Ariel - The Crowned Lion

The air tensed before the blow. You could feel it—not in your skin, but in the weight of the world itself. A silence pressed too hard against the eardrum, a space that bent inward just before breaking. Belregor hung above them, a blot of black and crimson against the broken sky, his blade drawing down like a second horizon. Ariel didn’t wait to admire the shape of the coming destruction. She was already moving. Her foot carved a shallow spiral in the sand, momentum bleeding into a slide. The first crash landed a heartbeat behind her—stone and grit screaming as they shattered apart. H

Sand boiled around them, turning the shoreline into a lung full of grit. The chain-blade hissed through the cloud in serrated segments—tendrils and teeth testing for panic. Ariel watched the pattern—counted the rhythm as links sought purchase and found it elsewhere. When the weapon recoiled and Belregor’s silhouette thickened back into a single mass, she moved. No flourish. A narrow angle cut through the murk, kimono hem skimming wet grit. Left foot seals, right foot glides; the draw lives in the interval between heartbeats. Her technique unfolded cleanly—first stroke low across the seam

The world narrowed to a line. Belregor’s arm swept back; the gathered Black spilled through his fist like starless tide. The beam tore the coast open—sand, stone, and air hammered flat into a scorched seam. Ariel was already moving: heel set, hip turned, profile thinned to a blade. The blast skimmed past with a pressure that tried to pull her ribs out through her back. It took two, maybe three, lives in its path—none of them hers. Light touched her shoulder. Violet’s handprint blossomed—clean, prismatic, precise—then dissolved into her weapon. The glow ran the length of the saya

The first tremor reached her through the soles of her feet—subtle at first, then violent enough to send her balance tilting. She didn’t need to see the wave of force; the hiss of displaced air told her enough. She slid her right foot back, the lacquered hem of her kimono sweeping over sand as she lowered her stance. The pressure hit like a wall. Her grip shifted, left hand bracing the saya against her hip as she angled the blade’s flat forward—not to block, but to cut the air around her. It wasn’t force she could truly parry, but the smallest slipstream could mean the difference betw

The dark receded—not by its own will, but by force. A gash of radiance torn clean through its center, chasing the void back into its corners. Freyd had stood fast against the unlight, as expected. Not by spectacle. By refusal. Even the shadows bowed away from his blade when memory called it true. Ariel exhaled quietly through her nose. Then the battlefield returned in pieces. The stone beneath her feet. The shallow splash of rain. The hiss of wind cut by Oscar’s passage—his strikes already carving a rhythm into Belregor’s massive frame. Not reckless. Not panicked. Measured. Surg

The trek to the Second Floor was uneventful, save for the subtle shifts of the party’s pace as they adjusted to one another. Ariel walked in silence, the gifted topaz now tucked safely within her system’s inventory menu. Alongside her, she could hear Gambit’s light footsteps and Acanthus’ more deliberate gait. The air grew thinner the higher they climbed, the land shedding the warmth of Floor 1 for something colder—older. At the quest marker, a small cluster of standing stones greeted them, half-swallowed by moss and silence. Between them stood a woman clad in traveling robes, auburn curl

roll ID# 248092 | CD: 5 +2 +8 LD: 11 +1 +16 CD 5*+ | +1 Material LD 10+ | Fishing Treasure Chest Found! ID# 248093 | LD: 13 +2 +16 Loot: 3x Unidentified Perfect Weapons | 248093a, 248093b, 248093c 3x Unidentified Perfect Armor/Shield | 248093d, 248093e, 248093f 1x Gleaming Scale Fishing EXP: 387/499 | 359 +8+2 +16+2 Total Mats: 27 | 26 +1 Gleaming Scales: 7 | 6 +1

roll ID# 248092 | CD: 5 +2 +8 LD: 11 +1 +16 CD 5*+ | +1 Material LD 10+ | Fishing Treasure Chest Found! ID# 248093 | LD: 13 +2 +16 Loot: 3x Unidentified Perfect Weapons | 248093a, 248093b, 248093c 3x Unidentified Perfect Armor/Shield | 248093d, 248093e, 248093f 1x Gleaming Scale Fishing EXP: 387/499 | 359 +8+2 +16+2 Total Mats: 27 | 26 +1 Gleaming Scales: 7 | 6 +1

Shadows clung to Ariel like a second skin as she watched Freyd’s drunken stumble transform into terrifying precision. The Ripper’s chain-hook flew—SHINK—only to be caught mid-air by a hand moving faster than sober logic allowed. A big chunk of the boss’s HP vanished in a spray of pixelated gore. Even pickled he's lethal, she acknowledged, sending the teleport crystal back into the inventory. Kimba’s low growl vibrated through their bond: Focus. Rotting meat and rusted chains filled the air. The Ripper reeled, chains acting like a death rattle. Ariel’s moment crystallized. No flourish

roll ID# 248045 | CD: 4 +2 +8 LD: 14 +1 +16 CD 5*+ | +1 Material LD 10+ | Fishing Treasure Chest Found! ID# 248046 | LD: 8 +2 +16 Loot: 3x Unidentified Perfect Weapons | 248046a, 248046b, 248046c 3x Unidentified Perfect Armor/Shield | 248046d, 248046e, 248046f 1x Gleaming Scale Fishing EXP: 359/499 | 331 +8+2 +16+2 Total Mats: 22 | 21 +1 Gleaming Scales: 6 | 5 +1

roll ID# 248042 | CD: 6 +2 +8 LD: 4 +1 +16 CD 5*+ | +1 Material LD 10+ | Fishing Treasure Chest Found! ID# 248043 | LD: 20 +2 +16 Loot: 3x Unidentified Perfect Weapons | 248043a, 248043b, 248043c 3x Unidentified Perfect Armor/Shield | 248043d, 248043e, 248043f 1x Gleaming Scale Fishing EXP: 331/499 | 303 +8+2 +16+2 Total Mats: 17 | 16 +1 Gleaming Scales: 5 | 4 +1

roll ID# 248039 | CD: 1 +2 +8 LD: 9 +1 +16 CD 5*+ | +1 Material LD 10+ | Fishing Treasure Chest Found! ID# 248040 | LD: 16 +2 +16 Loot: 3x Unidentified Perfect Weapons | 248040a, 248040b, 248040c 3x Unidentified Perfect Armor/Shield | 248040d, 248040e, 248040f 1x Gleaming Scale Fishing EXP: 303/499 | 275 +8+2 +16+2 Total Mats: 12 | 11 +1 Gleaming Scales: 4 | 3 +1

roll ID# 248036 | CD: 6 +2 +8 LD: 8 +1 +16 CD 5*+ | +1 Material LD 10+ | Fishing Treasure Chest Found! ID# 248037 | LD: 10 +2 +16 Loot: 3x Unidentified Perfect Weapons | 248037a, 248037b, 248037c 3x Unidentified Perfect Armor/Shield | 248037d, 248037e, 248037f 1x Gleaming Scale Fishing EXP: 275/499 | 247 +8+2 +16+2 Total Mats: 10 | 9 +1 Gleaming Scales: 3 | 2 +1

roll ID# 248033 | CD: 7 +2 +8 LD: 17 +1 +16 CD 5*+ | +1 Material LD 10+ | Fishing Treasure Chest Found! ID# 248034 | LD: 19 +2 +16 Loot: 3x Unidentified Perfect Weapons | 248034a, 248034b, 248034c 3x Unidentified Perfect Armor/Shield | 248034d, 248034e, 248034f 1x Gleaming Scale Fishing EXP: 247 | 219 +8+2 +16+2 Total Mats: 5 | 4 +1 Gleaming Scales: 2 | 1 +1

roll ID# 248030 | CD: 6 +2 +8 LD: 2 +1 +16 CD 5*+ | +1 Material LD 10+ | Fishing Treasure Chest Found! ID# 248031 | LD: 9 +2 +16 Loot: 3x Unidentified Perfect Weapons | 248031a, 248031b, 248031c 3x Unidentified Perfect Armor/Shield | 248031d, 248031e, 248031f 1x Gleaming Scale Fishing EXP: 219 | 191 +8+2 +16+2 Total Mats: 1