The moment Elvira saw Eliza and Fine at the bottom of the ladder, she knew she had no time to waste.
"Fat chance!” She yelled, and with a spell created a web of thin but sharp filaments that blocked off the middle of the shaft; even if the two could rip through them with relative speed, it still saved some time for the NEET idol to make her escape. She had prepared for being chased, using her threads like Spiderman to pull and propel herself through the tunnel, leaving filaments behind. However, despite all her foresight and planning, she couldn’t have readied herself for the fear that gripped her.
"They’re not gonna get me...Nobody can catch me!”She repeated to herself in a mad mantra.
"I’ll never die, I’ll escape...Make a new hideout, make it safe...I’ll live…!”Her eyes widened as she saw light at the end of the tunnel. It was the outside world. It was full of danger and peril...But also a place of countless new sanctuaries.
That’s right.
She would escape, and she would live.
She was a survivor.
The triplet’s expression turned to one of disgust and rage. “Insolence! Your excuses mean nothing before the holy seat of justice!” She gripped her halberd. “Enough talk, move aside or I’ll...Wait, what is that?” At that moment, a strange flow of magical power had run through the rave, like a wave of unhearable sound or rushing light that expanded outwards.
“It’s like...I heard a sound in my-
”AAAHHHH!”
Suddenly, the triplet’s halberd clanged on the floor as it was dropped, her hand having twitched open in a violent fashion once the magic presence spiked; accompanied by a low sound of buzzing white noise, Cerise and Cereza heard the triplet scream their lungs out in excruciating agony, her head shaking in unnatural ways, like a nightmare sequence in Jakob’s Ladder, as the Spark attempted futilely to hold on. However, it soon reached its limit in the face of so many psychic attacks, and the triplet fell down. They now saw what had become of her lifeless corpse: she bled from the corner of her mouth and her nose, and her blank white eyes cried tears of crimson.
Ashlyn and Monica also saw how the Ascendancy girl knocking on the door to their Interdimensional Home began screaming, begging to enter it, before her bloodied hand slowly slid down the door, leaving a gruesome stain. They all heard screams explode around them, and realized that the terrible spell had reached through the entire building; like a deadly curse, it psychically detonated on the Ascendancy like a carpet bombing of the mind.
Yet, strangely enough, the corrupted and normal magical girls they just fought against were left unharmed, confused by the sudden turn of events, but even more than that...Horrified. Until one monster girl realized what had happened, and gave a stoic smile. The future Eliza had foreseen had come to pass. And from that point on, the twins, or anyone else who had been there, could never forget the terrible crimes against magical humanity that was committed on that day, both by the Ascendancy’s systematic slaughter of a crowd of corrupted girls and by the “Psychic Nuke” as it would later be called.
However, thanks to the Ascendancy’s sudden reaping, Penny had successfully led a group of girls through the secret exit, past the Ascendancy girls dying amidst tortured screeches, and into the cold but refreshing air of rainy Penrose.
“Thank you so much!” One of the girls cried out with tears in her eyes, and shook Penny’s hand. “I thought I was going to die there!” At that moment, they heard a terrible sound of crackling thunder that erupted throughout the rave building, as screams of pain and death surged through in a second wave. Then, Penny saw one of the dragon-headed lightning bolts heading towards her group from the tunnel, striking her and infusing her with new energy, similar to when she was struck by Lily’s Thor’s Hammer.
Ashlyn and Monica alongside the girls they stowed away were spared from the wrath of Lei Zi’s Blessed Barrage, but Cereza and Cerise were not as fortunate; having been taken by surprise in the midst of the carnage, both of them were struck by the draconic white lightning that stopped their hearts, killing them instantly.
Helga held her claws up, ready to confront FanFan as she refused to let them pass. By this point she had cast her disguise away, her robotic arms lifted up in a boxing stance. “Could be your grandma, I’m still not letting you through!” She was about to say something else when she was struck by the psychic nuke and began to scream loudly; Helga blinked, looking confused, while FanFan morphed her robotic arms into a metallic dome that encased her. Yet, as Su and Helga took the chance to run past her, they could still hear her muffled screams of agony.
Leena would never compromise, not even in the face of certain death. So when Christine gave her threats, she simply scoffed. “You and what army?” She glanced back to see more clones rushing them. “Oh, those? Your joke is killing me.” She knew what Alicia planned the moment she stepped behind her; behind her gas mask, she gave a wide grin.
When Alicia blasted her blinding ray of light, Leena lifted her sword, and used it’s reflective metal to redirect some of the light to further blind Christine as she dodged opposite the direction Alicia went to after she shot her arrow and destroyed the gun.
At that moment, the psychic nuke struck, and she was struck by intense pain. But, when experience and rational thinking would fail her, her reflexes, built over countless years of fighting against the foulest, most dangerous of opponents, would not.
“VOID ROOM!”
She yelled out with gnashing teeth, and the space of the corridor turned into negative coloration.
Christine’s clones disintegrated on the spot, as did Alicia’s beam of light and Mika’s streams of water once she burst out of the wall. She then collapsed to her knees, holding her head as she cried blood. She coughed, and ripped her gas mask off; her mouth was stained red. The Nullification Field had also reached FanFan, and her screams of agony turned to coughing and grunts of pain.
“Shit...What happened?” Leena mumbled amidst her groans. She heard the broadcast, and shuddered. “The Penrose...Independent?”
Alicia’s arrows failed to explode into light like she initially planned, but by dodging them Christine was distracted and failed to avoid Mika smashing her against the wall with her armadillo-plated body and stabbing her with the venomous stinger. The scorpion venom, a potent anesthetic, flowed through Christine’s veins and lulled her into a dazed, sleepy state.
At that moment, Su and helga had reached Mika in the corridor. “Mika? What are you doing?” Helga shouted in a panic, and dragged Mika off from Christine who slumped against the wall.
“We need to get away from here!” She heard the broadcast, and realized this was no accident, but an act of true malice. She heard the roar of lightning rushing at them, causing her eyes to widen; though the Barrage was stopped by Leena’s Nullification Field, it was too much for her heart to bear; she could not risk her family’s well being any longer, and turned to Su. “Su, you gotta shift us! NOW!”
Vivi battled with Askefye, countering her dark flames with her own purifying foams and waves of water. But, as with many good things, it came to an abrupt end, as Vivi stopped and clutched her head in a horrible scream, having been struck by the psychic nuke. “AHHHH!” The blue girl’s thoughts raced with confusion, regret, and grief as her Spark was about to give in-
When suddenly, the pain stopped, as did the noise. The air was no longer thick with choking smoke and blazing heat...Except for the burning feeling that had now embraced her.
“H-Huh?” The girl, now bleeding from her mouth and eyes, squinted her eyes, and was shocked to see the face of her enemy. “W-Why...Did you save me?” She groaned in lingering pain as she was held against her burning form.
Lily finished spinning Emily around and let her go, giggling as she continued making a few more spins in her drunken stupor. She looked at the barrier they passed, and poked it with a sigh of relief.
”Whew, I’m glad. It’s so big though! It covers the entire warehouse! And it looks sturdy. How did we pass it?”She then blinked as Umukamui approached them, revealing he was the one who saved them.
”Wow! Thanks, Mister Umu!” She sincerely spoke her gratitude to her, followed by a surprised mouth-wide face as Sakura proceeded to have a tantrum and shake the Puchuu.
”Hey, Sakura! That’s no way to treat Mister Umu!”She forcefully separated Umu from Sakura by pushing her forehead away, and then picked Umukamui up in her loving embrace.
”How could you be so mean to him? He’s just a cute widdle kitty cat~” She petted Umukamui with a sweet smile, followed by a thinking face.
”But wait, you mentioned an alliance, right? She looked down at Umu.
”Who did you ally with?”Suddenly, the magical presence in the rave spiked, and horrible screams could be heard coming from inside. “Wait, what?” Rachel could be heard shouting as she jumped down from a rooftop from the other side of the road. “What is the meaning of this?” She directed her hateful gaze to Umukamui. “I swear, if you had something to do with this-”
At that moment, the entire crowd heard a girl’s groans, and turned to see Violette dragging herself magically out of the warehouse, causing Lily to scream at the sight: she was crying blood, with blood also running from her nose and corner of her lip. Based on the way her limbs dragged behind her, and how she used a magical pair of hand simulacrums to lift herself up, she had seemingly lost motor function of her body.
“VIOLETTE!” Rachel cried, and rushed past the group to catch Violette as she fell into her arms. She immediately began casting a powerful healing spell upon her. “Who did this to you? Please, speak to me, Violette!”
Violette coughed up blood, and managed to utter out two words:
“P-Pen...rose..Inde...pen...dent...” She then closed her eyes, and fell unconscious, having transformed back into human form.
“Penrose Independent?” Rachel repeated the words, and then froze, having lifted a hand up to her ear.
“Penrose Park? The Cardinal has been assassinated?” She could be heard muttering. “There’s a crisis at the rave: an attack has wiped out our operatives.” Paused to listen to the voice on the other side. “...Send anyone you can there. I will handle the rave.”
The entire time, Lily shook in horror; she had seen plenty of violence as her time as a magical girl, but Violette’s condition in particular caused her to squirm, holding Alex’ arm.
”That’s horrible! Absolutely awful! Please, let us help!”She went over and touched Rachel’s shoulder. They all heard thunder and screams from the rave, followed by silence. In response, Rachel shook, and adjusted her glasses with a shaky breath.
“...Just stay out of my way,” she codly stated, and set Violette on the ground. She stood up, and summoned her hammer; it glowed with awesome power.
“DEUS VULT!”
She then began to shimmer, having clad herself in intricate multilayered barriers reminiscent of a crusading knight’s armor. She swung the hammer down, and the great barrier broke. “Penrose Park is the grounds for a great battle. If you wish to help, you can follow me, or go there. Goodbye.”
Then, without turning back, she made an explosive launch by kicking off with her feet, and charged like a bullet down the staircase into the rave. Lily bit her lip, and turned to the others.
”Sounds like Penrose Park is currently a big battleground. I think we could save more people there than if we were to stay here!”
For the entire time she has stayed there, Hyun Long has struggled. Having been used to a reclusive existence far from the sights and noises that plagued humankind, she tried to distract herself with drink upon drink. But gradually, even the sturdiest of fortresses would fall in the face of erosion. The first seed was planted when Elvira broadcasted her dark song; though the feelings were then suppressed by Eden’s assistance, it was followed by Veronica’s transmission that managed to plant more seeds of discord in her before Eden had intercepted.
Then, Eden activated her receptacle. Even as prepared as she was, she could not fully control the sheer surge of magical power that surged through the artifact; like a nuclear reactor that barely managed to hold it’s toxic payload within itself, so did the receptacle glow a hot white as it directed the magic torrent, gradually breaking down before the entire supply was spent and forcing Eden to carry the rest of the spell through, resulting in her collecting enough corruption to turn into a monster girl.
Countless screams could be heard as the psychic nuke ravaged mind after mind, leaving behind corpses with expressions stuck in despair and dread. Hyun Long’s Powerful Aura spiked in intensity, and grabbed her chair hard enough the break it. She could no longer hold on her own; she would lose control at any moment now.
And that moment was when Eden sent her broadcast message.
“F-Feed….Feed...FEED!” The Monster Queen screamed out, and her dress morphed to form dragon-headed tentacles. Eden, using her Awareness, managed to dodge the initial three tentacles that attempted to bite into her, only to get caught by five tentacles: one on her shoulder, one on her thigh, two on her sides, and one on her neck.
The fangs punched through her skin, about to tear her into bloody pieces, when Lei Zi’s Blessed Barrage reached the backroom. Eden, unable to dodge the lightning due to being caught by Hyun Long, was shocked by the white lightning, and had her heart stopped, killing her instantly. The Monster Queen was also blasted, but she managed to live through the shocking experience, her tentacles flailing around her as they released Eden.
It took them longer than they expected, but finally Sally and the rest of Beacon managed to defeat the treemen and break through the barrier, with the busty blonde leading the charge to the cloaked muggers. “Nobody touches my Aury-poo!” She yelled out, and blasted at Freya with her Shamrock Shooters; the shots curved at just the right angle to deflect her claw swipes away from Aurelio. She was about to shoot another burst when she tripped into the hole where Kimble was trapped; she fell on the tip of her feet, causing Kimble to launch up with seesaw physics, lifted up by her tornado.
“Thanks Sallyyyy!” She cried out, and began to spin in the air, faster and faster, and cut herself free from her glue-like bonds. She summoned her sickle with the striking of a pose, and launched herself right at Jelena; with flashing sparks, her metal claws were stopped by the Wind girl’s sickle. “You dirty cowards! Now you’ve pissed me off!” Kimble’s eyes glowed a bright green, and the winds raged around her, as if she was slicing the air itself into ribbons. “SYLPHID SLAYER!”
Using up all her mana, she shot out a forward-spiralling gust of wind that enveloped Jelena and Freya. The wind had a propeller-like cutting wind in the center, working similarly to a blender. The blender wind knocked Jelena and Fray away to Esther while also delivering cutting wounds that, while not deep on their own, were so numerous that they coated every inch of their bodies.
After the spell was cast, Kimble closed her eyes, and fell backwards, dropping out of the sky. But, as luck would have it, Sally ended up at just the right spot to jump and catch the exhausted magical girl. “You did well Kimble.” The rest of the Beacon squad moved to confront the three, only to witness them shifting away. “They escaped!” One of the girls reported. Sally nodded, but then received a message from her magicomms. “Do not pursue. There’s a crisis going on at the rave.” She went to lift Aurelio up. “Can you walk, Aury-poo?” A reinforcement girl came over to heal his wounds. Sally then noticed his missing arm and picked it up. “Oh, this must be yours...”
She spoke, biting her lip, before she blinked and placed her index finger on the magicomm unit on her ear.
“Beacon patrols, do you copy?” She messaged the other squads currently on the move. “There are White Coin muggers on the loose. I repeat, White Coin muggers on the loose! Do not give any White Coins to suspicious people until they have been apprehended!”
Sylvia’s gatling gun fire had now caused multiple wounds to Lotus in her second burst, having managed to shoot her through the shoulder and glancing against her side. But, she was caught in muddy water once she landed.
“Dammit!” She exclaimed through grit teeth, attempting to pull herself out. And at that moment, Lotus teleported in...And shot her point blank with her barnacle cannon, blowing a hole right through her. Sylvia spat blood as she heaved, but with a lip bitten so hard she drew blood, she managed to watch the monster girl eye to eye. She had an evil smile on her.
“So this is how it’s gonna be?”
At that moment, Sylvia clicked a button on the belt she wore under her jacket, and a harpoon was shot from a miniature cannon hidden on the side of the belt, piercing Lotus right through the thigh before it opened and locked itself into her flesh.
“Alicia...You’re gonna do better than I did…” She groaned as she began slumping. The harpoon violently tugged Lotus against Sylvia’s body.
“Make me proud...Alright?”
And then, with another click, she activated the bombs she had planted in the underside of her jacket.
The last thing Lotus felt was a great flash of light that enveloped her very being, as both her and Sylvia’s bodies were blown apart by a great explosion that sent rain droplets to return up to the clouds and left a crater in the dirt.
When the smoke cleared, there was nothing left of the two but the smell of fried calamari.
Celia could not see the people trapped in the foul cloud as she directed streams of water, but with a stroke of luck she succeeded in knocking Deni out of the smoke with a blast of water right in her face, sending her flying a couple of meters away until she fell on her butt. As a result, she suffered less adverse effects, and could go back to fighting at nearly full strength. The smoke itself, having absorbed some of moisture generated by Celia’s Water spell, had it’s radioactive qualities dampened, and instead of a fully paralyzing pain it had become a greatly weakening one, allowing some modicum of action. However, it also worsened Cindy’s condition as water absorbed electrons away from her body, causing her to collapse.
But then, in a romantic scene, Reaver had reached for Cindy, and caught her in his bone-plated arms, embracing her. She looked up with static-filled eyes, and smiled sweetly.
“Oh...My...Dark knight...In spiky armor...I knew you would...Save me...“ She managed to speak. “You are my...hero...”
For all intents and purposes, Reaver seemed the perfect image of a chivalric noble, coming to the rescue of the distressed damsel in their darkest hour.
But then, as the skull knight’s visage returned to human, so did his true allegiance, to Cindy’s great shock.
“Wait, Reaver? Reaver-NOOOO!” She screamed, as she felt the barrier crushing herself against Reaver, turning into a personal protection field for Reaver. Her blue form turned more yellow as she lost grip of it, until-
Suddenly, Tetrad teleported in, and delivered a blue knife attack; cracking the barrier around the impact area. She and Trixy had together successfully dispersed the cloud and recovered the people stuck in them, allowing them to fight at half their usual strength, including Shane who joined in with casting a giant hand-shaped stream of electricity, further straining the barrier.
Tetrad then threw another knife, and the barrier burst, and the hand had reached Cindy, beginning to revitalize her from her near death. But by the time Tetrad was about to throw the third one, the sound of buzzing came apparent, and was followed by the stomping of a Horror that had manifested in their world. An alien avatar of nature’s capriciousness brought to a mind-melting form, it had summoned a melissophobia-inducing swarm of insectoid dryads.
The sight of a Horror suddenly poking its head from the clouds and the buzzing of monster bees was enough to distract both Tetrad and Shane in this critical moment. By the time Trixy had formed a hedge and they turned back, it was already too late; Reaver, in a last, desperate move to kill Cindy, proceeded to open his jaw so wide that it was displaced by its hinges, and bit Cindy’s electric head, consuming the source of her form. Just as Cindy let out her last death throes, Janet had succeeded in breaking into her mind and running through her memories, as if she was downloading a massive file into her own head. She had succeeded in collecting a replica of her mental landscape, discovering her dreams and hopes, fears, and experiences. However, the psychic shock that came from invading a mind suffering a violent death took its toll on her, and she was caught in a daze, unable to distinguish her own mind from that of Cindy’s. She would develop a split personality, with one belonging to her, and the other belonging to the psyche she had collected.
While Janet suffered mental damage in Cindy’s last moments, Reaver suffered the physical; by consuming a being of pure lightning, he had inadvertently created a miniature thunderstorm inside him, ravaging him and causing him to belch out smoke. Were it any other person, they would have turned catatonic from the sheer pain of the experience, but Reaver managed to keep his sense, though his step was now a bit wobbling, and his posture was slouched; like a man drunk from masochism, his motor functions had been impaired.
Celia proceeded to attack Viper who by this point had noticed her; she dropped the spent detonator, and summoned another gun-knife in its place. With swift slashes parried Celia’s fiery arrows, splitting them from tip to tail. However, Viper’s eyes then tightened. Celia heard a bellowing roar, and felt the earth shake behind her. She turned to see Hilaria, now having turned into a terrifying dark knight of unfathomable rage, swing her axe down against her. But in a miraculous save, Jenna touched Hilaria at that moment, hoping to teleport her. In any other circumstance, this would have failed, as the spell required the target’s consent to work without a chance of resistance, and Hilaria, notorious even among magical girls for her resilience, would have easily swept aside such an attempt.
But the direction the teleport tugged the mindless beast in was one that she agreed on by pure instinct. She had but one way, one thing to do.
Rip and tear...until it is done.
Viper gasped as Hilaria teleported right in front of her, and by reflex assumed a parrying stance as she shot at Hilaria at point blank with her machine pistol-like gun-knives. The bullets had enough piercing power to penetrate the thick armor, but were left embedded at skin level, only causing minor wounds.
She screamed as her arm was cut off, having failed to parry the powerful blow. When Hilaria went for a followup shotgun blast, Viper created an illusion of herself being shot as she dodged it Matrix-style, and used the distraction as an opportunity to jump away, cloaking herself in illusions as she began to flee the Penrose Park.
Ishtar’s bleeding was stopped thanks to Jenna’s quick acting, and she had slowly opened her eyes to witness the chaos in Penrose Park. However, she still clutched at her wound, which did not heal; Jenna saw that the wound was stained unnaturally black, the color slowly spreading on her white dress. “He...le...” She groaned, looking at the berserker who had severed Viper’s arm. “Wi...sa...” She groaned again as Jenna attempted to teleport her, and slowly shook her head, having refused it. “Hele...wisa...” She whispered, coughing up black blood.
Then, a teleporting sound could be heard, and three Ascendancy officers appeared: Tsuki, Hudie, and Elora. "What is the meaning of this?" Tsuki yelled, and saw Ishtar bleeding. "How dare you strike down our Cardinal!" Hudie yelled in turn, and charged a magical spell in her hand, while Tsuki created a defensive spell around themselves. Elora's floating box opened up, and robotic arms fitted with various weapons appeared; these included laser guns and melee weapons such as swords and maces. "Stand down, or be executed by Ascendancy's will," she stated coldly.
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