Voidus

Laurelai wandered among the statues, curious as to what that strange man at the Waystop had been referring to. But he'd said that others sought whatever it was too, which meant she could compare how she went about achieving a goal to how others did, giving her further insights into herself. Two others were already present when she arrived, both seemingly looking over a piece of paper. Was she the kind of person who would work with these two? Or set out on her own? It was a lot harder to analyze herself when she was so self aware about it all. Finally she sighed and walked up to the other two before speaking up in a soft, quiet voice that echoed in the stone surroundings. "Hi. Did you.. um.. did you meet a wizard too?"

Laurelai left the Waystop.

Laurelai noticed a strangely dressed older man enter the waystop, making his way to the tavern. The person who kept punching themselves seemed like they might be more interesting to study, but also a lot scarier. So, she shyly made her way over to the wizard instead, packing away her notebook as she did so. "Hello." She murmured quietly, eyes focused on her feet. "What brings you to the waystop?" She might as well try to strike up a conversation with him, Yzabet seemed like she had a lot on her plate at the moment.

A rock, clearly the most important person buried in this place.

When you come back on the Shard for 1 hour and instantly gain a spot on the weekly rankings for most rep as well as break 30,000 total rep. (Twi came back to the Reckoners subforum for a while, just for anyone missing the context there)

Laurelai smiled shyly up at Yzabet, before nodding silently. She continued watching the other occupants of the room interestedly, occasionally taking notes on their behaviours. She tried to reason why some of them were behaving as they were, what their history was and how it had shaped them. She watched the other young woman who'd left after signing in, she'd seemed rushed but why? Just a flighty personality? Or some recent event? Perhaps just a long day? She watched and noted, and when possible tried to apply some of her reasoning to herself. Why was she sitting here right now, watching people? Well to train for her Essence Marks. But why now? What part of her personality had prompted her to try to make an Essence Mark and not, dive into other areas of scholarship. When she'd retrieved her dagger from Velav, she'd thought that his work seemed interesting. The process of shaping metal with physical strength rather than a Soulstamp. Why hadn't she decided to try something like that? Why try to progress her Forging abilities? She lost herself in her work, taking notes in her own form of shorthand and scrawling manically across the page as she processed her surroundings and her own thoughts.

“Oh, there she is,” Kokichi said, pointing towards the plume of smoke. Looking towards it, Megan could just make out a familiar, blonde figure, hanging in the air, arm outstretched towards someone else, projectiles flying out from her fist towards it. The expression on her face was different, as was her bearing. But the features were as familiar as ever, almost exactly the same features on her own face. "Allison." Megan whispered, before taking off in a sprint towards the battle. Liam and Kokichi forgotten behind her. The other Epic seemed unfazed by the rapid bursts of metal that flew towards him, even going as far as plucking one out of the air. So he is the source of the slowing field. Maybe not even a speed Epic at all, just able to slow others perceptions? But at that moment, the exact mechanics of the power were less relevant than their effects. As the Epic approached she felt the waves of dizziness renewed, causing a brief flashback to her fight with Deathwish above the Dalles. The last time she'd experienced the symptoms of blood loss, although this time she wasn't bleeding. Slowness must be affecting internals as well then. She fed a tiny trickle of power into her veins, keeping the slightest bit of flow. Pushing on her internals was not something she liked trying, the danger if she fed in too much power was extreme, and it took constant concentration to feed it like this. But the dizziness wasn't getting any worse now, though neither was it growing better. She smiled towards the oncoming Epic, even that movement of facial muscles was difficult, almost like muscle stiffness but somehow different. "An impasse then?" She said. I'm going to rupture every organ in your body. She thought.

Megan turned her head so fast she thought she'd give herself whiplash. "Allie is there? How could you know that?" Her voice changing rapidly from the weary tone she'd used earlier. She turned towards the smoke ahead, it was obscuring too much to see what was happening inside, and the smoke was behaving strangely, almost seeming as though there were invisible walls of some kind containing it. But neither of those were things that Impact had been able to do, at least not when they'd last seen each other. But from the trail she'd been following it seemed like her sister had picked up a few new tricks so she wasn't discounting anything. She looked towards Liam who was readying himself along with Kokichi, she stole the momentum from his movements, shoving it into the ground beneath her before standing directly in front of him, eyes wide and intent as she stared at him. "What do you know about my sister." "Is that how you lost your home last time?" Her hand jerked in the direction of the sound, ready to blow the smoke out of the way so she could see him, but she pulled it back to her side. Speed Epic. Wouldn't be able to catch him anyway. She reminded herself. She reached into a pocket, pulling out a small handful of steel ball bearing. Her vision was continuing to clear up but the smoke still hid everything from view. She blasted one of the ball bearings towards the direction she'd heard the sound, hearing it slam into a slab of concrete nearby and cracking. But no screams of pain. Hit and run tactics was it? The dizziness came back, along with the difficulty moving. She used her abilities to forcibly move one arm instead, but even that was slower than normal. Some kind of slowing field? But then why hadn't he used it earlier? Or was some other Epic now on the scene? Hidden by the smoke. "Last time I lost my home was because the entire state was leveled by real Epics." She replied cooly, eyes now searching through the smoke for a hint of movement. "This is just some child throwing a temper tantrum when they don't get their way." She took a deep breath, some of the smoke entered her lungs as well but not enough to aggravate anything. Then she pushed at the smoke around her, blowing it away completely and leaving a large area devoid of air and smoke before it started moving back in, though more dispersed than before. Finally she managed to make out the figure again, though it was blurry and indistinct. She blasted another few ball bearings towards it.

Invisibly, Laurelai made her way back into the main building, hoping no one else had been caught up in the effects this time. She waited in a hallway until she turned visible again, then made her way out into the main entrance where a group of new arrivals waited. Quietly, she took a chair in the corner of the room, watching everyone and occasionally taking some notes.

TLR was defeated by someone with a knowledge of who he was, what his powers were and what his weakness was when they drew directly on the power of a Shard and even then only because he was caught by surprise and not actively trying to fight. Sauron was defeated by Golumn, does that mean that anyone could kill Sauron as long as they had Golumns ability to bite fingers?

I mean Odium also kills other gods pretty much for a living, he's literally the manifestation of divine wrath. Not weighing in on the discussion either way still but let's be honest and not ignore what characters are. Odium is no more just a guy who can make spren than Gandalf is some guy who makes fireworks.

With the amount of modifiers you need for Aon Tia that'd be a very strangely shaped city

Luckily the Alleycity was perfectly formed into the shape of Aon ReduceDamageFromNuclearBlasts. And no, that's not too long a name for an Aon.

The Devourer felt the constriction around its tail, then another force gripped it around the head and pincers, yanking in the opposite direction. It screeched into the water, ejecting a stream of bubbles but the Deep exerted too strong a hold for it to break from something like this. The water felt as solid as concrete, ordinarily even that wouldn't be enough to contain it, but with a large crack in its armour already, severe internal damage and not enough energy to heal itself, it could feel its strength continue to weaken. I. Lose? Its thoughts were muddied, struggling to maintain a line of reasoning beyond the pain. But you too will end. All will be devoured. Even if I pass. It could feel the tear in its armour widen, beginning to form a crack that spread accross its entire body, finally separating one half of the armour from the other. Its body was torn in two, the stinger on its tail still repetitively stabbing forth in a final attempt to pierce the Deep just one more time, but it was already restrained, the muscles had no more strength left. It's eyes stayed open, glaring at the hated form of the Deep through the water that still contained it. Even the masters will end. With a final, traitorous thought, it passed into the cognitive realm one final time before moving on to the Beyond.

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Laurelai waited within the library, finishing up her latest research on smithing techniques for the day. She wrote down the last few notes in her carefully arranged notebook before closing it and slowly tying a piece of cloth around it. Leaning back, she stretched both arms above her before starting to massage her tired wrists. It had been another all-nighter of research, burning through all the candles she had with her for the time being, she'd need to refresh them later. But for now... She took the plain, iron dagger that she kept at her waist, not much protection especially against the kinds of things that existed in the Alleyverse, but it was only meant as a last resort. She preferred avoiding trouble in the first place so she didn't need anything fancier. Tapping the blade with her hand, she exited the library, using a back entrance to head outside. An unfortunate necessity when she was practicing her Forgery, but if she accidentally blew the Waystop up she didn't think that Yzabet would be so accommodating the next time she dropped by. She moved away from the main building, over to one of the nearby hotsprings. Water was good to have on hand in case she caught fire again. Holding the dagger aloft, she stared intently at it. Matching what she'd learned to what she already knew of the blades history. Velav had forged it for her, back in Kholinar. But now she could make a guess as to how precisely he had done so. Which techniques he had used. Though she wasn't able to replicate them herself, knowing was enough for now. A slight impression appeared on the base of the blade, formed by her thoughts, precisely carved for what she needed to change. As it sank in, the structure of the metal on the blade shifted slightly, nothing too obvious, but a new flaw in the metal was created. A flaw that Velav had noticed, but instead of throwing away he'd sold it cheaply to a young Selish girl who wasn't fussy about quality. She also felt a sudden surge of energy from the Dor, it flooded through her unpredictably, her skin glowing silver for a second before fading back to its normal tone. Then continuing to fade, becoming transparent, and finally, invisible. Well, at least it wasn't anything too bad that time. Laurelai thought to herself, waving her invisible hands in front of her face but unable to see anything. And it looks like the forgery took this time, figuring out how the fault formed seems to have been the trick. With a sharpened fingernail, she removed the seal from the blade, restoring it to its former state. If she was going to carry only a single dagger, she needed to make sure it was useful.

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Not really going to comment on my thoughts on the actual outcome here but either Sauron would have been completely meaningless in that initial match up or you're suggesting that a Shard of Adonalsium only has as much power as 5 Mistborn.

*Takes out spikes* *Realizes where he is* *Hastily hides spikes away again* "Nothing to see here, just Sudiov going about his normal business, waiting for an answer"

Maybe "Soundscape to Ardor" for Laurelai but that may just be because it's one of my favourites. For Voidus it would be very situational depending on what he was doing. Probably something similar to Soundscape to Ardor when he's by himself and not having to worry about people trying to attack the city, maybe Lux Aeterna by Clint Mansell. If everyone finally annoyed him enough to start actually counter attacking in person. Probably something like "The Plagues" by Gavin Greenaway. (That's actually probably a terrible pick but it somehow feels appropriate :P)