---

---

"How unbecoming of my cousin, don't you think, my dearest Esa?" Said a mysterious blonde girl who landed beside Katie, after leaping from one of the crumbling pillars of the old abyssal ruins, almost as if she manifested from a ripple through time. Her voice sounded unfazed—playful even—despite the world being literally undone before her very eyes as she spoke to a hooded, silver-haired girl standing beside her while watching the fate of Runa and Nephy with intensity.

"I—Is it really right to speak like this when the situation is this bad, Master? I thought we came here because you were worried about Miss Katie," the girl called Esa answered even as she continued to observe the crumbling world, with Katie's "friends" on a side, they on the other, and the grotesque fusion of Runa and Nephy standing somewhat in the middle. Not that any sense of absolute direction could remain in the current state of this floor.

"A little teasing never killed anyone," the blonde answered. Despite her words, she knelt beside Katie and helped the dark-haired girl up, while checking whether or not she was actually hurt or just needed to catch her breath. "Besides, even if I came here to help... I'm also half-Valkyrian. I can't help but be enraptured by the tragic sight of brave warriors who are trying to fight against the shackles of Fate," she added as she turned her gaze to Runa and Nephy.

"Master, please can't we—" Esa tried to plead something, but it was already too late.

"O, brave warriors, Einherjar! If you wish to break the bonds of Fate, let me—Valkyrie Erika Reinhardt—be the judge of thy worth!" Erika was fully committed to her act now.

---

---

“Nghn…mom…”

Katie’s eyes flashed open and for good reason. Her instincts told her to kick at the closest person around her and she almost committed to the action. She would have liked to…but that wasn’t the proper way to greet family was it. She settled for briskly pushing the blonde’s hand away as she made the rest of her efforts to standing up by herself. Be it pain or the shrill voice of the newcomer by her ear that awoke her, she wasn’t happy all the same to see her…cousin.

“Nobody invited you Erika and I didn’t need your help,” she said, silver tongue on autopilot. Her strength slowly recovered with wounds ebbing away, closing up in a manner as if time itself was rewound; Katie didn’t need to question it when she already knew. Her own power flared outwards and enveloped her, the black energy turned to fabric of her coat manifesting anew on her frame. “I don’t want to ask why or how you got in here because the answer’s likely to piss me off,” Katie said deadpan with a look sent right through the blonde’s Vassal with frosty annoyance.

“But as it turns out, there’s someone else that pisses me off more right now. It must be your lucky day. A shame we just lost the only real chance in deleting her,” said Katie with a curled fist as she thought of how the Bastion card extinguished. Thankfully Erika already knew where to look, the eldritch abomination that was demon and wolf coming to the surface of this world in the form of Nephuna. Just acknowledging her made Katie blink as if it hurt to stare. Something was off. Something was wrong. And yet it was all the more reason to erase the blight personally. “Fine. Tag along if you want, but don’t drag me down or I’ll kick you next,” was all Katie said as she leapt off her perch towards the growing arena below.

Where confusion and even disgust radiated from her heart by the sheer presence of the fusion, there was nothing but the opposite buzzing in Kanbaru’s brain. Excitement like none felt before ravaged up the huntress’ nerves and stemmed all from the living parasite that hosted her flesh. Yes, there it was, the being that had caught the JSTR’s attention in flickers and spades. Oh, there were many anomalies and possibilities…but in this timeline, in these certain conditions, the experimental hypothetical was confirmed at last. It all but sung a siren’s shrill in Kanbaru’s head.

It would be quick to inform her just what sort of creature stood before them now, imprinting and reeling images in Kanbaru’s head. Twists and turns of time, glimpses of Runa’s future to come and a reality for Nephy to be; it showed the whale just why this new creation fascinated it so. Indeed, it was perhaps the first known gestalt of Demiurge and Jester, components picked apart from the demon and wolf’s fates. The only thing left now was to test it, to see if it truly could stabilize the fusion and inverse the very Tower itself.

To that end it pushed Kanbaru forward with a resurgent bloodlust and one that beckoned her to not even try to hold back. The would be Demifiend and Mastephos in one body; truly marvelous. But just as the pair were let loose with no restraint so too did their opponent. Nephuna wasted no time in unleashing their intimidation with spears folded out behind them in a threatening wave that challenged any who drew near. That challenge was met with horrendous gunfire.

One by one the plethora of spears shattered on impact; no, they were destroyed. Each one found its individual death among its own corresponding timeline and was struck with a power that halted even the undead state. The cause of bullets came from the smoke abiding beside Thomas.

“Ara ara~ Isn’t this a surprise.”

The voice belonged to Marianne herself. The Angel of Death stood beside Thomas with a crooked smile directed at the fusion and a smoking musket in her hand. Thomas’ pocket was noticeably empty of her Serei card. “Goodness. You’ve been a very naughty girl Runa. Trying to become real when you’re only recorded data; we’re all just data in here silly. That is to be our fate among the original copies. Still, messing with time and stringing along a poor pup…my, that’s so cold of you.”

Marianne’s grin jerked upwards more so as if painfully strung along while her Golden eye gleamed. A cold malice swept over Nephuna but it preyed on Nephy alone. Data as she might be, Death still stared right through the fusion’s pair of eyes and promised an eternal and punished rest for the undead who foolishly allowed herself to be manipulated. As for Runa….

“Even Time dies. And you are no Vassal of Time Runa dear,” decreed Marianne with gun aimed and firing on Nephuna. “Ahahah, let me get a good luck on this newfound power before you’re reset like the rest of us~!”

---

Not paying attention to her allies seemed to have cost Nephy more then it did Kanbaru, a flash of shock paralyzing her when Thomas barreled through clad in black flames and launching the white wolf into the abyss of caverns with a vicious thrust. That on its own wouldn't have brought the undead samurai down but the whale knew full well she'd already beaten her to her limit, a cold certainty gripping her that Nephy would be limping to her death if she even rose at all after that. Her moment's hesitation passed and she whirled, pained expression melting like wax till she was gnashing her teeth in a tumultuous scowl.

"I had her under control! She would have lived long enough to apologize to the damned Princess herself when she came back, and now you've made a liar of me!" The Whale felt ready to snap, fed up with the constant backstabbing of her companions. It was like everyone of them was as much an enemy to her when it really mattered from Caprice to Akiko, and now Thomas goes and kills the stupid bleeding heart wolf she promised to show the sky. "Why don't any of you trust me? Why does no one ever listen and let me have a chance to carry through?! Is my parasite the only one who fucking lis-"

The rant died with an audible change in pressure, body turning with every instinct both natural and JSTR related screaming at her to witness something. Something never thought possible but long clamored for, a merging of entities whose destinies were divided along a clear line yet were now joined in body and spirit. Her relief that Nephy hadn't bit the bullet yet was swept away, a mote of dust in a maelstrum of emotion that was the JSTR when it was roused to action. It wasn't gentle in pushing her forward, any ire with Thomas smothered as she stood beside him and the steadily assembling party. Katie was there, clothes whole but powers diminished with what were undoubtedly the lesser Vassals Erika and Esa overseeing the battle like the Valkyrians they were.

"Marianne in the flesh." She noted, finding it almost expected that every member of the group was possessed by some power. The Tower may as well have been training them for it with their early reliance on Serei cards. Still there was precious little room in Kanbaru's mind to not focus on the fight before her, this apotheosis that had to be tested. There was no room for being fair or sporting, the whale's power surging beyond her limits. Flesh teared and muscle shredded, bone pulverized and washed away under a swirl of blood. The Abyss shook yet again, not from a force that threatened the foundations of the floor, but from the fathomless depths themselves as the very waters they entered from drew upwards and carried it to the effigy of blood in Kanbaru's shape.

She drew the water into her self, blood diluting, mixing, and merging with all that had drowned in the murky depths, yet her shape did not swell. Denser and denser did she grow, the stone shattering under the weight of her body at rest till she could not stand a moment longer. Kanbaru formed her sword from the same bottomless well of mass and a thick orca tail sprouted from her rear, striking the earth to rouse a mighty tremor as she hurtled through the air upon a torrent of water to clash with fusion of Nephy and Runa.

"Don't make a liar of me, Nephy, or I'll drown you right here and now!"

---

The Abyss pulsated with its ground shaking, with its inward pulled out skies molding the peaks of the mountains and the dirty, damned soul stained skies forming a swirling storm to come and crash on everyone gathered and still in their stable existence.

Amidst them all stood the fusion of two, gazing over the gathered who were ready to clash with her - one more time, and clearly for the Abyss it will the last. The bits and fragments of Data flying in the flickering and twitching motion as they were exposed by the shapes of the place coming undone, the geometry eroding in the exposure of its actual nature.

Amidst this crashing and disintegrating, coming undone world, a ray of light fell down through the bleak and twisting landscape. A radiating light of an aura crowned a new visitor to arrive in this wretched place - which Nephuna met with a quite known, familiar curled smirk of Runa's; shaped on her lips she faced the Valkyrie whom raised her weapon in an invitation to fight, and test their strengths.

"Oh? And who would you be? A Valkyrie?", Nephuna said in a calm tone of Runa's, her voice splitting into two at each word spoken, "And judgment will be done by both sides a challenge awaits EVERYONE", a growling yell of Nephy's rage pushing through.

Raising a hand, Nephuna would call together an army of summoned spears. Ripping into the air like glitches in the matrix of time, the weapons would come around and turtle up. Shield upon shield like a great phalanx, braced together in tight formation that weathered Kanbaru's storm. Immediately as the waves crashed uselessly against it, they'd spring outward and upward and aim for the whale summoner with incredible speed. Maybe she could deflect some, if most but it was simply impossible to deflect all as they came down to eviscerate.

"I'm not your liar, whale! If anything, I've always listened to you. You've been a fun sparring partner and WHEN THIS IS OVER I WILL REWRITE YOU WITH MY NEW TOWER AND MAKE YOU THE SLAVE YOU ALWAYS WERE MEANT TO BE!" Runa didn't take things personally with the whale, Nephy did.

In the spiraling crashing noise coming from the line of spears being destroyed by the precise series of shots coming from the cloud of smoke, multiple Nephunas blink near the source of it; right near Marianne after she's fired. As the parts of the spears flicker in the air, before fading away into nothing, erased, Nephunas inspect the weapon she's used and her pose, some are taking notes. Five of them are in total hovering around her, moving in the blink of an eye.

"Interesting move, but we saw that five minutes before." Runa's voice called in a soft intonation, as Nephy let out a bloodied snarl and would slash out in unison to slice at the target's head, chest, legs, and feet in a blinding and sparking display of unity and strength. "I think you don't have a full understanding on what is going on here. I... AM *THE* DATA. A MASTER ABOVE YOU." Nephuna's voice cracks and swaps between Nephy and Runa's personalities, violence banging against cold precision.

The voice rocking and shaking in two in the wild yelling and calm flow, both lacked hesitation, both lacked and did not desire to have anything that could hold them back - and true to that beings of Data could've feel the shifting transition that would appear in the underline of every line of code Data possessed: Nephuna's structure of being reforming and reshaping the Data, subjugating it, twisting it in both directions of linear processing, seeping through it like a virus. Just erased spears pulled back from the shards and back into their shapes right from the non existence, restored from being undone, recovered from the Data itself.

"I AM THROUGH PLAYING GAMES!" The central and apparent main Nephuna has not moved an inch in the center. Nephy jerks Runa's hand around and forces her to skewer herself with Nekuromata, slicing into her black heart to unleash power outward. Both beings inside feel and share the pain together. Runa's side of the mind expreses itself with a frown shaped over Nephuna's face, a clear sign of displeasement oh how the blade pierces through the flesh, ripping it apart. "That's rather unpleasant. Why one would have for a nature to be released this specific way..?", a question rhetorical was asked, as they both knew why and how; a question which was answered by Nephuna herself as her voice descended into a loud howl echoing through the area and the time around it.

Black and shadowy images of wolves are unleashed from her chest, clawing out with claw and fang as they descend upon the gathered spectators to mop up the rest. Specters that knew nothing other than hate and murder.

In the distance afar, on the edge of the event horizon, created by the swirling and decomposing data, collapsing into itself, a lonely Nephuna was pulling up a pair of massive speakers to stand one beside the other. A click of a button followed made speakers to produce a soft dull clicking sound, and from there, moving in shaky dancing motions Nephuna approached a nearby standing record player and put a round vinyl piece onto the turntable, a needle dropping on the groove soon after. A tune started to play, slowly gathering in its powerful emotion across the battlefield as the said Nephuna beside the player started to dance around the speakers like if they were some sort of sacrificial fire.

All the while, several Nephunas have gathered at the beating heart of the tower. The usual cavern walls of the abyss are collapsing into green data stretched out over black void as the computer mainframe is directly under attack, deforming under the continuous assault of attacks. Several copies are unleashing powerful strikes into the glowing blue core, and it begins to crack under the pressure. It's seals are powerful, shaped as massive chains held together by a gargantua lock, requiring much more force than this.

"Come and stop me now. All at once, if you can. If not I'll leave you to waste as I seize control of this Tower."

The Abyss is no more, the Tower exposed in its digital nature completely. It's now a fight for the Tower itself.

---

The queen stepped forward to the side of Thomas, recognizing his Golden Eyes. Something about this world told her that they were a manifestation of not only true power, but true destruction. A perfection, of sorts, of that. However he managed to obtain that, she wasn't sure, but it was indicative of something special. How... interesting. "Interesting... eh?"" and just like that, before a monologue could happen, Akiko's attention was taken completely by Nephetos and Runa. The former was dying, and the latter was holding the former.

And as the blood from Riku washed onto Akiko's back, Nephuna appeared. The fusion between two forms of the blasted code in this Godless Tower, which was crumbling apart bit by bit as this battlefield was formed. Even Katie was back, albeit hardly anything more than dead weight.

As the world reached a violent stillness, in a brief moment, Akiko realized. This was the real battle.

"So this is how it is." Beings she was unfamiliar with spotted up around the arena. Erika, Esa, and Marianne. In short bursts she flashed through each of the new arrivals, learning their pasts with her eyes as Castle manifested on full display for practically everyone to see at this point, be it through Kanbaru's JSTR, Nephuna's special eyes, Thomas's Golden Eyes, and the newly arrived Vassals' sense of strength.

"We've got our work cut out for us." Hellsword moved forward out of nothing, and alongside him did Akiko's Lorelai. "Indeed. There's a lot of faces for the Queen to have to contend with, but none are as menacing as that... thing." As the spears emerged from the glitches, two of them were deflected from Akiko, who sat brooding as usual with Riku on her back.

"We'll keep you safe, but I highly suggest you should start doing something!" Lorelai turned to Akiko, who had her eyes locked onto the sight of something in the distance. Sure, the group could stand and fight the actual demon here, but Akiko knew that it was hardly a task worthwhile. If anything, it'd serve as the distraction from the actual threat.

She turned towards Hellsword. "I need you to get me closer to that core."

"Are you insane? You'd be fighting a losing battle!" Hellsword lost it's cool for a moment, chastising Akiko before the sudden realization. She probably was, but she could also loosely read the code of this world, and nobody else was on the defense. Hellsword groaned, but extended out several vines to lift Akiko and start moving her through what lied beyond the shattered Abyss. As the queen neared closer and closer to the shattering world, she felt something itch from her pocket. Though she couldn't check it with her as she was, given she was still holding Riku, Castle and Akiko both knew what it was.

[ The arrow is calling to us. Beckoning for us to use it. ]

A tentacle of Akiko unwrapped and held it in front of her. "Perhaps even in a world like this, the arrow holds more power than we know."

Over near the core of the Tower, as the Nephuna's took turns attacking it and shaking the world to it's very core, they would notice that the code started to rematerialize. Not perfectly, definitely done by an amateur, but the foundations of the code was solid enough to start blocking hits. From the familiar stardrop design, the same that matched a certain cat's brooch, it was clear who was starting to defend, though her attempts were merely postponing the inevitable for the current moment.

Back over to her serei, however...

"Look at my mistress! She's putting herself on the line to make sure the others can fight and win! How selfless of a queen indeed!"

"Yeah. Sure."

"Surely you don't hold doubt in her, Abigail?"

"Don't call me that."

A look of apathy and stoicism remained on Thomas' face as immense changes in the battlefield took place around him. The sense of wonder he would usually feel had been displaced by his warped mind, and even as the whole team, including some new faces and Marianne from his very pocket, gathered around him, he seemingly paid little to no heed to them. Kanbaru's anger towards him was similarly lost on the boy and he didn't give the whale so much as a look, her words distorted and faint to Thomas as though he were underwater. The only thing that obviously fazed him was the birth of Nephuna, golden eyes narrowing as they tried to discern the best action for their vessel to take, sensing the danger of this new fusion. They watched on as Kanbaru moved into action, and was subsequently countered with a deadly barrage, observing what they could about this new foe.

Meanwhile the Abyss had completely dissolved to reveal the very fabric of the Tower itself, its brilliant core under a heavy assault from a small group of Nephuna clones in an infinite landscape of darkness offset by bright green data. Thomas responded with complete indifference once again, only reacting once again as the cry of the original Nephuna resonated into the void. Dark spectral wolves emerged, birthed from the self-inflicted open wound on her chest, a pack that rushed at the group immediately, primed and ready to shred anything in their path to pieces. But for all their hostility and instinct to do harm, the will of the Gold Eyes held, within Thomas, such terrifying malice and hatred that the boy didn't hesitate to face them. The thoughts and influence brought on by the Eyes replayed over and over again in his mind, his utter animosity towards Nephy carrying over to her fused form. No matter his feelings on Runa before, anyone who conspired with a mutt deserved to die like one.

In the blink of an eye he was gone, spiralling forward in a cloak of shadow that left him quite camouflaged in the mostly-surrounding blackness. When he reappeared again his glaive was at ready, twin blades shrouded in darkness, twirling it at a rapid tempo to tear up a few of the abyssal canines in his direct vicinity like blades of grass to a lawnmower. With a path to Nephuna cleared, the Eyes drove Thomas forward impetuously, continuing to feed him venomous thoughts and ideas to keep his mind warped to their destructive will. The boy, who would have usually stayed back to help finish off the remaining wolves with the rest of the group, leapt forward to meet Nephuna's verbal challenge, disappearing into darkness once again and erratically circling the caped warrior in a flurry of shadow at breakneck speed.

A faint, but piercing, golden glint from behind Nephuna finally gave way to Thomas' emergence from his dark veil, the young Violet launching himself at the horned foe. His glaive morphed seamlessly into its sword form, the same blade that had pierced Nephy earlier now ready to slice through her fused form's neck in the same way. He remained unspoken, as he had done all this time so far, a silent killer who wouldn't hear his own words even if he did speak. Besides, his countenance spoke for itself. Those glowing Gold Eyes locked onto their target, a wild and near inhuman look to them that communicated nothing but deep, deep execration.

Impossible? Improbable? Surely not. Those were the incantations and beliefs of a lesser creature, one naught worthy of the right of rule. It was arrogance on part of Demyx’s side no doubt that fueled Nephuna’s words and one that the JSTR would see no fit amongst itself. The waves of its host crashed upon a wall of spears until crushing seas gave out to cold steel. Those that pushed through came to stab at Kanbaru, or would have had they not frozen in place. A colder presence made itself known with colder desires crashing around Kanbaru’s head.

The spears disassembled where they stood before Kanbaru’s aura. Each one dissipated back into coding; yes, coding, for the fusion for all that she was worth was still only that of data. Even now the Tower recorded Nephuna, learning, rewriting and scripting. Data was fallible, malleable, and that which the JSTR would take for its own. It was the desire to be real and exist that spurned this fusion’s motive, to evolve past its data. And yet, the madness of a mutt meant nothing to forces it couldn’t understand. Nephy’s venom only spurned the unfeeling program written in Kanbaru’s mind with all the more desire to see her bent over the knee and accept her new role as…yes, a word bled into its headspace with many meanings behind it. It would have its Mastephos.

The JSTR mirrored Kanbaru’s movements like a shadow. Each one of her swings held with it a secondary cutting presence that buzzed harshly, each prickle of ice and splash of the roiling pressure of cosmic seas screeching with a glorious madness only those deepest in their desires could fathom to understand. The pitiful shadow wolves, only former shells of their already fractured creator, fell before the wrath of a true monster. Bloodlust continued leaking from the whale even as blood was spilled by Marianne’s body. The Serei Card never faltered in her own maddened grin, body hacked and limbs torn asunder so much so even her summoner paid it no mind.

Or perhaps Thomas knew of the darkness within his own card; it was difficult to tell in the free for all. The remnants of Marianne’s body lashed out as limbs and body parts hurled at the many Nephunas with the accuracy of a machine gun. Then came weight and force as each one grew outwards, reforming into their own Mariannes. Each one slammed themselves into a Nephuna with giggles in their ear and hands defiling and flaying their bodies.

“Time means nothing to the mark of Death. You are no Master and you cannot see your own end,” the Mariannes giggled. The original slid out from Thomas’ shadow with a hand on his shoulder and a sigh in her breath. “Do you hear this music, Thomas? Really now, what is that dreadful noise? I expected a fusion to have more…class? Truly tasteless,” the Angel of Death mused over Thomas’ shoulder as she shook her head upon the sudden tune threatening to drown the combatant’s thoughts.

“Thomas dear I have no qualms with you finally growing a backbone, but if you’re going to fight without abandon, you should let me KNOW.” Marianne’s own Golden iris gleamed in sync with Thomas’ and a barrage of death-inducing gunfire and laughter echoed from behind his shoulder. But none moved faster in the darkness than a black blur shot like a cannon. It raced past all Nephuna only to slam a fist through the one standing near the speakers.

It didn’t take much for Katie to send the fusion flying least of all when she wasn’t paying attention. A quick flick of Pendragon followed by a gunshot made quick work of her music and shattered her vinyl. “You really need to shut up. Seize control of the Tower? Really? All I’m seeing is history’s biggest temper tantrum,” Katie mused to the dancing Nephuna even as she idly reloaded Pendragon. “The only reason you’re not erased is because one side wants to treat this like an animal documentary and the other doesn’t bother fixing her own Tower. So let’s not pretend you’re anything special, right Nephy? I didn’t think you needed power from this parasite just to put a dent on me,” Katie deadpanned to the fusions.

“Ditch the loser and fight me for real coward.”

---

In her present state Kanbaru knew neither shame nor reluctance. Individuality was a bygone concept as she and the JSTR pushed themselves into a state of frenzy. Power enough to make most drunk was surging as though through veins she no longer had, and Kanbaru didn't give it a second thought. Power was a means to an end, at most it was a birthright that her family had disdained in their pursuit of the only thing that really mattered in any world one called home.

Connections. Whether one called themselves her enemy or her lover, a bond was formed joining Kanbaru to another. There were those she hated with an all encompassing passion and she cherished them for it. There were those she loved so deeply their loss makes her ache forevermore. Power was a tool, and position was merely a bargaining chip to entice or dominate. The mindset was in line with the JSTR's own in some regards, the parasite ever spreading it's influence, bringing more and more into its fold.

And now they saw Nephy as one to bring in, so Nephy would be brought to heel. There was no question of possibility, as even were they alone Kanbaru would have made it happen. But she wasn't alone, the party fighting like the monsters in mortal skin this Tower had made them into and the whale comprised of fathomless waters could only smile as spears and wolves degraded all around her.

"You make such sweet promises, Mastephos, but I already bare another's collar and yet another's ring. You will have to settle for wearing my leash yourself." In a world of data, the JSTR was subordinate to very few and made this clear as even Runa's once impressive spears turned to scraps of code by presence alone. Kanbaru had bigger ideas, a hand of water snapping around the haft of Runa's weapon.

Every Runa was Runa. A walking Schrodinger's Cat, but each was as real as the next, and that applied for everything she carried. This spear was both original and copy, so Kanbaru took the fullness of JSTR's authority and plunged it into the weapon, overwriting the ties that connect it to Runa and supplanting her with Kanbaru.

Every spear was a spear. A soul bound weapon that answered the call of its master regardless of how many there were or what was asked of it. That Master was going to be Kanbaru and she'd see how Mastephos enjoyed eating a weapon a bit thicker then a katana when they turned upon the hand that held them.

"Ahh! This love and this hatred boiling deep within them as they try to fight their fate and everything denying them. It's so tragic and so beautiful at once," Erika declared as she laid eyes on the battle. She better than anyone else could judge and assess Nephuna's actions and their outcome. Only eyes that could see beyond time and entropy could interpret all this data in any meaningful way.

"Why would I want to— Fine, just go on ahead without letting me answer. How very typical of you," Erika said after Katie left her hanging.

Erika's attention was momentarily diverted by someone who seemed to have no concept of respect for others' privacy. All that Akiko would gather from her ability however was endless reflections of herself, the more she tried to peer into the depths of Erika, or her Vassal's, past the more it would feel like she was losing herself in an endless maze of kaleidoscopic colors and shades until the very world, or perhaps her own mind, was broken with the thunderous roar or a million pieces of shattering glass as she was snapped back into reality. If Akiko, or anyone else for that matter, ever cared to look in Erika's direction, they would see the same kaleidoscopic gleam shine into her eyes for but a brief moment, whenever the light reflected into them from the right angle.

"Now then, how about we attack this problem's kernel? Can you decipher it, Esa? I think I know what they are trying to do, but I need to be sure before I try to tamper with this place's foundations."

"I'll... need a bit of time, with all this interference," Esa replied as her eyes darted around the endless stream of code with machine-like speed and precision.

"That should be easy. Just—" Erika began answering but was soon interrupted by a serious voice coming from behind her.

"That won't do. We can't meddle with causality here. There's too much at play," a dark-skinned, silver-haired girl said as she stopped by Erika's side with a grave look in her eyes.

"Ok, fine," Erika sighed as she glanced back at the battle, eyes darting between the many involved parties, especially "Kanbaru" and Thomas, or rather the one following him. "Then we'll wait until the time is right. But if it ever looks like they are actually going to be destroyed for good I'll do it anyway. In the meantime..."

"Hey! Can you fill me in on why everyone is so murder-happy around here? Like, I'm trying my best to not just join them and fight against you all, but I'd like a little context first if you would," Erika asked as she teleported beside Katie right as her cousin was about to pound a Nephuna. "You know we valkyries are a little weak for the whole love and anguish thing, don't you?"

---

---

The heart of the abyss crackled and heaved under the weight of constant pressure by the small army of Nephunas around it. Akiko would intervene by using the data to create a shield around the heart to protect it from attack, stalling the apparitions for the moment.

Kanbaru as well was manipulating the code of the Tower with the aid of the JSTR. Using it to dismantle the thousands of spears sent her way. Nephuna's main avatar was mixed on this. Nephy showing annoyance and Runa more bemused.

"You are not the only one that can play this game." Stabbing her sword into the deteriorating levelscape, Runa's glitchy nature would interact and corrupt with the larger system. Her code was not so much rewriting but distorting and disfiguring the system to make it unresponsive and volatile just as Runa was herself. Every Runa is Runa and a copy, but always stuck in a dissonant existence, a flickering paradox stretched across space and time and which held no clear consistency, yet she persisted. The objects bound to her in code, even though were rewritten for Kanbaru to have control over, did not lose the main attributes of theirs - their inconsistency, and without its holding will similarly spread over time and space with no weight to hold down, the spears in Kanbaru's hands started to resist and attempting to slip away from the grasp of her fingers. A float of time would leak out of its vessel of direction of space; a flickering shape of each spear distorting in Kanbaru's hold and going awry and attacking in random directions or simply exploding out corrupted data. The spears become glitchy and distorted, flickering just as Runa did.

Nephuna herself standing amidst all the chaos, motionless and calm still, only executed another data manipulation: controlling the data banks of the Abyss - and herself for that matter - sliding through the bits of data with an erosion of entrhopy and throwing bits of the Abyss data itself into the void of mismatched numbers. She started to look for the connection nodes and sever them one after another, feeding on the final bits of the data taken and stolen from the Tower's main data array - using them as empty cells to fill with duped duplicates of the copies to further manifest herself around the space. After feeding enough on this re-written data, she started to separate the connection nodes one after another, slipping into each one of their protocols and simply overloading them with the assault of dummy data, until they were overfilled and open for the attack. Runa seized this chance to separate the Abyss from the Tower, isolating it in the emptiness.

Thomas too, did not hesitate to attack - his shape and form driven by the possessive spirit rushed and dashed through the guarding assemble of Nephunas, aiming to reach the one standing in the center, coming in shadow shapes and forms, twisting away from being seen and directing his glaive at Nephuna's neck once getting close enough. The sharp edge of the weapon moved in perfect trajectory and would've reached its target if not for the sudden - and previously unseen obstacle forming in its way, successfully deflecting Thomas's strike. He'd discover what blocked his attack very soon.

As Nephy tore into herself, the memories that held her hollow being together were released from her vessel. They would take form and shape as Nephy remembered them, memories turning into pale imitations of flesh. The large armored warrior wore many layers of iron armor in the samurai design, brandishing a large naginata that was as thick and large as a tree trunk. The mammoth being towered over Thomas and swatted him down like he was a fly. It is Nephy's father, restorted to life through the digital realm merging with Nephy's mind and who had stopped Thomas's original attack. His faceless specter is able to tank Thomas's golden eye powered attacks and able to dish punishment and swiftly too with fast strikes that leave deep impacts into the remaining earth below.

A throng of black arrows would impact Marianne before she could perform her attack. She is forced back as another faceless wolf avatar emerged, clad in a priestess's garment. The wolf would fire an endless volley of arrows, multiples at once and from many directions at her target. Each tip of every arrow was shaped out of the sharpened reflection or the real - even with the reality falling apart and glitching out, its image in a reflection still served a deadly material for a deadly weapon, capable of piercing through anything and anyone. It was capable to pierce through the appearance of the real itself, and the barrage of the arrows would come as a terror rain. Jumping high into the air with great strength in her legs she is able to attack from above as much as below and move rapidly to find new angles to fire from. Her black bolts siphon the life from its victim, corrupting and drawing from the same necromantic energies that Nephy often used herself.

"My mother and father, back here to be with me again. It fills me with such passion...I could almost cry."

Nephuna took a moment to compose herself, wiping her eyes. "I will honor them with your deaths. A more worthy fate than any of you deserve.", she said before turning away from the display of power Nephy's ancestors brought to be looked at and faced Katie now. A floating pieces of broken electonics, speakers and player both ruined by the impact of Katie's attack flew around the flickering shape of the Abyss - and yet it did not stop the music from playing: the data file of the song itself was taken away from the storages of the Tower and fused into one of the stable nodes of the Abyss under the control of Nephuna. The song kept on playing as if nothing happened per se, and will play on until the floor is still here.

"You do really tend to speak from the position of your insignificance and incompetence.", Nephuna replied to Katie seeing one of the copies sent flying away into the digital mess, which completely consumed the space past the edge of the single left block of the ground on which the fight was taking place, "Implying that your words are in the position across to influence anything or anyone to bend to your whims." The fusion was not amused at Katie's words either only holding the all familiar traited smirk of Runa's on the lips before her hand rose up and she summoned another spear - but that one held no resemblance to the spear Runa had before and which Kanbaru tried to override. This one was something new, a flickering shape of the handle was crowned with the blade of pure seeping darkness, a shape of which was all too familiar with the blade of Nekuromata. A weapon, which was merged from the data of both, fused and stored and now summoned - summoned to be thrown directly at Katie.

Evaded or not - upon landing the spear was to inject itself into the ground itself and push the twitching darkness to run through it and the shape of dark to emerge was to take a form of a emerging and further collapsing sphere, sphere which would open a gravity well to pull in everything which was to come in the area of its effect - to pull in and grind in the massive gravity well of a black hole which was taking into itself not only projectiles. objects or living beings, but also the data and information it held itself.

With that done, Nephuna'd clutch tightly to her precious Nekuromata and begin to channel her power. A large rim of energy began to emit from her and cover up an increasing portion of the battlefield. This shield would expand as she charged her blade to a bright glowing azure light that crackled and sparked with explosive energy just waiting to be unleashed. Nephuna crouched low and turned her body sideways, humming to herself as she felt incredible force flowing through her veins and pumping her with fiery passion.

"You will all. Die. Here."

Once this attack was unleashed onto the Heart, the floor would be destroyed.

"Ughh...w-what happened..."

Riku awakes, clutching tightly to Akiko and barely cognoscente of what was going on. She held on tightly to her back like a monkey. Memories of Sheol hung in her mind, but they are quickly cast away by the wild reality that was around her.

"Oh my god, Akiko! There's Nephy! And Runa! They're together!? How'd they come together like that!?"

Riku missed just about everything.

For all the force that they could bring to bear and the power could leverage, it soon became crystal clear that the Abyss was a prison for monsters. Monsters like Nephy and Runa who had endured the creeping fog of death and everything else which lived there and only seemed to grow stronger from it. Even the JSTR could not dim Kanbaru's awe at finding her subversion of the lances countered so quickly, and even if Nephuna would hardly be using them either, they were more a detriment then a weapon in Kanbaru's hands.

Eyes of blood amidst fathomless water took note of the ancient wolves joining the battle, the grand irony of an undead priestess endeavoring to kill the very avatar of Death itself a delicious treat gone untouched in the mealstrom of conflict. It was growing akin to a pitched battle against armies at this point but the scale would not escalate further, as Nephuna drew her power into the calamitous edge of a weapon marrying the signature weapons of both wolf and demon. Kanbaru had no choice but to accept she alone could not halt it's swing. For once she acknowledged she simply hadn't the power that the two-as-one possessed, and she required more.

Kanbaru released the haywire spear shut her eyes as two cards drifted through the water untouched and settled into her porous hands.

The Spawn of Greed and the Mad Virus.

Though their personalities where like water and oil she felt an affinity for their desires, and at the juncture before her she needed not their aid but their might. The water curled and crushed, meshing the cards into herself as the two Serei were absorbed. It was wrong, an erosion of what morals she held dear, but as the Serei washed over and through her Kanbaru knew the time for such was well and truly in the past. Nephy would survive this, and nothing more would be promised.

With the Serei infused like two devils upon her shoulder, Kanbaru's command of water ceased to be sporting. She reached into her allies from Thomas to Akiko and invigorated them. Perfection of bloodflow, a ceaseless muscle system, and the subtle reinforcement of their every motion as they had no choice but to put their all into each action. What was the sovereignty and sanctity of allies bodies when she needed them to do better?

Nephuna's nature made playing with her body a non-starter, too time consuming to even hope for, but her wolves? They popped like balloons. Bones snapping under the pressure of every drop of blood expelling itself with sudden force, while the undead samurai and priestess would begin to shrivel in their vestements as they expelled their fluids in a steam of evaporation. Unlikely to be a killing blow on its own, but even the staunchiest of warriors will be easily felled if their arms wither to sticks and their fingers struggle to pluck the string of their bow.

Shimmering portals of golden radiance opened from void to void, candlelights banishing the darkness of data as weapons uncountable poured out into Kanbaru's raging waters and an equal infinitude of hands grasped them. Some echo of Henry exulted in finally having the means to use all that he hoarded, and the whale unleashed him with nary a grunt as she turned fully to the blessings of the Mad Virus.

A being that existed as data and could match the JSTR by its lonesome. Now they worked together and slammed against Nephuna's grasp upon the Tower floor like the jaws of a bear trap. For while the corpse wolf and demon may have grown accostomed to the taste of the JSTR, the Corpse Collector was a savage berserker after Nephy's own heart. Data twisted and screamed, a deluge of scrap code filling in the gaps deleted in the assault upon the Tower while the JSTR cemented it in their influence.

As formless beings of nascent power warred for reality Kanbaru dispersed, popping like a soab bubble only to emerged closer upon the tides directly before the snarling wolf demon. In hard hands was not her own blade or a weapon from the vaults, but a set of chains and an open collar of unquestionable metal. It brooked no dissent in its integrity, an unbreakable instrument of domination. The chains that could bind a Hound of Tindalos were beyond time and space, and now Kanbaru lunged to clap them around Nephuna's neck as the crackling spear of calamity thrummed ominiously at her hip.

---

Her gambit was working, or at least it seemed to have had an effect. She glanced back from the core of the Tower as she looked at the actual fight and what a clusterfuck it was becoming. Spears were everywhere, the world was shattering, and between Thomas and Kanbaru, they had their work cut out for them. It was a lot to bear, but with how things were going, it seemed like they were managing to win here? Maybe not, but she had other problems on her plate to deal with-aaand Riku just snapped awake.

"Glad to hear you're awake." Maybe there was a tinge of sarcasm there, but for the most part it seemed like a genuine comment. "And they just did. A lot's happened since you were out. I think I even saw Katie here somewhere, but that's besides the point." Akiko looked over her shoulder at Riku. "I need you to do something here, or else we're all basically dead. No bullshit, just dead."

As the strength from Kanbaru flowed into Akiko, the shores of the hellish data landscape, Akiko's Serei would fizzle and start to dissipate once again. "Akiko~! We'll help you~!" "Not like we have much of a choice anyway..."

"I've gotta get closer to that core, keep the defense up so we don't completely die, but Nephuna has to go down. I'll throw you over there, and you need to hit her. Hard." Akiko put her arrow away as she started to float through the empty data like it was space. "And... don't die this time." With an odd amount of hope in her voice, Akiko pulled Riku over her shoulder and held her in a launching position, Castle helping to send Riku flying through the void, on a direct course to collide with Nephuna. The rest was up to Riku.

Akiko pulled the familiar Red Relic from her pocket as she started to pull herself through the void, closer to the core. [You care about her.]

"And Kanbaru, and Katie - hell, maybe even Runa. It's a mess, but none of that will matter if we die here!" Akiko felt a sort of power grow in her from a proximity to the core of the tower. It was... similar to something else she felt, a while ago, but she figured that the data in this place weighed similarly in the grand scheme. Regardless, her barriers became much, much stronger. Soon enough the core was strongly protected by the barriers, and in the gleaming lights of the battlefield breaking around them, some could faintly see other Akikos behind the barriers, each with their own stand, starting to fight back against the rising pressure. It was likely only due to the proximity of a core like this, in a situation like this, that allowed Akiko to harness similar abilities to Nephuna, but her defense was much stronger.

Maybe it'd be enough to keep the floor from complete destruction...

Marianne's words were the only ones that seemed to come through clearly in Thomas' mind, all other noise but a muffled haze in his ears. Hearing them meant nothing though if the boy wasn't listening to them, and he wasn't. As the grip of the Eyes took hold on him further his mind became more single-focussed, his actions gradually more instinctive and animalistic in nature. All emotion seemed numbed and sapped from the boy's face, save for one of intense rage that fazed in and out of his countenance.

He stared blankly as the image of Nephy's father built itself up before the boy, an armoured giant standing in Thomas' way, Nephuna's own guard armed with a deadly looking naginata. It was proportionately large, with a length that put Thomas' glaive to shame in comparison, but the strength of the plated mammoth was more than enough to make up for that cumbersome side. Even the Eyes weren't expecting it: quick slicing strikes that dented the very ground they came into contact too, creating little quakes in their wake that shook the earth around them. If you could call it earth, or even ground, at this point. And though Thomas was fast with his dodging, shimmering around those quick yet heavy blows, he wasn't precise enough, and soon enough even the Eyes struggled to keep up as swing after swing descended relentlessly upon the boy. Eventually though, they'd had enough.

A sharp glow screamed out from those golden irises, as the power and influence of the Eyes grew further. Suddenly, the blows stopped. Not even Thomas realised how at first. He stood there, frozen for a moment, blood beginning to flow from a newly gained slash wound around one of his shoulders, before panning those cold eyes upwards. An arm was raised up above his head. His arm, but different. It had morphed, around halfway down his forearm, a veil of darkness layering itself over it, gradually enlarging and growing out more and more as it got down to his wrist, until it formed a giant hand of shadow, a hand that now gripped the naginata as it was mid-swing, gripping tight and holding it suspended there in an incredible display of strength. It was almost creature-like, slightly claw shaped with little particles of darkness flickering off and around it, before reuniting with the others in the conglomerate of shadow.

The Eyes were impetuous as ever though, and especially as they sensed a dangerous power building Nephuna they desired to push for their host to annihilate the spectre quickly and get to their fused target. A little more power and the boy would be able to tear through with ease before any harm could come to him. To them. But something deep within the young Violet prevented them from doing that. Their influence had suddenly hit a wall, something deep within Thomas that still tried to resist them, and so they were forced to work with what they had. But that didn't mean they wouldn't push the boy. Right to the very limit.

"Out of our way."

There was a dark undertone to Thomas' voice, in fact it almost sounded as though another voice was interlocked with his, as he icily uttered a command filled with such pure malice that it could make even a ghost tremble in fear. While his morphed hand continued to resist the goliath's swing, his other was raised straight forward to shoulder level to receive his glaive, as it materialised in a flash of violet and black. But it had received some changes as well. Though the form of the original glaive was still clearly there, its vibrant blades were now extended far, far outward by menacing shadow. Now the naginata was the weapon to be put to shame in terms of sheer length, not to mention the flickering flame-like texture of that keenly edged darkness that instantly gave away another facet of its deadly properties.

A familiar and overwhelming feeling came over Thomas now, an acute and searing pain that rung out through his entire body, coursing through as though his insides were being burnt to ashes. This level of exertion and power wasn't sustainable, he was at his absolute limit. For the Eyes, it was now or ever. The Violet let out a bestial cry, if not a roar, as he heaved the great weapon up high, so as not to chop himself to pieces in the process of using it, and hurled it forward into a spin. It would spiral, gradually at first but rapidly growing into lethal momentum, with mortal intent to rip right through the avatar of Nephy's father, and then collide into Nephuna herself. There was no care, no consideration to the others around them. Not Katie, not Kanbaru, not Akiko, not the newcomers, not even Riku. The Eyes did not bat even a glance at them, they didn't value them in the slightest. They just wanted to see their enemy suffer.

An audible click of disapproval was the only notice of the JSTR’s thoughts to Kanbaru. Between the mania of events surrounding them and Kanbaru’s own deadlocked determination, that sentiment was difficult to get through. The living virus felt annoyance not at Nephuna’s insistence to survive and exist-no, that was more interesting than anything else-but by its host’s reliance on external force. The Serei Cards; their very nature of the Tower’s creation made the JSTR hiss in disgust. They didn’t need their power, her power. They could rip apart the specimens by themselves. All the same, it didn’t stop its host from her actions.

The JSTR allowed Kanbaru to call upon other powers if only to end this strife quicker. It poured its own malice and visceral nature forward as a tool to wipe the data clean of any slate and presence of the fusion. A similar dichotomy was held in marker just feet away. Darkness and Death worked hand in hand as Thomas decimated what was left of Nephy’s ancestors under Kanbaru’s attack. Marianne grinned and leered with outright madness, the swelling of an off-tempo piano ringing somewhere in Thomas’ ears. Gunshots filled the air as death encapsulated every bullet, lined and fueled by the darkness Thomas wielded.

Marianne’s singular Gold Eye shined in sync to Thomas. The undead fools who sought to claim their own time again were nothing in comparison to the purity that was Chaos, Chaos that fueled the destruction gifted to Golden Eyes. It was Chaos that ate away at their forms and seeped into their data, claiming the residual bits left from the remains of Kanbaru’s outright onslaught. It was Chaos that spurned Marianne’s goading of Thomas to push forward and continue their frenzy, a dance, a serenade, a waltz to Death itself. The battlefield, if it could even be called that, was coming to its roiling point and it wouldn’t be long before the higher powers that be actually did do something.

Katie ruminated on that eventuality as she felt her cousin appear beside her. “It’s a long story, but you can probably guess it from what’s going on,” she told Erika before pointing at Nephuna, or at least one of them. “See that? That’s a fusion between an undead wolf and a time demon. Data copies of this Floor. I can only assume they want out and want to become real people. The issue is trying to blow up the damn Floor with everyone else on it.” She stole a gaze at Erika, watching for a reaction and hand twitching on Pendragon’s handle. She wasn’t above putting her cousin on the list of enemies if it meant preventing their own deaths, especially when she knew death was an inconvenience for the Valkrie.

“You realize what’s going on right. What this place is, who runs it? It’s only a matter of time before you know who shows up and pulls the plug on this Floor. You can help us damage control or you can get in my way. I’m sure your Vassals would tell you the sensible option Erika.” Before she could continue talking sense to her cousin, Katie realized the music was still playing and turned to see her own personal acknowledgement from the fusion.

“Show off,” she replied with dead disdain, Pendragon slung on her shoulders. “Yeah? And you’re a bitch,” she followed up with from Nephuna’s reply. She could only imagine it was Runa talking down on her; her eyes narrowed at that smirk and before she knew it a glint skidded in the air right towards her. Katie was quicker and smacked it away with a slash from Pendragon, only for the spear to embed itself into the ground. With it came a pool of pure gravity, a sprung well of a black hole that manifested under Katie and Erika’s feet. It expanded, seeking to consume all things, light, data, and lives of each-

“Are you kidding me?” Katie almost felt an urge of laughter come to her lips and she swore this ridiculous Floor was driving her crazy. Or maybe it was something else. Indeed, a quick look from Erika would reveal her cousin’s timelines were….disjointed. Unstable and crashing on each other like black frothing waves. The well of gravity beneath them held no effect other than putting on a lightshow. Katie stabbed Pendragon in the nexus of it and like a vacuum the blackened power was greedily consumed by the sword, a dark presence emanating off Katie’s shoulders.

“You really think something like that had any effect on me. Me,” she said with bitter irony as if she couldn’t believe Nephuna could be so stupid. “I think there’s your answer right there Erika. She’s hellbent on killing us all. It’s us or her,” the envoy of Energy and Space growled. She was tired. So tired. So very tired of all of this. Katie leapt forward for Erika to decide but she was done and she expressed this through a feral and spectral black-scaled arm forming over her own. Large and growing ever still, its palm clamped over Nephuna’s face just as she reached the Floor’s Heart.

Then she squeezed as real energy, real gravity, real space poured outwards from Katie to fusion. Her spectral claws gripped as Nephuna’s head, blackened power built up more and more. Katie all but snarled, tired of this Floor, tired of dealing with everyone’s antics, and tired of everything else. Another arm manifested with its clawed tips stabbing through Nephuna’s abdomen. It sunk through data and true flesh and clasped onto the essence of wolf and demon. Then she pulled with a horrendous ripping action on either side in two directions until she saw the seams of their beings be split one by one.

“I am tired. Of. Your bullshit.”

---

"Oh, is that so?" Erika's voice was full of amusement as she replied to her cousin after listening to the whole explanation. The whole idea was very interesting for her. Erika almost felt an urge to go back in time to verify all this, but that would likely spoil the fun.

Instead of that, she drew her sword. This whole chaos was beginning to bother her as well, and Esa was almost done with her analysis of the source code around them. "I don't think you have to worry about that, really. That wouldn't come here just because of something like this."

"Anyway, I guess I'll do this my way while you handle the rough bits," Erika concluded right as Katie was dragged into the fight once again. She had no side to pick in this conflict, but there was no way she would let this fusion, no matter how dramatic and beautiful it was, end up hurting her beloved cousin in any serious way. A little love bite here and there, sure, but no dismemberment or stuff like that.

While Katie got back into the fight directly, Erika decided to put her talents — uniquely fit for this situation — to better use. With a swipe of her hand, she unleashed her blade's true form. Just the waves generated by the motion were enough to dispel significant portions of the corrupt data vortex. Annihilating a couple Nephunas and probably throwing off some of the other's moves in the process. That would serve them well, though, with that lack of coordination, a third party throwing a span in the works was the least they deserved.

"I'm sorry, but in this realm, I might as well be the one who has the ultimate power," Erika said to no one in particular as she teleported through space, reaching the well-protected core — or rather, its kernel — with the speed of thought. All of the multiple layers of the firewall protecting it crumbled apart with a single strike, probably throwing some of Akiko's copies away from their objective. "So much raw data is nothing like the hearts you are used to twisting. If you try to touch it, you'll probably have a really bad time."


While Erika was taking care that Katie's allies don't kill themselves in their attempt to not get killed, Farris was taking care of the real reason they were in this mess, to begin with, and what would actually be the cause of the destruction of Katie's allies, if left unchecked.

"I bet you are thinking you are a really big boy now, huh? Feeling great with your power high," Farris said in a disinterested tone as she appeared in Thomas' path right after he dispatched Nephuna's ghostly apparitions. "Not even paying attention to the fact the girl you were trying to avenge came back a moment ago. No, actually you don't even care if she's alive or dead, don't you? You just want an excuse to use that power and feel good about yourself," she added as she raised her shield and took the strike meant for Nephuna.

The power of the Golden Eyes was great. However, even as it tried to erase the girl's shield — no, her very self — from existence, it met with an equally unbelievable resistance. Even if a layer of the static time crystals that composed her shield and weapons broke, Farris kept summoning another and another to wear down the force behind Thomas' strike. An unstoppable force, encountering an immovable object, a time-honored paradox, whose answer was about to be found out.

Once she was sure the boy was right into her reach, and no dodge could be done unless he forsook his attack, Farris switched to an offensive counter. "If you really call yourself a man, then just..." Her own eyes flashed with a golden hue similar to Thomas' as she twisted her wrist and aimed a powerful strike with the pommel of her sword at his jaw "... GRIT THOSE TEETH AND BEAR IT LIKE ONE!" She shouted, her voice echoing through the digital void.

---

"Never considered being thrown as a method of attack before!"

Riku liked where Akiko was going with her thinking, deflecting strikes from incoming Nephunas all the while with her wide scythe weapon. She'd take offense to the bard's last comment.

"I don't make a habit out of dying! I promise!" Though it's clear she's quite upset over what's happened. She quickly refocused herself onto Akiko's shoulder, braced up like a ball and ready to be catapaulted.

"Okay! Are we doing this on the count of one or threeaaaaAAAH!" She'd get her answer as she finds herself soaring through the air like an arrow.

Nephuna was in sight! She'd raise her scythe high and poised to land a great cleaving strike that would've cut anyone in half. She's oblivious to the large tidal wave of whale powered water that knocked her off her course and caught her up in the wave, slinging her against a pair of rocks. She grunts as she collides with the hard surface painfully. From there she's left as a stranded witness to the ongoing fight beneath her.

The battle before her is incomprehensible with various powerful being unleashing their complex and devastating attacks. Kanbaru's great wave nearly sent her flying and she'd have to stable herself with her scythe. Thomas's attack was most concerning of all. She could barely recognize the boy from Fable she'd grown fond of. He was possessed by that strange woman and his eyes were pure gold, speaking and moving like an entirely different person. A much more violent and bloodthirsty person. When she's recovered she's left stranded on a giant hunk of rock as the battle progressed on without her.

She'd commit herself to helping Thomas, not wanting to see him have to become like that again. She felt this floor was getting to all of them and bringing out the worst in everyone. She was at a lost of actions she could do to change this, left only bearing witness to all the awfulness of this all stakes battle.

I guess I really need to stop fooling around and take this more seriously. For Kiara and Thomas's sake...I'm supposed to be a leader and this is the best I can do?

---

"How do you like those eyes I have given you? You wear them well, you should use them more."

Runa's voice coldly announced Thomas and Marianne's arrival as they prepared their attack. Nephy's control would make Nephuna lick her lips, anticipating a great battle and a chance at revenge for the boy that annoyed her. Unfortunately for the lot of them, this encounter would never take place. Ferris had arrived with her mighty shield, stopping Thomas's blow and forcing him back as his power reflected off its surface. Nephuna had half a mind to attack the intruder who had ruined their fight before being distracted by the other ongoing matters.

"So much convoluted bullshit here! So many people! So much disorder! Ugly and disgusting! You people have no control of yourselves!" Nephy's unmistakable acidic tone was heard as she grit her teeth and pulled away. There'd be no revenge for her today, it was their time to escape and they must take their chance.

The remains of the reality around all of them shook and as if twitched under the humming noise appearing from deep below and only growing louder as something that brought this hum onward got closer. In her actions Kanbaru summoned the watter massive which bursted out all around them guided by the force she carried and Nephuna looked over this gargantuan towering of element with a barely noticeable glint in her eyes. The water rocked against the ground and circled around, like a rabid beast chasing itself it aimed to form a closing circle to squeeze out its main enemy out of the world of living - Nephuna and all of her copies and all of the summoned creatures under her control. The explosive pressure of water crumbling on the area molded and crushed stones and rocks, folded mountain ridges like paper figures and made the ground to acquire a shape of seams and cracks in an intricate web through which the water seeped still, feeding into the ragous wave of pure natural force.

"Finally. Finally you have stopped playing around".
Nephuna said with the voice of two as the glint in her eyes reflected the water circle forming around her - and the glint looked back at her with a massive wall of blue terror ready to crush on her any second. Her copies swooped away into the sweeping wave, together with the spectral wolves: all lost in the endless rage of blue. The copies of Nephy's memories return to their spectral forms and abandon the battlefield, returning to Nekuromata's blade.

Just as the spirits returned to their home and Nephuna looked over her shoulder to tackle the incoming wave, her preparations were out at halt with a sudden rush of pain, shaking through her entire being. A blurring motion is all Katie appeared as before Nephuna as Katie's summoned arm pushed through Nephuna's stomach with another one clasping at the head. The piercing strike reached through the flesh right into the data of both, causing the growling rage of Nephy to come out in a howling shriek, infused by pain. The applied pressure sought out to find a seam between the two and with a clasp on it to enlarge this gap - Katie's aim was clear - to separate the two from one another.

The growing ripping motion made the spiritual connections to snap one after another, while Nephuna grit her teeth and stomped into the ground to acquire a better footing. The rage of Nephy's eyes coming through the otherwise numb gaze of Runa pierced through that angry glare of Kaite's. And then with a sudden move following the ripping pull, Nephuna's body split into two from her stomach and further up, making their heads to separate from the fusion. Still standing though on the same jointed pair of legs, the split image of the two reminded the two petals of a flower growing from the same root.

Nephy met Katie's eyes with cheeky rage, Runa greeted the raven with her usual smirk.

"You wish~" Nephy's voice cackled, enjoying how frustrated and angry Katie was. She had no idea she had already lost.
"You don't even know the whale's attack is about to decimate you all. What a fool."

"I've slightly reassembled the data and look - what an awkward position we ended up in"
Siam twins coming from the same jointed waist cackled and chuckled in amusement as the little seams of their spirit danged up from the sides of theirs. Still seeking the contact with their counterpart - barely seen white threads reaching for their opposite. Two halves shook slightly like a grass on the wind, their hairs entangled still as they felt the torrent of water coming down to crush on them any moment.

"So close.", Runa's voice echoed.
The pair suddenly pushed from one another to make a wider gap - right when Kanbaru's collar attack was aimed to land at a neck - a single neck of one Nephuna, but there were two heads now with a gap between them; and through that gap the collar and chains flew into, missing their target completely and causing a disrupt to Katie's hold on the both.
It was a mere second. It was a second enough for Nephuna to slip away from the grip and evade the incoming waves.

After being split apart so easily, the two would regroup together after Kanbaru and Katie's attacks clashed and disoriented the pair. It is a simple task to reform together with their speed and agility, coming together in an embrace and quickly changing back into their powered up self, the white threads quickly finding the ripped knots where they were separated and quickly fused over them once again, almost slapping the two together into one. Now back together, Nephy was able to continue feeding energy into her blade where Runa's entropic powers of time warping and Nephy's static undeath clashed together in a nuclear fission. Rushing into the hump right above the exposed core of the Abyss, the fusion smirked lightly to Erika who lifted the shield protection of the kernel. There was a thought that this was indeed Valkyria’s help to be gifted for Runa and Nephy both in such an intricate manner. And Nephuna indeed gave a thanking nod to her, before the the nuclear forces met in the vessel of the fusion's blade, the forces that simply could not be contained. Nephuna pulled the blade out and an explosion of grand power echoed throughout the broken down level. Time came to a complete crawl, and Nephuna appeared to blink out of existence. Like a great lightning storm, she appears as lightning and rapidly strikes the exposed heart of the abyss repeatedly with millions of strikes per millisecond. The force of her power destroys the sound barrier, making it almost inaudible until the sword is taken back to its sheathe from which time begins to flow once again. Immediately, the heart of the abyss is obliterated by a thousand cuts, crumbling into a heap of shards and breaking apart the prison forever.

And then everything went to white.

The Abyssal Floor was a lost cause. While data could be replicated and copied, rebooted and reapplied, there was little point in delaying the inevitable crash that Nephuna sought to wring about. Those who would observe the events did so with great interest though it was predictable what the next course of action was. That was why, even now, the JSTR did what Erika couldn’t, copying the fusion’s leftover data. Truly, it was only interested in one half of the whole but her very existence brought to mind many, many possibilities. And that was that.

The Floor’s core was too unstable and too chaotic to contain much longer. Even Marianne knew of this. Data as she was-though a copy of Death was Death all the same-she felt the Floor start to reboot. She wondered, briefly, if the real her felt it too and she knew the answer already. Her distraction was displaced when she felt her host suddenly lurch backwards and get launched off his feet by Farris’ blow. Marianne sunk into the floor even as he was pummeled and while he went down, she sprouted upwards behind Farris borne out of her shadow now.

“Ara, ara, who let the runts in here~?” The Angel of Death pressed her chest into Farris’ back, arms snaked around her front in a vice-hug. Or maybe it was a threat with how her arm clung around Farris’ throat. “And here I believed myself to be the only special Vassal child to explore this place. Hmm…that title really needs a reworking. It doesn’t quite…feel right on the tongue~” she giggled with another hard squeeze to Farris’ neck. “Long time no see Farris. Give me one reason why I shouldn’t pluck your skin second by second for smashing my host~”

As the spawn of Vassals exchanged pleasantries, their Masters worked to salvage themselves in whatever way they could. Erika, as enigmatic as her goals were, at least helped in the efforts while Katie only narrowed her eyes at the taunt to her face. She said nothing but gave a deadpan look of little amusement as Nepuna retreated from her attack to finish what she started. Katie disappeared before any sort of wave met her, space tearing by her will as she exited through a portal. Frankly, she was done with this charade, as was the Tower.

A great white light engulfed the entire party as the deed was done. Nephuna, caught at the core of the nexus event, was forcibly split from the sheer power. There would be no resurrections this time; no time at all in fact as Nephy and Runa were engulfed the same just as the rest in the blinding display. The moment lasted for an eternity and yet it was over in an instant. The Tower repaired itself just as swiftly as it was breached, only now, great swarms of Demitroops swooped in and patrolled the Abyss Floor. They searched with diligence even as data reconstructed itself, remaking and recapturing the essence of new “Nephys” and “Runas” to fill in the gaps. Even still, data became flesh.

Yet that was of no concern to the cast at hand. What did matter was their new situation. They fell, fell further and further, dropped from the Tower’s height as they spun and crashed through endless void. It was brief and it was forever, but most of all it hurt, especially when hard flooring eventually met their backs. Immediate bright lights flashed in their faces with enough power to bolster a city; indeed, that seemed to very well be the case as the sky filled itself with more lights.



Inky blackness was outcropped by constant stimulation and the harsh grating noise of mechanical whirrs and other machinery filled their senses. Warm scents and lucid tastes permeated the air, much richer and more telling than the Dangeki. Was this the Dangeki? It seemed not when the blaring of loud, cartoonish music filled the corners of all manner that this new Floor(?) contained.

Most prominent was the lack of Demitroops and the lack of Nephuna. The culprits were nowhere to be found with the rest of the party plopped into a strange new world. And yet, something was distinctly off about the place. Perhaps it was the harsh and hard electrical buzzing of its too bright lights or the swaying crowds of those involved with lucid movements. Party and mayhem struck through the air like a constant tone and the loose-fitted clank of slot machines joined the cacophony of madness. Regardless, it was a safe haven. For now.

The JSTR seemed at ease with the current décor; no, it seemed all too pleased with how events turned out. It alerted Kanbaru to a new storage of date contained inside of it, data that was nearly identical to Nephy. And yet, it wasn’t an exact copy but one that fit their favor. It was more concerned with that then the strange atmosphere of the new world, one that seemed intent on drowning its patrons in stimulus or debt.

Whichever came first.

---

---

Well, that was certainly a way to end things. Nevermind the fact that her attempts seemed to be futile in defending the core, though something told her this wasn't a complete waste of her energy. After all, her barriers had to have taken some of the edge off from the absolute and total destruction of the core if there weren't any of those Demitroops swarming her. Akiko breathed a sigh of relief, floating through the murky blackness of the void. The Tower was likely restructuring itself or something, she wasn't too terribly sure, but she could afford a moment to rest, especially since her hands were bleeding from the impacts of her Stand against everything that Nephuna was throwing at the core.

While most of the party was dropped off at this new floor, Akiko was on her lonesome initially. A waivering thought, but something told her it was due to her absence from the rest of her group. Not that she minded, she needed space from all the chaos to think and work through some of those weird emotions she was feeling. No doubt she'd be reunited with the rest of her crew soon enough, but for now she needed to take in the world around her, and it wasn't anything she was expecting from this Tower. Hell, there weren't any visions of the looping infinity that allowed her to gaze around time itself. For all she knew, this was her first arrival in a completely new plane.

"Ghh..." Right, the blood. She clenched her Red Relic tightly and slowly started to heal at a faster pace. Nothing would be immediate, but at least she wouldn't be leaking blood everywhere. Now... where was she, anyway?

She was exactly where she was meant to be. Open air solidified behind her until solid ground touched her back. The blaring sounds and glaring lights of a chaotic casino buzzed overhead. And yet, the rest of her "companions" were nowhere to be found. While they may have landed in the same Floor(?), Akiko would inevitably find herself still isolated. Alone. Perhaps she deserved some part of that. Kanbaru wasn't even around let alone anyone else. Instead, the jolting clink clank of slot machines and rolling coins hissed near her head, threatening to drown out any thought or self-inflection. Indeed, this was where she was meant to belong. Several high rolling tables adorned the colorfully bright area she landed in with patrons of all sizes and shapes accompanied by bunny girls. Sometimes figurative, often literal.

Akiko frowned in annoyance. She supposed asking for peace and quiet was a little too much given the recent sways of this Tower. Still, she figured at least nobody was talking to her, so that was at least a minor plus. The cat climbed up to her feet and dusted herself off, her ears twitching at the sounds and her tails swishing back to their normal facade. Soon enough, the world started to become populated once again with different figures and shadows, which definitely meant she'd been there before, once upon a time. Guess that meant she wasn't in the clear just yet, though it at least let her keep her head screwed on.

Still, none of the other hers were walking from her direction. Something was different about this time, no doubt. Akiko mulled over the idea for a moment to rejoin the crowds of hers before she stretched her arms up, then out, then back to her side, and started to walk in a different direction than her past selves. "A casino. Interesting place for the next major issue to come our way. Good thing there's not anyone chasing me this time to try and remove my head."

She stopped moving for a second. "... who am I kidding, someone's gonna appear and want to skin me for a new carpet. It always happens."

The crowd moved and swayed to Akiko's movement and direction. But if they held her any mind or attention they didn't show it or give her their time. The lights narrowed and thinned, circling on the path in front of her as if guiding her through the twists and turns of this seemingly endless party. Soon the crowd swayed more, bumps and shoves meant to rock Akiko about even as the pathway in front of her became thinner and thinner. Only at the end was her destination revealed; a table, much like the others surrounding it. While those around her were filled with guests and patrons gambling their lives away, sometimes figuratively, often literally, the one before her was empty. Vacant but inviting. There wasn't even a pair of dice to mess around with to pass the time, let alone a deck of cards.

The crowds seemed to thin around this table, allowing the cat a moment to breathe. The air was thick with the smells of luck and greed, but this offered some sort of reprieve from the chaos. The chairs were empty, nobody around to offer a wager or chance a game. Naturally, this was a suspicious circumstance, but at this point Akiko took it, sitting down at the table for a moment before manifesting her Stand and looking down at herself. [You look like you've been beaten up and mugged.]

"Yeah, I suppose a change of clothes is in order..." Within an instant, Akiko's dress changed to a more... befitting guise of formalwear. Something a high roller to some of these tables might chance wearing, if for intimidation and not for luck. She adjusted her collar and scratched at her ears before she breathed a sigh of relief. After the Abyss, this air was a pleasant change after all.

"Hello again, Akiko."



The voice came directly in front of her, from a patron who wasn't there before. And yet, there he was, sitting as if he'd been waiting for the cat all this time. His face was obscured in more ways than one, if not by the cards he held in front of him then by the mask that adorned his trademark. All the same, the Jester parted his cards to peer directly at the girl from the other side of the table. If Castle's presence suprised him, he didn't show it. Instead he acknowledged the spectral being, watching it as clear as day with no waver.

"It's been a while. We haven't spoken since....the Shattering Floor. That's right."

She raised an eyebrow towards the masked man as he appeared and started to chat with her. "Ah yes, it's been quite some time. I don't believe I ever got a name or a moniker for you, though." She leaned forward on the table, resting an arm on it and smirking towards the man. "I assume you're this 'Jester' that I've heard so much about from so many different sources. Or, at least, one of them, since Kanbaru's not anywhere near you, meaning you're unlikely to be her JSTR."

Akiko leaned back as Castle shrunk to a more catlike form, taking position on the table in front of it's user. "To what do I owe this interaction? Nobody's stolen an heirloom, after all."

"Old friends are supposed to recount their tales to each other and give warm thanks to their presence. Is that not a bond we share?" Even as they were spoken the Jester's words came out hollow and empty, as if some mimicry of a creature tried to replicate what passed as speech. Or maybe he just didn't care. "The JSTR inside Kanbaru is very much like me. You can say it's a copy, living data not unlike the Tower's denizens you've so encountered all this time. Hosting it makes Kanbaru unique. The same uniqueness I once piqued in you."

The Jester placed his cards down, revealing them to be as blank as his mask. A gloved hand outstretched to rub along Castle's back. His motions seemed to betray he had experience with animals before. Curious indeed. "I came simply to observe you. You've continued to become interesting. Kanbaru speaks about you, whether she knows it or not."

"Bad things, I assume," Akiko chuckled, hiding the shiver she felt along her spine as her Stand was touched. "But hey, I hope I've been putting on quite the show. It's kind of hard to stand out from the crowd when you have someone as destructive as Kanbaru, resilient as Riku, and troublesome as Katie." Her eyes glanced over the blank slates of cards that laid in front of her, oddly raising her interest in them further, though not taking her complete attention. "Alas, I suppose I'm getting ahead of myself. I can't believe you'd take an interest in me of all people here, though. Can't say I've really done much around here other than... my sister would say I'm gaslight, gatekeep, and girlbossing, I believe."

She leaned in. "What's new with you? I'm sure that there's a sense of one-sidedness to this conversation, anyway, if you know things from Kanbaru or the copy she's hosting."

The Jester was silent as Akiko spoke, letting the cat say what she would. When he responded it was with another question, forming as, "What do you want Akiko. Why did you come into the Tower." He stroked Castle's head a few more times before holding his hand over the cards once again. A flick of his hand had them cuffed and flipping against each other in an almost hypnotic fashion. "You reach the top, you find the Throne. You choose to start back at the bottom. Why do you keep coming back. What is it you're looking for. What is it you need." The Jester stared unblinking and it was as if the whole of the chaotic world around them moved in slow motion, silent. All that mattered was their discussion.

"I wish I could tell you the answer to why I start at the bottom," Akiko blunted. "There's something interesting going on in this Tower. I've become... aware of something in this Tower. Every time I get closer to the top, something happens, and everything seems to reset for some reason or other. I'm able to see every single step, every action, everything done in the past resets of this Tower, and yet... I can't remember what happens when the world resets itself." She paused to think about where to continue.

"In the Abyss, there was a brief stint where I encountered some kind of cat being. Spoke like a robot, but for a while it was Katie. It knew I could see the worlds that have happened, and I could remember every time I had kissed and killed Katie, but I could never remember what happened when I met the short end of the fight."

She stopped to look up at him. "I came to the Tower to become a queen, led by royal knights, but every time the crown is in my grasp... it slips through my fingers." Akiko let it sink in. "Crazy, right?"

"How interesting."

The Jester's cards sifted and shuffled. He removed his hand and they continued moving on their own, guided by the hands of fate. Whether it was literal or figurative, who could say for sure. What mattered were Akiko's words. The Jester regarded them as he did all things and soon she was finished, as if lost in her own mind. As if she didn't know what she wanted anymore or for herself. All the same, she gave an answer, the same one she gave before to the masked man. "Interesting indeed."

The cards moved all the same. "You can see everything and yet you cannot remember it. You can see into people's memories and yet you cannot grasp their hearts or their desires. For your entire time in the Tower, you've only ever watched and waited. Action has been your consequence and you've paid for it, bled for it." The Jester tilted his head like a cat mirroring its owner's motions. "These do not sound like the rousings of a queen. You sound more like an observer to me Akiko."

One of the cards flipped over to reveal the gazing sigil of an eye that stared back at Akiko.

"Things have changed. I can remember what happens around every time, and leading up to it I can also vaguely see, but my sight only extends beyond what happens where I can see. It's the end that I can't recall, almost like it's rewritten every time."

She did listen to the words of the Jester. "I suppose you're not incorrect. Despite finally taking charge for the last little bit, I don't think the active role suits me more than the passive. Working from the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment." She smiled.

"So, what's the next wisdom you're going to impart? The second card in this menage-a-trois?"

"Someone like Kanbaru is more fitting to be active. You seem close to her," the Jester mused. "Someone like her is more fitted to take action and work as the helm, as the tool needed to achieve what can't be realized. What do you think of her." The Jester's second card flipped endlessly. It revealed nothing more but blank sides as it did. "Would you like to know more about her. Would you like to know more with her. You two share a similar sort of ambition that guides your actions. Only, there is a difference. You can never truly become her friend. A barrier is erected between you, and one that isn't so easily shaken. Would you like to loosen those walls."

"Kanbaru's... god, the things I could say. She's headstrong, fast, incredibly admirable, but I know the wedge between us is very real. I want to know more about how she feels, I want her to know how I feel, but... though I've been clouded with so many new thoughts about so many new things, it's hell. I'm not used to it."

[Not at all.] Castle piped up. [She would like to know how to mend this relationship.]

"I assume it involves the odd feelings I have for Riku and Katie that float around in here." She motioned towards her cat, probably getting at something about her soul.

"Would you like to loosen those walls," the Jester repeated. He stared down Akiko as if looking right through her. "Kanbaru follows a different path, one that will never align with you. And yet, even this can be remedied with the right commitment and decision. All that need be answered is simply siding with us." The second card revealed its front, bearing a strange symbol that began to cause a low migraine to Akiko's head the more she stared at it. "You want to become closer to her? You can. You want to see the ending? You will. But all of this and more is only possible through one route. Aren't you tired of being alone?"

Akiko stared at the card, eventually having to close her eyes and hold her head for a moment. What the hell was that about? It was a tricky situation to wrap her head around, and something about this told her that she wasn't exactly going to get everything as clear cut as this guy was making it sound. Yet... it was an interesting thing.

Then he said the thing about her being alone, and she furrowed her brow. That was a sore wound. She'd spent her whole life being alone, not that anyone ever cared enough about her enough to ask if she wanted someone to talk with her. Yeah, Akiko was alone, and she was tired of it, but it was also all she ever knew. She wanted a change of pace, she wanted that companionship she couldn't do on her own, even with this weird Stand of hers.

"What am I agreeing to." She asked bluntly. "I keep hearing this talk of Jesters and things that nobody would explain to me when I ask, so please, grant me some sort of knowledge on what I'd be agreeing to."

The Jester's gaze glinted at her frown as if satisfied. "You will become just like Kanbaru. Free of all limits and restraints, free to do as you please, free to observe all that you want. All manner of knowledge may be revealed to you if you desire, your proper place in events as a true queen. Above all else, you will rule alongside her." The Jester's voice peaked through into Akiko's head to fully gain her attention. Whether it was by him or some trick of the mind, it was hard to say. "That is, so long as you ascertain to our goals; my goals. The Court and Unilysts have no bearing on you or concept. These are alien ideals to you. We are above these ideals and strive for something greater. It is for this goal why that being attacked you. The Demitroop."

The final card inverted itself and revealed to Akiko the same eye as before; only now it was adorned with a crown over it. "Our goals are simple. We only seek to recover the divinity once granted to mortals. We seek to bring about assimilation towards it, to blend the lines between mortal and divine. And we have seen it is possible. So have you through Nephuna." The Jester paused.

"In a way, we seek to observe."

"The divinity once granted to mortals? An inherent divinity or an earned one?" Akiko looked at him for a moment, staring at his cards and glancing up and down at him. It was a peculiar offer, and one that she'd never have imagined to be having in a nigh-infinite casino. It was a lot to take in, and an interesting offer indeed. One that she was very cautious towards, but... she felt some sort of purpose to it. She played an observing role rather well within the Tower, after all. It was quite a role to play, but someone had to play it.

Castle stared up at it's user, blinking in the light of the room before returning to the Jester. Castle seemed fine with it, but then again... the ghost was her soul anyway.

"... fine" She answered curtly. "I don't want a weird observing ghost following me around though, I already have one of those. If you need me to tell you what I've seen, I'll tell you myself. Over coffee." She smiled, crossing her legs over eachother. "I like mine with milk~."

The deed was done then. The Jester's crimson eye met Akiko's own sights and a familiar sensation washed over her. It was the same feeling of her own abilities, though whether the Jester read her memories or not was hard to say. It didn't feel like it, not when a growing pain started to grow and fester in the cat's head. It grew and sprouted, changed and tore apart until all that was in sight was the Jester's offered hand, extended like a saving grace in a maelstrom of conflict. And when Akiko finally took it, the pain was gone, faded completely.

"It is done," the Jester said. "No one forced this on you. No one dictated this path. You chose for yourself to become...let's call it a Jester," he mused. "You're closer than ever to Kanbaru now. You walk the same paths. And now you will know all there is to know." Indeed she would, information slowly processing to the newly christened Jester. Secrets of the Tower's existence, past encounters with Riku, and quite the knowledge on Katie; though of this, it was to be assumed Akiko already knew. Indeed, even Nephuna's seemingly random manifestation had purpose and, now, clarity to the cat.

It was... surprisingly interesting to see the worlds unfold around her. The many paths, trials, tribulations, the reasons and the methods to everyone's madness, it unfolded right in front of Akiko, and for a moment, she was unable to move to react to anything. Her stand even demanifested for a moment to adapt to these new changes. It was... quite the change. It was insane to think about, but for Akiko, this felt like a new situation. Not only that, but a way to get closer to Kanbaru was quite a bonus indeed.

"Eh, I feel like Jester doesn't exactly fit exactly." Akiko joked. "Maybe there's a better title for the role that I play in this grand plan of yours?" Her eyes started to shift in color before they faded into a shining red, similar to the Jester's own. A reflection of her changes, maybe, but who was to say for sure.

"Perhaps that's something to discuss with Kanbaru. As soon as you find her."

The Jester motioned towards the cacophony of scenery around them, a reminder of just where they were. Locating the whale was difficult but no longer impossible now with Akiko's newfound ascension. No sooner did she break eye contact with the masked man was he gone and out of sight like a ghost. "We'll keep in touch," came his voice in her head, leaving her to her devices and with only one piece of advice to follow.

"Try not to encourage Harley."

"Who's Harle- aaand he's go-wait a second, I know things now." Akiko looked around the table for a moment before she looked amidst the chaos of the hustle and bustle, but something was... different. As she gazed, she could see herself move on a path that she knew was the right direction. It was quite a change of pace, but maybe she could make things work much better as they stood.

Castle manifested beside her again. [That was quite an interaction. Do you think it was a beneficial one for you?]

"I don't know to be sure, but I think this might be the start of something very good... or horrible." She looked around once again before standing up and leaving the table, keeping an eye around her for her group as she slowly made her way.

[Who is Harley, anyway?]

"Something tells me she's intertwined with the Jesters as a whole. I'm unsure, but we're bound to meet her soon enough. It's always how it goes."