Now that he had a moment to get a better look at it, Ganondorf could see just how big the mess was that he and Jesse made in their descent back into The Under. The big heart was every bit as disgusting up close as it appeared from a distance. And it's destruction appeared to call or stir a bunch of disgusting creatures to scurry about in the darkness of The Under. He did ponder momentarily if this was going to cause any long term problems, but ultimately shrugged it off. if it didn't, all the better. And if it did? Well, he wasn't planning to stick around long enough to find out either way.

It was after he and Jesse had actually entered into Mercy Dreams itself that the Gerudo King heard a reply from Nadia. Everyone was scattered about, it seemed, searching for their target. She also asked him to keep a low profile. Low profile? The King of Evil? Those two things didn't exactly mix well, but at least Ganondorf had the advantage of being in a place that probably had no idea who he was, so there was that. Of course, moments after that was when he saw a mind flayer come crashing through the wall and sprawl onto the ground next his feet. And she wanted him to keep a low profile?

"You might want to tell that to the overgrown turtles." He said into his link pearl in response to Nadia, "They seem to be the ones making the lion's share of noise in this place." Then he disconnected his link pearl and shook his head in exasperation. But he was in no mood to start any trouble, and so when Bowser and Jr. greeted him he offered a shrug followed by a nod.

"We took a short detour to the surface to get here, but we're fine." Ganondorf said to Bowser. And then to Jr. he said, "So there's more of those mind flayers down here?" he asked, hinting at the troubles he and Jesse had just finished dealing with up above as he retrieved his twin great swords from their scabbards, "Oh very well, let's have us some chopped calamari then, shall we?"

He stepped forward to enter through the newly made wall in order to join up with the Koopa Troop. Before he went off actually start fighting anything he looked once more at Jesse, "Are you joining us as well?"

Before any more replies could be offered, Ganondorf heard Sectonia's voice over the link pearl. Something about a treasure being guarded by a horde. That did sound very tempting, but it looked like he was already stepping into whatever mess Bowser had started. Deciding not to completely disregard Sectonia, Ganondorf instead summoned a squad of moblin spearmen and instructed them to find Sectonia and back her up. The moblins immediately marched off to follow their orders after that.

"A few of my servants on their way." He said to Sectonia over the link pearl, "I'd come myself, but I need to clean up Bowser's mess first. You know how he is."

---

—

Jesse nudged Ganondorf on the shoulder, reaching up a bit to do so. Ganondorf, of course, was taller than her, though Jesse wasn’t exactly short herself standing at 5 feet, 10 inches. “We made it. Couldn’t have done it without you, Ganondorf.” She was happy to hear Nadia had greeted them.

“Our reward, a big, shitty, spooky prison full of who knows what. Out of the fire, and into the differently colored fire.” Jesse remarked. Good one. She thought sarcastically to herself. She leaned over the railing and got a good look at the massive complex. Many of the floors seemed open for a person capable of flight to access without much difficulty. The boss could realistically be anywhere within this place. If Jesse had to take a guess, though, the chances were it was deeper within the complex, on the bottom floor. The Seekers had already done some work on dealing with the monstrous inhabitants.

Suddenly Bowser appears, battling Mind Flayers and disrupting Jesse from her butterfly watching. At the same time, somewhere, Sectonia seemed like she was in a bit of a pickle. While she’d probably be fine, she wouldn’t be able to succeed in her goal of getting the treasure.

“You can help the Koopas, I’ll go with your, er, minions, to help the Queen Bee.” Jesse said. “I’m sure you’re sick of me by now, anyway.” She said with a cheeky smirk. “I’ll meet up with you after we’re done!”

Jesse began following the sound of conflict and the Moblins, since they seemed to know where they were going. As she traveled, she looked across the gap and saw a group of Chop Goblins carrying the chest away. From the chest, new Chop Goblins popped out every second and scattered to presumably where Sectonia was. She could hear high-pitched, aggressive voices. "Chop chop! Chop chop!" The goblins said as they emerged.

“Holy shit. That’s going to get out of control real fast.” Jesse said to the Moblins, who lined up at the railing and began throwing spears across the way.

Jesse switched to Grip and began popping the Chop Goblins in their big heads, turning a few to dust. When she had killed one of them holding up the chest, she leapt into the air and began to Levitate over the large fall. She reached out with her hand to pull it towards her with Launch. It wrenched out of one Goblins hand, flattening him against the railing and decapitating him as it passed over.

Jesse watched as another pair popped out and plummeted three layers to their deaths. She reached into her jacket to produce the Tool Gun. Fine manipulation of a heavy object was difficult, and the Chop Goblins popped out to the side of the chest on Jesse’s right. One of them plummeted, but another managed to jump far enough to cling to the fence she was nearby. The Moblins stabbed it through the gaps in the fence, killing it and preventing it from causing her any trouble.

Jesse attached several balloons to the back of the chest, so that it slowly began to float upwards while the opening faced downwards. Then she floated back over and clung into the railing, her Levitation running out before she could float back over.

If all went well, the chest would begin to float up while any Chop Goblins that came through were faced with an immediate death drop. It would eventually float towards the ceiling of Layer One. They emerged, they fell, they splatted. It was a grim existence.

But Jesse couldn’t help but laugh at the absurd sight. “Chop chop? More like 'drop, drop,' amiright?” She said to the Moblins on the other side of the fence with a grin. If she had known they were called Chop Goblins, the pun might, might, have had a slight chance of being funnier.

“Yeah, no? Maybe?” She asked, not getting much of a response from Ganon’s creatures. “Do you guys speak English?”

---

Karin felt like she had picked her targets poorly- even with Sandalphon and Goldlewis helping Geralt and her, Penance was an immovable tank. But slow. Very slow. If someone had high ranged damage output, they could just stay out of range and shoot Penance down, forcing her on the offensive despite her immense tanking ability. Instead, the implicit threat of the rest of the battle happening while they waited Penance out forced Geralt, Goldlewis, and Karin to take Penance on exactly how she wanted them too. Someone like Susie would have been a better fit for this battle.

Too late, now! The bout had to be finished as soon as possible. Karin jumped over the radiating thorns. ”How can you possibly enjoy fighting like this?” She asked Penance.

”You simply stand there and spam the same cheap spell over and over again! It’s completely brainless, anyone could do it!” Karin complained.

That was when, finally, Geralt and Goldlewis wore through and Penance was left vulnerable. Relatively, anyway. Despite being tired and exhausted, she committed fully to defense, blocking the trio’s dogpile attacks as she was forced backwards. Karin took the lead and snatched her wrist, crashing into Penance with her shoulder and throwing her a large distance away. Karin had higher mobility than the other two, and she zipped up on Penance as the judge rolled to her feet.

Karin and Penance made eye contact as Karin approached, and the moment seemed to stretch. Karin was low and forward in her dash, her arms tight and held to her body like knives.

In a matter of moments, the battle reached its conclusion. Penance swung at Karin and she flipped over, landing behind Penance, side-stepping to avoid a crushing follow up. She stepped in to capture Penance’s arm and interpose her free arm against Penance’s shield, before slamming her elbow into Penance’s jaw. The judge jerked backwards and Karin delivered a swift barrage of kicks, sending the exhausted and defeated Penance sliding along the ground to land near Goldlewis and Geralt.

Karin stood up straight with a breath, lowering her palms in a calming stance. ”I suppose I can give you more credit than that.” Karin admitted now that it was over.

Though a talented fighter and a fine marksman, born and raised in the dangerous depths of Siracusa’s criminal underworld, Vigil could not boast a flawless strategy. Against serious opposition, his survival hinged upon one factor: his authority as the leader of the Wolfpack. So long as he had Wolf Shadows to block his opponents, keeping them hemmed in and soaking their attacks, he could stonewall just about anyone until his revolvers’ thunderous report sealed their fates. Against three opponents, however, his effectiveness dwindled, and Roland proved to be one hell of an adversary. Attacking with soulless efficiency, the Turk was a killing machine, steadily stacking the odds in his favor. It was only a matter of time until Vigil’s number came up.

As he sank to his knees, his mind and body withered by the uncanny cruelty behind Roland’s EGO pages, his revolvers slipped from his fingers. “Agh…” he groaned, his wolf ears drooping and his eyes dull. His fine suit had been ruined, shredded and soaked through with vital fluid. “I knew I’d never get the last laugh. But to go out like this…” He fell backward into a sitting position, trying and failing to hold himself up with his hands. With the last of their acuity, his eyes focused on the beacon of golden light amidst the darkness, unquenchable, indomitable. “I’m sorry, Lavi…”

Penance was holding out as best she could, but even the Judge had her limits. Her opponents figured out how to avoid the worst of Stoic Atonement with frustrating speed, and though the damage mounted on them bit by bit, they were figuring out other ways to abuse her skill’s limitations. Of course, no amount of attrition would matter as long as that accursed archangel stood unopposed in the backline. As she stood there, radiating waves of thorns, Penance glared at Sandalphon, who returned her gaze evenly. In a blink, that woman had undone everything that she and Vigil managed to achieve during the crucial first phase of the fight. Unfortunately, her side had neither the numbers or the means to deprive the opposition of their support, as much as that reality pained her. Even for her, this situation looked hopeless. If only she could surrender.

Her one saving grace was that Sandalphon seemed unable to unleash a miracle like that again for whatever reason, but even that didn’t mean that the Seekers wanted for healing. Instead, Geralt summoned a nightmarish arthropod monstrosity to shore him, Goldlewis, and Karin up instead. With the Judicator at their backs, the trio renewed their offense. Stoic Atonement might boost her defense, but Penance knew better than anyone that time wasn’t on her side.

Her focus was such that she didn’t notice what had befallen her comrade. The same couldn’t be said for Giovanna. Though she’d handed the reins to Roland after chipping in, she didn’t think he’d actually kill Vigil. She didn’t know him personally, or that much about him since he seemed to represent a side of her former boss’s life she wanted to distance herself from, but she knew that Vigil meant something to Penance. Maybe Roland didn’t know any other way. If she were in his shoes, she might have done the same. Giovanna turned her attention toward Penance just in time to see the Judge get taken down by Karin. Her brow furrowed, and she started to move. The rich girl didn’t seem as dispassionate as Roland by any means, but Gio wasn’t about to watch another life get frittered away. Especially that of an old friend. With Rei by her side, she moved fast, a streak of green lightning across the helipad. Karin would see her coming well enough not to get blindsided, and hopefully step out of the way as Giovanna slid to a stop, a friend heart shining in her palm. Penance was almost gone, her eyes unfocused, her stoic facade cracked just enough to let the despair seep through. Some part of her knew that she’d been controlled, forced to fight against her will, and just how deeply unfair that was. “Suas correntes,” Gio murmured, thrusting the heart into the Judge’s chest. “Estão quebradas.”

Meanwhile, things had taken a turn on the other side of the battle. Faced with the Consul’s vortex, Zenkichi was fighting for his life not to get sucked in. After bracing himself with his sword, he called upon Valjean to save him. Y did not flinch, instead standing his ground as the Persona took aim and then nailed him with One-shot Kill. The ethereal bullet struck him head-on, its damage throwing him off just enough to weaken his vortex’s pull. But only for a moment. The Consul centered his gaze on Zenkichi again, his eyes narrowed in anger at the injury that had been inflicted on him. “Give it up,” he snapped. “This is where you belong. It’s just a matter of time.” The vortex intensified, quickly threatening to wrench the greatsword from where it had been embedded into the helipad’s surface.

At the same time, Akira had been trying to deal with Blazermate. A charged shot from her Arrow Legion took out the sentry, but the medabot was the real problem. When she moved in to try and hit Akira with her projectile shield, however, she invited her own downfall. Unable to see -or even touch- the Legion, Blazermate was oblivious as Akira’s partner flew out and around her, encircling her with its astral chain. The minute it created a loop, Blazermate became ensnared, completely bound and chained to the floor. From there, Akira recalled her Legion and had it aim upward to bypass the forward-facing projectile shield with a rain of arrows from above.

With Blazermate incapacitated for the moment, Akira turned toward Zenkichi. “Shoot him!” the Consul commanded, and with narrowed eyes the woman in black took aim. From where she was fighting Hayato, Jena saw this happening, and she knew she had to act. Just as she and Hayato were about to clash, lance against gladius, she dematerialized her weapon to let Hayato overswing. As he gasped in surprise, she lunged forward and socked him in the gut, releasing the energy around her arm in a burst that knocked him away. “Mephisto, stop her!” she yelled to her subordinate.

“Got it.” Calmly taking aim, the marksman fired his crossbow, sinking its bolt into Akira’s shoulder. She cried out in pain as she stumbled forward from the bolt’s physical force–right into the path of the Consul’s vortex. Unable to stop herself in time, she flew off her feet and tumbled into the roiling purple core, instantly dissolving into purple particles that Y absorbed.

“Gah! Damn it!” Y snarled, cutting off the vortex as he turned toward the Reunion members. “Meddling whelp. I still had further use for her.” Then he vanished in a burst of energy, reappearing behind Mephisto so that he could spin up a new vortex at point-blank range.

“No!” Jena and Faust whipped around, but she was too late. They got a split-second glimpse at the blank look on Mephisto’s face before he disintegrated. Shocked, Faust staggered as if struck, then sank to his knees, a look of absolute horror on his face. When Consul turned the vortex on him, the young man didn’t even react, listlessly sliding across the ground toward the fate he’d already accepted. Jena, though, did not. She sprang forward and grabbed Faust by the limp wrist, manifesting a claw arm in order to sink her fingers into the ground for purchase, much like Zenkichi had done with her sword. “Damn you, Yoseph!” she yelled over the tumult. “You’ll pay for this!”

Rather than reply, Y turned to see the Seekers approaching with Goldlewis in the lead, and Blazermate about to break free. Roland, Susie, Giovanna, Karin, Geralt, and Sandalphon weren’t far behind, not to mention Penance, already back on the heroes’ side. “Hmph.” Those two made for poor pawns after all. Still, considering that he’d expected to be able to turn all of them against Reunion, they’d held on surprisingly long. Just not long enough. “Howard!” he barked.

Back on his feet, Hayato charged in, forced to obey despite the fate of his sister. Summoning his partner, he guided his Sword Legion’s blade with lethal precision to slice clean through Jena’s arm. “Aaargh!” she cried, suddenly flying toward Y’s vortex along with Faust. At the last second, she managed to find her footing and kick off the ground, jumping just high enough to overshoot the Consul and sail off to tumble across the helipad, a trail of purple-tinged blood in her wake.

With another grunt, Y cut off the vortex. “Stop them!” In reply, Hayato swapped in the fearsome Arm Legion. Almost invisible to the Seekers, it combined its arms into a cannon and fired a graviton mass into the incoming group. It detonated to create a miniature black hole, violently yanking all of them off their feet and into a cluster around the center. Only Giovanna was fast enough to outpace the blast, but as she and Rei closed in on Hayato and Y, the police officer donned his Arm Legion like a suit of armor. He dashed into Gio, counterhitting her with a shoulder bash, then unleashed a terrific barrage of punches. The beatdown ended a moment layer with a Sync Attack haymaker that sent her senseless body flying backward just as the graviton surge ended.

Goldlewis crawled out of the pile of heroes bruised and bloody, having been mashed against his allies over and over again for a few seconds straight, and them against him. Everyone had gotten roughed up, but Sandalphon had fared the worst, her low health and defense leaving her in dire straits. He wasn’t the only one trying to get up, though. On the opposite side of the Consul, Jena was staggering to her feet, clutching the stump of her arm, and she seemed to have Y’s attention. “There’s no choice,” she groaned, releasing her wound to reach into her jacket. Behind her, Faust lay where he’d fallen, unable to rise. “I had hoped it wouldn’t come to this…!” She withdrew her hand, now holding two vials of Blue Evolve.

Y crossed his arms. “Oh? Now this I’ve got to see.”

Jena slammed both vials at once. The effects were immediate, and violent. She fell to the ground, retching pink liquid and screaming. Then she thrashed backward, and her body erupted into a humming singularity. Around the spot, the helipad began to crack, the fractures quickly spreading across the whole area as large chunks began to rise into the air along with the singularity. After a moment the light collapsed in on itself, then burst into a supernova of pink light that illuminated the dark sky. All the floating chunks, including those the Seekers were on, were pushed back, and when the light finally died down they could see just what Jena had become.



A colossal, almost angelic being floated above Neuron HQ. It had a limbless body of silver, flanked by ten seraphic wings with feathers of pink light. A left hand a blazing fire floated beside it, paralleled by a right hand of freezing ice. In place of a head, it had a floating crown of silver spikes holding with pink threads the manacles that bound together the hands of the female torso seemingly imprisoned in the central body, where she thrashed uselessly against her bonds. Goldlewis witnessed all this from his precarious position atop one of the floating chunks, utterly gobsmacked by the otherworldly spectacle before him–and considering all he’d seen, that was saying something.

Only Y, standing tall atop some debris alongside a stunned Hayato, seemed able to muster up a few words. “It’s…beautiful.” So saying, he threw an almost envious glance the Seekers’ way, then promptly teleported away, leaving everyone else to deal with the mess that Jena had left behind.

Coughing, Sandalphon wiped blood from her lip, then struggled to her feet. She took a deep breath to steady herself, using her gunstaff to help support her weight. When she opened them, she beheld the gigantic monstrosity floating before her, larger than any demon she’d ever faced, save perhaps Satan himself. Finally she exhaled, casting Angelic Praise to heal everyone for half health, though nobody needed it as much as herself. “This has been an unfortunate turn of events,” she summarized. For a brief moment, she watched the being imprisoned within itself struggle fruitlessly. “Jena Anderson…I cannot even imagine a more inefficient route you could have taken. You have truly failed to communicate. So allow me to make this crystal clear.”

The archangel disappeared in a burst of radiant golden light, transforming into a sixteen-foot-tall deific being somewhere between angel and dragon. A warrior of white scales like porcelain, black scales like jet, feathered wings of solid light, and bladed tail. When she spoke, it was still Sandalphon’s voice that issued from her motionless mouth, albeit infused with an unmistakable sense of authority. Soothing. Calming. Strong. “Even though you won’t live to see it,” Heavenly Wings pronounced. “We will finish what you started.”

As if in response, Jena Apotheosis screamed, the elements raging around its huge hands as it prepared to cast firestorms and blizzards upon its challengers. The array of floating chunks around it leveled out, creating an archipelago in the sky, and a handful of Protolegions manifested around the islands. Goldlewis took a deep breath as he helped Gio up, shaking his head. She wasn’t fighting-fit, but at least she wouldn’t be tumbling off into empty space. “When we’re done here, I better have the best sleep of my whole damn life,” he groused, hefting his coffin. He glanced up at Sandalphon, then nodded at the others. “Let’s get this done.”





Once the Seekers left the Daycare behind and managed to slip into the ominous-looking elevator between patrols, they rode down in silence. With everything they’d just witnessed and heard in the veritable Pokemon factory that Dr. Colress administered, they had a lot to think about. They had a lot of time to think about it, too; the lift just kept going, smoothly sliding down its shaft for almost over a minute straight. It could have been going faster, sure, but the distance traveled wasn’t insignificant. Luka got the distinct impression that he and the others had chosen correctly, and were now headed into the very bowels of the great Shinra Building, ever-present and imperial in the lives of all Midgar’s citizens whether they lived above or below. This was supposed to be a simple operation: get in, plant a portal somewhere inconspicuous, and get out. But all this anticipation was making Luka anxious, not to mention the amount of mental fortitude it took to run afoul of such a colossal institution. The sooner this was over with, the better.

He also couldn’t help but wonder just how different the Seekers’ operation in Midgar would look if the Twilight Princess wasn’t around, or if she fell in battle. Even just for the mission of breaching Arahabaki, what would they possibly do without her portals? In the fight against the Septentrions Milla and Sasha, everyone had been just a step or two away from death at all times. He made a mental note to make sure that Midna stayed safe and sound for the duration.

Eventually, the elevator came to a stop. The terminal beeped, the doors swung open, and the Seekers beheld an Arahabaki like nothing they could have imagined.



After all, Arahabaki wasn’t just a computer. It was a place. It took the form of a staggeringly vast underground chamber, hollowed out and then converted into one gigantic mechanical marvel. The cavern ‘floor’ appeared to be one immense modular circuit board, covered with an array of high-tech machinery that resembled a bed of spikes, constantly venting violet-tinted steam. That not only made the place rather hot, but also amassed into a thick enough fog that distant structures were obscured by the hazy atmosphere. The ‘buildings’ in this place were actually huge, blocky computer modules plugged into the circuit floor, all of them built over with a shell of pitted gray plastic, complete with fences, gates, and pylons styled after a Japanese shrine. In addition to normal bridges, the modules were connected by curved, segmented spans that more resembled huge conveyor belts. Not all the modules were connected though, and the one that the Seekers stepped out onto featured a warp pad instead. Scattered around were pillars and columns of solid rock, all of which supported either pipe systems full of coolant or pitons with bundles of woven red cables that linked up the various modules. It was a bizarre, highly artificial amalgam of modern technology and traditional aesthetic.

The sheer scale of the place elicited an awed gasp from Luka. “This is Arahabaki?” he breathed. “I’ve been to some strange places, but I’ve never set foot inside a huge computer before.”

As far as destinations went, one seemed obvious: the enormous pillar that occupied the center of the colossal chamber. But already he could see that getting through this place would be difficult. There were a lot of module platforms between here and there, and their various connections seemed to have security measures built in. Even from here, he could see security camera clusters near the teleport matrix. Luckily, all that would be a problem for the Seekers of tomorrow. All the team needed to do tonight was stick a portal somewhere, and there were plenty of ceremonial-looking pylons standing around this first module where one could be ferreted away.



Practically the instant that Nadia finished responding to the newly-arrived Ganondorf, none other than Bowser and his wacky family barged onto the scene. Mercy Dreams was a place where even a slight sound could echo, so the sheer amount of strident noise created by a demolished wall made the feral cringe and recoil into the dark reflexively. Of course, this was probably an overreaction; the Troop hadn’t exactly been subtle up to now, after all. From the sounds of combat and communication that filtered through these desolate halls all throughout her left-side infiltration, they’d been brawling with the prison’s guards since they first arrived. As much as Nadia favored the stealthy approach in a situation like this, she had to admit that getting the monsters’ attention was only really a problem if it was too much to handle, and so far they’d been alright. If Bowser and the others wanted to thin out the troublesome enemies here, more power to them, and if their diversion actually kept patrolling mind flayers off her back while she had talked to Minette, she probably owed them her gratitude. Their boisterousness did sort of diminish the eerie atmosphere of this place, but Nadia appreciated them cutting the tension. It helped chase away the chill that had been running down her spine ever since she first heard her friend’s voice.

Still, Nadia’s sharp ears swiveled this way and that to pick up sounds of shuffled footsteps and gurgling gullets in the shadows. The third layer wasn’t out of mind flayers just yet, and if the Troop wanted to tangle with the three or four that remained, the feral would happily leave them to it. She had other things to look into, and for that reason, she silently waited in the dark with Chucho until Kamek’s toady arrived, heralded by the soft whir of its propeller. After peering through the dark with its swirly spectacles, the diminutive reptile pressed a key into her waiting palm, then took off. As quietly as she could, Nadia examined the door of Minette’s cell. The bronze lock was badly damaged, and it quickly became obvious that her key would rather break than enter. With a long sigh, Nadia stood and got moving. Time to find a more promising door, preferably in a quieter part of the jail.

Reasoning that her tentacled attacker from earlier had probably been drawn off by the disturbance, she retraced her steps toward the staircase. Now that she’d reached the third layer by other means, she knew she could just break the mechanism, climb back up, and hope no creepy crawlies followed in her footsteps. A couple seconds before she arrived, though, she heard glass shatter on its own. Curious, Nadia arrived just in time to spot the familiar silhouette of Primrose suddenly turn and head off in the other direction, some kind of urgent purpose in her steps. They’d just missed one another. Rather than call out, the feral watched Primrose go until she was swallowed by the gloom. In the brief time they’d been together, Nadia had never seen her friend so uncharacteristically uneasy. Could an irresistible voice in the darkness be whispering to her, too? Nadia really hoped not. The chance of several Seekers meeting dear companions in this uncanny place were impossibly slim, and with luck like Ms. Fortune’s, she didn’t like those odds.

Nadia pitter-pattered back up the staircase to the second layer with haste, trying to get her mind off Minnette. She really did want it to really be Minette in that cell, even if it did imply she’d been suffering alone down here for who-knew-how long. But what if it wasn’t–what did that make the voice she’d heard, the memories she’d been reminded of? Was her mind playing tricks on her? Or was it something about this place? Or someone. The possibility of someone deceiving her like this made the feral smolder with anger. If this is someone’s idea of a prank, they’re in for a bad time, she reckoned, her lips curled and her teeth bared. Before she could work herself up too much, though, she came to a stop in a candle-lit corner of the second layer, where she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Don’t ever let ‘em get to ya, she told herself. Never let ‘em see you bleed. As long as she kept her head on straight and kept pushing forward, she would find the answer, and then she could get as mad as she needed to.

Nadia opened her eyes and took a good look around, listening carefully. She couldn’t see any more Spears of the Cathedra, nor their vicious attendants, and no ungainly, blood-drunk footsteps reached her ears either. The others had probably cleared them out, leaving the coast relatively clear for exploration. From here Nadia could see Sectonia on the far side of the second layer, in the vicinity of the room she’d seen before, the one with the chained chest. If the big bug would be checking that out, the catgirl might as well open a door of her own. She retrieved the bronze key she’d been given from its leather pouch on her belt, selected a door, and pushed in the key. It took a little rattling back and forth, but it fit, and after slowly turning it Nadia gingerly pushed open the cell. It swung inward with a faint creak, and she peered into a small, dingy, claustrophobic chamber almost but not completely bathed in darkness.

There was only one article of furniture within, a cot of aged wood with a bug-chewed, threadbare sheet stretched over it. On that cot lay a ragged bundle that, for a moment, Nadia struggled to identify. She could see gaunt limbs splayed out, little more than skin stretched over bone, clad in dirty rags. A huge amount of scraggly white hair, hopelessly matted and tangled with splinters of wood, bits of straw, and so forth. A spotted tail, draped limply over the edge of the sorry excuse for a bed. Strangest of all, though, were the eyes. Wide open, staring listlessly upward, and glowing with soft hues of yellow, purple, pink, and orange in a constant and ever-changing dance. They shimmered on the walls and roof of the cell like light from under rippling water. From the prisoner’s slack-jawed mouth issued incredibly faint, gasping breaths at irregular intervals. This person was alive.

Nadia narrowed her eyes, swallowed, and against her better judgment, crept forward. Chucho stayed back, whining softly. The closer she got, the more details she could make out. Though in such bad condition that she was scarcely recognizable, this was a woman. An ordinary person, minus the ears and tail that give her the appearance of a feral like Nadia herself. Pity overwhelmed her, followed by apprehension. It seemed like this poor woman was in some kind of trance. Well, now she was free! Whatever she could have done to be imprisoned here, it couldn’t possibly justify this kind of treatment. Nadia reached out her hand to gently grasp the inmate by the shoulder, planning to shake her awake.

The instant she made contact, the prisoner jerked violently, an awful scream tearing loose from her withered lips. With a shriek of terror Nadia leaped backward, falling onto the floor. The surreal lightshow had ended as the prisoner’s eyes slammed shut tears pouring down her cheeks. “WHERE’D THEY GO?” she howled, her voice filled with utter despair. “My husband!? My daughters!? Where am I!? Where are they!?” Panicking, Nadia scrambled to her feet in a desperate attempt to get out of the cell as fast as her legs could carry her. At the noise, the prisoner turned her tearstained fast Nadia’s way, cracking one eye open. “Where?” As Nadia looked over her shoulder, she could see the prisoner launching herself off the cot, a bundle of delirious rage with blazing red eyes and deadly claws that gleamed in the flickering candlelight. Her scream transformed into a bloodcurdling roar. “WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERE!?”

A gigantic paw caught Nadia in the shoulder before she could even get out of the cell, its claws cutting deep into her skin as its manic strength threw her across the hallway to slam into the door on the opposite side. She struck it hard enough to dent the metal and slumped down, barely on her feet. Yet with all the adrenaline pumping in her veins, she barely felt the impact, instead lifting her head to fix her horrified eyes on the aperture before her. From the cell she’d opened surged a huge white tiger, a monstrous beast of pure, savage strength in a mindless frenzy. Her massive jaws stretched open, exposing a mouthful of giant fangs ready to devour the lesser cat piece by piece. “Oh god!” Turning, she burst away in a streak of lightning, crossing a couple dozen feet in instant with Charge. A ten claw-guillotine descended where she’d been a second prior, more than enough to slice her to ribbons. When Nadia rematerialized, she stumbled for a brief moment, then began to run.

She sprinted down the hallway with Chucho at her heels, the pounding beat of her heart and the heavy footfalls of the monster in her flattened ears as her pursuer began to pick up speed. While she’d given herself a solid head start, the feral knew she couldn’t win in a flat-out chance. She was fast, but not ‘giant raging tiger’ fast. Reaching into her belt, Nadia yanked out her bait launcher just a little too hastily. It slid from her grip and she snatched at it, once, twice, before the second attempt knocked it away to land on and scrape across the old stone bricks. “Dammit!” As if she didn’t have enough to worry about, Nadia ended up glancing to her right across Mercy Dreams’ central atrium. There was some sort of commotion on the opposite side of the second layer; tons of hideous little creatures had shown up as if from nowhere, making a racket as they spread out despite Sectonia’s attempt to contain them.

Someone was talking in her ear through the linkpearl, but the catgirl couldn’t even register who right now. With the tiger getting closer, Nadia focused forward, where she would have to contend with her first corner. After trying to take it too fast, she lost her footing, but salvaged her tumble with a Cat Slide, her hardened claws sparking against the floor as she tried to stop herself slamming into another cell door. Finally she found purchase and yanked herself off the ground, dodge rolling out of the tiger’s lunge just in time. Landing in a crouch, she turned and drew Athame in one smooth motion, then hurled the dagger at the beast’s exposed side as she tried to stop herself, too. “Knife knowin’ ya!” It was lucky enough to plunge into her haunch, but not nearly enough to stop her, and with a snarl the tiger sprang toward the fleeing feral.

By that point, the chase was reaching the pandemonium unleashed by Sectonia. Nadia found a handful of little red goons in her way, their short statures and disproportionate heads offset by their hideous skeletal grins and abundance of bladed weapons. A frontrunner among them had gotten ahead of the rest, and as it took an ineffectual swipe with its cleavers she somersaulted right over it. She landed and kept running without missing a beat, and in the midst of the chop goblin’s gibbering, the tiger swatted it from behind with such power that the poor thing turned to pulp the instant it smashed into the nearby wall. That stomach-churning sight from over her shoulder distracted Nadia enough that she barely swiveled her head forward in time to see the next chop goblin as it jumped right at her. “Hey!” She cut its leap short by jamming her clawed hand into its chest, then twisted around to throw the little snot at the tiger behind her. “Kiss your ass gob-bye!” Its new lease on life came to an abrupt end as the beast smushed it beneath its paw, barely breaking stride. Nadia’s feisty grin turned into a groan. “Well, crap. Fangs for nothin’!”

Two more chop goblins barred her way, and after filling her lungs she pumped blood into her arms to launch both hands like grappling hooks. “Here…!” She seized both gremlins by their big dumb heads, yanked them off their feet, and turned to hurl them at the tiger one after another. “Open wide!” Her pursuer carved the first one in half with her claws, a gold chopcoin popping out of its corpse, but the second bounced off her head and landed on her back, which it immediately started hacking into with its cleavers. Thanks to Galeem’s influence, the tiger spent just enough time ridding herself of the pest that Nadia could build up a little lead again. Of course, her path brought her right into the main mob of chop goblins outside the room with Sectonia, two of them toting the chest that even now spewed out a limitless supply of chop goblins. Thinking quickly, Nadia jumped and crowdsurfed across the angry mob, stepping from head to head. Just as she reached the center and leaped over the chest with a jump kick to the goblin currently popping out, the tiger reached the back of the crowd and started ripping through. With such a huge delay thanks to the little goobers, Nadia knew she needed to make a move, and a Great Idea came to mind at just the right time.

After pouring a lot of blood into her arms as she stepped across the rest of the crowd, the feral fired them both down the hallway, leaving a bloody trail in her wake. As the tiger smashed through the chop goblins, knocking the chest (as well as a few gobbies) over the railing and down to the third layer in the process, Nadia leaped onto the trail of blood and began to skate. Her rigging unfolded, the mechanical arms extending. She turned around, skating backward, and began to fire Hydro missiles. Of course, with her just above half health at this point, she could only fire two per cannon every three seconds, and after the tiger shrugged off the first salvos Nadia was left waiting. “Ohhhh no.” Her chaser was closing the distance, and each second felt like an eternity. Finally her cannons opened fire again, but even that wasn’t enough, and that wasn’t the half of it.

With a guttural yell, Nadia skated backward over the end of her arms’ blood trail and tripped, tumbling down the rest of the hall at high speed. “Oof! Ow! Agh! GAH!” A moment later she came to a stop on her stomach, her rigging arms in disarray, and her own scattered on the floor a ways in front of her. And the tiger was still coming, her speed lowered as if she sensed that the chase was over. Damn it, Nadia fumed silently, her pain evident on her face. This is what I get for never thinking things through. As the tiger closed in, tensing her muscles to pounce, Nadia -bereft of arms- arched her back, braced her head against the ground, gathered her legs beneath her, and pushed herself up into a kneeling position with her teeth gritted. She willed her blood to flow, to pour from her stumps and make new arms, weapons, copycats. Anything that could save her. Yet as more and more blood coagulated, nothing seemed to take shape beyond a large mass beside her. Though wary at first of whatever was happening, the tiger quickly lost her caution, and with a snarl she leaped forward to finish the job.

Only to be met by the rock-hard skull of the King Koopa midway.

Two monstrous heads collided with a terrific smack, and the tiger fell backward, landing on her side. The impact drove Athame deeper into her body, and she thrashed where she landed. Nadia’s eyes were on her savior, though, because it wasn’t actually Bowser–not really. Instead it was a Hydro Mimic, formed from her blood and the Oceanid’s power. As she watched, the mimic melted, its job done, and her blood flowed back into her body.



As Nadia’s heartbeat stabilized, she noticed that her arms had dragged themselves over toward her, and stood to collect them. Her rigging arms folded back into place, and once everything was in order, she made her way to her dying pursuer. Her strength failing, the tiger had turned back into a human, and she lay on the ground, tears streaming from her face. “Why…why…” she wept, her voice weak. “All those years…all those memories…was it really…all…just a-”

Inhaling sharply, Nadia finished her off with a quick kick to the head, breaking her neck. The prisoner’s body turned to ash instantly, like a sand castle lifted off the ground. At this point, a mercy kill really seemed like the best option. She crouched down to take back Athame, as well as the spirit. When she held it up, a vivid little light in the darkness, she couldn’t help but be amazed at the woman depicted within. Her face held no trace whatsoever of hunger, despair, suffering, or regret. Only a playful, almost mischievous smile, both on her face and in her sapphire-blue eyes. Her hair was a silky, luxurious white, lovingly cared for, and her clothes were fine. The spirit didn’t allow Nadia to see much more than the woman’s head, but the spirit and the prisoner it had belonged to were night and day. “Wow…she was beautiful,” she breathed, glancing down at the meager ashes. “What the hell happened?”

Then, before she could second-guess herself, she jammed the spirit into her chest.



Only after the rainbow light died did Nadia realize just how noticeable that must have been in the darkness of Mercy Dreams, especially with chop goblins on the loose, but for the moment nothing leaped out to get her. After the tense moment passed, Chucho nuzzled up against her, and with a delighted squeal she squeezed him in a big hug. “Awwww! Whew, I needed that!”

She did feel rather different, and quickly made her way over to the nearest candelabra for a little light. “Goodness,” she whispered, astounded by the length and magnificence of her hair as she stroked it. Her outfit had changed a lot too, becoming a bit less punk and a bit more proper, although the sight of stockings made her balk. “Well, pff. This’ll just get in the way.” Sharpening her claws through her gloves, she quickly shredded the bothersome stockings, leaving her legs mostly bare except for her shoes and skirt. She thought about cutting her locks back down to size as well, but decided against it. It’d be a shame to destroy such gorgeous hair, after all. Holding one finger to her mouth, she couldn’t help but smile slyly. “Not bad at all. Although..I am starting to get a bit pale. Gonna have to be more selective.” Her ears turned at the sound of combat. Chucho barked, with a wry chuckle she realized she’d gotten way off track. “Yeah, you’re right. Enough goofing around. Time to get to the bottom of this awful place.” She flipped her hair and took off running.

Through the cacophony of whispery voices, through the flitting wings of the moths lazily drifting to-and-fro were the deafening clash of a fight echoed from below. Artorias’ breathed a sigh, relinquishing his own tight grip from the pommel of his greatsword slightly when it seemed the dust had settled.

The uppermost layer of the mysterious prison almost seemed as silent and lifeless as a tomb, so quiet that the sudden clamp of a cell's slat being drawn shut drew Artorias’ attention. It appeared that this layer of the prison had only but the odd dogged lifeless occupant within the cells, he wondered if one held something different if fancy struck a prisoner to peer from his or her cell.

That prisoner in question could hear the thump-thump..thump-thump within his breast, ‘They definitely aren't guards…’ the scholar breathed in and out trying to calm himself he lifted the slat cautiously something however blocked his view and a voice came muffled from the other side but he couldn't make out the words.

Grumbling the scholar sat up, pulling at the bindings out of frustration ‘This damned thing…’ Osvald’s breath came like mist from the device on his face as he sighed slumping against the wall of his cell. Silence fell upon him like a blanket, moments passed and the scholar resigned himself bowing his head with disappointment.

Light suddenly poured from the doorway, and the shrill sound of the metallic hinges scraping against itself filled Osvald's ears ‘What…’ he took a finger and wiped the dust from his spectacles, squinting at the figure standing in the door.

A towering goliath of a man in plate mail, he looked like a knight of some kind yet his armor looked in a state of disrepair covered in knicks and dents here and there. His sword looked as though it had seen better days, worn with the signs of age and many a fierce battle.

Startled, the other man stepped backwards to the wall though regained his composure, he was a bespectacled man with long disheveled hair, and a wiry beard. Artorias held up his hands to show he meant no harm, the Seekers had yet to tell the knight of the look of those possessed by Galeem’s influence so the red behind the man's eyes was missed.

Osvald's eyes scrutinized the knight, but without being able to see the man's face he could only grunt ‘An accomplice…I could gain this man's trust and then maybe he will be my way out of…Wherever this is…’ then he could find the man responsible for everything, then he could have his revenge.

Artorias understood as much that the man in clothes rags could do naught but speak wordlessly with gestures, hesitation became reluctant acceptance of his outstretched hand as he helped him up.

Osvald watched as his rescuer retrieved something from his person and spoke into it though not before turning it around in his hands like he was unfamiliar with the thing “Hmph..Confounded contraption, is this orb of witchcraft working?” Artorias huffed “If anyone can hear my voice I hath found a prisoner..He hath a cruel looking apparatus upon his face.”

Osvald gruffly tapped his neck motioning for the knight to look closer at his binding, obliging Artorias bent over taking a glance at the bindings where he spotted a hole of some sort “Hm, locked it would seem…I could try to pull it off.” to which upon feeling the strength of the knight's grip Osvald vigorously shook his head “No? Oh well.” Artorias shrugged.

After a few moments the pink pearl in the knight's hand came to life, though he had trouble hearing the reply until he brought the device up to his ear.

More locks, huh? Probably needs a special key. Like everything else in this place." It was Therion, the male thief's voice. He sounded exasperated.

"If you think he's got something important to say, I can give unlocking it a try anyway. What level?" so he wasn't alone, interesting. Osvald wasn't sure what to make of this “The uppermost level.” The knight replied after a moment.

Therion was closer by than either of them expected, having made his way back up to the first level to try his hand at opening the safe the Koopas brought back after descending initially. The first layer ended up being pretty harmless, so it didn't take him very long to find Artorias. Once he spotted the knight Therion made a beeline toward him, giving the man a nod in lieu of a real greeting.

The man with Artorias he'd seen well before he approached. The guy was tall, not as much as the knight beside him but a few heads over Therion. He had to look up at the both of them, but that gave him a good view of the contraption attached to the shaggy stranger's face.

"Wow," Therion said, less impressed and more incredulous that they'd muzzle someone like this while leaving their hands free. There was also a large manacle around the man's neck that looked similar in construction to the fool's bangle around Therion's own wrist. The thief narrowed his eyes at it, a flash of indignation crossing his one visible eye. Then it passed, and he gestured for the man to bend and show him the locking mechanism while he fished his lockpicks from his shawl.

Osvald snorted, the boys incredulous tone duly noted by the scholar but flew right over the head of the tall knight “Indeed quite the puzzling device I'd say.” Artorias remarked with a good-natured chuckle. The scholar obliged Therion, moving aside his mess of hair to reveal the locking mechanism of the muzzle.

The keyhole was odd, like it required not just one key to open. Therion said nothing as he examined the muzzle's locks. He expected something weird, given that no lock in this entire prison had been normal so far. But this one wasn't rusted, and it didn't feel enchanted. The way it looked... like he'd have to open a few at once. It would definitely be a challenge, but it was doable. In fact Therion was determined to do it, unwilling to let the prison best him when it came to opening locks. He was the best in the business and he'd be damned if he walked out of here without opening something he wasn't supposed to.

He got to work, pushing the pins gently through the muzzle's mechanism. Several tense, awkward minutes went by as Therion steadily worked on the lock. The man would probably have a crick in his neck from holding his position, but the thief didn't really care so long as the big guy didn't move and ruin his progress.

And there... we... go! Therion thought, satisfaction flooding through him when he heard the locks click open. He backed away, a sharp grin on his face. "All set."

The scholar massaged the kink in his neck with one rough hand “Hmph…Thank you,” Osvald mumbled sounding mildly apprehensive, his bright blue eyes glanced between Therion and the knight before speaking again “You don't appear to be prisoners…Who are you people?”

"We're just visiting," Therion said, a non-answer. Then he turned to Artorias. "No one's found the big boss of the place yet, so I'm getting a move on if there's nothing else."

This left the knight to explain what little he knew of the Seekers “You might call us travelers of sorts and as for you…” Artorias’ voice took a more stern tone when he spoke to Therion “Thou should lead us to the others instead of simply leave.” At that the thief scoffed loudly.

“Hm…I'm sure you have your reasons for traveling in this place.” cutting in to sever the tension Osvald interjected, straightening his coat “It makes sense we work together, it's only logical after all. And my magic is sure to be of some use, we can settle the rest later.”

Osvald demonstrated with an open hand, a small flame that he manifested in his palm “I'm a scholar of magic,” he put it simply closing his hand around the flame “Or I was before…Well it's not important.” Osvald said with a shrug, shoving his hands into the pockets of his overcoat.

A scholar, huh? Therion wouldn't have expected that from the man's physique, but now the muzzle made sense. If he was anything like the scholar Therion knew, it would behoove any captor to make sure the man couldn't cast any spells... and prevent sudden lectures. Though in that regard, this scholar didn't seem to feel the need to jump into long winded explanations, which Therion appreciated.

"If you feel like tagging along, who am I to say no?" The thief said, not really caring one way or another. Allies came and went at this point, and what was one more clown for the circus anyway? The guy's fire spells were probably more reliable than Therion's too, should they need it.

On Artorias' request Therion brought them back the way he'd come, though begrudgingly. By the time they made it back to where he'd left the Koopas, the family had already gone to explore again. The place the Seekers had come into the prison from, the broken wall leading to the hollow shaft, was nearby. Osvald could escape from here if he was willing to descend through where the drop pod had come up, but he stoically kept with the two Seekers as they descended deeper into Mercy Dreams.

They crossed swiftly to the second level, which had been explored already by other people, though not as thoroughly as the group might have thought. Guards still remained, but since the trio was heading for the stairwell down they avoided most of them who were patrolling other areas. The few they did run into were taken care of by the Wolf Knight.

It turned out that their newest recruit was a man of few words. So was Artorias, and Therion wasn’t the most talkative person either. It made their going silent and awkward, especially with the groans and whispers from various inmates as background noise. Normally this wouldn’t bother Therion, and maybe it was the combination of this place and some personality change, but at the moment it sort of did. He glanced at the man with the chain around his neck.

"So what should we call you?” the thief said, breaking the tense silence.

“Osvald. What should I call either of you?” the scholar replied without looking at Therion.

As a man of few words himself the knight had little to add but to mumble “Artorias, the Aby…Just Artorias. ” eyebrow raised Osvald grunted, the knight he surmised had a title but one he was reluctant to share though he didn't care to press the issue.

”Therion.”

All the names were silently acknowledged, and none of the three continued after that. The terse trek went on until the metal stairway was in sight.

The third floor had been opened up already, the level flushed with sounds of battle below them at another end of the area. "That’d be us,” Therion mentioned, sure that it was other Seekers making a racket. Good news for them, seeing as they could use a distraction to easily check out the rest of the prison.

“Ah a welcome change, time to see what that magic of yours can do.”

Osvald gave the knight a brief sideways glance “That will remain to be seen.” offering the other man nothing more than a shrug in response to the question.

A thought occurred to Therion.

"You found this guy in one of the cells, right?" he asked Artorias. "Earlier I was thinking letting some of the prisoners out might distract the guards, give us some cover. The only things I saw in them were these… monster things, though."

The thief looked at the cells around them, some the same featureless metal boxes that had held Osvald. "If there’s actually regular people in them, that might still work."

Deep in thought the scholar considered the idea, scratching his wry beard “Hmph, clever.” he said sounding mildly impressed by Therion's line of thinking, Osvald uncrossed his arms and shrugged.

He hadn’t been able to get the locks open though, but now he had a key. If they found another friendly inside a cell, he’d have to tell the others to start opening doors. A prison riot sounded like the kind of thing the Seekers would get up to.

Therion produced the bronze key and twirled it around his finger. "Want to give it a try?"

The knight grunted he had no qualms with the plan, and Osvald nodded “By all means.”

Without further ado Therion popped the key into the matching lock of one of the cells near them. It took a bit of grinding to get it to fit properly but it did, and he turned the mechanism unlocking the cell door. In the process the key crumbled. Therion clicked his tongue, glaring at the remains of the key in his hand when the door suddenly slammed open. He jumped backward as a ghostly blue and green glow spilled out of the tiny room.

Inside was not a friendly human as they'd hoped. He was not one of the twisted mutants that occupied a majority of the cells, but something both much greater and more pitiful. In the dim light some of his features were hard to see, but he appeared skinny to the point of emaciation, or worse. There was fabric wrapped right around his arms, legs, mouth and neck, but otherwise he was unclothed - and lacking in visible sexual organs. The wraith opened his eyes, a pale light glowing in his sockets that mixed with the dull red of Galeem’s influence, making it all the brighter.

"Awake...? No..." The stranger started to say. He looked down at his claws, as though some memory was trying to come back to him. Maybe it was too much all at once, but his mind was fractured. He looked up again, his voice straining and filled with agitation. "The descent had destroyed me... and yet I lived, and now I...!"

He broke, lunging at the person directly in front of the open cell, Therion.

“And now you face a challenge greater than your own destruction.” the knight grunted throwing himself between the thief and wraith, winding back his empty hand and landing a bone-crunching gut punch that sent the pitiful man crashing against the wall of his cell.

“Get. Up.” those two words spat out with such disdain, something about them suggested a slight hatred for the thing, Artorias saw the darkness in the man. Meanwhile behind the two men, Osvald stood with a blank expression as he watched. His magic would be better for a far greater number but knowing as these men expected a show of prowess he readied a flame in the palm of his hand.

The wraith stood, nearly undamaged. The madness induced by his "awakening" mixed with the compulsion to battle due to Galeem's light. He stalked back out of the cell and attacked, raking his claws against Artorias.

Well that backfired big time, Therion thought. So there was absolutely no telling who was behind a cell door, and it seemed just as likely to get a decent person as it was to get a psychotic monster.

With a flicker Therion's dual daggers appeared in his hands. The wraith's chest was the largest target of his body, so Therion aimed there, darting out from behind Artorias. He was quick, but to the wraith's eyes a human's speed was oh so slow. The wraith caught the blade of Therion's first dagger between his claws, and he avoided the second one because the thief immediately backed off. Therion had seen the claws of the wraith's other hand headed for his throat, and he wouldn't have been able to avoid it if he kept his own attack going. The weapon that had been captured, the stinging dagger, the wraith casually flung down the hall.

"It's not real," the wraith croaked, his mind captured within some kind of dream or already shattered. "Time ceased to exist."

He sprung forward. With inhuman strength he stuck his claws straight into Artorias' armor and shoved ahead until the two of them hit the railing. The metal creaked, starting to splinter from the stone that held it, dangerously close to dropping the knight over the edge. If the wraith's claws had damaged the knight he showed little to no sign of being worse for wear, gritting his teeth the Wolf Knight growled pushing his attacker off just in the knick of time as the railing gave snapping beneath their combined weight.

Artorias leapt on his attacker though when he pushed the wraith off not hesitating to follow up with a overhand slash with Finstertöter before pivoting to face opposite to the now precarious ledge. His target slipped to the side, avoiding the mighty blade and poised to strike again with its claws.

“Flames burn!” with the wraith recovering from the knights attack Osvald took the opportunity to ignite their attacker with a gout of flame dealing to him a bit of damage. It dealt less damage as it would against more enemies yet it wasn't anything to scoff at.

The magic seemed more effective. The wraith recoiled from the flames, not like an animal but like a remembered weakness. Osvald could intuit that it was not just fire, but also water that affected the monster. Natural elements.

It turned on the scholar then, throwing a deadly claw forward in an attempt to impale him.

Osvald thankfully was saved from the oncoming slash by the knight who leapt on the wraith pinning him down with a hand to the throat sliding across the floor. He'd have to thank the hulking man later for saving him the ill fortune of being ripped to shreds by those vicious looking claws.

Artorias’s grip was tight yet he couldn't pin down his opponent without leaving his chest exposed to his claws.

So he rolled off the wraith coming to a halt and readied to slash him with his blade. ‘Impressive, his hand and arm must be skilled to wield such a blade in one.’ the scholar thought to himself preparing to cast Fireball again “It seems our ‘friend’ is weak to the flames.”

Even so, it wasn't easy to get a clear shot off. The wraith took a heavy slash from Artorias' blade, but in return landed a few slashes himself on the knight. The two of them were going blow for blow, demonstrating their heightened strength. It would be dangerous to cast a wide range spell when they were fighting so close and the chance of hitting an ally was high.

While Artorias tangled with the man turned monster (twice over), Therion held back to rely on his ranged attacks. His regular throwing daggers had practically no effect, but the crystal darts and magic knives were a little better at dealing damage. Eventually he could create an opening for Osvald. Unfortunately there didn't seem to be any obvious weak points besides the humanoid head and chest - the wraith had no stomach or kidney to puncture, and since the thing had yet to bleed Therion wondered if it even had a heart. There was clearly a brain though, it wasn't as mindless as its confused rambling made it seem.

Dodging out of the way of another slash, the freed prisoner jumped and kicked out at Artorias with both feet. It shoved him out of melee range. The wraith disengaged with him then, spinning around to knock Therion's latest projectiles out of the air. He lifted his arm and took aim at the thief, retaliating with his Force Bolts. The telekinetic blasts formed from thin air, catching Therion completely off guard as they whizzed toward him leaving a trail of distorted light. Two bolts struck the thief, and though they didn't do much damage they pushed him farther away and left him stunned for a second.

It was fortunate that the wraith chose not to capitalize on that, given there were still two enemies nearby and some approaching to boot. Three flagellant guards rounded the corner drawn by the noise. The wraith fired its force bolts at them too, blasting one right off the edge of the floor. To round things off it took aim at Osvald as well, firing the telekinetic blasts off.

The scholar grunted taking a blast that pushed him, sliding he struggled to right himself grunting “Mmph-Not as stupid as he looks.” no matter, more enemies joined the fray. Well the more the merrier, the scholar shrugged righting himself

“Let’s see how well they cook.” the remaining flagellant guards and Raziel took a much stronger hit against the scholars spell, the more potent the more enemies there were to target. Meanwhile the knight held a hand pressed tight against his side where he was slashed while taking a chug of Estus to heal most of the damage the wraith had dished out.

The flagellants fried, but the wraith was miraculously still standing. It was hurt for sure, but unable to do anything but continue to fight.

"You'll see, the true enemy...!" He rasped, ranting, and rushed at the Seekers with his claws. His swings were brutal, quick, and calculating.

As soon as Therion recovered he started to play defense, using his agility to avoid psychic blasts and the rush of claws. His evasive maneuvers took him closer to the other two Seekers with him. What the hell is this thing? He thought, narrowly avoiding another slash. He hadn't missed the way it reacted to Osvald's fire, but instead of attempting to use his Wildfire and risk it backfiring, Therion tapped the scholar on the back, using this Share Energy to donate his own mana to Osvald's own.

Feeling the surge of energy the scholar flexed his fingers “Interesting…” to share one's power in such a way intrigued him, then he unleashed it into another burst of flame, while the knight rushed the wraith with his blade ready to strike the final blow if Osvald's spell didn't finish Raziel.

The wraith leapt up then, high and away from its enemies, singed by fire but having avoided a lethal blow. The flaps behind it that at first Therion had assumed to be part of his scarf but now realized were folds of skin unfurled and allowed it to briefly catch air and push it up to the level above them. He perched on the railing opposite to where the trio was, eyes glowing in the dark. Then it pulled down its scarf, showing off the top of its mouth lined with sharp teeth. The wraith inhaled.

Motes of light flew up and into its maw. Unbelievably, so did fully formed spirits. Besides the two flagellants there were dead guards nearby that had been reduced to ashes already, whose spirits had been left there by the less loot happy Seekers. The prismatic orbs were sucked up and into the wraith's mouth, visibly restoring some of its health.

"You're kidding me," Therion said.

It replaced the scarf and after one ominous moment the wraith rushed right back into battle, pouncing down at the Seekers.

Raziel's strength, ferocity reminded Artorias of the mortals of Oolacile. The wraith was a twisted monster, something devoid of it's humanity.

The Wolf Knight snarled as he was raked by Raziel's claws, tumbling to the ground Artorias wrestled with the wraith a struggle that left him with several nasty scratches. But the bloodied knight overpowered Raziel, holding him with one arm around his neck as he pinned the wraith down on it's back. A tense pause passed, as Raziel struggled against his opponents weight. The knight hesitated, thrown off by his attacker with a grunt and against a wall.

Artorias only nearly evaded another ferocious slash from Raziel, the knight huffed and puffed but still he stood. However taking a deep breath he concentrated, controlling himself like he had when he had the wraith at his whim.

He could have snapped his neck, yet he simply couldn't. His sense of duty prevented him from such a brutal tactic, though even the animal deep in him goaded his hand.

Raziel lunged forward ready to claw him but was met by the knight's fist swatting the wraith back with such a forceful strike that the wall Raziel landed against cracked. Artorias stood over the other man-no the pitiful monster at his feet, and without a word raised his sword over his head like a headman's hatchet. Osvald stood impressed with the unnatural display of strength and endurance the knight seemed to possess, though his expression was blank. He had no more mana to burn through to subsequently incinerate the wraith.

Even under the knight's assault, Raziel struggled to hold onto his unlife. "You don't know anything," he said, though none took his words seriously. The wraith rolled out of the way of Artorias' finishing blow, meeting the man again in a flurry of steel and bone. This time it was easy to see that the knight had the upperhand in the prolonged exchange.

Therion joined in then with Artorias, hoping to put the wraith down as soon as possible. The two of them didn't let up, piling on as much damage as possible while the monster did its best to fend them off. Eventually the onslaught of three against one was too much, and without any other nearby spirits to heal itself with the wraith's body shut down. After a last eerily human-like cry it started to fade away, partly crumbling to ash and partly evaporating into the ether.

After making sure that it was dead, Therion didn't say anything. He collected the spirit, noting that it was the same as any other spirit they'd encountered so far. Needless to say he wouldn't be opening any more doors willy nilly.

“Hmph…That was…Something.” the scholar remarked breaking the quiet that followed their little bout, unlike himself it seemed both men had their share of injuries the worst of which the knight took. Though as strong and seemingly indomitable he was Artorias slumped against the cold floor, breathing raggedly though nowhere near death's doorstep he downed what was left of the Estus in his flask. Slowly he stood, his vitality slowly returning to him.

Though injured in the battle, Therion's wounds were far from debilitating thanks to the knight acting as a living shield for him and Osvald. They could get a move on now. And without the adrenaline pumping, two of them could hear that there was chatter through the pearls in their ears. Ganondorf and Jesse's arrival, later followed by Sectonia's request for assistance, and also...

"...found someone that I know..."

Artorias and Osvald kept going while Therion stopped, completely dumbstruck by Primrose's message. That wasn't possible, was it? One of the few other people he called friends right here in the prison just after he and Primrose had talked about them? Not to mention that Ms. Fortune's friend was allegedly here as well; the likelihood of that had to be close to zero. It had to be a trap, some kind of... illusion taken shape from their subconscious. He wasn't going to fall for it.

...but he wanted to find out what was going on all the same. Therion suddenly raced ahead of his two companions, forgoing the stairwell and vaulting over the side without a word spoken to them. He kept his grip on the railing, using the momentum of his swing to propel himself down onto the floor of the next level rather than fall all the way down, tumbling when he hit the stone to prevent any real damage to himself. He all but ignored Sectonia's ask for help and the ongoing fight against the mindflayers, making a beeline for the stairs to the fourth level.

“He seemed in a hurry.” after Therion left, Osvald spoke up watching as the thief disappeared from view after vaulting over a railing, Artorias said nothing but the words he heard in his ear from the pearl gave him an idea as to why Therion had ran off.

“Whatever it was it hath little to concern with us.” the knight wasn't in the mood to impress upon it, he knew little to nothing about either Therion nor Primrose to tell. So with a mighty huff he slugged his sword on one mighty shoulder and motioned for the scholar to follow.

‘Agreed, I'd rather be off…’ the scholar stood a moment before leisurely keeping stride behind his escort, something else crept up in Osvald's mind another important thing, a man he had plans to find. The man who took everything from him, as he walked Osvald's knuckles grew white as one name popped into his head.

Despite having not put an end to the slaughter occurring at the daycare, Midna still took her parting words as a win. It was petty, oh it was ever so petty, but she’d take her victories where she could. Plus, it really did mean something, because part of the problem they had been having is that bringing down bits of the regime had also brought down bits of the forces defending the city. Here, at least, she had a methodology to repurpose part of it into something more useful than it had been before.

The fact that mass-producing pokemon for war wasn’t the most ethical thing either didn’t really cross her mind, given her own usage of warbeasts. Instead it was running through how to convince people to do things her way right up until the elevator arrived deep down into the earth. Or at least that was how she thought it anyway, but it was entirely possible that they were still above ground due to how tall Midgar was.

At any rate, they entered into a world for which the princess had zero context for, because apparently this was what computers looked like inside. ”So do they all have miniature buildings? Wait, are they just run by tiny people?” she asked, but upon closer inspection there weren't any people in sight, at least not through the thick fog that prompted Minda to slip her mask over her mouth and nose to avoid breathing it in.

”Well, we’re here, and that was easier than it should have been” Midna said, thankful that no one had thought to post guards or cameras just watching the entryway. As it turned out, there were some looking at the fancy looking platform that was apparently a teleporter, and also the way forward ”Good thing we were planning to stop here anyway”

Rather than hang around here any longer than need be, the princess instead moved to her designated task, namely setting up their way in and out of here. She found a nice looking pylon a bit away from both the door and the teleporter, and also out out site of both, and did her magic, punching a small hole in reality, and the causing pixely black squares to spread out from that hole, widening it as they went till above her it yawned.

Task done, she turned back to the others and held out three hands and asked ”Shall we?”

Once everyone was done nosing around, and had accepted a proffered mit, they were off. The 4 heroes turned into particles of twilight and raced up into the portal and across the city, with their souls along for the ride. Then a few moments later a portal in the S.O.U. Building opened, depositing them back at their city HQ.

”Goddesses, it feels like it has been months since we set out this morning” the dead beat princess said as she let go of the other’s hands, and then gave a stretch and cracked her knuckles, real hands above her head, magic behind her back, before she dismissed the latter and called out ”Anyone home?”

She waited a few moments, but there was no answer.

”Ah. Well. I guess we are the ones with the fastest travel” she tried to play it off, before adding ”Oh wait actually let me just” and then disappearing back through the portal. A minute later she returned empty handed, and reported ”No one’s at any of the other city side portals either” too tired to hide the hint of concern in her voice.

She got to distract herself from that worry for a bit by taking the chance to wash the blood, sweat and ash from body, but soon enough there was nothing but the contents of the building and views of the city to distract herself. One was dull, and she was really starting to get sick of the other. It had its moments, but between the politics, man made horrors and external threats, it really was suffocating.

”I really could do with some air” she realized, before muttering ”But its not that it's any better out there, all smoke and fumes and-”

She paused, glanced at her portal, and then hopped up onto her feet to ask the others ”Anyone up for taking a break from this place? I’m thinking of just going up to the top of the split mountain for some fresh air and a nice view. We can leave a note for the others if we all go”

If she got any takers, then she’d happily link hands with them beneath the portal again and then once more skim them along the space between day and twilight, bringing them much further away this time.

High above the clouds to the south east of the massive city they had just been in, the princess and her companions arrived on the precipice of a great cliff. Down below, she had almost frozen to death, only to be carried to this safehaven of land bathed in the glow of the split mountain’s peak that sat just a bit further up the mountain.

It had, unfortunately, seen better days. Only a little ways away was a great pit within which a bell had once sat. Now it was split open at the side, creating a massive gash in the side of the mountain, rubble spilling from it and down its slopes in a trail of worm made destruction.

”Ah, I forgot we messed this place up a bit. The boss was here, and well. That’s the result of its running off into the desert. We had to blow it up with a train” she explained vaguely.

Still, while it wasn't quite as picturesque as it had been, it still had a stark beauty to its stone terrain surrounded by fluffy clouds, including some which, if someone were to look close enough they might see marble structures built atop of them.

Also on up there in the sky could be seen some pokemon that looked like small and lage balloons drifting serenely through the air with no children attached, flying pigs, the odd cloud that was not a cloud and most notably a colossus of fur, stone and wing sailing majestically through the air.

”Don’t mind that one” Minda said as she pointed up at the titan, explaining simply that ”He’s a friend” which might be unbelievable where it not for the distinct lag of red glow in its four eyes.

The land itself wasn’t entirely quiet either. Friendly dog lizards could be seen and heard digging through the rocks and stones the sundering of the mountain had tossed about, seeking out for glowing gems that the proceed to scarf down, while penguin-esque creatures and bears in pajamas, all only knee hight, engaged in 0 stakes dance battles with each other around them.

Down below, they could see where they’d spent the last few days. Roughly see, anyway. The city of Midgar was only really identifiable by the extinction belt hanging above it, for the city itself was smothered in a cloud cover of its own making.

”Ok, looks like I really did need the fresh air, because just look at that” Minda said as she looked down on the consequence of industry, before breathing in the clean crisp mountain air, and then letting out a relaxed sigh. Then she plopped herself down on the ground, removed her mask and helmet, and then just lay back in it and really relaxed for the first time since breakfast despite it not being the most comfortable of surfaces.

In doing so, she ended up looking up, and in her relaxed state, really taking in the night sky for the first time. She hadn’t exactly lived beneath the stars of Hyrule for long so there was no immediate foreignness to their pattern as there might be for others, but even she managed to find a fair number of out of place celestial bodies, the largest of which was a rather twisted looking moon that took that moment to reveal itself from behind a cloud.

She frowned at this ugly blot complaining ”Galeem just has to take the worst things huh, I mean couldn’t have put something nice looking up there?” and drawing attention to it in the process, before letting her eyes keep wandering, focusing on very little as she mostly just let them rest from the harsh artificial lights of the city they’d soon have to go back to.

“Holy crap…” Sakura said, peering into the massive space. ”This is a computer?! How many bits do you think it has? 64 or 32?” She asks, jokingly.

Sakura spent a bit of time wandering around, distancing herself from the group by a small bit. “ECHO!” She shouts, cupping her hands around her mouth just to get a feel for how big this place actually was. Not infinite, because an echo did come back. A security camera, however, did pan her ways.

”O tto!” Sakura flailed and hid behind cover. “Ehehe…that was stupid. My bad. I just didn’t see anybody so I figured.” Sakura reddened. To be fair, it did seem like they had gotten by all the people security, now it was just the automatic stuff.

“Let’s go.” Sakura said, taking Midna’s hand and keeping her eyes open to watch herself get teleported.

“Wow, that’s so amazing, Midna-san. I don’t know what we’d do without you. I guess you and Blazermate-san should never be on the same team so both can use teleporters, huh?” She asked.

Sakura glanced around the place. “Yeah, seriously!” She sat down, feeling truly safe and unbothered for the first time in a while. “Phew…”

The street fighter wasn’t as concerned. “It’s probably fine. We’re doing our thing.”

When Midna offered up a chance to get out of this place, Sakura was more than obliged. “Aha! Sounds awesome!” She clapped her hands together. She left a quick note:

Midna-san teleported us for a quick break. See you soon!

Once there, Sakura blinked, taking in another massive vista. The World of Light was full to the brim of absolutely bonkers huge places. The night, however, was pleasnt, if chilly. Sakura waved at the massive bird thingy, imagining the fantastic circumstances in which it was freed. She smiled, clearly pleased at the idea of seeing tangible good the Seekers had done, even if she wasn’t involved. At the very least this bird was getting to mind its own business, free of control and forced conflict forever more.

“That crap can’t be good for your lungs. That’s the worst pollution I’ve ever seen. And I’ve been to Beijing.” Sakura said with a sigh, scratching her head. Though, it might just be clouds. It was hard to tell. She looked up at the sky above and saw the stars, foreign stars, of a distant planet. The twisted moon caused her to tilt her head.

“It’s kinda cool looking though, right?” She asked. Maybe it was just the novelty of seeing a different moon so up close.

“I wonder if those stars are even real. Everything is so mashed up together here. But the universe is so unbelievably big, I have a hard time imagining we’re in a real one. There would be so many other worlds out there…why would all the Guardians be on this one if there were more?” Sakura asked.

“I dunno. It just seems fake to me. No way Galeem could steal the entire universe like that.” She said, looking up at the sky. “I bet if you could fly up there you’d see they’re just really bright lights just on the far side of the moons and other planets up there.”

With Roland's EGO attack finishing off Vigil, Giovanna giving him a bit of a complex look. Really there wasn't much he could do in the moment. This wasn't the first time he had dealt with something being controlled by another thing, and either they broke free after getting hit a bit, or wouldn't stop until they were dead in his experience. And it seemed to be the latter for Vigil and Penance. Although Giovanna did something Roland wasn't sure how to do, doing a technique to free Penance from the consul's control. "Would've been nice to know you could do that." Roland said in a lower tone of voice. But at least they got one of the mind controlled victims back to their senses. Still, a bleeding heart would get you killed out there, and if Roland was nothing else, he was a survivor even against his own feelings sometimes.

Blazermate meanwhile had gotten blindsided by Akira's partner and ended up getting chained to the ground, unable to move as Akira rained arrows on her from above. That hurt, but seeing that, her allies came to her rescue as she struggled to break herself free. Susie meanwhile had seen what the Consul had done to one of Reunion and that vortex of his. Quite a dangerous ability, but he was a big one to deal with, so... Well, there wasn't much to think about as everyone, even the recently broken free Blazermate and Roland who had quite a 'I'm tired of this" look on his face were pulled towards a single spot and all clumped together. Blazermate saw that Sandalphon was now the most critical, so she started to heal her up as she could, but that pull hurt everyone.

Seeing the situation, and wanting her revenge, Jena did something drastic, and after drinking a concoction, she glew bright, before revealing some kind of crystal angel form. "What now... Did she distort?" And upon seeing this, Sandalphon transformed herself and healed everyone a bit. Roland could only shake his head as he got ready to deal with the element throwing crystal angel lady thing in front of him.

"I got Kritz, if someone is going to do a huge move, let me know! Lets make it hurt!" Blazermate said, giving whoever was going to go in some overheal. Roland saw the platforms leading to this thing, but he decided for now to just use his ranged weapons. Pulling out the gun that he had gotten earlier, he fired that, before swapping to his crossbow, then finally, his own rifle in a combo attack. Susie could deal with ranged attacks as well, as she fired her missile at this thing. Blazermate noted that while the ice couldn't get past a projectile shield, the fire could. Roland found out that his new outfit helped a lot with the fire, but did nothing for the cold.

In the end, it was neither Karin, Geralt, nor Goldlewis that brought Penance back to her senses with a Friend Heart. No, it was Giovanna, who sprinted to her former associate's rescue after witnessing Roland's fatal takedown of the Judge. When Karin brought her to the brink, which in hindsight meant they'd focused more of their efforts on Penance than was strictly necessary, the SOU agent came around and rescued her, saving her from a similarly tragic fate. "Thanks," Geralt breathed, for a moment letting the weariness he was feeling show, before he steeled himself once more. "Been a long night."

Zenkichi, meanwhile, was disheartened to see that his desperate gambit proved fruitless, even though he did see that flinch! "Oh, come on! That is so not fair!" He complained, struggling to keep himself from being sucked into the vortex and probably annihilation. However, just as one of Y's Neuron lackeys was about to take a shot at Zenkichi, in what could only be described as profane intervention, Jena directed one of her subordinates to rescue him. Perhaps she recognized that the Seekers were her best bet at fighting Y and keeping him distracted. Perhaps she had even further ulterior motives. But whatever the reason, in that moment, Jena Anderson saved Zenkichi Hasegawa's life.

Man, that was awkward. Even more awkward was the realization that yes, that vortex would have simply annihilated him, and yes, he was a gigantic idiot for walking up to this guy without a care in the world. The others could mock him later, for now he needed to not die. The next few moments were sort of a blur. All Zenkichi saw as he tried to regain himself was Y disappear, reappear behind Jena and her allies, and suck one of them up.

Then came the black hole. Thankfully, it was more of an abstraction of one, given that an actual black hole opening up would have killed everybody here. Unfortunately, it still hurt like hell, and the Seekers found themselves crashing into one another, elbows and limbs and sheathed weapons slapping each other in the face, sides, and gut. When the gravity well vanished, they were all left to pick themselves up, though they didn't even have much time for that, given what Jena had done. Again. What was with this lady and injecting horrifying body horror-creating substances into herself?

It only took a moment. From mutated woman, to weird singularity of energy, to...

"OH NOT THIS SHIT AGAIN!" Zenkichi wailed, head on his hands. It was the Demiurge, all over again! And if the other Phantom Thieves were to believed, it was the Demiurge all over again, all over again!

"What are you babbling about?" Geralt grunted, sighing a little as Sandalphon's healing wave washed over him.

"Last bad guy me and the Thieves took down was a lot like this. A false god. Just, big, kind of alien-looking thing. Huge bodied, sorta disembodied arms, the whole shebang. It was...a lot." Stretching his back a little, Zenkichi looked up at Jena, shaking his head. "Nothing we can't handle, I'm sure."

Geralt nodded, drawing silver. He'd save the Hateful Flesh for when it was really necessary, given the bloody toll it took on him. Zenkichi drew his own sword, and the pair began their ascent towards the monstrosity that was once Jena Anderson. The Protolegions in their way were no match for the pair, and with fire support from the others, they reached their target fairly quickly. Even as more Protolegions tried to swarm them, Zenkichi held the monsters at bay while Geralt revealed a new trick he'd learned: a dozen Abyssal fliers appearing as if from nowhere and zipping towards Jena's right hand, guns flashing from the fighters, bombers gunning straight for her. Jena managed to swipe nearly two-thirds of the bombing flight away with a swat of her hand, but this left her open to the rest, and also brought her hand dangerously closer to the Sekeers.

"Now!" Geralt yelled, and he took chance, blade flashing at the floating appendage, Zenkichi joining him as soon as he was sure their backs were clear for a moment.

---

Karin smiled coolly and nodded with satisfaction as the Penance problem was taken care of, not feeling bad about the whole thing in any way at all. Penance is now in perfect health and free of any mind control. A net positive in every conceivable way.

When the black hole came, Karin grit her teeth and shot her grapple hook down at the ground as soon as possible, slamming into the roof but not getting sucked all the way into the mixer around it, her entire body floating in the air for the duration.

After it was over, they had a new foe to deal with, massive, corrupted Jena, while their true enemy escaped. Jena, Karin concluded, had to be the most incompetent person on the face of the World of Light. ”How dreadful for the human race that buffoons like you continue to fail upward.” Karin said, rolling her shoulders.

Whenever the creature came her way, Karin would jump out of the way and then come down on any outstretched limbs, looking to damage its fingers and wrists with combos before grapple hooking away to nearby floating debris. Karin used her unusual mobility to be a persistent yet hard to reach threat.

Sectonia wasn't too thrilled about the endless sea of goblins coming from the chest, even if they were easy to handle. And juas as she was getting pushed to the stairs, clearing goblins that came after her. With her antillions and tesla coil and the occasional massive Ring of Light, she could keep the goblins and their choppers away from her. This was more or less a case of chasing the unchasable, as she cleared 1 goblin, 3 popped up to take its place. That on top of Nadia coming out of nowhere with some white tiger chasing her, which caused the chest to fall off the railings and down, down deeper into the prison. Considering the group had to eventually get down there, she sighed as she knew they'd have to deal with them as they moved down...

Speaking of moving down, she had to find a way down that wouldn't put her in the center of what would probably be a huge goblin mess first. Considering the sounds she was hearing below and the bright flash of light below, the others had made their way down there so she could do the same. As she moved through the prison, she found an unlocked door which she figured would bring her down to the next level. However instead, she found herself in what others would call a 'modern' room. Well, a modern room with some research equipment. Surrounding a blue tinted black ornate framed mirror was various research equipment, some green herbs, and some audio tapes and a typewriter. Sectonia tried to listen to one of the tapes, but all she got was gibberish. Even so, she was more interested in the mirror since now she can see what she looked like after all those recent fusions.

As she approached the mirror to look at the changes she had undertaken, she noticed right away she was a bit smaller. She knew this as her antillions were now 'bigger' to her than they were, but this confirmed it. Also the extra armor which she didn't really feel was something to get used to, but at least it was opulent and crystalline so it at least looked good. Her eyes were the bit she found to be the strangest, with such weird pupils. But they made her look more... cute than beautiful which she wasn't sure what to think about at this time. As she moved to touch the mirror to get a better look at herself, something... happened. She felt like she went through the mirror, but could still see herself on the other side. It was a strange feeling, and as she turned around after getting a good look at herself and her outfit, she noticed everything had a weird tint to it.

She noticed pretty quickly that she couldn't teleport, nor could she summon antillions in this weird space, and that while she could see herself on the other side of the mirror, that 'self' wasn't moving anymore. It was as if she had been sucked into the mirror. She also noticed that all text was reversed, and if she spoke, she also spoke in reverse. She could only sumize she got trapped in the mirror or some kind of weird mirror world. Now if this was a trap, or the way forward, she wasn't sure, so she decided to at least explore a bit.

She found that where there were guards and other things, the prison was vacant. No chop goblins, no guards, nothing. At least until she got back to the place where the chop goblin chest fell, in which she found something that looked like herself. Considering the whole backward speech thing that Sectonia couldn't understand, all she could gather was this individual was called Ainotces. Considering she wasn't going to decode backwards talk, she got ready for the fight with an alternate looking version of herself.

The battle started with the fake casting a spell Sectonia herself didn't know, a spell that encased the faker in a skin that looked like marble. This slowed them down a little bit, but greatly increased their defense. Sectonia soon figured this out as she found that her arcane prisms did very little, but all she had to do was swap to her void globules to bypass that. But that was just setup for the next spell, a bunch of homing soul projectiles that seeked out Sectonia. Sectonia countered with her own pipe of insight, before blasting her clone with lightning, the void globules beforehand and the lightning shattering the marble armor.

Annoyed with this pretender, Sectonia decided to get rid of this thing using her new weapons after having shattered her marble armor. Although she soon found that, without her telelporting, that she'd have to use her new fancy axe as it seemed to do lots of damage when thrown. Her doppleganger meanwhile attacked her with her own antillions, being actually able to summon them. Sectonia knew how to handle them though, and unleashed a large Ring of Light to clear them out, although that lead to her counterpart showing her third new spell, a longer cast of green energy that Sectonia found went right past her magical defenses and hurt really bad. The cast time was long though, so she wouldn't let her counterpart do that again.

And to make sure of that, Sectonia hasted herself to get in close again to stab and bash her counterpart who was getting ready to cast another one of those homing soul bolts and get in a melee combo mid cast with her swords and staff. And when her counterpart teleported away to use that green bolt again, Sectonia moved to her and just held her giant ring of light right against her counterpart to not only make her drop the spell or get hit really hard, but in an attempt to finish her off. This broke her concentration and forced her to move, which Sectonia followed up by firing the large ring, hitting her counterpart on the teleport arrival and shattering her.

After the fight, Sectonia found herself back in the real world, staring at a blank mirror. She found an item in her hands as well. A scroll that let her cast some homing souls. Although she could only use it a couple times a day. She also found another item that seemed to hold some appearance of some kind, but now wasn't the tiem for that. She had to get down to the third level now, who knows how much time had passed while she was inside the mirror.

More mind flayers, essentially the same as the ones that inhabited the cathedral up on the surface level. At least they looked that way to Ganondorf. It was all the same to him really. It just meant he already had a decent idea of how to take these squid-faces down. To that end he decided to forgo his twin blades for the time being. He recalled that these things fired soul rays as a ranged attack and decided it was better to use the Ikana Shield as a means to block those rays long enough for him to close the distance and put himself in striking range. Once this was done he cut down whatever mind flayers he could, utilizing the white sword in combination with his Ikana Shield.

When at last it seemed the mind flayers had been dealt with, Ganondorf sheathed the white sword and once again hung the shield up onto his back. When the Koopa Troop were beginning to make their way back into the area Ganondorf had entered from, he moved to follow them. But he stopped in his tracks when he heard something.

”...ster!”

It sounded faint, barely audible. Ganondorf turned his focus back toward the deeper sections of the prison and practically had to strain himself to make out what he was hearing.

”Master!”

And without sending any kind of message or signal to the Koopas, the Gerudo King began to silently make his way deeper into the prison, rather than follow his allies. He kept listening intently for whatever it was that was calling. ”Master!” He would occasionally hear the faint cry, ”I am here, Master!” As Ganondorf ventured deeper into Mercy Dreams, he began to notice the calling voice becoming clearer bit by bit - a sign that meant he was going in the right direction.

Ganondorf found himself taking twists and turns in the prison. Occasionally he would encounter a mind flayer and have to defeat it. And each time he had to focus his senses and try to hear the voice again in order to once again pick up the trail. After a while the voice calling out to him became a bit more clear. Then, after taking a few more turns it became clearer and clearer with each step. That meant that Ganondorf had to be very close. Despite how much louder and clearer the voice got, at no point did it ever lose its distorted nature. Was this work of some kind of ghost or spirit? Ganondorf couldn’t say, but at this point he was curious enough to find out either way. Equally perplexing was how this voice seemed to know him, yet was completely unfamiliar to the Gerudo King.

At last, Ganondorf stood before the door of a cell. It was locked tight, and it didn’t look possible to break open either. Whether this was by architectural design or magical design, he didn’t know. But it seemed clear to him that whoever was calling out was beyond the door, so did that mean they were an inmate in this prison?

”Ah, my master, you are here.” Came the voice from beyond the door. What little view of the inside was obscured by shadow. It was impossible to make out any discernible figure within the cell, it seemed. ”I am your servant, of course.”

”Who are you?” Ganondorf demanded, ”You seem to know me, and yet I know nothing about you.”

”But I am your tool, your sword!” retorted the mysterious voice, ”How comes it then, that my own master does not recognize me?” There was almost a hint of lament in their tone. And then, ”Ah, what’s this? Where is your usual glorious aura, Master? Surely your power has not, dare I say it, waned?”

Ganondorf scowled despite not being face to face with whomever this is, ”You best think carefully about the next words you speak. I will not have my power questioned or challenged by a faceless wretch in a prison cell.”

”I dare not offend you, Master. Naturally.” the voice responded with assurance, ”Ah, that must be it. If both your memory and powers are not as I recall them… A great shame then that you have been reduced to this, a mere shadow of your true self.”

Ganondorf’s first instinct was to lash out and retaliate. But something they said managed to perk his ear, ”A ‘shadow’ you say?” Ganondorf glanced down at the Triforce that branded his right hand. It was indeed true that he had not yet reclaimed his full power. But this stranger seemed to be hinting at even greater power still, and that thoroughly intrigued him, ”Explain!”

”I’m afraid I can’t explain to you, for certain.” the strange voice admitted, ”But if my memory serves me, then this state you are in can only have resulted from your defeat.”

”Fool! I have suffered no defeat!” Ganondorf snapped back angrily. Clearly this wasn’t the answer he wanted to hear, ”If you know nothing then I won’t waste anymore of my time with you.” At this Ganondorf began to walk away from the cell door.

”Wait, Master!” the voice called out, ”Remember who you are! And you will surely find a way to restore what was taken from you!” but the voice received no reply from Ganondorf, who continued to walk away.

”Remember!” it echoed as it faded away.

”Hmph!” Ganondorf huffed as he continued walking, ”Defeated? I think not.” But as much as the Gerudo King denied it to himself, he couldn’t ignore what the voice had been telling him. His mind went to at least one major defeat he had suffered, Galeem. But surely that couldn’t be it! Ganondorf felt more or less as he was the day he stood against that would-be god. That strange voice seemed convinced that greater power still was sleeping somewhere deep down.

It was at that point that his mind recalled the shrine he had been in alongside Rubick. A place that seemed both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. A sensation that echoed in the voice he had been conversing with. Something about all of this made him uneasy, not that he would ever admit as such outloud. These shadows and echoes of places and people from his home world clearly seemed to hint at things that he himself had never been aware of. Just more of a mystery he would have to make a point of solving after the Galeem problem had been properly dealt with.

”Even if it is true,” Ganondorf told himself as he made his way to try and regroup with Koopa Troop, ”It just means that I have a lead on even greater power that I can claim for myself.”

The rest of the mind flayers fell in short order, especially once Mimi copycatted their stun spell, which turned the four on one of Jr, her, Ganondorf and Bowser vs the coming at them in dribs and drabs squidmonsters from just unfair to a practical cakewalk. Add in Rika, Kamek and his shadow clones coming around the other way, and the whole enterprise was sorted out in short order.

Numbers, the monsters in the jail really had no answer to them. Or, well, the things down stairs probably did with their baleful light, but as it turned out the Troop would not be facing those.

Instead they ended up grouping together outside the room Ganondorf and Jesse had come in after doing some spirit gathering, and happened to look inside. The heart that had dropped in alongside the hero and villain was not visible, and neither were the ugly centipedes that had crawled out of it, so the Troop had no idea those were there. Instead what they saw were a number of huts and a trio of ritual pyres, all linked by plank walkways, seemingly built around a single much larger plank house. As in one 4 times the size of the others.

”Must be a big guy around to live in a house like that” Bowser commented, while Kamek was convinced that ”Surely no one sane lives in a place like this?”

It was a question he immediately regretted asking when Rika helpful replied ”I can go check!” before going to do just that, stepping onto the marshy water and then sailing across it towards the nearest hut before anyone could stop her. As she got close, two things happened at once. The first was the hut’s door slapped open, and large fishperson came running out of it towards her, claws bared as it shouted “Glor! Go away!”

The second was that a large spiky tentacle burst from the water right next to her, which then attempted to whip her with its entire body.

The troop all called out in alarm, but Rika was already moving, maneuvering thrustering out of the way of the tentacle lash while thrusting a gauntlet hand towards it, palm raised. From the center of its hand, the gauntlet blasted out a burst of her grizco blaster’s ink shots (she’d freshly reloaded the spit supply before they went on the attack) while at the same time a torpedo dropped into the water from a hatch that opened on the underside of that same gauntlet.

The tendril didn’t seem too perturbed by the ink, but it was a sitting duck for the torpedo, which slammed into its base, and promptly blew it to high heaven.

The princess then smoothly pivoted to deal with the fishman, only for the explosion to prompt three things that were gonna make the situation messy. The first was all the other huts popping open, divulging more fishmen, though oddly rather than all charging forwards, many simply stared at the intruders into their home.

The second was a roar, as from out of a side chamber a giant red centipede who’s nap had just been disturbed emerged, looking for something to take its anger out on.

The third was a series of just awful gurgling chittering, rasping sounds as the noise alerted the man centipedes that they were not alone, prompting them to scuttle up the sides of the pit their hearty home had been dropped into.

All three of these groups of monsters promptly saw both each other and the troop, and none were pleased by what they saw. The big red centipede saw intruders into its reliable respawning food supply, while the man centipedes simply hated anything that wasn’t them. The fishfolk meanwhile were mostly panicking with cries of “Gloooorph!! Glurph glot! Glurph glot!” and “It come to destroy us!” at the sight of their red chitined butcher, but this did not stop the one coming at Rika from continuing to do so.

It lashed at her with sharp claws attached to powerful arms, and then was smart enough to kite back a bit when it missed. Unfortunately for it Rika’s new gauntlets made her far more versatile, and the ship girl promptly teleported her spear into her new hands and then thrust it forwards, delivering a nasty puncture wound to its chest with the needle sharp top. Unfortunately she misjudged where the heart was on the hulking creature, and it did not fall.

Rather than pull back, she teleported the spear back to her back and smashed forwards with a punch filled with Brachydios strength while pulling back and charging the other, and at the very same time having her hull claws lash out. Her first fist smashed it in the face, her claws raked its belly, and then she went flying forwards, delivering a vault breaker to it, smashing it up into the air, before pivoting and ripping open its back with her wrist mounted chainsaw when it landed, finally putting it down.

“Flurgle noooo!” came a call from one of the other fishfolk, but the rest were a bit too busy worrying about themselves as the man centipedes came scuttling across the bridges or through the water to attack them. Several got into a tussle with more tentacles bursting from the water, or tried to take on the larger red centipede, but the rest fell on the fishfolk, spewing acid, stabbing with their tails, or just bodily ramming them with their grotesque melted human faces.

”Good job Rika, you made a real mess” jr told his sister sardonically, but she didn’t pick up on it at all, and instead agreed that ”Yup! Look at them fight each other, cleaning up should be easy”

She did sort of have a point, but that didn’t mean there weren't still foes coming for them, mainly due to both Bowser and Kamek launching indiscriminate fireballs and a wide energy beam into the mix, which certainly got some attention.

”Dad! Might be time for that strategy with the cannon we talked about” Jr called out as the foes started coming, which got a nod from his father.

The king promptly took a more turtle-y pose on all fours with his boy facing side on to the incoming foes. The side of his shell facing them slit, exposing 3 turrets which promptly opened fire, while a volley of spikes launched from his back to create a deadly hail, and the king himself turned his head to the side to spit fireballs. The new part of the strategy however, was twofold. First, the prince healed his dad despite him being fit and healthy, prompting a great deal of vines to sprout from his shell. Most of these he promptly slammed into the wet earth beneath the plank walkway, while the rest were wrapped into the port at the bottom of the cannon turret they had acquired.

All together this formed a stable, and not spike-covered, firing platform onto which Jr stepped, stabbing his paintbrush into the dirt and grabbing both of the turret’s handles.

His two pokemon, Mimi and Dazzle (the latter of whom had been called out while Bowser was setting up) joined him, and then together all four of them began blasting out at the incoming attackers with a hail of firepower. Despite all that, some of the man centipedes still got close thanks to their sculpting speed and monstrous durability, and at which point the other half of the plan came to fruition. When the first of the scuttling things broke past the no-mans land (having dodged past tentacles, shells, water bullets, electro balls, and more) an entire tree promptly burst up out of the ground infront of it, which it promptly crashed into due to the surprise.



In the moment it was stunned and disorientated from unwillingly headbutting a tree, jr turned his gun turret towards the awful creature, and let it have it haf its own serving o f high explosive firepower. The other foes got similar treatment, being stabbed by roots, tripped by spiky bushes or obstructed by other foliage that prevented them from getting close.

Even with how effective that was, if that had all they had, the troop might have still been in trouble. Fortunately Rika and Kamek’s additions made the battle against the charging man-centipeds and odd fish person a breeze, with Rika summoning her while whale via pokeball like spinner so it could unleash its cannonfire and adding her own disruption cannon blasts to the fire power, while Kamek decided on just start dropping some dark energy mines in between them and the foes, blowing the few that did get past sky high.

Unfortunately, in focusing on cutting down the herd, they failed to target the actual biggest threat in the room. The Beast, that towering centipede large as two Bowsers wo had been woken up from its nap, had made short work of anything and everything that had tried to take it on, and due to its life draining bites, it wasn’t even scratched. Worse, when it came for them they never saw it coming, because the first moment they were aware of its approach was when it burst out of the ground next to them, the Beast having borrowed over to them while they were busy with the lesser foes.

It seemed to laugh at their shocked surprise, and then lunged its horned head forwards at Bowser’s back. Jr, Mimi and Dazzle all abandoned the ship that was Bowser, tossing themselves out of the way, but the rooted King himself could do no such thing. Instead the Beast was free to slam its noggin into the turret, smashing it to bits and smashing the king into the ground in the process.

It then pivoted, trying to snap up Dazzle in a single bite, only for the water pokemon to leap into the marsh’s waters and swim out of reach. It growled in frustration in response, and was in the process turning to find another target when Rika vaultbreaker punched into it, knocking it back a few steps.

”Papa! You ok?” she asked as the spent gauntlet hung by her side. The king grunted in affirmation as he started to pick himself up only for the Beast to breath in noisily as if to say, no you won’t be, before it unleashed its poisonous breath upon them all. Bowser, Rika and Mimi were all left coughing and choking, their lungs and veins burning from the poison, while Jr had managed to pull his bib up over his nose and mouth to block most of the attack.

He fought back now, shooting small iron spikes from his wrist, and then when that did nothing, forming and hurling a hammer at its head, which did do enough to piss the Beast off. Sick of trying to bite through the vines protecting Bowser’s back anyway, it pivoted and charged the prince, smashing him aside.

Now it was Kamek’s turn to get involved, the untouchable flying mage smashing a summoned magic fist down on top of the beast’s head, knocking its face into the dirt for a moment. It took this as a cue to bury itself in said dirt again digging under it with alarming speed and protecting itself from harm.

Not that this actually gave the Troop a moment of rest. With the beast itself no longer splitting their attention, the man centipedes had won the battle against the fishfolk and tentacles, and now their remaining number came streaming towards the last targets in sight.

They were, at least, not uncontested as they came in. Rika’s great white whale had slipped into the marsh’s waters, and along with sea-lion like Dazzle, unleashed its firepower upon the man centipedes. Cannons roared alongside much less impressive watergun shots, but when the abominations got close, that was when both of them showed their aquatic metal.

The great whale, large as the centipedes themeslves, could surge forwards in the water with alarming speed, open its jaws wide, and deliver a devastating multi jawed bite to them, which was often more than enough to take the wounded ones down. Meanwhile Dazzle’s dire penguin fusion combined with its aquajet move allowed it to leap out of the water and then crash down atop its foes with breakneck speeds, staggering them and letting him then kite back away from them while hitting them with icy winds and its disarming voice.

Still, despite their efforts, several of the man centipedes got through, making an already messy fight even messier, as the still reeling from having their position blown apart by the Beast’s bursting into it Troop scrambled to recover.

Jr raised a crude shield through which a pointed tail of a man centipede stabbed straight through, the wicked tip stopping only a breath away from his eye. To his credit, the prince only flinched for half a second before wrenching the shield aside, and promptly hucking a fireball right into the monstrosity's many faces, leaving a patch of napalm burning on them all. The creature shrieked in pain, stumbling back, and giving the prince enough space to form and fire a shotgun blast of iron shards into its core for good measure. Then he promptly turned his attention to curing everyone of the poison that was eating away at them.

”I’ll hold them off!” Rika called out after she was cleansed of the toxins, stepping onto the water again, and then summoned her cloyster striker to turn that specific patch of swamp into a ”Whirlpool!” which dragged in and slowed the man centipede trying to cross it. Then she used her rune to leap over one that came in to flank her, floated above it charging a vault bearer, and then came slamming down right on top of it, sinking it into the muddy water, before leaping off, but not before leaving it an explosive present that finished it off when she was clear.

Bowser and the Beast meanwhile were now duking it out, the towering mass of chitin slamming its horns down to bash the king on the head, snapping off one of the king’s tusks in the process and eliciting a roar of pain from the koopa king. Fortunately he was not fighting alone, and a full restoring burst of healing followed by poison curing from Jr got him back in the battle, while a shimmering amber shield wrapping around him courtesy of Kamek ensured he’d not be taking hits like that again.

It took the Beast a moment or two to realize this however, as it first boldly charged the king, only to find itself stopped by a palm strike, and then going horns to tusks again only to find itself coming out the poorer of the two afterwards. Then it was Bowser’s turn, and the king wasted no time in slamming a rocket assisted right hook right into the Beast’s raised front half, smashing it back and away.

It roared at him, but rather than come back for another go, it dove back underground again, no doubt looking to sneak up on a softer target to chow down on to restore its health.

”Not this time!” the king roared, before more or less belly flopping forward, slamming all of his shell sourced vines into the ground at once and sending a rolling shockwave of foliage bursting out the ground before him, some of which caught the digging Beast as it grew out of the soil and dragging it back to the surface. It scrambled in the treetops for a moment, incredibly disorientated, before being unceremoniously dropped down to the ground as the foliage evaporated beneath it, leaving it sprawled on the ground as Bowser came charging in on all fours.

Regrown tusks met the Beast’s body, and promptly hurled it into the air. As it flew, it sailed past Kamek, who had been spending all this time freely blasting foes from on high. Explosions prompting quad beams, dark energy mines and shadow clones of Bowser had been dropped from the sky atop the hapless man centipedes, along with a fair number of basic fireballs. He’d also picked up Mimi from the ground battle at one point, and the Pokemon was now riding at the tip of his broom like a witch’s cat, merrily copycatting his most powerful spells and using her tail stick like a wand to direct her own devastation down upon their foes.

That had been quite a boon, because Kamek himself had been running dry of mana, but at that point hardly mattered, because all but the last of the swarming foes had been dealt with.

That left only the Beast as a real threat as it crashed down again onto the marshy ground. However, despite the beating and the fall, it still promptly rolled over back onto its legs again, and once more looked for a target. It found one when a young prince piped up with ”Wow that thing is pretty tough huh? Oh! I know! I should make a recording of it!” and then proceed to pull out and click on the relevant button on a tape player.

The Beast lunged for the boy, only for vines to sprout up from the ground and to lash around its tail, halting it in its tracks for a moment. Then came a cry of exertion and a rapidly flying woman as Rika vaultbreaker into it right as Bower’s plant based bindings broke, smashing it up into the air again for a moment.

Despite this knock up, it landed cleanly and whipped its head around to try and take a bite out of her, only for a spear to appear in her unstunned hand, its shaft paced right in the way of the incoming bite. It didn’t stop the lunge forwards, but it did cause the shipgirl to be pushed back as the Beast ended up pushing the spear forwards with its jaws, and her along with it Then right on time the gauntlet she had vault breakered with came back online, letting the ship girl bring it up and blast the Beast point blank in the eyes with her grizzco blaster.

It pulled back, hissing in pain and shaking its head to clear the ink, before having half a mind to curse the spear in its jaw, only for it to jump back to the princess’ hands. She then thrust it forwards, but sadly for her the thin tip harmlessly glanced off the Beast’s red chitin. Something that did not glance off of it however was the spray of acid launched from Bowser’s shoulder cannons, which caused the natural armor to fizz and hiss as it was weakened.

Having fought other foes that used acid both today and in the past however, the Beast knew what to do, and promptly rolled over in the swampy water, diluting and/or washing off the acid in a single move. Then it went for Rika again, not with claws or horns but simply careened into her with the force of a van, smashing into her arm as she tried to dodge, and sending her spinning across the water.

Before it could capitalize however, Bowser had charged back in, forcing it to face the barrier encased king once again. Going on what had worked well before, the Beast sucked in air, and once again unleashed its poisonous breath, which bypassed the physically resisting shield and set Bowser to coughing and thumping his chest as if that would clear the toxins.

With the king’s charge halted by the poisoning, and Rika batted away, the Beast tried to return to its original target, the child with the tape recorder passively documenting the fight, only for those who had just finished dealing with the other centipedes to come to his aid. Magic bolts and electro balls lashed down from the sky thanks to Kamek and Mimi, while Dazzle and Rika’s white whale blasted it with water gun shots and small cannon shells.

It tried to dive under the surface again to escape the deluge, only for Bowser to slam the ground again and pop it up out of it using rapid tree growth once more. Unable to back off, it made a final lunge for Jr, only for Rika to come smashing into it again using her still good arm, knocking it up, and then having her ichor queen striker cleave down onto it with her massive four handed sword.

The blow split the Beast’s armor right across the neck, in what should have been a killing blow (and Jr complained as much by moaning ”Hey! I was recording that”) only for the Beast to not fall. It too seemed confused by this, and the way the massive singer benign jabbed into it and filling its veins with poison did nothing either, but it was more than happy to capitalize, lunging its jaw forwards and crushing the leg of the ichor queen, both healing itself somewhat and harming RIka a fair deal in the process.

Bowser smashed it in the face before the Beast could take another bite out of the now wounded on two limbs Rika, and followed it up with two more strikes before it just powered through and smashed him in the face with its horns again.

Kamek swooped over, dropping a dark energy mine beneath it, blasting it to high heaven, and then even air dropped his diminutive Tonberry striker onto its back so the little thing could deliver its incredibly lethal knife blade stab to the Beast, only for this to do seemingly nothing as well other than give the Beast another striker to chomp on inorder take it off of the death’s door it seemed to have no interest in passing through.

”Ack! This is absurd! How tough is this thing?” Kamek cried out in disbelief through the pain of the recoil.

”Why won’t you die!?” Bowser demanded as he delivered a series of rapid (for him) punches concluded by a kinetic strike module empowered blow he delivered in tandem with one of Rika’s vault breakers, the two of them slamming the Beast back.

The Beast itself didn’t seem to know either, looking rather confused about its still functioning body, before laughing at them with the madness of something that had just found out it was indestructible. That laughter was cut off however by a call of ”Got it!” from Jr, and a click on the tape recorder reaching the end of a tape, at which point the beast promptly exploded as it received a dozen delayed death blows all at once.

”What?” Bowser asked after a few moments, putting words to the question on everyone’s mind as the ash and spirit of the Beast slowly settled on the marshy ground.

”Did you know recording monsters did that young master? Is that why you sounded so confident?” Kamek asked, having worked out the source of the Beast’s deathlessness, and was about to demand to know why he had held that information back when the prince shook his head and informed him that ”Nah. I just thought that no matter how strong that thing is, it wouldn’t be able to take both you and a copy of itself on”

”I see. Well then…” Kamek replied slowly, before sighing and concluding that ”Well, at least we know now, and got something worthwhile out of this mess at least”

”We also got a load of spirits!” Rika pointed out to which Jr also added ”Plus there’s those bonfire things, bet if you light them all something good happens” indicating to the ritual pyres, two of which were already glowing thanks to stray fireballs.

”Also it's a bit weird how the big hut never opened, huh?” Bowser pointed out, which got them all looking at the fishpeople dwelling that was 4 times as large as all the others.

After a short rest, the troop acted on that information. At the end of it everyone was healed up, and positioned around the hut in a close but not clumped up this time formation, at which point Kamek used a fireball to light the last pyre. It blazed to life, and then it and the two others roared hotter and brighter before three beams of light lanced into the giant hut. An eerie glow started to peek out of the cracks and under the door, building up and up and then spilling out when the door was flung open, causing a giant fishfolk shadow to sweep across the marsh, causing all to tense up.

At least until they saw that the shadow was coming from an ordinary sized fish person who was just close to the light source inside the hut. It was however wearing some cultist like robes, which made Kamek to start calling out a warning not to take it lightly, only for Rika to step out from the side of the door where she had been positioned in ambush, at which point she stabbed it clean through the eye with her spear, stab it in the gut with her hull claws, blast it with her disruption cannons, and then finally just cave its chest in with a punch using a her gauntlet.

”Well that was disappointing” Jr commented as he relaxed, before thinking and then admitting ”Though I guess an oversized one of those fishguys woulda looked kinda silly”

Other than the fishperson cultist, the other things of note inside where a book called ‘on tentacles’ which seemed to be somewhat magical, and a scroll titled poison cloud which could be used to cast the spell of the same name a few times. There was also a pile of food, including a large number of spiky durians, but also notably no meat. These made for a good after battle snack, particularly for Rika who needed the fruity hydration after refilling her grizco blaster again. Bowser meanwhile was a bit disappointed by the lack of meat initially, but found he rather liked the spiky and pungent durians, claiming they were the him of fruits.

As they did that, Kamek had some toadies collect spirts, adding them to a bottle store to be used for crushing down the line. In the process he actually discovered the heart, now lacking any man centipede defenders (or rather parasites, not that they knew that), which once they were done eating the Troop promptly bombarded into oblivion from the top of the pit and then added it to their spirit collection.

All in all, despite all the commotion, their little root around the room could summarized by stripping it down to just what Kamek relayed via earpiece to the others: ”No silver keys or boss progress items in the marsh room on floor three, but we did acquire a fair few new spirits, though I do not expect anyone to be interested in fusing with them, as they are quite grotesque. The young master also made a cassette recording of a large red centipede, so if you see one in future please check that it isn’t him before attacking if you please. Oh, and finally we did find a magic scroll that can be used to make poison clouds, and one that seems to be able to summon tentacles. Please inquire if you are interested”

There was too much going on at once, preventing the Seekers from regrouping to make a plan. At least, that was the impression that Primrose got from the other messages received, as well as the general commotion coming from the levels above her. Briefly the dancer considered ascending form the fourth floor to assist with whatever was going on, but mostly her thoughts were with Yusufa. She wanted to open that cell whether her friend was really in there or not. After a few moments of quiet Primrose slipped out of the alcove she'd taken shelter in and continued on deeper in the prison.

She had a bronze key that didn't fit the lock that she wanted. She needed a silver key, in addition to any clues leading to the "Dreamcatcher." She still thought that the lowest level would be the best bet.

She avoided the lantern carrying jailers as she went, finding that if she so much as glanced into that light for too long her vitality would start to fade. It was more than unpleasant, the feeling of her health draining had been scary - and though she was stronger than the illuminators, she didn't want to fight them if she could help it. She could only imagine how awful it would be to face off against more than one at a time, and any confrontation her would put her at risk of that.

Primrose was maybe halfway to where she judged the stairway leading down was when she felt a presence approaching. She stopped moving, pressing herself to the wall as she turned to awaited whoever it was to make their appearance. Since she didn't hear any of the illuminator's creepy giggling and she hadn't seen any other kinds of of guards on this floor, she thought (and hoped) it would be a friendly face.

Therion rounded the corner not a moment later, spotting his fellow Orsterran immediately - with his cat senses, his eyes were better in the dark than ever. Though still a little roughed up from his fight against the wraith, he was indeed a friendly face. At the moment that face was stony, fighting to keep his emotions under control. In his one wide, visible eye there was a question. Only then did Primrose realize how her report would have sounded to him.

"Oh Therion," she breathed, and beckoned him over. She prepared the Warmth spell, gently touching her hand to his shoulder to heal him. She had no idea how he would react when she explained; relieved that their friends weren't trapped here, or disappointed that they were yet to be reunited?

"It's none of them," she said, cutting off his voice and answering before he could ask. "It's... someone from my past. Before I met you."

Therion blinked, processing. Then he relaxed, letting the Warmth wash over him. He felt a mix of both relief and disappointment, truth be told. So the person Primrose found wasn't any of their fellow travelers.

"...okay,", he said, going quiet as he sorted out his thoughts. It took another few moments, but eventually Therion spoke again. "And you're sure? That they're real."

"No," Primrose answered honestly. "I couldn't see her, only hear her voice. But... it was her voice."

Primrose didn't often speak about her past, so Therion had no idea who it was that his friend was hearing. But from the way she spoke, it sounded like someone she cared about, not one of her targets. That only made the thief more suspicious. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, his eyebrows drawn together.

"But it can't actually be her. Right? Maybe it's some kind of mimic or-"

Primrose shook her head. "No. I would know Yusufa's voice."

"...alright, then it's some other kind of trick. A spell or something. You think so too, right?"

The dancer pursed her lips. Of course she considered the possibility that the "Yusufa" in the cell was a trap or trick. Therion didn't even have to bring up Minette - they both knew it was improbable.

"...even so, it doesn't stop me from wanting to open the cell door and see for myself."

Can't argue with that, Therion thought. Though to be fair if he ran into someone from his past before traveling with the other seven, he would much rather leave them behind bars. "Then let's see what we can do."

The two of them got moving, catching each other up in hushed whispers. Therion told Primrose about the "giant scholar" that Artorias had rescued and the mad prisoner they'd accidentally freed. Primrose told Therion about how dangerous the illuminators were, and what had happened after she found Yusufa's cell. She didn't go into much extra detail about the mystery women, mentioning only that she was a fellow dancer. He didn't ask for more.

Though their path was mostly clear, they nearly ran into trouble when a couple of illuminators appeared from the far end of the level, doing their patrol together. They were right where Primrose and Therion wanted to go, so it was either fight or retreat... or -

"Here," Therion whispered, ducking down a hall that was tucked nearly out of sight from the main walk way. The dancer swiftly followed, and the two of them crept down the new path. They could just barely see the lamp lights passing the hallway's entrance as both jailers walked on by.

The travelers gave it a little more time to make sure the coast was clear. While they waited, with nothing else to look at besides the space they were in, it became clear to them that this hall was in worse shape than the rest of the prison. The stone work of Mercy Dreams was far from pristine, but it wasn't like this - chipped, crumbling bricks, mortar so worn down that the stone was uneven and every step was a tripping hazard... it was an old, unused section, if Primrose had to guess.

"Looks like there's a room at the end," Therion said, nodding to the far side of the hallway they were in. "Let's check it out while we're here."

Deeper in, there was indeed an area where the hall opened up. There was no door to speak of, just a threshold that lead to a dark, rectangular room. Closer to the far wall was a standing candelabra on raised portion of the ground. It was the only light in the room, casting flickering shadows against the columns, and the figure, next to it.

"A person...?" Primrose wondered. The travelers had stopped at the doorway to peer in first. Besides the candles' flames, there was no sign of movement within. The person beside the candelabra was slumped over in a chair, some contraption around his head. He was just as still as the rest of the room. He must have been a prisoner, at some point.

Primrose took the first step inside. Nothing jumped out at her from the darkness. Judging from the way her footsteps hardly echoed, Therion guessed the room wasn't all that large. He caught up to Primrose and they approached the figure in the chair.

"Dead," Therion said. That much they could tell from this close. Dead, but not a pile of ash. Still not really sure how that works. He eyed the cage around the man's head, unsettled the same way he'd been seeing Osvald's muzzle. This at least had a space large enough in the front for eating. It didn't seem to serve a purpose other than punishment, to unbalance the wearer and force them to carry the heavy iron on their shoulders.

Poor guy, Therion thought. Then he reached forward to rifle through the man's pockets.

"Therion," Primrose intoned.

"What? Is this any different than killing someone and magically making their spirit into an item?" he responded. She didn't have a retort, and so left him to it while she inspected the columns. He turned back to the corpse. He wasn't normally a grave robber, if this even counted, but the situation was far from normal. The guy might have something important on him.

The first thing Therion spotted was a wooden figure clutched in the man's hand. Humanoid, with a horse's head and legs. He wiggled it out of the man's grasp, noting that it looked handmade before storing it away. When he actually touched the body, brushing against it when he reached into the scholarly clothes' pockets, a vision struck Therion.

It wasn't an out of body experience, more like a waking dream dropped right inside of his brain. He saw an alien looking landscape, twisted and strange. Chunks carved out of the earth, and unnatural features like piles of petrified blisters in place of trees. Much worse were the inhabitants of the place - gangling, pallid monstrosities with tentacles, wolf men with visible parasites whose jaws tore their faces when they opened vertically, women pierced through by harpoons, ghostly and wailing, and many legged insectoids with human faces. It was a glimpse into some bizarre, nightmarish other world - and then it was gone.

He jerked away from the corpse so hard that he knocked the candelabra over. It clattered to the ground, snuffing a few candles and leaving the room in almost pitch black darkness.

What the hell? How many times is this gonna happen? Therion thought, the fur of his tail fluffed up in fright.

"What happened?"

"Some kind of... I don't know. Hallucination." He shook his head, getting his heart rate back under control fairly quickly. "Have I mentioned I hate all this underground stuff?"

"Not in the last five minutes, so I suppose you were overdue. Here, let me make some light."

Primrose snapped her fingers, sending a puff of flames up at the lanterns she'd spotted and lighting them. The result was a much better illuminated area, but when given their first real look at the room, both travelers recoiled.

Stacked up in ascending rows along three walls were many, many more corpses like the one next to them. All of them were strapped into chairs with the same iron cage locked over their heads. Compared to the first body, these were in much worse shape - desiccated, some rotted to nearly bone, stripped of all clothes but ratty pants. They were so old that the stench of death had faded and been replaced by must, and because of that the two Seekers had no idea they were surrounded by such a macabre display until now.

They were rendered speechless and tense, but several minutes went by and nothing happened. The corpses didn't reanimate, no ghosts appeared, and no hidden enemies jumped out. They were truly in a section of the prison left long abandoned, these prisoners abandoned with it.

"What on earth..." Primrose dared to get a little closer to the wall of bodies. Was this a dumping ground, or some kind of archaic group cell? The corpses appeared almost entirely uniform in appearance, save for some colorful bits of paper stuck to various cages.

"'Ritual'... 'Phase Shift'... 'Insomnia'... 'Summon... Tulpa?'" She read the words on the stickers aloud. The script was a deep purple-blue in color, though that wasn't the case for all of the words. There were even more in a blank light gray color: 'Self-assured', 'Shear Luck', 'Sleep Talk', and 'Sleep Walk.'

There were a few stickers scattered on the floor as well, one of which Therion knelt to pick up. He turned it over in his hand, finding it blank on one side. The other, in a metallic reddish gray color, read, "...'Fair Fight.'"

"I can't imagine these are causes of death," Primrose said. She backed away from the wall, and the corpse on the raised ground area. "And I don't think I want to know what this room's purpose was anyway."

Therion agreed. For all he knew this could be some kind of fucked up experimentation chamber and they were lucky that it was no longer in use. The two of them quickly scanned the room, but found nothing else of note, least of all silver keys, mask fragments, or mystical dream weaponry.

As they retreated from the room and back into the main area of the level, Kamek's voice buzzed in their ear. This time Therion checked in, giving the traveler's own status report.

"I'm on the fourth level with Primrose. We found a hidden room, but the only thing inside was a nightmare." He and Primrose came out of the hallway after making sure no jailers were in immediate sight. Primrose led the way from there, keeping an eye out for the mechanism that would open the first gate in the stairwell leading down. "Going deeper now."

Denied the vengeance that had been her sole obsession during the last twenty years, Jena had given in to desperation. Even if it meant becoming something that could never be allowed to live in the better world she hoped to create through her actions, she was willing to seize every last drop of power in order to see her mission through. Yet now, with Consul Y spooked by the others and provoked into taking action, he’d made the executive decision to flee. The sudden departure of its target left Jena Apotheosis little more than an unchained beast, mindless and directionless. Sandalphon doubted that the chimeric monstrosity possessed the mental faculties to understand her proclamation. In a way the fallen angel was pitiable, robbed of whatever sliver of pride or dignity might have remained now that Jena had thrown away the one thing she hadn’t already sacrificed during her long campaign: her humanity. Now all that remained was a hollow Still, however pitiable this creature might be, it possessed such incredible strength that the Seekers had no choice but to put it down.

Once they steeled themselves for one final climactic battle, the Seekers sprang into action, and none more so than Sandalphon herself. After all, as Heavenly Wings she was on the clock. While Sandalphon took stock of the incredible situation at a glance, she heard Blazermate announce that she’d built up kritz for whoever wanted them, and without hesitation she decided to take the medabot up on that offer. “No time to waste,” she announced, reaching out and grabbing the metal medic around her narrow middle. She tucked Blazermate under her arm like a big blue football, then flapped her wings to jump up from the slab with the others to a smaller chunk of building floating overhead, where she crouched down with muscles tensed. “Let’s put our best foot forward.”

Sandalphon sprang forward as if fired from a cannon, jumping with such strength that the chunk she’d left behind flew backward, spinning wildly. Her huge body hurtled through the air, taking wing at high speeds to close in on Jena Apotheosis as fast as possible. The fallen angel had already begun to attack after all. With a wave of one disjointed hand it flung a handful of huge fireballs into the air to blaze through the night sky in an arc and fall like meteors on the Seekers’ starting position. With its other arm Apotheosis conjured a spray of gigantic icicle flechettes that threatened to skewer anyone unfortunate enough to be hit. Zenkichi, Goldlewis, Geralt, and Karin all scattered to start their approach. The monster’s elemental onslaughts flew a lot faster -and did a lot more damage- than Susie’s missiles; both she and Roland quickly found that there was no such thing as a safe distance in this fight as they got punished for standing still.

Of course, the melee fighters making their way toward Apotheosis didn’t get it any easier. They needed to make their way across a series of floating, irregularly-shaped platforms separated by death drops on all sides, all the while hounded by protolegions. Sandalphon’s plan was to make sure the fallen angel couldn’t blindside her teammates with miniature natural disasters while they closed the distance and chewed through the protolegions. “I will cover your advance,” she told them succinctly. Sure enough, Apotheosis had already noticed Heavenly Wings speeding its way, a bright star of divine gold piercing the chimeric aurora staining the night purple. It turned its full attention on her, unleashing a torrent of ice lances to impale the archangel midair. Flying headfirst, Sandalphon swerved left and right, inverted herself, and even performed a barrel roll to avoid the projectiles, and after just a couple seconds she’d nearly crossed the airborne battlefield. As the ice stream tapered off, Apotheosis brought up its left hand blazing with fire. Sandalphon let go of Blazermate, forcing her to take flight for herself, then conjured a digital screen in front of herself and began to type. A wall of divine golden energy appeared in front of her just in time to intercept a scatterblast of giant fireballs, and once they’d all detonated, the archangel immediately slammed her palm on her screen to launch the wall forward and strike her target head-on, staggering her for just a moment.

“Administer kritz now.” She pumped her wings and flew forward, empowered by Blazermate’s kritz. Swooping in, she delivered an almighty flash kick to the imprisoned torso’s head, bending the monster’s neck backward. Apotheosis howled, bringing both arms together for a gigantic clap, but Sandalphon managed to beat her wings and fly upward in the nick of time. “Optimal range confirmed.” Once floating overhead, she cast Celestial Castling, creating an array of screens around her that she tapped as fast as possible. With each impact, a divine star above her grew bigger and bigger, until with a final screen slam it burst in a shower of seven celestial rays. On contact with Apotheosis, their searing cold radiance both scoured its flesh and inflicted Frostbite and Flashburn to deal extra damage over time.

It reeled, and Sandalphon nodded her approval, hoping that her strategy would give the others the chance they needed to get close. For her part, however, her time was up. In a burst of light the archangel turned back into her human form, grabbing her halo the moment it appeared to avoid entering freefall. That left her in the precarious position of floating directly above Apotheosis with negligible defense and health, little more than a fly waiting to be swatted by the fallen angel’s hands. Or at least, it would have if not for a specific perk of being the Angel of Information. Sandalphon warped all the way back to Roland and Susie in a blink, where she brought out her staff and healed them without missing a beat with a fresh charge of Angelic Praise. “Your efficiency at this range is suboptimal,” she told them. “I recommend getting closer.” Then she used a combination of Vault to get up to a floating slab where she could comfortably survey the battlefield and provide aid. “Overwatch established,” she informed everyone. “Fire support online.”

That was music to Goldlewis’ ears. Like the others he’d run and jumped into the action without delay, knowing that the chimera’s elemental downpour could rain down on him at any moment if he lingered too long. With Sandalphon and Blazermate taking point though, he, Zenkichi, and Geralt could take on the protolegion squads standing in their way, while Karin grappled around. It didn’t matter if these artificial chimeras came at them with claws, blades, fists, or bows–by now, the three men had their number. Strengthened by the adrenaline that coursed through his veins, Goldlewis splintered the fist protolegion’s oversized mitts with mighty Behemoth Typhoons, then pulverized its noggin with a triple headbutt. When more joined the fray farther on, Geralt helped even the odds, and Goldlewis happily took advantage of a bow protolegion staggered by a bomber to shove it off the platform with a shoulder barge. Once the trio bulldozed the protolegions, it wasn’t much further until they reached the slab closest to Apotheosis itself, bathed in the holy light of Sandalphon’s Celestial Castling. After another moment everyone was finally where they needed to be, and the fight was well and truly on.

Apotheosis brought its huge hands down on the platform again and again, trying to squash the bugs that dared to bite at its massive silver body. Not agile enough to evade the blows, Goldlewis resorted to blocking them, and though they demanded enough Faultless Defense to chew through his tension, he managed to stand tall and stay close. Each battering barrage took enough out of Apotheosis that the offending arm ended up resting on the slab for up to six seconds at a time, giving everyone the chance to dig in as long as they stayed on their toes. While Goldlewis couldn’t juggle the arms, he could still combo them, and with Sandalphon taking potshots from afar at the imprisoned torso everyone got a decent chance to deal damage whenever the monster eased up for a moment. Apotheosis wasn’t about to take this lying down, though. It spread both arms to either side of the platform, then brought them together in another massive clap of fire and ice. Where blue and red met, purple lightning erupted, so while Goldlewis double jumped to dodge the initial blow, the detonation a brief moment later caught him and knocked him down.

As the veteran rolled to his feet, he saw the fallen angel preparing another assault. It grabbed hold of the slab with one hand on either side, holding it like a massive pan, then brought the imprisoned torso close. Part of him wanted to run up and start pummeling, but common sense prevailed. Why would the monster expose itself to attack, after all? One second later, he got his answer as the torso opened up to unleash a flood of purple projectiles. On contact they called down purple lightning, bathing the slab in a deluge of electricity. Goldlewis hung back where the shots would be most spread out and blocked, taking the chip damage while Apotheosis floated away again. Roaring, the chimera lifted up its right arm and brought it down in a withering punch, strong enough to smash through the ground let alone anyone standing there. This was a chance to hit it at least, and Goldlewis didn’t plan to let it pass him by. He brought out Skyfish and peppered the huge arm with bullets. “Get a load o’ this!” His fusillade just as Apotheosis withdrew its limb, leaving a hole in the slab that an unwary Seeker could fall through.

“Watch your footing,” Sandalphon advised everyone. “Look before you dodge to avoid falling through. And Angelic Praise is charged again, so call me if you need me.”

Goldlewis made a mental note of the hole, but his eyes were on the fallen angel as it made its next move. It lifted its left hand over the slab as its blazed with flame, then swept across to immolate the entire front half of the battlefield. He backdashed out of danger, then watched as the fire in the chimera’s palm reached a fever pitch. It brought its hand down on the right side of the slab, creating a web of fiery cracks on impact. The veteran’s eyebrows went up, and he scrambled to run away. “Go, go-!” Not fast enough, he took the ensuing explosion in the back, throwing him to the ground face-first to the concrete.

“Ugh!” Goldlewis groaned, hoping the others fared better. “Consarn it all…” He picked himself up, prepared to call in Sandalphon for a heal, but what he saw next made him hesitate. Apotheosis brought its hands together in front of its torso, its palms facing one another, and began to collect energy between them. A vivid pink nova welled up at a terrifying pace, and every nerve in his body screamed for him to get the hell out of there. But where could he go? Gritting his teeth, he brought out Skyfish again, trained it on the epicenter, and held down the trigger. But with his Security Level only partially refilled since last time, he didn’t have enough bullets to do the job. “Aw, hell-”

Apotheosis blasted out a gigantic purple energy beam, obliterating the slab everyone was standing on and sending them flying in different directions. Caught up in the reduced gravity, Goldlewis tumbled through the air until he started to fall faster again, at which point he and his coffin fell onto a small floating chunk. The veteran landed painfully on his back and bounced off into the open air. “DAMN IIIIIIIIT!” Right on cue, the lid of his coffin flew open and the long arm of his UMA reached out to snatch him by the wrist. It yanked him back to safety, and he landed with a roll, breathing heavily as he looked around.

Everyone who didn’t get off the main slab in time got hurled away like he did. While both of the fallen angel’s arms sported red cracks thanks to the team’s efforts, it still had plenty of fight left in it. Luckily there were plenty more platforms floating around, even more than before it seemed. Goldlewis realized that the Seekers weren’t the only ones caught up in this mess. Blue-coated, body-armored Neuron officers could be seen fighting Reunion members in their masks, hoods, and dark, dull overcoats, so embroiled in their own conflict that they barely seemed to have noticed that they’d been caught up in the chimera’s gravitational anomaly. There was even a third faction in the midst, its soldiers clad in militaristic dark gray and wielding rifles or polearms, probably a local Veles security force. The sight of it all prompted Goldlewis to let out a gasping, humorless laugh of astonishment. If that didn’t perfectly encapsulate the tragedy of the World of Light, nothing would. Is Midgar really that hopeless?

Sandalphon’s voice then reached him, as if in response. “Alert, bogey approaching from the Shinra Building.” The archangel paused briefly, consulting her databank via a holographic screen with incredible speed. “It’s Peace Preservation’s AH12:HC Helicopter, designation ‘Alpha’.”

Goldlewis looked toward the omnipresent Shinra Building, and his mouth went dry. “What…in…tarnation!?” Technically speaking, sure, it was a helicopter. But that word didn’t do this ironclad death machine justice. If its cockpit was the size of a normal chopper’s, then Alpha was as long as nine choppers laid end to end, and was five or six stories tall, at least. It featured two side-mounted ball turrets with four cannons apiece, and a gigantic pair of underslung quad missile launchers. As stupid huge as its twin rotors were, it just didn’t seem plausible that they were enough to keep this monstrosity airborne. Inside the cockpit, standing on either side of the pilot’s enormous control setup, were Consul Y and a blonde man in a white trench coat.

“Did you fools think I was finished here?” The Consul’s voice resounded, projected by external loudspeakers.

Sandalphon narrowed her eyes. “It’s Shinra. Rufus Shinra, the president’s son. It seems that the leader of General Affairs has come to deal with Jena personally.” As she and the others watched, Alpha’s ball turrets opened fire, hammering Apotheosis in the back with a fusillade of huge explosive slugs. Screaming, the monster turned and held up its palm to fire a purple laser at its attacker. The helicopter stopped shooting and fired its lateral thrusters to boost sideways and evade the blast, which flew off into the night sky. “Our intercession is no longer necessary to ensure Jena’s demise. I recommend a full retreat.”

“I hear ya,” Goldlewis replied, finding his voice after a handful of missiles destroyed one of the chimera’s arms. “But where the hell do we go!?”

He was surprised to hear who spoke next. “Down here!” A bright green electric flash from Rei allowed him to spot Giovanna on a much lower floating slab, near what remained of the Neuron helipad. “There’s still a police chopper down here. Penance is getting it spooled up. Get down here in one piece and we can all get the hell out of dodge!”

Goldlewis took a deep breath, looking back toward the fight between Apotheosis and Alpha, far too close for comfort. A phrase came to mind, and though he couldn’t remember who said it before, it felt truer now than it had ever been. “They deserve one another,” he grumbled. Then he hoisted his coffin up and mustered all the energy he had left for one final gauntlet in order to make his escape.



Now that the infiltration team had reached Arahabaki, the hard part was over, at least for today. Knowing -or at least really hoping- that no more troubles lay between him and a good night’s rest, Luka allowed himself a couple long, deep breaths for the first time in a while. It had been nonstop stress since he and the other psionics met the Seekers at Beacon Mental Hospital, whether in the form of action or just severe tension. Compared to sneaking around that horrible ghost in the haunted cafeteria, and seeing Yuito’s soul sucked out of his body, the security guards around the Shinra Building were nothing. Still, Luka was glad to have it all behind him. All he and the others needed to do was wait quietly for Midna to set up the all-important portal so that they could get out, and so that tomorrow everyone could get in.

Of course, not everyone got the memo about the ‘quietly’ part.

In a fit of happy-go-lucky playfulness, Sakura tested to see if her voice would echo in this vast open space. Sure enough, it did, and it also got the attention of the automated security system. Luckily, the team didn’t need to stick around and see what happened next. As discreetly as they could, everyone made a beeline for Midna’s portal so that the Twilight Princess could help them through her dark dimension. In the moments before he left, Luka took one more good look at the otherworldly area, his expression almost wistful. If the collective hypothesis was correct, Karen was probably still somewhere deep within this place. Just what did he have planned for Arahabaki…for Midgar? Unfortunately, his days of knowing what his older brother was thinking were long behind him. “Karen…what’s going on?”

Tomorrow morning, maybe, he’d get his answer.

After a little interdimensional travel, Luka and the others left the overwarm, uncomfortably tingly atmosphere of Arahabaki behind, exchanged for the stoic, mundane silence of an unfamiliar business office. Like any workplace, the S.O.U. headquarters possessed a certain liminal quality when entered at night, long after its intended hours of operation had ended and the employees all went home, leaving the office quiet, somber, and still. For his part, Luka was incredibly relieved to be somewhere safe and peaceful at last. For a moment he was still a little tense, as if half-expecting this to be some sort of ruse that ended in an ambush, but when he went to the window and peered through the shutters to see the monolithic Shinra Building comfortably far away, he allowed himself to relax at last.

“Haaaaah…” he breathed, setting down his hammer. “Seeing as this is your base, I almost feel like an intruder. I am, after all, simply a random soldier. One face plucked out of the crowd and into the limelight. Just like in those tunnels, I’ve stumbled into something much bigger than myself once again. How small my world must have been, just the day before yesterday.” He looked over at the others, a grateful smile on his face. “While unfortunate circumstances brought us together, I count myself fortunate to have met and fought alongside you all. Thank you for having me.”

Midna reported no activity from her allies, so for the moment it looked like the four would be left to their home devices. Though never intended as a residence, the office still bore traces of the accommodations made for the Seekers on their first night in Midgar. While Midna tidied up, Luka lightened his own load. He removed his jacket, tie, and collared shirt, all of which turned out to be weighed clothing if anyone paid them any attention. Despite the fatigue he’d accumulated throughout the day, shedding that weight made Luka feel as light as a feather. Clad in a simple t-shirt and shorts, he sat until Midna reappeared to ask if everyone wanted a break. She mentioned going up to a mountain, presumably using another portal, and not just any mountain either. “Split Mountain?” Luka said aloud, his eyebrows raised. That was, of course, the distant impossibility he’d dreamed of visiting someday, should his duties in Midgar ever actually come to an end. And now of all times, his dream could become a reality, just like that? After all the impossible things that had happened today…sure, why not? After Sakura agreed, he did too, his excitement evident both on his face and in his gentle voice. “I’d love to!”

And so it was. One portal later, Luka stood atop a mountain of unimaginable size, his mouth ajar as he silently took in the most breathtaking view of his life. He could see for what must be hundreds of miles, from the range of lesser mountains bordering the Valley of Ruin to the west all across the trackless desert to the illimitable eastern sea. Scattered across the desert were the pinprick lights of countless tiny settlements, as well as a couple much larger cities, including the cream of the eastern sands Al Mamoon. New hanging rails were under construction by FeeCo, each section practically a metal suspension bridge in order to hold up the behemoths that were the enterprising company’s monstrous engines, but to Luka they might as well be ants marching across the ants in single file. He could see pyramids, oases, rocky foothills, canyons that must have been a gorgeously vivid red in the sunlight, and farther up the mountain, coniferous trees and snowy reaches. Strange that the temperature up here was so pleasant, when he could see what must be bitterly cold snowfields and crags beneath him. There was plenty of life up here to enjoy it too, between the reptiles, penguins, and animate balloons. Nothing astounded him more than the serpentine colossus Phalanx, of course–save for the revelation that at some point, the Seekers had made it their friend.

For a while Luka just absorbed it all, marveling at the breadth and wonders of the world beyond the Dystopiascape’s borders. When Midna prompted him to look, he realized he couldn’t even see Midgar across the western border range despite the myriad lights of the industrial metropolis, thanks to the thick cloud cover. He was glad that the skies over the desert were clear tonight. When Midna and Sakura turned their eyes towards space, he turned his toward the mountain’s peak, amazed that he and the others weren’t even that close to the summit despite their staggering altitude. He stared into the brilliant, almost heavenly light shining from that great cleft as it loomed over the ring of mountaintops that once completely enclosed Jondo, the inverted bell whose final clang even he heard the week prior. He opened his mouth to ask the others what was up there, seeing as they’d been here before and all, but after a moment he closed his mouth again. Somehow, the answer seemed too important to be handed out willy-nilly like this, even if the others knew. If he wanted to know, Luka figured he’d need to make the journey himself.

For a while longer Luka remained quiet, drinking in the peaceful majesty of the night.



As her breathing finally evened out and her pulse slowed back down from her brief but terrifying run-in with the white tiger, Nadia made her way back toward the open area of Mercy Dreams, where she laid hands on and peered over the first wrought-iron railing she could find. She half-expected to look down and see the creepy prison complex overrun with a rabid throng of those awful little chop goblins, but to her surprise she found the new threat already under control. Of course, she knew she shouldn’t be surprised that Jesse handled a dangerous and anomalous object like the goblin-generating chest with professional speed and efficiency, not to mention brutality. Nadia watched the accursed trove slowly float up toward the first layer’s ceiling thanks to its attached balloons, spitting out two goblins a second to plummet, wailing, all the way down to Mercy Dreams’ fifth layer and a near-instant demise. Some hit the large central walkway, creating a mess that Nadia consciously averted her gaze from, while others plopped straight into the alarmingly bright green acid pools that hissed and sputtered to either side. A couple even hit the hulking, misshapen monstrosities that patrolled that bottommost layer, which did not go any better for them, to say the least.

“AaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaa_aaaaaaaa...” Sploosh.

“EeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeee_eeeeeeee...” Splat.

“WhaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaa_aaaaaaaa...” Plop.

Nadia took a deep breath to steady herself. The little freaks’ howls didn’t exactly make for pleasant ambiance, so the sooner she managed to tune it out, the better. Without the luxury of time, Jesse -pragmatic as ever- had made the smart choice, but that didn’t mean she had to like it. Well, that was one problem solved, at least. Over on the other side of the second layer, Sectonia was mopping up the last few stragglers still running rampant around the room the chained chest came from. “Good thing I didn’t open that stupid thing,” the feral muttered. Once the big bug finished she made her way over to the other unusual-looking room on the second layer, followed by her retinue of antlions and disappeared inside. The flashy new white elements and pink crystals on Sectonia’s attire did not escape her notice. Did she already fuse with something, too? Nadia smirked. “She is a gem.”

For another few moments she kept an eye out, her tails flicking idly as she searched Mercy Dreams for any sign of her other allies. It looked like the Bowser Bunch went into the same doorway that Ganondorf and Jesse exited from, curious about how they’d managed to rejoin the team maybe. Predictably, she could already hear a serious ruckus coming from inside. If they needed help they could use the linkpearls, but Nadia assumed they’d be fine. That kind of assurance was just one perk of rolling in a permanent four-person squad, complete with healers. Now that she thought about it, Nadia figured she could probably learn from their example and quit exploring this dangerous, unknown place all on her own. Not with Ganondorf though, since she could see the warlord going off by himself as if he knew where he were going, interspersed with intermittent pauses as if to zero in on something only he could hear. Nadia’s brows went up as she wondered whether or not the Dorf might have someone the same way she had Minette. Nah, she decided after a moment. I’ll be dead and buried before that guy makes a friend.

That was all she could gather for now, as Nadia could find neither hide nor hair of anyone else. The bottom line was that nobody had delved all the way down to the depths of Mercy Dreams yet, which as the most tightly-guarded and hard-to-escape spot in the prison was also the most likely spot for its most dangerous captive to lay in wait. If that was the case, it might as well be Ms. Fortune who blazed the trail. Nadia pushed off the railing and retraced her steps, jogging quickly through the second layer. She adjusted quickly to the feeling of her hair’s weight behind her, as well as her new jacket. This getup was a little more restrictive than she was used to, but having secondary movement on her person as she traveled offered its own benefits. She recovered and holstered her bait launcher, then descended to the third layer, where she perked up her ears. No shuffling or gurgling meant that the others might have cleared out all the mind flayers, which suited her just fine.

As Nadia made her way through the third layer, trotting along at a brisk pace in search of the staircase down to the fourth, she stumbled on another irregular door set halfway down one of the hallways. It appeared to be wood rather than metal, and its hinges whined when she gently pushed it open. After hesitating for a moment, Nadia resolved to turn tails the minute she spotted anything spooky, and forged onward. The boarded floor of the dark hallway beyond creaked beneath her careful footsteps as she made her way toward a dim green light. She climbed up a small set of stairs and found herself in what looked like the interior of a log cabin, lit only by glowing inscriptions in a language she didn’t know, written vertically in spiky, curved characters that looked a little like antlers. In the center of the room lay an octagonal shape covered in symbols, with four pedestals atop it in the cardinal directions, all topped by dull green orbs. On the other side was an empty doorway into a small, dark room.

Her keen ears picked up the faint sound of flowing water coming from below, and she hesitated to step on the platform. Instead she went around it toward the podium northwest of the platform, which featured some sort of wheel. Eyes narrowed, she climbed up onto and crouched atop the podium, then put her hands on the wheel. When she turned it, some sort of mechanism disengaged and the central platform dropped suddenly, splashing down onto a murky black waterway before speeding out of sight, a raft on a subterranean river. Nadia blinked, confused. Was this some sort of emergency escape route? Either way, avoiding the trap made her pretty pleased with herself, and with a little extra pep in her step she made her way into the next room.

This one was mostly metal, cylindrical in shape. In it stood a central tower with two paddles jutting out at odd angles, each with a dark green button like the ones on the pedestals. Nadia saw a door on the other end of the room, but three irregular metal rings blocked it, one of them only partially. She tried pushing on one paddle, then the other, then in both directions, but none would budge. The door lacked a handle, and try as she might, the feral couldn’t see anything else in this little chamber to work with. “Ugh, must be missing something,” she groaned, reaching for her belt. “Gotta have some kind of light in here, right?” Her utility belt contained various weapons, the Ripened Heart, and even that magic jug of lemonade, which she gulped down for a little refreshment. “Kinda wish I kept that weird light right about now.” Only when she rummaged through her loot did she find something that glowed: the lumenite crystal she’d obtained from the Temple Guardian back in the hive.

She held it up, and instantly the green buttons on the totem’s paddles lit up in response. When the paddles turned, the lock rings in the room did too, sliding around Nadia with a smooth grinding sound. “Whuh? Oh, wait…it’s light!” Though alarmed for a moment, Nadia realized what was going on just a split second after the rings parted around the far door. It slid open and then closed again on its own, forcing Nadia to shine the crystal on one paddle or the other until they lined back up to open the door. She also noticed that the door she’d come in through had closed, probably the moment she’d first moved the rings out of alignment. “Hopefully there’s nothing in here I gotta run from…hehe…”

Feeling pretty smart but not that much more confident, Nadia stepped into the next room. It was a rounded wooden gallery of some kind, with three framed archways exhibiting fine paintings. All three depicted a lush green marsh with peaceful waters arranged before a background of night sky and distant mountains, but each artwork also had an eerie subject: an inhuman figure in loose, rustic attire, with long limbs and rounded heads that were featureless but for long antlers and glowing eyes. “Creepy,” Nadia murmured, glad for the gallery’s plentiful light. In addition to the overhead fixture, each recess had a green lantern or two. “Finally!” Nadia smiled. “No more bumbling around in the dark. I bet everyone’s gonna be thrilled.” She grabbed the lanterns two at a time, affixing them to her belt. It was a bit cumbersome, but they would stick around for long. She turned to go, only to stop as another grinding sound made her perk up her ear. When she turned to look, she saw the rightmost painting moving, sliding backward until it revealed a secret passage. “...Okay!” she said brightly, a big smile on her face. “Well, I’m kind of on a roll. What could possibly go wrong?”

Nadia stepped through the archway and found herself at the top of a narrow staircase that curved to the left, which she creaked down one step at a time. She could hear the crackle of a fire down there and see the green light it cast. When she rounded the corner at the base of the stairs, however, she gasped, a chill running down her spine that made her skin crawl and the hairs on her neck stand on end. It was another round room, with a green fire in its center just as she expected, except around it stood at least a dozen raised tables with nightmarish skeletons bound to their surfaces. Their withered green bones had digitigrade legs with two toes apiece, well-preserved antlers, and ghastly, fleshless faces. All had their dead fingers curved around some sort of metal artifact facing the fire in the center, in which similar licks of green flame blazed. If the upstairs room had been a gallery of art, this one was a gallery of corpses.

“The hell is this?” Nadia whispered, quiet enough that she didn’t disturb the dead. “A hidden jail?” Regardless, she didn’t plan to stick around and find out. There were neither riches nor mask fragments here, just a small piece of lumber on the ground by the fire. At first she thought it was firewood, but on second glance it looked like some kind of statue, so with her eyes on the cadavers she gingerly picked it up. Nothing sprang out at her, so she took a good look. It was a carving of a man with the head and hooves of a horse, holding something in his hands. A tablet, maybe? The statuette had an uncanny sense of purpose to her, and after thinking for a moment Nadia stuffed it into a belt pouch.

Then she beat it, hurrying back the way she came with her new lanterns. It took a little doing with all the extra light, but she made her way back through the lock room, past the hole in the ground, and back out into Mercy Dreams proper. There she took a deep breath, trying to put those nightmarish faces out of mind. “Uh, Ms. Fortune here,” she said, tapping her linkpearl. “I found five lanterns, so if you want a light, gimme a ring! Gotta do a good ‘tern daily, after all~”

Kamek delivered his own report a moment later, which confirmed that neither of the hidden rooms on the third layer contained anything useful. Well, anything obviously useful, at least. Tentacles, centipedes, and poison, huh? I’ll pass. “I’ll take ten tickles if you have any of those. I could use a good laugh, nyeheh.” Idly Nadia wondered if her voice sounded any different after that fusion. She couldn’t really tell.

Therion’s voice issued from the linkpearl next, and Nadia was glad to hear it. She hadn’t seen her fellow thief since everyone arrived in Mercy Dreams, but then again, he was probably the better burglar between the two of them. He said that he and Primrose had reached the fourth level, where they found something awful. Sounds like what I found, she thought grimly. ‘Nightmare’ really described this whole place, between its latent horror and its surreal atmosphere. Nadia thought about the tiger woman in her cell, entranced by visions of some other place. A dream, maybe? Well, it didn’t matter. If the others had reached the fourth floor, she knew she needed to get a move on.

She hustled the rest of the way across the third layer and down the stairs to the fourth. Near the bottom, she slowed up again, her ears picking up unfamiliar noises. Metal creaking, sharp footsteps, and a tittering laughter as if through a snotty woman’s nose. More than one source, it sounded like. Suddenly Nadia remembered that paper butterfly she’d unraveled before, the one describing the masked Irithyll Jailer. She hurriedly set down her lanterns, then brought out and reread the paper, internalizing the listed weaknesses. Pierce, electric… She drew Athame from her belt. Can do.

Right on time, she heard one of the illuminators approaching. An idea in mind, she took a deep breath, crouched down, and put on a smile with her dagger in hand. “I’ll take a stab at it.” After a moment she sprang from her hiding place and faced the robed jailer, a red-hot branding iron in one hand and a lantern upheld in the other. At that exact moment, the lantern began to pulse blood red, and a horrible sensation shot through Nadia’s veins, as if that horrible light was burning away her very essence. It wasn’t painful, necessarily, but it was awful. By that time, though, the feral was already in motion. She sprinted forward, then used Charge, transforming into a tiger of yellow lightning that struck the illuminator like a bolt from the blue. The electricity coalesced behind it, and Nadia turned to use Battery by driving Athame into the monster’s back with vicious strength, once, twice, each piercing blow a critical hit thanks to the Charge used beforehand. Its body went limp, the lantern falling from its grasp to shatter on the floor, but Nadia couldn’t celebrate just yet.

Another lantern flared up about a hundred feet farther down the hallway, a cruel crucible that melted away the feral’s very being. She turned, her teeth gritted, and saw just how far the offending illuminator was away from her. With a snarl she kicked the first one off her blade and flipped the dagger in her hand. “Fine, you’re necks in line.” Nadia took off like a bullet, sprinting as fast as she could. The sound of her own heartbeat pulsed in her ears. As she ran, she unwittingly activated Fluffy Soft, transforming her legs into those of a white tiger’s from the thigh down. Even as the lantern’s baleful glare whittled down her max health, the burst of speed let her close the distance. “MrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrAOW!” At the last moment, Nadia went low with Cat Slide, low-profiling the illuminator’s smoldering iron and slicing into its leg with Athame as she slipped past. It stumbled forward, its defense reduced, and Nadia sprang to her feet to finish it off. To its credit, the illuminator recovered much faster than she expected. As it ran toward her, giggling, Nadia hurled her dagger at its lantern in the hopes that destroying it would light her foe on fire, but it clanged off and the illuminator struck her with its iron.

Instantly the fiery weapon reacted with her innate hydro to cause Vaporize, knocking her down in a burst of steam. That hurt, way worse than it should have, and for a moment Nadia writhed on the ground. As the illuminator stepped forward, she pulled the Ripened Heart from her belt for a quick heal, only for the heart to have no effect whatsoever. “What the, no healing?” Nadia gave the illuminator a look of disbelief. “For me, that’s so not on-brand!”

Her enemy lunged, trying to stamp Nadia with its iron again. She rolled out of the way and jumped to her feet, cracking her head and rolling her shoulders. The lantern still shone, but she couldn’t feel anything any more. Maybe it couldn’t bring her any lower? Well, if any strike could kill her, that made sense. “So I just can’t get hit, is that all?” She grinned at the masked jailer. “No sweat.” The illuminator lunged, stabbing with its iron again and again. Nadia ducked and dodged out of the way, then pulled off her own hand and sprayed blood from the stump to splash her foe’s mask and render it blind. Then, as it flailed, she stepped back to create a Hydro Mimic in a surge of blood. From the visceral torrent appeared a Sakura Mimic that leaped forward with Shunpukyaku, striking the jailer with her twirling gale kick even as the branding iron blasted it into steam. The cost of copycats scaled down with Nadia’s health, after all, and she wouldn’t die if mimic took the hit. With the jailer off-balance, it was wide open for a lunging sword thrust from a Geralt Mimic, leaving it doubled over for an Ace Mimic to leap into the air and bring down the house with a meteoric shield plunge.

The ensuing bloody impact extinguished the lantern, and as the illuminator tried to rise, Nadia leaped forward. “Thought you had me?” Her right arm morphed into a white tiger’s, her claws like miniature swordblades gleaming with New Moon light. “Well, here’s my escape claws!” With the illuminator’s defense reduced by sixty percent, she sliced it into ribbons with a single mighty swing.

In the aftermath of the battle, Nadia gathered up her equipment and spent blood. Only when her max health began to return did she start feeling the pain, as her current health remained the same. Luckily, the brand faded as well, allowing the feral to restore herself completely with the Ripened Heart. “Ahhh…” she sighed, closer to tears than she would have liked. “Damn jailers…so Irith-ill-mannered.”

Hopefully there were no more where they came from.

"C'mon, we're almost there."

Raz knew that Lili was psychic, that she had gone through the same initiation into the Psych-OSF he did, and that she was perfectly able to access their shared Brain Talk with Yuito. Aaand that sneaking around jumpy psi-soldiers combing a locked down city district for things to shoot at was not a good time to be speaking out loud. These were all facts Raz was aware of. He was also aware, as a certified Junior Psychonaut, that the worst place for Lili to be right now was in her own head. A little tricky for psychics, but Raz was confident in his ability to irritate others, and she was very easy to irritate.

In a caring way, of course.

Raz was definitely getting in his own head about it. As the pair dipped out of sight from the frequent patrols, all that he could think on was the big mystery hanging over them: the seeming murder and actual disappearance of Grand Head Truman Zanotto.

Their investigation in the Otherlobe, lost somewhere behind them in the tall skyscrapers of Suoh, hadn't really answered a lot of questions. All it did was give further evidence to the recently murdered Truman-y wasn't Truman at all; his office full of things that according to Lili her father would never touch, a lack of care for the plants (a pretty hard point for her), and the small fridge that had been tucked under the desk stocked with tons and tons of caviar. All which pointed to the imposter having been there for a while, and planning to be there for much longer.

Raz was thankful for his mental defenses, since it pulled double duty tonight, protecting him from the roving mental feelers of Psych-OSF squadrons and preventing Lili from catching stray thoughts. Because the way Raz saw it, the best case scenario was still that Truman went missing despite his high standing and important public position, with some opportunist deciding to take his place. Fake Truman being the real victim didn't mean Actual Truman wasn't still... dead... somewhere.

"It's the next left," Raz said to Lili, trying to distract himself now too.

Neither of the kids gave off any 'spooky Other monster' vibes - a totally real psychic term by the way - effectively making them rats in the alleys, almost beneath notice. All that mattered was good old-fashioned sneaking, sticking to shadows and avoiding noise. Avoiding non-talking noise at least. The occasional whisper of a direction or verbal check-in should be fine, right?

Despite some tense moments of hiding and biding for patrols to pass, the duo made it to the office building that Yuito had been guiding them to. There was a platoon loitering in the main street, so they couldn't waltz right in the front door. Raz gestured up to a fire escape. "You first?" They didn't need to go all the way up, that would've been conspicuous, they just needed to get to a window they could climb inside, and once they were there was no trouble in making the rest of the way up.

"We're back!" Raz called, maybe a bit too loudly, when they reached the hideout proper. From what they were told over Brain Speak, Yuito, Hanabi, and Roxas should still be there. Everyone else took a little impromptu vacation. Not that Raz would complain if he got one too, but they could've at least waited until the welcoming party.

---

With support from Sandalphon, along with Goldlewis and Karin joining their advance, the two Wolves found their prey. Every opportunity to take a swing at one of Jena's was carefully measured and taken advantage of when it was safe. Geralt found that Quen quickly became invaluable, while Zenkichi relied on dodging, blocking, and his vampirism to survive the barrage of slams that the overdosed monstrosity sent their way after Heavenly Wings' retreat. When the floating arms separated, moving to each end of the platform they found themselves upon, Geralt moved, with Zenkichi a moment behind him. Geralt managed to run clear of the blast radius with time to spare, but Zenkichi found himself forced to attempt to dodge at the last moment. He took a dive, his feet just barely clearing the tips of Apotheosis's fingers, but before the Phantom Thief could breathe a sigh of relief, an explosion of lightning rang out, sending him tumbling onto his rear.

"Well that coulda gone better..." He grumbled, standing up, only to see the main body of their enemy approaching, one hand on each side of the platform they were standing on.

"Don't like the look of that..." Geralt mumbled, just before Jena Apotheosis unleashed a barrage of lightning projectiles, each summoning a bolt of electricity upon making contact with their platform. Geralt found himself unable to dodge very well, instead focusing on a Quen bubble to stave off as much damage as he could, while Zenkichi danced around lightning blasts like a man 15 years younger, though the look on his face betrayed the effort it took. His Public Security training was paying off well, at least. Jena still wasn't done, taking out a huge chunk of their platform with a hammer blow from one of her fists, and the Seekers took advantage of the close proximity, Geralt, Goldlewis and Zenkichi drawing their ranged weapons and sending out a fusillade of their own at the limb.

The next attacks proved a devastating combo from the chimera. Area control in the form of flames, the explosion from the follow-up hammer blow, all powerful attacks in their own right, but a distraction for what was coming next: the gravity blast that sent everybody flying. Geralt had managed to leap from the platform, but had a harsh landing on a different platform, which was quite a ways down from where they'd been. Zenkichi, meanwhile, had been launched much like Goldlewis had, though his landing was the smoothest of the three, as he got quite a bit of horizontal distance thanks to the reduced gravity, and managed to stab his greatsword into a smaller platform and catch himself.

While Jena wasn't looking too hot, with those glaring red cracks in her monstrous floating arms, the Seekers were getting pummeled. Her size, ranged attacks, and area of effects made taking a hit inevitable, meaning that they were stuck in a lethal arms race. A look around told both Geralt and Zenkichi that they weren't the only ones in this situation, though, as Neuron troops, Reunion's own forces, and a third party that Zenkichi could only vaguely recognize waged war round them. "Oh...oh man this is really bad... Zenkichi groaned, his breaths coming in fast and heavy, while Geralt shook his head in disappointment.

Midgar, as it was, wouldn't last much longer. A lot of things were breaking, and it was hard to tell what would be left standing when the dust settled. To make things even more tense, of course, came Rufus Shinra and Consul Y, in what even Geralt could tell was an aerial vehicle of simply comical proportions. Less a helicopter and more a flying fortress, the Alpha took the fight directly to Jena, launching missiles and cannons at her, before managing to dodge one of her gravity beams with a lateral thrust that looked like something straight out of a mecha anime.

Thankfully, though, the presence of the massive airship meant that the Seekers could take a much-deserved rest, as much as the mad scramble they began towards the helicopter Giovanna and Penance were commandeering far below them could be considered a rest. Jumping, sprinting, and dodging firefights on the way down, the Seekers quickly made their way to their allies, packing into the helicopter with weary sighs.

"Man, what a day..." Zenkichi yawned as he sat down, exhaustion creeping into his bones as the adrenaline faded.

"Think Neuron will still be standing come morning?" Geralt asked, looking up and trying to keep his stomach calm.

"Hm? Oh, yeah, no way Shinra and that giant flying death machine won't clean this up, especially not after the beating we gave Jena. I just...what the hell has to happen to you to willingly become...that?" He wondered aloud, frowning.

The ranged attacks of Roland and Susie weren't going to do much it seemed, and after getting punished with more damage, they both groaned a bit before deciding to try to get into melee and beat up this corrupt angel thing. At least Roland reflected a bit of the damage he took back at the angel as mental damage, if that thing was affected by that at least. At least Blazermate got a good use out of her Kritz.

Roland used his skill with his giant sword to deflect a fireball shot aimed at him as he approached, before finally closing the distance to strike her with the same large sword. Susie meanwhile used her transporter to fly over before she got close enough to start beating this thing up with her business suit. Their maneuvers got them off the platform that was about to get blasted, and while they approached the angel, Shinra arrived in a helicopter to aid some 'support', but only really took a laser for them before flying off. At least that gave Roland and Susie enough of a distraction to get close enough to start attacking the already cracked arms.

Roland continued with a couple swipes with his swords, before switching to his polearm for a stab as Susie worked ont he other arm, punching it with her mecha fists. This as well as all the rockets that Shinra had fired managed to break an arm, and before they could work on the other, Goldlewis told eveyrone they had an escape route to leave this thing for the shinra forces to take care of. Roland didn't need be told twice, and disengaged to make his way back, same with Susie as the creature was busy dealing with Shinra's helicopter. Blazermate, being near who was injured, was closer to the copter than the other two, but as Roland tried to make a jump to another platform, being unable to fly like Susie and Blazermate, the platform got blasted by one of the various missiles flying about forcing Blazermate to zoom over and catch the fixer and bring him back her way.

"Ugh, what is even going on anymore." Roland said, sighing as he was being flown to the evac point, Blazermate saying. "A big boss monster. Not the first time this has happened, but more laser beams this time. The consoul is new, but its strange how they're fighting this thing since I figured they caused all of this. Man, this is so confusing." Blazermate said. Susie, having gone ahead due to not needing to carry someone, could only look back at what had been going on and said. "And to think there is something bigger out there, then something bigger than that. We're going to need more firepower to deal with all of this."

After exiting the marsh room and reporting in, the troop started to head down to catch up with the others. They didn’t end up running into any of the lanturn carriers fortunately, but they still managed to get held up from reaching the bottom of the prison when they ended up passing by a rather unusual door.

”Gah! Come on Galeem, it's not that hard to stick to one style!” Bowser complained as he gestured with both claws at a futuristic looking automatic door that had slid open as they passed by it

”I’m not so sure, it looks positively ancient in there” Kamek replied as he peered inside, both with his own eyes and with a wisp he’d sent to scout through the wall.

”Even older than you?” Jr joked, which got a groan of complaint from Kamek, at which point Rika had already waltzed into the room to take a look herself, forcing the rest of them to scramble to catch up. Fortunately, the princess didn’t prompt a massive battle with her recklessness this time.

Instead when the last of them caught up with her they found the ship girl poking a rotten, desiccated and also headless corpse with the butt of her spear, and wondering aloud ”Why are there zombies just laying about here? Are they sleeping”

”Ah, I think those are just, well, dead bodies. I believe some of the others mentioned running into these as well” Kamek explained softly, and then when Rika, who was functionally native to the world of light, looked confused, clarified ”They must have been like this before Galeem consumed this place, which is why they haven't turned into spirits, as that is something they themselves introduced as a feature of reality”

”Oh” Rika replied, as she ceased her prodding, before thinking for a moment and then declaring ”That’s weird”

Kamek wasn’t entirely sure how to respond to that, but with the ship girl’s worries about them getting attacked put to rest, they could all take a look around the room.



The dark round room featured a fair amount of futuristic looking alien technology, most notably being the pods lining the room, inside some of which the headless bodies Rika had been poking one of could be found. Despite this advance tech, Kamek’s initial analysis that it was old also turned out to be 100% correct, given the layer of dust that coated everything (at least until Bowser sneezed and sent a bunch of it blowing everywhere) as well as the fact that there were stalactites hanging from the artificial ceiling.

”This must have been abandoned for an eternity before Galeem scooped it up” Kamek guessed, based on the fact that ”Stalactites only grow a few cm in a thousand years you see, at least if I remember rightly”

”You’d think it’d stink less after all that time, sheesh” Jr complained through a nose pinched shut by an iron clothes peg he’d made, before grumbling and producing 3 more of those as a result of drawing attention to his innovation.

The source of the stink turned out to be the plentiful amounts of black goop slicked around the place, that others might have recognised as the stench of death, but which the troop just thought smelled bad in general. They avoided it as they explored the chamber, which resulted in Rika getting ahead of everyone again as she grappled or just sailed over the slime. In doing so she found herself up a flight of stairs, and before a glass window looking into a chamber filled with green fog.

A small device of some kind sat in front of it, one that produced static out of a speaker when its singular button was pressed. This latest piece of advanced machinery inside this clearly ancient place might have been existentially terrifying to some human or other, but Rika didn't know any better, while for the Koopas it was a whole lot of nothing burger. Aliens and ancient advanced (admittedly magically advanced) civilizations were nothing new to them after all. As such they were far more interested in what was on the other side of the glass than wondering about how in the world they place they where in could be in the first place.

”Maybe there’s keys in there? Or at least something useful?” Jr theorized, before complaining that ”This place has been a dump so far”

”Or it could be deadly poison” Kamek warned, pointing out the simple fact that ”The gas is, after all, green”

”But it isn’t purple, so it's probably just stinky, and thanks to me, we’re all protected against that!” Jr countered, flicking the clothespin he was wearing while taking credit for supplying the troop with stretch protection despite having had to be talked into giving it out in the first place.

Either way, that turned out to be enough of an argument for both Bowser and Rika to get right on down to business. Fists were wound back, and then, in tandem, swung forward, kinetic strike module and vault breaker punches landing simultaneously.

This only slightly cracked the glass

”Wow. That’s tough” Bowser said as he pulled his hand back and shook it, before deciding that the durability must mean that ”There’s definitely something important in there if they want to keep us out that bad” before both he and Rika got right back to punching the glass.

”Or something they want to keep in” Kamek worried, but as jr pointed out ”Eh, the cells outside didn’t budge at all. So if there is something in there it's probably weaker than the crazy people in there”

As it turned out jr had been right not to be worried, but not for the reasons stated. Instead when the glass was smashed open after several consecutive synchronous punches for Bowser and Rika, and the gas spilled harmlessly out, they found no prisoner inside. They did, however, find a set of armor that might have belonged to one. Or rather prison clothes, given the manacle and straight jacket components.

Rika, again, was first into the room, and, also as a result, also the one who ended up picking up the outfit. ”Ooo, I think I just got a bit stronger from holding this” she noted, before asking ”Think I should put it on? It's not like it’ll fit any of you I mean”

”Ah, perhaps not” Kamek replied, but not for any of the obvious reasons inherent with the outfit itself, but instead because ”that thing just fell out of it when you picked it up”

That thing in question was an absolutely horrible looking blob of biomater atop a double helix like stem which caused Rika to gag as she backed up from the solidified bile

”That… is disgusting” Jr stated the obvious, before putting words to a feeling they all had but had no idea why they had it, which was ”So why in the world do I wanna take it with us?!?!”

Indeed, they seemed to know that leaving it behind was something they would regret, but hadn’t the faintest idea why. After a few moments of confused discussion on the topic, Jr ended up creating an iron box, into which the bile was awkwardly poked via more iron, and then promptly welded inside of.

With the source of the disgust stored for unsafe keeping, attention returned to the outfit Rika was carrying, her feelings on which she made quite clear ”No way I am wearing this now. Plus I guess it was never gonna make good armor anyway it's barely protecting anything. Maybe I can just kinda, carry it?”

”I could always shrink it down to charm size” Kamek offered, but Jr had a simpler solution, which was ”We could always just melt it down in that crucible thing Sectonia has?”

That got all around agreement, and so after they confirmed this was indeed all there was of value in the chamber, they set out to track down the queen and make use of one of her very useful items once again.

”You’re not an intruder, Luka-san.” Sakura had reassured him. ”I’ve only been in here like, one time, anyway. We’re all just a bunch of randos who’re all working towards the same goal, so you fit right in.”

Once on the mountain top, looking up at the stars with Midna, Sakura lay on her back and folded her hands on top of her belly.

”You can’t see the stars in Midgar.” Sakura noted distantly.

At some point, more tired than she realized, Sakura’s eyes slowly closed and she drifted off into a light nap.

---

Well, it seemed like the problem was taking care of itself. If Karin was in charge, she would recommend seeing this through and destroying whoever survived. But the Seekers were doing a full retreat and there was nothing to be done, since there was no one in charge. With a huff, Karin followed behind in the retreat.

The escape wasn’t terribly difficult for Karin, so she elected to make it more difficult by staying behind and making sure no one lost their step. With her speed and grapple hook she could navigate quite efficiently, though it required the entirety of her focus. Especially to glance in front to make sure no one had fallen. On the off chance they got unlucky, she could be there to ensure they didn’t lag behind for long.