The G.E.M.I.N.I agents surely could not say they were the owners of the momentum for this fight, but with Su's assistance, Samuel managed to avoid burning alive, and they now had new structures to work with. With Orion MIA and Jacqueline separated from the group, their immediate goal was to regroup with their overextended agent while avoiding any more dire situations like succumbing to oil and fire.

Unfortunately, before they could do that, Arzendale went ahead and executed more hostages. One of them even happened to be a small child, a fact that merely served to remind Samuel he would be mistaken if he treated these beings as people instead of monsters.

Oh... little one... you deserved so much better than this. I apologize that the best that we can do is avenge you.

Maybe rushing in wasn't the smartest decision, but it couldn't be taken back now. And no matter what Arzendale said, it was ultimately him who decided to kill those people. Samuel wouldn't lose his composure over the losses, but he would treat the deaths of these three monsters as his apology to the child.

As much as he wanted to follow Breacher and Wukong, he couldn't imagine the nun not taking the chance to get close to Valkyrie. It was impossible to tell if she could simply Blink, so he wasn't going to risk anything here. And Breacher must have been thinking the same thing, as she mentioned as much before she lept off the rails and began her charge towards the monsters.

Silhouette would leave direct backup to agent Wukong here, but he couldn't do anything about the projectiles going after her. He simply wasn't suited for this kind of role, even if he had every intention of playing it. Well, that was no excuse to do nothing. The nun would likely be trying something soon. Making sure she hadn't already, he went ahead and decided to attack her.

His inhuman fingers came together in an instant, and channeling his mana through his sword, he fired a dark bolt that transformed during its flight into an enlarged replica of his demonic hand, attempting to seize the nun yet again.

_{Reporting to: Billy Black}

---

_{@ERode@OwO@Majoras End@BrokenPromise}

Even with his face torched, Apollo was still his belligerent self. Though, the pyromancers getting their souls ripped out of their body was a new one. With a massive barrel coming at him, Apollo jumped back out of the way, his mantrap dragging the two pinned pyromancers with him. It didn't quite matter since the Protector attempted to swat the barrel out of the way. Still, with the two pyromancers with him, Apollo did what he had to do. With brutal speed and efficiency, Apollo's mancatcher disengaged and he used the stick end to strike the two magi in the solar plexus. Such a blow would leave them out for a moment. At least long enough for Apollo to kick the ass of a ghost.

"Ain't my fault for someone sending tweens to war." Apollo snapped back at Aria. He wasn't going to really care about a few deaths here and there. If something happened, then it happened. He was reckless and uncaring as always.

With a radiant glow, a ball of light formed in his hand. Sure, the first one he threw was blocked. A good portion of that was his recklessness. This time, however, he wasn't immediately pitching the orb. No, he held it for a brief moment as the barrel flew at the ghost. It was a two-step plan this time. If the ghost tried to dodge the barrel, Apollo would toss it right at him. If he phased on right through like a ghost would, he'd toss it directly at him as soon as possible. It was a randomly made tag-team attack, but one that would have better results than Apollo just randomly tossing shit.

---

_{@Ponn@Crusader Lord@FamishedPants@Izurich@SilverPaw}

One melody, one second.

Barreling down towards her like a runaway train, Centrocius’s speed did not seem to reflect its size at all, if not for the fact that there were plenty of great beasts in the world capable of moving at tremendous speed. Without flesh to weigh its skeletal form at all, the monstrosity descended upon Jacqueline before her melody could manifest, blades swinging outwards to rip her open by her seams. She had chosen to attack before evading, and Havoc’s haft was an ill-devised Instrument for defense. What pretensions she’d have of hiding a melody were stratagems more useful for creatures that had human-like intelligence to begin with, that had any concept of deception or guile. But Centrocius was just going to rush her down and finish her off.

A light pierced through the burning air and split open the rider’s skull.

Moments before the blades dug into her, the skeletal mount spasmed as Valkyrie’s arcane blast disintegrated its rider’s head. The long-haired man, decapitated, sagged beneath his bandages, shrivelling up like a mummified corpse, while the steeds limbs lost all synchroneity for that precious second, causing it to fly overhead of Jacqueline instead, the esper managing to dive beneath the gauntlet of its scraping rib cage while her beam threaded the needle and struck right between her two main targets. She would not see the results of her own actions though, as the torturous shriek of twisted brass and sundered wood resounded beside her, splinters of the organ shooting out as debris. Her landing was imperfect, her guts were now perforated by detritus, and her vision grew woozy from the blood she had lost. But the Esper had done her job admirably despite the circumstances, and her magic laid the foundation for the counterattack.

Spellwork flew frenzied through the claustrophobic arena. Prioritizing a charge over continuing this siege, Breacher helmed the GEMINI agents’ offense instead, sliding down a ramp of her own creation while Wukong joined her. They could not engage if they constantly hid under the cover of the shieldbearer’s walls, but thankfully, their shieldbearer could construct new walls anyhow, and up at the front, another barricade craft of fallen debris rose, just as tall as the towers themselves. Indeed, it was just as tall as the towers themselves, and subsequently sealed off any line of sight for Valkyrie and Silhouette to fire from. With the splat of a rotten tomato flung against a brick wall, Silhouette’s projectile spell was cut off by Breacher’s construction, the speed of his projected hand too slow to match the activation time of a touch spell. Another error of judgment, miscommunications cropping up at critical junctures. A beam would have made it. A spawn would not have cared for it.

But what’s done was done, and as bloodied projectiles of Arzendal flew overhead, it was up to only Silhouette to defend against it. Shadows coalesced around Stab and Slash, extending the blackness that composed the arcane blades, whilst four sanguine balls swirled through the air, tracking Valkyrie’s own movements. She would not escape them, not when there was no room to dodge atop these tower tops. A sniper wasn’t a close combat specialist, and an assassin wasn’t a stalwart defender. But both of them still had their jobs, and Valkyrie’s job was already complete. Silhouette engaged.

Fleet of foot, the shadow above the intensifying firelight danced, his steps balancing upon the railings as his black blades sliced surgically. One, two, three, four. With two blades and against projectiles designed to mindlessly home in on a single target, the phantom swordsman made quick work of it, cutting them down to size. They halted, halves suspended in mid-air upon their severance.

That suspension itself was suspect. Arzendale’s spells, by nature, appeared to always have a trick to them. And if they were targeting someone who had been doused by petroleum moments before, the trick itself would be obvious too. Not that Silhouette was in any position to stop it now.

Blood glowed bright, bubbling and bursting into flame. They coated the shadow’s body, reducing him to a true silhouette against the pyre that was his own body. Smoky, greasy flames blinded him, deafened him, suffocated him, agonized him, and involuntary responses to the heat of this chaotic flame caused him to stumble.

Once again, what options were there for Silhouette?

Aflame as he was, his job was to protect Valkyrie, but atop this small tower, it was very likely that his flaming body would cause her own gasoline-drenched clothing to be set aflame. Could he survive the long fall onto the hard ground? Could he survive the inferno at the base of the tower he was on? Could he complete his job to Fritz’s satisfaction?

And did Valkyrie, watching his skin blackened and crack, pus geysering out of raw wounds, even agree with the same pattern of logic that Silhouette followed?

Whatever choices were made could not be seen by the two who had advanced. There were no enemies left behind that either of them were aware of, after all. The invisible assailant that had charged at Wukong had left the monkey’s mind, while Breacher herself was occupied by more immediate threats. Her handgun, small as it was, had proven itself once and would do so again. The retort of the muzzle sounded bright and ferocious against the blazing hellscape that the entrance of the mansion had become. The arcane bullet broke the central chain that suspended the candle-lit chandelier, and with the rattling of chains, it fell.

Was it coincidence or teamwork that made everything click into place?

Jacqueline’s beam struck, a ripple of seismic force sending shards of checkerboard tiles everywhere. Arzendale hissing as the arcane force resonated deeply within his frame, knocking him to his feet, while Lenore withstood the force with the sheer might of her arcane defenses, her eye already upon the chandelier that was plummeting towards them. Drawing her falchion back, she swung upwards, slicing it in half with a single stroke. It parted ways for her, disparate parts smashing and scattering the many candles that composed it…and igniting the gasoline that had spilled out from the shattered statues around them. Quake, after all, was a spell of exceptional range, covering thrice the radius of an AOE melody. And ordinary flames, whilst a meager distraction for a monster, was torturous for an esper regardless of how high their physical defenses were. Toxic fumes clouded the mind, while high temperatures stiffened the skin.

But flames too, were deterrent for the espers atop the wall, and that moment of hesitation, of reluctance, gave Arzendale his time to act.

“Brilliant play,” he laughed, his smile mirthless as he exposed his fangs. “Though judging by your reactions, I suppose you too had not expected this? Lenore, if you will?”

No preamble now, no hesitation. As his unnatural physiology shielded his body from significant harm, he flicked out with his wand, and four heads from each pillar fell, a total of fourteen lives now paying the vampire’s blood price. Their sanguine essence rushed out, snake-like, and snagged upon the nun’s armored habit, quenching the flames before reforming into a full set of armor equipped with branch-like wings. She had transformed fully into a blood knight now and she raised her hand into the air before bringing it down to rip off her eyepatch.

A sickly, distorted magenta lit up her iris, and with a flex of her sanguine wings, she scaled the wall with a single bound, her singed hair lifting up with the thermals caused by the flames. “It’s a raid!” Lenore crowed, her Instrument swinging for Wukong, “Time to collect your next rider!”

And from the wreckage of the organ, Centrocius burst out too, a scarlet light now covering its skeletal frame. Without a rider, the monster had become even more savage, even more frenetic. Its head twitched once, twice, shaking with violent impulses, and then, ignoring the greviously-wounded Jacqueline beside it, it rushed out, presenting a magnitude of speed even greater than it originally did, five limbs and one tail digging into the wall as it scrambled to meet the shield and gun of Breacher.

Back-to-back, pincered by opponents on both sides, they had to decide.

Stay and fight, knowing that Arzendale remained free to cast his chaotic bloodwork?

Or abandon everything and charge, hoping to strike a fatal blow before Lenore and Centrocius did?

.

..

…

The closest to her were forced back as her body itself served as the focal point for her spell. The light of tomorrow shone out to those who could not be given a tomorrow, the radiance exposing their pitiful forms for just the breadth of a camera’s flash.

But Orion had closed her eyes. She had only felt their bodies give way, her limbs free from their desperate grasp. She knew not what happened to the boy that had pleaded her to save him, nor the many who had gnawed at her limbs. But they were all the closest to her, closest to the force that emanated from her.

She could guess what would happen to a frail human when exposed to that force.
She had to stop thinking.

Springing up to her feet, leaping up to the chute, Orion pressed with all her strength against the grimy walls, even as the effort caused the many small wounds on her limbs to open up further. Blood, hot and sticky, seeped out from the wounds. There was no doubt that her wounds were infected by something down there, considering the circumstances, but it mattered not. The present moment was dense, the present moment was precious.

Orion had to escape.

And the thralls had always desired escape too.

Feet trampled skull. Bodies broke bone. Five feet of damage had cleared up her surroundings, but the press of monstrous humanity went well beyond five feet. Those that had been knocked prone by her melody were trampled underneath those who were still healthy, still hungry, and upon a mountain of the dead, they rose, the very first of them clutching onto her right ankle, while others clambered up his distended body, chains growing more and more taut as they too aimed to drag her back down.

Above, she could see a warm red light. Just perhaps seven meters, and she’d be out.
Seven meters made impossible, by the weight that dragged at her.

There was a story, once, about a man in hell, climbing up to paradise on a spider’s thread.
Would Orion do the same as he?

---

_{@OwO@mantou@ERode@Majoras End}

When Betty lifted his head into the air for another smash, she froze momentarily. Hearing who he was, even in her enraged state, was enough to make her hesitate.

”Ffffffable?“ She growled.

Regardless of how an esper regards their power set, all of them share peak physical prowess. This was perhaps the only thing that enabled Finn to retaliate in his position.That small hesitation allowed him to grab her arm and pull his body under himself. Finn kicked one of her legs out from under her, which dropped the pale woman onto one knee. Then just as he disengaged from her, he tapped Betty’s leg and rooted it in lightning.

”And what? Is now a better time to talk after what’s happened?“ Betty held her violin against the electric bindings. ”Is your name supposed to mean something to me?“ And then she pressed her violin against the shocking tendrils and drew her violin outward, like she was going to slice through them. But her violin didn’t have any sharp edges.

At least, not yet.

The pale woman’s body was consumed by fine black particles that wrapped around herself. In the next instant, Betty had been transformed into something else entirely.

Her hair had been pulled back into a long ponytail, which was a perfect contrast to the black jacket she now wore. Though Finn’s eyes were trained on the massive sword that the violin turned into. The blade alone was about as long as Betty was tall, and the handle was off center of the blade. It was instead affixed to the back of the sword’s edge. When it sliced through her restraints, the swoosh of the blade caused her jacket to fly open, while numerous straps fluttering in the wind. Under her jacket was a black Japanese school uniform, fitted with a neon pink tie. Was this Betty’s esper form?

”Lord Carnage is my master now.“ Betty placed her other hand on her sword’s hilt, pointing the blade forward. It had to weigh an incredible amount, yet Betty had no problem holding it at the ready. ”Draw steel or run like the coward you are!“

With a roar more befitting of a beast than a young woman, Betty stepped forward and swung her sword in an arc around herself. She split several kegs on either wall in the process. Would she cut into Fable?

Klava managed to slip past Bob’s grasp and between the robot’s legs. While this did cause the robot to hesitate, its torso spun completely around, and Bob “back tracked” after Klava. It called out a childish retort, but Klava’s focus was on other things. Bob wasn’t able to sprint, but it was building up speed as it marched after her. As Klava accelerated, so too did Bob. The pyromancers were still tracking Finn, and hadn’t the chance to look back down the hall. Klava would skate right past them before they could even think to fire. Bob wasn’t far behind, and had reached out with his right hand to knock the wine kegs off the top shelf. As he charged along, the kegs were shattered under his feet, and the pyromancers were quick to set the growing puddle ablaze. It was hardly an inferno, but it wasn’t anything you’d want to stand in, unless you were a giant arcane construct.

Fable may have gotten the thumping of his life, but the last pyromancer and the huntress did not partake in his beating. Jane’s weapon wasn’t an effective tool to assist Betty with finishing off the boy. Even the pyromancer didn’t dare throw a firebolt her way. If anything, they were a bit unsettled by the young woman’s presence. Bob’s stomping drew Jane’s attention back down the hall.

”I do say, what a lovely pelt you have.“

Jane was far from peak physical ability, but she looked pretty good for her age. She raised her rifle and hopped backwards just as she fired at Klava. Though because she had taken her eyes off of Finn, she hadn’t seen him backing up and ended up colliding with him just moments before Betty’s sword swung through the air. With Betty’s giant greatsword to the east, and Bob charging from the west, things were getting frantic.

Were things less hectic behind them?

With some quick footwork, Protector and Luna were able to dive out of the way of the incoming barrel. Luna ended up beside Billy, while Protector had rushed to Apollo’s side. The barrel would miss, and Protector would get there in time.

”Y-you save us! You-Hurk!“

With a single blow, Apollo was able to cause both pyromancers quite a bit of pain. It was unlikely they would be getting up any time soon.

Protector was able to take the barrel and toss it back. While playing with the barrel’s weight was a good way to get it going really fast, it still had to pass through Tetrad’s holding field. Regardless, the barrel was moving pretty fast when it passed through to the other side. Though something that Protector may not have considered was that Gunter’s ethereal nature meant he could pass through physical objects. Without any arcane effects working on the barrel, it knocked away his defensive barrels and passed right through him.

The ball of light however, would not.

Gunther screeched and extended his hand as the projectile collided with his hand. The beams of light tore through his gloved hand, splitting his arm in two up to his elbow. This was followed by several more that minced his forearm, some even cutting as far up as his shoulder. He whimpered before slinking into the wall, at which point a chuckle seemed to reverberate through the hall.

”You got me pretty good, lovelies.“ He chuckled, but the pain was evident in his voice. ”I was going to have fun with you bunch, but now I have to take you seriously...“

Billy cast aside his concrete barrier. ”Thinkin’ we daughteled here enough, folks.” The pale giant charged down the corridor and slammed into Klava’s ice wall, sending spiderline cracks through it. Unlike the ice ramp, this was a solid block of ice. Brittle as it may be, it was an arcane construct and not something that Billy could just smash through on one good shoulder tackle. ”Enemy reinforce- I say enemy reinforcements will be here any second. We gotta push back!”

The souls scattered once again. The first sunk into the floor, or at least, that was what it looked like. But all this barrel chucking had left the ground covered in spirits. Several kegs worth bleeding into each other. Once a soul floated inside, the giant puddle pulled itself together and took shape. For a moment, it looked like a giant man. But it didn’t stick around long before forcing itself through the wall of barrels into the other lane. From there, the “spirit elemental” sauntered towards the other conflict, where a fire had broken out.

What happened to the others was less evident, but would be less so when Protector felt something club her in the back. When she looked over her shoulder, she’d see the green haired teenager was standing upright, rock in one hand with his crushed head hanging off to the side like some shambling zombie. He grabbed Protector’s arm and pulled them off to the side. This would normally not be an issue for the much stronger esper, but the white haired girl had a club on her person, and she was beating Protector’s back with it.

”Let’s hope I roll high!” Luna aimed Pit boss at the white haired pyromancer and fired something at her face.

*Splat*

A sock slapped into her head and knocked her backwards, but it seemed like she had retained the arcane resistance she had in life, as she seemed to shrug off the attack easily before approaching Protector again. Beatings would continue until the espers did something.

---

_{@The World}

The goblins did not seem too interested in parting with their wagons. They instead wanted Marrie to part with her head.

She got about half of her words out before the frenzied goblins attacked. She didn’t have much time to react before the machetes descended on her from all angles. Marrie was quite resilient to monster attacks, and that was on top of an esper’s natural resistance to chaos attacks. None of these wounds were life threatening. But being resistant to chaos damage did not change the fact that she was still essentially a human. Being hit by a machete hurt, and even if the blades didn’t cut to the bone, each blow cut deep enough into the skin to draw blood. Death by one thousand cuts was a thing, and given enough time, the goblins would reach that number. Five cuts, six cuts, seven cuts. The goblins hid behind their shields and took turns thrusting and swinging at the esper before them.

The slingshot goblins also started firing, though they were not aiming at Marrie directly. They sought to bring stalagmites down on her head by knocking them loose. The chaos-charged rocks had little difficulty doing the job, and spears of stone would soon rain down on the esper’s head.

”Wooooooooooo!!” Stacy cranked her fist as she called after Marrie ”You’ve got this, Senator Armstrong! Just tough it out long enough and I’m sure they’ll let us through!” She sighed. ”If I knew she was going to do that, I’d have offered to go in her place. ”

If Stacy thought to look over her head, she might have noticed that Highway to Hell had gotten into the cave and was slithering up behind her. It was difficult to tell where its black eyes were pointed, save for the fact it was slithering in their direction.

Marrie didn't know you could thrust a machete until now. Granted, it was mostly just like cutting with a knife, only in reverse, sort of? Regardless, it hurt, and it was annoying. But her plan, if it could be called that, was working. The goblins were centered on her and Stacy was... Not rushing past them like she expected. Great. Still, they were making a lot of noise and hitting the stalagmites above her in an effort to crush her. She waited another moment, parrying the attacks that continued coming, before jumping back and running forward, jumping onto the shield of the foremost goblin and hopping over it.

Twisting in midair she landed behind the goblins, facing them, and began backing up towards the door.

"Hurry up, Stacie!" she shouted at the other girl before kicking at the door behind her with her right leg.

---

"..."
Current Location: Von Carnage Mansion, Wine Cellar

So she wasn't too far gone, huh?

The Timekeeper's eyes widened when the thralled violinist responded. The moment of hesitance gave him enough time to free himself from her grip. As he stood back up, he unwillingly stumbled back a couple of steps, the feeling of disorientation not yet fading. A hand on his head to help regain his focus, he heard Betty's scornful remarks. He frowned. Even if the boy could shrug it off as the effects of Justin's control affecting her mental state,

I didn't know until...

or her being angry at him regardless of anything,

I-It's not my real name! But-!!

It still pained him. He couldn't bring himself to say anything with the lump that formed in his throat. That regret would soon be accompanied by fear, once the girl underwent some sort of transformation. Betty was an Esper? Since when?! No, it had to be some Dark Blessing bullshit, right?? Right?! But if that wasnt the case... Fable didn't want to think about what happened before all this. He had other things to worry about. The boy's eyes widened once more, afixed to the giant blade that made Aeterna look like a fucking twig in comparison. On instinct, he started backing up, unaware that he was trembling. The Timekeeper flinched as he and Jane ended up halting each other's retreats. And of course Betty was preparing to attack.

..."Coward" huh?

Maybe she was right. His cowardice was the reason the both of them were in this mess. And his cowardice continued to restrain him now. Monsters were one thing, but this was just...chaos. He didn't want to hurt anyone, he didn't want anyone to get hurt.

Too late for that now though, isn't it?

Very well then.

Fuck this.

"I'M NOT RUNNING!" Fable's fearful expression quickly shifted to one of rage. He ducked under the blade before it could strike him. Giving himself a second boost of speed, he sprinted forward, with the full intent to overwhelm Betty with attacks and to just knock her down long enough to listen, damnit!! Tetrad was too busy on the other side of the fight, he'd just have to stall long enough for the harlequin to make her move. Whatever he couldn't block, he'd just have to tank it and heal later.

@BrokenPromise @Ponn @Crusader Lord @FamishedPants @SilverPaw

Unlike the bolt she fired at the perverted nun, this time it scored a solid hit, positively shattering the centauric monster's upper head. Valkyrie watched with a modicum of smug satisfaction as the creature lost control of its own limbs, allowing the Silver Warhammer Knight to evade untouched. Leroux was already wounded as she is, no need to add another injury. Of course, a sniper's job was never done as long as she had targets to neutralize; as such, she wasted no time in searching for another blight to cleanse, that mockery of a nun should be good-

-and suddenly, her precious line of sight was cut off by a wall of debris.

"Breacher..." The exasperation in the brunette's voice was palpable even as Su shot the chandelier to drop it upon their enemies. Due to her position, she couldn't exactly assess how successful the maneuver was, but she needed not to wait long to find out as Arzendale's voice echoed from behind said wall. Ah well, if only that chandelier was a grand piano instead.

To make things worse, it seemed that Silhouette was now on fire for some reason, something must've sparked the petroleum on his demonic body; she didn't see exactly what happened as she was focused on her aim and Valkyrie's mind didn't immediately correlate fire balls with blood orbs. There wasn't even a time to ponder about it as two varmints clambered over Breacher's wall. Goddamnit... One was the partially-headless Centrocious - somehow still alive - and the other was an armored demon knight, whose voice revealed that she was the same faux nun.

Leroux maimed, Silhouette ablaze, a mutated nun vaulting over the wall, and a headless monster on a blind rampage; to say that the situation was dire would be an understatement. However, in the end, this too was part of the job, no different than clocking in and out of a 7/11 as a janitor; the only differences were that her mop was a railgun and the filth fought back.

Calm down, Silmeria, remember your training. She let out a single silent sigh, tuning out every distraction, she had been in a life-threatening situation before, nothing had changed, she was an exterminator tasked with cleansing this infested mansion.

"Silhouette, turn yourself intangible to get the kerosene and flames off you." Valkyrie spoke into the comms, meanwhile, she took aim as Teslic Gauss surged with tangerine sparks yet again; breath held, arms steady, knees dry spaghetti, she pulled the trigger...

Just die already...

As a bolt of lightning streaked toward Centrocious' other head.

---

No sooner had Ashley begun working her way up the garage chute, then gaunt, claw-like hands grasped her ankle, overgrown fingernails snapping off as they tried to dig into her futuristic boot. Above her, a warm glow could be seen, beckoning her onwards to freedom, and yet, below her, the thralls sought to drag her back down into their hellish chamber of horrors. That was something she could not allow. The Knight of Tomorrow knew she could not save these poor souls, that they had no future left for her to defend. But she could avenge them, could ensure that no one else’s future would hold this horrible fate. And to do that, she needed to escape. No matter what barred her way…

“I’m sorry,” she whimpered through gritted teeth as the tip of her instrument glowed with arcane power, bathing the cramped space in neon light. An instant later, a bolt of emerald energy shot into the face of the nearest thrall, blasting him back down the chute, and very likely killing him in the process. Ashley wouldn’t see that, though. The young esper’s eyes were squeezed shut, while tears continued to stream down her cheeks, raining down upon the the frenzied thralls below. Her body ached from dozens of cuts and gashes, but her heart ached vastly more. I’ll make him pay… the Knight of Tomorrow swore to both the thralls and herself as she turned every fiber of her being to one simple task-

Ascend…

---

But while Jane may have only turned her gaze towards Klava, Klava’s gaze had always been upon Jane. The effective range of threat that a rifle could cover only decreased as one closed the distance, and as the trophy hunter fired, the Maiden leapt to the side, the extension of her Slick melody allowing her to preserve her momentum and velocity regardless of what lateral movements she made. The bullet whizzed off to her side and Klava continued, ducking low as she rushed for the pyromancer next.

After all, Fable had performed a good play, blocking Jane’s retreat, goading Betty’s attack, and then ducking down to have the latter behead the former. Real heads-up display of positional awareness. But just in case…

“Watch your back, Timekeeper,” Klava said as she passed by the duelists. “Golem’s behind you.”

Even the hot winds were feeling cooler now as she skated at ever higher velocity, the edges of her platform shoes turning into blades upon which she glided upon rugged cobblestone. Black hair streamed back, twining with the sacred sashes wrapped around her form, and Moya-no-Yume glowed a bright aquamarine that matched her bright eyes as arcane melodies thrummed within the blade. Skating a serpentine path towards her target, Klava surged forward upon melee range, legs kicking off as she performed a blade-wielding 720 degree flip, intending on slaying the redhead with a single elegant evisceration. She landed on her feet, arrested her movement with the wooden railing, and then, only then, did Klava unleash her melody.

“Flashfreeze Lamentations!”

Bright as the winter moon, cold as the Arctic overflow, a beam of deathly frost shot out without delay for the midsection of the ghost floating by the remaining pyromancers. She had already accounted for the charging time, and had even increased it with the utilization of a Powerful note, all so that when she was in position, she could fire immediately when she had a visual on the poltergeist.

And if all went well, the only problems that would remain would be a pissed off magical girl and a pissed off golem, both of which would have reason to be pissed off at each other.

_{@Crusader Lord@FamishedPants@Izurich@SilverPaw@ERode}

The sound of the smash and flames igniting were welcoming, Arzendale’s voice was not.

With everything going on, Su had to really hone in her focus. She couldn’t concern herself with Samuel and Silmeria, she couldn’t grieve for the innocents lost. But she could hear something very large stomping its way towards her with at least five legs.

She Lowered her shield in front of herself and braced for impact.

Centrocius came through the wall fast. All Su could do to prevent herself from getting pushed back was to dig her shield into the floor. She attempted to reset herself after each blow, but each strike saw the monster getting a little bit more of an advantage. If she kept up like this, Centrocius would simply run her over. That was assuming it didn’t get smart and decide to try attacking around her shield. Meanwhile, Lilliah was fighting Lenore, which left no one to harass the vampire. Jacqueline was at the back, and gravely injured. Su had taken note of it when she was on top of the tower. It was one of the reasons why she ordered Lilliah and herself to charge.

But the real question was what to do next. She couldn't leave Lilliah to fend off both Centrocius and Lenora. Her instincts forbid it. Yet at the same time, letting Arzendale do his wicked bidding was going to make the fight a lot harder. Who knew what he had planned for the remaining ten hostages. Things would get significantly worse so long as he was alive.

Su’s gun charged with magic as she prepared her next melody. She pushed her gun hand towards the base of her shield and lifted it up. While she did this, Su crouched and stepped forward. With any luck, Silmeria’s shot would have connected and staggered Centrocius long enough to make the shot, if not kill it outright. Optimistic I know. Otherwise, Su would just have to aim her pistol between its flailing legs and tail and score a hit. Even with the smoke starting to fill up the room, it was a shot she was confident she could make. Though she’d be aiming for center mass. Su couldn’t afford to go for a headshot under these circumstances.

”Leroux!”

Once she was in position, she fired at Arzendale. If the melody connected, Arzendale wouldn’t see anything initially. Just Su’s pistol discharge its magical energy. Then the shattered tile and chandelier would surge together in front of his chest and blow outwards, shoving him closer to Jacqueline. And just as he stumbled to a stop, the debris would coil around his torso along with parts of his organ.

Beyond that, all she could hope was that Jacqueline could finish the job while she kept Centrocius off of Lilliah.

That damn Centrocius…It was so much faster than Jacqueline had thought. If it hadn’t been for Valkyrie disabling it, she couldn’t have even got her melody off, much less evade! She somehow evaded in between the bones of its ribcage, which was another dicey maneuver, though it more-or-less paid off. At the very least, she was some distance away from the half-dead monster. As it tangled into the organ, it produced a terrible cacophony of noise. She wasn’t well-balanced as she landed, tripping up a bit. Debris perforated her half-spilled guts, her vision swum, and she was in a cold sweat.

She was still on the floor, gathering her guts and picking out the small bits of materials stuck in it best as she could, when Centrocius freed itself from the organ, and raced towards where the main engagement was occurring. It stung Jacqueline’s pride, but it was a good thing it’d disregarded her. Otherwise, she’d have been finished off. Just how many times has it been today? That these were the consequences of her own actions was a bitter pill to swallow. On the one hand, things had worked out okay-ish. On the other, she fucking hated being bested by enemies, especially if they were also monsters. These were downright playing with her, but damn it if she wouldn’t at least take one of them down for good.

So, when her guts were back where they belonged, and Jacqueline was back on her feet, she glared towards Arzendale. She wasn’t sure how much her previous attack had done against the vampire, but he also seemed utterly unaware of her, so she was sure she could get a free hit against him. Then, just as she begun readying her melody, Su called her. Breacher was proposing a combo attack against Arzendale. Well, Jacqueline wasn’t about to turn that opportunity down. Hold till the right moment, hooold… Only when Arzendale was no longer flying through the air did Jacqueline aim her attack at him, from much closer than was her previous plan. All the better for it to actually land, as long as the nun esper didn’t interfere again.

---

---

As the blood-knight nun’s instrument swung toward Wukong, empowered into a full-on threat beyond what the nun already had been, the simian esper reacted the only way she and her grimoire knew how to do on the fly…adapt!

Despite the instincts telling her to jump back from the attack, Lilliah’s body refused to do so. Or rather, it did not refuse to do so…but couldn’t?! Like something held her back from moving farther away. In her panic the siminan esper ultimately rolled to her own left, dodging as the nun’s attack came crashing mightily vertically down where she once stood. At the same time, as she came back up to her feet and primed to make another move, Wukong struck out with her staff, aiming to use her reach to poke out/at one of the blood knight-nun’s own eyes.

“For a nun, you really do stick around like a bad habit!”

The matter of reach, however, no longer mattered. Her mobility options sealed by the nun’s cursed eye, the two dueling espers were now both within reach of each other’s weapons, and any step forward they took would further decrease the amount of space they had to maneuver. Which, of course, was fine with Lenore.

As Wukong’s staff thrust out, the armored nun took another step forward, tilting her head to one side. The bludgeoning weapon clipped the side of her helmet instead, the damage minimal, and with a twist of her hips, she swung her falchion diagonally towards Wukong, the blood-graced blade aiming to carve into the soft flesh beneath her ribs.

As the bloody blade sliced through the air toward her midsection, Wukong was casting a melody of her own as she pulled her staff to block the attack. With how little time she had to react, however, the most her staff would do is intercept the enemy’s blade closer toward the handle. And yet…



…she hoped this would work. She really hoped this would work.

“Finally!”

Moments before sword would meet staff, Wukong noticed it. The shifting of Lenore’s posture, her knees dropping and her back straightening out, her exposed eye glimmering with an arcane light. She was expecting something. She understood something. She sensed something.

With the echoing of a great gong, one that resonated from the very depths of Wukong’s soul, her crimson battlestaff unleashed a rippling force against the incoming falchion, repelling it with magical force. Yet the nature of Instruments was indestructibility, and though the simian esper could hear the fractures racing up her opponent’s arm, she saw too, the reason for the change in posture. The falchion was pushed away at a tremendous speed, but the person wielding it had steadied herself against the incoming force.

So what had happened?

Spinning around, even faster than her first strike, Lenore delivered another horizontal slash, this one propelled by her opponent’s spell, to bisect the wind-blessed martial artist.

Noticing something was wrong in those moments before contact, the shift of her opponent’s posture and so forth, Lilliah’s eyes widened as the gong-like echo of the blow rang out into the air and through her very self. She yanked her staff to the other side of herself as the blow pushed off of her staff, both hands and her body barely moved to the ‘safe’ side of her staff and holding onto it for dear life as she tried to block the blow with the midsection of her instrument where her hands were now not holding it. Her body also twisted as she moved to do this, lining up to brace in full behind the staff itself whilst taking a knee.



@Izurich@BrokenPromise@Ponn@FamishedPants@SilverPaw@ERode

Well, that was the ghost dealt with. At least, for a few seconds. Without a doubt, the lispy ghost skulked back into the walls to no doubt continue being an annoying shit. Well, out of sight, out of mind. For a few moments, anyways. While the Protector and the other healer dealing with the corpses, Apollo made it his plan to help Billy. If he was going to break through, Apollo might as well try to make the other side safer for him.

Apollo moved to get a view beyond the ice. The cracks would make it more difficult to see him, or so he had hoped. Plus, Billy actively breaking things down would probably make it easier. He scaled up the side of the remaining barrels, the weight of each one acting as a fair anchor for which he would climb. With the ability to see over the ice-wall, he could se- wait, was that the lisp ghost again?

Well, fuck it. Do the tried and true classic. Once again, energy gathered in his hand. Although he had to finagle a weird position of jamming his legs and elbow between barrels to make a pitch, he tossed another ball of light at Gunther. If it worked last time, it'd probably work again. Don't fix what ain't broke.

---

It seemed he had been incorrect in his assumption that a simple projectile would be better than a telegraphed spawn or beam for the quick-moving foe he was dealing with, though this was due to friendly interference. If he knew he was going to be denied line-of-sight things might be different. But this fight had not been one that allowed Silhouette to go long before requiring action and his lament at an unfortunate outcome for yet another one of his spells was put on hold for the time being. He had an ally to protect, after all.

Deftly his blades soared through the air as cut the orbs that Arzendale had sent after Valkyrie. His waltz of blades was executed perfectly and none of the orbs made it through in one piece, ceasing their momentum and floating in the air.

Ah, as expected. Try to remain calm, Sam.

Sometimes, a person did not have enough options to avoid even an obvious trick like this one. He had no constructs to rely upon to block the attack, and the alternative was to allow Valkyrie to succumb to the flames instead. Perhaps someone better suited to this sort of role should have taken his place, but that didn't change the fact he was the one caught in the radius of the orbs right now.

In an eruption of cursed, twisted flames, Samuel's body ignited and his world burst into suffering. He had prepared himself for intense pain but no amount of that could negate the sheer overwhelming agony being caught ablaze inflicted on an individual and he let out a hellish growl, nearly losing his footing as he struggled to keep his coherence through it.

Friendlyfirefriendlyfirefriendlyfire! Edgeedgeedge! Fallfallfall!

He wasn't entirely successful, as the flames provided too much stimulation for him to properly think, though he kept his focus through repeating keywords in his mind frantically. There was far too much to take in for him to even register that Valkyrie had attempted to instruct him over comms, though this wasn't detrimental as he had already intended on doing exactly that. As far as putting out a fire goes, Samuel didn't really have many options on hand besides potentially that. He was prepared to throw himself off their perch if there was no other way to avoid catching Valkyrie in the blaze, though he hoped it wouldn't come to that.

Still repeating those words in his head, Samuel got as far as he could away from Valkyrie while on the pillar before becoming intangible, his concentration (or what there really was of it) was entirely devoted to the sort of mantra he had created, namely ensuring that he did not fall off the pillar as well as not accidentally cause himself to fall through it during his intangibility, since he would naturally move away from the fire so that he wouldn't just reignite the second his melody ended.

_{@Ponn@Crusader Lord@FamishedPants@Izurich@SilverPaw}

She imagined it, in the milliseconds before impact.

Tempered steel slicing through wood, then flesh, then bone. Her battlestaff broken in half by a singular strike, her vision flipping upside-down as her upper body fell off her lower body. Death arriving, her survival instincts incapable of doing anything to prevent it.

But an Esper’s Instrument was unbreakable, and the crimson staff was sturdier than any shield in the world. It bent against the force of Lenore’s blow, but the blade did not so much as touch Wukong’s flesh. Taking advantage of that same force, she loosened up her stance, utilizing the unholy nun’s own power to grant her some distance. Distance to reengage at a range that suited her staff. Distance to give her some time to recover. It sounded great in her mind.

Wukong, however, was fighting atop a very high wall, and had just allowed herself to be knocked off the edge. With hardly a yelp, she disappeared from the ledge.

“Centrocius, down!”

And with her opponent having flung herself off the edge, Lenore was free to speak as she wished, the Magic Sense that she had imbued herself with giving her just enough time to see what was about to transpire around her. A beam was always going to be devastatingly fast, but they had, once again, been fighting on a wall. A half-second was more than enough.

Front legs digging into the wall, Centrocius hurled itself over the ledge as well, Valkyrie’s beam only blasting the tip of its tail off. Lenore winked at the sniper, tapping a finger against her temple, before charging for Breacher, at the same time as Centrocius leaped up again, front legs forcing down her shield as its jaws rose above and opened wide to rip the shieldbearing Esper’s head right off. In that moment, Su had a choice to make. Defend herself, and ruin the combination she had envisioned with Jacqueline, or sacrifice herself, and enable the combination she had envisioned with Jacqueline. Bipartisan thrummed, magical energy reaching its apex, ready to burst out at any moment.

She couldn’t leave Mika alone. Not for the life of a single vampire.

The handgun cracked, pieces of her wall ripping out to follow the bullet’s trajectory. They slammed, unified, into the roof of the skeletal beast’s jaw, pushing it off the wall as well. More trails of debris followed its descent, restraints of tile and wood, stone and glass, binding down its upper portion. And with one enemy removed, Breacher’s shield clashed with Lenore’s sword, the two now locked in mortal combat.

And Wukong, having gathered her wits just in time to tuck into a roll as she dropped five meters into the ground, soon found herself mired in ash and smoke. Every inch of exposed skin burned at the gasoline-accelerated fires, her flesh melting and fusing with her battlestaff. Smoke seeped into her lungs and wrecked havoc from inside out. In her current state, even though she was so close to Arzendale, even though she was in striking range of him, she had to escape.

Not that the monstrosity that landed after her would allow that.

Bones rattling as it crashed into the ground, Centrocius lunged for Wukong clumsily, its head and front limbs bound but its back legs still functioning. Though neither of them were in perfect condition, the monstrous speed of the steed easily surpassed Wukong’s, and it fell atop of her, bony and debris-ridden mass pinning her down upon superheated shards of stone. She could feel it, white-hot agony lancing deep into her back, her chest constricted by the monster even as her lungs hacked and convulsed at the smoke. Arzendale’s immaculate posture, so close and yet so far. Her body, inching closer and closer to unconsciousness, then the inevitable death.

Her soul seeped out of her body and expanded to reach the entirety of the world.

Her Journey Had Not Yet Concluded.

But Arzendale cared not for the terrified screams of an Esper roasting away. Without his body restrained and with Breacher having called out her fallen ally to assist, he immediately leapt to the side, anticipating the melody that would inevitably fly towards him. It was simple enough to predict. A two-pronged attack, one from the front and one from behind. All you had to do was step off to the side, and both would miss. The magic of an Esper was so narrow, after all, nothing compared to the consuming might of a vampire’s bloodwork. And look at that! The melody that should have flew past him didn’t even appear! A smirk formed, a supremely smug expression carving apart the Sanguine Sovereign’s face as he tilted his head to the side. She died, hasn’t she? A mis-

A chunk of crude metal pulverized his side and ripped his left arm right off.

Jacqueline had not died. She hadn’t even just survived. Through agonizing pain, through the dread of death, through blood loss and darkening vision, she had held on, her focus as sharp as her axe. In any other circumstance, she may have missed. But just as her Powerful spells had delayed her effects just long enough to make things worse in the past, now, that extra one second had brought her the time to wait out her opponent’s reactions, their caution. It wasn’t a push spell by any means, but the mere action of a ‘leap’ meant that there was a predictable location, based off of velocity and parabolic curves, of where they would land. And though monsters were incomprehensible creatures capable of corrupting all physical matter, the laws of gravity applied to all equally. She had landed her beam, and the monster bled…but did not fall.

Incomprehensible monstrosities were equally constructed of incomprehensible matter. They were not so weak-fleshed as humans, keeling over from the loss of a paltry arm, a lung and some other organs. They could exist as skeletons, as phantasms, as animated objects. They were monstrous in vitality, and Arzendale snarled at the destruction of his suit, the only thing that wasn’t replaceable. “Miserable wench,” he spat, his grip on his wand tightening into a fist. “I had deigned to give you a moment for a soliloquy upon your deathbed, but I suppose I should’ve done this from the start. Blood of my blood, fuel my ire!”

No heads fell, but blood flowed all the same, darkening the hoods around their heads before leaking out in thick, irregular strands. Jacqueline too could feel that pronounced force pulling at the contents of her veins, her blood crawling out of her nose and ears, her mouth and eyes, accelerating her demise, coagulating into the triple-overlaid magic circle that formed Arzendale’s bloodcraft.

An attack not directed at her, but at her fellow agents, at Breacher, forced to remain on the wall by the swordsmanship of the Sister of Sacrilege.

“May God have mercy…”

The circles glowed, rotating with greater power.

“…for I shall not!”

Lenore smiled and disappeared.

Valkyrie did not move. Her enemies were all in front of her, and the only one that possessed any ranged attacks did not have line-of-sight of her, blocked off by the wall that Breacher had raised. Any other enemies were delayed by those more capable of holding their ground in melee combat, and she, the sniper, was safe to settle down in her spot, focusing on the distance, focusing on her scope. It mattered not, the charred stench of Silhouette’s body as he writhed right by her. It mattered not, Wukong’s sudden fall, nor Jacqueline’s eminent demise. Valkyrie settled into the safety of the ‘distance’, into the regularity of her ‘mission’, into the comfort of her ‘job’. No distractions were necessary, whether they be shadow or fire, smoke or blacklight.

A sniper ought never to get comfortable in their nest, for an Esper did not need to aim, did not even need to see, in order to Spawn a melody.

The nun transplaced with the sniper as Arzendale’s great craft completed, a channeled deluge of crimson rushing towards Breacher and Valkyrie with the force of an avalanche. If either of them met this head on, the results would likely not be pleasant, but at the same time, this was perhaps the best chance that they had to strike back.

If Breacher moved to impose herself in front of Valkyrie, she could shield the sniper long enough for her to escape into the slope behind.
If Valkyrie chose to brave the storm, she could fire one shot towards Arzendale through the deluge, and perhaps slay him right then and there.

But that would depend only on who acted first.

And even that would solve only one of many questions.

Who would stabilize Jacqueline?

Who would heal Wukong?

.

..

…

Light, warm and bright. Light, red and sticky. Light, bloodied and ruined. Light, light, light, light, light.

Her mind was light, but her body was heavy, torn muscles aching with effort, ears numb to the echoing anguish of those she had left behind. She had no choice. She had no options. She had a mission. She had an objective. She would avenge them. She would bury them. She would return them.

Myriad thoughts oozed out of her mind as she continued to climb. Hands planted to the sides. Feet braced against the steel. Inching like a spider. Crawling like a worm. No longer human, but esper, expected to make decisions mercilessly, unkindly, against terrors the human mind had feared as merely the stuff of delusion and nightmare. She climbed, for what could she do but climb? Compressed into this space with only one way out, her melodies muted in the sheer worthlessness of her notes, she could only struggle.

Struggle, until finally, she wormed her way out of the chute, collapsing upon wine-red carpets. A hallway. In the distance, the battle raged still, but she could not hear the voices of her allies. No Breacher with sharp commands. No Leroux with a battlecry. No Wukong with a snappy pun. No Silhouette with verbose observations. No Valkyrie with deadpan facts. Was it distance? Or was it demise? She stumbled, step by step, approaching the heat and the light, the flames and the fight, until finally…

Orion was on the second floor. The foyer. Off to the side, she saw the massive painting of Justin von Carnage, depicted in hateful elegance, his imperious countenance as immaculate and inhuman as expected. Beneath the open hands he posed in the picture, fountains of blood were installed, ever-flowing, flanked by torch-bearing suits of armor. The second floor was untouched by the carnage below, the only stains the ones left in Orion’s own wake. Did that monster rest soundly at night, knowing that just two stories below, indescribable human suffering occurred? Was that what allowed him to rest so well?

But the mission, the mission was what mattered.

She had only a small part to play. She would not be the one to rip out the vampire’s heart from his chest, to watch him suffer before extinguishing his miserable existence for all of eternity. She was still only a trainee of an agent, the potency of her magic the only thing that was good about her, and even then, she could only muster one melody. A single spell to critically affect the circumstances, from an Esper that none below were aware of.

Jacqueline laid, guts splayed.

Lilliah struggled, burning alive.

Su and Silmeria tensed, calculating and deciding.

Samuel could not be seen, could not be spotted.

This was where Fate converged.

This was where Fate diverged.

And in Ashley’s hands, laid the power to shape Tomorrow.

---

_{@OwO@mantou@ERode@Majoras End}

Nothing is quite as raw as the untempered emotion of youth.

With his life on the line, as well as that of the other freelancers and Betty, he chose to remain, even with her greatsword coming for his head.

He ducked under the blade just in time for it to pass. The blade sliced through Jane’s back, opening her up and severing her spine in one swing. Her warm blood fell on Finn like rain.

”Such barbaric weapons...“ was all she got out before toppling forward.

But the boy’s focus wouldn’t let him react to it. Not her words or her crimson that stained his shirt. He sprinted forward with Klava at his side. But she was not here to help him rush down Betty. As he ran, she slid, and Klava did little more than issue the boy a warning before sliding past his target.

But with Betty’s swing concluding, and Finn closing the distance, what would happen next?

There were many online debates about swords. If one or two-handed weapons are better, and if an anime greatsword could be viable in a fight. Most of these were perpetuated by fantasy and RPG fans with little experience, but medieval reenactors and historians mostly agreed on these points. Two-handed swords were almost always superior to their one-handed counterparts. While heavier, the extra hand on the hilt gave you much more leverage over your sword, which allowed for faster and stronger attacks. Many medieval armies gradually shifted to using two-handed weapons as armor improved and the need to carry a shield was lessened. One-handed blades were employed by light infantry units in Europe, and saw a lot of use as self defense weapons. Larger swords were considered too dangerous to allow for civilians to use, and were generally restricted to the military. But that didn’t mean that one-handed blades were strictly inferior. When breaching a castle or clashing with an enemy army, sometimes shorter blades were employed. Bigger weapons were only more viable when you had the room for them. Finn understood this, and raced to close the distance. Betty didn’t have a standard great sword. It was among the longest, comparable to a Scottish claymore or German zweihander. Even if her hand position gave her some leverage, it wasn’t clear if she would be fast enough to counter.

Perhaps the outcome would be determined by the esper’s individual abilities and tactics rather than their weapon choice. Finn’s melody allowed him to pop up and thrust at Betty, but his targets were limited. He didn’t want to mortally wound her, which made a lot of areas off limits. The head, torso, and upper legs were all filled with essential organs that could be fatal if punctured. But the intent was to knock her down, so he started with a thrust to her shin.

But Betty’s swing had concluded, and she was ready to move.

Betty slid her leg back, almost showing Finn her profile as he thrust. One of her hands ran up the back of her sword as the side of the blade dropped in front of Finn’s attack. Her sword did not budge when it was struck by Finn’s rapier. His next attack, and the attack after that, and even the one after that, they would be stopped by Betty’s massive blade every time. Even when he went to get around her sword, she was able to move it just in time to deflect the incoming attack.

But Betty was not merely defending herself, she was preparing a counter attack. Black spores swirled around Betty as she prepared a melody of her own. By the time Finn had noticed it was happening, it activated. Betty hopped into the air and was shoved towards Finn. He had just enough time to bring up his blade before she smashed into him. His indestructible rapier kept her blade out of his innards, but the two of them were flying towards Bob.

Klava was oblivious to what was going on behind her, and between being slippery and moving at high speed, she couldn’t have stopped if she wanted to. She would be contending with Red shortly.

Red launched a fireball at the fast approaching esper, who leapt over her fireball with grace. While Klava flipped through the air, Red pulled a dagger from her waist band and prepared to fight. Many would question her choice to stand her ground, but Red was fighting on behalf of all her siblings. Though determination and fervor could not substitute skill and power. Red was little more than a young woman with a knife, while Klava was a mighty esper. On Klava’s second rotation, she managed to throw Red’s knife out of her hand, and then delivered a swift stroke to the woman’s neck. Red clutched her throat with her hand, but it did little to stem the flow of blood. She sank to the floor while Klava aimed her knife at her target. She had no need to prepare her melody because she prepped it on the way over. She planned this. She would not miss.

But then why was Gunther smiling?

Just as Klava called out her attack, just as azure frost left her fingers, the burning barrel that she had blocked earlier flew in front of her target. The keg detonated from the impact, quenching the burning fluid trapped inside. This revealed a stray spirit, which promptly flew into the barrel Klava was hiding behind.

Something that Klava had not been privy to was Gunther’s abilities. He entered the fight late, and his powers were never explicitly revealed to her. When she created her perfect approach to eliminating him, she hadn’t seen how his fearsome magic operated. While he had three spirits tied up fighting her companions, she had opted to change her strategy and allow Jane to die at the hands of Betty’s sword. While this did take Jane out of the picture, it gave Gunther plenty of time to prepare a defense for her eventual attack. He had seen her skate by, and simple logic dictated she had to come out the other side. That was especially true with Bob stomping his way in that direction. Perhaps he didn't know she would attack him, but that hardly mattered when Gunther was going to strike first.

No time to dodge, not even enough time to think, the barrel slammed into Klava and carried her through the air and into a stone wall. Much like last time, the giant keg wasn’t able to build up too much speed. All of her fractures were made worse, but that wasn’t all. The barrel started to spin in her lap. The wood texture was abrasive, and the spaces between the boards on the keg acted like a grinder, which tore into her with every pass. It cut through her clothes, it peeled at her flesh, a slick note wasn’t going to get her out of this one. Klava had failed to assassinate Gunther, and would need to return now.

But she wasn’t the only one gunning for him.

Apollo had positioned himself on top of the kegs and sneaked up on his opponents. Sure enough, Gunther was there, his attention wholly devoted to the previous assassin. It was going to take quite a shot to get a projectile seven meters and have it fall onto Gunther, but at least there was no reason for him to move out of the way. Room was limited, but he did his best to get the projectile to fly down the passageway and hit Gunther’s head. He watched as the ball of light soared outwards. It had cleared Klava’s iceberg when Gunther could feel the sun’s rays on his back. He turned his head just in time to see…

Impact.

A pyromancer’s arm had been sliced by a ray of light, causing his left forearm to fall to the floor. Brown clutched his stump and growled. Apollo had correctly assumed that nobody could see through the giant cracked iceberg. What he hadn’t taken into account was that the pyromancers on the other side would be paying special attention to it. Billy was a monster strong enough to contend with Justin himself, and his punches were strong enough to fracture icebergs. His southern accent might have been funny to the freelancers, but to the pyromancers, there was a demon on the other side of the ice, and he’d break through any second. As soon as Brown saw a strange light, he did everything in his power to protect Gunther. Even sacrificing his own arm.

”Oh sweetheart! Are you alright?“ Gunther’s eyes surveyed his surroundings.

”Just keep my siblings' souls close!“ Brown growled through his teeth. ”Shit!“

Meanwhile, Finn and Betty flew towards Bob. As soon as Finn’s back collided with the brute’s metal body, Betty’s knee slammed into his gut. His sword was still held in front of him, but he was delaying the inevitable at this point. It was hardly a deadlock. Betty not only had the heavier weapon, but seemed to have the greater amount of physical strength. Their faces were inches apart. Finn could see the madness in her eyes, he could feel her breath on his face.

”You just don’t know how to make good decisions, do you?“

Bob groaned. Not like a human groans, but like steel groans when it moves. Its vision was cast on Jane’s lifeless body. Bob hadn’t taken a single step after she was slain. Was it sad? Was it going to fight Betty over an accidental, if careless and unnecessary attack that could have been avoided? Maybe if Bob was human. But Bob was a machine. As complex as its comeback algorithm was, it had a simple program to run in the event of Jane’s death. And in situations like this, who would Jane blame for her imminent demise? What order would she give the creation that would most certainly outlast the aging alchemist?

”INITIATING_ANNIHILATION_PROTOCOL!“ Bob clapped its hands at its sides. ”PURGING_VICINITY_OF_ALL_VAGRANTS! TEN…NINE…EIGHT…SEVEN…“

In the next aisle over, Finn could hear Gunther command his allies. ”I got this ya cutie-patooties! Fall back to the break room and the rest of us will see about holding them here!“

Betty grit her teeth. ”See what I mean? Dumbass…“

Betty hopped backwards while pulling her sword against herself. This caused the edge of her blade to sink into Finn’s shoulder as she hopped backwards. Afterwards, she ran for the staircase at the end of the hall, passing the occasional glance over her shoulder. But it only took her a few seconds to vanish as fast as she had come. Red had come back from the dead to cover her escape. She brandished her dagger and shambled towards Finn. He could blink past her easily enough, but then he would be alone again, way too far ahead for his allies to assist him. He needed to decide how badly he wanted to keep Betty in his sights.

Gunther slinked into the wall while Black and Brown made a beeline for the exit. Even as the glacier crumbled behind them, they didn’t look back. It seemed like the enemy forces had retreated, but there was still so much going on.

As soon as Billy stumbled through what remained of the ice. He caught a glimpse of the “spirit golem” that had surfaced. Only now that it had moved through a lake of fire, its body was wreathed in magical flames. Billy looked to Apollo and pointed at the burning abomination while stepping away from it. It only grew bigger as it pulled more puddles of wine into itself.

”Got anythin’ for this?”

Though Apollo would notice that the area he was laying in had gotten a bit more tight, as Klava was now resting on his backside. Bloodied, battered, with the skin on her stomach and thighs stripped away. She had made use of his ass to move to safety.

And in all the chaos, Protector regained her composure and continued to fight. An esper was not protected from their own AoE note, and Protector was in the middle of hers once it triggered. Perhaps a display of self mutilation was supposed to ease her mind after her earlier actions. Regardless, espers are resilient to the effects of the arcane. Her body was spiked all over by her magic, but so were her opponents. Moreover, the swing of her spear was something that was directed straight at the animated corpses. Without heads, they were still able to move, but without legs, it was less effective to do so. Their spirits were no longer confined to just their bodies, however. With their old forms minced, their souls sought out the barrels that lined the walls. They split up to pick an isle, and then floated in space, gently tumbling in the air.

”Protector!” Tetrad chirped before approaching the knight. ”I’m going to break that barrel, but then we need to run past it, alright? Who knows where the next one’s going to come from.”

Once Tetrad was sure she had Protector’s attention, she tossed a card at the floating keg. It managed to wedge itself inside the barrel and shove it into the whole wall of them. It wasn’t the sort of destructive “boom” that most other melodies had, but it was enough to open the barrel up and dump the wine out. It wouldn’t be nearly as bad if the barrel came their way.

”Run for it!”

And so, the scene was set. Betty and two pyromancers rushed to the next floor while Gunther’s spiritual army contended with the freelancers.

Tetrad prepared to make a break for it and join up with Billy, who was confronting a burning blob of alcohol.

Behind them were two young pyromancers, still too out of it to move. Ahead of them were two espers. A fair ice maiden with marred beauty, and a faceless man that had to ration his magic between healing his allies and harassing the enemy.

And in the right aisle was a furious young boy with a choice to make. With every passing second, Red came closer. With every passing second, Bob got closer to detonating.

It remained to be seen if the wine cellar would claim more lives before Justin appeared. Blood and wine bled into each other, and the mansion’s owner enjoyed both.

---

_{@The World}

Marrie would have difficulty backing up with three giant green toddlers stabbing at her, but it wasn’t like she needed much room to jump off one's shield anyway. She could step over their heads if they weren’t flailing their machetties, so hopping off a goblin’s shield wasn’t too hard. Only it wasn’t quite as glamorous as she had seen in her animes/adventure flicks. The goblin lacked the upper body strength to push against Marrie’s foot, so she just sort of half trampled him when she stomped the garbage can lid into his chest. But hey, she wasn’t going to get impaled!

The “archer” goblins cast aside their slingshots and pounced onto Marrie as she ran past them. one hugged each of her limbs, scratching and biting as hard as they could. more effective than stabbing with machete? Hard to say.

”Yes Senator! Anything to serve our country!”

Stacy picked up her leg to start marching towards Marrie’s position, but Highway to Hell opened its mouth and blasted her with a stream of acid. Her body was thrown through the air, where it smashed through the door Marrie was trying to kick down. If she had been just a few more inches to the left…

Regardless, the path ahead appeared to be really wet, and narrow when compared to the open cavern. Before long, the remaining goblins ran in after it, not wanting to suffer the wrath of the demonic snake at their heels. They picked up Stacy’s body and started to run deeper into the tunnel with it. It was at this point that Marrie noticed the body was missing something.

”Armstrong!” A bodiless head called out to Marrie. ”Ya gotta help me!”

It seemed that Stacy was still able to move her limbs, but was having difficulty orienting herself without her head. The massive serpent was upon them now, however, and it was poised to strike. Would Marrie attempt to recover Stacy’s head, or would she use the distraction to retreat further into the tunnel?

"Survival horror's usually single player anyways."
Current Location: Von Carnage Mansion, Wine Cellar

The two swordsmen were locked in a stalemate. The Timekeeper noted Klava's warning about some golem behind him, but he couldn't care. His attacks were deflected in a vicious cycle, any maneuvering around the larger blade failed again and again. He couldn't afford to care, he could work with stalling until something happened. And well, it did. Just not in his favor. The boy only had what felt like a second to realize why Betty went on the defense, and brought his weapon up to block the corrupted esper's counterattack. Admittedly, he had forgotten about Bob. Or maybe he thought the Maiden could handle the robotic pain in the neck.

He was given one hell of a reminder when he got slammed against the aformentioned Bob. Fable didn't have time to react to his spine possibly being broken when he was knee'd in the gut soon after. Whether or not by survival instincts, he mustered whatever strength he had in pushing Betty back, a tight grip on Aeterna. Yet despite his efforts, the smaller esper was trumped by the other's strength. Madness and Wrath stared eachother in the eye, Fable only glaring back in response to Betty's taunt. But there was also a hint of sadness he tried to bury. Why was he still holding back? Anger be damned, why didn't he want to hurt her?

Why did any of this pain him now? When he hurt Mary, or killed Jan, he only spared regrets after it was said and done. So how was this any different?

The boy's thoughts were interrupted by Bob preparing to detonate the area. Oh right, they managed to kill Jane. Though he'd assume a bomb being set off would be saved for late or post-operation. Perhaps he played too many video games. Fable overheard the weird ghost dude's plans of stalling his team by himself. Great. Take down one stupidly strong idiot and another takes his place. The boy hissed in pain as Betty's weapon dug into his shoulder in her escape. He slid down to the ground, wiping away any pained tears to see what was left of the red-haired lady approaching him. His expression blanked out into indifference. He took a moment to breathe, took a moment to decide if he should heal up and stay, or to blink and go after Betty and the remaining pyromancers.

...Perhaps Klava's original plan could still work.

Part of him didn't want to leave the others behind. But someone had to get ahead, go after their fleeing opponents. Fable looked the undead Red in the eye, and glared at her in disgust. "Piss off." He growled, firing a lightning bolt to blink behind the zombie, and sprinted on ahead with a hand covering his wounded shoulder.

"Hey, girl! Over there!" Marrie shouted at the giant snake as she ripped one of the goblins off her leg and threw it at the far wall. It hurt like hell, but it was better than letting them slow her down. She repeated this with the other three, smacking them on the back of the head to stun them just before pulling them off to make them open their mouths. Once they were all in a pile at the other side of the snake, she ran to get Stacie's head and turned on heel to run after her body.

"Get back here you little shits!" came from her mouth as she cast a simple Heal melody.

---

@BrokenPromise @Ponn @Crusader Lord @FamishedPants @SilverPaw

"Tch..." The orange-eyed brunette clicked her tongue as the half-dead centaur scorpion managed to narrowly avoid her bolt at the last millisecond, no doubt courtesy of the command given to it by the mutated nun. Valkyrie replied to Lenore's little gesture with a simple wordless stare, one that carried all the weight of the esper's hatred to all monsterkin; it was apparent that she saw the mutant knight as no different than these otherworldly creatures. If she was dying of thirst in the desert, Valkyrie would deliberately drink a canteen of water right in front of her... before shooting her right between the eyes to end her misery. Alas, such a time would have to come later, but just imagine how sweet the reward would eventually be; right here, right now, she had to focus on this righteous purge of the unclean.

And focus she did, drowning out all disturbances that would disrupt said focus. Her apparent callousness for her comrade's groans and screams shouldn't be mistaken for a lack of camaraderie, instead, it was precisely because they were in peril that she had to maintain composure; she would help no one by panicking. After all, as long as they weren't outright destroyed, an esper could always detransform to shift into their perfectly healthy human self. Thus, with Centrocious bound by Breacher and busy with Wukong, she was confident this next shot would hit, time to put this rabid beast down once and for all-...

...-then the vision of her scope was suddenly replaced by the zoomed image of... Breacher's back? ...? She couldn't help but finally blink in confusion, in that brief period where she lost all train of thought, where nothing made sense. Then by the time she realized that the Odindamned fake nun was the one responsible, the now-one-armed bloodsucker had already unleashed a literal torrent of weaponized blood toward them (and everyone else).

Valkyrie’s eyes widened as her first instinct was to take cover behind Breacher, a justified tactical move as the draconic esper held a riot shield for a good reason; only for something else to rise inside her heart, all of the inhumane suffering and deaths around them, how these vermins not only perpetrated the atrocities, but also gloat and revel in them; the faux sovereign's crimson tsunami held no sway over the bloodcurdling hatred flowing through the Nordic Avenger's veins.

One day, humanity would return the favor by turning their world into catacombs... but that time was not today, for today they must first purify God's beloved Earth.

Her mind made, Valkyrie took a defiant step forward.

Teslic Gauss already brimming with power, she redirected the smite she reserved for Centrocious to the vampire instead, her aim trained on his head.

Nibelung Valesti...

With the last bit of Thor's power left in her, Valkyrie Silmeria channeled Mjollnir's wrath as a singular bolt of lightning carved through the bloody deluge.

---

Slowly. Steadily. After what seemed like an agonizing eternity, Ashley made her way out of the cramped, dark garbage chute, and into the light and openness of a corridor. Slowly, cautiously, she made her way towards the sound of combat. He team was nearby, and she had to assist them however possible. Her body ached, but she dared not risk expending mana to heal herself. That could come later, after Justin had been dealt with. For now, every last ounce of mana would be devoted to attaining that goal.

The corridor opened ahead, into the foyer, or rather, above it… Her grueling ascent had actually allowed her to reach the second floor, with its abominable blood fountains and its disgustingly ostentatious portrait of von Carnage himself. But what could be found above mattered far less than what could be found below… There, her team struggled against three monstrous assailants. Portions of the floor were ablaze, while thick clouds of noxious fumes obscured much of the rest. Even so, a quick glance over the situation after running to the balcony railing told her what was most important, told her who was most in need of her unique abilities. Two members of her team were in desperate need of healing. The first, Wukong, had been set ablaze, and was now pinned to the floor by the nightmarish skeletal centaur-thing that had popped up beneath Ashley herself only a short time ago. It looked far more injured than when she’d seen it last, but still seemed more than capable of ending her simian ally’s life. And then there was Leroux, mangled body splayed on the ground near the broken remnants of the organ, her blood and entrails spilling out. Ashley wanted to help them both, but she knew that she was only capable of so much. She had to prioritize, and she had to do it fast…

One of the basic concepts of math is the order of operations. Unless things were done in the proper order, and unless you knew what that order was, you wouldn’t solve the equation. However, failing to solve the equation here wouldn’t mean failing a test, but failing her teammates, something Ashley Avenir refused to do. Always one to study all the relevant material for a test, she had been sure to thoroughly familiarize herself with all the aspects of this mission, and most importantly, the aspects of her fellow agents… Ashley knew that, through some unique attribute of their esper form, Wukong was capable of surviving a fatal situation for a brief amount of time. Leroux was not so fortunate. Therefore, she would be the first ally to receive healing. However, that did not mean Wukong would be left to fend entirely for herself…

Even as Arzendale unleashed a tsunami of blood upon Breacher and Valkyrie, the Knight of Tomorrow sprung into action. Glowing particles coalescing between the prongs of her instrument, she fired a neon green lance at the prone Leroux, bathing her in restorative energies. Immediately after the beam had dissipated, the young esper took careful aim and snapped off an energy bolt at Centrocious’s sole remaining head. Even if it was too soon for her to heal Wukong as well, the Knight of Tomorrow could still ensure the simian esper would have a tomorrow by killing the monster that was preventing her ally’s escape.

The order of operations had been chosen.

Time would tell if it was the correct one…

---