Any hopes that they'd have the answer were dashed, but at the same time, Serene moved closer to her Caster, the information provided by the city's AI clearly taking her both aback, and perhaps a bit overwhelming. Then again... "Could this be...the work of whoever caused the command seal anomaly? The thought of other servants being turned into a situation like that Berserker, running amok, did not fill her with joy, even though it was unlikely that was the case. Familiars that servants were, and given her own awareness of how some saw servants as little more than tools, made her wonder just what kind of person would well...be behind all this. "More than one trouble maker would make the situation a lot harder to defuse, I imagine." Her slightly faked confidence aside, it was clear Serene was concerned. Not just for her own safety, but how her father would react to the news if shit hit the fan hard. She'd probably be recalled back to the US, and she had just gotten here, so such was...far from ideal.

"You noticed it?" Lancelot said, seeing the carcass dissolve and the mist fade away. Being a magical spirit made awareness of these things all but unavoidable... not that it helped with identifying where it had gone; that was more skill-based than a feeling of "it's all gone somewhere". Of course, at this moment, there was a magus leaping down from the stands, cushioning the blow with Reinforcement and popping up to stand head and shoulders taller than the king: Saber's Master.

"The mana isn't just gone, it's been drained--south-west, I think there's a park in that general direction."

---

"Is it important that the Arena is undetected? Unless we think the culprit is there, I'm sure there's enough Servants there to sort it all out."

The other Kiara—the one currently on the offensive—sighed with a bit of disappointment at the one beside Hakuno and Jason immediately moving in response to defend the group. The way that her attacks were being warded off were by no means unfamiliar to her—obviously so, given her own ability to use such things—but they were only delaying the inevitable. With the smaller Saber locked away for just long enough for her to press the attack, and no other possible ways for anyone to easily interfere...

Ah, it was almost too perfect a scenario for her!

"Surrender? Please, my dearest Hakuno," she began, licking her lips as she continued to batter away at her counterpart's defenses as she walked closer to the girl. "Once I have finished up here, there will be nothing that would be able to stop me—not here, nor anywhere else. Ah, of course, I shall make sure that you will see things my way soon enough. It shall not be so much as but a moment of pleasure, but..."

With a calm smile, almost as if she was looking at nothing more than a child throwing a tantrum, Kiara continued moving forward, her arm extended towards them as she glanced towards the only "eyesore" left—the young man who had, until now, been unable to utter a single word.

"Ah, but that little insect really does need to go. I wonder how I should take you apart, hm? Maybe... Ah, yes, you seemed rather close with that girl; maybe you would like to follow in her footsteps, hm?"

At that provocation, Jason couldn't help but bite his lower lip, angry at his own inability to retort, before taking a deep breath and turning towards the two that were with him.

"...She's right, you know. Maybe if you weren't here protecting me, you'd be able to do a bit more. That... If I get injured or something, just leave me for dead or something. One less thing to worry about means that much more effort you can put towards beating her. A useless person like me won't be able to provide much, anyways."

@RolePlayerRoxas@VitaVitaAR


Despite her own insistence otherwise, Nanako still decided that she had to place her own assertions forward in front of her Servant. As much as seeing her act like a little puppy that felt like it was proud of what it did amused Meltryllis, though, the fact that she had completely ignored her own statement... Really, it annoyed her to no end!

"Yes, yes, I'm perfectly fine, and you did a great job," she remarked sarcastically, staring at the bolt that had still yet to be dislodged from her Master's shoulder. "Should we go get you some ice cream? A pat on the head? Or, maybe, and just listen here for a moment—we stop you from dying in the middle of the street, okay? Honestly, this is why I hate dealing with humans; so self-righteous about the smallest of things..."

Her concern at this point, though laced with thorns, was still comparatively evident. She wasn't so blind so as to ignore what Nanako had done for her, but she worked as an anchor for her existence even so. Having her die would be one of the worst things that could happen, and here she was, caring more about her familiar than the blood streaming down her arm.


At HECATE's delivery of the (admittedly rather worrisome) news, Da Vinci furrowed her brows before glancing at the others present with her. As far as things went, they were by no means in any situation to intervene in the current situation; doubly so, given their distance from the actual region in question. As far as things went, concern was just as important as keeping a level head at times like these.

"Hmm... It is likely that the two incidents may be related to one another," she began, nodding towards her Master before crossing her arms, "but it's not like we can add anything to the effort as of right now. The Einzbern over here has the right idea; we should do what we can, with the knowledge that we can obtain."

With a brief nod towards the two, the Caster turned back towards the AI construct and smiled.

"That being said, if there's anything we can do to help, I'd be happy to do what I can—provided my Master decides that to be doable. We could do with some information on the Servants that fit our criteria in exchange, of course; two birds with one stone, no?"

Of course, if the others wanted to take another course of action, she would by no means oppose it... But if it meant the ability to look into the problem from a different angle and examine the situation from one of the most secure locales in Fusang, then the Caster would gladly take the chance to do so.

@DocRock@Raineh Daze

Unfortunately, it was clear that the other Sessyoin was adept at arts relating to the repelling of spirits. Benienma brought her sword down again and again, trying to find a weakness in the barrier, and each time it sent that awful burning sensation up through her arms. But she couldn't stop, she had to get through this barrier. The more she watched the evil Kiara's assult, the more she became disturbed, the more urgent it became.

She couldn't let her Master be harmed! Nor Jason, nor Sessyoin-san!

But on top of that, she was beginning to fully understand the evil Kiara's plot.

Nothing that could be done to stop her...

This other Kiara, her intent truly was...!

The red-headed Enma had to break through! She had to get through this barrier! But the edge of her katana wouldn't do, it couldn't break through like this! She had to get out, she had to disrupt the barrier somehow! She had to stop the evil Kiara before anyone was harmed...!

If attacking the barrier itself wouldn't work, then if Benienma could assault the monstrous woman's constitution at range... then maybe...!

The sparrow girl sheathed her blade, and took a deep breath. From within the sleeve of her kimono, she produced a small box, which enlarged to fill both of her hands almost immediately. This was her only option, as anything else simply could not wear down the barrier swiftly enough...!

If the barrier was anti-spirit, then her Master could pass through it without issue!

Wordlessly, Benienma shook the box towards her Master, then raised it in a throwing motion. If she spoke aloud, the Evil Kiara could understand just what she intended, but if her Master took the box and threw it towards her...!

Sessyoin Kiara gritted her teeth. The assault from her other self was unrelenting, putting the very limits of her devotion to the test. The mudras she was executing were holding for now, but with every blow she deflected she could feel herself weakening more. But she couldn't let her other self through. She couldn't fail. While she did not understand what her other self's true plan was, she knew in her heart that if she was taken, if she was consumed by the monstrous doppelganger, that the world would suffer for it.

But the sheer strain being placed on Kiara's body was overwhelming, a searing pain burning away in the core of her body. A shuddering cough ripped through her frame, and blood splattered across the grass. Ah... she'd coughed all that up...? Her hands were burning, too...

"I... won't allow you past!" she declared, in defiance, "Jason! Don't listen to her! Grieve for your friend, for the one you have lost, but do not let her words twist your mind to believe that you are useless!"

Even now, even desperately pushing back against her alternate self's onslaught with blood trickling from the corner of her mouth, Kiara couldn't allow someone to give up on themselves!

"The pain of losing a friend can be overwhelming. The frustration at feeling as if you can't help, as if you only make things worse, can be crushing!"

Sessyoin Kiara's body was trembling under the effort of maintaining her barrier, her hands flashing faster then the eye could follow even as her body was wracked with pain.

"But even after everything, you tried to help! You tried to stop the rogue Berserker, and you did all you could to assist with the investigation! Even if it didn't work out, that doesn't make it wrong!"

She faltered, catching herself as she nearly fell.

"Would Mary-san want you to give up, Jason? Don't think about what you failed to do in the past! Think about what you can do now!"

@RoleplayerRoxas@PKMNB0Y

---

That was good. Nanako didn't know what she would have done if her move had failed and Meltryllis had been critically injured, or even killed... Knowing that she was safe was good. A Servant could easily recover from the injuries that she'd sustained from the Shadow Archer.

The brunette took a deep, shuddering breath. Meltryllis... she was worried? Of course she was, she'd been looking out for her this whole time. She didn't want her to worry... and the amount of blood she lost was looking pretty bad. Leaving the bolt inside would stem it a little, but...

... Why was she taking it so casually?

A part of her brain concluded it had to be the shock.

"Y-you're right... I'm living for both of us, so it wouldn't just be bad for me..."

For both of their sakes, she had to get to the hospital quickly.

As Nanako began to roll over, to force herself up with one hand, the bolt that had been preventing her from bleeding even more started to fade away...

@PKMNB0Y

---

It was as she feared. The attack on the arena wasn't the end goal of the mysterious assailant: Rather, it had been intended to use to gather magical energy for another purpose entirely.

"Then we must follow it. If we do, we shall find the culprit behind this monstrous attack," Arturia declared, glancing towards Lancelot and the other knights. But before she could proceed away...

There was a terrible sound from outside of the arena. Without a moment's delay, the petite blonde knight sprinted towards the exit, and was shocked to see the CCF reinforcements fighting among one another! Seemingly, several of the Servants that had arrived turned on the others.

"What... what is going on?!"

One of the nearest CCF Masters, a young black-haired woman in a white and black CCF uniform, turned at the sound of the King of Knights' voice.

"We... some of the Servants just... suddenly started attacking the others! They're trying to stop themselves, but it's like a command seal was used on them!"

Her apparent Servant was an en-robed figure, floating above the battlefield and using a hail of laser beams to try and disrupt the fighting and make it easier to subdue the Servants who had been seemingly controlled.

Arturia hesitated. The path to the culprit was in their grasp, and yet... they couldn't just abandon a situation as dire as this. What could she do? What could-

"My King, I can block them!"

It was Sir Gareth. She'd run up alongside them, a look of determination on her face.

Arturia was silent for a moment longer. Yes... Her knights...

"Sir Tristan, Sir Gawain, Sir Bedivere, Sir Gareth, Sir Mordred!" called Arturia, "Subdue the CCF Servants who have been taken over! Sir Lancelot, with me! We must stop this madness!"

With that, she scooped her Master into her arms. The reason for this was twofold: She had to keep her Master away from danger, and she also had to ensure her Master could direct them to the culprit's location.

"I apologize, Master, but this seemed to be the quickest option!"

So it was to the south-west...

@RolePlayerRoxas@PKMNB0Y@Raineh Daze@ghastlyInc@Rune_Alchemist

That monster's words were beyond sickening to Hakuno, who visibly shuddered when Kiara responded to her bluff. The implications to her words, her tone, did not bare thinking about. Still, the situation remained dire for them. The real Kiara could only defend, Saber was cut off from them by those barriers, and neither she nor Jason were anywhere near strong enough to fight the evil Kiara. The chances of backup saving them were slim, too... damn it, why couldn't she think of anything to help?! What was the point of joining the CCF if she couldn't handle a threat like this?!

Jason was trying to assign no value to his life, to give them some chance of victory, but that was unacceptable! Mary had already been killed by that monster, and Hakuno could never forgive herself if she had to sacrifice Jason to put a stop to her. She cast a glance towards her entrapped Servant, who had sheathed her weapon and produced... a box? Puzzled, she watched Benienma mime her actions, almost calling out to ask Saber what she had planned, and quickly bit her lip. Discretion. Right now, the darker Kiara was preoccupied with her gloating and poisoned taunts. She had no reason to worry about Hakuno or Saber, so why pay attention, right? And...

Nervously, Hakuno approached Benienma, keeping her eyes on their opponent, hand outstretched behind her. The young magus found her hand passing harmlessly through the barrier. Of course, this was meant to seal away spirits, wasn't it? Which meant Hakuno herself was unaffected! Still, what was throwi8ng a box supposed to do?

Ah, why question it? It was Saber's idea, so it was probably some sort of Noble Phantasm! Or just a really sturdy box for clobbering the evil Kiara's brains in. As long as it worked, she was more than happy to try it. With an affirmative nod to her Servant, Hakuno carefully raised the box, calculating the trajectory as well as she could manage. No need to panic, it was just a single throw that may or may not decide how horrifically this battle would end. What was the big deal, there?

Hakuno inhaled, wound her arm back... and launched the box with all her might.

---------------------



Ah... the sounds of battle picked up outside the arena. Guan gripped her frozen blade tightly, glaring at the direction of the sound. She made to follow the knights, but was stopped by the call of her Master. Surprised, the Berserker turned her head to the smaller girl, who stood on shaking legs, her expression resolute.

"Berserker, calm down!"

"...? Master, I-"

"You need to think clearly, before you go fight again!" the Master continued. She was aware that Guan was struggling to keep her anger in check, and she didn't want her Servant to go on a rampage. She hated the idea of Guan being influenced by Mad Enhancement to begin with, but whatever awaited them, she didn't think it was a good idea to let her Servant loose when allies were nearby. Berserkers were a tad too unpredictable when consumed by madness.

"I'm safe now, and you're fighting alongside some of the greatest knights in history!" she affirmed with a gentle smile, "so keep that in mind if you want to fight! I know you won't let anyone get past you!"

The icy spectre did not reply, and after a moment, simply followed after the knights. Beneath her helmet, Guan was smiling to herself. She was lucky to have such a Master, wasn't she? The Berserker would make sure to protect her!
And so, when she stepped outside and assessed what was going on, Guan quickly thought through her options. Joining the melee could be a bit too chaotic, and if she weren't careful, she could seriously hurt someone. The 'enemies' were supposed to be allies, after all. She had to do something to help, though...

Turning her attention to the floating figure raining spells from above, Guan raised her guandao, still coated with frozen blood. All she had to do was knock the Servant off-balance, and trust in the others to quickly subdue the rest of the controlled Servants!

"Frost Fair Blade."

The accumulated blood immediately shattered free of the ice binding it to the blade, extending towards the flying target with blinding speed! Whether they dodged, or failed to notice and was struck in a non-vital area, Guan's objective would be complete.

Despite the words of Kiara (their Kiara, of course), Jason still found himself hesitating to agree with their decision to protect him. As far as things went, the situation was terrible; if anything, the ones that were protecting him should've been the ones to be guarded instead! Hakuno's presence was the one sustaining the sole Servant within the confines of the boundary, and given the other Kiara's own monologues, if theirs fell, then things would likely escalate beyond repair.

So why was it, then, that they placed so much weight into letting a useless person who ran as a distraction for their enemy and let a close friend die in such a horrible manner stay alive?

"I..." he faltered, hesitating as he watched Hakuno throw the box that she had managed to procure from her Servant at the enemy, unable to come up with words to respond in kind to those words of encouragement forced through gritted teeth.

The box itself was, of course, completely unexpected by the other Kiara, but not enough so as to completely stop her forward assault, and with a casual swatting motion, she had struck the object out of the air. What was inside, however—a bunch of sparrows, dressed up like various youkai—flooded out as soon as her hand met it. The birds began to peck at her from all sides, causing Kiara to momentarily pause her attacks towards her counterpart in order to deal with them. With her concentration momentarily struck, though, there was more than enough time for the other party to begin mounting a counterattack.

It didn't take long after for her to finally swat them out of the air, though, and with her counterpart already reeling from her last string of attacks, all she needed to do was reach out and grab her, if even but for a moment——!

@VitaVitaAR@RolePlayerRoxas

Yes! The box had opened, assaulting the dark Kiara not only with sparrows, but with a direct strike to her luck, crippling her advantage if only for an instant! Benienma drew her katana immediately, pointing the tip directly towards the flickering walls of the barrier. Even as she drove the blade towards it, she felt the agonizing sensation blaze up her arms.

But she couldn't let herself be stopped here. The anti-spiritual barrier wasn't nearly as strong, she could feel it! The redheaded enma had to do everything she could! She had to!

There was the tiniest gap, the smallest hole in the flickering purple at the tip of her blade. She had to push through!

It was widening... it was beginning to be forced open!

She had to pierce through it! For the sake of her Master, for Jason, for Kiara, for everyone else on this island and in this world!

The hole grew wider, and...!

Kiara fell to her knees, gasping. Her own barrier had collapsed entirely. This soul-eating monster that had the same form as her... she was so incredibly strong. She couldn't maintain her mudras any longer. Even with her evil counterpart's distraction, she hadn't been able to stave off the attack for long enough.

She could see that hand, reaching towards her...

All she had left was her own defiance.

And so she raised her hands, to offer a prayer with her last breath as that hand neared her face. Perhaps in her last moments, she could at least try to enforce the property of anti-evil upon herself...

Those fingertips were almost there, almost scraping at her forehead...

There was a flash of silver and red.

The evil Kiara's right arm was suddenly in the air, detached above the elbow with a perfectly clean cut. It spiraled several times, end over end, spurting blood as it did, before landing several meters away with a wet thump, leaking red onto the grass, the fingers twitching for a few moments before going still.

Benienma skidded to a halt, flicking the blood from her blade and smoothly sheathing it. The remains of the barrier, shattered like glass, briefly drifted through the air before dissipating into nothing.

She'd made it in time!

"This time, I won't let you escape, Sessyoin Kiara! The enma's judgement shall send you to the hell you have earned dechi!" the sparrow girl declared, hand still on the hilt of her katana, "I won't allow you to become an evil of humanity!"

@RolePlayerRoxas@PKMNB0Y

The barrier around the park on their arrival was quite impressive, if one considered encasing such a formerly nice area in a shimmering purple iridescence to be an achievement worth lauding and not some untold horror likely drawing on human sacrifice. Or actively perverting the concept behind it. Either way, to erect a bounded field like this with minimal physical anchoring that would effectively bring the attempts of Servants to break in to a halt until some superior Caster came around or a Master found a way to run in safely and disrupt its anchors...

It was a good thing she had let Saber bring her over, honestly. All the power in the world couldn't save you if your physical restrictions were so vague, not unless you were bringing some sort of high ritual to the party. This? This was neither, and although most magi couldn't hope to alter the barrier's flow itself and have it act like there was a nice big chunk of rock in the way, perfect for two people to wander through without stripping their spiritual essence...

It did make her look quite strange, standing there arms spread, though, gesturing with her head for the knights to go through before following after and letting it collapse. Hey, maybe they'd even get a little bit of a sneak attack on... whoever was behind this? Or as sneaky as a bunch of heavily armoured shining armour types could be.

The sudden escape of the captive Saber had caught Kiara off guard as she reached for her counterpart, and her body had promptly paid the price for her hubris. The instant that the hand she had been using to reach out towards her battered counterpart was sliced off, she moved backwards, blood dripping from the stump where it was once attached.

Even so, the loss of a single limb did not seem to faze this Kiara much—as much as the 'her' that she was pursuing was rendered almost wholly immobile from her assault, the casual nature by which she looked at her wound, coupled with the faintest of smiles, made Jason wonder (however briefly) if she was anywhere within the realm of being called a 'human' any more.

"An Evil of Humanity... Yes, that does have a nice ring to it," Kiara responded, holding the stump of her arm upright. Slowly, steadily, a stream of tendrils began to emerge from her bloody flesh, and upon closer inspection, the hands at the end of each began to link together with one another. The bleeding had promptly stopped with that, of course, but soon more handlike tendrils began to break through, reforming her body until it was as if the hand that had been sliced off was never injured in the first place.

"But no, sadly, I have not yet obtained such wonderful pleasure; calling me something like that would be rather premature," she continued, glancing up at the sky, tinted by the barrier as it was, before turning back towards Benienma. "But no matter. I wish you would have stayed in your little birdcage, but I suppose that this cannot be helped."

With one arm raised to the sky, the deluge of mana that had been gathering elsewhere in the park had begun to transfer a portion of its energy to her, and soon, a pair of horns had sprouted from her head as if in response to it.

"Aaah... It has been a while since these were last present," she sighed, turning towards the group before staring back at her counterpart. "But this is no time to indulge in my own pleasure, sad as that may be. No matter; all is within the palm of my hand."

With a simple gesture from her left hand, a wave of limbs seemed to tear their way out of the earth, clawing over one another as they moved towards the group; at the same time, though, another ring of hands seemed to emerge from beneath the earth around the four, clawing at anything and everything that drew near.

"Soon, all shall know salvation..."

---

With a path forward being formed through the barrier, those who pushed forward to seek the final destination of the mana would soon find themselves in a rather lightly forested plot of land. Normally, this section of the park was meant to simulate nature in a more serene state, as opposed to the tended grassland that students and residents alike made use of for whatever reasons they needed. Now, however, a far more foreboding pressure seemed to fill the air, and the apparent locus of it all—an orb apparently stained by what it was composed of—seemed to float in the center of it all.

As the Servants approached, though, the orb seemed to expand in size, growing to double what it had been mere seconds ago, before collapsing in upon itself. In its place, however, something that could only be described as a hole in the space itself seemed to begin to grow. From that, though, a pair of arms, each unnaturally pale, began to clutch onto the edges of the tear.

The silhouette of a slim horned woman, blindingly and unnaturally white, emerged from within, and the mana that had thus been compressed to this point seemed to be at her epicenter now that the hole she had crawled out of had closed. There was a brief moment as it turned its featureless head towards those who had been present for its 'birth' before it began to hold arms out in front of it.

As the figure slowly moved its hands together, the rapid warping of space in the area—offset, it seemed, by the barest of amounts behind those present—soon became indicative of what it was attempting to do. Though it had missed its mark, be it by luck or by its own inability to control its own abilities yet, a perfectly demarcated section of land had been compressed into nothing but a cube, perfectly uniform in its dimensions as it sat in the middle of the earth.

Despite its failure, though, the figure seemed altogether unfazed and seemed to begin another attempt to catch those present in its grasp.

@VitaVitaAR@RolePlayerRoxas@Raineh Daze

Her suspicions were confirmed. Even as the arm grotesquely regrew, Benienma knew just what kind of opponent she was facing. Not simply a soul steeped in evil, debauchery, and sin. Not simply someone who forsook their humanity and wore the face of another. This was no simple monster.

This was one who could become a beast.

If her determination to bring judgement to such an abominable sinner had not already been solidified, it would have been now. To allow a beast to be birthed into this world would condemn countless human beings to an awful fate. Those horns alone, she could sense the sheer amount of mana that had suddenly been collected...

... Whatever had just happened...!

Even as the arms erupted in a circle around them, Benienma's sword was already flashing from its sheath once more! In a flash of steel, eight of the arms that had sprouted around them were suddenly severed, tumbling through the air and spurting blood across the soil.

"Masta!" the diminutive enma began, looking back over her shoulder, "Try to contact reinforcements dechi! For now, take this!"

The tiny redheaded girl flung one arm back towards her Master, and from her sleeve came a much smaller box that landed just in front of the brunette. With this, the others would be able to recover and the contents would help them better defend against the Beast candidate Kiara's assault until further reinforcements could arrive!

For now, her attention had to be on the evil doppelganger.

"I'll cut your false salvation apart dechi!"

The first of the oncoming hands was caught by her blade between the middle and ring fingers! The dragged her katana through its flesh, severing it down the middle to the very base before pulling it free in an instant! Without pause, Benienma twisted her body, and severed another of the oversized limbs, apart, the spray of blood erupting into the air in a shower of crimson! Slamming one foot down, she burst forward, slicing another arm off at its base... and another! And another! And another! Each flash of her katana cut another arm down, spraying the evil Kiara's blood across the park grounds!

There was a burst of air like a sonic boom as Benienma threw herself forward, the backdraft from her explosion of motion ripping across the park as she spun her entire body, one particularly large arm reaching for her cut once, twice, three times, four times...! When she landed, it had been severed dozens of times with each spin, cut apart into circular chunks!

She had to reach the evil Kiara! She had to cut her down!

She had to stop her from becoming a beast!

@PKMNB0Y@RolePlayerRoxas

---

The barrier was tremendous. There was no doubt in the blonde Saber's mind that it was the work of the perpetrator, but it wasn't akin to the magecraft she was more familiar with. No, it had more in common with... certain Eastern arts? She was less familiar with them, but it did seem to be the case. Regardless, the aim of the shimmering purple wall was quite clear: The rejection of spiritual entities. The rejection of the entire concept of Servants.

However...

Her Master's capabilities made her well suited for disrupting such defenses!

"Thank you, Master," said the King of Knights quickly, pausing for a moment after passing through the gap in the bounded field to make sure that the taller girl was keeping pace. Now she could focus on what was ahead:

Finding the one responsible for this atrocity and stopping them. The killings and attempted murders at the arena, the enormous summoning of twisted shades of Servants and phantasmal beasts...

The one responsible for these crimes would have to answer for them.

But there was something Arturia couldn't ignore.

"The air here feels unnatural," commented the Saber-class Servant, "As if something is-"

Before she could complete that thought, something emerged from thin air before them, pulling itself through a gaping hole in space itself. It looked like a pale silhouette of a horned woman... and it slowly raised its hands...

"Master!"

Her instincts blaring to her that something terrible was about to happen, Arturia scooped her Master into her arms without a moment's pause. In an instant, the land behind Lancelot, her Master, and herself was compressed into a cube!

What kind of power was this...?!

Not waiting for it to complete its gesture once more, Master in her arms, Arturia was off and sprinting.

"Sir Lancelot!" called the King of Knights, "Do all you can to keep it distracted until I can join the fight!"

She had to find somewhere safe to put her Master, until then she couldn't attempt to mount an attack. Not when it was capable of such devastating destruction with a simple gesture!

@PKMNB0Y@Raineh Daze

It was almost overwhelming. It felt like, no matter what they did to that evil monster, Sessyoin rebounded immediately, if she had even been inconvenienced at all. Saber had managed to save Kiara, slicing that hand off in the process... but in a sickening display, it was reformed. Sessyoin's very presence felt like utter pollution to everything around her, nauseating Hakuno. Standing protectively before Jason and Kiara despite her trembling legs, she watched on in disgust and alarm as the evil creature took on a more disturbing look.

The young mage couldn't dwell too much on Sessyoin's musings, however. They were surrounded by more of those ghoulish limbs, quickly closing in! Hakuno was frozen in place, unable to formulate any kind of plan to escape. Luckily, Saber had been able to give them a slight reprieve, supplying them with another box. Call reinforcements...? Right, of course! The barrier was gone now! And at this point, there was no way backup wouldn't be sent their way - the evil permeating the park could not be ignored. And more importantly, if Saber continued fighting all alone...

"Use this!" Hakuno instructed Jason and Kiara, handing the box to them. Grabbing the radio from her hip, Hakuno contacted HQ, forgoing her usual conduct - she was in no mind to follow any kind of protocol.
"HQ, send everyone you can to Fusang Park right now! The entire city's in danger!" She yelled, gripping the radio tightly. If that weren't enough to spur them to send something yesterday, she added, "we're dealing with an Evil of Humanity!"

"S-Saber, put me down!" the taller blonde protested, not liking this position at all. Surely she would be better protected if she could move, rather than hoping that something in the park would be able to sufficiently hide her from the space-crushing abomination. If she could even begin to hide from it in any fashion--for all she knew right this instant it was keyed into the barrier and aware of the positions of everything within it.

Which was another reason to put her down.

"If this is magecraft I need to have chance to look at it!"

Lancelot, of course, was doing the obvious thing when confronted with a ghostly apparition that destroyed the earth by crushing its hands together: darting forwards to slice at those same hands before backing off again. Though something about the thing suggested that this was unlikely to be anything but a stopgap.

With a haughty laugh, the Beast-to-be simply watched in amusement as Benienma tore through her attacks as though they were no more than leaves in the wind. She was aware—perhaps by instinct—that the Saber in front of her was a conceptual entity practically born to strike down being like her.

But that mattered not so long as the Servant remained so occupied upon her that she lost sight of the true reward.

With that in mind, though, there was only so much that she could do, especially with the mana that she had siphoned for the sake of completing her transformation becoming occupied with its own issues. It was defending itself autonomously, it seemed, which meant that obtaining some resources to sustain the barrage and draw the Saber's attention further from the other her was of the utmost priority.

Benienma herself was obviously out of the question, and absorbing Kishinami was something she could not bear to do so soon. That, in other words, left only one target—the insect that had remained alive by clinging onto the coattails of others.

"Come closer, then," she taunted, slowly drawing back from Benienma as she continued to fire a barrage of missiles and hands. "I am certain that my neck is far more enticing than my hand... Should you prove able to even reach it..."

As he watched the other Kiara draw away, though, Jason fumbled the box that Hakuno had thrown to him. There was only so much that he could do now, especially with what was being described as an 'Evil of Humanity' as their opponent.

Even using the word 'their' implied that he had some part in the combat, though; he was still an extra body to be kept alive, if anything...

As he continued to quietly hold onto the box, though, the radio in Hakuno's hand crackled to life in response to her own cry for aid. There was still static, given the barrier that was blocking them off from HQ, but a few scant words had made it through.

"————confirmed. —————currently———————aerial bombardment.———————cover——————break—."

The message becoming no more than a garbled mess was coupled with two incidents that seemed to happen almost concurrently with one another.
First—and most obvious—was the sudden rain of projectiles of all sorts onto the barrier above the park itself, which seemed to have barely any effect, if at all.
Second, though, was the hand that had been sliced off by Benienma now latching onto Jason's leg. In the time he had spent focusing on everything else that had been happening, it had remained out of focus. The searing pain from its grip as it slowly dug its nails into his flesh made him react in turn, his face contorting in pain as he fell down to take a look at the source.

"Are you serious?!" he asked, tugging in vain as he attempted to pry it off. "This... I... Am I really going to get killed be something like this?"

@VitaVitaAR@RolePlayerRoxas

---

The swing of the knight's sword had just as easily taken the hands off of the figure as a knife through butter, though it did not seem as if the attack registered 'mentally' for the victim. There was no sense of pain of suffering—no, not a trace of any emotion in the first place; it simply stared down at the stumps of where its 'hands' had once been before its body seemed to reform them, almost as if nothing had happened in the first place.

Despite that, though, it seemed to 'understand' that the same technique it had just tested would not work on an opponent agile enough to simply dart out of its range and strike at it while it shifted to accommodate.

The solution it came to, in short, was simply to strike a wider area.

With a pulse of mana that seemed to shake the air around it, the horned figure began to grow in size—slowly at first, but soon reaching the size of the trees around itself—before swinging an arm towards the knight that had struck out at it.

The other two were fleeing, it seemed, which placed them lower on its priority list than the one attacking it, after all.

@Raineh Daze

A blast of magical energy flashed by her.

A hand was sliced into two pieces.

Kiara was drifting back, drawing away further and further... But Benienma couldn't allow her to escape! She couldn't stop! The moment she paused, the moment that Kiara got too much room, there was no telling what would happen!

A hand bigger than her entire body erupted from the earth beneath her, lifting her into the path of a stream of bullets of mana and threatening to close on the small Saber! But she sprang off of it, leaping over the blast of magical energy and over the evil Kiara! A beast... She couldn't allow a beast to be born here!

Benienma hurtled downwards, even as hands rushed towards her from below. One reached towards her, and she swung her katana forward, striking it at the palm and descending, cleaving cleaning through it down its arm! Another hand rushed towards her, but she ran down across the arm, cutting as she went! Blood and severed fingers and cut flesh fell through the air, as the redheaded enma sliced a path of destruction through the assaulting arms!

Two huge hands rose on either side of her, rocketing towards her, intending to crush her between their palms! Even with her speed, it was difficult to react, and she heard a sound like a thunderclap as they came close around her...!

For a moment, it looked as if she had been crushed between them. But in an instant, Benienma's sword erupted through their flesh, slashing dozens of times in an instant and cutting them apart!

She had felt the impact. It had rocked her body, she'd felt those huge hands nearly crush her. She'd barely had enough room to move, she was covered in blood... but... she was almost there!

She was so close!

The dark Kiara, the sinner, the Evil of Humanity, she was so close...!

@RolePlayerRoxas@PKMNB0Y

---

Saber winced at the idea of placing her Master down. Surely, she was at least safer on the move like this, at least she could perhaps be taken out of the sight of the faceless abomination. However... the strange figure, which was now growing to an enormous size, was entirely composed of magical energy. She could sense it, it wasn't something completely unlike those shadow Servants they'd faced before. For that matter, it wasn't that distant from the bodies most Servants manifested in. Flesh, bone, blood, all composed of magical energy... but this thing didn't bleed, nor did injury seem to affect it.

"I..."

She hesitated for a moment, before reluctantly placing her Master down. She could fight alongside Sir Lancelot like this, but...

"If it pays you any notice, move immediately, Master!"

Placing one foot forward, the King of Knights angled the tip of Excalibur upwards. Light danced along the edge of the weapon as she pointed it squarely towards the massive, faceless figure's right shoulder. Certainly, even if it was not harmed permanently by injury, this would disrupt it...!

"Strike... Aiiiiir!"

An explosion of magical energy was released from around her sword, and in a flash a brilliant beam of mana erupted from the blade and tore towards her target...!

@PKMNB0Y@Raineh Daze

She could barely make out the few words her radio received, but it was just enough to give her hope. Hakuno jumped when the aerial bombardment occurred immediately after, striking at the barrier and doing distressingly little to destroy it. Still, that at least meant someone was helping out. Now if they could just obliterate this barrier, and Sessyoin along with it, that'd be great.

A new problem had arisen, however. When she glanced at her companions, she found Jason on the ground, being attacked by a severed hand. It held onto him tightly,. refusing to budge as he tried to pull it off. As disturbing as the sight was, Hakuno was already rushing over, sliding onto her knees and grasping for that foul hand. Why was it so damn strong!?

"No one else is getting killed!" Hakuno practically growled, teeth gritted, "You're gonna survive, and laugh in that monster's face!"
If nothing else, Mary wouldn't be able to rest peacefully if Jason got killed by her, too. And Hakuno would never forgive herself if any of them died here. Frustrated with the disembodied hand, Hakuno pressed a finger to the back of it. Her spells were weak, but at least she couldn't miss like this! She fired a gandr into the hand, then another.

Swinging a massive arm in Lancelot's direction was no more effective than simply striking out at him with human proportions; the knight neatly jumped over what may as well have been a ponderously slow attack and cut into an elbow on the down-swing--though, obviously, the damage that one such as he could inflict immediately on such an enormous magical construct was quite limited. Perhaps the full release of his Noble Phantasm would be able to blast it apart... Excalibur would almost certainly do so.

But if it was made entirely of magic, would it just restore itself from nothing? If something else was forcing it into existence, then an entirely new form could be constructed immediately--this, too, was Laetitia's thoughts, effectively prodding it with minor spells, almost tickling it, that served no purpose but to get an idea of what logic was behind it. Where was the mana coming from, and could it be blocked off? Was this a projection of some sort from the bounded field? Or was it just a very large, shaky facsimile of a Servant that would go boom as easily (or more) as one of them?

With the Saber drawing ever closer, the horned Kiara continued to retreat, sending wave after wave of hands and projectiles to slow her opponent's progress. Given the extent to which the enma was closing the gap between them, though, the range advantage that she had been given was nowhere near enough to safely continue this plan of action.

And barely, just barely, had the last strike—aimed at her neck—missed. A single, shallow cut was more that enough for her to tell, and the slightest of reactions was visible upon her face as she drew back.

"Ah, that..."

With those words, she fell towards the ground, sinking into the darkness with a grin on her face.

"Close, but your impatience will cost you."

---

Despite his and Hakuno's initial efforts, Jason found that he could not pure the severed hand of their enemy off of his leg—at least, not with any show of physical strength. Though he had internally resigned himself to death at the start of the fight, the haste with which he had attempted to deny his own demise even now showed that though his mind had decided as much, his heart had not.

The gandrs from the CCF officer, however, seemed to do enough to loosen the grip of the disembodied hand; they had both landed on the thumb, blowing it off outright (along with a small bit of Jason's skin and the flesh underneath), which means that the grip would not hold. Without any hesitation, the young man tore the offending object off and held it at arm's length, knowing full well that it could strike out at them again.

"Th-thanks," he said, nodding his head before noticing the shadow bubbling beneath the hand. There was a moment of hesitation before the realization of what was happening, and in his haste the young man threw the hand into the air. Immediately, the hand had dissolved into darkness before the horned Kiara appeared in its place, the fresh cut from the Saber's blade slowly closing itself as she stepped towards her downed counterpart.

"What a shame; she went so far in pursuing me, but forgot about what she must protect," she remarked, the same cold smile on her face as she drew her arm back.

All it would take was a single touch and it would be—

---

Despite the growth of the humanoid mana construct, its speed had not by any means increased; rather, the increased surface area only served to make itself an easier target to the Saber who had been opposing it, and the hand that had been lopped off was an obvious indication of that. The figure simply stared at the stump—through which a distinct torrent of whirling black mana could be seen—before the hand began to reform. The barrier above wavered, if only for a moment, and a few spells that had been fired had broken through elsewhere in the region, but once the hand had returned, so too did its stability.

The small spells that Arturia's Master had been firing were, of course, returning more than enough information about the structure of their enemy. All of the mana seemed to by cycling in and out of the same area—its center—which meant that there was a nexus at which all of this was. The recovery, too, consumed resources from its maintenance of the barrier, which was more than enough of a sign that its primary focus was to maintain that.

The damage from the Master was insignificant enough to the construct, though, that its focus remained upon Lancelot; despite its larger size having more problems with the Saber, though, it continued to grow. This time, however, it attempted to used the same ability that it had used to crush the area of land at the start of the fight; with a larger area in its line of sight to collapse, it only made logical sense to attempt that with larger hands.

---

The temporary lapse in the barrier had a singular effect, one that had saved the normal Kiara from certain doom. A single spell had managed to sklip through and, by some miracle or another, landed directly upon the Beast's back. This, in turn, was just a small enough opening for Jason to clumsily move forward and throw himself between the two Kiaras; the attack that the horned one had begun had been stalled mere seconds, but those seconds had been enough to let him move the other one out of the way.

His upper left shoulder, now dripping in blood from the hand running through it, had seen better days.

"Hakuno! Command Seal and get Saber back here!" he shouted, staring at the horned Kiara with equal parts fear and determination. "If you don't want me to die, then whatever, but above all else, letting the Kiara we know die would be even worse than that!"

@VitaVitaAR@RolePlayerRoxas@Raineh Daze

Kiara's struggled to sit up. Maintaining her own barrier under constant assault, coupled with trying to combat the inherent corruption present inside the barrier and protect her allies, had taken its tole on her. Blood trickled from her nose, and her breathing was heavy and ragged. And even still, when she noticed her horned counterpart appearing, the black-haired woman had tried to sit up, she had tried to perform another mudra, to recreate the full strength of her barrier and block the beast candidate from drawing any closer... but she couldn't. The sheer exhaustion and strain on her body was too much. All she could do was watch as-

Jason took the blow.

The Dark Replica's arm had plunged entirely through his shoulder.

Kiara's eyes widened in horror. No, she'd... he'd...

"L-Liu-san...!"

There was a crackle, and a flash of green light.

She'd failed.

One of those under her protection had suffered grievous injury.

But...

This sinner would go no further...!

Kiara's arm came off, bloodily sliding from the wound in Jason's shoulder. As it fell, it came apart again, severed seemingly hundreds of times in an instant into crimson chunks that fell messily to the earth.

"... I'm sorry, Masta," Benienma said, sliding her katana into her sheath as she straightened, the diminutive enma turning towards the Dark Kiara. The guilt she felt over allowing Jason to be so terribly injured was forming a tightness in her chest, deep in her heart. She glanced back over her shoulder. "... Use the box I gave you dechi."

With that, her gaze instantly hardened as it returned to her opponent, her right hand finding itself back to the hilt of her katana.

"You won't escape this time, Sessyoin," said the red enma, "Benienma will ensure that the full weight of your sins comes down on your head."

The diminutive Servant's magical energy surged. The air around her suddenly seemed displaced, carrying her kimono and her ponytail with the sudden rush of wind. Beside her, mana built up higher and higher, until there was a snapping sound accompanied by a flash of light and smoke.

Beside the girl there stood a massive wicker basket, larger than not only Benienma herself but also both Kiaras, Hakuno, and Jason. It could easily house an entire person inside of it completely. The instant it fully appeared the lid opened wide, releasing a gust of high-intensity wind directly towards the evil Kiara!

But that wasn't it. Coming with it were hundreds of tiny sparrows, pecking and clawing at the sinful monster that looked like a human.

No matter where the evil Sessyoin Kiara fled to, Benienma wouldn't let her escape again.

She wouldn't let her harm anyone else.

This would be a blow of execution.

@RolePlayerRoxas@PKMNB0Y