Pop-Up Land

Pop-Up Land is the fourth round of The Grand Battle.

Description
Pop-Up Land was an combination of ideas from the Gentlemen still remaining in the competition. Each setting was a page in a pop-up book, and triggers within the round could transition the characters between settings. The first page was a ordered world of cubes. The second was a green plain with a powerful healing crystal. The third page was a wasteland that was eventually used by The Monitor in the Intense Struggle as the round The Wasteland. The fourth page was a world made from the perspective defying paintings of M.C. Escher, which was simultaneously the setting for The Grand Battle II's round Escheresque. However, one of the Gentleman's suggestions was just a chaos rune, which when triggered combined all the settings into one chaotic void.

Summary
Nathan becomes steadily more possessed by his demon, trying to fight Lutherion but being tricked into attacking everyone. Eximo spends a lot of time forced out of his body by the healing crystal, and begins to develop urges to consume other spirits. Lutherion is heavily damaged by the healing crystal, which causes him lots of trouble. Amethyst and Aeon keep on keeping on. Lutherion eventually takes over Amethyst's body, but before he can use her to crush everyone else under an island, Nathan forges a sword out of healing crystals and kills him.

Significant NPCs
Drake Eon: Amethyst's sponsor. He doesn't directly interfere with the round, but it is his submission of a chaos rune that causes so much havoc later in the round.

Dexter: Lutherion's sponsor, he attempts to leave when Lutherion is destroyed, but is stopped by the Director for forewarning his contestant.

Events
Warning: Significant Spoilers The contestants are dropped into the round without a description once again. Aeon sits for a bit and thinks about Emily's last wishes, and decides to save the energy he got from her as much as possible to protect Nathan; he then walks around a cube and discovers that he can move and tilt it with his position, then starts jumping from cube to cube. Eximo detects that there is no cleansing to do, and realizes that something is having a negative effect on its ability to use its biological parts; it decides to find someone to protect it, and its scans detect anomalies both with Nathan's signal and its own. Lutherion makes some duplicates of himself and sends them off to find people to kill, then settles down with his bone-chair. Amethyst wakes up and finds her mana supplies almost empty, and no sun around to gain energy from; she concludes that some healing energy must have revived her. She uses her last dregs of mana to detect that a being is approaching her. Nathan sees one of the Lutherion duplicates and decides he has to kill Lutherion to avenge Emily; the mimic attacks, and Nathan uses his demonic powers to obliterate it. Lutherion thinks Amethyst is attacking him, but it's actually just the cubes moving randomly; one of his duplicates actually finds her and decides to disguise itself as Aeon.

Amethyst recognizes that Aeon is a mimic immediately, but plays along until she can get close enough to kick it in the groin then flee; in jumping away, she injures her leg. Eximo finds her and requests her assistance until it can restore itself to peak functionality. Aeon continues following Nathan, but Nathan confronts him says he doesn't need protection. Aeon lets him leave, then notices Eximo and Amethyst standing on the side of a cube. Nathan runs around looking for Lutherion and his demon plagues him with hallucinations. Amethyst tells Eximo she's low on power and can't be much help, but asks if it can help her analyze the area. Eximo explains what it knows about the life signals in the area; Amethyst notices that she is healing unusually quickly and concludes that the life signal is coming from Eximo itself. Nathan finds Lutherion, and his demon orders him to attack. Amethyst explains that a source of "white magic" is healing her and attempting to restore Eximo to life; Aeon arrives and asks how he can stand on a different face of the cube than they. He and Amethyst puzzle out how the gravity works together, then a Lutherion duplicate shows up. Nathan arrives to attack the duplicate; this may be a slight continuity error, as he was earlier preparing to attack the real Lutherion. They fight, neither gaining much ground, and Aeon begins to worry that his prior actions will cause the others to decide he needs to die. Nathan's demon prolongs the fight by deactivating its powers every time Nathan makes what would be a successful blow, and Amethyst concludes that the demon has essentially killed Nathan and replaced him as a contestant. Lutherion gets bored waiting and sees through his remaining duplicates' eyes. With the one not involved in the fight, he sees a pop-up book lying around on a cube, and orders the duplicate to bring it back to him. He fiddles with it for a while and eventually pulls a tab on it, causing the cube setting to morph into the forest one. The duplicate and Eximo immediately stop moving, and Nathan realizes he's fighting a fake; Amethyst and Aeon flee, worried that Nathan will attack them, and realize the only way to get Eximo to follow, since only its mechanical parts are still active, is to make a mess as they go. Rather than attacking, Nathan demands to know where the real Lutherion is; when Amethyst tells him she doesn't know, he punches her and runs off. She is healed immediately, and notices that there is a sun in the sky and she can now begin recharging her mana. Eximo starts cleaning, as it no longer many of its higher mental functions. Amethyst and Aeon discuss what might happen if Nathan's demon dies but Nathan survives, or vice versa, and begin to plot loopholes that might allow multiple survivors to escape. Lutherion is immediately affected by the crystal's healing powers, and his body begins to regenerate in a very messy and painful process; his screams attract Amethyst's and Aeon's attention, and she creates a pair of crystal broomsticks for them to ride. Eximo attempts to vacuum up the corpse of the duplicate, but its spirit holds him back and begins arguing with the souls inside Eximo that animate it. Nathan finds Lutherion's body; it is rapidly reforming and decaying and re-reforming, and he decides to bring it closer to the healing crystal. Eximo tries to assimilate the duplicate's spirit into itself, but the spirit flees and Eximo learns the concept of hunger. Aeon and Amethyst notice that the crystal and the trees that border the forest all appear to be two dimensional and rotate to face the viewer. Nathan repeatedly kicks Lutherion into the crystal, momentarily disrupting its healing aura every time they collide. Eximo becomes obsessed with capturing the spirit that escaped, and the spirit itself finds the spirit of the other duplicate and they plot about how to save themselves from Eximo. Nathan's demon appears to them, offering its assistance for a price. Amethyst and Aeon talk about the nature of the round, Aeon suggesting it's a bit like a pop-up book; Amethyst realizes that they may be in the presence of the 4D matter she needs to make an escape from the battle. Nathan's demon tells the spirits it can protect them from Eximo if they agree to aid it later, as the other contestants are unaware of their existence. Eximo's spirit notices Lutherion's, and tries to assimilate it, but is repelled by the crystal; its body also approaches, intent on cleaning up the filth Lutherion's constant regenerations are generating. The duplicates' spirits reject the demon's offer, but Eximo assimilates one and the remaining one calls out for the demon's help. Eximo's body tries to vacuum up Lutherion, but succeeds only in pushing him into the crystal, which fully revives him. Lutherion begins to move away from the crystal, but his body begins disintegrating as he does; Aeon lands and talks to him, revealing that Lutherion has very few memories from the battle itself. The demon traps the surviving spirit in a bubble, preventing Eximo from consuming it and preventing it from moving, then begins manipulating Nathan into attacking Eximo's spirit. Amethyst sees Nathan attacking thin air, and decides that whatever the demon is making him do, it would be better if she stopped it. She confronts him, and the demon begins controlling him fully, attacking her. She is knocked from the sky and begins communicating with Eximo's spirit; she convinces it to feed on the spirits from Lutherion's now-destroyed Wightmaw Arm. Dokuromets's spirit convinces the Wightmaw amalgam it can save them if they release it; they do, and Dokuromets manifests, allowing the amalgam to inhabit his manifested body. Amethyst begins fighting the demon, trying to convince it that it's just a personification of Nathan's own magical potential. Eximo begins to doubt the morality of consuming other spirits, and attempts to return to its body, where it never felt the hunger to absorb before; it partially succeeds, and additionally realizes its spiritual form can manipulate physical objects to some extent. Aeon tries to talk to "Dokuromets", but with thousands of other spirits occupying him, he is unintelligible; frustrated, Aeon slams Dokuromets into the crystal, which hurts the spirits greatly. Dokuromets lashes out at the crystal, breaking parts of it off; it retaliates by hitting him with a bolt of energy, causing him to collapse. Lutherion is startled and steps too far back from the crystal, returning to his decomposing and regenerating state; Amethyst is distracted, which allows Nathan to land a hit on her; Aeon is peppered with crystal fragments, and falls over. As Amethyst and Nathan fight, they gradually damage the crystal, eventually lopping the top portion of it off; Eximo's spirit tries to clean up the shards, in the process revealing another pop-up book and turning it to a page emblazoned with a chaos rune. Amethyst's gentleman, Drake Eon, submitted this chaos rune rather than a suggestion; when it is revealed, it wreaks havoc on the setting, amalgamating all four pop-up worlds into one chaotic void interspersed with four islands corresponding to the pop-up settings. The crystal is much less functional now that it's damaged, which leaves Eximo enough power to return more fully, but still not completely, to its body and to use its biological components. In the void, Eximo's transmitter can reach Konka Rar's castle, but cannot pinpoint Eximo's location; Konka Rar suspects Nopor Puss has stolen his vacuum for no reason. Lutherion regains consciousness and returns to his undead self without the crystal's influence; he notices Dokuromets and realizes he has absorbed the entirety of the Wightmaw Arm. He immediately grows a pair of wings and flies towards Dokuromets. Amethyst decides there is too much chaos and uncertainty to continue her battle and flies away, masking her retreat with a light spell and landing on the escheresque island. She etches a message into the area, hoping someone will find it and help fight back against the Grandmaster(s), then flees from the island as someone approaches. Eximo cleans the crystal island as Aeon and Nathan stare each other down, then takes Aeon's broom which flies over to the Wasteland island. Amethyst spots Lutherion and flies towards him; she binds him with crystals and urges him not to regain his Wightmaw Arm. Lutherion begins screaming necromantic incantations, and discovers that her body is "dead" enough that he can control it. Eximo begins vacuuming up the wasteland. Nathan begins attacking Aeon, who defends himself with a shield made of the same material as Emily's. He then creates a sword out of a piece of Alcarith's Crimson Channel Claws, which absorbs the demonic energy that Nathan protects himself with. They fight a bunch, and it becomes clear that Nathan is less and less often in control, and even when he is, the demon is completely controlling his perceptions. Lutherion commands Amethyst to attack Eximo; she resists as best as she can, but cannot go against a direct command. Eximo is prompted to defend itself, but feels conflicted. Aeon backs up to the healing crystal and attempts to stall the demon by talking and insulting it. While he stalls, he drains energy from the demon and stealthily creates a metal cocoon to trap it in; once it's trapped, he flees closer to the crystal. Lutherion orders Amethyst to move the wasteland island above the crystal island, planning on taking control of Eximo the same way he did Amethyst then crushing Nathan and Aeon. Aeon passes out as the crystal heals him, and when he awakens Nathan has escaped containment. He notices the approaching wasteland island, and escapes the crystal island by hopping across cubes scattered through the void. Nathan finds Dokuromets, incapacitated by the healing shards embedded in his armor, and begins removing the crystals. Once he has enough shards, he tosses Dokuromets over to the Escher island and forms a sword out of the crystals; Nathan passes out, he and the demon both drained, but the sword begins to heal him and the demon feeds on his returning life force. Eximo tries to stop Lutherion from casting the spell that will put it under his control; it shoots him in the chest with a gun is acquired in the Mutewood, blowing his ribs open and revealing his heart. Nathan, revitalized, leaps onto the scene and stabs Lutherion with the crystal sword. The wasteland island arrives above the crystal island, and Amethyst's spells stop moving it; as it begins to fall, Eximo grabs the crystal sword from Nathan and throws it at Amethyst. The sword's healing energies begin to counteract Lutherion's control. Eximo notices a handmirror in the sand and picks it up. Lutherion is once again incapacitated by the healing energy from the crystal, but it's weak enough that he is at once alive and dead. Nathan is enraged and attempts to finish him off once and for all. Lutherion attacks his living half, gaining control of his body; he then taints the crystal sword with his own essence, turning it into a powerful necromantic weapon. He and Nathan clash, both suffering heavy damage but Lutherion able to regenerate his limbs. Nathan takes the crystal sword, Lutherion and the demon warning him that Lutherion's essence will kill him; Nathan ignores them, and his hand begins rotting as he wields the sword. He cuts Lutherion's head in half, and the necromancer is finally destroyed. Nathan drops the sword before the transition. Dexter, the Gentleman who found and forewarned Lutherion, makes as though to leave, but is stopped by the Director.