@twave@DarkwolfX37

As soon as the crows guided Scion to sanctuary, they scattered to the winds. With all the chaos unfolding inside, there was no one to answer Shion’s call.

But their call did not go unheard.

Meanwhile, Melisa would notice that the tiger she was seated on would start to stir. It made a guttural sound before looking over its shoulder, peering through the crowd at something. Assuming Melisa was prepared to hang on for dear life, Rosa would run for the exit with her cargo in tow. With every bound and leap, the cross eyed tiger’s body started to change. Not only did her eyes uncross and her colors change, but she started to get crystalline growths along her back and tail. It wasn’t long before the inbred tiger had transformed into nothing short of a monster.

It wasn’t long before Rosa was at Shion’s position. Melisa knew who Rosa belonged to, but not Shion. Given its timely arrival, one might reason that Rosa was not Nuncio’s tiger, but Vermin Killer’s. Perhapse there was some truth to both of those statements?

Rosa looked directly into Shion’s eyes. She only waited a second before running back into sanctuary, as if to incite a game of tag. But what Rosa was playing was closer to follow the leader than tag, as she would lead Shion directly to the courtyard. At least, if she chose to follow.

Rosa returned, with a mighty roar. The tiger bide its time, watching what was sure to become a brawl.

@AtomicNut@Shifter_Master

"Holy shit!" Shion exclaimed as a monstrous tiger came barreling towards her. She took a step back before the creature stopped, seeming to try to lead her forwards. Why would a tiger know what she was there for? Did Vermin Killer use cats?

...

Of course he would use cats. They're nature's vermin killers after all. She shrugged and went inside to the courtyard.

Then it roared. This was going to be a whole thing, wasn't it?

@BrokenPromise@AtomicNut@Shifter_Master@twave

Lurking in Mariette's shadow some moments before they confronted Justine personally, Silhouette nearly sighed in relief. This decision would probably encourage Viridian to retract her earlier order. Sam didn't really desire to make things more complicated by letting Ronin near as it would not only obviously piss Mariette off, but there was a big chance it could cause other complications -- Justine was still out there, after all.

Justine was the real problem here and the point about not leaving before she was dealt with was perhaps the first thing Viridian said that Samantha had ever agreed with. Not that they spoke much... or really at all. It was mostly Viridian giving orders so far and Sam acknowledging such. Su would probably kill her if she knew Sam had yet to do as she promised, but to be fair, there hadn't been enough downtime for her to follow up on it.

"~"

"..."

"~!"

"...?"

Making Samantha feel awkward was quite the feat, considering she was often ignorant of things that would evoke this sort of emotion. Trixy was usually the only one who could do that. But here, this girl whom she didn't know, did so on her first try! What was she doing? Most people should be oblivious to her at this time. But she didn't even pretend like she was looking at Mariette.

Wait, this is the one that talks weird, I think. Wasn't she at that beach dimension?

"Oh, how miserable you must be to live in the shadow of another~!" the girl chatted, confirming Sil's suspicions. It wasn't just how she spoke that stood out, but how she did so despite it potentially distracting people, blowing Sil's cover if the enemy somehow had vision on them, and frankly even with context, speaking to a shadow was weird.

A tar-like substance began to rise from Mariette's shadow until it molded into Silhouette's form. Because she intended on assisting Mariette, she only moved just far enough to not disturb the Portal Witch with what she hoped to be a short conversation with this strange woman.

"You seem to share the same sight as me," she mentioned. "What is it that you want?" her tone was laced with irritation at being disturbed. This apparently didn't faze the girl as her expression remained blissful and she continued where she left off.

The girl produced a piece of paper that had been tucked away behind her huge shield and handed it to Sil, whose confusion was made more severe by what was written on it. In perhaps the most beautiful handwriting she had ever laid witness to, the words "Invitation to Eat" were drawn upon it. But that was all and it was blank otherwise. Addled, she looked towards the girl for an answer. "If you're still alive when this is over, Hilaria wants to invite you to join a celebratory feast~!" she explained, clearly eager to hear a positive response.

Sam looked back down to the paper. "So... you're passing these out in the middle of this commotion?" she asked to confirm. Hilaria shook her head, surprisingly.

"Nope~ She didn't have enough paper to do that~"

"...What? What do you mean by that? What is this, then?" she held the invitation up and received another shook head in response.

"Hilaria only made one, and it's in your hand~ She wouldn't call that 'passing those out', would you~?"

Sil pinched the bridge of her nose. "So why did you give it to me, then?"

"Hilaria thinks everyone else looked too busy and you were over here doing nothing, so that's why~" she bluntly stated. "She was worried you were feeling left out since people haven't been talking to you, either~"

Sam wasn't sure if Hilaria was trying to help her or piss her off. But it was clear which of those she was succeeding at. "Excuse you. You understand what we're doing here, right? I've been here to thwart any attempts at attacking Mariette directly. I wouldn't call that 'nothing'." she did not chide Hilaria on the talking part because, well, she wasn't exactly wrong there, but it still annoyed her.

"Rejoice~! Hilaria will relieve you of your post, then~!" she suddenly declared, placing a heavy hand on Sil's shoulder. Sam was tall for a magical girl, yet this girl's height was even above her own. She had to wonder what this girl ate to become so big. But much like she resisted the urge to slap her hand away, Sam did not ask her about that.

"What are you playing at?" Sam questioned.

Hilaria took a small step back and encouraged Sam to check her out. "Hilaria is afraid she won't be able to keep up with a foe that wants to run, so she should stay back and defend our cute little charge~" she went on to explain, glancing at Mariette and, if she looked back, giving her a wink.

Samantha had to agree that if Sonia and Justine wanted to play tricky, she couldn't imagine Hilaria being able to prevent it. She wasn't away of what her spec was because she hadn't seen it in action, but Hilaria gave off the impression that her spec was supplemental rather than the focus of her strength. Still, this was her own task and she couldn't just hand it off to some girl she wasn't familiar with! How irresponsible would that be---

"Oh, but Hilaria does not blame you if you would like to remain protected back here~ Hilaria knows exactly how scary fighting can be, and she won't hold it against you if you hide like a frightened child~" Still, she spoke in such a playful and nonthreatening tone it almost sounded genuine.

This bitch.

"Me, scared?" Samantha scoffed. She was technically a veteran, and she had seen more than her fair share of combat, death, and pain. Clearly, this girl was just a big fool. She had probably won a fight or two, seen one or two people die, and then thought it was enough to steel her resolve. To try to talk down to other people because of that was just absurd! "I wouldn't allow something so petty as fear keep me from fighting," she said as she let something so petty as obvious bait entice her into fighting. "If you really want to take my place so badly, I expect you to use your life doing so."

Hilaria smiled much like she had before but it was now that Sam realized she had just been baited. She briefly considered a curse on Hilaria but opted instead to swear under her breath before throwing her arm out to the side and summoning a generic Schatten which would then sink into Mariette's shadow much as she had done earlier. This would be insurance in case Hilaria failed to protect Mariette, as it was instructed to sacrifice itself if Mariette was going to suffer a strong blow. It couldn't prevent particularly powerful attacks but it may soften them, and when it was destroyed it would alert Samantha immediately.

With that, Mariette and the others would then begin their confrontation with Justine. This involved some taunting, some singing, and some shooting. As weird as it was, she didn't question it. Weirder things have happened. Samantha acknowledged that removing Sonia would make Justine far more vulnerable, so she would concentrate her efforts on doing just that. She explained her plan to the time-enhanced Portal Witch, so that she would open a portal whose location relied upon how Sonia reacted in an attempt to catch her recovering. This will, most likely, take the form of an immediate attack on Sonia if she attempts to teleport away --- after she teleports.

Hilaria on the other hand did the opposite -- she would remain by Mariette's side, on standby, being the wall she generally was and, ideally, making it difficult for someone to even land a blow on Mariette. Hopefully, this would later inspire the witch to eat with her instead of flaking like last time. Jeez.

Lily gasped when she was freed from the arachnid girl’s safety net and into Alex’ hug, and she hugged him back.

”I know, I’m sorry Alex. I had my guard down,” Lily spoke quietly, and breathed deeply.
”I promise I’ll be more careful.” She took refuge in the fluffiness he provided as she listened to the others discuss strategy. Helga nervously clacked her claws against each other as she also listened in, wondering if Mariette had an actual plan beyond trying to hide, and nodded as Su brought up a real point.

When Mariette brought up confronting Justine directly, Lily spoke.
”I want to negotiate with Justine first, if possible.” She took Alex’ hand and nodded to Su.
”I know Justine wouldn’t do something this reckless just for revenge. I want to speak with her, and maybe find out why she’s so mad.”
Helga sighed and moved closer to Su’s side. “Su, you stay close to me, all right? I’ll protect you.” She then kissed her on the cheek. “That’s a promise.”
Lily then dusted off her clothes, and slapped her cheeks.
”I’m ready.”

---

At Beacon HQ, Jenna stepped into mission control, and saw that Elora was busy clacking away on two separate keyboards, typing away at speeds only possible for a magical girl. There were numerous screens that seemed to react to the movements of her head and eyes as they moved back and forth, giving her all kinds of information: from visual feeds from Beacon girls on the fields, to various graphs and spectrometers. Jenna saw from the camera feeds how Kimble, Sally and Hyun were together, some of them clearly wounded, while Alicia’s feed showed her group inside the mansion.

“Low probability of success,” Elora answered without looking at the scientist. She pressed a button, and Jenna saw as Sally and Hyun Long were teleported back to base, immediately attended to by medics. “Aurelio is going to initiate a Final Act. Your orders are to get in there and support him and the Paladin Seraph. Here, take this.” She handed over a Beacon marker to Jenna. “Use this when you’re ready for extraction, and I’ll pull you out of there. Hurry, he’s now approaching Justine!”

---

At the upper floor of the foyer, ‘Mariette’ stopped with an ugly grimace not fitting for her lips as she looked around, suspicious of her surroundings. Turned out her paranoia was, for once, justified: the moment ‘Eli’ barged in, the floor of the library faintly flashed, turning into enchanted mirrors that revealed the true form of those reflected on them. To nobody’s surprise, ‘Eli’’s reflection revealed her to be FanFan, while ‘Mariette’ who stood by the doorway had the head of Leena peeking out from her reflection. However, there was a third reflection that didn’t belong to the infiltrators. FanFan looked up, only to be suckerpunched by Freya, who successfully slashed and tailwhipped the disguised girl out of the room, landing back in the corridor, wounded on her cheek and chest and holding her side from the spot where she was struck by the tail. “Oof!”

She managed to get up as the sonic trap went off, using her normal hands to cover her ears while her metallic ones pushed her up. “Ambush!” Leena attempted to shout through the noise as portals opened around them, releasing magical girls loyal to Mariette as well as various Dina’s monsters and a lone shadow spectating from a distance. Thanks to the disorienting effect of the sonic trap, the ice spells hit their mark. However, the initial ice attacks failed to freeze the girls’ feet thanks to Dina’s protective barrier, breaking away as frost washed over them. Leena took a deep breath, about to activate her magic, when she spotted Tenebra creating a rift; unlike before, this one was violently made, not only straining the unhinged magical girl, but actually causing cracks to spread in the dimension itself, as if the world around them was made of glass.

“In there!” The veteran reacted quickly, and grabbed Connie around her waist as the masked girl was about to slip and fall; she dove with her towards the floor, in the direction of the rift. using the slippery ice to their advantage, they slid on their stomachs like penguins, barely managing to escape the explosions from Taihei’s artifact bombs. However, Leena incurred a shot from Suzette’s rage beam, causing her to bellow not only in pain, but wrath; the reality-shattering portal warped the emotion magic that struck Leena, causing her to be filled with a great anger as she disappeared. Connie on the other hand was hit by one of Lea’s wind lances that successfully curved downwards, cutting a gash through her dark robe and wounding her just as she also left. Lea was fast enough to pursue them, but was stopped by Gaia’s violent vines that thrashed around her, the spiked plants having successfully trapped her.

“Hold on, Princess!”
FanFan did the same as she saved herself from slipping by using one of her metal hands to break through the frozen floor, grabbing MDP with the other. Flinging herself in the air. Ronja managed to catch them in the net she cast, but it was scorched by Mayra’s fire just enough for her to break free before MDP turned it into glitter, causing them to tumble and slide into the rift as well, followed by Alicia, Gaia, Ronin, and the rest of the infiltrators.

---

Justine bit the corner of her lip, frustrated by how slippery Mikayla turned out to be; not only was she agile, able to move freely like the wind, but she also was surrounded by spirits serving as a shell, shielding her from strikes. Still, she spirit girl was equally unable to make a dent on her and her servant, resulting in a heated duel not unlike from a superpowered battle manga. The moment she flung Sakura out, however, Justine landed a glancing hit, scattering a third of her spirits with a magical beam in the process. She now had the edge.

However, she didn’t have the chance to capitalize on the opening, due to a certain gentleman’s abrupt arrival. As he left to confront the undead witches, Aurelio could hear as the marker activated, followed by the familiar sounds of the Beacon teleporting, sending Sally and Hyun Long out, leaving only Kimble, who followed him to the battlegrounds. Justine stopped, her sword whisked to the side as she glared at Aurelio, while Sonia glanced at Mikayla to ensure she wouldn’t attempt anything during the intrusion.

”Aurelio? What is the meaning of this? Help me eradicate this shade already!” She ordered. But Kimble shook her head.

“Not going to happen, Justine,” Kimble responded.
“We are-”

”!”
Suddenly, a beam of light shot through the air, causing Sonia to deflect it with one of her handheld knives, before teleporting out of the way of the ensuing barrage. Justine’s eyes widened.

”Wait, could it be-!”

To the vampire girl’s astonishment, she witnessed Mariette Pedersen, standing on the roof of her mangled mansion, her long, silvery hair fluttering in the wind. All around her were various allies she had gathered, including Lily and Alex, who were to the eyepatched girl’s side.

Justine’s voice howled across the pocket dimension.

”MARIETTE!"

"At last, you have stopped running!"

Her smile turned wide, revealing her vampiric fangs, an upturned palm ringed by clawed fingers.

”You thought you could destroy Penrose once I was gone!”

She lifted her sword at Mariette.
”How foolish! Now you will pay for it with your blood!”

That was when Justine caught an arrow of lightning in her hands, and scoffed; Lily’s eyes were narrowed as she had released her crackling bowstring.
”Mariette hasn’t destroyed anything! What are you talking about, Justine?”

Justine shook her head, dismayed by seeing Lily.
”You’re here too! Listen Lily, Mariette is the one behind Penrose’s destruction! She is merely using you, just like I have! She is lying to you!”

Lily shook, and lowered her bow as she looked at Mariette.
”...So...Ronin is...” She mumbled, as she remembered Ronin’s words. The silence was broken by Trixy’s arrival, having managed to shoot the chain weretiger straight through the heart, killing the beastman.

Justine held her hands forward. A reddish-black magic circle formed around her, spinning rapidly. Sonia teleported the two farther away as Mariette and Su inevitably began their attack, allowing Justine to finish her spell. This was when Dina begun her orchestra, filling the dimension with magical fairy music that roused the spirits and strengthened her magic. As a result, Justine grimaced, performing her incantation with disgust.

”Black hound, who stalks in the dark...Feaster of pain, answer my call! Come to me, my darling pet Reaver!”

She closed her eyes, and focused on the mark she had left on the Mint assassin’s body. Using it, she had tracked him to somewhere under Penrose, battling with a mechanical monster girl. And then, with Sonia’s magic, he was dragged out, teleported away from his duel.

The next moment he knew, he was standing on a frozen field, looking up at Justine and Sonia.
”Reaver! My precious dog!”
She called to her, and pointed a finger towards the mansion, particularly at the cyclops girl ruling over it.
”Be a dear, and fight a glorious battle! Kill, for that is your desire!”
Then, Justine also began her attack ,shooting out red beams of death.

At the same time, Tenebra’s rift opened at Sakura’s location, and the infiltration team stumbled out in a single heap. Leena and Eli no longer wore their disguises, their Artifacts seemingly destroyed in the ambush. However, while FanFan was miffed about it, Leena was absolutely fuming; her eyes were wide, and her lips tightly stretched wide in a snarling look full of absolute hate.
“There she is!” She screamed, pointing a sword at Mariette. She breathed hard and gripped her weapons tightly as the rage seemed to grow greater and greater
“She won’t escape...Never again!”
And then, she leapt up, towards the rooftop, glowing as she charged up a spell. Then, with a voice that echoed throughout the entire dimension, she cast it.



Unleashing all her magic, boosted by the sheer amount of anger that flowed out from her like a roaring fire, she created a Nullification Field that expanded out three times as large as her previous spells.

At that moment, time seemed to halt still. All magical constructs and projectiles vanished, like ash into thin air; Justine’s beams, Mariette’s rays of light, Lily’s lightning bolts, Tenebra's rift, and even Sil’s Schatten. Sonia lost her grip on her Space magic, and fell down, accidentally dragging Justine down with her. Even Sil, whose teleport was interrupted, had to make a rolling landing. All external magic, like conjuring elements or barriers, is useless. However, internal magic, like enchanting yourself or those you touch, is still possible.

But of all people who were most affected, it was Mariette. At that moment, she felt as if she was thrown into a world of darkness. Though her eyes still saw around her, she felt blind, her numerous mirrors nowhere to be seen, limiting her vision to only a single point. She tried to summon a mirror, her trusted tool, but it didn’t appear, having betrayed her. Her legs couldn’t hold her still anymore as she felt weak, and she was caught by the ally closest to her. Even the dimension itself seemed to shake as it suffered from the Nullification magic. Mariette knew the reason for this; as long as that Field lasted, even the Black Mirror couldn’t hold this dimension whole.

Five minutes before the end of the world.

The final battle for everyone’s fates, Ragnarok, had begun.

”Mariette hasn’t destroyed anything! What are you talking about, Justine?”
”You’re here too! Listen Lily, Mariette is the one behind Penrose’s destruction! She is merely using you, just like I have! She is lying to you!”
'I don't suppose you have any proof?' Alexander wondered. Now having his jaded suspicions confirmed, Alexander mentally prepped himself for battle. He now knew that it was going to come down to a fight...however what he didn't see coming was the massive antimagic field. Once it went up, he could almost feel it shredding any magic that left his body.

Fortunately for Alexander, a good chunk of his kit was left unaffected. He could still strengthen himself, while others would be even more handicapped then him. However the entire world shaking was a pretty major cause for concern "No way. You crazy bitch, you're going to kill us all!" He turned and ran over to Mariette "Mariette, please tell me that there's a way out of her other then your portals. This entire world feels like it's going to go, so we need to leave now!"

@PlatinumSkink

So the battle commenced. In the midst of which, Justine seemed to be attempting to convince Lily that Mariette had destroyed Penrose. She didn't have anything particularly reasonable argument for the case, yet Lily seemed to be seriously considering it.

‘If you have reasonable accusations to levy against me, I will hear them out. The partial destruction of Penrose was caused by monsters abusing the fact the majority of Penrose's Magical Girls, me included, was trapped inside a Lesser Force's beach dimension,’ Mariette told, clearly irritated. ‘Lily. I trust you,’ she then followed, because reasoning with Justine was too much to ask.

Then Void World happened. Because of course it did. Mariette had been updated that some upstart created a portal unlike her own to make them escape the ambush, which was annoying. The portal girl made a mental note that if that girl showed up again she'd be the first one to be taught a lesson. The wave passed Mariette, and...

It was very strange. Despite not relying on magic at all when it came to standing up, she still felt weak and about to fall over. It was possible Eli was the one who caught her, if it wasn't Hilaria, Eli looking on with worried eyes. Yet, that was not important next to the following event. The world itself. It was... Needed to address Alexander's question.

‘... There's no non-magical exit,’ she answered him, and then brought her communicator to her lips. ‘Everyone. Leena's Void World is causing the whole dimension to collapse. Neutralize her or everyone here will be dead in five minutes. I repeat. Neutralize Leena is a new primary and urgent objective.’

... And seeing how Mariette is now utterly powerless, that's all she could do.

---

A lot of things happened as the wave of anti-magic went by, but perhaps one of the most pronounced was...


One second, Mikayla was floating there, with her army of spirits, in-battle and powerful, her Powerful Aura echoing over the scenery...

Then Void World wave passed.

... And there was no sign of her. It was like Mikayla had never even been there. She was gone.

---

In a different dimension entirely, Mikayla woke up. She stared a bit absently at the ceiling.

Turns out astral projecting is a little difficult in a world where magic is cut. Not only was the magic in her projection cut, the portal through which Mariette was allowing her to project through was also cut. Seems Mikayla's part in this battle was over.

Oh, well.

God this was such a bad idea. She couldn't just sit by and watch though. Taking the device and following orders Jenna made her way and teleported onto the battlefield. No sooner had she arrived then the dimension shook. From the outside of the null field she could see with her Third Eye that the surrounding area had been cut off from its magical source. Perhaps your average Dimensional Home would have been fine, but maintaining something this large required far more. And the result would undoubtedly be catastrophic.

This magical void wouldn't effect her as much, not being that big of a ranged fighter, but it did narrow down her options of support. She'd been told to help Aurelio and Alicia so she began to make her way there. Focusing her magic inward she boosted her speed. Most of the fighting having moved she was bound to intercept the Beacon boy first. Following the inroads already made toward the battered fortification she was able to avoid the laid traps. A fair number of creatures had been dispelled by the field as well so it made easier going for the brief moment. Only a matter of time though. Moving to the last location she'd knows Aurelio to be she found him not far off. "I get the feeling your plan has been put on ice for the moment. Any way I can help with that?" Reaching out a hand she placed it on his shoulder to give him magical emotional, mental support and just a bit of healing. Though it was hard to tell if he needed that last one.

With her barriers down she was going to have to rely more on her spear to fend off attacks. She wasn't as familiar with what everyone was capable of in close quarters aside from a handful of those present. Before running off to the next person though she was going to try and figure out just what was the plan here. She had just thrown herself in the middle of a crumbling warzone after all.

Alicia waited patiently as Connie did her work, only for the magical girl to deliver the somewhat disappointing outcome of her efforts. ”That’s alright. Thank you anyways.” Maybe it had just been a closet after all. Either way it was nothing to get worked up over.

Following after FanFan, Alicia was luckily not first through the door, and thus not the first subjected to the sudden blow that sent her just as quickly flying out of the library and back into the foyer. That was a sign of sorts, as a series of traps and attacks suddenly went off in quick succession aimed at the group. An ambush, and a sign that their time roaming the mansion was done. Now it was going to be a fight all the way.

Unprepared for the strike and not in tune with Sounds magic, Alicia winced and covered her ears, but that was far too late to stop the ringing and muffled noises that would follow. Hopefully it didn’t affect her balance too badly. At least she didn’t have to worry about the ice, with it coming from the stairs and the ground floor. But that did not necessarily mean things were easier because of it. A net, some kind of Empath attack, and explosions in the air behind her.

It seemed that Connie had not escaped unharmed, though whether Mia was being affected was hard to tell. Princess had things under control on her end, leaving Alicia to focus on her own situation. Tenebra had made some kind of portal before promptly passing out, removing one member of the team from the battle in a single swoop. Hopefully they would not pay for it later.

But the decision was already made as Leena and FanFan made their exit through the portal, carrying Connie and the Princess with them. ”I guess we’re doing that them,” Alicia muttered as she shifted her bow into blades. Taking advantage of Dinah’s Reinforcement for however long it lasted, she slashed the webbing that had landed on her, and used the precision of Light magic to weaken what she could not immediately cut.

With a flourish she was free, and she moved for the portal. ”Everyone get out of here,” she called to her remaining companions as her wings snapped open and drove her forwards. At least she had her Enhanced Uniform to take some of the hits, so she only ended up somewhat scorched, and most of her cuts were on her extremities rather than her torso.

Arriving on the other side of the portal, she found a fight in the making. Mariette’s girls, the remainder of the Assault Team, and Justine facing off with Mariette. It was something she only got to take in for a moment before Leena unleashed the full force of her powers, casting the entire area into a magicless zone. Which was unfortunate for her sword now losing its edge, but she could at least use it as a blunt object.

Her wings vanished as well, leaving her stuck on the ground. But that was fine, and she jabbed a blade towards the Portal Witch as she joined in Leena’s anger. ”Mariette!” she called. ”I’m here to end this! It was you who provided all those magical girls for Justine, you who enabled her scheme to change the world to her whims. You used me, took all the girls you had previously abducted who were previously under the sway of her magic to serve your patron, as well as the wealth and knowledge she had gathered in her castle. There must be justice for your sins.”

For a moment she thought of using the arrows she had bought from Brittany’s Shop, and ending this in one fell swoop. She was stopped by the realization that they likely would not work, not in the Void area.

”FanFan, look after Leena,” she instructed. Not that there had been any doubt that she would do that. ”I’m going to end this.”

With that she moved forward, already bracing herself to fight past anyone who got in her way and somehow climb to the roof to face Mariette there. Maybe taking the portal had not been the best idea after all, in hindsight.

_{@Ariamis@Ponn@PlatinumSkink@Crusader Lord@Majoras End@AtomicNut@MadManMoon@BrokenPromise@twave@FamishedPants}

---

Seppa was primed, grinning with anticipation as her weapons surged forward to attack. As much as she liked collecting things, she also liked putting her skills and her craftsmanship to the test. From what she had heard, there would be no better opponent in this city. That made her all the more eager for the imminent clash of will and steel.

Then Reaver vanished, leaving her alone in the courtyard.

For a brief moment she stared at the spot where he had just been. Her brain needed to catch up with what had happened, and soon her face twisted to a visceral rage. “Reaver you useless bastard,” she snarled at the man who was no longer present. He had been crucial to the plan, as Penny would no doubt flee back to the Sanctuary the moment that the alert was raised. Which defeated the purpose of their plan.

Plus, he’d also run off with her stuff. That just could not stand.

As much as it physically pained her to do this, she could not remain in this fight. It was not the right time, or the right circumstances. Their brawl to the end would have to wait for another time. And exiting this fight would require her sacrificing something very precious to her. Another thing that both Penny and Reaver would pay for in the fullness of time.

So, Penny had caught her spear. That was fine. Her snarl twisted as she stretched out a hand and applied both her Metal and Psychic magic. Push, pull, twist, pushing the bounds of her magical enchantments on the spear until it could take no more. Her Killing Blow had been an option, but then she would be hobbled in retreating if Penny decided to pursue. It was best to keep that in her back pocket.

With a shriek the spear fragmented and tore itself apart in a blast of magical energy. The acid normally concentrated in the tip was released with the breaking of the enchantments, and spread itself across the fragments as they slammed into Penny like a makeshift shotgun blast.

Though Seppa was aware of other potential arrivals, it did not change her calculus. While Penny was reeling from the damage of the detonation, she turned and made a dignified exit. “This isn’t over,” she called back as she did so. Penny had escaped by circumstance, but next time she wouldn’t be so lucky.

As she fled she sent out a Psychic message to her companions. They needed to know what was going on.

_{@Shifter_Master}

---

As Varjo carried out her task, Alma’s ears perked up as she received the telepathic message from Seppa. She leaned over and whispered into Varjo’s ear, who in turn summoned her Familiar back as she turned to face Viva.

“Change of plans,” Alma told them. “We’re leaving.” It was sudden, but the other squad members rolled with it.

There was a reason for that, as Varjo took on a crooked smile as she looked to Viva. “Don’t worry,” she giggled. “We won’t be leaving without a consolation prize.” With a sweep of her hand she struck. Dark tentacles rose from Viva’s shadow and grabbed at her, seeking to bind her in place and keep her from resisting. The attack was sudden, and the others made no effort to stop her. They would see just how good Viva was under pressure. Still, Varjo was confident. The outcome was not in doubt.

@Ariamis@PlatinumSkink@Card Captor@FamishedPants@BrokenPromise@Ponn@MadManMoon@Shifter_Master@Flamelord@twave



No plan ever survived contact with the enemy. That adage was always true. What was not entirely acceptable was being teleported against one's will just because your latest potential fling felt like it. Visceral had, in a single stroke, ruined an entire plan, and probably put Reaver into a lot of trouble. His scowl could not be made worse if he tried, as soon as the confusion cleared out. His eyes narrowed at the now prone figure of Justine, and the entire battefield.

Collapsing.

Soaked in anti magic.

Full of enemies.

Odin was ecstasic. Guess... that Visceral would get to be spared of Reaver's blade for now. Such a wonderful target rich environment happened rarely.

"I'm not your dog, Visceral." Reaver curtly said, still gripping the weapons. "I am Odin's Wolf, and It is because of the Allfather you are not impaled on my spear for what you have done." He added. Best not to lament on the missed chance to teach a lesson to Penny and catch up for the sake of old times.

There were some lightning users in this battlefield now, probably confused due to the sudden discharge. His eyes focused on the one that was besides the frazzled silver haired portal girl, opposite of Justine. Lily. He weighed his throwing arm and...

---

If things could get worse, they would sure get worse. Sakura grunted in frustration after being flung away, paces away from Tenebra's last position. All the fighting was now devolving into a clusterfuck, and her electric mojo was waning. She pondered on whether it was possible to carry out the double hit or just leave it as it is and bail.

No amount of money would make her leave a fallen comrade. She thought. She loathed the silver haired idiot, but she was still a teenager, who now laid defenseless. She would need to carry her away from the crumbling battlefield if she were to save... Only Lily remained now to evacuate. Her eyes rested on Lily...

..and then on the figure opposite of her

Fuck!

She thought mentally. Whatever lunatic the cereal vampire wench had conjured it was up to no good. She ran for it, attempting to kick the spear out of his hands. A wet sound was heard. She had succeeded in stopping the bastard.

However said spear had now pierced through her heart and was bleeding her dry of blood and lightning. No good deed goes unpunished. The callous bastard just grunted, before tossing her away, her strength failing, and pointing Lily with the spear.

I can...still...

Reaver fumed, his enhacements flaring. Element of surprise was now partially gone, so he resorted to his other sort of surprise. Warding his mind with Reinforcement, he began to grunt and chuckle, before tearing his own face off... and tossing it on Justine's dress, all the while taking the monstrous form he had felled Cindy with.

He roared... and began to push forward towards Mariette, following Alicia. For carnage and Odin's glory.

---

Dina heaved, as she felt the backslash of her magic orchestra being cut off all off a sudden. It stung quite a bit, but not as much as seeing Mariette waver upon receiving the end of the anti-magic attack. She steadied herself, and helped Mariette to her feet, hearing about the lack of an exit and Alexander's panicky attitude. She twitched her ears.

"Plan D, it is then." She briskly said. "Master Dan! Search the edge of this field and open up a portal! We shall join you shortly!" Her sight now rested on Hilaria. Her fellow smiling sister. Well, she wondered if she was the "bloody smile" sister. "Hilaria, please help Mariette and the beast knight retreat!" She added.

She truthfully wanted to run.

She was afraid.

But sometimes, one could not budge, not even with both the vampire monster, Beacon, and the bloody berserker bearing down on her. Her Beast and Reinforcement magics flared, reinforcing her body to what was about to come.

"Hen to Pan." She enunciated, as her appearance changed. She no longer was...regal. Her dress had shrunk, and her eyes were a fierce red. Body marks were all over her body, and her hair had taken a golden tint. Whoever could still see her magic, they would realize... she was wielding a dozen of magical specializations at once.

Electric Reflexes. Metal Skin. Quadruple Accel. Reinforcement. Beast Vigor. Diamond spikes. She strained herself mentally, as the Cat's cradle suddenly went lit, now a scorching cherry red hot. She moved the wires ruthlessly, as she tried to carve a path towards Leena through the Beacon charge.

Sooo, Mayra’s fire was being turned into glitter and a whole lot of other things were happening… but in the midst of it all that one pink Magical Girl called out to Mayra, asking if her name was, well, her name. Mayra looked astonished for a second, where the dragon-girl was sitting crouched on the railing, then she laughed.

‘You fought yourself into the mansion to talk to me!? I like your guts! Guys, this one’s mine! Don’t shoot her! We gonna talk~!’

Still, during the time that Mayra shouted this, Tenebra managed to throw a portal open and everyone was leaving, FanFan very specifically trying to pick up the same MDP that Mayra was focused on. Mayra reached out a desperate hand. ‘Wait, don’t go-!’

“Oh, goody woodie~!” MDP cheered upon getting confirmation on the draconic monster girl’s identity. “Magical Dream Princess was super duper hoping that’s who you were~! (giggle!)”

Unfortunately, before MDP could say anything further, FanFan scooped her up and carried her towards a massive rift in the dimensional fabric. However, while FanFan may have certainly believed that she was carrying MDP with her through Tenebra’s rift, if she looked closely at what she was holding, the Ascendancy girl would discover a body pillow with an image of MDP printed on it, a pillow that would wink out of existence the moment Leena activated her Null Field. Meanwhile, MDP herself was still in the foyer, giggling at Mayra’s alarmed reaction to FanFan apparently whisking her away.

“Like, Magical Dream Princess is right here, silly willy~! (giggle!) Don’t worry, she’s not going anywheresie, cause she’s got a super duper important wortant chatty watty she wants to have with you~!”(giggle!)

Mayra blinked as MDP showed that she hadn’t gone anywhere, and Mayra laughed again. ‘You’re a tricky one, ain’t ya?’ she said, and then jumped, making a summersault before landing on the floor of the foyer, bending her knees before MDP. ‘So, what’ya wanna talk about?’ she asked, but her companion (who just used 21 Agi and a non-corporeal body to dodge a seed attack but couldn’t pursue as a result) had a different opinion.

‘… If you’re going to have a chat, do it elsewhere,’ an annoyed Lea who’d just watched her prey get away through a portal told them pretty sternly, and MDP was probably getting not-too-favourable looks from other directions, too, albeit a couple curious ones as well.

‘Right, sure, over here!’ Mayra called, and could lead them to a room two doors east of here that was the common room, which looked like the average break area of an office except placed in a gothic mansion, tables and chairs, couches and a refrigerator, a TV and a few other things that don’t belong in an ancient mansion for the inhabitants to take it easy… if MDP followed there, of course. Relocation was sort-of-important so the rest of the forces could make tactical conversation without a possible enemy there. Mayra was the one of them that was most capable of taking care of herself, anyway.

“Okie dokie~! (giggle!)” MDP acknowledged with a happy smile, as she skipped after Mayra into the common room. “Like, if Magical Dream Princess is being perfectly werfectly honest, she kinda winda wanted to have this conversation wasion in private wivate anywaysie~” Taking a deep breath, and trying her best to remember what she wanted to say (and what she didn’t want to say), MDP began to explain the reason she wanted to have this chat. “So, like, a super duper secret wecret placey wacey that belongs to Magical Dream Princess’s most favorite wavorite person worson in the whole wide worldsie got all trashy washied a few days ago, and Magical Dream Princess was told that you were the meanie weanie responsible wonsible.” Putting her hands on her hips, she glared indignantly at the draconic monster girl. Or, at least she tried to… It probably looked more adorable than anything even remotely intimidating. Then her eyes softened a bit, her gaze now holding a mixture of sadness and confusion, rather than anger. “So, like, she just wants to know why Mayra Wayra did it…” MDP added in a slightly plaintive voice.

Mayra looked around the room a bit as she listened to MDP, looking incredibly not-bothered about what she was hearing. ‘Oh, is this a revenge-story? I’m cool with that. Hey, can we bust up this room for the fun of it and then claim we had an epic battle? Or do you want to actually have an epic battle?’ Mayra started, grinning a little, not necessarily entirely serious.

‘Remind me a bit. What place was this? I don’t remember busting up anything that reminds me of you, heh. Did the place have unicorns? Were they tasty?’

“Battle wattle~?” MDP asked, tilting her head in slight confusion. “Weeeell, Magical Dream Princess guesses we could do something like that later water, but, like, why would Mayra Wayra want to trashy washy this placey wacey~? Oh~! And the placey wacey Mayra Wayra trashy washied didn’t have any unicorns, silly willy~! (giggle!) It looked kinda winda like a city wity, but it was just a fakey wakey one, and there were also some super duper cool robot thingie wingies there, too~! (giggle!) Does Mayra Wayra remember wember any of that~?”

‘Why wouldn’t you!?’ Mayra asked, excitedly. ‘This place that everyone would usually get mad at me if I wrecked. We could totally utterly tear it asunder and have a perfectly viable explanation why! Doesn’t that sound exciting!?’ Mayra said, eyes glimmering almost innocent-looking compared to the brutality she was suggesting. Anyways, then MDP went on to talk about cities and robots, and-

‘OH, YEAH, THAT, THAT WAS AWESOME!!’ Mayra shouted and looked super-excited. ‘You should have seen it! One of the battle robots came overhead like WEEEEEEE, but I dodged aside like WOOOOOO, and then I shot it down like PAM, but then the elites surrounded me like-!’ Mayra called as she waved around her hands letting them play the roles of herself and the robots as they depicted a probably inaccurate version of what had actually happened. ‘Ah, those belonged to your friend. Um. I’m sorry. Uh, well, our information girls found the place and the robots, and I couldn’t contain myself and just HAD to go fight them! IT WAS AWESOME! THEY WERE AWESOME! Can I fight them again!? Will they be upgraded!? Even harder!!?? Ooooh, please!’ Mayra continued, emotions flaring a bit of everywhere.

MDP’s initial look of plaintive confusion began to quickly change into one of overwhelming glee with each new word Mayra spoke, until the childish magical girl was smiling from ear to ear.

“Wowie zowie~! So, like, Mayra Wayra just wanted to play with the droney woneies because she thought it would be fun~?! Not because she hates Magical Dream Princess’s most special wecial person worsen~?! Yaaaay~!” she cheered happily, while clapping her hands and jumping up and down. “That makes Magical Dream Princess sooo happy wappy~! (giggle!) And she’s also super duper happy wappy that Mayra Wayra had so much fun playing with the droney woneies, too~! (giggle!) Does Mayra Wayra wanna know a super duper secret wecret~?! Magical Dream Princess, like, totally helped designy winey those droney woney thingie wingies~! Oh~! And Mayra Wayra can totally wotally play with them again~! (giggle!) Magical Dream Princess made lots of upgradey wadeies to them, so they’re, like, super duper nasty wasty nowie~! (giggle!) Magical Dream Princess would just wuv to see how Mayra Wayra handle wandles them~! And, like, Magical Dream Princess even has her own super duper cool droney woney thingie too~! (giggle!)” she added, becoming even more excited, if that were possible. “But it’s, like, a super duper surprisey wisey, so she’s, like, not gonna talky walky about it any moresie~! (giggle!)”

Mayra looked a bit surprised at MDP even suspecting it could have been an act of hatred, though then she got excited again as… ‘YOU designed them? Woah, you’re good!’ And then that she could play with them again… ‘For real? I’m invited? Invited to bust up your stuff!? OH, MAN, THANKS!’

Mayra says so and then very suddenly attempted to possibly kind of harshly hug around MDP which probably was pretty uncomfortable because dragon-scales hard. ‘You’re my bestest friend! Don’t you worry; I’ll bust up your droney woney thingies hard so you can get to upgrade them again!’ Mayra told in sheer joy.

‘Also, you are INCREDIBLY weird to listen to!’ Mayra added with so honest a tone and wide a smile that it probably wasn’t meant as an insult.

Even though the crushing embrace Mayra was giving her would be exceedingly uncomfortable for a normal person, it did nothing to dampen MDP’s spirits. She had made a new friend, and an exceptionally fun one at that! Giggling with glee, she hugged Mayra back just as tightly.

“Like, of coursey worsey you can~! (giggle!)” the cheerful magical girl told Mayra after the draconic monster girl had asked if MDP was sure she would allow her to fight the drones again. “Like, you’re a super duper toughie wuffy, so Magical Dream Princess thinks you’d be the perfect werfect person worsen to testy westy the brand new droney woneies, and she’s, like, sooo super duper excited to see what you think of them~! (giggle!)” Then Mayra told her that she was her new best friend, causing the childish magical girl to squeal with delight. “Wowie zowie~! (giggle!) Magical Dream Princess is making sooo many wany new friendsie wendsies today~! She really hopes she can remember wember all of their namey waymies…” she added, sounding a bit uncertain, before quickly brightening again. “But, like, Mayra Wayra shouldn’t worry~! There’s, like, no way Magical Dream Princess could forget your namey waymie~! (giggle!)”

She paused a moment when Mayra told her how weird she was to listen too, as if not quite understanding what the monster girl meant. Then she giggled sweetly, as if an idea had suddenly occurred to her.

“Like, super duper thankie wankies~! (giggle!) Magical Dream Princess talky walkies the way she does because she thinks it makes her sound super duper cute and kawaii~! (giggle!) She really, really wuvs that kinda winda stuffy wuffy, but, like, she has to keep it a super duper secret wecret when she’s her normal wormal selfie welfie… That’s why she wuvs being Magical Dream Princess~! (giggle!) When she’s a magical wagical girl, she can act all adorable worable and have so much fun, and nobodywody will ever know that Magical Dream Princess and her super duper boring woring and gloomy woomy normal selfie welfie are really the same person worson~! (giggle!)”

‘Ooooh, man, I can’t wait to bust some more robots…!’ Mayra said, excitedly. Then the part with the name, and Mayra released the hug to point to herself with a wide happy face. ‘Yeah! I’m Mayra McCullough, the Flame Demon of Asengav, dragon turned Magical Girl! Speaking of, I don’t think I got your name? Just “Magical Dream Princess”, hah,’ she then asked, looking to MDP.

‘Huh. Right. Alright, then,’ Mayra simply replied with kind of a happy shrug about how MDP acts. ‘Right, listen, it seems there’s an anti-magic field about, and behind Freya I’m Mariette’s strongest physical girl, so I think they might kinda need me, and I’m not about to turn down being the star of the show. Defending our mistress from crazy vampire and all that. What are you going to do?’ Mayra asked, looking curious.

“Yep yep~!” MDP confirmed when Mayra asked about her name. “Magical Dream Princess is Magical Dream Princess~! (giggle!)” When the subject of what she was planning to do next came up, the cheerful magical girl seemed to get even more excited. “Magical Dream Princess is gonna do what she came here for~! (giggle!) She’s gonna help Samurai-chan save Mariettey Wetty, and the rest of you girls, from some super duper meanie weanie heads~!”

‘Alright, then!’ Guess Mayra just had to show up to the high-tech facility and ask for the magical princess to find her. She could work with that! Okay, and now the girl was going to- ‘Huh?’ Mayra looked a bit confused. But, uh… … …

Possibilities arose in Mayra’s mind. Possibilities of why exactly someone would be joining an attack on Mariette’s mansion to “save” the girls within. Just as a thought occurred to her, a sad uninvited _mind-bent thought showed up alongside it that she-

- Nope.

- You know what?

- That’s no fun.

Mayra grabbed MDP’s arm in a tight grip and grinned.

‘Let’s go.’

“Huh~?” MDP wondered with a slightly confused smile.

‘Let’s go save Mariette!’ she called so happily, before pulling on MDP to start running with her already! The less I know, the better~!

“Okie dokie~! (giggle!)”

This was going to be so much fun!

Penny didn’t bother wasting the effort it would have taken to roll her eyes at the hostile replies that were thrown her way. She offered them an easy way out, offered them a chance. There was no promise of her doing it again.

Instead, she leapt forward to meet Reaver a small trail of electricity flowing from her raised fist. At the same time the rest of her hidden limbs would unveil themselves and lash out at the projectiles closing in on her. The sword was battered away and the spear captured.

Just before the fight could begin in earnest Reaver vanished, space warping and whisking him away to places unknown. The action caught Penny of guard, but that didn’t stop her advance, a hard step and a violent pivot had the mechanical monarch turning towards the other active combatant, her intention painfully obvious as she started leveling Seppa’s own spear at her as she charged.

The next surprise was one that Penny had more warning towards. The scream of Metal rang loud and clear to her and there was only so much that she was willing to risk without forewarning. It was because of that she halted her advance as the spear self-destructed a thin cloud of dust rising to obscure the actual damage as Seppa ran off.

The instant Seppa had broken the line of sight the dust cloud would be banished. Revealing Penny practically untouched. The spear, or more accurately it’s fragments never came close to touching the Queen of Penrose. The weapon was contained in a few layers of Reinforcement barriers, the spell she stole from Reaver coming in surprising use to contain it. With a gesture the barrier dropped and the acid fell freely as the fragments would remain in the air suspended by Penny’s magic.

She would then turn to face those that had arrived just before things went sideways. And it was only due to Melisa’s presence that she didn’t assume that they too were enemies, still her spider limbs were poised and ready to strike. Or at least most of them were, one of them quietly dipped its tip into the acid to gauge just how potent the solution was.

“Seems you showed up a bit late for the action” Penny would say after a moment of examining both the mutated tiger and the unknown girl. “Care to explain why you came here?” She would ask as Snoopy disconnected from his dock and took to the skies.

Penny doubted that whatever plan it was that the Mint had they were still going to go along with it seeing as one of their agents ran as soon as Reaver vanished. Which meant that they were a distraction. So she hopped that Snoopy might be able to find some trail of the main squad so that she could try and piece together what the plan was for next time.

---

Reaver’s phone signal suddenly appearing in close proximity to the Rest of Beacon’s at the Mansion mission was logged by the small portion of Penny still tracking the movement’s of that local, but it wouldn’t be until later that Penny would truly register that, or what it meant.

---

Honestly had it only been Mariette and her crew showing up to face down with Justine. Aurelio would have been fine with being ignored. Heck even more and more people teleporting into the main room to turn it all in to one giant dust up while ignoring him would have been fine. He just wanted to cast his spell and go home.

It wasn’t a complicated spell, but it was a powerful one. A large scale, self-sustaining, self-reinforcing spell of Hope and Love. He had gone through the build of as he had walked over here all that was left was to set it off. Or at least that had been the plan.

Leena’s fanatical Null Field, kind a made his spell utterly unusable. Or at least it wasn’t capable of being large scale anymore, and he was just a few steps short of either panic or a break down, he wasn’t sure which. Then Jenna showed up and he thankfully took her support, opening his mind as best he could to ease it. He wasn’t a Psychic but Empathy worked in similar circles at times.

The mental support let him get his emotions fully under his control as well, which if he was being entirely honest the Void spell helped with that as well by banishing any lingering emotions in the air away so that he didn’t have to fend them off anymore as well as keep his head.

’You’re a life saver. Dinner is on me next time I swear.’ He would think as he refocused on the chaos in front of him. Three things stood out to him, and in any normal circumstance he would have made a few clones and went to assist at all the locations at once.

First was Alicia, and her rapidly approaching cat problem. Second was watching the spunky sparkster taking a spear for Lily. Lastly, that Justine was, more so than any other moment, vulnerable.

It took less time for him to decide what to do then it did for him to recognize and process everything he had seen.

Turning to Jenna, he ran his hand along his cane the unsettling black glow vanishing and being replaced with a warm white. He then handed her the Cane, now charged to release the entirety of his earlier spell in one go. Two if she was careful. No words were said, but none were needed due to the telepathic link.

It should kill Justine, or turn Alicia into an avenging Angel. Both useful outcomes, but Aurelio had something more important to take care of. After all Kindness had to come first.

After passing off his Final Act he would turn and race towards Sakura, ignoring everything except for the soft shuddering of this dimension. “I hope you’ve still got a trace on us” Aurelio would mutter into his com, hopping that Elora was still on the other side “As it feels like this place is falling apart.” Skidding to a stop he would rub his hands together bringing forth a soft blue glow just under his skin. Without any further ado he set about healing Sakura. Trusting in Jenna and Alicia to be able to handle things in the fight.

---

Viva for her part had merely stayed quiet and watched the others interact once she was done talking. Noting things that caught her interest, such as Alma’s cup size that coin that Ilmarinen seemed so fond of, and that Seppa liked her things to stay hers.

“I, for one, can hardly think of a reason anyone would stay mad at you for too long” Viva would say with a smirk. “I’m interested in seeming more of Seppa’s toys as well. Especially if they are anything like this one.” She would continue on, hefting the Axe that had been loaned out to her to emphasis her statement.

After that conversation died off for a bit as they all waited for the meat of the mission to be found. Viva spent her time idling staring at everyone there with eyes grown under her hair, wondering how Ilmarinen’s wings would taste.

She was rather annoyed at the change of plans, but didn’t do much more then huff about it, and was readying to leave when she was ensnared by the shadowy tendrils. She struggled against them for a moment before stopping and leveling an unamused glare at Varjo. “Kinky” She would say with a fanged grin that was decidedly more feral then playful. The Axe in her hand would vanish in a small flash of light as her body suddenly melted into a puddle and oozed out of the dark tentacles grip. Just as suddenly Viva would be reforming and jumping away from the three of them.

“But you forgot to set a safe word.” Viva would say as her revolver materialized in her right hand, as a few vials filled with green liquid appeared in between the fingers of her left. “Mind explaining the sudden, but supposedly inevitable, betrayal?” She would ask leveling her gun at Varjo.

---

_{@BrokenPromise, @DarkwolfX37 & @twave, @Ariamis, @AtomicNut & @Flamelord}

Roof


Obviously, Alicia was on the way. Mariette REALLY didn’t have time to address her accusation, given it was true. Not all of it intentional, but it was true. Okay, could she do anything at all? Oh, she could still use touch-based magic. Which she had none. She could open a portal at her feet, but it wouldn’t go anywhere. Yet, this was enough. If she could get to the mirror, that was all she needed. The idea, of course, was that she could get to the mirror at any time and would never get anywhere close to Leena. That worked excellently, until they found out Leena needs to be taken out back and shot right now because of her ability.

‘I- I need to- if we can’t stop Leena, we need to get to the basement. Th-there’s a special mirror there I can activate…!’ Mariette said in response to Dina’s thing about escaping, to anyone nearby. If Mariette escaped now, and left the Black Mirror to its destruction, then Asengav… Asengav wouldn’t forgive her. Even if she couldn’t portal there from here, all she needed to do was lay her hand on it to open a portal out of this world…!

‘With the Void World removing our protective measures, the roof shouldn’t be that difficult to break through,’ Eli told, albeit she personally lacked that kind of strength, she stepped in front of Mariette making one of her wings a shield, because it appeared that Mariette’s own shields wouldn’t serve her now. She had to protect her mistress. She had to.



@Ariamis@Majoras End@FamishedPants@AtomicNut@BrokenPromise@Card Captor@Shifter_Master

---

…

It appeared her root system had vanished. She was suddenly blind.

…

She’d spent so much time spreading her root system so she could control the entire mansion…

…

Without another thought, Esther broke out through the dirt, lifting herself out of the dirt of her own garden within which she’d been hidden to move somewhere else.

---

Foyer


Lea immediately recognized the danger of the seeds being launched her direction. She blew a strong wind forward to disperse the seeds, but they exploded into growth and charged at her. The fae monster then used some good-old 21 Agi mixed with wind-magic agility to perform some outrageous athletic maneuvers to dodge back away and through the limbs of the spiked tendrils. Even at one point she looked like she was about to be caught… when that part of her gently dispersed into butterflies and reformed on the other side of the tendril, successfully dodging the attack.

That aside. So, Dina’s magic defended them from ice, the web was vanquished/cut, the rage-beam hit but didn’t take down the mark, Taihei’s explosions missed due to them slipping on ice (how surprising), fire turned to glitter and the whole enemy team vanished out a portal. Alright, then.

A scene between MDP and Mayra takes place here, but before long they headed east two rooms to the common room, leaving this post.

They couldn’t pursue through Tenebra’s portal, because then they’d be on their own with no support. Then the Void World was called, and Mariette gave her orders.

‘… Everyone, report your capability without magic,’ Lea told them. ‘I still have my agility, and a ranged weapon.’
‘…’ Freya, who had circled around to arrive from behind the east wing, merely extended her claws. Everyone knew already.
‘I’m physical to begin with, this is but a minor setback,’ Victoria told with a grin.
‘I… I still have a ranged weapon and agility, but I am far less capable without magic,’ Tullia told, sounding worried.
‘I have some explosives that work even in a magic-less world,’ Taihei said, lifting a couple grenades that she retrieved from somewhere. ‘But otherwise I’ve got tentacles and am a hard rock to punch.’
‘I’m slightly physically capable, just, like, Eli-level? Though, I’m super-lucky, so it should work out!’ Josefin said happily.
‘I still have my web and close-range healing abilities, but probably don’t expect me to fight like this,’ Ronja said, spinning up some new web she couldn’t shoot anymore.
‘Haha. If I’m limited to self-magic, guess I’ll just boost myself like no tomorrow. I can throw a punch!’ Suzette said, showing off some fisticuffs at the air in front of her.

‘It seems the battle has moved outdoors, and I’m no longer useful sitting in my cubicle,’ the voice belonging to their information girl came from upstairs, dragging a box behind her. With her wandered the silent tree-girl named Esther.


‘I prepared some things, knowing there was an anti-magic girl, just in case. Here, have some things.’

---

Outside


So the ambush happened. Ronin knew it’d happen, she just really counted on that the infiltration team would be strong enough to handle it. She found that Dina’s enhancement made them escape the ice, and Taihei’s explosions missed, and Tenebra opened a portal of kinds and they were fleeing and-

-and Connie got hurt.

‘I got that-!’ Ronin leaped, raising a personal shield as she grabbed onto Connie’s shoulder, healing it while being carried off, taking a ride on Leena as they arrived to the outside. Ronin barely weights anything, should be totally fine.

Then Void World happened. Ronin blinked in surprise. Oh my god that is going to cripple Mariette while she could still evacuate her with a touch. ‘Th-this magic-less world, it might be our best chance!’ she whispered to Gaia and Connie, because MDP is not here as they’d shortly notice. ‘How’s, uh, your magic-less capabilities?’ she asked Gaia and Connie.

Alicia was heading off, and Ronin knew she had to be on her tail. She had to attack alongside Alicia. ‘I gotta go,’ she said, feeling all tense, pressured and a bit panicky. It was going down. She was about to run off, when-

‘SENSEI!’ Ronin had to cry out when Sakura got herself stabbed and thrown away. She ran off to crouch over her, holding her hands forward to try to heal. Darn, she didn’t have time for this! She had to climb the mansion! B-but she couldn’t sacrifice Sensei’s life to save those she cared about! She-

Aurelio showed up, saving the day like a big damn hero. Also… Jenna.

‘Ah-’ Ronin blinked as she realized… this was the one that she’d been recommended to tell. ‘Uh. If I can touch Eli and Mariette I can bring them to Djinn Sister’s dimension where Janet and Jenna can remove their mind-bending and we’ll have saved them from the horror that enslaved them,’ she spoke quickly, getting up on her feet, quiet enough that nobody she didn’t want to hear this would overhear. ‘I gotta go before Alicia kills them,’ she said, spinning around to dash for the wall of the mansion, starting to climb after Alicia, boosting herself with Reinforcement magic the whole way…!



@Ariamis@Majoras End@Ponn@AtomicNut@Flamelord@twave@Shifter_Master

---

Outside - Not Ronin Version

The random Victoria clone was wiped out by the Void wave. Sad.

So did all the snow, curiously enough. They’re now just standing on a featureless black ground with a mansion on it over there.

In any case. Shortly after Alicia had ran off, Josefin stuck her head out of a second floor window looking intensely worried.

‘Leena!’ she called. ‘Your Void World is collapsing this dimension! Unless you stop, everyone in here will die! You don’t want that, right!? I mean everyone!’

And if she turned out to be uncooperative…

‘Please, you’ve got to stop her!’ Josefin shouted to the Leena’s allies, because she figured that they shouldn’t like that, either.

Though if that wouldn’t work either, the forces of Asengav were preparing a charge. They were just waiting for, like, Alicia, Reaver and Justine to leave the ground level. Josefin because she was lucky and would probably survive even if they decided to shoot at her.

@Ariamis@Majoras End@Ponn@AtomicNut@Flamelord@twave@Shifter_Master

Have any of you ever considered why you were born? What the mission of the human race is? Surely it has to be something more interesting than surviving. I also don’t prescribe to the idea of nihilism: That we’re all essentially meaningless entities that can achieve nothing in our short lifespans. It’s certainly an interesting idea, but it’s much too pessimistic for my tastes.

In order to figure this out, we have to look at everyone and try to draw a connection between them. After all, everyone seems to be programmed with different desires. Some people want to become scientists, others want to be rock stars. We have people who want a family or a spouse, a new toy to play with, a better job, porn to watch. It seems like humans are diverse in their desires and goals. I’ll admit it took me some time to realize what the goal of all human existence is, but I’m willing to share my discovery with you.

It’s to create memories.

That’s the one thing all of these activities have in common. Everything we do is to create a lasting memory. We watch movies and go to theme parks for unforgettable experiences. Our greatest triumphs are solidified in our mind. Yes, our greatest failures and least favorite pass times may also create a lasting memory, even if we’d rather not have it. But we freely share them all the same. What do the old do but share their memories, good or ill, with the next generation?

It’s kind of interesting to think about the things that make memories. We often remember when we try new things. If we enjoyed them, we tend to stick with them for long periods of time. Though the irony is that the longer we do something, the fewer memories it yields. Watch a great movie a hundred times if you’d like, but the unchanging details will not make new memories.

By the way, have any of you figured out who we are yet?

---

@DarkwolfX37@Shifter_Master@twave@Flamelord

Nuncio’s presence was picked up again by snoopy, and not long afterwards, he came out of the crowd and stood beside Rosa.

“I got word from Sammy. I was anticipatin’ somethin’ like this.” Nuncio patted Rosa’s side. “But it seems I was a little slow on the draw. Dame can only see so far into the future.” His eyes squinted when they fell on Shion. “Can’t say I’m too familiar with her though. But if Rosa trusts her, so do I.” Nuncio looked around, as if some apex predator might be hiding in the crowd somewhere. Once he was satisfied, he extended a hand to Shion. “I’m Nuncio.”



The exchange between Penny and the two mysterious individuals did not go unnoticed. something lurked nearby…

---

Earlier…

Needless to say, Oros was not the type to linger in one spot for long. She was able to fashion herself a new nose and was quick to sniff out another place of interest. The sanctuary ended up being her choice, especially since it was teaming with the scent of the Mint. It bothered her to try and ally with them, but it was important if her plan was going to work. Thanks to her keen hearing, it wasn’t hard to pick out where they were, or what they were planning.

“I figure we start smashing her surveillance net and Penny will come running eventually. Then we lead her on a merry chase, and pull her into the Overcity.”

Typical Mint, here for business rather than pleasure. It probably wasn’t a good idea to approach them just yet.

Hah! Like Oros cared what they wanted!

She was about to meet with Seppa when she saw an innocent looking girl with her hands clasped together in prayer. Perhaps the trial was making her uneasy. Didn’t matter, Oros was going to-

Shit! That adorable girl looked straight at Oros and smiled! Well, she was cute, but Oros had Emily, so-

No! Now Oros was also smiling! Now she was walking over to her! None of this was part of the plan she made five seconds ago!

---

Now…

The sound of a spear exploding pulled Oros out of her make out session. She promptly transformed into a small dog and scampered away. Hopefully that was enough to break away from some background character who hopefully won’t turn into a GMNPC. But those cute types were really irresistible. Though anyone who was down for making out ten seconds in was probably not worth her time. Regardless, she had to assess the situation, and that meant going somewhere she could actually see Penny.

Seppa running off was just uncool. She had a hard time believing that an organization that helped bring so many alternate dimensions to ruin was so short sighted to have to bail as soon as one of their men suddenly vanished. But wait, this was part of their plan, wasn’t it? They were going to get Penny to chase them. Regardless, that wasn’t working. Everyone treated Penny like she was some force to be reckoned with, like she had no equal, or her equal was ten other magical girls. It wasn’t unreasonable to behave like that. Penny was pretty strong in all the worlds Oros had visited, but she did have equals. Either way, didn’t matter. If Seppa couldn’t bring her to the overcity, Oros would.

As Oros drew closer, she untransformed. The dark shadow of an alternate dimension loomed around her as she walked closer. Oros’s ability to shift was a bit different than most girls. It wasn’t a quick, instantaneous flip to another world. All the same, Penny wasn’t looking in her direction, and Nuncio and Shion seemed to be looking at each other. If someone tried to stop her, they would be too late.

“Banzaiiiiiiiii!”

Oros broke into a sprint and jumped towards Penny. When her shift activated, she’d bring along everyone in close proximity to Penny.

As for what waited in the overcity, that was for the GMs to decide.

Or maybe Oros got cucked somehow, idk.

---

Sigh…

Viridian’s portal closed. She’d have run into the mansion, but there were slightly more pressing things afoot. Unfortunately, her ability to relay information to her agents was being interfered with. Something bad was going to happen unless she could somehow be in two places at once. The only way she could do that was if she was two magical girls, which was actually doable.

She just hoped her stitches didn’t come undone from this.

First order of business was clearing the UNSPECIFIED POWER OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN. This could be achieved by simply jumping. Viridian hadn’t displayed her physical prowess much, but anyone looking at her now would see her flying into the sky like a rocket. She was pretty sure she could jump out of the barrier, but she was more concerned with her attire. On her way down, there wouldn’t be a lot she could do to prevent her dress from lifting and revealing her undergarments. She supposed it didn’t matter too much. So long as her agents weren’t distracted, she didn’t care. As soon as she cleared the UNSPECIFIED POWER OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN, she made contact with someone.

”We’ve had a bit of a hickup. “ Normally cross dimensional communication would be blocked, but both Viridian and her partner had keys to access Mariette’s dimension. and it was starting to break down.

”Of course you did.” Viridian’s conversation partner had Viridian’s memories of the event placed in her head already. ”You are aware having me show up now would set back my plans?”

”So would failing here, especially if ya lost all ya agents. ” Viridian had almost reached the peak of her jump. ”I ain’t here to negotiate, ya either going to help, or ya ain’t.”

Of course, Viridian was sure that her friend would come as fast as a hiccup. In the end, her friend was a vain one. Beyond the schemes and the plans for world domination was a woman that wanted to be seen. For what purpose not even Viridian knew. She was certainly in the wrong business, but Viridian wasn’t really in a place to complain. She hadn’t been subtle in her business here, and she knew it.

”Very well, prepare for my arrival.”

It was time.

The UNSPECIFIED POWER OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN had done quite a bit to prevent all the rampant teleportation from happening in the world below, but the weakened dimension itself had some holes in its otherwise protective membrane. Where there had once been only two entrances there were now many more. A shadow seeped through a crack in the sky and joined with Viridian’s hand. Not long after, a red haired woman came out of the shadow, fingers locked with Viridian’s own. Both girls had similar body shapes and height, but the stranger wore a blood red cape and a skin conforming body suit that was as black as night.

”Howdy, sister!”

”Keep the banter to a minimum on the field.” The scarlet stranger looked down. She had already formed a plan in her head, and had sent a copy of it over to Viridian. ”Is that acceptable?”

”Of course!”

The two kicked off of each other, before they plummeting into the battlefield.

@Majoras End

The scarlet stranger landed in close proximity to Eliza. Some debris were kicked up by her landing, but she had no problem rising to her feet. Eliza would notice this new girl had the red aura of a cradle agent. Even a UNSPECIFIED POWER OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN couldn’t snuff that out. ”Eliza, now is your chance to put an end to Justine. Sonia must be dealt with before this magic field dissipates.”

@FamishedPants

Further away, Viridian had an equally dramatic landing not far off from Silhouette’s location. ”Seems Sonia is down on her luck. Let’s keep it that way.”

Nonsense. All of this was just nonsense. Anaya was admittedly lagging behind due to her reconcideration of such a battle. The spirit sisters that she focus most on defended her team as they fled (though Morgan didnt see a need to once MDP and Mayra truced to talk). Yet when Anaya had stepped through Tenebra's rift was when Leena's Void World had cut off the spirit girl's connection to then.

Anaya cursed under her breath, what were they thinking?! As the dimension began to fail, she looked to the rest of the beacon team, to Alicia. Yet they didnt seem to care that such a risk for one girl was foolish enough.

This really was a stupid idea. She just wanted to protect her friends. Even those on the opposing side. Speaking of...

While the others were busy trying to attack Mariette, Anaya snuck around to climb onto the roof. But instead of attacking, she checked on Eliza.

Eliza herself seemed stuck in her mind, trying to process everything that was happening. Some Loli Hitler managed to bring the infiltration team to them, Justine summoned the same guy that killed Cindy, then the Void World happend and nulled most of her kit, and now the place is going to fall apart and- Oh dear god the knight bastard almost killed Lily! The witch felt overwhelmed!

Again.

She really should get used to this by now.

"Hey!!" Eliza's attention was turned to Anaya, halfway up onto the roof.

"What the hell?! Anaya, you're gonna get us both screwed by being over here!" Regardless of what the witch said, she helped the other girl up.

Anaya dusted herself off. "Well concidering our current circumstances, I think we're all screwed if nothing changes. So why not check on an old friend before we all go to Hell for a while?" she smiled.

Eliza sighed. "Ugh, I'm sorry, Anaya. This would've ended sooner if I could just-" She was then interrupted when she notice more rifts in the dimension, followed by a scarlet-haired woman landing close to the two. Eliza quickly noticed the red aura that the woman emitted, how she held herself and her text color manner of speaking seemed familiar.

"Could it be...?" Eliza thought. But that can be addressed later. She was finally given the go ahead to attack Justine. The witch's eyes widened for a second, then a wicked grin appeared as she reached up her hat for her thornwitch blade. If she can't kill the vampire with her magic, or her blade, then she'll be more than willing to use her bare hands.

"Hey, wait for me!"

Soon as Eliza saw where Justine and Sonia landed, she sprinted off, Anaya following behind with her twin pistols.

---

---

Meanwhile...

---

---

Like Oros, Maura was watching the whole debacle with Penny and the Mint agents. She didn't really have much to do with everyone else busy at Mariette's. Though short-lived, whatever the agents had planned seemed rather interesting. She almost felt the need to assist the cyborg. Alas, it seemed they've put their plan aside and fled.

A pity. They seemed like fun.

But there were more pressing matters than Oros throwing Penny and a few others into Timbuktu. Maura furrowed her brows when she noticed her mental link with Eliza had been blocked. Yet the necromancer didn't feel the pain she did when the twins died. Then again, her connection to the other cradle agents had been blocked as well.

Something didn't seem right. But first, she had to get reinforcements.

---

Maura appeared outside of the anti-magic field, with Amanda and Valerie at her side. "God, what a mess..." she groaned, looking over the battle on the other side.

"I'm counting many casualties, Ma'am. But our friends are still going strong, despite struggling." Valerie explained as she scanned the field. "I've counted 5 targets that may prove difficult, including Visceral, two of Ascendancy's members; one of them threatens the condition of this place," she pointed to the transformed Reaver. "and that knight over there."

"Hm, the field should make fighting them easier. But I'm more concerned of the dark knight than anything. Doesn't seem fair he still gets a boost of power when everyone's weakened." Maura thought for a moment.

"I-I can't go in there. My book's useless without my magic." Amanda shook her head, trying to look for Connie and Mia within the fight. She seemed worried about them.

"I know, but your dreamscape might be a useful escape route. Just stay here, okay?" Maura reassured the dream magician. Then she had an idea. She turned back to Valerie. "Valerie? How high is your stress level?"

"....30%. Why?"

Maura hummed. "Get me back for this later." With a tap to the android's brain, Valerie felt a pulsing pain, causing her to clutch at the sides of her head.

---

!!WARNING!!:
Stress level at 50%, 55%, 60%,

---

Lightning surged through the android's body. Valerie ran into battle as soon as she began her metamorphosis into a far less human form*. Reaver's march would get interrupted when she landed in front of him.

---

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: Eliminate all targets.

---

Meanwhile, with her scythe in hand, Maura went to go provide support to either Eliza or Silhouette. Whoever needed her more.

_{*if you noticed Val's MM form is similar to that one Covington battle mech, no you didn't.}

Connie’s head was spinning. Before she had even known what was happening, she had been scooped up and carried through a portal. She had also been shot by an enchanted wind blast. This last item had resulted in an excruciatingly painful wound to her shoulder. Indeed, the pain was so intense that the masked girl was barely cognizant of the chaotic events transpiring around her, at least until Ronin appeared at her side and applied some healing magic to her wound.

“T-Thanks, Ronin,” she managed to tell the small samurai in a shaky voice as the pain gradually subsided.

“Connie!” Gaia exclaimed in relief as she rushed over to kneel down beside her friend. “Thank goodness you’re all right! And my sincerest thanks to you as well,” she added, turning to Ronin. “I am truly in your debt.”

Before the small samurai could respond, Leena gave voice to an incantation that manifested an enormous magical nullification field. Although it was somewhat shocking to have the link to their magic severed so abruptly, Ronin seemed to see it as an opportunity. Gaia, however, was far less optimistic.

“I am sorry to say that neither Connie, nor I are particularly capable, when it comes to physical combat,” the verdant magical girl replied to Ronin’s inquiry about their non-magical capabilities. “Since we both rely so heavily on our mystical prowess, I fear we are essentially useless, as long as this nullification field remains in effect.”

If she was being honest, Gaia supposed she could have kept up with Ronin using her rather impressive agility, but, as she’d said, she had little practice with hand to hand combat, and there was no way she would ever leave Connie alone in a situation like this.

At this point, Ronin noticed that Alicia was heading for Mariette, and, not wasting a second, darted off after her.

“I-I r-really w-wish we c-could h-help her…” Connie said as Gaia helped her up, her mask displaying an exceptionally sullen visage.

“There is nothing we can do about it, little sister,” Gaia replied, while gently running her fingers through her friend’s hair. “Besides, after seeing you in such agony, I must admit I am exceedingly reluctant to place you in yet another dangerous situation so soon.”

As if to emphasize that point, they heard Ronin call out in alarm. Turning to face the source of her cry, the two friends were met with the sight of Sakura sprawled on the ground, blood pouring from a nasty wound in her chest.

“M-Miss Sakura!” Connie gasped.

Thankfully, just as Ronin reached the pink-haired girl, the Beacon magical boy from back at the meeting showed up and began mending her wounds. This left Ronin free to continue her mission, and would also hopefully ensure Sakura’s survival. Everywhere Connie looked, everyone seemed to be doing something productive, everyone, except her and Gaia. She desperately wanted to be of use, but she had no idea how. There had to be something she and Gaia could do, but what? It was then that Connie noticed three figures materialize a short distance away, one of whom was a bespectacled girl with lavender hair…

“O-Oh my g-gosh…” Connie whispered in stunned surprise. “I-Is t-that Amanda?!”

_{(Note- I am working under the assumption that this all takes place before Josefin pokes her head out the window.)}

Nuncio, huh? That was one of the people she was supposed to help. That was... surprisingly easy. Shion reached out her hand and shook his. "Shion." she replied. "I'm actually here to find you and a couple others. Any idea where two people called Sammy and Faith are? I thought I heard you mention a 'Sammy' a moment ago, so I guess you do know?"

Shion gave Nuncio a look over. "Anyway, I'll get to the point. Someone annoying wants you three out of Penrose. It's already not safe here and it's probably going to get worse." She paused, thinking back to the plan. "In fact, it's definitely going to get more dangerous, and pretty soon at that. So I'm here to help you out, and help you out."

@BrokenPromise

Would Sonia catch on to her in time? Would she predict this attempt and be ready to counter? Or would she be caught unawares and suffer a fatal blow as she recovered? So many options running through Silhouette's mind in a fraction of a second, yet none of them were correct.

"Ngh!"

With a grunt and a thud, Sam hit the ground and transitioned into a sloppy roll. Shit! Damnit, I could've had her...! Irritated as she was that her plan failed, it took only a moment to realize that the cause of her premature landing was because of a sudden nullification zone. The area-of-effect was large and it severely restricted the ways in which magic could take form. Not only that, the dimension itself, being magical in nature, began to groan and scream as it began to rupture (actually one of those might have been something else). Didn't take a genius to realize that soon enough it would tear itself apart along with anyone unfortunate enough to be in it when that happened.

But Sam did not panic; she acted. There was no time for vacillation. Her focus was ahead, in the direction both Justine and Sonia fell, and she took off in a sprint towards them. She could smell the blood in the water. And while the null zone affected everyone to some degree, it unquestionably hit those two harder than it hit her. Justine would be much less a threat with no magic, and Sonia wouldn't be able to escape as she wished.

Samantha would have to thank whoever did this later. The potential to immediately kill both Justine and Sonia was there thanks to the dimension's collapse, and they would be a lot less tricky to catch. But things looking too good to be true had nearly killed her before. She knew she had the drop on that Beacon girl yet it still ended with her being flung out of a warehouse. The reality was that Sonia not being able to teleport was a bigger disadvantage to Justine than it was to herself, so she wouldn't just roll over and die. Justine could be exceptional at close range, too. Nothing was impossible.

When Viridian suddenly appeared in quite the flamboyant manner, seeking to join Sam on her assault, this fact was further reinforced. Samantha did not slow down for a second so that she could continue to pressure Justine and Sonia, and Viridian presumably kept up with her. Hastily, Samantha touched Viridian's arm and directly buffed her ability to react (Assume Sil also buffed Maura if she joins alongside). "I can concentrate on Justine," she told Viridian, hinting that they should deal with Sonia. "We can do this. We'll end them here and now, while they're vulnerable."

This wasn't just about assisting Mariette. It wasn't about getting vengeance for herself or the others than Justine had wronged. Avenging people she did not know wasn't a motivation for her. No, instead, if she could pull this off and kill Justine, then maybe Veronica would be proud. Trixy might be too.

She could not fail here!

Well.

Well, it could be worse.

The loss of one's magic was a detriment for almost every magical girl in Penrose, but it was less so for some and more so for others. Up until this point, Mac had primarily made use of her magic to carry out her missions. But it was hardly her only feature. She was strong, swift, and durable even without magic. It wasn't even like null field terminated all magic. She could still cast "inner" magic, whatever that was. She could keep herself invisible, which was well enough for her purposes. She'd just have to lay a smack down with her fists this time.

The Archive wasn't getting out of this one unscathed.

She charged towards the meddlers of fate, ready to tear them limb from limb.

---

@FamishedPants@Majoras End@Card Captor@AtomicNut@Shifter_Master

For as long as Su could remember, she had never been betrayed by the air around her. As a magical girl, it had been her sword and shield. It helped her overcome every challenge she encountered. As a familiar, it rested under her wings and allowed her to fly. Even in her other lives, it was always present. Sometimes it pushed the sails of her fishing vessel, other times it allowed the mill to move. This was the only time she could remember the air letting her down. Even as Su fell, it was hard to believe the air had let go of her like that. But the ground was getting closer, and she was powerless to do anything about it. Though this wasn’t the first time Su wasn’t able to command her magic. When was the last time she had felt like this?

Ahh yes, at the rave. Then Leena was here.

She should have been in the mansion. There was also no doubt such a queer spell could be just as dangerous to her allies as her enemies. That said nothing of a stronger version that could reach her up in the sky. A small oversight, but one that she should have seen coming regardless. Though with magic being as chaotic and unpredictable as it was, it was impossible to account for every outcome.

Su spent little time thinking about her predicament, however. Perhaps if this were a “game” she would be angrily shouting about what an unfair move that was, or suggest nerfs for it, but this was Su’s life. There wasn’t anything fair about magical girl fights, and you were a fool to think that was the case. She was wholly focused on what was going to happen to her, and if she could prevent it. The disappointing conclusion?

No.

Su could do nothing but grit her teeth at the unfair hand she had been dealt. This wasn’t a great way for things to end, but at the same time, she could find peace with it.

For as long as she could remember, she had always been looking after herself. As sad as it made her that Amber had been slain, she realized that she was partially feeling sorry for herself. She’d like to think in the few months since that happened, she was able to fill her heart with different kinds of love. She fell in love with Helga, Mika was like a daughter to her, and Samantha was a friend she could reveal her most intimate secrets to. Even ones she couldn’t share with Helga. Things like… Well, that didn’t matter now. At least when her heart stopped beating, it would be filled with love.

But Su had overlooked something. In her frantic mind, she was only looking for her own way to escape her fate. She never considered other alternatives.

Those beyond her control.

Before she became a Su sandwich, Su was caught in a pair of slender arms. She turned her head to see Helga, who had caught Su mid-air. By jumping at Su at an angle and through careful movement of her arms, Helga was able to both soften Su’s fall and redirect their inertia at an angle. Think about sliding down a water slide and how there’s a long stretch of horizontal track at the bottom. It was kind of like that.

Su looked up at Helga and blinked. They had saved each other quite a few times now, but this was the first time Su realized how much the two of them had come to rely on each other. It didn’t have to be Helga who saved her however. She knew Samantha would have caught her if she was around, or anyone else she had come to know. Hell, maybe even Lily could manage it if she had been closer. It was true she needed to keep being as strong as she possibly could, but it was also reassuring to know that she was surrounded by people she could rely on. Together they could catch the other when they weren’t feeling themselves.

If this were some sappy romance, this might have been the perfect time for Su to initiate a kiss with Helga. After all, it was usually Helga who initiated that sort of thing, and it would be an interesting change of pace, and perhaps a sign of growth. But these last few weeks had been everything but a romance. Mariette wasn’t safe yet, and Beacon was still here.

“Thanks for the landing, Archer.” Su hopped out of Helga’s arms. “Seems we’re all without magic. This is your chance to really shine, Helga.” Though Su would realize that some of her magic still worked. It seemed as though it only worked inside her body, or on things she touched. “Let’s meet them head on. Mariette has more than enough forces to break through the roof. We can buy her more time.”

---

After Trixy’s pointlessly “Max Payne” shooting technique, she stood up to see what her attack had done. And sure enough, she had felled the weretiger. It was no more. She had gotten revenge for those girls.

It felt weird though.

Trixy had pictured her second meet up with them to be a bit more, what was the word? Romantic? Personal? Emotional? But with just a few shots, they were dead. She shrugged. She was probably being silly to expect real life to play out like a TV show.

The loss of her magic was something she barely felt. Trixy’s reflexes and speed were always her biggest assets. The only thing that tipped her off that anything was wrong at all was that she noticed the Spectacle of Eros was acting up. Didn’t matter too much, there was so much random stuff going on that she was practically invisible. Since the root hedge along the roof had been magically grown from non-magical acorns, they did not just vanish with Leena’s spell active. But doing anything beside hide behind them would be impossible from hear on out. Seemed like it paid to be a little unmagical from time to time.

Even if the weretiger’s death felt unearned, and even if things were getting pretty hecktic right now, Trixy couldn’t help but wear a goofy little grin. She had wanted to meet up with Samantha for as long as she could remember, and somehow she ended up in a relationship with Veronica’s top agent. That was totally mind blowing. Like, most girls found her too clingy to be likable, or quickly lost interest when they got bored with her. But somehow things between her and Samantha were working. It was too weird to talk about, but Samantha reminded Trixy of one of her oldest friends. She had to do everything in her power to make sure she came home safe.

Trixy aimed from the cover of the hedge. Her priority was making sure nothing happened to Samantha before she got to her destination. Though Trixy knew the perfectionist well, and wouldn’t disappoint her. Mariette’s life was the mission, and Samantha would never forgive her if she let something happen to her. Thus, attacking anything hostile that got too close to Mariette was a priority.

*Yawn*

Justine was giving a rather flamboyant speech as Hilaria struggled to stay awake. It was cool the first few times, but these displays happened quite a bit more often than you would think. It definitely didn't help that, unlike a lot of people here, Hilaria had basically no clue what the deal was. Some vague understanding that Justine had been stopped not too long ago and Mariette had something to do with it.

Wait. With so many people clamoring to attack her, was Mariette actually the bad guy here? And if she was... Was this what Dan wanted? Pleasant feelings regardless of who they came from? The thought was somewhat dark, admittedly, but considering how he forced everyone to stay in his dimension for a week, there was the possibility. She exhaled almost listlessly.

She would be lying if she said she couldn't work for someone like that. Morality had kinda lost its appeal somewhere down the line. She preferred to focus on more important things like not being bored or eating. Mostly eating. Besides, she had done things unbecoming of a magical girl, and pretending otherwise would be hypocr1tikal. She was leaning good, but this was only evidenced by her refusal to take hits like an assassin.

Hilaria caught herself becoming strangely aware of the presence of the Beacon present. Her mind wandered then to the Ascendancy, and then to Isabella. O sister of mine, must thou fandangle escape attent much longer? I fancy not to idle for eternity. Hilaria lamented the fact her sister chose her job over the sibling she had finally reunited with. So much for atoning for her betrayal.

At least it seemed the tomfoolery was at its end with Reaver's summoning. It was almost a shame to see him on the other side. "Mmm," she then glanced towards Leena who was fuming. People were really angry at Mariette, huh? The dimension started to collapse as if to agree with that statement. She had better take things a bit more seriously now that her life was very much threatened.

Hilaria had to admit Leena had a unique trick up her sleeve and, judging on how Alex was beginning to panic, she imagined a rather frightening one. Made moreso by Mariette almost collapsing. "Hilaria wonders if you are okay~?" she would have caught the little witch with a hand had Dina not done so. Instead, she took note of the general situation and listened to the others come up with a plan, giving Dina a smile and a nod in response to her request. "Okie dokie~!"

Then it was that Mariette wanted to reach her basement, while Alicia began to charge. "~!" she gave a delighted squeal when Eli mentioned destroying the roof. "You need look no further~!" her gun disappeared and her shield morphed into gauntlets. She flexed an arm, "Hilaria is on the job~!" What resistance the roof had put up was too negligible to be seen, and a sizable chunk of it was now broken by Hilaria's doing. If they intended on dropping through, there was more than enough space to do so. Having finished, she reverted back to her shield and axe.

By this point, Alicia was closing in on, perhaps, Dina, who was now something more than she was moments ago. The knight would motion for Eli and Mariette to carry on and place herself between their would-be attacker and those two. She was the shield after all and would play the part in the moments to come.

As the combat began, everyone could see a strange phenomenon from the Nullification Field's epicenter; fractures began to run through the air, as if the world itself was made of a glass-like substance which had begun to crack. They snaked and multiplied, leaving behind lines where one could see glimpses at mirrors reflecting on themselves in infinite layers.



”Lies!” Justine objected with a pointed finger towards Mariette, her sharp nail glistening in the dark realm.
”It was you, without any-AGH!”

Justine couldn’t finish her sentence, as she and Sonia were struck by Void World, causing them to plummet.

”Ngh!”

Justine grunted as she and Sonia hit the ground, the fall somewhat mitigated by the vampire girl having extended her six wings to act as a cushion. ”What is the meaning of this, Sonia?” She asked in an irritated voice, pushing the servant away from her. She in turn stood up, having summoned three knives in the same motion between the fingers of her closed fist.

”Forgive me, my Lady. It seems a Nullification Field was formed which suppresses spells in the area. It was a trap.”

Sonia squinted, staring towards the distance as Justine stood up.
”Curses.”
Justine spat out as she saw four girls closing in; Samantha taking the lead, followed by Eliza and Anaya, and then Viridian and a scarlet stranger.

Justine then heard Reaver speak, and looked at the deranged Mint assassin, grimacing in response as she summoned a wicked-bladed spear.
”You dare threaten me? It seems the dog has some bite after all,” she deftly cut back with her own words. She noticed that the phantom champion had disappeared, confirming Sonia’s claim, and saw as Reaver threw his own spear, followed by throwing a bloody piece of skin afterwards; it splatted against her dress, leaving a red stain that caused her to squint.
”Barbaric,” she commented as Reaver took on a less handsome appearance and bounded off. She hooked two fingers through the empty eyesockets, draining the disembodied face of blood with her vampiric touch while Sonia pulled out her magical weapon; three throwing knives which she held between the fingers of her closed fist.

”My Lady, this is not our fight. We should-”

”I am not running anymore!” Justine proclaimed, and threw Reaver’s face away.
”I’ll have Mariette’s head, even if it's the last thing I’ll do! Cover me!” The vampire girl stretched her six wings, and launched up into the air, flapping her wings to keep altitude as she headed towards the direction of Tenebra’s unconscious body; her eyes flashed red as she reached out for her with her clawed hand, and grabbed her hair, while Sonia was ready to intercept their pursuers, deflecting Anaya’s shots away when she attempted to fire on Justine, and engaging the first magical girl to reach them.
”Face me, riff-raff!” Sonia taunted, and enchanted herself with some kind of spell that seemed to improve her combat ability, allowing her to somewhat predict attacks and defend against them. Red magical energy visibly flowed through the girl’s body as Justine enchanted the gir
”You will serve me now!”

---

“What is all this? Aaah!” Dan flailed around like a muppet as the situation turned more chaotic by the second, unused to seeing such arcane aggression. He was then calmed by Dina’s assertive voice, and nodded. “Very well, Dina! I’ll leave the rest up to you!” The Lesser Force then left the rooftop and began to open a portal at the other side of the dimension, facing towards the mansion’s front.

---

When FanFan had passed through Teneba’s wormhole, she was dumbfounded upon realizing she didn’t hold Magical Dream Princess. Her cheeks went red upon realizing the replacement the cheeky magical girl had left her with.
“Oh, that’s...Not mine.” She mumbled, averting her eyes from the smiling artwork of the hug pillow.
She didn’t have much time to linger on her embarrassment, however, as Leena promptly activated her spell, causing the object to vanish. Alicia gave a request to stick with Leena, and she answered with a salute from a metallic arm. “Roger. Here comes the long arm of the Beacon!” She shouted, and followed after her furious companion.

Leena had hit the side of the mansion by the time her Void World had fully formed, and began to run up the side of the building with great speed, followed by FanFan who climbed up with her metallic arms. She ignored Josefin’s pleading, too distracted by the sounds of battle all around her to pay attention to the twintailed girl calling after her. However the girl’s luck aided a certain catgirl, who had managed to intercept Leena before she had the chance to reach Mariette.

“RAAAAHHH!” the gasmasked girl roared as she was met midway by Dina, who stalwartly defended Mariette with the extraordinary might of an Avatar state. Leena’s blades were held out at her sides, and she swung them in a scissor strike. Dina expertly blocked Leena’s cut with her Cat’s Cradle before she wung it around in a counter, striking back at the Ascendancy girl, causing her to be knocked back to ground level with a terrible wound on her arm that closed up due to the searing burn of the weapon. She was caught by FanFan using her normal arms, and swung like a monkey to the side with her metallic arms to avoid a slash of Dina’s Cradle. “You monster!” Leena shouted, and took in a deep breath of her Healing Artifact mask, causing the wound to slowly seal as she blocked a blow with her swords, leaving a visible mark, before she kicked off FanFan’s metallic palm, going for another strike. “DIE!”

However, even with Leena’s abilities ramped up by her rage and making the Ascendancy agent deadly even by magical girl standards, Dina was the superior combatant, capable of shrugging off glancing blows of Leena’s blades thank to her hardened skin while also moving fast enough to keep up with her erratic movements, the two of them exchanging wild blows so fast a normal human couldn’t follow before Leena dropped down to be caught in Fanfan’s metallic hand. FanFan also joined the fight, helping to keep Leena in the fight by catching her and throwing her back up. Dina managed to overcome Leena’s parries, and delivered a flaying strike strong enough to tear the skin off Leena’s thigh like a piece of cheese, while scorching the exposed area. In response, FanFan delivered a mighty punch from her metallic arm, causing the steel skin on Dina’s cheek to fracture as she was knocked away from the mansion, only for Dina to successfully wrap the wire around the metallic appendage and swing back.
“RHH!” Leena gnashed her teeth as she slowed her descent by stabbing a katana in the mansion, causing sparks to fly as she skid to a stop. She held her free hand to her mask with a shaky grip as she healed; it caused the burning to stop but left the skin flayed. It became apparent Leena’s Healing Artifact was the only thing keeping her alive against Dina’s onslaught, while Dina could feel the pressure of her Avatar state’s multiple enchantments on her mana capacity.

---

“Su!” Helga shouted, and immediately dove to catch her as she fell from the sky. By angling their descent, she managed to direct most of the momentum away from the point of impact, making one last roll before she came to a landing, holding Su in her arms.
“Phew, that was way too close,” Helga spoke with grit teeth, and sighed, letting Su go. She nodded at Su’s statement. “Yep. I can’t shoot my soundblasts. But I still have my heightened hearing.” She spread her claws. “And I can still fight.” She noticed as as Alicia and Ronin were climbing up, and jumped down to intercept them. “Alicia! You’re not touching Mariette!” She yelled and swiped at her with her claws.

---

Lily was slightly relieved when Mariette gave a logical explanation, rebuting Justine’s erratic claims with a surprisingly annoyed tone; Lily had never seen Mariette this upset before. She knew Mariette was speaking the truth; after all, she herself was the one who had caused that to happen in the first place. When the silver-haired girl afterwards expressed her faith in Lily, she nodded, biting her lip.

”I...I tru-”

That was when Void World struck, causing Lily to gasp; she felt how her magic insulated, like a layer of plastic over an electrically charged wire. Then, Alicia shouted out, and Lily yelped. Was it true? Did Mariette really do those terrible things? She looked down, a part of her hoping to see a chance that Alicia was lying, that it somehow wasn’t true.

She regretted that decision immediately.

She saw as a spear was flung right at her. Time seemed to slow down for her, as her brain kicked into overdrive. Yet, she couldn’t move, frozen in shock as she saw, in slow motion, who had leapt out to intercept it...Who was going to be struck by it. She reached her hand out in those last few seconds before time suddenly rushed back to normal speed, and Sakura was speared.

”SAKURA!”

She cried out with her hands on her head, as feelings of terror and despair surfaced again. She did not deserve to die like this, protecting such a stupid girl. Visions of Ixion appeared, reminding her of the sacrifice that they had done. Once again, her sheer ineptitude had resulted in the loss of another friend...Or at least, that is what she initially thought, until she saw both Ronin and Aurelio rushing in to save her. While she didn’t know how well Ronin could tend to such an injury, she personally knew the magician’s capabilities, and trusted that he could save her life.

”Thank you Aurelio!” She shouted down at him, and took a deep breath as she saw Jenna appear among others.
She had to end this, before anybody else would be killed. She looked down at the battlefield, and then at her magical bow Ramuh. Justine was vulnerable now, but without her ranged spells she could only shoot arrows, and now that her allies had engaged, she couldn’t contribute much. What could she do? Her nervous eyes glanced aside, and then down, where Ronin was. There is...one way...
Her breathing turned hard, and her palms turned sweaty. She couldn’t have believed she had to do something this drastic. But she was truly Mariette’s friend.

And a true friend helps someone even when they don’t want to be helped.

In that moment, Lily visibly flashed yellow, as she infused herself with as much speed from her Lightning and Time magic as she could manage. And then, she made her move.
Hilaria was too strong to take on in a direct fight, but fortunately she didn’t have to, as she was fully focused on the destruction of the roof.
That just left Eli. She zipped right in front of the slime girl, passing Hilaria before she had brought her weapons out again, and clapped her electrically enchanted hands, creating a thunderclap right in Eli’s face; while not particularly damaging, it was sure to disorient the amorphous harpy.
At that instant, she reached out towards Mariette, attempting to taze the dark magical girl with an electric shock delivered through her palm; thanks to her time enchantment from Samantha, Mariette had time to react in a single second before she was touched.
I’m sorry, Mariette, but this is for your own good.