FamishedPants

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

H i l a r i a

"Just let me eat!"

— Hilaria

Faith had screamed.

Oh, what joy was this! A crimson line streaked down her mouth, dropping onto the defeated, injured girl's back as Hilaria savored the taste, lightly shuddering as she did. It still did not compare to Viper, but few things would. Her suffering and flesh were simply divine. Faith could be compared to a quick lunch at a fast-food joint, but could she honestly be called Hilaria if she did not partake of a free meal before her?

Was it anger driving her now, or an insatiable taste for blood? To even Hilaria, it would be impossible to tell. She only understood violence right now, and all that can be assured is that if Faith wasn't dead already, Hilaria's next bite would correct this. The armored berserker dove back in to claim yet more of her flesh when suddenly she found her attempt impeded by a barrier. It immediately cracked and shattered as it resisted her brutal strength, but lasted just long enough for Celia to grab Hilaria's attention.

Far as she was from subtle, the flaming Celia did not go unnoticed and Hilaria raised her hands to catch her, stopping the charge without ceding any ground, in spite of the immense heat the flames were giving off. The searing pain the bands imparted was far worse, and she was built for these sorts of things, after all. Hilaria acted as an immovable wall and Celia, a pebble. And since the two were grappling above Faith, it would have been impossible for Ronin to relocate her downed friend. That is until another pebble was thrown at the wall.

Rather than overpowering Hilaria, what disrupted her most was her head being snapped back by the shield blow, causing her body to also reel back a little. The last bit of the druid's power had now sapped away, and her skin returned to being (mostly) normal, Hilaria's madness the only thing left empowering her. Assuming Celia did not change course, she would find this provided an opportunity to wrap her arms around the berserker's waist, and the two of them successfully would manage to begin pushing her back, clearing the area above Faith and allowing Ronin to continue with her rescue attempt, granted something else didn't interfere.

As she clashed with the two on her, Hilaria either didn't know about or didn't seem to care of the oncoming attack from the dead wolf. Instead, she would try to take one of her clawed hands and dig it into the side of Celia, and both the girls near her would feel a force pulling them into her.

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

S i l h o u e t t e

"Portal chick is not for kill. Yet."

Silhouette

Although a fight was never over until it was over, Silhouette could tell this fight was headed towards its climax. The Monster Queen had sustained many injuries from Sil and the others and seemed to be getting more desperate by the moment. But with this many magical girls teaming up, was that even surprising? Sure, they were far from cohesive and she was sure if she didn't devote a good majority of her attention to watching out for the others that she might end up incurring some friendly fire, but the results were still satisfactory, so far.

In her time as a magical girl, she had yet to once see a trained team of magical girls that rivaled the discipline of her squad from her human days in the special forces unit she'd once been a part of. What made them special was their knowledge of each others' strengths and weaknesses, and their ability to play off of that. Absolute trust in each other's skills, too.

In contrast... well, the Ascendancy seemed to be a group cosplaying as trained soldiers, from her limited exposure to them. She could show them a thing or three in that regard. She'd need a squad though, but Amaryllis wasn't Cradle and she had a strong feeling her knife would somehow find its way into Blair's back if they went that route? Well, getting intimate with the one person she could deal with was probably best. Perhaps instead of beating up Trixy and calling it training, she could beat up Trixy while also training?

Or maybe she should just beat up Trixy?

Given the girl's current reaction to Mariette's appearance, Trixy was making it difficult to not think that the best course of action.

Trixy, most people prefer not to ally with those that shoot at them.

Silhouette waited atop the wrecked warehouse in the cold rain. The Monster Queen had for the briefest of moments been occupied, so seeing what Trixy's actions resulted in was her objective for right now. Aggression by Mariette would, unfortunately, result in retaliation. But Sam hoped it wouldn't come to that, as the girl would be better as an ally than a corpse.

E m i l y

"Friends are friends, even if I have nightmares from now on!"

— Emily

Emily acknowledged that the soul-zapping beam coming from the horror had been stopped, but that did not mean Sakura hadn't been reckless. If it were just one big monster, one foe, then Emily might not be so worried, but there were multiple! Using all your mana in these situations was very dangerous and there were few things in the world Emily wanted to see less than Sakura being in such a dangerous situation.

"Just don't do something like that without a good backup plan!" she warned and was ready to once again pick Sakura up and jet away when she saw the beam coming, yet it was blocked by Shoggy. "Oh, thank you so much...?"

Upon abandoning her more... 'aesthetic' or 'palatable' form, Shoggy sprinted (or crawled?) at the other horror in what was perhaps the least 'okay' thing Emily had bore witness to in some time. It wasn't like she hadn't seen a digusting, mortifying horror before, and she had actually seen worse... it's just that she wasn't desensitized to such things, either, even in her lengthy time as a magical girl.

But she shook her head. No matter what form it took, Shoggy was helping them and was a friend! "L-lets focus on the wolf!" Emily suggested as she took off behind the crawling mass of nope, ready to blast it with a stream of fire when the opportunity presented itself. "It looks like there's only one more foe after this one!"

But... was that right?

H i l a r i a

"Bet you can't guess my favorite food. Hint: Eating it is frowned upon."

— Hilaria

Viper was the fulcrum of Hilaria's rage. Without her, there was no proper outlet for the ancient. She was nothing more than a berserker without purpose and she would merely destroy whatever she could. As sad as the state she was in was, she couldn't merely snap out of it, either. That chance had come and gone.

So, yet again, Hilaria threw herself at something with no purpose other than to destroy it, though she was looking a little less bulky now that the dragon had perished.

Connie and Mia would feel something collide with the beanstalk and then begin to rapidly ascend it, leaving small purple fires in her wake, which would begin to spread around the base of the stalk. Before she made it to the two at the top she suddenly decided to press her feet up to the stalk and pushed off with incredible force, aided by her gravity spec, right towards a new target, Faith!

After hearing Connie’s confusion, Faith had lowered her bow and was composing herself to explain the situation. Though she was able to spot Hilaria soaring towards her.

”Wha-!”

The fairy hopped into the air. She attempted to glide out of the way, but Hilaria’s mastery over gravity allowed her to adjust her flight path. Faith strummed her harp to throw chords of music in between herself and Hilaria. But the enraged magical girl would not be slowed down. She tore through the musical shield as if it were nothing but string, and wrapped her arms around Faith’s torso. She screamed as the two descended to earth. Fortunately they weren’t very high up, but they still sunk into the grassy dirt because of the rainfall.

Faith was momentarily in a state of vertigo. The pain wrecking her back was almost enough to make her black out. At that moment, it was all she could focus on. She couldn’t even recall what had hit her, or how long ago it had happened. Though the pain subsided and sensation returned to her. Her vision was blurry, but she could see a dark shape moving in front of the moon. Her arms had been flung over her head, and every breath caused her stomach to touch something metal and cold, but that sensation would go away. Metal hands uncoiled from around her waist and something shuffled to its feet.

”Mmph…”

Faith blinked a few times, and the dark shape took form under the lunar light. It was coming back to Faith now. The danger hadn’t passed. The berserker stood up up with relative ease. She towered over Faith, baring her teeth menacingly. Faith could feel her heart sink into her chest when she realized Hilaria wasn’t done with her. The berzerker needed no provocation, she just descended. Faith reached out in an attempt to stop her, but Hilaria caught her arm and rolled Faith over onto her stomach. She was covered in mud, but neither she Faith or her attacker cared about that. Her harp had been flung from her hands, and laid just out of reach. That didn’t stop her from reaching for it, but her bicep was seized, and now both of her arms were pinned over her head. Hilaria had Faith trapped between her knees, and had sunk into the earth a good bit. There wasn’t any way she could escape. Faith attempted to turn her head so that she could look over her shoulder, but all that greeted her was the menacing glare of the berserker. Her heart beat out of her chest when she felt Hilaria’s warm breath on her neck. Her teeth were still stained with Viper’s blood, her heart was still filled with anger. The dragon descended on its prey.

Faith screamed.

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

E m i l y

"Uh...?"

— Emily

Since it had seemed like Connie took things under control with the berserk girl, Emily had flown over to Sakura, who wasn't in the best of moods. Judging by her choice to use another girl as a springboard so suddenly. Weirder yet was Shoggy's willingness to be one. But at least there was some form of consent, Emily supposed. As for why Sakura wanted to do that. Well, she seemed to want to go on the offensive against one of those horrors, so Emily followed her order and decided to begin blasting the hedge walls separating them from the Spirit Zone with fire to clear a way for them, acknowledging her request with an "O-okay! I got it!"

S i l h o u e t t e

"Melee DPS need buffs"

Silhouette

Meanwhile, Silhouette had been assisting the rest of the group involved with the Monster Queen by attempting to do as much damage as she could. That, however, became harder to do so once the fight took to the sky, so pausing for a moment, Sil retrieved her shadow, as its purpose had been fulfilled.

Trixy seems to be doing fine.

Samantha couldn't help but think to herself. She was being far more productive in this situation than even herself, but then again, whenever big monsters showed up, Sil found herself relegated to supportive duties more often than not.

Thanks for the assist.

After conveying this through their mental link, Samantha stepped on the acorn and...

"!?"

Samantha was not surprised by the sudden altitude she gained by stepping onto the acorn. That was fine. But what she didn't expect? That despite her incredibly sturdy outfit, her superhuman reactions, and decades of experience, that something would simply slip right through her defenses and hit her exposed back.

Man, this rain was cold.

But ignoring that, Sil utilized her enhanced perception of time to survey the area and the actions of everyone in it. She noted that Amaryllis had gotten caught by the monster and saw Sophia's subsequent save, but also noticed Shane charging a powerful strike. These things made it difficult for Sil to get close, but maybe she could provide a follow-up attack after Shane?

While Silhouette couldn't fly, what she could do was teleport. As Amaryllis and Sophia took to the ground and Shane had his chance to attack, Sil would, assuming she needn't respond to another variable, teleport herself just a bit higher so that she could time her attack after Shane's, so as not to be caught in it.

E m i l y

"My turn again?"

— Emily

Though while all that was occurring, the group at the helicopter now had a new obstacle thrown in -- a large laser beam of souls coming from the horror that looked like a dog.

"S-sakura!" Emily called out to her bold friend, who had just effectively yote every last bit of her mana at the fiend without a care in the world. Not only that, but Gaia seemed to be blowing most of her mana on an attack directed at the horror, too! Even though Emily could join the others in this blatant disregard for the conservation of mana, she opted against doing so to assist the others in case something bad happened afterward, flying closer to Sakura in order to catch her.

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

H i l a r i a

"Local mahou too upset to regret."

— Hilaria

Hilaria found the arm that she was about to slam down towards Connie trapped in a viney prison, and most of her body soon followed. A growl once again emerged from the magical girl as she immediately began to snap free from the plants, but right before she did so, Connie further snared her into a nightmare-fueled illusion.

The form it took resembled a small part of a crumbling amphitheater. The only source of light in it seemed to be a spotlight coming from nowhere, and in the center of this spotlight stood a young woman. Hilaria slowly approached and the figure turned, only to reveal it owned no face. It let out an ominous voice but was impossible to understand. Suddenly, more spotlights shone beside the figure, revealing more and more people, who all seemed to lack facial features as well, and also began saying things she wouldn't be able to understand. Hilaria stared at the first and nearest figure, taking a step forward, causing the spotlights behind it to flicker. Each time those did, Hilaria would find that the faceless people inside the spotlights had disappeared. Hilaria would take another step, and then one more until once again it was her and the original figure left.

Hilaria was almost on top of the figure, and that was when she could see that it had slowly begun to gain features, had obtained a face. It was none other than Isabella's that she saw as she had closed the small distance between them. The illusionary Isabella seemed to smile before opening its mouth to speak. Ishtar's kind voice, the one of a selfless lady who desired peace and forgiveness was one that Hilaria never got to hear.

"GHGHHHHHHHHHH"

All that came out were failed attempts to breathe as a hand quite effortlessly crushed her neck. On Hilaria's face was the same glare she'd had since she'd gone berserk, and it was obviously her hand doing the crushing. As the illusion of Isabella vanished, Hilaria's glare was directed forwards, directly at her newest target, as the glow in her eyes increased in intensity along with a growl.

Connie's magic was successfully able to penetrate deep into Hilaria's character and retrieve the things she considered most terrifying or horrible. Even had she been aware that it was Connie's doing, the ancient girl would have trouble snapping out of it after seeing what she saw. But... Hilaria didn't really 'see' what was before her. At least not for what it was.

Hilaria had wordlessly slaughtered the one being she should care about in this world without so much as blinking. It was clear that things in front of her would be her target, no matter what they may be, and nothing would stop her short of death or unconsciousness. Not reasoning, as Emily and Ishtar had seen. Not family, as the beacon might've guessed. And, most certainly, not fear, as Connie would now be aware.

But Connie clearly wasn't her target. Instead, it was now the woman who had tried trapping her with vines would find herself targeted, Hilaria bursting out of the false world with a thunderous crack, and her gauntlets slamming down with enough force to make a small fissure in the ground that beelined in Gaia's direction, throwing up earth and purple flames as it did so. Even if there was a giant beam of souls slowly turning in their direction, it didn't seem like she had the sort of clarity of mind that would allow her to at least take a break from attacking.

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

S i l h o u e t t e

"Even I have standards."

Silhouette

"No room for disappointment here then. Let's make this seem routine."

Silhouette eagerly nodded in response to Trixy. As a lone wolf, she wasn't often made to cooperate directly with other people. Bar the fight with the Contender and their sparring, this would more or less be her first real experience seeing Trixy in action, and from so close. Given Sil herself thought she had potential as well as Veronica accepting her as an agent, Sam knew that things would probably go alright. But with her pessimistic nature and all of the carnage, she found it difficult not to expect the worst.

And speaking of carnage, even in her old life, she hadn't often seen this many people dead in one area. She gave merely a disinterested glance at a few of the ones she passed by or over and continued on her way. Samantha would never claim to be a good person, but even when murder was her occupation, she at least ensured she made the job as quick and painless as it could be.

To see these girls with twisted expressions, she could only imagine what sort of pain they were in during their last moments. She didn't want to, though. A slit throat or even a bomb would've been a much better way to go. Silhouette wasn't going to seek vengeance for these girls but if the opportunity presented itself to cleanse the world of the degenerates who orchestrated this... well, she wouldn't complain, either.

But, as was usual, her objectives took precedence over something like that. As the group bar Tetrad arrived at the scene their monstrous target was already engaged with another girl and also attempting to devour any corpse it could get its tentacles on. Trixy made a good call to try to deny it any more food, which inspired most of the others in their group as well as those who later arrived to focus on its appendages. Sil, however, would see what damage she could do to the beast itself.

Hectic. But most things are nowadays. Well... lets get dangerous, I suppose.

Deftly she traveled, effortlessly maneuvering around the debris and bodies that littered the floor, observing and planning a route of attack. There were numerous tentacles all apparently capable of acting somewhat independently of one another. This monster was no joke. Placing her hands together, she empowered herself with her own time magic to make her actions and reactions much faster. Once she was done, she threw an arm out to the side and a shadow of herself appeared parallel to her. Her Dusk was mentally instructed to seek out bodies that Hyun was looking to snatch and essentially play 'Keep Away' without retaliating.

Finally, Silhouette made her own move. Hers was to assist Rachel in actually attempting to kill the monster rather than starve it, so she would attempt to dash by it, slashing at Hyun and immediately retreating in a hit-and-run style offense.

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

E m i l y

"I return!"

— Emily

"I appreciate it!"

With the help of Sakura's Puchuu, Emily was able to think clearly once again! Her eyes sparkled but her chest tightened when she realized it was someone else's puchuu that helped her out of that mess and not her own. What was that missing idiot Jonald good for? Well, it was to be expected from him and it honestly didn't matter at the moment. Now that she was no longer inebriated, she could and would make up for any time lost by doing her absolute best to save who she could. And needless to say, she would follow her friend into the pink-colored chopper that had been made out of her bike.

Emily was an idealist, but she wasn't an idiot. With so many girls here, as much as it pained her to admit, she knew that things would escalate. They always seemed to here. But when they neared the park and she caught sight of a giant horror in the sky, she found it more than a little difficult to believe all of this started from some rave. But she wouldn't complain. She loathed to see her sisters in pain, but there was no point in being a magical girl if you didn't have bad things to prevent!

She eyed the surrounding area, only to find that despite everything happening in the rave, there was a lot of stuff going on here, too. Or it seemed like it, anyways. Evidence of conflict was quite apparent, as dead horror flies and even what appeared to be the remains of some girls littered the ground. She was almost beginning to grow accustomed to the sight of dead sisters which was probably the last thing in the world that Emily wanted. But even despite the additional threats now presenting themselves, she saw something that was much more imperative, in her opinion. Emily leaned out of the side of the chopper to get a better look.

"W-what's going on over the---"

Ackerson had been intently watching some enraged magical girl rushing a smaller group of what seemed to be Beacon, even throwing an arm at one of them. But before she could finish her sentence, their ride was struck by something and they were forced to make a crash landing. Being halfway out of the helicopter already, Emily was flung from it and sent spiraling towards the ground. Before she could make a magical girl-sized splat on the ground, she gained her bearings and righted herself using her flame specialization.

"Woah, that was close!" she gasped.

People often died when they collide with the ground from such a high fall, so she was very thankful she didn't do that. But she wasn't that important right now. Emily sighed in relief when she saw Sakura and the rest exit the chopper with little evidence they'd been in a crash. "Oh, I'm so happy you're alright!" Emily yelled from her position in the air. "But there are people in trouble over there! I'll go see if I can help!" she declared before she blasted off like a rocket on her own at a rather impressive speed.

H i l a r i a

"Gonna thunderclap them cheeks if you don't pay attention."

— Hilaria

Ishtar's begging did not appear to be doing any good. To an observant eye and, of course, the one Hilaria was attacking, something was pulling inside of her, attempting to break her out of her trance. When Ishtar spoke, her blows seemed just that bit slower or had less strength behind them but ultimately, it was not enough. What feelings she had for Ishtar were being drowned out by the rage that had claimed her sanity. She would likely continue attacking the girls before her until they were nothing but a bloody, gruesome stain on the ground.

But then the three horrors came and decided to brand the berserker.

Roaring yet again, Hilaria stumbled back in obvious pain and this gave the girls she'd engaged with some space. For a minute, it seemed as if something was tearing through her body, as it twitched and spasmed over a short period. And then, as sudden as it came, it went. Hilaria stood upright, but something was much different about her demeanor. Though she'd suddenly gained what appeared to be an even sturdier hide, a stronger physique, and empowered weapons, it was the air about her that changed the most. She almost seemed calm.

She corrected her posture and her weapon vanished into the air, but despite this, nobody would get the feeling she had calmed in the slightest. Rather, her anger seemed to swell even further, perhaps due to the cursed power bestowed upon her, to the point where it became palpable. Ishtar and the girls around her would likely surmise that she need only another trigger before she relentlessly set upon someone yet again.

Naturally, Emily happened to stumble upon the scene around this time from behind Hilaria.

She was not oblivious to the aura Hilaria was giving off but since the berserker wasn't currently attacking she wasn't going to throw the first attack either. "U-um..." with the ground being as it was Emily hovered not more than a couple of feet off of it. She worriedly looked over to the Cardinal and her posse, then back at Hilaria as if to wordlessly ask what was going on. "...hello?" she asked, floating closer to the girl.

This was the trigger. It was at this point that it seemed like there was no filter any longer. What was before her... that would be her target from now on. No 'protecting' Isabella, no seeking revenge. As long as she was like this, she would just attack. And the innocent Emily was, unfortunately, the closest one to her now.

When she was only a few feet out, the berserker slowly turned to Emily in a motion that was far tamer than it should have been. Glaring at the fire girl, Hilaria began growling lowly instead of the roaring she had done earlier. Her outward appearance, in general, seemed to be far less bestial than before. But as mentioned before: she was certainly not any less mad.

Hilaria drew her weapons. It was not the scutum nor the shotgun-axe this time but instead, a pair of gauntlets meant for beating her enemies into a bloody pulp. She began running towards Emily with a fist raised, ready to attack. Seeing this, Emily quickly came to understand that she wasn't going to be talking this one out, so she went to flee further up into the air, only to hear what sounded like a ridiculously loud clap behind her before felt like she'd just been shoved, which caused her to drop to the ground.

Falling only from a few feet into the air, she wasn't harmed in the least, but she found it difficult to move her feet and glancing down, she noticed the sand encasing them. "Oh, gosh darn it!" she looked back up to see Hilaria progressing through it essentially unhindered towards her, simply brute-forcing her way through it. Emily shuddered when she thought about how easy it would probably be for the berserker to rip her in half was she able to get a hold of her. She needed to escape and she needed to do so now.

Lucky for her she wasn't anchored to the floor. Emily applied some thrust and that was enough to get airborne again. Since she was no longer on the ground, she wouldn't be hindered by the sand. It was simply a matter of boosting out of the berserker's range, and then she'd work on what to do from the safety of the air. Except... she was going nowhere.

She was applying enough oomph into her thrust that she should be flying, but instead it felt like she was being dragged back. Hearing the dark knight's growl becoming terrifyingly close, she looked back and spotted Hilaria mere seconds from grabbing her leg. Not only that but instead of the ground, it seemed she was being pulled towards Hilaria.

Is that?!

Emily noticed something strange about Hilaria that wasn't a part of her transformation or those buffs the horrors gave her. It was that a good amount of sand seemed to be clinging to her armor. No, it wasn't just clinging... it was being drawn there by some force.

Does she use gravity?

If this was true, then the closer she got the worse things would get. And Hilaria was already too close for comfort. Emily sighed, then looked up to where she wanted to be: the sky. Putting everything she could into it, she thrust as she'd never thrust before, and somehow she managed to break free, zipping into the air.

*CLAP*

As Emily turned to keep Hilaria in her sights, she saw the DMG quite literally clapping her hands together with enough force to send a strong shockwave right at Emily, who evaded in time to not be forced downwards yet again. "Oh, that's troublesome!" Emily cried out in surprise, safely parked too high up for Hilaria to do much else, or so it initially seemed.

The knight planted her feet firmly into the ground, ankle-deep in the sand. Never once taking her eyes off Emily, she bent her knees and then launched into the sky so absurdly high that it startled Emily, who yet again took evasive action, Hilaria's attempted grab just barely failing.

That was too close---

Though Hilaria's attempt to grab Emily failed, that didn't mean she was finished. Behind Emily, of course, was the direction where she had come from. The group from the chopper would be her next targets. Whether they were just arriving or all back at the chopper, Hilaria would descend quickly like a human cannonball towards them, and her collision with the ground would likely cause insane damage in the immediate area and to anyone who didn't bother to move out of the way.

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

H i l a r i a

"lewisa...?"

— Hilaria

Giving in to her anger, Hilaria moved with wild, exaggerated, and powerful movements. Her every action was laced with her volatile feelings that had not seen a release in near half a millennia. Each step left a strong imprint on the grass of the park as though it were snow, and the very act of swinging her shotgun-axe was enough to make a relatively loud sound as it tore through the air, and then later, an arm. If there was one thing she did not put behind her moves, it was mercy.

As she was far from in control of herself, she would enact a painful, brutal death upon anything in her way if given the chance. Thankfully for Celia, Jenna redirected Hilaria towards the icon of her hatred, which was also why she herself was spared Hilaria's aggression. With Viper before her, her already-narrowed sight was further restricted towards the girl who had robbed her of a purpose.

The moment the axe separated Viper's arm from her person, the berserk girl felt something: A strange pleasure engulfed her that trumped anything that had come before it, be it carnal or cuisine. Were she capable of rational thought at the moment, the combination of satisfaction and undying anger would confound her. Alas, as she was nothing more than a beast, her thoughts were of taking her vengeance and reaping the sensational benefits of doing so.

"——————__———"

Using her free arm, Hilaria had snatched Viper's limb from the air before it could even think about landing but still fired her shotgun at Viper, who managed to avoid becoming a clump of meat from the close-ranged blast, while also retaliating. Because of her enraged state, even had Viper's bullets penetrated her skin, Hilaria was unlikely to be slowed by anything short of a fatal blow, and even then it'd have to kill her instantly. Still, the girl was slippery and since Hilaria's game plan was essentially to just hack and blast at whatever was in front of her, the illusions proved to be effective in distracting her long enough for Viper to retreat.

With her prey gone, Hilaria roared yet again, only this time her helmet disappeared, revealing the golden-eyed, horned beast beneath. She snorted like a bull, and then eyed the arm in her possession. Opening her jaw to reveal a set of rather sharp teeth, she dug into Viper's lost limb and ripped out a humungous chunk which she then promptly devoured. With a crimson liquid staining her teeth and around her mouth, she perked up at the sound of the Cardinal's weak voice, and turned to face her.

For the first time since she had begun to rage, Hilaria had remained still as she watched her dying sister call out her true name, as if it had some form of calming property to it. She took an uneasy step towards Ishtar. "...?" Tears seemed to begin forming in her eyes as she took a few more. Before her lay the last piece of humanity she had left, and it was on its last legs. Yet still... Isabella tried to call out to her sibling. Was Hilaria even worth her last breaths? Since their abrupt, unfriendly departure centuries ago, they'd barely spoke, and Hilaria had treated her almost as an enemy. But could this be the power of familial love? That silly idea that almost irritated Hilaria every time she heard someone mention it? It was not long ago she'd scoff at the very notion, but had she really been hoping for something like this the whole time? A person to drag her out of the depths?

That had to be it! It was painful their reunion was only going to last for what would feel like the blink of an eye to an ancient, but in this time they did have together, short as it is, perhaps they could---

Oh.

The sudden, obnoxious appearance of three new girls to the scene sparked a couple different reactions from different people. One was that there would later be talks from many magical girls about the potential change to the magical girl dictionary definition of the word Ascendency to enable it to become an antonym of 'opportune'. And, of course, there was Hilaria's reaction, which Ishtar would probably not consider 'desireable'.

You see, Hilaria was currently a beast that considered anyone who was not Isabella to be a foe necessitating maiming and killing. She was enraged and incapable of much coherent thought. She was the enemy of everyone. This also included Jenna, but because Hilaria's focus was solely upon Ishtar, she hadn't even registered Jenna up until now. The same could not be said once Tsuki, Hudie, and Elora arrived with all the subtlety of a honey badger tearing a cobra apart.

Any notion of a tamed Hilaria evaporated in an instant.

"—_—— __—"

Her bestial roar was followed by Hilaria turning Viper's old, half-eaten arm into a projectile shot towards Hudie, while she aggressively charged at the people 'threatening' Ishtar.

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

E m i l y

"Blegh!"

— Emily

Emily could not name a single instance that had proven to be frustrating as this one had been. How many of her siblings had fallen? How many more would? Would their deaths be dragged out, or would death embrace them with movements as sweet as they were deft? Was wishing them a swift demise the best she could do? Could she protect any of them? She owned, in her own hands, the means with which to do so. And the will to do so was also within her heart. But she was... unwell, and wholly incapable of using either of those to achieve her goals.

Despite their successful 'escape' from the Rave, Lucifer was far from happy. She was an inebriated and sorrowful wreck who was breaking apart at the seams. Many monsters had fallen by her hand, and it was not as though she'd missed out on experiencing loss... but to say the Devil's water wasn't sweet would be quite the understatement. She could not, for the life of her, imagine how one would willingly put themselves into such a disoriented, pathetic state.

She felt as though there was a delay of about a whole second between what she went to do and what she did, and that she was struggling to remain inside her own body. She wondered if she'd, in a literal sense, 'give up the ghost' if she let her guard down. She felt so detached that she couldn't tell if she felt nauseous or not, or tired or awake. With Lily's intervention, however, it became readily apparent she quite nauseous. It took less than three spins before Emily's body told her it was going for an emergency ejection and had Lily kept ahold of Emily for even a second longer, well, she probably wouldn't be as happy as she had appeared. Stumbling into a fall onto her knees, she let loose a rainbow-colored (or so she wanted to believe) vomit off to the side where hopefully people wouldn't end up in it.

"...Ugh..."

Pale as she had ever been but somehow still managing to retain enough awareness to retain what was being passed on by this injured newcomer, Emily sat on the ground. Standing up by herself at the moment was a great way to bring about another disgusting torrent, even if what she was catching was tearing her heart open anew. She had to be strong though. Mourning the loss of her now-deceased sisters should wait until after the ones who could still be saved had been helped.

As Rachel opted to charge headfirst into battle, Emily turned her attention onto the newest friend she had obtained, Connie. She was a shy girl, but even now she wanted to help a friend despite the danger. Oh, how her heart beat thrice as quickly at such a display! Making friends with such a courageous individual was a silver lining in all of this, Emily thought.

Emily pushed herself off the ground, wobbling as she struggled to maintain her balance. "I-if ish posshible..." it was still so very difficult to speak, but she did her best in response to Connie's pleading to Alexander, keeping her mouth turned away, as she imagined her breath was far from pleasant right now. If he could help her become sober, then maybe she could at least be useful in the slightest.

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

H i l a r i a

"___"

— Hilaria

How long had Hilaria been denied an honest emotional connection to another being? When she asked herself this, Hilaria figured it had to have been more than a couple of centuries. Hundreds of years aimlessly walking this Earth, existing merely because. A life where one's sole joy was in the delicacies that had yet to be experienced. There was no desire, no ambition. She longed not for a relationship nor any sort of wealth or material item beyond the currency required to consume yet more foods she had yet to try.

Meaningless, just like she imagined everything and everyone else to be. Purpose was, after all, merely a means with which to set oneself up for devastation. People were flawed, terrible things. They killed one another over the silliest of trifles. They abandoned over the most insignificant slight. Not to mention how many mistakes they made. And as she finally started recalling more and more memories of her life, particularly with her sibling, she came to understand something:

She was still very much a person, too.

Hilaria arrived at the scene in the park moments too late. A thunder followed her less-than-subtle entrance as if some form of applause, while dust and earth were kicked up from her landing. She waited not for it to dissipate, instead making a beeline for the Cardinal with everything she had. It, unfortunately, was not enough. Hilaria was too far away to prevent Ishtar's murder and any sense of purpose she once had drained out of her body in an instant, the failure of her objective becoming the impetus behind her cease in movements. She then fell to a single knee.

Wherefore did fate rejoin us, only to separate us anew? Be suffering amid solitude mine own portion?

Her hesitation to accept her own feelings on the matter directly resulted in a belated arrival, which led to this terrible outcome. Had she been but mere moments earlier, the assassin's blade would have never found its mark, and she would not be suffering as she was now. The happiness, that foreign, uncomfortable happiness that she had recently felt twisted and bent until it was nothing but a throbbing in her heart. She knew this to be sorrow, and what followed was always despair.

But... something else came.

As she silently lamented the loss of the last remaining connection she had, she glanced up. Up at the girl who had stolen that away from her, and to the others as well. The explosion of the device that Viper had detonated, as well as most of the screams and pleading of others had all but become white noise to her, as she suddenly began to feel warmer and warmer. No, not just warm... but hot. This burning feeling stretched all throughout her person until it was the only thing she felt.

Ah, of course... I'm a hypocrite after all.

The realization that she would soon succumb to another emotion she had abandoned long ago was only the last rational thought she had. Rationality was not the only thing to be evicted, as both sorrow and despair were vacated too, leaving nothing left but an unbridled rage.

The surge of hatred and anger was enough to spark a metamorphosis in Hilaria, as well as her armor. The blood on her suit was slowly absorbed, her dark-gray apparel becoming dyed a purple-black and an ominous haze beginning to seep out of it. Her own features began to mutate, the hair on her head then turning raven-black and her eyes an eery gold. As a full helmet began to appear, Hilaria went through one last physical change in the form of horns that grew from her head, her helmet forming around them as it encased her head in stained metal.

The beast's helmet faced forward.

There were many people in the area around her sister's corpse. They all had their motivations, their allegiances, and their excuses. It mattered not with whom any of them allied with, what any of them were doing there, or what they had tried to do. The fact of the matter was that they all, without exception, were foes to be slaughtered. The crimson tint to Hilaria's vision made her nearly indiscriminate, her befuddled mind only barely registering Viper as a prime target. And with that, there was little else to do, was there?

"——___———________—————————____———————"

The bestial sound that erupted from behind her mask no longer resembled anything human, but anyone could tell what it meant. The cry was that of a foe to all. It betrayed the inability to compromise, the futility of diplomacy, and the inevitability of indiscriminate conflict.

Her initial target, naturally, was Viper. The ground where Hilaria stood cracked further as her body lunged forward, compelled by her harmful instincts. Her scutum was no longer in her hands, her intentions of disemboweling and flaying whatever she set upon making it rather useless to her.

Hilaria would not be satisfied with Viper's death. No, in her berserk state, Hilaria would rip her to pieces, tear out her teeth and nails, paint the streets with her blood, and drag out every last painful moment as long as she could. To that end, she would suffer no interference by others. She could only be satisfied if Viper's blood was on her hands. Her red-stained vision still benefited from her Third Eye, and so that meant Celia was far from hidden to her. So, she was an obstacle to be removed even if, to an extent, they shared the same goals.

The beast hesitated not. In her empowered and enraged state, she continued forward and forcefully swung her shotgun-axe down upon the occupied Celia with more than enough force to cleave her in half.

Danganronpa: Tower of Carnage (Finished!)

"And the others but lmao at making a new header for them"

Zachary Ackerson

Zachary didn’t seem too pleased by the discussion. “It doesn’t matter,” he told them. “The amount of effort it takes to kill even one of those sisters is ludicrous. We should avoid getting any funny ideas like trying to take them all on if it’s not absolutely necessary. Just keep moving.”

He gave a once-over to the members of their newly-established squad. An archer, a knight, a jester, and a nanny. It sounded like the setup to some weird sitcom, only they weren’t in a position to be laughing.

The archer then inspected his bow and the special arrows that had been made. Even though he hadn’t had it that long, this bow had some significant memories attached to it, and none of them were pleasant. His first trial and that failed Night of Carnage… was this thing cursed? And there was also the fact he wasn’t sure how well he could even use the thing anymore.

“It’s a good thing you’re so selfless. It makes the most sense for you to take point, I feel,” he spoke to Shona after she voiced her refusal to die in vain. “You should be our tank,” he suggested. Of course, looking at the other two, he really wasn’t sure what role would be best for them. Jezebel had… whatever she had -- Zach didn’t know what to call it -- and Emily was packing a powerful handgun. “And...uh, I guess as long as she’s leading, then it doesn’t matter, does it?” Zachary didn’t intend on being half-assed with his attempt at leadership, but things were how they were.

Shona stood in front with her sword drawn. "I think we should take the nearest case of stairs. The sisters will likely expect us to do so, but I feel I am the best equipped for a close encounter with them." She ascended the staircase. "All I ask is that no one shoots near me unless they’re familiar with firearms."

Jezebel had taken a moment to charge up her extendable fists. “Don’t worry, I’ve got great aim with these guys. I’ll just stand outside of your sword swings and we can work together.”

”You and I just have to make sure we don’t shoot them.” Emily giggled at Zachary. ”You’re pretty lucky, you know? All the other teams are mostly men.”

“Huh?” Zach cast a glance at the other two, apparently just now realizing this. “T-that doesn’t matter, does it? You’re being weird…” he cleared his throat and retrieved an arrow from his quiver so that he was as ready as he could be. “A-Anyway, even like this… I won’t accidentally hit someone a second time. Preventing that sort of thing is why I’m the Infinite Archer, after all.” he expertly changed the subject.

”Is it weird?” Emily giggled again. ”Maybe it is.”

Shona started moving forward. "It is natural to try and lighten the mood, especially for a caretaker. But let us continue the idle chatter when we get to the top." Shona lead the way, with Jezebel following closely behind her. Zachary and Emily hung back, but Emily was spending much more time checking the rear and flanks than the front.

The group didn’t get to the second floor before the carnage sisters arrived. With a single swing, Shona cleaved two of them in half, before kicking the third one down. A fourth and fifth had shown up with automatic weapons, but Jezebel was there to assist with her extendable fists, knocking them down together. But more were coming. "They’ve flooded the stairwell! Move!" Shona held her ground until everyone had fled the staircase, at which point she ran ahead of everyone to ensure the path was clear. The ground ahead was littered with broken carnage sister pieces, but it was a passing observation.

Emily turned towards the horde and aimed her hand cannon at them. Being as inexperienced as she was, she did not have proper discipline when firing such a massive handgun. Her elbows weren’t locked, and the gun nearly flew into her face when she fired. The only thing that saved her was her massive breasts. It was enough to knock her down though. Before Shona could rush to her side, more carnage sisters came out of the patient’s rooms to attack them.

“They so need a chill pill!” Jezebel attempted to help Emily up, but the droves of carnage sisters were almost upon them, and she had to start fighting just to stop herself from getting overwhelmed.

Zachary instead came to Emily’s rescue after firing an arrow between the eyes of one of the closer sisters. “Brace for the recoil next time,” he told the nanny as he helped her to her feet, immediately returning to assisting Jez and Shona once he had done so.

As he notched another arrow, he considered their options. “Lets…” he fired, planting an arrow through the ‘brain’ of one of the many sisters setting upon them. “...head to the resort and continue up from there!” he instructed, walking backward in that direction so as to keep the ability to cover for his allies. “We just gotta keep moving!”

“Got it, Baldwin!”

The girls ran ahead, with Zachary following. The carnage sisters split up and ran down separate corridors, which made thinning out their numbers easier for the archer. After following the girls into the music plaza, he could hear Shona shout.

"Who’s that?"

When Zachary turned his head, he could see it. Shona wasn’t the only one who had been raised from the dead. Justiciar was here as well. It could have been a carnage sister in armor, but it was possible Noel was wearing it.

”I am justice.” Justiciar drew her katana. ”And I will punish all of you.”

"This is no ordinary foe." Shona raised her sword just in time to block the vigilante’s incoming swing. "Go! I will be right behind you!" Greatsword and electro katana collided over and over again.

Jezebel shook her head. “They’re moving too fast. Like, I’ll hit Shona if I’m not careful, or get stabbed.” Emily pointed her gun towards them, but Jezebel was quick to push it out of the way.

Zachary had his bow and arrow ready, but was much in the same position as the other two. Even if his eye was not gouged out by one of the sisters earlier, he would still find landing a shot without hitting Shona rather difficult to pull off, so he wasn’t able to take it. The smart move would be to listen to Shona here and fall back before the sisters got a chance to flank and overwhelm, but curiosity got the better of him.

“What the actual fuck is going on?” he lowered the bow, eyeing their new foe. “Didn’t we just watch her…?” he looked at the other two girls not engaged in a swordfight currently, before turning back. “Noel? Don’t tell me you’re coming back from the dead too?"

The swordfighters jumped away from each other, and Justiciar turned to look at Zachary. ”Excuse me?”

Shona didn’t lower her guard for a second. "You know who this is? Was she one of your friends?"

Justiciar reached for her helmet and pulled it off of her head. ”You shouldn’t know me.”

“Ohmygosh!” Jezebel blurted out. “Like, If she forgot everything too, she hates our guts!”

”Can you blame me?” Noel’s eyes trailed over Zachary. ”I’m being confronted by a murderer.” She looked to Jezebel. ”A slut.” Then to Shona. ”And a coward.” She put her helmet back on her head.

"Is there no reasoning with you then?" Shona was already preparing to swing, and so was Noel. There were sparks when their swords collided.

”Only with steel will justice be exposed!”

Zachary seemed unsure of what to do at this point, but went ahead and acted anyway. He did not have the luxury of time, so he was only capable of acting in the moment. "What justice is there in this?" he asked. "Davis is the one torturing and killing people as though it's a game! You'd let more people die by Davis' hands just so you can kill a bunch of jaywalkers? I'm sure the real Noel would be livid if she hadn't already given her life to give us the opportunity to escape." Zach shot a look behind them, seeing if they were being flanked just yet. He was ready to move at a moment's notice, but that depended entirely on how Noel responded. But a certain question arose in his mind:

Wait... where's Emily?

The sound of Emily’s desert eagle rang out from the third floor.

“Ohmygosh!” The jester blurted out again before charging upstairs. “Emily!”

Justiciar might not have believed Zachary, or maybe she didn’t care, but she hadn’t attempted to respond to him. The commotion on the third floor had forced Zachary to see what was going on. When he got there, he could see Jezebel helping Emily to her feet. There was a puncture wound just under her collar bone, with a splintered tip stemming the bleeding.

”Locking my arms helped a lot. ” Emily coughed. She was a big lady, and Jezebel was small even by the standards of most women. Emily could still stand on one leg, but she’d need someone to lean up against. ”I heard someone coming.”

Jezebel was struggling to hold her up, but this was probably for the best. She could still use her extendable fist on one arm. Zachary would struggle to fire a bow with one hand. “Like…”

The queenly laugh of Willow carried through the hallway. Unlike the other carnage sisters, she was on horseback. Her lance laid on the ground in ruins, and her steed had half of its head blown off. As she rode away from them, she drew her rapier. Her cannon rested under her opposing arm.

”Have I been blessed with a rematch?” she said looking back towards Zachary. ”It’s just not going to be the same without your second eye. You’ll only see half my majesty!” She leveled her cannon with the archer. There really wasn’t anywhere to go. To Zachary’s right was the stairs to the lower resort area, as well as the stairs up, but the path to Willow was sandwiched between the bathrooms and a wall of aquarium plants. ”But I feel like we really need this, even if you’re worse for wear.”

“Zachary.” Jezebel uttered.

Zachary directed a challenging glare at Willow as he answered Jezebel. "...you two should continue on up, I'll follow you after I'm done here," he instructed, a few his words laced with an anxious tone.

Jezebel hesitated. “Come up soon.” She said before taking Emily upstairs.

Allowing them to go, he snapped his right arm outwards as though to wake it up, and then prepared to draw the bow back. His eye didn't leave Willow for even a second. "You've got to be kidding," he said. "Even if I had both eyes, you'd still be down half a horse. And that's the only majestic thing about you." Zachary pulled his bow back and fired an arrow directed at the head of the horse, taking a few steps backward.

Willow leaped off of her steed before the arrow even collided with it. The arrow struck true, but what happened to the mechanical horse didn’t matter anymore. The queenly carnage sister fired a single cannonball at Zachary before casting the cannon aside. Without the cannon, she could run almost three times as fast as normal. Her rapier danced in front of her face as the distance between them swiftly closed.

”I can run almost as fast as your mouth can, haha! ”

Zachary was forced to abandon the next shot he was preparing to take, apparently not confident in his ability to get up after taking a cannonball to the chest. The roll itself was not the cleanest and he even seemed like he landed on his shoulder a little rougher than intended, but he still got up and into a firing stance rather quickly, flinging an arrow at the approaching Willow, but realizing that was probably the last chance he had before she closed the remaining distance between them. The rate at which he started retreating then increased dramatically.

That arrow would have found its mark, right between Willow’s stupid eyes. But arrows were slower than their bullet counterparts. With a tap, the arrow was knocked off course before it landed true.

”Why are you running, peasant?” Willow attempted to stab at Zachary, but he managed to get away with a small cut in his shirt sleeve. ”Were you not ready to lay down your life just a few hours ago?” Her second swing cut into Zachary’s shoulder. He managed to turn into the workshop before she ran him all the way through.

Hissing in pain, Zachary sprinted through the Workshop, keeping an eye out for one tool in particular as he did so. While there were a lot of things he could use to kill another human in this place, something that could do damage to a chassis was a bit harder to come by. This situation called for something a little more “heavy-duty” and, as he expected, he saw what he wanted propped up against the wall next to the door on the other side of the shop.

It pained him to do so, but he wasn’t going to be able to one-hand this, so he discarded his bow and picked up the sledgehammer without stopping, though doing so took a lot of effort, and he barely managed to avoid simply tipping over when he tried. Still, with this success, he charged through the opposing door (using the shoulder that had not just been stabbed) and ran around the corner.

”The archer abandons his bow? And instead grasps the shaft of a primitive hammer?” Willow stepped out of the room, but she wouldn’t even have time to turn her head before Zachary mercilessly swung the sledgehammer into her. She was able to deflect arrows with her sword, but the heft of the twenty-pound sledge overcame any force Willow was able to apply to it. Her sword bent as the hammer plowed into her chest, bending her chassis and rupturing the devices underneath. Blue hydraulic fluid sprayed out of the wound as Willow's eyes flickered. There were no corny last words, no death cry, just the sound of her chassis collapsing to the ground.

“I’m fine with… ha... being slower than you… haa... if it means that... haa...” Zachary panted heavily as his body cried out in pain and his lungs burned. He leaned against the wall of the workshop for a second to catch his breath. “...you die first. *Wheeze*”

Zachary’s body demanded that he remain still for a while longer, but he had no such time. The best he could do was power walk back through the workshop, snagging his discarded bow. In the rush he was in just a moment ago, it wasn’t practical to try sling it across his back so he reluctantly parted with it, but that wasn’t a problem now. He didn’t have an actual sling for the bow, so he used the quiver in a ghetto attempt. It would probably fall from his back if he got too rough with it, but it was all he could do. Unless it proved to be a liability, he would try to use the hammer from now on.

With a new weapon and one less enemy to worry about, Zachary made his way up to where Jezebel and Emily were, hoping that Shona could at least make it out on top of their fight.