Hilaria found the arm that she was about to slam down towards Connie trapped in a viney prison, and most of her body soon followed. A growl once again emerged from the magical girl as she immediately began to snap free from the plants, but right before she did so, Connie further snared her into a nightmare-fueled illusion.

The form it took resembled a small part of a crumbling amphitheater. The only source of light in it seemed to be a spotlight coming from nowhere, and in the center of this spotlight stood a young woman. Hilaria slowly approached and the figure turned, only to reveal it owned no face. It let out an ominous voice but was impossible to understand. Suddenly, more spotlights shone beside the figure, revealing more and more people, who all seemed to lack facial features as well, and also began saying things she wouldn't be able to understand. Hilaria stared at the first and nearest figure, taking a step forward, causing the spotlights behind it to flicker. Each time those did, Hilaria would find that the faceless people inside the spotlights had disappeared. Hilaria would take another step, and then one more until once again it was her and the original figure left.

Hilaria was almost on top of the figure, and that was when she could see that it had slowly begun to gain features, had obtained a face. It was none other than Isabella's that she saw as she had closed the small distance between them. The illusionary Isabella seemed to smile before opening its mouth to speak. Ishtar's kind voice, the one of a selfless lady who desired peace and forgiveness was one that Hilaria never got to hear.

"GHGHHHHHHHHHH"

All that came out were failed attempts to breathe as a hand quite effortlessly crushed her neck. On Hilaria's face was the same glare she'd had since she'd gone berserk, and it was obviously her hand doing the crushing. As the illusion of Isabella vanished, Hilaria's glare was directed forwards, directly at her newest target, as the glow in her eyes increased in intensity along with a growl.

Connie's magic was successfully able to penetrate deep into Hilaria's character and retrieve the things she considered most terrifying or horrible. Even had she been aware that it was Connie's doing, the ancient girl would have trouble snapping out of it after seeing what she saw. But... Hilaria didn't really 'see' what was before her. At least not for what it was.

Hilaria had wordlessly slaughtered the one being she should care about in this world without so much as blinking. It was clear that things in front of her would be her target, no matter what they may be, and nothing would stop her short of death or unconsciousness. Not reasoning, as Emily and Ishtar had seen. Not family, as the beacon might've guessed. And, most certainly, not fear, as Connie would now be aware.

But Connie clearly wasn't her target. Instead, it was now the woman who had tried trapping her with vines would find herself targeted, Hilaria bursting out of the false world with a thunderous crack, and her gauntlets slamming down with enough force to make a small fissure in the ground that beelined in Gaia's direction, throwing up earth and purple flames as it did so. Even if there was a giant beam of souls slowly turning in their direction, it didn't seem like she had the sort of clarity of mind that would allow her to at least take a break from attacking.

_{@Majoras End@ERode}

Veronica dismissed Fine’s warning with a wave of her hand. “Beacon, Ascendancy, I don’t care what branch they come from. The lot of those righteous fools are as incompetent as they are stubborn.” She stepped towards the exit. “Though there are enough people fighting the monster queen at the moment. Eliza! Maura! Let’s go to the park. The Horror may be more than the locals can deal with.” It was a simple matter for her to phase through the door and take up a seat next to Myria. “You don’t mind giving us a lift, do you?”

---

_{@Erode@Ariamis}

The fact that Justine was part of some legendary evil didn’t surprise Su at all. Nor did it such news scare her. Justine was a threat she had beaten before. They’d reduced her castle to ruble and thwarted her ritual. The only surprising part would be if she still served the same horror she had been serving. Su was no expert on it, but she heard they weren’t especially tolerant of failure. But how did Helga work for Justine and not know more about her? Wasn’t she part of Justine’s elite four? Something she’d have to ask her about when they were in better company.

When Helga cracked a silly joke, Su took her entire hand and rubbed the bridge of her nose. “I’m glad you’re feeling better.” Su grinned. Even if she felt conflicted about Helga right now, she admired her ability to live in the moment. She was already cracking jokes seconds after having a panic attack.

Su started to walk when Helga grabbed her hand, asking her about her last trip to the overcity. “We were running from-” She looked at the Ascendancy girls. Come to think of it, they could turn around and attack at any moment. It probably wasn’t a good idea to spend any more time around them then they had to. “…Point is, we went straight for an over city portal. We didn’t really do any sight seeing. Though there was this one place I saw. Later I’ll take you to see it”

After a short walk, they were at a bridge with something snoring underneath. “That’s not how the last portal sounded.” Su fret her brow. She hadn’t been with this group for a full minute and she was already sick of them. The Ascendancy girls could attack any second, that fire girl could explode any second, and Helga was, well, a handful. If Helga was going to do something to Su she had ample opportunities to do it already. But her true relationship with Justine was clawing at the back of Su’s skull, and she was all too oblivious to the danger. This was a situation she had to get out of as quickly as possible.

They came this way looking for a portal. The fire girl said it would be here. They could hear a snoring troll as well. Therefor…

Normally, if someone wanted to enter and then navigate an entire city like Penrose, you would roll up in a heavily tinted car, and drive at the speed limit. Getting by on foot would be impossible, especially if someone was out looking for you. For a magical girl, however, such a feat was child's play, to say nothing of one who commanded darkness.

Street lamps along a nameless street seemed as if to have their souls snuffed out, light dimming even as the bulbs themselves remained healthy. The rolling blackness progressed slowly... a walking pace. Within the blackness, it was difficult to see anyone hidden within -only the dim lights from inside homes was able to reach the sidewalks, shining upon the casual gait of two young women as they walked along.

Valentine Achill and Annabelle Murgang had only just arrived in Penrose for the first time, entering by foot from the outskirts to take a stroll for their destination. Valentine darkened the streets as they went, obscuring their forms from curious eyes, even if anyone thought it worthwhile to venture out from their homes to inspect the peculiar event as it passed their windows by.

Though they were new to the city, their business was not. As part of NEXT, their organization had already snaked its way into the city walls long before them. Tux, a magical girl known for her disguises, was to be their contact in Penrose, and their ultimate mission the subterfuge of a certain monolithic presence within the city. Under the loud and distracting cover of a dark rave, they had little to worry about in regards to being accosted, but it didn't hurt to keep out of sight.

"How much you wanna bet she won't appear to us as her normal self?" Valentine asked, eyes trained on the large revolver she lazily spun around a finger. She had her hood up, drawing long red hair over one shoulder to hang over her chest. Though their surroundings were utter black, she maintained a small sphere of dim light just around her, so that at least her accompanying teammate could see where she was stepping.

The girl beside Valentine, a certain Annabelle Murgang, was dressed to the nines in her magical girl outfit, sporting a long, elegant and elaborate red dress embroidered to high heaven with precious metals and gems. A large sword rested on the exposed skin of her right shoulder. The raven-haired girl hummed, tilting her head ponderously.

"I'm not sure. Maybe I'm hopeful that, being teammates, we'll get her real face, because that's the courtesy?" Annabelle responded with a light smile. Valentine's gun spinning came to a halt, landing the handle in a sudden grip around her fingers.

"You don't think that being a spy-type means she's got her own goals in the background, and she's duping everyone, even Big Sis?" Valentine grinned.

"We should refrain from losing trust in Tux before we've even met," Annabelle responded.

"Yea whatever." Valentine lifted her other hand, angling the screen of a cellphone to her eyes. Shifting on the LCD screen was an active GPS map, pointing them down the street towards an otherwise nondescript building. At a mere few dozen yards away, Valentine began looking for a hole in the wall to duck inside before dropping her shadowy cover. Sliding through a narrow alley between two buildings, Annabelle followed, and over several seconds, the streetlights began to return to life.

The two magical girls used the alleyway to obscure their quick jump onto the roof of the building at their side. Leaping up, they were met with a suddenly grandiose view of Penrose's taller inner city miles away. The twinkling of the entire city illuminated the rooftop in a dim blue glow, and it was here that they were to meet their third, and begin the mission.

To Gaia’s considerable disappointment, it appeared that her Patron’s blessing had done little more than cleanse a small segment of the park, although it did also seem to be confining the abominations’ influence to the boundaries of the park itself. Still, Gaia had hoped it would’ve had considerably more effect on the monstrosities themselves. Oh well, it seemed a more direct approach was called for, especially now that a massive beam of swirling spirits had appeared and was sweeping inexorably towards them.

However, before she could deal with this threat, Gaia’s attention was drawn to the sight of the dark warrior smashing its way out of Connie’s Nightmare Barrier. Wasting no time, Gaia took hold of Connie and, after leaping back to avoid the fissure racing towards them, sent another swarm of vines to entangle the armored figure.

“Connie! Hit her again!”

“O-Okay!”

Raising her hands, Connie shot a massive blast of nightmare magic at the armored magical girl, although she didn’t know how much this would actually accomplish. After all, the frightening warrior had already escaped one of her most powerful attacks, but at least this would hopefully buy them some time to work out a more effective solution.

“I can see that you hunger for battle, warrior,” Gaia called to the ensnared magical girl, “but the Daughter of Mother Earth has slightly more pressing matters to contend with at the moment!”

Holding Connie close, Gaia closed her eyes and focused all her energy on the ground directly beneath them. There was a loud rumble, before a mighty beanstalk shot up to tower over the park, its top considerably higher than the wall of souls. Standing atop it, Gaia pointed Nature’s Blossom in the direction of the spirit beam’s origin.

“Now, abomination, taste the full force of Nature’s Fury!”

Charging the staff with all the mystic energy she could muster, the verdant magical girl fired a brilliant emerald beam of pure life energy at her target. Smaller beams shot forth from the many leafs of the staff, merging with the main beam, before splitting apart like tendrils to dodge the obstructing sprits and strike around the primary point of impact. In conjunction with this, several of the oversized leafs of the beanstalk curled up, warped, and blossomed to reveal golden cobs of corn. These then fired off like missiles to explode with potent magic power. Gaia was hurling an all-out Barrage at the Druid of Spirits, and when coupled with Sakura’s simultaneous Killing Blow, the attack was certain to cause the monstrosity some serious harm indeed.

---

“Thank you” it was a pair of words that those in the Sanctuary would hear a lot as they started to leave, as Penny did her best to thank everyone who volunteered. “Make sure you can make it back, your lives are important as well” She would say as well. She wanted them to stay as safe as they could, but that was a risky thing at the best of times now. Once this was over she would do, something, she wasn’t sure yet, but she would find some way to thank them with more than just words.

Penny would only stop thanking people when the shy monstergirl poked her, and even then her drone would take over, projecting an image of Penny bowing in thanks with the words ‘Thank you, stay safe’ as it floated above her head. She listened carefully to the girl, and could empathize with the internal strife of trying to change how it was one used their magic. Thus even though her attention was dragged away by Goblina she would place a soft hand on the girl’s shoulder, for Penny knew she had words that would be able to help this shy troubled girl.

“Goblina” Penny would reply in greeting to as she too in the goblin girl’s obviously disheveled state, a sinking feeling forming in her as she did. She had seen Goblina at the Rave, Penny was sure of that; the goblinette had been with Cindy when the Queen left… Which was shortly before everything went to hell. It would take only a moment more for Penny to more deeply scan the dozens of reports flooding in from Beacon members across the city, and another moment to sift back to find what she was looking for.

‘The Cardinal is under attack by Cindy Ford at Penrose Park!’

She had no proof, and nothing but a feeling of dread, but Penny was almost sure that Cindy was either dead or would soon be so. For it seems everyone had forgotten about the Mint, which the blackened organization used to masterful execution.

“One moment please” Penny would say to the second in command of Cindy’s queendom, turning back to the girl next to her. “Yes. Yes, you can used it to help. My first Patron made me a machine of destruction, gave me a deep and colorful measure of ways to break people and things. Yet look what I have done made a place for all of us to find a moment of peace and quiet. Nothing is stopping you from helping those that are injured. In some instances you might be the only one that can help.” Penny would give the girl a soft smile as she gently pats her shoulder, “Thank you for having the courage to come forward, and thank you for all the help you can give.”

Afterwards she would turn back to Goblina and move closer to the disheveled girl, she wouold start speaking as soon as she got close “Cindy left the Rave, shortly before it stared devolving into a massacre. Last bit of her I can find is in the reports I can access, in which it claims Cindy has attacked Beacon.” She would hold up a hand to stall out any response “I think the Mint orchestrated all of this, as I saw you at the Rave, you were with Cindy and I don’t think she would attacked without a good reason.” And even then once a mutation was triggered it would be hard to pull someone off their chosen, which Penny could only assume was what happened. “I am sorry to add that at the moment I don’t know where Cindy is or if she is alright. To make it worse the Park where she was last seen has become the sight of a Horror attack.” She would place her hands on the shoulders of the smaller girl as she spoke, thankful for her robotic nature as it kept her appearing calm and composed, even if internally that wasn’t completely true. Everything was going to hell, far too quickly, and Penny knew she needed to step up, thankfully she also knew she was up for the task.

“I won’t stop you if you want to leave, but I need to focus on this Sanctuary right now”[/i][/u][/color] It was a touch cold hearted, but also true. Cindy wasn’t someone Penny could bother with trying to help at the moment, not with all the others who were unsupported. “Once thing have calmed down I will do everything I can to help you find her, or find out what happened to her. But at the moment you know this place better than I do and I could use your help to keep it safe for tonight. It’s your call, I’ll understand either way.”

---

“Right… Because the only reason anyone came to the Rave was to get smashed” Ashlyn would say sarcastically “Not like anyone there could easily tell things were going to get out of hand the moment the idea was tossed about and figure they could go there to help out right? Nah couldn’t be, just not in anyone’s nature to be a good person unless it is convenient, right?”

She would go on to say crossing her legs and resting her chin on her hand. “After all, we must all be drenched in sin. So much you can tell me at least one two things that I have done to lead to the death and destruction of humanity right? It’s not like I was given this form by my ancestors to keep protecting humanity from rampaging Yokai. That would just be ridiculous.”

Her tone was dry enough to evaporate lakes and her gaze was locked onto Sharron, but there was no reproach in her eyes, just simple disappointment. “And yeah we are all cowards aren’t we, I mean who else would try and evacuate as many people as they could from an obvious death trap at personal risk, obviously the cowards. It’s not like we can’t feel the lingering echo of when a spirit is rent from its mortal shell, or hear the last echo of a mind as it goes quiet and decided that we are fed up with the pointless slaughter. No, we are running away because we are scared, and wanted to hide. Guess it’s a good thing we shut the door and made damn sure not to open it even when someone was pounding on it huh?”

She wouldn’t move much as she spoke, nor would she raise her voice, she just simply stayed seated watching Sharron, but it was easy to tell that Ashlyn didn’t expect much from the Ascendency member, yet she was still disappointed, yet not suprised.

---

The city was little more than a blur of lights and color as Viva raced through the streets of Penrose. Thin stream of her now viscous form trailed slightly behind her as she pulled more and more speed out of her now divinely powered motorcycle. Taking turns and lethal speeds and near blind angles, none of that garnered anything more than a passing thought.

There was much more important things on her mind after all. The plight of the city, the Rave’s outcome, none of it was known to the corrupted nurse, and truthfully neither would she care. Her family was in danger and that thought consumed her to near totality.

It was a warning, a gift, and congratulations all wrapped up in one given to her from Mother
‘Oh my dear Vivian, I knew that you were something special’ The goddess’ words reverberated within her mind even now ‘Why didn’t you tell me you already had a child within our world? And a Lover that’s not too far removed from it either, shame that it seems like one of them is about to die’

Viva couldn’t recall what she said in response, but she knew that she was lucky to not have been stuck down for her insolence as she demanded to know who and where.

‘Follow your heart’ The goddess had said with a coy smile as a moment later a stinging pain had flared up within Viva’s chest, as if something was tugging on her heart. The girl in question hadn’t stayed instead she had raced off following the sensation as best she could.

And it was only now, after what felt like an eternity that Viva was nearing her destination, if the growing pain in her heart was any tell at any rate. Conjuring a simple ramp with her magic, Viva launched herself off the road and in to the sky. Something that she was going to have to do regardless as she was rapidly running out of road, as her destination was Mayor Park.

Her divine guidance would fade the moment she laid eyes upon the magical boy within the park, and she would know with unshakable certainty that she had found her son. Her fear would quickly shift to anger as she shifted her attention towards the twisted tree that had dared to harm her child.

Once again her translucent gray barriers would spring into existence underneath the wheels of her bike, as she formed the road she would need to take her past Gtosket and closer to Reaver.

Her revolver would materialize and she swiftly would start unloading into the back of the abomination’s legs as she drove on. As she began her strafing run she started to prepare a more effective spell for the task of fighting this hulk of rotted wood. Most reinforcement is about building things up, making them better then they are, Viva's magic was much more the opposite, tearing things down and making them worse, but reinforcing the flaws inherent in all things. If she was given an opportunity she would take it, and place a withering disability upon Gtosket.

---

_{@Ariamis & @Ariamis & @AtomicNut+@BrokenPromise}

---

As she looked back, watching the greater horror leave the boat, watching chain and rubble bound Monster Queen being hefted up in the air...the pirate's attention was not totally on the situation itself. As the heat of battle thrummed in her veins, even as the flaring hunger of her darker side prodded at her psyche to be satiated, one thing stood out above all others. The glint of a familiar silverlight, pale skin, and the teeth of a great and dark maw. Sophia did not even speak, gritting her teeth as her body seemed to move without a second thought and plummeted off of the rear of the Dutchman as it continued to steeply rise up into the rainy skies of Penrose.

Brown feathered, hawk-like wings erupted from the girl's back, though rather than flap about they merely helped steer her through the wind and the chill and the rain towards her target. It was almost as if time was moving in slow-motion for her, at least to her perception, though her Boarding Axe and rings and Chain Arm seemed to thrum with magic as she darted like an arrow towards the open maw of the beast. A great maw, a mass of deathly teeth and a slavering tongue, and yet without hesitation the winged pirate dove right into its face (not mouth) with an almighty roar on her lips and her axe already brought up to fire.

She could feel the rings on her fingers get hot, as mana surged into them as a little magical barrier coated her body. She could feel the surge of her mana, entering into her Boarding Axe and supercharging its attack and nearly making it shake in her hand. She could even feel as much mana as she could squeeze into the largest possible magical attack she was forcing out, the warm glow of white-hot gunpowder surrounding her body and coating the shimmering golden magical shield now covering her body briefly as she flew in. Though even as the teeth of the monster moved into place about her, even as her whole being fell right into the formerly howling monster's mouth at top speed, her goal was simple...

...Give em' hell.

"NOT MY ONLY FRIEND YOU BITCH!!!"

If she succeeded, several things would seemingly happen all at once.

The pirate's axe would fire off in a mighty blaze of fire and shot and powder that erupted into the monster's face. Even her own body would seemingly erupt in great flame and light, the Focused Assault attack spell erupting off of her briefly shield-covered body like she was a living bomb. Gunpowder magic in all of its explosive glory would shine like a brilliant star in that moment, shining amidst the dark and the rain and terror that had become prevalent in Penrose at this time.

But what of Sophia? Would she succeed in saving her scantily-clad ally? What of the Monster Queen? Would she be stopped for a moment, or perhaps even turn her mouth enough to actually devour the pirate? What of Amaryllis? Would she have a chance to escape?

Only the GMs the following moments would tell.

For now, however, for just that very moment the ring of one magical girl's battle cry and the din of explosions might be heard as they tore into the night.

---

---

The infuriated magical maid was barely able to dodge the tentacle of the monster queen in her blind rage, but even so she didn't stop attacking. She lashed out with her duplicating knives, throwing them in a concentrated 'fire' as she multiplied and thew them, multiplied them and threw. There wasn't much for her to say, though at least her attack were directly aimed at any allies or the ilk. Yet the former horror girl...wasn't exactly in her best state of mind either. Overcome by the swelling of emotion and raw fury at the disgusting scene and Hyun for eating the dead and deceased, she was attacking with single-minded focus and attention. It was perhaps the most furious and angry she maid had ever been, or perhaps even felt, since her 'creation'.

Meanwhile, a certain Greater Horror looked on as she watched the bodies rapidly disappear in the spreading fog. Not paying any mind to the lack of attention on her, however, she seemed content enough to watch on as the magical girls attacked and struck at the now in-the-air monster queen. She seemed to be entranced at the ferocity, the tragedy, and the insanity of the entire situation itself really, though not in a manner that made it come off as thinking light on things. But this was it. The light of humans, fighting for their very lives and world against the things that slithered in the night...A beautiful thing indeed.

At least, even if someone working for that big-meanie-head-alien-goddess that had dropped on her head so long ago was somewhere in this area. No hard feelings though~

---

@Ariamis@ERode@Flamelord@twave@BrokenPromise

Fast. Faster than expected. If she had set up platforms beforehand to leap off from, she could have evaded it, but her stratagem worked against her this time. Twisting her body so that the tentacles would wrap around her limbs rather than her joints, Amaryllis grit her teeth as the serpentine coils grappled her. The Monster Queen was certainly strong, both in magical ability as well as brute force. And it reminded Amaryllis once more that, though she had fought many things in the past, facing the apex state of a corrupted magical girl was a new one.

Not that knights ever shirked from facing great foes, unknown foes.

Passing her magical energies into her Sword, the Knight of Rose bid her time as the monstrous girl drew closer, eager to take a bite out of her up close and personal. The blade hummed in anticipation; the moment Amaryllis relinquished her grip, it would be given a life of its own, flying through the air to sever the restraining tentacles. From there, freed, she could launch her counterattack in full, retribution for all the dead who could not be given a proper burial. Down below, Alicia continued her brilliant ordinance, while Shane called out, ready to unleash. She can adjust to that. Just a bit longer now…

Above, something fell. Not a star. Not a bolt. But a missile, interposing herself between Amaryllis and the Monster Queen before erupting in a burst of fire.

“Sophia!”

Rocked back by her friend’s explosive magic, the Knight of Rose tore her dominant hand free from her restraints, before cutting the other tentacles off. Her own chains shot out from her left hand now, three silvered ivies scrambling outwards to connect with the Pirate Queen’s own chains. They linked together and, planting her feet against a severed tentacle, Amaryllis leapt down. The two of them flew back into the basement of the warehouse, landing beside Rachel.

Was she Ascendancy, or Beacon?

Amaryllis grimaced, before pushing away such dangerous thoughts.

“Shield Maiden, your magic grants benedictions of healing too, correct?” Amaryllis turned to face the Monster Queen again, her Sword never sated. “Heal her wounds, and get me a White Coin!”


The rain felt heavier the closer one was to the clouds, as if the heavens themselves did not wish for others to draw so much closer to it. The oppressive downpour pounded against anything that left itself exposed, and a puddle expanded upon the rooftop, months of lacking maintenance ending up with a clogged drain and an absolutely filthy outdoor pool. In the distance, thunder rumbled. The cries of the monstrous and the horrific sounded through the din of the storm, but while the instincts of a magical girl would pull Annabelle and Valentine towards the site of incidents, professional restraint saw that they kept on course instead.

From the shadows of a ruined penthouse, their senior operator stepped out, white hair a soggy mess. Her eyes were a dull red, and her green jacket was zipped up in the weather, though by the goosebumps developing on her bared thighs it looked as if it didn’t really help. A scythe hung from her hip, and two knife-like protrusions stuck out from her head, giving off the impression of someone who either had some edgy taste, or had the misfortune of once contracting with a Patron who had such tastes. She raised a hand in greeting, water dripping from her gas mask onto the fur lining of her jacket.

“What’s in my pocket?” Tux asked. Though authentication phrases were old-fashioned and vaguely irrelevant in a world where Psychics could just pluck thoughts out of one’s brain, protocol was still protocol. She waited a couple seconds for the two to speak their respective phrases, before ushering them under what shelter remained in the penthouse.

It was a vaguely depressing abode, with a half-collapsed roof and only the markings of where furniture once existed. Tux appeared to have made some effort in cleaning the place up though. A single-person tent was pitched up, a camp stove sat unlit, and an electric kettle radiated heat. Wringing her hair dry, the operative poured Annabelle and Valentine cups of hot water, before producing a tablet from the folds of her jacket.

“Was out scouting, and favour’s swinging heavily in our favor right now. Riots all over Penrose, a Horror manifesting in the park, a Monster Queen at the warehouse district, and this abnormal weather’s all got Beacon being stretched to capacity. They’ll have guards at the entrance, but I’ve checked out their HQ before: it’s a magical building, but still a normal one.” Tux poured herself a cup of water, somehow managing to sip at it without removing her mask. “They’ve got air ducts on the exterior of the western wall, and with my Disguise Artifacts, we can slip in and crawl through. They’ve got surveillance in the area; that’s where you come in, Valentine. Once we’re in, we swap out to the next set of disguises and work out the layout from there.”

Lightning cracked, and Tux stepped out of the penthouse, tossing away what remained in her cup. She planted a foot upon the edge of the building and looked down.

Down at Beacon HQ, disguised as a mundane office complex. It was a vertigo-inducing drop, but nothing a magical girl couldn’t handle.
Turning back to her new partners, Tux stared at them, before letting out a bark of laughter. “Right,” she said, “Name’s Tux. How’re you two feeling today?”


Seven Sinners? That sounded…interesting. Maybe they were cool dudes and dudettes who weren’t tied to the Mint but were constantly pursued by them anyways? Hah, that’d be funny.

Less funny though, was that it was clearly becoming obvious that none of them wanted to stay at the Overcity for long at all. As in, they were straight up going to leave. All of them. Not just the person who actually asked about the exit, but literally all of them. Including the water-girl who she was going to exhort a locust-dinner out of. A locust dinner from a restaurant that only existed in the Overcity.

…

Askefye sniffed again, though it wasn’t blood that was seeping out of her nose.

If washboard wanted to be in the real world so much, maybe she shoulda just stayed there and died then! Buncha no fun turd balls. Moment you show those slimebeakers any sort of consideration at all they just straight up aggro outta nowhere and then leave with all your savings in tow! Oh, they thought Askefye was stupid, huh? Thought she didn’t know exactly what the Ascendancy thought about monster girls? Must’ve felt way more comfy, now that there’s more of that ilk there.

Didn’t even acknowledge her invitation to go to that fancy locust place.

Fine. Fine! The rave was fun while it lasted, but she had absolutely no interest at all in hanging with these people. Not like she needed people anyways. She’ll just dine-and-dash! Get herself blacklisted, but at least that’s a sure-fire way of getting dinner, compared to eating with the Ascendancy. Oh, what the fuck was she thinking anyways, that just saving someone’s life was enough for them to actually want to do something in return for you, rather than just leaving immediately and…

“Forget it.”

Askefye narrowed her eyes, salt crusting over the corners of her eyelids.

“I hope when you get back to the Undercity, three months will have passed. Jerks.”

Blue flame surged out of her, jets that shot her skywards, then outwards, away, away, away from people.

And, in the wake of the roar, the snoring stopped.

“Whuh? Wuzzat?”


"Uh..." Myria stared blankly at Veronica's uncalled for flex, before gathering herself up. "First of all, who the hell are you? And second of all, hell n-"

"Let her, Myria," came Fine's own voice. The dame opened up the door at the back, nodding once at Gerard. He smiled, noted the amount of passengers outside the truck. Relinquishing the magic that held his form together, the servant faded away into the air, leaving space enough to just fit everyone else. No need for any of the girls to be left out, after all.

"B-but, what? You're the one telling me to know my limits and not do crazy shit! Like, y'know, drive into a park full of horrors?"

"Different approaches. We're driving by, not into it." Fine crossed her legs and rested her clasped hands on her lap. "And I do hope you'll be sharing what you learn from Evira with Mimoku once this night's over, Veronica."

"Oooh, it's about this, isn't it?" Myria nodded energetically. "Then for my taxi services, I want a Skeleton Key!"


Below, Hell reigned, perversions of nature letting their wrath be heard, corruption freely spilling from their forms.

Above, Heaven raged, clouds inspired by divine will congregating joyfully, the children of the storm surging by at speeds rivalled only by light.

And in between...what was there in between?

In the epicenter of the clearing in the clouds, a woman robed in white stood, her many-ringed staff crackling with electric energy that kepted it suspended in the air, so many hundreds of meters skywards. Here, it did not rain. Here, it did not blow. Here, it did not crackle. Here, a Patron overstepped their bounds under the guise of 'interference'.

"Aighorost," the woman called out. "The 9th Lei Zi, emissary of the Storm-Bearer Tian Rong, stands before you, to remind you that the calling of such creatures into this realm greatly exceeds the definition of 'Minion' that all Patrons have agreed upon. Stand your children down, lest other Patrons use your actions as pretext for overt interference."

Since it had seemed like Connie took things under control with the berserk girl, Emily had flown over to Sakura, who wasn't in the best of moods. Judging by her choice to use another girl as a springboard so suddenly. Weirder yet was Shoggy's willingness to be one. But at least there was some form of consent, Emily supposed. As for why Sakura wanted to do that. Well, she seemed to want to go on the offensive against one of those horrors, so Emily followed her order and decided to begin blasting the hedge walls separating them from the Spirit Zone with fire to clear a way for them, acknowledging her request with an "O-okay! I got it!"



Meanwhile, Silhouette had been assisting the rest of the group involved with the Monster Queen by attempting to do as much damage as she could. That, however, became harder to do so once the fight took to the sky, so pausing for a moment, Sil retrieved her shadow, as its purpose had been fulfilled.

Trixy seems to be doing fine.

Samantha couldn't help but think to herself. She was being far more productive in this situation than even herself, but then again, whenever big monsters showed up, Sil found herself relegated to supportive duties more often than not.

Thanks for the assist.

After conveying this through their mental link, Samantha stepped on the acorn and...

"!?"

Samantha was not surprised by the sudden altitude she gained by stepping onto the acorn. That was fine. But what she didn't expect? That despite her incredibly sturdy outfit, her superhuman reactions, and decades of experience, that something would simply slip right through her defenses and hit her exposed back.

Man, this rain was cold.

But ignoring that, Sil utilized her enhanced perception of time to survey the area and the actions of everyone in it. She noted that Amaryllis had gotten caught by the monster and saw Sophia's subsequent save, but also noticed Shane charging a powerful strike. These things made it difficult for Sil to get close, but maybe she could provide a follow-up attack after Shane?

While Silhouette couldn't fly, what she could do was teleport. As Amaryllis and Sophia took to the ground and Shane had his chance to attack, Sil would, assuming she needn't respond to another variable, teleport herself just a bit higher so that she could time her attack after Shane's, so as not to be caught in it.



Though while all that was occurring, the group at the helicopter now had a new obstacle thrown in -- a large laser beam of souls coming from the horror that looked like a dog.

"S-sakura!" Emily called out to her bold friend, who had just effectively yote every last bit of her mana at the fiend without a care in the world. Not only that, but Gaia seemed to be blowing most of her mana on an attack directed at the horror, too! Even though Emily could join the others in this blatant disregard for the conservation of mana, she opted against doing so to assist the others in case something bad happened afterward, flying closer to Sakura in order to catch her.

---

”Ngh!”
Lily winced as she was struck by the drones, and quickly touched her arm, feeling the wound left by a laser; she was quickly reminded of how even the smallest threat shouldn’t be dismissed. In response, she shot out another volley mid-cartwheel, blasting the drones out of the sky.
”There! It’s lights out for you-”
She didn’t get a chance to continue her quip, as she heard somebody behind her. She turned to shoot at the dark girl, only to find herself suddenly lifted up into the air.
”WAAH!”
The stinging drones had distracted Lily for long enough to not notice that Tenebra had teleported behind her, and as a result the green-haired girl was thrown about, flailed about and slammed into the ground in quick succession. Lily transformed her weapon into a rod, and attempted shooting at the girl with a lightning bolt, but she was unable to aim properly due to being thrown about like a ragdoll. She knew she couldn’t use her time magic to escape either, as Gravity magic had a dilating effect. More slams to the ground followed, causing Lily to hit her jaw hard, bleeding from her lip.

Crap! I need to escape…!

Lily… She heard Ixion, her Patron, speaking to her telepathically.
”Escape. You can fight another time.”

Lily was reminded of her Get Out of Jail ability; she could escape from any situation to a safe place. But she grit her teeth, grunting as another slam now fractured her kneecap.

No! I won’t leave Alex behind! Isn’t there anything I can do?

In her mind’s eye, she saw Ixion; the proud form of thunderclouds in the form of a unicorn lowered his head.

Remember...You are the potential...Balance the negative...With positive...

Lily was thrown in an upwards direction. After just a couple of slams, she had incurred grievous injuries, showing her weak Vitality. She had to end this by the next slam. She lifted a hand up, and yellow, electrical energy sparked from it.

”I am the potential…” She groaned. Once again, she felt herself crashing down, the ground coming closer and closer…

She opened her eyes; they glowed yellow as she thrust her glowing hand out towards the incoming ground. The moment her palm reached the ground, she stopped, shaking mid-air as she was pulled by the gravitational storm, yet she wouldn’t budge. She had created a field charged with negative potential electromagnetic energy on the ground below; emanating positive charge herself, she created a magnetizing fundamental force that equalled the gravity pull.
She turned her eyes to Tenebra with a cocky smile, using her other arm to aim her staff at her.

”...I am the balancer! V-JOLT!”

She unleashed a Barrage of lightning bolts, catching Tenebra by surprise; she was zapped with paralyzing force, causing her to be outright knocked out, her hair standing up straight, limbs twitching in place and her body wracked with grievous harm; she was out of the fight.

As the duplicates closed in, Lily reversed the charge on the ground, launching her up in the air.
As she twirled like a figure skater, she transformed her weapon into a bow and proceeded to blast the clones away with perfect precision, while also planting slowed arrows into the air; she was now angry.
”You may be friends, but it is a friendship founded in cruelty and evil! I won’t forgive such toxicity!”

---

Goblina bit her lip, but nodded in acknowledgement of Penny’s request, allowing her to deal with the shy monstergirl, who in turn seemed to blush at the robot girl’s encouraging words. “Y-Yeah. I’ll do my best then. Oh, my name is Sibrex. Thank you for building this shelter, Penny!” She then waved goodbye, and ran over to the chamber where the wounded had been taken to.
“You know, Sibrex wasn’t like that when I met her for the first time,” Goblina happened to state. “She was a cruel kid who liked to play ‘clay’ with people. But, as she spent time here at the shelter, she began to gradually get better.” She blinked. “Sorry, got a bit sidetracked. What’s the situation?”

Goblina listened to Penny’s explanation, her expressions ranging from concern to shock. “Geez...This is bad. Cindy wouldn’t do something like that unless she thought she could end the whole conflict.” She nodded in agreement at her suggestion. “Most likely, I’ve seen firsthand how they ruin lives, they would have the balls to pull something like this off.”
The short monster girl turned, about to run, when Penny told her to stay. “But Cindy is...Fffff-udge. I’ll stay and keep the place running. But you better get in there and save her, Penny! We need her.”

---

“Tch.” Sharron turned away, holding her shoulders. “If I wasn’t wounded like this...Forget it. You monsters wouldn’t understand the pain I’ve gone through. Seeing my family rent apart and worn like...accessories...” Her voice quieted down. “Tell me...Have you ever killed someone?”

---

Helga smiled back to Su as they walked, though it momentarily turned into an awkward one. “Well, yeah. I was pretty worried back there, to be honest. I wondered what you were talking about with the other asian-styled girl, though. Oh well, it’s probably nothing I should worry about, hah.”
She brought a hand behind her head and giggled a bit, noting the pause Su made; she decided not to inquire further. “You betcha! Let’s go on a real tourist vacation there for like a week.”

Vivi raised an eyebrow as Su addressed her and FanFan. They looked at each other, and nodded. Fanfan spoke: The purification can be done in two different ways, and result in two results. The first is a ritual that takes some time, but results in removing all corruption from you; no dark weapons or Powers, but also no Mental Mutations either. You’ll be back to being a regular magical girl.” Vivi continued. “The second method is by use of a White Coin. Not only does it do what the ritual does, but in addition it also changes the source of your magic from your former Patron to Beacon, freeing you from them and allowing you to start anew. This has the benefit of-”

The two were interrupted when Askefye made a hissy fit and left. Even so, Vivi didn’t show much sympathy. “Hah! Good riddance.” However, she then twitched her eye as she heard a new voice coming from under the bridge. “Damn, the troll woke up. We’re not in much of a fighting condition; we’re performing a tactical retreat.” FanFan nodded, and the two began to run away. However, Vivi glanced back at Su one last time, as if pondering what else to say, before she turned back and disappeared into the Overcity’s wilderness. Hrlga turned to Su.
"You know where the portal is, right Su? We gotta go before the troll spots us!"

---

As Hyun Long disappeared up from the rave through the open hole in the ceiling with Amaryllis in her clutches, Trixy sowed seeds of support across the bloodied floor, granting her companions passage up into the sky in pursuit of the monster queen. While Rachel refused the offer with a disgusted scoff, Leena was not as picky after seeing Shane launched from a log. “Thanks,” she stated neutrally, and also hopped on a seed that grew into a log, her swords crossed before her like a pharaoh as she flew.

Up above, lit against the moon, Hyun Long’s dragon-headed tentacles coiled tighter around Amaryllis as they blasted down towards the pursuers with small breaths of fire; while dampened by the rain, they were still potent enough to inflict first-degree burns on Shane and Leena. The Knight of Rose, as she was brought right up to her waiting fangs, saw that the wound Sil had inflicted on her main body was closing at a slow rate; based on this, she deduced that given the opportunity to feed, Hyun Long could regenerate back to full health. As the fangs closed in, however, the monster queen glanced up in surprise and screeched; Sophia came to a daring rescue, performing a suicidal dive to save her friend. Hyun shot out a tentacle to intercept Sophia; it easily broke her barrier, biting into her side with a rending crunch, but wasn’t enough to stop her from detonating the gunpowder spell right in the monster's face. As a result, her tentacles loosened enough for Amaryllis to make her escape, swinging with a chain in a Spiderman-esque fashion with Sophia held in the other arm.

Hyun Long roared, and shot her tentacles down, only to be intercepted by Alicia and Shane. The former’s next shot widened the hole on the warehouse’s roof with her beams and reached first, hitting the mass of tentacles Hyun had moved under her, destroying most of them. Shane’s steel javelin then successfully passed through and pierced Hyun Long’s foot. The resulting shot of lightning used the embedded rod to channel electricity through her main body, once again shocking her entire being. Sil and Serenity added to her pain further, both using small bladed weapons; whether it's a single slice that severed the other foot, or dozens of knives that stuck to her body like a pincushion.

Hyun was now severely wounded, her tentacles no longer smooth and coordinated in their movements, but rather erratic and confused. The monster queen herself groaned loudly in pain, her body shaking from the electric shock.
“FOOD! FHOOOD!” At that moment, as the rain abated, she sniffed something, and looked up with bloodshot eyes towards the Flying Dutchman. Then, she began severing the chains around, but curiously enough she didn’t sever the anchor chain binding her to the ship; instead, she began rapidly climbing up it, using her tentacles like the arms of a gorilla to hoist herself up. When Hyun Long reached the keel, she wrapped her tentacles around the underbelly, letting a couple stretch up to the deck to snap at the crew; like a ship under attack by a kraken, so was the ghostly ship under attack by a being similar to the sea monster. Hyun Long then blasted fire on the keel with her hands in an attempt to breach it; it seems she had caught scent of the bodies collected in the ship’s storage, and was now going for a last-ditch attempt to eat more corpses.

Rachel had already reached outside the building, using barriers as jumping platforms, when she was met with Amaryllis dropping Sophia’s wounded body into her arms while demanding her to heal the dark magical girl.
“Heal her? This wretched buccaneer?” Using one hand, the Inquisitor grabbed Sophia by the neck and let her dangle letting her see how far she would fall down.
The Inquisitor considered dropping her right then and there. On any other day, it would have been a simple job of purging the filth. Her hands clasped tighter around Sophia, causing her to groan...

However…

She owed the girl, as sinful as she was, for rescuing the remaining bodies of her comrades. She also did assist in the fight against the monster queen using a ghost ship. Finally, she came to a decision.

“Purgatory.”
Rachel intoned, as she punched her fist right through Sophia’s stomach.

But instead of blood and guts, what came out was a shower of white light that enveloped her insides. When the Inquisitor pulled her fist back, there was a white hole that quickly closed up, restoring Sophia to full health. Even the excruciating pain of the violent act had soothed into nothingness as fast as it was inflicted.

She then dropped Sophia, letting her slide down a diagonal barrier safely down to the floor.
“You have one chance to save her,” she stated, and pulled out a White Coin; holding it between her thumb and index finger, she scoffed. Then, she threw the White Coin at Amaryllis.
“To save the monster before I cast her into the fires of Hell.” With that said, the Inquisitor turned her back to the girls, and began climbing up towards the ghost ship.

---

Hudie rushed towards Ishtar with her bladed fan as the time-frozen girl’s lower body disappeared into the shrubbery. But just before she was pulled completely in, Raven had appeared, grabbing her hand. Hudie was half-way to throwing her fan at her when she instead dashed forward, reaching out to touch Raven’s back the moment the teleportation was activated; as a result, not only did Raven teleport Ishtar, but also Hudie.
Upon arrival, Hudie brought the fan’s sharp edge threateningly to Raven’s throat. “Speak. What do you want with her?” She asked coldly, showing no hesitation to slit her throat given the slightest provocation.

Elora managed to stop her cyberbox from spinning once she landed behind the Dog Pillar Druid, only to notice the Pillar Druid launching its deadly beam. Using rapid typing on a hologram interface, she summoned a drone from the inside of her cyberbox; and sent it flying into the mouth of the monster, spinning rapidly in an effort to disrupt the firing of the attack. she had deduced that the attack was designed to attack souls, and was thus ineffective against soulless machines. At the same time, she activated the laser guns she brought out previously, blasting at the dragon while floating up, ready to perform basic evasive maneuvers in case of counter attack.
Tsuki herself created a wall of sturdy magical force, covering the area right in front of her in a round shape. “Get behind me!” She commanded, and braced for impact.

Nightwing gnashed her teeth as her Bladebat was blown away; while she could easily recall it, it did mean that she would have to get close and personal to better deal with Grisbar. Upon seeing the rain of spiders headed her way, she created an enervating field; while only potent enough to weaken magical girls, it was potent enough to outright kill spiders, draining them of their vitality. Then, Nightwing got an idea. Using the dark night to its full advantage, she slipped with shadow stepping , and then thrust a held Bladebat into the monster’s back.
“Eat some of this, bub!”
She then channelled a weakening curse on Grisbar, robbing the life out of any creations it wanted to summon or manifest.

Alexander was caught off guard when one of the girls attacked him from behind. Although thanks to his forcefield, it didn't actually hurt him "Gah!" He cried out as her blade bounced off his forcefield. He turned around to face her, but as he did, strange acidic chains started to close in on him 'Wonderful...there's too many of them.' He extended his swords blade with a barrier and swung it at a horde of chains, cutting them down like wheat, yet there was still more. As the chains, along with some clones of her, kept rushing him, Amy kept dancing in to attack his blind spots, chipping away at his forcefield bit by bit whenever she did. Getting frustrated, Alexander unleashed some tentacles from his shoulder to knock away some of the mob, and keep Amy off his back (literally) they thrashed around behind him, crushing more than a few clones, and keeping Amy from getting in any more backstabs, or throwing any more chains at him from his blindspot, as the ones she did throw got crushed. Alexander was able to replenish his forcefield...when he noticed Lily getting thrown around by magic

"LILY!!" He tried to reach her, but the clones and Amy kept him from getting closer to her "Gah...I don't have time for this!" Alexander yelled as he made some clones of himself. Lucky for him, these clones were also in his Primal form, however, they ate up more of his energy. With five of them, they were better able to cut a way through to where Lily was. When Amy closed in to stop them, one of the clones managed to snag her with a tentacle "Gotcha bitch!" Before she could escape, that tentacle began thrashing around, slamming her into the ground over and over, until she was knocked out. Right after that, Lily unleashed a massive bolt of lightning and took out the other one. With her now doing better, Alexander no longer felt a pressing need to reach her "Guess we can finish mopping up these freaks" he said to his duplicates, as they began tearing into the remaining clones, right after Alexander put Amy in a small barrier prison, in case she woke up 'I don't need you dancing around any more.'

Seeing both of her comrades fall before her eyes, Soulburner… once known as Zophia, knew that their defeat was at hand. Her knees fell limp for a second, and it seemed as if she had lost all will to fight.
“Cruel and evil? What…do you fucking know.” She said, her voice shaky. “WHAT DO YOU EVEN KNOW!?” She said as she lifted herself to her feet. “YOU ARE THE ONES KILLING MY FANS, AND USING LETHAL FORCE!” Soulburner was crying, her eyes moist.

With tears of blood.

Amy for her part, had decided to play limp for the briefest moment. Despite Alexander’s assessment of her skills, she was far sturdier than he himself believed, physically on par with the beast boy, but he seemed fairly naïve. Surely if he saw her play dead, he’d give her an opening… and god damnit. He had put a barrier on top of her, didn’t he?
It was then when she noticed the state of her friend, and the normally playful and collected Amy went rightfully ballistic, starting to try and break the barrier with everything she had got.

“Zophia, NO!” She pleaded, Soulburner’s real name slipping from her lips. “DON’T DO IT!”

But her words never reached Soulburner, as the barrier was still in place. She had started her guitar solo once more. Even though the scenario was imploding. That her clones were gone. That both her allies were downed. She stood there, proud, shrugging off the tears, her own life being consumed as she kept going on with her blood magic, spirit energies around her.



It was a veritable storm. Of sorrow. Of anger, of regret. The wind and sound cut like knifes, not of cold and flesh, but soul. Indeed, a myriad of spectral shockwaves assaulted both lily and Alexander, the latter being just barely magically sturdy to not reel from the onslaught. However, Lily, as speedy and as electrically charged as she was, the attack would cut through her defenses like butter.

Eventually, sooner or later, the onslaught ceased, as Soulburner’s guitar exploded in a hundred of pieces, her magical suit vanishing alongside her now, normal limp body.
It was then when Amy’s desperate attack paid off, as she slipped from the barrier, and jumped to grab her friend’s body.
“No…nononono…Zophia, hey, wake up…” She said, all aggression and smugness abandoning her. “Don’t leave me. Don’t…” She cradled the now inert body against her, not making a move, before standing against the survivors.

“Well…I guess you win. Heh. I hope you choke on the reward or whatever.” Amy said, pulling her own blade. “I gotta care of this dummy on the next life…” She said, eyeing Tenebra. “I’m sorry Therese… you’ll have to go on without me. Unlike me and Zophia… you have talent…” She eyed Alexander. “A pity we can’t dance again, handsome…”

The blade pierced the heart. And a second foe fell, never to rise again.

The fairies wept. The stage vanished. Mother and child looked at the scene from their hideout, and hesitantly asked themselves if it was safe now.

‘Oh, yeah, of course! I’m Ronin, at your service!’ Ronin said with a grin to Faith’s asking for her name before they encountered Raven. And…

Hm? Some of the things Amber here was saying didn’t match Deni’s knowledge of her. Not in the least in the name she gave for herself. Eh! Whatever! There was probably a perfectly viable explanation somewhere! Until then, Ronin was just gonna grin!

‘And I’m the Tiny Ronin! Now, excuse us, we’re in a slight bit of a hurry…!’ Ronin called, before turning and dashing again, hopefully with Faith, keeping these barriers they were running on stable for both of them was a lot trickier if they weren’t running in tandem…!

‘Woa-!’ Of course, this meant Ronin and Faith were likely just out of the pathway of Ampodryl’s sea of soul’s beam, Ronin staggering to know it was firing right behind them. Whelp. Just a bit slower and they’d have been pulled along with that! However, their target was the dragon, the one that was targeting the Beacon group…

There was a bunch of other things going on right now, too, but Ronin focused on was straight ahead!

The dragon had summoned a bunch of spiders that swarmed the air. Ronin grabbed onto her sword, and dashed forward, intending to protect the Beacon people from it…!

‘Alright, let’s stop this thing from attacking the others…!’ So, Ronin leapt into the air, blade prepared, intending to slice some spiders!

… Except, as she was flying, the spiders she was intending on cutting were dying from seemingly nothing due to Nightwing’s curses! Instead, she was flying in an attack-pose towards the dragon’s giant head!

‘Uh.’

Numerous things occurred to Deni at once. This was Faith’s patron, right? She wouldn’t be pissed due to Deni attacking this thing, right? On a different note, this was a patron, right? What business did Deni have attacking this sort of thing? She’d likely be swatted aside like a fly. However… it also felt like fate itself had somehow put her here, like it had directed her into this perfect attack position. Who was she to argue with fate? After all, it was she herself that had picked to be Fated during her Smug contract…!

‘Tiny Special…’

The little samurai whispered, closing her eyes a little and just tuning everything to her Martial Training…

‘RONIN QUICK DRAW!’

Ronin drew her sword with a flash of light and sliced at the neck of the dragon, intent on being carried through and land on the dragon’s back after having gone through the neck of said dragon, sheathing her sword again upon landing. … If it worked or not, that remained to be seen, but right now, she just really wanted to try doing one of those cuts…!

---

‘Okay, what the hell went wrong?,’ Jelena asked, looking a bit crushed. ‘There were two of them, three of us, we had a massive ambushing advantage and they somehow still thoroughly defeated us.’

‘The trickster foresaw our attack and neutralized it. As simple as that,’ Freya replied. ‘It is likely nothing we could have done would have changed the outcome, as long as he was on the scene.’

Esther accompanied them, the silent tree-monster adding no additional words to the conversation, for she never spoke. All three of them had minor cuts on them from Kimble’s last attack, which they’d been unable to completely defend against.

‘…’ Mariette stared at them where they had gathered, inside a hall of their horror-gifted dark mansion. A mirror with an opened portal was open on the side of the room, allowing Asengav to hear their conversation.

So, it was worse than what Mariette had feared. If it ever came to an actual battle with the forces of Penrose, it was likely that they’d just be annihilated. Maintaining a low profile was the right choice. That meant no murders, no real public operations, no kidnapping anyone to attract attention. The only reason to appear in-town was to defend their operations and to make friends. The more friends, the more likely someone would show them sympathy later on. … What a crooked operation.

‘It is of no matter,’ Mariette said, breathing out. ‘The loss of the White Coin is of minor consequence. As fascinating as it would have been to investigate, we do not lose anything by not acquiring it. Instead, let us consider this a test-operation of our new jewels and magical traps and devices. From such a perspective, this has been a glorious success…’

‘And yet, all these resources spent, and you still fail to bring the one meaningless thing that you set out to obtain. What does that say about you as a leader?’

Mariette and the other three turned to look at the entity that had appeared. Floating in the air was an elfin, green monster-girl floating in mid-air… Lea.


‘Hmpf, how pitiful you look right now, Mariette. Fortunately for you, I took the liberty of obtaining this trinket that you could not obtain, to make sure Asengav’s resources were not wasted,’ Lea told, lifting the White Coin between her fingers, and Mariette couldn’t help but wince a bit.

‘How did you obtain that?’ Mariette asked.

‘You made everything far too complicated for yourself, Mariette. I simply approached a patrol and asked them to give one to me,’ Lea replied, and turned towards the portal that led eventually to Asengav, bowing before it. ‘As you heard, my lord, I obtained for you what Mariette could not. Do see fit to forgive her for this failure, let her learn, so that she could in the future do better…’

It was bare for all to see what this really was. It was Lea presenting proof to Asengav that Lea was the superior one of the two. Still, Mariette found herself… a bit irked.

‘You… fool,’ Mariette breathed out. She quickly got a sideways glare from Lea, and also Freya looking on in light surprise, Jelena looking like something exciting was happening, and Esther who was not reacting.

Mariette was well aware that this was an attempt of Lea’s part to curry favour with Asengav. It wasn’t even her fault. Her Hoarder mental pollution meant she wanted all Asengav’s favour for herself, in addition to a lot of other things. It was true that Lea went above and beyond to obtain additional power for Asengav. But… this time…

‘By asking this of them the same day as my attack on the park, you’ve given Beacon your face and appearance. You’re fairly well-known in the Overcity, so if they go and ask around they’ll be able to identify you as the mouthpiece of Asengav, which in turn identifies the attacker as me,’ she said, breathing out. ‘You’ve given them a clue that could lead them to me, and with that I might lose whatever few allies I might have in-town. The White Coin was not all that important. As long as everyone kept secret, they never needed to figure anything out…’ she told, and eventually sighed.

‘Hmpf. You exaggerate,’ Lea told. ‘You are already alone. You have no friends in town. Any that you do have is a single conversation with Beacon away from being your enemies, after how you handled the crisis with Justine. We’ll let Asengav decide who was wrong or right.’

A couple of seconds went, and the attention of the individuals in the room was drawn to the mirror… which promptly shut. Asengav was frankly outrageously disinterested in this matter. Far too minor and petty for him to concern himself with. Only reason he’d been paying attention at all was because he could spare a millionth of his conscience while the rest of him did more important things.

‘… Hmpf,’ Lea made a displeased noise, and then threw the White Coin over at Mariette. Mariette in turn opened a portal, let the coin go inside the portal and then fly up from the floor, until gravity had slowed it down enough to the point where she could naturally grab it out of the air herself.

‘Make sure your next operation does not fail. Neither lord Asengav nor me takes failure lightly…’ With those words, Lea turned around and floated out of the room.

‘… Grr,’ Freya made an irritated noise.

‘What’s the matter, Freya?’ Jelena asked immediately, slightly concerned.

‘… The trickster tried to seduce me with feelings of comfort and belonging. It didn’t work, of course, but it’s left my beast-half in a bad mood. I need to devour someone to sate it…’ Freya replied, teeth starting to bare themselves.

‘Then go and do so, in any world that isn’t the one we just came from,’ Mariette ordered.

‘… Will do…’ Freya said, and slank away. Left behind, Mariette turned around and started focusing to reopen a portal into Penrose again…

Slithering down a corridor, in the meantime, Freya was retrieving her phone from a pocket somewhere, clicking in a number and then bringing it to her ear.

‘Could you do me a favour?’ she asked mission control on the other side. ‘Tell me what you can about this… “Aurelio”.’

---

‘… Uh, okay,’ Eli replied to Nuncio, a little surprised. So, if he wasn’t allowed to stay in Mariette’s Interdimensional Home, then he didn’t need help at all? That struck Eli as weird, but there was a very simple explanation that answered that mystery rather efficiently. If Nuncio was actually an agent of an unknown enemy that wanted to breach into Mariette’s home for an unknown reason. If he couldn’t get into the Home, then there was no point in getting help from them. So Eli determined, deciding it was probably for the best they kept Nuncio out of their Interdimensional Home perpetually.

Then Eli blinked, because her Third Eye detected portal-magic, and there was only one person that could use portal-magic. Except, it was in mid-air, and-

---

‘…’ Mariette stood in mid-air on a portal, her hands gently embracing bunny as she stared through portals placed at various angles at the ongoing combat against Hyun Long. This “monster queen” was occupying a good percentage of the capable fighting force of Penrose, and with the roof breached Mariette’s sight could finally reach the inside of the rave after Eli’s departure from it… and it annoyed her. Ascendancy and dark/monster girls alike had been killed. Could you all stop attracting attention to Penrose for once…?

‘You are occupying an unacceptable amount of Magical Girls that could use their time for something more beneficial,’ Mariette stated, lifting one hand with a hand-mirror to direct at the monster queen. ‘So that they may be free to engage other problems in this city, I command you to fall.’

And with that, Mariette blasted a single, powerful blast of light at the monstrosity that was gripping hold of Sophia’s ship. It was angled so that she’d only hit Hyun Long and miss the ship should the monster-queen dodge. Should she still be stuck, Mariette would engage with more beams of light from various angles directed by portals to attempt to peel the queen off. Regardless, Mariette was now ready with portals and beams of light to defend and/or assist her allies should they be attacked.

This, of course, was another game. Mariette wanted to be known as someone who defended this town. She wanted people to see her as an ally. Amaryllis was already here, and could confirm it. She wanted the rest to see her do this, too. Beacon, among them.

@Ariamis@BrokenPromise@ERode@FamishedPants@Flamelord@Crusader Lord@twave

_{@PlatinumSkink}

The portal wasn’t the only thing Eli noticed. There was a murder of crows pecking around the warehouse the team had just escaped from. Some of them were showing a feint magical signature.

One of the crows turned to look in Eli’s direction. Then another, and another, and another. Their magical signatures were powering up too, as if more mana was being flooded into them.

Their movements were inconspicuous, but they were closing in on her position.

---

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

Trixy was pleased to see so many people make use of her acorns. It was nice to see that strangers could trust her so easily. That wasn’t something she was sure she could do. Though Shane volunteering might have assuaged their concerns.

The monster queen was pretty durable, but it looked like it was on it’s last legs. Trixy would have gladly put it out of it’s misery, but it sounded like Amaryllis wanted to try and save it with a white coin. This seemed like a big mistake, but it wasn’t like Trixy was wholly unable to empathize with the gluttonous magical girl. Under different circumstances, she might have been gobbling up everything in sight. And Trixy had to wonder how Hyun would look as a normal magical girl. Would she be a cutie? A hottie? Maybe on that level where she’s a super cutie or mega hottie? Sure Hyun was repulsive, twisted being, but it was impossible to know if this was their own doing or unfortunate circumstances. Either way, trying to usher more cute girls into the world was the right thing to do.

Trixy had her plan ready. She was going to fire some vine-creating bullets at Hyun. All she’d need was some magical girls with strong backs and weak minds to pull on the vines to get Hyun down.

Then Mariette showed up.

"Wha?!" Trixy was surprised for two reasons. First was that Mariette had suddenly appeared without warning, and was getting in the way of Amaryllis’s plan to try and save the monster girl. Secondly, that was Mariette! Veronica had wanted a word with her. Trixy’s vines wouldn’t coil around Hyun if Mariette was just going to burn them off, so it was clear what had to happen here. A true win/win for everyone.

"Oh no you don’t!" Trixy moved her rifle off of Hyun and fired at Mariette. Unless Mariette was faster than Trixy was, the vine would wrap around Mariette’s waist, at which point Trixy would just have to pull her off of her platform.

And catch her before she fell. Mariette was a cutie too after all.

---

_{@AtomicNut@DarkwolfX37}

---

Banshee killed her opponents and raised them to fight by her side. Tetrad bargained with her foes until they left the area. It was clear who had the better tactic, but a winner hadn’t been decided yet. Her yellow knife missing was a small setback. Undead tended to shrug off paralyse effects.

At least she could fly now. she had a lot of ways to avoid the incoming specters. Shift to the left, roll to the right, spin up, sink down.

“Ha! Whoh! Hyea! Ho! Mray! Yeah! Huzza! Hrah!”

But this would not win the fight.

Shion did not seem to hear Jimmy’s advice, otherwise she probably wouldn’t be blasting Banshee’s body like that. The spirit summoner had a soul gem on her somewhere. But Tetrad was going to try and solve this without killing her if she could, so maybe it was best Shion didn’t know how to kill the banshee. That wasn’t to say Tetrad didn’t enjoy Shion’s assistance. She was pulling some crazy Buttercup agro, which was something Tetrad could make use of.

While Buttercup was doing everything in her power to break through Shion’s defenses, Tetrad threw a yellow knife at the monster girl, aiming to nail one of her legs.







_{@PlatinumSkink}

Raven Bianchi? The first name wasn’t familiar, but Lotus spoke many times about Amber Bianchi. They both worked at a hardware store together. They were both good at their jobs, even Lotus could admit as much. But Amber was also a cutthroat businesswoman who was willing to do anything to move up the ladder. There was a vacant management position, and they both wanted it. They had many of the same qualifications, and had both been working for the same amount of time. Lotus was the harder worker, but she lacked the same “assets” Amber had.

Amber got the position easily.

But it wasn’t enough to have a position, you had to hold it. Lotus and Amber had grown more bitter towards each other. They would attempt to smear each other, sometimes at the detriment of the customers and other employees. But in the end everyone would side with Amber. She had the charisma to win the management position, and she had to charisma to get Lotus fired.

But who was Raven Bianchi? A daughter? A cover name?

It didn’t matter anymore. She was helping Lotus’s murderers. She was an enemy.

Faith allowed Ronin to guide her towards their destination. But then Ronin let go of her hand and-



_{@AtomicNut@Shifter_Master}

Much like Reaver had anticipated, the ax-like edge on his barrier cut through the wet vines. Ax swinging at tree, tree swinging at ax, it didn’t matter. It was sadistic yet ingenious. Reaver was using Grosket’s strength against it. The beast whaled. The fingers split and separated, the arm unraveled.

Revealing something Reaver should have seen coming.

Ronin, Faith, and Reaver were all in the vicinity of the ent. But the ent was only interested in reaver. It opened its hand wide, revealing the giant beak of some exotic bird hiding behind its vines.

Flesh and vine were easy enough to chop, but not so the beak of a bird. A finch has a bite strength that is many times stronger than that of a T-rex, and its beak has to be able to withstand all of that pressure. The massive beak hidden in Grosket’s arm plunged into the barrier. The ax-like edge was great at cutting, but it compromised the barrier’s ability to absorb shock and was decimated by the blow. What came next would be a treat for the masochist.

The beak slammed into Reaver’s legs, but between the barrier and the wet soil, the blow was not hard enough to break anything. That didn’t stop the beak from opening up and biting onto Reaver’s hips. With a tug, Reaver was pulled from the vines, which had dug their thorns deep into his arms. The flames coating his body made the damp vines on Grosket’s body smolder, but they could not burn away the vine hedge in time. The tug was enough to flay the flesh from Reaver’s arms. Grosket was already crushing Reaver’s hips when he picked him up, and he was ready to clamp his opposing hand over him.

But them mommy showed up.

Viva unloaded her guns on Grosket’s legs. It didn’t seem to bother the ent much, but it got it’s attention. A vine suddenly rose in front of Viva’s bike, and she was thrown. Grosket was able to determine her trajectory and grow his arm out, snatching her out of the air. While Viva would feel the ent trying to crush her in its grasp, she would be able to easily strike Grosket with a withering spell. The effects went to work immediately. The vines shrank and yellowed, sap and blood dried up, and Viva would soon learn what Reaver already know. Under all the vines and sap was an abomination. You cannot wither what is already rotten. It wasn’t entirely visible, but with the vines shriveling on the beast’s form, it was possible to smell the fetid flesh beneath. This was not alleviated by the fact that the dead vines no longer smoldered, but caught fire. It was not only Reaver, but Grosket and Viva who were set ablaze.

A beak pinching Reaver’s hips, a hand wrapped around Viva’s torso, and flames engulfing them all. Grosket’s face swung open revealing the giant skull once again. But he was not attempting to blast anyone with acid. The abomination’s mighty jaw swung open and it prepared to bite the heads off of his opponents as they burned.



_{@Majoras End@Ariamis@PlatinumSkink}

Nightwing uncanny mastery over darkness allowed her to step to Grisbar’s back even in full moonlight. From there, it was a simple matter to drive her weapon into the dragon’s back. It howled as its vitality was drained and drained and drained. But then Nightwing would feel herself falter. She had been through an intense interrogation routine, Fought off magical girls and horrors alike, and was starting to feel the strain as she used the last bit of her mana.

Though killing Grisbar this way was futile. Like so many others, she would realize its body was undead as well as alive. Something that shouldn’t exist and yet does. The weakened roots dropped Grisbar’s torso to the ground, where the vibration knocked Nightwing off of her feet. She wasn’t able to hold up her transformation and could just barely stay conscious. In a flash of light she was back in her casual clothes, unable to defend herself from the threat she was standing on.

The stone covered zombie turned its flexible neck around to look at the assailant. Grisbar opened its jaws wide, revealing a cavern of jagged rocks. All Nightwing could do was surrender to her fate before the dragon closed in on her.

Then a tiny ronin seemed to flash step to her position. Her arm was extended and her katana was pointed outward where the sun would rise. Then with a smooth motion, she sheathed her blade. It made a satisfying click, and Grisbar’s thin neck slid off of its torso and fell to the ground, where it shattered into a hundred pieces.

With the horror dead, Gaia was able to take control of the area. Moss covered what remained of the horror’s body, and the barbed vine hedge withered away.

The dragon-like strength left Hilaria, as did the dark ring Grisbar had granted her.



The tiny ronin might have needed a little bit of a hand with this one. While the ronin lacked the strength to cut the head off the dragon, Mac was able to guide her katana through the neck of the beast for a clean kill. It would have been easy for Ronin to notice someone was holding onto her sword, but illusion magic could manipulate almost any sense, and she was none the wiser.

Go ahead little ronin, you earned your victory!



_{@AtomicNut@Ponn@FamishedPants@Ariamis}

As soon as the beam went off, the magical girls sprung into action. Mia bombarded the area with popcorn rockets, while Sakura flew through the air for a killing blow. The beam continued to inch closer to Hilaria and Shoggy. Hopefully something would happen soon.

Sakura could see it as she closed in. The faint silhouette of the hound unleashing the sea of souls. Before she hit the ground, she pointed her palms at the Wolf’s head and let the lightning fly. 

It was brief, it was loud, it was over in an instant. Everyone was blinded by a flash before the crack of thunder rang in everyone’s ears. Sakura forced her eyes open just in time to see the aftermath of the Sparky Heart Justice Breaker Lance. 

The lightning bolt was powerful enough to disperse the cloaking magic. The sea of souls had stopped, and there was a giant black scorch mark on the ground wreathed in dead grass, There was also several dozen charred vines laying in a heap. Which was odd, considering that Sakura fired her attack at Ampodryl specifically. That was when it hit her.

She had cooked a dummy horror. 

Ampodryl was using the limited light to hide behind a vine hedge, which it had shaped like itself. Since the sea of souls ripped souls out of people, it would be ineffective against the soulless vines. The horror had been planning on baiting them out, and it worked. 

*Crunch*

Ampodryl bit down on the device Elora had placed in its mouth. Thyere were a few burn marks from where a stray corn cob missile had burned it, but it was still standing strong. Sakura’s true target stood there, watching her plummet to the ground.

Sakura would not meet an unfortunate end as a small-sized splat on the ground, instead being caught in the arms of Emily who had been nearby, watching for this sort of thing. Carrying the untransformed girl much like a princess, Sakura would feel some mana slowly flowing into her as Emily gently set down on the ground. 

"You're so reckless!" she chided, glaring in the direction of Ampodryl. "Are you okay?" she asked Sakura. "I'll try to get you back on your feet but it's not a fast process."

Ampodryl prepared to lunge after them, but was startled by Elora’s sudden laser fire. She was gaining altitude, and appeared to be out of harms way. However, the sudden crack of a vine whipping itself at the cyberbox caught girl off guard. She fell to the ground, where swarms of animal spirits set upon her. They would not kill her though. Ampodryl was far too sadistic for that. If one of their own was wounded, they would have to come closer to rescue her. Just because Ampodryl was keeping them alive didn’t mean that their stay in its layer was going to be comfortable.

Before the veil of shadow closed around Ampodryl once again, its three eyes lit up. Without turning it’s head, it fired a trailing laser from each of its eyes. Connie, Emily, and Shoggy were each tracked by one of the eye lasers. This beam would not be impossible to dodge, but it would be very precise and catch up to them if they stopped moving even for a moment.

Mia would hear the sound of harp strings being pulled taught. If she looked out the corner of her eye, she would see Faith aiming her harp at her. She was only able to stay at Mia’s altitude thanks to a magical note. She was a good distance *away, but it wasn’t hard to see her lower lip was quivering.

”Why… Are you helping… Lotus’s murderers?”

*^{near the border of the dragon zone.}

---

The shot seemed to hit the mark, turning Banshee’s snarl into a gurgle as she seized her neck. A lethal wound, that would no doubt kill a normal magical girl. The necromancer staggered, and for a second it seemed like she was about to fall. Yet, her body reaffirmed herself, standing tall once more, the wraiths flaring in a circle around her.

At the same time, Buttercup felt a sting, and found herself with a knife on the leg. While her sturdiness was good, she was delayed just long enough for the second knife to hit her, draining of the emotion that sustained her aggression, and winding her down. However, for all Tetrad’s calculations, there was something that she did not account for. The drive that Buttercup had was despair. Without despair spurring her mind to action, she could feel other things too. She saw her opponents.

And then she saw her leader, bleeding cruelly through a neck wound. Banshee was a mean person…

And yet she was just a child. Someone to protect. Buttercup went all silent, as reinforcements and barriers flared around her. Despair and terror… were replaced by altruism. Fear was replaced by compassion and pity. Banshee had been abandoned by one of her allies. And she would no doubt succumb.

The volcanic rage of a mother bear whose cub was in peril ignited anew in the gentle, and unfortunate girl. No words were spoken, merely a second artifact of light powers being drawn that became a sword of light.

“Hurt her again, and I will tear you apart. She’s my Banshee.” Buttercup’s voice had dropped an octave, and there was none of her dithering and clumsiness in her voice. Reinforcement strengthened her limbs, as barriers formed around her wings, creating artificial mighty pinions. More than a monster girl, she looked like a guardian angel now. Or an enraged bear.

She wasted no further time nor minced words anymore, as with a flick of her hand, she began to heal Banshee. And then charged both of her opponents, without even a single word or cry. The sword of light blazed, cutting barriers apart. The maul would then strike where the sword had cleaved.

Banshee for her part, was busy channeling her wrath and magic. Like Buttercup, she had grown silent. And was trembling somewhat. That had been an unpleasant close call as it might have been. Her finger pointed at the girl with the bullets and magnetic powers.



An spectral maw burst from the ground just underneath said girl, burying itself deep in Shion’s chest. And then an indescriptible pain seized the whole magical girl, as her soul began to be torn away forcefully from the body, parts of the ectoplasm already being seen dragged forcefully out of her chest. Banshee’s killing blow, able to rip a target soul’s away from her body. The necromancer was pulling all stops there, covered by the relentless attack of Buttercup. Still, Shion’s magical power and karmic fate were able to somewhat stall the process insofar as the death was not instantaneous, but she pretty much was paralyzed with agonizing pain in the process.
That it looked grim was an understatement.

But… there was still hope. The World card that Tetra had drawn again, an omen of good luck burst into flames.

“Oh my.I guess I changed my mind.” Infernalia said having suddenly appeared behind Banshee when nobody was looking. It was a good thing, to have Incognito powers. Suddenly the zombies burst into black flames, product of a barrage of corrupt fire. Before Banshee could ever react, Jimmy’s stronger and nimbler hands snatched Banshee’s mystic weapon and symbol.

“YOINK!”. He said smugly.

The miracle happened. Banshee. The menacing one. The powerful necromancer, was panicking so much she cancelled her attack midway.

“GIVE IT BACK, YOU ASSHAT!” She said, uncharacteristically trying to grab it back from Infernalia’s hands and not even using magic nor recalling it back to her side.

The symbol… had her soul jar all along.

“Uhuhu, no.” Infernalia said, keeping the symbol out of the reach of the necromancer’s weak arms.“You’d kill them. It’s a shame. At least one of them is good looking.” The fire user said smugly, running a hand through his hair. “FETCH!”

And then with a mighty throw, the mystic symbol went into a nearby street drain, into the sewers. Banshee’s mouth hung agape, as she scrambled to get into the sewers as fast as her weak spellcaster legs could allow.

The enemy defeated, Infernalia could now look cool and flirt some more, and flirt he would.

That was when a livid Buttercup hit him so hard he was sent flying onto the same spot as Edward had just a while before, before crumpling himself into a heap in the ground. The monster girl then proceed to run after Banshee, worried about the necromancer's safety.

_{“Two…No…make it three dates.”} He croaked pitifully.

... Shit. That wasn't how this was supposed to go. Shion's breath caught in her throat as she was hit by Banshee's killing blow. Still, she struggled through it, though to little effect. Unfortunately the metal grain wasn't able to stop pure magic. Before she died, however, she was saved. She hated that. She hated that. She refused to be in someone's debt like that, so she threw this "Jimmy" a strange artifact that had been given to her while she was out of town by her allies in other places. It appeared to be a simple silver disk about the size of a silver dollar.

In reality, this was a ruse. The shell of metal was a simple bit of magic that could be used to restore a decent bit of mana in a one-time use. It was the inner contents that was the gift. One of three blue coins in her possession, a trick by another universe's Beacon that didn't have access to White Coins, capable of reducing a magi's magic to zero until used again to restore it. As it could not be activated on someone against their will, it was perfect for hiding or as it was intended to work, make someone more susceptible to purification magic by preventing their natural magic from fighting it. Luckily, its use didn't make the coin disappear like other magical coins, but even so, a magi could only use it twice ever. Once to reduce their magic, and once to restore it. Makoto had tasked Shion with testing its viability in this dimension, certain that even if it failed to work here it would make for interesting discoveries should it be in the right hands. Whether or not it would do as intended would be up to the whims of fate, Shion supposed, but she considered her debt to this "Jimmy" payed in full.

"We're even." she said to Jimmy as loudly as she could after the attack she took. With that, she sat down to heal up from her near-death experience and collect the metal dust back into a new vial, as well as to recover and wipe off the two bullets she'd used and re-store them in her pistol.

It was little surprise that Amryllis was able to make her dynamic escape from the hold that the Monster Queen had upon her, though Alicia was taken off guard by the sudden intervention of the pirate from above. At least she had already been cautious about others getting in her way, so there was no friendly fire as a result of this quick intrusion.

While she had been prepared to move as the Queen vanished through the hole in the ceiling, their attacks meant more head space to work with. A wince followed as Leena was burned, but she did not falter. They had to keep going, and make sure that the Queen paid for what she had done to their fallen comrades.

Grunting, she lowered her bow, using the seeds to give herself an initial vault before her wings carried her the rest of the distance. On the surface they found that Hyun had scaled the chains, and was now trying to smash its way into the ship above. Which would be bad, though that didn't need to be said.

"As if we'd let you get away with that," Alicia growled as her bow rose towards the heavens anew. It seemed like Amaryllis had a plan, though she wasn't sure what the warrior was going to do with a White Coin. Make the Queen eat it?

Before she could chime in, a laser of light shone through the sky, striking at the Monster Queen. It carried with it a voice, a familiar one that stoked Alicia's anger even higher. as if Martiette actually cared, like she was some sort of benevolent figure rather than the scheming servant of a Horror that she was in reality. "You've got a lot of nerve showing up here."

Her allies had the monster in hand. Alicia wasted little time and fired. Thanks to her Barrage power she could just as easily target both the monster Queen as well as Mariette herself. Arrows arced into the sky, explosive bursts of magic erupting when they reached their target. While she was dimly aware of Trixy's move, she assumed it was to hold the portal user in place to be hit. Meanwhile her arrows would stop Hyun burrowing further into the ship, and clear obstructions for whatever Amaryllis was planning.

"You've still got a lot to answer for." It was nice to think that this would work, but somehow Alicia had the feeling that this would be too easy if it did. Perhaps karmic, but still easy. And she certainly wasn't going to let anyone else pose a last minute save either.

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

At what point… had this mission been tainted? What had been the original flaw, the original crack on all the theoretical plan before all went to hell? Reaver pondered briefly about this situation, the cycle of pain and pleasure firing up his neurons in overdrive. He had screwed up, but when had he started? How had this happened? It would not matter. Right now he was on fire. Being crushed by a beak. On fire too. Someone had noticed his fight and came to his aid. Normally he’d feel a bit insulted at being perceived this incompetent, but at this point anything was welcome, really.

Except she was on fire.

Are you going to let more allies suffer so you can go home, William? He asked himself as he unsummoned his axe simulacra, the sword once again appearing in his hands. He did not know who was the mysterious challenger. But every single fiber of his being was telling him to man up and save her. He was beyond exhausted, and tricks could only do so much on lean fuel. Well then, it was time to entrust everything to one of his last aces in the sleeve. When everything fails. When everything crashes into fire and burns, there’s only one way out.

Through.

Such was the power that Odin had granted him in first place. Not flashy magic. Not bizarre supernatural abilities. Merely the ability to cut everything up deader than dead. Regeneration, third eye? Those were reliable, sure, but neither would be able to forge victory. Odin and the Mint… he knew that he had to take victory with his own hands.

Valhalla or death.

His thoughts raced to that one swordswoman whose swordsmanship had nearly made a fool of himself. She was beyond his reach… and yet… He felt he could climb to higher heights. His arm, was flayed, but firm. His mind, tired beyond imagination, yet unwavering. One mind. One Sword. Swift strikes.

Grosket’s hand beak exploded in a show of gore and cinders as Reaver himself cut deep into the ligaments that sustained the strength. Form and function. Just like the vines, the fearsome beak was made of flesh. Flesh which was unarmored now, to the mercy of an unforgiving blade that no longer could be tangled by vines.

Hand ligaments. Arm ligaments. Jaw ligaments. Neck muscles. Other arm muscles. Everything in the path of Gram’s replica was skillfully cut, revealing that for all the sturdiness, bone and muscle could hold so much against someone who knew where to cut. The paradox of living beings, and natural things. So strong… yet so weak because of their complexity.That was one of the lessons his father had once taught him. Who knew it was going to be useful in a situation like this, against this ent-turned-Wicker-Man thing?

“Glory to Odin, Woe unto to you! Unhand her, you dreg, and disappear!” He yelled as he strained every fiber of his being into this display of swordsmanship.

---

_{@BrokenPromise@Ponn@Ariamis@FamishedPants}

Sakura, feeling the faint tingle, looked at Emily. “Well, it sort of stopped whatever that fuck was doing. At the very least.” She sighed. “He had us though. But don’t-cha worry, Emily. I fight better without magic.” She said, steeling herself to stand on her feet and adopting a martial arts stance, using her breath to gather the meager force she was left with.
“Only just enough magic to punch those ghosts, and I’ll be peachy.” She conceded.

It was then when she realized what was happening, with the sudden laser attack. “Son of a-“ She was cut short, as she tried to scramble and put her guard up.

Only for her teammate… for the sake of a better word, appearing in between her and the launched beams, shadow shields catching each shot as Shoggy spread herself wide to guard the attack. No, it wasn’t a mere guard. Shoggy had also light magic, and that enabled her to redirect the attack using both her shadow shift and light magic back into the beast’s eyes, where they had come from.

“No! Bad pupper! Leave Shoggy's Umubuddies, and tentacle sis alone!” Shoggy’s shrill voice snapped at the aggressive move, as she readied herself to fight. She was the reliable one. She had been in this for longer, and had died several times. She liked magical girls, and wanted to be the cool big sister to them. That’s what humans, did right?

Except… maybe that doggie had gone too far. Maybe that doggie had to be taught a lesson. Horrorifying the horror, would not it be cool? A little chaos… could not hurt.

“Shoggy will lead the way!” She added, her hands making a square aimed at the wolf-thing. “Shoggy lock-on engaged!”. She added, as she began to tremble and smile, her Absolute Direction being activated with Ampodryl’s core in mind.
And that’s when it happened.

Shoggy’s midsection just burst into a fleshy dark ooze, like a popcorn made out of tar and flesh, the assembled girl body parts jutting out at awkward angles. They were but a shell for what Shoggy had once been, for what the eldritch creature was as its core. Her head’s expression was frozen in a grin as it was absorbed by the mass of tentacles, eyes and mouths, who appeared and disappeared inside the main crawling amorphous body.

“TEKKELI-LI!” A voice was heard through several mouths.

One of the crawlers in the dark. A shoggoth. That was Shoggy’s true nature. But the worst had yet to come, as the creature was no mere shoggoth. She was a magical shoggoth. Shifting through shadows, the creature’s tentacles began to shoot beams of light magic to anything that would dare to stand in the creature’s fast crawling towards Ampodryl.

“…Okay, that’s fucked up, even by magical girl standards.” Sakura could not help but comment.

Although Gaia was pleased to see the beam of spirits fade away into nothingness, she was disappointed to discover that neither her barrage nor Sakura’s killing blow had managed to cause any noticeable damage to the lupine monstrosity that had fired it. Apparently, the twisted creature had thrown up a decoy barrier to absorb the powerful attacks, leaving it unscathed. Well, that was unfortunate…

Even more unfortunate, was the creature’s follow up attack, a trio of energy beams. While she could do little to stop the beams directed at Shoggy and Emily, Gaia prepared to raise a barrier of thick leaves and vines from the side of the beanstalk to shield Connie and herself. However, before she could do this, Shoggy managed to deflect all three of the beams back at the giant ethereal wolf that had shot them. As Gaia observed this, the verdant magical girl also noticed something out of the corner of her eye. Turning to focus on it more fully, she was confronted with the sight of Faith standing atop one of her music notes. Worryingly, the Fae magical girl seemed to be aiming her harp in their direction, and what she said next was even more alarming.

“Faith!” Gaia called out to the fairy girl. “What are you talking about?! We only wish to cleanse the park of these horrors! What are you even doing here?”

For her part, Connie could only stare blankly as her mind spun in a dizzying frenzy at the shocking revelations Faith had just imparted.

L-Lotus’ murderers…? S-Someone k-k-killed Lotus…?

“W-What’s g-going on, F-Faith?!” Connie cried in a voice filled with confusion and anguish. “W-What h-happened h-here?! W-What h-happened t-to L-Lotus?!”

Connie desperately wanted to rush over to Faith and give the fairy girl a comforting hug, but that was clearly impossible, especially since Faith seemed to be pointing her weapon at them. What was going on here? Why was this happening? Fighting scary monsters was one thing, but her friends? That was something Connie would never do. She only hoped Faith felt the same…

As a side note, if there was anything good about this situation it was that Connie was sufficiently distracted by Faith to notice Shoggy’s terrifying metamorphosis. Had she done so, she would have very likely been reduced to a quivering wreck, and I think we can all agree that the poor girl has been through enough traumatic events recently.

Then again, what Faith says next might be even more traumatic for her by far…

Amaryllis tensed for a moment, her own hand on her Sword as she watched Rachel. If the woman had tried to end Sophia’s life, she’d have been one arm short by now. But the restorative magics did their work, and the pirate queen lived, made whole by a punch to the gut.

“You have my thanks,” she spoke, catching the glistening coin. “Twice over.”

Lightning scarred the storm clouds, painting a dire image. Hyun Long had wrapped herself around the Flying Dutchman, the ghostly vessel groaning against the monstrous mass that clung to it. She hungered still, even as her body was riddled with countless wounds. Lightning and light, explosions and lacerations, all marked her form in a way that was pitiful rather than invigorating. They were winning the battle, but against who? Was this monstrous girl the one that terminated the Ascendancy’s raid with a single psychic blast? Her sin was simply that of a corpse-eater, an opportunistic scavenger in a warehouse full of the dead. Just like that fanged girl, so long ago.

They too, had deserved a chance.

Another arrived at the battlefield. Mariette, lit up by her own light magic, seared through the night to further bombard Hyun Long. Her assistance was reassuring against a monster, but now…

“Mariette! Place your trust in me and know that this situation will be resolved soon. The true perpetrator of this tragedy still remains unseen; utilize your efforts towards uncovering their hideaway instead!”

…she no longer wanted Hyun Long to die, even as her Sword rioted against such decisions. Denied again, of the meal that it could partake in? Against a creature that was more monster than human? Unacceptable! Her blood boiled under the phantom’s rage, but Amaryllis held strong, kicking off the ground and grabbing onto the anchor chain that swung in the tempestuous air. She scrambled upwards, closing the gap between herself and Hyun Long until she could clearly see where her humanoid body was.

It was almost funny, how quickly the scales tilted. Moments ago, she had been trying to get away from the hydra-girl, and presently, she was doing the exact opposite. Amaryllis's lips twitched into a slight smile.

Rusted roses bloomed and ivy buds emerged in the air around the Monster Queen, scattered by hot air and storm winds. Amaryllis’s heels clicked against the silvered bulbs as she landed right in front of Hyun Long, her hand resting on, but not grasping, her Sword. She breathed. In once. Out once.

“Do you hunger, Queen of Monsters?”

Her blood roared for blood, her Patron demanding tribute, demanding slaughter.

“Your mutations can no longer be overlooked, and Beacon will strive to cut you down, even if your sins are minor. Merely desecration of the dead, merely self-defence when attacked by others. But even though Horrors are just Horrors, every magical girl deserves a chance. To change, perhaps, or to atone. If you wish to stay who you are, even in death and resurrection, then refuse.”

Amaryllis reached out with her hand, opening her palm merely a foot away from Hyun Long.

“But if you wish to start over, to quell this hunger within you, then take this Coin. Use it. And grant yourself the opportunity to go down another path.”

The White Coin pulsated gently in the night and firelight.

“Do so, and I swear upon my Sword that none here will seek your death."

"The One Ring?" Valentine replied with a shit-eating grin to Tux's authentication question. Annabelle delivered a sharp jab with her elbow into the red-head's side, earning a noise of complaint from her.

"Napoleon," Annabelle said, speaking the genuine phrase she'd been assigned.

"And Russian winter," Valentine added, rubbing her rib sourly.

Annabelle had brought along an umbrella with her, while Valentine was satisfied with wearing a hood alone, though it was not waterproof. The soaked red clothing clung heavily over her hair, while Annabelle's form enjoyed overall sanctity from the torrential downpour. A flash of lightning, followed by thunder, and then the distant roar of some nameless beast turned Annabelle's attention aside across the rooftops.

"You don't say..." she hummed after Tux described Penrose's situation. She'd not seen something like this in quite some time. She supposed, then, that this was why Penrose was oft nicknamed the 'Conflux' in the magical girl communities elsewhere. "Seems a bit of a shame we're here breaking into Beacon, then, instead of out there, helping the city. It sounds as if it could some more hands," Annabelle said, looking back to Tux. Both of the girls accepted the warm water, plain as it was. Valentine made a face after drinking some, and tossed the rest.

"Think it'd be a good idea to have a nasty show up on camera nearby the HQ? Might be able to get some more of them to come outside looking for it," Valentine suggested, stepping beside Tux to look out over the disguised building.

"Annabelle Murgang, nice to meet you, Tux. You can call me Anne," the black-haired girl introduced after Tux, "I'm feeling quite alright, if a bit apprehensive of the city already. We came straight here."

"Valentine, but you knew that already," Valentine said dryly. She didn't have an answer as to her current 'feelings'. "What're we looking for in there, anyways? Sis' said it wasn't a smash n' grab, so... what? We looking for some juicy secrets? A prisoner?"

"I'm curious if Beacon is aware of our organization at all," Annabelle pondered. They were not new to the business, but it was the first time they'd be dealing with Beacon, never mind a Beacon headquarters, of all things. Big Sis had mentioned that Beacon wasn't their biggest worry, in the grand scheme of things, and that they were closer to the side of human alliance than others, and yet here they were, about to snoop on them. Keep your friends close, and your not-really-friends closer, Annabelle supposed.

"How... long have you been on this rooftop?" Annabelle asked, puzzled. Her gaze turned back to the campsite Tux had set up. The word 'urban jungle' immediately came to mind.