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>>137923 You and Eirin get to work stabilizing Yukari. Her wounds are severe, but the danger lies more in their imperviousness to magical healing than any actual tissue damage. Though the lacerations and numerous and broad, they are not particularly deep. Still, it’s not unlikely that she would have bled to death within the hour.
Meiling You send out a tendril of mental energy seeking your servant.
There’s been a situation. My apologies sir, but I can’t converse right now. I’m under heavy attack. Meiling’s mental voice is strained. You catch images flickering in and out of the edges of your mental awareness, some sort of enormous creature, masked and thorny, the bright emerald green of a leafy rainforest, its body framed and shielded by spiraling, fractal patterns of flower, branch, and vine.
What!" Break off immediately, do whatever you need to. Appraise me of the situation at once! Yes, sir. You sense your servant’s tension as she disengages temporarily, sending her enemy into a state of confusion for the brief moment necessary to fully link consciousnesses with you.
On the operating table, Yukari lets out a stifled groan. You grit your teeth and send a surge of blue mana coursing through your body, processing the last fifteen minutes of Meiling’s life even as you continue your incantations. Eirin spares you a single inquisitive glance before returning intently to her work.
That creature...yes, Meiling’s memories confirm it. The Myojin of Life’s Web. She also encountered Infinite Rage a few minutes after your retreat, as it set a blazing path of destruction towards the Scarlet Devil mansion. Curious, that it would attempt to strike with physical force at the nigh-immortal vampire sisters. On the other hand, its fire certainly seemed capable of harming Yuyuko, which implies an ability to strike simultaneously at the spirit and the body. Remilia will have to release her chained-up killing machine if she wants to stand a chance against that creature. No matter how many knives Sakuya can launch at it, no amount of harm will permanently put down a Myojin. Only the purest and most vile magics are capable of such a feat.
Nonetheless, Remilia’s situation is not the true issue. At worst, you can send Meiling back; her immunity to the hybrid’s attacks will serve her well in fending it off. No; Meiling has ended up somewhere near the Moriya Shrine, a place you’ve yet to visit, as the juggernaut that is the Myojin of Life’s Web unleashes its power upon shrine maiden and goddess alike. Life’s Web was always the strongest Myojin in terms of raw power; what is it capable of now, with a human soul capable of translating that power into efficient reality instead of the symbolic and metaphorical magic of spirits?
Worse, Meiling has heard that other Myojin have been sighted across Gensokyo; this is a coordinated attack with an incredible depth of information about the natives of a supposedly sealed plane. The incredible power of the Gensokyo natives serves them well against the onslaught, but by now you’re certain this is merely the opening act to a far deeper plot. The depth and breath of this rampage, with its perfectly coordinated attacks catching all the initial targets by surprise, reveals a greater hand pulling the strings. Given the timing of the Green Myojin’s appearance, it’s likely she’s attacking a secondary or even tertiary target. The list of targets is not especially long, either; there are only a few dozens inhabitants of Gensokyo that will be of any use in a prolonged engagement with the essentially indestructible Myojin.
Your mind whirls, spitting out thoughts like a whirlwind does debris, sorting and calculating, sifting and shifting, a dozen paradigms simultaneously considered and discarded. The situation is spiraling out of control. There’s a way out, an optimal path...but what is it? You need to know more. You need to know why this attack is happening. Did Yuyuko’s investigation trigger it? Difficult to say. The timing suggests it, but that could just be a mind game by Seeing Winds.
No, they didn’t prepare for you. Seeing Winds didn’t account for your presence in Gensokyo, or they wouldn’t have sent only one Myojin at Yuyuko. Though it is nearly omniscient, it can only split its attention four ways, one for each Cardinal Direction. It must not have known you were here. Considering the massive damage you caused, it must have performed its initial reconnaissance and drawn up plans of attack sometime before your arrival. So, they want something with the inhabitants of Gensokyo, or possibly with Gensokyo itself.
A war of conquest? It’s strange for the Myojin to propagate such a thing, but you have not kept yourself informed of the current state of affairs in Kamigawa. Perhaps they ran out of space and needed a conceptually similar plane? You need to know who their leader is. Everything will fall into place if you can identify him. Is it the Masked figure? Possible, but there’s not enough information to go on. You haven’t had time to scry since Yuyuko was attacked; perhaps with the enemy scryer dead you should attempt Tidings again. Seeing Winds won’t be able to stop you; as a creature whose nature is rooted in the dissemination of information it’s incapable of concealing it directly.
Eirin snaps her fingers in front of your eyes, returning you to reality. “Nicol, it’s done. She’ll be fine.”
“Wake her,” you snap, eyes glowing blue as your send your consciousness into the aether. A feeling of giddiness wells uncharacteristically up in you at what you find. “She has no time to be resting.”
The Mind of the Moon holds back her initial impulse to snap at you, sighing. “Speak up, then. What’s going on?”
“War. And you’re losing.”
“W-War? You mean, more attackers like the ones who struck at Yuyuko and Yukari?”
“At least two more. Extraplaner invaders. We don’t have time. This realm’s existence is at stake. Wake Yukari, get Yuyuko stabilized and ready to move. After Yukari heals us, we’ll be moving out immediately.”
Yes, the situation will be too difficult to contain on the field. You must cut off the head of this operation: a man turned planeswalker. An imperial champion. A traitor of the highest degree. The human you despise above all others, now Shogun of All Kamigawa.
Despite the situation, you find yourself smiling. Oh, that vengeance has gifted this unto you!
Your day of reckoning has come...Tetsuo Umezawa. ---
Bolas' current plan is to bypass the battlefield altogether and simply kill Tetsuo Umezawa. With their governing planeswalker slain, the Hybrids, fundamentally unstable creatures that they are, will be forced to violently discharge their divinity before discorporating. As long as you're fast enough to teleport back and Trickbind Cleansing Fire and Infinite Rage, it's the simplest and most efficient plan.
Yukari can bring you to the Kamigawan Forward Base where Tetsuo is now, but before you strike you may wish to bring some allies along. Be aware that most Gensokyo natives won't be willing to drop everything and abandon their homes on the word of Nicol Bolas; more to the point, even if you and Yuyuko combined could convince every Gensokyian to come along, it would take time you don't have, plus all natives below 'planeswalker-tier' will be total liabilities - one Damnation or Destructive Force from Tetsuo could spell all their ends.
With that in mind:
Besides Yukari and Yuyuko, who will you try to take along?
[ ] (Optional) Write In
What is your general strategy for dealing with Tetsuo and his guard?
[ ] Try to force Tetsuo to summon the Myojin to his location, thus limiting the damage to Gensokyo as a whole. Have Yukari and Yuyuko stall the Myojin as long as possible while you deal with Umezawa personally using your usual blue-heavy strategy.
-[ ] As above, but have Yukari and Yuyuko attack Tetsuo while you spam Cryptic Command, tapping down all the Myojin continuously but limiting your ability to perform magic.
[ ] Complete aggression is the most efficient choice. He has too many resources on his side to try anything fancy. Balls-to-the-wall aggro and just go fucking kill him, countering only large spells. This option is powerful if you take along strong touhou attackers like Flandre.
[ ] After teleporting there, refuse to stop Tetsuo and play completely defensively unless all allies present donate large swathes of their power to you. Given the desperation of the situation, you calculate this has an over seventy percent chance of succeeding if you pick the right characters, but you'll damage future relations significantly. However, that's immaterial compared to the here and now; you need as much power as possible to deal with your traitor champion.
[ ] Write In. Partial Strategies, combat tricks, and analysis is accepted; don't feel like you have to construct an entire plan of battle. You can of course include write-in stuff on top of picking the Blue, Red, or Black strategies.
