"Guh!" Things had picked up very quickly, and Alicia was forced to be swift on her feet as Soth bombarded the area of her illusion with tentacles in the notion that a wide enough coverage would hit her anyway. It was a valid thought, though what blows landed were deflected away by her enhanced uniform for the moment. She didn't want to rely on that however, and kept on the move, smacking tentacles and thrown attacks with the shaft of Star Seraph when she wasn't desperately dodging for her life.

At the same time, the situation became more clear. The Horror had extended the barrier across the room, cutting off any chance of outflanking. And the barrage of attacks meant there was little time to set things up. At least her allies were holding, though she wondered if the glyphs on the wall did anything, or if they were just decorative. Nonetheless, they were running out of time.

Then the pale girl yelled out, providing a clue. Eyes glanced upwards, to confirm what had been said. It looked like the wall didn't extend up that high. A pity she couldn't shrink, and the attacks meant a jump was unlikely to work, but it was a step. Now they just needed more, an opening, some to make this work.

As it turned out, sword girl provided the answer, given in glimpses she provided through her deadly dance of carnage with the Horror. It was hard to spot, but she could see the altar, and it began to cause some thoughts to trickle into her mind. Somehow she expected that the loss of a limb or even a head wouldn't deter a Horror, meaning that targeting the body itself was likely a futile gesture now that she had the opportunity to think about it. She would need to use an alternative target, and there was one that sprang to mind which was as good as any other she could come up with.

Whilst dodging, the plan went into action. Those with discerning eyes might notice the golden string of Star Seraph beginning to glow brighter as time went by, a result of the energy poured into it and the enchantments laid on it on the fly. She didn't want to leave anything to chance. The distraction meant that she did take some more hits, but none were sizable enough to disrupt what she was building towards before she initiated her plan.

Finishing the last of the enchantments, it was all too easy to swing into action as she flipped over another assault, threading the needle as the pulled back the drawstring and launched her bolts. "Fire in the hole!" For a normal archer this would have been impossible, but for someone with magic, it became a lot simpler. Her arrows had forsaken their traditional shape, becoming akin to bolts or a small spear. They flew true and almost in the blink of an eye. After all, they weren't real, so for someone with the power of Light, they could theoretically go that fast. Even merely faster than an actual arrow would be good enough for this.

What followed was the rest she had built up towards, as once the arrows had passed through the gap in the barrier they would curve, or bounce off the ceiling depending on the angle. The first couple of projectiles then speared down at the body, aiming for the torso or the head as if to do mortal harm to the vessel that rested in their path. Those were merely a draw, however, for the last few projectiles which glowed with their own fierce intensity from the built up energy inside them. And when those came down they would burst with a radiant force, one that would send huge slices through the altar itself as they burned with a raging intensity. As Elroy could attest from earlier, light was also heat, and that could be enough to reduce whatever the altar was to molten stone and send it crumbling.

Now then, fingers crossed that it actually made some sort of difference. At the very least it would be distracting, and that would have to be good enough for them to come up with another plan.

@ERode@DarkwolfX37@Crusader Lord

Shion simply shrugged and sat back down. She couldn't expect a newly self-appointed monarch to be able to pay that, but it was worth a shot. She'd wait to see how this group acted when their leader was away. Besides, red coins? She'd never heard of those, so the chance to get her hands on one or finding out what they did was worth sticking around for.

---

Summer rushed over through the barrage of tentacles, dodging this way and that to avoid them, finally reaching Annabelle. "Alright, what can I do to help?" she asked the girl. She had a few ideas, but suddenly Alicia changed them, firing a powerful blast at the Black Coin. "Well, crap..." She'd have to follow along with Annabelle's plan for now; hopefully she could still use her own plan if Annabelle's failed.

---

@Flamelord@Crusader Lord@ERode

As one would expect the Engine did not take being chained down kindly. It thrashed about wildly as it tore at Elroy’s shifting form with everything it had. View ports would open across its form as it struggled to tear itself free, up until it noticed the other change starting to overcome the regal boy.

For it recognized this for what it was, as it too housed the ability to perform a killing blow.

Shortly before Elroy launched them both in to the sky the Engine had stopped trying to escape the chains that kept it bound to the runaway train. That wasn’t to say it stopped attacking, never that, it was just rather than seeking to break free it turned nearly all of its attention towards inflicting as much damage as it could possibly do, almost as if it was seeking to bury in to the train.

The assault would only get worse when the two of them broke in to the clouds that were hanging so far above the graveyard. As the lightning that was housed within the storm clouds were drawn to the metallic monsters that raced through them. Lightning would rapidly strike at them, or more accurately, at Penny. Each strike would lead to a rise in tempo for the Engine’s relentless attacks, as it fed off the natural lightning use it to further bolster its already formidable offensive capabilities. Causing bursts of electricity to spark off each limb at they stuck at their foe.

This boost, this gift from the heavens, would be received once again during the return trip back to the earth far below.

It was during the decent that the Engine would prepare its escape. For Elroy had made a very simple mistake it his assumptions about Penny and her monstrous form. Externally nearly nothing changed, it still was savagely attacking at Elroy with all available options, but near it end of the long serpentine form it held, just above the tip of its tail a hatch was forming. Within that hatch was a rail launch system, for the error that Elroy had made in regards to the Monstrous nature of the Engine and Penny herself, was that she couldn’t just abandon the metal she had taken.

Moments before they impacted with the ground, using timing only made possible by a machine’s mind, the hatch would open, and from it would come the roaring discharge of the gauss system. As the Engine ejected its core components from the worm like body it forged from the forgotten scrap and offered steel.

The discarded form would instantly cease activity, like a puppet with its strings cut; none of it would lose its connection to the Engine soon however. So for now it was just dead weight.

The core of the Engine would arc out away from the impact location, and would come to a gentle landing not far from, nor long after, Elroy did, using a mixture of its hover systems, boosted by the lighting, and magnetic telekinesis, similarly boosted, between itself and the housing it had just left behind.

Upon landing it would immediately start it way towards the wreckage of Elroy’s attack. On its way it would slam its fists together and in response all the color that was around it would be blown away and along her form countless runes would begin to glow on ominous red.



It would rip its fists away from each other and twin incandescent blades overflowing with color would sprout from her knuckles as she did. Echoes of Penny in every form she had ever taken could be seen trailing in its wake.

It was going to end this.

---

Aurelio rolled with the push when it came, which wasn’t much of a surprise as there was a sudden shift in Abigail’s emotions right before it happened.

“Glad you’re back” He would try to say shortly before an exploding monster over shadowed his attempts at cheering her up. He wasn’t willing to let a chance of getting a mana refresh go to waste though and both he and his clone drew in what they could.

He was tempted to tell Abigail to hang back, but got the feeling that such an idea wouldn’t go over too well with the recently rescued girl. So instead he just shrugged and moved to follow after her, his cane dancing with a few lights as he did so.

Later, once this was all over, he would sit down and talk with Abigail and the others. For now there was a day that needed saving, and Beacon was great when it came to saving the day.

The clone Aurelio just ran a hand down his face at his own actions before turning to face Jenna and the rest of the group, a hand on Lily’s should to help keep her steadied in case she needed it. “I Doubt too many people are going to want to head out right now, but I can give a ride if you want one. One way trip and destination is Beacon HQ. Otherwise, out best bet is to try and regroup with some of the others to either help them out or get us all patched up. Relief is great for healing people after all” He would advise but otherwise wait to see what they were planning on doing, as for a small time he really could be in two places at one since he was effectively a super clone for the moment.

As stated by Abigail they needed to get going. Their allies had begun to come in and push back the darkness. With Lily completely out of mana it would be best to leave her with the advancing Beacon forces. Turning to the lightning girl Janet spoke up. "Thank you for helping us save Abigail." Looking over toward the outer area of the graveyard she could sense others coming in. "Our sisters are breaking through the darkness. Lily, you could join them for protection as well. The rest of us can carry on to support the others." She and Jenna followed after Abigail so as not to leave her alone.

Having some direction the twins pushed through the smoke and into another opening. Once they were able to see again there was a lot going on. Obviously there was the crypt surrounded by the barrier. Looking up though they could see... a massive train pushing a giant worm through the sky? What in the world was going on? Fighting titans like these was not in the cards, not that either of the girls really thought they could after expending a fair amount of mana. The massive creatures crashed into the ground but it looked like one of them had ejected someone. After a moment it looked like it was Penny. She appeared to be holding her own pretty well. "You guys continue to the crypt. I'm going to support Penny."

"Gotcha. Let me know if you need help." Jenna turned toward the barrier and continued on as Janet ran off to join Penny.

---

Rina could only watch as her blade flew true, only meeting interference from Elroy, snapping the blade in half, but thankfully leaving Penny with the larger half. She briefly thought about assisting further, but quickly realized she would only get in the way. So for now, Rina watched, eyes narrowed with suspicion as Penny began her killing blow. She didn't know what was going on, but it was going to be dangerous - but where had Regina gone? She seemed intent on trying to get Elroy out of this alive.

Perhaps it was regrettable, but she couldn't let Regina interrupt this. If it even looked like some outside interference was about to interrupt Penny, Rina would engage with everything she had before they could.


@BrokenPromise

---

Chloe slowly removed her arm from Divina's chest. Inky black veins began spider webbing from the crystal, its corrupting influence slowly beginning to spread through Divina's body. With a smirk, Chloe simply had her bestial summons place itself between her and the arrow like feathers, the wounds now causing it to slump to the floor, not quite dead, but certainly a little worse for wear. The beast fell, and Chloe simply walked back over to Divina, grabbing the former Beacon girl by the chin.

"Now now," Chloe smirked cruelly as the wound in Divina's heart began closing. "That's no way to treat someone, is it?" Chloe released Divina, stroking the side of the girls face as her body began convulsing lightly, the wings on her back thrashing as a thin, filmy membrane began forming as several more appendages began forming on the back of her body. Divina couldn't help but to give pained moans, losing what little balance she had left as her hair began falling out. "Shh, shhh, relax...just relax~"

Her body quickly began changing more, hair on the rest of her body beginning to grow faster, taking on a the color of mint. The wings on her back began fleshing out more, an eye-like pattern on them as two antennae began growing on her head - and from her back two extra appendages began growing. Within seconds it was finally done, and Divina was thoroughly exhausted.

The now moth-like monster girl fell to the ground, unconscious.

"Haa, and that's that." Chloe sighed. "Aaaah, really why do I work so hard for so little appreciation." She turned her attention to Su, with a smile, letting herself lean on the beast, patting its matted fur lightly. She turned towards Helga and Su, smirking in a friendly manner. "Well, I suppose I should thank you for your assistance, hmm? I'd offer a token of my affection but unfortunately I'm too tired, but if you find me later I'd be more than happy to respond to your affections~" She chuckled, before frowning and turning in the direction she felt Penny was in.

"...and I have to go make sure my friend isn't getting in over her head, heh. So if you girls will excuse me, I have some cleanup to do." With a whistle and a single command, the beast lifted Divina into its maw, intending on leaving the field for now it seemed.

Lily managed a weak smile of relief as Abigail seemed to come to her senses, glad to see that they succeeded in saving her. If it was someone else, they might have gone through with killing the poor girl outright. But as difficult as it was, that was the way it should be...Just like a magical girl.

"No worries it happens to the best of us," she happened to quip in.
"I know what it's like to be forced into bad stuff by a meanie, even though I was lucky and was sleeping the entire way through."
She had a concerned look as Janet suggested she wait for help, and stood up from the ground.
"No worries it happens to the best of us," She averted her eyes, and bit her lip.
"And Alex is still fighting...I can't just-AGH!"
She braced with her arms as the mana beast blew up, causing her to be lightly sprayed by magic-infused mist.
She pinched her nose with shut eyes, and waved the air before her in a frantic manner. "E-EEWWWW! I got farted on! This is the worst!"
She then glowed a bit, and she blinked.
"Wait, huh? Can I..." She concentrated, and soon enough, her form was enveloped in yellow, sparkling light, soon to emerge back as her magical girl state.
"I got just enough to turn back...But no spells or arrows, huh..." She nodded to herself.
"I need to find Alex. He must be worried! ALEEX!" She screamed as she followed the others, hoping to find him at the very center of the conflict.

---

Cindy did not hesitate as she made a dynamic entry, shocking hordes of Imps by ramming right into them with her fists outstretched like Superman, leaving nothing but arcs of blue electricity behind her alongside the ashy remains of her opponents. Joined by the rest, the large group fought in what looked like doomsday, with monsters continuously popping up from dark portals spawned subconsciously by Soth's slow but gradual awakening.
‘It seems the Beacon is also here,’ she commented.
‘Give them a wide berth, and don't hesitate to strike back if they dare to touch any of you.’

In response, June scowled, and turned her nose up at the monster girl.
"At least you know where the priority lies. Sisters, time to bring out the big guns! Magdalene, activate the UV Cannons!" A magical near her nodded; she was wearing a mechanical suit inspired by Penny, with large spotlights fitted on the shoulders. She dropped down to one knee, aimed at the black smoke, and then activated them. As a result, the black smoke began fading away, vanishing by the heavy concentration of magical technology.
"Hahaaa!" June exclaimed in triumph, her eyes gleaming. "Beacon's magitech is the best in the world!"

"Braggart," Julia softly spoke, her cheeks puffed up in an annoyed expression. Jillian patted her back.

"It's all right, Julia. Let the lanternheads have their fun. Besides, they're quite useful to us. In fact, they all are after I've given them some encouragement." Soon enough, Jillian's Power of Friendship wafted down in a similar fashion, emboldening both the Beacon, Cindy, and even the few unaffiliated fighters in the far reaches, giving them the strength and will to persevere against the darkness.

---

Helga smiled Sue as she kept chasing after the fleeing monoliths, finding relief in the fact that she had forgiven her for her anger management issues.
"No way; out of the two of us, you're the cool-headed one, Su."
She complimented her, and then nodded at her warning as Divina launched one last attack.
"Got it. If she turns on us, you'll need to go save Amby; I'll hold her off." Her claws extended in a fighting pose, the monster girl grimaced as Divina transformed into another example of a magical girl corrupted to their core.

"Geez..." She muttered between grit teeth, and tensed up as Chloe spoke to them. It turned out that Chloe had no intentions of initiating hostility between them, and decided to leave. "Sure, go ahead," she spoke back, still a bit wary. "Thanks for all the help out there. And...I'm sorry I called you an exhibitionist. I used to wear next to nothing in the past too, and seeing you was a reminder of it. You honestly don't look half bad like that. So, yeah...Bye." After Chloe left, Helga to let out a big sigh out of both relief and slight anxiety.
"Whooo boy, that could have turned ugly in a flash." She put her fists to her sides, a slight smirk on her lips.
"If it weren't for that crystal crap, I might have taken her up on her date offer." As she looked back at Su, she happened to spot a silver line in the ground, now revealed as the black smoke began slowly losing its thick composition thanks to Beacon's efforts. "You reckon this leads to Amby, Su? Let's follow it!" She ran with her arms stretched behind her, claws readied as she already heard what sounded like a titanic struggle beyond, preparing herself.
"I won't let anyone touch you, Amby! Not anymore!"

"Well, this is just shameful," Lee muttered, shaking his head from under his veil.

He just came out of the mist and into a fight, which was now down to three against one. On the larger side there were two heavy-hitting girls with Fire magic, and a boy who was apparently incapble of realizing just how badly their liberal use of fire meshes with the phrase "non-lethal combat." At least, that ignorance take was giving the lad the benefit of the doubt - after all, the foul-mouthed kid employed the galaxy brain strategy of giving the monster girl even more destructive potential.

On the other side was...

...

...well, if they weren't interested in a fair fight, they weren't going to get one. With one unnecessarily theatrical movement, he targeted the Beacon Buddy and immediately obfuscated her presence. At the same time, he had obfuscated a duplicate Tonya in the exact same place, one that would seem indistinguishable from the real Tonya to anything less than a Third Eye. The illusory (Tonya) carefully began to circle away from Mayra, Lucifer, and Alexander with her guard up.

"Pardon me for cutting in," Lee said, walking over to Tonya from the opposite direction of (Tonya) and her retreat. "You looked like you could use a breather." He sipped from his mug before continuing. "My name's Lee. You must be Tonya."

@BrokenPromise@Card Captor@FamishedPants@PlatinumSkink

---

Time was running short.

The mist that obscured the graveyard, though hard to see through, wasn't actually impeding her driving skills all that much. The silver trail leading to the crypt was probably the reason for this, but it wasn't like she was complaining about it.

"We're coming up on the center. How do you want to play this?"

There was silence for a moment between the the driver and her passenger.

"...do you still have that tape?"



A moment later, Beat pranced into the clearing in her standard form, a bigass fur coat draped over her body. Her volume on was turned up high in a valiant effort to drown out the ear-mangling sounds of the Tower of Carnage meeting the Engine of Destruction... with the even more unpleasantly atonal sounds of Macklemore and Green Day playing over each other.

That combination isn't something one considers playing at the climax of a duel. But this? This did put a smile on her face. She got to dance to her heart's content, which was a rarity when working with her friends. And hey, even if it was for the sake of distracting the people fighting around the crypt, she'd take it.

Beat couldn't really see them, but she knew that her best friend was hiding under the same kinds of threads that Beat's new coat was made from. Sure, they were making her best friend look invisible instead of having the goreous coat, but there was a certain kind of joy in wearing matching outfits.

It was a shame her best friend's friend, Anna, wasn't wearing her own special threads, but she supposed covering herself in mirrors was pretty cool, too. It was reflecting light in such a way that it bent around her, which was a shame because she actually was pretty in her own right. But not as pretty as her best friend.

Oh well. Beat got to dance, play music, and wear this amazing coat. The only way this day could get any better is if her friends succeeded in bringing home another new friend.

@BrokenPromise@Rune_Alchemist@Shifter_Master

---

The Rose Knight continued their dance, and Soth willingly obliged her without a word. Silver chains from sliced up appendages, butchering lasers from the eyes that emerged, and the Greater Horror casually continued to exponentially ramp up the amount of offending tentacles and eyes that appeared to assault Amaryllis. Soon, some tentacles were appearing with spikes on them, some with toothy mouths on them, a few with hard scales covering them, and eyes began to fire even stronger beams that dug into the carved stone walls around them with a frightening ease. It seemed the Horror was adjusting his tactics on the fly, confronting Amaryllis with greater threats than he had before. Soth almost didn't seem to care about Annabelle in the background, save a few beams and tentacles flung against her to keep the Rose Knight on her toes here and there.

Alicia, too, would find a few things occur. As the tentacles narrowed down her location, passing through illusions and brushing against her enhanced uniform, they would begin to focus their assault on her. Eyes would also begin to emerge to fire lasers at her, ones on part with the eyes firing at Amaryllis now. Whilst the Beacon girl's safety was in question even more now, there was another thing she had done that was much more prominent in importance.

The Star Seraph's arrow-spears flew true, even as she seemingly tried what could be a risky gambit at stopping Soth's true incarnation. They bounced off of the ceiling, threading the incredibly thin gap between the top of the stone ceiling and Soth's abyssal portals, flying down towards the altar and the sheet-covered body on top of it. Scale-covered tentacles shot out from the back of the portals to protect the body itself, taking the brunt of the light arrows. These tentacles in a flash of light were burnt greatly, glowing embers and singed and roasted flesh visible on them in the aftermath.

But the arrows aimed at the altar hit, straight and true. Like beams of light they cut through the altar like the claws of an angered beast, piercing even the center shaft of it and cutting into the floor below. The golden ornamentation, the lavish design, it was gouged out like a cancer...and the altar collapsed.

Though the cultists who had been standing around it now lied on the ground dead, their lives absorbed to fuel the altar as the ritual neared completion, a guttural scream like a great beast rang through the stone of the crypt...and out into the graveyard from the crypt's entrance. Stone and gold and fragments began to crumble, collapsing swiftly to the floor and allowing the body that had been on top to fall with them...only to be caught in the embrace of emerging chains from underneath the altar. But whilst the body was safe, the magical energies emitting from the crypt began to waver, the stone walls giving a great shudder as something seemed to go off-kilter.

'Well well, i must congratulate you for your valiant efforts in destroying my altar. It seems i cannot remotely channel my essence and finish the ritual in the normal manner...so i am forced to use other means....

A direct exposure to the rest of my self shall suffice!'

The stone walls of the crypt then began to shake and shudder again, but this time without a sudden stop. Cracks began to form along the stone walls and ceiling, at first thing and spider-web-like, but then becoming larger and more substantial. Glowing glyphs upon the walls began to shatter and fall, the lit braziers shaking and some falling.

The stone ceiling began to crumble, some dirt and heavy stone falling around the magical girl in the crypt's depths, and the floor began to...rise.



Those who were outside of the crypt would find a startling sight. The crypt, or at least the above-ground part, began to crumble and collapse. Dirt began to rise around their feet rapidly, as if something was moving upwards. And indeed...it was.

As the ground under their shook and quaked like someone had dropped a bomb, the barrier shimmered into visibility as magic pushed back the dirt and the above-ground ruins of the crypt like they were mere ragdolls. Cracks appeared on the barrier itself, even, as the ground seemed to rise up into the air, eventually shattering with a great thundering.

Now it was in the air, up in the air for all to see. A great stone platform, the ruins of an altar, Alicia and Amaryllis fighting the tentacles of part of a horror that had been incarnated, Summer and Annabelle where they stood or kneeled, and a white sheet covered body held up by dark chains. A great power seemed to be anchored to the now-aerial platform, the former floor of the crypt covered in a light purple glow with an incredibly sinister aura.

Annabelle felt the words die in her throat as she watched the scene occur from her position, feeling the floor shudder and watching as the now-platform she and the few others were on floated up into the air a bit before stopping. However, she looked back to Summer quickly as she held up the body that had been on the altar in her chains.

It was far easier to see what Annabelle looked like at this stage of the ritual. Her other arm was weak, tighter against the bone, the kind of weakened flesh and bone one might expect to see out of a concentration camp. Her legs were similar, but not so bad, and her torso was mostly fine as a look of mortal terror cane onto her face.

"I can break the channel Soth's is going to use to try to get into the body. That way....he can't...enter it, but it's only going to be this weak for a few more minutes.

I can break that link, it will cancel the ritual. Soth's power still grounds this place, and the body, to this realm. B-But h-he's...ARGH!!!...he's going to try to directly take over the body...i can feel it....

I...I....I need magical energy, and a lot of it. Or...alternately....if you or someone can shift into the overcity, i can channel that power through my prosthetic arm to shift just the connection...then.....we will....cut the connection faster..."

Annabelle's voice was weaker, as Summer would be able to easily tell. But her ideas was simple: disrupt the connection by trying to overcity shift it. Or just use magical energy to disrupt it if she had enough given to her due to her own stores running incredibly low by now.

The void-touched girl felt the feeling in her legs and flesh begin to fade, even as the sharpness of her pain continued on and on and on...like the dull beat of a drum. Her mouth was getting dryer, and she could feel the vestiges of power and life she was holding onto being pulled at. She wasn't going to die in a second or something dumb like that. But if they didn't stop this then Soth was going to rampage in a mortal coil. A proper incarnation, even, which would be ultimately terrifying.

Then it struck. A painful dig into her very soul, surprising her enough with the pain that Annabelle let out a blood-curdling shriek of agony that rung out into the graveyard as clear as crystal.

"Please...please..." the girl said, almost sobbing and seeming to beg Summer with her eyes as she looked to her again.

In the sky, in the swirling center of the storm right above where the crypt had been, the air and physical space itself began to bend and twist like a writhing worm. The storm continued on, but whatever was starting...well, they needed to stop this ritual and all of this before that occurred. That much everyone could perhaps tell, perhaps just by merely glimpsing it.

@t2wave@MadManMoon@Shifter_Master@Ariamis@PlatinumSkink@Vocab@FamishedPants@Flamelord@ERode@DarkwolfX37@Card Captor@BrokenPromise@DarkwolfX37

Now that the slime had been disposed of, there was only Tonya left to deal with. Considering it was now truly a 3 vs 1 fight, Emily did not expect it to take much longer. But, surprisingly, the girl proved to be more than a match in close quarters against Mayra, who seemed like that was her specialty. The kick she delivered earlier felt that way, at least. That wasn't good. Lucifer was best at a range, and getting close to them was not going to end well for her, but at the same time, she couldn't fire off blasts recklessly or she'd potentially damage the wrong girl. If Alex's buffs weren't enough to tip the scales in Mayra's favor, then perhaps Emily would need to forgo safety and enter a closer range to help. Given Mayra's past betrayal, Emily was sure doing so could be much more dangerous than it normally should be.

We need to back her into a corner and turn up the heat. Drawing this out merely increases the risk of a casualty.

Emily didn't want anybody to die here, but the more desperate people got, the less likely they were to hold back their punches. A fight between magical girls could immediately turn sour at any moment, so she should help end it before it got to that point. But as she was about to draw near to Mayra and Tonya, something caused her to pause.

"Hmm?"

It was Tonya. Something strange was up with her. For a moment, it became difficult to observe her, though she immediately went back to normal. Emily pondered if that meant she was preparing something. That could be it, but then again, what would she be doing? That brief period where Lucifer couldn't identify her was strange. What could have caused that? A trick of the eye? She seemed to hold power over wind, no illusions, so that couldn't be it. A normal person might chalk it up to the heat haze caused by Mayra's super-heated form, but that assumption caused Emily to reflect on a concerning trait Tonya briefly exhibited in that moment: her heat signature had vanished.

Much like herself, Tonya's heat signature returned to normal as she did. But that did not make Emily feel any less confused and anxious. There had to be an explanation for what happened. She wasn't some electronic device that could potentially have a bug or a small issue. Her heat vision worked, and either she saw heat or it wasn't there.

...I don't like this one bit.

She was suspicious of Tonya, but she still had to deal with the girl. She began after the 'brainwashed' girl, but before doing so, passed by Alexander. "Eyes open, something's off." she warned Alexander. The information, or lack thereof, was unfortunate, but so long as her warning caused the man to be on his guard, that may be more than enough. So she continued pursuing the retreating Tonya.

As soon as Lotus and Faith arrived on the scene, they went to work immediately. The fairy woman played a melody to boost everyone’s morale, while Lotus threw herself at the mass of minions. When she landed, the impact was strong enough to cast her foes into the air. ”Give Beacon a wide berth? If they are wise, they will be the ones giving us room.“ Lotus continued to dive into the minions like this, seemingly with no concern for personal safety.

A small group of magical girls arrived at the scene just behind everyone else. It was evident that they all had to be part of some team. They did not wear matching outfits, but they were mostly black in color and all bore an insignia on their uniforms. It was difficult to tell who the leader was, as they all seemed to be jumbled together, running as fast as they could towards the fog wall.

”Mmmm?“ Faith noticed the girls, but wasn’t quite sure what to make of them. ”Yoohoo! I don’t know who you are, but you picked quite the event to show up to~“

A maid with an eyepatch and a sniper rifle saluted Faith. ”I’d love to stick around and chat ma’am, but the crew needs me elsewhere.“ The maid continued to run after the group as they circled around the outside of the mist wall. ”The Cradle sends its regards.“ She aimed into the mob and fired.

”Cradle huh?“ Faith’s fingers never stopped playing her harp. ”The more the merrier I suppose~!“

---

@Ariamis

Su remained silent for the remainder of Chloe’s appearance. Once she was gone, she sighed in relief right beside Helga. She was content insisting to Helga voice her relief, up until she commented on how she would have taken up Chloe on her date if it weren’t for the dark crystal attack. ”Really?” There were a lot of things Su wanted to ask Helga in regards to that, but there was nothing to gain from making Helga feel awkward. But this served as a reminder of how little she really knew Helga. When Helga was getting ready to charge off, Su raised her hand. ”H-Helga, wait!” She stumbled over to Helga’s side. ”Um.” She momentarily averted her eyes. There was a lot she wanted to say, but there was also time constraints with the end of the world scenario on the horizon. Su had learned first hand how quickly a life can be swept away. ”You’re bleeding, don’t push yourself too hard.” That wasn’t really what she wanted to say, but Su had decided Helga didn’t need anything else weighing on her mind right now. ”Good find. We’ll follow the silver strand.”

---

@FamishedPants@Card Captor@PlatinumSkink@MadManMoon

It was difficult to tell how appreciative Tonya was for the assistance, or even if she noticed she was getting any. She just growled as the thorns on her bark like skin got thicker and thicker.

Mayra had just received a buff, which was more than enough to rise above Tonya’s metamorphic strength and speed. The only real obstacle in her way was that strange stein that was lobbed at her head. Mayra was not dumb, she knew that the harmless looking stein was likely anything but. The split second question she had to ask herself was not what the best way to deal with such an obstacle was, but what was the most interesting. And to Mayra, the most interesting method was the one that was the most chaotic. Tonya appeared to be circling away from her passively, and Mayra was now plenty strong enough to end the fight whenever she wanted. So it stood to reason that the most interesting thing to do would be to get the stein moving towards her “allies.” That would ensure Tonya wasn’t killed, after all. ‘Incoming!’
She risked melting the stein by using her flames, so she opted to give it a smack with her tail.

The result was not as amusing as she anticipated.

The metal mug violently erupted, throwing metal and slime in all directions. Tonya was able to anticipate her own trap, and opened her umbrella to shield herself from the blast. It wasn’t enough to take out Mayra, but Tonya’s invisibility gave her no opportunity to defend herself. She prepared for a counterattack from the clone, but that left her open to Tonya’s powerful swings. The beacon girl roared in fury, but it was only heard by Lee. To those who couldn’t see, it would seem as if an invisible bull had gored Mayra on one of its horns and ran several feet before bucking her into the air. Mayra was laughing the entire time, but her laugh was pained. Even with all the buffs she received she’d be moving slower for the rest of the fight. ‘Just let me get my second wind!’ she mannaged to utter before she rolled into one of the open graves. Tonya turned to Emily and began to charge. Alexander’s keen eye for observation would reveal her position. Tonya was invisible, but she was stomping down the grass as she ran towards Emily. He could see Tonya’s footprints and spot exactly where she was running. Could they end things before more people got hurt?



Mac should have really gotten a move on by now.

But no.

She could change history just a little bit.

She could try to save her...

---

@Rune_Alchemist@Shifter_Master@FamishedPants@Ariamis[@t2wave]

Katarina’s attention was squarely focused on the killing blow roshambo match and wherever Regina was. As a result, she was taken by surprise when tony pounced on her. She had just enough time to place her bow between herself and the black cat’s massive paws, but was still knocked onto her back. She then had to slide her head side to side as it attempted to impale her head on one of its tentacles.

"Whoa! Sorry about that!" Lupa’s clone came hopping over to the tiger and smashed into it the side of it. It was enough to roll the tiger off of Rina. "I can’t run very fast with these kangaroo legs." The tiger roared, and its form got bigger. The imp rider simly laughed in delight.

“Oh shucks!” Mika’s knees were quivering. “What are we going to do, Sil? Is there nothing I can do?”



”Relax pipsqueak! The cavalry is here!” Abigail lead the other magical girls who were fighting her into the area. ”I’m sure we can do something about you frie-” Her eyes narrowed. ”Wait, is she on our side?”

“She saved me from a knight, but she was wounded.” Mika flicked her ears. “Can you guys do anything to get her back into the fight?”

Sammy watched as the entire crypt raised into the air. ”It’s finished!?” She pointed at the crypt. ”Damn you Beacon! I’ll never show you mercy again, for as long as I live!” With a sigh she sunk to her knees. About ten or so cats marched out of the darkness and surrounded Sammy, who could do nothing by cry under all the stress.



”Are we too late?” Su and Helga had arrived just a few seconds after Chloe. ”There’s too much going on, I can barely take it all in.” Su scanned the warzone. ”Looks like Lily is here, and she’s surrounded by friends as usual. And Mika’s there too? I wanted to delay my next encounter with Lily.” She turned to Helga. ” But I might not have a choice. I’m going to get in the air, stay safe. We don’t know who half of these people are.” Su flew into the air and flew towards the group surrounding Mika, throwing the occasional wind gust at the imp mobs.



Once Elroy slammed into the ground, the train remained standing like a true “tower of carnage.” What many people might have found strange about the attack was the lack of any sort of explosion. It just slammed into the ground and stood there, without disturbing anyone else. As soon as Penny powered up her killing blow and closed in for the kill, she could hear a voice under the scrap of the train.

"Yoink!"

Penny’s rainbow colored sword collided with the furious explosion of the tower of carnage. The train was consumed in multicolor lights, while Penny was bombarded by onyx sculls. the tower was utterly destroyed by the impact, and an untransformed Penny tumbled away from the blast sight, too exhausted and wounded to do much more than crawl. Her left eye had swollen shut, and she was pretty sure something broke in her right arm.

All around her pieces of metal rained from the sky. Pieces of the tower of carnage, as well as her former shell. It took a few seconds for the debris to stop falling, and one of the last items to do so was one of Elroy’s arms.

Regina shadow stepped over to Penny’s side, but she wasn’t paying any attention to her. Her attention was focused squarely on the arm before her. With a trembling hand, she reached out for her brothers arm. She prodded it with her fingers, as if unable to accept the fact that it was real. Or maybe what was hard to comprehend was that it was no longer attached to a body. "Disgusting!"



She took a step back. Her teeth were chattering "What’s wrong with this world? It’s Disgusting! Nobody wants what they have, no one gets what they want, and, and-" Her eyes started to glow yellow, which made her long, black irises more visible. "Once they get what they want, their desires change again! It’s disgusting! It’s disgusting!" She looked over her shoulder at Penny.



Regina’s body was wrapped in a cocoon of darkness. The shape swiftly grew, soon becoming larger than a train, then a small house. At last the dark bindings started to tear as wings and tail started to poke through it. Then with a bestial roar, the pale queen tore free from the cocoon. "Suffer!" The dragon’s mouth swung open and she blew black flames towards Penny. Without any sort of protection, Penny would surely perish.

This fight was starting to drive Alexander nuts. He was rapidly loosing his patience and just wanted it to end. So when some random girl got involved on the brainwashed girl's side, and the brainwashed girl tossed out some sort of goo bomb and then turned invisible, he was seconds away from blowing his top. Looking around for some kind of clue, he noticed some patches of grass getting pushed down by some unseen force 'Hahahahaha! Got you now bitch!' Alexander had a manic smile on his face as he formed a large flat barrier above him, moved it over where he deduced the brainwashed girl was, and dropped it. He didn't want to kill her, only pin her long enough for her to be either un-brainwashed, or captured. With any luck, she would be so focused on the lizard girl, that she wouldn't be paying any attention to him.

@BrokenPromise@FamishedPants@PlatinumSkink@MadManMoon

After taking a moment to dodge the flaming debris in his other form, Lee reviewed the status of the fight.

So. Since Tonya wasn't in the mood for a mid-battle heart to heart - which was understandable - the politer option was no longer viable.

Two of her opponents had already caught onto his obfuscation, but fortunately the biggest physical threat was not one of them.

And Alexander Shields, if he remembered the name from his file correctly, was smart enough to try and lock Tonya down with a barrier. If she couldn't free herself from being pinned to the ground by that barrier, she could be hard-pressed to defend herself from their next attacks.

Lee smiled. Not only had his opinion of the boy increased, but it seemed he could use Shields and his shields to his advantage. Timing his move carefully, Lee willed open a way to the Catacombs, positioning it to manifest directly beneath Tonya as the barrier pushed down. To his credit, Shields would certainly help him take Tonya out... just not in the manner he expected to.

Hey, it was guaranteed not to be lethal. That was more than what he could say for Shields' previous gambit.

Lee internally debated the idea of revealing himself to the other three once Tonya was taken off the board, one way or another. He wasn't sure whether they'd figure out the extent of his involvement so far, but hopefully they could agree to move onto the more pressing issues at hand.

For instance, preventing Soth's ritual from tearing Penrose apart.

@BrokenPromise@FamishedPants@PlatinumSkink@Card Captor

---

Beat stared up at the rapidly growing form of the dragon in front of her. Her best friend was counting on her to provide a distraction, but judging by the imminent fire breath, it looked like she wasn't going to be playing HOLY FUCK in a few seconds. She wasn't sure if this bigass coat would survive the blast, either.

Look, it wasn't like she was about to die or anything. It's true that Legsteps can catch fire, but they don't really burn so much as the genre of music they play just defaults to Metal. And she'd be spitting literal fire out of her speakers in time with the music. It wouldn't hurt her, really, but she'd have to make sure she wasn't facing someone flammable. Beat didn't think the dragon would be weak to her own flames, so she just pointed herself in that direction and hoped for the best.

Oh! 「That arm,」 the one that had fallen underneath the big pale dragon! It just vanished into the Catacombs!

Her best friend was so brave! She was like that clever person with the big feet, taking treasure from right under the dragon's nose. She was even invisible! She wasn't invisible because she was wearing a ring, though. Beat didn't think her best friend owned any rings, come to think of it. Maybe she could get her a ring later?

Most people wouldn't really think of a severed arm as precious treasure. And Beat agreed. Severed arms can't dance, or smile, or give you a hug. It could maybe give you half of a hug at best, but it's still kind of strange if it doesn't have a body attached to it. It's a pretty sad thing to look at, at least to people like the dragon lady. But her best friend, oh, in her hands something like a severed arm could become something wonderful.

She could use her magic to bring out a new friend! A bone spider, just like Lee!

@BrokenPromise@Rune_Alchemist@Shifter_Master@Ariamis@FamishedPants@t2wave

Even though she was getting increasingly battered by the Horror as it zeroed in on her location, Alicia couldn't help but grin at the loud crack that filled the crypt as her magic shattered the stone that comprised the altar itself. She braced herself as they were all rocked by a loud scream, a visible sign of the displeasure of the horror at what they accomplished.

"You've gotta be kidding me," she remarked to no one in particular as the dark being spoke to them, while the crypt shuddered and began to rise. Her bracing meant she wasn't knocked off her feet by this sudden lurching motion, as a small favor, though at this point she was unsure as to what else she should expect. The cultists had been dealt with but a direct manifestation of a Horror did not indicate that anything was going well. This was far from over.

Stark minutes later they were in the air, the fight resumed as Alicia twisted and spun, Star Seraph smacking aside tentacles as they fought for their lives. Emerging from inside, she did have the presence of mind to notice that Elroy had vanished, though Penny had as well, and now there seemed to be a third giant monster too. She just wished she had the time to focus on that, but she was a bit busy fighting for her life again.

In a swift motion she sidestepped an incoming strike, her afterimage effect fading now that it was no longer of use just before she fired an arrow into the offending object that speared through where she had just been standing. Her wings flared wide now that they were in the open, covering the platform in a glow meant to counter the effects of the sinister aura being cast by Soth, for what good that did.

Fortunately, in a probable sense of the term, it seemed that one of the duo who had been here before had a solution for her. "Alright Summer, sounds like it's time for plan b like you wanted," Alicia noted aloud as she aided in defending the duo alongside Amaryllis from Soth's attacks. They were still on the clock, so the sooner this happened the better....

@ERode@DarkwolfX37@Crusader Lord

Sasha had long since left the confines of The Nerine Vista, leaving the Boss on her own, sat at her favoured table, in the middle of the main floor. This constant idea of watching all of one's blind-spots had waned on her for quite some time - years, now. In thought, her gaze drifted towards one of the several paintings that lined the walls of the restaurant. Just to give it that much more of a high end feel, if the gold embellished, leather seats, and rich wood tables didn't give off that air enough already.

But among the various classical art pieces that surrounded the main floor like a barrier, this one was particularly noticeable. Its theme was very much different when compared to the beautiful landscapes and naked Cherubs. This specific painting pictured the Earth, from orbit, splintered and cracked like a window pain, and illuminated from above by a brilliant white star. Below its frame was a gold nameplate, though with no artists name apparent. Only a series of words. "Der Alte Wurfelt Nicht". Painted nearly five years ago. One of the Boss's favourite pieces of art to ever be produced.

Her train of nostalgia and reminiscence was cut short, however, by the buzz of a phone, just outside of her peripheral vision. The device was still sat on the table where she had left it some time ago. At the angle she was sat, she could easily read the message, even despite leaning back it her chair, relaxed. The contact caught her eye first, listed as "Surveyor Team Alpha".

Rebecca Suthers tracking device disabled, magical interference. Unable to locate.

With a groan, Rebecca attempted to pick herself up from the ground. Her mana levels had been weak, so it wasn't surprising that the intangibility barely protected her in her entirety, but now that she was full of magical energy again, the pain and stiffness that struck her didn't feel right. If anything, she should have felt better, more revitalised, rearing and ready to enter the battle once more, but as she dug her blade into the ground to lift her from the ground, a sense of tiredness washed over her. The pounding in her head announced that something was amiss.

Though she was a resilient Magical Girl by trade, even Rebecca wasn't willing to have risked that kind of fall without protection. She had absorbed some of that mana dust from where her blade had punctured the beast, and rolled off down its back. From there, Rebecca had stepped to the shadow beneath it, and engaged her intangibility. With some finesse and luck, the thing would have passed right through her, and the resulting explosion of mana dust around her would bring her back up to peak condition for the next encounter.

So why then did she feel so terrible? It wasn't a weight of tiredness that laid upon her, though the lethargy didn't help. Mentally, emotionally, physically - she was drained. As much as Rebecca shook her head, attempted to focus, and pulled herself to her feet, it didn't seem to matter. A feeling of sickness clung to her, mind and body. Although she didn't have any signal anyway, Rebecca pulled out her phone, hoping to call in reinforcements from the other Taskers, but the thing was fried.

"Tha' fuck's going-" Rebecca muttered, as she pulled the Katana from the earth and took a step forward, only to stop at the feeling on something hitting her back. She wasn't the type to be startled, but in her current situation, there was no way to quell her pent up anxiety. So she spun around, expecting to see somebody, or some creature, but instead, was presented with nothing. Instead, the same thing occurred - still behind her. With a free hand she reached up around around her right shoulder, and grasped something. The hilt of a blade, wrapped in some kind of fabric.

Her confusion and worry was palpable, but she pushed it out of her mind, as she approached Aurelio.
"Hey, s-so, uh... Fuckin', you're Aurelio, right? Beacon member?" Rebecca asked, her voice doing a poor job of masking that she was shaken, "Ah haven't a fuckin' clue what's goin' on 'ere anymore... Listen, d'ya know if Alicia's here? Ah really need's ta' speak wit' her, so could you's pass on a message if ya find her first?"

As she spoke. she began to walk past him, onto the direction of the Crypt. In the distance, she could already see the chaos that was going on. For a moment, Rebecca had considered turning around and leaving, letting Aurelio make contact with Alicia, and completing the objective that way. But the more she thought about leaving this to happen, without even trying to help, the more the pressure in her head seemed to build. It was unbearable, almost. Something had happened to her - was, happening to her.

"Tell 'er that Rebecca Suthers needs an audience, aight? See you's." she called out, as she took off into a run towards the Crypt, in chase of Janet and Jenna, shadow stepping as she went.

Edited: I was under the impression she was stabbed with this:
Instead, she was actually stabbed with this:
So the following happens instead.

‘… Ow,’ Mayra made a noise as she lay in the bottom of the grave. Hm. She had no idea what had hit her, and this was somewhat bothering her. She raised her head to look at the wound… and it was a relatively small, bleeding wound that still went a fair bit into her, but didn’t really do that much damage.

‘Oh, is that it?’ Mayra grinned, somehow having imagined that she should have taken way more damage than she actually did. Well, no point staying about here, then! She flinged her legs back so that the force brought her up onto her arms. The movement hurt the wound, slowing her down a bit supposedly, but as if Mayra was going to let that keep her down. With arm-muscles and a blast of fire Mayra flew up from the grave and into the air, spinning to face back towards the action.

‘ALRIGHT, WHERE’S THE-’ -and she shut up seeing Alex attacking something that didn’t seem to exist. Mayra blinked a bit, remembering that she had been attacked by something unseen, and then let herself drop to the ground bending her knees with one claw bracing the ground, her tail swinging. She smirked, taking a moment to watch what was happening, but also looking for her moment to blast into combat.

Blood leaked from the small, untreated hole in her stomach. The blood… was glowing a hot, fiery yellow rather than normal red blood, and looked extremely hot, even if it quickly cooled down upon leaving Mayra’s body, becoming redder and thicker the further from the wound it ran.

Summer did as Annabelle requested; not having enough mana to spare, she simply shifted herself and Annabelle into the Overcity. "Alright, now what?" she asked.

---

@Crusader Lord@Flamelord

---

Sonofabitch-

The hell was that thing?

Rina barely managed to avoid being kitty chow, thanks to the help of Mika.

"Argh, thanks...I really need to repay you with a doughnut..." She replied with a mild huff. Really, she should have seen that coming. Readying her bow, Rina looked over to the monster girl and Sil once more. Things were taking a fairly grave turn. The crypt was floating into the air and some...beacon members seemed to be showing up. Well, that was good - more backup for fighting these things. For now she contented herself focusing on the big cat that attacked her, namely trying to pick off its rider while avoiding getting pounced on.

---

Ah, she was cute. So cute. Chloe really was disappointed she couldn't spend a little more personal time with Helga. Maybe later, when she wasn't busy being a hero. For now, someone much more important was in trouble. The Lucent Chimaera sprinted through the graveyard, using one of its spider arms to lift the recently remade magical girl Divina to lay on its back. It was injured, but it hadn't the capacity to care - and soon they had arrived on the field. She was vaguely aware of Divina regaining consciousness, but she was focused on something else entirely.

Where was Penny? Where was-!

Rage slowly began filling her veins as she saw that monster attack her precious Penny. Not. Happening. Focused on her Penny, Chloe ignored everything else. She was vaguely aware of some sneaky people on the field, but she ignored them. She was going to save Penny.

"Lucy! Dinner time! New girl, just try not to get killed!" With a vicious, high pitched roar the Lucent Chimaera aimed to tackle Regina from the side. Using its impressive strength and arms, it would try to grapple Regina, its corrosive breaths attempting to rot her flesh and scales while it would try to take chunks out of her flesh with its maw. Divina had managed to leap off the beast, stumbling onto the ground some distance away. She still seemed a little out of it.

Chloe bolted towards Penny, her crystalline wings carrying her. She was fast enough. Of course she would be. She couldn't fail. Even if she got a little signed, she didn't mind. It was for love, after all.

"Hup!" Chloe's feet barely touched the ground as she scooped Penny up in her arms, if timed right the Chimaera would have impacted Regina right at the same time, hopefully throwing off her breath attack.

"Hey, love." Chloe smirked. "You look like you had the unfun kind of tumble in the bed." Not taking a chance to linger, she darted back to where Divina was while Regina was hopefully distracted.

Dodging and weaving to avoid the debris the destruction of the Tower of Carnage created quite a mess. Slammed by one large chunk Janet was briefly pinned. Having been granted more on the strength side though she lifted and was free of the twisted metal fairly quickly. Soth's actions briefly caught her attention but she would leave that to Jenna. Right now the blonde's focus had to be on protecting her friend from the metamorphosed dragon that was Regina. Before she could reach Penny the monstrous dragon unleashed a breath of fire at the hapless Penny. It looked over until a hulking Chimera and dark magical girl swooped in to save the day. Things were hardly over though.

As she had done with everyone else new she'd encountered she skimmed the minds of the newcomers to get a gauge of who they were. There were many motives after all in Penrose. The moth girl's mind was a little tough to sort out. She also had Psychic it seemed and was confused which jumbled things up pretty good. Approaching the three the she helped the moth girl up and steadied her, which for most Beacon girls was not the usual response to encountering an unknown monster girl, or a monster girl in general even with the changes. "Are you alright?" The knight would let that question hang while she turned to Chloe. "Thanks for saving Penny. That was a close one." While she didn't really have the time to properly probe Chloe's mind the fresh memories were easy enough to glean. Judging by the chimera she was a Spirit spec. Not really a whole lot else she could make out about the girl other than she had been fighting Divina just before this. No wait, she had beaten Divina. Then where was...? Her gaze whipping back around to the moth girl she was holding Janet looked concerned. Biting her tongue she communicated to Divina with her mind.


Dammit there wasn't time for this. Divina probably wouldn't recognize her. Their last encounter was before she had used the Red coin. Looking over again Janet could probably force Chloe's grip off of Penny, but she opted not to. Making more enemies in this moment was not a wise decision. She needed backup which was still a little ways away. Reaching out she put a ward on Penny that would assist her Regeneration. It wouldn't be immediate healing but it would get her back on her feet relatively soon. Sparing mana didn't seem like a wise option so that wouldn't be coming from Janet. Directing her next words to Chloe there was some slight tension in her tone. "Keep her safe." Despite not trusting Chloe the dark magical girl did seem to have decent intentions in saving Penny. Stepping forward Janet let out a breath before charging Regina. With the creature battling the dragon it might give her an opening to strike. Leading with the tip of her lance she targeted the neck. She would need to rely on her strength to do the bulk of the work.

---

@Rune_Alchemist@Shifter_Master@FamishedPants@Ariamis@MadManMoon
Flailing a bit from the quake the crypt caused she watched as the remaining structure began to rise. The movement did manage to break down the barrier. Waving her lance upward a series of barriers spawned for the group to jump there way up. "Let's move everyone, we aren't done yet!" She glanced at Sammy who seemed to be distraught from all the goings on she knelt down beside the small girl and rested a hand on her shoulder. "I know not what Beacon may have done, but after this is over come to me so we may discuss the matter. Stay safe." Breaking away she began to scale up to the now floating island.


Well that was only marginally helpful. Probably best to see what is going on with her own eyes. Upon reaching the top she surveyed the chaos. Seeing that Soth was attacking Alicia Jenna dove in and began fighting back the horror's manifestation. "Where did Summer go?"

---

The pale-skinned magical girl felt the thrum of an Overcity Shift in the air, stretching into the air and enveloping her like a blanket. The girl's red eyes shot open wide with a look of sheer horror, but there was little time to respond before the shift would have moved her. She'd asked the Beacon girl to channel that ability to help, not shift both of them like this! Would they both even be shifted, at this point???

If they could have just cut the tie between the Soth and the body, then it would have stopped the Horror being able to-



-...what?

Annabelle found herself on one knee next to Summer, sweat running down her eyebrows as the two stood in a...rather interesting scenery. Far off in the distance buildings could be barely made out.

For a moment, at least, Annabelle felt her mind drawn towards the surreal scene.



It was a field of flowers, and the two girls were upon the flower-crowned hill overlooking it all.

It was more like a snow-white sea really, alien yet familiar in shape...but softly glowing under what looked like a lovely moonlit sky here. Then as a gentle breeze came in, they began shifting and rustling very lightly under the silvery light.

Their inky black stalks were so slender, fragile-seeming nature, as if any mere movements might snap them in twain.

Their flowers too seemed to be expanded into a delicate array of five petals, stretching up as if to reach up to the sky to embrace it.

"Ah!!!"

The void-touched girl felt a tug at the connection, the one which had been zapping her life out and funneling it and her magic into that of the corpse held in her right arm's chains. But...this was going down not in the way she had ever expected.

It was like a surreal pain, not the usual tug of her life and magic being drained, and Annabelle's chain arm began to flicker seemingly in and out of the Overcity. Wait...that arm had come here too?! It was an odd phenomenon to be sure. Yet also too, seemingly, had come the thing they were still holding at that. A sheet covered, magically modified corpse lying atop the white flowers and in the grip of Annabelle's chains.

But the body too was flickering seemingly in and out of the Overcity, like Annabelle's chain arm itself. Though whilst the nerve endings attached to that chain arm were firing off for Annabelle, a pain comparable to the draining of her life and magic, magically Annabelle could feel something...strange going on.

"Ha....ah....you might've just...AH!!!...saved us all with that..."

Annabelle spoke to Summer with some exasperation, but also the ever-obvious pain she was feeling, in her voice. However, a small smile was coming to her face as well, as if something really good had just happened.



'....Oh?'

The partial manifestation of Soth seemed to evoke a very human, and in this sense rather alien for it, emotion in its voice....surprise. Albeit calm surprise, but surprise. This was to the end that it stopped attacking Amaryllis and Alicia, more intent to focus on the odd thing that was going on at the moment.

Amaryllis and Alicia could, if they but looked behind themselves, witness what this fragment of a Greater Horror was seeing. Annabelle and Summer were gone, but Annabelle's chain arm was seemingly frozen in the air and flickering in and out of existence to the naked eye. The same went for the corpse itself that the chains were attached to, Amber's body and the chains seeming to reappear and disappear like a strobe-light effect. This was what was very visibly worrying their opponent.

Yet the Horror's disposition seemed to shift slightly more before it began to speak again.

'Well, this is a most frustrating, but also enlightening and interesting, turn of events. There would be no way you mortals would know how to do this purposefully, but this what is called a 'spatial flux'.

It is a mere side effect of trying to shift a spatially grounded object with multiple karmic ties attached to it. A rather rare display if cosmic events, but...

My vessel is being torn between this world and the Overcity, in other words, because that fool of a girl shifted herself and my sacrifice tied to this corpse into the Overcity.'

...wait a second, why was Soth stopping to say this to them?



The darkness magical girl summed up some of her strength as the flickering began to continue.

"...The body is stuck between the Overcity...and our world. I think.

I can still feel the life and magic...being zapped out of me...but its erratic. My former boss' attempt to connect to it feels the same.

Yet without his altar...we can stop him here!!!"

Annabelle let her smile grow, her withering and more corpse-like form perhaps being a tad creepy in doing this, before sending a surge of magic through her chain arm towards the body. It felt erratic, and frankly was a struggle, to do so, but her heart was screaming an exuberant 'yes' at the same time! This was her chance...no, this was THE chance they had to stop this once and for all!

She could manage it now, in this scenario, with just this little magic she had left at this point.



The sky above the flying platform seemed to shimmer with more spatial rips and tears now, before finally it tore open a bit.

A torrent of disgusting, vile aura poured out of it from the sky, down upon the platform and grounds of the graveyard below. It was a power most vile, most gut-wrenching, and very much the true presence of a Horror. The hole to their world was not yet open to unleash a greater Soth. But it seemed Soth was, in this case, tearing a hole into their world physically rather than using up sacrifices this time. A much slower process, and still incomplete at this moment.

If any looked through the rips and tears, they would only see and alien, blood-red sky and endless amounts of writhing black masses of eyes and tentacles.

'I shall merely have the rest of my whole tear my way into this realm faster, then, to strengthen my link to the vessel! This farce of a 'battle' shall be ended, and i shall-!'

The partial manifestation seemed to stop cold, just as a tangible wave of magical energy passed through Annabelle's flickering chain arm. It was such that the girls on the platform could very much feel it as well. It felt like...Annabelle, which Amaryllis would be able to recognize as the same magic that had formed their mental link through the chain arm itself. Untainted darkness, magic not touched by Soth's endless abyss, and it was surging into the corpse it was holding onto still.

'HAHAHA!!! AH, HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!'

From the smaller cracks in the sky this time, a far greater voice boomed loud into the air, where all of Penrose could hear. It sounded more...physical, more powerful, and more commanding than anything the partial manifestation of Soth had ever sounded like.

Even the monsters of varying sizes in the city that Beacon was mopping up, who had been drawn out and in by the mess and Soth's summoning of forces, seemed to take pause as if stuck with utter terror. True, mortal terror for things that struck terror into others.

However, the cracks in the sky also stopped growing, the distortions coming to a gradual halt as the voice laughed in sheer mockery and amusement.

'So my former champion has actually gone and done it! Mortals never cease to amaze, nor does the effects of my own power, and i must say my appetite to incarnate has only been intensified by this event. Haha!!!

It was admittedly not possible without the help of others, and that particular accident of course. Still....this is the most amusement i have had in millennia! The struggles of mortal life shall never cease to entertain me since i began to look upon it with dull eyes, and this is proof of that not being a mistake it seems!

So a great reward is in order. Specifically, your planet's current survival, and a chance for myself to watch from afar that raw fury of humanity's to amuse me further!'

'What?!' the partial manifestation of Soth spoke, looking up towards the sky with a look of actual shock in its many eyes, 'We are to manifest here! What is this nonsense you speak-?!'

Heed my voice well, mere fragment of my will, mortals of this planet, the and magical girls of Penrose! I am the fullness of Soth, the Infinite Abyss, a great force of this universe that since the beginning that clears away the old and returns all to its origin!

You may have this fragment of my will to slay as you all seem to desire greatly. It has ceased to amuse me after i allowed it to grow to this point, and it is now cut off from my whole's support. My walk among mortals, this shall occur elsewhere...somewhere less amusing. So sayeth i, the Abyss itself!

Were this my whole, your world would have collapsed in an instant and been consumed into my void. But yea, my true coming is a great ways off yet, it seems, for this world.'

'NOO!!!!!' the partial manifestation of Soth spoke, looking up towards the sky with a look of actual shock in its many eyes, 'You would cast us aside, on a whim, for your mere amusement more?! We are one! We...no...i cannot feel your power any more...I SHALL DESTROY YOU ALL FOR THIS!!!'

The presence of Soth's fragment seemed to shrink in an instant, now barely clinging to the platform to keep it afloat as it began to sink down towards the ground again at a steady pace.

Only that power of Soth's true mass, the fullness the Abyss, seemed to still exert a passive and extreme magical presence in the area now. But the sky did not tear open more, the ground did not shake, and even the storm itself that had been generated before began to slow down and clear.

The stink of a greater horror's true form hung strong in the air, but as for this fragment...it was virtually powerless now. Like a newborn baby left alone among wolves.

A prey item whose demise was to be watched from the cracks in reality in the sky above.

@t2wave@MadManMoon@Shifter_Master@Ariamis@PlatinumSkink@Vocab@FamishedPants@Flamelord@ERode@DarkwolfX37@Card Captor@BrokenPromise@DarkwolfX37

It had rattled.

As a darker dimension unveiled itself, a dimension that was composed solely of Soth, infinitely of Soth, Amaryllis’s sword had rattled. Not in fear, not in terror, but in anticipation. A greater foe. A greater meal. One that had no end and no beginning, no limit to the amount it could carve away. What the sword sought was to fight and to kill, and even the gravity of a Horror could not make it bow its head.

Her own blood felt like it had frozen. Her own heart felt like it had stopped. Her own legs felt like they were on the verge of collapse. Her mind roared at her to escape, her eyes couldn’t comprehend what was spreading out before her, her intelligence as a sentient creature of flesh and bone told her that there was no point in resisting if such a monster truly flexed their boundless might. But Amaryllis of the Rose was Amaryllis of the Steel, and through it all, she couldn’t help but smile. Her Sword wanted war, even now. It was nice to see that it remained a stupid, petty, mindless berserker to the end. And if this was how things were going to be, she’d unchain all that held it back too.

But things weren’t to be.

Things didn’t end.

Above, the stars shone on, inbetween the cracks of sundered reality. Below, dozens of magical girls fought on, a dragon raging. Annabelle was nowhere to be seen, only flickering chains remaining. And within this world, Soth’s voice rang out clear, granting them clemency, granting them a scapegoat.

It didn’t end.

Soth was free to try again. They’ll have to stop this again. The Horror will learn, and will redouble its efforts. She didn’t have to use her trump card this time, but how much longer would such a being remain amused with the struggles of mere humans? The Gods cared not to intervene, their hand never having been shown during this conflict. And that was only one Horror. As cosmically powerful as these beings were, they were also as numerous as the stars themselves. There was always another threat, another scheme, another something.

It wasn’t over.

The crypt fell back down into the earth, as the mass of eyes and tentacles gathered itself up again. No longer supported, it may be, but it was still monstrously powerful in its own right. Amaryllis tightened her grip, feeling the ironsand of her Sword’s pleasure scrape against her navel.

“Seraph of the Morning Star, attend to the dragon, please. As it stands, this creature is no longer the greatest threat within this land of the dead.”

Her heart was throbbing again, faster than ever, working itself into a frenzy.

“My sword alone shall be sufficient in extinguishing it.”

One step turned her into silver, another step turned her into light. She brought her full strength to bear, and the forsakened blade gorged itself without end within this godless tomb.

Soon, there was not one rusted rose that had not been dyed the color of the monster's blood.