (or at least as much as tsundere daemons are ever straightforward about that kind of thing) for saving them all, and Hugo will consider the deal made between himself and Daybreak fulfilled. At the same time, Valvatorez's reputation as a proud and noble daemon in Hades is restored, and Emizel is seen as a rising star and a true champion of the people of Hades, succeeding even where the great Death King could not.

And during the battle with Nemo, Christo will have captured footage of it all to show to Celestia, convincing, and perhaps humiliating, Celestian leadership that they were mistaken and that somehow daemons have started doing the jobs of angels. And in fact, they might be better at it. Moreover, he has one final trump card to play: leaking the location of Celestia to forces that support the Heralds and Nightfall, if Armageddon is not completely and fully disarmed. The threat is simply mutually assured destruction; if Celestia goes through with it, it'll be the last thing they ever do. Faced with that harsh reality, even the hardliners of Celestian leadership will have their arms wrenched. With Fear the Great's imminent danger gone, Armageddon is called off, and Celestia must grapple with their stance regarding humans, as well as their approach to help avert Nightfall.