The manic intensity in Zuriel's expression grew as many of those present stepped forward to formally announce their allegiance. Yes... There would be nothing capable of halting her progress to a true paradise, a world of endless bliss. So what if a few rotted, miserable universes would fade away? So what if places filled with pain and suffering would be lost? It was a small price to pay for a true utopia. Somewhere the suffering could finally find peace.

Though even in her maddened state, she stared blankly at the ignited Doctor Eggman for a few moments in silence, cocking her head to the side. That was, well, rather ridiculous, and her head cocked to the side.

"... What," she questioned, flatly, mostly to herself, before shaking her head, her grin returning. Whatever. Even if he came off as ridiculous now, Zuriel was certain that he would be an asset. After all, she searched out those who would stop at nothing to complete their task. Even if this guy wanted to use all that power to kill a hedgehog.

"As for what you'll be doing," the grey-skinned girl continued, before raising her sword. A red bead of light traveled up the central crimson divide down the middle of the blade, and in a flash she had swung it. Moments late, a pair of gaps tore themselves in mid-air, light swirling on the inside. "Every world has a different thing you have to do so you can get the core."

Her maniacal intensity faded slightly as she attempted to recall exactly what worlds she was opening paths to. She just had to make them go, right? Go quickly, so she could make her utopia... but the things they had to do in some worlds seemed so complicated. Whatever, it had to happen!

"There's two worlds I'd like you to go to," Zuriel declared, "One has some kind of obsession with hitmen, and you need to collect a set of rings in order to access the core. The other is a world where they mix up magic and technology to be police or... whatever. It doesn't matter."

She scowled. Law enforcement was useless too. No-one had ever stopped anything done to her... "You'll need to get an artifact nearby where you'll be starting."

Everyone was agreeing to stay and help. Relief had flooded through Charmeine as everyone offered their support. Juno was being particularly sympathetic, it was enough to bring tears of happiness to the young girl's eyes. Swiftly, she turned her back to the group and 'subtly' wiped at her eyes, before facing everyone again with as big as smile as she could manage.

"I can't really thank you all enough... um, thanks!" Charmeine replied. Her expression dropped somewhat at Hibiki's question. Restoring her world... with a deep breath, Charmeine replied, "it's... not impossible, as long as the core gets recovered, but... well, obviously it's not here."

She gave a forced giggle, continuing, "I'm more worried about other worlds getting caught up in this, so let's focus more on prevention! Besides, I don't know where Z... where the thief even is!"

Gunha's question gave Charmeine an excuse to not swell on Zuriel's action much more, and with renewed optimism, answered, "Right! Starting! Chances are, the thief's gonna target another world sometime soon, so..."

With a clap of her hands, something unexpected happened. At the far end of the sizeable room, behind the long-haired girl, a massive screen seemed to fall from the ceiling, approximately 30 inches wide. The monitor lay suspended from beams extending from the ceiling, and clashed quite horribly with the aggressively pink and pillowy theme the room was sporting.

Char skipped towards the monitor, which flickered to life to show... not much that could be commented on. If anything, it was akin to a screensaver, showing nothing but the occasional flicker on light on random parts of the screen.
"With this thing here, I can detect when a tear in reality's opened!" Char explained gleefully, much like a child showing off a fancy new toy to their friends, "it'll show me where one is and then I ca-"

Her explanation was cut off by a robotic, neutral voice emanating from the monitor itself, "Crap! Crap! Two whole problems detected! Someone help immediately! It's a super huge emergency!"

Even Charmeine was stunned, evidently not expecting... that, to be the indicator of her sister's next move. Then, she shook her head and rushed to the monitor, raising her hands and seemingly waving her fingers over thin air. Although judging by the cancellation of the unfitting alarm, as well as the data currently flying up on-screen, she seemed to be controlling it somehow.

"Why two? How can she..." Charmeine muttered to herself, concerned. On screen, two separate files seem to appear, either side showing a picture of a location, and a lot of text files giving accompanying information, "...so she had the same idea..."

Charmeine turned once more to her allies, looking rather worried, "...So... yeah, I think she's starting already. Two rifts have opened up, which... means she found her own set of friends, too."
Splitting up the group wasn't something Charmeine liked doing, but her hand was already forced, "I'll give you all as much information as I can, but we'll need to move quickly."

------------------------------------------



A world of hitmen, and a world of magical police? Gilgamesh didn't ponder the options too long - it was obvious that the land of hitmen was going to yield better opponents and loot! It was just common sense. The masked warrior stepped towards one, nodding in satisfaction.

"Gilgamesh has made his choice!" he announced theatrically, turning to his new allies, "brothers! Sisters! Comrades that sh away from familial terms! Follow me to glory, and we shall emerge triumphant in our search for shiny stuff! But I call dibs on any swords we find, all right?!"

-------------------------------------------



Yuuka's gaze turned towards a girl she hadn't noticed a moment before, who seemed to stare at Yuuka with great interest. The youkai could tell this girl was not human, which was probably to be expected - she seemed to have been summoned by the white-haired fellow, judging from his earlier mutterings. Yuuka wasn't one to pry, but their proximity made it hard not to hear. Of course, at the moment, it meant largely nothing to her, though she took note for later. Just in case.

"...No need to apologise," Yuuka replied kindly to him, and gently patted the blonde girl on the head, "Alice, was it? She's very pretty."

Zuriel had since cut two holes into the air, giving them the choice of world to visit first. Well, she could take her time with that, Yuuka wasn't concerned about a quick strike. Although she'd already decided upon the world of magic, if for no other reason that to test if her abilities or very existence had been altered in any negative way.

Smiling kindly to Alice 'the Anguished One', Yuuka continued, "My name is Kazami Yuuka. I hope we can get along well~"

Hibiki's expression immediately brightened. So they could restore this world! That meant that everything could be fixed up perfectly! This meant she had too major goals: Stop any other worlds from disappearing, and return this world's core so it can come back! She raised one fist in front of herself and clutched it in determination, her eyes burning with resolve. This was something she had to do for the sake of everyone, including everyone she knew and loved back home!

And the world core thief was already making a move?! That meant they had to act really fast... especially since she'd gotten a team of her own. But these were people she could talk to, right? If she could reach out to them and make them understand, they wouldn't have to fight anymore!

Though, in this case, she'd probably have to make them understand with her fists.

"All I need to know is where we're going and how we're getting there!" Hibiki declared, clenching her fist in the air.

---

Saber nodded. So this world could be mended, but the fact remained that the priority until they could retrieve it was the protection of other worlds. However, the more strategic portion of her mind considered that, even if they successfully defended a world once, what prevented the enemy from returning to assault it once more? They clearly didn't have the numbers to place defenders on every world that they needed to protect, and that meant that there had to be some way of ensuring that no world was left unprotected. Perhaps Charmeine had some method in mind that could stop further incursions?

"I am ready to meet them in battle," Saber said, simply, nodding her head. She paused for a moment, before continuing. "However, how can we prevent them from returning to a world after it has been defended once? We do not have the numbers to leave anyone behind to defend them."

Gunha stood with a slightly amused smile while looking at the screen. It was a tad strange, seeing the juxtaposition between that and the happy fluffy pink room, but there was enough information to at least figure out that the enemy had made their move. Perfect; time to teach those cowards a lesson.

"Alright, Charmeine! Show us the way so we can get moving; the longer we wait, the more of an advantage they'll have!" he said, crossing his arms as he stared at the screen. Hm... Well, either looked fine, honestly. What difference did location make in the end, anyways? It was all about the goal and all that. Just gotta have guts to go in and save them all; nothing more, nothing less!


"Ehehe... Thanks, miss! Let's do our best~!"
Alice let out a small bit of a laugh as Yuuka petted her head, a fact which confused the Anguished One... If only slightly. After all, that child had been raised be Nebiros and Belial, and was generally only truly receptive of them (and, well, the Shining One). Was this to imply something else...?
...
Well, there was no point in dwelling on that further. Introductions seemed to be in order, and from the looks of things, the ragtag group that child had assembled here would soon be off on the road to try and gather those 'world cores'. Speaking of introductions, though... It might be preferable to withhold his self-proclaimed name or true name for now.

"A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Miss Kazami. My name... 'The Anguished One' shall do," he said, bowing to her before turning to look at the gaps that had just opened up in the room. The child's explanation...

Hm... Well, at the very least, it would be easiest to test those who had magical aptitude. It would lessen the burden he placed on himself during any such tests of will, at least; distributing Nicaea if the need be would also probably be easier.

Besides, he didn't have much of a good opinion of hitmen or anyone of the sort. Granted, police during times of chaos weren't always reliable either... But, well, that's what brought out the potential in humanity, was it not?

"I shall travel to the latter; it coincides with my own skillset quite well," he said, turning to Alice for a moment before looking back at the tears in space-time in front of him. It was honestly an affront to every law of nature known to him, but... Well, the chance to reason with that had long since passed. With a sigh, the Anguished One calmly walked up to the portal and, with a sigh, walked through it. Alice quietly followed suit, disappearing with the Anguished One to... Wherever their destination was.

The Ruinous Powers are fickle, and possessed of intentions beyond the ken of man. Thus, it comes as no surprise that their meddling oft leads to peculiar circumstances. Wulfrik, having embarked on countless journeys to enact their will, had grown used to unfamiliar locales and outlandish individuals. But the situation in which the World Walker found himself was unusual, even by the immeasurable standards of the Dark Gods. Both the warrior and his prized vessel, the Seafang, had been plucked from the frigid sea of Norsca and deposited here. Not only that, but his crew -men sworn to him by oaths of blood and honour- had vanished.

Now, in regards to 'here', Wulfrik was unsure of what to think. The furnishings were refined and immaculately arranged, reminiscent of the Southron whelps in the Empire of Man. The inhabitants, however, were another matter entirely. One of them, with his rotund appearance and prominent nose, appeared to be some blend of greenskin and ogre. Another, bearing a staff and clad in garish apparel, could only be some brand of sorcerer. Whatever their origins, they were most certainly not known to him.

As Wulfrik's arrival had been somewhat delayed, all he knew regarding the situation was that the ashen-skinned woman before them had offered entire worlds to plunder. While he knew not of these cores she spoke of, it did not take long for the champion of Chaos to reach a conclusion.

The Gods themselves have provided me a grand opportunity: whole worlds for the taking. The skalds will write an unequalled saga of my victories over the champions of these far realms; moreover, all this girl asks in return is that I claim some petty trinket.

With that in mind, Wulfrik broke his silence.

"By my reckoning, the will of the Gods has brought me here. If that be the case, then I am to aid you in your hunt. Guide me where I might claim the mightiest as offerings for the Ruinous Powers, and I, Wulfrik, will deliver these cores you speak of."

If one were of the observant sort, glimpses of the warrior's avian tongue and lupine jaws could be caught, indicating his inhuman nature.

Alain didn't exactly care which world he would go to. Gilgamesh seemed to have some idea of where to go, however. A bit too bombastic for his tastes, though.

"It doesn't matter to me. Though the question is if we should split our efforts. Might be easier to cover more ground." Alain said. He eyed Gilgamesh. "If he's going to take one world, I'll choose the other. If that's possible..." Alain said to Zuriel.

Juno-Seto

Of course this wasn't an easy task. Whoever Charmeine was against had her own set of warriors. Juno-Seto couldn't hide her worriness for the worlds they would have to go. Each second that passed seemed agonizing for her. "I am sorry if I am being disrespectful, Lady Charmeine, but we must depart to these worlds those warriors had gone. If your enemy has already the advantage, we have to follow them and break their choices of winning." She said.

---

Ensa-Taya

She looked at the options and was unable to fully decide what she wanted. Both worlds were awaiting for chaos and destruction. If she got the hands in the world's core for Zuriel, it was a step forward for the creation of her magnum opus. Seeing how the Anguished One had left, she heard Gilgamesh, but decided to ignore him. "The word has given me some interest. It seems the world of hitmans is the most adept to a cycle of death. It is for that world that I depart. Zuriel, once all the cores are collected, I want my part of the deal." she said, leaving to the world she wanted to go.

IF

A sigh escaped as Charmeine revealed that her world could possibly be restored, addressing a worry that several others had voiced (and which IF had as well, even if she hadn't asked right then and there). Well, they would just have to work on that wouldn't they? Once they got that core back, which probably wouldn't be an easy feat to accomplish.

Before she could answer though there was an interruption, revealing that apparently their opponent was already on the move to her first destinations, and two whole worlds no less. The monitor was impressive, but that sense of timing left something to be desired, earning a sigh from IF as she watched.

The others seemed eager to go, and she would be no less ready as a smile broke out, IF taking a step forward. "Like they said, can't exactly stay behind now can I? Where are they headed?" She had no problem adventuring, but if she could have some idea of what she was plunging into then it would be a bit more useful.

---

Ulith

The pale girl watched with continued interest as Zuriel revealed that she might not be entirely there when it came down to it, even if she continued to show off the power that she had. Her sword ripping two holes into space was definitely a sign of that, impressive even for someone like her. Zuriel was seeming more and more like Mayu with every moment, albeit with a touch of insanity to make things more exciting.

Well then, which world should she go to? They were fairly evenly divided at this point, and all told she was less confident of her ability to handle magical police. Besides, that sort of thing would probably end up being boring. If she was going to do this then she wanted to have some excitement along the way.

A nod on her part then as she stepped towards the chosen portal. "I'll go with them," she said as she gestured towards the portal to the hitman world. "See you on the other side Zuriel." With that she stepped through, ready for whatever might be waiting for them on the other side.

She felt rather out of place here. This was, without a doubt, the largest concentration of sane people that the Hunter remembered ever meeting and they weren't even being obnoxiously rude to one another. Consequently, the heavily-dressed warrior did her best to blend into the background and not drip blood all over the pink floor, courtesy of having been plucked straight from the labyrinths beneath Yharnam.

If this place was even real. It gave the distinct impression of her mind having just snapped entirely over all the horror that came with the Hunt and opting to portray a far more bearable environment--though in that case, why would she still be armed? And having fought in two nightmares and reforged weapons in a dream, wouldn't her delusions be just as solid and problematic as anything else?

At least, unlike the Hunt, there was a clear goal in place: find people, stop them from doing some strange and destructive thing. That brought another point to mind:

"We should split up before going. We need to know who's on our side and who isn't on arrival."

Trying to talk to the hunters in the Hunter's Nightmare had not gone well...

Harry took a couple of steps back as the large screen appeared. His magic typically didn't play well at all with any form of technology. He didn't know for sure if this world played by the same rules but didn't want to chance himself being blamed for something going wrong this early in the game.

While he was worry about this the Mantle of Winter took over for a moment with its predatory instincts. "Why would we divide our forces and have two chances at victory when we could all strike the same target and crush them utterly at one. If it's true that we could restore a world be taking back its core then all we have to do is defeat them at every opportunity."

Perhaps that could have been worded a little bit better. The idea was sound but there was an aspect to it that Harry found revolting. It was the way that Lloyd Slate would have done things, not the way that Harry Dresden got things done. "You know, never mind, that's not an option. We're going to save every world that we can, no exceptions."

He turned and placed himself on one side of the room at random. "And I don't think that we have any time to waste."

"I know. I'll get things started," Charmeine replied to Juno-Seto, and quickly returned to flicking her fingers through the air before her, facing the large monitor. Judging by the constant motion of images and rapidly-forming text, the young girl was calling up as much information as possible.

"Okay... looks like these places are called Nanimori and Midchilda," Charmeine muttered, "the former's a small town with a bunch of strong fighters, and the latter's like a hub for mages. That's a bold first move..."

Her movements paused momentarily at Harry's suggestion of focusing on only one world. Her expression was unseen, biting at her lip with worry. Maybe from a pragmatic standpoint, overpowering Zuriel's allies in one world would let them defend one world... but for every world they ignored, that was essentially a free world core, and with one already in her possession, such a tactic was probably doomed from the start...

Hearing Saber's question, Charmeine shook her head and quickly started 'typing' once more. A few moments later, when the panel in the middle of the room started to glow, she finally answered the knight, "about that... it's possible to temporarily 'lock' the cores."

Turning to address the group once more, she continued, "if we can reach the core first, we can use it to eject... I guess 'foreigners' from the world, us included. No one from outside of that world can get back in for a while after that, so we won' have to keep an eye on it!"

During her explanation, the panel growed brighter, a soft, orange glow emanating from the panel, "okay, let's split into two teams! First group will head to that Nanimori place, and the others will go to Midchilda, okay?"

----------------------



Alongside the others that chose to visit the world of Hitmen, Gilgamesh walked through the portal. Compared to his usual method of traveling between worlds, this wasn't all that unpleasant. It helped he wasn't getting sucked in one end and unceremoniously dropped out the other. This was definitely a step up.

As for this place in which the invading group had entered, it was... different. Gilgamesh wasn't sure how to describe the town they appeared to have entered, though some may recognise it as looking like a typical, modern Japanese town. The theatrical warrior looked around, noting the biggest building that stood before them - a url=imgur.com/hGNWLov]place of education[/url] quite unlike anything Gilgamesh had seen before. As such, he didn't identify as anything but a stronghold, and faced the group, rubbing his hands together with excitement.

"Okay guys, before we start looking, I think we should discuss how to distribute loot! If there's any fancy swords, I'm calling dibs!"

Come to think of it... how exactly where they to find the cores? That girl with the awesome sword hadn't mentioned that, did she? ...Well, whatever. Gilgamesh was a top-class treasure hunter! He had confidence in his ability to locate rare treasures.

Right now, the group's more immediate concern was probably how... noticeable they were. There wasn't anyone in sight at the moment, but who knew how much attention they'd get if even one random bystander took notice of them?

----------------------



"The pleasure's all mine," Yuuka replied cheerily. She seemed unfazed at this person's name was... well, more of a title than anything. Probably because Yuuka herself had obtained many titles, almost all of which made reference to her top-notch ability to mentally scar humans... and the nostlagic feeling that accompanied such titles would indicate just how long it had been since she was first assigned such things.

"Perhaps I'll accompany you," Yuuka continued, "a world of magic would suit my nature more~"

Following after the Anguished One and Alice, Yuuka paused at the portal to address Zuriel, facing her with a polite smile. After a small bow, she said, "Rest assured, we shall obtain these cores you seek~ Barring any intereference from powerful local forces, or travelling do-gooders~"

Chuckling, Yuuka stepped through the portal.

A newcomer she had somehow missed, in spite of his hulking, armored frame, had spoken up as well. He certainly looked powerful... Zuriel grinned widely.

"I'm so happy to have you," she said, her expression wild with excitement. Soon, soon they'd have another core! She could hardly contain her excitement at the prospect. She'd be that much closer to creating a true paradise... "Pick whichever world you want, split yourself up as evenly as you can and go!"

Some had already done just that...

"I need to keep this core in my possession, so I'll be staying here for now."

---

Saber nodded, firmly. That was that. Regardless of what others said, there was no way they could simply sacrifice one of the worlds like that. They would protect both worlds, they had to. After a few moments of silence, mulling over which world she would proceed to, the blonde girl nodded to herself. She would proceed to the world that was apparently tied to assassins. While stealth was certainly not her strongsuit, she could perhaps defend if any assassins chose to attack.

She snapped her right hand to her side, and a hazy shape formed within it, seemingly something long but impossible to identify. A weapon, perhaps? Of course, Saber was well aware of what was clasped in her hand, and blue light flowed up her body, seeming to blast her clothing away and instantly replace it with a blue dress and fine suit of armor. She did briefly notice the person dripping with blood... but as strange as that was they needed to get moving.

With that, she proceeded to the strange tile, and stepped onto it.

---

Saber hadn't known what to expect when she stepped onto the tile. And yet, well... here she was, fully armored... and not too far outside of what appeared to be a high school. But she reminded herself, quickly, of their purpose. They had to collect these rings, and keep this world from fading away by locking the core. But where could they start...?

---

Hibiki clutched her fist in the air. So this was it, huh? They had to protect a world and keep it safe! They'd be kicked out for a while, sure... but that was way better for the world then the alternative, and it was only temporary! The path was straight and direct, right to the point, and right ahead of her!

"I'm going to the place with the mages!" she declared, before dashing for the tile. The moment her foot hit it...

---

Hibiki's foot hit the ground, and she swiftly looked around. The location they had been taken to was... a field? Yes, it was a field, flowing green grasses all around... Though wait, was that a city in the distance? It looked like it, she could see skyscrapers! Where were they, though...?

Glancing around, the teenaged girl noticed something else. There was some kind of site, off in the distance... there was a mountain range, and it looked like a lot of equipment around it. Were they digging something up over there? It kind of looked like it... And as she looked up, her eyes widened when the sleek, silvery shape of a ship, followed by... by flying people?! Yes, it was definitely a set of people, flying along after the ship, as it headed for the thing that looked like a dig site...

---

Meanwhile, Zuriel's agents would find themselves in a similar situation, distant from what looked like an excavation site... and glimpsing some kind of ship moving across the sky some distance away as well.

"Alright, now we're talkin'!" Gunha cheered as Charmeine gave them a two-sentence explanation on the places they were going to head off to. Handling magic was doable, if that weird guy that beat him up last time was anywhere as strong as he was told afterwards... But it seemed as if the girl who was already going there had enough guts to power through. What he needed to do here was make sure that more worlds had enough guts to go around overall, and the words ' filled with strong fighters' resonated with him. Strong fighters meant people with guts, and people with guts meant that it'd be easier to sniff out those without any! It was a flawless plan! Flawless!

...Though the name was, admittedly, a bit weird. Who named their town 'what forest', anyways?

"I'm going with my gut on this one! Let's go!" he said enthusiastically before following Saber through to their location.

The high school he ended up in front of was... Admittedly too damn normal for his tastes. Maybe it was because of his life in Academy City, but this place could seriously do with a tech upgrade.

"Alright... So. I think I look fairly normal there, but, well... Regardless of how gutsy that armor and dress look, miss, you stand out like a sore thumb. Do like the transformation, though. 8 out of 10 for smoothness," he said giving his companion a thumbs-up before looking around.
"...You think they're going to start blowing stuff up any time soon? It usually doesn't take long for things to start exploding in situations like these..."


The moment of disorientation came and passed for the Anguished One, who was far too used to such things at this point in time. With a curious expression, he looked to his side to make sure Alice had come through just as well as he had (she was fine, thankfully) before glancing around. A technologically advanced society, was it? Well, the creativity of humans never ceased to amuse him...

A quick glimpse of the flying humans above immediately caught his eye, and the Anguished One let out a bit of a smile. At the very least, he could fly instead of walk now. Pleasant.

"Ah... Logic dictates that we should be placed within close proximity of our goal... Which, quite honestly, would imply that any possible opposition would already be gathering at the location of importance," he said, noting that Yuuka had followed him and Alice through. Well enough, then. "I recommend we try and remain inconspicuous while scouting out the area; if we know the land, then our job should be made easier in the future. Better than fighting on unfamiliar territory, at least."

With that, the Anguished One and Alice began to walk off towards the excavation site. Unless directly attacked, of course, he wouldn't retaliate. But even so...

"Ticos, begin distribution of Nicaea 2.1. Refrain from installing the demon summoning application until I say so; retain the death videos and Fate system. Humans seem to like little amusements like those."

"Understood." the male Tico responded from the Anguished One's terminal.

And so it began.

The blond girls sword and transformation made his hair stand on end in the same way it did whenever Michael wielded Amorachius. The was real power there and a whole boatload of questions. If that kind of force was going to the world full of fighters then it was in good hands.

"Magic is kind of my stick so..."

The wizard glanced at his staff before looking around the room for a second. He shrugged and then set off after Hibiki.

The girl hadn't yet left wherever the portal had dropped them, which was good because he had no idea where they were. He really didn't see what it was that put her in the same league as everyone else but then again he'd also seen his fair share of heavy hitters in small packages. This one was just about the same height as Murphy which meant he better get off of this train of thought before he got his ass kicked.

Dresden followed along, gawking around like a tourist. The first thing that he noticed, even before the dig site that they were heading towards was that people were flying. He'd tried to figure it out once and almost broke his neck and these people were making it look easy. He pointed with his staff.

"Let's go that way."

At the very least he might be able to ask someone how they do it.

It shouldn't have come as a surprise that people ignored her suggestion to split up here--and properly--rather than just walk forward into the unknown. That sort of thing was the reason so many hunters seemed to go completely over the edge with nobody around, becoming worse than the beasts that they were out to kill in the first place.

Though she felt that the magical world might be a better fit for her--after all, didn't studying the arcane do horrible things to one's sanity?--given the various runes that formed a bulwark against eldritch knowledge, two people had already passed through to it. That meant that for the sake of keeping to some sort of balance, the Hunter would have to follow the blonde that had suddenly pulled a sword-shaped... thing from somewhere.

She stepped forwards, appearing alongside Saber and with no better idea where to go.

IF

Glancing over at one of the others who had spoken up after she did, recommending that they split up before they went, IF froze at the sight of the blood that seemed to be practically omnipresent on the being. Where had they just come from to get like that? Even the dungeons she went to didn't tend to wind up with someone having that much injuries on them. It was amazing that she was still standing.

Nonetheless, IF did agree. It was the rational thing to do in a situation like this, but it seemed that no one else would listen. Charmeine assured them that the worlds would be safe once they had succeeded, and created some warp panels that could be used to get where they needed to go. The worlds were interesting, one with strong fighters, the other with mages. Soon enough the groups were splitting up to go on their way.

Sighing, IF shot a smile at the robed figure. "People just never listen, do they," she commented before heading through the portal as well, heading to Mid-Childa. Arriving, she wound up next to the guy with the staff and the girl with giant gauntlets, in some place that seemed much more advanced than where they had been before.

With everything she had seen in the various lands of Gamindustri, it wasn't that shocking, and IF rolled with it. "The dig site sounds like a good place to start," she agreed. Even if she had the sneaking suspicion that there would probably be some boss monster there, possibly a sealed evil waiting to be unlocked. That was just how this sort of thing went after all. "Oh, and I'm IF," she added. Just so they'd have the interactions done with.

---

Ulith

"Well now, this seems familiar," Ulith noted with a smirk as she moved through the portal with Gilgamesh and the others, to find herself in front of what looked like a stereotypical Japanese high school. When one thought of hitmen they might be more likely to consider bald men with oddly placed barcode tattoos on the backs of their heads, but it seemed that this was not to be the case. Not that she had a problem with it.

Of course, the boisterous fellow that had led the way began to speak, something about dividing up loot or what have you. "Do what you want," she reassured the big fellow. "I don't need any loot." Not that she thought they would be getting much loot from here in the first place.

With a hum she looked around before striding towards the entrance of the school, looking back towards Gilgamesh over her shoulder at the same time. "Do what you want, but I'm going to start in the school. There should be someone inside who can give us the lay of the land." Even if they had to be 'persuaded' to do so. But hey, that just meant more fun for her.

In a strange moment, two people said one sentence at the same time, despite being far apart.

"Guess I'll go here." Takeru and Alain said as they entered their portal.

---

"W-wait a minute!" Takeru said as he exited the portal, landing on his face. "O-ow..." He got up. As he did, he saw the people flying, heading towards somewhere. Takeru took out his Ore Eyecon and held a hand over his waist to create the Ghost Driver. He clicked on his Eyecon to activate it, then placed it in his Driver.

EYE! WATCH THIS... WATCH THIS... WATCH THIS...

A ghostly figure appeared out of Takeru's belt. It appeared to be more of a jacket than an actual ghost. It was a black jacket with orange accents. Takeru did a meditative pose, holding out his hand with two pointed fingers. "Henshin!" He announced as he activated the Driver.

EYES OPEN! IT'S ME! LET'S GO! DEAD SET! GO GO GO GHOST!

The jacket flew to Takeru as his body became coated in a black suit. Takeru drooped his head and shoulders down as the jacket landed on his back. As Takeru moved up, he pulled down the hoodie made with the jacket. His face was replaced with a helmet. The "face" was completely orange with two large black holes that should be where his eyes were. Takeru did a running start to try and leap, attempting to rely on his ghostly powers to hover to the flying people...

Only for him to land.

"H-huh?" Takeru tried to jump again. But it didn't work. "What the? Yurusen! What's goin-" He tried to speak to Hibiki, then realized who she was. "Erm... Crap. Sorry, wrong person." Takeru blushed underneath his helmet... That's when he realized.

He wasn't disappearing. Usually, if he wasn't confident or wanted to hide, he'd just disappear like a ghost... However, Takeru still remained corporeal. "Eeeeeh?" Takeru slowly came to a conclusion... Whatever happened with Charmeine somehow negated his whole being a ghost business. Well, this is gonna be hard...

---

Alain appeared alongside Gilgamesh. The thought of not knowing where the core was also crossed Alain's mind. Gilgamesh, however, seemed confident in finding the core. He proceeded to follow Ulith.

"We'll trust you with finding the core then, if that's okay." He asked Gilgamesh. He certainly had no care about looking out of place. His black uniform is a status symbol, denoting him of Ganma royalty. He's not gonna strip it down just to appear normal.