With Edelgard out of harm’s way and no time to lose, the group continued to advance into the crater after the close call. As the group shifted around the ruins to avoid the large pits of quicksand, Geralt kept a careful eye out for anything around. He, of course, couldn’t detect the BTs, though, so he wound up having to focus instead on the BB carriers. Edward, Goldlewis, Primrose, and Roland. He knew Goldlewis the best, and Edward not at all, so his eyes tended to drift mostly towards the Former Secretary, though Roland on the same side caught his attention as well. As long as nothing corporeal intervened, Geralt would just need to keep quiet and he’d be fine.

As the group pivoted around the quicksand pits, Geralt gave Ace some room to move, which proved wise when he felt himself slowly sliding downwards, though he had little trouble extricating himself, owing to the Orphan’s monstrous strength. Grimm’s jaunt up into a set of ruins above was only barely noticed, short-lived as it was, and after not very long at all Geralt and the others found themselves above a ravine with a river of lava at the bottom. “Damn.” He sighed, pulling himself from the ravine’s edge as Sectonia summoned a platform for the group to use. He noticed Ace’s hesitance, but chalked it up to the rain, the effects of the SFE itself, the size of the group compared to the size of the platform, and the pressure that was on him. He had no idea about the monster hunter’s distaste for magic.

Of course, as the group began their crossing atop the magical platforms, Ace’s scoutflies became agitated and glowed red to warn them of danger just as demons began to appear. “Of course.” Geralt rolled his eyes as he cast Quen before drawing Odysseus’s Bow and nocking an arrow. Ace was quicker on the draw, however, Geralt’s Sign-casting giving the monster hunter the edge in draw speed necessary to defeat the lone demon easily.

That state of things didn’t last forever, though, as more demons began ascending, in multiple varieties, and Geralt hopped and dodged about, firing arrows at any he could see, softening up for allies or finishing them off. Though the platforms weren’t overly large, the group still had plenty of room to fight with.

When some Gargoyles came in close, Geralt summoned the Hydro Twinblade and became a flurry of attacks, moving between them in a flurry of blows that left them all wet, which he detonated with an Igni blast, Vaporizing the entire group and turning most of them to ash. He quickly finished off the remaining Gargoyle with his Twinblade, collecting the fallen Spirits of the demons to be crushed once they were free of the rain and battle.

Once the tide of demons finally stopped, Geralt joined the others in recuperating. It seemed that Edelgard took some nasty hits from the magic blows the demons were using, and once she and Edward had put some healing into her, he offered a First Aid of his own, though it seemed the slime from the Viral Rifle had taken care of what their suppressed magic had not. Once they had all come free of the ravine, Geralt returned to his orbit of Ace, though for the time being he watched their rear to make sure no more demons attacked from behind.

Blazermate found that no one really wanted to carry her, none really had the broad shell back bowser did, so she guessed her time of being lazy were over. At least as she moved through the mud, she found that her feet didn't clank like she thought they would. At least unlike her heavier compatriots, her light weight meant her metal body didn't sink in the mud. Still, she wasn't happy about having to walk on it. At least climbing over all the stuff in the way wasn't too difficult outside of getting filthy... And after all that time last night she spent cleaning herself... She wasn't completely silent though, as her medi beam let out a low healing hum as she kept it on her team mates to generate ubercharge in case something happened. The rain mostly drowned this sound out though as you had to listen carefully for it.

As they got to a split in the road, an area apparently infested with BTs, a downed ship, and a chasm filled with demons, Sectonia conjured a platform to help cross the chasm. Considering that path was both the fastest path out of this rain and seemed the safest as they could handle demons, Blazermate elected to take that path. Granted she had to fly a bit which would cause noise, but she could help one of the medium weighted people cross the gap in that time if they came with her.

As for the demons or those dealing with them, Blazermate did what she mostly did, kept them healed and overhealed. She didn't deploy her projectile shield though or use any other abilities yet as they were very, very loud if she used any of them and she'd rather not make too much noise if she could help it.

---

Being one of the BB carriers, Roland had to stay near the parameter of the emitter. The rain worried him far more than the BTs at this point though, as thanks to his gloves he could move through the area completely silently. Even the splashes of him stepping in mud were silent with only the splashback of the mud being heard as if it was a very, very distant sound. Besides the few BTs that they passed and one close encounter, so far things had been going pretty well. Being one of the more athletic members of the group, getting past most to he obstacles around the area wasn't too difficult for him although much like some of the others, he wasn't keen on getting muddy with what could be millions of year old mud. Come to think of it, T Corp would love this place, but he doubted they'd harvest a natural form of time like this as it didn't involve any human suffering.

Once he reached the three forked road, the chasm, the ship, or the BT filled area, Roland would've preferred to go the opposite way of the BTs if possible even if he was sure he himself could go through that area without much difficulty. At this point the giant bee conjured a pink crystal platform over the chasm to help everyone cross, which didn't surprise Roland anymore considering a giant bee seemingly obsessed with beauty was right there in his face so of course she can do weird things. Being one of the BB holders, Roland elected to be one of the last to cross himself in order to keep the parameter. There were some mumbling of some wanting to go to the ship, but Roland was much in the mind of Sectonia; get out of this rain and danger as fast as possible. At least the demons didn't view him as a big threat when he did cross unlike everyone else, his mask making them care more about the others than himself. He wasn't about to shoot a gun at them either, as those did make noise even through his gloves if he hit something.

Once the method of marching was set out, and the Seekers set out, they immediately ran into a complication, in this case the drop down into the crater the blast had caused, and what a crater it was. An entire city, smashed down into a pit of mud.

Not that they could see much of it, thanks to the rain, and so the focus was more on the immediate problem, namely how to get down there.

The Koopa kids immediately gravitated towards the water, but with the field going along the rocks, that was far too risky to really consider. Instead, Jr peered over the edge at the mud slope, then glanced down at his feet, looking thoughtful. He silently got his sister’s attention, pointed to both of their boots, and then at the mud, before making a questioning shrug.

Rika tilted her head in half a moment of thought, before shrugging in a ‘why not’ kind of way and then boldly stepping a foot down onto the mud, only for her boot to stop above it rather than sink in.

Wet enough for her ship girl tech to work, it seemed, the mud below only shifting slightly from the pressure. With a grin, Jr joined her, his own replicas of the tech working just as well, while Rika looked up at the Witch, and offered her a (very large) hand, offering, it seemed, to carry her down the slope this easy way.

How convenient. The Witch had just been starting to get used to this place, the sodden and shattered corpse of a long-lost empire calling up manifold memories of her trek across Wraeclast. The only difference was the exact nature of the apocalypse wrought upon each land—and did that really matter, when all was reduced to ruin, and everything still around was desperately trying to kill her?

Feeling at home wasn’t always a good thing. Yes, she probably could have picked her way down the slope, sure-footed thanks to the grim experience of having to walk across even more unpleasant landscapes, but that would only have left her tired, and rattled, and probably not a little drenched. Rika was new, and much too alive for the Witch’s liking, but she’d shown herself trustworthy enough thus far. If she wanted to risk carrying a scorpion on her back, this sorceress wouldn’t stop her.

Her pale hand curled around Rika’s extended thumb, and the rest of her clambered swiftly up after it to perch on the shipgirl’s palm. Despite all the new gear weighing her down, she was incredibly light, like a bird that had been stretched out into unnatural mimicry of human form. Now, safely off the ground, she shifted into the most stable position she could manage and clung to Rika’s oversized digits, always alert for a crisis. Her faintly glowing eyes stared intently out into the rain, as if she could somehow will the invisible BTs into sight.

“Walking on water… You’ll have to teach me that someday.” Her voice was a soft murmur, mixed in with the sound of the rain. Though her attention right now was firmly fixed upon her own survival, it hadn’t escaped her notice that both Rika and Junior were able to cross the mud in the exact same way. And if they could both do it, then why not her as well?

Rika seemed to confirm this with an agreeing nod as she brought the Witch closer to her chest, and used the other big hand to offer back support, centralizing their collective mass and fully securing in the process. This did put the Witch somewhat in her field of view, but one of the mini planes hovered over and began to float just above them, the little camera on the front scanning to and fro as the ship girl used it to make sure she wouldn’t dash herself against the rocks.

Ahead of them also was Jr, who had been impatiently sailing to and fro, and then waved at them to hurry it up. A somewhat unnecessary gesture however, given that those taking the rock trotting next to them were painfully slow in comparison to what they could have managed on their own.

Something Miss Fortune demonstrated when she went sliding past them with none of the control they had due to leaving her rigging at home. Jr made a failed attempt at catching her, and then after a moment’s dithering, sailed down after her, a barrier flaring around him, possibly intending to carry her back up if he had too.

Fortunately both the catgirl found herself an overhang, and Jr joined her there, causing Rika to sigh and release a breath she’d been holding, the ship girl having hovered just at the edge of the field while Jr had raced on ahead.

Then she looked thoughtful, tapped the Witch very lightly to get her attention, and then nodded towards said overhang as an option they could also take, before shrugging her shoulders in question.

The Witch hadn’t missed the sliding Fortune either, though her immediate reaction had been to choke back a chuckle at the reckless beast’s mistake. It wasn’t worry that shone in her gaze as she looked on at a companion in peril, but a wry amusement: What would happen, now that she was outside the main shield? Would she fail to scramble back in time, and wither before the Witch’s eyes? That would be quite interesting to watch, and she’d get a free zombie out of it besides—yes, she decided, she rather hoped that kitty would roll over and die right there.

But alas, the girl-beast was quick, and Junior was already sailing ahead to her rescue regardless. Would he have done the same for the Witch, if she’d been out in the rain? She pondered this, but made no comment on the slapstick chain of events, at least until Rika tried to get her attention.

In answer, the sorceress shook her head, and silently mouthed a few words. “Slow and steady.” The kitty had just demonstrated the dangers of rushing ahead, and the Witch was of no mind to follow her. Better to keep pace with the rest of the group, to stay a nice safe distance from the edges of the shield, and most of all be close enough to notice right away when one of those machines went off. If they ventured out too far and got snuck up on by invisible monsters, their fates would be well and truly sealed—and the Witch wasn’t quite ready to embrace her own death yet.

Fortunately, it wouldn’t take them too long to catch up anyway. The Seekers all clambered and stumbled and sailed along in their own unique ways, until Nadia and Junior both were welcomed back into the fold. Just in time for some real excitement to begin: an odradek went off, chirping and flapping its wings like a bird. The Witch’s eyes suddenly widened, and she leaned so far forward that she very nearly tumbled right out of Rika’s hands.

Where are you? She wasn’t such a fool as to go running off in search of the undead, but at the same time the BTs fascinated and frustrated her. She should have taken one of those baby tanks, so she could see, so she could understand. Who knew what sort of fascinating visions she was missing out on right now, what kind of knowledge might lie just beyond her sight?

With her hovering drones, the ship girl carrying her gave her an unintentional summary of what was going on beyond the rain and bodies: She took in a sharp intake of breath as her head snapped in the direction of the incident, held it while fingers pressed in just a little tighter, and then a release breath, grip, and locked gaze as the unseen danger passed.

Jr gave a point, thumbs up, and head tilt in query in addition to these tells, to which the ship girl gave a nod, fully confirming that they were not about to be vaporized off the face of the world. Then, having run out of sailable mud, she moved to set the Witch down on solid(-er) ground, crouching down a little to place feet on the ground.

At that point, it was back to foot slogging across the merely wet rather than watery ground, but fortunately after the initial learning experience with alerting the BTs, the seekers got the hang of being sneaky and watching the odradeks to work out where the unseen threats were. Sinkholes also proved a problem for some, but the koopa kids simply floated on those, and were strong enough to pull any nearby out without too much issue.

Naturally, just as things were settling into a steady rhythm, they got to a complication, namely the crevasse blocking their way forwards.

The two koopa kids took a look at it, and quietly considered if they could ”Jump?” the pit, but that proved to be unnecessary a little later when Sectonia created a platform. The other options were ”dry?” regarding going down into the crevasse itself, and ”treasure?” regarding the crashed ship.

True, there was tar all around, but the kids could sail over that, albeit slowly, which turned a potential death sentence into merely a risk of losing shield up time.

As pleasant as it had felt to be carried around like the queen she was, having her own two feet planted firmly upon the earth reassured the Witch in a way she couldn’t quite put her finger on. She had a sense of being more in touch with this land, in tune with its dark powers. Just her and one vast, hateful continent, locked in a dance of death… The only thing missing was her retinue of undead servants. For now, these living ones would have to do.

Once she’d touched down, she wasted no time in setting off along with the rest of the group, her pace unfaltering as ever. She didn’t race swiftly ahead, nor did she lag cautiously behind: hers was a march as relentless as the living dead, devouring the ground step by dispassionate step. Quicksand wasn’t an obstacle she was familiar with, but that didn’t matter: the Witch was happy to let others roam forward and puzzle out the safe routes across the terrain, the winding trails of their footprints a guide she could use to avoid most dangers. Let her allies tempt fate and stake their lives on the journey; she was perfectly happy to reap the fat fruits of their courage.

However, for all that she did not fear this land and its perils, it would be obvious to anyone that the Witch was growing antsier with every moment. Odradeks chirped and clapped and spun, and she wisely kept her distance from the things they pointed out, but she could not help but stare. Could not help but hope that maybe one of the BTs would catch a so-called ally, and she’d get to watch, and see exactly what it was these dead things did when they got a hold of a warm body. Her eyes blazed with frustration, and the narrow fingers of her right hand twitched, on the verge of reaching for her wand. Here was a sorceress used to blasting her way through problems, used to routing all enemies with ghostly hordes so she could freely pick through the spoils of war. Having to hold back, to stay quiet and passive, to just leave these dangerous and fascinating creatures that she wanted so badly to know better—it really didn’t suit her.

Luckily, things soon took an interesting turn. It wasn’t the gaping chasm that drew the Witch’s attention (yet another time-wasting obstacle), nor the fiery orange glow that pulsed deep within (she’d seen lava before, and she wasn’t a fan). Once she caught sight of the ship, she had eyes for nothing else, and no sooner had the Koopa Kids spoken than she voiced her answer with barely contained glee.

“Treasure.”

She started forward, turning only just long enough to beckon for Rika to follow. Not that she wasn’t confident she could deal with any threats herself, but the girl’s ability to slide across water could be useful for getting over the pool of tar surrounding the craft. As for the other dangers, the BTs, the Timefall, they would just have to chance them. She’d made it this far by playing cautious, but now a valuable bounty lay nearly within reach, finally giving her a viable reason to cut loose and do what she did best.

”Treasure” Rika echoed enthusiastically, not needing much encouragement to go along with the plan. Neither did Jr, it seemed, who promptly scampered along after them.

Even as she strode towards her goal, she pointed in different directions, signaling to those who dared follow along with her. Rather than venture across flat ground and risk getting caught in the Timefall on the way out, they’d take the ledges within the ravine, relying on overhangs to minimize their own exposure without descending deep enough to deal with whatever lurked at the bottom. Once again, the Witch proved herself a capable hiker, as she doggedly made her way along the narrow and rocky paths without so much as glancing at the drop below.

Of course, they couldn’t rely on the emitter’s field and the cover of the cliffs forever, not without descending deeper into the ravine and losing sight of their goal. After about half a minute of walking, the Witch found a section of cliff with some easy handholds and unhesitatingly began to clamber up, emerging into the open air and the pouring rain.

Rika came flying up and then lightly touched down a moment later, the ship girl, her brother held under arm, managing to simply leap up the cliff face through a combination of spirit granted mobility and a magic rune on her gauntlet’s palm.

As their shield began to light up from the constant assault, the Witch picked up the pace and jogged across the muddy ground to the edge of the tar pool, and the Koopa kids followed suit.

A quick test with the toe of one boot showed the surface to be surprisingly firm, much less risky than she’d first assumed. With not a moment to waste, she strode across the field and ducked under one of the craft’s spider-like legs, where she paused to catch her breath in the safety of shelter. First, a quick glance around her for any oncoming threats, then, a look back to see if the others were keeping up. Finally, she turned her eyes back on the ship itself, and peered at the hull of the craft in search of an easy point of entry.

Her checks found, in order, no (visible) hostiles, the kids catching up with her and ducking into the same cover, and then finally a hole in the side of the ship, just a short jog from their hiding spot.

That final glance also revealed vague signs of life inside the ship, vague shapes shambling through the shadows behind the wall of rain.

”No BTs in there then” Jr guessed quietly, before glancing at the others, nodding, and making a run for the breach in the ship’s hull, with Rika leading the charge.

She ducked inside and out of sight of the Witch, after which there came a few sounds in quick succession: ”Hi there!” some kind of groan, and then a slam as something heavy impacted with the wall, follow finally by ”Rude” from Rika

Once she got inside, she found Rika unharmed, amidst the rather dead looking bodies of a few lanky beings in strange armor. An odd sight indeed in this world of light. These were scattered across some kind of control room, including one with a more fancy looking helmet sat in a seat pointed directly at the singular window in the room.

Even more strangely, the bodies were lacking actual heads, the helmets’ fronts blown open from the inside by the detonation of the unfortunate beings’ brains. The Witch got a good look at this when one of the bodies, which had been slammed into the wall a few moments ago, tried to pick itself up in order to lunge at her in a very zombie-esque fashion.

“Hmm…?”

A blinding crescent of blue-white light flashed through the air, catching her attacker clean in the midsection. Ice blossomed out from the impact point, and the creature stumbled, momentarily slowed by the patches of frost that suddenly formed all across its body.

The Witch cocked her head, examining it with a quizzical expression. “How fascinating. Then her wand twitched again, and a ball of fire struck the alien dead-on, blasting it nearly in half.

It wasn’t alone, however. No sooner had one fallen than the sound of the fight prompted a handful more to come stumbling into the chamber. They emerged from the rear of the ship at a rapid pace for their kind of undead, running, and then leaping, at the intruders into their resting ground. Stranger still was one who came in bent over backwards, its long arms allowing it to perform a bizarre quadrupedal gait, before it floated up into the air. When it did so random bits of machinery around started doing the same, before being hurled at them, poltergeist style.

And that was the Witch’s cue to hide. “Good luck,” she whispered, even as she ducked behind Junior and let him take the brunt of the assault. A girl like her simply wasn’t built for weathering blows. If she could help it, she wouldn’t so much as poke her head out of cover to aim another spell.

…Not that she needed to. Already her wand was moving again, casting twice more. Two of the headless corpses (the ones that hadn’t been moving) abruptly stood up, swayed in place for a moment, and then charged into the fray, now relentlessly attacking their own kindred.

She had, as it turned out, picked very suitable companions to hide behind in all manners except for height. Junior raised his right arm, the once covered in metal runes, and from it sprang forth iron, first in the form of a shield which he caught a leaping zombie with ease despite the massive size difference, then a hail of knives that lanced out from the side of the shield, paused just after clearing its edges, and then lanced in to skewer the undead from all sides. After that pushed the disintegrating body aside and spat a fireball at the foes, the flaming shot bursting into a rain of flames that lingered on the ground, burning other zombies that came after the struck one.

At his side, Rika’s halberd flickered on her back, and then appeared in her gauntleted hand in time to skewer another leaping zombie, before the weapon flickered once more and took on the form of a lance and shield combo. With the first zombie style impaled on the lance used the other part of the pair to knock one of the charging zombies back with a shield bash, before discharged a flak cannon round from its mounted gun right into its torso. This sent it stumbling back into the path of another zombie, sending both sprawling to the floor right before the timed charge in the round ripped both of them apart.

Unfortunately, both they and the Witch’s friendly undead were mostly dealing with what came at them, which left the floater free to hurl things wherever it pleased. A splintered shard of metal impaled the Witch’s undead minion who was not wearing the fancy helmet, a stray wall panel crashed against Rika’s shield, and then one of the blocky monitors from the ship’s control system went hurtling over the heads (and shields) of the Witch’s short defenders.

The young sorceress had less than a second to make her choice: try and blast it out if the air, let her energy shield take the hit, or cut the casting and throw herself to the floor? On instinct, she went for the third option. The monitor blew past uncomfortably close to her head, but ultimately left her unharmed—albeit nearly out of mana and not in any good position to contribute to the fight.

Her free hand quickly worked to uncork a mana potion and tip it past her lips (it tasted of magic, like bottled lightning with a hint of citrus). Crouched down behind the front lines like a rat, she waited for the next wave of debris to fly past before she abruptly sprang up and returned fire in the most literal sense possible.

Over the heads (or lack thereof) of the other combatants flew a crackling sphere of flame, and then another. Before the possessed corpse could even finish gathering more metal to throw, its intended projectiles were blasted apart in a pair of deafening explosions, both of which were wide enough to singe the creature itself. Rocking in midair, it floated to one side as it searched for more ammunition—

At which point Loki’s Horns triggered on the Witch’s third cast, and three explosive fireballs came simultaneously roaring out in a wide spread.

There was nowhere to run, and nowhere to hide. The entire ship briefly shuddered as four projectiles (including an extra one launched straight backwards) detonated all at once, lighting the floater on fire and once again dashing apart its projectiles before it could let fly. Its psychokinesis was no doubt a powerful tool, but once a true spellcaster got going, there was nearly nothing that could match them in terms of sheer destructive output.

…Of course, after three consecutive casts the Witch’s mana pool was already ebbing away again However, her long-range duel had bought the frontliners time to fight on unimpeded, and her own zombies never stopped pressing the attack. Without fear, nor pain, nor remorse, they did nothing but attack, attack, move on to the next target, and then attack some more. One of them still had a jagged piece of metal stuck all the way through its torso and hardly even seemed bothered by it. Their mindless blows weren’t likely to fell many enemies on their own, but they made excellent meat shields, and forced the enemy undead into one-on-one slugging matches that left them wide open to being flanked and taken out.

Take advantage of this the Koopa Kids very much did. Free from having to worry about flying debris, Jr hurled his shield like a discus at one of the zombies who was distracted fighting the friendly undead, before forming a spear of iron and charging into the fray with a ”Yaaaah!”

”Perish peons!” his sister demanded as she charged along with him, delivering an at a jog lance strike to a zombie before her rigging turrets hammered it 4 barrel barrage from their disruption cannons.

Zombies turned on them, only for those attempting to counter flank to run into the blocking blade of a blood knight, and the decoy log of a lightning scythe armed ninja, before both strikers struck back with a powerful cleave and a grapple slash respectively.

With their sides protected, RIka switched back to her helbard, hacking its sharpened spine like blade into a foe, before flipping the weapon and shotgunning another with its base mounted cannons, while jr produced a storm of iron shanks from his arm that shot out at the surrounding foes, riddling them with stab wounds.

With the advantage now decisively theirs, the Witch could make riskier plays. She raced forward into the fighting proper, and raised up a fresh zombie as she did, this one tall enough for her to safely crouch behind. While the possessed corpse was steadily burning to a crisp right now, it would be a few more moments before it finally gave up the ghost, long enough for it to throw a few more improvised projectiles. No doubt the other Seekers could handle these—but at this point it might not even matter. The enemy ‘leader’ was about to be faced with an overabundance of targets, more than it could take out if it tried.

One of the Witch’s zombies collapsed to the ground, no longer physically able to keep going. Her newest one charged forward to replace it, and was joined a second later by another. Two more followed after them, bulking up the frontline to a full five friendly zombies. A wall of meat, relentlessly pushing onward even as the sorceress scuttled about behind it and sniped at her foes with translucent kinetic arrows.

”Oh nice, more minions” Jr said as he took no issue with using one of the now friendly corpses as cover as well, building up floating host of spears while behind it, before popping out and nailing an enemy one with a barrage of shots. When he tried this on the kineticist however, it managed to catch some of them, before promptly starting to hurl them back one by one.

Still, its supply of troops had dwindled to the point where it was outnumbered, leaving it in prime position for takedown. It was Rika who provided this. She pulled back a gauntleted fist while behind a zombie, magic charging in the machinery, before she tapped the palm of the other hand, launching herself above the zombie and unleashing the stored power. The charged fist went rocketing forwards and towed the ship girl along for the ride, sending her crashing into the floater and punting it up into the ceiling while she landed below it.

The gauntlet used to deliver the charged strike failed right after, flopping down to her side while the ship girl herself seemed more unsteady for the lack of it, but she didn’t let that daunt her. Instead her halberd reappeared in her other hand, cannon end pointing towards the foe, before she gave it a close to point blank blast with both barrels.

Finally, the spear flickered again, appearing point first, and the princess drove this point into the floater, skewering its beaten, burned and pellet riddled body with a final blow that took it out of the fight.

With the main threat dealt with, the Witch’s zombies quickly mopped the war of attrition against the hostile ones, the living fighters alongside them merely speeding up that process to its natural end. Once it was over, they were left with no hostile zombies and a gaggle of eight friendly ones, which the two kids seemed to have zero issue with.

”Nice power, that’s really handy, long as you're already doing alright in the fight” Jr complimented, before wondering “Though does it mean we can't loot their spirits?”

”Can we just take what’s on them? Like whatever that is?” Rika asked, pointing out a ring one of corpses that had been fully dead when they arrived rather than walking about being a nuisance had been wearing.

“Why not? My servants don't care for trinkets.” As she spoke, the Witch pried off the ring and inspected it for a moment, then tossed it over to Rika. “I have no use for this one. But maybe you’ll find it more to your taste, sailor girl.

In the meantime, once the mess of the battle was sorted out, Junior would find that the spirits of the re-killed undead were indeed still present. The Witch’s zombies had no souls to call their own: it would be simpler to call them dolls or machines made of meat and dark magic. The corpse provided the material, but all traces of consciousness and individual identity were left behind once they entered her service. If the not-dragon thought he could scavenge anything of worth from those, then there would be little to stop him, but the Witch did not concern herself with such trash.

If she was going to take any soul, it would be Rika’s. Not now, while she yet lived and breathed, but… The time would come. There were spells that did raise the spirit along with the flesh, and one day the Witch would wield them again, swelling her army with the mightiest soldiers she could find. When that day arrived, she wondered, would the sailor girl be the first?

Having fully recovered, the group took a closer look around the ship, and soon found two things. First, an eye-like scanning device in front of a locked door, and secondly the very large guns of the ship, the guts of which had been exposed to the open air by the crash.

While Rika rooted around in the guns, and specifically their ammunition stores, the other two had a look at the scanner and door, the latter of which proved rather unbreakable. As the Witch squinted and poked at the scanner, Jr guessed that ”It’s looking for something” before holding up a hand in front of it, causing the green glow it was emitting to blink and then turn red in rejection.

”Something their boss would have had probably?” he suggested, glancing back at the one who’d been in the ship’s driver's seat, the one with the fancier helmet, and groaning as he said that ”but he doesn't have any pockets!”

The Witch frowned. “Bring him over here, then.” She pointed with her wand, and a dutiful pair of zombies yanked the body out of its seat and dragged it wholesale to the door. Without the slightest bit of respect for the fallen, the Witch lifted its hand and scanned it, triggering another red blink.

“...Their engineers must have been a truly worthless lot.” How would the crew have used it anyway? She couldn’t imagine them lifting their boots to scan them every time they needed to open the door. If it wasn’t the hands, then the next best thing would be…

“...His head’s missing. Still, the helmet’s worth a try.”

Green flash. The door hissed, groaned, and then slowly slid open, revealing some kind of storage space packed tightly with shelves. Most of what they’d held was either gone or damaged beyond repair, but one lucky piece remained untouched: an unassuming rifle. Unassuming at first glance anyway, as when Jr retrieved it, and test pulled the trigger, it unleashed a stream of plasma that started cutting straight through the bulkhead of the ship.

”Oh wow”

The Witch was unimpressed. “I could do better.” Why lug around heavy machines to spew fire, when a simple wand and some skill in thaumaturgy would do? She turned on her heel, flanked by her zombies, and ambled over to see what Rika had dug up.

Rika had made her own find, namely enough ammo to fill both her rifle and her halberd’s dual cannon, apparently in the form of ammo pickups that refused to do anything, even be moved, other than refill ammo of a presented weapon. Why this was the case was unclear. She also had, for some reason, ripped out a random piece of circuitry at the heart of the ship’s gun.

The button on it did, admittedly, blink very pleasingly. The Witch leaned in, her eyes glowing with interest, and faintly smiled. “Very pretty. I’ll take this one for myself, if you don’t mind.” Assuming Rika had kept the metal band, it seemed a fair enough trade, and they could always swap items around at the armory later.

Further searching through the dim confines of the ship revealed little else they could make use of. Perhaps the spirits would drop something handy, but sitting about crushing them all would take up time, and so Jr suggested they just send them to the armory if they didn’t want any to use as strikers.

“I’ve had enough of this place.” The Witch made her way back to the gaping entrance, and stared out into the rain. “Let’s get back to the shield. Where have all the others gotten to, anyway?”

Rika, who still had her scout hovering around the SFE field, gave them a quick update: ”Lotta angry red guys tried to kill them. Didn’t work. Looks like they’re still resting on the other side of the lava pit after that. Dunno about the lava canyon team, but definitely sounded like there was shooting down there, so they must still be good”

“Hmm.” The Witch’s noncommittal answer made it hard to tell whether she was pleased or disappointed. “Quickly, then. The dead here are restless, and it’s best if we don’t linger when they come knocking.”

She pointed her wand at the side of the ship, and all eight of her zombies swarmed it at once, ripping a huge panel of armor off its side. Whatever the craft was made of, it was evidently hardy enough to withstand the Timefall, and the Witch’s undead servants now held it up above their heads like a giant umbrella, wide enough for the sorceress and anyone else who cared to take shelter as they moved.

Together, the gang raced back the way they’d come, sprinting through the rain, leaping (thanks to Rika’s featherfall rune) back down cliffs, and then hustling along the crevasse to catch up with the [whichever you’d prefer] team. The Witch had to make her zombies throw their cover down the pit once they got to the cliffside paths, but by that point the terrain already provided cover from the rain. Before long, they were within sight again, coming up from behind to where Sectonia had set up her platform. If she’d be kind enough to let them cross, they’d soon join the rest of the Seekers on the other side, a little richer and more experienced for their detour.

Once confronted by the multiple-choice question of where she’d be going, Nadia found herself hesitating. Leaping over the gorge had never been a problem for her to begin with, so Sectonia’s assistance made getting across a cakewalk, but the alternative route tempted the feral as well. Though she’d made plenty of friends among the Seekers already, it hadn’t gotten any easier for her to willingly place her life in others’ hands. In her childhood as a ragged little alley cat scavenging slums for scraps in Little Innsmouth, she learned to rely on nobody but herself to and grant her trust to precious few. For a few wonderful years after that she’d found not just friends, but a family that she could finally rely upon in the form of the Fishbone Gang, but the gang’s slaughter at Black Dahlia’s hands left her heart almost as scarred as her body.

Since then, the Life Gem made death a non-issue for the most part, meaning Nadia seldom needed to take anything seriously. But despite her bravado in front of Juri, she fully believed that a voidout could wipe her out once and for all. She was confident in her own instincts and abilities, but much less so in her allies. She’d been keen to keep some distance between herself and the others from the beginning, which was why Nadia preferred the mud slide to the rock slope, and since then the team had endured at least a half-dozen close shaves with BTs. It wasn’t a huge surprise, given how few of the Seekers seemed to have any stealth experience, but all those near misses definitely had the cat burglar on edge. With so many blunders, it was only a matter of time until someone screwed the pooch, and Nadia didn’t plan on paying the ultimate price for someone else’s incompetence.

So when Primrose and Therion took a detour into the ravine itself, followed by Sandalphon and Zenkichi, Nadia felt very inclined to join them. Anything to get away from this bumbling horde. That changed, however, when she looked toward Ace to gauge his thoughts and found his face filled with uncharacteristic fear. Despite all the horrors lurking around this haunted wasteland, the sight of her knight in distress rather than shining armor took her by surprise, igniting her protective instincts. How dare someone put the ever-courageous, ever-smiling monster hunter on edge! Change of plans, then. If this abysmal place could even get to someone like him, Nadia wasn’t going anywhere. Much to her chagrin she couldn’t sharpen her claws and shred these offending ghouls like curtains, but she could still stick around to support him as best she could. The success of this mission depended on him, after all, and Nadia wanted Ace to know that despite everything she’d been through, he could depend on her, too.

Of course, things went to hell right away. Moments after a few frontrunners moved across the crystalline platform to secure the other side, and Ace himself headed to its center so that everyone could cross the ravine within the safe zone, a pack of demons popped up from below. “I hate bein’ right all the time,” Nadia muttered. Right off the bat 'one rotund, cyclopean demon opened fire at Ace, and without hesitation the feral threw herself into harm’s way. Luckily Pit had the same idea, and was much better equipped to deal with the situation than Nadia. Bounced back by the Guardian Orbitars, the fiend’s barrage blew up in its face, and Ace himself returned fire to neutralize the threat before it could cause any more issues.

Edward, Midna, Edelgard, and Grimm leaped to the team’s defense, and in their weakened state, they fought all the harder. Grimm in particular allowed the others to hog the demons’ attention while he floated around behind them to lacerate their wings and backs with his claws. Nadia, however, just watched. The Cacodemons, Gargoyles, and Lost Souls all seemed vaguely familiar from her previous misadventures in Redgraccoon City, but she’d definitely slept since then, so the best way to deal with these things wasn’t fresh in her memory. And even if it was, this battlefield was a little too crowded with heroes to lend a hand. Given the current conditions, fighting these airborne adversaries was a dangerous game, so while her allies played it Nadia held out in front of the Cadet, content to body-block for him if push came to shove. “Don’t worry, Ace!” she grinned, watching Lost Souls detonate one after another. “I’m not about to let anyone I care about die, so consider this a demon-stration!”

Geralt had occupied a defensive position in the group close to Goldlewis and Snake so far, but when the Witcher moved to the forefront to help put down the demonic incursion, Goldlewis circled toward the opposite side of the crystal, with the SFE between himself and the marauders. This was not a decision borne of cowardice, but one of careful consideration. For one, his fighting style took up too much real estate to employ on an arena this size without jeopardizing his comrades’ safety through friendly fire. He also didn’t want to put another BB at risk, given their vital role in this expedition. For the most part, though, he just didn’t think the others needed his help. Even while suppressed by the SFE, they wouldn’t fall to small fry like that. The much bigger problem was the BTs, given how much noise the skirmish was making, and Goldlewis wondered how much weight Sectonia’s crystal could carry, as well. Keeping an eye on the fight, he led Sectonia, Snake, and Juri around the fight and to the ravine’s far edge, careful not to progress beyond the bounds of the SFE’s safe zone.

Once the furious but brief fight came to an end, and the team reached terra firma, a few members turned their eyes toward the crashed ship. Juri voiced her interest, but it was the trio she ate with that morning who actually left the group to check the wreck out. Junior, Rika, and the Witch scurried out of the white bubble and into the dreadful timefall, protected by their bubble shields until they could dive through a hole in the derelict ship’s wall and take shelter inside. Grimm watched them go, silent as ever, but fully aware of the risks involved after his own brush with a BT. He deigned not to join them, instead sticking with the main group as it pushed forward in the Qliphoth’s direction. Even after a number of Grimm’s teammates split off, this main force still commanded an impressive seventeen, including three BBs. Odradek readings indicated several BTs to the right, in the vicinity of the chasm, so the team gave it a wide berth as they followed its path northward. The echoes of gunshots from within couldn’t be helped.

Compared to the first leg of the journey, this area was much more open and featured fewer landmarks, but the going wasn’t much easier. Like the remains of some old battlefield, first carved up into trenches and then shelled by distant artillery, it was covered in miniature craters and ridges. In this light, it was difficult to tell the quicksand from the mud, but Rika could skate across it once her detachment returned, and Grimm was light enough on his feet that he could dart backward the moment he started to sink. For that reason the Troupe Master took point, next to Edward, as the team advanced. With only three BBs, the carriers naturally arranged themselves like the points of a trident, their followers less spread out. In this way the silent procession snaked around lurking BTs and treacherous obstacles, steadily headed northward without incident.

It wasn’t long before that changed. As the Seekers neared the northern edge of the ravine, Primrose’s team climbed up a slope and rejoined them. Though Sandalphon and the others had run into trouble themselves, their route had turned out to be the easy one. They found their allies weary and on edge after a tedious, stressful, and sometimes circuitous trek through the open wastes. Grimm’s countenance betrayed nothing, and Goldlewis maintained his composure, but this place was definitely starting to get old to Nadia. How much trudging around on all fours in the mud could one girl be expected to take? Still, it wasn’t feral impetuousness that kicked things off. Throughout the trials so far, one of the BBs had been putting on a brave face, but a stressed infant could only take so much. After watching tirelessly for BTs, coming dangerously close several times, and being within inches of vicious demonic attackers, all without a moment’s pause to rest or be comforted, Baby Mario began to break down. Sniffles and whimpers, muffled by his pod, eventually turned to sobs, and then finally, flat-out bawling.



Goldlewis had been watching a handful of drifting gazers when the wailing began. The veteran whirled on Edward, panicked. “What in sam hill!? You gotta shut him up!” He didn’t mean to be so brusque, but to say this outburst could have dire consequences would be an understatement. Not eager to exacerbate the situation, he glanced back over at the BTs, but this time he saw nothing. He froze, looking around in a desperate attempt to pinpoint the dark specters, only to notice that the splashes coming toward him weren’t made by rain, but a dozen handprints incoming from different directions. The odradeks went wild, clicking in a frenzy as they constantly changed direction–left, right, ahead, behind. The Seekers were surrounded.

Immediately, and without a word, Grimm broke formation. The tall bug charged out of the safe zone, protected by his raincoat as he pitter-pattered toward the Qliphoth at high speed. Several handprints veered toward him, picking up the pace like bloodhounds on a scent trail. Before they could grab him, however, Grimm disappeared in a flash of crimson flame. He’d teleported, perhaps to safety since the Qliphoth wasn’t too much farther, but not everyone he’d left behind had that luxury. By that time, a low roar echoed across the area, and a tar pool expanded from Edward’s position that quickly undermined the whole group. An awful chorus of groaning, gurgling voices broke out beneath them, and only the BB carriers could see their sources: corpses molded from pitch, reaching out from the pool by the dozen to seize ankles, calves, coattails, and more. Some of the Seekers could shake them off, but not everyone. There were just too many of them. Nadia managed to escape using Charge to become a bolt of lightning that zipped out of the BTs’ grasp, but she couldn’t get far enough. Sandalphon only managed to delay the inevitable with Vault, and no matter how many times he broke free Goldlewis could not reach the edge of the pool. Once he and the others fell, the hands dragged them along the ground, spreading them out. One by one the heroes were tugged beyond the SFE’s perimeter, until finally Ace’s own struggle came to an end, and the Stable Field Emitter smashed against the ground.

Tar, rippling like the surface of the sea, spread across the whole area. From its depths, buildings from the destroyed city began to rise, sink, and rise again, as if slowly fading in and out of memory. Finally, a monster emerged from the tar, a creature as tall and broad as a garbage truck. It looked to Goldlewis like an enormous lion, but ink-black, with a mane of writhing tentacles rather than fur. A death mask of golden, lustrous chiralium adorned its face, and when it roared, its mask split vertically to give its prey a glimpse of the oblivion that awaited them in its gullet. Though just a lone predator against an abundance, it only needed to catch one.

Over everything, the aging rain poured down. The shield packs wouldn’t last much longer, and the hunt was on.

It looked like, from Jr and Rika’s perspective, that the seekers had hardly made any progress at all since they and the Witch had run off to have their own little side adventure. True, according to Rika, they had been fighting, but then so had they and that was with only three of them. Thus Jr was feeling pretty smug, mainly due to ignoring the difference in danger of opponents each group had faced, and their own prowess not being hampered by fighting indoors without need for a magic suppression field. Or how they had a solution to the rain that didn’t involve crippling their magic, and which kept them dry to boot thanks to the Witch. Or how they’d been incredibly lucky to not stumble into BTs while running blind.

Sadly for him, he didn’t get a chance as any communication made at a sneaky level for the circumstance was made impossible when a very stressed Baby Mario suddenly burst into tears while the man who’s chest he was strapped onto looked rather out of his depth as to how to handle this. An attempt was certainly made to try and calm the child despite this, the man one handing a rifle he was carrying so he could press an empathetic palm to the glass, while also wrapping his wings around his front to try and block out any stressful stimulation, but it was too little too late.

Getting yelled at by Goldlews didn’t exactly help, nor did Jr jumping on his heels with a ”Yeah! Shut up Mario!” and Midna to just nail the coffin lid of their doom shut by shouting ”Yelling at a baby isn’t helping!” even louder than everyone else was already yelling.

Rika added her own bit to the mess as well, but as her contribution was trying to gun down the invisible intangible BTs already on their way it hardly mattered other than to draw even more towards her and her brother.

”Uh oh” was Jr’s somewhat subdued response to their crisis, while Rika’s was to give up on shooting, grab her brother in one gauntlet, duck out from under the zombie carried rain shield. She pressed him to her chest, hopped into the air, hopped a second time in the air, and finally pressed a thumb to the featherfall rune, and launched them both high up into the air.

It got them out of immediate danger, but wasn’t an abandonment like what Grimm committed, and so all it really did was give the pair an aerial view of the chaos that erupted below them, while they sank slowly, inevitable, towards it.

At the epicenter of the mess, Midna and Edward were both immediately bogged down by the tar, heavy armor rapidly sinking despite family flapped wings and sorcery stuttering and failing to form under the suppression field, and the failure only spread out from there.

A few seconds later, and Rika touched down in it, Jr perched atop her shoulders. She didn’t sink into it like the others of course, she floated, but the invisible hands tried to drag her down nonetheless.

”No! No! I won’t! I can’t! Get off me you, you, you whoresons!” she shouted at them as she struggled, the threat of being sunk triggering an instinctual fear in the shipgirl. Hard. Maneuvering thrusters flared while tar churned around her feet as she tried to sail forwards, but it seemed to be no use till Jr called out for her to ”Toss me!”

She didn’t question this, she thought maybe at least he could get free, and so did so, grabbing her brother by the shell and launching him forwards, skipping him like a stone out of the tar field and out into the rain beyond the magic suppression field. The recoil from the move undid any progress she had made against the pull however, and though she fourth on, she was quite sure she was done.

At least her Brother would remember her.

Rather than flee, the boy yelled ”Grapple me!” back at her. She hesitated for a moment, because surely that would drag him right back, but when he anchored himself to the ground with an iron spear (that immediately began rusting), she understood his plan. Her hook lashed out, caught his shell, and he grabbed it, pulling, heaving, only for the spear to break a moment or three later, and for him to start to get pulled back in.

He wasn’t, however. Instead a titan of steel appeared behind him, silhouetted in the rain, the machine’s red paint splotching while metal endured the passing of time without care. The striker Blodia grasped its summoner in a colossal hand, and the length of Rika’s grapple at the same time, and hauled, hurling the prince even further away from the tar, and dragging Rika fully clear in the same motion.

In the end, however, it didn’t really matter, other than saving some stamina for what was to come.

Nearby, Midna and Edward, who had not had that luxury, pulled themselves to their feet, bodies having been dragged out of the initial pit, only for their failures having triggered the rise of a great feline beast, and the warping of all of the terrain into tar fields. It also brought an end to the field keeping them safe from the rain, but, at the same time, it also brought back their magic and ended the need for stealth.

The beast was out in the open for all to see, it knew where they were, and there would be no hiding from it.

”I’m-” Edward began to say, but whatever words, apology or otherwise, were cut off by Minda demanding that their top priority should be to ”get those babies out of here! Now!”

She physically shoved him away, and then hauled herself up onto her own invisible untouchable creature that would now work without magic suppressing it. The Beast Legion cared not for the rain that simply fell through it, nor for these other-other worldly BTs who’s broken realm of origin its kind would consider far inferior to its own.

It still cared somewhat for the tar flooded ground, but only somewhat, letting it sprint forwards, not away from the Quad BT, but straight at it.

”Come on, I’m here, come and eat me you oversized kitten!” the foolish princess riding atop it shouted at it, charging her spear and then blasting lighting at the BT to no effect other than to be loud and flashy and even more attention catching.

In response, one of the Quad BT’s claws started to glow, and it then leapt towards her in a feline-like pounce, claw reading forwards to cleave her in twain. Minda, in response, flow motion leapt off of her mount and to the side, splashing down into the tar as the BT crashed down where she’d been, and her Legion simply phased through its attack. The BT’s tail proceed to glow, with which it tried to deliver a side swipe at the downed princess, but she yanked on her astral chain, and pulled herself back over to the Legion again, out of the way of the strike.

”That's the best you got! You lot were scarier when we couldn’t see you” she shouted at it, slapping her spear against a rock in another taunt.

She wasn’t the only one running back into the area instead of away. Rika did the same, grabbing and hurling a golden spinner from her rigging and out into the rain. There, in the burst of light, it summoned an entirely unbeached whale that crashed into the tar, sank even further than it should have, and then against all logic started floating as if the ground itself was water to it. Then it began swimming, only somewhat impeded by the layer of tar up top, creating a moving spot of dry land for at least a few riders to escape the mire upon the back of.

”All aboard!” Jr announced as sailed in after his sister, naturally not leaving her to do this on her own, a rusting umbrella of iron held over head to stave off the issue of him having punctured his raincoat with his shell spikes, and willing and able to provide more. A temporary solution, certainly, but better than nothing.

As for the others, well, Rika’s energy shield failed eventually, only to be replaced by her own spartan energy shield, and then below that the woman was covered in armor from head to toe, steel and stranger metals all happily aging away without much concern.

It was those who were exposed that would have issues. Minda was also armored... Except for her draconic tail and pointy ears, the concern for which caused her to break off her taunting of the BT as her shield looked close to break. She had a solution to the rain, but it wouldn't work in tandem to fighting, because she was not able to dodge at the same time as holding her shadow hand up over her head as her own umbrella, as it made her far too unwieldy.

”Can someone else keep it busy?” she called out from atop her steed, making to join up with the Koopa Kid Konvoy as they sailed for solid ground.

Edward, finally, had the biggest exposure issue, as his back bore a pair of massive wings and he didn’t have a helmet either. Still, as the shield persisted, and a little bit beyond that, so too did his wings' ability to carry him forwards. True, it was only at the speed of a dove… but even with the rain, both they and he were still capable of breaking the decayed matropolisi’s inner city speed limits going in a straight line at a dead sprint.

If he’d be in any state stamina-wise to survive whatever was to be found at the base of the tree in the exhausted state he’d arrive in, that remained to be seen. If he had time and space to set down over there, and time to read his Tomes, then he’d send copper golems back to assist them, either to act as fodder for the Quad BT, or distractions for the Gazers, the ability for him to simply disband the squads at will removing any threat of them being caught or devoured.

Assuming he could calm down baby Mario first that was

It wasn’t long after passing the north edge of the ravine, once the combat had ended, that Zenkichi, Sandalphon, Primrose, and Therion emerged from it, a little rattled but otherwise fine. Geralt gave them an appraising nod, one which Zenkichi returned as their formation reassembled to its previous state. Unfortunately, their peace was so short-lived as to be a joke.

Baby Mario, the BB that Edward was carrying, began to cry, then wail incessantly, as the baby it was. It struck Geralt as odd, fortuitous, and simultaneously baffling that these infants were apparently just that: infants. As everybody began breaking into a shouting contest, Geralt turned his direction outward, as splashes of tar began to burst up from black handprints. “They’re coming, we need to-”

He was cut off as Grimm broke and ran, a moment later a massive pit of tar opened beneath the collected Seekers. “Fuck, move!” He pivoted, his own stride barely hampered by the BTs, each forceful yank enough to dislodge the spectral attackers. Edelgard and Zenkichi were not quite so fortunate, the former becoming quickly bogged down and forcing the Witcher to turn back. “Hang on!” He called, running through the sludge to try and reach her before it was too late.

Edelgard was one of those who found herself pulled away by BTs. Geralt, despite his speed and strength, failed to reach her in time, and she found herself being dragged through the tar as if she were tied to a horse at full gallop. All in all, she hadn’t gone terribly far by the time she released, and around her the landscape began to shift as buildings long-destroyed reasserted their presence in this land, rising from the ground like weeds before entering a sort of semi-buoyant floating. ”How…odd.” Edelgard couldn’t help the thought that slipped out.

Zenkichi, meanwhile, was desperately trying to escape. In his panic, he tried to follow Sandalphon, but the Archangel was practical as ever, and was using her special abilities to escape. He opened his mouth to call for Valjean, but was rocked by the feeling of something grabbing him. Fighting back, Zenkichi trudged towards the edge of the tarpool, but it was no use. His old, cold, body was still recovering from the massive adrenaline dump he’d received earlier, and Zenkichi was dragged off.

Geralt had no such problem. His Guardian-infused body had been utterly untouched by the SFE, and though he attempted to help Edelgard at first, once she was taken, he broke and followed in Grimm’s footsteps. Each paltry attempt by the BTs to grab him was thwarted by a thunderous kick, which pushed off their semi-corporeal form. How exactly that worked he had no idea, but soon Geralt found himself at the edge of the initial tarpool, his personal shield flickering in the rain. He had barely taken a few steps when the pool expanded further, once more surrounding him, though this time nothing grabbed for him.

No, Geralt heard the Catcher before he saw it, and when he did, his eyes widened in fear. Were this a mere beast, he thought he could slay it. Fiends were massive, and he’d killed his fair share in his time. He’d slayed many beasts. No, his fear was not of that nature. He knew, instinctually, that this was the harbinger of the Seekers’ destruction. Zenkichi, though he was not near Geralt, felt a similar feeling of dread. He cast his gaze about the arena they’d found themselves in, before forcing himself to ascend onto one of the half-floating buildings and calling out.

”Primrose! Just like on the mountain!” He shouted at the Dancer, who was not too far, though hardly right on top of him. He jumped down, stumbling as he landed, and jogged her way before calling on Valjean. ”Sukukaja!” As Primrose activated Sealticge’s Seduction, Sukukaja spread to every Seeker, giving them a boost to their overall agility.

To Edelgard, this was a lifesaver, and the Emperor made no attempt to make a heroic stand. Sandalphon was clear: if anybody was caught by these things, it was the end for the Seekers, one and all. And she was not going to be the cause of that. So, keeping an eye out for the Catcher as she ran through and around the buildings that were protruding through the tar, Edelgard made her mad dash to the Qliphoth.

Zenkichi, for his own part, kept close to Primrose. He could keep their speed up with Sukukaja, though if the group wasn’t safe by the end of the spell’s minute-long duration, their personal shields would be down anyway, making their death just a matter of time. He shook off the thought as the Catcher charged around, hunting down Seekers and attacking them.

Midna’s daring distraction had given them all time to start moving, and Geralt, his speed boosted to comical levels by Sukukaja, ran straight into the action. When Midna called for somebody else to distract the Catcher, Geralt answered, Quen shimmering around him, but crashing into the monster head-on with the Hateful Flesh. “Get out of here, all of you!” He called, effortlessly dodging a claw swipe from the oversized monster. “I can keep it busy!” He noticed the lack of reaction to the Hateful Flesh, but tried again to attack, throwing a clump of explosive tissue at the creature, only for the Catcher to thoroughly ignore the explosion and pounce at Geralt, forcing him to throw himself out of the way. Tar and mud splashed up over him, and he forced himself to his feet before the BT could recover.

“Come on, beast! You and me!” He taunted, running at the Catcher before dancing aside as it charged straight on, its mask opened wide to try and catch him within. He dragged the hateful Flesh up and along its flank, again to no effect. “Fuck.” This thing wasn’t tough, it was invincible. Even to a weapon from a Guardian, that could hurt the Chimeras? Just what were these monsters?

That was irrelevant, loathe as Geralt was to admit. He found himself being flung through the air, crashing into a ruined building after being struck by a powerful blow from the Catcher’s tail swipe. Quen was gone, and his personal bubble shield had lost a good chunk of its power from the blow. It wouldn’t last much longer, and from that point it was up to his jacket to keep him safe from the timefall.

Pushing himself out of his miniature crater, Geralt cursed as the Catcher quickly filled his vision, having decided his stunned form was an easy meal. A fair decision, Geralt thought, though he imagined it was rather surprising when a single leap carried the Witcher a good twenty feet away, rolling to his feet and sprinting faster than any typical human could have even thought of moving. Still, with four legs and a significant size advantage, the Catcher BT made a damn fine effort in catching up, and Geralt had to jump onto a building to break line of sight for a moment. His shield was flickering, there was no more room for games. Hopefully he’d bought enough time for the others. If not…

Well, it wouldn’t be a problem for this him to deal with, sad as it was to admit. Hopefully, the next Geralt would find Ciri and Yen. That morbid thought on his mind, Geralt ran towards the Qliphoth, leaving the Catcher to hunt the others.

Edelgard found herself just barely crossing the edge of the tarpool as Sukukaja wore off, her personal shield having faded moments before. She pulled the hood of her jacket closed tight, hunching her shoulders and covering the burns in the coat to protect herself from the deadly rain, even as she ran as fast as her legs would carry her in the Qliphoth’s direction. She felt no remorse for abandoning the others to their fates, even as she heard Geralt’s calls for them to flee. She would have been no help to them. No, it was not remorse that Edelgard felt. It was frustration at her uselessness in this damnable place. Hopefully fighting the Guardian within the massive tree would assuage those worries.

Zenkichi’s own escape route had ended up keeping him somewhat near Primrose, though he also kept an eye out for Sandalphon as he made his egress. Seeing Geralt moving under the effects of Sukukaja was quite funny, given that the man already boasted inhuman speed. It was like watching Usain Bolt in fast forward, the way the Witcher flew across the landscape.

As the three closed in on the Seekers’ destination, each had lost the protection of their personal shield. The pieces of Edelgard’s armor that showed through the jacket had spots of rust, though the worst-case scenario had been avoided thanks to her protective posture. Zenkichi was in near-perfect condition, while Geralt’s face had splotches of discolored flesh, and the Witcher had a sour look on his face, a spot on his chin having hair that looked months old while the rest had a light covering of white beard.

“There is, in fact, such a thing as running too fast.” He simply grumbled to Zenkichi, earning a guffaw from the detective and a tittering laugh from Edelgard.

Blazermate wasn't a nutranurse, so when BB mario started to cry, she was in the same boat as Goldweis in being at a loss to quiet him down. She was a field medic, not a nanny, and was just as annoyed at everyone else at how the BTs were summoned and started to mess with everyone by coming out of the ground and grabbing people. "Ew ew ew. Get off me!" Blazermate said as she tried to get these hands off of her. Ace got the worst of it though, or rather, was one of the ones that really shouldn't have been stuck by these things, but he was, and with that the emitter broke and they were now all on a timer before these shields wore out.

With it now being a dash to the end instead of a stealth job, Blazermate began to fly. And being one of the fastest members of the group, it wasn't too difficult for her to make it to the tree where she could help support anyone who got close. She'd help with the big BT distraction group, but she wasn't sure how she could help them with it seemingly taking no damage.



Roland could only sigh at how some of the group split in such a stressful, serious situation. It slowed everyone down while some fought demons, some made their way to their destination, and some just went off from the emitter to explore a giant ship! Yeah there was probably some loot in there, but the time rain was way worse to deal with and not worth it. Although the thing that both annoyed and didn't surprise Roland was when one of the BBs decided that the stress was too much and made way more noise than everyone else had combined. Considering his own BB was calm as a cucumber, Roland was convinced that these things were just advanced androids or something for a fair amount of time. But seeing they were actual babies from this both disgusted Roland, and also made him sigh that this wasn't all that different from the world he knew.

That would have to wait though as this noise caught the attention of the BTs. Being one of the BB carriers, he could see them coming up from the ground. This made his own evasion of these things easier, but it was clear that some of the others weren't as agile. There wasn't a whole lot he could do but point things out until Ace fell over and smashed the emitter. Roland's personal shield triggered, meaning he was now on a time limit and he wouldn't want to lose his good looks to aging rain. While a bit slower than he normally was with his new spirits, he was still pretty fast and agile and on top of that, pulling out his paintbrush, he could give Ace an ink swirl to help him... assuming the ink could stun the BTs going after him. He'd be making his way to their destination though to get out of the rain and be safe.



If it wasn't for her needing to move with the emitter and her worry about that, she'd help those in the pit killing the demons below. They were doing her work for her though, so she'd need to remember to reward them later for getting rid of such evil and hideous creatures. That would need to wait though as one of the BBs let out a lot of crying attracting the BTs. Being off the ground, it would be difficult for her to be grabbed by the BTs rising from the ground, but that wouldn't mean much as Ace fell and broke the emitter. Now was the time to move, but her preemptive chaos shield protected her like she thought it would... although she wasn't sure how long it would last as the rain drops smacked across the rainbow barrier with a ping and waver effect she got immediately worried about.

With their destination in sight though, her plan was simple. With only a little bit of worry on her face showing, she used her blink as fast and frantically as a distressed bee could to make her way to the tree and to safety. She'd only be able to help the others once she herself was safe and out of the rain with some support from her ground based swords in a futile attempt to try to slow down the BTs chasing everyone else.

Once everyone was on the crystal and lending a hand to demon eradication, the Cadet could leave it to them and just focus on not letting any wild projectiles strike their safety device on a stick. Pit, Geralt, Edward, Midna, Edelgard, and Grimm seemed to have a handle on things, so while they went at it and the others kept moving quietly, Ace inched along with them, careful to keep everyone within the SFE's radius. Of course he'd noticed Nadia sticking close to him, and he definitely didn't mind it, nodding appreciatively at her reassurances—

Oh. Wait. Was she worried about him? Considering the conditions they were in at the moment and the whole first half of this mission, that wasn't really surprising. It was dangerous, and if one personal made a big enough mistake they'd all be paying for it - everyone was worried about everyone else. But Nadia had singled him out, and if it wasn't because of her affection for him it was probably because his unease around magic had shown more on his face than he'd wanted it to. Jumping Jaggis, how embarrassing, he thought. Worrying her was the last thing he wanted to do. He breathed in, about to get his act together.

"I know you won't. Counting on ya," he said, mustering a grin to send back to her. "But just so you know, it's gonna take a hell of a lot more than this to get me down, alright?"

The crew fought through the last couple of demons in their path and made it to the other side of the ravine none the worse for wear, at least after a little healing. Now that the threat of BTs was back, the group quieted down once more. Although Pit did chance a whisper, going over to the queen bee and inquiring why they couldn't just take a couple of giant crystals over the entire area in the first place.

And as they kept moving, a small portion splitting off to explore before returning, they eventually met back up with those who'd descended into the ravine. The narrow passages along the cliff wall made it hard for the four of them to fight together, ultimately leading to a split between the front pair and the following pair as they took on enemies from opposite sides. Things ended up fine in the end, but having a front row seat to certain death that Zenkichi and Sandalphon had barely avoided for all of them left Primrose and Therion a little shaken. More than a little, really, and they hadn't celebrated the archangel and phantom thief's hard won triumph besides giving the both of them appreciative looks and refocusing on the journey ahead.

The entire group was back together then and ready to keep moving.

Then everything went to hell, as soon as BB Mario began to cry. Who could really blame the little guy? Still, the noise drew in a horde of BTs, and with the odradeks going crazy there was no way they could avoid them this time. There was only one option now: it was time to run.

Primrose made to follow Grimm, but she hadn't been quick enough on the draw. She ran, but nearly tripped as a hand caught her ankle. She suppressed a snarl and kicked it off but by then her other leg had been seized. She could see the corpse-like fingers clawing at her before she shifted, sliding through the tar away from the emitter and the others as everyone began to be pulled away from each other.

As she struggled in the sticky tar and the grasp of the hands crawling up her legs, a chilling realization came over her. She wouldn't be able to dance like this. That meant she wouldn't be able to give anyone extra defense or speed, or even give someone else the ability to spread their beneficial effects to everyone. She didn't panic, at least not anymore than she already was, instead summoning as much determination as she could muster within herself. Especially when BB Peach began fretting, shrinking away from the glass of her pod and close to crying herself now that Mario had broken down.

"We aren't getting caught," she assured the infant princess. Primrose continued to fight to free herself as the rain pelted her bubble, her magic flashing between fire, shadow, and moonlight as she tried to give herself some leverage - but though she could see the hands clinging to her, nothing affected them.

Finally she hit upon something that might work, and with a wide movement she conjured the dark elemental construct out of her Rites of Termination. The lance, as black as the tar pool it struck, embedded itself into the ground right in front of Primrose. The dancer took hold of its shaft and bodily pulled herself up out of the tar, kicking the hands away as she finally got free. As the crawling BTs began to climb up the lance, unaffected by its waves of energy, Primrose floated off into the air.

There. Now she could move as she pleased. It wouldn't be exactly the same as dancing on the ground, but as long as the feeling and the freedom was there she could manage. Just in time too. She glanced Zenkichi's way when she heard his shout, and she acknowledged him by going right into her performance. Sealticge's Seduction - though the sensual movements must have looked odd given the situation, especially airborne as the dancer was, once the ability took effect on Zenkichi he'd be able to spread his own magic's effects to all of the Seekers. His Sukukaja came soon afterward, speeding everyone up. Primrose alighted next to the man, taking just a moment to catch her breath before the two of them sped off in the Qliphoth's direction. Though ready to dance again if needed, once her bubble shield broke down Primrose conjured a boulder thanks to the stone gauntlet she'd smelted down. She floated the magicked rock over her head as she ran, though her raincoat kept her mostly covered.

Others were slower going even with the speed boost, though for reasons unrelated. Though Pit was quick and strong, he was neither quick enough to outrun the spread of tar nor strong enough to easily escape the BTs' grip. Whenever he managed to shake one off, it seemed like two more took its place. He couldn't see them, couldn't even really feel them, but he could tell where their hands were grabbing up his legs and waist, and that they were holding him down, pulling him away from the group and out of the SFE's rain-safe zone.

"Let! Me! Go! Grraaah!" He said as he struggled, kicking and jumping, and even trying to slash at the invisible foes in vain. If his wings were free he might have been able to get loose and pull himself out by going straight up, but even so he'd just fall right back in - and his bubble shield was really taking a beating from the rain, upping the risk.

Since the bow wasn't working, he had to try something else. He quick-summoned the Upperdash Arm, but instead of slamming it uselessly against the BTs holding on to him Pit revved the weapon so that its disc was spinning at max velocity. Then he slammed it down, and though it did nothing to the things that had him captured the force pulled Pit forward as it spun along the ground like a wild wheel. The angel was ripped from the tar, only to then fall head over heels back into it a short distance away as the spinning game to a halt soon after. Before he could get caught again Pit jumped up, dashing toward the tree for safety.

Then, the quadrupedal BT appeared, and he skidded to a stop before changing direction. Early on Pit had attempted to help take it on. Now that he knew how he could get free of the tar if he got stuck again, he felt better about moving within it. So he'd joined Midna and approached the lion with his bow brandished in blade form, cutting into the BT with rapid slashes. Only, he wasn't actually cutting it. Anytime he attacked it, the BT shrugged it off without any damage whatsoever. Even divine weaponry couldn't harm it, at least not directly it seemed. It didn't stop him from trying, twisting the sword like a drill rather than a buzzsaw as he used Spiral Sword. Unsurprisingly it hadn't hurt the BT at all.

"This thing–" He was cut off by the lion turning to slash at him, its claws deceptively quick even with the glowing tell. Pit leapt backward, only just evading one of those claws sinking into his head. It cracked into the energy shield and tore the hood of his raincoat as its tar-slicked paw came down, the golden mask face spreading open to let out a half roar, half growl. Then another attack on its opposite drew its attention once more and it turned away.

Pit clenched his fists, but recognized that he couldn't do much without a way to hurt it. He changed strategy while the BT was still occupied, holding the bow up properly and drawing a light arrow as he headed towards the ride Rika was offering. He fired every type of elemental arrow he had in his arsenal at it, even swapping weapons to shoot the Arm's discs, the Orbitar's weak shots, and the concentrated light assault of the Palm. Of course, none of it worked - nothing he tried left so much as a scratch on the oily creature. It left him frustrated, and he wasn't the only one. There wasn't anything he could do but make sure he wasn't caught and eaten, once he was aboard the whale and the ride got underway he stopped trying to damage the lion so as not to bring any extra attention to Rika's beast.

By the time they arrived at the Qliphoth, Pit's shield at long since worn out. In the end it was a good thing he'd kept his wings covered, he figured. Even where the rain had hit him through his torn coat, he didn't appear to be any older - the perks of an angelic lifespan, perhaps.

Elsewhere a bulbous monstrosity appeared beneath Therion, raising the thief out of the tar. It was a simple maneuver he'd used with his striker before, and it did not fail him now. He escaped the unseen BTs in the tar atop his junicorn as they grasped at the monster instead, attempting to sink it deeper - though it didn't matter to Therion who was just going to use it as a springboard to start his escape. He crouched, prepared to jump, when Midna called out for a distraction. He clenched his jaw, grappling with the decision, but Geralt stepped up to take the lion's attention. After that he didn't need the invitation to run. At least until the Witcher got smacked and made his own escape.

Now that he was a safer distance away, Therion was more willing to help out. He tapped the junicorn, which had rolled after him, twice on the top of its shell. The creature wrenched one if its feet free of the spectres as it turned towards where its summoner indicated, taking aim at the lion-like BT.

It fired the huge horn from its head like a ballista. The blood red projectile smashed against the side of the BT's gold plated face, but it didn't so much as flinch. The tentacles that made up its mane flicked as though to clear dust away from it before it turned to face its assailant. Expecting it to run and pounce again, Therion held fast to his striker and prepared to escape once more with plenty of time... but the BT instead turned its eye-less gaze downward and sunk into the tar. It had disappeared completely, but no one was foolish enough to think it had left - especially when only a moment later the pit around Therion and the junicorn erupted. The BT had come up underneath them much like how the junicorn had been summoned, and it had the monster clasped between its claws. Though he'd been poised for a getaway, Therion hadn't expected the attack from that angle. He flung himself from his striker to avoid getting caught as well, coming down a little too close for comfort to the thing as it splashed back down into the tar with its new plaything.

Since he was close enough anyway (much to his chagrin) Therion used Abate on the BT just before moving to flee. He could feel the speed boost courtesy of Primrose and Zenkichi's combination, so combined with opposite of slowing the lion down too they might just make it out of the danger zone. Then again, Therion had no idea if his debuffs would work on this thing when attacks hadn't, and he didn't stick around to find out either. He sprinted through the tar until he could scramble onto the closest rising ruin, all the while considering maximizing the increase to his speed and agility by assuming his own feline form. But would the raincoat and bubble shield stick around if he did? There was no guarantee, but thankfully he was plenty fast as a human too. He blitzed from building to ruined building as they bobbed up and down, and when he was close to the Qliphoth Therion leapt the rest of the distance. He hit the ground under the shelter of the demon tree and rolled to a stop, coming to rest on one knee so he could watch the rest of the area and everyone else that had yet to make it to safety. The junicorn had timed out before it could be swallowed, but there were still targets for the BT out there.

Some still remained, unwilling to leave a comrade behind especially if it meant it would take out all of the rest of them. The monster hunter was one such person. He wasn't exactly speedy before Sukukaja, but he also hadn't used the buff to its fullest.

When the BTs first swarmed and start sinking people into tar he put forth a heroic struggle, managing to keep the SFE upright for longer than even he thought possible for everyone that was still inside of its range. But by continuing to protect it, he couldn't do anything for the people being dragged out of its protective area one by one. The hunter grit his teeth and pulled out of the BTs' embrace with his strength, trudging a few steps forward before they caught up and the process repeated. He probably would have been able to hold out for even longer, but the nail in the coffin came from his allies. Now that desperation had taken hold of the group, magic was being thrown about in attempts to escape or thwart the various BTs assailing them - though Ace was making a valiant effort to ignore it all and doing an alright job. Then, he felt the effects of Sukukaja fall upon him.

The Ace Cadet faltered as a full body shiver raced through him and that queasy feeling gripped his stomach. The emitter's pole slipped from his hands and crashed against the ground, the delicate machine itself breaking to pieces before it sank into the oily surface.

He stared at the device as it disappeared under the tar, a different kind of sinking feeling starting to overcome him. And a literal one, as he was now almost waist deep.

When the Quad BT let out its roar it snapped the Cadet out of it. He noted the huge lion-like figure and the still struggling forms of the other Seekers, but before he could even think about helping anyone else he had to help himself. Ace leveled his slinger arm at the nearest solid object, one of the high rises that had suddenly appeared, and fired the clutch claw at it. The metal claw pieces dug in and as soon as the chain was taut, the hunter was able to yank himself out of the tar by reeling himself in toward the building.

When he hit the surface it was already becoming unstable as the building began to start sinking once more. Even so the Cadet got right to his feet. One hand flew to the hilt of his sword, the other gripping his firearm tight and bringing it up. The blades of his rigging fanned out at his sides and their mini cannon batteries swiveled to take aim. Unfortunately out of all the enemies around them, he could only see one - and nothing people were throwing at it was doing a damn thing to it.

In the short time it took for his platform to sink, Ace studied the scene in front of him and the Quad BT. He wouldn't be able to harm it, but it was tangible - meaning he could avoid it, deflect it, defend against it. Maybe even restrain it, though that was dubious. It was supernatural, but it still moved mostly like a natural animal, or a monster. And since that was the case, he was confident he could hold it off if it came down to that.

For now he trusted his allies to take care of distracting it. Meanwhile, the Ace Cadet went into rescue operations. He abandoned the building he was on just before it slipped completely into the mud, hopping onto another rising out of it as he stowed his bowgun and prepped his slinger. As he'd done with himself he could pull anyone still stuck in the tar out of it with his clutch claw, acting as the anchor. He'd be able to pull even the largest and heaviest among the Seekers with no issue, it was only a matter if anyone needed a hand. He kept an eye out for anyone struggling, and for his favorite feral, so he could pluck them from the danger zone and get them on their way toward the tree with a shout of, "Here!"

Having been within the stable field emitter's protection the longest, the Cadet's shield had taken the least amount of damage from the rain so far. His raincoat was still securely in place, but hopefully the bubble would last until everyone was at least headed for safety, and at the point when no further rescuing was needed he could flee himself. At the same time he prepared to turn the BT away with a longsword parry if caught up in its chase.

---

"Just chuck the damn baby!" Juri hissed, right before it all went to shit. The dead were rising to meet them, and Juri could feel them seize her calves and ankles, though her vision of them was incomplete.

”God damn it! Invisible handsy freaks! Get offa me!” Juri thrashed and yanked and pulled her legs from the muck. Gritting her teeth and growling, she spent two Drive Gauge and burst forward with a shock of white and black energy, breaking free of their grip. Instinctively she dashed forward, and there was a flash of green ki that accompanied her. Looks like she was getting some of her old tricks back. With her and plastic bodysuit and plastic hood pulled up, Juri felt secure from the timefall as long as she didn’t fall over face up with her shield off.

There was a giant golden faced lion goo monster, but Juri wasn’t dealing with that shit. Leave that to the heroes. What the hell was kicking that thing going to do? And bullets wouldn't hurt it, either. Some support magic came her way and increased her speed even more. Juri leapt and zipped from high place to high place, not quite leaving the threat range. She wanted to stay close enough to interfere, without being in the danger zone herself. If someone got caught, she’d kill them before she let them explode and take them all out. Well, she’d try kicking them as hard as she could to dislodge them first, just because that was easier. But no way was she going to let one of these slow chumps get her blown up. A few hundred meters didn't make a difference if some ghost nuke was going off.

”C’mon, c’mon! Hurry up!” Juri jeered, perched up on a boulder. When it seemed like everyone was in the clear, she made a dash for the Qliphoth or whatever the fuck it was called, using another Drive Rush to get her there even faster so the lion and the handsy freaks couldn’t get a grip on her. She parkoured to stay out of the muck as much as possible and to get to the objective. And she could finally get outta this damn rain as her personal bubble flickered out. Luckily, her entire outfit was nonbiodegradable. Juri would cover her hooded head up with her arms if she had too, she wasn't going to age into some old hag!

”Do you dorks wanna turn old and ugly? What's the point of livin' fast and dyin' young if you don't even leave behind a pretty corpse? C'mooon!” She gestured to the end goal in the distance, mired in fog and rain.

Everything seemed to be going well at first. Roxas, who had been close to the head of the pack at the beginning, had what was probably the easiest time minding his footing and avoiding any unnecessary stumbles. Captain Falcon, while not as acrobatic as the Nobody, was still very athletic in his own right, even to a superhuman degree. For him, all he had to do was remember some of the climbing tricks he and Roland had employed during the race up the icy mountain. Of course he couldn’t just go full tilt, since he had volunteered himself to stay nearby the Ace Cadet and watch his back to help guard the Emitter. Speaking of guarding the Emitter, Ganondorf had also been nearby during this time. He wasn’t nearly as maneuverable as Roxas or the Captain. In fact he was just about as miserable as Edelgard was. Still, he’d said he was going to help guard the emitter and that was what he was going to do.

And it was at the chasm when problems started arising, not the least of which being that no one could agree on a direction to go in. Sectonia had opted for the straight and direct path, even summoning a crystal platform that the others could use as a makeshift bridge to cross on. And for Roxas, Ganondorf, and the Captain, this seemed like the no-brainer choice. Why anyone would want to spend extra time detouring through tunnels below the chasm or ignoring the mission altogether to go exploring a crashed spaceship was beyond any of them. By this point, Roxas had pulled up his hood. The Emitter was shielding him from the effects of the rain, but it didn’t stop him from getting wet. Meanwhile, Ganondorf and the Captain exchanged a few words about the fork in the road.

”Fools!” Ganondorf grumbled, ”Where do they think they’re going?” He demanded, clearly referring to the group that was splintering off to go explore a ship. There was no time for that kind of nonsense!

”Hmm, yeah…” Falcon tentatively agreed. ”...I don’t really get it, either.” He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. To be fair this was his first real mission with the Seekers, so he added, ”Is this, uh… normal… for the Seekers?”

”Tch.” Ganondorf continued to grumble. ”Unfortunately.” He confirmed.

For his part, Roxas didn’t really understand the need to go exploring either. Not in a place this hazardous. He couldn’t be too surprised about someone like Jr. or Rika getting distracted, they were kids after all. But a grown up like Juri? He shrugged it off and focused on continuing to cross the bridge instead. And that was when the problems really started to happen.

From all three of their positions, Roxas, Ganondorf, and Falcon suddenly heard the loud crying and wailing of one of the BB’s. Falcon’s first instinct was to make a dash for the poor kid and see if he was okay, Roxas having a similar instinct. Both managed to focus on their own part of the traversal, however. Ganondorf, on the other hand, grumbled some more.

”Someone shut it up!” His deep voice demanded, “”Or we’re all going to get-” He was interrupted when abominable creatures started making themselves known. Whether it was the invisible BT’s with hands for feet, the tar-like invisible corpses reaching up from the ground, or the lion-like monstrosity that could easily tower over the other creatures.

”-caught.”” Falcon finished for Ganondorf. Now they both knew they had to move or they would doom themselves and everyone with them. For Falcon, as well as Roxas, this was relatively easy for the most part. Falcon had always been a superhuman sprinter so between that and putting more of the fast climbing experience he had from the minigames to use, he could keep himself mostly out of harm’s way save for a hiccup or two that force him to use some of his fighting techniques to get free and continue. Roxas arguably had an even easier time of escaping. Between Flow Motion and Virtual Cubes, he could keep a pretty good rhythm going, giving himself solid footing in a way that would also help keep him out of reach of the tar corpses trying to grab at him.

Instead it was the King of Evil who was facing more of a challenge here. Not only was Ganondorf’s first instinct to fight, he was quick to realize how ineffective fighting actually would be. Nothing made that more crystal clear than when, from a distance, he witnessed Geralt’s failed attempt to attack the large monster. Loathe as the prideful warlord was to admit it, escape was the only option. The other challenge facing Ganondorf was his overall lack of maneuverability compared to many of the other Seekers.

Indeed, he was very much in the same boat as Edelgard, weighed down by his armor and his own body size to boot. Ganondorf could give himself some wiggle room with Bullet Jump, but that meant his faster movements had to come in bursts rather than simply being constant like most of everyone else. And that meant more perilous moments of his needing to clear a swath of invisible tar corpse hands around him to give himself room to use Bullet Jump to dash or leap away. The speed buff from Zenkichi’s spell was actually a very welcome boon, though good luck getting Ganondorf to admit that outloud.

Moments after this, the worst happened. The Ace Cadet, for all his carefulness with the SFE, dropped the device causing it to smash to pieces and sink into the ground. The main thing that was protecting everyone from the Time Fall, was gone. Immediately, personal shields activated for Roxas, Falcon, and Ganondorf. It protected them from the rain for now, but it also put them on a strict timer to get to their destination, serving only to add to the pressure.

But it wasn’t without at least some silver lining. With the SFE gone, magic and other similar abilities were no longer being dampened and could function fully again. For Roxas, this meant his Flow Motion could help keep him going as fast as it always had done, and it also subtly meant his Virtual Cubes were back to their full durability as well. Even Falcon and Ganondorf were now able to use their full powers, for what little good they would do to these monstrosities. Instead that would have to be channeled to aiding their escape. And for the Captain, it meant he could utilize his techniques to help him maneuver himself around a bit more while he made his mad dash for the other side and in the direction of the Qliphoth.

For the King of Evil, his Bullet Jump was a bit more effective, so that combined with the speed he had been granted a bit earlier meant he could make something of a mad dash himself. He couldn’t make nearly as good of time doing this as Roxas and Falcon, and indeed would likely be one of the last in line to finally reach the safety of escape, such as it was. But as he fought off tar-creature hands and dashed and doubled jumped his way across the remainder of the chasm toward the other side, Ganondorf couldn’t deny the increasing amount of frustration boiling in his blood. Compared to Roxas and Falcon, Ganondorf’s slower speed meant he’d be cutting it close with the time limit of his personal shield.

”DAMN IT!” He barked in anger and frustration, ”I am GANONDORF! And I will NOT be slain by some damnable rainstorm!”

After witnessing the horrors of war firsthand, and experiencing all that life had to throw at him, Goldlewis Dickinson was not easily frightened. And yet, as he lay half-immersed in eldritch tar and dragged by the legs in the deathgrip of a half-dozen ghouls, the veteran found himself grasped by terror as well. He’d fought heroically against those ink-black cadavers as they welled up from the stygian netherworld below, pitting every ounce of his prodigious strength against them for the sake of everyone’s lives, but by now the veteran knew a losing battle when he saw one. The nightmares snatched and pulled at his limbs and clothes as if desperate to claw themselves back from the afterlife, weighing the man’s massive frame down in the muck, and the pit was loath to give back even one inch that it had taken. Goldlewis grit his teeth, and BB Luigi wept, as his slog grew slower and slower, until finally he’d fallen over backward and could struggle no more.

Then he was whisked away. Violently tugged, yanked, and jolted from side to side as he slid through what had once been solid ground. The filth that coated his clothes spattered his face and glasses, like it wasn’t hard enough to see already. In an instant he’d been removed from the SFE’s safe zone, only moments before the sophisticated device smashed against the earth, and only his personal shield sheltered him from the timefall. What terrified Goldlewis most of all, though, was his own helplessness–that no matter how much experience or strength he achieved, it could all be for naught in the face of some unknown adversary. Right now he could do nothing but cry out in despair, joining the infant strapped to his chest in despondent chorus, but Goldlewis fought back his instincts and kept calm. If the BTs had him at their mercy, but he wasn’t dead, this clearly wasn’t over just yet. Something else must have to happen first, which meant that he and the others had another chance. With that thought in mind, Goldlewis did not struggle in vain, but instead conserved his strength.

After a few moments, his wild ride came to an end. From the rippling expanse of tar that now blanketed the earth, the true threat emerged in all its loathsome glory. When it roared, rapid flashes of brilliant white light spilled out from the rift in its chiralium death mask, their unnatural radiance filtered through the pouring rain. Was that the antimatter that would spell out the heroes’ annihilation, encapsulated in that leonine body? Neither Goldlewis nor his allies intended to find out. The moment they gained their freedom, whether before or after being dragged through the tar, the Seekers took action. Some followed in Grimm’s footsteps and took off in a mad dash for the Qliphoth, while others rounded on the Catcher in an attempt to fight it. Most importantly, though, Zenkichi cast his speed-enhancing Sukukaja spell, which Primrose then spread to everyone else with Sealticge’s Seduction. That one tactic turned what would’ve otherwise seemed like an unwinnable scenario on its head, giving everyone the agility necessary to fight and run for their lives.

Not everyone intended to run, though. As she stood up from the tar, Sandalphon narrowed her eyes at the Catcher. Down in the ravine, and indeed throughout the trip so far, her fledgeling heart had been dominated by fear. That fear could not be quelled completely, but after the incident with the Hell Razer another feeling had been ignited. She felt angry, a little at Zenkichi for not trusting her, but mostly at herself for her weakness. Her very rough treatment at the hands of the BTs after they finally caught her only exacerbated her anger, and now, in a state of tranquil fury, the archangel would not hesitate. Blue mana surrounded her, carving geometric furrows through the tar at her feet. “I refuse to be a liability,” she pronounced. The next second she vanished, replaced by a column of blue light they shot up through the rainstorm and faded among the clouds. Sandalphon had returned to the Avenger.

By the time Goldlewis got up, coffin at the ready, he could see that no weapon or power seemed to be affecting the Catcher. It simply ignored everything thrown its way in order to hunt whatever it pleased, which made distracting it a risky proposition. His allies would need to present themselves as prey, then avoid its vicious savagery as long as possible until someone else happened to catch his attention. Goldlewis did not like his odds, so he turned to make a break for it. Of course, even with his speed boosted he knew he’d be likely to lag behind. When the veteran spotted a white whale in the sea of pitch, and heard Junior’s invitation amidst the cacophonous downpour, he barreled that way.

Between the Seekers and the Qliphoth, a miniature city block seemed to be taking shape. Structures from Redgraccoon City, leveled by the voidout, were rising from the tar like long-dead fossils. Though intimidating at first glance, this was good, actually. If it had been a straight shot through this sticky bog, it might be impossible to escape the massive Catcher even with Sukukaja. Those buildings could break line of sight and provide shelter. Still, the knowledge that just one person’s death could end them all made the veteran’s heart pound. He boarded the white whale, hoisted his coffin onto his shoulder, and cracked the lid. Alien technology flared to life, and a towering energy shield of tessellated hexagons. Laid flat, it provided a much larger canopy than Junior’s iron umbrella, so the kids could focus on other things. With most of the others on their way already, those on the whale couldn’t wait any longer. “Let’s move!”

Compared to Goldlewis, Nadia kept a much less level head. Right on the cusp of escaping the tar pool, a BT had managed to snag her foot and yank it clean off. “Dammit, dammit!” Not thinking straight, she only limped another step or two farther through the quagmire before more of the specters glommed on, pulling her apart pieces by piece. By the time Nadia finally capitulated, only her head and one arm remained attached to her upper torso, and the feral knew she wasn’t getting anywhere like that. One terrifying tar trip later, her pieces were dumped in the sludge only a few dozen feet away from where the Catcher burst forth.

“...Tar-riffic.” Nadia reassembled herself as fast as physically possible, joining her segments together with spools of stretched-out muscle fiber, then took off running while some allies tried to keep the Catcher busy. With her natural agility she knew that she’d probably be a good candidate for distraction, but right now Nadia couldn’t think far beyond herself, and the catgirl had plenty to worry about. She quickly found out that her usual method of running on all fours would only get her stuck twice as often, so the feral elected to flee bipedally. Knowing that she’d be screwed if another stuck limb came off instead of out, she leaped at her first chance to scramble up one of the destroyed city buildings, not bothering to question how such a thing came to be. After another moment she stood atop the tilted tower, where she took a second to catch her breath. The chill of the deluge on her raincoat helped to clear her head as much as wash off mud, but she knew by the flickering of her bubble shield that she couldn’t breathe easy.

In that moment, though, she spotted Ace on a nearby building. Nadia couldn’t tell if he’d seen her as well, and she couldn’t waste time getting his attention, but it heartened her to know that he’d made it this far too. It even looked like he was in a place to help others, which was very like him. She just hoped that he’d remember to save himself. As for her, she had places to be. At the sound of an otherworldly roar, she looked back to see the Catcher split open its face and unleash a glittering gold-black laser. It raked across the landscape, convincing the last few brave souls on decoy duty to flee. Now the chase was really on.

As Rika’s white whale swam around the base of the feral’s perch, speeding its passengers toward safety, Nadia remembered that she had a helper or two of her own. She took a deep breath and willed the Harbor Water Demon into existence. The enormous Abyssal woman appeared without her ordnance platform, knelt upon the roof of the building. Instantly her weight began to tilt the structure even farther forward, but before it could fall the striker balled Nadia up in her giant mitts and hurled the feral like a fastball. “NYAAAAAAAAAAAGH!” Much to her chagrin, unfortunately, the Harbor Demon did not have a good throwing arm. Nadia plopped down only about halfway through the tarry maze, and after extracting herself from the mire she clambered onto a half-submerged bus. From there she could climb, jump, and Charge her way between the buildings as they rose and fell, staying out of the gunk and ahead of the Catcher.

Still, the Seekers’ pursuer was relentless. Nadia lost time as she parkoured around, taking shelter where she could to recharge her shield, and she could feel the horror at her back. “For a fellow cat, you’re really doggin’ my heels,” she hissed. That was when she saw it: a building dead ahead that seemed hauntingly familiar, its formidable facade embellished with an acronym that Nadia wouldn’t soon forget. “No way,” she muttered, her eyes widening. It looked just like that police station–the one where she’d been trapped for half a week along with a handful of survivors, where she first happened to meet the Seekers. It had been annihilated like the rest of that diseased city, and yet here it was. While she didn’t exactly feel nostalgic for such an awful place, the sight of it gave her an idea. That Catcher could climb up and jump between buildings as well as she could, but could it navigate the station’s interior? Its layout had been burned into her memory, so she could use it as a shortcut to the Qliphoth, hidden from the Catcher’s gaze. With her shield generator low and only her coat between her and the timefall, Nadia couldn’t be choosy. She blitzed through the rain with Charge and charged inside.

Without having to worry about the timefall or the BT, Nadia made quick progress. At least, until the entire police station began to sink. She only realized when tar began to seep through the cracks in the floor, quickly covering it. All the relief that the feral felt quickly turned to panic as she realized that the ceiling was descending toward her. Based on her mental map, if she took the winding back hall, she’d be crushed well before reaching an exit. Changing plans, she raced up the lobby stairs three at a time, barely one step ahead of the rising tide. Upon reaching the top she took off at a dead sprint, her hood falling back as she rushed forward. Not a moment too late she threw herself through the rear windows and into the downpour. The sensation of raindrops on her ears and hair prompted her to reach back and pull her hood up, her heart pounding as she worried about how much damage had been done. At the sound of the Catcher’s roar, however, she forgot all about her appearance and took off running. The ground beneath her feet felt firmer now, and the Qliphoth loomed before her.

Meanwhile, the crew of the white whale had a couple close calls. They proved to be a tempting target for the Catcher, especially with its ability to dive into and re-emerge from the tar below, but thanks to its abilities Rika’s summon was in its element. Goldlewis kept them dry, pivoting his shield backward when necessary to defend against a chiral laser, as the cetacean slid through tarry makeshift streets. Once a convenience store rose directly beneath them, but under Rika’s guidance the whale ramped off the roof and splashed back down, its crew excited but none the worse for wear. All around, the other Seekers pushed forward as well. With all the adrenaline in play it felt like ages before the Catcher finally started to lose interest. As its prey gained ground, nearing the Qliphoth, the masked monstrosity made one final pass. It burst through the wall of a highrise overlooking the home stretch with a thunderous crash and hurtled down toward the white whale.

Goldlewis, who’d just been thinking that things had gotten a little two quiet, acted fast. “UMA!” He slammed the side of his coffin, and the Wall of Light went down. From within the cosmic blue arms of the cryptid reached out to grab hold of Rika and Junior. “Hold on, kids! HrrrrrrrAH!” With a mighty heave he hurled his coffin at the Qliphoth, taking both Junior and Rika with it. As they sailed away, the Catcher slammed down atop the whale in an explosion of stony dust and tar.

Nadia, who’d only just slid to a stop by the Qliphoth herself, stared with mouth agape. “Goldlewis!?”

From the cloud of debris, the Secretary of Absolute Defense appeared, flying with the aid of his ’Mothman’ airborne railcannon. With the help of its propulsion Goldlewis soared the last few hundred feet. The thrust ran out as he drew near, and he landed heavily among the rest of the Seekers. Thanks to his Wall of Light, his bubble shield had evidently recharged to full, allowing him to weather the timefall. After a moment, he let his breath out, doubling over from the stress. “Haaaaaah. Whoo-wie, that…was a close one, heh.”

While that wasn’t at all funny, Nadia couldn’t help but laugh, and the tension was broken. Her calico hair had gotten a little whiter, and her ears looked a little gray, but her own exposure hadn’t been too bad. When she looked around, she found only more good news. “We all seriously made it? Hell yeah! We qli-fought the good fight, eh?”

Among all her listeners, Grimm was perhaps the least amused. The Troupe Master had made it here in one piece, with no sign of aging, though at some point he’d lost his coat. Right now, his scarlet eyes peered the direction Goldlewis came from. After the dust settled, he could see no sign of the Catcher, and with its departure the rain seemed a little less heavy, somehow. Those strange buildings had all receded, and the tar drained away into the earth. Once more he could see nothing but a rain-soaked waste. Hopefully none of them would need to worry about going back the way they came.

Just then, a blur pillar of light announced the return of Sandalphon. During the others’ chase sequence she’d apparently found time to send her mud-covered clothes into the Avenger’s washroom, as now she wore her black slacks and blue two-piece collared shirt. Her silhouette seemed strange without her white coat. With a quick look around she confirmed that everyone was present, though it stood to reason that if anyone hadn’t made it, there wouldn’t be anyone left to warp in on. “Well done, everyone,” she told them, focusing only on results. “Now that we’re here, we need only make an entrance.”

She turned toward the Qliphoth’s exterior, scanning for superficial weaknesses. It seemed that the demon tree managed to sustain itself despite the timefall by continuously regenerating layers of tissue to replace the flesh that aged and sloughed off, accomplished via the reabsorption of that decaying matter. If the team stood here for much longer, falling slabs of rotten Qliphoth flesh could very well become a problem. Then again, they wouldn’t be here for long. Sandalphon spun up her gunstaff and opened fire on a weak spot, prompting the others to join in. She hoped that going to town on the Qliphoth’s exterior to break in would provide the others, especially those foul of temper, with some form of catharsis. It sure did for Nadia, who gleefully sharpened her claws and went to town, followed by Grimm in kind. Even Goldlewis joined in, taking up his railcannon to fire off a laser that did heavy damage to the trunk at the cost of the cannon itself. Before long, the Seekers had their way in.

Few could have anticipated what awaited them inside. Within the Qliphoth lay a bizarre environment. It was like nothing Sandalphon had ever seen, but she could tell at a glance that something was very wrong. In its natural state, as quaint a term as that might be, the interior resembled a cross between a tower and an anthill, with both vast atriums and intricate cave systems of pink, black, and red, unmistakably organic and internally inconsistent, but governed by some sort of evolutionary logic that lent its natural lattices and ribcage-like walkways some semblance of alien beauty. It was still stolen blood that pulsed through its veins, some of them big enough to fit a person inside, but the problems went much deeper than the Qliphoth’s purpose. Sandalphon could see some sort of fleshy blight parasitizing the demon tree, in some areas so widespread that entire areas of the Qliphoth had been completed consumed. Like a body fighting back against a virulent disease, this place was a volatile war zone, and where the lines were drawn and the distinction between host and invader became meaningless, the terrain looked the strangest of all.



Given their mission, everyone was on high alert for any sign of the Guardian, but that was not what they encountered first. Instead, the Seekers’ intrusion stirred the Qliphoth’s vile denizens into action. Just as with Redgraccoon City itself prior to the voidout, this place was home to countless Empusa, the twisted insectoid worker bugs of the demon tree. This time they had staunch competition, however, in the form of cadaverous horrors and infested nightmares, many of which seemed to be freakishly mutated humans, animals, or demons themselves, and the parasites seemed to be winning. As soon as the first few wretched sentinels got the scent of fresh meat, the minions of the Floodfestation began to pour in.

---

Juri glanced up, and took a casual step aside as some chunk of meat slop sloughed off the demon tree and splat onto the ground where she had just been. With a frown, she nudged it with her foot. ”Kay. Sick. What, like some kind of wax candle.” She scoffed, almost appreciatively. This wasn’t as scary as that invisible camera guy. Who wasn’t scary. It was just a stupid horror movie. This was real, which meant Juri could do as she pleased. That’s what mattered.

The Spider stalked inside with the others, staying on the outskirts of the group a short distance away and watching herself. This place was pure madness and chaos. It was like walking into a giant, failing immune system. ”...Grody.”

Juri kicked at a ‘rock’ (kidney stone?) and kept trudging forward, making a face. This Seeker crap had been pretty annoying so far. She was wondering if she would even bother sticking around. Fortunately, her prayers would be answered. The world’s most disgusting meat pinata parade appeared to greet the Seekers as guests. Festering abominations ripe for the popping. Juri cracked her neck kicked her leg up into the air vertically. ”I think it’s time to play.”

She arched her back and looked at Edelgard upside down, choosing to pick on her for no particular reason. Maybe it was just her prissy, shiny looks. ”Think you can finally make yourself useful?” Juri crowed, her toothy grin upside down. With a crooked lean she fell forward and then lunged to meet the nearest bulbous victim of the Flood. With a few sweeping spin kicks she burst right through it, sending viscera everywhere that then shifted into ash, hovering in the air with all the spores. She finished off the last one with a kick to gain some fuha stocks. Just then a bunch of funny little rat squid looking things started rushing at her, a swarm. Juri backdashed and sent a sweeping horizontal blade of energy their way, disintegrating the entire swarm in one blast, using OD energy to do so.

Setting a hand on her hip she cockily followed behind the sweeping blade as a large Flood with one extra large spike arm charged at her. It was more than twice her size but that hardly made a difference to Juri. ”Well, hello there, handsome!” Juri taunted, side stepping as the spike arm came down where she was just standing, impaling the fleshy floor. Her energy floor blade slashed into its ankles and dropped it to one knee. She did a heavy kick into the joint of the big arm stuck in the ground before it could retract, weakening it. When the big zombie lunged forward to overpower her, she leapt over and behind it. A couple more zombies lumbered towards her but she smacked them away with a vertical kick, charging herself up. ”Haha!”

Once again Ol’ One Arm rounded on her, and Juri dodged the downwards stab. She jumped up and stabbed her fingers into its throat and then ripped into it, hooking around and landing on its back. Over and over again she cracked her elbow into its skull. It thrashed to throw her off and she leapt backwards, and then changed momentum like an arrow to drive herself into its back with a divekick. Slices of white and black energy swirled around her like ribbons as she followed up with a few more kicks that lifted the giant zombie off the floor and sent it crashing down.

”I’ll crush you!” She brought her heel down like a hammer on the already weakened skull. Splat! The entire zombie faded into ash.

”Now we’re getting somewhere.” Juri flicked out her boot and fully stocked up on fuha. A few Empusas buzzed down to meet here, looking at her with all of their weird eyes. ”Overgrown pests. I’m gonna burn this place to the ground.” Juri span upwards with a pinwheel kick, swatting several out of the air. Any that lingered on the ground for too long were crushed under foot, gleefully stomped out. Juri never stayed in one place for long. When more Flood came her way she dashed backwards and seemed to make good on her promise, getting out her Tommy Gun, enhanced with flame and only rusty in a few spots as she kept it mostly under her coat. With a little giggle she pulled the trigger and the barrel spat flaming hot lead down range. She swept it back and forth like a garden hose and filled the chaff with holes before burning them away, many of the bullets hot enough to over penetrate and hit the swarmers behind them.

”I shoulda been an exterminator! Kyahaha!” Juri stopped firing long enough to football punt a squiddy rat into the distance.

"Ew, I remember now why I hated this zone. And no fire to burn it!" Blazermate said as she saw all the appraoching creatures. A lot of the group was in the same boat as her, and it didn't take long for everyone to start attacking these things with their various abilities. Blazmermate spent her time healing everyone. She debated putting down a sentry gun, but seeing as the boss hadn't shown itself, they might have to go find it and she didn't want her spirit on cooldwon for that.

She did have a fun ability she could try though. Looking at Ganondorf being one of the heavy hitters, Blazermate cast Disruption on him. The king of darkness would vanish from the battlefield for a couple seconds as he was ingulfed in an orb of darkness before reappearing, but he wasn't alone. Two identical illusions of himself were next to him attacking and protecting him from the sickening creatures approaching him. They didn't have his abilities, but they did have a fair amount his immense strength. They were much weaker than him in the hp department too, but they added up to basically another Ganondorf. While following Blazermate technically, she'd let them follow his orders since he was the one near them, plus it'd probably make him like her more knowing she could do stuff like this now.

---

"This is disgusting." Was all Roland could say about these creatures before he began to deal with them. Being one of the few in the group without really AoE, at least at the start, Roland tried to deal with whatever got close or tried to go after a creature that attempted to flank one of his allies. These creatures were a bit of a blessing in disguise for Roland though, as he could use their fairly weak stature to win clashes and up his emotion level, meaning he wouldn't start at a low level once the boss showed up.

Having started a battle in earnest, Roland remembered the Floor of Natural Science, and with winning his first clash got Love, A voice almost similar to Blazermate's, although not robotic saying "A true magical girl never runs away in the face of any hardships!". Probably a weird thing to hear come from Roland, although not from his own mouth like always. This let him heal whoever was the most damaged by any successful strikes he made for a little bit. As an infested... turtle? (Jr. would know it as a koopa) used its shell to try to dive him, Roland intercepted it with his hammer and knocked it away, the shell doing a LOT more damage than he was expecting to the enemy forces at it flew through them. "Uuuh... hope you didn't know him." Roland said to Jr, before moving to defend someone else.

He'd protect another ally the same way, and upon dicing up a creature made of mushrooms with his sword, he'd gain Emotion level 2 and that same voice spoke again, with Roland gaining Justice as it said "In the name of Love and Justice~ I have arrived!", making it so that now, whatever enemy had been doing the most damage to the group would have a clear indicator over its head marking it as a "villain", and anyone attacking it would do extra damage. Granted with how fast these creatures were dying, this symbol wouldn't appear for long but if his emotions held until the guardian, it'd help take that thing down.

Dealing with a few more creatures that got close, Roland reached emotion level 3, and with it, gained Magicial Girls, this time a feminine voice that sounded like a clown drowned in shadow said "Did you make me, or did I make you?", which had no apparent benefit to Roland for now. With how few creatures could beat Roland in a clash with their weak yet swarming tactics, it'd take a bit before its effect could trigger. He also gained the EGO page Gold Rush, something he'd probably use soon if they couldn't find out where to go next.

---

Sectonia was relieved that the time rain wouldn't get them in this tree, dispelling her chaos shield in case it had some weird effects by shielding her from the time rain. Granted her worry about the time rain would soon be over as all the ugly creatures within the tree started to converge on the new intruders to the tree. These things, clearly, enraged Sectonia at how disgusting and hideous they looked and she wasn't the only one. Many of the rest of the group were appalled or disgusted, but her rage burned the brightest. A bright burning rage she turned into blasts of holy lasers and swords.

Thanks to her various items and the new death pulse spell and her own lightning, Sectonia had a bit of a "don't approach me" zone about her, dealing with anything that got close. Although while weak, these things were nearly infinite and just destroying them, as cathartic as it was, wouldn't be something that would get them anywhere. "We need to find the source of this disgusting tree and destroy it." Sectonia said, a bit unsure of where to go herself and instead offering an area for Jr. Rika, and anyone who wanted to stay away from these creatures to inhabit while they figured out where to go.

Despite acting to distract the Quad BT, the princess managed to be one of if not the first to clear its goop zone. This was because, once she and her Legion started getting to the buildings rising and sinking in the slime, she decided to skip ahead, slipping into the shadows and then simply hopping from one spot of shelter to another, the entire world her twilight domain thanks to the clouds above.

This ended once she got to the end of course, and zombie building filled tar gave way to blasted empty wasteland, because the tree that was just beyond it hardly made for good cover. Great chunks of it sloughing off and crashing down to splatter on anything unfortunate enough to be beneath them saw to that.

So she herself saw to dealing with that.

She whipped a cloak off her back, which expanded larger and larger till it formed a protective dome of magic, providing thirty seconds of safety against the rain of water and flesh alike. Just in time, too, as a moment later Edward came crashing out of the top floor of one of the skyscrapers that was still in the process of rising (having landed in it when it was lower), shield flaring in the rain, and Quad BT leaping full on out of the top of the structure after him, like a cat pouncing after a pigeon.

Despite how that battle of prey and predator often went, however, the Dreadnaught narrowly managed to swoop out of the way of the beast, which went splashing down into the muck below (unharmed of course) while he glided down to safety within the Giant’s shroud, boots digging furrows in the growing dying soil as he killed his momentum.

Raw speed had ment both of them had gotten out of the mess mostly unscathed, particularly because they’d mainly suffered aging to replaceable scales and wings, but that didn’t mean they were done being involved in it. Minda shadow hopped back in, a phantom in the walls calling out and flickering in and out of the shadows to distract the Quad BT, while Edward summoned and sent out disposable copper golems marching into the jaws of the beast to get torn apart by it, the magic-constructs leaving nothing behind to be eaten.

The troop kids arrived last of all, their land swimming whale steed with its Goldlewis’ provided rainshield making it effortless to avoid the environment hazards, and yet also making them a big target for the Quad BT, resulting in lots of cat and mousing to keep ahead of the beast. Not to mention it being most obstructed by the buildings due to having to go around them.

The conclusion to that almost ended in tragedy, but instead ended with Jr cheering ”Way to go! That was so cool!” when Goldlewis got clear from the danger he’d already bailed them out of in an incredibly dramatic faction.

Rika meanwhile was, while also pleased everyone was good, just a little upset about her whale biting the dust. That one had lasted quite a while after all, even if it was entirely replaceable, though doing so would be a (literal) pain.

With the shroud above timing out, and the threat of flesh and flood returning, there was certainly a need for that unfortunately, and so from the soil there burst a fresh whale, forged from a sacrifice of blood from the princess. Fortunately, with magic back on the menu, so to was access to the Avenger’s armory, and so with a retrieved paintbrush acting as a catalyst for his magic, her brother swiftly saw to her wounds while the new whale’s guns and fireball breath started to hammer the wall of the tower along with the others.

Edward needed a little prep to start helping, but when it came to breaching walls of dark towers, he did have the perfect tool for the job, after a bit of chanting at least: ”From the forge comes thunderous justice. Magic bound in steel by mortal hands and directed against those who would use the same to claim to be gods. Hear the people’s roar against false divinity, and watch as it breaks their monsters, breaks their walls and breaks their spirits till all worlds have had their darkness burned away, and the guns at last can fall silent”



”It’s wording could do with some amendments, I was quite irrational angry when I wrote this, but I am still more than happy with the results” he said, as the three full sized cannons he’d just forged from thin air stabbed spikes into the ground to stabilize themselves, before promptly drowning out everything else as a triple barrage of magi-tech firepower went crashing into the tower’s walls.

This was much to the displeasure of the baby strapped to his chest, the Dreadnought having not really had time or know-how to help sooth poor baby Mario. So he stepped away from the guns, which were able to keep blasting away every 5 seconds without his input, and set about passing off the problem to someone else.

To be fair though, it would be very much for the best.

”Miss Sandalphon, are you able to evacuate the infants from the field with the teleportation skill you just used? The magic linking to the armory would be rather detrimental to their health unfortunately, so you are, I believe, our best shot at getting them out of harm's way” he enquired as they worked at breaching the tower.

While others hammered at the walls, Minda, who had had plenty of fun messing with the BT and didn’t have much frustration to work out, instead geared up in preparation for a fight, and then made sure to be one of the first into the breach, doing so with stamina and mana to spare.

Shield in one hand, lance in another, a razor sharp fan in a third, and riding atop her Beast Legion, she charged forwards to meet the defenders that would surely be rallying to the tower’s defence, and instead ran right into a warzone consisting of undead meat monsters battling insectile demons.

”Just like in the dreams” Minda laughed as she was struck by deja vu for situations just like this from her half remembered time as a warlady of the deadzone.

Naturally, both sides were displeased with a third one entering the battle, but only the floodfested had the numbers to really pivot and come try and take a bite out of them. So Midna made sure to strike first, careening forwards towards their lines before her Beast legion leapt, claws slashing down onto a infested charger, using it as a stepping stone to leap again and let Minda deliver a lance strike straight through the skull of an ancient healer that she’d identified as the source of some kind of buffing aura that died alongside it.

She and her beast then landed among the horde, but she didn’t seem concerned.

”Alright, who’s next? All of you? Suit yourselves!”

She flicked the fan, using it as a casting implement, summoning four spectral Poes who then began swirling around her bodies ghosting through her foes, stealing the life from the masses while and granting it to their mistress she started to snuff out the foes lives more directly. Her shadow hand crashed down, her minions arose as titans to annihilate swaths of the sickness, all the while lance and fan struck down more powerful foes and her shield, armor and untouchable steed kept her, at least somewhat, safe from harm.

Behind her, Rika, Jr and Edward all took a more supportive role in the form of ranged bombardment.

Maglock cannons sang out every five seconds, launched over the heads of the melee fighters towards packs of infested charging towards them, blasting them apart before they could even take part in the battle, while Edaward himself did his best to snipe priority targets with the Therian Viral Rifle, or to heal allies using either it or his feather staff striker.

Rika’s whale did most of her blasting, while the princess focusing on saving ammunition for latter fights by sending out shocker swarms from her hangers to zap their foes, or, when they got closer, lashing out with the Red Baron flying blades, delivering slashing claw strikes or skewering stabs barrages from within the safety of Sectonia’s aoe doom field. Finally, she also found another use for her Vespikan Ichor Queen striker, which could stab its giant blade into the ground to cause large patches of the tree’s biological floors to reach up, trying to grab the reanimated corpses in order to drag them back into the ground where they belonged.

Jr had Peeka and Mimi do his blasting for him, electroballs and plasma bolts peppering the enemy, while he first focused on setting up defenses, painting flaming goop and scattering iron marbles around their firing position. Once that was set up, he switched to providing healing support, throwing out Cures and Esuras to help heal and cleanse the melee fighters whenever they took hits or debuffs.

As the Seekers gathered in front of the Qliphoth and caught their breath, Geralt pulled out the Spirits of the Gargoyles he’d slain over the ravine and crushed them, not wanting to lose track of their spoils.



He put on the ring and stowed the other items away for later use. He could likely use them in that smelter if they didn’t prove to have any downsides like the Bleed amulet he was still wearing did.

Having not seen Sandalphon during his escape from the Catcher, Zenkichi was hit with a wave of relief when she reappeared in a beam of light. ”Welcome back.” It was a simple greeting, but it came with a warm smile and a genuine breath of the relief he felt.

He, Geralt or Edelgard, hadn’t quite expected her to spin up her gunstaff and open fire on the Qliphoth after a few moments of consideration, but her decisiveness had a point all its own. Geralt drew forth the hateful Flesh and began carving away at the flesh of the undead tree. Zenkichi summoned the Greatsword, relying on its massive size to carve out great furrows into the Qliphoth’s flesh. Edelgard pulled Aymr from its hammerspace and joined them, hacking and slashing at the demon tree.

With the effort of so many Seekers, the demon tree quickly gave way and opened a path for them to enter through, and they all hurried in to witness the horrific scene that lay within. Rooms, a veritable dungeon even, of twisted flesh. Worse than that, however, was the infection that was clearly starting to gain ground. The Qliphoth’s defenders were putting up an effort, but against the veritable flood that was the Flood, they stood little chance.

As everybody began to engage, Juri took a moment to mock Edelgard. The Flame Emperor simply regarded the thuggish woman with a flat, disdainful visage and retorted, ”I believe you will find there is little I am more suited for. as she made her way into battle. She was in her element here, a mighty glacier that fell upon lesser enemies as a harbinger of death. Each Flood infection form that charged her was crushed by either boot or Aymr, each combat form that crashed into her fell like wheat before a scythe. Edelgard was a force of nature as she knocked over one Flood with her shield while her axe tore another to pieces.

When needles began to crash into her form, she grunted from the impact of the ranged form’s spike against her armor, raising her shield to block the volley that followed. Geralt noticed her predicament as infection forms began to swarm in an attempt to overwhelm the armored threat, and leapt to her defense, Monsoon’s flaming katana burning through the infernal creatures with each swing. “Zenkichi! Need some range here!” he called out, pressing his back against the Flame Emperor’s. “Keep that thing from taking my head off, and I’ll keep the little ones off your back.” He added.

Zenkichi, meanwhile, was having the time of his life. Tearing his way through small fry like these was his bread and butter, and Ragnell was making it even easier with the defense buff it provided. If something tried to break and run, or regroup for a better vantage point, he could launch an explosive blast at it and take it out from a short distance away. When Geralt called for some range support though, he understood the assignment immediately. Cutting down an Infested that got a little too close for comfort, Zenkichi backed up and called for Valjean to provide some artillery support. ”One-Shot Kill!” He cried as a massive bullet blasted forth from his Persona, obliterating the Flood ranged form with a single hit and freeing Edelgard from its barrage. Geralt immediately broke off her back, unleashing a blast from Igni and igniting a few Infested that were coming his way.

Edelgard returned to her onslaught, throwing in a few fireballs for good measure. Feeling a well of power returning to her, she called upon a new old spell that admittedly was hardly her most-used.



A bright yellow sigil appeared in front of Edelgard, moments before an explosion of light appeared in the space of an Infested runner and destroyed it, returning half the damage dealt as healing. She hadn’t taken much damage from the assorted enemies, but they’d done bits of chip here and there.

Geralt, for his part, was cutting down enemies aplenty with Monsoon’s fire katana while trying to make heads or tails of this place. The Guardian would either be further up or deeper inside the Qliphoth, but good luck finding a remotely straightforward path in either direction. For now, he’d keep an eye out as he blasted infected with Aard, called down Eldritch Lightning to take out swarms, and swapped Identities to deal with various kinds of foes.

From the moment Nadia first stepped into the Qliphoth, the catgirl had been ready to fight. Everything about this alien place puzzled her senses and sensibilities, creating a profound sense of unease. This place just felt wrong. Somewhere between ‘innards’ and ‘interior’, its various structures seemed organic enough to remind her of the vile Womb she and the others braved deep within the literal bowels of the Under. That in turn threatened to provoke the phagophobia instilled in her by her horrific night in the Maw, but luckily Nadia’s new surroundings struck her as too bizarre to cause any reaction beyond goosebumps. In its pristine state the strange patterns of the Qliphoth’s insides might have intrigued someone like Sectonia by virtue of the unique aesthetic and abundant radial symmetry, like a towering coral reef from another world. But the incursion of not one but several extraterrestrial plagues, visible in the form of enormous, tumorous outcrops and grotesquely fleshy growths filled wasp and feral alike with visceral disgust. The end result was a hellish hybrid of plant and animal, overrun with wretched parasites, with one of the seven remaining Guardians hidden somewhere inside.

Before the Seekers could hunt down their target, however, they would need to contend with the horde. Within moments of the heroes’ arrival, the local vermin sounded the alarm. As the awful outburst of howls and shrieks resounded through the Qliphoth’s cambium, more and more twisted voices joined the spine-chilling chorus, heeding the frontrunners’ summons. Nadia flattened her ears at the horrible din, but stood her ground alongside her teammates, even as the tear in the demon tree’s outer wall began to pull itself together behind them. Once it sewed itself together with fleshy tendrils like a surgeon’s sutures, there was no going back–only breaking through. “There’s a clawful lot of ‘em,” Nadia punned with a toothy smile, sharpening her claws. “Let’s give ‘em a zom-beatdown!”

Grimm’s scarlet eyes narrowed as he observed the incoming mob. “Witless slaves,” he remarked, his tone scathing. “I’ve seen their like before. Hollow vessels of infection…their kind are all of a piece.”

“We must avoid infection at all costs. I will cleanse the team with Angelic Wings regularly,” Sandalphon announced.

“They don’t look like much, but let’s not get cocky, y’all!” Goldlewis cautioned the team as he dropped his coffin. When the lid slid open, the UMA lifted a Skyfish minigun into his waiting hands. He lifted the mass of heavy metal into firing position with a no-nonsense look on his face. “Don’t run off and get yourself surrounded!” The next moment his words gave way to the uproarious report of his minigun as bullets ripped into the first wave of undead monsters.

With their backs against the wall and mobs trickling in from three out of the four sides, Seekers quickly and naturally formed a defensive line, centered around Sectonia. Her auto-targeted volleys of necrotic skulls and dark lightning could seek out and destroy anything that got too close, so long as her teammates thinned the numbers beforehand. The gunslingers and other mages entrenched themselves around her position to cover as many angles as possible. Edward’s three maglock cannons served as the backbone of the team’s artillery, their thunder as dependably regular as the beat of a wardrum, obliterating a whole gang of floodfested monsters every 1.67 seconds. Further forward stood the mobile perimeter of melee fighters, weapons at the ready to reap the undead legions like wheat at a harvest.

Having selected her gunstaff for its higher rate of fire, Sandalphon haunted the center of the Seekers’ formation. Through scanning the area she quickly detected a length of entangled nerve fibers, redundant organs, and thin sensory membranes stretched overhead, and once the archangel vaulted on top of that ganglion she could easily oversee the whole battlefield while still being in range for her skills. Blazermate might excel at sustaining one fighter at a time, after all, and others harbored their own methods of healing, but none could beat the party-wide recovery that Sandalphon offered. Fortunately the Seekers came out of the gate swinging, and since they seemed to be in control, Sandalphon could focus on offense. She took aim at larger targets yet to reach the front lines and opened fire, placing shot after well-aimed shot. When drawn to an infested charger, she noted the disfigured head of the plague’s humanoid host dangling beneath the front of the quadruped’s frame, but when she blasted it off with a bolt of ether the rest of the freakish thing didn’t even slow down. The sharpshooter curled her lip slightly and aimed next for center mass, which obliterated the charger in a burst of technocyte biotics. Lesson learned. Another one down, who knows how many more to go.

While Goldlewis knew he could throw down in the melee alongside Edelgard and Juri, he knew that this fight was just an appetizer and that the team had one hell of a main course ahead of them. He judged it better to not waste his energy on the small fry, or risk the natural ebb and flow of battle leaving him suddenly stranded in a sea of monsters. Instead he hung back at the midrange, his firepower strong but limited thanks to the rate at which the UMA’s Security Level replenished. Forced to be choosy, Goldlewis spent his resource on larger targets, mowing them down with a burst of gunfire from his Skyfish or an explosive Thunderbird drone. In this way he played much the same role as Rika; if any floodfested managed to get through the front lines, they’d have to get through one heavy metal gunner or another before reaching the team’s squishy core. He especially relished the sight of swollen, shambling carrier forms and diseased broodmothers which his bullets could pop like zits, prematurely releasing their stores of scuttling infection forms and purple-red maggots that could be mopped up by Sectonia’s magic or Junior’s paint. Still, he couldn’t get too excited. Every time Goldlewis spotted the distended, glassy-eyed head of a human or animal lolling above protruding crimson feelers, the chill down his spine reminded him why he was here.

Full of adrenaline after her brush with death, Nadia fought at the forefront beside the likes of Geralt and Roland on the front lines. As much as she would’ve liked to keep these pestilential peons at arm’s length, she was a hand-to-hand fighter through and through, so there was nothing for it but to trust in Sandalphon’s cleansing. While she couldn’t swing around a giant sword like Zenkichi to take out half a dozen floodfested at once, she could run circles around any that came her way. With fangs and claws bared, she took the fight to the first runner with a leaping overhead slash, then released a pressurized blood dropkick that blasted it away and herself backward. The bloody burst momentarily staggered a gang of combat forms, but a charge broke through and pounced as Nadia fell. She performed a handspring off the ground to avoid it, then launched her left forearm in midair to snatch the charger like a grappling hook. The next second she landed on the wretch with a Mantread-empowered stomp.

Without missing a bit, a combat form barreled forward to deliver a clothesline with its mutated arm, but Nadia popped off her head to duck underneath it. She whirled around and grabbed the freak by the arm as her head fell back into place, severed the limb with a vertical chop, then swung it with both hands like a baseball bat to send her attacker packing. That stunt earned her a wallop from the next combat form in line, but Nadia drew an Athame as she stumbled backward, then nailed the miscreant with a short-ranged dagger throw that lowered its defense. From there an El Gato axe kick cleaved it apart, and as its halves fell Nadia landed only to see a torso leap at her. She grabbed the crawler out of the air, her claws sunk into its head, stomped a nauseous crawler beneath her boot before it could spray, and then kicked the first into an incoming combat form. A many-legged carnis reared its ugly head too close for comfort, but as she blocked its snapping pincers her tail curled around the handle of her Athame, then hurled it into the beast’s torso. Nadia stepped forward, seized the dagger, and yanked it upward, causing the carnis to reel back just in time for the angry combat form to deck Nadia with a wild swing.

The feral fell back, laid out flat on her beck. In an instant the floodfested swarmed around her, but Nadia was nothing if not a quick thinker. She launched a Fiber Upper from her prone position to kick straight through the loathsome head of the carnis, then snap up to her hyper-extended legs and escape the mob. Turning upside-down as she fell, she pierced the ground with her hardened ear and rotated her body in a lethal Wheel of Fortune. As she picked up speed, her legs extended farther, creating a whirling zone of death. Her technique carved up floodfested for a whole three seconds before her legs hit the solid body of a hulking tank form.

“Uh oh.” The brute grabbed her by the legs, whipped her around, and slammed her down. She lay there, momentarily stunned, and the mob pushed forward with the tank at its head, only for three firebats to explode against its body in sequence. Nadia turned her head to see Grimm as the Troupe Master lifted up his cloak, then extended its ends into the ground. The next moment, spikes shot up beneath the floodfested, spearing the grunts and staggering the tank. “You make some good points!” With a grin she got to her feet, hurled her knife into the monster to cut down its defense, then revved up her arm. “You know the drill!” On a rocket of blood she shot the limb into the tank, which dug into its rotten flesh with gusto. As it did Grimm teleported into the air above and behind her target, then dove down with a corkscrew kick the other direction. After a messy second or two, both arm and Grimm burst through, and the tank slumped down while Grimm slid to a stop by Nadia. “Sick!” the feral smiled, lifting up her stump for a high five. When her ally stared at her quizzically, she launched muscle fibers from the end instead to retrieve her arm. More floodfested were already on the way, so bug and beast sharpened their claws together. “Alright, red eyes,” Nadia grinned, dousing the floor with Free Lemonade to rack up damage on all foes who got close. “Let’s slice ‘em up insections!”

For a time, the Seekers dominated the fight with relative ease, despite the number and variety of enemies. They wouldn’t have to worry about friendly fire as much if they’d set up on a hill, so the long-rangers could shoot over the heads of the melee attackers, but they racked up many kills nonetheless. As the seconds turned into minutes, though, purer Flood and older Infested started showing up, many with nasty surprises like transformation or debilitative auras, and the fodder appeared in much greater numbers. To Goldlewis, it didn’t seem like it’d be long before the floodfested were jostling for space, a shoulder-to-shoulder mosh pit crowded around his merry band. The turning point, however, came with the arrival of a large Abomination that remained at a distance. With flashes of its lambent yellow sacs and waves of its whiplike arms the specialist seemed to take control of the floodfested horde, turning their mindless onrush into a coordinated assault that intelligently targeted specific individuals. Packs began to circle around to flank the Seekers, while in the distance strange tissue masses the size of hot air balloons slowly drifted toward the Seekers’ position. At that, Goldlewis gritted his teeth. It would be bad enough if those things fell on them, but it was whatever they had inside their fleshy mouths that really worried him. “Hey, Sandalphon?” he called. “This ain’t gonna work for much longer. Tell me we got a way outta this doggone mess!”

“I believe so.” The archangel’s voice emanated from the sigils of everyone in her ‘circle’. “It’s taken me some time to map out what I can of the area, but on the basis that the Qliphoth is roughly analogous to an ordinary tree, I have identified a number of veins that appear to pump xylem up from the roots to the Qliphoth’s upper reaches.” Changing her aim, Sandalphon took a shot at one such vein on the periphery of the battlefield. Her ether bolt did enough damage to rupture the tunica layers and send xylem -which looked rather like blood- spilling out. “These veins are susceptible to forced entry. I recommend using the upward flow to quickly escape this battle and ascend the demon tree.”

Pulling his claws from the stinking corpse of a tar-mutalist moa, Grimm glanced at the nearest bloodstream. It snaked upward along the Qliphoth’s inner wall, sometimes dangling in the open air, until it disappeared into the ceiling. Where it ended was anyone’s guess, but it couldn’t be much worse than here. He turned to Nadia as she hurled a Boiler into a mob to explode amongst them, and the two shared a nod. They sprinted away from the horde toward a bloodstream atop a high ledge, where their agility would give them the edge against their pursuers–those that couldn’t fly, at least. After climbing and leaping most of the way with toxic Ospreys hot in their heels, they slashed open the giant vein, and Grimm dove inside. “Ugh!” Nadia groaned. “If this ruins my clothes, I’ll be seein’ red!” As poisonous payloads rained down around her, the feral climbed in.

Meanwhile, one of the floating Genetrix finally opened wide, discharging a swarm of floodfested to rain down on the Seekers’ formation. “I goddamn knew it!” Goldlewis swore as he turned tail and barreled toward a bloodstream by the entrance. Sandalphon quickly stood up as well. She’d been nigh untouchable atop her ganglion, with only the spines of ranged forms to worry about, but with enemies literally pouring down it was time to go. As the first few floodfested shredded themselves on the razor wire she’d set up around her vantage point, she floated down after Goldlewis with Heavensent. She fired down at the swarm in the air, using the recoil to speed up her flight. With the floodfested only a couple hundred feet behind them, the two reached the vein together, but since neither could deal slash damage, they had to improvise. Sandalphon froze the surface of the vein with Frost Lock, allowing Goldlewis to punch through with a shotgauntlet. Without a moment’s hesitation for the sake of her formal wear Sandalphon immersed herself, and Goldlewis squeezed in after not a moment too soon, and the tunica healed itself just in time to block the claws and fangs behind him. For a terrifying moment it felt like the big man might clog the Qliphoth’s artery, but the next second the pressure pushed him through, and the veteran soared skyward.

Borne by the bloodstreams like reverse waterslides, the team sped upward through the demon tree. The damage done to the bloodstreams weakened their flow, however, and it wasn’t long before the pressure diminished enough that the veins burst and the heroes popped out. Soaked in crimson xylem and desperate for a breath of fresh air, the Seekers found themselves either in cavelike hollows or atop large platforms suspended over open space, just large enough to serve as makeshift arenas. In addition to other veins leading even higher into the tree, these arenas tended to contain debris from the wreckage of Redgraccoon City, absorbed into the Qliphoth along with its populace, as well as floodfestation tumors. The Seekers would also find that the demon tree’s branching circulatory system had separated them in transit, meaning the allies that they’d ended up with might not be those who they fled alongside.

Sandalphon remained deadpan as blood dripped from her face and hair, then rose gingerly from the ground. She appeared to be in a Qliphoth hollow with a relatively low roof, cluttered with outcrops of the alien material either as stalactites and stalagmites, or joined in columns. Strangest of all was the abundance of mirrors, scattered and arranged throughout as if this section of the Qliphoth had consumed a carnival’s house of mirrors. “Hm.” It was quiet here, and other than a few boils she couldn’t see any sign of the floodfestation. She approached one of the mirrors, trying to salvage her hair, until a noise from behind her suggested that someone else had arrived. The shape that flopped out of the broken vein didn’t belong to Goldlewis, though. Evidently the team’s method of transit had separated and rejoined them at random, which reminded Sandalphon a lot of Arahabaki. “Hm.”

After confirming that her ally was alright, Sandalphon glanced back at the mirror. Her reflection had been replaced by a nightmarish monstrosity, an amalgamation of corpses tied together with barbed wire, cloaked in raven-black hair, and adorned with a giant buzz saw. Sandalphon’s brows rose as her pupils became dots. “Hm!” The horror’s many faces crowed hideously as it raised its saw. Sandalphon leaped backward, using Heavensent to gain ground, and threw a Frost Lock at the thing in the mirror. The icy cluster reflected off the surface and back at Sandalphon, freezing her solid as the Guardian smashed through the mirror. Laughing with many voices, the Guardian approached with its buzzsaw to finish Sandalphon off.

When Grimm slumped out of a bloodstream, even more scarlet than usual, he blinked his baleful eyes open to see a large, dark chamber half overgrown with floodfestation. Swollen pustules and weeping sores blinked down at him like abominable eyes, but Grimm’s own lingered on what lay in front of him. At least a hundred infected humans could be seen milling about the hollow aimlessly, but when the Troupe Master’s intruded, they took notice. And as they gave voice to their ire with a cacophony of grunts and groans, three disfigured, batlike horrors dropped down from the roof to hide among the crowd and perform their dirty deeds.

Blood was nothing new to Nadia, but usually she ended up covered in her own, not the demonic ichor of some godforsaken tree. Eventually the pressure pushing her upward through the Qliphoth’s veins subsided to the point where the catgirl was essentially stuck in place, but as luck would have it she could see flickering light through the somewhat translucent tunica. She slid the claw of her index finger through the meat and promptly fell through. She plopped down on solid ground in a shower of viscous xylem, coughing and sputtering. When she registered the heat on her face, however, she opened her eyes to see that she’d arrived in a hollow that appeared to be on fire. Its walls, covered in gnarled, twisted protrusions that might have been branches or bone, burned with furious vigor.

Nadia also noticed a huge creature in the center of the area, between her and a healthy bloodstream on the hollow’s opposite side, one clad in a dark leather suit and a cat-eared gas mask. Though human in shape, she splayed herself out on all fours like a beast, with veins, eyes, tails, and claws that blazed like molten lava. Nadia grinned at her. “Wow, never thought I’d run into a fellow feral here,” she drawled, her hands on her hips. “You cause this little in-fur-no? Y’know, our team could use a little firepower. Whaddya say we hightail it together?” Instead the Successor of the Claw rose with a menacing snarl and the hiss of flame. Nadia assumed her fighting stance, bouncing back and forth. “Fine then. I don’t mind a little fire in my kit!”

Meanwhile, Goldlewis wound up in a completely different style of hollow. Once his bloodstream couldn’t push him up any farther, he fought to tear his way out. It took some doing, but after a few moments he flopped down onto the floor, where he laid for a few seconds on his back, chest heaving. He scarcely registered the bloodstream spitting his coffin out behind him, but as he took stock of his situation it slowly sank in just how weird this was. He seemed to be in a basement, with two halls leading out of the small room he’d emerged into. Crumbled sections of wall revealed alien flora poking through, so he reasoned that this whole building must’ve been swallowed up by the Qliphoth at some point. However, he could not explain the safe that lay on the ground beside him, wrapped in barbed wire. As Goldlewis composed himself and got off the ground, another safe down the hall did as well, until the veteran stood opposite a huge, blood-spattered killer as tall as he was, a barbed sack in one hand and a mallet in the other. The Keeper beat his hammer against the safe on his head and strode forward, foregoing the typical song and dance. Goldlewis thought it only right to hoist his coffin and do the same.

The cannons roared and roared again and again with the ceaseless stamina of machines, but the rest of the seekers were still all too mortal. Though they raged against the waves of reanimated undead with fearless determination, slowly, gradually, the tide rose, and their barriers against it faltered.

The first was quiet, a little click, as Edward’s rifle’s well of medicine/poison ran dry. A few moments later, and there was a fizzle, followed by a high pitched whine of complaint from Jr as his wells of mana ran dry. While the latter would return in time, and their primary healer was still carrying her weight, but two sources of healing coming to an end put added pressure on those taking all the hits right when things were starting to ramp up.

Rather than squad of infested people and the odd ancient, whatever intelligence was commanding the flood-festion saw fit to send out things less disposable than masses of reanimated corpses, one of which turned out to be, of all things, a due of monowheel Choppers, their hulking brute pilots and own machinery both overrun with the mixed infestation. Despite the meat gumming up their works, the heavy vehicles had the force of a battering ram at their backs, and a host of nasty prow spikes with which to sharply apply it.

Alongside them charged a whole pack of chargers like hunting hounds. Together the mass of them all looking to barrel right past the front line in order to crash into the back lines.

An armored warrior moved to intercept them, who was then joined by another who rose up out of a portal to bar the way. The latter raised its round shield, which at the last moment unfurled a great rectangular barrier of energy, against which one of the choppers crashed, sending the darknut blocking its way grinding backwards, armored boots scraping against the fleshy floor.

Beside her minion, Midna reached out with her shadow hand, slamming its open plam into the front wheel of the other Chopper, fingers wrapping around and holding the great front wheel back.

”You're not getting past!” Minda shouted at the meat machine confidently, despite the pant of breath she let out right after. She’d been brawling for she wasn’t sure how long, right in the front lines, with no breaks, and she hadn’t exactly been the athletic type before all her fusions.

She was not going to let herself be the first one to crack under pressure however. Even as she held back the chopper, she raised her arms and struck at the chargers that flooded around it, lance skewering one, while her fan flicked to slash a clawing limb before it could strike her, the resulting wind gust blowing it back as well. Her shield guarded her other side, but she then had to haul it to her front as a pir of cannons on the front of the chopper whined in protest and then unleashed a pair of bolts at her, which slammed into the icy tower shield. Doing so opened her up at the flank, where another charger took the opportunity to swipe at her.

Armor and elevation atop her Beast Legion steed made the damage minimal, but they weren't going to stop. So she hauled the chopper to the side, and had her legion burst forwards along its flank, claws coming out as it pounced, slashing the infested pilot, and then clambering on top of the vehicle’s stalling wheel.

”Come on, come get me” she taunted the chargers, stabbing her lance down at one trying to clamber up, and then shadow hand punching another down. It was a good spot to survive the horde from, even with the chopper still trying to move under her without its infested pilot.

Unfortunately, being up above the masses of meat also put her at risk from the enemy’s limited but still dangerous fire support, that came in the form of barrages of spikes from ranged forms.

Fortunately she had her own, and though she got needled lightly from a burst of fire, the offending flood revised a counter battery of cannon fire a moment later. Focused on those shooters however let another form slip through, and though it was a similar size to the supportive and descriptive ancients, the flood Tank Form was a pure melee beast. It smashed against her darknut’s already damaged energy barrier, with all its bulk, causing it to waver, and then with a slam of a club-like arm brought it down entirely.

Chargers and the chopper surged forwards, the bike crashing into the actual shield of the darknut, which reacted by parrying it to the side, letting the vehicle slip past even as the tank form smashed into the armored undead’s other side, denting armor and cracking bone.

Tapping into her dwindling supply of mana, the princess opened a portal, enlarged her wolfos , and sent it pouncing out. The towering beast bit into the shoulder of the tank form before hauling it to the side away from the darknut. Rather than follow up the attack however, it staggered back, retching at the mouthful of infested flesh it had just gotten.

”come on come come- Cura!” Jr managed to get out up above from the ranged perimeter, cleansing the beast of its imminent assimilation into the flood, but it was a close thing, the boy very much in a position where he was expending his mana as soon as he had enough. He certainly didn’t have any left to deal with the chopper and chargers presently storming up the hill towards them.

His pokemon made a valiant effort to stymie the swarm, but their reserves of mana and PP were also running low, and so they could only ship away at it with twin pairs of psybeams (Mimi having copped Peeka’s move) which wasn’t a stab move for either of them. So it was up to his sister to deal with the problem.

With the red baron drones floating next to her gauntlets she stepped into the way of the incoming foes. She pulled back and then whipped out a punch at the thin air, and with her fingers extended forwards rather than curled, prompting for three of the sword tipped drones to go lancing forwards in response to the action.

The three of the blades all stabbed into a charger’s front in a rather inefficient amount of overkill, after which she whipped the other hand around in a cat scratch like motion, sending three more blades swooping around, her fingers spread in such a way that they stabbed into the flank of one charger each. Then she pulled both hands back, wrenching the blades out of the foes and summoning them back to her side, before thrusting both hands forwards and sending them all at the Chopper.

Metal stood a better chance than meat however, and the blades mostly glanced off of the front bulk of the alien vehicle, drone blades ending up either embedded in the ground or wobbling in the air, all far from where they should be in relation to her commanding fingers.

”Wait… what do I do when they do that?!” Rika exclaimed in a half panic, this kind of balancing blow having not come up in her practice with them, the ship girl wrestling to regain control before giving up and just counter charging the motor vehicle, taking a pair of energy bolts it shot at her with her personal shield.

She didn’t do this alone however, as there came an unexpected call of ”Sortieing! from Edward of all people, the dreadnought abandoning the commanding sniping position leaping into the air with a few flaps and then gliding down into the fight.

Born by wing and gravity he whipped past the landbound shipgirl, over the top of the chopper’s front wheel, and then as he passed the driver, delivered a slash with a machete to sever its head from its body.

Despite this decapitation strike, the infestation still had enough control over the chopper to keep charging blindly forwards. But it was very much blindly, which gave Rika plenty of space to pivot her body, maneuvering thruster to the side of it, then pivot again while charging up a vaultbreaker. With a wordless warcry she launched forwards and delivered the magically empowered punch into the side of the machine, striking with enough force to knock it off of its one wheel and sending it crashing down onto its side.

It crushed out a few chargers in the process, leaving rather few remaining. Some charged up to die to Sectonia’s firepower, while jr got his pokemon, Peeka and Mimi, to dash forwards to help cover, shadowy claws and dazzling gleams dealing with chargers as Rika got control of the red baron drones again.

Down at the bottom of the hill, Edward’s wings spread wide as he slowed his rapid descent, landing right before the melee surrounding Minda’s position. His machete slashed again near as soon as he’d done so, striking a circling charger, loading the flintlock it was bonded to in the process which he unleashed upon the tank form flood, the round whipping past the armored form of the princess’ darknut.

The heavy round knocked the flood off balance, leaving the darknut an opening to cleave into it.

Edward had little time to focus on that fight however, bringing up the hunk of metal and crystal that was his enchanted buckler to block a charger’s claw swipe, before retaliating with a quick chop. Without the momentum of the descent however, the machete was hardly an effective weapon unfortunately, merely wounding the monster a second time, and giving it time to scored a retaliatory slash in response.

Embarrassing as it was, this mere minion forced him to take a step back, though he regained the momentum of the fight by smashing it in the face with the buckler. Or, not the face, he saw, as it reared up to swipe again. Merley where a collection of eyes where, while the face of the person it had once been hung limply under its body. Thinning quickly, he rammed the buckler fully into the beast, straining as he held it up and it clawed at his armor, before he delivered a stab to the under hanging head, scoring a critical strike that took it down at last.

Far too many blows for a single infested. The second pair of slashes had reloaded the flintlock however, which let him cap another infested before it could come at him, but even with getting the weapon pari’s gimmky combo down, this was hardly an optimal palace for him to be. Thus rather than wade into the fighting more, he focused on why he was here, which was to call out for ”MIDNA!” because the princess was far to deaf to hear anything shouted from further off with the din of battle going on.

The princess didn’t respond at first, as she was a bit too busy grabbing the piloting part of the Chopper with a shadow hand, and then hauling it over her head to send it crashing down on top of the tank form. Then she pulled herself to it, squeezed what she was fairly certain was the accelerator, and proceeded to grind the flood to dust beneath the massive monowheel.

It was only once this was done that she glanced to and fro, seeking more enemies, and upon spotting Edward, yelled back ”What are you doing here?!”

”We need to make a push for the enemy leader!” he called out, hoping to make use of her to lead cavalry charge out to strike down the flood command form whose arrival had prompted his downward flight, only for Sandalphon to chime in via the link she had with Midna with a different plan. Namely to retreat deeper into enemy territory.

Edward would not say he agreed, it was only putting off the problem that he thought best dealt with here and now, right up until one of the floating carriers started unloading infested directly on top of them a moment or so later. Which was something of an issue beyond the obvious, given they needed to get to a wall to follow through with the escape plan, and there where foes being dumped between them and it.

Midna saw this as well, or, mainly, the primary issue in her mind which was getting Edward himself out, which she resolved by grabbing him with her shadow hand and then hurling him into the air while yelling ”Fly cucco fly!”

After steadying his undesired flight with his wings, Edward took one glance back at the princess wrestling the infested chopper pilot out of the vehicles seat and then commanding the vehicle to charge forwards through the floodfested swarm before he locked his eyes forwards in-order to focus on dodging falling foes. Falling foes and one somewhat overloaded clown car (not that he knew that was what it was) that was carrying Rika, Jr, and Jr’s pokemon up towards the ceiling rather than towards one of the walls.

He caught the words ”because that’s gross!” as he swooshed on by, before once again having to rapidly decelerate, this time to avoid crashing full on into a wall. His machete came up, struck into the wall, and then his weight pulled it down, slashing a gushing wound that he just barely managed to flap up into against the outpouring of viscera in-order to enter the stream.

A few moments later, he cut himself out of the blood stream again, splashing to the floor, once more a bedraggled pigeon of a man.

And the heat of battle had just started to dry those out too.

He hauled himself up, raising machete and buckler defensively, but found no immediate threats, just a monolith of black stone sitting in the middle of a room filled with large chunks of rubble that looked in places like cavern walls. There was also some sort of energy barrier surrounding the room, one which he assumed was projected by the monolith, but which did not seem to be an active threat as of this moment.

That was, for him, very good, because his cannons had been left behind down below, too heavy to ride the currents even if he could have gotten them in. Even as he scanned the rooms, they fell silent down below him, connection to his mana cores severed as they were beaten down by the swarm.

Which meant that the floodfestion would no doubt come a hunting for them soon enough. Still, Edward was a commander and mage alone without army or power for his sourcery so, with this moment of respite, his first action was to hunker down defensively behind some of the rubble and to begin to see to the power part of the problem so he could use it to rebuild his forces. Thusly when other help did arrive, it found Edward crouched down behind a rock, one hand manipulating a magic circle before him that had several copper wires plugged into it, the other controlling a second circle that was in the process of sending the empty bio-rifle back to the avenger.

---

Somewhere else Minda (after grabbing the tank form flood’s spirit, crashing the chopper first through the infested swarm and then into a wall) had no such luxury of downtime. Instead she stepped out of flames, holding a fire drinking mace as the flames merely lightly singed her thanks to it and her other passive items, and into a catfight. There was a slight problem however, and that was that she could barely see and hear anything over the glare of the fire and roar of the flames, which made telling one cat from another rather difficult.

”Miss…. Fortune, is that you?”

It really did not help that the two didn’t really know each other that well either.

---

In yet another room, there came a grinding sound, followed by Jr’s clown car bursting up into a chamber of some kind, having drilled there with one of its arms. Rika’s rear mounted firefly lamp lit it up, revealing it to be some kind of man made structure. It hosted stone columns, withering creeper vines on the walls, numerous standing sarcophagi, some kind of spinning symbol emblazoned wheel and, at the center atop a plinth, a beach ball sized glittering crystal in the classic shape, this one a solar yellow.

Naturally, both children cared far more about this than any archaeological value of the tomb, and instead went straight for the gem, Rika hopping out of the clown car in-order to snatch it up first, before holding it aloft so they could both take a look at it.

”Hey, I think Kamek has one of these, right?” Jr speculated, to which Rika nodded. It did seem similar to the alien green crystal the royal mage had on his possession.

Before they could discuss that any further however, there came an explosion which blew a hole in the wall of the temple about halfway up, briefly revealing a chamber beyond filled with other such structures haphazardly piled together. Then a the man tall figure of metal, bone and cloth peered down at them through the hole in the wall his Bonenoid minions had just blasted for him.

“Ah, I thought I heard sound coming from in here” the towering figure said as it lazily fanned the resulting dust cloud with a skeletal hand, in response to which Rika raised her free hand, waved back and called out”Hello! Who are you?”

“My name is Unsigned, and you have something I have been seeking for quite some time” the figure replied, before pointing a finger at the jewel in her hand and demanding she “give me the power stone”

”Huh?” Rika replied, cocking her head to confusion for a moment, before clutching the jewel to her chest and responding passionately that ”No, it's my treasure!”

”Yeah! Finders keepers, losers weepers!” her brother jeered, and then blew a raspberry up at Unsigned for good measure.

“I see” the undead being responded evenly, before just as evenly adding “then perish” as he quick drew the oversized revolver and fired it directly at Rika’s head.

The shot bounced off Rika’s spartan shield, but the hit was enough to prompt the stone to fly out of her hand at unnatural speed, launching straight up towards Unsigned, who snatched it out of the air with glee.

”Hey! You give that back!” Rika demanded, not particularly phased by the shot that could have been lethal without her sci-fi protections it seemed, though her brother certainly was.

“I don’t think I shall” the Unsigned responded before with a wave of his revolver at them dismissively and commanding his “Bonenoids” to “deal with the children”, sending his minions pouring in through the gap in the wall to do battle with the siblings while he raised and admired the power stone while the carnage commenced below.

---

Juri looked up after stomping a bug into mulch. She glanced around at all the other Seekers doing battle. Including the giant hot air balloons coming their way. And this new tactician thing? ”Yeah let’s just ditch these fuckin’ idiots. They can have their stupid lobby.” Juri said, spitting onto the ground.

Juri ran over to a xylem tube, using her Drive Rush to get over there lickety split. She Using a leftover Fuha stock from the battle, she did an OD axe kick to slice it open vertically, her heel splitting open the artery cleanly as if she had used a battleaxe. She frowned at the blood fluid spilling out of the xylem, and then chuckled. ”Probably cleaner than your average waterpark.” With that reasoning, she held her breath and dove on in.

The right was smooth and high pressure for the lithe woman. She had her eyes squeezed shut and her cheeks puffed out, her arms outstretched infront of her and her palms clasped together in a permanent dive. If she drowned in here, she was gonna be pissed off. After a second or two she started to contemplate grabbing the sides and trying to dig her fingers in to start splitting it open from the inside. Fortunately that wouldn’t be a problem, as she felt the flow lessen. After that, the vein burst and she fell out.

Sandalphon came over, acting like she was checking up on Juri. ”Buzz off, ya glorified Christmas ornament.” Juri spat, waving her arm. She wiped her mouth with her hand and brushed a wet strand of hair from her forehead. At least her outfit was waterproof. What’s up with all the mirrors? Also, where are they?

As Juri stood up and started wiping herself off, she was alerted to Sandalphon’s alarm. She turned and saw Sandalphon shoot a mirror with an ice blast which then reflected it back to herself. Then out of the mirror came some chick a dozen heads and a fucked up body! Not to mention the giant buzz saw for an arm. The sight of it made Juri’s scalp itch.

”Eee-uwww!” Juri crowed, almost delight. She looked at where Sandalphon was frozen. This would be a good time to prove that Juri being scared in that gameshow was just a fluke, and also her just playing pretend. And if she saved Sandalphon’s ass, she’d owe her one big time.

”Hey there, 12-in-1 shampoo!” Juri used a Drive Rush to blitz forward, interposing herself between Sandalphon and the Guardian. That also gave her spinning hop roundhouse kick a bit more oomph. Juri wasn’t looking for a combo, she just wanted to slam her foot into one of its faces to knock it backwards. She took up a defensive stance in front of Sandalphon.

”Did you seriously just freeze yourself?” She asked over her shoulder. ”Ya better figure something out or I’ll kick ya and see if it breaks you out or breaks you apart.”

Up close like this, the Qliphoth seemed less like a tree and more like some kind of massive fleshy tower. It was kind of gross, but for a lot of Seekers it was far from the nastiest thing they'd seen.

Now that they were out of the timefall Pit removed his raincoat before helping out with breaking into the Qliphoth, freeing his wings with a few flaps to stretch them out. He tied the garment around his waist by the sleeves just in case they needed it again... who knew what would happen to this demonic tree once they beat the Guardian inside of it, after all. It could wither, or even completely collapse!

The question of how they were going to get back out of the Dead Zone afterward would go unanswered even if asked it. Sandalphon had taken the BBs back up to safety, so she could probably bring them back too if they needed to go back through the area, but without that stable field emitter...

The emitter's bearer before it had been destroyed was thinking the same thing. Ace looked out over the now calm field of mud, his jaw set and brows furrowed. If only he hadn't dropped the thing, they wouldn't have to even worry about getting back out. Hopefully Tora and his crew could make a replacement, or some other way presented itself in the mean time.

Once a way inside the tree was created, everyone shuffled inside. They were wet, muddy, and miserable, but they still had a mission to carry out. Getting to the Qliphoth had just been the first step.

The group had only a few scant moments to get a look at the interior before they were immediately besieged. As the melee-inclined Seekers rushed to meet the infested masses and protect their back line, Primrose aided them with her dancing. For great numbers like this, being able to deal with them quickly would be best - so power was needed. The Lion Dance. The short and fierce performance empowered her allies' physical strength and attack power. Once she was finished she lent her magic next, her hands conjuring clustered shadows among the floodfestation that erupted into the wide ranged spell, "Night Ode!"

As before, when the Cadet felt empowering magic affect him he faltered. Since he was one of those in the front defensive line holding back the mass of enemies, the timing was pretty bad. A horror lunged, driving its limb of hardened muscle formed into a claw into the hunter's mail. It pressed in, others clamoring behind it to overrun the hunter. Ace grit his teeth and his rigging swiveled forward, pressing the cannons into the corpse-like creature and unloading. By the time it fell the Cadet had recovered, slaying the opportunistic monstrosities that surged forward afterward with a few swipes of his new long sword.

Others kept up the offense from behind the defensive wall of Seekers. Therion focused on swift, precise take downs where he could, leaving the widespread attacks to those better suited to it. Any monster that might have had a chance of slipping through would get chewed up before it could do any real damage, but before it could even get that far a well placed knife, whether physical or conjured, saw it reduced to ashes. Of course after he'd figured out the weak spots on the more alien looking creatures his interest began to slip, and he instead sought out anything that looked like it could be a path up. This thing they were in was a tree, wasn't it? It made sense if the Guardian was toward the top. Thankfully in such a large group, everyone else could pick up his slack. Pit was once more equipped with his bow, firing arrow after arrow that snaked over his allies' heads and rained down on the infested flood. With the ability to now split them into three or strike through multiple enemies at once with a single arrow, it was easier than ever before to take on an army like this.

"At least we can actually hurt these things!" Pit said, giving voice to his frustration of not being able to do anything to the BT.

However it eventually became apparent that the Seekers were making little, if any headway into the flood of enemies. No matter how many they took down, more replaced the fallen - and once larger, smarter monster began to filter in and assume control of their disgusting forces the battlefield gradually shifted from a mindless free-for-all in a more coordinated assault. Luckily the archangel looking out for them identified an escape route.

The prospect of riding up the tree's interior through what was functionally its blood vessels did not excite anyone, but seeing as there didn't appear to be any other way to ascend with the horde of monsters on their backs they didn't have many options at the moment, especially for those that didn't have the equipment or abilities to make it up farther any other way on short notice.

Already as close to the edge of the battlefield as possible when Sandalphon pitched the idea, it didn't take long for Therion to slice his way through a thinner section of fleshy abominations towards a vein once he came to the conclusion that the archangel's unpleasant suggestion was unfortunately their best bet. He cut the failing tubular limbs from the last few enemies in his path and then stabbed his dagger into the tree's vein. He slashed the blade upward, side stepping the burst of fluid that erupted out of it and washed away the weakened horde monsters still trying to close in nearby.

He then hesitated to jump into it. It wasn't out of disgust (though he did certainly feel disgust about doing this in the first, and definitely wasn't the only one), but because of the uncertainty of whether diving into whatever blood-like substance this was would be akin to boiling himself by diving into water. If that might be the case it would be better to find a different way up, but at least he'd cut open a path for someone else.

As she moved about the dwindling open space as more and more monstrosities flooded into the area, Primrose cast her eyes about for just such an escape route. It was unsurprising that she gravitated in the direction of her friend and fellow Orsterran, so when Therion opened up the blood vessel Primrose made a beeline for him. She let loose one last spell, the glowing moons of Luna covering a section of the ground and exploding in a burst of moonlight underneath the closest portion of the horde to cover her escape. She was there within only a few moments and, sensing the thief's hesitation, made the choice for him lest he got stuck with the floodfestation while looking for another path. Primrose pushed Therion into the vein, earning a surprised expletive for it, and then entered afterward.

Like its outer skin, the wounded parts of the Qliphoth's insides mended themselves fairly quickly. Only a couple of people could squeeze through at a time before they either had to cut the veins open again or find a fresh one with better blood pressure to break into. For that purpose the Seekers scattered, breaking down their defensive line before they could be completely surrounded. Pit chose a high road, hopping from head to infected head of the flood and severing them at the neck as he went - at least on those monsters that even had necks. When he reached one of the veins along the wall he plunged the divine blade into it and cut open a hole.

"Why does world-saving always have to come with gross parts?" he complained. Unfortunately, an angel's (often messy) work was never done. It wasn't Pit's first time basically being inside a giant body, though he had no idea trees had blood and veins. Maybe it was just demon trees? The thought didn't make things any better. Pit raised a hand to pinch his nose shut and held his breath as he hopped into the opened vein.

The Ace Cadet was glad to abandon the never-ending siege of demons and monstrosities even if it did mean shooting up through the tree itself. First time for everything, he thought, not that there was a lack of first times in this world. As the horde closed in he twisted his sword's angle, slashing it in a swift, wide, and powerful horizontal arc as he back stepped. After a moment a handful of the creatures fell in a spray of bodily fluid, and the Cadet turned to continue the slash so it would open the vein behind him. He sheathed his sword out of habit and wasted no time slipping into the crevice, and when it sealed itself up after him the xylem flow built up until it pushed him through the tree.

The pressure was more intense than the hunter expected, but given the veins had to pump the Qliphoth's energy source throughout the whole massive structure it made sense. Initially his ship rigging kept him precariously balanced atop the crimson liquid as it rushed upwards, but eventually it splashed too strongly and engulfed him - until the pressure died down and the Cadet got stuck in the blood vessel. He blinked, squirmed, and them extended his bladed rigging to slice himself out. He spilled out with the xylem into a wide, hollowed out space. The Qliphoth's lining in this area had been trampled and hardened, making a it into a flat oval with curved sides. Save for an off-putting shimmer of energy in front of the only other vein there were no other features in the room, but it did have other occupants.

At first glance it looked like a Neopteron; it had a carapace, elongated thorax, and a pair of deadly looking raptorial forearms. It stood twice as tall as the Cadet, maybe more if it stretched, and was even flanked by two smaller looking insectoid beings like those below. Alerted to the hunter's arrival it stood and turned, making it immediately apparent that this queen was no real insect, but a demon.

The queen reared up, unleashing a drawn out hiss that turned into a screeching roar. At the same time, another person ended up tumbling into the arena behind the Cadet. Was everyone getting split up and randomly dropped around the inside of the Qliphoth? That figured. If nothing else, the hunter lucked out with where he'd ended up. Even better if he had a partner.

The Empusa Queen began to approach, its scythe-like limbs raised up in intimidation. The Cadet's hand went to the hilt of his sword and he let out a breathy laugh. After skeletons, magic, Consuls, demons, and abominations in number, facing down a big ugly monster like this was almost a relief.

"That ant-sy to fight? That suits me fine," he said. Meanwhile, his deduction proved true as the other Seekers were swept through the Qliphoth's vascular system until being unceremoniously dumped out into their respective arenas.

Geralt, winged in his Ardor Blossom identity, hurled a group of charged-up fireballs into the Floodfested swarm. Maggots and infection forms burst in the flames, while larger enemies caught fire, giving Geralt plenty of opportunity to spread the damage around to the weaker enemies and deal some semi-passive hits to the more powerful ones. A charger came running for him, sensing his vulnerability in the unarmored Identity, only to crash head-first into Edelgard’s shield.

”Back, beast!” She shouted, pushing the Infested away with her towering shield for Geralt to retaliate with a few fireballs. A beam from Ragnell destroyed a walker that was approaching, as Zenkichi leapt into the melee to clear out a group of the low-level swarm. Edelgard slammed Aymr into the burning charger, stepping back to allow Geralt to follow-up.

The transformed Witcher felt the power of Barbatos ready to be activated, and stomped the floor with the destructive intent of the Dark Dragon. Explosions of dark energy burst forward from his position, destroying walkers, infection forms, and some weaker combat forms with ease, and staggering the larger Flood and Infested that it struck. “Let’s wipe them up!” He called, and Zenkichi nodded as Valjean appeared behind him.

”Megido!” He cried to his Inner Self, as Valjean unleashed the explosive balls of Almighty energy into the swarm, finishing off anything that had been hit by Geralt’s Ground Shaker and survived. Edelgard let out a heavy breath before the empty space in the swarm was filled once more by Flood and Infested, this time led by a Tank form Flood. ”Oh man, there’s just no end to these guys!” Zenkichi groaned as he swung Ragnell, a beam of energy launching out to obliterate a combat form that had started to charge ahead.

“Don’t expect things to go easy. Cover me, five seconds!” Geralt shouted, stepping back and transforming into his normal Identity. He drew his flame katana and began focusing a Holy Lance, while Edelgard and Zenkichi stepped in front to provide cover. A ranged form started to fire on them, but Zenkichi dismissed his holy blade to draw his revolvers, firing back at the Flood form. He was trying to conserve his energy, given that this was only the start of what they’d have to deal with.

Edelgard, for her part, was providing a wall against the charging chaff, though once the Tank form reached their line, her attention immediately turned to it. The hulking abomination slammed its trunk-like arm into Edelgard’s shield, the sheer force of the blow sending her staggering. ”What power!” She cried in alarm, as Zenkichi’s revolvers clicked dry. He turned on a dime, dismissing his revolver and summoning the massive Greatsword that Sandalphon had purchased for him. He hefted the blade to shield himself and Geralt from the range form’s attacks, stepping back to better cover the Witcher.

“Get clear! Holy Lance!” Geralt shouted as the spell triggered, lances of holy energy slamming into the tank form and dealing significant amount of damage to it. When the Flood still stood after the final lance had dissipated, however, Geralt sighed as it turned its gaze upon him. “Fuck.” He uttered as it charged, forcing him to leap out of the way. Quen had lapsed, and Geralt had focused on using spells and offensive Signs for much of the battle, relying on Sandalphon’s healing and his armor for protection from harm. If that thing hit him, though, it might just break a bone and damn him. “Zenkichi, deal with this thing, I’ll handle the spine thrower!” He cried, earning a grunt from the detective.

”Fine, but you two keep those chumps off my back!” He replied, Geralt putting away his katana and drawing Odysseus’s bow. Edelgard rushed forward into the melee, Aymr carving through enemies one by one, while the Witcher started firing arrows at the ranged form, each fourth hit triggering a spreading chain of electricity.

Zenkichi, for his part, had swapped the Greatsword for Ragnell, and was slashing at the tank form. The lumbering hulk was slow but powerful, which gave Zenkichi plenty of time to dodge its hits, though their clash lasted longer than Zenkichi would have liked so far. As he came in again for an overhead, the tank roared and bounded forward, catching him off-guard and shoulder-checking the detective, sending him crashing to the ground as it trampled over him.

The detective groaned as he staggered to his feet, while Edelgard was being swarmed by walkers, combat forms, infection forms, and maggots. Sandalphon’s cleanses were keeping her from being infested, and each blow returned some of the damage she’d taken thanks to her Crests, but she was prime target for a larger, more dangerous enemy.

The appearance of the Flood Abomination heralded the beginning of the end for this battle, as the tank form broke off from fighting Zenkichi and instead charged Edelgard, overwhelmed as she was becoming. Ranged forms kept Geralt’s attention, more setting up to fire every time one fell, and Zenkichi had to fight to be heard over the battle. ”Edelgard, big guy heading your way!”

”I’m- ah! A bit occupied at the moment!” She complained, beating back Infested and Flood alike, as the tank grew closer and closer still. Zenkichi tried to regain its attention with blasts from Ragnell. The desperate move failed, and when it reached Edelgard, it slammed both of its massive arms on her, crushing her beneath its bulk and destroying the weaker Flood and Infested around her as well.

The Hateful Flesh, attached to Geralt, carved into the tank’s back, and it slapped its arm to knock him away. He landed on his feet, though he had to catch his balance, and sighing, he summoned the Judicator to provide healing. With its defenses, he shouldn’t be in too much trouble of bleedthrough damage, but he certainly felt the spikes from the ranged forms slowly chipping away at it, even as the abomination restored the vitality of him and his allies nearby.

When Sandalphon announced their getaway, Edelgard began to grow frustrated. How was she meant to escape this? The tank form grabbed her from her position on the ground, even as Geralt and Zenkichi attacked its rear. It was single-minded in its disdain for her, but eventually the men struck true. Edelgard fell to her feet as the final healing wave of the Judicator washed over her and the Striker dispelled. ”Thank you. We must leave at once!” True to her own words, Edelgard broke for the veins that Sandalphon had pointed out, bashing aside foes with her shield.

”Got you covered.” Zenkichi said simply, granting Edelgard a speed boost with Sukukaja, before he and Geralt likewise broke into runs, knocking aside and slaying anything that stood in their collective way to freedom. As maggots, infection forms, and other members of the floodfestation burst beneath their feet and fell to their blades, the group charged to the edge of the battle and carved their way into the vein-like structures before climbing in and being sent upwards.

---

When Edelgard emerged from the Qliphoth’s vein, it was into another infested room, though this one had a very large, and immediately apparent problem: A very large zombie with bizarre clothing and even more bizarre hair. ”Of course we’ve been saddled with such a disgusting enemy to fight. It is only fitting for such a place. She complained disdainfully, hefting Aymr and preparing for battle.

---

Zenkichi found himself in a battlefield, with demons, undead, and all sorts of the same kinds of Flood and Infested monsters that they’d already fought duking it out, but among all the things fighting, one stood out: a gelatinous monstrosity wandering the battlefield, absorbing demons and floodfested alike into its being. ”Okay, now that’s just disgusting.” He balked, summoning Ragnell. ”Guess we gotta fight our way out.

---

Geralt, meanwhile, found himself with Goldlewis in a cramped, maze-like section of the tree. “Ugh. Well, at least we’re out of that chaos.” He muttered, taking note of the strange safe on the ground. “Guess we ought to find a way further inside and reach the others.” As the pair turned their gazes onto the emerging Keeper, Geralt rolled his eyes and cast the Sign of Quen before summoning Tartaglia’s Hydro Twinblade and marching forward at Goldlewis’s back.