Oz closed the distance with Ada but stopped short of reaching her. Drawing back on his right foot he placed his right fist against his hip with his left hand spread over it. It was clear Ada didn't rely on her speed. Whenever he'd seen her prior she always had a flunky or companion to cover for her or help her escape. What she had here was her skill to bubble herself with that disgusting slime. It almost faltered the last time the hammer fell. Will Dacer come this time? If he doesn't she will need to use a lot more to block this one.

Behind him, Atlas used its offhand to sweep more of the minions away from it before taking the hammer in its full grasp again and slamming down toward Ada's position. The brilliant light from before charged once more in his hand and he prepared to strike with it as soon as the hammer dropped.

Alvios stood from his fiery crater, stumbling a little at first. His Lightforge form had dimmed somewhat, and the blades were scattered on the ground around him. He took a moment to look around and register exactly how much damage he had caused, and was rather impressed. Right before landing he recalled a giant mass of her army combining into some giant thing, and his impromptu technique seemed to have done the job, as well as leave a scorched path leading straight to Ada. Oz seemed to have freed himself as well, and was apparently taking full advantage of the opening. But...Dacer was missing. Alvios had completely lost his orientation with the force of "Alpha-Omega Nova Inferno." His blades rose from the ground, and he regained his full light as he heard Bruce quip about his attack from above. He smirked at the compliment.

"Hey, I've been sick and then mostly playing doctor, I have to step up to the plate somehow! Her army isn't down for the count yet, though. Looks like only Ki attacks like that can fully destroy the ooze... and considering it's tied to a certain someone..." Alvios bolted forward, a blade forming in each hand. He was prepared to back up Oz in taking down Ada; defeating her probably meant defeating her army. Plus, he had a slight personal vendetta to take care of.

He advanced towards Ada, the blades from his halo shooting out in all directions, impaling any of the slime creatures that approached. These did far more than just cut parts of them away; as they made contact, a burst of light was released, disintegrating the ooze monsters. "Oz! I'll clean up the army trying to approach you, just keep harassing Ada!"

Dacer's body recoiled for a split second at Jeff's words. He sputtered for a moment, hissing through his teeth as he tried to contain a fit of laughter, but couldn't stop it from overflowing. His composure loosened and he began laughing out loud, swaying his body left and right until his lungs were finally empty.

"Oh man, that's rich- Come on, are you fucking five?" Dacer spat, directing his attention to Jeff with his brow tightened, "I"m not under anybody's control anymore. This is just how it has to be- Exactly how I planned it. Me and you idiots, head to head. But of course you would make it about yourself." Dacer clenched his fist, digging the tips of his claws into the base of his palm. "Save Dacer. Let's do it, yeah guys, that's a great fucking idea. Let's stand up against the godlike deities from beyond the fabric of space time. Reasoning with them? No, that's stupid." Dacer turned his head towards Jenso and grit his teeth. "You're such a selfish little cunt. You could have stopped all of this, all you had to do was sacrifice yourself. But no, nobody's even considered that maybe the omnipotent demi-god that controls the fucking fabric of reality might be an honest guy. Instead of begging, or trying to take every plausible fucking angle, let's just butt heads with him and his pack of freakishly powerful side-show acts!" Dacer's stance slowly tensed up again. "You're not as important as you think you are. None of you are. Neither am I- and neither was my stupid old man. I'm going to tear your stupid resolves apart and live the rest of my life tethered to these masked freaks. I'm going to live forever, and you're going to be erased." Dacer lowered his stance and bared his sharpened teeth.

"Just like every hopeless group that tried before you."

His body's silhouette flickered, and Dacer dashed towards Jeff, firing a series of electrical slashed with his claws that sparked erratically as they flew through the air. Before reaching Jeff though, his figure vanished, and Jenso's barrier of heated air began to bend from behind. Before he could even react, Jenso's back was torn open by 4 claw-marks, and the air behind him grew intensely cold. Afterwards, Dacer appeared above Jeff, aiming to land wherever the Sage attempted to move in order to dodge his attack from earlier. Unlike Zelriane, when Dacer's speed surpassed what the heroes could perceive, he didn't slow his body to attack with precision. His attacks were wild, impossible to read, and showed no signs of stopping.

"It's just like Zelriane Says," Dacer shouted, "Power is the only truth!"

---

Ada didn't move, keeping her full attention on the Army in front of her. Several clones began jumping towards Bruce, firing more of Ada's trademark goop towards him, this time, in a different fashion. Instead of using the projectiles normally. Any attacks sent towards Bruce began to burst before making contact into a hazy violet smokescreen that spread throughout the entire sky, aimed to surround and cut off all of Bruce's exits while even more clones moved in to attack him en-masse. The same technique found its way towards Alvios. Smoke spread out from the clones he dispatched, as if they were walking bombs filled to the brim with deadly powder. But what did that smoke do, exactly? Nobody would like to find out, likely. Ada grinned as Oz's titanic figure aimed another one of its attacks towards her. Her eyes rose and she bared her lovely canines.

"Darrrrrling~"

A clash of steel resounded across Ada's half of the battlefield. In the same moment, a wall of purple ooze stood in Oz's path, blocking him off for a split moment as the hammer from earlier, Atlas' weapon of destruction, was stopped by the tip of a single elongated black blade. More clones rushed Atlas, aiming to surround its legs, and eventually topple the giant. Ada hummed a content sound and gave her savoir a thumbs up. "How's the mask fit, V?"

A newcomer held his blade at odds with Atlas' hammer with a devilish smile shining through his newly equipped black mask. His eyes glinted a fearsome silver, and his hair flourished from the impact. Above all else, his cackle brought new atmosphere to the battlefield.

"Hugs the flesh dearly with no regrets or woes, Splendidly as if I'd been born anew to this world or any other, my demeanor perhaps less forced, rather free like the soul of my departed friend and father, that is to say..." Vale rose his head and glared at Oz head on as the wall that stopped him melted away, his eyes wide and smile even wider.

"I love it!"

Jenso's eyes widened as Dacer vanished and struck him in the back, causing him to stagger forward briefly. He grit his teeth in pain. He formed another condensed heat area around himself to clash with the intense cold, as flames emerged from his right side to make him slide a bit further away from the cold area to a safe distance. 'His speed is insane...but I expected as much. This is Dacer we're talking about, after all.' He thought calmly. He decided to ignore Dacer's rant and to not get angry, seeing it as nothing more than mindless nonsence brought forth from a mix of Dacer's own personality and Ada's mind scrambling. He remembered Luke's words back in Jeff's guild.

'If you can learn to just calm yourself, you'd be unstoppable.'

He launched an omega saw at Dacer while he was in mid-air with his right hand. If Dacer chose to strike it's center to attempt to disperse it or chose to dodge it, Jenso would clench his hand shut, causing it to explode violently in white flames while it would launch smaller saws around in all directions. He hoped Dacer would have difficulity to avoid them with his current mid-air position. At the same time when he'd launched the Omega saw, he let his left hand hang lazily on his side to make it look like he wasn't doing anything with it. He began to twitch his fingers briefly, and the flames that he'd channeled into the ground earlier formed a circular area of flames in the ground underneath Jeff, which surrounded him from all sides while remaining hidden from sight. 'Flame mine...' He thought. If Dacer chose to approach Jeff at close range or land near him, the flame mine would explode immediately in a burst of white flames upon contact, and not hurt Jeff in the process since Jenso's Ki was still mixed in.

If Jenso noticed that Dacer's silhouette would flicker, he'd let the flames in his body burst out and lash out violently in all directions around him.

Overall Jeff anticipated that his friend would be this far gone by this point, but overall he refused to lose hope on bringing him back. Hearing those words seemed to slightly strike a nerve for a moment, but overall it didn't let it get to him.
"Really Dacer? ARE YOU FUCKING FIVE!?" Jeff and his 3 mirages all echoed back at him at once as the nanobot orb sparked for a moment before turning into a lighting rod and letting the rightmost mirage move in to take the hit while absorbing all of the electrical shocks into it. "I've always been nothing if not reasonable, and I know when any form of reason has gone out of the window! Do you think any amount of begging or sacrificing ourselves would have made them actually quit? And do you think that Ada isn't just gonna get bored with you and then dispose of you afterwards? We're talking about the mad woman that literally ATE my fiance! HONEST GUY MY ASS!!"

As Dacer appeared above him and the 2 mirages that were left, Jeff stayed ready for him letting one of the mirages dash upwards acting like it was ready to slice at him with a nanoblade attack but then faded away and let the orb floating inside of it explode into a flashbomb ready to blind the feline threat. While backing a bit away in order to avoid Dacer's pounce, the remaining Jeff and his mirage both began to charge up the wind cannon letting white flames that remained scattered about absorb into the gauntlets as well causing the charge color to glow a lighter blue then usual. "I never said I was important either. I'm just a normal human showing these aliens that any of us could have been here making a difference with enough work and effort! We humans are stronger then you think! And I stand by that as proof! My guild! They all stand by that too!"

At this point, 2 of the smaller towers that rotated around the main center tower were both glowing blue as if they been charging something massive this entire time.

Bruce noted the oncoming goop and smoke with a lazy eye. He'd been briefly intrigued by Dacer, but he instead chose to aid Alvios in seeing his way to Ada. Noting the smokescreen's tendency to rise, he dove downward, past the clones jumping for him, to match Alvios' pace on his hover board.

The sound of steel resounding through the air caught Sakki's attention. Bruce couldn't help but reminisce at the faint cackle that pricked his ears.

'I remember him! He's fun!' Sakki cried.

Bruce momentarily pushed Sakki back again, rearranging the dirt surrounding him and Alvios into sand that began whirling about twenty feet above them. He couldn't manipulate the air directly, but enough motion and at a great speed, he could summon artificial wind to keep the smoke at bay till they found a way to handle it. As for the creatures-

"I'm ill equipped to permanently dismantle these things," Bruce confessed to Alvios. His familiar chains shot out from his robes, snaring five muk creatures and hurling them, without puncturing them, into the chasm. "Have you anything for that smoke, Lightbringer?"

Things did not go according to Oz's initial plan but there was no way he was going to relent. He brought the energy pulsing in his hand down against the ground causing a stunning thunderclap in a small area to keep Vale off of him while backed up. Any intelligent person avoided long sharp objects pointed at them if they could. Oz jumped atop the hammer as Atlas reeled it back again and took up a place on its shoulder.

Minions were swarming his avatar and a new Order member had arrived. The only time they'd met previously Vale did... absolutely nothing. He was an unknown element. Perhaps the others knew a little better of what he'd be capable of. He had an idea but that didn't involve him coming anywhere near the vampire. "Alvios! Switch off and take on Vale." Oz looked warily at the swarm trying to topple his giant and getting closer to success.

Bruce would be helpful there. He'd already shown an affinity for turning the battlefield upside down. "Bruce clear my area!" Oz commanded. He braced himself as Atlas kicked around and dragged the hammer through a horde below. Some of the more adept minions were already climbing up Atlas' back using whatever means they had. Oz personally booted one in the face as they drew up to the shoulder he stood on. He had a chance he could take here to strike against Ada. So far she hadn't moved and even after all he'd tried she stood resolute in the same spot she started the battle. Now to test how hard that shield really was.

Oz stretched his arms to the sky, clenching his hands and pulling downwards like he were pulling something from orbit. The clouds above Ada suddenly spread, revealing a large circular area completely exposed to a clear sky. That descending force held no color, it just descended as a terrifying blur. Oz was going to try using amplified gravity to crush her along with her disgusting shield like a pimple.

"I'm not big on wide-scale attacks! It's not gonna bother me, but you'll have to come up with something else to deal with this haze!" Alvios skid to a stop, the blades around him flourishing several times to blow away the smoke with the force of their swings, before looking at the newest member of the mask crew. Long black blade, distinct speech patterns, the enigma. Alvios stood across from Vale. He'd been looking for a good swordfight. There was just one thing off about this...

"Wait. Who the hell is Vale?"

Dacer free-fell towards Jeff, using his tail to rotating his body so that he was facing Jenso's saw head-on. Instead of trying to dispatch it normally though, he caught it, coating the palms of his paws in energy as the saw grated against them, unable to pierce his Ki. Dacer did the unthinkable right afterwards. His toothy grin widened, and with his tail flipping violently, his body spun, using the momentum of the saw along with his natural movement to re-direct it towards the oncoming clone, moments before the flash bomb exploded. After this, the composition of the Flame saw changed. Jenso no longer retained any control over it, and before it struck the ground, the attack curved around, and flew into the sky, disappearing without a trace.

The flash bomb blinded Dacer for only a moment. With his previous maneuver, he tossed himself away from both Jeff and Jenso, landing on his feet nearby. "Give me a break," He spat, raising his claws and brandishing them, "We'll see what you stand for after I slash you to ribbons."

---

Vale's smile went sour. He curled his lips into a displeased frown and lowered his blade as Atlas recoiled from his block. "Oh, that's fair! I don't suppose I'm all that newsworthy when you've such... Strapping specimens threatening the validity of your reality! Oh ho-hum, jest not in my wake lest you find yourself split like a dandelion beneath the force of a child's impudent disregard for natural forces. Has Jenso ever crushed a weed, I wonder? No, no I wouldn't think so. He doesn't seem the type, too weak in the head for such results, you would be dead if not that case, yes?" Vale mocked, glanced back at Ada. She puffed out her cheeks and looked up at the sky. Vale's gaze darted back towards Alvios, and in the blink of an eye, he was already upon him, bearing his blade down on the man with immeasurable force, separating himself from Ada entirely as he darted across the field.

---

Ada, relatively alone now, revelled in her army being torn to a fraction of its former might. But with so many of her beautiful creations now gone to the wind, her limits had been slackened. She smiled as oz directed some manner of attack from above. But instead of standing still, the woman's body braced itself, and a wave of sludge carried her out of the attack's radius. The form, her posture, the flexibility and balance of her movements was unexpected, but Ada was surfing along a rising and falling column of goop that carried her further away from her starting position, and away from most of the confrontations, by extension. She glared at the bouts that had developed across the battlefield and smiled.

"Finally a chance to flaunt my style?" She moaned to herself, hugging her body eagerly and straightening her posture atop her wave of purple sludge, "Marvellous!"

Fast... and not sacrificing power for it either. Like every other damned opponent showing up these days. Alvios blocked the attack with both light-blades, studying his whimsical opponent. Tall and lithe, moving with some mixture of grace and ferocity. Black sword, longer than average. He would probably need to stay in Lightforge form a little while longer, although it seemed like the fights were separating up some, which meant he could focus on a single target rather than covering an area.

Alvios gained his footing, turning his two-sword block into a parry and moving into a riposte to at least force Vale away from him. The eight-blade halo followed up his movements, four of the blades launching forward consecutively at Vale. "None of the others mentioned a 'Vale' in the Order. Care to introduce yourself proper, or will we just let our swords to the talking?"

Vale stepped back, placing one hand behind his back neatly, and diverting Alvios' incoming thrust with the hilt of his sword, to that it missed him, grazing his stomach as it passed him by. He stepped back again, flicking his Katana unconventionally from left to right in order to deflect the followup, until he was addressed. The vampire flipped backwards, his sword shrinking down to the length of a dagger as if the steel was amorphous. Then, he bowed courteously, leaning forward with the back of his neck exposed and his ponytail flung forwards over his left shoulder. "Damien Valefor, rather, Vale will suffice, lest a wretched memory be carved into your tongue at the utterance of a father's scorn, accounted and newly acquired by his lordship, Yzeira Yezia of the Primeiran master race. I fancy such introductions so thoroughly, thought it nothing more than a trap, who would do something so underhanded and unforgivable, rats, little rats with no respect for etiquette, I reckon." Vale rose himself up, his smile still brightly shining past his wretched demeanour. He took a fencer's pose, and his dagger extended into the form of a rapier. "Would it please the audience if I'd a lick of your blood? There's a fragrant aroma, sifting past your bright exterior, a hint of bitter-sweet harshness like no other, it dances atop the bold facade so elegantly, oh, so it does, so it does after all! Do you? Do you feel it? It's there you know, begging to be sampled." Vale thrust forwards, tearing through the air so fiercely with his ebony rapier that it visibly tore forwards, rippling waves of force shooting behind him as he stepped into Alvios' zone like a deadly serpant.

Alvios was both amused and confused by his new opponent. So, he was a new member, who had very...different traits from the rest. It was almost refreshing, despite everything. He had been slaying beasts and monsters, fighting against muscles and magic, that he had forgotten the simple thrill of a good sword fight. And to top it off, his opponent was at least courteous in his viciousness.

The eight swords regrouped, folding together into two blades as Alvios blocked the thrust with the broad side of his left blade. The light sword in his right hand diffused, and reaching up, grabbed one of the newly formed blades to replace it, the light condensed so tightly that it had the appearance of white metal rather than a glow. He slashed down with the new sword at Vale's thrusting arm, as the light-sword in his left finally shattered from the force of Vale's thrust.

While all of this happened, he replied to Vale's curious introduction. "One receives what they give, and while you're the enemy, I'll save tricks and traps for necessity. I'll have to decline on letting you drink my blood, but you do you, and out of honor and respect for a swordsman's duel, my own introduction: Alvios Maeti, Scion of Light, incarnation of Helios, son of St. Argos, and apparently, as my friend up there seems to like calling me, Lightbringer."

Vale's rapier extended itself almost immediately on contact with Alvios' blade, pushing his body several feet away from the incoming slash until the scion's guard broke. He pulled his hand back, letting the newly formed light blade bounce it Rapier downwards, diverting the thrust into the ground beneath Alvios. Vale smirked, and his sword erupted vertically with the ground, not upwards, but outwards. Yes, it grew to a thickness of a broadsword, large enough that it seemed almost like Vale was wielding a wall that lined up with the center of Alvios' body perfectly. He rose his hand, pulling the massive sword up in an attempt to split the man in half with his newly formed blade.

He's relentlessly cunning... switching styles at a whim, from swiftness to precision to power, keeping me from adapting to any one style. I'll just have to rely on my advantages and pressure him in return. Alvios took to the air, zipping to the side and away to avoid the upward swing of Vale's newly-gargantuan blade, and took the other hovering blade from above him. He had abandoned his halo of defensive blades in favor of two extremely powerful ones. He performed two slashes simultaneously, a cross-shaped sharp blast of Ki headed directly at Vale. He followed it, ready to strike up close again; if Vale was going to keep extending his blade to force Alvios back, he intended to keep harassing the vampire up close and personal.

Vale's blade shrunk back down, to the point where its length from hilt to tip was only slightly taller then his body. Without delay, the vampire slammed the newly formed triangle into the ground, allowing Alvios' Ki blase to wreak havoc along the length of his weapon, protecting his thin frame behind it easily. As The Ki subsided, Vale let go of his weapon and dashed around it, pulling a small, intricate dagger from his cloak. "Peekaboo!" He shrieked, jumping towards Alvios. He was perfectly willing to take a single blow if it meant he could hit Alvios with his small, nonthreatening dagger, so he attempted just that. With his right arm, he waited for the right moment, and looked to slice at Alvios' body, with no particular preference on where his blade struck.

Alvios wasn't terribly surprised that Vale stopped the Ki blast. Perhaps not as easily as he had, but this was a member of the Order, and underestimating their strength wasn't an option. What did surprise him was Vale's sudden follow-up. Abandoning his magic sword for what appeared to be a simple dagger? Rushing headlong against a dual-wielding opponent? Sure, it would be difficult to block, parry, or counter, and Alvios would be able to get a good cut in. But...

Alvios halted his advance, stopping abruptly and kicking off of the air with a burst of Ki to counter his and move him out of Vale's path. He kept his eyes on his opponent but put too much distance between them for an efficient counter. Alvios just followed up with a single wave of Ki, keeping himself airborne and away from Vale to observe.

"At first I thought you were just eccentric, perhaps a little sadistic at first, but I'm reconsidering now. You actually want a taste of my blood, and likely for more than some sick pleasure. The amount of power focused in these blades would have done a lot more than just nick you, and I think you know that. That desperate attack, going for what would have amounted to an insignificant cut instead of something like a lethal stab. Following through, I could have possibly taken an arm. Still, a scrape on me is worse than a limb on you, isn't it?"

Vale's body slowed slightly as he reached the top of his arc. With Alvios out of reach, he was forced to dart directly downwards to avoid his next incoming slash, as if he has thorough control over his midair trajectory. The slash missed him, grazing the tip of his ponytail as he slammed against the ground, and flipped backwards. His black blade trembled in place for a moment, as if it were alive, but he grabbed the hilt before anything else happened, and morphed it back into its initial Katana-like form. The vampire looked at Alvios and snickered to himself.

"You analyze too much, unbecoming. I am not here for any intent or purpose. I've long since abandoned, thrown silly thoughts of self-importance or revenge to the curb, such silly things! Whether I die or not, I am nothing more than a desperate connoisseur of the finest caliber!" Vale place his small dagger back into his cloak and swapped the hand that held his black blade, so he wielded it most efficiently. "Yes, a taste is all I require for happiness. That's all I really wish to do anymore. Taste and move, taste and move, like a monotonous toy bird, taste and move, tip-tip-tipping my head for the better things in life." Vale readied his blade and waited for Alvios patiently.

"Taste and move..."

Alvios knew this fight wouldn't go anywhere from a distance, and he was on more of a timer than Vale was. If his Lightforged form ran out, he wouldn't have the speed or power to compare. He had to make an opportunity where he could strike down Vale without the man getting a counterattack. Trying to get in close and pressure him had become a null option, as Vale was perfectly willing to take a hit-for-hit, and that quip about blood still had Alvios uneasy.

Vale was too strong for weaker mid-ranged attacks to work, and too nimble for multiple swords to hinder him. Alvios could probably match the power with his swords now, and make up for the inferior speed with flight... but none of this provided a solution.

'You analyze too much, unbecoming.' Was he?

"If you have no intent nor purpose, no self-importance... then I pity you. Your empty heart will never compare to my resolve." Alvios twirled one of the blades in his hand, before throwing it like a javelin at Vale, immediately darting to the right and diving at him afterwards, sword at the ready. Compressing the power of his swords like this should have given them enough force that Vale couldn't flick them aside the same way as when they were separate.

Vale scoffed at Alvios' comment and readied his defensive posture. He spun his body to the left, twirling past the initial javelin, and swinging his sword in a 360 degree arc, eventually aiming to strike Alvios as he charged forwards, extending the length of his blade to do just that as it cut through the air.

"So self important, They were right about you."