Suddenly, the roar of an engine filled the room as Antonio Hasta, the last crusader, burst into the room on a gleaming golden motorcycle. The chopper's exhaust pipes extended high behind him, resembling a pair of iron wings. The front itself resembled a crucifix, poised directly at the armed guards.

There was a brief moment of silence, or at least as silent as it could be with a Harley revving in an enclosed space. Hasta eyed the man fallen on the ground, and remembered the old adage, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend". That man with the prosthetic was no doubt some hapless bystander, falling pray to the heathens that filled the room.

Antonio's fist tightened around Gabriel.

"RIDE, ROCINANTE." he shouted, popping a wheelie before charging forward. The lance thrust through a singular guard before drifting across the room, carrying the hapless fiend like a gruesome flag. The bike slid to a stop behind Gene, and Hasta tossed the heretic off of his lance. The remaining guards dared open their fire a second time against an innocent.
Lance gave way to sword and shield, and Antonio leaned down, wrapping his arm around the prone form. Images of the Saints themselves deflected gunfire, such was their gift to the faithful. Once the volley ended, the engine gave a fierce roar to match the one escaping the paladin's lips as he charged the last two men. Some may argue that it was ignoble for cavalry to mow down infantry, but these men were long past mercy, or anything other than God's fury given shape.

Antonio stomped down on the kickstand and dismounted, his motorcycle dissolving into ethereal golden flames as he stepped away. He knelt by Gene's form, examining his body.
"He was shot, but bears no wounds. Probably beanbag rounds. I should prepare bandages." he said, removing his scarlet cape. As he began to tear off long strips, his eyes noticed something odd.
"His arm... how odd. Is that marble?" he put down his cape, and reached forward to grope the plated limb.

Gene's rescue had happened almost too quickly for him to process. All Gene understood was that something unbelievably loud had burst into the room, ruined the equipment, killed the guards, and disappeared. All that was left was an armored, evidently friendly, soldier wearing very obvious religious paraphernalia. Gene graciously took Antonio's hand, and rose to his feet. The hard, angelic material of Gene's right hand sparked with residual energy, grounding itself in Antonio's hand.

"Thanks for saving me back there, dude." Gene said. "This damn arm has been nothing but trouble for me!" Gene flexed his God Hand irritably, allowing it to shine in the dull light of the fluorescent bulbs above.

"So, why are you here, anyway?"

Never did Gomory fall prey to the slightest deception that she had been alone in her search for the seal. Her theatrical display with the Fausts and Mephistos, sweeping through Barlour, could not have failed to turn a few heads. Of course, the demoness counted on it; while many things, she was not especially patient, and favored a confrontation with her foes sooner rather than later. Thankfully, they obliged.

Every new entrant to the grand cavern received a full sizing-up by the woman in pink. She received only a momentary glimpse at a man with a rather devilish right arm before he slipped behind some rocks. Did he truly think to assault her with stealth? Even though no walls or towers stood around her, this central platform upon which the Eidolic Cairn rested stood like a fortress. Every angle of attack could be seen, and only specific routes could be taken to approach. The Fausts stood alongside her as sentinels, and she reigned over this pillar as duchess. Another individual, though far larger and more imposing than Nero, appeared in a doorway before quickly hiding himself. Were he not so human-looking Gomory would have though him to be a demon by his size and bulk, but his refined features piqued her curiosity. I wonder…?

A machine entered soonafter, though it didn’t even bother hiding itself. Perhaps it, too, harbored some sort of intrigue for the Eidolic Cairn’s other visitors. Gomory might have laughed. The others seemed so hesitant. Clearly they saw the seal’s defender as a challenge not to be taken likely, and waited for reinforcement. Not counting her demon attendants, Gomory figures a potential fight to be at least three on one, which struck her as rather one-sided. They would need at least another half-dozen to stand a chance by her more conservative estimations.

Moments later, someone broke the formula. With minimal hesitation this paradoxically new old-timer began making his way across the cavern, practically advertising in glaring neon some form of spontaneous gate-making ability. Nothing if not predictable for my refined senses, Gomory thought before curling her lip in disdain at the remark thrown her way. ”Charmed,” she replied flatly as her fingers slid over the hilt of her sheathed Tai Chi sword. ”So it’s you, then. A civil demon will defend the world against a foulmouthed human. How poetically ironic. Very well then.” Letting go of the sheath in her off hand, she wielded the weapon like a casting rod, flourishing it to the side. While focused on the obvious threat, she would not so easily succumb to tunnel vision, and as such maintained enough of an awareness of KYL that when he opened fire, she was ready.

Flipping her grip on Jiaolong, she slammed the sheathed blade’s tip into the stone. A shockwave spread out in a cone in front of her, cracking the rock, and from the fractures surged a geyser of paint. In a dull gradient of assorted colors it came, and like spatters of paint on a canvas it halted completely after a moment, hanging in the air. KYL’s bullets riddled the fountain of paint, entering in a cascade of spluts and not exiting at all.

The next instant, Gomory was in the air. Pink flower petals swirled around her as she hung there, poised in intricate stance. She performed an aerial thrust, and from the sheathed blade’s end poured a fusillade of large, painted arrows. They rained toward both KYL and Akoni, but hitting them would be a bonus. As one they crashed into the floating stones, instantly breaking some and carrying others down into the abyss with them. Just like that, a third of the routes available toward the center were no more. Gomory landed with immaculate grace, the folds of her qipao’s sleeves like the wings of a swan, and watched intently to see how the humans handled the attack.



The pressure rose as the noises of screeching and scrabbling faded away. Their fear waning, the six operatives of Gilgamesh allowed themselves to slow down just a little. Temporary safety would not let them lose sight of their goal, however. Through the dreary passages they moves, conscious of a change of surroundings: where before the walls resembled cellars or subway tunnels, they now bore an eerie resemblance to catacombs. Of course, they showed no evidence of human activity, but all the same they emanated the aura of the tomb. By now, of course, every one of them suspected spirit activity, evidenced by their own eyes despite the discretion of the apparitions themselves.

Abruptly they arrived in an anterior chamber. A solid stone slab lay in the doorway ahead, but through cracks in its surface filtered a spectral greenish light. Clearly, the most important thing in the entire underground lay just ahead. Unfortunately, Souta could tell that the threshold would not be easy to clear. ”Atlas,” he called, taking initiative. ”Why don’t you start pounding away at that stone? Everyone else: we should set up an ambush. Ice is nice, but it won’t hold the demons for long. I get the feeling we’re being followed.”

While he held no technical rank over them, Souta did not go ignored. While Atlas went to work, the remaining five took up their positions. Babyfingers and Ell flanked the entryway on either side, a few feet away from the aperture. The former planned to freeze whatever came through, and to finish it off with a cluster-blast of ice spikes should Ell’s Isfrafel not destroy it. Bullion and Souta positioned themselves to start shooting from out of sight, while Otsune remained invisible, standing by in a strategic location of her choice. The beating of Atlas’ armored fists took on the cadence of a war drum, sounding out the prelude to a tenacious battle.



The violent escalation in the building’s bottom floor quickly drew attention. More contracted security guards made a beeline for the room. Antonio and Gene’s moment of bonding did not last, and quite abruptly an additional five guards appeared. These ones, however, had eschewed their non-lethal weaponry. Four toted security pistols, but among them one stood out: an especially burly specimen that bore two enormous shields that could clearly lock together to form a nigh-impenetrable wall. Before the two interlopers stood Tybalt, a Reclaimer stationed recently in Barlour and only just now returned from a patrol. He bellowed, “Stand down! We ain’t fond of killin’ other people, but anyone who murders a Gilgamesh employee is an enemy of humanity!”

Just then, there came the beep of an elevator door. Across the lobby the device in question opened, and from it strode forth two particularly interesting figures. The first, a female, sported a punk-style hair, an equally mean look, military dress, and what appeared to be tentacles on her arms. Her comrade put on a stylish air with his silver and crimson dress, but the twin blades in his hands indicated that he might be as deadly as he was dapper. Obligingly the guards parted to allow the operatives through, and the single, stout soldier moved aside.

Immediately the young woman snarled something highly aggressive and probably offensive in Russian, lashing her arms like whips. Though he pushed up his hat to regard Gene and Antonio with pale brown eyes, the man beside her said nothing. He merely adopted a ready stance. If these men wished to quarrel with humanity’s defenders, they would face the proud warriors Tickler and Macbeth alongside the unremarkable humans.

Damn it. Damn it all to hell. Akoni found himself more irritated than usual at the turn of events. He sensed great power from the demoness, and from the kid in white trying to hide. He only wanted to distract the woman, but the blasted machine decided that now was the time to quit defraging his hard drive and attack, with a hail of bullets at that. Now the demon woman was on the offensive, smashing up stone paths. Fan-fucking-tastic. Akoni could still make it without any solid ground thanks to his Surge, but what about the rest of these crickets? And regardless, Surge left him blind, open to attack. Not ideal at all.

Arrows came flying at Akoni and the metal man, but as far as he was concerned the cyborg was the reason they were in this mess, so he could fend for himself. Reacting quickly, Akoni was able to mount a defense by way of utilizing River Current. In an instant a gate appeared in front of the old wizard, catching all of the projectiles coming his way. They exited from another gate which appeared behind him, smashing harmlessly into the cavern wall.

As Akoni landed upon one of the remaining stone platforms he made use of one of his oldest and most trusted spells, Identification. A blue rune appeared before his eyes for a brief second and in that moment the demon's name was revealed to him.

"I'm not so old that my hearing is gone, Gomory!" he called out, his anger bleeding through his tone. "Explain what the hell you mean by 'defend the world,' and make it snappy! I'm here to protect that seal at any cost!"

The daft fools! Wrath's hand shot towards the hilt of Rage Bringer when the cyborg attacked after the human confronted the demon in pink with a few words. As his hand wrapped around the hilt as the woman's counter attack finished, it clicked in his mind what the demon woman had said. Standing, he put up his hands. "Wait!" His voice boomed maybe a little more than the Nephilim had intended, but it caught people's attention. And very quickly too as he found a few weapons aimed his way.

"Well, since I have your attention, let's take a moment to think. Demon lady here isn't trying to break the seal, especially since I'm pretty sure she had all the time in the world to. Heaven and the Third Kingdom clearly don't want them broken. So as much as we don't like it, how about we not try and kill each other for a bit. And coming from me, you should consider it." He wasn't sure anyone would actually listen, so the Nephilim kept his hand on the hilt of his sword, the blades for his gauntlets once more stored away. "So, any takers?"

KYL-9XX, Engaging the enemy

The cyborg was surprised to see his bullets melt away like butter in a hot pan, and suddenly he had become the target instead of the attacker. The demoness had jumped into the air, launching arrows in a 360º radius. His scan took a few miliseconds to chose the best means of defense: The inital plan was to jump on another platform, but the arrows were strong enough to break them into a thousand pieces, sending anyone unlucky enough to stand on one into darkness. That meant he would have to take the hit and hope his Solidium coating would be strong enough.

Activating his Rhino Module, KYL could feel a thin cybernetic layer cover his body, as well as the plates inside him shifting around slightly to offer better protection. Using his arms to cover his front, he could feel the first arrow's impact, hitting him with a lot more force than expected. His coating didn't take much damage, but the cyborg was pushed back a few feet, standing a bit too close to the abyss now. As KYL was about to retaliate with a rocket, a booming voice interrupted the fighting.

A tall, red-haired individual had come out of hiding. KYL's scans came up with unusual readings once again, as this person mixed both heaven and hell signatures. As this was his first confrontation with anything paranormal, the cyborg would have to re-evaluate a ton of information and readings once this was over. The red-haired man suggested holding fire, and was assuming the woman in pink was not after the destruction of the seal either. This information did not compute with the cyborgs mission statement. The demon's were clearly the ones seeking armageddon, what other party involved would be after that if not them? On the other hand, the woman had been standing in front of the seal for a prolonged period of time, clearly she could have broken it, if that was her goal.

The angel-demon seemed strong and prepared to take on anyone who would not comply with his statement. Furthermore, KYL's arsenal was not as effetive against these paranormal beings as he had expected. Lowering his rocket launcher, he decided to wait and see how the situation developed.

"I find it surprising a demon of all things to guard something that gates this world to the demon world... Nor do I believe it", Nero slipped out of the shadows behind Gomory. As he walked out, you could see his arm going back to his side from holding the grip on his Red Queen, signalling he'd decided not to fight. This was all giving him dejavu. This wasn't the first time he'd come across an incident that was more than what the surface showed.

"Explain yourself before I change my mind about wiping your ass all over this cavern", he commanded. What was going? It was becoming quite the party here, but every human faction has actually shown up. Demon Hunter, a Gilgamesh android, and Nero himself with some men outside, the Order of the Sword. If there was a time for explanation, now was it.

Eidolic Cairn

Nero's interrogation was broken suddenly by the sound of bullets firing loudly and rapidly across the room, about ten feet apart from Nero and Gomory.

Dressed in a fresh tank top, another elderly demon hunter sauntered across the cairn, the sound of the hunter's boots against the ground giving a small sample of the sheer weight of the human's body and the equipment he carried. In one hand, the demon hunter held a long sledge hammer, apparently superfluous wires sticking out from what looked like a rocket booster attached opposite the head of the hammer; In his other hand, the hunter held a large, modular CD player boombox.

"Hey there, Beelzebitch!" Snider shouted. "Shoot first. Questions are for nerds." the veteran hunter grumbled. He lowered his shoulder, gently placing the machine on the ground before advancing further, closer toward Gomory. "Get out of the way!" the hunter commanded. He waved his free arm, addressing everybody in the room to leave. The hunt was his.

---

About an hour earlier

Snider grunted, a needle going through his flesh on one end, sutures tracing across the new wound on his chest. The needle was pulled outward by a gentle, feminine hand as another pushed against Snider's body. The hole was largely sealed along with the other wounds Snider had accumulated in his last tussle. Suddenly, the phone rang. Adrenaline from his fight with Fenn still ran through his body, Snider turned his head toward the phone. "I'll get it" his companion said, pushing against Snider.

"Hey! Long time no see!" a familiar voice said through the phone, apparently standing a little bit away from the phone himself. Another, authoratative, female voice spoke through. "Roughneck?"
"Whaddya want?" Snider grumbled
"Your job. It's not finished yet."
"Yeah? How about find someone else to do it?"
"There's a cave. It's really close to your location."
"Not interested."
"The Eidolic Cairn. It should be fairly easy to get to. Your path should already be clear, really."
"Hey. Did you hear me!?"
The phone cut off, leaving a rhythmic beeping. Snider threw the phone across the room, back into place. Snider let out a low rumble as he stepped off his seat and threw his jacket on. He picked his gun off the ground and slung it behind his back. The door was swung open and almost immediately slammed shut after Snider jetted away.

---

Eidolic Cairn

With his feet, Snider kicked the play button, but the music did not start. He hit it again, and again. Still, there was no music. "Hmph." Snider raised his left foot, smashing the tip of his boot against the boombox. Sparks fly from the machine, radio static, then, music.

Snider held his hammer out, the head facing toward Gomory. "Tonight. You." he threatened.

Mary carefully circled around the rocky center of the ruins, hoping like hell the demon girl hadn't spotted her. Her movements mimicked Nero, crouched behind columns and broken walls to find the perfect position. She had to be careful not to alert-

"Hey there, Beelzebitch!"

Mary's head whipped around to the voice, a scowl on her face. She saw an old man, hopping across with some sort of portal magic. She face palmed, but stayed quiet. If he survived, she'd get him medical attention later. For now, he'd have to suffer for his stupid move. But somehow yet another person was foolish enough to make an attempt at her life, this time a robot. Weren't robots supposed to be smart and purely logical? A chip in him must've malfunctioned. The woman defended herself with ease, making quips all the while. But something other than her quip caught Mary.

"A civil demon will defend the world against a foulmouthed human."

Mary gave Nero a look of confusion before quickly switching her focus back on the action. Just quick enough to catch the demon destroy a significant amount of floating rocks. Did she not want to fight? Everyone quickly lowered their weapons. Slightly. It appears reason would prevail. For a second at least. She really wasn't impressed with Gilgamesh's operatives. They seemed so impressive at first glance, but... The DHO too. Had one of these agents really taken down the old Order? Mary would chock the victory up to Nero. Though he was a loner, he was smart, could be levelheaded, and fairly attractive. Mary followed him towards Gomory, as he directed the attention to himself. He, like a rational person, wanted to talk this out, but wasn't ruling out violence.

Suddenly, gunshots rang through the air, most whizzing by her boss and the demon. A cursory glance told you all you needed to know. A gruff looking man in his 40s, holding weaponry and some outdated technology. He commended them with all the respect of a used up dish rag, especially using literally the exact same line as that other guy. In fact they seemed pretty similar, down to their stupidity. Mary normally didn't get that angry at stuff like this. But this was the fate of the world and everybody was acting like... like idiots!

"I'm very sorry mister old man..." Mary began, a glint of anger apparent on her blank face. "But if you want a fight..." She began walking towards him now, hand gripping on one of her swords; she didn't even bother checking which, but the handle felt like the Burial Suit. She ran her hands up and down on the wrap that covered the handle. "Than please. Fight me instead." With that, she dashed in his direction, sword in hand. Hopefully while she was dealing with this annoyance, Nero could work out the issues with the demon.

So the sharp-tongued codger managed to portal away. Gomory had expected as much. The machine, meanwhile, appeared to have made it to the central platform, though he very nearly tottered on its brink. Only a moment’s work would send him spiraling into the howling dark, gone forever. She leveled the sheathed blade at him and flicked upward, allowing her sorcery to flow through it to the object of her focus. Beneath KYL’s feet, the ground began to discolor, subtly forewarning the coming attack. Yet, the explosive column of paint did not come, for Gomory found her ire drawn back toward the obnoxious human. With some sort of magic he uncovered her name, but with blatant disrespect for its owner he used it as the prelude to a pack of derision and lies. The demoness did not believe it for an instant; any being who set himself against her down here desired genocide, be it of humans or demons. His appearance and manner gave him away, for his reputation preceded him.

Gomory flicking her wrist, and the paint beneath KYL extended upward into a webbed lattice that surrounded and trapped him. Then she turned her smoldering eyes to Akoni. ”I’m not one for small talk, demon slayer,” she enunciated, making sure he knew what she would hold against him. ”Approach me and die.” Dismissing him, she began walking toward KYL, and around her span numerous blossom petals on the wind from beyond the grave. Before she took three steps, the formidable voice of Wrath reverberated through the cavern, and Gomory spared him a glance. While he spoke, her mind raced. It sped along the road of knowledge, burning through memories of tomes, tales, and tragedy. Unfortunately, Wrath’s nature eluded her; she could only say for certain that neither purely demonic nor human blood flowed through him, and that she despised him for his ridiculous attempt at brokering peace. ”If you aimed to intimidate or manipulate, warrior, you have misestimated,” she seethed, brandishing the veiled Jiaolong. ”Do not presume my motivation. Come and die, or leave and live.”

By now, KYL had almost certainly broken through the trap, but Gomory found her attention diverted yet again, this time by an individual with which she held more than a passing familiarity. This time, she held no inclination to tolerate whatsoever. Somehow, Nero snuck up on her, and stood mere feet away from the Eidolic Cairn itself. He now presented not just the most pertinent threat, but a monumental one at that. Recollections of his exploits against demonkind filled her mind. Even if he did not intent to destroy the seal, as all evidence seemed to imply, he would not allow her to live if he got his way. Furthermore, a dangerous-looking woman followed on his heels. As such, Gomory remained still, but her glare indicated that her inhibitions had just snapped. ”You’ll be the one painting the walls, boy.” Shadowy light began to dance over her body, forming an aura of greenish moonlight. It undulated violently around her weapon, as if in anticipation.

A hail of bullets flew her way, appearing out of seemingly nowhere, but Gomory did not balk. Lightning-fast she slashed with the sheathed Jiaolong, releasing a murky streak of paint that flew exactly opposite to the bullets. It soaked them up before speeding off into the distance to splatter against some wall. The list of people to kill appeared intent on growing longer by the second, and this new arrival, every bit as crotchety and sassy as the first, managed to make his way straight to the penultimate position on it through sheer ostentatiousness.

By now, Gomory cared exceptionally little who thought themselves to be on her side. She got the distinct impression that when everyone law in vividly colorful chunks, things would work out well enough. Her grip tightened, and her feet shifted ever so slightly. ”You lot are trying my…”

Like a shot fired from a cannon she careened forward in a blast of moonlight. The first slash, a diagonal upward, occurred objectively faster than even an exceptional mortal’s reaction time, ripping rather than cutting the boombox in half and striking the outstretched hammer with enough power to send it flying into the cavern wall. Immediately after she executing a backspin slash the opposite way, creating an X-shape out of moonlight with her weapon’s trail. Its impact aimed to send Snider upwards, though not very fair, for following up on the launcher Gomory executed a brutal Decoupage meant to strike the offending mortal as many times as possible before hurling him away.

She did not hesitate before continuing. The demoness whirled around, her moonlight aura beautiful and alien in its austerity, and slammed the end of the sheath into the stone. Light and paint alike rolled outward from the impact point in a chaotic wave, spreading across the entire platform. Meanwhile, Gomory couched the weapon, waiting, waiting. The seconds counted down in her head, and when the clock hit zero, it happened.

”PaTieNCe.”

For a split second, there was no gorgeous swordswoman in pink. Where the woman once stood, an abominable demon crouched. Her grotesque, painted form embodied a startling and inventive departure from humanity. Perhaps even more appalling was the cursed blade in her hand, its pitch-black metal unsheathed. Of course, this all lasted only the minutest instant, and when it passed, Gomory stood unaltered, her sheathed blade on the other side of her body. In that split second, the demoness not only activated her Devil Trigger, but performed a minimalist slash. She watched as the darklight paintwave exploded, consuming Mary, Nero, and KYL in an assault both intensely magical and viciously physical. A casual observer might not have been able to fully percieve her taking actions, but the results spoke for themselves.

”Hm.” Once again, Gomory stood idly, vaguely interested in whether or not her enemies survived the insane barrage of attacks, and how if so. She did not, though, lose focus. The fight for the first seal had begun.

"Why have I come? Isn't it obvious?" Antonio said, rising to his feet. "God wills it."

The helmed head of the knight turned to face the new crowd of thugs armed with strange and exotic firearms. Some looked organic in nature. Considering the tendency of Hell's native armaments to be either fused to their wielder or alive and hostile, these were likely Gilgamesh's own creation formed of their twisted experiments. Just further evidence to damn these agents of Satan.
Furthermore, the fiends even had a young girl among their ranks. Was no sin beyond them? Surely a civilized society had evolved beyond the use of child soldiers. Despite his duty to punish evil, the paladin was still obliged to show mercy to women and children.

"HEAR ME, SERVANTS OF EVIL." he shouted. "I have come to dismantle this blasphemous organization. You've claimed the lives and souls of the angels themselves, and I cannot allow it to continue. But as you cowards count young girls among your ranks, I will offer you one chance."

The Paladin summoned Michael, brandishing the weapon.
"Renounce your evil ways! Drop your arms and leave, and I swear upon the Lord's good name, I shall let you go. But if you stay and fight, then you choose death. But consider this: The Lord forgives our sins. Walk away now, and you can put this evil behind you. Just walk away."

"What say you?"

As soon as Akoni had made his demands, Gomory spoke to him with the attitude of a true demon, threatening to kill him if he approached. That didn't surprise him in the least, but she called him a liar. Really? So he wasn't here to protect the seal and prevent the total war of three realms? That was news to him. Dumb bitch.

One of the others that had been trying to hide in the Cairn made his presence known. He made a nice little speech about not trying to kill each other, and while Akoni certainly agreed with him, he also found the words to be naive. Still, this creature was interesting. The life readings Akoni detected were both demonic and angelic. Nephilim, then. Akoni had never met one in person, but had studied them a great deal.

The cyborg had tanked a pretty nasty hit from Gomory, something that would have undoubtedly outright killed Akoni, but then found himself trapped in a cage of... What was that she was using, exactly? It was pretty damn rare that Akoni didn't know about something. Her abilities would have to be researched once this was all said and done. Thankfully another young one, Nero who Akoni recognized by sight alone, was able to sneak up on Gomory. If the stories of this kid were true, the rest of them might not even have to do anything but sit back and watch a big glowing demon hand crush her. That would suit Akoni just fine. Then he could go back to The Ninth Circle, get a cold scotch, and forget about the world again.

Only that wasn't what happened. What did happen was he showed up. Bullets flew through the air and a particularly boisterous and annoying man, more of a walking hill really, stole his insult. "Roughneck" (Akoni always thought it was a stupid alias, but Hell it was better than the jerk's real name) decided that he wanted to pick a fight no matter the circumstances and turned on his boombox. Fine. Then one of the Order decided that fighting amongst ourselves was the smart thing to do. Oh for the love of! Akoni counted it a blessing that Gomory slashed up Snider's (haha, Snider) boombox. She then proceeded to unleash several attacks on just about everybody except for him.

Well that was one benefit to having all these crickets around, chirping up the place. They made so much damn noise that Gomory had stopped paying attention to the old shark. It was clear that violence was the only way anything was getting accomplished today. So be it. Akoni took a step backward from the floating platform he stood upon, falling downward and out of sight. At that moment he opened a gate beneath him, and created its exit on the central pillar, right behind the demon woman.

Before emerging, Akoni felt a bit whimsical, so he cast a repair spell to fix up Snider's boombox, but that wasn't all. An additional bit of magic changed the music to something a little more to his liking. Just in time for something... Interesting. Gomory changed, her entire body altered as she unleashed a mighty wave, then flashed back to her normal form. The kind of power she possessed, it was truly respectable. The power of the devil trigger.

"I prefer that form," the old man called out as he threw a punch at her from behind, Lammasu morphing into a bladed gauntlet. "Least you don't have your breasts hanging out in the open!"

Snider felt something strike him. It wasn't a new experience at all, in fact, Snider had fought countless enemies toting the ability to move faster than sound. Granted, many of those had simply been claiming to do so- those were far easier to handle. Snider was sent some way's back. His amygdala was ringing, the fast-twitch muscles in his arm twisting the hammer in Gomory's direction. The rocket pushed him just far enough to put some distance between him and the demon. However, before he could attack, she seemed to turn her attention elsewhere.

As did Snider. He kicked the eject button on his newly repaired boombox. The CD popped out. Snider kicked the disk up, catching it in his free hand. "That ain't what you put on for a fight! That shit's older than you are, you old bastard." Another CD dropped from Snider's jacket. He kicked it up with his knee, the disk sliding down his leg and into the CD player.

"That's more like it." Snider smiled, throwing the disk at Gomory. His free hand clapped in rhythm against the wrist of his hammer hand in time with the music as he tapped his feet. "Yeah!" he shouted, before kicking his feet up and running in the direction of the disk, hammer held in both hands.

@Lugubrious@rivaan

As Gideon creeps his way down the darkened hallway, he hears the faint cry of what seems to be an overly excited (and perhaps psychotic) female voice not too far away. He ignored this voice, however the rest of the demons had heard this commotion from outside. They began to screech as half of the group quickly ran towards the roar of attention, attempting to get rid of this intruder who dared to come this route, while the rest stood on guard. As soon as they found the culprit, they began their attack, launching themselves at the enemy as they attempt to decapitate the intruder known as Kosara..

Meanwhile, Gideon continued his ominous approach down the hall, with a click of his guns as they reloaded, and blades whirling violently around him with a deadly dark red hue. They were here... somewhere. He knows that. Including the fact that he can feel minor vibrations coming from Souta, who tried to break the walls for her mates to come through. To Gideon though, it's like the start of a battle. By now, he feels as if his presence is already known and gets ready for a surprise ambush. Tightening his grip on Lucifer's Wings, he prepares for a potential ambush at hand...

"What?!", doesn't look like she was intent on talking, but in the few moments it took him to step forward and grip his Red Queen, the demon had already dispatched of most of her adversaries, leaving only Nero in range for this exchange. The others were still raring to go. She seemed to be unleashing her full demonic form, so he had to be more careful. Her speed appeared to be unmatched outside of her demon form, he can only imagine how fast it was now. But his thoughts crashed as he watched that demon form fade. His instincts exploded, and very quickly out of that same instinct, threw his Devil Bringer in front of him, allowing him to easily take what he felt were several blows. His glove covering the devilish arm would be slashed apart, revealing the Devil Bringer, still unscathed despite the assault... That fast? Really? Not to mention his mind felt slightly exhausted too, but his constitution would allow him to recover mentally at least. He couldn't say the same for the others.

What the hell was that? Was she just fast? Was that a surrounding attack? And what were these guys doing? They didn't stand a chance... They needed to run. Nero wasn't sure how to jump in, if everyone went in at the same time, she was fast enough to take advantage of that. Mary seemed to take a hit too.

He deigned instead to wait for the moment instead... Even if he told these guys to run, he had a very distinct feeling they wouldn't, it'd probably just be best he jumps in at the perfect moment instead and take advantage of this chaos.

The humans are quite active today. She thought calmly as she cut down another soldier while in deep thought, with more looking on in horror. I need to hurry. Coming back to reality, she turned to the soldiers with a fierce glare as if telling them to stop wasting her time. Slightly intimidated, they charged at her. Readying her spear, she pierced the gut of the first attacker before kicking him into his comrades and breaking their charge. Not wasting anytime, she went after the first one to get up thrusted the spear into his back, going right through him, barbs and all, hoisted him into the air and hurled him hard into the wall of the ruins. 2 dead, 2 to go.

Despite being outmatched, the remaining 2 members of the human patrol unit didn't retreat. Honorable, but still wasting your time.... and mine. With them shifting to the defensive and hearing more voices in the distance, Blair knew that if she stayed here any longer, more of her time will be wasted. She had a mission to complete, after all. Using their defensive tactics to her advantage, she easily managed to get distance on them and used that chance to summon 2 more blood golems, this time with her own blood. Unlike the Scout Types from before, these were Defense Types. Not much in the way of offensive power, these ones will mostly defend and wear the opponent down before attacking/draining the exhausted opponent. That should keep them busy.

Turning towards the other direction, she quickly forgot the other 2 soldiers existed and left the scene and continued her search. Time to go find the target.

Even if the detonated darklight paintwave didn’t immediately wipe the Order knights or the Gilgamesh cyborg out, they did not manage to pique Gomory’s interest by immediately entering the fight. With that threat dealt with for the time being, the demoness quickly examined the room for a new target. During this time, she pressed her weapon’s tip into the ground, channeling magic into it. She spotted Snider, currently using some sort of rocket to try and mitigate the knockback dealt to him by her previous, relentless attack, but a few seconds remained to her before he could even try to pester her once again. When she searched for Akoni, however, she found nothing. Smirking slightly, she thought, perhaps grandfather stumbled to his feet after falling down and tumbled off. Of course, she wouldn’t be so lucky. More than likely, he reused the portal ability he just displayed to relocate. Immediately wise to a potential threat, she scanned the room, but spotted no exit portal.

”Oh,” she muttered, deadpan. ”How predictable.” Spinning around, she spotted Akoni just as he finished tinkering with the other annoying man’s music box, having already repaired it somehow. Contemplating various creative ways in which she could have killed him as he dabbled with the distraction, Gomory waited for him to return his attention to fighting. To kill an unready opponent, after all, took no skill on her part. After a moment, he did just that, apparently having deluded himself into assuredness of a stealth advantage. At Gomory’s will, paint exploded upward from the cracked stone in front of him to catch his punch before hardening, effectively trapping him in place. His quip, however, flew free, and upon arrival exasperated her somewhat. ”I don’t see what mentioning that accomplished,” she muttered, eyebrows furrowed. Why did everyone always mention her breasts?

This statement she managed to utter in time to witness Snider’s recovery. He, too, appeared oddly preoccupied with the music box. While this failed to concern her, for no amount of ambiance would really penetrate the cacophonous combination of ghostly humming and combat magic, she found herself increasingly inclined to take advantage of the men’s foolishness and end the fight there and then. Despite this rising urge, she wanted to learn more about their styles. When he threw the old disk at her like a frizbee, Gomory waited, still as a statue, until it came within inches of her face. Then she lashed out and bit it, shattering it into pieces, before returning to neutral stance. The moonlight cascading over her waxed in anticipation for a coming duel, and dutifully Snider charged forth. One after another, she swung her weapon, throwing shadowy lightwaves at him. Like a man charging headlong into a blizzard, he would learn the futility of this strategy. Gomory would not consent to play with him for long, however. She finished this technique with a slam of her hidden Jiaolong into the ground, creating a miniature seismic wave fraught with moonlight to erupt beneath him.



Though predicting some sort of surprise attack, not much could have prepared Gideon for the five-man slaughterhouse he walked into. The very instant he entered the antechamber, blades whirring and guns at the ready, a horrible shriek more like a demon’s than an angel’s rang out from his left while a torrent of fast-freezing liquid bombarded him from the left. Ell ran straight for her target, hunched over in a perhaps vain hope to avoid the demon’s steely storm, while from the front Souta and Bullion let loose. The former’s fused fire exploded toward him, while the latter emptied an entire clip in his direction. A course of action truly befitting a general of hell would be necessary to cope with such a situation, the likes of which could kill a being even as great as Gideon should he not respond with haste and cunning.



If anything, Macbeth seemed bored by the crusader’s pronouncements. Flipping his grip on one of his sabers, he held the hilt with a pinky while he removed a little book from a pocket that he opened and began leafing through. After realizing her jibe went unacknowledged, meanwhile, Tickler switched to heavily-accented English to rebuke Antonio’s declarations. “Fackink eediot. Ve are servants of humanity. Laguna angels are monsters veeth no care for people. A.O.L angels ve don’t touch. Take forgeevance and shove up ess, blyet.” The sight of Antonio’s Michael brought a cruel smile to her face.

Before the action could begin, however, a soft murmur emanated from Macbeth. “Where is it written…’smite my enemies’? ‘Slay the heretics’? Hmm. But where is it written…’love your neighbor’? ‘Turn the other cheek’? Ah, yes. Our knight has been reading the wrong books.” Closing his little book abruptly, Macbeth tucked it away and flourished his blades, entering a Florentine stance. He nodded, and Tickler yelled gleefully, “Fire et vill!”

As one, the four guards started shooting at Antonio. Four fusillades of pistol gun fire flew his way, split evenly between Gene and Antonio. No doubt his shield would protect them, for a time at least, but one of the Gilgamesh operatives saw a way to open them up. Tickler lashed her left arm toward the ceiling, where the tips of the tentacles wrapped around a vent, and like an ape swinging from a tree she swung forward overhead, laughing. At the peak of the arc she released her grip and fell, tucking into a roll to deal with the impact. In a mere moment she returned to her feet, behind Antonio and ready for action. “Medness ees endink here!” A crimson distortion surrounded Morbuzahk as she whipped them forward. Just one touch on skin would be enough to enable the nasty effect, though they would hurt no matter what. Macbeth, meanwhile, bided his time.

@Lugubrious



As Gideon takes another step into the antechamber, he would find himself in a pretty big battle, one which he hasn't been in for years. One can say he was prepared-ish for an ambush, but perhaps not for a magnitude such as this. He would first hear a terrible shriek that resembled a demon, which then morphed into a more angellic tone. It was a very odd sound for him to hear. Was it a Nephellim? Then suddenly, to his left, a torrent of fast-freezing liquid began to bombard him as the particles streak right at him. Using his Reflect skill in the nick of time, half of the half-demon's blades would block or shatter most of the shards from coming to his face in a fury of swipes and slashes, though some did shatter and chip his face. He would then see Ell coming straight towards him, hunched down to avoid the fury that Gideon had created. Then, hastily, four of his blades disappeared and would reform as spears that would quickly rise from directly underneath Ell, trying to knock her off balance or pierce her feet.

From the front, Souta and Bullion would then approach the general, which by that time Gideon had reformed the spears from earlier back into blades. The former’s fused fire exploded toward him, while the latter emptied an entire clip in his direction. Forced to dodge this combination of attacks, he swiftly made a twirling spin above the projectiles, with two bullets producing holes in his outfit and some slight burn marks to the tips of his coat. He was just able to dodge in time as he lands back on his feet as he quickly pulls out his guns and fires at Shouta and Bullion. In addition, he also kept a close eye on Ell, using four of his blades to lock on and try to slash Ell, provided she avoided the initial spears.

Wrath, watching the exchanges, was already trying to piece together a strategy. For now, it would seem they were all in agreement that the psycho demonic woman who wasn't as civil as she'd claimed had to go down. And so as she attacked, Wrath watched, looking for openings in each slash and thrust. It would seem that, much like his own Earth Render, a few of her moves required a short charging period. But she was still incredibly fast, which would prove difficult for the Nephilim to match. Of course, it DOES help she's on this side of the giant hole...That's it! That was how he'd deal with the nut jub, by funneling her towards one of the now pathless parts of the hole.

Stepping out of his own piece of cover he'd taken when the crazy bot's attack had backfired and resulted in a strange counter attack, Wrath pulls the Rage Bringer free of it's place on his back. As her final attack finished, the Nephilim rushed forward, the Unum form assumed in how he gripped his hilt, and brought up the blade in a vertical slash towards her followed by a quick series of slashes, thrusts, and pommel strikes. "Sorry if I seem out of practice, haven't fought a decently strong Demon in awhile."

Gene was impressed with this human-- these humans' bravery. The one who agreed to help him was staring down a firing squad without even flinching, and the demon-worshippers facing him were taking him on six-on-one without even a hint of shame.

The obnoxious one wearing the feathered fedora--Gene hoped this wasn't one of those "meme" things his coworkers were talking about--appeared to read from something that was altogether too small to be an unabridged bible, and rather smugly demonstrated his degree in armchair theology. Gene was glad to be here, next to Antonio, because otherwise he wouldn't even know Gilgamesh hired people like this! This was better street theater than that time when Intern Jimbo got his shirt stuck on that forklift!

Then the guards present opened fire-- on Antonio. The Minka imitator, evidently upset that she didn't have a partner to do a convincing Boris act, leaped straight up to the ceiling, charged down, and tried to attack Antonio's back-- while still ignoring Gene.

We thank you, LORD, for this golden opportunity. Amen.

Gene lashed forward, happily taking advantage of Tickler's willful ignorance of him. Since she was focused on Antonio, and was actively moving forward, deflecting this next attack would be functionally impossible!

As Gene closed in, his right arm roughly brushed against Morbuzahk's tentacle, eliciting no reaction. What isn't alive cannot feel pain, and Gene's Angel Arm was certainly not part of him in any organic sense. The God Hand continued on its pilgrimage past Tickler's defences as it at last found its promised land: slightly below her right shoulder, and directly into her liver.

The force of Gene's blow took its righteous toll on Tickler's liver, very nearly destroying it outright. Tickler herself was blown at least a foot away from Gene, thus saving Antonio for the moment. Entirely confident that Tickler was out of the picture for the time being, Gene threw himself behind Antonio's shield and called out to Macbeth.

"Same place it tells you to fuck with the Hierarchy, asshole!"