Damn her slip of tongue, they almost had her calm! Anaya was about to draw her weapon to counter Cindy's attack via sound magic, when Ronin diverted the queen's attention. Oh god, the party went to hell this quickly? She hoped Eliza and anyone else unfortunately wrapped up in it was okay. Yet as things seemed to have died down again, they got worse. "CARDINAL!!" The spirit girl screamed when Istar was stabbed, running to her when she hit the ground. Looking back up, Anaya's heart could've stopped once she realized who the culprit was. A mint agent. "You..."

But she wasn't able to react in time, she and everyone else around her were caught up in a poisonous smoke bomb. Anaya felt her regeneration magic fighting against the poison, but it was still painful. Very painful.

"Can't you see what we meant?!" she yelled at Cindy, with the same venom in her voice the spirit girl once had, but now she sounded regretful. Like the pain from the past finally hit her. "The mint wants us all dead!! They don't give a goddamn shit who, or what we are!!" Tears pricked her eyes, from both the pain and despair. "You have to concider some of us didn't ask for this! Please!!"

Her spirits' movements became more stiff, and yet most had turned their sights on Viper in desperation to rescue their mistress, except the one with Jenna. Anaya's mana was going to run out eventually, but what else could she do?

---

Celia found herself sprinting to the ambush, guided by a mix of negative emotions and her absolute direction. Despair, anger, sorrow. Oh boy, what the hell did she miss? Gathering up her magic, the empath used the despair magic to shrowd herself in shadow, sneaking closer to the fight until she was nearly behind Viper. Then with sorrow magic, Celia blasted those in the smoke out with water. And with Anger magic, she ignited her arrows, and rushing up to the assassin, the empath opened fire.

---

---

Eliza followed behind Fine, helping her undo the wires and keeping an eye out for anyone who somehow decided to attack them cause reasons. She sighed in relief when the music finally stopped, but that feeling didn't stick seeing the twins get spotted by an Ascendancy member. It was too much of a risk going back out there. Once the metal door was opened, the witch went inside, surprised that the room within was a dressing room. "Guess I owe you a date once we're out of here? My treat." She suggested to her companion, trying to lighten the mood. Her eyes widened when she saw Elvira in the middle of escaping. Atleast they found the hidden exit.

"Hold it!" Eliza crossed her arms at Vi-chan, talking in a stern tone like a mother would to her trouble-maker kid. "I'll let you driving everyone to their possible deaths aside IF you let us and my team use your little escape hatch. Deal?" She asked, sending a quick message to Maura. "Found the exit, stand by."

Once Elvira allowed them to escape with her, Maura would quickly grab the rest and appear next to the witch.

---

"Hm?" The twins turned around to face the triplet, surprisingly calm.

"Ah, forgive us dear sister. It's in our nature to assist." Cereza bowed in greetings. "As obvious as it may seem, we're pacifists, in a way. We believe violence as grand as this is not the right path, no matter the reason."

"Especially if it's not intentional." Cerise lowered her shield, motioning to the scene around them. "They're only fighting for real now because you guys arrived. They just went mad cause of that so-called idol's song. Sound magic, I guess." she looked back to the triplet. "Can't you tell?"

"It wasn't only monsters we were helping either. There were normal magical girls out here that weren't expecting this to happen. We tried to evacuate them before they got hurt." Cereza looked over to Amanda, who went into hiding until she was given orders. "And some monsters are even helping too, altruisitc or otherwise." she looked up at North; who was blowing the smoke away with a cold wind Jack Frost-style, then started to pursue Askefye.

"Weird isn't it? Good in darkness, evil in light? It's almost ridiculous." Cerise chuckled. "We know you harbor no ill intent too. Can't you spare atleast some of the darker girls, even if it's to purify them? We understand if not." she asked.

How long had Hilaria been denied an honest emotional connection to another being? When she asked herself this, Hilaria figured it had to have been more than a couple of centuries. Hundreds of years aimlessly walking this Earth, existing merely because. A life where one's sole joy was in the delicacies that had yet to be experienced. There was no desire, no ambition. She longed not for a relationship nor any sort of wealth or material item beyond the currency required to consume yet more foods she had yet to try.

Meaningless, just like she imagined everything and everyone else to be. Purpose was, after all, merely a means with which to set oneself up for devastation. People were flawed, terrible things. They killed one another over the silliest of trifles. They abandoned over the most insignificant slight. Not to mention how many mistakes they made. And as she finally started recalling more and more memories of her life, particularly with her sibling, she came to understand something:

She was still very much a person, too.

Hilaria arrived at the scene in the park moments too late. A thunder followed her less-than-subtle entrance as if some form of applause, while dust and earth were kicked up from her landing. She waited not for it to dissipate, instead making a beeline for the Cardinal with everything she had. It, unfortunately, was not enough. Hilaria was too far away to prevent Ishtar's murder and any sense of purpose she once had drained out of her body in an instant, the failure of her objective becoming the impetus behind her cease in movements. She then fell to a single knee.

Wherefore did fate rejoin us, only to separate us anew? Be suffering amid solitude mine own portion?

Her hesitation to accept her own feelings on the matter directly resulted in a belated arrival, which led to this terrible outcome. Had she been but mere moments earlier, the assassin's blade would have never found its mark, and she would not be suffering as she was now. The happiness, that foreign, uncomfortable happiness that she had recently felt twisted and bent until it was nothing but a throbbing in her heart. She knew this to be sorrow, and what followed was always despair.

But... something else came.

As she silently lamented the loss of the last remaining connection she had, she glanced up. Up at the girl who had stolen that away from her, and to the others as well. The explosion of the device that Viper had detonated, as well as most of the screams and pleading of others had all but become white noise to her, as she suddenly began to feel warmer and warmer. No, not just warm... but hot. This burning feeling stretched all throughout her person until it was the only thing she felt.

Ah, of course... I'm a hypocrite after all.

The realization that she would soon succumb to another emotion she had abandoned long ago was only the last rational thought she had. Rationality was not the only thing to be evicted, as both sorrow and despair were vacated too, leaving nothing left but an unbridled rage.

The surge of hatred and anger was enough to spark a metamorphosis in Hilaria, as well as her armor. The blood on her suit was slowly absorbed, her dark-gray apparel becoming dyed a purple-black and an ominous haze beginning to seep out of it. Her own features began to mutate, the hair on her head then turning raven-black and her eyes an eery gold. As a full helmet began to appear, Hilaria went through one last physical change in the form of horns that grew from her head, her helmet forming around them as it encased her head in stained metal.

The beast's helmet faced forward.

There were many people in the area around her sister's corpse. They all had their motivations, their allegiances, and their excuses. It mattered not with whom any of them allied with, what any of them were doing there, or what they had tried to do. The fact of the matter was that they all, without exception, were foes to be slaughtered. The crimson tint to Hilaria's vision made her nearly indiscriminate, her befuddled mind only barely registering Viper as a prime target. And with that, there was little else to do, was there?

"——___———________—————————____———————"

The bestial sound that erupted from behind her mask no longer resembled anything human, but anyone could tell what it meant. The cry was that of a foe to all. It betrayed the inability to compromise, the futility of diplomacy, and the inevitability of indiscriminate conflict.

Her initial target, naturally, was Viper. The ground where Hilaria stood cracked further as her body lunged forward, compelled by her harmful instincts. Her scutum was no longer in her hands, her intentions of disemboweling and flaying whatever she set upon making it rather useless to her.

Hilaria would not be satisfied with Viper's death. No, in her berserk state, Hilaria would rip her to pieces, tear out her teeth and nails, paint the streets with her blood, and drag out every last painful moment as long as she could. To that end, she would suffer no interference by others. She could only be satisfied if Viper's blood was on her hands. Her red-stained vision still benefited from her Third Eye, and so that meant Celia was far from hidden to her. So, she was an obstacle to be removed even if, to an extent, they shared the same goals.

The beast hesitated not. In her empowered and enraged state, she continued forward and forcefully swung her shotgun-axe down upon the occupied Celia with more than enough force to cleave her in half.

The beast that had become roared, upon finding himself blocked by his target's retainers, and stupidly reeled and exchanged blows with the newfound opponents. That roused the thing, and it even managed to activate a reinforcement upon his body and his own Third Eye as a reflex response's to Jenna's, blocking and agressively, but single mindedly trying to futilely drive Jenna out of the way.

Then... the Cardinal was shanked. And a bomb was dropped upon Cindy. It was then when the whirlwind of bloodlust and rage subsummed, as if there was something else in Reaver's mind. It planted new thoughts, new directives on the moronic beast. Heal. Protect. Cindy. The thoughts were imposing and crystal clear, so the beast reeled, and relented, instead charging a healing spell, his blade vanishing, and rushing his way past the poisoned people to aid her highness.

"CiNdYyyy" It wailed in a soft whisper, a ghastly voice as he slammed the healing spell both on himself and Cindy, and set up a barrier around the two. The rage kept subsuming, as more coherent thoughts began to arise..."...I'M...sOrRy..." The beast moaned, as he kept the barrier up, the healing effect beginning to appear. He truly was sorry about this.

And yet...

All rage subsumed, as if the mahout with a steel hand steering the rampaging elephant was revealed, Reaver's mind was whole once again, but the transformation did not fade at all. His barrier shimmered in intensity as it strenghtened. "...nothing personal. Just business." Reaver said in a whisper, as his fist clenched and tightened the barrier around the two...

...to only one person's width, crushing the gaseous form of Cindy with his own body, being the most solid of the two beings. Stabbing would do no great to a gaseous being.

---

@Ariamis

"Smoke screen." Umukamui said without batting an eyelid. "In these cases, I normally check on every agent for something out of place. You have eyes in all the city, use them, Inquisitor." Umukamui stated, as he vanished once more, no doubt sated that his charge had been extracted.



"I'm n...no toy! Quit it!" Sakura, overtaken by the situation, acted more like an 10 year old that she would herself admit, being manhandled like an overpriced, oversized plush. Still the impromtu rescue team was allowed to flee... and even the pigs who had come to the scene had let them go. That was really, really suspicious.

Lily was being Lily, Emily still drunk, but Sakura was about to snarl. Pity her body interpreted it as a puffed cheek pout as she tried to flail herself out of Connie's grasp. Not that it was entirely uncomfortable. Connie was the girl who was packing more firepower of all those she had met. In other circumstances she'd be more pliable. But the eyesore materialized in front of them. Umukamui.

Sakura was no genius, but even she could piece stuff like this. "You did something, didn't you"

"Correct." The tiny creature stated, his tail wagging. "An alliance. They help me... I help them in their endeavour with my agents. I am also responsible for recruiting neutrals to the cause."

"YOU SOLD ME TO THE POPOS?" Sakura yelled, but her otherwise thunderous growl had been reduced to angry loli noises post transformation, and less than intimidating as such. With all of her might, she began to shake the small creature like one shakes an unopened peanut bag.

"Y---y---yo wewewre-- sa-asaaaaa--ve-ved!" He said. "Bbebebe---Ggragratete-ful!" He said, unable to formulate a coherent sentence being manhandled like this.

_{@FamishedPants@ERode@Majoras End@PlatinumSkink}

The music was gone, she was outside. The only thing Veronica could hear was Dolly’s gentle if indifferent voice and the rain dancing on the umbrella.. That music must have been getting to her, because she hadn’t felt that helpless in a long time. Vi would be made to pay for her crimes, and soon.

Veronica pulled the string out of the box and examined it, listening to Dolly’s expatiation. “I suspect I will need you to enlighten me in a moment.” She turned the string over in her hand. “If it works as you say it does, I will certainly be requesting another commission.” Veronica walked away, wondering if this was going to become one of her great days despite everything.

She stood out on a road in front of all the warehouses. The rain drops that landed on her disappeared in the shadows on her uniform. She closed her eyes and exhaled. After taking a moment to ground herself, Veronica lifted her arms and swung herself into a spin, twirling on her left foot. The rim of her dress floated off the ground as she danced. After her third rotation, she lowered her right foot and sprung into the air.

Forty centimeters, not a single one more.

With her eyes still closed, she crossed her arms over her head at the peak of the jump. Thunder cracked through the sky, casting her long shadow over the warehouse cluster. A few raindrops struck her cheeks, but it was nothing that would break her focus.

Her feet soon landed back on the ground, at which point her arms swung to her sides. She threw back her head and shouted “Lilola laclili lolaile!” Into the heavens before releasing the string and hopping off to the side.

The string stood upright, one end pointed at the earth and the other into the heavens. For a moment it glowed an intense white before its transformation began. Though it might not be wise to call it such. The string became a radio tower so fast that one could say it appeared in the strings place. The sudden appearance of the structure cast the rain in all directions. Veronica could only smile at the contraption. This smile was less born from some devious part of herself and more born from her sense of wonder.

“It’s working!” Veronica placed her fingers against her head. She could contact anyone in Penrose now, Maybe even further away. More importantly she could see all of their minds. Some she even recognized. There was Mariette, and Lily, and Alexander, Su, Helga, Mika, Katelyn, Amaryllis, and a few others. No mind could escape her sight. Though she couldn’t name all of them. Veronica was good, but even she couldn’t name the mind of everyone she ever met. Only the really important ones.

“Tell me a bit about its construction.” Veronica spoke to Dolly, but looked over the tower. “How easy is it to damage and repair? Do I have to worry about adverse weather conditions?” Veronica didn’t look away from the tower. It was time to test this puppy out.

“Do not be alarmed, this is just a test.”

Her first order of business was to upgrade her agents “hud.” Sil, Eliza, Tetrad, and Trixy would all notice that they could now see directly where a target was due to a glow they emitted. Since Veronica could see all the minds in Penrose, she could pick out ones that were familiar to her and “psychic paint” them. Vi appeared to be a vibrant pink, while Sonia and Justine were purple and blue respectively. This was something Veronica could always do, but the tower made it possible to sense minds outside her vicinity.

For her second trick, she’d use the tower for its intended purpose: Communication. Mariette would hear a voice in her head. “I take it Eli returned safely?” It took Veronica a moment to remember that she never spoke with Mariette, and it was possible she didn’t know who’s voice this was. “This is Vermilion Veronica. I have much to discuss, but little time to do it. Keep your distance, I’m pursuing Justine as we speak. We’ll stay in touch.” She did not wait for a reply, she had another target to hit.

Deep within the rave was a mind so corrupt it had to be a monster queen. It was too far back to communicate with telepathically, but that was no longer the case. Of course Veronica was above using psychic magic for mind control. That was a trick for returning has-been-magical-girl-villains. In addition to it being beneath her, it was beyond the capabilities of this catalyst. But she could communicate with the monster queen. Send it a series of unpleasant sounds and phrases to get it to react.



This rave had been going for a while, and its monstrous sura had persisted throughout. If it wasn’t working for the Mint, it was working for an equally evil organization.

It was tempting to send out a message to Justine, but it also seemed redundant. There wasn’t anything she could say that would have been a bigger “fuck you” than suddenly erecting a two-hundred meter tall catalyst and filling it with her magic. She knew Justine’s type. Powerful leaders liked to flaunt their toys, be it their henchmen or their homes or their weapons. Perhaps they had more in common than Veronica would like to admit.

---

_{@ Cindy/Beacon fiesco}

”Hrm!”

Lotus’s tentacles were one of her magical girl weapons, and were nigh indestructible as a result. Their flexible nature made them a poor choice for deflecting the incoming gunfire. She attempted to distract Sylvia with some clones, but it wasn’t working. Lotus drew her barnacle cannon and held it lengthwise over her head, causing most of the bullets to bounce off of the dense cylinder.

”Hmmm, with backup you’re almost a worthy opponent.”

Lotus floated just off the ground, which was now saturated in rain water. It swirled like quicksand, and anyone standing in it would find themselves sinking up to their ankles. Then the wet dirt would bind to their feet in a large clump, making movement difficult. With a wild spin, Lotus’s tentacles pushed back the dolls, causing them to fall onto their backs. Unless they were strong or floating, they would never escape Lotus’s trap. And it was just a matter of time before Sylvia landed on the ground. She’d see Lotus preparing a teleport spell before she did.

As soon as Sylvia landed Lotus would appear up against her, no longer trying to hide her spells under tricks. Their faces would be inches apart, with her tentacles hovering in the ideal snatching position. But the most disconcerting thing in this moment was the feel of Lotus’s cannon pressed up against Sylvia’s ribcage. She said just one word before firing.

”Almost.”

…

Faith was on the verge of tears. She didn’t understand the situation. Why they had to fight, why people were throwing their faces at people, or why someone had just assassinated the cardinal of Beacon. Under such duress, even a chuuni with delusions of being a demi-goddess needed to cry. To call out to anyone who could help her.

”Mother!” Faith whimpered. ”No one is around to help!” Life is hard, life is stressful. ”I need peace and tranquility!” She didn’t need to prove herself to anyone.

Because her mother had arrived.

The clouds, gray and dark as they were, had turned black in one spot. This would have gone unnoticed by most of those present, but something was trying to poke its way through. It looked like the head of a dear, only it’s lower jaw was stripped of flesh and covered in bark instead. As the head leaned out of the clouds further, it was joined by a fox with a bark covered snout, a squirrel with an acorn for a head, and various other woodland creatures meshed together with plants. While none of them looked to be in pain, all of them looked to be an abomination of nature.

”Mother Gaia!” Faith reached towards the heavens. ”You came!” It was hard to tell if it was rain or tears streaming out of her eyes, but she was happy.

But anyone from Beacon knew that wasn’t Gaia. That was Aighorost. A horror with no discernible home dimension of its own. It was one of the more reasonable horrors, in that it did not have any desire to enslave humanity. It was perfectly content to establish outposts, twisting local wildlife and nature in macabre ways.

Aighorost bellowed with each of its heads, filling the air with a cacophony of animal roars. It sounded pained, scared, and angry. Before long there was another shape in the sky, this one was much taller, and was descending towards the beacon girls.

With a wet thud, a gigantic hoof landed off to the side of everyone. Above it was a pillar that didn’t look unlike the leg of a deer. Though it was covered in bark and thorns like massive tree. The bark soon fell away, and the air was filled with the sound of giant hornets. They were as large as people. Hornets with a wood like exoskeletons that bled sap. Their antenna were twigs with flowers growing on the ends of them.

”Let us gather everyone and-” Faith turned to Reaver. ”Let go of her this second!”



It seemed that she had hurried for nothing.

Reaver had everything under control. He had given up his one chance to slay the cardinal, and he would never get another one. Cindy was toast, the VIP would live, mission accomplished.

But would Mac be satisfied with just that?

With so much pointless death and all the wrong people surviving, maybe she could tempt fate again.

She could replace Lotus with a decoy, make everyone think she was dead, yea. Why not?

Was there a point?

No.

But it would help her sleep at night.

---

_{@ Cindy/Beacon fiesco}

Tetrad placed her fingers on the side of her head as a transmission from Ronin came through. “Damn, guess we need to go there.” Tetrad pulled a green card out of the air and her form became transparent.

Trixy swallowed while pulling the lever on her rifle. "I don’t like this, not one bit."

In the next moment, they were swallowed by the cradle and dispensed in Deni’s vicinity.

---

“We arrived a little late I guess.”

Horrors poking through the clouds, cardinal stabbed, toxic fumes, This was starting to turn into a real fiesta.

“Well, enough standing around.” Tetrad cracked her neck. “It’s about time we made ourselves useful!”

Tetrad whipped a green card out of her hand, which changed to the suit of wands. When she flicked it into the air, it turned into a giant spinning wand that blew the toxic fog away. She wished there was more she could do for these guys, but her reinforcement magic didn’t work like that. The best she could do was heal wounds if she had the appropriate card.

Tetrad turned to Reaver. “Hey! Save that crap for the bedroom!” She tossed out a second green card, letting her teleport into a close proximity to Reaver’s barrier. Then she took all of her remaining blue cards and threw them at reaver one at a time. What the cards did mid-flight would depend on what was going on.

Tetrad’s plan was to turn each of her blue cards into a blue knife before it hit the barrier. They were designed to break apart magical enchantments and pierce defenses, so she hoped they would break through and find their mark. She’d be watching for any sudden movements. If Reaver attempted to use Cindy as a shield, she’d just let her blue card hit and heal her. Tetrad would also no longer be transparent and instead be surrounded in a repulsion barrier that could push away small projectiles.



Trixy was not as hardened as Tetrad was. Seeing everyone in pain, crying, or both was unsettling. It made her hungry, but not as hungry as she had been back at the rave. She had eaten close to thirty apples. What a pig.

Harder still was separating friend from foe. Trixy knew Beacon would more than likely attack them, but it was a question if they hated the cardinal’s assassin, the other monsters, or cradle agents more. It was fine though, she just had to be careful and keep an eye out for anything strange.

"Hang in there Ronin! We still need you!"

Picking up three or four magical girls at the same time was a bit cumbersome for Trixy, even if she boasted strength beyond most humans. She did have two shoulders and two armpits, but that hampered her mobility quite a bit. Fortunately she had a technique for this, and she called it…

"Track Turner!"

Trixy put her hands out in front of her, and a round bush grew out from her hands. The branches steadily grew in size as it rolled forward. She rolled the bush over Janet, Anaya , Shane, and Ronin. The branches coiled around them, affixing them to it as Trixy continued to roll along.

"Don’t get too nauseous if you can help it! I’m just trying to help!"

A healthy magical girl would be able to break out of the bush rather easily, But she suspected it would be a moment before any of them recovered their strength.

As Trixy rolled the bush and its cargo around, she tossed a hand full of seeds that would sprout into a hedge line. The goal was to obscure Tetrad, Cindy, and herself from the commotion happening on beacon’s side of the park.

---

_{@ERode@Flamelord}

All Dusty wanted to do was survive the night.

This was going to be the end of their adventure. The magical girl had locked herself in the room beyond, allowing the two weaker people to escape into another dimension. Once they departed, she’d be able to use all of her might to escape. They’d rejoin outside just as the ascendancy nuked the place, exchange contact information, and become great friends. The older guy and the magical girl would hit it off. A beautiful love story would be born from a grievous tragedy, making it all worth it.

What a beautiful lie.

Moments ago Liss made it sound like the nuke could go off any second. There was no way they were all getting out of here unless they entered that other dimension soon. Dusty’s body quivered. She really didn’t want to die. These memories of Shade were precious. If she died here, it would be detrimental to both of them. Even if it wasn’t, Dusty had no way of knowing if she’d even come back from this. Up until a few hours ago, she had been “Trixy” her entire life. It was possible every “Dusty” was an entirely separate person. She didn’t know if she had a soul, or even if she would continue to exist if she got out of here. But she was fortunate this magical girl was willing to sacrifice her life for Dusty’s memories. The world lacked selfless people like her, and they were the ones who protected what good remained in the world.

She stood by the man, waiting for him to pull out the key and “open” the door. But as soon as she sensed his hand move, Dusty stopped him.

"Wait!" Dusty chuckled. "I-I’m just a duplicate! A duplicate of a magical girl! Haha!" She pulled her legs out of her thigh-high boots and handed them to him. The smoke was pretty dense, but it was still possible to feel the walls. Dusty walked along the wall as she spoke. "Regardless of what happens to me, my original is already safe! So you don’t have to worry." As soon as Dusty found a door, she opened it. "So use the key on this door instead." Her door rested on the knob for a moment. She tried to lock the door while it was open and shut it, but it was clear that wouldn’t work. Everything was brand new, and the door would break before it slipped closed. Seemed the only way to do this was the hard way. "They aren’t going to know any of this took place. So if you’d please, get on Glimr and drop Trixn’Traps a message. I’m sure she’d enjoy that." And without another word, she stepped into the room and locked it behind herself.

Dusty bit her lower lip. Her heart was beating out of her chest. The magical girl in the adjacent room was heroic. She would insist that they both escape regardless of Dusty’s protests. So it wasn’t enough to just lock herself in a room. She had to go away. It was time to eat her last meal. With what little magic she possessed, she summoned a duplicate of Trixy’s rifle. Dusty set the butt of the gun on the ground and held the barrel upright. Since she had removed her shoes in the hallway, it was easy to place her toe over the trigger. She clamped her mouth around the barrel. Even the real Trixy would succumb to a wound like this.

All Dusty wanted to do was survive the night. That was her thoughts going into it. But survival had a price she was unwilling to pay: The life of a magical girl. She hated how much this was going to disappoint Shade, but that was a small price to pay for a noble soul. It didn’t matter if she was only going to be dead for twenty-five years, or a few months. When the strong come to devour the weak, it’s always heroes who are sacrificed. Trixy had been weak in the past. She had allowed a noble woman to die due to her inability to protect herself. From that day folward, Trixy had vowed to never let that happen again so long as she could help it. Those Vows were now Dusty’s. She wanted to survive the night, but she wanted that magical girl to survive even more. It was a shame she would never hear her name, but that was a small tragedy. Having experienced what the girl was meant far more than hearing her name ever would.

Her fingers tightened around the barrel. A sharp inhale, wet eyes. She could taste the steel in her mouth, imagine the pain caused by a bullet ripping through her skull. The uncertainty of death that lingered afterwards. It all scared her, and she wanted none of it. Dusty allowed herself one more breath of ragged, dry air. She closed her eyes and painted the guy and the magical girl in her mind.

Then there was a bang.

Where there was once Dusty, there was now only dust.

With Aurelio protecting the coin so intently, Freya gripped and ripped his arm off…

‘AKH!’ Jelena cried out beside Freya, having jolted to and flinched away from the two of them. ‘D-don’t rip people’s arms off like that!’

‘They’re on a battlefield. If they’re warriors, they’re prepared for it. More importantly, confirm,’ Freya said, taking the coin out of the fingers of the arm and lobbing it over to Jelena while Aurelio likely escaped a bit.

‘But we’re supposed to avoid hurting them, so they don’t hold grudges! We were just supposed to collect the coin…’ Jelena complained as she caught the coin, whimpering as she started to look at it… and then her impression got alert as she had to look more closely into it. The fact that this analysis was taking this long had already clued Freya in as she’d already prepared to blast off.

‘IT’S NOT IT!’ Jelena said while Freya had already blasted off towards Aurelio with dramatic speed, her claws raised to knock him out. It was clear as long as he was awake he’d have no shortage of tricks which to pull against them, so Freya just went at her highest speed to knock him down as swiftly as she could…!

At this point, she was thinking she may as well kidnap Aurelio and they’d strip him in the Overcity before letting him go again.


So, uprooting Esther right now would take an unfathomable amount of force, so let’s say the bottom of her feet were separated from the ground instead. Losing an arm was very insignificant to Esther as she could simply collect any set of branches and just stick it onto the stump and then wood-magic would take care of the rest to develop it into a new arm. A benefit of being composed of the element you’re specialized in. That said, being lifted into the air was a bit problematic, as all of her talents were very much associated with being stuck into the ground. Now, could a tree get motion-sick? No idea, but she was very much not doing a lot until she was flung away by the winds.

‘Woah-!’ Jelena commented, swinging up her arm and manipulating the metal to make her arm extend exceedingly far and caught Esther right in mid-air, pulling the wood-monster in as Jelena then dashed after Freya. They needed to be close to one another when Jelena activated her Overcity Shift, which Jelena was certainly preparing the magic to do at any second!

Because the barrier was going down very soon!

@Shifter_Master@Ariamis

---

So Ronin had come to this little meeting with the intention of trying to steer things towards a better outcome.

Hahahahaha, what a joke.

Well, at least she told Veronica over the messages what happened here.

She really needed to ask Veronica about how achievable her actual goal was before everything else just rushed over her like this.

---

‘…!’ Mariette blinked as she was spoken to, turning around and looking off in various directions. She’d be pretty quick to see the new tower that had appeared after a few opened portals to survey the area, and then it became very apparent that she had to move.

‘… The mission appears to have been accomplished. I need to pay attention elsewhere. Eli can stay for a bit. Tell her anything you need to tell me,’ Mariette said to Amaryllis and Nuncio, before dropping through a portal to an apartment elsewhere in the city, before speaking.

‘We are being watched. Temporarily discontinue all activity. Nightwatch protocol,’ Mariette said.

Her mission control briefly complained about that the second attempt to take the coin could only happen tonight.

‘It’s not worth it,’ Mariette told. ‘Nightwatch protocol,’ she reminded, and then they’d simply have to discontinue that. It didn’t seem like they’d get the White Coin. Meh. Only a slight setback, if an irritating one.

‘Er, hi?’ Eli said, slime-girl being left behind here.

@BrokenPromise@ERode@Ariamis

---

So, the order was to retreat.

Not that Lea actually had to follow Mariette’s orders. Lea wasn’t part of the figurative ladder. As Asengav’s mouthpiece and messenger, she wasn’t under Mariette’s charge unlike the rest of the girls and could do as she pleased. She’d simply come here to finish unfinished business and because she wanted to keep an eye on Mariette’s progress. From what she’d heard, the plan to obtain the White Coin was going less than stellar.

It did cause Lea to wonder a bit, however. From the information they’d picked up, it was apparently decently easy to have a Beacon member offer you a coin. That made her wonder…

Perhaps it was all so very much easier than they’d considered?

Lea found herself another patrol, that had at least one individual of the same rank as Aurelio. Making no secret of her appearance, Lea gently landed in front of them, looking towards them with her elfin eyes…

‘I heard Beacon was handing out coins that purified monster girls,’ she began. ‘May I have one?’

Getting knocked to the side by Cindy had not entirely been a surprise. Between his specialization and power it was nary your average backhand. Still the girl was headstrong much to Shane's chagrin. Things were escalating quickly and a drag out fight looked inevitable. "Very well." Though he trusted his other power that this could be resolved peacefully, once more attacks began to fly there was no telling what would happen. As far as he could tell most of the Beacon forces here were of the more defensive type, so Cindy's forces being knocked out was not likely. Still, he didn't like they they'd been led out here. His spell book out he readied a hand full of actions he could pull one out in a pinch.

Too many things were happening at once. And perhaps if he had not been standing so close to Cindy he may have noticed something amiss with the object on the ground. However, Ishtar getting run through drew the final attention. Who was... Spotting the detonator in hand he moved to block a blast from hitting Cindy. He of course had not expected a cloud of smoke to roll around them. While he was resilient enough to live through the attack thanks to his Regeneration it did not protect him from the pain. Crumpling he briefly wished it had been a mental attack. With his Awareness he could see what was happening to Cindy but was lost for a way to help as his spell book had fallen from his grasp.

He had been trying to retrieve his spell book when a small amount of respite came in the form of water washing over them. Where it came from Shane could not care less as it was finally giving his Regeneration a fighting chance. Reaching his weapon he only managed to get a hold of it when Reaver came in. At first it looked like he was there to help and was defending Cindy. Any sense of relief slowly faded as he watched what he could only describe as the monstrous form attempting to smother their leader. Dammit, he needed more time. A gust of wind cleared the air which made things all the easier to breath. Glancing up he saw it was Tetrad that had come to the rescue.

Note to self: Be sure to thank her later.

It wasn't but a moment later that he was being lifted away by a bush. Agonizingly slow for a Lightning user he fumbled through his book past several spells. Preparation was the key to his specialty and it only took a small amount of effort to activate the one he wanted. Tossing the tome back before he couldn't reach it landed reasonably near the barrier. "Keep clear for a moment." He managed to rasp out. It took a few seconds for the spell to manifest but when it did arcs of lightning would shoot out from the pages. Bending and twisting in unnatural ways the plasma arranged and formed a large, spindly hand. Crackling to life the digits snapped around the human sized barrier. The smell of ozone became all the more prevalent as the air became heated. This attack was not one of strength, but of raw power. Due to this it certainly would not be able to restrain Reaver should it accomplish its single minded goal of consuming the barrier and reaching Cindy.


To say that things had gone sideways would be a gross understatement. It was almost difficult to tell what all was happening in the cacophony. The bomb going off obviously took Janet's attention away from almost everything else. There had only been a few split seconds to read that a bomb was to go off. However, it was not enough time to block the blast with any kind of barrier. The pain caused by the smoke was overbearing, though to some extent it came in second place after being awake to experience one's flesh and bone literally liquefy from head to toe. Even being able to endure it didn't take away the fact that it immobilized the girl. You need to extract Ishtar. Janet telepathically told her sister. Though moving wasn't an option the two twins could still coordinate.

Working on it. Easier said than done.

More people were arriving, several of Veronica's it seemed and one they'd only seen while at the beach. None of them the twins really had much conflict with. Veronica had been gracious enough after being freed from Justine. While the Cardinal lay bleeding out Cindy had become trapped and was being crushed by Reaver. Why was anyone's guess. Penrose really was a war zone if not out in the open then in the shadows. The majority of the afflicting smoke had been rid of but Janet wouldn't be going anywhere soon even through she cast a weak healing spell on herself. Letting out a sigh the blonde now wrapped in a shrub groaned. "I should have stayed in prison." Closing her eyes she focused. Her body was immobile but her mind could still reach out. Several were attempting to rescue the "Queen of Penrose." Having her doubts they would succeed in time Janet reached for the one thing she could, the mind.

Cindy's state was making a mess of things but even a scrambled consciousness held information. The chaos just made it easier to get in unnoticed. There was no telling exactly what she would come across, but Janet wanted to know everything she possibly could. The girls' plans and motivations were a start. Going along Janet would expand her search to Cindy's past, losses, friends, relationships, her dogs name, whatever. She wanted to understand her perspective and the ways that Beacon had hurt her and her fellow corrupted magical girls. The goal was ambitious to say the least. And it was not the most ethical way to accomplish the task, but should Cindy not make it then perhaps she could use the knowledge to better forge a way. Not wanting to be overtaken by the influx of what could potentially be extremely powerful and emotional memories Janet made sure to cordon off a place for them in her mind.


Meanwhile, even though Jenna hadn't been in the blast she could feel the effects the smoke had on her sister. It definitely brought a shift of attention to the one nearby that had just stabbed the Cardinal. Of course it was the Mint. Reaver has turned and left her standing there. Alright then, her sister relayed her objective and Jenna agreed. She'd made her decision and a red gleam rolled over her eyes. Anyone looking with Third Eye would see Jenna's magic shift as she copied Lotus' Teleportation. She was about to go and engage Viper when she caught glimpse of the monstrous Hilaria closing in on Celia. Oh no. Oh... Oh yes. A smirk working its was across her face she blinked away. The unsuspecting Celia would hear the roar of a beast behind her, whirling around she would find... Nothing.

As Hilaria raised her weapon to halve one, the raging girl would now find her weapon driving down toward Viper. Blinking in behind Hilaria, Jenna had reached out and contacted her armor before teleporting both herself and Hilaria right in front of the Mint girl. "Have fun." Pivoting she lay one hand on Ishtar. Jenna knew she needed a staging area to make a longer jump, so she first blinked herself and the Cardinal a short distance away to give herself a little breathing room. It was a good thing she hadn't had to use much of her magic up to this point. Looking toward Beacon HQ she focused on a window she could see into in the distance. Not detecting anyone in that area the blink charged up and after a little while...it failed.

Jenna just knelt there for a brief time before looking down at Ishtar. She was resisting? Taking a deep breath the girl had to calm herself. She didn't... want... to leave. Rolling over and sitting next to Ishtar the air hissed out of her lungs. Her sister was suffering right now so they could try and save this woman as she wouldn't allow one of the best chance at accomplishing that happen. Surveying the scene which, now that she wasn't suffering so much from tunnel vision, looked all the more ridiculous with the giant patron's hooves reaching down from the sky. "Alright then." She stood back up and erected a barrier around herself and Ishtar. "For the record, I wanted to get you out of harms way." Raising her spear a banner appeared and magic began washing over the field as she activated her Rally Cry. "Hold fast my sisters!" All the Beacon in the area would begin to receive a rush of magic, healing, and clarity of mind. She would have included more people, but thus far no one else was trustworthy enough given the circumstances. Planting the spear in the ground it would continue radiating as Jenna stood over Ishtar and readied Huxley for good measure.

“E-Emily?” Connie asked after hearing the other girl’s slurred plea. “Y-Yeah, I know… I-It’s h-horrible,” she agreed, the eyes of her mask looking incredibly sad. “B-But what c-can we e-even d-do? My m-magic c-can’t h-help anyone, a-and you c-can’t even s-stand! W-We n-need t-to help you get b-better f-first, t-then you c-can come b-back and help t-them!”

Before the intoxicated girl could even reply, Lily, having apparently realized her earlier mistake, handed Sakura to Connie, while also putting Emily’s other arm over her shoulder. On the one hand, this greatly helped Connie to bear Emily’s weight, but on the other, she now had to carry the pink haired bunny girl in her one free arm. Despite Sakura’s small size, Connie was still forced to squeeze her against her chest in order to maintain her grasp on the grumpy bunny girl. The next thing she knew, Mia was standing next to her.

“Connie! Are you all right?!” her verdant friend asked urgently.

“M-Mia?! Y-Yeah, I’m f-fine! B-But Emily got p-poisoned or something, and w-we need to g-get her out of here!”

Then, Connie heard Lily shout something about following Alex, and before she fully realized what was happening, the small group began picking up speed, the reinforcement specialist leading the way. Unfortunately, it appeared that a sizable group of imposing girls was currently blocking the exit. To Connie’s surprise, just when it seemed that Alex would plow through them with his barrier, they formed a gap allowing the small group to pass unhindered. Moments later, they had climbed up the steps and raced out of the warehouse, where they were met with yet another obstruction: an energy barrier that completely blocked their path. But, once again, fortune seemed to be with them, and the barrier opened just as they were about to strike it, only to close once they had safely reached the other side.

They had scarcely come to a stop when Lily gave a triumphant cheer and, grabbing Emily swung the inebriated girl around like a carnival ride.

“U-Ummm… L-Lily? Emily’s not f-feeling very well. M-Maybe you s-shouldn’t do that…” She advised hesitantly. Then, remembering that she was still holding Sakura, and also remembering that the little girl had once been a not-so-little man, she quickly set the bunny girl down, the cheeks of her mask turning red. “S-Sorry about t-that, M-Miss Sakura,” she said timidly. “E-Everything was h-happening s-so f-fast, I…” Her words trailed off as she caught sight of the fluffy little creature that had just materialized before them. “O-Oh my gosh!” she exclaimed as the eyes of her mask formed little stars. “He’s so cute!”

Sakura seemed to know the creature, as she was now talking with it. Make that yelling at it. Then she started violently shaking it.

“Oh, um…” Connie mumbled, suddenly a little confused by the situation playing out before her. That was also about the time she finally noticed that they were all currently in the middle of a torrential downpour. “Eeek!” Connie cried as the feeling of the cold raindrops finally registered. “I-It’s s-so c-c-cold!”

For her part, Gaia greatly appreciated the downpour, the nymph-like girl finding the cool rain to be most refreshing after the stifling confines of the underground rave hall. Still, she could see why Connie might not be feeling the same, and so she used her magic to create a plant to serve as a makeshift umbrella.

“T-Thanks, Mia!” Connie said, offering her friend a smile as she huddled with her underneath the plant’s oversized leaves. “Ummm… D-Do y-you think there’s r-room for my n-new f-friends under here, t-too?”

“Of course,” Gaia said with a smile of her own. Infusing her creation with more of her magic, the verdant magical girl caused the plant’s leaves to grow even larger, so that the entire group could easily be sheltered beneath them. “And you seem to have made quite a few new friends at that,” Gaia noted approvingly.

“Y-Yeah,” Connie agreed. “Y-You already k-know Lily. T-The girl she’s h-holding is Emily. S-She’s not f-feeling to g-good right now. I t-think that b-boy’s n-name is Alex, a-and that p-pink haired girl is Miss Sakura. S-She used t-to be a g-guy…” she added in a softer tone.

Gaia simply raised an eyebrow at this last revelation. She had heard rumors of such things happening in the magical world, but this was the first time she’d seen the results first hand. From the looks of the little drama playing out between the man-turned-girl and what Gaia supposed was her Patron, it was not something she wished to encounter any more than was absolutely necessary.

“So, they all kept you safe when everything went crazy in there?” Gaia asked, to which Connie confirmed with a nod. “I see. Well then, you all have my sincerest thanks. I am truly in your debt. If there is any way I can repay you, I would be only too happy to do so.”

“Um, Mia?” Connie spoke up. “D-Did you make any n-new f-friends?”

“Indeed I did,” Gaia confirmed. “I suppose you could say she was my very own guardian angel.”

I only hope that she managed to escape that infernal rave as well…

---

Meanwhile, in the main hall, the Angel of Hope soared over the crowds, overjoyed that she had succeeded in bringing some semblance of peace to the chaotic rave. Tossing her head back, the angelic girl closed her eyes as feelings of rapturous delight flooded her once more.

Yes! It’s working! she thought exultantly. Their rage is subsiding! Such exquisite bliss fills my heart! I did it! I truly… her joyful thoughts suddenly trailed off as a new sensation made itself known.

“Oh!” she gasped as a feeling of growing weakness began to suffuse her entire being. “My power! I-I have used too much! Forgive me, everyone!” she cried out in sorrow. “I am afraid your humble servant has done all she can! I have given you my all! I… have nothing left…!”

With that, her strength completely failed her, and the Angel of Hope plummeted out of the air. Luckily, an Ascendancy girl with a metal arm took notice of her plight and leapt up to catch her.

“T-Thank… you… sister…” the Angel of Hope told her rescuer in a voice filled with exhaustion. However, the words had barely left her mouth, when the other girl began yelling at her, commanding her to stop interfering and telling her that the monster girls deserved to die, and that her own actions were causing even more death.

The girl was also starting to crush her in her metallic fist.

The Angel of Hope gasped, as the other girl’s ever-tightening metallic grasp squeezed the air from her lungs. “N-Nooo…” she cried pitifully as she struggled to remain conscious. “T-They’re… only… victims… Can’t… help… themselves…” But her voice was too weak to be heard, and before she knew it, the Angel of Hope found herself being hurled into the far wall. Impacting against it with a loud thud, the utterly drained magical girl groaned in anguish.

As she desperately fought to keep her eyes open, she knew with dreadful certainty that she was completely spent. In only a few short moments, she would be forced to revert back to her mundane self. She only hoped that she had done enough, but in her anguished heart she knew that she had not. The Ascendency had refused to heed her pleas, had not even given them a second thought as they continued their brutal slaughter. Those poor misguided souls… They were now behaving just as monstrously as those they claimed to oppose.

Such horrible hypocrisy… But… Am I any different…? I promised… to save them… But… I failed… Wasn’t strong enough… I wasn’t…

Her eyes now refused to remain open and she could feel her thoughts slipping away. With the last of her strength the Angel of Hope managed to weakly call out, “Master Chiichuu… Please… _{help… me…}” before finally surrendering to unconsciousness.

---

Just a moment before the Angel of Hope fell completely fell into the abyss she would feel herself being picked up carefully and held gently. Penny had walked from her place just back stage in time to watch the radiant girl’s actions. And could not help but feel cold rage at how she was treated by the Ascendancy. She was done with this place, this Rave, and if she stayed any longer she was going to start hitting things and she wasn’t sure if she was going to stop.

Penny would call out, her voice booming as she augmented it with her magic. “I’ve found a way out past the barrier.” Her voice would echo out barely restrained anger evident within her normally monotone voice. “And I am leaving, follow me if you wish.”

With that proclamation Penny would turn towards the secret pathway hidden away and begin moving towards it quickly. She didn’t bother with going the long way; she simply tore apart the walls that stood in her way. Any girl that tried to stop her was summarily ignored, unless they attacked her, at which point she would defend using all four of her extra limbs to deflect, parry, or block any of the attacks thrown at her. If anyone chose to follow Penny, they would find that Penny would strive to defend them against assault as well but never did she launch an attack back at anyone. All the while she continued her march.

Assuming that she hadn’t been forced to stop, the cover for the secret passage way was equally torn apart. “This leads past the barrier” Penny would speak up, for any of the girls that had chosen to follow her. They could leave at their own pace from this point of if they wanted. Penny would move slowly out, acting as a rear guard. Defending everyone she could from any attack she could. Completely disregarding who was the ones attacking or being attacked.

---

“It’s time to close it Monica” Ashlyn would say through grit teeth. She hadn’t been enough, not even with everyone who had helped out, they hadn’t been enough. Quietly she raged at the injustice of it all, as she kept the tears in her eyes from falling.

The majority of girls here hadn’t done anything wrong, they just wanted a chance to relax and cut loose for the first time in months. Monica and herself had come along to help clean up afterwards, and to try and keep things from getting out of hand. Neither of them had Expected Vi-chan to be such a disgusting snake and do this to all of them.

And now they had to leave, lest the small few that they had been able to help once again fall into the line of fire.

“I know…” the smaller horned girl would whisper in reply. It wasn’t hard for her to reach out mentally and listen into the thoughts of the girls who had spied the ornate double doors of her Interdimensional Home. It hurt to see all the pain that had been spread, all the chaos and loss of life.

She closed her eyes and a moment later the outside of the door would rapidly burn away leaving no way in. once they were away, Monica would rest her head against the door, and cry silently. Why was the world so willing to paint them all with the same brush? There were some of them who were not evil, even if all of them were corrupt.

---

Freya would turn around to see Aurelio sitting up already, propped up by his cane. He was exhausted, that much was obvious but never the less he was still smiling, though it was notably more melancholic. His clothes were pristine as always, even his missing sleeve was seemingly replaced, though now it was pinned up since he was missing an arm.

In his left had he held a simple looking bronze coin, but with Jelena’s declaration about them not having the right Coin, both coins would swap colors, the illusion dispelling, before the Bronze vanished as Aurelio recalled his money.

In an instant Freya would find herself looming over the downed magician ready to strike him down when a flash of light would erupt from his removed arm still being held in her other hand. “I’ll admit” She would hear him say as her world came to a stop, time seemingly stretching out into an eternity without her moving any further. “I was hoping to catch both of you with this last trick”

Then the white coin would start fragmenting in to little points of light as Aurelio used the White coin on himself. “Game over”

Love was such a powerful emotion, one of the three greatest emotions in Aurelio’s opinion, because it was endlessly versatile. His last spell, his final trick to play, was a very simple one at its concept. Stop someone and let them experience something with you and it was only possible due to Love.

So while Freya wasn’t paralyzed in the strictest sense, she would find that she wasn’t able to bring herself to move. Then as the Light of the White coin flooded out, she would get a phantom sensation of what it felt like to have used the precious Coin, of what it would feel like to have the Spark’s warmth resting within her.

It would last until the White coin was used up, and then she would be free to act however she wished. As Aurelio was well and truly spent, and had no more tricks up his sleeve.

At Alicia's move, Christine instinctively took a step back, reacting in time to the pivot in thanks to her Awareness. The Duplicate on her right, the one that had joined Christine in encircling Alicia from behind, move in the same instant, but faster - faster than a Duplicate of that calibre should have been able to. Faster than Christine, and Alicia herself. In her Third Eye she could see why: a trail of ice magic between the two, drawing the Duplicate to block the attack, with an added magical boost. By the time Alicia's blades made contact, the real Christine was out of the fire, though the blades easily severed the Duplicate at the legs. In the same moment that it was destroyed, the body reverted to ice. A large ice pillar, nearly seven feet tall, which collapsed under its own weight from the slash, toppling towards the Beacon girl.

The other three Duplicates stepped in to attack, but Leena's own deft strikes eviscerated two of them, immediately transforming them back into their icy forms, which fell to their sides, and shattered against the floor of the hallway. The one Duplicate that survived drew a blade from within its bandages - a long, serrated combat knife, and lunged at Leena, aiming for her hips of back, as she cut apart its allies. The chances of it connecting were unlikely, but it followed its commands to the letter.

Leaving only the real Christine. As she stepped back, she raised her hands, and channelled her Hammerspace Handbag. In the next instant, a gun formed within them. She quickly unfolded the stock, and rested it within her shoulder, as a magazine appeared in her left hand, and slid into the weapon. The barrel pointed at Alicia, and even to the perspective of someone who had never touched a gun in their life, it was clear that Christine was experienced.

"Neither of you move, or you die," she shouted, pulling back the action, and sliding her finger onto the trigger. From behind the two Beacon agents, they could hear the sound of additional footsteps encroaching upon them. More Duplicates. Only three had been destroyed, with one still in the battle, but over a dozen had been spread throughout the Rave. A couple had been killed in the chaos, but more than enough had survived to rebuild the numbers advantage. "If I don't have to kill you, I won't, so here's what you're gonna do. Dismiss your weapons, and untransform. Anything else, and I'm putting an armour piercing seven six two in your head. Got it?"



The discordant note emitted from Penny's magic ripped through the room, forcing Eden to stop. The piano continued to play, but the violin ceased, and Eden once again opened her eyes, her bow hand falling to her side. The Nullification Field had yet to go up. For the entirety of the Rave, she had maintained a faint watch on the minds within the warehouse, waiting for the moment that she could no longer detect a large number of them in a single moment. The field was a foil, an annoying variable that she was loathed to contend with. Not being deployed was more annoying than the alternative.

"Cynthia, that's enough."

"Oh, you're sure?" the voice from the piano began, replacing the music. "If you say so. Let me know when you wanna go again~!"

The thought crossed her mind that she should remain patient. Progressing too quickly could trigger the girl with the Null Field to act reactively, and prevent it. If she knew which of the two girls had it, she could send Sasha to deal with them first. But she didn't. Most of the time spent digging into Beacon was spent attempting to ascertain the machine half of Penny's true nature. It hadn't provided any definitive evidence on which member of The Ascendancy could use the field. But waiting too long would see the Rave exterminated before anything could be done. There needed to be survivors, even if making it look like a massacre was preferable.

Then she felt something. Through the bracelet, Eden and Hyun's minds had been temporarily connected, and the Monster Queen was receiving an email. A psychic message. A powerful one at that, from somewhere further away than Eden could accurately sense. Before the message could reach Hyun's conscious mind, Eden used her own magic to redirect the message into her own, diverting the flow as subtly as possible, though the person on the other end could likely tell. Because they were trying to trigger Hyun into acting upon her mutations. Off the top of her head, Eden couldn't name a single Psychic with the calibre to target a mind from outside her own range. A magic booster could have been possible, she imagined. After all, that was essentially what the receptacle she had had commissioned did.

With a step, Eden crossed the room to the desk, and grasped the cube and rod in either hand. As the psychic message forced its way into her mind, she used her own magic, hijacking the boosted signal of the message to transmit feedback down the line to its source - not enough to cause any damage, but enough for the sender to know that somebody had intercepted the message, and could trace it back to its origin. She slid the luminescent purple rod into the device, locking the hexagonal end into place, while she pulled a single crystal from out within the violin case. A wisp thin string of blue-white, translucent energy connected between it and the cube, providing it with the vast reservoir of magical energy that had been gathered over the two months of summer vacation.

"I'll play along this once. Popipa pipopa popipapapipopa," she exclaimed, raising the receptacle above her head as she spoke. Then she jumped, and channelled the spell. Seconds passed. Ten in total, and at first it seemed as though nothing had happened, as Psychic spell ripped its way through the warehouse, isolating anyone that it recognised as wielding a Spark or ShineSpark. Immediately after, it dealt its payload - a dozen, multilayered mental bombs of varying, but massive, magical intensity, which would shred the inner workings of their mind, until the victims fell dead. Those with the ShineSpark would feel their protection flare violently against the spell, shielding them from the mind rending power of the psychic nuke, but those without wouldn't be so lucky.

For a number of seconds after, Eden waited, watching the minds of those in the Rave, and awaiting for those of Beacon to fade from view. Only after she had confirmed the deaths of the attackers did she move do to anything else. Upon their minds vanishing from her encompassing gaze, Eden opened a Psychic connection spanning the warehouse, transmitting a message to as many people present as she physically could reach. A message, and the locations of the surviving Ascendancy members within and around the warehouse.



While Penny ran towards the secret exit, Thalia followed on behind, sword summoned and in hand. It was obvious that the machine half was mentally ingrained into her task. That stoic expression, the single-minded drive to complete the mission she had set out on. Thalia could never have attempted to act with such tenacity and diligence, to ignore almost everything outside of a solitary goal. But she didn't have to - that was for Penny. It was Thalia's responsibility to protect her.

Though in her her run, Penny was defending herself, Thalia kept close. The metal of her blade lit up in, wreathed in crimson lightning, illuminating their passage towards the exit for anyone nearby to follow. At the same time, she diverted as much of her magic into her Lure as she could manage, attempting to bolster to attractive effect it had, attracting anyone and everyone towards her, all whilst deflecting any attack that encroached on Penny's blindspots. Upon arriving, she raised the blade into the air, and pumped what magic remained circulating through her into the glow of the sword, creating a luminescent red beacon for all to see.

"That voice..." abruptly, she froze up. A psychic message had been relayed across the warehouse, transmitted into the minds of everyone that it could reach. Thalia's eyes widened, and a chill ran down her body, wracked in a primal fear, left behind by The Vixen. It had been terrified of that voice, and the things it associated with it. But The Vixen and Thalia had become one, and so had the fears. "Th-that's her, that's... that's Eden..."

While things seemed to be winding down, the Seraph could not rest easy. For one, Vi had yet to be apprehended. So long as she was still on the loose, danger unknown elements could remain in play. And on a more practical level there was the fight still going on. That would have to hold the majority of her attention. At the same time she still had the awareness to note Mika exiting the scene, headed off to who knew where despite her previously hostile intent.

Her blades connected, only to find the figure turning into ice as it fell. A Duplicate, manipulated by ice magic to make it faster. Her momentum was quickly transferred in another direction as she rolled out of the way before it could fall on top of her. She had been frozen once before, she was not letting that happen again.

Coming out of her role, Alicia froze as she found herself face to face with...a gun. Not even a magic gun, but a regular old, normal person, gun. "Seriously?" she muttered to herself as more footsteps came in from around them. The numbers were not great, even leaving aside that.

Her gaze flickered over to Leena, noting her position as she planned her move. Like hell she was going to just surrender here. Slowly she took one step back, lowering her weapon as she did so. All to play along with the ruse while positioning herself just behind Leena.

Then she struck. Light flared out, bright and radiant as she tapped into her mana to pump it up as much as she could. It was a blinding radiance, like a small sun shining that would leave normal eyes blinded. Not just that, but it would throw off Christine's aim as well as she darted out of the line of fire.

"I don't think so," she challenged as she reformed her bow before firing it at the gun. By all appearances it was normal, and that meant she could destroy it.

Around the same time she felt the stirring of her ShineSpark, yet discipline and determination drove her forward. Bolts of magic flew, a shimmering barrage to focus down Christine. Some would simply fly by, but others would explode in her face to further disorient her. Through it all, hopefully Leena could do what she had to as well. She had the feeling that something bad was happening, and this needed to be wrapped up now.

_{@Ariamis@BrokenPromise@Vocab}

---

Ren grunted, wincing and doing his best to keep Liss' elbow from jabbing into his injured ribs. They moved through the chaos of the rave as she followed his directions, buffeted by potent destructive magic, healing, and the smoke of the fire. It was hard to tell if this meant it was alright to pick up the smoking habit now or not.

A grunt escaped as Ren found himself back on the ground, swaying slightly on his feet as she handed back the key. He barely had time to do anything amidst all the smoke and choking heat before she had locked herself inside an arbitrary room.

Moving to do that very thing, Ren found himself interrupted as Dusty spoke up and admitted to her true nature. It was a magic that he knew of, though he didn't have much personal experience with it. But he knew enough to get the general read of where the situation was going. Another sacrifice, a panicked decision. What else would it be?

Before she could close the door, before the scene in her head played out in real life, she would be interrupted as Ren grabbed her arm. "Kids," he grumbled amidst an errant cough. "Always so hasty, and without thinking too."

Dragging her back into the hallway, he held up the key as they returned to Liss' door. "I'm a traveler. If I can go from this dimension to another one, I can do the same thing the other way around." Inserting the key, a glimmer traced along the edges of the door. When he opened it, Dusty would see the hallway that they were standing in. But there was no fire, no smoke, no panic. In fact it seemed to be empty at the moment.

"Ladies first," he told her. Once she had gone through he followed, taking the key with him. When the door shut, all the sound and noise and heat vanished with it. But he was not done just yet. "Be back in a minute," he then told her as he stepped into the room and closed the door. Repeating the process, this time it would open to the previous dimension, and the room that Liss was in.

Leaning through the doorway, Ren extended a hand to the redhead. "I know you said you'd be fine, but that other girl was heartbroken at the thought of you staying here. You wouldn't want to do that to her, would you?"

_{@BrokenPromise@ERode}

---

Moving through the streets of Penrose, Lea would soon be able to identify the type of patrol that she was looking for. It was a quartet, as one might expect such a group to be. For a moment they tensed as she approached, only to relax when she made her desire clear.

"You chose an unfortunate time to approach us," the lead girl replied as she took a step forwards. "The city is rapidly falling into all sorts of chaos. Someone has chosen to stoke the fires of mischief, and it is one such event that we are responding to now."

She thought about for a moment before nodding. "Nonetheless, we cannot deny the request of those who want to be pur-"

"-Hold on Lillyn!" Another of the girls in the patrol spoke up before she could finish, pulling her back and whispering to her about something Their conversation was rapid and apparently a bit heated as they debated the course of action that they were about to take.

Yet in the end Lillyn shook her head before stepping forward once more and offering the White Coin. "As I was saying, we cannot refuse the wish of those who seek to be purified. Here is the White Coin. Will you stand with us in this time of need?" Her head tilted gently, inquisitive eyes upon Lea as she awaited a response....

_{@PlatinumSkink}

Fine stepped in, her Skeleton Key slipping back into her sleeves as she did a quick survey of the room. Though lacking supernatural Awareness or an eye that can see into the Veil, her instincts made up the gap. Nothing within was dangerous, and the room itself looked to be a mixture between a dressing room and a security room. Eliza was already heading towards the escape hatch escaped down of, but the rubellite-eyed professional lingered, her gaze thoughtful as it rested upon the array of camera feeds.

You see that?

Yup-pyu.

Send me backup.

A sequence of movements, tracked down through the grainy feed, followed by a combination of strange sounds that must have served as an invocation of sorts. Within that room was a dark magical girl and a monster queen, and with the completion of that action, Fine closed her eyes. She heard the silence, the swing, the fall and thud of many bodies.

Hrm.

"Takes two treating each other to make a good date," Fine replied, following after Eliza. Her eyes gleamed in the darkness of the underground tunnel, the dank moisture parting around her attire. No more place to run for Evira, but the blonde dame didn't seem out for blood. Not right now, at least. "But here's my number. Private one." With a wink and a smile, she slipped a folded note into Eliza's pocket.

There, private life was done.

Now, it was pure business.


Liss, being a Genki Girl, was actually totally confident that she could smoothtalk and punch her way out of this problem, interdimensional travel be damned.

What she didn't understand, sadly, was that no one else had that sort of baseless confidence in her capabilities.

Which was almost the keystone to a grand tragedy, if not for the fact that Ren was neither hyper optimistic or suicidally depressed. Liss couldn't scry for a future that wasn't there though, and in the end, was just mildly confused when the door that she had locked popped open, revealing another world that definitely wasn't of smoke or fire. A mildly confused expression formed on Liss's face, doubly so when she saw Dusty looking half-way between dying and crying. "Uh...you can do that? Ok, cool! And I guess that'd be bad but..."

She crossed the boundary with a hop and a skip, stopping in front of Dusty. Slapping her chest with an open palm, Liss declared proudly, "I'm Liss the Flash Fist, and only the Contender can kill me! Something like the Ascendancy and monster girls never will! Not fire or warehouse collapse as well!"

Nevermind that he's done it like, twenty times now.

"Now, Ren, crazy stuff has happened, and I think I'm in the mood for some happy drinking now, so...got some good alien booze?"

_{@PlatinumSkink@ERode}

Once the portal closed behind them, Nuncio climbed off of Rossa. He still held Sammy in his arms like a child might hold a lost kitten.

Nuncio snapped his fingers, and his magic left Rosa’s body in static sparks. Her muscles shrank, her posture lowered, and her eyes crossed. With a huff, the great tiger laid down in the snow.

”Alright.” He said with a sigh. ”Thanks again Amaryllis. Sammy’s a lil’ quiet, but I think she’s tired.” Nuncio turned to look at the slime harpy. ”Thinkin’ I’d like to lay low with Sammy for a while. I’m sure they got all of our hidin’ places nailed down. Think your mistress would mind havin’ us for company for a while? Just till we think of somethin’. I’ve also got another surprise for her.” Nuncio pulled a red coin out of his shirt pocket to show Eli before stashing it back in his vest.

---

Su had heeded Lei Zi’s nod and stood back, fully intent on joining her in combat again once her attack landed. But with a crack of lightning, Su was snapped out of her trance. Her mind was her own again. But while Su’s dark impulses had faded, her memories hadn’t.

She was shocked. Su could have spent the rest of the evening fighting beside Lei Zi. That wasn’t bad, but her motivation had been to get back at Helga. Su released a deep sigh and averted her eyes.

Now that her mind was clear, it was evident what had to be done. The ascendancy had arrived, and bodies were falling every second. She could not wait around. Su needed to get Helga, Mika, and then shift out of here with as many people as she could save.

Su prepared to sprint off to the back room before turning to the woman who had freed her. “Lei Zi.” She fret her brow. “I have one more to locate, should I come back for you?”

Lei Zi considered the situation for a moment, her gaze turning upwards, to the cracks in the ceiling that showed a stormy sky.

"No. It's uncertain how much longer I will remain here anyways."

“If you need a safe place to rest, do not hesitate to come to the hotel.” And with that, Su ran for the back room.

---

Once Su was out of the smoke, she could fly as fast as she wanted. Though it was just a matter of time before the flames and smoke permeated the rest of the rave. Time was of the essence. Su came across Helga and landed beside her.

“Have you seen Mika?”

Before Helga could answer, Rina stepped out of a doorway. She had fully transformed, and was brandishing her bow. "I saw her run this way." She didn’t stop to talk. The archer was running as fast she could. "Alicia came this way too."

“Ngh!” Su was not oblivious to Mika’s hatred of everything Beacon. Specifically Alicia. She had never specified why she hated that particular girl so much. Strange, seeing as she enjoyed competing against her in the Keijo tournament.

Su didn’t have to say anything to Helga. The two sprinted after Rina as fast as they could. They turned the corner and heard the sound of fighting taking place, and were just in time to see Rina run past Fanfan. As they approached, they could see her take a defensive stance. Su sighed. It was probably just as well that Rina ran ahead without them. Forcing her to stick around and convince this girl to let two corrupts through would waste time. But that didn’t mean Su was going to simply wait around.

“I don’t want to fight you.” Su folded her arms. “But my daughter is in there somewhere, and I’m not leaving without her.”

---

_{@Vocab@Flamelord}

Since no one had followed Mika, she could act with impunity. The collapsing ice pillers and yelling made it easy to move undetected. It was even easier to find a room that lead directly to the conflict. Mika’s feral instincts were top notch. She could practically “see” Alicia through the wall. She would strike soon, right when her target least expected it. Even if Mika couldn’t see it, she knew Alicia was fighting Christine now. They hadn’t been friends like she originally expected.

It was an odd feeling for Mika. She had never gone out of her way to kill someone before. Humans weren’t the same thing as monsters, and while she hadn’t gotten to know Alicia especially well, she knew some things about her. Mika had heard Kimble’s glowing descriptions of Alicia. She witnessed Leena step in to defend her. Even if it was brainwashing, Mika was going to kill someone who was beloved by others. She steeled herself for the encounter.

Her adamantium claws glistened in the dim light. All she had to do was extend her arms and she would blow through the door. If she overclocked the jets on her fists, there would be virtually no time to react before she made contact. In the time it took to snap your fingers, Mika would rid herself of the one thing that was ruining her life. She drew back her claws and honed in on Alicia’s sounds. Her voice, her bow, the sound of her spells. It would all help her land a clean kill.

"I’ve got your back, Alicia!"

Mika’s ears shot up. She knew that was Rina’s voice, but she couldn’t understand why she was here.

"There’s a lot of them, watch out!" Mika could hear the sound of Rina’s swords cutting through Christine’s clones. "Ice Pillars?! Mika,where are you?"

The feline magical girl stood up. She had no idea what was going on here. All of Alicia’s friends were people she had brainwashed, so naturally that meant that Rina was brainwashed too. But that was impossible. Rina helped Mika clean up her bedroom. They went shopping together. They ate donuts together. She agreed to come to this horrible rave and danced with her, even though Mika’s dance game was really bad. They even enjoyed a grown up kiss on the pillow planet.

Mika grabbed the sides of her head. She was forced to reconsider everything she knew about Alicia. The possibility that people genuinely liked her. That maybe brainwashing wasn’t involved and even Kimble genuinely felt that way about her. But that didn’t make Alicia guiltless either. They wanted to hurt her family. She was there when they held weapons to Su, Silly, and Tit rad. She had heard tales of their cruelty, seen it first hand. Her parents would talk about them in hushed whispers, and lived in fear of them arriving at the hotel every day. She wasn’t sure what to do.

The cat girl stood back up. She heard the light spell go off. A decisive blow would be dealt soon, and Mika would be the one to deal it. Her body flooded with mana, fueling her beastly reflexes. Her body was covered in black armadillo scales, making her tough and durable. She held her claws in front of her face. A quick cross cut, a leap.

It was go time.

Rather than going through the door, Mika opted to blow her way through the wall. instead. Her claws cut through the concrete like butter, making it relatively easy to burst through. Her pool fists were jetting her as fast as she could go. All the water spilled into the hallway, swirling around her like a maelstrom. This was to help divert some of the projectiles away from her body. If she was fortunate, her armor would take what her water barrier couldn’t.

She cruised towards Christine, both fists extended. But she did not remain that way. As she got closer, Mika allowed her arms to drift apart. Her claws would miss, but Mika’s open hands would clasp around Christine’s shoulders, guiding the two of them to the wall. There Christine would be crushed between a high velocity armadillo-armored-Mika and a concrete wall.

“Nobody talks like that to Rina’s friends!”

The archer blinked. "Mika? What are you doing here?"

The cat girl looked at Alicia and shot her a glare. “I’m letting you and Kimble off the hook. Go save the world, or whatever you were going to do.” She squinted her eyes.

Of course, it was unlikely that Christine was out of fight just yet. Mika’s tail grew a stiletto tip, which she would attempt to ram into Christine’s jugular. Scorpions have a reputation for having lethal venom, but the truth is that out of the thousand or so species of scorpions, only a dozen or so have lethal venom. Most scorpions prefer to tear their prey apart, and only use their venom to slow down tougher opponents.

The smoke would have rose out of the cracks, of course, if not for the fact that it was magic smoke, brought on from a combination of Askefye's Fire and Darkness specializations. Cackling as water surged towards her, the fire spirit dispersed in a flast of flame, before reappearing elsewhere. Someone finally noticed her! Someone was finally going to fight her! All around, the Ascendancy were at war, but only now, noticed by this blue, flat midget, was Askefye finally going to get herself a good old fashioned fight too! Her flames surged ever brighter, evaporating the water that the blue washboard manifested, until steam now joined smoke and shadow, the warehouse dissolving into further obscurity.

"Let's GO!" She cried, pillars of flame rising around her. Covering into a singular storm, she hurled the burning tornado like a lance, intent on turning Vivi into ash. Though a Warrior she was not, Askefye always enjoyed a good fight. It was the only time she could interact with someone who wasn't trying to recruit her, after all.

But it was not meant to be. It was not meant to be at all.

Though mad as any monster girl who gave into her instincts ought to be, Askefye could still feel it, that collossal build-up of magical energy, the surge and the pulse of a power capable of wiping out magical girls by the dozens. It was already too late, the Powerful Aura that blanketed the arcane atmosphere of the warehouse had hid the masterwork spell until it had already reached its apex, and before her, the blue washboard twitched, overwhelmed, unresponsive.

Was she seriously going to be cucked from the single person who paid her any attention at the rave?

"Fuck THAT!"

Drawing back her tornado, Askefye shot forwards, tackling Vivi right in the gut. Her magic was already burning hot; her form seared into Vivi's own, before both their bodies glowed with incandescent brilliance.

A flash later, and they were in the Overcity.


They fell like puppets cut loose from their strings.

One by one, minds lost to a solar flare of psychic energy.

The monsters revelled, free to mutilate their hated foes now.

One ate their faces. Another tore off their limbs. Others sated less violent desires, all the more depraved.

In the chaos of victory, the licence of the monstrous, Lei Zi strode through, unnoticed, unbothered. Her sandals clacked against the bloodied, burnt ground. Her staff chimed, echoing the thunder beyond the cracked ceiling. Blood abound, death abound. A plot that succeeded, vengeance to be reaped. So much war, all because some preferred to seep into their corruption, rather than simply be freed of it. Lei Zi stepped over a body. She recognized that face. Amelie, wasn't it? Stupid girl with stupid ideals; they met when the Ascendancy cracked down on her preaching in western China, thinking she was a cultist of sorts. They had drinks after the confusion was cleared up. In twenty years, they'll have drinks again.

This was the storm then. This was the equilibrium that Tian Rong sent her for. She was not lightning here, but thunder, the retaliation. Slay all evil, and bring forth the harvest. Such was the role of the Maiden of the Monsoon.

Her staff continued to clang, brass rings clashing against one another, but another sound soon joined it. The rasping of tempered steel against concrete, a naked blade pulsating in her palm. Blessed by every generation of shrine maiden before her, a conduit of power for her deity to perform his miracles. Miracles of destruction, fury that would make storm gods quake. Miracles of abundance, mercy that would make harvest goddesses weep. She raised her sword, and pointed it skywards.

It was fortunate, that she knew where those surviving Beacon members were.

"Blind the Night."

A Blessed Barrage of white lightning suffused the basement of the warehouse, flooding the main hall, surging into the sidehalls, before tearing through concrete like paper to curve in and rip through the back halls, the back rooms. Only the immediate surroundings of Alicia and Leena were spared, and they could see it, briefly, the scales of a serpentine dragon, crackling all around them.

Lightning continued to pour.

And up above, the storm that continued to gather over Penrose rumbled.

Laughed.

Dolly watched Veronica's elation in silence. The rain continued to fall with increasing force, and the wind was howling too now, a continuous scream pierced by the crackling of lightning and the burst of thunder. The storm was growing in might, but her umbrella was unmoved by all elemental forces.

"One killing blow, five barrages, or ten focused assaults by a singular, powerful magical girl will cause it to revert," the monochromatic girl responded. "Extreme weather is of no concern. Immunity against non-magical damage is a common trait in our line of work."

What wasn't said should be clear. Once it became string, it was simply a matter of redoing the ritual to reform the tower.

"Do you have any other questions or concerns?"

The rain continued to fall. It did nothing.


They got out alive. They got out alive, and there were no unnecessary deaths, save for the girl that Rosa mauled.

Heel skidding against rain, Amaryllis let out a sigh of relief. Sammy was alive and whole. No one was hurt. Nuncio had his girlfriend back, and though they may have to go in hiding for a bit, it didn't right at this moment. They could go have a good meal once all this was done. They could probably all relax and go for a nice, hot bath once this was all done.

The rain fell like a waterfall, soaking the Knight of Rose to the bone and numbing the phantom pains of her Sword.

This was not done, yet.

A tower stood where there had not been one before. Magical girls rushed out from the warehouse, bloodied and burned. Brilliant lights surged from within that building, and the earth itself shook as something set its foot down upon the world. The hunger of her Sword, its feast denied too many times in the last couple of days.

"Safeguard and nurse her to health, Nuncio," Amaryllis spoke, stepping off to the edge of the roof. "The birth of monstrosities calls for my Silverlight once more, and I must depart. Perhaps while seeking shelter, you could...find us a good place to eat, after we have settled all our accounts."

And with that, Amaryllis stepped off, from the roof onto her silvered buds. Launching herself freely through the air, the Knight of Rose sent a quick message off to Sophia, pinging her with the location of the radio tower, before she landed upon the tip of the strange construction. Even through the veil of rain, she could see it. Scarlet attire and golden hair, the hallmarks of the scion of Hallewell. Her Sword shone, reflecting the flash of lightning. It could taste the corruption already.

But Amaryllis was not there to strike her down.

Landing down to the base of the tower in a burst of fine mist, the knight with amethyst eyes posed a single question.

"What happened?"

The moment Elvira saw Eliza and Fine at the bottom of the ladder, she knew she had no time to waste.
"Fat chance!” She yelled, and with a spell created a web of thin but sharp filaments that blocked off the middle of the shaft; even if the two could rip through them with relative speed, it still saved some time for the NEET idol to make her escape. She had prepared for being chased, using her threads like Spiderman to pull and propel herself through the tunnel, leaving filaments behind. However, despite all her foresight and planning, she couldn’t have readied herself for the fear that gripped her.
"They’re not gonna get me...Nobody can catch me!”
She repeated to herself in a mad mantra.
"I’ll never die, I’ll escape...Make a new hideout, make it safe...I’ll live…!”
Her eyes widened as she saw light at the end of the tunnel. It was the outside world. It was full of danger and peril...But also a place of countless new sanctuaries.

That’s right.
She would escape, and she would live.

She was a survivor.

---

The triplet’s expression turned to one of disgust and rage. “Insolence! Your excuses mean nothing before the holy seat of justice!” She gripped her halberd. “Enough talk, move aside or I’ll...Wait, what is that?” At that moment, a strange flow of magical power had run through the rave, like a wave of unhearable sound or rushing light that expanded outwards.

“It’s like...I heard a sound in my-

Suddenly, the triplet’s halberd clanged on the floor as it was dropped, her hand having twitched open in a violent fashion once the magic presence spiked; accompanied by a low sound of buzzing white noise, Cerise and Cereza heard the triplet scream their lungs out in excruciating agony, her head shaking in unnatural ways, like a nightmare sequence in Jakob’s Ladder, as the Spark attempted futilely to hold on. However, it soon reached its limit in the face of so many psychic attacks, and the triplet fell down. They now saw what had become of her lifeless corpse: she bled from the corner of her mouth and her nose, and her blank white eyes cried tears of crimson.

Ashlyn and Monica also saw how the Ascendancy girl knocking on the door to their Interdimensional Home began screaming, begging to enter it, before her bloodied hand slowly slid down the door, leaving a gruesome stain. They all heard screams explode around them, and realized that the terrible spell had reached through the entire building; like a deadly curse, it psychically detonated on the Ascendancy like a carpet bombing of the mind.

Yet, strangely enough, the corrupted and normal magical girls they just fought against were left unharmed, confused by the sudden turn of events, but even more than that...Horrified. Until one monster girl realized what had happened, and gave a stoic smile. The future Eliza had foreseen had come to pass. And from that point on, the twins, or anyone else who had been there, could never forget the terrible crimes against magical humanity that was committed on that day, both by the Ascendancy’s systematic slaughter of a crowd of corrupted girls and by the “Psychic Nuke” as it would later be called.

However, thanks to the Ascendancy’s sudden reaping, Penny had successfully led a group of girls through the secret exit, past the Ascendancy girls dying amidst tortured screeches, and into the cold but refreshing air of rainy Penrose.
“Thank you so much!” One of the girls cried out with tears in her eyes, and shook Penny’s hand. “I thought I was going to die there!” At that moment, they heard a terrible sound of crackling thunder that erupted throughout the rave building, as screams of pain and death surged through in a second wave. Then, Penny saw one of the dragon-headed lightning bolts heading towards her group from the tunnel, striking her and infusing her with new energy, similar to when she was struck by Lily’s Thor’s Hammer.

Ashlyn and Monica alongside the girls they stowed away were spared from the wrath of Lei Zi’s Blessed Barrage, but Cereza and Cerise were not as fortunate; having been taken by surprise in the midst of the carnage, both of them were struck by the draconic white lightning that stopped their hearts, killing them instantly.

---

Helga held her claws up, ready to confront FanFan as she refused to let them pass. By this point she had cast her disguise away, her robotic arms lifted up in a boxing stance. “Could be your grandma, I’m still not letting you through!” She was about to say something else when she was struck by the psychic nuke and began to scream loudly; Helga blinked, looking confused, while FanFan morphed her robotic arms into a metallic dome that encased her. Yet, as Su and Helga took the chance to run past her, they could still hear her muffled screams of agony.

---

Leena would never compromise, not even in the face of certain death. So when Christine gave her threats, she simply scoffed. “You and what army?” She glanced back to see more clones rushing them. “Oh, those? Your joke is killing me.” She knew what Alicia planned the moment she stepped behind her; behind her gas mask, she gave a wide grin.

When Alicia blasted her blinding ray of light, Leena lifted her sword, and used it’s reflective metal to redirect some of the light to further blind Christine as she dodged opposite the direction Alicia went to after she shot her arrow and destroyed the gun.

At that moment, the psychic nuke struck, and she was struck by intense pain. But, when experience and rational thinking would fail her, her reflexes, built over countless years of fighting against the foulest, most dangerous of opponents, would not.

“VOID ROOM!”

She yelled out with gnashing teeth, and the space of the corridor turned into negative coloration.
Christine’s clones disintegrated on the spot, as did Alicia’s beam of light and Mika’s streams of water once she burst out of the wall. She then collapsed to her knees, holding her head as she cried blood. She coughed, and ripped her gas mask off; her mouth was stained red. The Nullification Field had also reached FanFan, and her screams of agony turned to coughing and grunts of pain.

“Shit...What happened?” Leena mumbled amidst her groans. She heard the broadcast, and shuddered. “The Penrose...Independent?”

Alicia’s arrows failed to explode into light like she initially planned, but by dodging them Christine was distracted and failed to avoid Mika smashing her against the wall with her armadillo-plated body and stabbing her with the venomous stinger. The scorpion venom, a potent anesthetic, flowed through Christine’s veins and lulled her into a dazed, sleepy state.

At that moment, Su and helga had reached Mika in the corridor. “Mika? What are you doing?” Helga shouted in a panic, and dragged Mika off from Christine who slumped against the wall.
“We need to get away from here!” She heard the broadcast, and realized this was no accident, but an act of true malice. She heard the roar of lightning rushing at them, causing her eyes to widen; though the Barrage was stopped by Leena’s Nullification Field, it was too much for her heart to bear; she could not risk her family’s well being any longer, and turned to Su. “Su, you gotta shift us! NOW!”

---

Vivi battled with Askefye, countering her dark flames with her own purifying foams and waves of water. But, as with many good things, it came to an abrupt end, as Vivi stopped and clutched her head in a horrible scream, having been struck by the psychic nuke. “AHHHH!” The blue girl’s thoughts raced with confusion, regret, and grief as her Spark was about to give in-

When suddenly, the pain stopped, as did the noise. The air was no longer thick with choking smoke and blazing heat...Except for the burning feeling that had now embraced her.

“H-Huh?” The girl, now bleeding from her mouth and eyes, squinted her eyes, and was shocked to see the face of her enemy. “W-Why...Did you save me?” She groaned in lingering pain as she was held against her burning form.

---

Lily finished spinning Emily around and let her go, giggling as she continued making a few more spins in her drunken stupor. She looked at the barrier they passed, and poked it with a sigh of relief.
”Whew, I’m glad. It’s so big though! It covers the entire warehouse! And it looks sturdy. How did we pass it?”
She then blinked as Umukamui approached them, revealing he was the one who saved them.
”Wow! Thanks, Mister Umu!” She sincerely spoke her gratitude to her, followed by a surprised mouth-wide face as Sakura proceeded to have a tantrum and shake the Puchuu.
”Hey, Sakura! That’s no way to treat Mister Umu!”
She forcefully separated Umu from Sakura by pushing her forehead away, and then picked Umukamui up in her loving embrace.
”How could you be so mean to him? He’s just a cute widdle kitty cat~” She petted Umukamui with a sweet smile, followed by a thinking face.
”But wait, you mentioned an alliance, right? She looked down at Umu. ”Who did you ally with?”

Suddenly, the magical presence in the rave spiked, and horrible screams could be heard coming from inside. “Wait, what?” Rachel could be heard shouting as she jumped down from a rooftop from the other side of the road. “What is the meaning of this?” She directed her hateful gaze to Umukamui. “I swear, if you had something to do with this-”

At that moment, the entire crowd heard a girl’s groans, and turned to see Violette dragging herself magically out of the warehouse, causing Lily to scream at the sight: she was crying blood, with blood also running from her nose and corner of her lip. Based on the way her limbs dragged behind her, and how she used a magical pair of hand simulacrums to lift herself up, she had seemingly lost motor function of her body.

“VIOLETTE!” Rachel cried, and rushed past the group to catch Violette as she fell into her arms. She immediately began casting a powerful healing spell upon her. “Who did this to you? Please, speak to me, Violette!”

Violette coughed up blood, and managed to utter out two words:

“P-Pen...rose..Inde...pen...dent...” She then closed her eyes, and fell unconscious, having transformed back into human form.

“Penrose Independent?” Rachel repeated the words, and then froze, having lifted a hand up to her ear.

“Penrose Park? The Cardinal has been assassinated?” She could be heard muttering. “There’s a crisis at the rave: an attack has wiped out our operatives.” Paused to listen to the voice on the other side. “...Send anyone you can there. I will handle the rave.”

The entire time, Lily shook in horror; she had seen plenty of violence as her time as a magical girl, but Violette’s condition in particular caused her to squirm, holding Alex’ arm.

”That’s horrible! Absolutely awful! Please, let us help!”

She went over and touched Rachel’s shoulder. They all heard thunder and screams from the rave, followed by silence. In response, Rachel shook, and adjusted her glasses with a shaky breath.
“...Just stay out of my way,” she codly stated, and set Violette on the ground. She stood up, and summoned her hammer; it glowed with awesome power.

“DEUS VULT!”

She then began to shimmer, having clad herself in intricate multilayered barriers reminiscent of a crusading knight’s armor. She swung the hammer down, and the great barrier broke. “Penrose Park is the grounds for a great battle. If you wish to help, you can follow me, or go there. Goodbye.”

Then, without turning back, she made an explosive launch by kicking off with her feet, and charged like a bullet down the staircase into the rave. Lily bit her lip, and turned to the others.

”Sounds like Penrose Park is currently a big battleground. I think we could save more people there than if we were to stay here!”

---

For the entire time she has stayed there, Hyun Long has struggled. Having been used to a reclusive existence far from the sights and noises that plagued humankind, she tried to distract herself with drink upon drink. But gradually, even the sturdiest of fortresses would fall in the face of erosion. The first seed was planted when Elvira broadcasted her dark song; though the feelings were then suppressed by Eden’s assistance, it was followed by Veronica’s transmission that managed to plant more seeds of discord in her before Eden had intercepted.

Then, Eden activated her receptacle. Even as prepared as she was, she could not fully control the sheer surge of magical power that surged through the artifact; like a nuclear reactor that barely managed to hold it’s toxic payload within itself, so did the receptacle glow a hot white as it directed the magic torrent, gradually breaking down before the entire supply was spent and forcing Eden to carry the rest of the spell through, resulting in her collecting enough corruption to turn into a monster girl.

Countless screams could be heard as the psychic nuke ravaged mind after mind, leaving behind corpses with expressions stuck in despair and dread. Hyun Long’s Powerful Aura spiked in intensity, and grabbed her chair hard enough the break it. She could no longer hold on her own; she would lose control at any moment now.

And that moment was when Eden sent her broadcast message.

“F-Feed….Feed...FEED!” The Monster Queen screamed out, and her dress morphed to form dragon-headed tentacles. Eden, using her Awareness, managed to dodge the initial three tentacles that attempted to bite into her, only to get caught by five tentacles: one on her shoulder, one on her thigh, two on her sides, and one on her neck.
The fangs punched through her skin, about to tear her into bloody pieces, when Lei Zi’s Blessed Barrage reached the backroom. Eden, unable to dodge the lightning due to being caught by Hyun Long, was shocked by the white lightning, and had her heart stopped, killing her instantly. The Monster Queen was also blasted, but she managed to live through the shocking experience, her tentacles flailing around her as they released Eden.

---

It took them longer than they expected, but finally Sally and the rest of Beacon managed to defeat the treemen and break through the barrier, with the busty blonde leading the charge to the cloaked muggers. “Nobody touches my Aury-poo!” She yelled out, and blasted at Freya with her Shamrock Shooters; the shots curved at just the right angle to deflect her claw swipes away from Aurelio. She was about to shoot another burst when she tripped into the hole where Kimble was trapped; she fell on the tip of her feet, causing Kimble to launch up with seesaw physics, lifted up by her tornado.

“Thanks Sallyyyy!” She cried out, and began to spin in the air, faster and faster, and cut herself free from her glue-like bonds. She summoned her sickle with the striking of a pose, and launched herself right at Jelena; with flashing sparks, her metal claws were stopped by the Wind girl’s sickle. “You dirty cowards! Now you’ve pissed me off!” Kimble’s eyes glowed a bright green, and the winds raged around her, as if she was slicing the air itself into ribbons. “SYLPHID SLAYER!”

Using up all her mana, she shot out a forward-spiralling gust of wind that enveloped Jelena and Freya. The wind had a propeller-like cutting wind in the center, working similarly to a blender. The blender wind knocked Jelena and Fray away to Esther while also delivering cutting wounds that, while not deep on their own, were so numerous that they coated every inch of their bodies.

After the spell was cast, Kimble closed her eyes, and fell backwards, dropping out of the sky. But, as luck would have it, Sally ended up at just the right spot to jump and catch the exhausted magical girl. “You did well Kimble.” The rest of the Beacon squad moved to confront the three, only to witness them shifting away. “They escaped!” One of the girls reported. Sally nodded, but then received a message from her magicomms. “Do not pursue. There’s a crisis going on at the rave.” She went to lift Aurelio up. “Can you walk, Aury-poo?” A reinforcement girl came over to heal his wounds. Sally then noticed his missing arm and picked it up. “Oh, this must be yours...”
She spoke, biting her lip, before she blinked and placed her index finger on the magicomm unit on her ear.
“Beacon patrols, do you copy?” She messaged the other squads currently on the move. “There are White Coin muggers on the loose. I repeat, White Coin muggers on the loose! Do not give any White Coins to suspicious people until they have been apprehended!”

---

Sylvia’s gatling gun fire had now caused multiple wounds to Lotus in her second burst, having managed to shoot her through the shoulder and glancing against her side. But, she was caught in muddy water once she landed.

“Dammit!” She exclaimed through grit teeth, attempting to pull herself out. And at that moment, Lotus teleported in...And shot her point blank with her barnacle cannon, blowing a hole right through her. Sylvia spat blood as she heaved, but with a lip bitten so hard she drew blood, she managed to watch the monster girl eye to eye. She had an evil smile on her.

“So this is how it’s gonna be?”

At that moment, Sylvia clicked a button on the belt she wore under her jacket, and a harpoon was shot from a miniature cannon hidden on the side of the belt, piercing Lotus right through the thigh before it opened and locked itself into her flesh.

“Alicia...You’re gonna do better than I did…” She groaned as she began slumping. The harpoon violently tugged Lotus against Sylvia’s body.

“Make me proud...Alright?”

And then, with another click, she activated the bombs she had planted in the underside of her jacket.

The last thing Lotus felt was a great flash of light that enveloped her very being, as both her and Sylvia’s bodies were blown apart by a great explosion that sent rain droplets to return up to the clouds and left a crater in the dirt.

When the smoke cleared, there was nothing left of the two but the smell of fried calamari.

Celia could not see the people trapped in the foul cloud as she directed streams of water, but with a stroke of luck she succeeded in knocking Deni out of the smoke with a blast of water right in her face, sending her flying a couple of meters away until she fell on her butt. As a result, she suffered less adverse effects, and could go back to fighting at nearly full strength. The smoke itself, having absorbed some of moisture generated by Celia’s Water spell, had it’s radioactive qualities dampened, and instead of a fully paralyzing pain it had become a greatly weakening one, allowing some modicum of action. However, it also worsened Cindy’s condition as water absorbed electrons away from her body, causing her to collapse.

But then, in a romantic scene, Reaver had reached for Cindy, and caught her in his bone-plated arms, embracing her. She looked up with static-filled eyes, and smiled sweetly.

“Oh...My...Dark knight...In spiky armor...I knew you would...Save me...“ She managed to speak. “You are my...hero...”

For all intents and purposes, Reaver seemed the perfect image of a chivalric noble, coming to the rescue of the distressed damsel in their darkest hour.

But then, as the skull knight’s visage returned to human, so did his true allegiance, to Cindy’s great shock.
“Wait, Reaver? Reaver-NOOOO!” She screamed, as she felt the barrier crushing herself against Reaver, turning into a personal protection field for Reaver. Her blue form turned more yellow as she lost grip of it, until-
Suddenly, Tetrad teleported in, and delivered a blue knife attack; cracking the barrier around the impact area. She and Trixy had together successfully dispersed the cloud and recovered the people stuck in them, allowing them to fight at half their usual strength, including Shane who joined in with casting a giant hand-shaped stream of electricity, further straining the barrier.

Tetrad then threw another knife, and the barrier burst, and the hand had reached Cindy, beginning to revitalize her from her near death. But by the time Tetrad was about to throw the third one, the sound of buzzing came apparent, and was followed by the stomping of a Horror that had manifested in their world. An alien avatar of nature’s capriciousness brought to a mind-melting form, it had summoned a melissophobia-inducing swarm of insectoid dryads.

The sight of a Horror suddenly poking its head from the clouds and the buzzing of monster bees was enough to distract both Tetrad and Shane in this critical moment. By the time Trixy had formed a hedge and they turned back, it was already too late; Reaver, in a last, desperate move to kill Cindy, proceeded to open his jaw so wide that it was displaced by its hinges, and bit Cindy’s electric head, consuming the source of her form. Just as Cindy let out her last death throes, Janet had succeeded in breaking into her mind and running through her memories, as if she was downloading a massive file into her own head. She had succeeded in collecting a replica of her mental landscape, discovering her dreams and hopes, fears, and experiences. However, the psychic shock that came from invading a mind suffering a violent death took its toll on her, and she was caught in a daze, unable to distinguish her own mind from that of Cindy’s. She would develop a split personality, with one belonging to her, and the other belonging to the psyche she had collected.

While Janet suffered mental damage in Cindy’s last moments, Reaver suffered the physical; by consuming a being of pure lightning, he had inadvertently created a miniature thunderstorm inside him, ravaging him and causing him to belch out smoke. Were it any other person, they would have turned catatonic from the sheer pain of the experience, but Reaver managed to keep his sense, though his step was now a bit wobbling, and his posture was slouched; like a man drunk from masochism, his motor functions had been impaired.

Celia proceeded to attack Viper who by this point had noticed her; she dropped the spent detonator, and summoned another gun-knife in its place. With swift slashes parried Celia’s fiery arrows, splitting them from tip to tail. However, Viper’s eyes then tightened. Celia heard a bellowing roar, and felt the earth shake behind her. She turned to see Hilaria, now having turned into a terrifying dark knight of unfathomable rage, swing her axe down against her. But in a miraculous save, Jenna touched Hilaria at that moment, hoping to teleport her. In any other circumstance, this would have failed, as the spell required the target’s consent to work without a chance of resistance, and Hilaria, notorious even among magical girls for her resilience, would have easily swept aside such an attempt.

But the direction the teleport tugged the mindless beast in was one that she agreed on by pure instinct. She had but one way, one thing to do.

Rip and tear...until it is done.

Viper gasped as Hilaria teleported right in front of her, and by reflex assumed a parrying stance as she shot at Hilaria at point blank with her machine pistol-like gun-knives. The bullets had enough piercing power to penetrate the thick armor, but were left embedded at skin level, only causing minor wounds.
She screamed as her arm was cut off, having failed to parry the powerful blow. When Hilaria went for a followup shotgun blast, Viper created an illusion of herself being shot as she dodged it Matrix-style, and used the distraction as an opportunity to jump away, cloaking herself in illusions as she began to flee the Penrose Park.

Ishtar’s bleeding was stopped thanks to Jenna’s quick acting, and she had slowly opened her eyes to witness the chaos in Penrose Park. However, she still clutched at her wound, which did not heal; Jenna saw that the wound was stained unnaturally black, the color slowly spreading on her white dress. “He...le...” She groaned, looking at the berserker who had severed Viper’s arm. “Wi...sa...” She groaned again as Jenna attempted to teleport her, and slowly shook her head, having refused it. “Hele...wisa...” She whispered, coughing up black blood.

Then, a teleporting sound could be heard, and three Ascendancy officers appeared: Tsuki, Hudie, and Elora. "What is the meaning of this?" Tsuki yelled, and saw Ishtar bleeding. "How dare you strike down our Cardinal!" Hudie yelled in turn, and charged a magical spell in her hand, while Tsuki created a defensive spell around themselves. Elora's floating box opened up, and robotic arms fitted with various weapons appeared; these included laser guns and melee weapons such as swords and maces. "Stand down, or be executed by Ascendancy's will," she stated coldly.

Freya grunted a noncommittal grunt as she found herself unable to strike down Aurelio, her non-magical self finding that her overwhelming strength was very much unable to crack through his trick of love. She merely glared as Aurelio then used the White Coin, and-

-and Freya found herself swirled by a cloud of warmth, trust, safety and family, all the things Aurelio felt from the warmth of the ShineSpark within him. Freya recoiled, her eyes widening. And she…

She bit down, frowning hard, baring her fangs and clutching her free fist, closing her eyes as if trying to resist the feeling.

‘No,’ Freya declared, opening her eyes to glare at Aurelio. ‘This feeling of peace and tranquility… it’s a lie, a cover of things made to be desirable. Comfort will not save you when the enemy’s at your doorstep, tearing down your walls and murdering your family. That feeling is false, artificially made to keep peasants happy. If it wasn’t for this feeling, I’d…’ she shook her head, traces of tears visible through the shadows at below her eyes. ‘We warriors should never forget the cold touch of reality…!’


‘And that’s where we leave! Sorry, really can’t stay…!’ Jelena grabbed onto Freya from behind, holding Esther behind her as Esther had grown an enormous wood-shield from her body to shield them from the incoming wind-attacks, and Jelena in turn had manifested as big a metal shield as she could with all her remaining metal on her left arm to shield in the same direction. As she activated Overcity Shift, she gave an apologetic smile to Aurelio, right by Freya’s glare. ‘Be nice to Dorothy, she really didn’t know anything. Sorry about the arm, please don’t hate us…!’

And then, with a swift magic circle, they’d disappeared into the Overcity.

On the other side it was then Freya’s job to grab the other two and utterly bolt like only a minmaxed Strength/Agility girl could.

@Shifter_Master@Ariamis

---

Ronin was blown off by something, and then landed on her butt some distance away, and then was presented with the scene before her.

…

Yeah, no. She’s not going to do anything yet. Maybe later. Her post isn’t really suited for being the first here.

---

‘… Could you repeat that?’ Mariette had to ask as her informant told her of what had happened at various different places in town…

---

Eli looked a little hesitant at Nuncio’s question, but also brightened up when he showed off the Red Coin. She nodded earnestly.

‘Okay. Thank you. So, um,’ Eli thought of the answer to the question. ‘Our mansion is a bad place for anyone unaffiliated with our patron, as that particular dimension is very close to our patron. He may just decide to keep someone who was only supposed be kept there temporarily, it’s happened before, do tell Alicia we’re sorry about that if you ever see her…’ she said, sounding a bit awkward. ‘… but as for simply places to hide out in, there is nowhere my mistress cannot transport you. We can hide you in different dimensions, in the Overcity itself, or just any safehouse here in Penrose, if you’d so like. Would that be of interest?’ Eli told, looking to see how Nuncio and Sammy reacted to these prospects.

@BrokenPromise@ERode _{Though, suppose Amaryllis jumped off.}

---

… Lea gently reached forward and took the White Coin out of panda-girl’s hand, ignoring that the girls behind her looked like they got agitated. She felt its power, holding it, turning it and inspecting it. An idea occurred to her. She could use it. She was confident that she was the only girl loyal enough to Asengav that she could use it, be “purified”, and then walk directly back to Asengav with no blemishes. Besides, while she had no issues with this form that she’d existed for an eternity in, it could be interesting to try anew. That said, it wasn’t something she should surprise Asengav with. He could get so awfully jealous if he lost his connection to her… Still, she found herself moderately seriously considering using it. With that in mind…

‘You’ve proven yourselves different from the Beacon of old. I respect and appreciate that. You have my gratitude,’ she said, taking her eyes from the coins and looking to Lillyn. ‘I have yet to decide. I shall look at the coin and consider it for some time longer. I bid you adieu, for now. Thank you,’ she said, before turning around intending to fly away.

Before they could object.

At considerable speed.

Still holding the coin.

And then, should nothing have interrupted her, a second or three later the light of Overcity Shift would overtake her and she’d vanish from this world.

The elfin monster-girl was counting on her Awareness to make her aware of any sudden attempts to stop her. Magic and Agility were her stats, after all, she should be decently capable of dodging.

What she was gambling on was that they'd think there'd simply been a misunderstanding due to Lea's alien mind. Now, she technically hadn’t lied. She was grateful, if only because they made her job so much easier. She was technically considering using it, even if she never intended on turning her back on Asengav. Then it was just a question of if Light-specialized girls can see through someone speaking dishonestly, compared to just literal lies. If there was any Light-specialized girls there at all, that is.

When Alexander saw a non-hostile magical girl badly wounded, his first instinct was to run up and heal her. His second was to punch himself in the face, because holy shit was he whipped. 'Fuck! I really am a heal bitch now.' He shook his head and sighed 'Well, at least someone else took care of the healing this time.' It was then that the injured girl started talking, and then the girl who healed her put her hand to her ear and started saying something. Alexander's eyes widened when he realized what was happening 'Is...is she repeating what the person on the other end is saying? People actually do that in real life!?'

”That’s horrible! Absolutely awful! Please, let us help!”

The sound of Lily's voice broke him out of his movie nerd stupor, as he realized she had been holding on to his arm. The other girl just brushed Lily off and summoned her gear as she went to take care of the rave.

”Sounds like Penrose Park is currently a big battleground. I think we could save more people there than if we were to stay here!”

"Yeah" Alexander nodded, oddly without a snarky quip "I still don't understand what could have cause..." he paused as he looked over at the now unconscious girl "that. But it has me extremely worried. This whole night has been a colossal clusterfuck. I mean, I know this is Penrose, but fuck me, this was just supposed to be a party. Between this and the vacation, it's starting to look like any attempt by us to have some time off for a little fun is going to go horribly wrong"

There was a light at the end of the tunnel, but it wasn't a metaphorical light. It was a literal one, one that intensified as it drew closer and closer to Evira. Deafened as she had been by the intensity of her own rave, the Sound girl misattributed the rumbling of a car engine to the rumbling of thunder, misattributed the light of fog lights to the light of freedom and survival.

And, to be fair, Myria had been having a pretty piss poor night as well, and thought that she'd at least speed down these empty streets to blow off some steam on her way to pick up her colleague.

As Evira launched herself into the open, rain-suffused air, a Bentley filled her vision, and the last thing she saw was an equally shocked little girl behind the wheel before the two forces collided.

With the sound of gut-wrenching steel smashing into superhumanly strong bones, Evira was launched back into the darkness, tumbling over seven times, before getting tangled up in her own filament traps, right in front of Eliza.

"FUCK," Myria screamed, slamming her hands against the car horn. "That wasn't my fault, right? Roach just leapt out from nowhere!"


A world of dumpsters coated in iridescent colors, like gasoline spilled unto puddles. Strange, plump creatures, tendrils poking out of their round bodies, floated through the air, catch and swallowing debris, while the sky above was empty, a flat magenta that looked both endless and suffocating. Smoke still streamed from Askefye’s form as she popped into existence, the momentum of her diving tackle sending the two of them into one of the dumpsters. It crumpled like a pillow, before bouncing them off. For a moment, they laid there, both unmoving.

Then, Askefye promptly pushed herself away from Vivi. Her nose hurt. Her nose hurt a lot! It was actually bleeding from hitting the washboard’s chest! Sniffing up the blood that leaked out, the fire spirit made a stink-face at blue-washboard. “Damnit,” she spat, dark flames licking up her hair, “You’re bleeding everywhere now and that’s gross!” Couldn’t fight her now, that’s for sure, and there was like, basically a billion percent chance that she was going to be all emo and shit too, cause everyone on her team was dead meat.

Standing up abruptly, her form shifting from that gaseous monstrosity to her more human, if not still half-beast, form, Askefye wiped at her bloodied nose with her sleeve again. “And I saved you because…” Her face twitched, one eye narrowing as she racked her brain over it a couple of times. Smoke began to pour out from her ears, before she shook her head rapidly, thrice. “Don’t get the wrong idea!” The monster girl exclaimed. “I just hate people who end things super fast and like, get involved in ways that obviously they shouldn’t! It’s like, you know those people who see a buncha people have fun, so then they join in, but obviously no one likes playing with them because they’re way too strong and joining any one side would cause everything to be imbalanced, but then they do it anyways because they’re selfish little shits who don’t care about anything but showing off themselves to the rest of the world like a couple of exhibitionists tanning their anuses? It’s like that! That’s what happened there, and that sucked the fun outta everything!”

She nodded again, before jabbing a finger at Vivi.

“It’s just exactly like that, so don’t get the wrong idea and also I know a good locust restaurant around the area but it’s always too expensive so you’re going to pay for my dinner!”

Askefye kicked the blue-stone ground with a vengeance, a plume of fire bursting out from the impact and casting a burning light over everything.

"FUCK!"

As the torrential rain continued to pour down, the sounds of the tempest were suddenly overtaken by screams of pure agony, emanating from the warehouse.

“W-What is t-that?!” Connie asked, her terror clear in her voice.

“I do not know, little sister,” Gaia replied as she put her arm around her trembling friend. “But it cannot be anything good.”

The next instant, Connie gave a startled gasp as a girl slowly dragged herself out of the warehouse. Blood drained from her eyes, nose, and mouth.

“O-Oh my gosh…!”Connie whimpered, placing her hands over her mouth, while Lily screamed at the horrifying sight.

Meanwhile, another girl had arrived and quickly knelt down beside the wounded girl, who was apparently named Violette. As the newcomer did her best to heal Violette’s injuries, she asked the girl who was responsible for them. Violette’s response was inaudible to Connie, but the newcomer repeated it in a louder voice. The Penrose Independent. Connie had no idea who they were, and before she could ask, the newcomer began talking again. Apparently, there was something big going on at Penrose Park. A cardinal had been assassinated, and an attack had wiped out operatives at the rave? Connie’s mind spun in a confused daze as she tried to make sense of what she was hearing, but then Lily was speaking up, asking to be allowed to help.

Then, more screams emanated from the rave, along with the most terrifying thunderclap Connie had ever heard. Hugging herself as Gaia held her even tighter, Connie watched as the newcomer, whom she could now see was an imposing girl with glasses, rebuffed Lily and summoned a massive hammer that radiated tremendous power. Shouting an incantation, the girl equipped herself with glowing armor, while using her hammer to completely shatter the barrier around the warehouse. Reiterating her earlier statement about the battle in Penrose Park, she shot off into the warehouse, leaving the rest of them behind to figure out a course of action. Unsurprisingly, Lily was the first to speak up, suggesting that they head to Penrose Park.

“O-Okay,” Connie said shakily, mustering every last ounce of her courage. “I-I’ll g-go w-with you!”

“Are you sure you want to do this, Connie?” Gaia asked, her eyes filled with concern. “After everything that’s happened…”

“I-I’m s-sure,” Connie replied, in what she hoped was a tone of determination. “L-Lily’s my f-friend, and I r-really want to h-help her.”

“Very well, little sister,” Gaia conceded. “If you wish to venture into battle, then I shall be right by your side.”

“Thanks, Mia,” she said warmly, while giving her friend a big smile. “Oh!” Connie exclaimed, suddenly remembering something important. “B-But first we n-need to help Emily! Um, A-Alex?” she asked hesitantly. “C-Could you, um, p-pleas h-help Emily g-get b-better? I k-know she w-wants to h-help too, but she c-can’t d-do anything l-like t-this…”

It was only the mixed screams of the Ascendency’s deaths and the declaration of war that Eden broadcast that had Penny slowing to a halt. She would half turn towards back towards the passage way they had traversed. Her eyes solid pools of crimson light. “Eden is doing nothing but making this all worse” Penny would say stoically “And if she’s talking true about Cindy…” Penny would trail off and shake her head. If that was true Penny would take care of that personally.

Regardless Penny turned back to her task at hand, it was hard, to force her attention away from the video feed from her drone still in the warehouse. Of all the death and chaos, but this was above just her at the moment. Those that had chosen to follow her needed to be given priority.

“You are welcome” Penny would reply to the girl who thanked her. “You, and everyone else, are free to go your own way from here if you want. My only objective was to get as many out as I could. I’m-” Penny was interrupted by the blessed storm rushing towards her. On instinct she lashed out at the lightning with her extra limbs while she coaxed the storm to target her over anyone else with what little lightning magic she could bring about.

She welcomed the storm as well, just as she did before; she noted the blessed nature of it as well, the unique sensation of divinely touched magic. She didn’t let it stay idle for long though. “We should keep moving” She would say to the group “Seems that things aren’t fully done just yet. I know of a safe place to stay for at least a day or two. You are all welcome to follow me there” She would say before turning back to the path before her and continuing her march.

To the fact that she had just took in a storm of lightning she said nothing, and from an external view it would seem much like she was fully focused on getting to her destination. The truth was a bit more complex than that though. That boost to her systems was already being put to use. Across Penrose, Penny was slipping her way into security systems, glimmer networks, phone lines, and traffic cams. War was coming, even if Eden was wrong about Cindy; War was coming now, that was unavoidable.

And there is no tool more useful in war then information, for it is the strongest power that there can be. Beacon had its own method of gathering Intel, but so did every major power in this conflict, as The Mint was tied into this as well, alongside the Penrose Independent.

Penny was going to need her own resources, but for now having a back door into as many systems as she could get would be a first good step.

As she set up the first steps of her networks, Penny would be quite as she lead the way to the Sanctuary. She would offer responses to questions if asked, and even mantain conversations if some of the others needed wanted them, but she didn’t start any conversations on her own. For all the while she was planning. She had been built for war; she had avoided that, despised that, and hidden that. Now it was time to embrace it.

Part way there she would stumble slightly as an angry looking bleeding red crack would erupt down the length of her right arm. “Shit” She needed to get these people to safety then head to Binky. It seemed that her time was up. “You damn fool”

---

Stoically the tow of them stood on the far side of the door and awaited the door to fade away. Steadfast to the end they would protect everyone they had gathered in this home. When the knocking turned frantic Ashlyn stayed stone faced unwilling to let anything show on her face in front one who had been willing to commit genocide.

Thankfully Monica was not the same, her own composure shattered moments before the knocking, and she could feel the nuke’s echo of effect through the door. So she rushed into action in the moment she realized what was happening. Roughly shoving her fried to the side as she wrenched open the door and dragged the poor suffering girl in, before closing her dimensional home off from everyone and everywhere.

“What are yo-” Ashlyn would begin to ask, confused and the sudden turn in her friends actions.

“She’s dying! Hurry up and heal her!” Monica would scream before the question could be fully voiced before turning her attention back to the girl in her arm. Monica was working as carefully as she could, never knowing if the Spark would reject her efforts or not, but she was desperately trying to help counteract what damaged had been caused by the Psychic assault.

Ashlyn for her part knew better then to try and argue with the petite Mino-girl, not unless she wanted to get a face full of fire. Instead she just kneeled down and started using her reinforcement to heal as best she could, as she wasn’t really sure what the issue was.

When she would learn, she would be as horrified as anyone else.

---

“Reality is cold that is true” Aurelio would say in the few moments he had his assailants undivided attention.“But that doesn’t mean we can’t find warmth within it, can’t strive to make bonds with those that will defend the walls with us, to grieve with us, to cherish us. After all, not everyone has the heart of a warrior.”

And then his time was up, and they had left. He let out a disappointed sigh. He hopped he would have the chance to meet that one again; he always preferred it when he had a chance to talk to people rather than fight against them.

He allowed himself to be helped up, his cane vanishing with a snap, shortly before the rest of his costume faded as well. “I don’t think I’m going anywhere without help at the moment” He would answer Sally with a weak chuckle. Geez he felt exhausted.

“The rehab for getting an arm reattached still as annoying as it always been?” he would ask the Reinforcement girl as she set about healing the numerous bruises and gashes he had acquired while being stuck in between the two attackers. His own healing spell had been purely for the wound that had been gained from the forcible loss of his arm after all.

“Tell me has it been this bad everywhere?”