Thank the cosmos for the Beacon Buddies.
Though such a thought crossed her mind in some fashion as the assistants of Regina and Elroy began to cart her off and provide assistance with her escape, Annabelle felt a pang of joy leap into her heart. Her...her friends. Ah, the word felt so odd to think, but it nearly brought a smile to her face as briefly. However as she was being flown away she looked behind to what was going on. Others were arriving, prominently including some sort of group of people who began attacking the grunts. For a second, Annabelle was glad for it, though it also worried her as well. Many of the grunts who had managed to grab anything, whether it was people or attempting to gang up on a single mummy enough at a time to try to secure it for transport, were fleeing towards the dugout with the last remaining open portal in it. Albeit, a destabilized portal, flickering like static from a TV screen of yore with sparks of magic flying from parts it now as a low, creaking, groaning sound seemed to emanate from it. Such a thing could be dangerous, stable or not....especially in the latter case were it not shut down promptly enough, or correctly at that. But if left alone...well, there was perhaps not telling that could happen.
The magic of horrors could be such a tricky thing to tamper with in reality.
However, she noticed a couple of things out of the corners of her eyes, and this snapped her a bit out of the serious disillusionment she had been feeling prior. Enough to act more directly, anywho. As she saw something moving towards the knightly magical girl who had stayed behind to help protect her, Annabelle pushed her magic even more, a vertical, wall-like barrier of void arising between the charging figure to try protect Shona...even Amaryllis since the two were near each other, despite what was happening. But wait, what was that booming noise? She looked to her side to see something being fired towards the top part of the stadium...about where she'd been short from by that....oh. Wait, who were they attacking? Rina?! Elroy or Regina?!?! She gritted her teeth, focusing as best as she could to try to create a small disc of void ahead of the projectile if she could.
Hoping the two Bates siblings would be ok, not wanting to guilt of letting them die because of her, Annabelle grit her teeth at the thought. though, yet more than this the situation was finally beginning to settle in for her. Not completely, but she felt a bit more cognizant of things around her than she had been not long ago. As the emotions became more focused into a frustration, they slightly began to overpower a bit of the blur of emotions, thoughts, and fears twisting about inside of her head and gut like a knife. Just enough for her to feel a pang of hurt at being....sent in here as fodder, perhaps? Being lied to at that by her patron, and then he had toyed with her magic and weapon and overpowered her life she was a mere insect? She'd seen her boss use other minions for that before, but he'd never done something like this to her before. Ever.
An inky black orb formed in front of Annabelle, moving along with the trio as they flied toward the exit. It seemed to expand into a mirror-like shape, a flat mirror like object in front of her. Like a portal, but too small to use. At the same time, out of the dugout portal emerged some more lesser horror goons to try to cover the flight of those that had any "supplies" with them. However, something seemed....rather wrong this time, as a few seemed to collapse after getting through missing body parts or half their bodies as they bled into the dugout. Though these were ignored by those that came into and out of the portal intact enough.
'Ah, my herald. Its is good that you live, and the supply that has been brought in by now is sufficient for certain parts at least. Unfortunate what has happened otherwise, however.' the voice of Soth said as it came out of the portal, able to be heard as clearly and smoothly as a "soothing" tone in a horror's voice could perhaps be like.
"Why...did you...stop me? Why did you lie to me? You...THEY TRIED TO KILL ME!!!" Annabelle said back at the small portal that was moving along with her and the two other Beacon Buddies, at first her voice timid, tired, almost hoarse as it sounded like she had not long ago. Yet it built up, the frustration finding a focus, and erupted into a clarion shout emerging from Annabelle's mouth that cracked along with her voice and a couple tears that ran down her cheeks from her eyes now.
'Do not rage, young one, for i bear no ill will at you. You were not told the full truth of this mission, for i had other matters i had to attend to at the time. Certain...preparations alongside information gathering, as it were. Though i see this was a mistake in hindsight to allow you to go off without an understanding.
Ah, what it must be like to be such a young existence, a being coated in flesh and blood. I have always wondered what it would be like, in a sense, though such a frail vessel of the soul can also be so....foolish and hasty in its fleeting moments of clinging to life. Regardless, we are about ready to move onward with things to the next step. I have located a particularly precious resource for acquisition, and after this event it shall require more....subtle measure to acquire.
So for the time being, stay with these....'Bates' individuals with which you have affiliated yourself. You seem to be happier alongside them, and the rest of this day you shall have to indulge your own ideas and ends. I shall then call for you when you are next needed, my herald.
Until then, you need to get some rest.
And so i address you, assistant of the 'Bates' as they are named. For keeping my herald safe, and in return for taking her in for a day or so perhaps, tell your masters they shall be rewarded for it with added pay.""Pay attention! You were busy, so that's why you never said anything to me?! I....why? What are you planning, boss? I...i wanted to help the people here....not kill them... Then those two...now they...i just wanted to do something good..."The magical girl's voice seemed weaker again, the feeling of hoarseness cutting and tearing at the inside of her throat. She was beginning to lose the words she wanted to say, mind still swimming with thoughts and emotions and sensations making the very act of forming words and thinking of them even more draining. She felt the struggle to keep her eyes open set in, even. Her body felt...it didn't feel right at the moment regardless. Her boss had directly controlled her magic, and she'd....she'd lost an arm. Though she couldn't really feel the latter at the moment, the former had left her skin crawling. Like her personal space had been violated.
'Ah, interesting...that such a mind still retains a sense of that 'morality of humans'. Most interesting indeed. Perhaps...could it possess such things as well, potentially? If so that could be...mhmm, that would be most fascinating to experience indeed. Ah, but perhaps i get ahead of myself in the overall scheme of things.
But in other matters:
You had hopes to eventually befriend those two who wounded and harmed you, it would seem? Yet such innocence as yours this day was met with cold steel and the drawing of blood, and this is the reality of this life of yours. Even now it seems....ah, you still hope for them to live, don't you? Even though they will most likely seek to slay you where you stand after this event? Shall this naivete result in your slaying proper next time around then?'Annabelle clamped her mouth shut before she could drawl out any of the words floating about in her mind about what he had just said. Soth....dangit, her boss wasn't wrong...was he? She wanted him to be wrong, that Amaryllis might show up again and she could talk to her over a cup of tea. That perhaps they could be friends, find a way to get along.
Yet perhaps...perhaps she was being naive, and greedy for wanting...for wanting so many friends, eh? The void-touched girl bit onto her lower lip a bit. Was it so wrong to feel the desire to connect to others? Was...was having the desires and feelings she had a bad thing to have at all?
This time she had no retort, just silence as she realized there were some things she had to think about for herself. Yet as much as she wanted to just walk away from her patron in some part within her....she knew for sure, for a great surety, this would not go well. For as calm as Soth seemed to be....she'd seen that anger. Briefly, only ever once or twice at most....it had haunted her for two years straight in her sleep after that.
Lightly shaking her head to try to help keep conscious, Annabelle looked up in the direction of where the attack fired towards the upper area of the stands had been aimed. Right now, she needed to be awake. She couldn't...she couldn't back down now that Regina and Elroy were here. She wanted to keep them safe, alive....ah. She did have something she could do. She could feel the darkness, that magic, where concentrations of it were about her....at least if only because she was tied to the element and it was "her shtick" so to say.
As her boss' voice ceased to emanate from the orb floating still in front of her, Annabelle seized control again over the orb and did her best to focus on a particular area where she felt a strong concentration of darkness magic. Near Regina, a tiny portal, the size of a modest hand mirror, would open up similar in shape to the way the orb had opened up for Annabelle when Soth had spoken to her moments ago. As Annabelle's orb changed again to that shape it had been in, she felt a small pang of relief wash over her.
If her boss could open up two small portals for comms....so could she then! Besides, she didn't care if her boss liked that or not, she was going to keep her friends safe and that was final!
"R-Regina, you...there?" the void-touched magical girl said, her voice coming clearly out of the other portal in the process as she spoke into the one floating in front of her on her end, trying to be positive in her voice despite the obvious tired pauses and rare occasional stutter as her body has shivers run down its spine,
"Stay safe...and...t-thank you. He....we...c-can go on the town tonight...eh? Just the two of us, ok? I k-know a place.....ahh...i-i feel colder than i was b-before...."She was getting...dizzier and dizzier too. In reality, this entire time her remaining bit of the top part and shoulder of her right arm was raggedly cut and bleeding out from where it had been severed from the rest. It wasn't impossible that this would have an effect on her even as a magical girl, with Divina potentially getting this blood on herself in the process of things due to holding up that part of her as they floated on. Albeit, she could feel what was almost like tiny threads of magic around the wounded area....maybe her boss attempting to stitch her up? Or was it just a phantom feeling, a vain hope that things would be better and that he wasn't using her just like another tool.
Hah.
But she wouldn't die from blood loss. Not here, not now.
Nina Kujo and Alice Honorsby
Ah, that Speedwagon girl had picked up, at least. Albeit, things didn't seem too well at the cathedral, when the call kept going but Speedwagon didn't seem to be talking to her anymore. Getting the clue rather quickly on the uptake, though as Speedwagon seemed to be surprised by some even unknown to her Nina sighed. Quickly putting the phone to her side, she didn't even have to look at Alice to realize the other magical girl knew what was going on. Scope on that rifle was able to tell her enough normally anywho. Nina then held her left arm up, and snapped her fingers using her left hand.
"『Violet Hermit』Summoned"
"『Violet Hermit』Ability Activated: Distant Impressions"
Violet-colored vines with leaves grew up around her left arm, seeming to shimmer into existence in the blink of an eye. They grew in length until they reached down in front of the magical girl, forming a mirror-shaped oval as tall as an adult man. Then within this space the air seemed to shimmer, as the image of Speedwagon and the scene around her came up as if it being displayed on a computer screen. Looking to Alice, Nina nodded and her partner nodded in return before leaping into the image in front of them. Nina then pulled down her arm, the vines remaining attached to her as she walked into the image in front of her as well. Though as she did this, the vines forming that had become the "portal" in front of them seemed to be drawn in as well, sucked in until naught was left behind but empty air.
This was the spirit 『Violet Hermit』, which could create a portal to the general location of anyone the wielder knew the appearance of. Which for a magical girl, meant they had to be in the form she recognized for this to actually work. Not that the portal would drop them right by the person...it wasn't a perfect teleportation after all.
Speedwagon would see a figure zoom over from a nearby rooftop, landing next to her with a rifle in hand. Red Rifle has a small grin on her face as she hoisted the weapon up, aimed in the direction of the witches in the air, before looking over to her side at the fellow magical girl. The grin remained in place, but Alice gave a teasing wink regardless.
"Nina sent me ahead to meet up with ya, since we kinda landed in an odd place location coming here. She decided ta' give the portal one more chance to get to a better spot.
At any rate, you ok, Speedwagon?"Her tone was sincere despite the grin and teasing wink, a thing that at times seemed to catch people off guard. Nina, however, had become accustomed to it.
Meanwhile....atop the tallest spire of the cathedral, a figure seemed to appear on top, standing without so much as a sway as they looked down upon the witches in the air around them. Blue clothes, ponytail....the trademark magical girl appearance of Nina herself in all honesty. However, as the violet-colored vines shimmered away and faded from where they had been on her left arm, another figure seemed to shimmer into existence. The same spirit as she had been using the other day, albeit without getting to use its ability.
"『Star Platinum』Summoned"
"Yare yare, daze. You old hags really like to mess up peoples' day, huh? Messing with innocent people.....it makes me sick!"Nina struck a pose, one hand in her coat pocket and the left other pointing out at the witches as she called out to them in a loud, annoyed voice. The striking image of the character her patron had designed her magical girl form to be like. Were that goddess here, she might have been giggling like a happy geek to herself about things despite the situation.
"Now you'll pay!""『Star Platinum』Ability Activated: Worlds of Pain"
Star Platinum, floating behind and above Nina's back it always did when summoned, held up its hand with one finger pointed at the sky. A sphere began to form just above it. Smaller spheres made of metal began to form within it as well quickly, and just when it might have finally drawn some attention the power finally kicked in proper.
The larger sphere evaporated, leaving the many small metal balls floating in the air. Then snapping the fingers on her left hand again as the metal gauntlets on her arm glistened in the sunlight, the snap merely done for dramatic effect as she had done prior, the small metal balls began to move quickly. Flying out into the air, they began to rain down like a shower of small, speedy meteors to try to smash into the witches. It was the strongest attack of this spirit of hers, which utilized the Metal element. But instead of one large attack it made up for it....
....by assaulting the enemy with an array of homing metal balls as its special ability!!!
Xaltwind
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Savo
Tortoise
AtomicNut
Sigma
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Animal
Neziul