[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/72bEcUi.png[/img][/center]

[color=fff200]”Evacuate the entire village?"[/color] Lily asked, and glanced around, quickly counting the buildings. Alex did not waste any time, and was the first to action inscribing runes and applying restorative magic to Annabell with his duplicates assisting him; several bullets clinked against each other upon hitting the ground, having been removed from her wounds. It was also easy to find small rocks and stones given how the ground had been upheaved on numerous points, so he quickly amassed the necessary materials to inscribe with stabilizing spells.
“Th-Thank you,” Annabell expressed her gratitude with a small nod of her head, and clambered up to stand, pulling herself up by Lily’s hand. The latter finished counting, and spoke: [color=fff200]”There’s about thirty houses, give or take. That’s a lot…"[/color]

Annabell sighed as Gaia gave a negative response to her request, followed by a hesitant half-smile when she followed the remark with assurances of co-operation by her, Connie and the Angel of Hope.
“Thank you, but…Is it really impossible? Maybe if I distract them for long enough-”

Annabell was distraught, until Ronin and Miko agreed to her plea. She shook the two’s hands.
“Oh, thank you! I know most of the villagers, so I’ll direct you to the houses you need to check! Start off by going down that row,” She said, pointing towards the houses on the east side of the plaza that continued southwards. “Can you check the other row?” She asked Lily, pointing to the west row.

Lily bit her lip, her finger on her chin as she thought hard.
[color=fff200]”That’s still a lot of houses…Okay Alex, we need you with this."[/color]
She turned towards him, looking serious.
[color=fff200]”Leave the combat support to Angel, and help with the evacuation. With your clones, I’m sure it won’t take that long…I hope."[/color]

Penny then spoke up, and Lily nodded at her suggestion.
[color=fff200]”Are there any shelters here, Annabell?"[/color] She asked after Penny directed the local guardian to share information with Ellen and Tina. Annabell averted her eyes in response.
“There is a bomb shelter to the southeast, but I don’t know if we should bring them there. There’s also the sleep magic…I don’t know what we should do with that. I'll go check the place out!” Annabell then ran off to southeast, leaving behind a small path of blooming flowers in her wake.

Lily’s attention now turned to Connie.
[color=fff200]”Hey, Connie…You have nightmare magic, right? Can you do something like wake them up?"[/color] She asked, hoping the masked girl could help.
Regardless of the answer she would receive, Lily would then take several of the runic stones, and head off for the western row and help to evacuate the sleeping villagers.

Mayra blasted off, having jumped over the ruined farmhouse and a sunflower before landing on the cornfield, having surprised a squad of advancing card troopers.
“Enemy sighted-!” The trooper signalled just before it was impaled by a fire blade.
Mayra proceeded to quickly cut down and incinerate the other soldiers before they had the chance to counterattack, leaving the squad decimated. She then propelled herself to the nearest squad she could find, which were father away from the village on the west side of the cornfield.
The soldiers aimed and shot at Mayra; while most of the shots missed due to the monster girl’s high agility, a couple of shots struck her in the lower torso and shoulder, the enchanted bullets having embedded into her scales without fully piercing through thanks to her boosted toughness.
However, as she unleashed her powers, Mayra had set fire to the cornfield; it only a short moment, it would reach the line of sunflowers…

Penny did the same, launching herself towards the east side of the cornfield towards another squad. These soldiers landed five shots with their rifles before they were swiftly massacred by Penny’s lightsaber and external appendages; two of the shots bounced off the more reinforced parts of her body, while three shots embedded into her cybernetic armor, one of them managing to pierce her skin. While light damage that would be easily repaired, the fact the soldiers could injure Penny in the first place even with added protection was a serious sign of Wonderland’s might.

Penny and Mayra both saw as three tanks, escorted by two dozen soldiers, rolled over the distant hill, their cannons targeted at them. Even with their speed, it would take two rounds to reach the tanks.

[hr]
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Justine visibly turned red at Iron Mouse’s comment and turned her head away, having chosen to ignore the comment for now. She assumed the newcomer was teasing to gauge her ability to stay collected. Based on her failure to contain her embarrassment, she was justified in doing so. Fortunately, the energetic girl quickly moved on to the boys, who seemed better-adjusted to her shenanigans.

When it came to the duo driving the enchanted car, Justine stayed on the sidelines while Iron Mouse examined the occupants and their vessel with Third Eye. She first noticed the powerful magical aura emanating from the car’s engine, recognizing it to be an entire Artifact of it’s own designed to propel the vehicle with power far surpassing regular automobiles. There were also other lesser Artifacts on board for other functions like providing cool air to the passengers or the radio to tap into frequencies in other planes among other functions, as well as car parts inscribed with runic magic to enhance performance and durability. There were even lesser illusions that masked dirt and scratch marks. While Iron Mouse couldn’t tell where or how the car was assembled with so many magical parts, she could tell it was custom-built, and incredibly valuable.

As for the passengers themselves, Iron Mouse noted the driver to not be a conventional living creature; rather, he seemed to be a sentient golem of sorts, built with complex magic and an otherworldly black mineral that radiates mana, housing a soul of his own. He is capable of casting magic as well, having both Darkness and something resembling Stone in his magical signature. However, when Iron Mouse looked at the suited lady, all she saw was a gray silhouette, as if the magic of her Third Eye was somehow prevented from reaching beyond a barrier of sorts.

The suited lady cracked her neck; an acute observer noticed that there was a faint blue glow emanating from under her clothes before it fizzled out. However, whatever magic prevented Third Eye from working didn’t protect her from the vision that Mac saw using Endless Eclipse: like a film reel that was rapidly running backwards, she saw the two driving across the country. They moved from state to state as easily as the Road Runner in vintage cartoons, even crossing the sea using the velocity to prevent the car from sinking. As the film reel pulled back a day, she was surprised to see the locale completely different; it was a forested region filled with snow, seemingly far away to the north on another continent. 

During their encounters with monsters, the girl simply kicked back with a papyrys scroll, letting her driver eliminate the monsters on his own; the golem was shown to have speed and power close to an all-star like Rachel or maybe even Penny, and with potent magical curses and animated flesh-rending sandstorms to boot, explaining his second Specialization to be Sand, a variation on Stone. Based simply on the golem’s brief show of performance, Mac would come to the conclusion that the two would be incredibly difficult to beat in a straight fight.

However, Mac also saw that the few encounters she did have with other Mahou were not that hostile, and she quickly moved on after exchanging words or trading. She even simply back-handed the one Mahou that dared to outright attack her before leaving her in the dust, seemingly prone to not engaging despite her capability to do so. Mac could see the hostile Mahou speak her name out loud: “Sinuhe”. At that moment, Mac realized she was dealing with one of the Seven Sinners: the Sinner of Envy.

Sinuhe smiled upon hearing Iron Mouse shared their apparent destination. “Awesome! Sure, I got room in the back seat~” She pointed with her thumb to the back, where various odd objects were haphazardly strewn about. “Just make some room, and we’ll be off.” 

Justine sighed, glad that the stranger was willing to offer them a ride.
[color=bc8dbf]”Thank you very much, miss…,”[/color]

“Just call me Nefer,” she answered, seemingly willing to hide her identity. “That lug’s Akhenaten. He doesn’t speak much.”
Akhenaten grunted in confirmation, and simply stared at the group; it was impossible to gauge his expression from his rocky form.

After Nefer quickly collected the various trinkets and thingamajigs into an Extradimensional Handbag, the group discovered that three people could sit comfortably on the seats in the back.
“Either one of you sits in another’s lap, or keeps driving with the bike. Let’s see…”
She took a look at the motorcycle’s engine. “I could apply a rune to give it some speed, but you’ll still arrive later than by my car.”

Justine sighed, and glanced at the others. [color=bc8dbf]”Unless any of you got better ideas?”[/color]

[hr]
Marquis Harry blinked at Jelena’s outburst, and she spotted him rolling his eyes before he met her with his trademark dashing smile. However, it seems his dismissive reaction was to Jelena’s advantage, as he didn’t notice the quick exchange she had with Mariette.
“Well, it would be awfully considerate to dance right next to her Royal Highnesses’ favorite pastime…” He gently placed a hand on her back, and took her hand with the other.
“...But I suppose it couldn’t hurt, now could it?” Harry then proceeded to begin to follow the music in the garden party with dancing steps, taking it slowly to allow Jelena to follow his lead.
Depending on if she were to follow in the dancing motion, the two would be brought within earshot distance of Mariette and the Queen of Hearts as they moved to the croquet grounds and began their game.

The croquet mallet that Mariette received seemed innocuous in it’s wooden form, if luxurious and odd thanks to the engravings it had on its surface in the shapes of flamingos and hedgehogs. When Jelena inspected it with her Third Eye, she didn’t notice any enchantments on it. However, the moment she lifted her eyes off it, she spotted something peculiar about the croquet balls that the guards then proceeded to deliver along with the hoops that were planted on the grass; it was faint, but the balls emanated some kind of rejuvenating magic not based on Reinforcement or any Specialization she was aware of, as well as…something separate that Jelena couldn’t quite put her finger on. Nonetheless, it was something Jelena would likely want to inform Mariette about.
The queen was handed the red and black balls, while Mariette got the yellow and blue ones; a deviation from the traditional rules of granting, but not an egregious one. However, the ridiculous nature of the game soon dawned on Mariette upon seeing the size of both the hoops and the balls that were to roll through them; they were as large as basketballs, if not even more so.

“I shall be the first striker,” the Queen declared, and without further ado swung her mallet in a downwards arc, sending the ball rolling through not only one arc, but even another one in her first swing; the ball curved as it met the right angle for passing the second hoop. As she did, she listened to Mariette.

“Ah yes, a troubled past, a tousled path…” She mused, seemingly pleased with the answer.
“We come and go as we please, dear Alice, our sails pulled along by winds of whimsy. But your boat was in the stormiest sea, adrift in ways unimaginable. Oh, the stolen tarts…” She then placed the head of the mallet on the grass, and looked expectantly towards Mariette to make the next swing. “Alice, have you ever wondered how you came about finding yourself in that pit of despair? Where you would go with a different hand from the deck of fate?”