[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/JoD9XRG.png[/img]
[sub][@Ariamis][/sub][/center]
The smoke would have rose out of the cracks, of course, if not for the fact that it was magic smoke, brought on from a combination of Askefye's Fire and Darkness specializations. Cackling as water surged towards her, the fire spirit dispersed in a flast of flame, before reappearing elsewhere. Someone finally noticed her! Someone was finally going to fight her! All around, the Ascendancy were at war, but only now, noticed by this blue, flat midget, was Askefye finally going to get herself a good old fashioned fight too! Her flames surged ever brighter, evaporating the water that the blue washboard manifested, until steam now joined smoke and shadow, the warehouse dissolving into further obscurity.

[b]"Let's GO!"[/b] She cried, pillars of flame rising around her. Covering into a singular storm, she hurled the burning tornado like a lance, intent on turning Vivi into ash. Though a Warrior she was not, Askefye always enjoyed a good fight. It was the only time she could interact with someone who wasn't trying to recruit her, after all.

But it was not meant to be. It was not meant to be at all.

Though mad as any monster girl who gave into her instincts ought to be, Askefye could still feel it, that collossal build-up of magical energy, the surge and the pulse of a power capable of wiping out magical girls by the dozens. It was already too late, the Powerful Aura that blanketed the arcane atmosphere of the warehouse had hid the masterwork spell until it had already reached its apex, and before her, the blue washboard twitched, overwhelmed, unresponsive.

Was she seriously going to be cucked from the single person who paid her any attention at the rave?

[b]"Fuck THAT!"[/b]

Drawing back her tornado, Askefye shot forwards, tackling Vivi right in the gut. Her magic was already burning hot; her form seared into Vivi's own, before both their bodies glowed with incandescent brilliance.

A flash later, and they were in the Overcity.

[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/NxkGICx.png[/img]
[sub][@BrokenPromise][@Vocab][@Flamelord][@Ariamis][/sub][/center]
They fell like puppets cut loose from their strings.

One by one, minds lost to a solar flare of psychic energy.

The monsters revelled, free to mutilate their hated foes now.

One ate their faces. Another tore off their limbs. Others sated less violent desires, all the more depraved.

In the chaos of victory, the licence of the monstrous, Lei Zi strode through, unnoticed, unbothered. Her sandals clacked against the bloodied, burnt ground. Her staff chimed, echoing the thunder beyond the cracked ceiling. Blood abound, death abound. A plot that succeeded, vengeance to be reaped. So much war, all because some preferred to seep into their corruption, rather than simply be freed of it. Lei Zi stepped over a body. She recognized that face. Amelie, wasn't it? Stupid girl with stupid ideals; they met when the Ascendancy cracked down on her preaching in western China, thinking she was a cultist of sorts. They had drinks after the confusion was cleared up. In twenty years, they'll have drinks again.

This was the storm then. This was the equilibrium that Tian Rong sent her for. She was not lightning here, but thunder, the retaliation. Slay all evil, and bring forth the harvest. Such was the role of the Maiden of the Monsoon.

Her staff continued to clang, brass rings clashing against one another, but another sound soon joined it. The rasping of tempered steel against concrete, a naked blade pulsating in her palm. Blessed by every generation of shrine maiden before her, a conduit of power for her deity to perform his miracles. Miracles of destruction, fury that would make storm gods quake. Miracles of abundance, mercy that would make harvest goddesses weep. She raised her sword, and pointed it skywards.

It was fortunate, that she knew where those surviving Beacon members were.

[b]"Blind the Night."[/b]

A Blessed Barrage of white lightning suffused the basement of the warehouse, flooding the main hall, surging into the sidehalls, before tearing through concrete like paper to curve in and rip through the back halls, the back rooms. Only the immediate surroundings of Alicia and Leena were spared, and they could see it, briefly, the scales of a serpentine dragon, crackling all around them.

Lightning continued to pour.

And up above, the storm that continued to gather over Penrose rumbled.

[i]Laughed.[/i]