Before Eliza could answer Lily, both of them alongside the rest of the foyer girls received a message from their communicators, causing Lily to lightly yelp, putting a hand over her ear by reflex. She then turned visibly pale in her face, having recognized her Beacon friend’s name as well as Justine’s maid.
”EEH?”She was shocked by the idea that Alicia would actually work together with Justine. Then again, she was also in an unsure place, trying to find a way to resolve this situation without betraying any of her friends. Then, a new portal opened, causing Lily to jump in place.
”Ah, Mariette?”However, instead of leading back to her office like she assumed, it lead to Alex and Hilaria, who were working hard to ensure the integrity of their battlefront. Then Mariette called out again, issuing an order to prepare a combined attack.
”Got it!” She replied with a nod, and ran through the portal, taking her position alongside the other ranged magical girls. She drew out her magical bow Ramuh, it’s electrical bowstring crackling with energy as she pulled it back.
Now that she was with Alex again, feeling his barrier embrace her again, her resolve was tempered. Her eyes glowed as she prepared her Barrage of paralyzing lightning arrows.
”Ready to fire!”She would fight anyone, even the Beacon, in order to stop further bloodshed.
“Nghhh!”As Justine’s forces drew near the front door of the mansion, Kimble struggled to keep up the protective barrier of wind, her teeth gritted as she held her hands outwards. “Just a bit more, Kimble!” Sally called out to her as she blasted at the few remaining enemies on their way, while Hyun Long blasted the last of the remaining snow blocking their path; she raised an eyebrow; the winds were beginning to gather stronger around them.
“You don’t need to make it stronger; it now starts to be difficult to move.”
Kimble groaned in response to Rage’s warning.
“‘I know! It’s just...Someone’s making a bigger storm!”Aurelio continued advancing forward invisibly, keeping Elora updated on the situation. That was when Elora suddenly spoke back: “I’m detecting a spike in magical activity, centered on your location! Get out of there!”
A few seconds after, Su finished casting her great conjuration spell, and formed Feilian, a massive hurricane that dwarfed Kimble’s Cyclogenesis, so powerful it could lift the magical girls off their feet and shoot them up into the sky. Justine was unable to resist the howling gust as it caught on her leathery bat wings, and she was flung up the whirlwind.
”NOO! CURSES!”Aurelio managed to barely escape by leaping to the side, having managed to escape using Elora’s warning.
The thralls were swept up into the air, only one of them managing to escape using Gravity magic. The support Red Nest and gunner Red Nest were caught by the storm, and struck by a chunk of ice that the storm had picked up. The chain-wielding Red Nest avoided the same fate by grappling a dead remorhaz and holding on to it, digging his heels in as he slowly pulled himself into cover. Sally was there, having been fortunate enough to find herself at the best spot in the battlefield. However, as she held onto the still-hot spikes, she grunted from pain. “Oh well, should have brought my mittens with me.”
Hyun Long however did not fare as well, having been lifted up, until she was rescued by the combined magic of Kimble and Rage.
“Cycloexodus!”
Kimble called out, and melded the clone’s Emotion spell into her Cyclogenesis, turning it red and allowing it to expand in it’s influence of gathering the magical energy of everyone’s rage in their radius, funnelling it more efficiently into the vortex. In return, Kimble would feel her mana be restored by the emotion magic channeling into her storm, allowing her to resist the Feilian’s crushing pressure for just a moment longer. Kimble had grabbed Hyun Long’s hand before she was swept away, and in turn the Fire magical girl hugged Kimble.
“Thank you Kim-!”
“You can thank me later! Hold on!”She then made for one last push forwards, attempting to escape from Su’s terrifying twister as her magic was rapidly running out.
They were about to reach the door, when suddenly, the blizzard ended.
“Huh? It’s no longer snowing,” Sally commented obliviously, and Justine screamed while being whisked around:
”It’s a trap! Get out of there, you fools!”However, that was when Mariette issued her order to fire. A great bombardment of nearly every element of magical arrows, bullets, shells, bolts, javelins, spears, darts and more exploded forth from the open windows of the Artillery Line, painting the air in the colors of a violent, relentless rainbow. Most of the the thralls were gunned down except for two of them including the Gravity girl, as was the support Red Nest, ruthlessly blasted by arcane might.
Sakura continued charging forward with the crazed remorhaz, gnashing her teeth as the beast’s back pained her butt fiercely, burning her lower uniform and forcing her to replace it with Eternal Style before she indecently exposed herself. The beast started to lift up just before she managed to reach the front door, and was shot by Suzette’s ray of power, killing the monster. However, as she saw Lily blasting the monster as well with countless lightning arrows, she got an idea: she began charging herself with the same positive charge as the arrows that were charging the beast. She then released the charge into the monster and punched it rapidly it with all her might.
“FUCK YOUUUUU! ORARARARARARARARARARAAAAAAAAAAA!”
Combined with Lily’s charge, it caused the beast to reject the positive charge by laws of electromagnetism, and launch forward; it left Feilian’s range, and smashed right through the front doors of Mariette’s mansion, the corpse sliding on the marble floor and activating most of the traps there, blowing it to smithereens but opening a path for the others to get through as she fell into the snow.
The gunner Red Nest was heavily wounded, but managed to survive the initial wave; seemingly packing his magic into one last burst, he blasted away at the window and killing eight of the Lesser Magical girls with cursed bullets before he was crushed by one of Taihei’s superheavy lances; Taihei would notice her luck to be more average than usual, and could feel the presence of someone in the distance who was the cause.
Using one Mariette’s vision portals, she could see Sally, who was with the chain Red Nest using the remorhaz’ corpse to absorb most of the projectiles including some of her earth-shaking heavy lances, and were left with minor injuries, aside from an emotion bullet that had struck the agent’s shoulder, causing him to uncharacteristically cry. Sally grit her teeth as she took cover, and took potshots at the window, managing to shoot down a Lesser Magical girl, only to be shot by a lightning arrow right in her chest, shocking her.
“Ahh! Someone’s bringing my luck down to average!” She cried, and then noticed the tiny portal by chance.
There, she saw Taihei’s ugly mug.
“You! You’re the one jinxing me with your horrible bad luck!” She shot at Taihei, causing her Shamrock bullets to hit her right in the cheek; while they failed to penetrate her tough scales, they hurt a lot.
“Damn! Kimble!”
Hyun Long suddenly turned the two so she would take the brunt of the shots as Kimble twisted the wind around them as much as she could, somewhat deflecting glancing shots. However, it was not enough to protect them from the sheer assault, and the Cyclogenesis broke, causing them to drop into the snow right on top of Sakura, bleeding profusely. However, just as Hyun was struck by tullia’s blast of ice, Disgust jumped in front of it, shattering into countless shards of ice as the clone courageously covered for her.
As the barrage continued, Rage was also destroyed, his last moment one of defiance as he used his construct body to protect the girls.
“I’m not...Giving...Up!”Kimble, still determined to see this through, used a gust of wind to rapidly roll the two of them, forming into a ball of snow that absorbed most of the projectiles aimed at them. By the time it had melted from Mayra’s fireballs, the two had barely managed to reach the side of the mansion beside the front door, smacking against it from the velocity. Kimble blinked with weary eyes, and realized the three found themselves in shelter from the barrage.
“Oof...We...Did it, Hyun, Sakura, we survived...” Kimble then glanced at Hyun, and her eyes widened; she was like a pincushion, with numerous arrows and bolts stuck to the back of her body.
“Ngh…” Hyun groaned, holding her stomach; blood could be seen dripping from between her fingers..
“Hyun! Hold on!” She shouted over the roaring storm in a panic.
However, Hyun was calm.
“Kimble...I trust you...Alicia...everyone...Will see this through...”
She coughed blood. Kimble’s lips trembled, but Hyun shook her head. “Don’t worry, this is...Nothing. If it wasn’t for Aurelio, I...Might have died.”
As if on cue, Aurelio had appeared next to them, having managed to traverse the deadly gauntlet with only a few bullet and arrow wounds thanks to his cloaking and the lack of a snowstorm.
“Of course you made it too, huh?” She coughed again.
Justine screamed as she was swept up by the winds, her face gnarled knowing she would be unable to dodge the coming barrage. But then, she suddenly felt a serene air about her, and realized she was no longer in the storm. In fact, she now felt a familiar hand holding hers, no longer affected by Feilian.
”My Lady! Are you hurt?”Justine was at first astounded, only to quickly shift to a fanged smile.
”Not as much as they will be~ My dear Sonia, let us strike upon them with with the terror of my wrath.”Sonia nodded, a smile on her lips.
”Very well.”Sonia teleported the two of them right up to the open windows of the Artillery Line, having summoned a shield beforehand that magically projected a simple forward-facing barrier. It would only last a second against the sheer firepower of the Artillery Line. But a second would be all Justine would need to take, as she held her palms cupped open, a look of utter malice on her face.
”Cross of Golgata -RE:BLOOD-”
Justine launched a sphere of crimson red into the Artillery Line corridor, and was immediately teleported high up into the sky after releasing it, suffering minor injuries from the few projectiles that had managed to wound her. The moment she was out, the blood in the sphere collapsed, exposing a black crystal that detonated with tremendous force, unleashing red beams of searing magical energy in every direction. The beams pierced the magically strengthened floor and walls of the mansion, and practically crumbled the entire corridor as it was turned into melted swiss cheese; Mariette would recognize this to be the same type that had destroyed her old Interdimensional Apartment. Out of all the magical girls, 13 remained alive including Lily and Mariette’s major girls, mostly thanks to Alex and Hilaria’s efforts to defend them while supported by Ronja and Eli’s protective magic; Hilaria had managed to bear the brunt of the attack as she succeeded in protecting Alex while he had granted her the protection she needed to hold her shield up, their combined iron will and astounding endurance having won out over the vampire girl’s sorcerous might.
However, just as Hilaria had predicted, Justine had one more surprise up her sleeve.
Combining her magic with Sonia’s, the two of them summoned a large, dark portal. Justine then spread her arms up as she intoned:
”Come to me, Father’s blessed, for I call you forth to feast on pure blood. Heed me, Greater Gorelions!”From the dark portal, four large monsters dropped down with a floor-shaking rumble, landing through the open ceiling into the confined corridors of the former Artillery Line, forcing the people there to dodge out of the way and causing Hilaria and Lily to split from Alex to different sides of the corridor. Alex immediately recognized the monsters from the last time he had fought against Justine as one now stood in his way, blocking the way.
However, he could tell the monsters were different; they were equipped with bulky obsidian-colored armor that clearly slowed them down, but granted them more protection, as evident when a Lesser Magical girl before him struck it with her hammer, only to receive a slight dent before she was stabbed by the abomination’s harpoon tongue and swiftly devoured, dragged into it’s impenetrably dark maw.
”Ahhh!” Lily cried as she fell, and Hilaria saw why; she was stepped on by a Greater Gorelion facing her, who then shot it’s barbed tongue right at Hilaria, lodging it into her shield. The tongue then began to rapidly retract, failing to pull Hilaria off her feet. The other two Greater Gorelions behind the initial two also shot their harpoon tongues, angling them above the ones before them so they would curve and drop down, hitting a barrier on Alex’ side and and a gunner Lesser Magical girl right through her stomach on Hilaria’s side before they retracted, lifting the impaled girl up like a hooked fish.
”Remember my little pets, Mariette? Father gave me new ones just for you!” Justine taunted from high up.
”Now, stop playing games and come out! You can’t hide forever!”
“WHOAAAAHH!” Helga exclaimed in surprise as the Feilian formed, looking slightly disoriented as she flew upside down in the enormous tornado. “I didn’t know you could do something so powerful!” She yelled, and afterwards nodded as Su gave her orders. “Got it! Sonar Flare!”
She clapped her palms together, creating a sound-detecting field around her and Su that reached for a good distance. Mere seconds after casting it, Helga gasped upon seeing Justine perform her devastating spell. “It’s Justine!” She called out so Su. “She’s at the windows with Sonia!” She blasted her way towards her with her claws, ready to strike, only to see them suddenly disappear thanks to Sonia and reappear far above them.
”Damn it, you’re not running from me!” She yelled, and used Su’s Feilian to rapidly rise up for an uppercut. However, Justine summoned her trademark spear, and parried the blow.
”Well, if it isn’t Helga. So you have chosen to ally with Mariette? It seems some things never change~”“That’s because I got to choose this time, Justine!” Helga yelled, and blasted at her with her sonic cannons, only for Sonia to avoid the attack with a teleport.
“Why are you after Mariette? Just for revenge?”
Justine swiped at Helga with the spear, and she parried it with her claws, causing sparks to fly.
”Because she destroyed Penrose, you fool! I won’t let her get away with that! Revenge is simply the cherry on top.”Helga was stunned. “What? She never-”
That was when Sonia delivered a sudden kick, knocking Helga away.
”Enough of you, simpleton.”
At Mariette’s office, Dina’s summoned monsters quickly spread to all floors of the mansion thanks to Esther’s passages, causing disturbing noises of creaking wood to resound in the entire mansion alongside the slight noises of scraping feet, fluttering wings, and stomping hooves. Afterwards, Josefin provided the Beast girl with a new supply of magical power, allowing her to summon forth two new additions to Mariette’s defenses. Josefin also charged Mariette, but it wasn’t enough to fully revitalize the dark magical girl after the deluge of portals she had conjured for her Artillery strike.
“Come forth, Queen of Tundra Plains,” the cat-eared noble intoned, and from a magic circle a
kitsune appeared; with the unearthly elegance and beauty of a human woman dressed in a provocative Japanese kimono that showed ample cleavage and thigh, one could miss the two fluffy white fox tails swishing from her back as well as the ears that flicked above her head. The monster lifted the back of her hand up to her mouth in a mocking laugh.
"OHOHOHOHO! So you come to grovel for me to help you? How laughable!"
Dina scrunched up her nose; as much as she loathed having to bring in someone as pompous as irritable as a kitsune was, she could not deny how capable they were in the ways of magic.
They were very high maintenance for a monster, even higher than herself, but they were needed.
“Listen, I need you to-”
“Bow before me!” The kitsune demanded, pointing at a downward angle with her long-nailed finger. “And pay your respects to your mistress!”
Dina sighed. “You’re just a two-tails. You have no right to-”
"OHOHOHOHO” she laughed again. “it's still better than being a mangy flat catgirl!"
Dina’s eye twitched as she held in her anger, causing the kitsune to giggle. “Oh, did that upset you? Ah, I am amused. So, do you have any cute men to offer to me? My services don’t come cheap, you know~”
Dina resolved herself, and spoke again: “If you aid us in repelling the intruders downstairs, I will let you play with the minotaurs. Sold?”
The kitsune’s sharp teeth flashed in her mouth as she grinned. “Sold.”
She waved her hand at Mariette, and sunk down into the floor. “Toodle-doo~” She playfully bid goodbye as she disappeared. Afterwards, Dina summoned a
scorpion man; the large monster’s mandibles clacked as it bowed in respect to Dina.
“Your orders are to guard Mariette,” she pointed with her finger to the dark magical girl, “and to prevent anyone from entering the room unless she or I allow it.”
The scorpion man slammed the bottom end of his spear against the floor in acknowledgement, and took up a guarding position at the entrance to the room, spear held at the ready, pincher claws opened and stinger tail reared back to strike.
Tenebra smiled, grateful for the kind words Gaia and Connie gave to her. “It was nothing, haah...” She answered, still amazed at the magical power she experienced from Sonia’s assistance. “But it looks like we got company~”
Just as she pointed them out, turrets activated, and began shooting at the team. Ronin swiftly dispatched the one right next to them, while ‘Mariette’ dashed south with two katanas, slicing the turret there into pieces, though not without incurring some light injuries in the process.
‘Just like I thought, we gotta keep moving.’‘Eli’ charged east, having summoned her metallic arms to block the light shots headed their way and allowing the group to advance north towards the staircase without too much damage, her chrome finish dissipating most of the weak light magic.
Tenebra followed behind until they turned north and saw yet another turret, and then sent her Eyes of The Cosmos to attack it; the magical drones flew around, confusing the turret, before shooting the turret down with magical blasts.
However, just as they were done dealing with the turrets, they saw a congregation of monsters arrive down the stairs; kobolds, fairies, and a minotaur included among them. However, the team had prepared ahead of time, and the moment Connie saw them, she unleashed a nightmarish spell of fear, pulsing out like a wave of cackling ghosts. The pulse struck the monsters, causing the kobolds and fairies to flee in terror, screaming their little lungs out as they did so. However, the minotaur, while visibly frightened, managed to resist the mental effects of the spell, and charged forward, axe brought up for a downward strike. However, before it struck, ‘Eli’ managed to parry the strike by slamming the palms of her robotic arms against the sides of the axeblade, stopping it.
‘Too slow, nosering!’ FanFan taunted, and performed a spell with her real hands, transforming the metal of the axe into a set of shackles that bound the minotaur’s arms to its body.
‘Go on ahead!’ She yelled to the others.
The Infiltration team moved up the stairs. However, Speedwagon was able to detect a lone trap on their way using her Awareness, likely set up by the monster group before them, and were able to swiftly pass by it without putting themselves in danger. They then found themselves at what clearly looked like the ground floor of the mansion, specifically the foyer; a beautiful marble-floored room, with a wide staircase at the center of the room that narrowed as it leads to the upper portion of the foyer. A magnificent chandelier hangs from the wooden ceiling, decorated with countless tiny mirrors. Various paintings are set to the wooden walls, depicting Asengav’s chosen.
There are doors to the north, west, and by peeking over the stairway, also to the east. The biggest door is to the south, clearly the exit out of the building.
However, before they could get a better look around, the door suddenly broke open, as the corpse of a horrible lizard-like monster slid into the room. The moment it did, various traps both mundane and magical activated, blowing it up and making a complete mess of the room.
‘I guess we’re going to the highest floor unless you have a better idea, Alicia,’ ‘Mariette’ suggested.
At the Sanctuary, Belladonna calmed as Penny spoke to her in a soothing voice, claiming she understood due to her former monstrous woes. A tear swept down her cheek as Penny recognized the pains she had went through and spared her from a death penalty.
“Th-Thank you, queen,” she answered hesitantly, unsure what would happen since she claimed she couldn’t be released either. She never saw any prisons here, so she wondered what would happen. Then, Penny brought up a question she didn’t expect, causing her to blink with a slack jaw.
“Huh? Purification?” The crowd started mumbling, seemingly concerned with Penny’s suggestion.
“I-I thought that was just Beacon bullshit, just some brainwashing thing they use to ‘fix’ us. But, if it really stops the hunger...” She sighed, and looked up at her with a tired smile.
“I guess I could try it. I don’t like it, but...Guess it’s not too bad if you think it’s a good idea.”
Goblina smiled, pleased with the way that Penny found a solution. “Are you now ready with your verdict, Your Highness?” She asked.
Reaver smiled, and gracefully bowed before the Mint operatives.
“It is my pleasure to meet all you lovely ladies...And him too, I suppose,” he added, glancing at Ilmarinen with a look of indifference.
He listened as Louis briefed them on the mission details, and nodded approvingly when he was assigned as Seppa’s partner, especially once she brought out the weapons. “Ooh, very nice. Thank you very much for these.” He winked, picking up the spear and shield.
“But I wonder...Since you are an artisan at craft, do you also enjoy making toys? If you ever want to test them out, I would love to lend you a supporting hand in sorting out any kinks in them.”
Rachel was pleased to see the Howell twins agree with her command, even if reluctantly, and even managed a slight smile of joy as they left her office, something that was rare for the Inquisitor to express. Meanwhile, outside the Beacon HQ, the guards greeted Summer, noting how an unknown magical girl was with them.
“Who have you brought with you, Summer?” One asked, while another approached them.
“What business do you have with Beacon?” The other asked Oros in a neutral voice.
