It's one of those moments

Cover Tactics

<DM> [Zant]: KING'S COMMAND!
<DM> *Zant's robes extend outwards, shooting blades in all directions, hitting everyone else, dealing no damage. Roll Power to defend! | If it hits, Zant can command any target hit, for their next turn, to use any Support Action on any target of his choosing.
<DM> $35d10
<Navi> DM: You rolled 35 Dice with 10 Sides. Results: 4, 7, 10, 1, 9, 6, 1, 5, 3, 5, 5, 10, 10, 9, 9, 1, 8, 4, 7, 8, 6, 10, 8, 1, 8, 10, 9, 6, 1, 1, 6, 5, 8, 6 and 6. Total: 213. Successes: 31.
<Hal> (And I've used both actions this round)
<DM> (yuuuuuup)
<Hal> $18d10
<Navi> Hal: You rolled 18 Dice with 10 Sides. Results: 6, 1, 6, 10, 4, 10, 5, 4, 10, 3, 2, 1, 10, 6, 8, 8, 1 and 7. Total: 102. Successes: 15.
<DM> *Zant now controls your next Support Action!
--------
<DM> *Shadow hands silently gather together, then spiral into a dark blade before piercing Zant from behind!
<DM> *Stealth strike first!
<DM> $45d10 Midna
<Navi> DM: You rolled 45 Dice with 10 Sides. Results: 9, 9, 10, 9, 2, 10, 9, 8, 7, 7, 7, 2, 7, 10, 4, 5, 7, 2, 10, 9, 6, 5, 5, 2, 3, 7, 10, 10, 4, 4, 1, 3, 3, 10, 1, 5, 9, 10, 2, 5, 6, 9, 7, 2 and 9. Total: 281. Successes: 39.
<DM> $26d10 Zant
<Navi> DM: You rolled 26 Dice with 10 Sides. Results: 10, 7, 6, 2, 7, 5, 8, 1, 9, 9, 4, 6, 9, 3, 10, 2, 3, 2, 4, 2, 3, 8, 1, 2, 10 and 6. Total: 139. Successes: 17.
<DM> jesus
<DM> 39 - 17 = 22 dice
<DM> [Zant]: FURRY GUY, I COMMAND THEE, COVER ME!
<DM> *Hal, you feel your body forcibly moved, and next thing you know, you're between Zant and Midna.
* Hal uses Reverse Cover on Zant just before Midna strikes
<DM> [Zant]: Hah, what now, Midn- WHAT?!
<DM> *Hal, as you do, Darte appears in front of you. Zant is completely unaware, as he's now faced towards Midna.
<DM> [Zant]: Fine, your attack just won't hit me. Dark Portal!
<Hal> You try to make me your meatshield, now YOU are my meatshield
<DM> *He opens a portal into the ground, but instead of Midna's attack striking Zant, they strike into his shadow portal, forcibly closing it.
<DM> [Zant]: Oh? And now what? The furry guy is expended, and you have nothing left you can do. What now, Midna?
* Darte waggles his fingers at Hal along the hilt of his blade, making a grinning leap towards Zant's back in a flurry of Cross Slash-driven blows.

Some stuff from Sunset in the Dream:

Sequence Breaking

<DM>    You open the door, into a void of inky blackness as the room loads
<Darte>    "Dangit, Mel, now we've done it. We sequence-broke!"

Doors and Allies

<DM> *Strife, you cause the door to shudder for a few moments but you ultimately failed to cause it to budge*
<DM> *The door is unlocked by the way*
<Strife> ...
*    Darte looks at the door curiously. "Well, maybe we should've had the moblins break this one down instead. We could go back and fetch them..."
*    Strife opens the darn door.
<Strife>    Wish I had me darn Buster Blade, that woulda made a dent...
<Melizea>    "Assuming a good chunk of them are alive, perhaps."
<DM>    Strife, you open the door
<Strife>    They don't have to be alive, we can flail their corpses at the door.
<Melizea>    "They're allies, dunderhead."
<Strife>    Not if they're dead!

Following

<Melizea> "Shall we perhaps notify the others or shall we proceed onwards?"
* Sephiroth exits, stage south.
<Melizea> "I suppose so, be cautious."
*    Melizea follows.
*    Strife follows suit.
*    Darte shrugs. "We'll redirect our efforts here, then, I suppose."
*    Darte follows.
*    Sephiroth looks around for suit.
*    Strife follows suite?
*    Strife puts on a suit in a suite, then follows Sephiroth.

The Most Anime Moment in the History of ZURPG

<DM> *Darte, you ascend into the Spirit Realm, and now it feels like you've got Super Spirit Vision!
* Melizea walks over to Saria, with both the Gravity Materia and Ultima Materia in hand.
<DM> *Melizea, as you get closer, you feel the Materia in your hands gravitate towards Saria. Do you let them, or try to hold onto them?
* Darte may have made a mistake, as he went in with one magic instead of filling up the tank beforehand.
* Melizea lets the Materia go over to Saria.
<DM> *There's another pulse of magic, and Darte, your spirit recovers back to full!
<Melizea> (inb4 they bother combine into Spirit Materia)
<Melizea> (nah, i'm kidding)
<Darte> (Twist: They combine into Holy Materia, and OH NO SARIA, WATCH OUT, SEPHIROTH IS--)
<DM> *Looking around in Super Spirit Vision, you notice there's bright green vines everywhere, growing outwards, both inside the tree and expanding outwards, each time there's a pulse. However, you notice Saria's own soul diminish each time, pulsing like a heartbeat that manages to gasp for air.
<DM> (oh my god, I didn't even realize the setup is almost identical)
<DM> (INSTANT TURN TO VILLAINY)
<Melizea> (i have no knowledge of anything final fantasy so i got nothing)
<Orithan> $recall
<DM> *The two Materia start to rotate around Saria, and from your Super Spirit Vision Darte, you can see that they're feeding energy back into Saria. However, it still seems like she's handling more than she can chew, unlike your Pet Baba which is continuing to chew more than it handle.
<Darte> (Does Darte have access to any of his items in this realm? Of obvious interest, the siphoning wand)
<DM> (got anything spiritual on you?)
<Darte> (The Phantasm Spear, hmm. Not sure how useful it'd be.)
<Darte> (And a 'Spirit Robe')
<DM> *In your spiritual inventory, you notice a few items that are managing to carry on with you:
<Darte> (Not technically spirit aligned, just named that)
* Sephiroth blinks for a second, then continues to keep watch.
<DM> *The Phantasm Spear, your Spirit Robe, the Spiritual Scimitar... annnnnd one more thing.
* Melizea mutters to herself "If only Annalia or the others were here..."
<DM> *Your eyes hover towards something with a tealish sheen across it. You instinctively try not to look at it, pretending it doesn't exist, but you know it's there. You've been avoiding it ever since you looted it from Thoughter.
<Darte> (HEHEHEHEH)
<DM> *You can't help but notice that it has overwhelming spiritual power. It could more than enough help.
<Melizea> (oh no, darte's gonna convert her)
<DM> *In fact, why aren't you using it? It only requires you to wield it. Just once. Once, and you'll never need it for anything else, ever again.
<Melizea> (don't do it, it's gonna make things 1000x worse)
<DM> *Sephiroth, there's more explosions. You're a bit far off with your Spirit Vision to tell what exactly it is, though you can tell that it's not an army. Just... one soul, making its way through the barricade.
<Melizea> "In the meantime, is there any reason why the enemies would attack the forest?"
* Darte starts with the basics, for the time being. He drapes the Spirit Robe across her back. "This should give you more control with less magic. Hang in there." He considers his other options, watching to see the effect the robe has.
<DM> *The Kokiri manning the siege defenses start issuing commands to each other, mobilizing to defend against another wave... of whatever.
<Darte> $1d2
<Navi> Darte: You flipped 1 coin. Result: Heads.
<DM> *Your wimpy Spirit Robe doesn't do jack crap. It practically vaporizes the moment it touches her.
<DM> [Mido]: Why wouldn't they? It's the Mask Man, he's attacking everyone and everything.
<DM> [Mido]: What's bothering me is... how many forces does he have? He can't possibly have an endless supply of enemies, can he?
<Melizea> "Anything specific? Like potential artifacts or some other?"
<Melizea> "Or maybe to get ahold of the sages?"
<DM> *He taps his head a bit to think, but at that moment, Saria pipes up.
<DM> [Saria]: The Triforce.
<DM> *Looking at Saria, her eyes have a golden gleam to them, as if she's connected to the Sacred Realm itself, and you can see directly into it.
<DM> [Mido]: Wha? That old thing?! But how?! I thought you had to like, I dunno, get into that big ol' blue realm and use the Master Sword and... I dunno how this stuff works, dude, I'm just repeating what I heard Link did.
<DM> *Darte, you hear a voice call out to you...
* Melizea whispers to herself "A repeat of the ancient battle?"
<DM> [Voice]: Your lousy spiritual equipment won't help you. But you have something in your possession that will save her life and protect this forest. Why don't you use it?
<DM> [Voice]: What's holding you back?
<DM> *Saria, at once, finishes the incantation!
* Darte considers, hand grasping for the teal blade, then pauses again, fingers twitching. "He does promise power... power I could have had as a sage. Power to defend my people, for all time. The ferocity to be willing to undo all our foes. And this forest's."
<DM> *At once, there's a burst of spiritual energy. A great glow emits outwards from her, visible to those even without Spirit Vision.
<DM> *Those bright green vines emerge from the Spirit Realm and into the physical realm, covering the inside of the whole tree, and rapidly growing outwards.
<DM> *Sephiroth, from your high perch, you look outwards to see vines and flowers crawling through the area, reaching into the forest below. The wave of green energy shockwaves all the way to the edges of the forest, and you can see from afar, the dead trees that were once burned to a crisp, now reinvigorated and bursting with life.
<Melizea> (do i sense anything wrong with darte or nah?)
<DM> *You see new fires appear shortly afterwards, but those fires are extinguished by the new life given to the forest, as a spiritual barrier protects it, preventing it from burning.
<DM> *Melizea, you see Saria's fire about to burn out, and Darte's floating spirit, meanwhile, seems to be cloudy. You're not sure you've seen this power before, but whatever it is, it's making you very uneasy.
<Melizea> (can darte hear me if i say something?)
<DM> [Voice]: What are you waiting on? Anymore, and her soul will extinguish, with no way of bring it back, no matter how many fairies you pour on her.
<DM> *Mido rushes over to Saria's now limp body, crying out to her.
<DM> [Mido]: SARIA, NO!
<DM> (Yes, he can)
* Darte 's fingers continue to twitch. "To be greater even than the sage I could have been."
<Melizea> "Darte, remember what I told you from back in the Nightmare!"
<DM> *Saria opens her eyes for a moment, and she mutters...
<DM> [Saria]: The forest... is safe now.
<DM> [Saria]: At last... I'll be able to see... my beloved... one.... last time...
<DM> [Voice]: One last chance to save a Sage.
<Melizea> "Accept your past as is, Darte! Wanting power is a sign of weakness in itself!"
<Darte> $1d2
<Navi> Darte: You flipped 1 coin. Result: Heads.
* Darte blinks, hand drawing away from the blade at Mel's words. "... Weakness. Yes, I'm weak. Too weak. But she is... greater."
<DM> *Darte, a flood of memories come in. Half of them filled with all the times you wish you had the power to save those you wanted to protect, and half of them filled with those that helped you along the way, even some idiot Zora predecessor.
<Melizea> "Your weakness is all you need to push through!"
<DM> (I see we've gone full anime territory here...)
<Melizea> "It is what makes you, you."
<Melizea> "You must embrace your weakness and turn it into a strength."
<DM> *Well Darte, the choice is yours. Give in to the power, or give in to what makes you... you: Dying repeatedly!
* Darte kneels before Saria, placing the Spiritual Scimitar in her hand, and tilting it upwards. With a cry, he plunges onto it, executing a stab.
<DM> *Melizea, roll your Wisdom stat vs. Darte's Wisdom stat
<Darte> If it hits, siphon 5 Magic from the target to you.
<Melizea> (base wisdom? or just normal wisdom?)
<DM> (Normal Wisdom. Neither attack nor defense.)
<Melizea> $22d10
<Navi> Melizea: You rolled 22 Dice with 10 Sides. Results: 5, 3, 2, 4, 3, 4, 8, 7, 3, 10, 6, 3, 7, 5, 8, 6, 6, 10, 4, 4, 2 and 5. Total: 115. Successes: 14.
<Darte> $28d10
<Navi> Darte: You rolled 28 Dice with 10 Sides. Results: 9, 10, 10, 8, 10, 5, 5, 5, 5, 10, 7, 6, 3, 9, 10, 1, 6, 3, 10, 2, 5, 6, 6, 2, 2, 1, 2 and 5. Total: 163. Successes: 26.
<Darte> (welp)
* Melizea chucks a reroll at darte.
<Darte> $28d10
<Navi> Darte: You rolled 28 Dice with 10 Sides. Results: 5, 3, 9, 4, 2, 9, 1, 2, 3, 6, 6, 8, 5, 3, 4, 8, 1, 4, 8, 7, 6, 7, 8, 10, 3, 3, 2 and 5. Total: 142. Successes: 16.
<DM> *Melizea, despite your attempts, your words are- ... OH.
<DM> *Mido throws a reroll at Melizea!
<Melizea> $22d10
<Navi> Melizea: You rolled 22 Dice with 10 Sides. Results: 4, 3, 9, 8, 5, 7, 2, 7, 5, 2, 8, 8, 7, 4, 6, 2, 6, 10, 9, 7, 3 and 7. Total: 129. Successes: 16.
<DM> ROLLOFF
<Melizea> (... oh no)
<Melizea> $22d10
<Navi> Melizea: You rolled 22 Dice with 10 Sides. Results: 3, 9, 4, 1, 8, 6, 4, 9, 10, 7, 2, 9, 5, 7, 5, 6, 3, 10, 8, 1, 8 and 5. Total: 130. Successes: 17.
<Darte> $28d10
<Navi> Darte: You rolled 28 Dice with 10 Sides. Results: 4, 4, 6, 10, 3, 5, 6, 6, 1, 9, 4, 4, 9, 2, 10, 3, 1, 10, 9, 2, 8, 4, 8, 3, 9, 1, 2 and 6. Total: 149. Successes: 17.
<DM> .............
<Darte> (how anime is this gonna get)
<DM> WORDS CANNOT DESCRIBE
<DM> WHELP
* Melizea casts Hyper Blessing on herself for +5 wisdom
<DM> ROLLOFF 2
<Darte> $28d10
<Melizea> (can i do that)
<Navi> Darte: You rolled 28 Dice with 10 Sides. Results: 1, 10, 1, 5, 3, 6, 5, 6, 10, 1, 1, 10, 9, 5, 3, 8, 6, 2, 10, 6, 1, 9, 7, 9, 2, 5, 1 and 1. Total: 143. Successes: 21.
<DM> (You have now!)
<Melizea> $27d10
<Navi> Melizea: You rolled 27 Dice with 10 Sides. Results: 5, 2, 7, 5, 2, 7, 10, 5, 3, 4, 10, 2, 4, 1, 2, 2, 5, 5, 10, 10, 7, 10, 5, 8, 9, 2 and 6. Total: 148. Successes: 22.
<DM> (AS ANIME AS CAN BE!)
<DM> *Melizea, with a clash of memories, your words just barely get through to Darte!
<DM> *Darte, right as you try to seppuku yourself onto the Twilight Scimitar, something snaps in your mind, and you instinctively use the Spiritual Scimitar of yours to knock the Twilight Scimitar away!
<DM> *Nay, for it is the wrong kind of seppuku. THIS is how you seppuku!
* Sephiroth face-palms.
<DM> *Darte, you stand in front of Saria, then use the Spiritual Scimitar to do a REAL seppuku, stabbing yourself through yourself to strike Saria, and infuse her lost light with your soul! And, well, your spirit blood.
<DM> *You cough salty fishdrop tears of spirit blood outwards, then realize... your death saved her.
<Melizea> (betcha if strife was here, he'd be doing all sorts of other things, questioning whatever is going on)
<DM> *Just as you think you've reached the end of your life... your Pet Baba returns from chomping some Gohmas and proceeds to you, body and soul. It munches a few times, and then regurgitates you back in one piece, albeit a bit more bloodied and red than before.
<DM> *Looking back over to Saria, you can hear her very faintly breathing. She's still knocked out cold, but she's safe as least.
<DM> [Mido]: You... you saved her...
* Darte is dispensed onto the floor, thoroughly dazed. "... Why do I feel like I've lost my soul, somehow."
<DM> *Dhex 2.0 salivates some of your blood on you, rubbing up against your shoulder in fondness of you.
<DM> *Melizea, you get your two Materia back, and you notice both of them are quite spent. Looks like they're unusable, for the time being. You'll need to find some way to reenergize them somehow.
<DM> [Mido]: She's kinda faint, though. Any way we can keep her safe?
* Melizea pockets both of them.
<DM> (whoops. Misread that with mistiming.)
* DM decides not to read that as "Melizea pockets the Materia and Saria."