It took more effort then Ananta would care to admit to round up the orphans, their en-masse discovery that they could take the form of cats left both her and the angelic nuns scrambling to catch the furry youngsters before they lost themselves in the bustle of commuters, not to mention the danger of motor vehicles they would be woefully unfamiliar with from their time in Celestia.

"Children, settle down or we won't be able to get ice cream." She chastised firmly, corraling the last of the mewling kittens amidst the balustrade of her tail curved in upon itself, her Asura arms darting out to pick up any of them that tried to scramble out. All was going well enough till one of the nuns pointed to a kit who'd been approached by a local child whose feline face bespoke of the mischief all parental figures bemoaned in the friends of their charges. Shuffling forward with an awkward gait made sluggish by the kittens she had to contain, till she lift the final orphan angel from the ground and set his squirming body down with it's kin.

"Pardon me, my child. These youths are under my care and we are too new to this area for me to let them wander off so freely. Perhaps your parents can arrange for a playdate some other time when we are settled." The pink naga said beneficently yet found her gaze drift upwards the disgusting musk of a creature more carnal then your average succubus, it's voluptuous figure reposed upon a tree branch over head like a resting predator. Such an unseemly feline, too slattern for even a modicum of modesty to cover herself, had Ananta salivating with an audible hunger rumbling from her stomach to the tip of her tail.

"You up there. I don't believe this to be your child. Are you a transient or do you normally stalk small children?" Ananta asked, idly playing with the tassels of her shawl as though not inclined to whip it out and bind Noire to the branch she laid upon.

---

It didn't take a genius to know why a sorcerer did not wade into battle in full plate mail, or why a warrior would only shield themselves in a silken nightgown and be done with the business of personal protection. It did, however, take personal experience to grasp the exhaustion of transitioning from wearing such light vestments as robes to a set of light armor, and Suparna was cursing ever step taken between heavy pants up the steps of Celestia's most prominent palace as the blessed metal grew heavier with time.

"At last!" Suparna cried, falling to a knee as she reached the summit and felt a rush of welcome wind tostle her new Angelic Attire. It was over all tight, stuffy, and far more then she was used to, but Diana was right about a great many martial things and this was one of them. Just hurling her maggots about did her no good when everyone was either too thick skinned or too powerful for it too work alone. At least the armor would do well in protecting her shell and the maggots within, and already the shield and sword, fastened to her back and waist respectively, were prime vectors to penetrate any enemies guard and disperse her ravenous horde in the wake of a shield bash or a thrust. "Though I'm going to throttle her for not getting that feather weight enchantment on them. Doesn't she know corpses don't get stronger from exercising?!"

But her grumbling soon stilled as easily as her breath did, and she rose to enter the holiest of abodes to find her draconian friend for yet another bout of questions and answers, as she was want to do in this land of Milk and Honey. She shouldered the doors and slipped inside, immediately struck by both the grandeur and the absurdity of the room.

"Ummm, is this a bad time, Diana?" Suparna said through a suddenly parched throat, eyes turning from the Imperius visage of Deva, radiating a serene superiority even with her eyes closed, to the scene of dogs sniffing dogs a stones throw away, and finally to Diana seemingly caught against a pillar by an Angel as feared as she was respected. Colloquily known by demons both captured and defected to Heaven as the Rat Catcher, she'd had the odious honor of a brief meeting with the Vassal. It amounted to an unabashed promise of suffering should she betray the trust of Diana and Deva, along with a complimentary 'Welcome to the Neighborhood' fruit basket.

It possessed an unsurprising lack of apples, and an abundance of pamphlets about local congregations and how to devout oneself to Heaven's grand designs.

And now this vary same terror was looming over Diana and Suparna honestly couldn't read the situation for a damn. "I was just going to ask my friend about this place some of the soldiers were talking about. A training ground for your Valkyries and...others." Suparna wrung her wrists awkwardly, unable to find a nicer word then the jeers directed at what she imagined to be more akin to barbarians then proper Angels of Heaven. "They said it was Valhalla, if that means anything to you."

Atarah was smiling with her victory as her attack landed, exactly on target. Such a precise strike activated Soft Shadow Style's weakpoint targetting ability, demonic energy smashed through Utada's internals, even as Atarah's Maximum Effort magnetic fist smashed through her armored titanium skin. But then Utada did something unexpected, and clung onto her, starting to self destruct. "Serah, DOWN!" Atarah commanded, the lance ducking underneath the earth once more, just before the explosion struck.

Face down in the dirt, however, Atarah was still alive after the explosion, and she slowly started getting back to her feet. "Whah.. Huh? I'm still alive? FUCK YEAH, I'M STILL ALIVE! I'M FUCKING INVINCIBLE!" Atarah shouted to the sky, her eternal nemesis, of her victory over Utada, after realizing that she was still in alright shape. Her armored skin all over her back was cracked and worthless, but she was alive. To Go Even Further had granted Atarah half of Utada's life when it was spent in the self-destruct, which combined with how her armored skin was in perfect condition, she had just landed a devastating blow that would weaken and corrupt Utada's internal parts, and thus the explosion's potential, and her magnetic skin would be pushing Utada away, combined to tank even the point-blank explosion that otherwise would have crippled her. Atarah now had a gaping weak spot across her entire back, but, by hell, then she'd just keep her enemies in front of her and not let them know about that. Or something. Plans within plans.

"Serah, hey Serah, I'm ok! Come on out, let's find something else to kill, we're probably top tier by now or something! Maybe we'll get resurrected if we die." Atarah cheerfully waves her hand for Serah, who levitates herself back onto Atarah's chest. Looking around, she sees two potential allies, that Rose Dragon, and Marie. "Hey, Red Lady, if you need anything, let me know, otherwise I'm gonna go kill whatever that Rose Dragon is killing!" She shouted at Marie before turning to run at the Rose Dragon.

@floodtalon@Lmpkio





"Hmm.. Alright. Well, thanks for the warning. I'm gonna go find out whether existence or their dominion runs out first. I'll catch up with you later, Lillian." Miyu gratefully took her ticket, before turning around to face Daimyo and giving a wave to Lillian. She sized up the mech, before reaching out and picking it up. It was a bit of an odd sight to see a girl lift a 16 foot tall mech. "Wow, being as physically powerful as somebody like Henry or something is great. Now I get how they were all tossing you around like you weigh nothing. Anyway, hold tight." Miyu then started sprint/leaping away, simply choosing a direction, and going, though making sure to avoid any innocent pedestrians or other blockades. Normally, this would burn a lot of energy over time, but with her ability to passively siphon the energy of the world, she could keep up this superhuman speed, even under load, for theoretically forever.

Even if it turned out that the Cat's dominion and city was endless, or the plane of existence very small, at least Miyu would get to see a lot of it. Even if a tad blurry from how fast she was going.

@KoL@TheWindel@Banana



"Doof..." Pink reacted as her nose bounced into Chen's upper chest. He wasn't that much taller than her, but she had bent down fairly low as she sniffed her way towards Ruxen. "State your business." Pink opened her mouth to respond before "The two of you as well. What's the reason for this?" interrupted her. Turning on the spot to face Deva, her long hair would fwap at Chen's face while her wagging upraised tail brushed across his pants, oblivious to the space she occupied or the discomfort that might cause Chen. She once again opened her mouth to speak.

“Fuck off,” Once again cut off, Pink now turned back towards Ruxen, spinning round once more, and peeking around the side of Chen, thankfully removing her hair and tail from bother Chen, “Great. And who the hell are you supposed to be. Why don’t you find someone else to piss off before I piss off in your fucking throat,” Pink's face went about as close to unhappy as it could, that of a rather obvious attempt at puppy dog eyes. While she had natural talent in being a puppy, it was clear that she was emulating the form of sadness and disappointment rather than actually having those emotions. She was about to beg when “She may proceed. I assume she is here for Ruxen,” happened, and Pink now turned to Deva with an overflowing smile, before back to Ruxen. That was definitely close enough to permission to at least get close and ask! Pink zipped over and slid down onto her knees, face beaming with positive radiance, her hands spread forth to motion for a hug, "Aw, come on, one hug, please? I promise it'll make you feel better.. It always does! Please please please!" As much as she knew generally jumping on someone didn't make them angry in the short term, because, well, Pink ate anger, they generally disliked her violation of personal space after the contact was ceased and wouldn't let her do it again.

Pink didn't seem to pay any heed to Suparna, as Suparna didn't directly address her.

@Lonewolf685

@Lmpkio

His strikes were well defended, but Mephilius gave Flos a good swing that it didn't give him time to shield the blow. He pulled up the sisters that did block the blow, but it did push him back a considerable amount as he was taunted.

Flos chucked at the quip, and simply replied, "You're doing a pathetic job if I was able to break out of chains in front of you and do barely anything."

Mephilius made his move again, which was intimidating but it was also telegraphed loudly. It didn't take much for Flos to dash to the side, allowing the bulking force to crash into the wall, but he dashed back to hopefully nick his heel.

Wolf tried valiantly to keep the roses under control. Continually slicing, burning, and dispelling as needed, he focused all his efforts into pushing them back. At first, it seemed like it was working. As far as Wolf could tell, he had forced the the flowers to reseed a noticeable distance. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough.

As a booming roar broke through the air, Wolf quickly took his eyes off the flowers to find the source. Simultaneously, the rose dragon and he looked eyes, all but confirming the duel that was about to take place. Without hesitation, Wolf abandoned the roses and charged toward the dragon.

As the two neared each other, Wolf’s eyes flashed indicating his casting of disruption on the beast to keep it from using any sort of magic in this fight. With that taken care of all the Inquisitor could do was keep his blade forward and ready. Once in range he lept into the air and brought his halberd down aiming to impale the dragon right between it's eye.

[KoL]

"It is good to see that you recovered your composure, Thaumaturge. Your might relies on your judgment making skills, after all."Farris nodded satisfied as she noticed Saef's support. With him covering her, she could focus all of her attention at the Demons. And, it seemed like she would need the extra focus. After all, somehow, the Ice Demon managed to completely ward off Saef and Farris' combined assault with yet another wall of unholy ice. An impossibility, as far as Farris was concerned, but so it the Nature of the war.

Even then, it was clear that the Hellspawns were burning themselves off with this last stand. Going for such flashy overkill moves, like the one Gelgath's, or plain desperation attacks, like Apia's.

"..." Without saying a word, Farris flew right towards Gelgath's attack. Her shield warded off the demonic attack without hardship, while she turned her sword into a great holy crystal lance using all of her might to impale the demonic ice golem's chest. After all, there was no way to miss such an enormous target with a melee attack. Whether Gelgath was inside of it or not, was none of Farris' concern; she had to destroy the demonic construct. To finish her assault, she uttered a command "Shatter!" breaking her weapon into a blast of holy crystal shrapnel.
Wolf would find that Gravity is a harsh mistress in the worst way possible while fighting the Demon Rose Dragon. Jumping, without even having the ability to steer your course, wouldn't let him get even close to hitting a flying target but it would allow for the dragon to attack Wolf while the Machina soldier had no feasible way of dodging. Such an attack would come in the form of a veritable storm of demonic rose thorns embedded with the power of Victoire's Blood Magic as the dragon beat its massive wings, like a titanic fan, with the intent of throwing Wolf against the ground.

The wing clap was followed by the dragon diving, instead of attacking Wolf on the first flyby, the beast turned around, using the extra speed to gain even more altitude and perform an Immelmann turn, getting ready for deadly flyby attack, as soon as it was in range once more.Victoire finished her impromptu meal, killing her victim so that the random slave didn't become a ghoul. Victoire never saw the appeal in raising such low-life servants, after all.

Once she was out of the Hell's fortress lowest levels, Victoire made her way to the throne room. She requested an audience and patiently waited until she was announced before coming in. "I come to offer my sincerest praises to the mightiest power in the Nexus," she said, curtsying graciously. "'Tis with great pity that I report the inability to stand my ground. Avaritia's betrayal was," Victoire made a pause as if contemplating something before resuming her report to the Demonic leadership, "unforeseen. Nevertheless, my Demon Roses have taken over all of the Graveyard of the Lost, allowing me to summon the greatest power at my disposal before taking Avaritia down along with me."

"Pitifully, the remainder of our forces in the battlefield is composed of low born individuals. The chances of Victory are slim to none if they face any sort of Angelic opposition," Victoire added as a last remark before sneaking a peek at the Demonic Quartet before her, especially Rufus' cohort, seemingly out of apprehension.
"Is that so?" Eos replied to Henry, without pausing her current multitasking and micromanaging of several Machina related issues. "A Demon that does not know the sensation you described is a rare sight. Even if not all of your kind are as rotten as the succubus known to Our subjects as Francisca, most Demons do not forfeit self-indulgent pursuits. According to Our database, there was a thirty percent chance of the Bloody Countess and you sharing a relationship. A revision of the data has been made."

"If are not aware of it yet, do you really want to know the reason of your feelings, Unit Avaritia?" Eos asked of Henry before suddenly halting her tasks and fixing her intense gaze on him. "I only have time for one more answer, decide on your course of action as fast as possible."
"Well, I was just, erm... curious about this commotion," Diana said with certain apprehension in face of Iona. "I mean, it kinda felt like something was afoot. I had to take a look. Anyway, there's a lot of new people around here, it feels good to have this place lively —or should I say quirky?— once again," she complimented while looking at the strawberry wolf and a guy that seemed to be even more uptight than Iona.

As she waited for a reply, Diana crossed her hands behind her head and waved tail around, slowly. It looked like the dragon girl had dropped her guard around Iona in a matter of minutes. At least the smile on Diana's face made it look like it.

"Celestia is home to all Holy Beasts whether they are as mighty as you or simply exist to please the Imperator," Iona replied before turning her gaze to the ruckus Pink was causing. "Either way, it looks like your friend is waiting for you," she said as soon as Suparna came in, "I don't know what you plan to do at Valhalla; that said, try not to spite its inhabitants, if possible," Iona added before turning around and to fulfill the duty she came to do here.

"Well then, thank you, that was unexpectedly kind of yo—"

"We shall talk about your spying habits when you are back."

"Ugh! I knew it was too good to be true..."

As soon as Iona moved away, Diana took Suparna's hand and dashed away from the Heavenly Court. To adventure they go!even if later she's probably gonna get screwed.

Iona, on the other hand, walked up to Deva, bringing an ornate scroll made of what looked like a marine beast's hide. "I bring a missive from allies that call for an allegiance to Celestia. Thanks to the victory at Ruthria it seems like they were able to finally gather their forces back to presentable numbers once again. They offer information from one of the potential battlefields for the immediate future skirmishes may come to happen. Furthermore, the news from the Graveyard is promising to the Heavens. The remaining combatants are your Herald, the Thaumaturge, a lone Machina warrior and several low-class Demons, all of which are already exhausted. Unless fate has other plans in store, the victory of your forces is granted," she said, after handing the parchment to the Heavenly Ruler.

If Wolf fell prey to the Dragon's attack slamming him against the ground, he would find his situation considerably worsened by the Lance he landed on. Atarah had been moving low to the ground using the mist for cover and following the Rose Dragon, and now contributed her own spice to the Rose Dragon's attack. Wolf's only warning would be the magic of Serah transforming from egg form to lance form and Atarah activating Soft Shadow Style to create a weakpoint just before impact, thanks to his magic detection. On her own, Atarah barely exuded any magic whatsover when her skin wasn't deflecting stuff, due to her nature as a harpy, a creature with almost no innate magic beyond flight. Which Atarah didn't possess.

The combined force of all the multifarious parts of the attacks would probably leave Wolf in terrible shape if he didn't dodge some of them. Albeit, not as bad as it could be as Atarah had Serah transform into a lance slightly away from herself, rather than thrusting up from below to maximize her power. She didn't want to be flattened by a falling Wolf, because even if she successfully impaled Wolf, there would still be a hulking suit of power armor travelling very quickly towards herself, and she didn't trust her magnetic deflection enough for that.

@KoL@Awesomoman64

Henry looked confused as Eos spoke about the feeling he had experienced, talking about Francisca and relationships with Victoire. "Eh? Yeah I had a relationship with Victoire. I think we were friends, she was my only friend in Hell actually. What does that have to do with Francisca..." He trailed off as he thought about just what kind of demon she was. Suddenly a hot blush spread across his face along with a variety of other emotions.

"O-oh yeah! Of c-course I know what that was! I was just messing around, gotta prank the robot who doesn't experience those feelings haha!" Suddenly he began blushing even harder as he refused to look at Eos. "Because you don't. Right? Machina don't have... you know... se-... that thing." Henry was tripping over his own words as his brain basically melted at the thought of sex. His dad had gone over it with him in the context of fighting succubi, but it was always one of those things that was really weird for him.



Chen's gaze snapped towards Suparna and he had to hold himself back from skewering her with thousand of thorny vines. "I suppose anyone can walk into the room of the Imperator without question nowadays. I suggest you leave unless you have business here." He glared at Suparna, giving the demon a very clear message. Get out before I stop being nice. The only reason he didn't kill her on the spot is because Diana was sponsoring her and she was an important soldier. Iona soon drove out the two of them and Chen relaxed slightly, having a Demon in the same room as Deva was quite irritating.

"Thank you for your assistance Lady Iona. I am to assume you have business with the Imperator?" He walked alongside Iona, taking his place beside Deva as he watched Pink and Ruxen interact. It would appear as if the bubblegum colored wolf wanted to hug Ruxen, Chen had to hold back a laugh for the first time in a very long time. The idea of Ruxen letting someone touch her willingly was laughable, Pink was about to find that out the hard way.

@KoL@Banana@Lmpkio



Farris had the ice Demon well in hand. That left Saef to deal with the Queen Bee. She was once again going for him with one of those oversized stingers. A large swarm of her minions buzzing alongside her as her own wings sent her up towards the armored Thaumaturge. Blood poured into the frigid winds from a myriad of deep wounds. She must have possessed immense reserves of willpower to even be conscious, to say nothing of being able to launch an actual attack in her condition.

Saef swept forward to meet her charge. His scepter swept up and aside, slamming into the oncoming stinger and deflecting it. Since they were both moving towards each other this instantly left the armor clad soldier inside the guard of his opponent. With less than a second before the two swept past each other Saef called upon the superhuman speed and reflexes his ascension had granted. His left hand was encased in a blade of light and swept towards Apia's head with all the speed both he and his suit could give.

The queen bee looked on in horror as she saw the light blade near her head, coming ever so closer to her hair. The queen bee attempted to dodge out of the way of the attack, leaning backwards to try and barely miss it, but her efforts were wasted.

The hard light blade caved into Apia's skull, sawing right through her skin and skull until it smoothly glided through the brain matter, a fair amount of it sliding onto the other ends of the blade. The brain matter was not characteristically grey like you would typically expect, rather it was a reddish-pink, soaked in blood. The blade eventually ground into a halt, halting within the skull of Apia, whose eyes had rolled into the back of her head. Her Honey Rod fell from her hand as she quit breathing. The new crevasse in her head began to ooze the familiar crimson liquid. The same liquid that was plaguing this battle.

Apia's once lively body slid off of Saef's hard light blade, crashing into the snow with a thud. Blood trickled out of the head as she laid there, motionless, lifeless, and utterly dead.

Ghelgath lunges at Farris ruthlessly with murderous intent as he prepares to make a final blow. He knows he's going to die, he knows he can't pull off a safe retreat like he did in Arcadia, but if he can just take down one of these guys, he'll be satisfied with the results. The spear was closing in on his mid-section, he knows he isn't going to be able to avoid it in time, yet he must try to take the angel down with her. So when the spear pierced right into his stomach region, he tried his best to grip onto Farris as hard as he can to freeze her with his cold touch. He should be able to freeze her and take him down to death as well...

Unfortunately for him, even if Farris may have felt a cold tingle down her spine and skin, it wasn't even nearly enough to do the job justice as the spear tip explodes into multiple sharp pieces. The shrapnel slices his internal organs like butter, his heart, lungs, kidneys, intestines, they were all ruined by the attack. With a blank expression the newly reformed lich demon was pushed back to the ground by the blast as he smashes into the icy rock below. He lies down on the ground face down as he waits for his pal sweet, sweet death to finally take his life...

As he awaits his death, he sees the corpse of Apia in the distance, her head split in half by Saef's blow. Poor soul... she gave it her all, even when severely injured. She went down fighting and not running like a coward... it was rather admirable to say the least. Ghelgath issues an extremely faint smile of his mouth before exhaling his last breath as he embraces the cold beneath his crippled corpse...

@KoL



"Hmmmm."

Saef watched Apia's body begin the long fall to the ground below with bemusement on his unseen face. That blow should have passed clean through his opponent's head. Their skull had been much hardier than expected. What was even more surprising was the very definite lack of response to the holy energies in his blade. Whoever he had just killed had not been a Demon despite fighting alongside one. If it counted for anything her clothing seemed more Heavenly than anything. He shrugged and turned away, a mystery for another time.

A quick glance confirmed that Farris had dealt with her for just as swiftly. If much more flashily. Eh, the ####ed Demon had grown at least three times larger. Overkill was hardly uncalled for. It did leave the pair without foes for the moment however. Saef wanted to make sure the field was cleared of enemies before the cleanup operations began. He knew how bad things could get if you just assumed they were all dead.

There was nothing on the scanners. Nothing moving in the crimson fields directly below and no Machina sensor emissions that reached this far. That left visual scans and then what promised to be a very long and tedious grid search of the entire battlefield.

Egh

He quickly turned up the magnification on his digital binoculars and started searching the mists for signs of activity. Any sort of large scale conflict would show even through the deadly mists.

Large like a dragon?

"Farris!" He called out, raising a hand to point at the large beast in the distance. "Demon Dragon."

Apia shot out of her bed, sitting upright in her hive. She patted around her body a few times as she stared around, remembering the past events vividly in her head. Everything up until her frontal lobe was slashed... then she woke up here. She must have respawned, and despite her respawn restoring her form perfectly, her clothes were still tattered from the battle. "Oh boo." Apia muttered as she climbed out of bed, heading to her closet to put on some real clothes.

Once she was dressed, she sat down on her bed and going into thought. She couldn't do much in that battle, let alone in any other, without a serious upgrade to her arsenal. Someone like Ghelgath was able to help out with that by merging his power with her bees, making the Frozen Bees, but even with those bees, she was still fairly useless. She needed something else, something more to get her the edge she desperately needed to stand out, to fit in, to actually be able to fight. She knew how to get it, but with that path it seemed she'd have to consult one of the oligarchs to get her powers.

Between Rufus, Lucille, Ira, and Dana, only two of them stood out to Apia. Ira and Dana. Lucille was powerful and all, but from what Apia's sweeties told her, Lucille was the least likely to get a hold of her powers. Rufus was a no purely because nobody knew what he actually did.

This left Apia with two options, and naturally, she picked the one that made the most sense to her.

Grabbing her Honey Rod as she wormholed into Hell's castle, the hive mother began to search for Dana. Apia heard that Dana was a vampire, so maybe she'd get some cool vampiric powers from Dana... or maybe just indigestion. It was one or the other.

Wolf’s aggressive first strike proved to be in vain as his blade fell just short of it's mark and missed the rose dragon entirely. Leaving himself wide open, the dragon launched it's counter, sending powerful gusts of wind accompanied by waves of thorns. The Inquisitor could do nothing but trust in his power armor to protect against the thorns as he was relentlessly pelted.

While his trust was not misplaced, the damage from the thorns left his armor in ruin. One more attack like that and it would all be over. And just as he realized the danger he was in, Wolf caught a glimpse of magic activate below him. Though he attempted to dispel the lance, the force of the wind pressed him down too fast. The sound of the lance piercing through metal and flesh could be heard by all nearby as Wolf was impaled.

The Inquisitor lay still on the lance, blood dripping from every point of his broken armor. It looked as though he had met his end, when suddenly he sprung to life. Grabbing the tip of the gore covered lance, Wolf painfully pulled himself up until he was able to slip off. Slowly his rage filled eyes turned their gaze upon Atarah.

Advancing on the harpy, Wolf moved as though he hadn't just been skewered through the chest. But after taking a few steps toward Atarah, the Machina’s pace slowed, and soon his walk became staggered before dropping to his knees. Unable to stand again, Wolf slowly raised his arm cannon at the demon, only to finally topple over and succumb to death.

@KoL@The 42nd Gecko

---

Pushing forward, Balrog continued to fire upon Harvester with little resistance. It seemed as though the robot had just given up, letting every hit land as he stood there watching the colossal demon approach. It was a bit disappointing to say the least, but if this was the fate it chose, then so be it.

Just as he had planned, the moment he was in range Balrog thrust his claw straight into Harvester’s chest. Sparks flew around the gaping hole of metal as Balrog pushed further in. “Balrog heard you was smart.” The demon cackled as he ripped his claw out of Harvester, “Guess Balrog heard wrong.” Aiming his plasma cannon at the defeated Machina’s head, Balrog was about to fire when suddenly vanished.

Realizing it had no chance of winning this fight alone, Harvester had looked for a way to take Balrog down with him rather than best him. With all its processors focusing on Balrog, it was able to warp him into the star it originally took the solar mass from. Knowing it had effectively vaporized its enemy, The HR-513 shut down as it not longer could function after sustaining such damage.

"Haha, yeah, good job Serah. Take thaaa--oh shit!" Atarah was fist pumping Serah's good job at impaling the machina, but then suddenly backing off as he started to rise and attack. This guy seemed as durable as her! How was he.. Oh, good, now he's dead.

Well, might as well feed the dragon, right? This guy seemed pretty strong, so he had to have good blood. And that dragon was just a bundle of roses so it'd still feed on blood, right? "Dragon, second breakfast! Gotta get strong so you can kill all the Angels and Machina for.. Vampire Lady. I'm not sure I caught her name." She said as she grabbed the corpse and jumped up into the air, Serah bringing up rocks for her to stand upon. Not useful in battle, as someone could destroy the rock and hose her, but alright for just getting an extra thing to jump on.

Upon landing on the Rose Dragon, she squeezed with her magnetic enhanced arms to get all the blood out of that powered armor man, onto the Rose Dragon, before tossing him over the side. Even if that didn't work, maybe it'd still sprinkle onto the ground below? Then she hung on for the ride.

@KoL@Awesomoman64

"Steady yourself, this is probably the last remnants of resistance we will face," Farris replied to Saef while readying herself for the incoming threat. Fighting closer to the ground would normally be to their advantage but would also limit them to only areas where they could clear from the Demon Roses while having to fight off against their corrosive essence. In this case, tridimensional maneuverability was likely to be the best choice, they may not be faster or stronger than a humongous beast such as the dragon but, as smaller targets, they had the advantages of accuracy and evasion.

After deciding on her course of action, Farris flew even higher, summoning her sword once again. She waited for the most opportune moment to counter-attack, with a swing of her blade she shot another hail of holy crystal lances at the dragon, as soon as it entered a distance in which a target of its size couldn't dodge the attack.
After his attempt to take down Wolf failed, because the Machina soldier died, the Dragon performed another flyby over the Machina base camp. Steering sharply for a being of its bulk, to the point that one of its thorny wings brushed against the ground, opening a large C-shaped crevasse on it as the Dragon redirected its trajectory.

After taking to the high skies with another sharp turn, the Dragon crashed on Angel's side, seeking the last open opposition to its mistress' diabolical designs. The hail of interception fire coming at it would hit the beast directly were it not for the Dragon doing an even more powerful wing clap that not only sent Farris' projectiles away but also knocked her down to the ground like a meteor, hitting the ground near Saef as a veritable tempest of Demon Rose thorns and hurricane force winds blew over them.

The side effect of such a maneuver was that the Dragon was forced to the ground as well, after basically killing all of its momentum. The beast impacted the ground not far away from the two Angelic warriors, breaking the ground into the catacombs. After taking a moment to disentangle itself from the rubble, the Dragon stood up once again. A sky-splitting roar heralded its thirsty for blood. The Demon roses around it withered, becoming entangled hedges of Demonic sharp thorns while all the blood they contained slowly gathered at the Dragon's gaping maw.

Whatever is it that the beast was doing, it certainly wasn't going to be pretty, that's for sure."..." Eos remained stoic as she listened to Henry's hasty explanation. The truth couldn't be any more obvious. Even if Eos didn't have with behavioral analysis capabilities, she would be able to tell that Henry's boast was as empty. What happened after that would be shocking to a life-long follower of the Machina High Queen. Henry was the first being —in the Nexus— to see ever Eos' lips twist in a slightly smug grin as she walked past him. "You would be surprised," Eos said, touching Henry's shoulder, just as she took her way out of her audience chamber, right before disappearing amid the pale coolant mist.
"Allies requested to join Celestia's ranks after the Battle of Ruthria," Iona replied to Chen as she waited for Deva's judgment. "I cannot help but feel that this has the Stargazer's hand on it. That said, their abilities will be invaluable for the next main conflict that is brewing between the Triumvirate. Now that I think about it, your abilities —as ironic as they may be— would be effective in the case that conflict breaks," she added.

@KoL



The dragon was fast, fast enough to slap Farris into the ground before she could do more than launch a volley of holy spikes. Saef had been too busy to catch her as she flew past. His hands and mind preoccupied with the globe of power he was forming between outstretched fingers. This was real power he was working with here and the energy pouring out of his soul lit his eyes with a radiance that the visor did nothing to hide.

This foe was on another level from the pair they had previously faced. A full sized dragon capable of freely calling upon the blood roses in the area. It called for an appropriate response. A serious response.

Flashes of light sparked into being around the Captain as Demon thorns evaporated against his shields. The surge of quantum particles from his jetpack attempting to keep him from being blown like a leaf by the hurricane winds generated by the massive wings of the beast.

As the dragon slammed itself into the ground and the catacombs below Saef continued to gather energy. Flying closer and looking for an opportune moment while he did so. The dragon obliged him by opening it's mouth really ####ing wide. Blood flowed in from the surrounding fields of red, gathering into a rather nasty looking orb in that wide open mouth.

Eh, still easier than blasting through the armor.

Before the beast could finish gathering blood for whatever Hell it had planned Saef was floating before it. With a grunt he shot both hands forward. The swirling light gathered between them erupting in a meter wide beam of radiance that blasted towards the unfinished ruby sphere and the open throat beyond. It wasn't a simple beam of light of course. He was the Heavenly Thaumaturge. A simple attack would have been a waste of his skills.

Inside the beam of light was a volley of spikes created out of hardened light. They would punch through tissue weakened and burned by the still deadly primary beam. About half a second after impact the spikes would burn up their energy in bright flares of holy light. It was a difficult bit of magic to craft and not one he could have handled without the extra change that had turned his hair white.

Saef hoped blasting a giant beam of light down the beast's throat would give Farris a chance to recover.

"Yeah! Go dragon! Hmm.. Better do something about that.." Atarah cheered on the dragon as it attacked, before seeing Saef begin to charge an attack. Looked light based. Atarah smiled.

Serah transformed into a lance, and rocks swirled around her, forming a bigger and bigger lance, and when Saef launched his attack, Atarah jumped to the Rose Dragon's snout and shoved Serah forward, activating her Soft Shadow Style as she did. The Soft Shadow Style that had been created precisely to defeat hard light.

The majority of Saef's meter wide laser deflected off Atarah's Magnetic Aura, hitting neither her nor the Rose Dragon. By choosing to hide layers upon layers within his spell, rather than simply making the whole thing one holy laser, Saef had unknowingly weakened his attack against Atarah, who had specific counters to both light and hard light. The hard light spikes would be destroyed with hardly any impact at all, Atarah's Soft Shadow Style specifically countering them, weakening their nature and shattering them apart as Atarah thrust her lance forward to meet the beam. Only the flares of holy light a moment later would have any effect, but Serah's giant ablative barrier of rock she had formed around herself absorbed those. And those holy light flashes were the weakest of the three parts of the spell, Saef having made them last and not 100% sure of their detonation with full fury.

All in all, only one third of Saef's attack would have any effect at all, and holy power vs rock, while it broke the rock away from Serah's control, and shattered the extra layer of the lance, Atarah had countered Saef's attack for a comparable pittance of effort. And even if the whole beam had been holy light, it still would have been an even trade of energy, as Holy countered Demons, but Atarah countered Light.

Unless Farris intervened, the Rose Dragon would suck in the blood free of interference. "You'll have to try a little harder than that, Pretty boy! You'll need to fight me face to face if you want to breach my defense!" Atarah taunted Saef, still standing on the snout of the Rose Dragon, blood swirling around her into its maw.

@KoL@Silvan Haven

Edit for those from the Future: Turns out the entire attack was holy, so Atarah loses Serah and an arm off of this, in return for blocking the attack.

Prison breaks naturally spilled pandemonium into the streets, whether it was the escapees flight to freedom or the onrush of demons eager to spill their blood in a frenzy of carnage. Such debacles were costly, fruitless, but above all, interesting spectacle for the bored and indifferent. Such was the case of a portal aficionado glimpsing his labors play out from the comfort of her throne room, Rufie's feet propped up on the regal couches arm rests as her hands idly dug through a bucket of popcorn. She'd hoped to lessen the boredom of a dreary day in the Nexus by sowing Discord in the capital, but regardless of setting fire to the puppy mill or giving skeleton keys to every convict, Rufie just couldn't get a kick out of any of it. Sighing to herself she closed the viewing portal and slumped over, consigning herself to a dull attempt at napping on the job.

"You're a girl again?" The voice was brash and as obnoxious as its owner and it would have given great satisfaction to said owner if Rufie rolled her eyes or even huffed in annoyance. Dana thrived off those kind of reactions and so she had no shame in making it as blunt as possible. The school girl appeared beside Rufie's position, even daring to thrust a finger forward and poke at her cheeks rapidly. Anyone else would have gotten it lobbed off via a portal but then again, Dana would have probably liked that. "Oh wow, I guess someone got embarassed by their lack of masculinity. Was it something I said?" she asked, grinning deviously. "Or maybe you just really, reeeeally, like groping yourself, what with the boobs and everything...."

"Of course I grope myself. Who wouldn't if they had the chance? Still, i'm just not feeling the masturbation today." Rufie replied, eyes flickering towards the finger thrust to her cheek before following the hand back to the shark toothed face of her annoying other half. "Maybe I should tease you about your school girl fetish. Must be fun going on trains HOPING someone tries to molest you, little Ms. Jailbait."

In a move befitting of Dana her head turned towards the prodding digit and Rufie snapped her teeth around it, biting Dana between grinding teeth. It was only fair if she was bored then Dana could stand to suffer a little. True enough, Dana's reaction would be more than enough to amuse Rufie, that of an eye roll. After all, anyone could make the school girl cry out and moan, but only a few knew how to annoy her. She scowled even further more so at the way Rufie was dressed rather than the blood trickling her clamped digit.

"Ewwww, and what are you wearing? You look more like my mom than my husband...er, wife. Oh ho, you must reeeealllly be bored today if you're going around flocking with that kind of thing on your shoulders." The shark-toothed blonde managed to grin a little more and shrugged in place, not exactly able to go anywhere with Rufie holding her still. "Everyone loves school girls. Like, you could totes ask any Demon here and I bet they'd want to tap that," she said with a little wriggle.

There was an undeniable truth to Dana's words, and seeing as the vampire made no move to extricate her finger, Rufie thought to remind the vampire she was indeed not her mother. She reached beneath the short skirt and clutched her by Dana's firm posterior, lifting her onto the couch atop Rufie. "You don't like the wardrobe? And here I thought you were into the older woman, what with that Contractee of yours and that run away Valkyrie. Your history of past loves leads me to think you just like the older woman, regardless of your lying tongue."

"Waaaaah, that's like, totes non-consent!" Dana said with flair, flailing arms as she was rested atop Rufie. Oh, she had many things to comment on her husband's more charming form and her eyes narrowed before making herself comfortable on Rufie's lap. "Pfft, you're talking about two bimbos who likes to wear suits. Blergh, that's not what a cute school girl wears at all! But speaking of older women, you're the one who's always making compensations when you turn into one." A shark grin became a dark smirk as the vampire fidgeted around more, eyes flicking down. "Oh, didn't you think I would notice? You always make yourself taller than me like this....not to mention a few more assets if you know what I mean, oh ho! You used to be so plain but then you added special features. Trying to compensate for something, dear?" Dana said, snickering upon her wife.

As Chen followed order and dealt with the intrusion of Diana alongside Iona, the Holy Imperator cracked another eye open. This time she was directing her gaze to someone new who had entered her chambers and it wasn’t difficult to locate Suparna’s wretched form. Indeed, she could dress the part of an Angel all she would like, but the Imperator saw her true core. She would always remain a Demon in the eyes of heavenly light…but she kept her around if only to amuse Diana.

“Yield, Chen. Let Diana play with her pet,” the Imperator said, catching notice of Chen’s only suspicions towards the maggotry demon. “She knows very well the honor she has of walking among our ranks,” the Imperator continued, keeping her gaze on the demon until both she and Diana had soon departed. As the room was made quiet once more, the Imperator closed her eyes and rested, unaffected by the conversations around her.

“Oh for fuck’s sake, just leave me along you goddamn hippie!” Ruxen said, backing away from Pink’s all too cheery form. No one acted that happy without some shady intentions and she was not going to be endorsing free hugs. “Why don’t you go hug a cactus or something barf for brains. I hear it’s the exact same if you actually hugged me,” Ruxen continued to say with a scowl.

Back in the Happy Verse, the golden-tinted kitten stared up at the snake lady before curving her eyes in a glare. “Kid? Kid!?! Lady, I hope you get claws stuck in your scales,” she said, though largely ignored since Ananta had other felines to talk to. "A kid! Oh ho, you’re making one big old mistake reptile breath,” the kitten muttered, pride too broken for her to continue and she stalked off to go drown some ladybugs in a puddle or something.

No, the one Ananta was most interested in was Noire. “Nyah?” the cat said, perking her ears up as she was addressed. “Nyah~! You must have kids on the mind more than me lady. You’ve got quite the little pack following you around yourself,” Noire said with waves of her tail. She ignored the sudden blur of the weird girl with angel wings suddenly speeding off to who knew where; Miyu would find that the dimension of the Happy Verse was near-infinite anyway like any other plane of reality.

“It’s not nice to go around accusing folks newcomer. Betcha you didn’t know that’s how fights and arguments start out <.<” Noire said. This time, she was idly scratching a claw into one of the many branches surrounding her, shrugging off the glare Ananta was giving her. “Can’t a cool cat like me just hang out and relax like it’s no one’s business, nyah?”

Henry froze as Eos touched his shoulder and grinned, with one sentence his brain had melted. She left the room and left Henry standing in the middle of the room, attempting to "reboot" after that experience. Eventually he just walked out silently, he needed to do something to get his mind off of everything.

---

Chen nodded as Iona spoke, apparently he would be useful in the next battle. "If the Imperator wishes for me to join the next skirmish then I will do so. Otherwise my place is here by her side, as it has always been." Not always. A traitorous voice whispered in the back of his head. The thought was quickly banished, those times meant nothing. He was snapped out of his reverie by Ruxen's complaining, unsurprisingly she did not want a hug. Chen's face remained impassive as he cracked the knuckles of his left hand with his thumb, coincidentally as he did this a small root wrapped around Pink's foot and would cause her to trip and fall. Directly into Ruxen.