Jump 303: Final Fantasy XIII-3

Jump #303: Final Fantasy XIII-3
>Three of Swords (Sorrow): The revelation of a painful truth.
>Age: 16
>Location: Luxerion
>Identity: Saviour
>Scenario: Light Eternal (+900)
I have to wonder, what have I gotten myself into? And yet, I can't deny it. The cosmology they dictate seems to ring false. He's as much a god as Kefka aspired to be.
>Overclock (Free, Drop-In)
Slowing my opponents down when they're trying to fight me up close sounds quite useful.
>Schema (1700, Drop-In)
>Via Abnegatio (1400, Drop-In)
>Antimatter Genesis Principle (1200)
Oh, look, more technology... except when developed it has the potential to put some control aspects of the chaos eating the world. Sure, I can use it to make mundane duplicates of items, but I'm much more interested in how it can slow chaos' crawl.
Or is it a matter of the local magical power run amok?
>Antimatter Temporal Principle (1000)
Yes, indeed, this certainly has the potential to deal with chaos. It makes me wonder whether this could serve as the equivalent of the pylons one would find on Cadia and elsewhere. And the fact that it enables me to freeze time briefly is helpful, but... well, with these two schools of tech, perhaps the fight against chaos is not entirely useless.
>Pocket Watch (Free, Drop-In)
An item that gives immunity to time fuckery! Well, not COMPLETE immunity, but unless the plot says I need to be frozen in time, I'm good. I can even lend it out if need be.
>Soul Seed (800)
I have to say, growing plants and flowers wherever lost souls perished is cool. Especially if they can reach back far enough to grow ones that had gone extinct.
>Perimeter Control Interface (600)
If part of what I need to do is keep people safe so they can have a sustainable population again, it doesn't hurt to have an already ready-made way to do it.
>Lost Hours Sandglass (300)
Another item to play with time fuckery! And if I want to be Cheaty McCheatface, I could cast a time altering effect on myself to make the sand build up faster. I wonder what effect this will have if I activate it on April 30th? Can I declare April 42nd to be a new holiday? Because that'd be pretty funny.
>Integration (0)
Bringing my companions along with the full import treatment this time. I'll need them.

So... chaos. Everyone that remains as they wait for time to tick down is unaging but unable to reproduce, because chaos... well, it's not really chaotic, per se. It's some sort of magical entropy effect that interacts poorly with the physical world as it stands... it corrupts objects, both inanimate and living. Sufficient exposure creates monsters, but short term exposure still corrupts genes and minds - and there's a low level effect of this over EVERYTHING here.

It's the world's magic gone rampant - the opposite scenario from what I had seen five jumps ago when I woke in Midgar. It's a frightfully nasty effect, and quite frankly a scenario such as this would probably not be fixable without many things being lined up, leading up to this point. Experiences with genetics and life itself. Studies of magic and technology, to help me harness the local technology to fight against chaos.

Short of being given the basics of the technology to manipulate it, and past technologies from the last two jumps that worked on the same principle, I would have had to fight Pandaemonium to make the first bit of progress. I still did, of course - there was no way to get answers without taking such drastic action, and it was NOT a fun experience - but I at least had the beginnings of things set up before I had to do so.

It took a surprisingly long time to start getting things set up. To convince the population of Luxerion that I could help change things, which meant that I had to take an active role in the local conflict. A decisive role. From there I jury-rigged some small scale mako reactors to dampen the wild magic, even if it only just burned it off rather than converting it to anything useful. The chaos burned red instead of mako blue... unsettling for many reasons. Perimeter defenses helped keep those from being immediately destroyed, but they were magnets for monster attacks down to the last day I was there.

My companions stepped up to the plate to help deal with things, thankfully. They helped reorganize things in Luxerion, keeping order as we started treating the population. The celebrations for the first few who were found to be pregnant were quite epic. Dealing with what turned out to be subversive work from Vanille and Fang was much less than fun, but frankly... I don't believe in no-win scenarios. I may not have taken either as companions, but I ensured that both were saved from the machinations of a would-be deity.

Dealing with Lightning and her small army was far less entertaining than I would have thought, when her inevitable return occurred. Goddamn pinkette with xeroxed versions of my companions. Still, much like the other two I'd already saved, her will was only partially her own. It was an interesting fight, though we ensured it was moved outside the city to keep the collateral damage down - a flood of monsters heralded her approach, and an army of magitek automatons kept them at bay rather than letting them raze the city. And the fight... well, quite honestly I don't think most of my companions have ever actually had an excuse to go all-out in one on one fights. Landscapes shattered, craters the size of city blocks... the damage was quite a thing to see, afterward.

The fight with Lightning was not nearly so devastating, more... metaphorical. Rather than physical, it was a mental conflict. I definitely did not expect it, a minute's fight as exhausting as fighting for a full day. In the end, the fight drew to a close; with a twist of magic, I sent her away, to land at the feet of a pink-haired girl that bore a strange resemblance to her sister. After that... she did not have the chance to trouble me again, because at that point, I took just long enough in the time-accelerated warehouse to fully recover from the ordeal before I launched my assault on Bhunvielze. My companions remained behind, save for two. Carbon and Imaginos. And as one, we struck.

Ah, Bhunivelze, god of light, what mortal could hope to match your strength? Alas, that I am no mortal. I know what true power is- I know what real light is, not this... flickering candle you pretend it to be. The power to create anything... to make a new world in a new plane... Bhunivelze, you are not the only one with that ability. You, who cannot see beyond the world you've trapped yourself in, the entropic cycle that you have already lost control of, the tainted reincarnation cycle that only pray I can put right before my departure.

Beneath the sturm and drung, you're just a little boy who lashes out at anyone who disrupts his fun, and hides from it while hoping it will be perfect, then can't handle it when it isn't. An autistic, matricidal pretender to the title of godhood. It'd be funny if it weren't so pathetic. But what the hell, I'll laugh anyway.

The driedver. A forbidden treasure to power it. The Sword of Darkness, wielded by my hand. Let's see whether five minutes is enough time for me to do what Lightning would have done in ten, had I derailed things. (It took less than three minutes; justice prevails.)

His power, too, I'll leave in the dust. I've no use for anything that a mad would-be god should think to use to enforce his will.