To say that Nanoha was impressed with the aftermath of her last spell would be an understatement.

"Perhaps, I have underestimated their toughness," she thought as she saw how some of the creatures were still able to move after being hit with one of her heaviest bombardment spells at point blank range.

Nanoha was ready to try to get them to listen to her words, when Youmu came in and asked whether or not she could restrain what seemed to be their leader.

"I can do that, but I don't know if it'll work as expected. Ever since I came to this world, my magic hasn't been working as it should," she replied, remembering how not only her attack spells, but even the Wide Area Search, have either failed to accomplish their intended tasks or have been hijacked by some unknown force.

After her reply, Nanoha cast a Chain Bind on any of the fish creatures that were still able to move.

"So, what do you plan to do with them, Youmu?" she asked as Raising Heart unlocked its cooling ports and let out a huge plume of vapor.

"... The largest one... the one with hair," Youmu began, slowly approaching the downed creatures, sheathing Roukanken as she did, "... She hesitated. I could see it. None of the others did. They all mindlessly attacked like monsters. But when she saw us, she didn't want to do it. She didn't want to fight."

It wasn't how a monster completely lost to humanity behaved, or a youkai with their mind intact, behaved. Hesitation like that was something Youmu could recognize and understand as the actions of someone who didn't want to fight, did not want to hurt anyone nor be hurt in turn. Anyone trained in the art of swordplay could recognize those reactions.

If that was the case... then...

"... Takamachi-san, in the journal..." she continued, her tone morose, "Do you remember? It said that the horrible man who owned that mansion threw a girl into the ocean as a sacrifice. And that note... it said that these things turn people into more of themselves."

Every other fish creature here seemed totally lost. But if there was one who still had that fragment of humanity, was it possible...

@KoL

---

The Hylian merely shrugged after Suzuka turned down his offer, though he could definitely pick up on the fox-like girl's boredom without any sort of issues. Dungeon diving was not something for everyone, and it wasn't like he hadn't been running around a ruined world and doing this for a while. So what was normal for him was probably not so much for...wherever this girl came from? He still had no idea, but at least she seemed to have a certain familiar-ish sense of pride about her that reminded him of a certain Rito Champion from way back....well, somewhat at least. But regardless, delving deeper into the dark depths would be an interesting adventure of its own if this is what he could gather up so far in terms of loot.

The dense miasma of foul power seemed to indicate they were on the right track, however, as they walked deep in down the new path they had unintentionally created. But at the end of it all seemed to be an...interesting sight. Caped people raising the dead, defiling the bones of the fallen in seemingly more of a haste. Larger, stronger, and better enemies lied before him, and in the face of it all...Link almost smiled. The Hero of the Wild moved to Suzuka's side, put up his borrowed tools, and then pulled out the Bow of Light and pulled back the magically-generated string as the bow's magic created a new arrow for him to fire whilst he aimed it (but didn't fire yet) at the caped figures. Smooth as silk. The bow and arrow seemed to be supremely radiant amidst the evil and the dark as well, their light repelling back the odd miasma and darkness like it was an anathema to it all.

"...You want the creepy caped guys, or the mass of skeletons? Or you wanna split both?" Link commented aloud to Suzuka as he stood to the side of her, the smallest hint of a grin coming to the edges of his lips.

@Rune_Alchemist@PKMNB0Y

This area... part of it seemed familiar, like they were close to what they were looking for--but there were yet more crazed hunters around a strung up version of one of those beasts. This place was continuously and unerringly horrible. But worse, some of the hunters seemed to have guns... not a problem for her, with such old guns even if a bullet hit past her guard it would probably just bounce off harmlessly. Zeke and Magilou had no such protection, and she didn't think they would be as effective as the commander at dealing with something like that. Even if they were temporarily downed by the tornado, it would be just as easy to get up and shoot...

Not that there was much that a pair of bowled-over hunters could do against a magical girl wresting the rifles from their bare hands and snapping them in two, even as Hibiki stood beside the burning pyre looking nervously at the crazed men straggling to their feet. She'd jumped right into the mess to disarm them, and if she escaped to keep looking without doing anything that would mean abandoning the other two in this crazy city.

Proceeding further into the streets, Zeke found the same sight that the other two had seen, and was just as equally appalled by what he saw as the other two were. Seeing dead monsters lying around from defending a town or looking for materials to sustain a livelihood was all well and fine, but given what beasts they had just killed combined with the sheer irreverence for life...

This went beyond what was by any means acceptable, and the expression on the Driver's face showed his disdain for it all.

"Well, I guess if that's any indication, they're all probably going to be this rude," he remarked, readying his weapon as the other two dove forward. The riflemen were dispatched in short other by his allies, though, which left the rabid dog that was biting at his face to be dealt with.

"Oh, on me, huh?" he asked, casually sidestepping the dog as it dove for his face before cleaving through the center of its body in midair. "Sorry, but putting you down's my only choice here. I don't think you'd meet any cleaner a fate hanging out with masters like these."

With the dog handled, Zeke chased after the other two in order to help disarm the rest of the unruly mob—if there were any left to disarm, at least.

@RolePlayerRoxas@Raineh Daze

"So, what you are saying is that you believe this is the same girl," Nanoha said after Youmu finished her question. "If that's true, do you think that there's something that can be done about her? I'm not an expert in these matters, but if it was caused by magic or a Lost Logia, it may be possible to revert the transformation," she continued, thinking as critically and calmly as ever as she landed besides the creature.

"Thinking about that, we were supposed to retrieve something from this cave, weren't we? Do you think it may be this conch? It certainly must be a strong magical artifact of some kind if it survived a direct hit from two heavy bombardment spells," she said as she picked the conch up.

@Crusader Lord@PKMNB0Y

---

Penetrating deeper into the ruin, the miasma only grew thicker leaving little to the imagination about what lay ahead. A more careful sort might have thought more about it. Unfortunately, Suzuka was not exactly that. She walked without a care or a thought through the Miasma. Obviously, she was just confident and not being careless in any way. After all, these undead weren't going to be any trouble to her whatsoever.

"Haaa, I'm gonna need a shower after this...I wonder if they have hot springs in this world..." She sighed, not paying attention to where she was going and nearly tripping over a skeleton in the process. "...ah." A group of cloaked figures appeared in the distance. And they were...raising the dead? Suzuka narrowed her eyes at them. Well, she didn't particularly care, but these undead and their stink really were annoying her.

"Eeeh," Suzuka hummed, brandishing Kenmyrouen. "Dunno. Strategy's not my thing, just don't get in my way, pointy ears." Leaving Link where he was standing, Suzuka bolted for the skeletons that were being raised. They were obviously much better equipped than the ones they had previous encountered, but they'd still be dealt with easily. Leaping into the air, Suzuka attempted to launch herself over the skeletons, acrobatically flipping as Daitsuren's wind manifested, the wind and razor sharp sword slamming into a skeleton.

With any luck, she'd land behind them, using Kenmyrouen and Shoutouren to block anything sent her way.

Upon seeing the bow that Link had drawn, one of the skeletons, wholly clad in heavy armor, moved directly towards both him and Suzuka, while another two moved to flank them in turn. The rest of the mob, which had quickly come to the realization that a new threat was upon them, were only barely able to register that the fox-eared girl had already leaped overhead, out of reach of their own weapons. A few of them aimed their crossbows towards the air as they tried (in vain) to shoot at her, but by then she had already reached a small opening behind them.

Under the assumption that their assailant was more of an uncannily agile assassin of some foreign origin, the cloaked beings shifted their focus away from raising soldiers; at this point, they had all turned towards the girl who had split herself off from her companion and pointed the palms of both of their hands towards her. The ground nearby began to split, and soon enough a torrent of bony hands began to reach for her, in an attempt to drag her down into the depths.

The armored giants facing against Link, on the other hand, seemed to be working in similar unison, attempting to strike at him in coordinated motions as if they were members of an organized crew of elites well-versed in the art of combat.

It was very possible that that could have been such in the past, but no more.

@Crusader Lord@Rune_Alchemist

Youmu opened her mouth, and then shut it again moments later. How did she explain Yakumo-sama? To be honest, she didn't really understand too much about the enigmatic gap youkai either. But, if there was anyone within the whole of existence who could return this girl to her original form, she felt certain it would be her. On top of that, Yakumo-sama was a friend of Yuyuko-sama, meaning that she knew Youmu well enough that she could hopefully tell this was nothing pointless or frivolous. Then again, Yakumo-sama did a lot of pointless and frivolous things too, as far as Youmu could tell.

But... this girl needed help, didn't she?

"I... There is a friend of my mistress, her name is Yakumo Yukari," the half-phantom began, "Her abilities... er..."

Youmu trailed off again. She didn't understand Yakumo-sama's abilities particularly well, but... they seemed like they could do almost anything she wanted them to. So if this was the case...

"I think she might be able to reverse this completely. Maybe. I hope..."

@KoL@PKMNB0Y

---

Indeed, as soon as Magilou's tornado hit the hunters, they were immediately bowled over, completely unable to react when Hibiki charged over and destroyed their weapons, snapping them like twigs. For the moment, the hunters, even through their plague-induced frenzy, were completely stunned by the sight of their weapons being destroyed that swiftly. But even then, those without guns raised their blades, and the ones who had lost their weapons drew knives. Certainly, they didn't appear to be much of a threat, but a second dog had appeared as well...

And the doors at the back of the alley abruptly exploded inwards. The creature that came through them looked like he might have been human at one point, but he had grown to enormous, bloated, overly-muscled proportions, somewhat torn clothing hanging from his body and bandages wrapping his head.

"Dear sister..." it practically growled, sounding more like a beast then a man as he advanced, slapping one of the hunters in his way to the side as he did.

Certainly, perhaps not the most dangerous threat to this group, but a show of what was perhaps occurring in this town... and a show of potential dangers the little girl could be in.

Of note were the lights lit around the street, outside of several doorways. Perhaps it was worth investigating them after the enemies were disabled.

@PKMNB0Y@Raineh Daze@RoleplayerRoxas

"I see," Nanoha said after listening to Youmu's words. "If we take her back, I'm sure that the TSAB could help as well. Shamal can find a way to cure any magical illness."

"This isn't the problem, though. If we want to help her, we will have to abandon this mission for a while. If we can go back through the portal we used to arrive at this dimension it shouldn't take long to get her to either of our worlds," the young mage said after thinking through their options. Helping this supposedly transformed girl was important but going back also meant ignoring the people from this world, even if momentarily.

"What's it you want to do, Youmu?"

@Crusader Lord@PKMNB0Y

---

Suzuka hadn't quite been expecting the ground beneath her to open up and literally grab her. Like ew, what kind of ability was that? They had been correct though. She did rely mostly on agility for most of her combat ability, but they were a fool if they thought she was normal human. She was a servant after all, even the weakest were leagues stronger than a human could hope to be.

"Dude, ew!" One of the skeletal hands managed to grab her ankle. "Get your smelly fingers off!" Shoutouren swung low to the ground, cleaving right through the skeletal hand. These things were really hampering her style! How dare they touch her anyways! The fox spun, her trio of swords creating a deadly whirlwind of steel around her, cutting any of the skeletal hands around her into ribbons. leaping into the air again, Kenmyouren impaled its blade on the ground under her, expertly balancing herself on its hilt Daitsuuren flashed as its form shifted into that of water as she launched it towards one of the robed adversaries, immediately afterwards launching herself towards them.

They were mostly casters, it seemed, so obviously they wouldn't be very good in close combat.

---

Well then. A little attempt at camaraderie had seemingly failed, but the Hylian merely internally sighed to himself at it all. This strange girl was full of all sorts of odd-ness, though being from other worlds probably made them all seem rather strange to each other in ways. What a time it would be when these people met Zelda! At least potentially. Maybe...for the moment it seemed questionable to introduce them at least. More than that, right now he had other things to deal with! These armored giant bone men were nothing compared to a proper Hinox, much less Calamity Ganon's final form!

The Hylian suddenly shifted his aim towards the head of one of the giant skeletal enemies, leaping back at the last second from a blow and firing his shot without hesitation. Time almost seemed to go in slow motion as he switched out his armaments, the bow finding itself on his back again and the Hylian Shield finding themselves in his hands once more as he landed on the ground. As his foes struck at him with seemingly some attempt at coordination, at least to his senses, the Hero of the Wild continued to dodge their blows some as he measured the timing of their attacks briefly. Then pressing a button on the screen of the Shiekah Slate on his hip with his free hand, a rounded bomb emitting a glowing blue light appeared in his grasp.

Without a word the young man tossed the projectile ahead of him into the air, right in front of his closing-in attackers. Quickly pressing the same button on the Shiekah Slate on his hip once more, the glowing blue explosive detonated between the Hylian and his attackers. As the blast wave lashed out in his direction, Link's shield clashed...and sent the explosion doubling back towards the enemies in turn as he remained unscathed.

Perhaps this would send them off balance, hmm?

The explosion of the bomb had indeed sent the trio of attackers reeling, stunning them momentarily as they were pushed back from the concussive force. Their armor seemed rather worse for the wear, but given that they were skeletons, one might have found it strange that they could be stunned by the blast in the first place.

Regardless, though, the attack had left them wide open for follow-ups, so long as they attempted to regain their footing.

The necromancers, in comparison, were faring far less pleasantly against the fox-eared girl. Their attempts at restraining her had ended in complete failure, and the moment that one of their own had been impaled, the rest of their number immediately moved to retreat from the area. The one that had been stabbed seemed to resist, if only for a moment, before the weapon was removed and they fell to the ground. The clatter of bones made it clear what it was under those robes, but the demise of their comrade seemed to do little to shake the rest of his number. At once, they each unfurled a set of scriptures and, as they began to glow, pointed towards the girl who was standing in their midst.

Seemingly out of nowhere, a massive horde of skeletons began to drag themselves out of the stone, acting as attempted deterrents to stall even a second longer. It was clear how wholly unmatched they were, of course, but even those who had surpassed death could feel dread at such overwhelming power.

@Rune_Alchemist@Crusader Lord

This... this was all very urgent. The presence of this creatures(though, ideally, taking away the one they seemed to treat as their queen would reduce the threat posed by them to the local townsfolk at the very least) as well as those unknown things that Nanoha had detected previously... they had to help these people, didn't they?

But this girl... she had suffered for so long, hadn't she? Youmu wasn't certain that she could make her wait any longer. But... ah, what was she supposed to do? Neither of these duties were anything she could ignore...

"... Is there any way to keep her unconscious, until we can take her to Yakumo-san?" Youmu asked, finally. At the very least they could perhaps keep the girl from experiencing her terrible state of being until she was able to be healed.

@KoL

The mob was, as expected, easily taken down and disarmed. The self-proclaimed witch dispelled her tornado with a small smirk and proudly stood with her arms crossed. Without the guns, she had no reason to fear any further attacks, her magic would keep them at bay. Wellnot that her party members would let them get close anyway.

Her attention was stolen away by the appearance of a large, hulking... thing. It seemed humanoid, but beyond that, it was just another monstrous creature. Magilou was beginning to think this city had a tiny problem with horrific monstrosities roaming the streets.
"...So, uh, guys, question," Magilou practically ignored the approaching monster for the moment as she turned towards the other two, "we could fight on and on as much as we like, but at this rate, every corner's going to be hiding these cuties. We might need a new plan."

She ignored Bienfu's frantic tugging at her hair, lazily pointing at the giant monster's general direction to hurl a small fireball at it. For all the carnage going on in these streets, she was curious about the actual inhabitants of this place. Surely, not everyone was a crazed, gun-wielding maniac devoid of all reason? Some houses did seem inhabited, too. Were they trapped?

@PKMNB0Y@Raineh Daze

"You don't need to worry about that. Mid-Childa style magic isn't lethal, but it doesn't mean it's harmless either. After taking two bombardment spells from point-blank range, I don't think that she's going to wake up anytime soon," Nanoha said to Youmu after being asked about whether or not she had any means of keeping the fish girl unconscious.

"And, if she wakes up and begins to cause trouble again..."

"Anyway, I guess that it's better to check the other reading now?" Nanoha asked as she ascertained that the other signal she picked up earlier continued to be stationary.

With a frown, Zeke took a single step back as the large beast made its way towards them. Magilou's statement, though, flippant as it was, did have a point. Dealing with a fight after fight was something he was used to, of course, but as far as efficiency went, that method ranked near the bottom.

"You may have a point there," he said, still warily staring at the beast as it approached them before raising his weapon in the air and causing the electricity around it to flare up in turn. "But for the moment, we've got to clear this stuff out. Maybe afterwards, we can poke around and check if anyone's seen the kid, yeah?"

With a smirk, Zeke ran forward before swinging his sword through the monster's abdomen, bisecting it in turn. Pandoria, on the other hand, had already begun to move about, knocking on the doors with lit lanterns and asking if anyone was inside. Hopefully, at least, her search would not prove useless.

@VitaVitaAR@Raineh Daze@RolePlayerRoxas

---

The secondary signature, which even now remained stationary, was located deeper underwater than the siren queen had; to the pair to whom water was no limiting factor, though, tracing the signal would soon reveal the source. A sunken ship, from which an ominous blue light seemed to pulse, was the source; scattered about it were the walking skeletons of its drowned crew, their cries of agony in their eternal lamentations resonating even through the water.

One of the undead, though, seemed to notice the pair. An apparent cry was made in turn, and soon the attention of the undead was focused upon the two girls. Immediately, they attempted to strike out, going so far as to even launch the anchor of their vessel at them in an attempt to attack them. Despite its apparent weight and size, the magic that seemed to cloak the object caused it to fly out, as if a projectile, with a speed that seemed unfitting for such a thing.

@KoL

@Crusader Lord@PKMNB0Y

---

The entirety of the area around Suzuka was filled with a deadly dance of blades. As she leaped off her blade, the foxy maiden elegantly spun, acrobatically avoiding any blow tossed her way while using her three blades to dispatch them with a single strike. Even were they undead, they swiftly fell beneath her blades. The weak skeletons were nothing more than fodder for her blades. The thought of briefly checking on the boy wielding that odd sword crossed her mind, but he could probably handle himself.

So Suzuka pursued the necromancers, advancing on the horde of skeletons.

"Ahaha, you guys are totes discount shelf stuff." Suzuka laughed, a long slash with Daitsurren lopping the head off of some skeletons gathered in front of her.

The fact that the transformed girl was going to be out cold for quite some time was a comfort to Youmu. It gave them time to finish dealing with whatever it was that was going on in these caves aside from the terrible fish monsters. And, thankfully, it didn't take long for them to reach the source of the second disturbance, especially given that the fish creatures seemed to have largely vanished from the caverns with the defeat of the one that they were protecting. It also possibly helped that so many of them had been killed or incapacitated on their way in.

The eerie blue glow made Youmu feel uneasy. It wasn't ghosts, right? She had a duty. She couldn't let herself be dissuaded at all. But the fact that there were so many indications that this could be ghosts was making her more and more uneasy by the second.

But she couldn't let it scare her... she couldn't...!

The revelation that rather than ghosts it was a collection of walking skeletons eased the petite silver-haired girl's heart considerably. and she smoothly drew Roukanken the moment the anchor launched forward.

With a shower of sparks, she brought the lengthy blade's side against the anchor, forcing it away with a resounding crash of of metal on metal! She immediately darted forward, targeting the first of the skeletons and slicing once upwards and then again downwards, cutting bone apart in an instant!

@PKMNB0Y@KoL

The hulking figure let out a grown and fell in two halves, oozing blood messily onto the cobblestone. At this point, the street was entirely cleared of monsters. The hunters were unconscious, the dogs and the ogre-like figure were dead. It was a rather messy scene, to say the least. For the moment, there was a relative calm... though distant screams and roars could still be heard. Just what was happening here?

The first door that Pandoria knocked on did indeed have someone behind it. The voice belong to a young, somewhat gruff-sounding man.

"Lousy offcomer," he almost spat, "Who'd open their door on the night of the hunt? Away with you!"

The other doors were similarly unhelpful.

"What, are you tryin' to get me killed?"

"You need to be a special kind of stupid to be knockin' on folks' doors on the night of the hunt. Sod off!"

"Bloody outsider. Get lost."

At the very least, this did indicate that the doorways and windows that were illuminated by a lantern(a specific scent could be detected coming from them. It seemed to be some sort of incense) meant that the house was occupied. It was as good a place as any to start looking for the little girl.

As for where she could be, by this point there were two directions that they could proceed in: Through the huge set of doors the bandaged ogre had burst through to the right, and further down the street to the left. There appeared to be stairways upwards on one side of the lefthand path, and an open gate further along.

@PKMNB0Y@RolePlayerRoxas@Raineh Daze