Vaermina
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It's odd that Paul already forgot that Canis described what happens to the souls of New Gods when they die.
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With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)
- Thread starter Mr Zoat
- Start date
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- Tags
- self insert young justice
Darko
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It's coming from my desire to see Melmoth lose his shit and be scared like a little child.
And everyone has a moment where they can be scared shitless, even if they're brave, and I think meeting Death may be what does it for Melmoth.
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AidanMorgan
Essentially Overworked
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Yes, of zombie sheep.
Darko
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Hey Zoat did Paul perform that ceremony to ensure her soul goes to a safe place because he thought whatever Melmoth did may have damaged her connection to the Source in a way that prevents her from going to it post death?
Canis said that New Gods go to it after they die, but maybe she can't because of Melmoths actions and Paul just wanted to make sure she has somewhere to go.
Canis said that New Gods go to it after they die, but maybe she can't because of Melmoths actions and Paul just wanted to make sure she has somewhere to go.
Someguy Somewhere
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It's a bit like Himon's understanding of Dream of the Endless, and both what they represent and the power they wield.
My little day dream was more about the kind of red alert response that most have to the Grim Reaper on their doorstep, and Death of the Endless being....herself.
LazySloth13
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While Death the Endless showing up would be interesting she wouldn't be the type to go baying for Melmoth's soul, like some other death gods/personifications would be, if anything she would be there if whatever Melmoth did affected Aurokos's ability to pass on to the afterlife.
The only time she gets upset is whenever any of her siblings do something she sees as unfair or offensive; such as Dream condemning his lover Nada to Hell because she refused to be with him, letting Boss Smiley get his hands on Prez Rickard's soul, or whenever he siblings shenanigans may hurt one another.
Plus if this version of Melmoth has his New Earth version of immortality he might not find the idea of death all that scary since he can't be easily kill, especially since Paul lacks the Sword of the Fallen or something equally as deadly, and would need to be removed completely from time and space to a plane of existence where killing him or leaving him permanently brain dead like what happened to Krona.
The only time she gets upset is whenever any of her siblings do something she sees as unfair or offensive; such as Dream condemning his lover Nada to Hell because she refused to be with him, letting Boss Smiley get his hands on Prez Rickard's soul, or whenever he siblings shenanigans may hurt one another.
Plus if this version of Melmoth has his New Earth version of immortality he might not find the idea of death all that scary since he can't be easily kill, especially since Paul lacks the Sword of the Fallen or something equally as deadly, and would need to be removed completely from time and space to a plane of existence where killing him or leaving him permanently brain dead like what happened to Krona.
Darko
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Death may not have always been the cute nice girl we all know and love.
In this one comic that had Dream date one of the first Maltusians Death showed up to a party and she seemed a lot more darker and sinister than her usual portrayals.
Paul does have a lot of exotic weapons that he can make which could potentially take out Melmoth, even if they aren't the Sword.
Paul could also just take him t the Honded, which may work, or somehow teleport him into space and toss him into the sun.
Melmoth may also be really dead and the one he's been talking to could just be some kind of AI left behind.
Faed Away (part 18)
Mr Zoat
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5th May
03:19 GMT -5
No… I suppose that's not true. Quite aside from the fact that I need to fight off any Sheeda creatures who head this way… It… Should be possible for me to track Melmoth by his own desires. I mean, he must at least suspect that I can do something like that. Certainly, any group with significant knowledge of magic is going to invest in wards to try to prevent back-hacking.
The exterior of the room is still a jet black film, and I can't hear anything from outside. Do I want to try and lure Melmoth back into conversation and try that way? I mean, he'd almost certainly spot what I'm trying to do. Is he arrogant enough to let something go? Can I meaningfully distract him from whatever else he's doing? The animals appear to be attacking on their own recognisance rather than being instructed to go after a particular target, so that suggests that he's got the time to spare.
Least risky options first.
I try to feel the desires attached to this place, to any of the objects around me. I.. see memories… Floating? Around the fragments of armour I've collected, the wraith's blob of belligerence is completely apparent and a reflection of my plea to Hades in the slow-burning bowl.
But the room? Nothing. Nothing fresh, at least. Simple… Impulses from the maggot that died, or… Metamorphosed? Into a Spine Rider. Just a desire to feed, as far as I can tell. I assume that they have a control system as well, but my limited ability to see this sort of thing doesn't show it.
The only actual-.
Construct stingers stab out, impaling the… Spider-things through the thorax. These have slightly more complex desires, and as their venom-squirt is intercepted by my construct barrier I try taking a closer…
Oh. That's not theirs. It looks like Melmoth got a little curious. Not a lot curious, it's more a momentary 'I want to know what he's doing, go and take a look my spidery minions' than anything focused-
I stab the one that was lurking back to watch the other two.
-but it gives me a feel for his mind-state.
"Wonder Woman to Orange Lantern."
"Orange Lantern, here, go ahead."
"Columbia is under attack from all directions. Can Aurakos be moved?"
"Yes."
"Transport her to a place of safety, then assist the Columbians in defending New Southampton. Damage to the cavern is acceptable, but try to leave the central console in one piece."
"Understood. Orange Lantern out."
I drop the sound-dampening and light-obscuring effects and generate a large crumbler construct-
"Oh, hello again."
-and shove it into the ceiling.
"I wondered where my spiders had gone."
It punches a perfectly circular hole through the soil and lichen into the chamber above. I grip Aurakos with a heavy duty spinal board construct.
"Do you wish to negotiate at all before I leave?"
"Do you wish to surrender to me and witness the end of your era in relative comfort, from which you may laugh at-?"
"No."
"You could-."
I fly rapidly out into the upper cavern, then target the largest cluster of Sheeda-feeling desires that I can see and swing my crumbler construct into the cavern roof. Once again the lichen fails against Mr. Tuttle's masterpiece, and a moment later so too does the… Maggot burrow? As the crumbler continues on its unstoppable path to freedom.
Hm.
I fabricate a small squadron of drone weapons and leave them in the cavern. Given that even Sheeda beasts appear to consider visibility passé I doubt that they'll achieve much but it can't hurt. Then I and my passenger fly into the open air.
"Orange Lantern to League, heading to New Southampton now. Would appreciate a situation update."
New Southampton is south of here, on a lake fed by a tidal river. I know where it is because Abednego comes from near there. As I head in that direction I take a moment to scan the region.
On the positive side, I'm not seeing any worms. On the negative side, I can see dead Sheeda creatures and defenders around just about every major settlement that I can scan.
"Captain Atom here. We were being pulled in all direction trying to hold these.. bugs off. Then we all got jumped by supergrundies. You take yours down?"
"Yes, and I'm hopeful that we'll be able to restore her."
My surroundings blur for a moment and then snap back into focus. Fast flight isn't as fast as transitioning or stepping out, but I didn't have to travel all that far. Scanning the town-. Maybe I'm not seeing any worms because the gigantic spiders ate them.
"The rest?"
"When it comes to super zombies, I have a 'shoot first' policy."
He doesn't have my crowd-control options. If they did that New God challenge thing he wouldn't have had any choice. And the others probably wouldn't have had better intelligence than Aurakos, so it isn't much of a loss on that level.
"Rational."
I form a railgun and take aim at one which is ignoring the grundymob trying to keep their attention while the living defenders reload their cannons. I can see a couple of actual witch-hunters but for the most part it looks like they're a militia rather than professional soldiers.
"Has she given you any intelligence?"
I open fire, my first crumbler round cutting off the right foreleg of a spider that was encroaching on one of the defenders' cannons. A moment later it fires, runes around the outside of the barrel lighting up as it blasts forth a blob of white fire that sticks to the spider which screeches as its thorax is consumed.
"No, but Melmoth said that her people are the ones they got their time machine from."
I put it out of its misery with a round to the face. Doesn't look like these ones have magic reinforcement; I can see their carapaces being chipped and broken by conventional musketry as well as the larger weapons.
"Time machine singular. That confirms Sivana's claim that they only have one; they can't build more of them."
Two railgun rounds stagger a spider that was trying to shoot toxic fur at the defenders, and-
"So we deal with this one and it's all over. Any of them who are still alive get stranded in our time and they can't send reinforcements."
-I quickly form and fire a laser construct at a smaller spider that was trying to sneak up on the witch-hunter directing the defence. It falls from the building it was using as cover, spasming and screeching until the witch-hunter steps up with a pistol and finishes it off. He then spots me and gives me a quick nod before turning back to the fight.
"And if I understood what my alter ego did to time correctly, that will be it. They get one swing and then even though they use time travel they can't bother us with it any more."
"Then we better make sure they swing and miss."
03:19 GMT -5
No… I suppose that's not true. Quite aside from the fact that I need to fight off any Sheeda creatures who head this way… It… Should be possible for me to track Melmoth by his own desires. I mean, he must at least suspect that I can do something like that. Certainly, any group with significant knowledge of magic is going to invest in wards to try to prevent back-hacking.
The exterior of the room is still a jet black film, and I can't hear anything from outside. Do I want to try and lure Melmoth back into conversation and try that way? I mean, he'd almost certainly spot what I'm trying to do. Is he arrogant enough to let something go? Can I meaningfully distract him from whatever else he's doing? The animals appear to be attacking on their own recognisance rather than being instructed to go after a particular target, so that suggests that he's got the time to spare.
Least risky options first.
I try to feel the desires attached to this place, to any of the objects around me. I.. see memories… Floating? Around the fragments of armour I've collected, the wraith's blob of belligerence is completely apparent and a reflection of my plea to Hades in the slow-burning bowl.
But the room? Nothing. Nothing fresh, at least. Simple… Impulses from the maggot that died, or… Metamorphosed? Into a Spine Rider. Just a desire to feed, as far as I can tell. I assume that they have a control system as well, but my limited ability to see this sort of thing doesn't show it.
The only actual-.
Construct stingers stab out, impaling the… Spider-things through the thorax. These have slightly more complex desires, and as their venom-squirt is intercepted by my construct barrier I try taking a closer…
Oh. That's not theirs. It looks like Melmoth got a little curious. Not a lot curious, it's more a momentary 'I want to know what he's doing, go and take a look my spidery minions' than anything focused-
I stab the one that was lurking back to watch the other two.
-but it gives me a feel for his mind-state.
"Wonder Woman to Orange Lantern."
"Orange Lantern, here, go ahead."
"Columbia is under attack from all directions. Can Aurakos be moved?"
"Yes."
"Transport her to a place of safety, then assist the Columbians in defending New Southampton. Damage to the cavern is acceptable, but try to leave the central console in one piece."
"Understood. Orange Lantern out."
I drop the sound-dampening and light-obscuring effects and generate a large crumbler construct-
"Oh, hello again."
-and shove it into the ceiling.
"I wondered where my spiders had gone."
It punches a perfectly circular hole through the soil and lichen into the chamber above. I grip Aurakos with a heavy duty spinal board construct.
"Do you wish to negotiate at all before I leave?"
"Do you wish to surrender to me and witness the end of your era in relative comfort, from which you may laugh at-?"
"No."
"You could-."
I fly rapidly out into the upper cavern, then target the largest cluster of Sheeda-feeling desires that I can see and swing my crumbler construct into the cavern roof. Once again the lichen fails against Mr. Tuttle's masterpiece, and a moment later so too does the… Maggot burrow? As the crumbler continues on its unstoppable path to freedom.
Hm.
I fabricate a small squadron of drone weapons and leave them in the cavern. Given that even Sheeda beasts appear to consider visibility passé I doubt that they'll achieve much but it can't hurt. Then I and my passenger fly into the open air.
"Orange Lantern to League, heading to New Southampton now. Would appreciate a situation update."
New Southampton is south of here, on a lake fed by a tidal river. I know where it is because Abednego comes from near there. As I head in that direction I take a moment to scan the region.
On the positive side, I'm not seeing any worms. On the negative side, I can see dead Sheeda creatures and defenders around just about every major settlement that I can scan.
"Captain Atom here. We were being pulled in all direction trying to hold these.. bugs off. Then we all got jumped by supergrundies. You take yours down?"
"Yes, and I'm hopeful that we'll be able to restore her."
My surroundings blur for a moment and then snap back into focus. Fast flight isn't as fast as transitioning or stepping out, but I didn't have to travel all that far. Scanning the town-. Maybe I'm not seeing any worms because the gigantic spiders ate them.
"The rest?"
"When it comes to super zombies, I have a 'shoot first' policy."
He doesn't have my crowd-control options. If they did that New God challenge thing he wouldn't have had any choice. And the others probably wouldn't have had better intelligence than Aurakos, so it isn't much of a loss on that level.
"Rational."
I form a railgun and take aim at one which is ignoring the grundymob trying to keep their attention while the living defenders reload their cannons. I can see a couple of actual witch-hunters but for the most part it looks like they're a militia rather than professional soldiers.
"Has she given you any intelligence?"
I open fire, my first crumbler round cutting off the right foreleg of a spider that was encroaching on one of the defenders' cannons. A moment later it fires, runes around the outside of the barrel lighting up as it blasts forth a blob of white fire that sticks to the spider which screeches as its thorax is consumed.
"No, but Melmoth said that her people are the ones they got their time machine from."
I put it out of its misery with a round to the face. Doesn't look like these ones have magic reinforcement; I can see their carapaces being chipped and broken by conventional musketry as well as the larger weapons.
"Time machine singular. That confirms Sivana's claim that they only have one; they can't build more of them."
Two railgun rounds stagger a spider that was trying to shoot toxic fur at the defenders, and-
"So we deal with this one and it's all over. Any of them who are still alive get stranded in our time and they can't send reinforcements."
-I quickly form and fire a laser construct at a smaller spider that was trying to sneak up on the witch-hunter directing the defence. It falls from the building it was using as cover, spasming and screeching until the witch-hunter steps up with a pistol and finishes it off. He then spots me and gives me a quick nod before turning back to the fight.
"And if I understood what my alter ego did to time correctly, that will be it. They get one swing and then even though they use time travel they can't bother us with it any more."
"Then we better make sure they swing and miss."
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Vaermina
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How nice of you to nerf the Sheeda so Paul can defeat them.
That's the opposite of what the change you described should have done...
thebishop8
Umm, ackchyually...
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Change "that" to "than".
Change "The" to "Then".
Change "The" to "Then".
Change "both" to "bother".
Darko
Connoisseur.
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'attached'
'Hades'
'than anything'
'Then I'
'being pulled'
Wasn't he going to New Southhampton?
'Then we all'
'bother'
moralrelativity
Recovering pendant.
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witch-under -> witch-hunter
Mr Zoat
Dedicated ragequitter
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Thank you, corrected.
Chojin Patriarch
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Like any halfway decent wizard should. I wouldn't put money on the idea that 'Melmoth' is his true name, either. Still, we can but hope he's not a decent wizard.
Ultimately, I doubt he exercises much control over them at all beyond 'go there, kill'. Why would he need to when they're so good at it?
Trippy, but no font change. Good to see he's showing some natural resistance to magic now. Then again, he's probably got a 100% resistance against Desire-related spells...
Ah, you've noticed something? Let's see what it is.
Heh. I doubt he cares to sully himself with putting effort into the little things. He has people for that. Or beasts. After all, he put a lot of effort into becoming king, why wouldn't he take advantage of that?
Curious, slightly worried, and a little annoyed? I know I would be right now.
Ah, I see Canis made it unmolested. Swirly-cheeks abandoned this site, then...
She's been purged of the mutated flesh, after all. I doubt she's that much larger than Diana under all that...
So, make your own way out without completely collapsing the place, play backup for the others. Two things OL is pretty good at.
Oh yeah, he's still watching. Thankfully he appears to have missed the good parts.
Frankly, he can shove those spiders somewhere nasty on his person.
Of course OL has to make the offer. Melmoth might still be able to make himself useful somehow, after all. Unfortunately...
...I fear their stances are just too different. I guess Melmoth has chosen the path of Righteous Face-punching, then.
Ew. At least it doesn't leave any messy residue behind. So no cleanup needed.
I'm honestly surprised OL doesn't use drones more often. Another point of difference between Paragon and Renegade, I suppose. Personal attention versus delegation.
Useful landmark. And I see he's set aside concerns of triggering warding spells. Given the state of the surface right now, they're probably all broken.
So the fight's not going well, then. Let's hope there're enough survivors of Columbia for them to maintain their community...
Good thing you aren't an arachnophobe. Though I doubt any situation could be improved by 'And then the gigantic spiders turned up...'
Heh. Military training coming through. If you can't take them down safely, take them down hard.
Honestly, I have to wonder what condition the other 'supergrundies' are even in. Would putting a railgun round in their forehead cause the same reaction Aurakos suffered? They clearly aren't as 'New Godsy' as she is...
Professional. Too bad she's comatose. And how very early-American of the Columbians.
Ooh, the local counterpart of grapeshot? For those wondering, that's basically a cannon-sized shotgun blast. Imagine random junk the gunners could gather shoved into the barrel ahead of a charge of powder.
Judging by Vaermina's complaint, that's a change from New Earth Canon? It makes sense, though. I doubt the Sheeda are technically minded enough to reverse-engineer it, and too stupid to capture someone who could.
The only challenge becomes what happens to the person or persons going to destroy it. Suicide mission, unless they have a way to time-jump home... and if they do have it, their failure gives the Sheeda two time-machines...
Classic moment of combat. An old trope, but a fun one.
Assuming it does end up working that way... I mean, what's to stop another timeline's Sheeda hopping tracks, so to speak? Or if it does spawn an alternate timeline, what happens to the world in that one? It just gets hosed by the Harrowing?
Argh, time-travel plots suuuuck.Man, it looks like the Columbians are getting hit hard. Even with superhero support, I suspect there's going to be a lot of dead laying around, just waiting to rise as Grundymen... Hopefully, Melmoth won't be able to use that against them before they get him.
transhumansage
Versed in the lewd.
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isnt it canon that they only have one time machine
Agent Orange
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That... doesn't make sense. With the branching model in place wiping out your TL's Sheeda just means you're safe from your TL's Sheeda. You'd always be at risk from the other branches. OL helped Paul Trapper make Hypertime a thing. Ignoring inconvenient aspects of it won't insulate him from them.
Stsword
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Here? Yes.
In Seven Soldiers, they had an entire fleet of time ships that got destroyed by Frankenstein.
BlueMangoAdea
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Wouldn't other TLs' Sheeda go for their past?
Stsword
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This would be their past.
Time Trapper Paul made things so that timelines branch off rather than overwrite, hence Mandate Earth surviving.
So Earth-16 logically doesn't have to worry about one Sheeda future, but every possible Sheeda future.
Hence some people being confused by Paul's logic here.
Agent Orange
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There's only one past. If they went back... a day before this Harrowing the new branch would form and OL's branch would be safe but as long as they aim for OL's "present" they will be able to affect it.
Darko
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Sadly from everything we've seen so far he may be a highly capable wizard.
Zoat did say once that he was more resistant to magic compared to your average guy, but he was vulnerable to things like feedback that an ordinary person wouldn't be.
That or he killed anything in his path.
That's a horrible fate to inflict on those spiders.
Ya think?
He has chosen to be on he receiving end of a righteous face punch.
Their half Sheeda physiology apparently makes inbreeding less dangerous than it would be for humans, and if they need to evacuate then they may marry someone from Earth.
I mean just look at that time the Spider Queen from South Park told the Catholics that the law allowing them to molest children can't be changed.
The New Gods may have uplifted some Neanderthals to be very advanced, but didn't make them New Gods, while they made Aurakles a New God to serve as some kind of God King, like say Gilgamesh.
So the various super grundys may be the other Neanderthals who are superior to ordinary humans, or just ordinary humans Melmoth turned into grundys and they're stronger because he's a better magician than the Columbians.
Don't read those!
Or they're too sadistic to stop themselves from torturing them.
Paul can just make a drone and send it to do the job.
Assuming it does end up working that way... I mean, what's to stop another timeline's Sheeda hopping tracks, so to speak? Or if it does spawn an alternate timeline, what happens to the world in that one? It just gets hosed by the Harrowing?
Let us thank the writers of Rick and Morty for staying away from that.
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Vaermina
Well worn.
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Nope.
In canon they captured the original time ship, tore it apart, reverse engineered it, and then built an entire fleet of time ships.
Of course... This leaves the logic hole of "How did Melmoth go back in time to escape the Queen?" since the Queen is in possession of their only time ship.
Darko
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I think I have a way for us to solve this whole issue.
We don't talk about it.
At this point whatever Trapper did may be interpreted in several ways and we're not going to agree on what happened so we might as well just ignore it and go along with whatever is happening and try not to think about it.
This will save us from debates we're not going to be able to win and prevent us from getting stressed.
And that's also one way time travel works in fiction.
People just tend to ignore how it works and go along with it, so let's follow their example because we aren't going to get anywhere debating about it.
Agent Orange
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"Epic-tier Sheeda magic. You mortals wouldn't understand."
Darko, you realise you're asking a bunch of SBers and SVers wearing tiny QQ masks not to argue about a divisive plotline? Just ... I'll leave you a 'like' for the attempt but I'm not holding my breath.
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Mr Zoat
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With regard to the ships, as far as I remember we don't see the interior of the harvest ships in canon, only the Castle Revolving. As such we have no idea whether the other ships have time drives as well, but every time that the Sheeda arrive they do so via the Castle. I choose to interpret that as the Castle bringing the other ships with it rather than them having their own drives, because unless a Harrowing requires a major commitment of forces you'd have to be an idiot to actually do Harrowings rather than just parasitise on different eras simultaneously.
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Darko
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Agent Orange
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transhumansage
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so melmoth was able to take multiple time ships with him?
Darko
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I think he may have just used the Castle to open a portal to the past without taking it with him.
Chojin Patriarch
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Like, say, what happened to Grayven and Artemis. Assuming that is what happened. I'm sure we'll find out for sure Real Soon™.