A sigh of relief escaped Alice as the robots stood down and the girl stepped out from behind them. She was not what Alice was expecting to be behind the massive robots, and she definitely wasn’t expecting the blonde girl to apologize for holding them at gunpoint; no one ever has before now, but there’s a first time for everything. Alice closed her hand around the gas pellets and hid her mouth with the other to conceal the small laugh caused by the unexpected apology. After composing herself, Alice was able to speak.

“It’s no trouble at all. Thank you for the directions. We’ll just be on our way and let you go on your own way.”

Alice was turning to leave when the girl asked her question. Again, the girl took Alice off guard. Had she run into other Asylums on her way to Jason and herself? Alice turned around to look at the girl once more.

“There’s about sixteen of us down here. you haven’t run into anymore of us down here, have you?”

After the girl answered her question, Alice turned back to Jason.

“If you play your cards right, you might just get that chance, Romeo. Yeah. We should get going and try to find the little Chrono.”

Alice made sure the gas pellets she had drawn before were firmly in her grasp before taking Jason’s arm.
-----------------------------------

Barnabas ducked behind Bjorn’s shield to avoid the projectiles flying towards the trio and watched as the tiny Chrono climbed up him and relocated his shoulder with a sickening crack. Barnabas was not expecting the light chirping of the child after she relocated Bjorn’s shoulder. The girl began talking in a heavy accent and took on the role of Doctor Frankenstein and commanded Bjorn be her monster and do her bidding. Bjorn fell into the role and began lumbering toward the Kings. Barnabas was extremely confused, and it just got worse when the girl called Barnabas the Bride of Frankenstein's Monster. The Englishman completely forgot about the Kings launching alchemical attacks at the trio and just stared at the child for a moment. He was about to state that he thought this was not the place or time for pretend when she killed the man, saying, “First rule of Role-playing....you never say you are role-playing.” He froze until Bjorn said he would prefer another bride, and then Barnabas nodded.

“Yes. Perhaps I could be Igor?”

He couldn’t wait on an answer, however, as the Kings began overwhelming Bjorn with their ranged assault. Barnabas nodded to the bear of a man and then rolled out from behind the cover of his shield. He brought up his revolver and fired into the Kings twice, hitting one in the leg and the other in the chest; both went down, one was dead. Barnabas analyzed the group after his shots and then shot two more times. Having a better chance to aim this time, he was able to take two more down. It was when he was taking aim for a third time that a ball of lightning launched from one of the Kings’s claymores hit the rock wall right behind him and sent him flying; he hit the ground and rolled toward the group of enemies a few feet. In the confusion of being launched through the air, he had dropped his revolver, which was halfway back to Bjorn and the Chrono; the problem was, he was too close to the Kings now and was still under fire. Barnabas rolled to his feet, managing to not get hit and drew his sword.

The closest King charged him, brandishing a claymore with flames wrapped around the glowing blade. Barnabas dodged the initial swing of the sword and kicked the man in the side of the knee with his heel; there was a sickening crunch as the heel of his boot met the man’s knee. Barnabas then swung his sword at the enemy alchemist, leaving a gash across his arm. The flames that were wrapped around the claymore disappeared and then the glow of the blade went out. The King swung the claymore around at the Asylum, but Barnabas caught the man’s wrist and directed the blade away from him before bringing the pommel of his own sword down on the enemy’s nose, breaking it upon impact. The King slumped to the ground from the force of the blow to his nose.