Well, Alicia couldn't say she was surprised by how Aurelio had gotten into this situation. Hearing what he had told them already, she nodded to confirm his suspicion. "They did. But I'll elaborate more when we get to the trial." At least he was willing to be there for it, which provided some comfort.

Suddenly confronted with an accusatory gesture, remained as composed as she could manage in the situation. Aurelio helped. "I appreciate you doing that for me Kimble. But it's alright. I'm here to defend myself now." She then turned to Rachel. "Perhaps I will. But nothing is set in stone. Everything I did, I did because I thought I was helping Beacon and the rest of the magical girl community. I refuse to accept that anything is inevitable." She doubted there would be much sympathy for that stance, but what mattered was saying it, not how it was received. This wasn't the trial after all.

"Of course," Alicia added as Kimble spoke up, turning back to pet her in the brief interlude between Rachel and Aurelio leaving, and Juliana's arrival.

She took her cake with a grateful nod, if only to have something in her stomach rather than nothing at all. Without the plentiful bounty of the beach island, she was having to get used to reality again. "Hey, come on," she replied, nudging Sylvia as she ate. "Let's not get all doom and gloom already. There's still a chance." One that seemed increasingly faint as time went on, but a chance that remained nonetheless.

A bite of cake rested on her fork as her head fell slightly. "I mean, we did the best we could in the circumstances. If we were going too far the Beckoners would have told us. Right? It's not like we were being secretive about it." This was Beacon after all, a sisterhood. They were all on the same side, regardless of how they might disagree.

@Phonic@Ariamis


… Honestly, Valkyrie’s reactions were pretty cute. Deni would have to consider teasing her more in the future. After all, she still had one of her tools, she could feel it. Probably because the power that provided it wasn’t based on Asengav’s power. She could do a lot of things with that. But not now. Now, they bolted!

‘Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee~!’ Deni called out happily. Travelling with Mariette’s portals probably was faster, but it sure wasn’t as thrilling as this~! _{(assuming she has sensations at all while travelling lightning-style)}

Finally, they arrived to Crystal Curtain. So there was a great wall blocking their way… another one of those things you never had to worry about as a servant of Mariette. Huh, and it was guarded. Better be on our best behavior. They wanted them to tell their names, huh. And business! Passing through, does that work? Deni considered it, and…

… Oh, right, to make ‘Ronin’ pass the lie-test, I better start referring to myself as Ronin in my mind, don’t I? … Deni thought. Ronin thought, for now! But not changing the banner!

Now, lesse…



… Yeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaah, Ronin grinned. Better leave this to Valkyrie~

Oh, but.

‘Hello, I’m Ronin! Pleased to meet you~!’ Ronin grinned as she happily waved to the Magical Girl guards. ‘What she said~!’ Concerning what their business was, Ronin added without properly thinking about it.

---

The police-car was hit by the combined firepower of Eli and all the shadow minions and, to Eli’s great relief, it was enough to bring it down, at least momentarily. Then… fire truck with a water hose. She’d assume it was more powerful than the regular.

‘Surround it! Destroy the hose!’ Eli called to the shadows that immediately leapt off the building Eli was on to surround the firetruck and start aiming to bring down the hose and truck with their super-stretchy arms with claws and strikes, something that felt like a tougher challenge that the police car… Eli, herself, quickly dodged aside to try to avoid the water hose, while also forming her rifle into a very pointy umbrella…!

‘Reinforce!’ Eli called, perhaps unnecessarily, as she poured her Reinforcement magic into her slime-umbrella to attempt to resist the fire truck’s water hose while the shadows did damage to the entity from the sides. The umbrella was pointy so that water hitting it would be directed sideways rather than the umbrella trying to block it directly. This was all totally a working strategy.

Eli’s Third Eye confirmed the nature of the magic of the monsters. It was tied to Billy. They were like extensions of his being, so he could probably absorb them or make them from his flesh or the flesh of others. How many had he killed to make cars? Still, it was something to tell the others…

… Eh?

Eli looked over to be distracted by the sight of Billy having caught her mistress…

A couple seconds earlier.

Now, obviously, Mariette had prepared for the possibility of Billy heading for her. She’d been constantly keeping track of his location. But, it seems she may have failed to take in account just how fast he’d be.

The first movement upon realizing that Billy was heading for Mariette was to immediately attempt to drop herself through the portal she was standing on. That was her standard evacuative maneuver, after all. She also started opening a portal between them towards directly into the ground, that he’d hopefully hit and be promptly stopped, because he couldn’t break through the whole planet. However, one can assume he hit the edge of the portal which was far more frail than the contents of the portal itself and the portal crackled and vanished, but if Mariette didn’t have time to fall through the portal then she hardly had time to open that portal to any agreeable size anyway.

So she was grabbed. Billy shattered the portal Mariette was trying to fall through part-way through (I assume), so her existence defaulted to the side which the most of her was on, which unfortunately was the side where she’d been grabbed. The hand with the hand-mirror had been instinctively raised to protect her and got caught under the arm, while the one squeezing Bunny had been instinctively pulled away from Billy, meaning when she was grabbed it lost the grip on the bunny from the sheer force of impact. Once again, through sheer traumatic instinct, a small portal opened and Bunny dropped through right in front of Amaryllis, hopefully to catch.
_{Eli was too far away, and Mariette was in a state of distress. Amaryllis was the only other individual here she remotely trusted. You have been entrusted with the highest of honours, don’t fail her.}

There was a moment of disorientation as Billy took Mariette on a journey and slammed into the ground, informing her of his intentions of what to do with her to her face while pressing her chest harder than her non-existent vitality could handle. Her expression twisted in pain.

Yeah, no. There was no way Mariette could risk being a hostage. It didn’t matter if she was disoriented if the target was the arm that was holding her.

Mariette turned the hand-mirror caught under Billy’s arm a little and shot. A blast of white magical power promptly shot out of her and through the mirror, with as much power as she could muster with her full magical power though with very little time to spare. The purpose of the shot was to disintegrate the arm holding her with sheer firepower. Mariette took some of her own vitality with Blood Magic, since it was faster than using the Mana Font at this point. Didn’t matter if she was exhausted after if the option was being dead. What resulted, assuming Billy hadn’t reacted first and crushed her ribcage, was a sudden and immediate burst of shining magic firepower enhanced by her weapon originating from the Light-specialization smashing straight into Billy’s arm.

That is, she used the power she gained when she used the Platinum Coin. Because screw trying to hide your new abilities when you’re about to get killed. _{Was hidden only because PlatinumSkink was Co-GM at the time and thought it’d be a fun surprise when fighting player characters in the future.}

Regardless of how successful her blast was, Mariette would then immediately unleash all her dark tentacles. Their purpose was to separate her and Billy. They’d slam, they’d rip, they’d push, they’d pull, a burst of them trying to free her after the light-blast. If she was still caught, she’d continue shooting Light-blasts until she was freed or dead. Should she ever be successful in separating the herself and Billy, she’d open a portal into a neighboring building for herself to recover and, much more importantly, see if she could open a portal to look and make sure Bunny was safe.

@BrokenPromise@Crusader Lord@FamishedPants@ERode

Ko suddenly arched her back and hissed like a cat, facing to the right of Shion as they slowly began their way back to base. Shion looked over towards the commotion to see several owls sitting there, staring at her. Creepy. she thought. She kept walking until suddenly one of them flew at her, not seemingly with malicious intent, but rather as if the action where completely normal and within its control. She was just about to use her magic when suddenly Ko jumped off her shoulder, her brown body moving at incredible speed as she flew through the air, smacking the owl down with her prehensile right ear, hard enough for the owl to bounce off the ground.

"Uh... you got something to tell me, Ko?"

"Don't like owls. Was bullied by a puchuu who looked like one a lot. Bad memories, not really in the mood to talk about them. Too many owls around."

"I didn't know you had that kind of strength, either."

"No offense, and I know it's mostly my own fault, but there's a lot that you don't know about puchuu."

---

@BrokenPromise

@Ariamis @ERode

Even but a single, opening volley of magic was enough to cut this familiar's strength by twenty percent, and that was with their assault being undirected at the entity. Dawn maintained her flight over the cityscape, jets of flame extending from the wings of her armor to keep her aloft. The staff in her hand still sparkled with the remnants of her previous cast, its central gem swirling beneath the crystalline surface. As much as she was one for blasting first, the incessant metaphors from this many-armed giant really urged her on into replying in equal measure.

"Too many souls in too small a space is against the fire code," she quipped back with a dull but projected voice. She hadn't yet a good measure of what this thing could do, but with how many punching bits it had, she erred on the side of guessing it did exactly that. Dawn jetted a good distance further from the hecatoncheir and spun around to face back at it. Dawn threw her armed hand forward, pointing the tip of her crossed staff for the dead heart of her target. A twisting ring of fire orbs circled around the tip before converging into a thin blast, focusing all of its energy into a small point. What good would multiple arms do if the beam was too thin to be impeded by any more than one?

Over the course of her extended lifetime, Hilaria had come to understand that entropy reigned supreme on the battlefield. There was no understanding it, no true comprehension available to anyone in the moment-to-moment clashes. Where one second was subtle and quiet, only to erupt into cacophony and disorder. When blood and breath is the cost, most rational thoughts cease to be and the integrity of the casus belli becomes an afterthought.

A thousand years subject to this insanity had allowed her to make the most effective use of this chaos, by simply going with the flow. Simple as that was, a lot of unfortunate souls try to wade through dangerous waters by attempting to make sense of it all. Asking 'why' was time you could spend keeping track of important information, like what your immediate foes may be doing. Even if he was the main attraction, Billy wasn't her current worry.

Hilaria braced herself against the relentless assault of Cadillac, refusing to lose ground. The vehicle was doing a lot more damage to itself than it was to her, by the looks of things, and she didn't have any qualms about allowing it to continue this futile charge. It was no different than a toddler trying to knock a grown adult down. Entirely Unbreakable.

...Until she broke, that is.

Spying the monstrous approach of the military truck's maw, the ancient bulwark of a magical girl opted against remaining still. It could not be said that she was the swiftest girl alive, but that did not mean she was only capable of being stationary. As the beast neared her, she lept into the air, just above the cabin, and utilized her magics to come down hard, scutum at the forefront of the drop.



Oh no! Oh no, oh no!

The situation was far from as simple as she hoped it would be. There were so many spirits that she had no chance of ending this singer's session, at least not from a distance. The sheer amount of 'bodies' between them was enough to give her a heart attack. She always desired to be Lucifer, the morning star. A light that shone from so far away, to those in need. And she shone brightest when she was pitted against an abundance of foes, clumped together. But this was quite absurd. How far away was this Lich drawing these spirits from?!

The girl sighed in relief when support came in the form of a few of her sisters, with Lupa being one of them. Emily had begun to provide assistance to her allies by throwing some flames towards what should have been the approaching mob... but soon noticed none of them were hostile? That evoked confusion from her. What was going on?

"...?"

She caught what she believed to be a wink from the Endsinger, but perhaps it was a trick of the eye, or more likely the Lich's influence. This song was tainted and had to be getting to her, but she somehow felt as though it would be disappointing to attempt to deafen herself, like she gathered Helga had. No reason to think too much on it, though, it was insignificant, and there was a very pressing matter that urgently made itself clear.

It was hard not to catch sight of Lupa's transformation. Becoming a humanoid wolf was not exactly a subtle thing. But as interesting as that was, it was what she was attempting to do next that made things dire. She could feel the bloodlust eminating from the animal she had become, and it was directed at Helga, there was no mistaking it. Emily turned pale, as in this hectic place, someone who couldn't hear was easily blindsided.

It didn't take Emily more than a moment to decide her course of action. With a powerful thrust, she boosted her way towards Helga as fast as she could. It would be close, but Emily would come between the two and raise her fist weapons up in defense of the girl, knowing that she'd be at a severe disadvantage at such range.

But if it was to protect someone, particularly a sister, then so be it.



"Ngh..."

A low grunt escaped Samantha's lips as she felt the burning sensation of pain as a result of being penetrated.

Her foe had proven to be a fair deal more durable than she had predicted. Although Silhouette did not expect her blow to be fatal or enough to end the fight, she had hoped it would have had any sort of noticeable effect on Nina. Whatever the deal was with this girl, she was unlikely to stand victorious here if she didn't make use of her deadlier weaponry. This being rather obvious, it effectively took zero time to come to this conclusion, and so her mind was free to focus on responding to the counterattack she was about to receive.

The Third Eye she possessed allowed her some notification before the the chains were actually visible. It gave her enough time to raise the hand with her dagger and deflect the lower one, but even though she tried to twist her body to avoid the other, it still found itself embedded into her, albeit further to the side than it had been fired at -- her shoulder, to be exact. A wound like this was almost negligible, given her excellent sustain in a fight, but it certainly did not feel pleasant. It was also quite obvious that they weren't simply thrown out at random, but deliberately focused at nonvital points on her.

This girl was, in a sense, merely roughhousing with Sil, and that had confirmed it. How dangerous and potentially fatal doing so with an unknown magical girl could be, yet Nina had shown zero hesitation in doing so. It was kind of barbaric to fight for the sake of fighting. Silhouette was above...

No, you're really not.

Samantha thought it would be nice to return the favor. She would take the knife she just used to avoid one blow, and thrust it towards the side of her closeby opponent. There was the likely potential of her foe deflecting it with another chain, but in the event it landed, it wasn't going to end up having little effect.

It certainly would be nice, but it wasn't going to happen. The reason being: Veronica had 'called', wishing her to cease this conflict and assist some of the other agents of the Crimson Cradle, who were currently occupied. She wanted to pretend that when notified of this, that she wasn't feeling a bit disappointed. But there was little point in lying to herself. Still, she would follow Veronica's orders. And because Nina was not a target of hers, she had no desire to try to kill the girl if she wasn't forced to.

So, Sil's planned retaliation was abandoned and replaced with a swift retreat. Assuming there was nothing to stop her, she would tear the chain out of her shoulder, cursing the sharp pain she experienced while doing so, and used her teleportation to place a solid amount of distance between them. It was definitely anticlimactic, and much like her bout with the mechanical girl, Penny, she did feel a desire to engage with this girl once again, when she could do so.

"As exciting as this introduction was, I'm afraid I must leave." she explained, then added, "And it's Silhouette." she told the girl, finding her action strange. Why did she even bother telling this girl her name? She did not have any reason to do so, but still she did. There was a momentary pause. Perhaps she waited for the girl to give hers in return, if she did so. Even if not, she would depart anyways, jumping and blinking away.

@Ariamis

Back into the interrogation room, as that was what it was regardless of how they wanted to rename it. Aurelio just sat there for a long while looking at Rachel with a stern searching gaze. “You are playing with fire Rachel.” He would say eventually shaking his head slowly before taking off his top hat and monocle, the articles of clothing simply vanishing into air as he set them down, his stern visage never wavering as he did so.

“Any inroads that I might have made are likely gone with my absence and your actions. As I’ve never hidden that I am Beacon to the community here. And the one girl that I expect does have the connections that you have accused me of having is likely on your black list.” He would continue as he slowly stood. “I only hope that your quick to judgment stance hasn’t turned her against us. For Penny is a force to be reckoned with and you are currently holding everyone she considers a friend in Beacon in captivity. She may hold a Spark, but that won’t stop her if you aren’t careful. Because I’ve seen your work before, and this could easily backfire on you in ways that we simply aren’t prepared for right now if you don’t take caution”

Aurelio would carefully walk closer to the leader of The Ascendency “But I will still take you tracking device” He would say as he gently picked up the rather intricate piece of magic “And I will do my best to find out the location of this party, as you might have a point, as we once again have more enemies then friends here in Penrose. But,” It was time to let them know that Kindness didn’t mean push over. “I will not wear this until I know for sure that is that case.” He would openly place the relic into his inner jacket pocket before turning around to walk back to the other side of the table. “I will not further your abject assault without cause. There is no Kindness in genocide after all.”

He let his gaze linger on Rachel for a few moments after he said his piece, wondering if anything he said would have any impact. He wanted to say more, wanted to tear into her for destabilizing Beacon now, when it needed that solidarity the most. Wanted to rail at her for destroying what work this branch had done in restoring its public image. He wanted to tell her that the only one would could judge him was his own Beckoner; for he knew damn well knew what was in his contract. Instead he said nothing and after a few moments he simply winked out of existence, teleporting himself back to the containment room, not bothering to care if it was rude or not, he would spend what time he could with his friends before the trial.

---

@Ariamis

Penrose had been turned into a desolate city and little drove that point home more than Penny’s travel through the city. It was hardly a few hours after dark, but the city felt empty of humans. There was no one out on the streets, everyone one still here knew better then to go wandering out once the sun set now a days, alongside the increased trash that was left lying about due to the trash collectors not wanting to endanger themselves and the scores of abandoned cars all added together to give the city a very bleak atmosphere.

The worst part of it all? Monsters seemed more than willing to simply wander around looking for unfortunate souls, which was why Penny wasn’t currently dealing with any of the lich attacks. ‘This was not what I was expecting when I went out looking for monster s to hunt’ The robotic girl would muse to herself as she ducked under another crazed swipe before stepping into the creatures guard and punching her arm through its torso. ‘Twenty six’

She had exited the sewers a few blocks into downtown Penrose, and had almost on accident stumbled into a mob of beasts that had been prowling about the city looking for prey. Granted none of them had been more than a mook class threat, but there was something to be said about the sheer number of them she had stumbled across. The fight, if it could really be called that, had proven to be one sided very early as Penny simply tore through the creatures, as most of them had been too weak to really have a classification of any kind and it had quickly devolved into Penny hunting down as many as she could once they had scattered, before they could vanish into the night.

A part of her was vaguely disappointed that she was more or less stuck on grunt clean up duty due to stumbling into them, and hopped that the more major fights were going decently, but knew that leaving this pack alone would likely have spawned even more trouble down the line.

She leaned back wards nearly folding in half to dodge a pair of attacks from either side, before transitioning into a hand stand to kick off the heads of her attackers ‘Twenty seven and twenty eight’ just to flow into a back hand spring to continue the chase.

That wasn’t to say she was doing nothing else, these creatures hardly required any real focus to deal with. So she was simultaneously looking into the Beacon network, or more accurately its new firewall. It did come as something of surprise to see a majority of the network was closed off to her, and since she had logged on through the normal channels that meant a majority of Beacon’s members was locked out of the deeper parts of the network. She wondered why, she knew that it was the fault of the Ascendancy, the error messages when she tried to go somewhere that was locked told her that much, but that didn’t explain why.

Made her wonder if they were hiding anything and if- her train of thought was cut off as a monster landed a blow to her back. One that did little more than leave scratches on her and which both her and the creature watched heal near instantly. ‘Twenty nine’

She took a quick glance around the alleyway she had been in before sighing. Some had gotten away, but she had culled a fair portion of them. She doubted that moving to join any of the other attacks would prove any help at this point seeing as it was possible to have too many people trying to fight something at once.

‘Perhaps I can go check out Brittney’s?’ she would wonder to herself before pausing in her internal planning to turn around, as she could hear the echoing of footsteps of something heading her direction.

---

@ERode

There was a running string of curses flowing though Viva’s mind as she touched back down. And it took her a few moments to realize that despite landing near front and center to the entire mob nothing was moving to attack her. She even double checked her surrounding to make sure that nothing was creeping up on her before letting out a quiet “Huh” that was lost in the wall of sound.

Slowly she dismounted from her bike, the vehicle vanishing in a ripple of light shortly afterwards. She continued to survey the surrounding, more than a bit bemused at the lack of hostility being directed at her. Until she noticed that she had been tapping along to the beat that is, the lack of proper indignation at being hypnotized also went a step towards realize that she was in much more danger then it first seemed like.

Closing her eye’s she took a deep breath, a moment later a pair of industrial strength earmuffs appeared in her empty hand, which she quickly put on. Then she proceeded to bite down on her lip. Hard. In fact she didn’t stop biting until she felt her teeth click and she could taste blood. When she once again open her eyes it was easy to tell that she was mad, but it was a cold anger. Kneeling down she placed her off hand against the ground and focused, carefully planning on the shape in her mind.

Normally the barriers and walls she conjured would shatter at the lightest touch of anyone but her, raining down either damaging or debilitating magic on whoever was unlucky enough to come in contact with it, but with a bit of time and effort she could restrain the destructive inclination of her magic and make the standard barriers her Specialization was more commonly known for.

A pair of moments later a glittering translucent ramp appeared leading up on to the stage, one that her allies in the battle could also use. Not waiting another second Viva raced up the ramp opening fire upon the Endsinger the moment she had a clear line of sight on her. A part of her hopped that part of the mob would follow after her, for if they did a curse of frenzy would turn them against the Endsinger as well. A translucent black sphere would appear in her off hand holding just a curse in case she got the chance to use it.

Safe to say, Eliza was a little lost.

Not cause she didn't really know where the party will be, but she just didn't know what to do besides cut out some of the smaller monsters. From the intel Valerie got, there were already alot of other magical girls fighting the liches, one who the witch wasn't even gonna bother with to avoid having her ears bleed to death. There was sightings of what seemed to be Ascendancy active at the moment, and the town was kinda...boring being desolate. Still, Eliza wanted to help try and end this war before someone starts up the apocalypse or something.

...But how?

The witch ended up back at Penny's lair, thinking it'd be best for her to confide to the cyborg first. She hasn't seen her in a while too, so it couldn't hurt to check up on her. Took a bit to find a way inside the sanctuary, but once she did, Eliza noticed that the place was converted into a shelter for DMGs and other monster girls.

“Huh. She cleaned up the place.”

Well, she noticed that secondly. Concluding to herself that it was safe there, Eliza allowed her cloak to dissapear, freeing her wings again. Theresa sat down on the witch's head and looked around herself, with the latter exploring the sanctuary a bit.

---

---

A good bit away from the Endsinger's concert, Anaya watched the others as they fought against the lich and it's ghostly audience. She couldn't help but be dissatisfied with the performance overall, especially since the Endsinger's singing voice made her want to rip her ears off.

“Amateur...” She groaned. Not long till Celia appeared, tugging at the spectral girl's skirt. Anaya looked down at the empath, smirking a bit. “About time you got here.” She looked back to the concert battle. “What can you feel from them, over there?”

Celia looked over as well, and focused. “I feel...Determination, Focus, and overwhelming Excitment. A bit of Fear and...Bloodlust...?” The little empath shivered at the last emotion. “I haven't felt bloodlust in a long time. So what's the plan?”

“Leave the lich to me. Just back me up, okay? It seems like she's using corrupted sound magic, so maybe I can have a bit of fun with this, right?”

Celia wasn't too sure about where that was going. “Right, you better know what you're doing.” She combined her despair and focus magic to create a barrier around them, hopefully nullifying the Endsinger's hypnotic melody. Hopefully. Then used the bit of fear magic to temporarily allow them to avoid detection. Not much she could do with it, for now. “Let's go.”

Anaya and Celia made their way to the crowd, taking note to hurry some. Most of the other magical girls wouldn't be distracted forever. They watched as a reinforcement specialist (atleast that's what they assumed she was) made her way to the stage, and attacked the lich. They quickly ran to the stage as well to help. Celia used some Bloodlust magic to enchant the bullets from Viva's handgun with a curse effect of their own, and Anaya summoned some of her spirits to her, waiting on the right moment to counter the sound magic with her own. Two knights to guard her, and a few life-sized dolls, each equiped with their own instrumental weapon.

In case the music-battle plan fails, there's always shooting the lich to death.

@Ariamis@BrokenPromise@EnterTheHero

---

"Tch..." Rina frowned. She had succeeded in seemingly decapitating it, but it didn't seem to stop the undead sabertooth at all. Well, if decapitation didn't work, then the only logical conclusion would be to mince it until it couldn't move. Quite a brutal strategy, but if it worked, it worked...but that wouldn't be feasible to do for all of them. She needed to take out the big guy, but how? He seemed utterly unphased by her sword - thankfully however, Su seemed to have an answer to that.

"Got it. Keep these things busy, I'll see if I can spot it." Rina left the undead sabertooth and the other beasts to the others. Assuming it should be somewhere around him, Rina began circling around, trying to get a good flank and viewing angle on the Lich and the surroundings, only firing shots to distract or help other girls in the area.


@Ariamis

---

Chloe watched Penny leave with an almost unconcerned expression. She was a big girl, she could handle herself, and if Penny was in any real danger she'd know fairly quickly. No, her attention was more focused on Cindy. She had heard rumors, though she had never really met the other girl herself. First impressions though, were not entirely great. At least this girl seemed to have some manners.

"Fufu, you seem to at least have some taste." Chloe chuckled playfully as she took a seat, accepting the tea offered to her. "I'm used to living with idiots without any class." Picking up the teacup once it was poured, the dark magical girl took only briefly to ponder Cindy's question. "What do I treasure most? Hmm...my good looks and cuteness?" She replied with a cheeky grin. "Or, maybe is it my precious little Penny? I don't know what I'd do if she was hurt. Probably kill whoever it was." Taking another sip, the dmg finally sighed and turned her gaze towards Cindy with a smile. "Treasure is a funny word. I'm a selfish controlling girl, after all. So I'd really have to say my girls. Without them I'd be a little worse off? Plus bossing them around is fun."

Nuncio had to leave the shop when Brittany closed up. He thought that she would just rub her crystal ball or something to get some information, but it seemed that she had something else in mind. Perhaps it was best that Nuncio wasn't present as she continued her search.

Regardless, he was a magical boy. The monsters weren't going to stop attacking just because Sammy was missing. He headed off towards one of the Lich conflicts. Or more specifically, the sound of cars racing.

---

More of Shion's clones would stop giving out reports, always the ones closest to her position.

The owl's head crashed into the pavement before bouncing and landing on it's feet. It let out a ""hoo" before wobbling side to side and flying back into the air. The owls had to be protected by magic, if they weren't otherworldly beings in disguise.

But the owls were the least of Shion and Ko's woes now. A murder of crows arrived, and they perched everywhere from the tops of buildings to windowsills. Some were even bold enough to land on the ground. At the very least there had to be two dozen, possibly more.

"I wonder if your furry friend can take on all of those, or if she plans on letting her lackey do that. She's certainly paying you enough for that, right?" His voice was close, too close. "Oh yea, we haven't introduced ourselves yet." Even with all the birds around, his steps were the only thing Shion could hear. "I'm obliged to your clones, They were an entertaining distraction." Sarcasm was practically drip from his lips. "I should be grateful." He had to be right behind her now. she could feel his breath on the back of her neck. "I'm Vermin Slayer." He said before leaning closer. “Nice to meet ya.”

Sophia felt somewhat sorry for the portal-using girl as she flew down towards where Billy had landed and was...spinning around? Likewise it seemed Amaryllis' attacks were being shed like the skin of a dead snake. It didn't take but a moment in time before and idea popped into the pirate's head, a with a grin on her face she quickly darted to the side and out of Billy's view as he focused upon her allies with his attacks. If the portal girl was going to survive, and grazing attacks did nothing, then what else might work potentially? With axe in hand, Sophia swooped in from behind Billy a she timed her approach...before coming down upon the monster in the right moment with a mighty full-power cleave of her boarding axe! If she couldn't off him in one go or cut him to death, then lobbing off his damned arm and part of his torso attached to it in the process would suffice!

With her great attack Sophia aimed more specifically to cleave a bit to the side of Billy's shoulder, more so closer to his neck and near the monster's collarbone to avoid hitting Mariette in his armpit.

@ERode@PlatinumSkink@BrokenPromise

---

Ninha paused, her body relaxing as she turned around after the feeling of bloodlust in the air had seemingly been cut short. In fact, her opponent's presence so close to her had up and disappeared, though reappeared a solid distance away. Yet the feeling of having met a competitor was a thrill. Indeed this girl seemed to be someone who seemed to try to be so professional, yet whose blade spoke of death and something more. Ninha had felt it subtly in their battle, in their moves, and in the din and clang and squelch of their brief combat. She was not very surprised this girl was being so restrained, though the sudden stop of combat in her experience usually meant her opponent had places to go...or perhaps a patron calling her? Regardless, the mud doll reeled in her chains, the ones on her person coiling back up on her forearms and the ones on her back disappearing into her body once more.

The knife-wielding girl then introduced herself, and seemed to pause. Taking advantage of the moment, Ninha waved and spoke with what little time she had. After all, she didn't want to leave her sparring partner without a proper word!

"I am Ninha, dear Silhouette, and I must confess I like your style! Next time we meet, I'll make you a nice dinner! In fact, tell your patron I desire to talk to them with interest soon as well, since they managed to get someone like you!"

A brief message, at least, as compared to what she had wanted to otherwise say but had no time for. But all the same the monster girl felt a sense of calm satisfaction that came over her. Sure their introductory bout hadn't been long, but not all battles were! Yet if someone had acquired the services of this interesting girl, surely they must be interesting as well in some fashion. Oooh! Perhaps she and this girl and her patron could meet over a nice meal! That would be lovely, and frankly more civil by the standards of this day and age. Sometimes she had to remind herself of how much time had passed, admittedly, and yet she was glad this Silhouette had at least acquiesced to her very very old-style manner of introduction. So polite!

Though as she watched the girl jump and blink away from the scene, a long sigh pushed its way out from between Ninha's lips.

@FamishedPants

Shion glanced at her phone to see even more of her clones go dark. She was about to say something to Ko about the owls when suddenly a few dozen crows appeared. "Just great. The thing survived and they brought friends." Ko said.

Despite this, someone managed to sneak up on the two in the commotion of caws and wings flapping, though these sounds were left to the wayside by the person's footsteps.

Shion felt herself grow a wicked grin as she turned her head over her shoulder to look at this "Vermin Slayer." "Is that so?" There was a near palpable raging bloodlust coming from her the moment he mentioned her copies. "I imagine that you're called that because you kill people with vermin, not because you kill small creatures... Ko?" She turned back and gave a slight salute to her puchuu.

Kousai held her hammerspace bag and reached in with one small paw, quickly pulling out and throwing to Shion in one smooth motion her weapon, Fielder. As she did, Shion magnetized herself and the ground to the same polarity, jumping and spinning through the air to catch it. She landed behind Vermin Killer and quickly turned and attempted to slam the baseball bat-looking weapon into the side of his head.

New tricks for old corpses, hm? As Amaryllis rebounded over and over, slicing bits of Billy off, the necromancer shed his wounds and regenerated just as quickly. Minuscule wounds such as the ones that she inflicted wouldn’t be sufficient at impacting his mana reserves, and without a ‘seed’ within him, her other moves wouldn’t take root either.

Worse though, was that the muscle-lich had taken ahold of Mariette during this exchange. With an ally taken hostage, it became even more difficult to score meaningful victories. In a normal, bleeding human being, a victory could be secured by slicing one centimeter deep, to cut open an artery, or by stabbing three centimeters deep, to pierce an organ. But against the unbleeding, regenerating monster before her? With his constant rotations, Amaryllis couldn’t get in fast enough to deal a lasting mark, and with Mariette in his grasp, she couldn’t go for a thrust either.

All she did was hold onto the portal-summoner’s plushie, latching it to her back with some chains, as she continued her flurry of shallow blows, weaving in and out of the range of the lich’s improvised weapons.

She would wait. Wait, and trust that Mariette had her own answer.

Turns out, she did.

A radiant eruption of energy seared through the cold, gray day, roaring out of the portal mage’s mirror into the lich’s arm. At the same time, Sophia had committed to her own angle of attack, wings splayed as she drove her heavy axe towards Billy’s shoulder, as if to cleave him in half diagonally. In the brilliance of those strikes, Amaryllis leapt in as well, rebounding off a silvered bud from the opposite side that Sophia had attacked. It was the same speed as every other one of her skirmishing slashes, the same distance too, so that the tip of her Sword would bite one centimeter deep into the flesh of the undead.

But her magic reminded her Sword of the great form it once held, when it feasted upon a Behemoth.

And oh, did it enjoy that sensation.

A moment before the silvered blade scraped the top of Billy’s skull, Amaryllis’s sword grew in size, the saber transforming to a zweihander fit for cleaving through bone and brain. Would such a brutish weapon still be suitably elegant?

Of course it’d be; the Knight of Rose could make any visceral spray artistic.

"Mister skelly means business! Alex! Go heal-Oh, you’re already going!" Lily shouted after the already departed Alex as she kept moving around the courtyard of the museum, having dodged a swooping pterodactyl at the rooftop and shot it in the wing, causing it to fall. But there were more of them coming as time went on, and soon a pack circled the area. She regrouped with Su and rina, and nodded, a determined look on her face.
"A phylactery, got it! I’ll get in for a closer look!"

Mika nearly failed to summon the portal as an undead triceratops charged at her, but it was stopped by one of the Ascendancy triplets who blocked it with her halberd, her heels scraping against the concrete courtyard of the museum as she slid back from the momentum. “No you don’t-NGH!” She grunted, showing great strength as the dinosaur was stopped. This gave the beastly dancer girl enough time to create the interdimensional entrance, wide as a barn door.

Su’s tornado disrupted the flow of dark magic around the portal, preventing the bones from entering it and halting the wave of undead monsters that poured forth. The bones were then shot out, hitting two more undead pterodactyls and sending them crashing to the ground , while a larger bone was launched at an undead ankylosaurus; the beast swung its hammer tail and splintered the bone mid-air. Other bones hit various other dinos, immobilizing some and knocking others over. A couple of undead velociraptors leapt at Su in a pack attack, but Rina shot them in the leg, causing them to fall over and saving her.

Mr. Bulk noticed this, and slowly floated towards Su, his skull jaw wide open. “Foolish mortal! You have meddled enough in my plans!” He aimed his golden staff at her, only to be distracted by a lightning bolt cast by Lily who dashed towards him. “Another street rat!” Mr. Bulk shot a magical projectile resembling a spinning black scythe, but Lily dodged it with an elegant flip.
"Too slow, skellyman!"
As she continued weaving through the lich’ barrage of spells, Rina got her chance to observe the lich in action, and noticed that the orbs on his shoulder pauldrons seemed to faintly shimmer with every spell, if only for a split second. Lily’s eyes widened as she also realized something.
"I think his staff has phylacter-Kyah!!" Lily was caught by a surprise backhand, sending her flying right into the open mouth of an undead carnosaur, swallowing her whole.
“There, feed upon the street rat! HAHAHAHAHAA!”

Some smaller undead dinosaurs that rose from the portal were slammed by Alex’ ankylosaurian tail, beating the majority to submission. That was when one of the larger dinosaurs, an undead giganotosaurus, took notice of the bestial magical boy, and charged right at him; the beast was slightly larger than the tyrannosaurus rampaging towards the triplets and Tetrad, with great sharp teeth bared in full. The moment Alex reached the rooftop and set a protective barrier, the giganotosaurus bashed its head into the barrier, followed by clamping it’s jaws around the shield, cracking it in an alarmingly short amount of time. However, Alex managed to bring the sniper girl back to consciousness as her dark-tainted wounds closed clean. As she opened her eyes and saw him, a deep red color flushed over her cheeks, followed by a pained expression. “I-It’s not like I...Needed to be rescued...By a monster like you...” But despite the pain that clearly wracked her, she lifted herself up like a trained soldier, ready to leap away from the giganotosaur the moment the barrier would break or be dispelled.

Meanwhile, the remaining triplets assaulted the ogre mages in melee, cutting down one each in perfect unison. The two held their own against the smashing blows of the ogres as they countered with their tree trunk staves, but had to scatter once the tyrannosaur arrived; it lifted one of the ogres by clamping down over it with its jaws and threw it at a triplet, knocking her against a wall from the impact. “Hrgh! These undead are strong, even by dinosaur standards!”
They then heard Su’s voice, and shouted back: “We’ll cover you! Go for the summoner!”

---

The Overcity gate guards raised their eyebrows, and looked at each other with confused looks. “Penrose? I heard that the city was abandoned and left for the monsters.” “And that the Ascendancy had to step in.” However, they seemed convinced of Valkyrie’s sincerity, though they did give suspicious looks at Deni. “You will take responsibility for any misdeeds your companion may make.” They then hit the bottoms of their halberds to the ground, and a magical rune appeared on the gate, opening it. “There are currently no active portals that could lead you there,” one of them spoke as the gate finished opening. “But I have heard of a delivery service by a magical girl named Jill who can deliver anything instantaneously. You should ask for her at the Magical Services district. We have spoken.” And so, the two took their guarding stance again, and let the two pass them.

Nothing could prepare the two for the view that awaited them beyond the Crystal Curtain; there were buildings of many stylish, both ancient and modern, and signs with strange and mystic runes on them scattered everywhere. While some shone with arcane illumination, the brightest signs belonged to shops and restaurants, with fantastic imagery and wordplay among them. The streets were bustling with magical folks both familiar and weird; magical girls and boys walking beside fairies, dragons and even strange monsters outside the realm of imagination.

The two had to hold hands tightly to avoid being separated by the current of mass that drifted in one direction or another. Some magical girls could be seen above, riding on brooms and skateboards enchanted with flight, while others rode flying mounts like griffons and pegasi. The air was fragrant with scents of flowers and berries, mixed in with more questionable smells, resulting in a mostly neutral mix of olfactory sensations. As they observed their surroundings, they noticed that the street itself seemed to slightly move similar to a conveyor belt, helping them move faster in any direction they wanted. The buildings themselves rose high into the clouds themselves, each one as tall as Bhurj Dubai, if not even more. Valkyrie and Deni now had to decide on their next course of action.

---

Helga gnashed her teeth as the Endsinger’s magic rumbled against her; though she could not see the sounds that came from it, and thus did not fall completely for her enragening spell. However, it was enough to make her tense up, as thoughts of violence crept up in the corners of her mind, causing her to strike even harder at the ghosts, her eyes more intense. Worse still, as she could not hear the chaos of the battlefield around her, she was oblivious of Lupa’s monstrous change.

Still fighting against the swarm of ghosts, cutting the ethereal figures like flailing cobwebs, Helga was unaware of the wolf pouncing upon her. But, in that fateful moment, Emily sacrificed herself, and threw herself in the way, and intercepted the wolf’s bite with her arm. Wolf-Lupa’s fangs easily punched through her defenses, and crushed the bone, while her claws stabbed her sides. It was then, as blood sprayed, that Helga only noticed what had transpired. “LUPA!” She screamed loudly enough for people to hear over the music, and performed a stabbing uppercut on the wolf while it was biting into Emily, hitting it right in the abdomen. Then, she released the charge of Sound Magic she had through her palm cannon, delivering an explosive blast of high-frequency sound. Even if she was her friend, she would not be holding back against her, as she had someone more important waiting for her at home.

After the blow knocked Lupa-Wolf back and the two of them got a moment of reprieve, she turned and saw what happened to Emily, and her eyes widened. “Fire Chick!” She shouted, and with a touch of her shoulder applied the deafening enchantment on her as well, sparing her from the cacophonous concert as she reeled from the injury. She had nothing to say to Emily, even if she could hear her; her actions would speak more than any words. Then, anticipating another attack, she took a defensive stance, claws held up, ready to grapple the wolf monster and in turn help protect the one who saved her life.

---

“Ooh, good one rookie!” FanFan giggled at the one-liner Dawn made, and made sure the Bouncer would be unable to dodge the blazing beam by using her robotic arms to grab hold of hislegs, causing the Bouncer to be pierced by thesearing projectile. At the same time, she used her normal hands to cast a spell, causing a metal shield resembling a plate to expand from her arms and cover her above, preventing the Bouncer from being able to punch or grapple her away with his numerous arms without first breaking the shield. She then continued casting layer after layer of metal over the plate while still tightly holding on; Dawn now saw how the Ascendancy agent was a master of both melee and magic, able to perform both tasks simultaneously while lesser fighters would only be able to accomplish one of the two.

Leena skid to the side of the Bouncer and deflected a punch aside with one of her arms, only to counter with another and slice it right off. Of course, it barely diminished the monster’s attack power as he had more than enough to compensate. But this was just a warmup; the incredibly agile magical girl proceeded to perform an empowered cross-slash, her swords glowing brightly.
“We don’t have time for fodder.” The slashes seemed to extend beyond the swords’ reach, bisecting the Bouncer in a single slash. What was a fearsome monster easily able to hold its own against even a large group of regular magical girls was effortlessly taken down by the teamwork of the two veterans, falling in an earth-shaking tremor. Leena continued moving towards Endsinger without skipping a beat, slashing forwards through the ghosts like they were blades of grass. “Dawn, flank her!”

---

“There are many indeed who have yet to comprehend the wondrous flavor of green tea,” Cindy stated, and sipped on her cup, as she listened to Chloe. She stifled a burst of laughter at her initial answer, and then gave a knowing smile once she gave a more comprehensive one. “I understand how you feel, Chloe. My subjects also come before all else.” She poured some more tea; Chloe saw that a warm glow now emanated from the crackling monster’s cheeks.
“They are my treasure, my precious. And I won’t let anyone hurt them; not the Ascendancy, or anyone else.” She poured some more tea for Chloe. “They need someone to guide them, to show them the path to the future. And only I can bear that cross as leader of Penrose, for it is my destiny.” She took another sip, and was approached by one of the residents of the shelter. “Oh, a new arrival? Take her to me.”

She then turned her attention back to Chloe. “As we share a common belief of protecting those under our rule, I have a proposal: join me in an alliance, so that we may crush the despots of the Ascendancy together, and deliver an age of peace and prosperity to Penrose to all.” She then stood up. “Now, I have other business to attend to. You may now enjoy the entertainment in the television room if you wish to. Think about my offer.” With that, she walked away.

Eliza was guided by one of the dark magical girls occupying the shelter to an underground chamber titled “Television room” by the words scraped on the door. It was here where other monster girls and dark magical girls were watching internet videos; they used a smart phone hooked up to a wall projector by a bootleg cord installation, and sat around in old chairs and sofas that were salvaged and repaired. A fail compilation was currently running, causing the crowd to scream and holler in laughter. Cindy then arrived in the chamber, and approached Eliza. “Greetings, visitor to my realm. I am Cindy, the queen of Penrose,” she addressed herself. “Are you a friend of Penny the Home Builder? Or did you happen to find this place by chance?” She asked, curious to hear her answer. “Regardless of reason, all who are lost and abandoned are welcome in my domain as long as they do not seek to harm my subjects. Now, tell me your name.”

---

Penny easily smashed through the feeble monsters, her fists tempered in battle against foes far greater. She got a few scratches and bites, but her Regeneration made them futile efforts to stop her rampage. At the end of it, she was surrounded by foul corpses that slowly degraded into black ash, scattering into the cold winds of winter. But, as she was about to move on, she heard somebody approach.

From a dark alley, she saw the silhouette of a female shape slowly walking towards her. But, as the light of the moon illuminated the arrival, Penny couldn’t help but reel back at the sight; she resembled an insectoid robot with a human woman’s shape at first glance, with a helmet fitted with mandibles. Her body was covered from head to toe with sleek interlocking plates, resembling a kind of futuristic power suit, but Penny realized that it was neither of those things; she seemed like such a mix of biological and mechanical elements that no distinction could be made between the two. The outer ridges of her body seemed to slightly shift and lock into place, like the chitinous armor itself was alive and sentient, microscopic needles popping any snowflakes that would touch her. It was like nothing seen on this planet, suggesting she was an extraterrestrial magical girl.

“Stagnation...” A voice mixing a woman’s with that of higher-frequency buzzing came from the monster girl. “I have searched long, but at last I have found you.” She lifted an arm to her side, and a curved blade sliced out from her elbow, clearly as much a part of her body as the arm itself. “As Laat Al’O Fan is my witness, I won’t rest until your whole being is destroyed and made anew!” And then, with speed matching Penny’s at her fastest, she dashed forward, clearly aiming to swing her blade at her; she saw how the edge was now covered in some kind of greenish-black liquid, as if the weapon itself excreted it.

---

Rachel’s gaze stayed stern as Aurelio expressed his sentiments about the Ascendancy, but she did blink when he mentioned Penny’s name. “So it is true then…” She spoke back, surprisingly lenient with Aurelio. “The soulless automaton has been granted our sacred Spark.” She then continued listening, surprisingly possessing more tolerance than before for the magician’s defiant behavior, likely due to the revelation he gave her as well as him agreeing to her order. Her arms crossed, she seethed with resentment towards him when he was done. “There is also no place for an attitude like yours. As punishment, you will be attending the trial. Dismissed.” She scoffed as Aurelio teleported, and then disappeared herself, leaving the Confessional empty.

---

Kimble quietly purred as her locks of hair were swept by Alicia’s gentle touch, her company solace in the dreary atmosphere they found themselves trapped in after Juliana abruptly left, seemingly called in for an assignment. Sylvia seemed to wake from a trance-like state as she was nudged, blinking with a look of surprise. “” H-Huh? Alicia…” She spoke quietly, appreciative of her encouragement. Sally on the other hand seemed to still be depressed. “Chance? I don’t like my chances, and they’re the best around.” She replied, and went on to stuff her face with cake. “But Alicia is right,” Sylvia spoke, and lifted herself up to sit properly. “There is still one way that you can survive.” She took a deep breath, and then, in a low voice, said:

“You need to lie.”

Kimble’s ears sprung up in surprise, and Sally gasped. “Wait, what? You mean-”

“Correct,” Sylvia interrupted. “I am the one who led us into this mess, and it is my burden to bear. I will take responsibility for everything that’s happened here. But to do that, you must all corroborate my story, and accuse me.” She turned to Alicia, and placed her hand on her shoulder. “That means you too, Alicia.”

Sally blinked. “But wait, didn’t Rachel say that there’s going to be Light users at the trial? Wouldn’t our lies be exposed?”

Sylvia shook her head. “Based on the way she reacted, I don’t think so. It is possible that the Ascendancy doesn’t have any active Light girls employed under them. Which means you will be the only one who can detect lies, Alicia.” Her eyes turned sadder. “I know, it sounds crazy. But this is our only chance to avoid having everyone executed. So please, Alicia...”

At that moment Juliana teleported into the hall, having taken a disciplined pose with her arms behind her. “Line up and follow me; the trial shall begin soon.”

Sylvia looked at her, and then whispered to Alicia’s ear: “Promise me you will do the right thing.” Then, she was lifted up by Juliana, followed by the others, who then began their walk towards the Hall of Divine Judgement.

Her encouragement may not have had an even effect on everyone, but Alicia remained resolute in her belief. They would face this, and they would deal with it together.

Or perhaps not, as Sylvia explained her plan. The Seraph tensed, frowning anew as the plan was laid out. Play along? Accuse Sylvia of everything? It was a selfless, a noble thing to do to sacrifice herself for the sake of everyone else there. Knowing who they were dealing with, it was a good choice.

Yet despite that she could not shake the feeling gnawing at the pit of her stomach. So many of the decisions that they were being accused of, so many things they had done, those had been because of her. She might not have been involved with the ShineSpark, but she was the one who had spared Kimble, who had invited the alliance with Penny, who had cured Janet. If anyone deserved to be executed for that, it was her.

Yet she kept those thoughts to herself, doing the very thing that Sylvia wanted her to do. “I promise,” she muttered back before rising to her feet and moving to follow to the Hall of Judgment.

As the others in turn began to stand and follow the procession to the Hall of Judgement, however, Serenity felt something drop into the bottom of her stomach at the thought of Sylvia’s plan. On one hand she couldn’t deny that Sylvia had some points...especially about the likely lack of Light girls...but at the same time the idea of going along with that plan felt insane. Her heart throbbed at the idea of a sacrificial lamb being made out of Sylvia, if it even worked, and the maid felt she knew Alicia well enough to at least think the other girl might just follow through with Sylvia’s request.

Yet standing up and following along as Juliana beckoned them to follow her, though at first within her mind shouting out a silent prayer to the spark or whatever righteous force could save them and poor Sylvia, Serenity eventually looked over to the girl as she walked along near her. For a second she thought back to the other girl’s glimmer of kindness and compassion, performed in giving them cake and asking for her name, as something within her seemed to bubble up from deep down. The pale-haired magical girl then lightly bit her lip, before she felt the words roll off of her lips.

“To answer your question...my name is Serenity...Serenity Gates. I am one who has sworn a Vow of Compassion, a thing which I pray will hold true this day.”

“Serenity...That is a beautiful name.”
Juliana did not look back, devoted to her duty of escorting the accused, but Serenity saw a glimpse of sorrow coming from her, followed by a softer expression. “I will pray for you.”

Aurelio would appear in a muted flash of light beside the procession before they had made it into the Hall of Judgement, his hat and monocle donned once more and an easygoing smile yet again gracing his lips. “Hey everyone” He would greet softly as he matched step with the group as they ventured into the Hall of Judgement. “Glad I was able to make it”

Despite his relaxed appearance, one could still see his lingering frustration due to tight grip he had on his cane and sharper than normal edge to his gaze, though considering the dark mood hanging onto those that were accused perhaps it would go unnoticed? Regardless he wasn’t one to allow his friends to wallow if he could help it and slowly and softly a mix of Calm and Confidence would emanate out from him and lightly settle upon his allies. No real magic was instilled with the emotions, he didn’t want to risk the accusations that might come from any buffs, but a bolstering of moral sometimes had a stronger effect than any spell,which was his aim to begin with.

He did not know what was coming, but he would stand with his friends as best he could.

Juliana opened the gates, and the girls saw that the Hall of Divine Judgement had changed; unlike the futuristic look from before, with the holes on the floor and ceiling, it now resembled a courtroom from the renaissance period, with seats on either side of a walkway that led to a podium where the accused were sent to stand. On the far side of the court were seats for the Ascendancy as the jury, as well as the Beckoners above them; like Colonel Cuddles, none were recognizable. They also looked unnerving and ominous compared to the cute and angelic Beckoners the girls were used to.

Aurelio was guided to a seat in the audience as the praying girl he saw before took the seat of the judge. The entire time, she continued silently praying with her hands clasped together and eyes closed. She sniffled, and Rachel, standing next to her, called out: “Cardinal Isthar has called the court to order.” At those words, the entire chamber, including the members of the Ascendancy, all turned deathly silent.

Then, a minute later, Isthar lowered her head again in a slow nod, and Rachel continued: “The members of Beacon belonging to the Penrose branch are accused of the following sins: colluding with monsters, witchcraft, severe neglect of one’s duty, abandonment of one’s area of jurisdiction for months, and severe heresy,” she added, giving a look at Aurelio specifically. “How do you plead?” Tsuki asked, standing on Isthar’s left side.
“I plead guilty!” Sylvia suddenly spoke up, before anyone else had a chance to. “I was the one who ordered Alicia to spare Kimble and any other nonhostile monster including Penny. I was also the one who decided on making the White Coins, and distributing one to Penny. This is because I don’t believe that killing of monster girls or other innocents, regardless of how corrupted or evil they may seem. I hoped to convert Penrose into my beliefs by force, but I failed.” She then sighed, and made a meaningful look to Alicia. “I now realize it is all my fault. However, my wish is that you spare the others, for they are innocent,” she added, and then turned silent. Tsuki put a hand to her chin, clearly thinking, while Rachel simply glared; Alicia couldn’t tell if she saw through Sylvia’s lie or not. It was not clear if Isthar listened until she slowly nodded again. Rachel now asked: “Alicia Hayden and Serenity Gates, can you confirm Sylvia Starshine’s statement, or otherwise corroborate her story?”

Alexander made a second slightly smaller barrier, with a large hole in the back, under the one that was currently being crushed. He dispelled the first, and as the monster's jaws tightened around the new barrier, Alexander jumped out the back with the sniper girl following him. He then put a wall filled with small holes (one with a good view of the beast that had tried to eat them) between them and the dinosaur "Look, I know I'm not the friendliest guy, but..." And then it hit him "Oh...Ohhhhh! No, I'm not a monster boy. I just have Beast magic and a tentacle power." He grew fluffy tails out of several parts of his body before getting rid of them. "I just look like this while I'm using both my Beast and Reinforcement magic to boost myself. Speaking of which" He held out a hand to the sniper girl, and suddenly the force of both of his specializations hit her like a truck, super charging her magical power "I left some holes for you to shoot through. Put one between that bastards eyes for me as thanks for saving you."

“Man, this place is huge...”

Eliza was curious about how big the sanctuary was as she followed one of the dark magical girls to one of the underground chambers. “Television Room? Theresa read off the door.

“No Wonka references, Theresa.”

“Aw...”

Once they stepped inside, seeing everyone in the room having a good time watching fail videos cheered the witch up a bit. It was nice to know she didn't have to worry being there. Then a monster girl made of pure lighting, Cindy, approached the two, introducing herself as the Queen of Penrose. Wait, a queen?

“Y-Yeah, I was hoping to visit Penny, but I didn't expect all this.” Eliza scratched the back of her head. “I've needed a place to rest anyways. Despite trying to be one of the good guys, I still got my tail kicked for being a monster girl, not to mention the Mint might be after my head now. It's ironic with me specializing in light magic....” Not wanting to waste Cindy's time, she went ahead and introduced herself. “I'm Eliza. Eliza Winters. The owl is my familiar, Theresa.” The familiar flying off her head to turn into her human form, both Theresa and the witch bowed to the electric girl. “A pleasure to meet you, your highness.”

The witch couldn't really help her manners kicking in, she was taught to respect royalty, after all.

---

---

While Amanda went to the Overcity to do some research, Valerie decided to stay behind to keep an eye on, well, everything else. The android had hacked into the traffic cameras, but trying to hack into the Beacon's network? That could take a while. She decided to just find anyone who could give her some intel that won't try to kill her.

There was something about walking through an abandoned town in the winter that intriguing Valerie. Maybe it was cause it appeared to be an aftermath of an appocalypse?

Oh wait, the appocalypse was happening now.

Slicing through most lesser monsters, she was thinking about helping fight one of the liches when she saw an insect-like robot, almost alien, about to fight another cybernetic girl.

Wait.

Another cybernetic girl?

Oh geez.

Just as the insectoid robot rushed in to attack Penny, Valerie quickly ran over to block the former's sword with her own.

“I won't let you hurt her!”

Shifting as Aurelio joined them, Alicia gave the magician a wry grin. His return was sudden and unexpected, and it was a bit too bad really. They would just have to make the best of it. "When you said you would try to be there for the trial, I didn't think you meant being part of it," she observed, though that was all she said for now.

Entering the Hall of Divine Judgment, the changes there threw her off for a moment and left her wondering why it had changed. She didn't mind the old timey courtroom aesthetic, but given their professed beliefs one would think the old set up would be preferable for them anyway. Maybe it had something to do with distractions? But this was something fairly unimportant compared to the other things that she had to worry about. For now she was guided to the stand with the others to face the trial.

The judges opposite them were unfamiliar, even the Beckoners. The tension was palpable in the air, and she knew that expecting a lenient trial would be hoping for too much. But there was no more time as the trial was called to order.

Alicia stood proud, her head held high even as the charges were read out. Then as expected Sylvia made her move, claiming full responsibility for what had happened. Her eyes met Sylvia's, even as the feelings in her heart continued to push her onwards. She would not allow this. Not so long as a Seraph of Beacon.

So once they asked her to comment, she wasted no time in stepping forwards. "My name is Alicia Hayden. I am a Seraph of Beacon. It is a great responsibility that I have been entrusted with. And I cannot in good conscience allow my superior to take the blame on herself for all of these crimes, especially in light of my own responsibility in them."

She shifted, giving Sylvia an apologetic look before going on. "We are innocent of the charge of dereliction of duty and its related charges. We were transported, against our will, to a pocket dimension where time moved faster than it does in this world. For us it was only three days, and we were unaware that months had passed here." She swept the crowd, trying to make eye contact with as many people as possible. "There are a pair of sisters in Penrose, who deal in the business of wishes at the behest of their patron. I don't know exactly what happened, but in the events preceding our return it became clear that they had aided this Lesser Force in some manner to give him power beyond his normal limits."

Despite the circumstances, she felt bad giving up the information about the Djinn sisters to those gathered here. But there was no way to explain otherwise, and she wasn't even confident that they would believe it even after she had said it. For now, she plunged on. "The presence of Kimble was my responsibility. During the events of Justine Von Visceral's reign of terror, we participated in an assault on her castle. Kimble was part of the defending force, and was seriously injured during the battle. Using my powers, I determined that she had been mind controlled by Justine into fighting us, and that she was no threat otherwise. Initially I had intended that she would only remain until she had healed, but I guess familiarity grew and things got away from us." It was a weak excuse, but she did not have much better.

She then turned to talk about the other individual who was the subject of this trial. "I was also the one who arranged for the alliance with Penny and her patron. There had just been a terrorist attack on a gathering of all the cities magical girls, with ourselves pinned as responsible. We didn't know who actually did it at the time, but we couldn't allow ourselves to become isolated from the general population in a time of crisis." It seemed like it had been ages ago since then, and so much had changed. It was incredible really. "As it turned out it was a ruse by her patron, but her experiences with us motivated her to reveal that and join us, before she did us any harm"

Then, her gaze fell. "As for the White Coin...." There was a deep breath, a marshaling of will before she could face the tribunal again. "Our branch has suffered heavily in the past few months, even before we vanished. Our headquarters was destroyed, our members subverted by dark forces such as Justine and others who plotted harm to the people of this city and plotted our own destruction. If someone like that could use twist our minds, turn our very own sisters against us, then what chance would we have? We saw a potential threat, and we acted to address it." There was a small shrug from her. "I thought the Beckoners had approved it, but I was mistaken."

A few steps carried her forwards, practically up against the railing at this point. Had she been able to use her wings at this point, they would have been spread wide and shining with a brilliant radiance. Alicia would have to make due without it. "I am a Seraph. I believe in Beacon, it's ideals, it's purpose, it's mission, the people who are part of it. But the people out there, beyond these walls....We're supposed to be an example, a light guiding all to what magical girls can and should aspire to be. But the people out there don't see us like that. They see us as zealots, as murderers, and they'd rather side with the monsters and the creatures lurking in the dark because of how easy it is to spin a sob story that makes us look bad. What good is a beacon when no one wants to follow it?

She fixed upon the judges, directly looking at each in turn. "I believe that people should be judged by what they do, and how they choose to use their powers. If that is a crime, then so be it."

Now, to see if it mattered even in the slightest. Or if this would be the end for her.

“Too small a space?” With a bud for a head, it was hard to understand any of the facial expressions that the Bouncer may have been expressing, but the massive spirit sounded bemused at least, none of his eighty remaining arms doing anything threatening. “If you haven’t noticed, Miss, we’re outdoors. Penrose being the ghost town that it is, I hardly think that what we’re doing should be all that troubling.” Upon seeing the Magical Girl of Fiery Justice charge up her next magical attack, however, the spirit shrugged its eighty shoulders in resignation. “But I suppose I’ve gotta earn my pay after all.”

Twenty arms met Dawn’s beam, the limbs twisting and converging into each other until the eldritch plasma turned itself into a drill honed to a sharper point than the magical girl’s blazing lance. The two forces clashed, residual heat and scattered fire bursting out where the two points collided, and yet, her magic was unable to overcome the dense, phantasmal limb.

…

Or well, that may have happened, if the Bouncer didn’t get jumped by the other two girls in a sequence of events so fast that he couldn’t even get another quip in before he was subsequently sliced into four quarters. Four ghostly quarters that, rather than falling onto the ground with a weightless thump, just stayed floating there instead as the three Ascendancy girls flew past. The bud-headed phantom considered the situation for a moment, as he consumed another ten arms to put his body back together, before shrugging.

“Yeah, I’m not getting paid that much.”

And, as simple as that, he flew off, opposite of the concert. That which has died cannot die again, but that didn’t mean he had to fight to the death all the time.

Lupa’s screaming? That was a metal aesthetic.

A buncha randoms pushing through the crowd while blasting their own music? Very much less so.

While many magical girls had gotten through the mobs without any response, regardless of what outlandishly violent methods they employed, as Anaya and Celia pushed through, shields up and musician dolls blaring, many of the ghosts around them whipped their heads around, expressions of disdain and irritation appearing. Who the hell did they think they were? Endsinger had no rules, yes, so one was totally allowed to massacre their way through unresisting audience attendees with no real repercussions, and heck, if you could make your way atop the stage without getting booted by the Bouncer, that was fine too! But playing music that didn’t match her own? Such vulgarity! Such unpleasantness!

All of Celia’s attempts to make the duo avoid detection had been cancelled out by Anaya’s obnoxious band; all the stealth magic in the world wouldn’t help when you were actively making a ruckus, and before the two could make it halfway towards the stage, they hit a spiritual brick wall, countless spirits coalescing around them and haranguing them with insults about their families, their shitty music, their dog, and their life choices. Like, ew, you still collect dolls at your age? My god, it’s the 21st century and you’re still wearing the clothes picked out for you by the patriarchy? Ugh, you absolutely reek of Horror piss. All the while, Endsinger’s music, neither hypnotic nor destructive, continued to hammer in their minds, the telepathic beat slipping past sound-cancelling attempts.

Anaya’s knights took swipes at the spirits, of course, but they weren’t holding the spirits at bay. Rather, the spirits, displeased as they were, still did not actively attack. Their ectoplasm bodies were only a wall, for now, and the only attacks they did were verbal ones. This was certainly a mob, unified by intent to oppress the minority, and perhaps there was some evil injustice to this.

But then again, Anaya started this.

Through her earmuffs, the chanting of the Fanclub turned to naught but murmurs, yet Endsinger’s song rang clearly through her head regardless, electrifying chords racing into her skull and shaking down her spine. The pain grounded Viva momentarily though, whatever hypnotic suggestions dissipating for an instance of clarity, and from that moment of concentration, another ramp rose up. Her ascent went unimpeded, but in the distance, she could see three other magical girls. They shone with the grace of Beacon, shooting through the skies towards the center of the stage.

Her revolvers too, had been touched by the magic of another unseen girl, laden with curses equal to her own. Sisters all around, but for now, she will face the lich alone.

Bullets burst from Viva’s firearm, line of sight attained, but with only one adversary firing shots at her, Endsinger simply put the gunshots into her routine. With a diabolical grin, she stepped atop the mountain of rubble with vicious grace, swinging her guitar-axe out of the way of errant bullets as she continued to strum her demented song. This close, the force of the telepathic music was almost unbearable, drowning out whatever thoughts burned furiously in Viva’s mind. And, now that Viva was in the center, the hypnotic light pattern of the Fanclub increased greatly in efficacy. They swung back and forth like a laser show made of the dead, and they pushed for a regularity, a rhythm in her own movements, desiring synchrony with the music, predictability in her gunfire.

So far, for all her grandiose posturing, Endsinger had not yet attacked anyone.

Was this pacifism from a necromantic muscian, or did the Lich only want one thing, and it's disgusting?

“So much for that plan. Alright guys, cut it for now. This isn't working.”

Visibly unamused, Anaya comanded her little band to stop playing, before looking over the part of the crowd wanting to tear her head off. Their insults didn't really affect her, like she had heard them before. Or the fact that she didn't have a pet. “Easy, easy. I see that wasn't your taste, so...” She looked back to the Endsinger. The spirit girl wasn't planing on attacking yet still. The lich wasn't really attacking anyone either though, now that she looked closely. Sure, the Endsinger was making some of the other magical girls go blood thirsty, but Anaya didn't mind that. She could do worse.

“Heh.” A little smile crept onto her face. Maybe this ain't that bad. “How about this?” So instead of trying to counter the lich's music, Anaya used her sound magic to amplify it.



But still, tough crowd.

@ERode@PlatinumSkink@FamishedPants@Crusader Lord

Billy was fast enough to snatch up Mariette, he wasn’t faster than her lasers.

“I say wha- I say what in tarnation!?!?”

The effect wasn’t instant, but Mariette’s concentrated beam was able to burn through his bicep. Billy’s bones held strong, but without any flesh between his shoulder and elbow, he didn’t have the ability to hold onto her any longer. Mariette’s tentacles were just enough to push herself out of his grasp. Billy was knocked off balance for just a moment, but that was all Amaryllis and Sophia needed. The rose knight’s blade split Billy from his skull down to his torso, and the pirate’s ax made a like cu from his shoulder to his hip. But there was something wrong. There was no blood. No brain matter, not even a heart. Monsters like billy had little use for such items. Instead his innards were made of skin layered together through and through with bones mixed in.

Each new opening the girls made turned into a mouth. Shattered ribs became teeth, and Billy’s shape became less like a man and more like a Venus fly trap. The mess of twisted flesh and broken bones attempted to ensnare the girls with its maws. Billy’s club arm was in one piece, but he seemed to be shielding it behind his newly formed jaws. And there was something else that only became visible now. The hilt of Billy’s massive club was actually a hood ornament. It looked like an angel with her arms swept back.

The Cadillac managed to slip by Hillaria’s defenses. It shed the rest of its steel before driving into Billy, adding even more maws to whatever Billy transformed into. But the army truck was not so lucky. When Hillaria came down on it, she blew off all four tires and caused all of its armored plaiting to flake off. The bone filled pile of flesh seemed to be knocked unconscious by the impact.

The firetruck was completely dismantled by the minions. The beast within roared before blowing the rest of its cover off as shrapnel. What few minions remained were taken out with a swing of the fleshy slug’s tail. Having come from the fire truck, this thing was massive, easily larger than Billy and the remaining flesh piles combined. Aside from its size, the only difference between this flesh slug and the other monsters was the giant barb-filled cavity it had. Something it was all too willing to demonstrate on the former police car. Without skipping a beat, it slid forward and devoured the pile of flesh in a single bite. This made the flesh slug even larger. Without delay, it turned and charged towards Billy, or was that Hillaria? Regardless, they were both on the same path. If Billy was able to merge with the Cadillac though, one did have to wonder what would happen if the flesh slug reached him.

Eli was also able to catch a glimpse of Billy when she looked in that direction. It seemed that the source of his magic stemmed from the gaudy hood ornament that made up the handle of his club.

---

@FamishedPants@Ariamis

The one-two combo from Helga wasn’t something Feral was expecting. It should have, but once it bit into Emily, it lost itself in the blissful taste of her blood. It had been too long since it had tasted something as sweet as the blood of a magical creature, and Emily was a delicacy. It would feed again, and it would feed soon.

But Feral was not oblivious to the other squalls going on. The puppet master’s siege, and the Beacon girls entering the party. There was also the matter of the Endsinger herself. Feral was a lot of things, but it wasn’t some pawn to be used and cast aside. While these ghosts had enable Feral to emerge from Lupa for a time, it was aware this kind of generosity would only last the duration of the battle. This Brought Feral to wondering which of these targets should be hunted first. But then a thought crossed its bestial, simplistic mind.

Why not just hunt them all?

Lupa had to rely on nearby creatures to alter her form, and had been cheating by using Mika’s beast magic. But there were no such creatures to work off of here. As a result, all of Feral’s copies would look just like it. Feral drove its claws into its chest and split itself in half, only those two halves became two wholes once they stepped apart from each other. Then those halves turned into quarters, and those quarters turned into eighths. In total, there were eight hungry Ferals standing before the two magical girls. Four of them ran towards the beacon girls, while another made its way for Anaya, and another towards Endsinger. They would need a moment to cleave through the ghosts in their way an arrive at their destination. Save the remaining two, who charged back towards Emily and Helga.

Feral was not an intellectual fighter, but it knew how to fight in a pack. Both Ferals would approach Helga from her left and right flank respectively, and come in for a pincer, with one aiming to rip through her kneecaps, and the other aiming for her throat. It was not clear if Feral was ignoring Emily at this time, or had already taken her meddling into account.

And with all this duplicating, It was impossible to tell who the real Feral was. Do ya feel lucky, punk?

---

@DarkwolfX37

It was hard to get a great look at Vermin Slayer. He wore a long black cloak and a wide brimmed top hat that cast a shadow over his features. Not too dark to see his blond hair, which practically glowed even in less than ideal light conditions.

When Shion chose to act, Vermin Slayer did not put up much of a fight. After flashing a smile, he closed his eyes and just let the baseball bat hit the side of his head. Only on impact, it would seem like his body vanished on impact and was suddenly replaced by another flock of crows, which flew off.

“Not everyone considers crow vermin. In fact, crows eat a lot of pests that could be considered vermin.” The Vermin Slayer’s voice seemed to come from all directions. “It’s all perspective I suppose. My employer considers you vermin, asd an example.” The remaining crows took to the air and flew towards Shion, coming at her from the front, back, and even overhead. “But I tire of talking to my prey. Once they pick your bones clean, I’ll collect your bones. And your coin purse I suppose.”

---

@Rune_Alchemist@Card Captor@EnterTheHero

A growl escaped Su’s lips when Lily was knocked out of the sky. She dove towards the magical girl with her dread wings emerging from her back. The extinct zombies attempted to close in on Lily, but Su would be there to defend her. Her wings lashed out at the face of a giganotosaurus in an attempt to knock it off balance. While larger than a tyrannosaurs rex, the giganotosaurus had a smaller jaw structure. Su reasoned that while it was likely magical in nature, it would not be stronger than its smaller, stronger counterpart. But Su wasn’t really going to try and fight here. The goal was to rescue Lily, and so long as the giant undead lizard wasn’t going to eat them as she flew away, that was mission accomplished.

Meanwhile, Mika managed to do everything wrong and was just sorta spending the majority of the fight trying to open a portal to the beach dimension. She had to be protected on several occasions, but that was fine. She would have to thank them later.

Once the portal was formed, it was positioned a few inches over the waters of a Kaijo arena. This particular arena was designed for two people, so the platform wasn’t as wide as the portal was. Mika simply jumped to the other side, pulled a remote out of her garments, and pressed the massive large button on a goofy looking controller.

Some of the gadgets that Mika had purchased in the beach dimension only worked there. That included her orbital squirt gun. With just a click of a button, Mika could flood just about any area of the beach dimension. Today though she aimed directly behind herself. In just a few seconds, enough water to extinguish a forest fire came falling out of the sky. The wake alone would be enough to push Mika and the platform out of the portal’s opening. This wasn’t going to be a repeat of last time she foughht in an alleyway. This time she would save everyone. This time she’d be a superhero

The huge surge of water created a wake that pushed the arena platform out of the portal, followed by thousands upon thousands of gallons of water. The only restriction was the “small” opening by which the water could enter Penrose.

“Now this is surfing! I call it waking Leviathan!”

Mika could never create a flood this big with her magic, but she was more than capable of controlling its currents. Mika directed the water through the dinosaurs en route to the necromancer. The water almost behaved like a giant serpent, with the platform floating somewhere between its head and the rest of its body. Just to make it a bit harder for the dinos, Mika had the water churn like a maelstrom as it rushed forward. If the waves didn’t outright crush the dinosaurs, then they might get trapped inside and be unable to attack Mika directly. There was no reason to suspect they would be strong swimmers anyway.

“I’ve got you now, bones!”



Needless to say, shit was getting pretty real by the time Tetrad and the triplets showed up. ”So gotta get big guy’s staff, huh?” Tetrad took a look at her cards before biting her lip. ”Heh, well, it shouldn’t be too bad if you’re going to cover me.” It didn’t take long for Tetrad for her grin to return, and for the cradle agent to leap into the thick of it.

Her next attack was another blue bipartisan attack, the one that turned her knife into something strong enough to slice through just about anything. She decapitated a pterodactyl, only to recall the knife and split it’s carcass in half before it collided with her. Then she tossed a red card at group of smaller dinasaurs and the resulting explosion blew them away. At this point, it became apparent that she wasn’t going to have enough cards to blow every single dinosaur apart, and opted to fly over them. She tossed a yellow card at a tyranasarus, which stunned it just long enough for her to fly over the ensuing chaos. Ten feet wasn’t very high, but fortunately she could hover over Mika’s “tidal snake.” She threw her remaining yellow cards at the necromancer. If everything worked out, she would land at least one of them, and stun him long enough to close the distance and destroy his staff with a simple toss of her bipartisan. But if it wasn’t, well, there was always her deck wasn’t there?

Summer looked over at the Keijo arena as a massive tower of water appeared over it from the sky.

"... Meh."

---

"Bad ideas."

Shion fired off several bursts of calculated magnetic fields around herself, originating from her skin. While harmless, these fields were manipulated using her knowledge of biochemistry to temper the fields into those that would do various things. The first was to blind the crows, overloading their Cry4 cryptochromes, and damaging their eyes to the point of light-blindness as well. The second wave was meant to throw off the crows sense of direction by magnetizing them positively, followed by the third field to rush outward in a dome with a negative charge, pulling the crows with its walls. The fourth and final field was used to once again overload their cryptochromes, this time to throw off their circadian clocks and make them believe it was time to sleep. As she sent these field domes, she also separated Fielder into its two halves, revealing a similarly metallic black two-sided rapier with a simple cross-guard facing the opposite direction of the bat, the blade's point ending where the hilt of the two halves were.

Meanwhile, Ko reached into her bag once again and brought out three small vials filled with what appeared to be a non-moving black substance, so tightly packed that it didn't move within the vial when they were moved. She gripped one with each of her front paws and one with her left ear, ready to use them should the need arise. By the time she was finished, the fourth magnetic field had pulsed outwards from Shion and she reconnected the two halves of Fielder, separately from the now revealed sword, holding the bat in her left hand and sword in her right.

"Not only was it a bad idea to use birds, birdbrain, but if it's coin you're after, I recently sent mine elsewhere. Too bad, so sad." She then muttered under her breath. "Honestly, fighting with birds, who does that?"

---

@BrokenPromise