---

At some point Diana had hijacked their flight, but in all fairness Suparna assumed she was more well informed then her and was welcoming of a little guidance not derived from hunting instinct.

A decision well worth it as Diana ushered them towards the unbridled maelstrom of conflict whirling over a sea she never recalled existing. Had they not been chased by an irate creature from another age then this would have been a great time to slink into the shadows and enjoy the spectator sport, but alas she was swept off her feet and carried like a blushing bride through this conflict, Diana making certain to rub up against the biggest, baddest creature she could find before taking the both of them into the water.

It was rather hard to drown a maggot, but weighed upon by Diana and her own vestments and the two dived to what they hoped was a safe distance relatively quickly. Blinking to herself in the pitch black waters, only assured of her companion by the tactile sense of arms curled around her, Suparna almost felt as though they were safe and isolated from the conflict.

Were it not for Chirada failing to dive down with them. Being a winged carcass whose most notable feature is being hollow save for the vast repository of maggots, writhing tentacle intestines, and sharpened bone, Chirada was a stubbornly buoyant bastard and hovered over the water, avian head quirked in such as way as to convey the expression,

"Well, I'm fucked."

It was still connected to the other half of the maggot collective, Suparna witnessing the battle of titans unfold with some interest, more so when Khaine burst into the cavern and began to assail the cieling in some intentional pattern she couldn't discern the cause for. Regardless, he was on the offensive and his target was the ceiling, so it didn't take a genius to guess the nature of his actions, especially when she had nothing else occupying her attention.

She reached and shook Diana, trying to motion for them to surface and escape while the monster was distracted even if it was difficult to see. "Now's the perfect time to return to our original course and blow the tunnel behind us, leaving the beasts to duke it out!"

Though perhaps she could do something to tip the scales against Titanica. Chirada's head snapped towards the colossal Vessel and snapped it's wings outwards, the weaponized corpse carrying an air of grim determination amidst a rising aura of hunger. They'd never hope to puncture it's hide in any reasonable amount of time, but Khaine had wounded it and now Zeruel was grasping it's full attenion and was likely to leave the lizard battered as well.

And open wounds were invitations for the carrion to feast!

Rocketing up into the air, Chirada was put a gnat to these titans and that was exactly what it reveled in exploiting. Worms to be trodden under foot now rising- RISING!- up to devour them from within. Racing along the curvature of it's back, every beat of its wings scattered hungry larva along open wound and scale, eager to multiply and feast as they burrowed deeper, seeking to negate and ultimately overwhelm the healing factor.

Even when Khaine would bury them beneath an impossible multitude of earth and stone, the maggots alone would be free to devour their pinned prey and perhaps move onto the rest. It wasn't certain of affiliation at the moment, but chose to leave Zeruel free of maggots so it could better distract Titanica. For now.

With a mighty heave, Zeruel slowly gets back up on his feet, his fists plunging into the depths as he unleashes another mini tsunami that churns to the shore. With Titanica powering up another atomic beam from her spines, it seems like she has an endless amount of power at her disposal. It was a blessing to have only two giants fighting it out and no more to join the fray...

But of course, in the Oblivion Dungeon, there's no such thing as "nice things".

The sword Zeruel stole from Henry, made said owner rather pissed off. Pissed off to the point that he has created his own giant fighter, his being the form of a giant mech. Now this classic 1v1, Angel against Vassal as turned into a threesome free-for-all with Hell joining in, all because Henry's blade got stolen. This is surely going to be a battle for the ages... if only the Machina joined in at this point.

As Henry's mech swipes his blade at Zeruel, the giant would take several steps back to avoid getting chopped in half. The demon may be enraged and may have powerful strikes, but he was sloppy and his rage seem to blind him in his struggle. He may have a shield with him, but what good will it do him against two powerful beings at once? As soon as Zeruel finds an opening in his defenses, Zeruel unleashes multiple eye beam at the mech, his eyes flashing three times, resulting in several large explosions that covered the mech's body.

As he was occupied with him however, Zeruel just barely dodges out of Titanica's blast and uses the blade to cut into her. His initial strikes missed her at first, but the fourth one sliced through her side. The enraged creature bellows in agony as she issues a sudden tail strike, only for the Tail to be surrounded by the Angel's tendrils. As soon as she feels herself getting pulled by him, she lifts her tail violently as she slams him into the ocean multiple times before he lets go. Zeruel tries to use his blade against her but the sudden friction made him unable to do so. He eventually lets go as he issues another eye beam at her, causing another explosion on her chest. The creature was pushed back slightly, but the blast ultimately didn't do anything to her.

As the two continue fighting, Titanica eventually finds herself tromping in a squishy substance. Looking down she sees a hoard of bugs, worms and maggots crawling up her legs and try to bury into her flesh. It wouldn't be easy to pierce through her skin like so, but eventually they began to burrow into her. She could go into the water in an attempt to drown them, but those burrowing into her skin may be harder to lodge out. Regardless she had her own version of pest control. For the third time in the Oblivion Dungeon, Titanica once again issues her Atomic Pulse, burning the maggots both on the inside of her body and the ones surrounding her within a large radius. Some of the nearby opponents will also feel this shockwave surge through them with such strength.

As Zeruel would be perhaps preoccupied with Henry, Titanica unleashes an atomic beam along the battlefield and begins aiming it in random directions. Anyone within the beam's range would immediately be felt with a burning sensation crawling through their skin and be knocked back considerably, minus the other two giants. She's getting madder and madder by the second...

Zeruel dodged out of the way of Henry's halberd with inches to spare, causing Henry to begin stepping forward to go for a stab directly at Zeruel's head(?) and get his blade back. However he stopped and raised his shield once Zeruel's eyes began flashing, firing several lasers directly at Henry which were promptly blocked. Suddenly Henry noticed an increase in power on his monitor, said increase was powering up his Halberd to ludicrous levels of cutting power. 'Holy shit it's as strong as my Cheater's Blade!' He thought as he looked at the name of the power, Traitor's Blade. How fitting. Henry vaguely noted that there was a demon on the ceiling who was trying to collapse said ceiling on everyone. This meant nothing to him, all that mattered was Zeruel's death.

Zeruel began attacking Titanica once more, stupidly grabbing the beast's tail to try and block an incoming tail strike. This worked as well as could be expected as she lifted him up instead and began slamming him into the ocean over and over. Zeruel fired off an eye blast to push her back but that's all it did. Meanwhile Henry was at work creating rockets all around him which began firing off at Zeruel to get his attention. "Don't forget that I'm around!" Henry yelled as he bashed his shield into Zeruel to stagger him for a few seconds. Immediately after that he stabbed his halberd forwards into Zeruel's torso to try and skewer him like a shish kabob, which would be made much more effective by Miyu's amazing buff. Good job bodyguard, good job.

Demons. Wolf could sense them before they even entered the room. Sending Hibiki and Shizkua back to Hyperion so their bickering wouldn't get in the way, Wolf prepared to fight whatever monstrous creature stepped through. What Wolf was not prepared for was for the fierce demons to be a child and a frog puppet. Not only this, but they showed no signs of hostility, the girl even asked if Wolf had seen her mother.

Wolf’s eyes narrowed at the pair, “What is your game here? I assure you your tricks will not work on us.” As he spoke Bonesword collapsed screaming at himself. “Your timing couldn't be worse, Skeleton.” Wolf groaned.

With Bonesword down, Wolf was now out numbered. It was not that he couldn't handle these two pests on his own, but rather it would be foolish to not use every tactical advantage available. Breathing deeply, Wolf slammed his halberd on the ground sending out a wave of energy dispelling all of the magic around them.

The roses and Bonesword’s vine shield all disintegrated relieving everyone from the mind altering effects. It wouldn't last long as the roses would mostly spread back into the room, but for now there would be a moment of clarity that would hopefully snap Bonesword out of his trance.

"Is it going to be okay?"

“He will be. You two, on the other hand, won't.” Spinning his halberd behind him Wolf raised his gun arm and opened fire on the demons.

@Banana@Lonewolf685

"Well, I guess this is as good a chance as any," Diana thought as her strategy achieved its objective of shaking Titanica off their trail. However, as soon as Khaine began to drop the whole cave on their heads, Diana realized that it was time to call it a day. Getting entombed in place such as this clearly wasn't within her plans for the immediate future.

"It's time to get out of here," Diana thought as she began to swim along with Suparna until the two of them reached the other side of the cave. From there, the clash of titans was barely noticeable. Conversely, this meant that the two diminutive girls would be all but impossible to perceive over atomic blasts, eye beams, and earth-shaking roars.

As soon as they crawled into the other side of the tunnel, god knows how far from the opposite shore of the underground lake, Diana dropped to the ground with a wet plop. "I guess that we are safe here. Let's take a break and keep going once we are rested," Diana said as she rested sprawled on the floor. Just to be sure, she summoned her staff, ready to blow the entrance of the tunnel in case anyone but Khaine found out about them. As long as that didn't happen, Diana would be content with observing the fight happening far away from them.

"Now, if only we could get some popcorn..." the dragon girl mused absentminded.

---

Well, Chirada had tried, but there was little to do when Titanica could radiate nuclear fire omni-directionally. The corpse puppet sagged it's head in foreseen disappointment and was blasted apart along with the larva nibbling away at open wounds. It could console itself that the other half of the collective was safe and sound beyond the titan's range and the pulse occured before it could have had an effect on the debris falling soon after.

Suparna emerged from the water alongside Diana, scowling darkly at the distant battle as she felt half of her number die in an instant. "Grr, now I need to either die or get a new one...wait, why would I die to make things better? That makes no sense!" Hazy memories failed to grasp why she considered being deceased as a way to heal herself, and she was left scratching her head as she sat beside Diana to watch things unfold.

"You hungry too? I just went through a drastic weight loss program, but I can share if your needing it." Suparna responded to the desire for popcorn, folding out a raised palm with a ball of maggots forming onto it. Her expression turned innocent as she offered the piece of herself to Diana,
wearing a smile that reached her eyes without mania or malevolence. "We are full of protein. Oh, and don't worry, we won't eat you from inside. After all, we're on the same side, right?"

@KoL

---

A skeleton having a panic attack and a Machina with imposing armor and no tolerance for the questions of children. Were she not in a hurry Luci may have cursed her.

She raised an artificial brow as Wolf displayed a power to dispel the illusions of this dungeon and even she felt a wave of relief wash over and push back the hallucinogenic gas. It was a very useful power, and one she'd have asked him to use upon the Queen of Hell.

Had Wolf not cast aside any sense of cooperation and fired upon them.

"Phooey." She spat, kicking the floor as bullets passed through her and out the other side, her form turning porous and perforated without any lasting harm. "You could have said no and gone on your way, ya know? Oh well."

Pulling the orb of Mother's Milk back inside her, a beach ball of slime came to rest in Luci's hands and was thrown at Wolf as quickly as it was made, encapsulating his helm in dome in green. It wasn't corrosive or toxic, merely an obstruction to his ability to breath that pressed itself against what filters and seals secluded his head in the armor to try and rupture and drown him.

"Frog," Luci said, plucking a fired bullet from where it had passed through her and tossing it to the puppet. "Deal with this, I'm going on ahead."

And there was nothing the strength of physical arms and ballistic weaponry could do to stop the fluid body of Hell's Princess jogging past the gibbering skeleton and Inquisitor and finding her Momma.

The vines around Bonesword fell to the ground as wolf dispelled the illusions in the air, and as the vines fell, so did the face of the ghostly man standing above him. That being said, the skeleton did experience a very severe headache due to the dispelling affecting his own soul. Why it did this, however, he didn't know off of the top of his head, but it hurt him beyond belief.

The Frog, however, leaped high up into the sky as Wolf opened fire on him and Luci, allowing for the Frog to dodge the bullets fairly easily. While in the air, the Frog pulled out his Rainbow Cannon, and he loaded up the similar buckshot rounds that he used frequently. As he landed, he raised his Cannon towards Wolf and opened fire, chanting the same noise as before.

"RAT-A-TAT-A-TAT-A-TAT-A-TAT-A-TAT-A-TAT-A-TAT-A-TAT-A-TAT-A-Wargh!" The seemingly endless stream of shotgun rounds was silenced as the puppet's body was impaled dead-center by a singular blade, the Shroomblade. A few seconds of shock passed before the puppet was emblazened with a green light, sending the puppet onto the ground.

Bonesword rose from the ground, still incredibly dazed by the dispel Wolf had used before. Only one of his eye sockets was illuminated by a dim green glow, but the skeleton remained alive. He staggered towards the lifeless body of the Frog, stuck on his blade, and he pulled the puppet off with a quick yank, placing the body in his knapsack in case it wasn't really dead. He kept the gun apart from the bag, though, for the same reasoning.

"Wolf... you get your ass out of that slime... we-grrgh... gotta go get the princess..."

It seemed that the beast had gone berserk. No matter. It would be buried together with everything else here.

Floating through the air with the assistance of his chains, Khaine took another look at the scene. Three mighty beings did battle below. They possessed power, certainly. Like great waves, or erupting volcanoes, reincarnated as living beings. Forces of nature that would annihilate all in their path. But, much like a force of nature, they lacked any degree of subtlety. Their power was blunt, a hammer for them to beat the world into submission with. A fool's weapon. War was fought not with weapons, but with minds, and to do battle depending on raw power alone was to tie your hands behind your back.

It was strange. Looking at the beast, and knowing what that kind of power could do if wielded by an expert.... it was saddening. Like seeing a construction project that would never be finished, or a half-eaten cake. Ah, well. If he wished to bring peace to this world then he would need to ignore such counterproductive feelings. The beast was an obstacle, nothing more.

With a thought, the detonator appeared in his hand, and he pressed the button. Instantly the mines he had placed all over the roof detonated, and Khaine rode the shockwave down. Even now the ceiling was cracking, and pieces of stone the size of busses were raining down from the sky. Weaving through the carnage on his chains Khaine made for the edge of the cavern as behind him he heard the catastrophe he had created unfolding. Within moments the bulk of the roof cracked and began sagging down, the initial pebbles being replaced by almost a solid wall of stone sliding downwards with the force to crush anything. Nothing mortal could survive that. And even the immortal beast would be trapped, until it was drained hollow by this place. Even such a mighty creature would be nothing more than a lump of meat without the will to act, the will to live.

Sliding into an open tunnel of decent size, Khaine spotted Diana and the bug-creature. Or at least half a bug-creature. Or maybe all of it in a single body? Khaine gave up. Bug creatures could not be so easily quantified.

With a slight nod at Diana he gestured, causing a wall of steel to block off the entrance. Just to be sure he placed some explosives as well, in case someone did decide to follow them. His trap wouldn't work at all if everyone could just leave. But with that done there was nothing to stop him from moving on, marching deeper into the cavern as he held his head with one hand. This place was sickening, and even he could not hold on indefinitely. How the dragon girl was holding up he would never know. Perhaps she was already broken, and taking her from this place would achieve nothing. Hpmph. It didn't matter. For now he could only keep moving forward.

Seeing his bullets were ineffective against the slime girl, he quickly change targets aiming at the Frog puppet instead. For a being made of fabric, the frog was incredibly agile and dodged most of Wolf’s shots. He was unable to get a good lock on before a slime ball collided with his head completely encasing his helmet. As it tried to seep into his breathing filters, Wolf grabbed the gooey mass on either side and in one go ripped it in half.

“You think mere slime will stop me?” Wolf scowled as he threw the two halves of the slime to the ground. Taking a step towards Luci, Wolf’s attention was taken back to Frog when he heard the sound of a gun cock.

Normal bullets wouldn’t be able to pierce his armor of course, but sensing something magical about Frog’s weapon, Wolf wasn’t about to take any chances. Dive rolling out of way, the inquisitor was able to avoid the first and only round of buckshots as Bonesword ended the puppet’s silly life.

”Good work.” Wolf said rising back to his feet and heading down the path Luci took, ”Agreed, but we must not kill her. If she truly is the daughter of hell’s queen, then she would make a valuable prisoner.”

@Banana@Lonewolf685

As the massive Laguna Angel prepares to issue a counterattack against Titanica, he suddenly notices several rockets surrounding him from all angles. Without delay, Zeruel uses the Cheater's Blade as his arms quickly extends and slices them in quick succession. He turns around as Henry issues a roaring battle call in an attempt to get his attention, but before he can issue another attack, he is suddenly met by a giant shield ramming into him at pointblank. The impact caused him to stagger for a few seconds as he is slammed back against the walls of the cave. As he looks up, he suddenly hears the ominous vrring of a beam just about to be charged up to his right, followed by the visual of Henry's mech charging at him with his halberd ready to gore him back to ground level. Quickly, Zeruel's arms transform into AT-Field-infused tendrils and latch onto the weapon just before it would hit him, pushing it upwards as the blade would pierce the rock above him. As the two would struggle to see who's more powerful, Zeruel says one thing and one thing only.

"AND DON'T FORGET THE VASSAL IN THE ROOM."

And with that, Zeruel's two other tendrils would wrap around the mech as he throws Henry to his right... right in the path of Titanica's atomic breath! The Vassal fires her deadly beam, which was directed at Zeruel, directly into the back of Henry's mech, as it would push him back considerably, if not putting a hole within him. The Laguna Angel was quick to get back on his feet as he prepares to defend himself against this brutal foe as he wields the Cheater Blade. The giant saurian issues a piercing glare at the Angel as she prepares for another attack herself.

But before anyone could actually continue commencing the fight, they can both feel several pebbles, followed by large rocks, hitting upon their heads. Looking up, they see that the ceiling above them was about to collapse!



If they both stay here, both would be trapped underneath that rubble and would take a rather long while for them to escape or even death. Zeruel tries to consider what to do. He can halt Titanica's advance for a while by sacrificing himself to take her down with him, or he can escape but cannot assure that Titanica will be trapped. It will be ineviatable that she will escape... but is it really worth it to try and stop her advance? Even if it's for a little bit? It took him a short minute to think about his chances, but regardless he finally makes his choice.

As the giant beast prepares to walk on out of the battlefield, she would suddenly feel a large sum of tendrils entangle her entire body. She roars in pure anger as she attempts to get free, trying to rip the tendrils clean off her. Her spines begin pulsating as she prepares another atomic pulse, only for her entire body to be swiftly pulled back right towards Zeruel himself, still standing up. The force of the pull was fast enough as her spines would immediately pierce the Angel's body... including his vulnerable core. However, Zeruel didn't care at this point. In fact, it was a blessing for him. All he can do is simply respawn back in Heaven, if the Oblivion Dungeon allows him that is. But even if he dies here, and for real that is, a new successor will take his mantle.

His tendrils continue wrapping around the Vassal, despite the rapid quick pulses burning away at his skin and tendrils. He would hold her off for just long enough for the ceiling to quickly burst open. Just before it gave way however, Zeruel telepathically communicates with Titanica and gives off one final message before perishing.

"MAY THE GLORY... OF DEVA AND THE GODS... HAVE MERCY... UPON YOUR BITTER SOUL..."

And with that, the ceiling comes crumbling down on the two, trapping them both under layers of rock and sadness. The rest of his forces, lead by Samael, began retreating back into the Dungeon, trying to find their way back to the portals.

Henry pushed his blade down as hard as he could, seeking to slice the arrogant Laguna Angel in half from the top down. Slowly but surely Henry forced his mechanical might upon Zeruel until he mentioned the elephant in the room. Or rather, the giant atomic lizard. Zeruel wrapped his tendrils around Henry and threw him to the right, henry attempted to stab his blade into the ground to halt his moment but it just sliced through the earth like a hot knife through butter. Suddenly alarms began going off throughout the mech as both the radiation level rose exponentially and a massive hole was torn through the mech. Henry gritted his teeth and began work on fixing the matter, forcing the metal throughout the mech to rearrange itself and fill the hole at the cost of several meters of size. Reduce, reuse, recycle indeed.

Suddenly a rumble echoed through the room. Henry tilted his head towards the ceiling and paled at the sight of the roof fucking collapsing upon them. There was no way he could survive this, it was time to fucking run. But first Henry needed his sword back. The mech began shrinking rapidly to just 10 feet tall as Henry condensed the mech and constructed some of the repurposed metal into a jetpack, shooting towards Zeruel like a bullet. As Zeruel grabbed Titanica and prepared to kill them both, Henry slammed into Zeruel's back, but he didn't stop there. His momentum continued as he went towards where he sensed the Cheater's Blade to be, near Zeruel's core unsurprisingly. He grabbed it and tore it from Zeruel's body, shooting out of Zeruel's upper torso just as he impaled himself with Titanica's spines.

"Let it be known that nobody takes Henry Pearl Avaritia the 2nd's shit and gets away with it!" Henry shouted as he continued his flight towards Miyu and Francisca. He touched down and picked them both up quickly, time to get the fuck out of this deathtrap. "You guys have fun, cool, it's time to go now before we die!" The cockpit opened up and Henry shoved the two ladies next to him, closing the cockpit as resumed his flight towards the exit of the cavern. It was a bit of a tight fit but no bones were broken so meh. He dodged around multiple rocks and stalactites falling from the ceiling making it through the exit with seconds to spare as a rock crushed one of the mech's legs and the mech went tumbling across the floor. "Whoo! I haven't felt that alive in decades!" Henry yelled as the cockpit opened up and he came tumbling out onto the floor.

"Hey hey, thanks for the ride! This is rather fun." It was a bit tight, with Fran and Miyu both perched in the same cockpit as Henry, but eh, not to bad. Besides, Miyu was a people person, who didn't mind a little hugging. Her oar was creaking a little bit in the tight space, but, eh, it didn't break.

As they flew out, Miyu didn't feel any need for her to still enhance the halberd, so she instead enhanced the hull with Cloak of Fleeting Shadow to make the rocks avoid the mech. With the sheer amount of rock falling, there was only so much it could do, but every little bit helped.

"That was pretty smooth flying. You do that a lot?" Miyu asked of Henry, before turning to Fran "Is it just me, or, are most of the people here like, crazy strong?"

Fortunately, they were at a different exit than the one Khaine had blocked off. Given that 4 different groups had arrived in this chamber from four different directions, Khaine blocking off one exit really didn't prevent escape. Just following Khaine specifically.

@floodtalon@Lucius Cypher

"Well well, this was far less entertaining than I thought it would be. At least I learned that these unwitting peons are far more useless than I thought they could ever be," Harley said to herself as soon as Titanica was buried under tons and tons of rock along with another unimportant creep. Of course, the vampire knew that this was far less than what's enough to take her dearest friend down permanently.

"I guess it's about time we get to the climax of this performance," Helena got back to her feet before snapping her fingers. A moment later all who still occupied the Oblivion Dungeon would find themselves standing on the ground of a grand amphitheater.The colossal structure which seemed to have been built as a place of entertainment for long forgotten gods was free of both the hallucinogenic fumes and mentally degrading effects that permeated the dungeon. It would be a matter of time before those previously affected by them began to return to normal. After all, Helena wanted to talk to the forces of the Nexus in their best mental capacity.

Helena took the honor spot at the tribune, from where she called for their attention with slow, dramatic clapping. "Welcome forces of the Nexus, I thank you for answering to my humble summons. While I wish we had met under better circumstances, I was forced to... test your mettle before we had a proper chance to talk," she said, grinning in a way that intentionally bared her pristine fangs to the crowd.

"Given that most of you ignored my previous proposal, I decided to come before you physically and extend my hand again, to help free you from the tyranny of the Nexus," Helena extended her hand towards the arena floor. In her grasp, she held a stone that was all too familiar to Khaine around of which a multitude of small orbs of light and darkness hovered. Anyone versed in the knowledge of the multiverse and its ways would be able to notice that the orbs formed a map, with the Nexus resting right in its center.

"As you can clearly see, I can grant you the knowledge and the power to sever the shackles that bind you. All you need to do is reach for my hand," Helena added.

"Above everything else, what all of you should be asking yourselves right now is: What do you fight for?"

"... I mean... urgh... nevermind, let's get her." Bonesword ran to Wolf's side, gripping his head tightly. What was this fucking headache? He's never had something this painful before, but he's been through losing his entire body before, so this paled very slightly in comparison. Only by slightly.

As the two chased after Luci, Bonesword's headache lessened enough for his thoughts to return, and he wondered if he told Wolf his past, maybe the spirits around him would vanish? He didn't know, but he wasn't willing to take chances and have Brock return for his life. "... I wasn't always a skeletal mushroom thing... I was human once." Would Wolf react violently, Bonesword hoped not. He really hoped not, in this case, as Wolf could make him suffer worse than death could even bring him. At least he could escape pain with death.

Then Helena appeared, warping Wolf and Bonesword to this giant amphitheater. She gave Bonesword an offer, one that actually made him think about his existence. What was he fighting for? Death was meaningless, so why did he wish to fight for so long to save those that could easily respawn just as effortlessly as he could? What was the point of stopping this war, when it was pointless in the long run? Nobody could really LOSE the war... could they? War was profitable above all else, so there wasn't much reason to end this war.

"... what's the catch?" Asking for more information wasn't bad, though.

The Oblivion Dungeon may have been turned into a mine field of erasing memory, but if one stayed true to their heart, as varied as it was, then they would no doubt find the way to the object they were looking for. Such was the case for Luci; through twists and turns of corridors, a room of mangled meaning would be what she stumbled upon. Mirrors lined the room on either side, all of them broken with their shattered remains staining the ground where she walked. In the middle of such a mess was a fuming Black Goat stomping gleefully into...something. It was loud and made squishing noises, indicating it might have once been flesh and bone. Whatever it was, it was most certainly dead by this point, Lucille manically ensuring it would never get up. "Try to look like me and mess with my head? You don't know a thing about me," she said with bubbling vitriol, her boots taking on a new layer of fresh red and green.

Luci took in a scene that was actually fairly typical for her household, though it was her mother's words more then her actions that confirmed her concerns were well founded. It was a small consolation prize she came after the fight had already been tipped into the real Lucille's favor.

"Momma!" She cried out and ran, throwing her arms around the Black Goat's waist as her head pressed against her blood stained blouse. "You have to stop. She isn't real, and this dungeon is just messing with everyone's heads! You don't need to hurt yourself here anymore."

Lucille's body seemed to pause when embraced by the smaller salad-head and she looked down to see who was grabbing at her. In Luci's good favor, she turned her attentions away from the viling slop of green and red in front of her, the liquid sunking away into the cracks of the floor. Still, that was just one enemy taken care of and Lucille looked down at the slime girl with no amusement in her gaze. "And who are you?"

"Huh? What..." The slime blinked, momentarily not comprehending what she'd heard. It was just momma being silly and teasing her, right? Sure she could be a sour puss and maybe give her a rough time, but Momma usually had better timing with her jokes then this.Her head craned up and she waited with baited breath for the punchline, yet there seemed to be no humor on Lucille's face. Her grip faltered and Luci found herself taking a step back, looking over the Queen of Hell with expression faltering between disbelief and heartbreak. "It's me...Luci, your daughter. You can't have forgotten so soon. No, no no, Momma wouldn't be beaten by this dungeon like that! Tell me you're joking, and that this is all just a gag. Please..."

"I have numerous children. What makes you so special," Lucille asked plainly, her expression of neutrality not changing. Yet she wasn't raising her blood-stained parasol on Luci either. As if sensing there was no need to, she continued to stare down the younger-looking version of herself...wait a minute. "And why are you dressed like me. What are you, some kind of fan? Or maybe you think it's funny to make fun of the Black Goat," she said, slowly raising her parasol up. "You should know naughty children wind up dead at the doorstep little girl...."

"I'm not- Grr, damn it Momma, you aren't listening!" She growled as the Black Goat raised her parasol with an air of menace, the death knell to her lessers. Her hands curled into fists and she glowered back, undaunted even in the face of vicious reprisal. "This dungeon is messing with your head and you are going to do something we'll both regret if you don't trust me here, Momma. Put down the parasol before I have to take it from you for your own good."

Lucille did no such thing, her signature weapon of choice held high for the initial strike. But her arms didn't move to commit to the action and she was left still staring down at the glowering miniature version of her. "For a child, you're awfully defiant. Whoever your mother is, they need to teach you some manners," she said, slowly setting her parasol back to her side. "You speak as if you know this place, the Oblivion Dungeon. If that's the case, why are you here. Only beings tempted with objects of desire are led astray in this place."

While Lucille backed down Luci threw her hands into the air with a noise of frustration, only to cross them across her flat chest and eye Lucille a bit less testily. "How can you know about this place yet not realize it's affecting you?! Grr, never mind. I'm here for you, not what that stupid, stupid, stupid vampire is offering everyone here." Her foot tapped at the wet stone floor idly, nerves frayed by the discomfort of the situation so soon after her own encounter with the dungeon's illusions. "And for the record, I've been taught manners. It's just been a long day and you're the cherry on the cake." Luci grumbled, gaze flickering down to the mangled remnants of a corpse beneath Lucille. "If I had your self-loathing I'd be hitting myself too."

The Black Goat stared for the longest time, more perplexed than anything by the attitude of this slime girl; although her expression didn't reveal it. Before she could try to make more sense of the situation however, Lucille found her body to be fading out of sight and out of sound. The same sort of phenomenon seemed to be happening to Luci as well. "Someone wants us for an audience. If you're going to stick around, you might as well stay behind me," Lucille said, putting herself between the slime girl and whatever would manifest in the next spot they teleported to.

What said spot was looked to be an arena of old with the one who had started it all stood high above the rest of them...them? Lucille looked around to see the remaining forces of this battle all gathered in this one place, including her own forces of Hell; assuming they were still loyal to the demonic cause. Furthermore, her head felt much lighter now that they were gone from the mass mirror room. "Yes, do enlighten us about this grand truth of yours vampire," Lucille called out, already getting annoyed at the pompous attitude. She didn't need to state what she was fighting for; it was clearly seen in her actions.

"As much as I enjoy watching you work, I really need to hit that vampire." The slime girl seethed and stepped out from Lucille's shadow, grinding a tiny fist against an open palm from beside her mother. "Come on, get on with the monologue so I can melt you into a puddle and stuff you into a blender!"

Endian didn't trust this voice, but if he tried anything she could easily react now that she was aware of his presence. She lowered her blades and stepped out from the corner, dismissing them once she saw that her foe was unarmed. Endian wasn't surprised to see that her opponent was Omega, the ghostly gunslinger that her soldiers had met in battle so long ago. Endian was confident that her weapons could easily destroy him far more effectively than her minions would have, but for now they would stay their blades. "Let's not waste any time. We need to find the sources of this place and-" And of course the room began to rumble and shift. Endian produced hard light barriers around herself in preparation of any sort of attack, only to find herself in some sort of wide amphitheater. And soon the master of this place, Helena, spoke to them.

"Well that wasn't too hard."

Once more she promised power and knowledge for those who would abandon their factions to join her. She seemed to have some sort of map which, thanks to access to Endian's knowledge database, she knew was a map of the Multiverse. Endian had very little interest in the multiverses that the Nexus was connected to mainly because even with the knowledge of their existence, Endian had no means to actually travel to those places. Such a thing was limited to the domain of the gods, demon lords, and whatever existence Eos is. Somewhat more importantly, Helena asked them all what they fought for. Endian's, or rather Krieg's, answer was one quite simple. he fought because he was made for battle. Nothing more nothing less. It was no lie and even if his birth was bizarre, his existence remain the same. Yet with Endian's higher knowledge something had changed in the way Krieg thought. He saw a bigger picture than the next battle. He didn't understand it even with Endian's knowledge, but it was still something that interested in.

"What do I fight for... If you had asked me that a few days ago, I would have told you I simply exist to fight. Even this body I inhabit is built for war, and serves the queen to continue doing battle in her name. But with what little knowledge I've gained, I've started to develop a new interest." Endian stepped forward towards Helena, her hands still at her side. She looked at the vampire-creature, her expression hidden underneath her armor's mask. "I fight to end all this chaos. Before I cared nothing, nay... I wanted the war to continue. It's what I was made for. But now I just want to see an end. Perhaps you offer the same thing..." Endian then turned her back from Helena and looked towards all the others who have gathered her. Endian could recognize many of their faces. Almost everyone she had fought before, either as Grafdakka or Endian before Krieg had taken her. "I'm sure we all want to win and to find some satisfying ending. But so long as we're enemies that will never happen. We've all be fighting, dying, and suffering because we think there's no other way. To join you just means to do all of that under your banner." Endian extended her hand out to everyone instead of towards Helena.

"If you truly care about winning, to find some reward for all your efforts, or even just to make your existence meaningful... Join me instead."

---

Sufficient to say, a lot of crazy stuff happened.

Fran herself nearly died simply from the aftermath of the big guys fighting each other, abandoning an offense solely so she could get out of the way and avoid any harm that might befall her. As Fran avoided falling rocks and radioactive lasers, she thought she saw a familiar face someo where in the distance. Fran tried to get a closer look until a giant boulder nearly crushed her, causing Fran to dodge away. "Maybe I should get a giant robot too!" Fran noted as she spotted henry putting up a fight using his mech. Eventually the giant black squiggly angel thing tackled the fire breathing nuclear lizard underneath a cave in, just as Henry flew by and picked up Fran and Miyu. "Thanks Henry. That got pretty crazy didn't it?" Of course that wasn't the end of it.

As Henry's mech crashed, Fran jumped out and landed on her feet well out of the way of any falling rocks, cut off from the rest of the others and wherever it was they were are previously. Miyu asked if everyone was always that strong to which Fran shrugged her shoulders. "That's pretty normal all things considered." Not a moment to rest before everyone was warped into some sort of Colosseum. At this point Fran wasn't really going to wrap her head around the "How" or "Why", figuring that this was just going to be how it'll be. It was that same person from before, the host of this entire realm, asking for their loyalty. Fran really did question why this person was so intent on getting their, and more importantly, Fran's help. It's not as if she's exactly a big player in this game.

"You must be really desperate if you're asking us for help." Fran rested her axe on her shoulders as she looked towards the others who have gathered here. A lot of familiar faces. Some too familiar, but also too far. "You know, I'm not the smartest demon in hell, but you're also not the first one who's promised me the power to overthrow the Big Three and yada yada yada. And while the people making those offers are way stronger than me, we still have the Big Three and I haven't heard from those talkers in years. So you can fuck with our heads and force us to teleport in your realm, big whoop. Victorie could do that if we went to her place too. You make a lot of promises and you talk big, but what can you actually do to prove that you stand a chance against any of the Big Three, or even some of their better warriors?"

@floodtalon@The 42nd Gecko@KoL

Miyu came tumbling out of the cockpit soon after Henry, asking if he did that regularly, Henry chuckled and shrugged. "Piloting giant mechs, no. Flying around and stabbing Angels, oh hell yeah." Suddenly the air shimmered around them as everyone was teleported to a coliseum looking place, with Helena immediately jumping into a speech on how they must be tested and what not. "I'd like to call bullshit, the fact that we're in the Nexus at all should be proof that we're warriors of the caliber you're looking for. But whatever, I've been looking to dump my faction recently anyways, so let's get on with the recruitment speech." Henry noted that Lucille was also there and he smiled. "Damn Lucille, sick of hanging around the Demon's already?" Her annoying slime daughter spoke up and Henry's smile lessened. "Shut it kid. Slime or not, I'll cut you down if you annoy me."

Helena held out some sort of glowing orb and said that it proved she was powerful and capable of freeing everyone. Henry snorted, this bitch was all talk frankly. Disappointing, she had sounded so much better when he first defected. "I'm disappointed, you promise us freedom from this never ending war and your only proof that you're strong enough to deliver is a glowing rock. I feel like I wasted my time defecting if all you have are words and minerals." Some random skeleton asked what the catch was and Henry nodded. Finally a Machina girl that felt familiar to Henry stepped forward. She made a great speech about how she wanted to end the war and was asked for everyone to join her.

"Gotta be honest here, she makes a better pitch than you do without the glowing rock. I choose... oh shit you're that one giant robot I helped corrupt a while back. I like the appearance change, it really suits you." Henry reached his hand towards Endian and chuckled. This was gonna be fun.

Endian.

Endian coming in with the offer.

The skeleton had three options here, it would seem. Join up with whatever hellbent scheme Helena was plotting, continue living his life of pointless existence fighting for the Machina and receiving the same trash treatment he was before, or he could join up with Endian and face a life of some actual respect. There weren't a ton of options here, and honestly, Helena felt like she couldn't be trusted by any stretch of the imagination. Hell, if this was a video game, Helena would probably be a boss fight if this went south. There was a serious lack of anything she had beneficial, and Bonesword didn't feel like he wanted any power she could grant with whatever kind of McGuffin she was holding right now.

Maybe he didn't want the war to end, but dammit was he tired of fighting for a nation that hated him. In a way, maybe this was the path he was destined to go on. The path that would take him back down a road of broken dreams, long accepted as impossibilities. Maybe this was the way that he could reunite with his lover and finally retire from fighting.

Maybe this was the right path...

Bonesword put his hand on the hilt of the Shroomblade, and he knelt towards Endian. "Endian, you have my blade."

Watching carefully as Endian stepped out from behind cover just as he had, Omega kept his hands hovering over his revolvers. If she even stepped in the wrong way he could open fire in less than a second. At first the caution seemed unnecessary as The Machina appeared genuine in her talks of a truce. Then without warning they and everyone else were teleported to a large amphitheater where the person they had just teamed up to find resided. Instinctively Omega drew his revolver and pointed them straight at Helena.

”Well speak of the devil. Guess we found her.” Omega said Endian.

Lowering his weapons for now, Omega listened to Helena as she spoke of freeing them from the Nexus and asked the question of “what did they fight for?”. Before he could really answer, most of the others in the room questioned both the vampire in both her ability to deliver and what repercussions might follow. This was then followed up by Endian pouring out her soul and making a counteroffer to join her instead.

”I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm with the demons on this one.” he stated in slight shock at his own words. ”You talk big, but you haven’t done nothing Deva and them can’t do. Even if you could do as you’ve said I highly doubt your intentions are completely honorable. Personally I’m not convinced we wouldn’t just be trading three tyrannical gods for one. Now if you want to change that, well, you’ve tested our metal and questioned our motives, I think it’s only fair we get to do the same.”

---

As they continued forward through the dungeon, Bonesword attempted conversation by saying he was once human. The information didn't really phase the Inquisitor, but if it helped the demon keep his sanity he would try to hold the conversation.

“I assumed as much. Most demons fail to hold themselves to any sort of moral code and have little in the way of self control. You, however, have no trouble following our rules and you honor the chain of command. Any reason you bring this up now?”

Before their discussion could continue, the two were warped to the amphitheater where Helena offered them and the others freedom from the Nexus. Wolf didn't even consider the offer before scoffing at it.

“And who are you to judge this place so? Is it not the Nexus that has strengthened us? The war that defined us? True death is met by so few it isn't even a factor! Anyone no matter how weak can fight without fear until they too have the skills of a matter. If we truly ever want to ascend to the level of the high three, then we must remain where were are.”