Alicia left the scene of the battle behind, annoyed that Su and her group had left with Christine but not too angry about it. After all it wasn't like they were on the same side as Christine, so she would have to trust that the group knew what they were doing. For now there were more important matters at hand that demanded her attention.

Entering the backroom, Alicia was taken aback by the charred corpse that waited for her there. It was impossible to tell who it was, though she could at least be confident that it was no one she cared about. But that was not the only thing to contend with. Serenity suddenly appeared, crashing to the ground right in front of her.

"You do have a knack for making an entrance Serenity," Alicia said as she offered the girl a hand.

Her gaze drifted over to the hole in the wall. It seemed to lead back to the main hall, and through it loomed a monster on the rampage. There was no doubt that it was the one who had been obscuring the rave this entire time. "Looks like we can't rest easy just yet." Whether she was directly complicit or not, there was no doubt that she had to be stopped. "Let's get to it."

With Serenity and Leena in tow she raced forwards, leaving the room behind to return to the main hall. At least they were not alone in this with the arrival of Rachel and her companions, but Alicia would have fought on regardless.

As they entered into the main hall, Alicia was brought short. "God, no..." The color left her face, her grip so tight on her weapon it was a wonder it did not crack. Bile rose in her throat as she gagged, a hand rose to cover her mouth, and her knees shook as they threatened to give way.

Smoke left a haze around the hall, though it had diminished with the fall of the barrier allowing it to escape. Even if it had been there, her Third Eye would have allowed her to see regardless. Furniture laid scattered and destroyed, twisted wreckage and debris rendering the hall in shambles. The lights had been blown out, and the speakers with them.

But...the bodies. Charred, dismembered, twisted. Those who were not scorched and burned by the lightning, or simply beaten down in the fight that had preceded the finale, had fallen victim to psychic attack. Their bodies were frozen, clawing at their face or chest. Blood pooled in an ever growing amount, and the sweet smell of cooked meat brought an instinctive reaction that was only matched by the conscious horror at such a reaction.

As she watched one of the tentacles lashed out, scarfing down a fallen girl. It was hard to see who it had been, but that did not matter. "how dare," she muttered, unaware of the tears that ran down her cheeks. All there was was the pain, the anger, the guilt. "I won't let you treat them this way!"

Her bow rose, even as a barrage of fire was laid down from Rachel's group. Those targeted the tentacles, and Amaryllis soon entered and bound the Queen up in magical chains. At the very least it made for an easier target. With a twang of the drawstring she fired, sending a trio of projectiles at Hyun's back. These would strike and then explode, force directed into the point of impact like a shaped charge. She doubted that it would kill the Queen, but that was alright. It would hurt, and there would still be plenty of monster left to make sure that those who had been desecrated by her hand would be avenged.

_{@BrokenPromise@Ariamis@ERode@Crusader Lord}

Reaver eyed the monstrosity with a raised eyebrow, as he coughed up some blood in the ground. His thoughts raced at how himself he had given in the folly and the thirst of challenge. Well, Odin would not be complaining after all. He barely managed to duck and create a makeshift wedge watershed when the puketree decided to share his meal with Reaver… the direct way.

“That is gross.” He muttered. Not that he was one to talk about. So many things, so little time. The creature thought that during his giant Muhammad green Ali expression he’d not pay heed to the vines. No, he had paid heed to them alright. Clutching the very vines and standing low, he began to carve. To bleed. To cut. Until the chaos resembled a shape. The shape of Odin’s wisdom. The wisdom of runes.

Normally, this kind of rune would be difficult to pull. He needed direct, intimate contact, and most targets were not big enough or mobile enough to not present an easy way to undertake the endeavour. However, the abomination’s splurge on magic, revitalizing and growing vines had the side effect of blanketing the entire park in magic infused mockeries of life.

They could be consumed. They could be drained. The rune activated, stealing life from the lowly vines and giving them unto Reaver. The effects were almost immediate, as his regeneration and third eye kicked in, followed by an unquenchable thirst.

Devour.

It throbbed in Reaver’s skull. With the vines, there was a chance of corruption, as he continued to drain the massive buffet of magical lifeform energy before him. But as Nietsche said… He who fights monsters.

He stood tall, repeating once more the rune, the enchantment, as he flared up his reinforcements. Not of the body. But of the mind. One, a safeguard. A way to destroy his brain’s information should he fail. And the second… the very same trick Odin had taught him before.
How to control his berserker urges. Reaver grinned, and chuckled, in unabased glee. “You’re gonna have to try a little harder than THAT.” He said, as he readied his blade, carefully advancing as the magic of the rune would drain the very vines he was stepping on.



“That’s gonna be a small fortune in paint.” Kamy groaned, her sarcasm much more evident than when using her small animal form. She nonchalantly added, as she forcefully unsummoned the helicopter before the vines could claim it, ejecting the crew softly from the entrapment.

“Bad doggy!” said Shoggy, as she arranged her face after falling face first. Having a face that looked like a cubist painting would certainly not help in battle nor her allies. “Sappy is grumpy now, I see. Did someone steal his sap or anything?” The …dubious… magical girl said, shaking her head. “Well, doesn’t matter it right now.” She said, as she readied the cube like thing on her chest.
“Where are youuuuu… “ She sang, as she began recklessly firing darkness blasts blindly in the vicinity.

Sakura, who had managed to score a three point landing, could not help but groan. “Okay, who forgot to clean the drain, again.” She added, as she tried to sharpen her senses. “Oi, stay sharp, and try if you can pierce whatever magical shit that mutt is using.” She said to the other members of the crew, reading electricity around her body to increase her reflexes and action time. Where had that Sparky-chan and bud go? They could be useful. Kamy for her part… was gone too. Such was the way of Puchuu. Never interfere directly.

---

And yet she boarded the pirate ship, without much flair or fanfare, her stares narrowing like pinpoints at the other horror who had decided to watch the show for shits and giggles. “You should not be there, Cthulhu. Leave the premises.” Kamy said, in an icy tone. “One of your ilk is enough.”

---

The two cronies of the pale girl seemed to stop as the newcomers came to help, their glares full of confusion and requiring input of their so called leader. Edward’s eyes widened in surprise to see someone call his name. Wait, had he seen this girl before? He could not recall. But no words came from his voice, only pained grunts. It was then when the leader of the trio started speaking again.

“She shot one of us dead. It’s called self defense. He is the one who interfered when we were teaching that beacon sow a lesson. Not that Sarah-Mae amounted to much, but she was for better our worse our comrade.” The pale girl stated. “You are the ones who should scram, or else.” She said, her spirit magic flaring up as a flock of angry pitch black spirits circled around her. The anguished, the damned. Wraiths that were called upon the corruption of spirit specialization. “Now if you’ll excuse us, we have loose ends to finish.” The pale girl stated, as she raised two fingers. “You two, less doubting, more normie killing, chop chop!” She commanded, as the other two girls then looked at the doctor.

“Uh, on second thought, the newcomer is right. He is a stud… tee…he…” The imp-like girl said as she leaned on both Dr Turner and the newcomer, Tetrad. “It would be a real shame.” She continued. “I haven’t gotten a good stud for myself, in like, weeks. It’s unbecoming of Infernalia, the succubus herald, to make war, not love.” She eyed Dr Turner. Then Tetrad. Then what Tetrad had on display. “Oh, the woe! I wished you could sing for me, the oldest song of earth, under the comfort of a roof and the warmth of a hearth…” Infernalia said, throwing a few flirting looks at Tetrad.

The other girl, of puppy eyes, and magnificent wings… was carrying a huge flail, but she seemed to stop trying to even make a “Does that mean we don’t get to fight?...I…I…I don’t like to hurt people!” She stammered, obviously showing a great deal of nervousness in her speech.

The pale magical girl bit her lip. “SHUT YOUR TRAP, JIMMY! AND FIGHT!” The leader snarled at the so called 'Imp girl'. “AND YOU, BUTTERCUP! MOVE THAT FAT ASS AND DO AS I SAID.”

Buttercup seemed to flinch, as if some deep hidden switch was pressed into her, and then began to swing her flail, intent of fighting once more… Only to be caught off guard by the running Beacon girl, Mimi, and whacking herself in the face with her own flail. A minor, but very embarrassing injury. Although, credit where was due, she seemed to recover admirably, just being out of wind for a few moments.

“Between you and me, sexy girl…” The 'succubus herald' said to Tetrad. “Blossom needs to chill a bit. She’s not that bad deep down…well okay, she’s that bad…but she gives me free money to spend on pretty dresses!”

Blossom, for the lack of a better name, was livid, if such a thing were possible. Her fists solidly clenched as now the wraiths who danced around her were making their best impression of a solar corona. “You…let…her…go. You both…idiots. Fine! If I have to do it myself, so be it! In the name of the Moon, I, Banshee command you…”

“EEP!” Buttercup seemed to panick as she readied her flail, and then ,as if spurred by something, decided to wildly swing at Shion, apparently scared by something else. “I’M SO SORRY!” She frantically repeated the same thing over and over, almost completely out of her mind.

Banshee, or Blossom for the friends, levitated on the hands of her wraiths, as she lifted her hand.

A single word was heard.



What was once dead. It began to move again. Unlife. The forbidden art. Like a puppet on a screen, the corpse of their once comrade, Sarah-Mae, sprung to action. Her eyes were vacant, her head maimed by the gunshot… yet it grinned, baring bloody teeth, and among the sounds of bone snapping and joints being forcefully yanked move again. That’s when four more corpses dropped down from the roof, each one doing a three point landing. The deceased beacon girls, now turned into puppets of their executioner.

“Welp, there she goes. Ew.” Said Infernalia. “Hey, you might want some help. Tit for tat. Whaddya say?” Infernalia smiled impishly at Tetrad.

.

Shion seemed to effortlessly dodge the wildly swinging flail thanks in large part to her martial training. Ko spoke up, having overheard the conversation between Infernalia and Tetrad. "Blossom? Buttercup? What are they, the Powerpuff Girls? Where's Bubbles?" She jumped off Shion's shoulder and rummaged through the bag on her back, retrieving Fielder just in case it would be necessary.

"If you're sorry then stop doing it!" Shion shouted at Buttercup before kicking her away. "Geez. Look, I've got nothing against Dark Magical Girls, or even Monster Girls. If you leave and don't bother normals anymore, I'll let you go." she said just loud enough for the others to hear as well. "However, I don't like the thought of using the dead like that, so..."

Shion pulled out a newly acquired pistol from a holster under her shirt and shot the knees of one of the reanimated Beacon girls. "Hmm... pretty effective. Good. Looks like leaving town wasn't a waste."

---

@AtomicNut

"I appreciate it!"

With the help of Sakura's Puchuu, Emily was able to think clearly once again! Her eyes sparkled but her chest tightened when she realized it was someone else's puchuu that helped her out of that mess and not her own. What was that missing idiot Jonald good for? Well, it was to be expected from him and it honestly didn't matter at the moment. Now that she was no longer inebriated, she could and would make up for any time lost by doing her absolute best to save who she could. And needless to say, she would follow her friend into the pink-colored chopper that had been made out of her bike.

Emily was an idealist, but she wasn't an idiot. With so many girls here, as much as it pained her to admit, she knew that things would escalate. They always seemed to here. But when they neared the park and she caught sight of a giant horror in the sky, she found it more than a little difficult to believe all of this started from some rave. But she wouldn't complain. She loathed to see her sisters in pain, but there was no point in being a magical girl if you didn't have bad things to prevent!

She eyed the surrounding area, only to find that despite everything happening in the rave, there was a lot of stuff going on here, too. Or it seemed like it, anyways. Evidence of conflict was quite apparent, as dead horror flies and even what appeared to be the remains of some girls littered the ground. She was almost beginning to grow accustomed to the sight of dead sisters which was probably the last thing in the world that Emily wanted. But even despite the additional threats now presenting themselves, she saw something that was much more imperative, in her opinion. Emily leaned out of the side of the chopper to get a better look.

"W-what's going on over the---"

Ackerson had been intently watching some enraged magical girl rushing a smaller group of what seemed to be Beacon, even throwing an arm at one of them. But before she could finish her sentence, their ride was struck by something and they were forced to make a crash landing. Being halfway out of the helicopter already, Emily was flung from it and sent spiraling towards the ground. Before she could make a magical girl-sized splat on the ground, she gained her bearings and righted herself using her flame specialization.

"Woah, that was close!" she gasped.

People often died when they collide with the ground from such a high fall, so she was very thankful she didn't do that. But she wasn't that important right now. Emily sighed in relief when she saw Sakura and the rest exit the chopper with little evidence they'd been in a crash. "Oh, I'm so happy you're alright!" Emily yelled from her position in the air. "But there are people in trouble over there! I'll go see if I can help!" she declared before she blasted off like a rocket on her own at a rather impressive speed.



Ishtar's begging did not appear to be doing any good. To an observant eye and, of course, the one Hilaria was attacking, something was pulling inside of her, attempting to break her out of her trance. When Ishtar spoke, her blows seemed just that bit slower or had less strength behind them but ultimately, it was not enough. What feelings she had for Ishtar were being drowned out by the rage that had claimed her sanity. She would likely continue attacking the girls before her until they were nothing but a bloody, gruesome stain on the ground.

But then the three horrors came and decided to brand the berserker.

Roaring yet again, Hilaria stumbled back in obvious pain and this gave the girls she'd engaged with some space. For a minute, it seemed as if something was tearing through her body, as it twitched and spasmed over a short period. And then, as sudden as it came, it went. Hilaria stood upright, but something was much different about her demeanor. Though she'd suddenly gained what appeared to be an even sturdier hide, a stronger physique, and empowered weapons, it was the air about her that changed the most. She almost seemed calm.

She corrected her posture and her weapon vanished into the air, but despite this, nobody would get the feeling she had calmed in the slightest. Rather, her anger seemed to swell even further, perhaps due to the cursed power bestowed upon her, to the point where it became palpable. Ishtar and the girls around her would likely surmise that she need only another trigger before she relentlessly set upon someone yet again.

Naturally, Emily happened to stumble upon the scene around this time from behind Hilaria.

She was not oblivious to the aura Hilaria was giving off but since the berserker wasn't currently attacking she wasn't going to throw the first attack either. "U-um..." with the ground being as it was Emily hovered not more than a couple of feet off of it. She worriedly looked over to the Cardinal and her posse, then back at Hilaria as if to wordlessly ask what was going on. "...hello?" she asked, floating closer to the girl.

This was the trigger. It was at this point that it seemed like there was no filter any longer. What was before her... that would be her target from now on. No 'protecting' Isabella, no seeking revenge. As long as she was like this, she would just attack. And the innocent Emily was, unfortunately, the closest one to her now.

When she was only a few feet out, the berserker slowly turned to Emily in a motion that was far tamer than it should have been. Glaring at the fire girl, Hilaria began growling lowly instead of the roaring she had done earlier. Her outward appearance, in general, seemed to be far less bestial than before. But as mentioned before: she was certainly not any less mad.

Hilaria drew her weapons. It was not the scutum nor the shotgun-axe this time but instead, a pair of gauntlets meant for beating her enemies into a bloody pulp. She began running towards Emily with a fist raised, ready to attack. Seeing this, Emily quickly came to understand that she wasn't going to be talking this one out, so she went to flee further up into the air, only to hear what sounded like a ridiculously loud clap behind her before felt like she'd just been shoved, which caused her to drop to the ground.

Falling only from a few feet into the air, she wasn't harmed in the least, but she found it difficult to move her feet and glancing down, she noticed the sand encasing them. "Oh, gosh darn it!" she looked back up to see Hilaria progressing through it essentially unhindered towards her, simply brute-forcing her way through it. Emily shuddered when she thought about how easy it would probably be for the berserker to rip her in half was she able to get a hold of her. She needed to escape and she needed to do so now.

Lucky for her she wasn't anchored to the floor. Emily applied some thrust and that was enough to get airborne again. Since she was no longer on the ground, she wouldn't be hindered by the sand. It was simply a matter of boosting out of the berserker's range, and then she'd work on what to do from the safety of the air. Except... she was going nowhere.

She was applying enough oomph into her thrust that she should be flying, but instead it felt like she was being dragged back. Hearing the dark knight's growl becoming terrifyingly close, she looked back and spotted Hilaria mere seconds from grabbing her leg. Not only that but instead of the ground, it seemed she was being pulled towards Hilaria.

Is that?!

Emily noticed something strange about Hilaria that wasn't a part of her transformation or those buffs the horrors gave her. It was that a good amount of sand seemed to be clinging to her armor. No, it wasn't just clinging... it was being drawn there by some force.

Does she use gravity?

If this was true, then the closer she got the worse things would get. And Hilaria was already too close for comfort. Emily sighed, then looked up to where she wanted to be: the sky. Putting everything she could into it, she thrust as she'd never thrust before, and somehow she managed to break free, zipping into the air.

*CLAP*

As Emily turned to keep Hilaria in her sights, she saw the DMG quite literally clapping her hands together with enough force to send a strong shockwave right at Emily, who evaded in time to not be forced downwards yet again. "Oh, that's troublesome!" Emily cried out in surprise, safely parked too high up for Hilaria to do much else, or so it initially seemed.

The knight planted her feet firmly into the ground, ankle-deep in the sand. Never once taking her eyes off Emily, she bent her knees and then launched into the sky so absurdly high that it startled Emily, who yet again took evasive action, Hilaria's attempted grab just barely failing.

That was too close---

Though Hilaria's attempt to grab Emily failed, that didn't mean she was finished. Behind Emily, of course, was the direction where she had come from. The group from the chopper would be her next targets. Whether they were just arriving or all back at the chopper, Hilaria would descend quickly like a human cannonball towards them, and her collision with the ground would likely cause insane damage in the immediate area and to anyone who didn't bother to move out of the way.

_@Erode

Su kept an ear open for Fanfan, but Vivi had asked her if she knew what happened.

“Honestly? Not really.”

Su knew the dragons had to be from Lei Zi. She had witnessed her lightning attacks prior and noticed their particular motif. What surprised Su was that Lei had barely waited to fire offsuch a deviating attack. Su did not condone murder on that scale, but it was made worse by the fact that she had spoken with Lei previously and mentioned she needed time to get one of her friends. It seemed their chance encounter hadn’t given Lei any intention of sparing her the wrath of her god. This just made falling to Vi’s music even more embarrassing. Lei Zi may have been overwhelmed and forced to protect herself. Though that was still a tough action to justify. The moral of the story was not to trust shady people who hang out in raves, even if they are distinctly Chinese.

Regardless, it didn’t seem like she was in league with Vi. It made no sense to take control of a girl’s mind only to nuke everyone later. Not that Vivi was around for any of that anyway. Su figured she had shifted a bit earlier. The whole thing made no sense.

“My best guess is that Vi’s music caused some of the magical girls to go wild. I’m not sure what the outcome of the rave is, but I think it’s too dangerous to go back and look.” Su fret her brow and looked at her clenched fist. “I did see Justine Von Visceral. I find it hard to believe she isn’t tied to all this.”

This wasn’t an unexpected outcome. Su remembered how she felt hovering over Justine’s broken body. Amber had died minutes ago, and Lily was trying to talk Su down. She was so overcome with grief and hatred in that moment. Lily didn’t escape her ire either. Had she not been captured, Amber would not have been in such a rush and would have survived her encounter. But really, Justine was the main problem, and she knew she’d strke again if she wasn’t put down then and there.

What she couldn’t quite remember was why she let Justine go in the first place. Justine wanted to be killed, and Su would have loved to oblige. Lily was little more than background noise, and even her boyfriend agreed that Su had every right to end Justine. But there was someone else present.

She turned to Helga.

The only words that got through to Su came from her. She trusted Helga when she said it wasn’t something Amber would want. At the time Su regarded Helga as an acquaintance that shared her pain. They both loved Amber, they were both angered by her death, and so Su felt she could trust her. But maybe it was all an act. Justine seemed like she was willing to change, but that was clearly a lie. Helga had only known Su and Amber for a week or so, and that was hardly enough time to fall in love with someone. At least not when compared to how long Helga had served Justine. It was possible Helga was a mole this entire time, secretly feeding Justine information on Penrose while pretending to be on Su’s side. Maybe people couldn’t really change. Maybe none of it mattered. Maybe Su was too irritated and tired to think about anything right now. This was all so exhausting.

“I need to get out of here.” Su rubbed her eyes before looking back at Vivi and Askefye. “Do either of you know where the nearest overcity exit is?”

---

_@Vocab

”You sure about this Mika?”

"Yes!"

”Really sure? ‘Cus I’m not.”

"Really, yea!"

”Okay, just be careful, alright?”

"Yay!"

---

Christina would soon wake from her sleep. The first thing she would feel is the warm sun beating against her skin. The sun in the beach dimension was far brighter than anything at the rave, so she would need time for her eyes to adjust. That would just take a moment, and then her eyes would be able to take in the alien sky. It was a bit darker than the one she was use to, but it felt like summer all the same.

This would also be when Christina noticed she was reclining in something. A blow up chair that was floating in a swimming pool. One large enough to fill the Colosseum it rested in. There were rows and rows of bleachers going to the very top.A life guard’s nest was occupied by a transformed Rina. She said nothing and just watched from under the shade of her umbrella, bow laying across her lap.

Christina would likely notice the relatively light feeling of her clothes. But at a glance, she would see that she was wearing a bright blue bikini. She had no memory of putting it on or even buying it. There was also a giant lotus flower pinning her hair into a ponytail.

Before Christina had a chance to question any of this, she’d hear the sound of someone paddling towards her. An untransformed Mika was clad in a black bikini, and was laying against a surf board. One hand was paddling, and the other was wrapped around two cardboard cups with straws sticking out of the top of them. It wasn’t long before she made it to Christine’s position.

"Whew!" She sat upright. "Okay!" the cat girl took one of the cups in each hand and held them out to Christine. "The one on the left is a re-see-pee-see milk shake, and the one to the right is a strawberry one. I’m gunna eat the one you don’t want, so take what you like." Mika gave them a shake. "You’re pretty."

Rina scratched the bridge of her nose before drinking her own milkshake.

"I’m Mika! I saved you from the dragon monster. What’s your name?"

The sudden door slamming seemed to startle the already tense scene, making the lady of the house, Yui, to actually shake the Sake bottle violently all over the place, as the magical girl who had her daughter in her clutches stared with disbelief. First at the sake. Then at the rude interloper. Then at the barrier. Then at the sake again.

"Nooo." She said weakly, looking visiblely dejected and slumping her shoulders. Crying for the sake spilt, and the cutie being prevented from being grabbed. "The sake...so tasty..." lamented the girl, as her companion snapped at the newcomers' sudden interruption. "Oi, find your own house to liquor raid, you bling bling crossbow tramp! This is Soulburner's World Tour!"

It was the third girl, who looked at the newcomers with a raised eyebrow. "Now now, Soulburner, dear, let's not be so hasty, hm? We all are under a lot of pressure these days, we really need to wind down a li-ttle." She held up her hand high, tilting her hand at the newcomer... but not the girl, the boy. "We will leave. But because you're carrying such a handsome reinforcement user that ...radiates sun energy. And a boy... such a rarity." She added. "I'm Amy, oh gallant boy... and I don't mind grappling with you anytime..."

The first girl, still dejected at the Sake, did not make moves, and allowed mother and daughter to be safe. Still, at the last moment, she snapped her hand. "Ah, how about that!?" She said to the other two. "We don't have sake anymore, but that would be fun!" She added.

"Feck yeah! Let's do it! answered Soulburner, as the three girls in unison pulled something rather disgusting from their pockets. A metallic eye, yet organic in sheen, who stared unblinking, black haze coming out of it. It was not meant to be a bodypart of anything resembling this world.

The orbs rattled furiously, as an explosion of numbing darkness ocurred within, obscuring vision and making attacks nearly impossible. But...the assaulting ruffians did nothing. Instead, the familiar shift of the overcity pull could be felt, as the entire househould was teleported to a far stranger place.

---

"Mom, I'm scared..." said Ai, still entrapped by the barrier. When the fog dissipated the eerie landscape of the Overcity was shown. But... they were not alone. Small, tiny, industrious things looked at them with mischievous eyes. Dark and rowdy faerie spirits.

The trouble trio was nowhere to be seen. The little creatures giggled, as they pulled a bunch of batons all of them at once. Except they were no batons.

They were actually glowsticks.

The tiny fairies then began a quasi hypnotic wave of movement... a pattern that was similar to idol concerts.

Soul...

...burner

Tiny whispers were heard, as a magical explosion of lights and sound happened not too far off. There, the rowdy redhead was on top of an stage. Alongside a duplicate. And then another. And then another. All of them having instruments, save one vocalist. Atop the scaffolding of the stage, the other two magical girls looked upon Alexander, Lily, and the mother-and-daughter. The latter two completely paralyzed at this series of bizarre events.
"Let's go Penrose! Soulburner is live! Party crashers can explode! WOOOO!" She said, as the instruments and the melody began.


It was then when her Spirit sorcery flared up, and all sorts of crazy things began to happen. The fairies all shrieked and howled like demented fans, and rushed to the stage, surrounding the other four people. But from the backstage, something erupted. Half spirit, half horror minion, one hundred percent pure METAL... the Star Eater Groupies invaded the stage, their dazzling and maddened dance leaving none indifferent. Their hips shook, their heads banged to the rythm, and their fists attempted to pummel Alexander and Lily with the same tempo as the maddened battery rythm.

"HIT IT, TENEBRA! Said the guitarrist, indicating the pale haired girl her cue. The slim beaty nodded, and did her fair share of spectacle. Her magical drones deployed, started to shoot multicolor magical blasts at the stage, completing the over-the-top-albeit-probably-deadly spectacle.

Before Alex could even reply to Connie’s request, Sakura’s furry Patron took care of Emily’s intoxication problem himself. Then, to Connie’s considerable shock, the creature transformed a nearby pink motorcycle into a large, equally pink helicopter, before transforming itself into a grey-haired woman. Connie was still trying to make sense of things, when the furball-turned-woman produced a jar and emptied its contents on the ground. Connie gave a sharp gasp as the disgusting pile of goo formed itself into a blonde-haired girl. A blonde-haired girl with giant, slimy tentacles coming out of her waist… Clinging tightly to Gaia, Connie watched in stunned silence as the girl happily ran over to the helicopter like an excited child. A helicopter Sakura seemed to want them all to board…

Connie felt her heart begin to race at the thought of that. While she was certainly appreciative of the transport Sakura’s Patron had provided to help them reach the park faster, she was also terribly frightened. She had a rather large fear of flying, after all, and the stormy skies they’d be flying through certainly didn’t help. Then there was that girl with the tentacles… Lily had screamed in horror at the sight of her, before firmly refusing to get on the helicopter, choosing instead to travel via her own motorcycle. In the blink of an eye, Lily had hopped onto the machine, with Alex joining her a second later. The next thing Connie knew, the pair had raced out of sight. Connie found she really couldn’t blame the excitable lightning girl. The new arrival certainly seemed friendly, but still… Those tentacles… (shudder!) Nonetheless, Connie was determined to overcome her fears. She had friends who needed her, so acting like her normal, cowardly self simply wasn’t an option.

“O-Okay, Mia,” Connie said, swallowing hard. “L-Let’s go.”

“Are you sure?” Her friend asked, while giving her a worried look. “Once you get on that thing, you won’t be able to get off until the trip is over.”

“I-I k-know…” Connie replied hesitantly. “B-But I p-promised myself I’d g-get stronger. As l-long as y-you’re by my s-side, I t-think I c-can d-do this.”

“Very well, little sister. Then let us be on our way.”

I can do this… I can do this… I can do this… Connie repeated to herself as she approached the pink vehicle and shakily climbed aboard, followed by Gaia and Emily.

As the helicopter began to rise off the ground, Connie clung tightly to Gaia, burying her head in her friend’s verdant hair. For her part, Gaia made use of the flowers embedded in her emerald tresses to envelop Connie in a cloud of soothing fragrance, which helped to calm her friend’s trembling body.

“You’re doing great, Connie,” Gaia encouraged her friend, while giving her some affectionate head pats. “I am so very proud of you.”

“Yeah! It’s okay!” the tentacle girl told Connie cheerily, before attempting to wrap her tentacles around her.

Although the eldritch girl clearly meant it as a gesture of comfort and support, Connie was understandably terrified by the sight of the tentacles’ approach. Clinging to Gaia even more tightly, Connie summoned her own inky black tentacles to keep the blonde’s tendrils away.

“Oooh! You have tentacles too!” the blonde-haired girl exclaimed with glee, while sparkles twinkled in her eyes. “That makes us sisters! Tentacle sisters!”

Connie was less than pleased by the other girl’s enthusiasm, and her tentacles tried even more desperately to keep the blonde’s tendrils from coming any closer.

“That’s the spirit, tentacle sister!” the eldritch girl cheered with a happy giggle.

It was actually a rather cute and amusing scene, with the two sets of tentacles gently slapping at each other, and Gaia had to work very hard to keep a giggle from escaping her lips. Of course, she still felt bad for her friend, and placing an elegant hand over her mouth to hide the smirk that had formed, she politely asked the other girl to stop.

“I know that you mean well,” Gaia told her serenely, “but you are greatly upsetting my dearest friend, so I would kindly ask you to please refrain from attempting to touch her.”

“Y-Yeah… C-Could y-you p-p-please n-not d-do t-that?” Connie whimpered. “I-I’m r-really s-sorry, b-but y-your t-t-tentacles r-really s-scare m-me…”

“Oh! Okay!” the eldritch girl replied. “Maybe later!”

Connie noticeably relaxed when she saw that the other girl’s tentacles were no longer attempting to reach her body, but rather, had gently taken hold of her own tentacles and were now patting and caressing them. Connie couldn’t help but be moved by the sight. As unnerving as she was, this girl was truly a kind and caring person.

“T-Thank y-you,” Connie told her softly, while giving the eldritch girl what she hoped was a friendly smile. “I-I’m Connie, b-by the w-way. W-what’s y-your n-name?”

“Shoggy Nebula!” the other girl declared. “But you can call me Shoggy, tentacle sister!”

“S-Shoggy?” Connie asked, testing out the name. “T-That s-sounds… r-really c-cute…” she added, a small blush forming on the cheeks of her mask.

Gaia smiled at the exchange. It appeared that her little sister had just made another friend.

After that, while the flight to the park was still nerve-wracking, with the help her friends, both old and new, Connie did her best to be brave. Or at the very least not completely freak out. That all changed when the chopper was struck by a mighty blast of mystic energy, which blew off the tail rotor. Even with Kamy’s expert piloting, the subsequent crash landing was still a heart pounding experience. To make matters worse, no sooner had they reached the ground, than a missive wall of vines lashed out at the wrecked vehicle, threatening to consume it. Noting the danger, Kamy dispelled the vehicle, gently ejecting its passengers a safe distance away from the vines, before winking out of existence.

As Connie tried to get her bearings, she saw that Gaia, Sakura, and Shoggy had all escaped the crash relatively unharmed. The latter was even now happily blasting away at the bizarre vegetation with beams of dark energy. Further afield, Connie also noticed that Emily had also escaped the crash, and was currently in the process of battling a warrior incased in dark armor. A warrior who was now leaping towards them… Casting a worried look toward Gaia, Connie saw that her friend’s eyes were closed. Clearly she was communicating with her Patron, but now really wasn’t a good time for that!

Yes, Mother, I know that these horrid things are an affront to your very being, Gaia told her Patron, and I am only too happy to expunge them from existence, but I fear your daughter has more urgent matters to attend to! She added, as the armored warrior landed before them with staggering force.

The shockwave of the warrior’s impact caused Gaia’s robe and hair to flutter behind her, but the verdant magical girl did not budge an inch, having rooted herself in place. Looking to Connie, she saw that her friend had been knocked off her feet, but had managed to use her tentacles to stabilize herself. Gaia smiled at the sight. Her friend’s abilities were definitely improving.

Before the dark warrior could make another move, Gaia stretched out an elegant hand, her eyes glowing a brilliant green. The next instant, dozens of roots and vines surged from the ground to entwine themselves around the warrior’s armored form, pinning it in place.

“Okay, Connie!” Gaia called. “Just like we practiced!”

“R-Right!”

Focusing her mystic power, Connie summoned her Nightmare Barrier, but this time, the sphere of warped reality did not appear around herself, but rather, the entangled dark warrior. Within the confines of this horrific pocket dimension, the warrior would find herself surrounded by manifestations of her darkest fears. At the very least, this would hopefully occupy her for the time being, while the twisted plant horrors were dealt with. Of course, it also had the potential of making things much, much worse…

“Nice work, Connie!” Gaia congratulated her friend. “Now that that is taken care of, the real work can begin.”

Conjuring Nature’s Blossom, she plunged the staff into the ground. It glowed an even more vibrant green than usual as it filled with mystic power, the large flower at its top opening to reveal the Orb of Spring. The purification artifact was being infused with increased mystical power, far beyond what it would normally possess. Kneeling down, Gaia her closed her eyes while placing her forehead against the staff. She called upon her connection to the Earth itself to grant her even greater strength. Plants and flowers of every kind sprouted around her as she made her request.

Mother, I humbly beseech you, please lend me your aid, so that I may bestow your blessing upon this place, and cleanse it of the abominations to your sight that reside here. Fill me until I overflow!

Gaia could feel her mother’s power blooming within her, and it was not long before a whirlwind of shimmering green energy began swirling around her nymph-like form. It grew in power with every second, before Gaia called out, “Foul perversions of flesh and bark! Be gone from this place, for you are no longer welcome here! So commands Gaia, Daughter of Mother Earth!”

At that, the emerald whirlwind seemed to explode in all directions, surging out to bestow Mother Earth’s blessing on the entire park (or at least a small piece of it), purifying it of Aighorost’s twisted abominations. Gaia only hoped it would be enough…

---

"No room for disappointment here then. Let's make this seem routine."

Silhouette eagerly nodded in response to Trixy. As a lone wolf, she wasn't often made to cooperate directly with other people. Bar the fight with the Contender and their sparring, this would more or less be her first real experience seeing Trixy in action, and from so close. Given Sil herself thought she had potential as well as Veronica accepting her as an agent, Sam knew that things would probably go alright. But with her pessimistic nature and all of the carnage, she found it difficult not to expect the worst.

And speaking of carnage, even in her old life, she hadn't often seen this many people dead in one area. She gave merely a disinterested glance at a few of the ones she passed by or over and continued on her way. Samantha would never claim to be a good person, but even when murder was her occupation, she at least ensured she made the job as quick and painless as it could be.

To see these girls with twisted expressions, she could only imagine what sort of pain they were in during their last moments. She didn't want to, though. A slit throat or even a bomb would've been a much better way to go. Silhouette wasn't going to seek vengeance for these girls but if the opportunity presented itself to cleanse the world of the degenerates who orchestrated this... well, she wouldn't complain, either.

But, as was usual, her objectives took precedence over something like that. As the group bar Tetrad arrived at the scene their monstrous target was already engaged with another girl and also attempting to devour any corpse it could get its tentacles on. Trixy made a good call to try to deny it any more food, which inspired most of the others in their group as well as those who later arrived to focus on its appendages. Sil, however, would see what damage she could do to the beast itself.

Hectic. But most things are nowadays. Well... lets get dangerous, I suppose.

Deftly she traveled, effortlessly maneuvering around the debris and bodies that littered the floor, observing and planning a route of attack. There were numerous tentacles all apparently capable of acting somewhat independently of one another. This monster was no joke. Placing her hands together, she empowered herself with her own time magic to make her actions and reactions much faster. Once she was done, she threw an arm out to the side and a shadow of herself appeared parallel to her. Her Dusk was mentally instructed to seek out bodies that Hyun was looking to snatch and essentially play 'Keep Away' without retaliating.

Finally, Silhouette made her own move. Hers was to assist Rachel in actually attempting to kill the monster rather than starve it, so she would attempt to dash by it, slashing at Hyun and immediately retreating in a hit-and-run style offense.

Penny would waste no time handing off her passenger to one of the other girls that had followed her this far, gesturing off towards one of the corners that held some blankets. With that taken care of she would stride into the middle of the two girls arguing her extra limbs lashing out to grab hold of both of their weapons.

“Enough” She would say firmly giving both of them a flat stare. “If we start bickering and fighting amongst ourselves now we aren’t going to last through the night.”

“Yes, Elvira led everyone into a trap, but none of us knew that she was a part of the Mint” Penny would say deathly serious “None of us knew that the Penrose independent was going to make things worse and try to kick off a war by unleashing a WMD at the Rave either. Now, as hard as it might seem at the moment, is not the time to start tearing into each other. Now is when form up and learn who it is that we can trust” As Penny spoke her voice would slowly grow louder until she was addressing everyone present.

“Some of you know me, some of you have likely even met my other half, but for those of you who don’t know me. My name is Penny, and I am the one who built the foundation of this safe haven” She would say gesturing towards the walls of the Sanctuary. “I am glad that it has proven to be the Sanctuary that I wanted it to be, but now I must ask for your help.”

“Many of the girls that went to the Rave are still under the influence of Elvira’s maddening song.” As she spoke her drone would float above her displaying live feeds from the various street cameras of the riots currently going on in Penrose. “The number of them currently has Beacon stretched to capacity and I would ask for volunteers to go out and help quell these riots.”

“Now I can already tell that many of you don’t see why that is a bad thing. But you are all missing a vital piece of information; Beacon is stretched to capacity, not the Ascendency. The Ascendency is a fundamentalist group within Beacon. They are the ones responsible for the wholesale purge tactics that have become common as of late. We do not want them to have any more reason to mobilize in force.”

“So once again I ask for volunteers. I need people who are willing to go out and help deal with those that are currently tearing this city apart. I also need people who are willing to stay here and help deal with the injured. Who can I count on?”

---

“Shh... it’s okay, you’re safe now” Monica would say to Sharron softly one hand gently laid on the still recovering girl’s shoulder. “I’m sorry you had to suffer from that dear” She would go on to say as she quietly took the girls glasses and cleaned them before handing them back. As she returned the glasses there would be a notable glazed look to Monica’s eyes.
With a warm, if vacant, smile she would stand up and look towards Ashlyn “Keep an eye on her won’t you honey?” She would ask her voice taking on a dreamy quality “I’m off to make soup for all the kids, most of them seem to have made it through that alright but I want to make sure” she would go on to say putting a finger on her chin as she spoke aloud, as if she was pondering what type of soup to make.

Ashlyn for her part would quietly curse as she watched the changes start to overtake the rather petite Cowgirl. “Don’t worry about this one sweetie” She would reply with a strained smile after a moment. “I’ll sit down with her and make sure she’s good” She’d move to sit down next to Shannon as she spoke. “What should I tell her happened out?” Ashlyn would ask, as if Shannon wasn’t there.

“Oh” Monica would seem surprised by the question and it would take her a moment to reply “Some vile wretch attacked our kids with a Psychic nuke” She would reply serenely “But no need to worry her with that, just tell her that Mom was able to rescue her from a bully okay?” She would give one last vacant smile before turning and walking off further into the house.

Ashlyn would wait a moment, before punching the wall hard enough to crack it. “Damn it all…” she would mumble rubbing a hand over her face. “You get that?” She would ask after a moment, turning to Sharron “To answer you other questions. Yes, we saved you. Because it was the right thing to do. Not going to torment you, unless you find home cooked meals tormenting.” She owuld answer with a huff as she leaned up against the wall, her legs loosely crossed in front of her.

“Name’s Ashlyn” The Oni girl would introduce herself “That was Monica” she’d go on gesturing towards the hallway that the Mino-girl had walked down. “Best get comfortable we’re going to be here for a while.”

---

“Kimble, Alicia’s not going to hate you, everyone makes mistakes.” Kyle would say to agitated girl as they awaited extraction. It was always an odd feeling, teleporting around, especially when one was low on magic; thankfully he had long since gotten accustomed to the sensation.

“Sadly not my first time doc” Kyle would say as he focused on the far wall as he waited for the first wave of sensation to die down, it was always a flashback of what caused the loss in the first place, or at least that was what happened to him at any rate.

He would let out a slow breath as he tried not to focus on the tingling in his arm, it would go away on its own time after all. He would suddenly look very tired, but he would still wave at Sally as she walked away “Go get ‘em tiger” He would say before collapsing back into the bed and letting his exhaustion take him into slumber.

---

Deep in whatever little suburbia Viva found herself in the quiet of the area would suddenly be shattered by the sound of an engine roaring to life. Moments later Viva could be seen astride her bike going at a furious pace a look of barely contained panic on her face.

'I'm coming, don't you dare die on me, I'm on my way' She repeated in her head as she tore up the streets racing to where it was she was heading.

For only a few moments ago she had received a vision from her Mother, Viva's family was in danger, and twisted as the dark nurse was Family still was the most important thing of all.

---

_{@Ariamis & @Ariamis & @Ariamis & [No one]
((I'm noticing a theme here))}

---

'CREEEEEEEEAK!!!'

As the anchor chain came bursting out of the warehouse ceiling, and the yell of an ally came out, the ghost ship frankly responded before the pirate girl even could. The large chain and anchor of the ship shot out on seemingly its own volition, meeting with the growing mass of Amaryllis' chains that were reaching up for it. The silvery chains would ultimately intertwine with the Dutchman's own anchor and chain, and through the Patron's magic seemingly fuse into it to anchor them to its own frame in the end. This would both solidly attach the magic chains to he boat, and their cargo encase on Amaryllis' end, but would also provide a strong attachment the Dutchman could move forward with.

And move it did, without any hesitation.

"HEAVE HO, YA CRUSTY PILE O' PLANKS!!!"

Sophia egged on her patron as it would suddenly move away once more with the chains attached, moving at full force with the intent to pull the monster queen up and out of the building and high up into the air. Like one of those kids 'fishing for a prize' games at a Halloween event for little children. Except in this case, it was a massive ghost ship of superb size yanking with all of its might to drag away a far more dangerous 'prize'.

Though as it did so, the skimpily dressed and twin-tailed gray-ish haired girl seemed to jog over to the back of the boat. She also had-..wait, was that a plank of wood she just pulled up out of the ship-?!

'CREEEAK?!'

"I know those mean little Horrors aren't your favorite, but doooooon't worry new bestie's patron~! Imma' get down there and just place this plank to let you help zap up those broken little corpses! Not doing anything myself, just placing something of yours is all~

At least to help get them away from the big meanie on the end of those chains!"

'..CRE...CREEEEAK. CREEEAK CREEAK.'

After hearing the defeated creaking sound in her head, the greater horror prepared to jump off before-

“You should not be there, Cthulhu. Leave the premises.”

Ah, one of those boring things had appeared. Boo.

“One of your ilk is enough.”

Oooh, spicy!

"Soreeee, but I'm just here to watch little Umu! Try to make me leave, though, and imma' just have to put you in the timeout corner for big meanie-heads!

Besides, I'm just going down to get a better look at things with a souvenir! Noooot doing anything here myself, unless you think someone here wants to contract with me and you're just worried~"

Without leaving even a moment for a response after she gave the Puchuu a wink, Cthulhu leapt off and began to slide down the chain and back in the direction of the warehouse. She would then jump off from there, at some point, streaking through the air downwards until-

'CRASH!!!'

...Maybe that wasn't such a good landing after all. For Amaryllis and company in the warehouse, they would see this 'Horror-party girl' seemingly crash in through the roof in turn and face-plant on the floor. Hard.

However, a literal moment later a small plank of wood would also land near the crashed Cthulhu on the ground. This, however, radiated the aura of Sophia's patron...and frankly was a part of it for that matter. From it a light mist would begin to form, one moving out quickly from it to try to cover the floor and corpses on it.

If the Patron's idea actually worked, the dead the mist would cover would begin being magically transported into the hold of the Dutchman. At least to keep it away from Horrors, which was simply the being's true aim in this instance.

Though as the Horror avatar stood up again, she did quickly move to speak with the same valley-girl tone of voice at least. No goofy smile though.

"Owies...I'm fine! My newest bestie said I could come watch down here while you all try to take care of that big monster girl trying to eat the dead~!

Also something about her patron trying to help protect the bodies for now and giving them back later? Ummm...I think that's it!"

---

---

"T-Thanks, Alicia...w-wasn't my choice in this case t-though," the magical maid said, accepting the hand up before trying to dust herself off-. Ah. She had landed on the charred body. Crispy body. That was NOT going to come out of her memory anytime soon, or ever.

Yet despite trying to keep focus after following her friend and ally into the next room, though, the magical girl stopped cold in her tracks next to Alicia. The smells of fried, sizzled, and magic-roasted bodies and parts that were scattered all over the floor brought on a swelling of memories that...currently were not pleasant. No, could never be pleasant back then or ever again. Her human body also seemed to agree with her new sentiments about what she was perceiving right now, however, as it suddenly and without question pushed her stomach in a massive and terrible heave. A portion of putrid bile came up, and while she hastily put her hand up to try to keep everything down even the magical girl's hand could not stop her body as she ultimately lurched and threw up on the floor through her own fingers.

This was the sort of thing Soth might have enjoyed...but not her.

After her proverbial lunch had been spilt out, however, what followed after was a surge of something that seemed to rise from within and permeate her whole being. A wave of energy that seemed to push her body away from further retching, and left her clenching her teeth as she wiped her mouth on her sleeve.

It was a simple thing, however, something that she'd seen time and time again as part of a Horror:

Emotion. Anger. Fury. Rage. An all-consuming hatred for what lied before her eyes, and the scream of her humanity against the things that had done this.

From this a spitting, guttural roar would emit from the maid girl's mouth.

"You...YOU BITCH!!!"

Seeing Soth's memories was one thing, it allowed her to distance herself from the carnage. But this...it defied all ideas she had of mortal perceptions. It was so new, so sudden, and yet so vile she hadn't been prepared for it. She couldn't have been prepared...or ever prepared for it.

Serenity would barely bother to wipe her hands off on her skirt, before drawing out her knifes and taking a battle stance as the monster queen was wrapped up and chains shot out of the ceiling. It was crystal-clear from her body language, however, that all thought had literally gone out the window and that she was about to straight-up charge the chain-and-debris-covered monster before her. No hesitation. Just pure, unadulterated, and raw human emotion.

---

@ERode@Flamelord@AtomicNut@Ariamis

"Wait what? What even is a Justine? Or like, Vi? Wait, no, don't tell me. I don't even care. Buncha flavor of the week losers, yeah?" Askefye spat out burning phlegm. This sounded like a lotta thinking, a lotta big moves, and honestly, she was already busy enough trying to pretend that the Mint didn't have Big Plans^TM for her. She came to Penrose expecting a fun, chaotic wasteland after the majority of normies evacuated, meaning that both monsters and monstrous girls could go wild, but now it just sounded like a convoluted chessboard where everyone played against everyone else in increasingly complicated, intersected plots.

Tch. Definitely triggered her, in more ways than Beacon. Though if that made a big war outta everything, she supposed it couldn't be that bad. Probably maybe. She pat her stomach. It wasn't really empty, but it wasn't really full anyways, and the locust harvest was good around this time of year, for at least one of the dimensions that had trade contracts with the Overcity.

"Yeah, closest entrance is like, twelve kilometers over there. Through the forest, by the trash river, under the bridge." Total bullshit, really. The bridge just had a hunchback troll who had a fascination with human milk.

Askefye snorted cinders, her nose clogged but at least not bleeding. She turned to Vivi soon after. "Now gib dinner.

---

At first, Lily was wary of rushing in, aware that the presence of civilians narrowed down her options for attacking the home invaders. Her electric bowstring was further drawn as the girls talked back to her, crackling sparks as she grit her teeth.
”This is a longbow!” She retorted, smiling defiantly.
”Maybe if you spent a single day educating yourself instead of picking on children, you would know that!”
These girls thought they could get to her through Alex, but she wouldn’t let them distract her; just as she predicted, the little girl and her mother had barriers cast over them.

Now she could get serious.

But then, the girls brought out strange artifacts, and Lily dove behind a doorway, expecting an attack. Darkness clouded her vision, and Lily electrified her body, not letting the girls get a drop on them.

But, having experienced it before, she could tell she was shifted to the Overcity. In fact, the entire household was taken there. Once she heard little Ai cry, she crouched down next to her, a willful look in her eye.
”Take your mom and hide under a table. I’ll go deal with the bad girls.”
She stepped out of the house, and saw a stage close to the house, surrounded by spirits and the fey; it was as if a concert was held right across the street. She squinted.
”Oh no. Don’t tell me-”

The explosion of music that erupted from the girls answered her question quicker than any words could have. It was a grand spectacle, but even so, Lily’s desire for justice would not be abated.
”I got you covered, Alex!” She informed her partner, and took a stance as monsters were summoned.
When the groupies came forward in a mix of dance and violent intent, Lily did not hesitate; she made a pulling motion with her hand, and three arrows appeared in her hand, floating up to her palm as if they had been turned back in time. Then, with a single volley, the arrows were loosed, striking each of the three golems straight in the center of their bodies. The golems seemed unaffected at first, and were about to reach Lily, when the power of her magic was revealed; the golems found themselves teleported back to right where they were five seconds ago. No matter where they ran, or how they acted, they would return back to that same spot five seconds later, only to be nailed on the spot by another volley of arrows in the exact same spot the moment they were returned, impossible to dodge. These arrows were accelerated with Time magic, and hit with enough kinetic force to blow their metallic bodies apart.
”I’m finally starting to get the hang of this magic!”

---

The two corrupted girls turned their heads simultaneously to look at Penny, startled by the sheer strength that she used in holding their weapons down. “B-But-” One of the girls attempted to speak, only to be shot down by Penny’s scolding. The other girl bit her lip, having realized her mistake. “I...I guess that is true.” The two girls stepped aside, no longer hostile. As for the rest of the girls in the Sanctuary, Penny’s statement of having built the place successfully caught their attention, and one by one the noises in the shelter subsided. “Penny the Builder...” One of them muttered to another girl who silently nodded.

At first, Penny’s request to help quell the riots was made with booing and audible disapproval. But then, once she brought up the Ascendancy, their attitudes changed; many of them turned pale in the face, while others began to shed tears, having remembered what happened at the Red Rave. For a while, Penny’s final question was met with silence.

“Fuck it, I’ll go.” One of the girls casually whipped their hand up in the air, followed by walking past Penny. “But I’m not going there because I’m afraid of some nazis. I want my revenge on the bitch who killed my friend.”
That was the breakthrough, after which many more girls joined up and left the Sanctuary.
As people passed by, Penny found herself poked by a creepy-looking monster girl.
“Umm, Penny? I...I know some magic that...Morphs the flesh...” She stated, averting her eyes in anxiety. “I’ve only used it to attack civilians and their pets, but...Can I use it to help? I mean, we have some injured folks, some lost limbs, organs...I’ve never done it before, but...Uh...”
“Penny!” Suddenly, Penny’s attention was drawn to Goblina, who ran up to her. “What happened at the party? Where’s Cindy? I got knocked out just before we were about to attend, and I heard Elvira betrayed us?”

---

Sharron nodded, grateful for receiving the cleaned glasses. “Thank you. I...I must say, I didn’t expect such kindness.” She then looked shocked upon hearing the revelation about the rave’s attack, and held the handle of her glasses with a trembling arm, causing them to shake too. “A...psychic nuke? That explains the ringing in my head. But, who could have created something like that? Only organizations with access to vast resources like the Ebon Mint would have the ability to procure such a weapon.” She then turned quiet, contemplating what had happened with her, and her rescuers.

“...Sharron,” she finally responded, and stood up...Or at least attempted to, before she stumbled to lean against a wall. “Ugh! Still a bit light-headed...Damn...” She slid back down to sit, her back against the wall, as she listened to the girls explain their intentions behind saving her. She noticed as one of the younger-looking dark magical girls peeked at her behind a corner, and hid again upon being spotted. “The right thing, huh...” She averted her eyes. “Was your choice to attend this gathering of debauchery the right thing too? Was the death and destruction of humanity the right thing to do as well? Or do you think a simple act of kindness justifies all the sins you have committed?” She slammed the back of her fist against the wall.

“You delude yourself with false morality, and run away from the consequences of your actions like cowards! You should be ashamed of yourselves!”

---

Vivi gasped,, and bit her lip when Su filled in on the rave’s events. “Justine...One of the Seven Sinners!” She squinted as she was met with gazes by the others. “It is a group of the world’s most dangerous magical heretics and monsters, each represented by a Deadly Sin.” She chuckled. Each one is capable of destroying the world on their own if given the chance. Fortunately, the Beacon has successfully contained most of them, and sent the others into hiding. Justine, the Sinner of Pride, has been particularly slippery, but I thought she was destroyed in the Overcity. I guess a demon like her would find a way to claw their way back from hell.”

“Huh...I figured the ol’ Justy was a big cheese.” Helga admitted, and looked just as confused as Su when the latter asked her about an exit. “Sorry, but I don’t recognize this place.” She looked around. “I think it’s a garbage dump or something, but I’m not sure. Maybe the hot lady can give us directions.” A couple of seconds passed, followed by her poker face breaking into out loud laughing. “HAH-HAH! Get it? Cause she’s literally on fire? AA-HAHH-HAH!”
Vivi giggled a bit at the joke, only to roll her eyes as the cinder block made her demands. “Alright, you can haz cheezburger, geez.” She used a small spout of water to lift herself back up, and took a look at her surroundings. “Huh...Don’t think I’ve ever been to this sector of the Overcity...”
After Askefye gave some dubious directions, she made fingerguns at her with her claws, smiling happily. “Alright! Thanks for the tip, Magmadonna!” She waved goodbye to Askefye before she went over to FanFan. She was about pick her up again when the Ascendancy girl slapped the claw away. “Oh, don’t you humiliate me anymore! I can walk on my own legs.” That said, she did have to use a robotic arm as a walking cane to support herself, still looking weak. Helga didn’t mind, however, and took Su’s hand. “So what places did you go to when you last came to the Overcity? Maybe we could go shopping for some stuff? I heard they’ve got all kinds of cool trinkets on sale.”
Vivi on the other hand glared at Askefye, aware of the bridge and its contents. “Haha, really funny. How about you give some real directions. I’ll gib you some dinner then,” she added, followed by cracking her knuckles. “Or maybe you’ll like a cold glass or 80 of H2O.”
And so, with a bit of bickering, the rag-tag group of misfits found themselves at the bridge.
Helga stepped forth.“Alright, let’s see if the portal is-ah.” She paused, and lifted her hand to her ear.

“I hear snoring. Like, heavy, fat guy snoring.” She lifted an eyebrow at Askefye. “You sure this is the right way?”

Viv had her arms crossed, tapping her foot. “Sure sure. It’s not like the evil hell demon here would ever lie. Isn’t that right?” She asked sharply, glancing at the taller girl.

---

Trixy’s entangling shots proved effective in obstructing Hyun Long’s dragon-headed tentacles, even if she had to avoid shooting directly at the monster queen herself due to Rachel blocking her line of fire from the front. The Inquisitor herself possessed most of the monster queen’s attention, walloping at the tentacles with blows mighty enough to outright decapitate the dragonheads or flatten them into the floor. Not only did the seed shots blow up the monstrous appendages on impact, the resulting explosions of roots also caught other tentacles near the initial one, preventing Hyun from reaching over to eat Ceriza.

The tentacles lashed out at Trixy in revenge, only to be stopped by Alicia’s explosive arrows that met their mark, blasting her back and leaving chunks of wriggling flesh left in their wake, decimating all the tentacles in her rear. Serenity then charged in to the opening to stab at Hyun, only to be met with a blast of fire shot from Hyun’s human arm, successfully dodging it. Shane blasted Hyun Long’s other flank with lightning bolts and fried the scaly worms, this time saving Cerisa from a gourmet fate. And soon enough, as the piece of the ghost ship was brought, a gray fog soon spread over the corpses on the floor, causing them to disappear in spooky fashion.

When one tentacle snapped at Shane, about to bite into his outstretched arm in revenge, the resulting shock caused Hyun Long to screech in pain, followed by Sil delivering an attack that cuth through the tentacles like a knife through spaghetti, visibly wounding the main body in the process. Pained by such moves, she only noticed Amaryllis once she kicked off the hanging cage, now above her.

The monster queen visibly drooled as her eyes traced over the Knight of Rose’s abundant figure; her Devourer instinct told her that the swordswoman was the most delicious out of all the potential prey in the hall, possessing more meat around her bones than the average magical girl. Tentacles burst up toward her like an enclosing venus trap, only to be met with chunks of concrete that obscured her vision. At that moment, Amaryllis had laid her trap, and chains wrapped around Hyun Long’s hydra-like form; her tentacles trashed about, causing the chains to further entangle into her body.

Like a fishing net that has obtained a mass of octopi from the depths of the sea, the monster queen began to ascend up. To Amaryllis’ misfortune, she did not have the time to evade the rising monster queen as she was caught in the hungry being’s tentacles, wrapping around her arms and limbs in immobilizing fashion and snatching her as the both of them passed the ceiling and met the rainy night of Penrose.
“FHHHEEEDDH!” Hyun howled, and her tongue slithered out from her lips as she gazed upon Amaryllis. As she struggled, she was brought closer to the monster queen’s human body, where her teeth-filled maw waited, about to bite into her flesh up above the city of Penrose.

---

Celia and Nightwing were locked in mortal combat, neither side gaining an advantage over the other in their struggle. “Argh...You’re pretty good. But against a former Mint killer, you don’t stand much chance-wait, is that thing…” She turned to see the dragon lift its wings. “SHIT!” She screamed, and created a cloud of darkness the moment the sand twister struck them; Celia was thrown towards the Ascendancy group, her crystalline skin ground by sand into a rough texture. Nightwing managed to avoid the worst of the attack, but ended up throwing herself against a vine hedge that quickly entangled her. “Crap! Get off me!” She used one Bladebats to cut herself off, and coughed out some sand. “Damn, that dragon sucks!” She threw her other Bladebat at the dragon, aiming to cut its body into a salad.

Hudie took her chance when Hilaria’s attention was diverted to Emily, and rushed forth to Cardinal Ishtar, who was now slowly sinking into the quick-sand like mud.
She lifted her up, and placed a hand over her heart.
“Hudie...Helewisa is...She needs...help...”
But then, the masked girl placed a finger on her lips. “It’s going to be fine, Cardinal. Now, close your eyes, and empty your thoughts. When you wake, you are saved.” The Cardinal weakly nodded, and closed her eyes. The moment she did so, Hudie muttered a spell. A great magical circle surrounded the two, resembling a sundial that reflected the movement of the planets in it’s shadow-like clock.

“Echo of Ages,” she calmly spoke, and the Cardinal was frozen, brought to a temporal stasis. Her curse stopped spreading, having also been stopped in unyielding time.
Tsuki rushed over to her. “Is she okay, Hudie? We need to retreat and-AHH!” She turned to see the draconic entity flap its wing-like appendages, and cast a quick barrier. The resulting blast of wind sent Elora spinning wildly into the air atop her techno-cube, landing in the Spirit Zone.
“Oof...I got yeeted, and hard.”
Tsuki herself survived, but Hudie was thrown against a vine hedge. As she cut herself free with her fan, she realized that Ishtar was snagged, brought deeper into the green foliage.
“Cardinal!” She cried out.

Mia’s magic melted the icy earth, causing it to bloom and awaken to new life. Having drawn upon Gaia’s bounty, she succeeded in claiming a stake on Penrose Park. This resulted in Aighorost failing to expand his corruptive influence upon the land as it was locked in a tug-of-war with Mia’s magic, restricting it to the Park. However, as long as his avatars remained, neither side would budge from their place in nature or overcome the other.

‘To the dragon, alright!’ Ronin responded to Faith, grabbing her hand. Before running, she looked to Reaver, facing off against the ent. ‘I’m gonna assume you can handle yourself! I’ll be back for you later, black knight dude!’ she called, before turning and running along with Faith. ‘We’re going airborn!’ Ronin warned Faith with a smile, and then she skipped up into the air, manifesting small Reinforcement barriers under their feet to carry them over hedges and the vines that was the monsters’ domains, making them wide enough so Faith could run next to her.

On the way, a girl fell out of the sky, causing Ronin to temporarily skid to a halt. Oh, wait, she recognized this person! She looked older, enough things were slightly different that a normal person might have to think twice, but to Deni, it was obvious. It was Amber! She was still around! Ronin grinned so happily to see a familiar face.

‘Am-’ no wait ‘-mmbitious landing! I like it!’ Right, can’t reveal herself as Deni. She’s Ronin right now, and Ronin doesn’t know anyone! ‘Sorry, can’t leave, gotta save people! But there’s people over there in need of saving!’ Ronin told, gesturing towards the Beacon zone. ‘I’m heading for the dragon! Let’s save everyone together, and then we can be friends, too!’ Ronin called, feeling positively giddy that she was able to say such cheesy shit and mean it. She never could while in Asengav’s charge. She loved it.

So, current order of business was running towards the dragon, let Faith do whatever Faith said she was going to do and also block the dragon’s attacks against everyone if at all possible. She was under the impression Faith was going to do something that’d probably hopefully give them some time and protect the rest from the dragon, she mentioned something about an escape route so perhaps-

Ronin rerouted them so they ran to be in-between the dragon and Beacon-zone first, just in case she had to interfere there first, too…!

[@people at the park]

[Location wise, she started in Ent zone, and running diagonally to in-between Beacon zone and Dragon zone. Slightly more towards the dragon than towards the Beacon zone. Basically.]

---

‘I’m afraid that’s… not going to work,’ Eli told. ‘Our home is a really sensitive place for us. We keep things there we can’t risk people see. That is… don’t worry, it’s not something you’d hate us for, but it’s things we’ve been entrusted by our Patron that we simply can’t take risks with. Sorry. That said, we can perhaps arrange something unaffiliated with you where you can hide. As I said, with mistress’ powers, there’s nowhere we can’t go, and no hiding spot that we can’t create for you,’ Eli tried again. She felt a bit bad about it, but that’s how it was.

@BrokenPromise

The now named Amy's reaction to him threw Alexander off, he wasn't really used to random people flirting with him, and it showed on his face. "I uh...don't get why me having Reinforcement magic and a sun god as a backer is such a big deal, but um...okay?" he wasn't entirely sure how to respond, while he thought her offer to 'grapple anytime' was basically an open invitation to fight, given the context and his lack of experience with innuendos, it could have been something lewd for all he knew 'I really hope it's not.'

Fortunately, the awkward moment passed when they were pulled into the Overcity, and yet another concert started "Not this shit again!" Alexander complained "Just how many violent nutjob musicians are there in Penrose!?" He face palmed. However when the strange looking horde of girls charged them, he let his magic flare. Reinforcement and Beast magic mixing until there wasn't any difference between them, and his appearance started to change. He formed a barrier in the shape of a very large tower shield, using his rod as the handle, and batted away a group of them that had charged at him, and followed it up with a powerful swing of his sword, carving huge gashes into them. Taking a quick look over at Lily, he saw that she seemed to be doing fine, using Time magic to keep them away 'She should be fine. Lily's too quick to get caught by them' He then held his shield out in front of him, put spikes on it, and rushed forward into the horde.

_{@PlatinumSkink}

Needless to say, Eli’s refusal to take Nuncio and Sammy into Mariette’s home irritated him. In the excitement of finding Sammy, he had convinced himself that Mariette had been interested in helping out. But it seemed her loyalty was to her mysterious patron, and sometimes cute plush bunnies. Of course she was doing this for the red coin. Nuncio was foolish to think otherwise, even momentarily. Having her build a shelter for them was a nice offer, but what would that cost him? Too easily did he forget that most magical girls weren’t as compassionate as Sammy or Amaryllis.

”Forgettaboutit.” Nuncio scooped up Sammy. ”I’ll figure somethin’ out. Shouldn't be leanin' on others anyway. Mariette can come get me when she wants her coin.” Rosa stood up and walked along side Nuncio. Soon they would disappear into the night.

---

_{@ERode@FamishedPants@twave@Crusader Lord}

There were a lot of Magical girls in the area, though they were spread out enough that they wouldn’t get in each others way. Sil and Rachel had closed in around Hyun, and everyone at a distance was trimming her tentacles and denying her more corpses. Trixy had nearly been nailed by one of the maws, but that cutie from earlier severed the tentacle at the source. It seemed they had everything under control. This kind of coordination pleased Trixy.

Amaryllis’s play was risky, but necessary to to keep control of the fight. Trixy had no idea there was something outside to hoist the monster queen outside, but she didn’t question it. Though this did mean Trixy had to run closer to continue her assault against Hyun. She’d be wary of Alicia’s shots. She was on the other side of Hyun, and a single missed arrow would come towards her or Shaun.

But then there was a bit of a “strategy overlap” as the bodies all suddenly vanished. This confused Trixy, but she’d locate the bodies of her friends later. At least it wasn’t the work of Hyun. That might have reassured Trixy had they not already been in the process of removing her from the rave. The monster queen’s attention was no longer divided between the corpses and them. They would have to be a lot more careful from here on out. The newly arrived tried to explain herself, But Trixy tuned it out. Unless someone was urgently yelling she wouldn’t pay it any mind. They were fighting a monster queen after all.

Trixy could hear Hyun call out in hunger again. It made Trixy a bit worried for the knight of rose. She hadn’t spoken to Amaryllis enough to know if she was a cutie, but she could plainly see the knight was a hottie. A super hottie even. If Trixy was a full blown monster she would probably be trying to eat her too. They had to stop that from happening while not getting eaten themselves.

Before Trixy arrived, she chucked a hand full of acorns under Hyun. Most of them bounced a few times and did nothing, others continued to roll. The ones that continued to roll sprouted into trees. Rather than grow tall, they grew out, like a log stretching across the ground. Without corpses to distract Hyun they’d need cover. Wood might not seem like ideal cover from a fire breathing hydra, but living trees contained quite a bit of water. She’d need to dry them out before they caught fire and burned to a crisp. At least that was what trixy reasoned.

"Get to an acorn if you need a boost up!"

Should someone stand over one of the acorns, it would sprout into a small log. The force would be enough to throw the magical girl in question towards Hyun. She doubted anyone outside of Cradle would try it, but she could always have them sprout into a ramp once/if Hyun had been pulled through the ceiling. Or if she slips off the chain, she could turn the acorns into spikes. But enough exposition. That had its place in Sil’s mind, which was better suited for tactics. Trixy considered herself more of a strategist.

---

_{@AtomicNut@DarkwolfX37}

Tetrad use to keep a diary titled “Strange things that happened to me.” Keeping a traditional diary where you write about every day life was boring to Tetrad. When she moved out of her parents house during her teenage years, she would write about all the cool stuff that was going to happen to her. Getting her first job was in there, her apartment acquisition was in there, as was her first foray into gambling. But it was barely a few pages of large type font she had scribbled out. Tetrad was thinking about how quickly she could fill up that book on today’s events alone.

During her draw, she had pulled “the world,” which was usually a good omen. The card burst into dust, ensuring that Tetrad’s luck would be better than ever. She was counting on it because this looked like a nasty match up.

Until they sprung into action.

Banshee was what Tetrad expected. A loud, gruff leader with too much confidence to back down. Though what had surprised her was her lackeys. They were total clowns. Buttercup didn’t have an agressive bone in her body, and Jimmy was trying to seduce Tetrad. Clearly that wasn’t going to work, after all, Tetrad was stra-

Hold on.

Back the hell up.

Jimmy is a boy’s name.

Tetrad’s pupil’s shrunk as she examined Jimmy closer. It wouldn’t be impossible for Jimmy to be a guy. Her chest was pretty much flat. It was hard to see with her collar on, but Jimmy had a pretty big adam’s apple. The skirt frills hid Jimmy’s hips well, but they were not as curvy as most woman are.

Tetrad had seen the online discussions debating if traps were gay or not, but this was always men trying to defend their fragile masculinity. She wasn’t sure how she was suppose to act in this situation. She had wanted to dance with a guy at the rave, and it seemed like fate had been conspiring against her. Defending Dr Turner was okay, but she knew him better than that. Under those sexy shades he had all the charm of an unpeeled carrot. And now it seemed like fate was toying with her yet again, by offering her a gnarled bone. One wearing the clothes of a woman no less.

”Eh, uh, mgheh!”

Whatever was under his or her clothes didn’t really matter. Well it did, but only because scepters and spears mad boys what they were. Tetrad only flirted with people because it made them easier to control. When she got into gambling, people would do some pretty stupid stuff right after you flattered them. Even at parties, flirting always made those around her liven up a lot more. In her old life, flirting with men got her what she wanted.

”Ahem!” Tetrad grinned like everything was normal. ”I could certainly use your help. ” It was three magical girls and five zombies against two magical girls and a wounded doctor. This seemed like a good opportunity to even the odds. ”Getting people to chill is my specialty! I’m all for ending war. Non-lethal takedown style. Tit for tat.” Beacon may have been an enemy of the Cradle, but slaughtering so many magical girls at once wasn’t something Tetrad condoned. But enough people had died today. If Banshee and her lot could be spared, she’d go for it. Especially if she was getting help.

Tetrad tossed two blue cards at Dr Turner. One for the wounds inflicted from the kick, and another for the damage he sustained flying into the wall.

”Get to safety Dr Turner. We got this!”

Her next card was a yellow one, and as such, gave her the ability to float in the air. If Tetrad’s luck held up, she should be able to fling her yellow card at Banshee’s mid section. During flight, it would turn into a yellow knife that would momentarily paralyse her opponent. Then it would be a simple matter to have Bipartisan attempt to drain the emotions out of Banshee. As far as Tetrad was aware, filling someone with apathy was the fastest way to get them to stop fighting.

---

_{@PlatinumSkink@twave}

Faith hadn’t given up on her previous feelings. She wouldn’t shed a single tear if all of Beacon burst into flames this second. But this tiny stranger and her encouraging words were hard things to ignore. At present, she was her only friend, and if she wanted to save beacon, it might have been worth going along with.

”You’re rather handy aren’t you?” She wiped away her tears as she walked on the tiny samurai’s barriers. ”I didn’t catch your name in all this. May I hear it?” Ronin gave Faith her cover name as they walked. ”Ronin? Hah! I love the sound of it! I’m Faith if you didn’t know already. You you probably already know about this Demi-Goddess and her exploits~!” Though it wasn’t long before they came across Raven.

And there was something about the sight of her that disgusted Faith.

Something about the way Ronin lingered on “Am-” that made Faith’s heart skip a beat. She hadn’t seen this girl before, but she knew she had heard of her. Faith was already fighting to keep her composure up, and this wasn’t helping. She ran along with Ronin, but as they headed off to wherever Ronin was taking her, she released the samurai’s hand.

”Goodness me! We have yet to introduce ourselves!” She lifted her harp up and fired at one of the last remaining dryad wasps. ”I’m Faith Burgundy , Demi-Goddess and banana eater extraordinaire! Who might you be?” She pulled back on her harp strings as she waited for a response from Raven.



_@AtomicNut

The acid simply ran off the top of Reaver’s barrier. Shortly after which, Reaver would etch his rune into the ground. Now Grosket might have been a horror and incapable of talking with humans, but that didn’t mean it was stupid. Waiting patiently for your opponent to complete a ritual was just silly. So Grosket leaned forward onto it’s fists and charged like a silverback gorilla. Reaver had just finished etching his rune into the ground when the ape like ent back handed him into the air. The rune immediately went to work, absorbing the life force of anything nearby. Some people suspected Aighorost’s minions were made of wildlife and plants. But they were actually dead animals and living plants. Undeath fused to life.

Abominations.

Reaver’s rune did work, but it was only able to rob the life from the living plant part of the vines, not the undead flesh that writhed with it. Grosket took notice of the bark dieing on his knuckles, and promptly scratched out the rune. Reaver had been able to restore quite a bit of his vitality, if only because of the sheer volume of plant life surrounding the rune. But such a trick would not work a second time. The vines were everywhere, and they would be much quicker to scrape away the runes should he try again.

Reaver tumbled across the ground, coming to a stop near the east vine wall. It was already attempting to ensnare him when Grosket charged again. As it neared, the ape ent raised its right fist and prepared to flatten the knight where he stood.



_{@Majoras End@Ariamis}

Nightwing’s weapon was effective at cutting through the massive horror’s roots. However, it was only a matter of time before an updraft carried her weapon high into the heavens. Grisbar locked eyes with his attacker. She would live just long enough to regret that.

With a roar, the area directly beneath the dragon bloomed into a garden. One filled from vine hedge to vine hedge with two meter tall dandelions. The blooms closed up, then opened again to reveal the white puff balls that are so satisfying to blow apart. A gale of wind tore through the garden and scattered the seeds into the air. Only each “seed” spread its legs out to reveal itself as a spider. Hundreds of these filled the air, riding the wind like they were fired out of a scattergun.



_{@AtomicNut@Ponn@FamishedPants}

No takers? That was fine with Ampodryl. It understood why others might not want to venture into its lair. It was the most dangerous pillar, after all. Regardless, it didn’t enjoy fighting too much. Fighting implied there was a chance it could get hurt. Ampodryl preferred to torment and harass its preywhen they couldn’t fight back.

Shoggy’s attacks would find no purchase.. The zone where Ampodryl resided defused light. Any projectiles that came in its direction seemed to dither as they passed through the space. Perhaps this magical girl would like to see real power?

Ampodryl stood up and spread out it’s legs. Each foot anchored into its dark lair, Anyone outside its zone would see the glowing spirits getting pulled into the hungry darkness. Without any nearby threats, Ampodryl was free to draw on as much power as it wanted. Its jaw buckled as it opened wider and wider, the flame in its chest glowing as it continued to gain power.

For a moment, Ampodryl’s lair would look like a green flash. Then it was unleashed.

The sea of souls.

A wall of swirling energy tore through the park and smashed into the north wall. Anyone looking on the beam could see the spirits of animals swimming inside. But that would hardly be a detail worth considering once the wall started moving towards them. Ampodryl had begun to swing its head, and everyone in the north-west section of the park was in danger of joining the sea of souls.



Mac's bolstered strength and speed made staying ahead of the sea of souls a breeze. Good thing too, because there was no way she was going to stay ahead of it with her mana alone.

Reaver felt that blow with annoyance as he tumbled against the wall like a ragdoll. It was a better try, but still not good enough. His third eye took a notice at the attack. It was then when he frowned, as he tugged with the vines with no avail. He was scraping at his armor, trying to dodge… the blow having numbed his arms, or so it seemed. The fist colliding with him was inevitable.

And that’s what Reaver wanted that thing to think. He would put more force on the blow, and would mean its own self destruction. Reaver… was not as battle-drunk as one would seem either. Each step of the way he was analyzing, switching battle tactics on the fly. Changing. Probing. Never stopping thinking.

Abominations were known hard to deal with because they defied nature, and therefore it was extremely hard to deal with them as one did now know their weaknesses. The moment an abomination became close with reality and nature, the more mundane means could be employed. Plants had a definite structure, so did animals, even if amalgamated. Biped creatures anchored their muscles in roughly the same places. Wood was often made of longitudinal fibers alongside the direction of the growth, and since the vines were patterned all over Grosket’s fist…

It was pretty much a telltale on how to hit it. And with what. The barrier flared to life at the last possible moment, creating a wedge in the shape of an axe head, positioned carefully lengthwise across the vine growths where it was weakest. The combination of forces would surely split the arm apart as if someone had tried to punch a circular saw.

…But the frantic clawing of earlier? It was another rune painted. This time on Reaver himself. The thin membrane wobbled that ensured his oxygen supply wobbled as he set himself on fire, a painful, but effective measure to suppress any kind of vine towards him, the regeneration and sheer sturdiness keeping the fire from completely burning, however his face peeled off.

He had also entered berserker state.

“VALHALLA AWAITS!” He said, ecstatic at the self-inflicted pain, the mental reinforcerment reigning his sanity in despite the circumstances.

His sword disappeared. Now, an axe created with reinforcement was on each hand. Possibly on fire as well.



Sakura gritted her teeth, barely dodging the human cannonball of a certain magical girl. What was her fucking problem, anyway? She almost could’ve hurted her or Emily! She wanted to beat this idiot’s face in, but then again her two allies intervened.

It was true, the angry jerk wasn’t their main enemy, and Connie seemed to have it covered, for the briefest moment. The glowing discharge of souls was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

“ENOUGH WITH THIS SHIT, EMILY, BURN EVERYTHING!” She said, as she began to sprint towards the happy trigger idiot of a fellow girl, the tentacle girl known as Shoggy. She was stupid, but Umukamui had said she was reliable. Her blasts seemed to diffuse in a certain direction, where the beam was coming frown. His keen awareness senses were telling her so.

“Oi Tako-brain! Springboard!” She said as she jumped on Shoggy’s face, feet first. The amorphous magical girl seemed to understand the command. Perhaps she had not been the first magical girl to do so, and launched Sakura high into the air.

All or nothing. Sakura gritted her teeth as she pinpointed the source of said wide attack. For all she knew, this kind of cocky, overblown attack left people open. She thought, and in a moment of rush, skipped her chant.

The Justice Breaker Lance shone, splitting apart the air towards the source of the ghastly blade, the wolf’s head. It was no mere magical attack, it was killing blow. Lightning type. High piercing, and absurdly precise.

We can skip chants on Killing Blows??? Sakura thought to herself as she felt the energy drain. It was a risky gamble but at the very least it would stop that sniping jerk from being so cocky again and give her teammates a breather.

---

Kamy twisted her lip, as the abomination made vague threats at her and descended upon the trouble. Thankfully she had been brain addled as of late, otherwise the Beacon and the Puuchus would have had more trouble containing her.

She retreated into the shadows. That was the way of the Puuchu.

---

“Uh…thanks, whoever you are.” Dr Turned said, still flabbergasted. Had he witnessed a miracle? He did not know, but having seen that, he knew he was badly outmatched, so he made the wise decision to take his leave as the situation kept getting more and more and more entangled. He’d find out about his saviour later.

Infernalia, however kept speaking at Tetrad’s chest. “You owe me a date for this info. You see, Banshee has a soul jar somewhere, also she’s physically weak. She has an instant death move though. Now if you’ll excuse me, I will refrain from fighting them, Buttercup is nice to me and Banshee is just a sad little girl.”

Banshee wasted no time in proving Shion wrong about the effectiveness of the gun. The zombie she had just shot had only been momentarily staggered, and it flared back up to unlife, sustained by the wraith possessing it. There was a difference between a zombie and a revenant. Revenants would keep coming at you no matter in how many bits you cut them down unless you dealt with the ghost… and Banshee’s undead seemed of this latter type.

Meanwhile Buttercup had gotten up, seemingly no worse for the wear, as she redoubled the attack on Shion.

“I DON’T WANT TO DO THIS, TRULY” She bellowed, creating a Focused Assault of blows on Shion, the winged girl’s speed, agility and endurance being superior in that sense to the magically oriented girl. The damage was beginning to accumulate on Shion, as any defense she could have put in terms of close combat would be overwhelmed, despite Buttercup’s reluctance to clobber her.

Banshee reacted with disdain to the thrown card, using one of her undead as literal meatshield to parry the blow. She eyed Infernalia with a look of sadness for a split second, then of betrayal.

”I will offer your heads to Master Bulk, to pay the ferryman.” Banshee droned in a monotone, as she sent the remaining zombies to rush Tetrad. “Specially, you, transvestite traitor”. Revealing a holy symbol (or rather unholy symbol) of three interlaced moons, the spirit user then sent dozens of incorporeal vengeful wraiths, intent to cause mental and spiritual damage on her opponents.

”I uh… I need to go to see a man about a dog, see ya!” said Infernalia, obviously fleeing the battlefield after this display. ”My Glimmr is KingQueen34, get in touch, okay?” Jimmy waved at Tetrad. Those were nice boobs, but not boobs risked having one’s souls torn apart for.

---

The spectacle continued as they traded blows. The Star Eater Groupies, as good as they were holding the rhythm while trying to fight, weren’t quite up to the level of Alexander and Lily, being pushed back almost one-sidedly while chunks and bits got loose of said human-like constructions.

However, the lasers of Tenebra had been neglected, and peppered Lily with superficial wounds that started to bleed as she performed her attack. Not so much in Alexander’s case, having deployed a shield and leading a charge towards the stage.

It was then when chains barred their advanced, protecting the stage, coated in a dark, corrosive like reinforcement, as Amy did her part to avoid the concert from stopping.

Sadly, something else made SoulBurner stop, as the music died abruptly. If this was a vinyl recording, one could even have heard the scratch. Soulburner’s face was pale, her eyes resting on Alexander.

Indeed, in his zealous charge, the mischievous but pretty much non-hostile fairies with glowsticks had been ruthlessly smashed against the shield, stunned and then stepped on, and no less than a dozen of the tiny cute creatures laid dead at Alexander’s feet. Tiny, ghastly shrieks were heard, as the rest of the fairies flew away like frightened sparrows, leaving their glowsticks behind.

"You… what did you do… you murderer! Those were my fans! They liked my music! It’s far worse than the electric tramp screwing the rhythm with that timey blimey dubstep shitty thing”Soulburner was quivering in rage. Trashing her minions was one thing… but the tiny creatures were just naughty fairies, still delicate and gentle. And among the few denizens of the Overcity that helped to lighten the mood of the trio of magical girls.

“They’re…tough…” Said Tenebra, as she pulled a healing artifact.
"Aye… and real killers too… That’s kind of hot. But we can’t hope to match them, really.” She eyed the sorry remains of the Star eater groupies as she pulled her healing artifact too, healing the wounds of the damaged as long as their chains did not hold.

“…We should give up?” Tenebra asked. Amy looked back.

Soulburner, and duplicates tossed their instruments, this time to the Star Eater Groupies. They could do backup instruments if they were told to, as well.

"No. I will not yield to these assholes. We were a bit rowdy, what with the kid spooking and booze raiding… but defiling a concert… is a SIN! I will not allow it! Or die trying! I AM SOULBURNER!” The girl said as she, and her duplicates hefted their weapons, intent on taking things personally.

“Friends until the end, Amy?”
"Friends until the end, Tenebra.”

Both the other girls flared their powers up as well. The music restarted.



It was then when the chains once again moved, this time like serpentine things of corrosive reinforcement towards Alexander, as Amy in a display of acrobatics and swordplay chose to close the gap and try attacking Alexander’s back. Tenebra stood still for a second, eyeing Lily. She was fast. Really fast. And had time magic. Probably nearly unbeatable. But she wasn’t the only one with tricks up her sleeve.
With a huge, static sound, Tenebra blinked out of existence, space wobbling and ripping, and appearing at Lily’s back, the gravity creating a Warp that gave the illusion of teleport. And then… unleashing a barrage of powerful gravity attacks on Lily’s frail body.
“Mariette can eat my panties…hehhehe” said in a slightly creepy tone.

Meanwhile the assorted duplicates would just keep rushing either target, depending on the effectiveness of the other attacks.

Shion was getting angry. This dumb whore wasn't listening to reason, attacking while shouting that she didn't want to. Sure as hell felt like she wanted to. But with each blow, Shion was able to slightly dull the attacks by magnetizing the girl's weapons and her own body, giving enough reprieve to avoid more than moderate damage. If Buttercup was so scared of Banshee that she'd fight against her own wishes, then Shion would just have to remove Banshee. She jumped back to get some space and threw from her pocket a six by two inch glass vial into the air, shooting it open with another bullet, causing the air to become thick with dark dust as the contents slowly fell to the ground. Shion focused on her magic, so that even under the coming attack from Buttercup she could do what she intended, controlling the cobalt and iron amalgam bullet she had fired through the wraith's knee to fire upwards towards Banshee's neck at nearly the same speed as it was originally fired at. At the same time, she manipulated the bullet she fired through the vial to circle around and fire at Banshee's back. As soon as the projectiles reached their top speed, she also drew in the grains of magical metal that were floating as dust around Buttercup, creating a flowing shield to defend herself with. She also quickly pulled in Fielder from Ko, ready to parry attacks with the weapon in a form that appeared to be a metal baseball bat.

She hadn't wanted to give away so many secrets before meeting that damned bird guy again, but it seemed like she wouldn't get too much choice.

---

@AtomicNut@BrokenPromise

Her initial offer for exfiltration shot down, Raven would listen as Deni would offer her friendship with assistance in the fight. Nodding several times and looking in the direction indicated by the small ronin. "I would love that. I don't have very many friends. You are the fifth and sixth people I've had the chance to meet." She would state cheerfully but still rather matter of fact. Watching from where they were, climbing higher she could see the chaos in the Beacon area.

The girl's attention was drawn away from the scene for a moment as Faith introduced herself. Listening intently The girl's eyes sparkled. "Oh!" Raven's casual movements would become much more deliberate and measured. She would take a step back and curtsy, bowing her head respectfully. "My apologies. I didn't realize I was in the presence of a Demi-Goddess. Raven Bianchi..." She would pause realizing she didn't have much claim to fame that her predecessor had and thus no title. Couldn't hurt to add her patrons though. They were relatively harmless after all. "Representative of the ravens Huginn and Muninn. At your service." It was nothing fancy, but she could think up something better later. Even with no way to know if what Faith claimed was true, the fey still would be Raven's elder and owed a level respect none the less. For someone that shared the look and last name of Shining Scale the girl seemed to be an extremely green magical girl.

Any intent to continue conversation was quickly shut down. Raven could feel the oppressive spirit magic building in another area of the park. Before long a stream of souls would break from the darkness and begin to sweep toward the group that Deni had pointed out just earlier. Shuddering, the girl would hug herself tightly as a pang of fear shot through her. The effects of the sea of souls was as apparent to her as the night sky. Having one's soul ripped away was a difficult thing to explain, but it would be far worse being swept away by the rush of souls. Ronin's previous encouragement snapped her back to the present as it sparked a new determination in Raven. Getting herself in the right mental space she would close her fists. "Snap out of it Raven. She's right, you have to do something." Raven would say out loud to herself. A thought crossed her mind, but there wasn't enough time to explain. "I need to take care of something Lady Burgundy, but I'll be back to help as soon as I can." Her mind made up she would teleport away with a focused glint in her eyes, assuming she wasn't interrupted that is.

Despite being an ally to a couple Beacon girls, Raven's allegiance were to the ravens, the spirits, and to an extent the gods. Still she had watched the twins throw themselves into danger to try and save a particular girl. The ones attempting to protect Ishtar would see an unknown girl appear above the Cardinal and reach out and grab hold of the time locked girl. Being in a stasis Raven wouldn't encounter the resistance that Jenna did and after a few moments the two would vanish from the battlefield.

---

That defense spell was a good call apparently as it deflected an attack from the Monster Queen. However, the situation was beginning to change rapidly. The queen was being hoisted out of the building by a flying ship. Debris was falling down as the payload struggled. Twisted pieces of the roof, support beams, and other crap started raining down to join the already ruined structure. "So much for the warehouse." A canopy was growing overhead now which would help with any further falling objects. Her use of Wood magic was probably the most unique he'd ever seen.

Marveling at the creativity of others magic aside, more and more were throwing themselves onto the close range combat. To some extent that made things a bit tougher as he couldn't just unload your usual volley, which given the monster was covered in water from the rain and tangled in chains would probably be fairly effective. They were however making a few good cuts that he could make use of. "Let's see here." Scrounging around through the junk on the ground he would pick out three loose steel rods. Salvaging some copper he would coil it around the steel and make his way over to one of the acorns. "So how exactly does this-" Not entirely knowing what to expect the first trip was a bit hectic, but he managed to ride the the log the brief seconds he was in contact to not entirely tumble through the air thanks to Mount. Book in one hand and rods stowed in his cloak he would be launched off the ground, past the branches, and into the night air.

Closing the distance to the monster queen he hadn't flown directly at her it seemed, but that wasn't really a problem. He would have attempted this from the ground but the risk of hitting the wrong target was too high. Taking one of the rods in his free hand he would enchant it with a charge that would loop to create a strong magnetic field. He could do this without the extra bit of work he put in with the copper, but this just made for a more efficient use of his magic. "Make an opening! I've got a bolt incoming!" He would yell out to those around Hyun Long. Pointing the rod toward her main body as best he could he would wait for an opening. When a good one looked to have come he would channel his magic through his arm and use his body as a conductor to create an opposing field. Repelled by the matching poles the rod was launched from Shane's hand at the monster queen. Wasting no time he followed up the projectile with lightning so that if it embedded in the monster queen as he hoped the shock would be delivered straight through into her body.

Alicia nodded to herself with a grim satisfaction as her arrows landed, gouging at the tentacles on the Monster Queens back. It served a useful purpose too, preventing the tentacles from lashing into someone else as they were destroyed. Blows not just her own landed in quick succession, before it ended with her being bound in chains and hoisted through the roof.

Unfortunately it did look like Amaryllis had been grabbed in spite of her acrobatics. Of course she'd seen enough to know that the Knight could probably handle herself even in a situation such as this, but she appreciated the offered boost nonetheless. She was fine fighting at range, but others could certainly use it.

"Got it," she called back, so they were aware she had heard what they said. Getting in each others way was something of a concern, and so her arrow output diminished to ensure she didn't interfere with her allies attacks. At the very least, it remained that way until Shane had finished with his lightning assault.

Then she resumed firing with a cluster of tightly aimed beams of light. They rose through the fog filled air to scorch and burn, striking at the wound that Shane had just made, or at the very least directly opposite it so the Monster Queen could not simply focus on healing one wound. That would also divide its attention, giving Amaryllis her opportunity to make a move. She was angry, but she wasn't going to sacrifice victory for emotion. Especially not when they could better fight the Queen above ground.

She'd just need to be ready to move when the time came.

_{@BrokenPromise@Ariamis@ERode@Crusader Lord}