The spreading cracks in reality had reached the mansion, and cut through it as easily as if it were made of glass too. One fracture split the entire building vertically, causing the two sides to rumble as they slightly tilted away from each other.

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

Lily, having accelerated to the highest speed she has ever reached by buffing alone, had a couple of seconds of time to think while her hand reached out in a shocking grasp, intent to hurt someone despite being her friend. She had never seen Mariette so surprised before, having always managed to keep a cool exterior.

[color=fff200][i]She must feel betrayed. I can’t blame her, either. But I must do this![/i][/color]

Her hand was just about to touch her, when her eyes opened wide; she made a portal, causing the hand to slam against the rooftop, the electricity crackling as it dissipated against the stony material. Lily did not expect Mariette to be capable of enchanting herself with magical mirrors. She blinked as Hilaria moved to intervene...but she stopped?
That was when she felt the bullet; it struck right against her shoulder, and lodged itself bone-deep, fracturing it. The impact was enough to cause Lily to stagger forward as her body reflexively sparked with electricity in an attempt to eject the projectile. It failed, but it ended up benefitting Lily; she stumbled towards Mariette with her body faster than Mariette could dodge, and she was caught in a one-armed tacklehug. Mariette was shocked by the electrical burst, though it did not possess the paralyzing qualities that her shocking grasp did.

Lily swiftly turned her eyes to Trixy, panic in her visage. Sharp pain struck through her arm; she could still move it, but only barely.
[color=fff200][i]A sniper! I don’t have time to grab Mariette and run! There has to be something I can do![/i][/color] Lily’s thoughts ran on overdrive as she attempted figuring out what to do before Hilaria slammed her shield right against her body at the moment the rooftop tilted and caused her aim to to be slightly off, causing not only a major concussion but also bleeding from her head. Her vision blurred, her consciousness barely holding on as her heart beat a hundred times in a minute. However, Lily managed to hold on to Mariette with tears in her eyes. [color=fff200][i]Nghh![/i][/color]
Then, she spotted two shapes closing in; she barely recognized Ronin, who was running straight towards them, as well as one of Mariette’s allies who had reached the rooftop and was signaling a retreat.

[color=fff200]”Please...ngh...work!”[/color]
In a last-ditch effort, expending the rest of her mana, Lily threw her arms forward, and shoved Mariette as hard as her weak noodle arms could. She didn’t have much strength, but she had an electrical charge on Mariette; using an opposite charge, Lily launched Mariette with electromagnetic force. While not quite enough to shoot her straight to Ronin, she could create enough distance for Ronin to run up to catch her before she landed. Then, she crumpled on the rooftop while holding her broken arm, now bleeding with streaks of blood running down it in the pattern of a microchip.

[center][url=https://i.imgur.com/gmRTrWA.jpg][img]https://i.imgur.com/5ZqyPyV.png[/img][/url][/center]
Ronin was running, evading Suzette’s spray of bullets, when she saw what Lily was doing. She was launching Mariette towards Ronin before Dina could reach her. Bless her heart, that had to have been hard. Ronin dove forwards, intent to capture the rather limp and internally cursing Mariette that had been flung towards her. She was so close. Ronin reached out her arms to catch Mariette, preparing to start fleeing while simultaneously activating her new ability to warp the portal girl to another dimension-!

A sudden pulse of physical force blasted by Ronin, a string of fire disappearing into the void of magic where something had blown past. There, meters aside, back flaming from the skin-side magic that had been used to propel her, now stood Mayra, holding Mariette in a princess-carry.

[center][url=https://i.imgur.com/D8A8SOp.png][img]https://i.imgur.com/OGWuw89.png[/img][/url][/center]
Mayra hadn’t responded to MDP’s question, for she’d seen the situation before her and her back just detonated in fire-magic as she launched herself and caught Mariette just before Ronin reached her and carried her aside.

[color=fc6828]‘Woh, I didn’t expect to [i]actually[/i] be saving Mariette…!’[/color] Mayra called out, looking around attentively and holding Mariette tightly as she was still gasping from the lightning that had gone through her.

Ronin, though, didn’t actually stop as Mayra had taken Mariette. Ronin held a serious expression and ran straight past the two. Directly at someone else.

[center][url=https://i.imgur.com/iLfQK1p.png][img]https://i.imgur.com/2C1b19j.png[/img][/url][/center]
Eli was just now recovering from Lily’s lightning-blow, shaking herself as she materialized her reinforced wing-shield and wing-blade, looking up… and finding that Mayra had saved the day. A sigh of relief would have gone through her, except there was a very threatening albeit tiny samurai Magical Girl running directly for her. Ronin.

Surprised at the tiny aggressor running directly for her, Eli raised her weapons to combat her aggressor, while Ronin kept her eyes focused squarely on Eli and reached for her currently sheathed sword…!

[hr]
Leena gasped as she glanced up and saw Su drop down on her; at that moment, FanFan was distracted by Esther, allowing her to make contact with the Ascendancy operative. Leena braced for impact, expecting to be ground pounded or slammed against the wall. Instead, she was assaulted by softness.
“W-What is this?!” She yelled out, as her magically-induced anger gave way to a mix of feelings, mostly bafflement, freeing her from the Emotion magic she was cursed with. However, she was still pissed off by the busty girl butting in. “Get off of me!” She shook her legs around in an attempt to get rid of the Air girl, but she successfully held on. Then Su spoke, and Leena grumbled in response. She now seemed more receptive to Su’s words compared to Josefin. However, she wasn’t quite persuaded. “No! Stop interrupting my mission, or you’ll be punish-Hrk!”
That was when Su’s curse began to gradually spread through her body, causing her limbs to turn visibly red and numb as her blood vessels were blocked. “You b-bitch!” She groaned out, and convulsed, struggling to hold on to the sword embedded in the wall. Her gasmask Healing Artifact did help to slow down the curse by delivering restorative oxygen to her bloodstream, but as long as Su held on it would eventually cause her limbs to paralyze. 

“Die!” Leena summoned her second sword, and swung down at Su, about to cut off the arms holding on to her...When Josefin arrived in the nick of time, blocking the sword strike with her own. The blades sparked as they clashed, and Leena shouted in frustration as her sword dropped from her hand.
“You shitty brat!” She grabbed the loli by her ankle and pulled her off the wall, attempting to swing her down as a weapon at Su and hopefully drop the both of them.

FanFan was about to pursue Dina when she was met with Esther, the wooden monster girl who used her roots to cling to the mansion’s wall as she fought with the Ascendancy girl, allowing her to focus entirely on attacks. The two were evenly matched in strength, with FanFan’s mighty punches easily sustained by Esther’s durability and regenerative properties, while Esther’s blows successfully kept FanFan from advancing as they dented her metal appendages, one punch even hitting her in the chin, causing her to groan. “Ngh! All bark as well as bite, huh? How about this then!” With a magical spell turned one of her metal arms into a rotary saw that began to spin and cut into Esther while she grappled her with the other arm; the monster girl successfully resisted being sliced into pieces, instead causing woodchips to spray, but the constant regeneration was quickly draining her of mana. “Timbeeeer!”

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Justine lifted her claws off Tenebra, and turned to see as Jenna charged right at her, holding a cane the vampire girl recognized to belong to the dapper magical boy who had addressed her earlier. Even if she had transformed, she could still recognize her former servant, and the fire in her gaze.
[color=bc8dbf]”JANET!”[/color] She screamed, and bared her canines. Jenna was about to strike, when suddenly Freya dashed into the way of the attack, forcing the two to dodge and avoid their attacks from colliding as they were prepared for surprises, but not from each other. Taking her chance, Justine flashed her red eyes, moving Tenebra like a puppet to block the attack at the very last second, ironically reversing the situation from far in the past when Janet herself served in the place of the shield. Tenebra was struck by the cane, and took the brunt of the magical payload, filling her with love magic that exploded in the pattern of a pink, sparkling heart. Freya was caught in the spell’s effect, but was unharmed; the emotion magic filled the bestial monster girl’s heart with true love, causing her to be momentarily distracted by the feelings of serenity and joy that had overcome her cold and ruthless self. However, Justine could not manage to escape the radius of effect completely.

[color=bc8dbf]”AAAAHHHH!”[/color] Even if she had managed to avoid most of the spell’s effect, there was enough to severely hurt her as she was knocked away, landing on her feet with a backwards slide. She clutched at her chest, as blood trickled down the corner of her mouth and her legs wobbled.
[color=bc8dbf]”That spell...There was enough true love in that *cough* attack to kill me. But unfortunately, you *cough* wasted it.”[/color]
But then, she scoffed; Tenebra blinked, and sat up with a dazed look.
[color=bc8dbf]”Dammit! Very well then.”[/color] Suddenly, Tenebra gasped, and coughed blood; she was pierced right through the heart by Justine impaling the broken girl with a spear.
[color=bc8dbf]”Your blood will serve me, if nothing else!”[/color]
Justine visibly shook as she drained the blood. She seemed to somewhat recover as her six wings transformed into clawed red arms; a sign of her desperation. At that moment, Freya had recovered from the lovey-dovey spell.
[color=bc8dbf]”This is what I should have done to you on that fateful day, Janet!”[/color]
She screamed, and dashed in with a stab of her spear.
[color=bc8dbf]”Perish!”[/color]

Meanwhile, Sonia engaged in a fight with Lea, and deflected a missile-fast kick with the knives she held, performing a backflip and landing in a tripod pose, throwing off the bugs that had stuck to the weapon with a flick of her wrist.
[color=0054a6]”You vermin! Only Lady Justine may decide when I am to die!”[/color]
Sonia leaped backwards to create space in the moment Lea spent to form a circle of bugs, and pulled something out from her pockets. As Lea and her bugs closed in, Sonia scoffed.
[color=0054a6]”Send my regards to your Horror.”[/color]
Lea dove in with a kick...but in the next moment, she realized she had burst into flames. In her agonizing last moments, she witnessed how Sonia had a candle in one hand, lighted up by the lighter she held in her other hand. The Bane had caused her body to combust to deadly effect upon contact with the fire, as a swarm of fiery moths spread into the air, only to fall down as snowy green ash, hauntingly beautiful like the girl herself was, and she quickly disappeared into darkness, snatched away by Asengav's will.
Sonia did not smile, or show any reaction to her victory.
[color=0054a6]”Even in this forsaken dream...I will protect you, my Lad-”[/color]
She froze, placed into stasis, as Sam had reached out to touch her shoulder from behind, having used the cloud of insects to sneak up on her before she had a chance of discovering her and dodging.

[hr]
Aurelio sent his message, but realized after a moment of silence that he was not picking up a signal due to the being in the effect of the Nullification Field. After he had healed Sakura, he dashed out of range of it, only to be met by Elora’s screamin in her ear.
“What in the ever-loving grace of Beacon happened?” Elora could be heard frantically typing.
“The dimension is coming apart! I don’t think it’s going to last more than a couple of minutes at this rate of degradation! You need to get out of there!”
After Aurelio relayed his desire to leave, Elora confirmed it. “I have all the signals locked on, but there is a disturbance that prevents teleportation! You need to get them out of the affected area or you will not be unable to extract! Hurry!”

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

Helga ground her teeth in frustration as her slash was deflected by Alicia, leaving three lines of wounds on her. She landed on a windowsill, and jumped up to Alicia’s side. “You’re not gonna win this one!” She was right; Alicia would not win in a straight melee against the monster girl...But her words were not something Helga expected.
“The...Trove?” Helga hadn’t thought of the possibility of Beacon coming to attack her beloved business and home, and that realization caused her to momentarily stop.
“How do you-”
She did not have the time to finish her question, as Alicia launched herself at her with a swift kick; Helga barely had time to move an arm in the way before she was struck, causing her to be knocked away from the mansion. “Crap!” She hit the floor of the dimension with a loud thud, and held her head as she saw stars, now missing a couple of teeth as she felt her bruised face. “Oof...Reminds me of the time I was hit by that speedy car.”

She then looked into the distance, and saw as Dan the Dolphin successfully formed a giant blue portal, it’s interior swirling like a whirlpool of water. “Everyone! Get to the choppaaa!” He squeaked with a megaphone he summoned in his hand. “Or in this case portaaal!”