The Stoopid Unikorn
Natz~
redfeatherraven
@Opossum
Swamp Sensei
Pokechu
AlphaSSB
It was not clear who would be selected to not be god among them, not from indecision but due to the collective not being able to decide strongly between one over another option.
This made the angels once again feel what humans would call anxious.
Indeed, the entire framework of this process is and always has been on thin ice. Namely, this all becomes for naught if the wills of the candidates cease to cooperate with their decisions. They were not literally killing each selection, but they were voluntarily offering up their blessing, fully knowing they would die from it, and all it would take is one sign of trouble to ruin it.
If players were to expose their wings and flee area, or start drawing their arrows and drop any pretense of talking this out, there would be no going back.
What would happen if a God could not be decided in time? The humans would all die in vain and the world would potentially face the end times. But more importantly in the mind's of the angels, or perhaps their hearts, what would happen to them? Would they cease to be? Would they lose their connection to the material and wonder the celestial planes forever? Not a single emissary of the dying deity could accept the idea of finding out.
And yet, what could they do, when they cannot interfere with their own force?
Telling them that they'd both have to die would very easily create an uproar between the chosen. Forcing them to have to sit and decide between one of them and telling all the candidates that they cannot go off on their own until one path is chosen might again cause complaint. And just how much more time would be wasted?
Having them both live and hope that the next phase goes more decisively is perhaps the safest option, as the ones stuck in the tie would not have any reason to resist. Delaying things is a concern, and leaving more opportunities for those with White Arrows to interfere with the proceedings is something that, at least in the minds of
most angels, is something to be minimized.
At present the current number of candidates numbered less than the days remaining, so theoretically they had time to spare.
However, the players are accusing their choices as threats to their lives. Would they accept allowing them both to walk away and leave things as they are for another Night?
Fortunately... some had become uneasy with the concept themselves, and decided to make sure the Day ended definitively.
A final decision was made. They would follow the trail of Shiny's blessings in the hopes of finally eliminating at least one set of White Arrows from the game.
"What a predictable outcome... but an unfortunate one. Their obsession with the gift of Special Ranks appears to reign supreme," AlphaSSB's angel lamented.
"No don't do this!" a candidate had stepped out, almost spontaneously, as if they had just had an epiphany. It was the one known as Pokechu. "I think... I think Alpha is the one that has been on mind lately... To lose him so soon... I won't stand for it!"
The outburst was unsettling. Was their vague sense of order about to crumble?
"Just remove my blessing and it will be okay," Alpha said plainly, his will was spent and clearly did not desire for any more conflict.
"To think that for a time I had suspected you were going to be the one that we would all serve. How quick things had taken a turn for the worse..." When Shiny's blessing passed onto him, the White Arrow might as well have come and pierced him right then and there.
Before any more of a scene could be caused, the angel removed the halos containing Alpha's blessings as he rested on the cold, hard floor, sparing the living from watching another body fall down and instead merely witnessed what appeared as a tired man dozing off for the last time.
From the body of Pokechu who was in tears sprung a Red Arrow that flew to the angel. He had, as was clear to everyone already, been possessed by an arrow fired by Alpha.
"W-What? Why am I crying?" Pokechu wiped his face in a daze.
ALPHASSB IS NOW DEAD.
HE WAS NOT STRUCK BY A RED ARROW.
HIS BLESSING CONTAINED: x2 Red Arrows, x2 Wings, and x1 White Arrow.
POKECHU WAS POSSESSED BY A RED ARROW FROM ALPHASSB.
HIS HEART AND WILL ARE NOW FREE.
Their number had now fallen down to six, less than half of their original 13. To the eyes of the angels, significant progress had been made. However, they really had no idea just how much progress had been made.
One candidate eyed the others calmly, with a sense of calculation. The time was ripe.
As the others talked briefly among themselves and got ready to leave as per their usual schedule, he casually walked over to a second candidate and whispered in their ear, saying something unheard by anyone else, that made the sole listener's eyes widen and their bodies tense up.
He walked off and went to a third individual and showed them something hidden in his personal belongings, perhaps an article of clothing, something that on its own did not warrant any notice but immediately made the third person's jaw drop. Putting the piece of identification away casually he made a motion.
"Right up to the end, these fools only tried to follow the White Arrows... but forgot about the Red!"
Astonishingly, the one candidate in question opened his arms wide and ridiculed them all. Instead of anger, the two behind him knelt down in total submission.
Swampasaur's chest grew brightly in response as he lowered his head in reverence.
On the other side sat, to everyone's amazement, Natz~, whose chest was equally growing crimson. The pair had just been arguing minutes before over a lethal decision, but now both were totally in sync in what they wanted.
The other three turned in shock at what was happening. In the next moment the boasting candidate descended upon one, the Stoopid Unikorn, with his Wings and lifted him off the ground. Stoopid in turn pulled out his Wings, but in a one-on-one situation, they were trapped in place.
"Damn it! I'll kill you!" from one hand Stoopid summoned forth a White Arrow, but as he did so the wings of the attacker wrapped around his face covering his eyes, blinding him. In the other, two Red Arrows uselessly stuck out out of impulse.
That is when Swampasaur stood up and pulled out a White Arrow of his own and aimed it directly at Stoopid.
"Oh no you don't!" Pokechu called out. When he did that, Redfeatherraven's chest glowed red, having been pierced by a Red Arrow from Pokechu. The former charged forward to be in range to fire a Red at the one with vulnerable soul holding Stoopid while the latter was compelled to assist with his own tool drawn.
That's right, both of them were carrying a Second Rank Blessing, entirely without Wings.
Pokechu fired a Red arrow but Natz~ flew out with Wings and two Red Arrows out, one in each arm. With the left arm she blocked the incoming attack and with the other struck Pokechu with her own. Pokechu immediately became enamored once again and stopped Redfeather's advance with an outstretched arm.
"H-Hold up! Don't shoot at her!"
First Redfeatherraven crashed into the ground from a blur of White, which whooshed back around to its owner.
"What?! Please no stop!" Pokechu ran away from Swampasaur's emotionless gaze until another shard of white stuck directly into his exposed back, causing him to trip forward instantaneously.
"Let me go!" Stoopid continued to struggle but he couldn't be free of his captor's grip and his Wings' effect was countered.
"Do it," a command rang out, and in the next second Swamp charged forward with his own Wings and stabbed Stoopid directly with his White Arrow, then darting back as the body slumped to the floor while he was let go, discarded like trash.
REDFEATHERRAVEN (x1 Red Arrow), THE STOOPID UNIKORN (x2 Red Arrows, x1 Wings, x1 White Arrow), AND POKECHU (x1 Red Arrow) ARE NOW DEAD. A Red Arrow emerged from Redfeatherraven's chest and went to Pokechu's blessing.
It was only a matter of seconds, and there was nothing the angels could do but watch. The only three that remained were Swampasaur, Natz~...
and Opossum.
"I choose my beloved Opossum to be God."
"I choose my beloved Opossum to be God."
"I accept the position," he said with a smile in reply to the synchronous devotion of his partners, who as if had been blown by a gust of wind, collapsed then and there, their blessings offered up as a sacrifice to conclude this deadly game.
NATZ~ (x2 Red Arrow, x1 Wings) AND SWAMPASAUR (x2 Red Arrows, x1 Wings, x1 White Arrow) ARE NOW DEAD.
The Red Arrows that led them to their actions fled with their blessings back to their angels.
"So it would seem we have our winner... Must suck to have backed the wrong horses, eh?" Opossum's angel flew forward triumphantly.
OPOSSUM WINS THE GAME.
HE WAS BLESSED BY A FIRST RANK ANGEL.
The emissaries of the heavens gathered their halos together and offered them in union to the last candidate as they became ethereal and rose out of the death trap they had been living in for days and disappeared from the physical realm. Any misgivings about what just happened went unsaid. Their mission, one way or another, was solved with their plan, with 8 days remaining in the competition.
What happened next? Well... that was to be decided by the one known as Opossum.
GAME OVER
