As it turns out, Zeruel's hit quite the home run when he struck the grenade dropped by Henry, sending it to the far-off reaches of Arcadia, where it exploded under some random body of water, far away from any of the ongoing skirmishes that dotted the floating paradise.

Not very far from the place he crawled his broken form to, the mighty Angel would be able to notice an interesting event. A strange being, better a strange girl, who didn't look like she was involved with the battle, seemed to stalk the edges of Arcadia, with a glare of clear despise stamping her face as she observed the desecration of the majestic flying lands.

"So, the conflicts reached as far as here, huh? What are you planning this time, Harley? If you don't behave, I'll have to go out of my way to throw cold water at your Master's 'Project'," the girl said, clearly gazing at the direction where a certain monochrome haired being stood in the company of a less than exemplary Angel. After her mysterious line, the clearly vampiric-looking girl seemed to notice Zeruel's presence, regarding him with the same reverence one regards a cockroach that crawled from under a trash bin. "What do we have here?" She said, sounding quite amused, as she walked closer to Zeruel. "Aren't you the Almighty Leader of the Laguna Hierarchy, 'Second only to Deva'?" The girl kept on her mockery.

"What might have happened for you to be like this? Perhaps, you've learned that there's always a bigger fish, waiting to devour the one who sticks out of the shoal? That certainly is amusing. In fact, because of you, I just had the greatest idea now. Thank you, Mr. Holy Sardine," the girl said, scooping some of Zeruel's blood with a finger which ended in a vicious-looking claw, before licking it. From the way her face twisted, she seemed to be disgusted by the taste of hypocritical self-righteousness.


For a moment Victoire though that Bonesword was really going to kill her. If she weren't prepared for a sudden aggression, or if that strike were truly a holy attack instead of a blow fueled by vengeance, even Victoire's shadow bat swarm wouldn't have assured her survival. As it turns out, she was still badly hurt when she got bad to her physical form, because of the nature of the blade used against her, but still managed to make it out in one piece. Henry's arrival along with Bonesword's departure gave her a moment of rest, after facing her impending doom. Now, if only she could get some fresh blood, she could heal her wounds. Alas, this would have to wait, there were more pressing matters to take care of.

"You can do so if you wish, Avaritia," Victoire said, answering Henry's question about if she called him there just to eliminate the wailing ghost who fought for the Angels, or not. "However, the reason I called you was much more practical than simply taking care of some random garbage. I believe that you have grenade launchers or mortars in your collection, am I right?" The vampire licked some of her own blood, in an intentionally suggestive way, before continuing with her explanation.

"If that's the case, you can have these," Victoire motioned to the small pile of ruby-like fruits she previously offered to Bonesword. "Use them in place of your normal projectiles. You can even keep some if you want, just make sure to feed them with lots of fresh blood, lest they seek to take yours." The vicious grin on Victoire's lips made it clear that she wasn't kidding about what she just said. "These are fruits of my beloved Demon Roses, I have enchanted them so that they'll grow and seek the blood or essence of any target you shoot them with, binding and crushing them with thorny vines while drinking the essence their essence and growing stronger. Obviously, they won't work as well against Angels, especially those like that behemoth from earlier, but thanks to their supernatural origins, my roses should be able to hold even immaterial targets, as long as they aren't hit with fire or holy magics."

"As long as you remember these instructions, you can consider these as an advanced reward for your role in this battle, Avaritia. Now, go and start killing our foes," Victoire said, before casually flicking a bud at Abigail, likely making the first victim of her roses in this battle. To make sure that the defenseless ghost would meet her demise, Victoire summoned a number of shadow lances and shot them at Abigail, planning to skewer the ghost while the roses crushed her very soul.

As Zeruel limps into the trees, the rage built up on the double humiliations he'd experienced were pumping in huge loads of adrenaline and new blood cells into his body. All Laguna Angels have natural regeneration, but alas it can depend on the Angel specimen and it isn't instantaneous or extremely quick to be used. Yet even so, its already slowly healing the Angel of Might as his body morphs to regenerate the lost pieces of flesh, skin, as well as the burn marks and scars. He looks quite hideous, but give him an hour or so, and he will be completely healed and back to his former self. However, having a healer by his side will still be a big benefit in pushing it faster.

As the distant explosions of battle ran rampant out in the distance, Zeruel trugs slowly through the forest, but already some of the more minor wounds and burns have healed. A mere 10% of his health has already healed thanks to adrenaline alone, but it won't last long. Eventually he manages to approach a small random clearing in the forest. Yet in the middle of said clearing, the Angel encounters a strange girl of sorts. She wore black and red clothing, with golden stripes on the edges of her top uniform. She had white hair, red eyes, and bat-like wings. She looked very much like a demon and the aura being portrayed off her seemed nauseatingly reminiscent of one. But he only noticed that as he walks out of the foliage surrounding him, breaking several branches under his bulk. The girl turned towards him, looking at him as if he was an inferior opponent.

"What do we have here?" She said, sounding quite amused, as she walked closer to Zeruel. The Angel stands still, not moving at all other than the tendrils behind him flapping faintly in the wind. The girl than proceeds to mock him. "Aren't you the Almighty Leader of the Laguna Hierarchy, 'Second only to Deva'?"

Zeruel doesn't say a word, still looming over her despite his battered state. While he could pop her head with his tendrils, along with a booming statement, he still recognizes that while he must keep being daunting even in his weakened state, he must also access his own situation. He had no idea what she might even pull off. And with his weakened state, he must remain humble to a degree, even as the girl mocks him for a second round, licking his own blood and tasting it with utter disgust. Yet the kept up anger does have its benefit, as with the more anger he sustains, the more adrenaline kicks in and the regeneration kicks a little faster. When she was finished, he takes command of the stage.

"Address yourself, demon. he booms as his skin continues to regenerate slightly faster.

---

Ghelgath thought as much as Barlog said that he was holding his ground to kill the incoming snipers. However, just after he said that, the voice of the Machina mech, Graf, booms from a distance. This prompted the demon cyborg to come rushing towards him at great speed, leaving the Ice King alone in his position. With a sigh, being unable to do anything to help Barlog at the moment, he keeps put in his location, getting down to cover to avoid sniper fire...

Meanwhile, the Ice Sergeant and his forces were slowly closing in on the snipers. They were able to keep most of their cover in the thick trees and foliage, keeping out of major conflicts. Once they were in range, the Sergeant orders for his mages to cast several attack spells on the unsuspecting shooters. They woud either hit their targets and freeze them completely or if they hit the ground they would burst out several sharp pieces of frozen shrapnel at every direction. ANd after that first wave of attack, the Frigid Soldiers and the rest of the forces move in to obliterate them completely and carve a path for the demons to enter.

The ghost was trapped by a rose, fighting to break free from the torment of her soul being destroyed by the sheer nature of it. She could feel every single atom of her body being ripped out of existence by these demonic roses. It was a slow, agonizing death. Abigail had just seen the face of her long lost lover again, and a feeling of happiness had washed over her, but it was all ending as he ran away and left her to die. She couldn't even fashion why he left, and she didn't have time to anyhow. Her mind was going blank, and the shadow spears that kept diving into her body didn't help.

Oddly, the pain started to feel more abstract with every spear that pierced her. It was as if the feeling of life started to fade even farther away as she took more and more of a beating. Hell, the blows got so devastating that Abigail started to bleed, something she didn't even know she could still do, and she didn't even know she could bleed so quickly. The pool of red blood started to expand rapidly as Abigail laid there, her soul desperately trying to fight back as hard as it could. The only thing she could do was watch as her death came.

Seemingly out of a last-ditch effort, the Wisp Veil Cannons that were floating around Abigail turned to Victoire and opened fire, trying as hard as they could to deliver any amount of damage they could. Victoire couldn't take much more, and hopefully this would bring her down. If anything, it'd be a good last ditch effort to do something...

... but as she tried, she was interrupted by a sword and her world went black.

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"... what are you doing...?"

It sounded like Bonesword's voice... but it wasn't from his mouth. Time seemed to slow around him as the voice continued to ramble.

"... you are miserable. This is not you. Not us. We have longed to find a way to bring her back, that's what you were going to do in Hohenheim's challenge if you won. You would've wished her back to life. Now look at what you just did. You abandoned her, left her for dead. You abandoned her, near a demon who could take her life away for good. You could have reunited with her and left this war behind, but you decided to run. We decided to run. This isn't who we are. We would've stayed to fight Victoire and keep Abigail alive."

Bonesword felt a weight on his back lessen as his soul started to jump around.

"What are we waiting for, Bonesword? What good does waiting do for us? Victoire is destroying Abigail as we speak, and all of Heaven is too busy being fucks to do anything. It's up to us to get that swindling succubus off of Abigail and it's up to us to keep her from dying. GO!"

A loud shout from Bonesword came forth as time returned to normal for him, his face staring at Charlie's. "CHARLIE! RETURN TRIP!" In what seemed like mere seconds, Bonesword was back on the top of Charlie and shooting through the skies, the new sword he had received from Hohenheim out and ready to be used. As Bonesword joined the island that he just left, he slammed down the new sword onto Abigail's neck, killing her and keeping a part of her soul alive.

"... I'm sorry I ran Abby. I'm here to avenge you," was what the skeleton said as he held the longsword in his hands, staring at Henry and Victoire. He was either going to kill these two, or he was going down trying.

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@KoL@floodtalon

Tatiana Lorenz

The blind fire was not very effective in landing any hits on the flying warrior, but it did serve well enough to disrupt her own assault before Omega was able to retreat into the forest. Unfortunate, but Tatiana did not shy away from this fight. She could guess what he was trying to do, but even knowing that she would go ahead in this fight anyways. They would have to be ready of the cowboy eventually, so it might as well be now.

So she heeded the challenge, swinging down towards the forest while deploying her funnels during the descent. Her thrusters flared and died away, leaving her to move on foot through the forest. It might not be the easiest place to fight, but she was nonetheless confident as she swept the area with rifles at the ready. She would fire if she caught a glimpse of him, with no mind towards accidentally setting the forest ablaze. It would grow back after all.

"One would think that someone taking the motif of a cowboy would be on the side of the Machina," she commented as she stalked through the forest. It revealed herself, sure, but if she was lucky it would let her figure out where he was as well. At the very least she could deal with any negative consequences that arose because of it. He would find that she was more than ready for a challenge such as this.

@Awesomoman64

As Ira's sword came hurtling down at Syphax, he swapped his dagger to his right hand and parried the blow away, ripping his greatsword out of the ground with the time he had managed to give himself. The knife was shoved into its scabbard and two hands closed around Featherweight's grip just in time to force away the next blow. He was starting to see a pattern in the Demonic Queens movements, she was trying to push herself to move fast enough to lock him in one stance, and that was something he wasn't too keen on letting her do. As a result, he side-stepped and created distance with each swing of her sword, not allowing himself to be pinned down. Soon enough, the black flames that now thrived on the arm of the single most resented person in the Nexus ran down the length of Ira's weapon, forcing the Harpy to his limits for reaction time.

Just as he was about to lock crossguards with the Queen, a pair of chains found themselves wrapped around her and yanked her off into the boot of a particularly powerful Valkyrie. "Well this was a good fight..." Without a target at this point, the Knight of the Southern Winds elected to jump into the air as the island continued crumbling, slowly circling the two combatants and waiting for a chance to strike like the bird of prey he was. This was his fight, and he would be the one to end it.

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With the original target forced into cover, Marquis decided now was a good time to swap targets. As he turned to relocate, he caught a glimpse of a number of demonic forces moving in on his position. As silent as one would expect of a mechanized sniper, he stealthed through the brush on the edge of his island, all while looking for a place to take one last shot before fighting his way out.

A solid minute later, he found the chance as he picked out Bonesword riding atop a massive vine-like creature. Not far from him was a pair of demons, one of which he knew well from Alt Signia, an owner of Silver Eyes. Staying as quiet as he could for the moment, he crouched down at the very edge of his platform before raising Bindlebane and looking through its sights. He had a chance to even the playing field for the skeleton few in the Machina trusted, and he would be damned if he let that silvery snake slip away once again. Processors overclocked as he lined up the shot, accounted for the wind speed of the altitude, and he paused for a moment. With one hand, he opened up the chamber to his rifle and removed the standard bullet that was housed within. With a movement equally as deft, a large cartridge marked with a red X was slotted into the gun with a mechanical click. His time was limited now, but that wasn't an issue. The shot was already lined up, all that was left to do with pull the trigger.

And that's what he did. While he gave away his position to Ghelgath's forces, Henry's luck would be tested by the piece of silver flying for the base of his skull at supersonic speeds. In short, it would take either a miracle or severe coincidence for that shot to not hit home. Meanwhile, the sniper rose from the bush as Bindlebane shortened to a revolver in his hand. A fresh bullet was loaded into the cylinder as the icy forces were made totally aware of where the sniper was. "Very well. You wished for a fight, then it's a lopsided one you shall receive."

Patience failed the fiery haired angel, tossing his joint against the ground in a skid of cinders before raising up against the gnarled trunk of the tree that was his cover. "Ta hell with tha mirror." He announced, as his body began to emanate a glowing yellowish light. His shadow danced and flickered across the ground as flames lapped off his silhouette, growing outward as if his body was becoming engulfed in flames. The flaming mass stepped forward from him, matching his likeness as it detached from his body and turned to look back at him. "Hey there handsome!" Uttered Zak, shooting the fiery clone of himself a wink and a grin. "Lessee how our sharp eyed friend feels about fireworks." The clone nodded, returning Zak's grin before a pair of wings formed from the flames out of it's back.

Hot air blasted through the foliage as the clone lifted into the air, shooting past Harley and out of the thicket. Singed leaves fluttered to the ground in the wake of the clones ascent as it swiftly rocketed into the air, stopping several hundred feet up. Fire erupted from it's hand as the fiery image of Zak summoned a massive spear of raging flames. In one deft motion, the clone reeled forward, heaving the oversized spear through the air at a blistering speed toward the islands above. In a sudden explosion of light and fire, the spear split apart, spreading into a flurry of smaller flaming spears which scattered forward like a school of fish. Rattling explosions rang out as some of the other floating land masses around the one Marquis was posted on were struck by several of the spears. They lodged into the bottom of each island, glowing brightly before detonating. The sound was indeed similar to fireworks as the chorus of exploding spears and roaring flames filled the area.

Chunks of debris and boulders shot out from many of the islands, hurtling outward in wild directions toward some of the aerial forces in the immediate area friend and foe alike, including the incoming Shizuka. The rest of the volley continued forward, arching through the air and raining downward toward the top of the foliage covered landmass Marquis was set up on. While his other self engaged the enemy, Zak took the opportunity to dash out from behind the tree that protected him, leaping up through the air and landing soundly on a branch next too Harley. "Alright. Ya gonna lead er' what lass?! Treasure's a callin my name. Ah can 'ear it!"

The fight had gone about as Ira was expecting it to, a manic grin growing as she slowly but surely forced Syphax back. He was holding his own against her though her speed was not relenting from the momentum of battle, an impressive feat given her damaged state. Black flames crackling her blade, she moved to meet Syphax once more blow for blow. But then a shift in the air was noticed and before she knew it, twin points of pain ripped into her.

Not even a grunt could escape as Ira was snatched forward by something with greater momentum before having her gut slammed in by a very familiar boot. Both her and Hildr would collide with the entirety of the island, ripping apart what was left of it while Syphax took to the skies. Coughing in a fit of rage, Ira stood up, both her and Hildr standing on a floating chunk of what used to be. A perfect little dueling arena.

“It’s nice to see you too daughter,” Ira said with a roll of her eyes. The chains around her form would burst into black flames before the Queen of Hell shifted out of them. Sword still held in her grip, she took ample notice of Syphax circling around them, no doubt looking for an opening. “Two on one? Where is that so-called honor and pride Heaven exhibits?” she said while raising her blade up and slamming forward, launching a crescent of black fire right at the Valkyrie.

Back on the main battlefront, Bastion gasped when she noticed some of the demon’s army begin to close in on her position. It was time to fly once again, and with a burst of her rocket boots, she zipped high into the sky. Only at an altitude she felt safe with, she barreled right around and began to launch forward fast and hard, raining down shots on Sliske and Ghelgath’s armies. Sacrificing her position didn’t mean much in this chaos so she might as well hit and run.

Back on level ground, Harley shrugged. “Common sense might dictate the treasure being related to the fact that you almost became riddled with bullets. Personally, I think the look would go nice with that attitude of yours, but that’s just me.” She remained sitting on her tree branch, grinning over the form of the cowering Zak, the sniper fire no doubt returning soon. Her silence was the only answer Zak would get regarding a mirror and she grinned wider when he finally took action instead.

Lo and behold, he did not disappoint. Treated up close and personal to a firework show, Harley marveled at the destruction Zak seemed ready to dish out-that bitch. Blinking, Harley slowly turned in the direction of where Zeruel was lying. Oh, that could be a problem. Hmm…one step at a time though. “Why are you asking me? You smoked out your prize, right? So go collect it like a good boy,” Harley said. She pointed her finger in the direction Zak had fired, wondering if he was fast enough to apprehend Marquis.

---

Henry Pearl Avaritia The 2nd

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Henry was asked if he had any mortars, a quick eye roll and two portals later there were 4 mortars surrounding them. "Do I have mortars? Does Sliske have a 20 foot pole up his ass? The answer is clear." Henry began moving the mortars to good locations when a gunshots rang out. What seemed like a second passed by and suddenly all the projectiles that were rocketing towards Vicotire were gone, Henry sheathing his sword in a very cool fashion.

"Should've just died like a good little angel." Henry pulled out one of his SMGs and aimed directly at Abigail, when Bonesword fell out of the sky and stole his kill. "HEY! That was my kill random demon! Learn your place!" Bonesword drew his blade towards Henry and Victoire and Henry let out a sigh. He aimed his gun right at Bonesword and flicked a small switch on the side, shifting it into it's alternative flamethrower mode. Henry started firing at Bonesword, attempting to set him on fire to kill him, but was quickly interrupted by a bullet straight through the base of his skull.

Henry's eyes rapidly out up with the usual silver glow as he reconstructed the bone as quickly as it was destroyed. Luckily Henry has extensive knowledge of what skulls look like from all of his hoarding of skulls. Then he passed out.

The sweet, sweet catharsis of crushing Ira beneath her heel was enough to bring some levity to the mania beneath Hildr's helm, her voice coming across as very eager for what was to come.

"Oh my, admitting paternity so quickly, dad? I'd think you wouldn't want to admit to that so readily, what with you being a big scary demon nowadays. Fufu, of course, mom still has some photos from when you went under a different name and had some nice wings too." Hildr taunted in the face of the arcing fire, side stepping the vertical crescent as a new weapon formed in her hands.

To call it a mace was an perhaps inaccurate. It was more akin to the engine of Hibiki and Shizuka's jets affixed to a long pole with tough layer of armor over it to form the head of the maul.

"I'd ask you to surrender, but damn do I just want to tenderize you before the interrogation starts. I'm sure Peace won't be too upset once I drag you back." With a twist of her handhold, the engine burst to life with an outpouring of flame and force as the Elder Valkyrie hurled herself at Ira with an underhand swing skywards. Ira couldn't do much without some solid ground for her bushido, so Hildr didn't mind flinging her towards the Harpy if things went well.



@Mega Birb @TheWindel

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"Quit stalling wench," Ira said gruffly, launching forward of her own right to meet Hildr head on. One hand clenching the hilt of her blade, she grabbed right for the strike Hildr threw at her. Gritted teeth would betray the pain she felt as the holy weapon met with her open palm though a viel of black fire and her own armor prevented the makeshift mace from penetrating further. "Do not think of me so lowly as the common demonic fool Hildr!" Ira snarled, jerking towards the Valkyrie with a hard headbutt.

Leave it to the bloodthirsty demon to rush towards the oncoming hammer blow. Hildr growled at the impedance Ira's palm proved, keeping the both of them locked in place for the Queen of Hell to rebuke her progeny with a brutish headbutt. Angelic helm met bare and battered flesh, metal grinding as the Valkyrie held her ground and pushed back against the sloppy counter.

"When you're this weakened, you may as well be fodder." Hildr bellowed with manic glee while an ominous orange light poured from the openings of her helm, right before it exploded outwards in a burst of holy shrapnel from an equally brutish application of Golden Eyes.

"Grhnn, you bitch!" Ira said, physically blown back by Hildr's attack. Fire sparked up as she slammed her heels into whatever was left of their floating chunk, having taken a face full of the blow. As the flames leaped haphazardly and began to singe the very ground they walked upon, one of the embers landed near a single yellow flower. For some reason this was enough for the great demon queen to pause in her assault to look at it, though it was for a brief moment. Stubbornness ran in the Reinhardt family and it was no less true for the progenitor of it all, Ira throwing herself right back at her daughter.

"So let me get this straight. You just want to fight me, is that right? You got bored of the mortal world that quickly?" she snarled before launching wave after wave of dark-fueled and firery magic. "Or maybe you're still being a brat, not realizing what your actions will do for others. Always the hard head weren't you Hildr. Do you have any idea what's going to happen if you strike me down?"

"Like you'd know anything outside this place. You've always either been lording over demons, or tied to mom's bedpost. I've never known you to find a middle ground." She spat in reply, Impromptu weapon throttling down its engine while Hildr hefted it in both hands, waves of hellish flame surged towards her. While blasting her father in the face was certainly worth giving up her helm for a while, it's absence made standing in the midst of such rampant fire rather unpleasant. Rather then stand before the firestorm, Hildr gunned the engine and slammed her maul downwards to shatter the battered island they stood upon and send them into free fall once more.

Unable to resist a repeat performance, she was already hurling out a fresh rip line as she fell to reel in Ira for another round of beating. "Not this time bitch," Ira said, rather accustomed to the insult by now. Narrowed eyes enabled her to focus, watching the aim of the rip line and spinning in the air to avoid it. Eyes gleaming, Ira snatched the width of the line and pulled forward in a mockery of Hildr's earlier motion. Intent on ramming her sword right through the Valkyrie, she insured this by setting the chains on fire, the black flames traveling down the length and towards the source.

"Shit." Hildr said, dropping the rocket mace lest it send her hurtling to fast away from the battle. She should have figured that the Queen of Hell wouldn't be so easily fooled by the same trick twice, though her own biases were a bit hard to see past. Yanked through the air on a course towards her father's bloodied steel, she wasn't confident she would be parrying this strike with a sudden creation of hers. The hand still clutching the line now felt its flesh burn through the armor, the demon's flames as potent as was fitting her position, yet this didn't dissuade the Valkyrie.

Gnashing teeth still managed a slasher's smile before the encroaching demon until the air between them tore, leaving Ira staring at her own back as the blade traveled through the portal opening behind her. While all this went down, Syphax kept his distance, looking for that opening that could finish the fight against a weakened Ira in a single blow. While no such chance occurred from his angle, he did give chase when the pairing fell, catching up with ease and going as far as to speed ahead of them. Perhaps thirty-some odd feet below them he evened out and readied his greatsword to strike a specific part of her: Her sword arm, as in the right wrist in an unknowingly ironic move.

It seems the feckless arrogance of Heaven never died down, Ira left to stare at what looked like her own backside. With the speed of a warrior trained, she wretched her sword back against her side though did not stop her momentum. With a sadistic grin of her own, she embraced the portal fully with a charge. Given the positioning of it, she would end up at the same position as before. But because of that, she knew what to expect as well, forcing herself to the side and snatching one of Hildr's arms, tossing her about in the free falling air. "You never did answer my question."

The Valkyrie wasn't laughing any longer when the demon evaded her trap with irritating ease. Ira had evaded and turned the tears against Hildr, leaving her daughter to shout indignantly as she was flung out of reach and smacked into a chunk of falling rock. "Gah! Sod off. If you're already thinking of your replacement, you lost this. Take her, Harpy."

With his cue given by Hildr, Syphax changed little besides the trajectory of where he was about to swing. Rather than the wrist of Hell's Queen, he went straight for her midsection in an attempt to bisect her. "Not so cocky now, are we!?"

"What are you talking about?" Ira said, voice calm. Seeing Hildr be smacked about was enough to bring a soothing sense to her mind and she turned in the direction of the charging Harpy. With her free hand, she took the blade head on with her palm, not even flinching as Syphax's sword rammed right into her hand. Demonic blood scattered down below but at least her falling momentum was halted with Syphax stabbing her. Sword bursting into black flames, she held the sword in her tighter and attempted to stab Syphax. "You're the one who flew right into a death wish!"

Most fighters in their right mind would see a stab like that coming and would try to dodge it. Syphax, however, was more focused on the kill than logic at the moment. With barely a reaction he took the burning sword through his side, one of his clawed feet locking around Ira's right leg in the process, though making no move to try and strike again with his primary weapon. As such, this left Ira without a usable arm in close quarters with someone that you should probably never be in close quarters with if you value your health. The Harpy took advantage of this by ripping his dagger from its scabbard and raising it high in the air with his free left hand. "Are you sure I was the one that flew into the death trap?" Dramatic line given, he plunged Infernalbane downwards, towards the heart of the Queen of Hell.

Her mother had spoken often about Ira's exceptional hands, and she herself had been on the receiving end of many a beating from them in the past, but this didn't stop Hildr from cursing out loud as Ira blocked a greatsword with her palm alone. That it didn't split her arm down the middle was a horrifying mystery that baffled even an old hand of the Nexus. She winced when Ira's sword buried itself into Syphax, his immoliation all but certain in a few agonizing moments, yet this didn't stop him from striking back with impressive speed. "Damn. It really is a bitch to tear prey from a bird." Hildr grumbled, righting herself atop the falling debris as events unfolded.

The cling of metal rang out in the area and Syphax's motion would be cut off rather drastically. Perhaps it was impossible for the reckless Harpy to witness, but for a woman scorned and holding the wrath of all Hell, it was probably not too big of a surprise. With a surprising amount of dexterity, Ira had twisted her neck in a such a way that she stopped Syphax's blade by the skin of her teeth, clenching the weapon between her jaws. A look of pure hatred gleamed in her eyes and even now, smoke was pouring out of her mouth as the holy metal was burning into her teeth. Like hell she was going to let some stupid Harpy rid of her position as Hell's ruler!

At first Syphax was taken aback by this action, but then again, she was a demon. This was probably a normal thing in Hell, all things considered. His thoughts were interrupted as he felt a tree branch make solid contact with his back, and a whole 'nother series of events unfolded. Much like a cartoon with improbable survival odds, the entangled pair started trading blows with the thick evergreen forest below the islands of Arcadia, rolling and swapping blows to the back and sides from wood that was all too persistent in killing them. In what seemed like an hour of bludgeoning, the two hit the ground and split apart, Ira's sword still in Syphax's side, and Syphax's dagger still in Ira's mouth. The greatsword was lost somewhere in the middle of the two, stabbed halfway into the ground. Both parties happened to land in the mud of the forest floor.

A short moment after this, in which the pain started to catch up to him, the Harpy slowly got to his hands and knees. At this point, he could feel the fire of Ira's sword slowly consuming him, only adding to the agony he was in by now. Being the hardass he was though, he pushed himself up to his knees as everything flared with a suffering unlike anything he had felt before, and braced one hand on the hilt of the blade in his side, and one around the wound.

"Sheesh, I now endurance is genetic, but's what's birdman's excuse for surviving this?" The Elder Valkyrie said, stepping out of a tear to avoid a messy landing like they had while the debris she'd rode gouged itself a crater in the surrounding woodlands. "Even by demonic standards, you are putting us through Hell to bring you down Ira. I'd be applauding you if I weren't torn between taking you alive and just tearing out your heart so I can parade the carcass in front of your troops." Though if Hildr were a gambling woman, she'd wager it wouldn't do all that much to harm demonic morale, with them being such cutthroat bastards and all.

Hildr wasted no more time in closing the distance, sullying the cool showdown with her presence and driving her boot between Ira's shoulder blades to keep her down. "Bah, we'll do this the fun way. Can't imagine they'll keep the throne warm for your return, but you'll be cozy where I have in mind for you."

"Hildr you bitch!" Ira roared beneath her daughter's boot, slammed right back into the mud. She was a quivering mess, the adrenaline of the fight slowly leaving her system. And of course, no Demons were in sight because of course they'd let her be carted off so easily. Well...if that's what they wanted, fine. To hell with them! Whatever happened to their pathetic species next wasn't her problem now was it? Further away from the sight, a yellow flower wilted.

"A mindless puppet such as you doesn't need to know that," the mysterious girl said, cleaning the remainder of the blood on her fingers as well as some saliva on Zeruel's face. "The more important is that you do a small favor for me when you craw back to your feather bed," the girl placed a scroll case on Zeruel's hands, flashing a sinister smile as she did so, "take this message back with you. The person that it's bound for will come to you, don't worry. After all, she's spying us even now, isn't she?"

"Do this and maybe you'll get to know the name of the person who watched you squirm around on your pathetic last moments on this battle," the girl said, poking Zeruel's bleached face as Victoire's Demon Roses began to creep and crawl over him. The vicious plants fed on the weakened Angel, leaving the vampire-like girl alone, for a reason or another.



A number of things happened all of a sudden, following Henry's arrival beside Victoire. Before she could even begin to put everything in order, the greedy demon was on the ground, hit by an attack of a Machina sniper, while Bonesword held them at the point of his blade. "Tsc! The situation has degenerated far too much. I guess that haggling won't work this time, right?" Victoire said to the skeletal swordsman, still bent on her knees, besides Henry downed body. "Even if that's the case, you can have these, just as I promised," the vampire threw the fruits she had in her hand, causing them to grow rapidly as they fed on Abigail's fading essence, intent on strangling and crushing every bone on Bonesword's... skeleton, while melting him with their acidic poison.

Using the plants as a distraction, Victoire teleported Henry and herself away from there, to the woods of the same island where Omega and Tatiana fought their duel.

Soon enough, both the Machina and the Angel soldiers would notice that this was one of the islands where Victoire's roses began to spread their roots and corrupting poison. Likewise Cherry would find herself sitting on a true death trap as the Demon Roses reached the island where she was and quickly targeted the lone Machina, like Victoire's other targets. At long last, Victoire's talent for late game dominance was beginning to show itself. It was just a matter of time before the rest or Arcadia noticed the cloud of crimson death creeping on them.

Probably far too late to do anything about it.

"I guess I might as well try to secure the main trump, while I can," Victoire said to herself, before opening a Blood Portal at the reach of Ira's hand, making sure that only the Demon's leader could pass through it, while the vampire got out of it to try and help the escape. "How did such an easy win turn into this chaos?" she cursed, splashing her own blood in the air to summon numerous shadow bat familiars to provide cover and distraction. A much larger exemplar of her newest acquisition, the hellhounds, attempted to tackle Hildr and free Ira. "We do not have much time. If we fail here there's no hope of winning this fight. I might as well give all that I can," Victoire said, pouncing Syphax to try and finish him off while replacing the blood she lost up to now.

---

Huh. So this is what dying feels like.

At least that's what the skeleton would be thinking if he was hit. Within a mere instant it would seem, the skeleton was surprised to find that he was not the one hit with the poisonous fruits from Victoire, but instead his basilisk, Charlie, was the one who took the hit. The snake jolted back in sheer agony, beginning to writhe around on the ground as Victoire and Henry disappeared into the distance. Bonesword stood over his "son" and watched as he kept writhing all the way through his torment. A feeling of grief started to wash over the skeleton, a very familiar feeling at that, as he saw the cloud of sheer death starting to enclose the lands of Arcadia.

He knew what to do.

With a sorrowful look, he brought the blade he was gifted from Hohenheim down onto Charlie's head, taking it off and reducing him to a pile of basil. A small sniff could be heard from any nearby as Bonesword stared off at the fields of flowers. He knew what to do, and he'd later come to regret it.

A single order was sent out to the burning armies of Bonesword. They only had one more task to do before they were dismissed.

"Immolate the flowers. No survivors."

Many of the surviving trees, lit aflame by Henry, ran directly into the flower fields of Arcadia, setting them ablaze and scorching the land around them. There wasn't much to do at this point, but this would be one of the things that truly mattered in the long run. Of course the flying islands of Arcadia were still completely fine, but the ground was scorched clean.


@floodtalon @Lmpkio @Awesomoman64 @ReaptheMusic @Mega Birb @Lonewolf685 @TheWindel @Flamelord [ @anyone else I forgot this is hard] @KoL

Tartys

She hadn't been entirely sure at first, but Tartys felt a burst of satisfaction as the jet fighter that she had been shooting at sprouted flames, and not the kind that indicated a weapon being launched. The plane began tumbling out of the sky towards one of the islands below, and Tartys turned away from it with no further regard.

Turning around, she quickly assessed the state of the battle. Her eagles were gone, but they had done what they had aimed to do presumably. It seemed like the fighting had spread out without Zeruel around to focus on, and she could see fighting going on elsewhere. The Demons and Machina were slugging out, but more concerning was the giant cloud of red headed their way, and even she could pick up the demonic taint coming from it. It was just like those two previous battles all over again.

Well there wasn't much they could do about it, at least not yet. They still had a bit before it became the most pressing problem to deal with, and in the meanwhile the forces of Heaven needed to secure the advantage on the battlefield. She paused for a moment to enchant herself, her appearance visibly flickering in a wavy blur, to make it difficult to pin down exactly where she was standing. The same sort of spell she had used in the previous battle on Syphax. She could use the help too.

With that done she winged towards the nearest confrontation, where a demonic army of ice was advancing towards a particular island. Coming up behind, she twirled her spear before summoning her inner magical energy. The entrance would be quite impressive, the ground trembling before pillars of light lanced up into the sky beneath the ice beings that marked along, destroying them in blasts of holy energy that appeared and then faded ephemerally like the breeze, leaving only destruction in their wake.

Rapidly on the heels of that would come lancing beams of light, striking at Gelgath from where Tartys had spotted him. It might have been smarter to let him take out the Machina first, but in this case they might not have that kind of time. Best to remove the one who had an army at his disposal first, and then cleanup the rest. She was certainly ready for it as she darted about in the sky to throw spells his way.

@Mega Birb@Lmpkio

The girl's initial response disappointed the Laguna Angel as already his face became fully healed by the adrenaline-fueled regeneration while the girl licked off his blue blood from her fingers, followed by his skull-like face. Absolutely disgusting. Yet Zeruel did not flinch of such a vulgar and proactive act of humiliation. He was about to blast her into high heaven when suddenly he feels a scroll of paper in his hands. This girl wanted him to do a task, a task that would answer his question, followed by a sinister-looking smile and the remark that even now "she" was already watching them. And with a poke at his face, Zeruel suddenly found himself getting ensnared by Demon Roses coming from Victoire, in an attempt to suck his remaining power dry. Meanwhile, the girl simply stood there, not even affected by the roses, as she stood silently with a smile and watched.

Despite his energy getting sucked by the roses, the anger and adrenaline in his body began to go into overdrive. His body began to regenerate at its maximum rate, his skin healing the minorest of wounds in a matter of seconds. It would cancel out most of the energy that was sucking his body dry, but being already weakened prior it wouldn't be truly enough. It seems as if he will perish in the most humiliating way on the battlefield, his first battle in over a thousand years...

But that was when a god-send came over him. The nearby attack launched by Bonesword initiated a rapid forest fire, setting ablaze a large radius of the ground and foliage around the vicinity. The dry, hot heat would hit Zeruel, with fire sparks hitting both him and the roses entangling him. The roses, unable to stand the burning sensation of the Red Flower, loosened its grip as it crumpled up and turned brown. Now that they weren't sucking him dry, the regeneration was finally unhindered by the suction lost. Without hesitation, Zeruel's free arm turned into paper-thin tendril and sliced his prison to pieces, the burnt flower stems disintegrating into the ash-filled air. As soon as he was finished, he simply glares at the mysterious girl emotionlessly. His other arm recoils back into him, storing the scroll for future purposes, as it quickly comes back out as a tendril.

"YOU ARE WASTING MY TIME, GIRL." he booms towards her as he stands overlooking her location, his tendrils waving in the wind, "BEGONE OR BE EXTINGUISHED."

---

As both Ghelgath's and Sliske's army charges at the defending snipers, now knowing where they are, the robot Marquis decides to join the 'lopsided' fight along with the remaining snipers. Several of the Frigid soldiers died instantly as their frozen heads bursted into bits, while the Golems used their mighty arms to shield themselves from the fire. The ice mages quickly casted more spells to freeze the incoming snipers. But as they were getting the upper hand, Bastion peers from the sky and begins raining down a barrage of fire upon them. Any solider or mage caught in the fire were exploded instantly, while the others ran for cover. The Golems used their arms to shield as much as they can, but even then one by one they too fall to her might. The Ice Sergeant was able to avoid most of the fire as he attempts to hide behind a fallen golem corpse, already beginning to melt away. Using his staff, he launches several frozen shots at Bastion as he attempts to freeze her abilities, but this surely shouldn't last too long.

Meanwhile, Gelgath curses to himself as he sees Bastion annihilating his entire army. He also saw Henry getting sniped by Marquis from his position. Surely he must be dead, but there could be a chance to retrieve his body and save him from death... not like it would matter anyways. But first, he'll have to deal with the flying bastard first. He tries to find a good location and attempt to create a distance ice wall to knock the flier out of the sky from a distance. She won't know what hit her. But before he had a chance, a beam of light would pierce through his right shoulder, causing him to fall to a knee and groan in pain.

"Augh, fuck me..." he growls through his teeth as he attempts to sooth the injury with his cold touch.

He looks up to see the aggressor, Tartys. The Angel of the Second Hour of Night. Whatever that title meant. Then several others began to hit his location. Quickly, Ghelgath raises an Ice Wall to protect him from the barrage, griping tightly onto his axe. With his wounded arm, he struggles to erect four flying Blizzard Hunters to pursue her. With ghostly screeches they followed after her with speed that could match her's, firing precision beams of ice at her.

With Ira's sword still firmly lodged in his right kidney and the fire on it eating away at his flesh and feathers, Syphax's vision quite literally turned red as he watched Hildr dominate the current Queen of Hell. He felt a surge of many different emotions though him at the sight; rage, betrayal, inadequacy, to name a few. As he looked down at his own blood that now stained his hands and at the hilt buried in his torso. He could even feel his body starting to burn faster, most of his torso charred with black flame by then, everything slowly numbing as his body prepared for death. Though something struck him at that moment, a feeling he was entirely unfamiliar with, something akin to both injustice and envy. His breathing became labored as his right hand clasped around the hilt of the blade inside him, and he choked out a few words. "Hildr..."

"GIVE ME MY KILL DAMMIT!" Every part of his body protested against movement as his mind refused to let him finally die, though his left hand met with the right around the blunt end of the weapon, and started to pull. With a savage tear that probably did much more harm than good, the red katana was forcibly removed from where it had entered his kidney and he started losing a vast amount of blood. Knuckles threatening to turn from scaly brown to white around the sword, he attempted to start a charge fueled by a blind rage not at Ira, but a Hildr, though he was stopped before he could even rise by some outside force.

This force turned out to be Victoire, the Blood Countess, an infamous Demon known for taking just about everything to bed at one time or another. He was forced onto his back by the lightweight he would normally be able to kick off without much effort, but he was on the cusp of death. With the vampire now draining his blood and a swarm of bats obscuring her figure even at this close distance, he could feel himself fading, the fire spreading faster as his vitality was quite literally drained. The sword belonging to Ira fell from his grasp as he weakened rapidly, though as he felt the flames lick at his jawline, he thought he could just barely make out the silhouette of the succubus on top of him. With the last of his strength, the ghastly flames jumping from the tips of his fingers on his right hand now, he reached out in an attempt to grab her arm and spread Ira's curse to her own faction.

No matter the result, he gave out moment later, wings twitching for a moment before rigor mortis set in unnaturally quickly and his body was fully turned to charcoal by the black fire. If his grab had been successful, he wouldn't have died alone that day.

---

---

For one reason or another, Marquis was largely ignored by the army of ice that had been sent after the other snipers, and without seeing them as an immediate threat, he decided he was better off tracking down the one responsible for bringing such a force to Arcadia. And what better place to start than the giant wall of ice that had just been formed for literally no reason? The only other explanation he could think of would've been Alexi, though her vitals had flatlined awhile ago. So with Bindlebane held in his right hand, he passed on through what was left of the frost legion and went in the direction of erected wall.

With an entirely uneventful trip over, the android pressed his back to the short side of the wall, revolver in his left hand now as he prepared to round the corner. He took a second before popping from his cover, and identified a pair of targets at that moment. One was Ghelgath, who he had spent excessive time examining during Hohenheim's Trials, a dangerous enemy to be caught alone with. However, he was wounded and there was an Angel bearing down on him, recognized as Tartys. On the other hand, no one would know who he was in this situation. This, unfortunately, was the bane of being a sniper, literally no one knew who you were at a glance.

Well, this was beside the point. Standing up straight with an arm extended, Marquis pulled a glowing pocket watch from his coat. He gave it a click and only for a fraction of a millisecond, the Nexus paused. For most, it was something totally undetectable and wouldn't have any direct impact on anyone unless they were extremely sensitive to temporal disruptions, though it gave the AI that extra moment he needed to calculate two angles that would lead to both Ghelgath and Tartys.

Directly after the disruption, the chassis' back flared oped and the trigger of Bindlebane was pulled twice, one bullet going for knee of the Ice Demon, and the other going for where Tartys' head would be in mere seconds on her flight path. True to his conversation with Alexi, he needed to take someone with total mastery over ice to do some... research, on. As if the Nexus wanted revenge for the use of his watch, the island shook visibly as he pulled the trigger on the Angel, throwing his aim off by around an inch or so.

"Ok. This bothers me." Miyu said, as she sat cross legged in the midst of a sandy wasteland, watching the battle unfold. The only audience for her voice close at hand was the Daimyo, cockpit open, sitting next to her, projecting zoom enhanced displays of the view.

"The battle's right there. But I know I can't get there in time, even though everyone else did. Probably because fucking space nonsense. Juno's a whore. Killed me twice.. " Miyu's scientific pondering took a quick detour into the lands of irate grumbling. "Or maybe long distances in the Nexus are bound with desire or something like that? It can tell I don't really want to be in that fight. It's not like I'd do anything, Juno barely had to try to do me in, Henry was untouchable and pierced my defense like it was nothing.. I really don't belong on these battlefields. Even with the hairbrained scheme of trying to unify myself to all the shield projectors wired up and powered up at home would only raise my shields by x20, which is effectively nothing when people are throwing attacks with function infinite firepower around. And 99% odds trying that just fries me. Like, when the fuck did Sword-Bot get black hole bombs?"

"I am an autopilot, not a Machina spec analyst." The Daimyo replied.

"Gotcha... Still.. Go cowboy, kill sword-bot! Ooooh... And exploded. And Big Angel got exploded. Tartys still looks like she's ok, and I didn't see Omega die, so I guess we're still doing ok. I hope those two make it out fine." Miyu said, before leaning back, laying down her wings in the sand. Warm, but gritty, that was gonna take a long shower to clean. But, eh, it's not like she had anything better to do, what with being too cowardly to talk to Ciel. Still didn't know why that seemed so wrong to her... Wait.

"I figured it out!"

"Jubilation, Pilot Miyu."

"I'm not afraid to talk to her! Ok, well, I kinda am.. I'm afraid to get all the interesting answers spoiled to me! I don't wanna just get a boring answer, I wanna figure it out myself. That's why I didn't just ask Hoho, I wanted to figure that gravity swirly wirly chaos myself. I was so disappointed when I realized the answer was just 'Juno says so'. And that only mounted more evidence for Theory 'We're all pawns fighting for the faction leaders or someone else higher up's amusement!'. Alright, Daimyo, let's go figure out the stars ourselves!"

"Route not found."

@Inner Demon If you wanna have BEAST meet Miyu, now's a good a time as any.

"Seriously, 'you bitch'? Expand that diction of yours, cause its getting old fast and I'm liable to gag you if you have nothing interesting to say- How is that physically possible?"

Half way through her chastising, the Elder Valkyrie was compelled to witness the enraged fury of a cuckolded bird man desperate for one last act of murder before the immolation consumed him whole. He cut a dashing, if deranged, figure silhouetted within hellish flame and brandishing cursed steal with an aura of such overwhelmingly malicious intent, Hildr was certain he would have done everything in his power to claim either her or Ira's life had an outsider not intervened.

"Damn, I was getting really turned on for a minute there. Should go check on him later." Hildr lamented with an inaudible sigh, as it was marginally difficult to vocalize her malfeasance with a hound barreling into her. It had sent her a few feet back, freeing Ira as it stood atop her with jaws snapping to close around the gorget protecting Hildr's throat.

"Huh, I haven't seen such a large hound outside of the royal kennels." Were said hound not endeavoring to maim her, Hildr may have recalled an all together not unpleasant memory of her father doing something neither violent or scarring with her. Alas, the battlefield was no place for such recollection, and she was quick to wrap her armored fingers around both the hellhound's jaws and pull.

The whines of a beast having it jaws dislocated was unpleasant even to the cruelest of sadists, but the Valkyrie muddled through it as she rose to her feet, carrying the hound by it's jaws pried wide to the point of nearly tearing loose. Seeing the one responsible already astride the harpy and eager to drink her fill regardless of whether the dark flames would hurt her or not, Hildr wasn't too keen on mercy.

"Normally, I'd be offering you a pen on my dairy farm, but frankly, I'd rather return this and see you off." Was Hildr's curt declaration before she lifted the hellhound over head and proceeded to bludgeon Victoire with her own wailing dog.

@Mega Birb @TheWindel @KoL

Before the mysterious woman had the chance to reply to Zeruel, another event, this time far more noticeable for everyone around Arcadia happened. A star, or rather, many brilliant golden shooting stars fell from the skies, producing a sound not unlike that of a mirror shattering into tiny million pieces. They seemed to tear a hole into reality itself as they entered the skies overhead and scattered themselves all across the flying lands. Curiously, the meteors seemed to hit mostly the lakes, launching millions of tons of water to the infinity of the skies, in the form of a glistening mist.

The biggest of the golden lumps would fall not too far from the position where Zeruel was, revealing that something was clearly wrong with it. There was no way that could be a natural phenomenon, the only ones who could control such power where Ciel and some of the most powerful Celestial Spirits, yet none of them was supposed to be at this battle so, who could have done it?

The answer would come shortly as the dust began to settle, unveiling a figure of yet another mysterious female, while she didn't have a really imposing height, the aura of raw power emanating from her... and certain other attributes, more than made up for it.

"You Celestials really like your dynamic entries, hmm? Just like that Dumb Snake," The vampire-like girl said to the bull, who was currently busy, dusting off her cape. "Anyway, that's not important. I finished what I came to do here. Are the rest of the... preparations on schedule?"

"Oh yeah, they are... kinda," the horned girl said, letting out a terse laugh while scratching the back of her head.

"Kinda?" The vampire-like girl, which seemed to be the one in command between the two of them, said, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, it's not my fault that Drasil won't stop complaining about what happened at the Alchemist's Laboratory, y'know? Anyway, it's better that you come and see it for yourself," the horned girl said. Only now she seemed to notice Zeruel crawling on the ground nearby and spare a moment to throw a suspicious glance at her vampiric leader. "Making new friends, eh? And here I thought that you were the antisocial type."

"Oh, you're still here? Some people really don't know when to give up," the vampire turned back to Zeruel, regarding him with even less interest than before. Obviously, she didn't ignore his foghorn of a call, replying with, "Well, I really do have to go now. It's not like I enjoy watching bugs crawling in the dirty. By the way, shouldn't you be more worried about being nearly dead in the middle of a wildfire?"

Following that, the vampire girl opened a portal and disappeared along with her companion, leaving Zeruel in the middle of the destructive inferno created by Bonesword's carelessness.



While Syphax's efforts to grab Victoire weren't wasted, his ultimate attempt to take the vampire along with him would be thwarted by nothing but Hildr's own attack, bludgeoning Victoire away from Syphax. Though, before he would be consumed by it, the harpy knight would notice that at least he succeeded in ripping off one of Victoire's arms. In the place of the stump, a blob of burning blood. Though, Victoire didn't even seem fazed by the loss of a limb.

"Tsc, that was a good try," she said, throwing the burning blood aside. "If only this was like Caroline's flames, you might really have doomed me. Sadly, it's not." As Victoire said so, she willed the blood that was once her Hellhound, to form a new arm, giving it a few testing twirls before turning to Hildr as the mass of shadow bats coalesced into many orbs swirling around Victoire.

"Now that I'm properly fed," Victoire said, as the cloud of water began to vaporize thanks to the heat from bellow, turning Arcadia into an open-air sauna, saturated with corrosive, crimson death by her roses. "I guess it's only right if I make you pay for hurting my child like that." As Victoire said so, she shot the Elder Valkyrie with all she had, literally trying to overwhelm Hildr with a Bullet Hell made of blood bullets, shadow lances and petal blades.

More than nothing else, Victoire hoped this would buy time for Ira to recompose herself. If they could take down Hildr, the chances of the Demons winning this battle would increase substantially.

What was supposed to be an easy victory for Heaven was soon squandered into more complications. And who else but the queen of complexity herself had chosen to make a claim in this battle but the haughty vampire, Victoire. But complexity was all that was needed to turn this conflict right back around and soon enough, a myriad of events occurred. Hildr was thrown off of Hell's Queen, the great Demon rose up with a dark roar of fury. Syphax had collapsed at long last from the effects of her black flames, her sword scattered on the ground. Picking it up, Ira turned to see her daughter face off against the primordial vampire, the usage of a dog for a weapon being a stupid idea in hindsight. "You vampires are crafty creatures," she muttered, walking behind Hildr and holding her sword out. It was two on one now and both sides were near-beaten; numbers would be the deciding factor here.

"You two are beyond stubborn." The Elder Valkyrie spat, unceremoniously discarding the remnants of Victoire's pet since it had failed to do her in. It was a stupid choice of weapon, no doubt, but some days Hildr just felt like going for shock value. Seeing as she was now surrounded by a bullet hell on one side and her edge lord father on the other, that time had passed. "Ugh, of all the people, it's you two. I literally can't think of any people I'd be less liable to surrender to. Daddy issues on one side, and off brand Black Goat on the other."

She'd have to settle for seeing if Syphax was frisky later. In the present conflict she decided that Victoire needed to be dealt with so Ira could be apprehended again. Her eyes turned into a stolid silver, forming a hulking tower shield between her and the oncoming swarm that she was all to eager to take by the handle and charge forward with. Victoire would sooner hear the ever increasing cackles of manically laughter approaching then see Hildr through the tide of crimson as it was parted with powerful strides swiftly approaching.

"What, don't compare me with tha—" Victoire was going to complain about something when she was suddenly halted by the sight of silver light flashing from Hildr's eyes. Looking with disdain at the Elder Valkyrie, she said, "Of course it had to be Eyes, huh? What does that Creep see in people like you?" As she said so, Victoire had just enough time to fly over Hildr's head, aiming to hit her with a volley of blood spears, formed from the widespread cloud of blood that kept on taking over Arcadia's landscape.

"Don't forget about Daddy Dearest," Ira said, launching from behind Hildr with a kick to her back. Given her damaged state, she would need to rely on Victoire and it was doubtful this battle would be prolonged for much later. It would end soon enough, one way or another. That was why she wasted no time in raising her blade to try and run it right through Hildr, aiming to incapacitate her just enough for Victoire to finish her off.

Had Victoire not leapt over Hildr, changing the direction with which Hildr needed to guard herself, then Ira would have had an easy time running Hildr through. As it were, the rain of projectiles rattling off Hildr's armor was met with a violent swing of her shield which inadvertently smacked the lunging sword aside. "Wait your turn."

Kick answered kick, the daughter knocking her winded father back to free herself up for ending the vampire. The shield was firmly planted in the ground, tiling forward at an acute angle while a rip line formed in her off hand. Sadly, she passed up on the typical Mortal Kombat reference, despite the many hours her children invested upon it, and hurled the barbed chain directly into the airborne vampire's chest. Ira would have a spectacular view of her subordinate being yanked from the sky and driven into the lip of the shield with such force bones would shatter and her body would fold like paper around the silver tool. "Okay Daddy Dearest, let me make this real simple for you, now that your exit ticket is coming with me. Drop the sword, and I won't use it to express your anus. Keep struggling, and I will make you bleed for a very long time."

"Gah!" Victoire didn't even had the time to react to HIldr's attack, which somehow afflicted her in such a way that even Victoire's ability to recover from a mere flesh wounds like this was void, likely an effect of Hildr's eyes, which Victoire cursed under her breath. "Ugh, I really hate this. Why something it always has to happen when I'm about to—" Victoire tried to say something, but whatever effect that attack from Hildr had, rendered her far too weak even to do so.

By the time she was kicked back, the events of this battle had concluded. Ira watched in rage as Victoire was ripped out of the sky. Great. Not one, but two Demons had been taken out of commission; even a primordial vampire seemed to be no match for the bullshit that were the Eyes. Metal clanked as Ira clasped her hand into a fist, crushing the air and glaring hateful daggers at her daughter. A quick scan of the area revealed none of the other Demons, whatever left of them there were, were anywhere their position. And she damn well knew Hildr would do everything in her power to keep her from dying, all the pain of that promise included. "Fuck you," she said simply, a sign of her defeat and disgust.

"Ira, this is the Nexus. Of course I'm going to fuck you." Hildr said with a roll of her eyes, hefting the shield with Victoire still balanced atop it before striking Ira in the temple with the lower edge. If the first blow hadn't knocked the demon out, then the second certainly would, though a third strike came to leave no room for error in this endeavor. "Now then, I really should withdraw and get you two situated for interrogation. Fufu, I'm going to love the look on Deva's face when she sees you, father."

Looking awfully pleased with herself, Hildr opened a tear back to Celestia, her oft unused quarters about to play dungeon for an unfortunate vampiric succubus and an even more maligned demon who'd likely never recover from the shame of this defeat. She whistled a jaunty tune as she dragged Ira and Victoire, departing from the Arcadian battlefield.

As one battle concluded, another was raging on like wildfire. Rather literally, because from her depth of vision Bastion could see a large forest fire and what looked like...moving trees? Moving trees on fire? That wasn't Bonesword was it? It was a very good thing she was airborne because it looked like the entirity of Arcadia was being lit on fire one island after the other. "What was the point of this if we're just going to destroy it?" she muttered to herself before zipping to the side on reflex.

It seemed the Demon army she was taking pot shots off were now fighting back; one false move and she would probably wind up dead. Keeping herself focused on the matter, she continued to speed off and fire shots into the gathered army, her mark insured to hit. The ring leader, an ice Demon by the looks of it, seemed to be pinned down by an Angel. Using this to her opportunity, she rested in one spot in the air and began firing shots off at Ghelgath's barrier. The newly summoned ice creatures weren't her problem, given that they all seemed to be targeting Tartys.

---

Tartys

Tartys watched with some satisfaction as her blow landed, drawing blood on the demon before he hid himself behind a wall of ice. As if that could really save him from the power of an angel that was intent on his defeat. She didn't entirely blame him though. He was pretty outnumbered by this point, though whether hiding instead of trying to flee for a better position was the best idea remained to be seen. She was eager to find out though.

She prepared to strike again, only to find four dragon-esque creatures coming at her with a cold fury. "Tsk," she grunted as she took off, winging through the air yet not able to outrun the things. It took all she had to slip past the beams of ice that were being cast at her, seeking to freeze her wings and send her tumbling to oblivion. She would have to fight to make it through this.

The islands were used as cover, Tartys darting this way and that as her gaze panned the skies to react to each Hunter as they drew near. Her wings strained, throwing her in different directions on a dime in order to avoid the chilling blasts that cut through the air nearby. It was a pity that the harpies seemed otherwise engaged at the moment, because they really could have been of use here in helping out with these things.

Yet she did not sit entirely on the defenesive and run. It would be a clever trick to dart through one of the smaller holes formed by the floating island, and emerging on the other side to smoke one of the Hunters wings. The light magic cut right through it, sending the thing tumbling and then smashing into the rock so it could fall to a watery grave. And good riddance to that.

Yet even in her success a new problem presented itself. It appeared that she had miscalculated how long it would take for the red cloud to arrive, and now it was engulfing her, burning and seemingly all-encompassing in its thickness. At least the Hunters were being affected too, not that it made this any easier. She gasped for breath only to find it robbed away by the red haze, yet she still forced herself to go on. Those Hunters were not stopping either after all.

Another one would be eliminated when a rock falling from an upper island smashed into it, cracking it practically in half. A rough way to go, and Tartys would be reluctant to claim credit for it entirely. That just left the two, and a sharp snap brought her soaring towards one of then. Her spear was at the ready and she twisted at the last second to strike with it as it glowed with holy power. It flared with every impact, the angel practically scraping along icy skin as she barely dodged physical blows only to at last strike at the core of the beast. It practically shone before shattering, vaporized by the heat given off.

That done, she turned to finish the last one only to be interrupted by the bullet fired by the Machina sniper. Had she known she might have been annoyed that he was willing to take the Demon alive but kill her, but she was being distracted at the moment. Even if his aim had been thrown off at the last second it had still hit her, and generally speaking while it served as a reminder for why snipers tended to aim for center of mass rather than headshots, it was nonetheless effective as blood puffed into the air and she was sent tumbling towards the ground far below. Even if she could recover, it was going to be a bit difficult to walk this one off.

@TheWindel@Mega Birb@Lmpkio@Inner Demon