As the combat began, everyone could see a strange phenomenon from the Nullification Field's epicenter; fractures began to run through the air, as if the world itself was made of a glass-like substance which had begun to crack. They snaked and multiplied, leaving behind lines where one could see glimpses at mirrors reflecting on themselves in infinite layers.

[center][img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/200314/56372802c7cec71e5fc577d906baad3c.png[/img][/center]

[color=bc8dbf]”Lies!”[/color] Justine objected with a pointed finger towards Mariette, her sharp nail glistening in the dark realm.
[color=bc8dbf]”It was you, without any-AGH!”[/color]

Justine couldn’t finish her sentence, as she and Sonia were struck by Void World, causing them to plummet.

[color=bc8dbf]”Ngh!”[/color]

Justine grunted as she and Sonia hit the ground, the fall somewhat mitigated by the vampire girl having extended her six wings to act as a cushion. [color=bc8dbf]”What is the meaning of this, Sonia?”[/color] She asked in an irritated voice, pushing the servant away from her. She in turn stood up, having summoned three knives in the same motion between the fingers of her closed fist.

[color=0054a6]”Forgive me, my Lady. It seems a Nullification Field was formed which suppresses spells in the area. It was a trap.”[/color]

Sonia squinted, staring towards the distance as Justine stood up.
[color=bc8dbf]”Curses.”[/color]
Justine spat out as she saw four girls closing in; Samantha taking the lead, followed by Eliza and Anaya, and then Viridian and a scarlet stranger.

Justine then heard Reaver speak, and looked at the deranged Mint assassin, grimacing in response as she summoned a wicked-bladed spear.
[color=bc8dbf]”You dare threaten me? It seems the dog has some bite after all,”[/color] she deftly cut back with her own words. She noticed that the phantom champion had disappeared, confirming Sonia’s claim, and saw as Reaver threw his own spear, followed by throwing a bloody piece of skin afterwards; it splatted against her dress, leaving a red stain that caused her to squint.
[color=bc8dbf]”Barbaric,”[/color] she commented as Reaver took on a less handsome appearance and bounded off. She hooked two fingers through the empty eyesockets, draining the disembodied face of blood with her vampiric touch while Sonia pulled out her magical weapon; three throwing knives which she held between the fingers of her closed fist.

[color=0054a6]”My Lady, this is not our fight. We should-”[/color]

[color=bc8dbf]”I am not running anymore!”[/color] Justine proclaimed, and threw Reaver’s face away.
[color=bc8dbf]”I’ll have Mariette’s head, even if it's the last thing I’ll do! Cover me!”[/color] The vampire girl stretched her six wings, and launched up into the air, flapping her wings to keep altitude as she headed towards the direction of Tenebra’s unconscious body; her eyes flashed red as she reached out for her with her clawed hand, and grabbed her hair, while Sonia was ready to intercept their pursuers, deflecting Anaya’s shots away when she attempted to fire on Justine, and engaging the first magical girl to reach them.
[color=0054a6]”Face me, riff-raff!”[/color] Sonia taunted, and enchanted herself with some kind of spell that seemed to improve her combat ability, allowing her to somewhat predict attacks and defend against them. Red magical energy visibly flowed through the girl’s body as Justine enchanted the gir
[color=bc8dbf]”You will serve me now!”[/color]

[hr]
“What is all this? Aaah!” Dan flailed around like a muppet as the situation turned more chaotic by the second, unused to seeing such arcane aggression. He was then calmed by Dina’s assertive voice, and nodded. “Very well, Dina! I’ll leave the rest up to you!” The Lesser Force then left the rooftop and began to open a portal at the other side of the dimension, facing towards the mansion’s front.

[hr]
When FanFan had passed through Teneba’s wormhole, she was dumbfounded upon realizing she didn’t hold Magical Dream Princess. Her cheeks went red upon realizing the replacement the cheeky magical girl had left her with.
“Oh, that’s...Not mine.” She mumbled, averting her eyes from the smiling artwork of the hug pillow.
She didn’t have much time to linger on her embarrassment, however, as Leena promptly activated her spell, causing the object to vanish. Alicia gave a request to stick with Leena, and she answered with a salute from a metallic arm. “Roger. Here comes the long arm of the Beacon!” She shouted, and followed after her furious companion.

Leena had hit the side of the mansion by the time her Void World had fully formed, and began to run up the side of the building with great speed, followed by FanFan who climbed up with her metallic arms. She ignored Josefin’s pleading, too distracted by the sounds of battle all around her to pay attention to the twintailed girl calling after her. However the girl’s luck aided a certain catgirl, who had managed to intercept Leena before she had the chance to reach Mariette.

“RAAAAHHH!” the gasmasked girl roared as she was met midway by Dina, who stalwartly defended Mariette with the extraordinary might of an Avatar state. Leena’s blades were held out at her sides, and she swung them in a scissor strike. Dina expertly blocked Leena’s cut with her Cat’s Cradle before she wung it around in a counter, striking back at the Ascendancy girl, causing her to be knocked back to ground level with a terrible wound on her arm that closed up due to the searing burn of the weapon. She was caught by FanFan using her normal arms, and swung like a monkey to the side with her metallic arms to avoid a slash of Dina’s Cradle. “You monster!” Leena shouted, and took in a deep breath of her Healing Artifact mask, causing the wound to slowly seal as she blocked a blow with her swords, leaving a visible mark, before she kicked off FanFan’s metallic palm, going for another strike. “DIE!”

However, even with Leena’s abilities ramped up by her rage and making the Ascendancy agent deadly even by magical girl standards, Dina was the superior combatant, capable of shrugging off glancing blows of Leena’s blades thank to her hardened skin while also moving fast enough to keep up with her erratic movements, the two of them exchanging wild blows so fast a normal human couldn’t follow before Leena dropped down to be caught in Fanfan’s metallic hand. FanFan also joined the fight, helping to keep Leena in the fight by catching her and throwing her back up. Dina managed to overcome Leena’s parries, and delivered a flaying strike strong enough to tear the skin off Leena’s thigh like a piece of cheese, while scorching the exposed area. In response, FanFan delivered a mighty punch from her metallic arm, causing the steel skin on Dina’s cheek to fracture as she was knocked away from the mansion, only for Dina to successfully wrap the wire around the metallic appendage and swing back.
“RHH!” Leena gnashed her teeth as she slowed her descent by stabbing a katana in the mansion, causing sparks to fly as she skid to a stop. She held her free hand to her mask with a shaky grip as she healed; it caused the burning to stop but left the skin flayed. It became apparent Leena’s Healing Artifact was the only thing keeping her alive against Dina’s onslaught, while Dina could feel the pressure of her Avatar state’s multiple enchantments on her mana capacity.

[hr]
[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/NngpAdx.png[/img][/center]

“Su!” Helga shouted, and immediately dove to catch her as she fell from the sky. By angling their descent, she managed to direct most of the momentum away from the point of impact, making one last roll before she came to a landing, holding Su in her arms.
“Phew, that was way too close,” Helga spoke with grit teeth, and sighed, letting Su go. She nodded at Su’s statement. “Yep. I can’t shoot my soundblasts. But I still have my heightened hearing.” She spread her claws. “And I can still fight.” She noticed as as Alicia and Ronin were climbing up, and jumped down to intercept them. “Alicia! You’re not touching Mariette!” She yelled and swiped at her with her claws.

[hr]
[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/zLmcB5Q.png[/img][/center]

Lily was slightly relieved when Mariette gave a logical explanation, rebuting Justine’s erratic claims with a surprisingly annoyed tone; Lily had never seen Mariette this upset before. She knew Mariette was speaking the truth; after all, she herself was the one who had caused that to happen in the first place. When the silver-haired girl afterwards expressed her faith in Lily, she nodded, biting her lip.

[color=fff200]”I...I tru-”[/color]

That was when Void World struck, causing Lily to gasp; she felt how her magic insulated, like a layer of plastic over an electrically charged wire. Then, Alicia shouted out, and Lily yelped. Was it true? Did Mariette really do those terrible things? She looked down, a part of her hoping to see a chance that Alicia was lying, that it somehow wasn’t true.

She regretted that decision immediately.

She saw as a spear was flung right at her. Time seemed to slow down for her, as her brain kicked into overdrive. Yet, she couldn’t move, frozen in shock as she saw, in slow motion, who had leapt out to  intercept it...Who was going to be struck by it. She reached her hand out in those last few seconds before time suddenly rushed back to normal speed, and Sakura was speared.

[color=fff200][h3]”SAKURA!”[/h3][/color]

She cried out with her hands on her head, as feelings of terror and despair surfaced again. She did not deserve to die like this, protecting such a stupid girl. Visions of Ixion appeared, reminding her of the sacrifice that they had done. Once again, her sheer ineptitude had resulted in the loss of another friend...Or at least, that is what she initially thought, until she saw both Ronin and Aurelio rushing in to save her. While she didn’t know how well Ronin could tend to such an injury, she personally knew the magician’s capabilities, and trusted that he could save her life.

[color=fff200]”Thank you Aurelio!”[/color] She shouted down at him, and took a deep breath as she saw Jenna appear among others.
She had to end this, before anybody else would be killed. She looked down at the battlefield, and then at her magical bow Ramuh. Justine was vulnerable now, but without her ranged spells she could only shoot arrows, and now that her allies had engaged, she couldn’t contribute much. What could she do? Her nervous eyes glanced aside, and then down, where Ronin was. [color=fff200][i]There is...one way...[/i][/color]
Her breathing turned hard, and her palms turned sweaty. She couldn’t have believed she had to do something this drastic. But she was truly Mariette’s friend. 

And a true friend helps someone even when they don’t want to be helped. 

In that moment, Lily visibly flashed yellow, as she infused herself with as much speed from her Lightning and Time magic as she could manage. And then, she made her move.
Hilaria was too strong to take on in a direct fight, but fortunately she didn’t have to, as she was fully focused on the destruction of the roof.
That just left Eli. She zipped right in front of the slime girl, passing Hilaria before she had brought her weapons out again, and clapped her electrically enchanted hands, creating a thunderclap right in Eli’s face; while not particularly damaging, it was sure to disorient the amorphous harpy.
At that instant, she reached out towards Mariette, attempting to taze the dark magical girl with an electric shock delivered through her palm; thanks to her time enchantment from Samantha, Mariette had time to react in a single second before she was touched.
[color=fff200][i]I’m sorry, Mariette, but this is for your own good.[/i][/color]