Cindy smiled, pleased with the asnwer. “Ah, excellent. I look forward to meeting with Divina then. Send her my way, and we shall see if she is up to the task, hm hm~” With that, she waved goodbye to Chloe as she left.
[hr]
[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/zLmcB5Q.png[/img][/center]
Lily smiled widely upon hearing about Mika’s discovery, and giggled as Tetrad was placed on Alex’ lap, finding her quip funny. She also found Silhouette’s exchange with Mika interesting; she expected Sil to refuse entirely, but it seems even her pride had its limits.
[color=fff200]”Alright then, let’s go to this Overcity!”[/color] She hollered, and off they went, with Lily following the nimbus cloud.
There were a few more wondrous sights to see during the trip, such as ent-like walking trees, fairies that were dancing around a mushroom circle, and even a green dragon with bloodshot red eyes puffing white smoke out of a fat blunt. The unicorn stopped by a clear blue pond to have a drink, while goblins lurked from the shadows, watching its every move. One threw a spear at it; the unicorn immediately turned and deflected the crude weapon with its golden horn, shattering it to pieces and causing the goblins to flee. 

Lily did not seem to care too much however, as she was caught up in the conversation.
[color=fff200]”I know, right? It’s so unfair! I bet Dan screwed up the magic somehow. He’s a big dummy.”[/color] She made a wheelie as she passed by a rocky patch, causing the motorcycle to shake. She seemed to realize this, as she then slowed down, strolling past a rocky cliff from which a waterfall swept down, splitting into two mid-air. She looked at the environment as well upon hearing Alex comment about it; a smile formed on her lips.
[color=fff200]”It is really pretty here...”[/color] She turned back to look at Alex; she looked excited.
[color=fff200]”Alright, once Penrose is safe again we’ll go here on a...a...a date!”[/color]
She smiled widely with a big blush, and then returned her attention back on the road, making a swerve to avoid a [url=https://i0.hippopx.com/photos/626/192/2/control-gnome-troll-mythical-creatures-thumb.jpg]sleeping forest troll resembling a mossy boulder[/url].
[color=fff200]”A date! Yeah!”[/color] For the rest of the trip through the forest, she swayed from side to side, humming a little song.

Soon enough, thanks to their speedy transports, the group had reached the edge of the forest that opened up to a grassy plain. Of course, what most drew everyone’s eyes was the vividly colored structure that stretched far and wide; the Crystal Curtain. The blue wall was not far from the forest, but the group’s real goal, the gate, was a bit further ahead along the side of the curtain.

[color=fff200]”WOW It’s so beautiful!”[/color] Lily exclaimed, and took out her phone to snatch some shots.
[color=fff200]”It’s like mountains made from crystal! Come here Alex, let’s take a group photo!”[/color]

However, as she was about to pull her photo out, Mika heard something, coming from deep within the forest. It was faint, but she recognized the shouting voices to belong to the Ascendancy:

“...D-types...area...”

“...keep loo...can’t...far...”

“...tire mark...after...”

[hr]
Leena walked briskly past Dawn, her sword lifted to her side. She seemed to ignore Celia’s plea as she approached Anaya, her eyes cold like the bitter winds of winter that howled around them.
Once she was over the barely-living dark magical girl, she lifted her blade, and without any hesitation, swung the blade down.



>BOOM<

The musical instrument that once served as Endsinger’s phylactery made a reverberating blast of sound as it was split vertically in half, right in the gap between the two central strings. Foul magics seeped out, and fizzled into the dark sky, leaving a haunting song that travelled on the wings, and spread to Penrose.

Leena lifted her blade, and then glanced at Celia, as if she only then recognized her existence. “Don’t you worry. We got this.” She lowered herself down to one knee, and ripped her gasmask off; Dawn saw that her face had been restored to normal, with no trace of blood from the earlier battle. The gasmask let out a small puff of what looked like green gas as she cast a spell on it and then placed it over anaya’s face, the straps binding themselves to her head like with the Ascendancy girl. Then, she stood up, and turned to look at Dawn as FanFan now approached Anaya. “You hesitated, Rookie. Next time you do that, someone might actually get killed.” She then put a hand on her shoulder; she smiled. “But for your first time, you did better than expected. Good job, rookie.”

Celia saw that after Anaya was made to wear the gasmask, her condition turned visibly better; she started to breathe better, and her burns began receding, turning unblemished. However, she also saw how FanFan gently lifted the dark magical girl up using one of her robotic arms.
“Now where did I put them...Ah, here.” She pulled out an artifact resembling an infinity symbol, and bound Anaya’s hands with them. The runes on the white stone shimmered, and Anaya transformed back to human form, her magic sealed away. FanFan then lifted the girl up, carrying her in her metallic arms with surprising delicacy.

Then, as Leena turned and was about to address Celia, they were approached by a strange set of twins. FanFan smiled, and made a curtsy, her robot arms still carrying Anaya. “Oh, hello there! My, aren’t you two simply fabulous!” Leena on the other hand raised an eyebrow, and looked back at Dawn. “Yeah, it didn’t,” she answered, and followed the two with her gaze, her hands crossed before her. She seemed to be deep in thought. “Hmm...”
“Oh, aren’t you girls the ones needing help?” FanFan asked, looking them over. “It’s at least minus twenty degrees Celsius. You must be freezing.”

[hr]
Rachel still faced away from the victors of the trial when they spoke to her, only glancing back as Aurelio brought the bracelet out. The stern look on her was unabated, but she did nod at his reassuring words. “That is good to hear. The command center will keep their ears and eyes open 24/7, so we are prepared to receive intel ASAP.” She averted her eyes as Alicia spoke, her hands balled up into fists at her sides. “Paladin Seraph...to combat a virus outbreak, one must act accordingly to save the most people, correct? Not with platitudes.” She took in a deep breath. “I pray that the Cardinal has not made a mistake. Dismissed.” With that, she walked away to mind her own business, and the group  was left to discuss amongst themselves.

The other Ascendancy members, while hesitant, weren’t as aloof. “Excuse me. You mentioned Penny, correct?” Elora was intrigued by Aurelio’s mention of Penny, and the cybermancer approached the group, her machines slowly rotating around her.  “I finally managed to track her signal.” She tapped fast on her keyboard, and one of the monitors surrounding her showed a block of data including a t-posing spinning 3d-model of Penny. “She seemed to have been in a fight down at Wall street; her mana reserves are currently running at low capacity. I’ll prime the teleporters to the location.”

She soon had a look of surprise as Serenity handled the table projector. “Oh, what’s this?” Hudie turned, and looked at what Serenity was doing. The entire Ascendancy was now listening closely as Serenity explained of the possible risks involved. “Chloe...She was the D-type from the incident records...” Elora mumbled, while Tsuki brought out a book ”Yeah, she caused a Class-3 in the downtown area. Noted ‘extremely dangerous’ by Sylvia, and has resisted Beacon before. If what Serenity speaks is true and someone like her is involved with Penny...” 

“Cindy Ford is the bigger threat.” Now even Rachel joined in. “She is gathering an underground guerrilla force of corrupted girls.” She bit on the nail of her thumb in frustration. “If only we could find out where they’re hiding...Probably at the residential districts, where they would have most access to prey. Or maybe the docks...Or maybe we could use Penny, and find-”

Suddenly, Hudie screamed. Rachel and the other members turned around, expecting trouble. One second later, an ominous image appeared on the projector, and the rest also exclaimed in surprise. “A HORROR!? Are you seriously suggesting to summon a horror?” Rachel pointed her finger at Alicia; her eyes seemed to burn with hate.
“Serenity needs to be punished for such heretical thoughts! Paladin Seraph, I expect immediate retribution! Give her penance!” Everyone else now looked at the Light girl, waiting to hear how she will punish her.

[hr]
Hood grunted as the box she held was shot right out of her claws, and ended up in Amanda’s possession. “No! That’s mine!” She screamed, her fangs bared as she turned, her paws now extended with sharp claws. Selene then spotted as Ronin cast her spell. “Wait, Hood-!”

“Give it back!” She hissed, and pounced...Only to smack right into the barrier, destroying it. Selene summoned her weapon and blocked Ronin’s sword sing while Hood staggered, causing sparks to fly.
“The spell broke, Hood! We need to get out of here!” 

A passing magical girl happened to see the commotion. “Guards! Over here!”
Hood’s eye twitched. “Well, shit.” The two thieves had nervous looks as Valkyrie now brandished her spear, having recovered from the hypnotic suggestion. Faced three against two, the red-hooded girl bit on her lower lip. “Alright...Time for the Hood Secret Technique!” Selene nodded, and caused a cloud of illusionary purple smoke to billow forth, enveloping the two.

When the smoke cleared, the two were last seen running into a side alley. “Run awayyyy!”
Hood screamed with her furry arms flailing behind her, while Selene looked pissed. “You said she was an easy mark, idiot!” Looking back one last time, Selene scoffed.
“You saw nothing!” Hood showed her tongue. “Snitches get stitches!”
And with that, they turned the corner and disappeared. Soon enough, two guards, dressed similarly to those at the gates though with slightly different colors, arrived. “Which way did they go?” They asked.

[hr]
Penny felt that her mana made a slight recovery upon eating one of Sirkkeli’s pieces, though her Shine Spark seemed disturbed by the nugget of corruption that entered her, warning her with a slight, warm glow from within. By dismantling the pieces, she learned that the gynoid was indeed alien in design; her working mechanisms were a mix of technology and organic matter, with sometimes more and sometimes less definite borders between the two. Her high sensory ability came from special lenses that reflected light at a much higher intensity than the human eye could. Her blades mimicked the functionality of venomous fangs, able to pump out liquid from microscopic holes set into the sharp edge.

The sticky mucus was made by mixing her saliva with a chemical compound that sent the liquid’s viscosity and tensile strength to incredible extremes. The gynoid’s reactive armor, capable of autonomous defenses against simple attacks. Formed by metallic muscle tissue, and topped off with plates with sensory ability, the user doesn’t have to be aware of attacks for them to be repelled. The most impressive part of the gynoid was it’s metal-eating mold; it seemed to be a symbiotic organism that lingered in special chambers in her blades. It fed on her magical reserves via a psychic connection, and able to regenerate at the atomic level at an astounding speed. 

Penny learned that she could safely modify herself by externally grafting pieces of the other android to her body, and gain lesser forms of the leaking blades and reactive armor. However, she had a feeling that she could get more if she were to consume Sirkkeli’s entire body, and assimilate the gynoid’s corrupted materials.

[hr]
[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/NngpAdx.png[/img][/center]
Helga nodded at Emily’s question, looking dreamily into the distance. “Y-Yeah. She’s a very dear friend to me. I hope so too. I do have this Friendship Stone I could use…” She mumbled, lost in thought. ”The ghosts looked happy when Emily greeted them, and they twirled around her. But they immediately retreated up into the ceiling when Eliza arrived; ironically, they seemed spooked.

Helga was surprised by the mention of Cindy Ford. “Oh, are you a magical girl? Me too!”
Her disguise disappeared with an echo of her words, and she assumed her monstrous appearance. “Don’t think I’ve seen you before, though,” she spoke with a hand to her hip and a friendly smile. “What kind of business does Cindy have?” She asked, genuinely curious.

When Eliza handed over the letter, she blinked. “Oh, the party? Well, I am the owner, so let’s see...” With a careful claw, she slit the envelope open, and read the letter inside. As her eyes moved from side to side, they slowly opened wide. “WOO HOO! It’s happened! Yahoo!” She bounced in place from sheer excitement, holding the letter up. “Par-ty! Par-ty! Invitation to the par-ty!” She briefly ran to the back room. “Look Emily! It’s the address to the concert! Whoo!” She returned back to behind the counter, having remembered she is supposed to be serving a potential client. “Oh, thank you so much! And please forgive me for my burst of emotions. You can let Cindy know that we will definitely attend the concert. How could I repay you? Oh, I know!” She checked the rooms from the computer. “We do have a vacant room you could stay in for tonight. For just one bronze coin, we’ll even throw in a breakfast for you. How about it?”

[hr]
At the place where the battle with Billy was fought, sounds could be heard in the distance. It was that of shouting, clacking heels, and crushed snow. And there, Sophia and Amaryllis could see in the distance as a group of magical girls were making their way towards them. Based on their number, they could guess it was a squad of the Ascendancy, sent to deal with the lich and anyone involved with their destruction. The group of magical girls had the chance to scatter and flee before they showed up. Or, if they felt brave, they could try and settle things with a threat of six magical girls.