At first, Lily was wary of rushing in, aware that the presence of civilians narrowed down her options for attacking the home invaders. Her electric bowstring was further drawn as the girls talked back to her, crackling sparks as she grit her teeth.
”This is a longbow!” She retorted, smiling defiantly.
”Maybe if you spent a single day educating yourself instead of picking on children, you would know that!”These girls thought they could get to her through Alex, but she wouldn’t let them distract her; just as she predicted, the little girl and her mother had barriers cast over them.
Now she could get serious.
But then, the girls brought out strange artifacts, and Lily dove behind a doorway, expecting an attack. Darkness clouded her vision, and Lily electrified her body, not letting the girls get a drop on them.
But, having experienced it before, she could tell she was shifted to the Overcity. In fact, the entire household was taken there. Once she heard little Ai cry, she crouched down next to her, a willful look in her eye.
”Take your mom and hide under a table. I’ll go deal with the bad girls.”She stepped out of the house, and saw a stage close to the house, surrounded by spirits and the fey; it was as if a concert was held right across the street. She squinted.
”Oh no. Don’t tell me-”The explosion of music that erupted from the girls answered her question quicker than any words could have. It was a grand spectacle, but even so, Lily’s desire for justice would not be abated.
”I got you covered, Alex!” She informed her partner, and took a stance as monsters were summoned.
When the groupies came forward in a mix of dance and violent intent, Lily did not hesitate; she made a pulling motion with her hand, and three arrows appeared in her hand, floating up to her palm as if they had been turned back in time. Then, with a single volley, the arrows were loosed, striking each of the three golems straight in the center of their bodies. The golems seemed unaffected at first, and were about to reach Lily, when the power of her magic was revealed; the golems found themselves teleported back to right where they were five seconds ago. No matter where they ran, or how they acted, they would return back to that same spot five seconds later, only to be nailed on the spot by another volley of arrows in the exact same spot the moment they were returned, impossible to dodge. These arrows were accelerated with Time magic, and hit with enough kinetic force to blow their metallic bodies apart.
”I’m finally starting to get the hang of this magic!”
The two corrupted girls turned their heads simultaneously to look at Penny, startled by the sheer strength that she used in holding their weapons down. “B-But-” One of the girls attempted to speak, only to be shot down by Penny’s scolding. The other girl bit her lip, having realized her mistake. “I...I guess that is true.” The two girls stepped aside, no longer hostile. As for the rest of the girls in the Sanctuary, Penny’s statement of having built the place successfully caught their attention, and one by one the noises in the shelter subsided. “Penny the Builder...” One of them muttered to another girl who silently nodded.
At first, Penny’s request to help quell the riots was made with booing and audible disapproval. But then, once she brought up the Ascendancy, their attitudes changed; many of them turned pale in the face, while others began to shed tears, having remembered what happened at the Red Rave. For a while, Penny’s final question was met with silence.
“Fuck it, I’ll go.” One of the girls casually whipped their hand up in the air, followed by walking past Penny. “But I’m not going there because I’m afraid of some nazis. I want my revenge on the bitch who killed my friend.”
That was the breakthrough, after which many more girls joined up and left the Sanctuary.
As people passed by, Penny found herself poked by a creepy-looking monster girl.
“Umm, Penny? I...I know some magic that...Morphs the flesh...” She stated, averting her eyes in anxiety. “I’ve only used it to attack civilians and their pets, but...Can I use it to help? I mean, we have some injured folks, some lost limbs, organs...I’ve never done it before, but...Uh...”
“Penny!” Suddenly, Penny’s attention was drawn to Goblina, who ran up to her. “What happened at the party? Where’s Cindy? I got knocked out just before we were about to attend, and I heard Elvira betrayed us?”
Sharron nodded, grateful for receiving the cleaned glasses. “Thank you. I...I must say, I didn’t expect such kindness.” She then looked shocked upon hearing the revelation about the rave’s attack, and held the handle of her glasses with a trembling arm, causing them to shake too. “A...psychic nuke? That explains the ringing in my head. But, who could have created something like that? Only organizations with access to vast resources like the Ebon Mint would have the ability to procure such a weapon.” She then turned quiet, contemplating what had happened with her, and her rescuers.
“...Sharron,” she finally responded, and stood up...Or at least attempted to, before she stumbled to lean against a wall. “Ugh! Still a bit light-headed...Damn...” She slid back down to sit, her back against the wall, as she listened to the girls explain their intentions behind saving her. She noticed as one of the younger-looking dark magical girls peeked at her behind a corner, and hid again upon being spotted. “The right thing, huh...” She averted her eyes. “Was your choice to attend this gathering of debauchery the right thing too? Was the death and destruction of humanity the right thing to do as well? Or do you think a simple act of kindness justifies all the sins you have committed?” She slammed the back of her fist against the wall.
“You delude yourself with false morality, and run away from the consequences of your actions like cowards! You should be ashamed of yourselves!”
Vivi gasped,, and bit her lip when Su filled in on the rave’s events. “Justine...One of the Seven Sinners!” She squinted as she was met with gazes by the others. “It is a group of the world’s most dangerous magical heretics and monsters, each represented by a Deadly Sin.” She chuckled. Each one is capable of destroying the world on their own if given the chance. Fortunately, the Beacon has successfully contained most of them, and sent the others into hiding. Justine, the Sinner of Pride, has been particularly slippery, but I thought she was destroyed in the Overcity. I guess a demon like her would find a way to claw their way back from hell.”
“Huh...I figured the ol’ Justy was a big cheese.” Helga admitted, and looked just as confused as Su when the latter asked her about an exit. “Sorry, but I don’t recognize this place.” She looked around. “I think it’s a garbage dump or something, but I’m not sure. Maybe the hot lady can give us directions.” A couple of seconds passed, followed by her poker face breaking into out loud laughing. “HAH-HAH! Get it? Cause she’s literally on fire? AA-HAHH-HAH!”
Vivi giggled a bit at the joke, only to roll her eyes as the cinder block made her demands. “Alright, you can haz cheezburger, geez.” She used a small spout of water to lift herself back up, and took a look at her surroundings. “Huh...Don’t think I’ve ever been to this sector of the Overcity...”
After Askefye gave some dubious directions, she made fingerguns at her with her claws, smiling happily. “Alright! Thanks for the tip, Magmadonna!” She waved goodbye to Askefye before she went over to FanFan. She was about pick her up again when the Ascendancy girl slapped the claw away. “Oh, don’t you humiliate me anymore! I can walk on my own legs.” That said, she did have to use a robotic arm as a walking cane to support herself, still looking weak. Helga didn’t mind, however, and took Su’s hand. “So what places did you go to when you last came to the Overcity? Maybe we could go shopping for some stuff? I heard they’ve got all kinds of cool trinkets on sale.”
Vivi on the other hand glared at Askefye, aware of the bridge and its contents. “Haha, really funny. How about you give some real directions. I’ll gib you some dinner then,” she added, followed by cracking her knuckles. “Or maybe you’ll like a cold glass or 80 of H2O.”
And so, with a bit of bickering, the rag-tag group of misfits found themselves at the bridge.
Helga stepped forth.“Alright, let’s see if the portal is-ah.” She paused, and lifted her hand to her ear.
“I hear snoring. Like, heavy, fat guy snoring.” She lifted an eyebrow at Askefye. “You sure this is the right way?”
Viv had her arms crossed, tapping her foot. “Sure sure. It’s not like the evil hell demon here would ever lie. Isn’t that right?” She asked sharply, glancing at the taller girl.
Trixy’s entangling shots proved effective in obstructing Hyun Long’s dragon-headed tentacles, even if she had to avoid shooting directly at the monster queen herself due to Rachel blocking her line of fire from the front. The Inquisitor herself possessed most of the monster queen’s attention, walloping at the tentacles with blows mighty enough to outright decapitate the dragonheads or flatten them into the floor. Not only did the seed shots blow up the monstrous appendages on impact, the resulting explosions of roots also caught other tentacles near the initial one, preventing Hyun from reaching over to eat Ceriza.
The tentacles lashed out at Trixy in revenge, only to be stopped by Alicia’s explosive arrows that met their mark, blasting her back and leaving chunks of wriggling flesh left in their wake, decimating all the tentacles in her rear. Serenity then charged in to the opening to stab at Hyun, only to be met with a blast of fire shot from Hyun’s human arm, successfully dodging it. Shane blasted Hyun Long’s other flank with lightning bolts and fried the scaly worms, this time saving Cerisa from a gourmet fate. And soon enough, as the piece of the ghost ship was brought, a gray fog soon spread over the corpses on the floor, causing them to disappear in spooky fashion.
When one tentacle snapped at Shane, about to bite into his outstretched arm in revenge, the resulting shock caused Hyun Long to screech in pain, followed by Sil delivering an attack that cuth through the tentacles like a knife through spaghetti, visibly wounding the main body in the process. Pained by such moves, she only noticed Amaryllis once she kicked off the hanging cage, now above her.
The monster queen visibly drooled as her eyes traced over the Knight of Rose’s abundant figure; her Devourer instinct told her that the swordswoman was the most delicious out of all the potential prey in the hall, possessing more meat around her bones than the average magical girl. Tentacles burst up toward her like an enclosing venus trap, only to be met with chunks of concrete that obscured her vision. At that moment, Amaryllis had laid her trap, and chains wrapped around Hyun Long’s hydra-like form; her tentacles trashed about, causing the chains to further entangle into her body.
Like a fishing net that has obtained a mass of octopi from the depths of the sea, the monster queen began to ascend up. To Amaryllis’ misfortune, she did not have the time to evade the rising monster queen as she was caught in the hungry being’s tentacles, wrapping around her arms and limbs in immobilizing fashion and snatching her as the both of them passed the ceiling and met the rainy night of Penrose.
“FHHHEEEDDH!” Hyun howled, and her tongue slithered out from her lips as she gazed upon Amaryllis. As she struggled, she was brought closer to the monster queen’s human body, where her teeth-filled maw waited, about to bite into her flesh up above the city of Penrose.
Celia and Nightwing were locked in
mortal combat, neither side gaining an advantage over the other in their struggle. “Argh...You’re pretty good. But against a former Mint killer, you don’t stand much chance-wait, is that thing…” She turned to see the dragon lift its wings. “SHIT!” She screamed, and created a cloud of darkness the moment the sand twister struck them; Celia was thrown towards the Ascendancy group, her crystalline skin ground by sand into a rough texture. Nightwing managed to avoid the worst of the attack, but ended up throwing herself against a vine hedge that quickly entangled her. “Crap! Get off me!” She used one Bladebats to cut herself off, and coughed out some sand. “Damn, that dragon sucks!” She threw her other Bladebat at the dragon, aiming to cut its body into a salad.
Hudie took her chance when Hilaria’s attention was diverted to Emily, and rushed forth to Cardinal Ishtar, who was now slowly sinking into the quick-sand like mud.
She lifted her up, and placed a hand over her heart.
“Hudie...Helewisa is...She needs...help...”
But then, the masked girl placed a finger on her lips. “It’s going to be fine, Cardinal. Now, close your eyes, and empty your thoughts. When you wake, you are saved.” The Cardinal weakly nodded, and closed her eyes. The moment she did so, Hudie muttered a spell. A great magical circle surrounded the two, resembling a sundial that reflected the movement of the planets in it’s shadow-like clock.
“Echo of Ages,” she calmly spoke, and the Cardinal was frozen, brought to a temporal stasis. Her curse stopped spreading, having also been stopped in unyielding time.
Tsuki rushed over to her. “Is she okay, Hudie? We need to retreat and-AHH!” She turned to see the draconic entity flap its wing-like appendages, and cast a quick barrier. The resulting blast of wind sent Elora spinning wildly into the air atop her techno-cube, landing in the Spirit Zone.
“Oof...I got yeeted, and hard.”
Tsuki herself survived, but Hudie was thrown against a vine hedge. As she cut herself free with her fan, she realized that Ishtar was snagged, brought deeper into the green foliage.
“Cardinal!” She cried out.
Mia’s magic melted the icy earth, causing it to bloom and awaken to new life. Having drawn upon Gaia’s bounty, she succeeded in claiming a stake on Penrose Park. This resulted in Aighorost failing to expand his corruptive influence upon the land as it was locked in a tug-of-war with Mia’s magic, restricting it to the Park. However, as long as his avatars remained, neither side would budge from their place in nature or overcome the other.
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