The sight that met him as he turned the corner, gruesome as it was, gave Zeke no reason to pause further. Greatsword in hand, the Driver stepped forward to strike out at the beasts...

Only to pause as Hibiki flew past him and left a crater and pile of red mush where one of the beasts had been. The amount of time that was spent staring—with regards to both the beasts who were still in apparent shock and, to some extent, himself—lasted no more than a few seconds, but processing that amount of collateral damage mentally still took a moment. Luckily, it took him a few less moments to acknowledge what had just happened than it did his opponents, and Zeke used that chance to quickly behead the beast that had not scampered off elsewhere.

"Yeesh, and I thought I knew collateral damage," he remarked, climbing out of the crater that he had leaped into to attack the creature in the first place. "So. Uh. Where to from here? I don't think those lunatics back there would be willing to give us any directions, after all."

@Raineh Daze@RolePlayerRoxas@VitaVitaAR

---

The sight of a sword suddenly barreling down the hallway caused a few of the skeletons (or, at least, the scant few who hadn't been immediately dispatched) to turn and watch. The immediate damage that it left upon the ruins—namely, a now-missing wall that had made up part of the labyrinthine structure of the ruins—gave way to what seemed like a room that led further into the dungeon itself. Though there had been other corridors that led further into what lay beneath, this seemed to simply be a shortcut of sorts, for better or worse. There was an immediate response from the survivors, though, as they scattered through those side paths and routes back into the darkness. A tactical retreat, as it were; given that they had failed to inflict any damage upon their opponents in the first place, it seemed that regrouping was the most logical option.

The bodies of those unfortunate enough to be destroyed by the sword itself were thus strewn about on the floor, their weapons and armor (some damaged, some not) scattered haphazardly where they had fallen. On top of all of those, though, the treasures that they had held on them were now ripe for the taking. Pieces of gold and jewelry upon the ground now, and though it seemed that only the higher ranking skeletons had any of the latter, the rewards to be gained from their extermination made it clear why treasure hunters came to these blighted lands in the first place.

@Crusader Lord@Rune_Alchemist

The entire front half of the beast that Hibiki had punched seemed to crumple like a tin can full of tomato sauce, winding up with the bakc half collapsed into a pile of red mush at the bottom of the crater the impact had left. The shockwave was sufficient to knock the beast that had crawled up the wall down onto its back, leaving it dazed, and the other beast had been completely stunned, easy pickings for Zeke's swift decapitating blow.

Aside from the completely dazed beast, the alleyway was quite still. The pile of mutilated bodies was considerably terrible, but aside from that nothing else seemed any more out of the ordinary then any other area in the town thus far. There was nothing that could be done for the dead, many of them had been torn apart beyond all recognition. But the living were still possible to rescue.

At the moment, it was possible to see beyond the alleyway and to the other side, even through the fog and late-day sun. It looked somewhat familiar. Perhaps that was an area that had been shown in the video?

@PKMNB0Y@Raineh Daze@RoleplayerRoxas

---

"Ahaha!!! That did the trick!" the Hylian Hero said, cheering aloud as he moved over next to Suzuka, hand on her shoulder and a goofy grin on his face for just a brief moment as he spoke to the female servant, "That power i used is called 'stasis', and it can be used on monsters and other living things as well! Ah...for less time in those cases admittedly, but its pretty fun when it comes down to it!"

The Hylian rushed over to the scattered parts and weapons and loot of the former enemies on the ground, using the Shiekah Slate to begin collecting up the jewels and necklaces and such treasures. These would add nicely to his collection of valuables, perhaps to sell here or back home, and some to keep to show Zelda once he returned home. And of course he was willing to hand out Suzuka her fair share if she wanted any of this. Though...in this case there was more than just treasure to take a look at.

Once Link finished collecting up the treasures, the Hylian would begin picking up and closely examining the weapons of the slain foes as well. His face would become more solemn than it usually was with his treasure collecting "habit" as he looked over the craftsmanship of the strange bows and of course the melee weapons that had survived the butchering of the skeletons intact. He'd had to scavenge from a world broken by calamity and rotted away by 100 years of time passing, after all, so this had become common habit to him since waking up again and heading out into the world.

Soon, Link would attach a pair of the lighter crossbow to each side of his hips, with the scavenged bolts for them kept in the Sheikah Slate for "automatic ammo loading" purposes...more of a convenience really, but still! Likewise, the Hylian looked for a good sword or axe or polearm, whichever seemed best quality and build among the current loot, to carry on his back for use as they forged ahead. A shield, if any, would perhaps be good as well for a temporary armament as well. Armor, though, hmm....he would have to look some of this over, piece together the best parts that could amount to a full set. He'd been agile enough in full Hylian Guard plate armor before, anywways.

"By the way, since we're doing this together I'd be happy to split the loot with you once we get back," the Hylian said to Suzuka in a normal and calmer tone as he turned to face her once more, albeit sounding fully genuine, as he tossed aside a piece of badly cleaved chest armor to the floor behind him.

@Rune_Alchemist@PKMNB0Y

"I see," was all that Nanoha said after she took notice of the facts through Youmu. This reminded her of the Jewel Seed incident in the worst ways possible and, if anyone who actually knew Nanoha for a long time heard the reply she gave, they would know that she wasn't very pleased.

"I see..." she said again, nodding gravely.

"We must take a step forward if we want to stop this. There's one signature deep down these caverns going away from us. I suppose that we will have to pursue it underwater. Would that be a problem for you, Youmu? If so, I can try to catch it on my own. As long as I have my Barrier Jacket, I'll be fine even if I go to outer space," Nanoha said, waiting for Youmu's answer before choosing a path to follow.

The small, silvery-haired girl nodded, clutching the note firmly in one hand as she lowered it. There was no way they could delay any longer. Youmu began to proceed away from the chest, tucking the note into a pocket as she did. She didn't want to leave behind the last words of the one who had been turned into such a terrible creature.

"I can move through water fine," she asserted, glancing back over her shoulder as she walked, "I'll clear the distance in a single breath."

Perhaps it wasn't time to brag, but Youmu was trying to focus on the task at hand and not on her own anger, no matter how much it was fueling her actions. And even enraged, she was still a proud member of the Konpaku family.

@KoL@PKMNB0Y

The caverns that wound their way beneath the shoreline, destroyed as they were now, meant that both Nanoha and Youmu would have a fairly simple time pressing forward. Coupled with the scan that Nanoha had executed moments prior, and the structure that had made those greedy for rewards from the caverns were no more worrisome than the attacks that failed to even connect with them. Despite all of the attempts that the fishmen made in striking at the two girls, they all met with complete and utter failure—mainly due to how high and how fast they were able to fly, given the gaping hole that they were using to travel through.

As predicted, though, the path towards the target that they were pursuing—who seemed to be hurrying its pace ever so slightly—was in reach, if only blocked by the need to travel through water to reach it. Given the sheer density of fishmen that seemed to flood the area in an attempt to hold the pair off as long as they could, it seemed that they were most definitely on the right track.

Those on land had their weapons at the ready, and a line of armored ones were attempting to block the way through the dark and foreign waters beneath. It was to be noted, though, that the speed at which the fleeing target was moving was varying; the reason for that, of course, remained unknown as of now.

@KoL@VitaVitaAR

"Bleeegh..."

If any of that gets on me, you're joining them down there."

"Please no, it's bad enough being up here with you, lady Magilou!"

As Bienfu made his disdain for the messy battle below clear, Magilou was much more passive, watching from her paper perch. She could try helping them out, but given the tight confines of the streets, as well as their penchant for getting right up in the monsters' faces, accurate spell-slinging was quite difficult. Plus, they had things under control, so why over-complicate things?

...Besides, Magilou wasn't too fond of the gory mess left behind either.

With a small frown, Magilou surveyed the alley from up high. She couldn't maintain her Guardian's flight indefinitely, so sooner or later she'd have to join them on the ground. But she didn't mind running the timer down to the last second if it meant avoiding the bloody goop. Her eyes flickered upward, to the other end of the alley, and she tilted her head curiously. The fog was making it difficult to tell, but something familiar looked to be on the other side.

Magilou sighed, and resigned herself to gently gliding back down below. Hopping onto the ground, her Guardian shrunk in size and flipped back into her hand before she addressed Zeke and Hibiki, "well, great news guys. Looks like our lead is just over yonder. you wouldn't happen to have spare boots, would you?"

@PKMNB0Y@Raineh Daze

"Very well then," Nanoha nodded upon hearing Youmu's answer. If she could fight underwater without restrictions then this would be much easier to deal with.

"If that's the case—" she said as they finally broke into a larger section of the cave system that had even more of those creatures than before waiting for them. That was never going to end, huh?

"If that's the case," she repeated to herself. "We will just have to break right through them! Right, Raising Heart?"

<<Yes, Master. Standby ready.>>

"Ok, then. We are going to cut a path right to our main target, Youmu," Nanoha said as Raising Heart switched modes yet again, from a cannon, to a rocket-powered spear (that's also a cannon). Not long after that, she blasted away at full speed, leaving a trail of knocked out enemies, and massive hole on every wall between their current position and the target that was trying to run away from them.

"Stop right there! We just want to talk, please," Nanoha said after passing their target—avoiding to hit it with her attack—and stopping a few meters away from it, with Raising Heart—back to its cannon mode—pointed right at them.

@Crusader Lord@PKMNB0Y

---

"Gotta admit, pointy ears, that was a fun little trick." Before she could even finish the sentence, however, Link had already proceeded to loot the area like a madman once more. Suzuka could only watch in mild astonishment as in a matter of a few seconds he had already pilfered through half the shoddy equipment the zombies had dropped. In the span of a few more, he had already taken everything he seemed to have taken interest in and then offered to share the 'loot' with her.

"Aahaha, what?" The high school girl laughed derisively. "Why would I want a buncha junk? Like, that stuff smells worse than another stupid foxes' cooking. You seriously plan on using that?" She grinned wolfishly at Link. Obviously if he had said yes, she'd probably give him grief for it.

Even as Nanoha swiftly blasted her path through the swarm of fishmen, it was being refilled, the creatures trampling the unconscious bodies she left underfoot as they moved to bar Youmu's path as well.

She wouldn't be stopped. Whatever terrible thing was beyond this wall of these monsters, she would pierce right through it and take it down. After learning just what these awful creatures did to people, she couldn't allow them even the slightest opportunity to do it to anyone else.

The petite, silver-haired girl slid her feet into a ready position, both hands now on the hilt of Roukanken. Hakuroken wouldn't be much use here, after all, not against flesh and blood opponents who she had no intention of allowing to live.

Youmu sucked air in through her teeth, just as the furthest forward of the fish creatures drew their spears back to toss them towards her...!

She slammed one foot forward, an exploded with motion, a noise like a sonic boom echoing through the caverns. The young half-phantom's movement could only be tracked by what seemed to be a glint of silver light suddenly darting through the enormous crowd of fish creatures, a straight path cleanly through the middle.

She came to a halt on the other side.

Behind her, the bodies of every fishman she had passed beside split apart, falling to pieces with ugly, wet splats and spurts of blood.

@KoL@PKMNB0Y

The sudden decimation of the enemy forced behind the target and its entourage were barely able to be registered mentally—doubly so, given that they had created a surprising amount of distance from the fishmen who were acting as guards to the area prior. The subsequent appearance of both girls—young as they were—caused the escort to stop outright, and those who were next to the source of the energy reading took a moment to compose themselves.

Before they could arrange themselves into a proper battle formation, though, the one that the two had come to deal with was made perfectly clear. An ugly creature with a fishlike face who, despite having some semblance of hair (unlike the other fishmen), seemed to have a lower body not unlike that of a fish's tail. To call it a 'mermaid' would be a bit of a disservice to mermaids as described in myth, for this creature seemed so repulsive to not even bring that to mind under ordinary circumstances.

For a moment, its eyes met those of the two girls, and there was a definite moment of hesitation before it seemed to tense its arms up. Bringing a conch shell to its mouth, the monster blew a haunting melody that seemed to spur the other fishmen into action, with multiple squadrons attempting to strike the two girls down in order to protect their queen apparent.

@KoL@VitaVitaAR

"I'm sorry, but you are not leaving me any choice," Nanoha said as the creatures didn't heed her request for them to talk on peaceful terms. She had a sad look in her eyes for a moment before...

"Raising Heart, let's end this now! Hyperion..." she barely gave the creature's queen time to blow her shell before Raising Heart loaded at least four cartridges, completely bypassing the required charge time for a heavy bombardment spell.

<<Smasher>> The device chimed in its characteristic mechanical voice as cherry blossom colored magic circle appeared under Nanoha's feet and a set of spinning rings created a cannon barrel aimed at the fish creatures.

"Shoot!"

Nanoha shouted as Raising Heart unleashed a massive blast of magical energy many times greater than any of the spells she used until now. Hyperion Smasher, a straight improvement to Divine Buster in all aspects.

The creatures would still be left alive, albeit heavily injured, but the cave they were in, wouldn't have the same fate, being pretty much blasted into oblivion, sending atomized debris and water flying away with enough for to turn the once aquatic cave into a gapping, dry, open-air hole.

"I told you that we just wanted to talk. Maybe, you'll listen to us, now," Nanoha said as she kept the battered fishmen under Raising Heart's barrel...

Almost immediately as Youmu entered the cavern, an enormous blast of energy rocked it, blasting away the water and sending the fishman escort to the ground. Another of Nanoha's spells... it reminded her a great deal of some of the repertoire of a certain Perfectly Ordinary Witch. But at the moment that wasn't the thought that occupied her mind.

As she'd entered the cave, she'd seen it. That awful, monstrous fish creature, far larger then any of the others... it was clearly a leader of some sort, wasn't it? And yet something was strange. It had hair, unlike any of the other creatures they had encountered. Long, flowing hair... her hand was still on Roukanken's hilt as she approached. That wasn't the only thing. All of the other creatures... they'd attacked mindlessly on sight. Made no effort to flee, made no effort to communicate, nothing. If any of them had been human, that humanity had been utterly lost.

And yet this one...

Rather then attack, it had hesitated. Youmu had seen its eyes fall upon them, watched its motions. A practitioner of swordplay was quite capable of recognizing even the tiniest moment of reluctance, of fear, of guilt or hesitation. It was a very... human response...

The long flowing blonde hair, the vaguely female body shape, the fact it had hesitated...

"Takamachi-san!" called the petite half-phantom, "The large one, the one with the blonde hair... do you have any way to stop it from moving entirely? I think... that may be..."

If she still had some sort of human response, then perhaps...!

@PKMNB0Y@KoL

If it was any consolation for Zeke and Magilou, the source of the devastation scarcely seemed any more pleased about it herself, looking down at the mess and the blood dripping off her knuckles with something between confusion and horror. Despite the force of the impact, it obviously seemed to be something that wasn't within Hibiki's normal experiences. At least that was reassuring--the girl with the explosive punches did not regularly go around punching people so hard there was nothing left.

Or at least not things that left this mess.

"I don't have any boots..." she answered, following Magilou's indication and looking down towards the alleyway. That was right, they were here to rescue a girl, weren't they? If that was the right direction, then with all these monsters around...!

Not caring what was in the fog, Hibiki ran off down the alleyway once again.

With the beasts dispatched, Zeke took a deep breath and flicked his sword to the side. The nature of the weapon meant that it would never dull (by dint of not having a metal blade), but letting the blood that had splattered onto it stick would only lead to problematic stains down the line. A nickname related to something like that wasn't exactly cool, per se.

Once Magilou flew down from her perch in the sky, Zeke was already attempting to drag himself out of the crater, having taken Pandoria's hand to get him out in ths first place. Given the situation, someone fixing the collateral damage of theor combat was wholly out of the question; hopefully, that didn't mean someone would attempt to charge them to do so.

"Boots? Er... We may have something...?" he responded, half unsure of himself as he turned towards Pandoria. "Do we?"

Half rolling her eyes, the Blade returned the comment with a slight smirk before rifling through their shared bag. The amount of sifting through object of all types took a few moments, but soon enough Pandoria had procured a pair of boots, as requested. Whether or not they would fit, though, remained to be seen.

"Here you are, then," she said, handing the footwear off to Magilou before closing the bag back up and putting it back on.

To that, Zeke simply nodded towards the three others present before chasing off after Hibiki, who seemed to already be running off into the unknown.

Again.

@RolePlayerRoxas@Raineh Daze


The beam that had been fired by Nanoha took the fishmen and their queen by surprise, and a few who had been unfortunate enough to be mid-leap as they attempted to strike out at the pair were unceremoniously renderrd unconscious in midair, falling to the ground with sickening "thud"s.

By some miracle or another, though, one of the fishmen had pushed the Siren to the ground as the attack began; with the dozens of the fishmen in front of her and the conch still in hand, the subsequent attack had only left her barely conscious. Though most of the others who had been escorting her had fallen, the Siren once again brought the conch (which was itself glowing an unnaturally luminescent blue) to its mouth to play once more. The motion was forced, almost strained, but done nevertheless.

@KoL@VitaVitaAR

---

Link gave an almost toothy grin back to the fox-eared girl in an oddly eager response to her words.

"I think of it as giving the other guy a chance to make things interesting," the Hylian said, walking back over to Suzuka in a seemingly more jovial mood, "Though i also meant the golds and jewels too when I offered to split the loot with you.

After all, a 'foxy' girl like you like you deserves only the best!"

Oh dear heavens no. NO. It was another cheeky and terrible pickup line, emerging from the vile depths from which it should never have emerged. And yet Link delivered it in retort, trying to explain himself as he jokingly flirted with the fellow sword-user.

Though he did well mean to hand over a share too her among the things she wanted from all of this, even if it was just gold and jewels. If she even wanted any. He did want to be fair about all of this, however, and to share the look was some attempt at camaraderie on his part. At least it was an attempt to do so, in contrast to how he'd been before all of the amnesia and such.

@PKMNB0Y@Rune_Alchemist

As the trio advanced into the fog, they emerged into a wider street once more. This one lead in two different directions. To the left, the cobblestone street lead towards what seemed to be some sort of overlook, bounded by an iron fence. In the other direction, however, there was a far more gruesome sight.

One of the wolf-beasts had been strung up on a strange wooden symbol, almost as if it had been crucified. It was quite clearly dead, throat sliced open deeply enough that the head was considerably close to falling off completely. Beneath the corpse a fire was lit, and around it there stood a gaggle of the distorted townsfolk wielding a variety of weapons, similar to the group that they had encountered prior. For the moment, not a single one seemed to notice them, as if they were far too entranced by the blazing flames and the beast's hanging corpse.

Most importantly, this area seemed rather familiar, as if it had definitely appeared in the video that had guided the group here in the first place.

Unfortunately, they didn't go unnoticed for long.

There was the harsh sound of a dog's barking, its source a distorted mutt with a vicious look and shaggy tan hair hanging off of its gaunt body. It had rounded an abandoned carriage, and its barking immediately caused the deformed-looking men around the fire to take note.

Some were already raising their weapons, two drawing rifles.

"Beasts! Foul beasts!" came a voice crying out.

@Raineh Daze@PKMNB0Y@RolePlayerRoxas

Magilou's expression was blank when she was handed the boots, having not expected anyone to be carrying spares. Or willing to part with them. She looked at them briefly, responded with a "great", and soon followed after Hibiki and Zeke. Given how terribly the clashed with the rest of her outfit, Magilou had no intent of actually putting them on. Besides, they seemed a bit big. Bienfu ignored the despairing sigh of Bienfu, who knew he was going to have to clean her shoes up later.

It didn't take long before they came across another sickeningly brutal sight. It was truly concerning just how stricken with madness this entire place was, completely unlike Daemonblight. It was hard to believe, but whatever afflictions ran rampant in this strange city, it was probably far worse than what Magilou was familiar with.
And of course, more of the mad inhabitants were there too, admiring(?) the macabre execution of yet another wolf-like monster. Bienfu shrunk back on her shoulder at the sight, and gave a cry of alarm when the barking started. Magician and Normin turned towards the source of the sound, seeing a less than pleasant dog approaching them.

"...Even the pets here aren't cute," Magilou sighed, finally dropping the boots and stepping forward, facing the group once more. Given their numbers, as well as the thankfully open space available, she could pitch in a little more and show off! Her allies could deal with one little canine, the jester figured.
"Now now, put those away~" Magilou wagged her finger at the group, not at all intimidated by the firearms pointed at her. Her wagging finger stared making circular motions, and with a flick of her wrist, the wind picked up considerably. It took only a moment for a small tornado to form between her and the hunters, barrelling towards them at speed. The spell would only last a few seconds, but it should be more than enough to send the group flying. Then she could pick off any stragglers that decided not to stay down.

@Crusader Lord@PKMNB0Y

---

"Jeez, you really love your terrible jokes." Suzuka laughed again, though it was noticeably less than his last attempt at flirting with her. "And like, rude. Why would I want those gaudy old jewels? It's not even designer brand!" Suzuka harrumphed as though that was obvious. "A cute high school girl like me has a reputation to keep, knight dude. I only wear the latest and most popular stuff." This was taking too long. Sitting around here just watching him...loot, while entertaining, really was getting old. Her eyes shifted deeper into the crypt.

"Okaaaay!" Suzuka grinned. "Time to move! I wanna finish up and find me a mall. I wonder what kinda stuff is popular here..." Before link could make a move to top her, Suzuka already began moving deeper into the crypt.

With the scouting force routed, the chaos from deeper within the catacombs seemed to pick up in intensity; given that a wall that no other mercenary thus far had managed to even consider destroying was now gone, the path forward from there was in clear view of the two invaders. While there were no skeletons in the way, the presence of a dense miasma did indicate some manner of enemy lurking in the region ahead. Pushing past that, though, would lead to a hallway that extended off into the darkness; beyond that, though, would stand a group of cloaked figures. One by one, they continued to raise the dead—skeletons with equipment that far outstripped those of the advance force, with prodigious size to match.

The fate of those who had fallen was conveyed to those raising the dead, it seemed, as their haste seemed almost palpable once the wall had been broken down. The threat of those two who had just entered was far too much for them to deal with alone, especially as they were now.

@Crusader Lord@Rune_Alchemist