As it turns out, Zeruel's hit quite the home run when he struck the grenade dropped by Henry, sending it to the far-off reaches of Arcadia, where it exploded under some random body of water, far away from any of the ongoing skirmishes that dotted the floating paradise.
Not very far from the place he crawled his broken form to, the mighty Angel would be able to notice an interesting event. A
strange being, better a strange girl, who didn't look like she was involved with the battle, seemed to stalk the edges of Arcadia, with a glare of clear despise stamping her face as she observed the desecration of the majestic flying lands.
"So, the conflicts reached as far as here, huh? What are you planning this time, Harley? If you don't behave, I'll have to go out of my way to throw cold water at your Master's 'Project'," the girl said, clearly gazing at the direction where a certain monochrome haired being stood in the company of a less than exemplary Angel. After her mysterious line, the clearly vampiric-looking girl seemed to notice Zeruel's presence, regarding him with the same reverence one regards a cockroach that crawled from under a trash bin. "What do we have here?" She said, sounding quite amused, as she walked closer to Zeruel. "Aren't you the Almighty Leader of the Laguna Hierarchy, 'Second only to Deva'?" The girl kept on her mockery.
"What might have happened for you to be like this? Perhaps, you've learned that there's always a bigger fish, waiting to devour the one who sticks out of the shoal? That certainly is amusing. In fact, because of you, I just had the greatest idea now. Thank you, Mr. Holy Sardine," the girl said, scooping some of Zeruel's blood with a finger which ended in a vicious-looking claw, before licking it. From the way her face twisted, she seemed to be disgusted by the taste of hypocritical self-righteousness.
@Lmpkio @TheWindel Victoire Bordeaux, the Bloody Countess
Arcadia's Outer Rim ⚜ Engaging Abigail
For a moment Victoire though that Bonesword was really going to kill her. If she weren't prepared for a sudden aggression, or if that strike were truly a holy attack instead of a blow fueled by vengeance, even Victoire's shadow bat swarm wouldn't have assured her survival. As it turns out, she was still badly hurt when she got bad to her physical form, because of the nature of the blade used against her, but still managed to make it out in one piece. Henry's arrival along with Bonesword's departure gave her a moment of rest, after facing her impending doom. Now, if only she could get some fresh blood, she could heal her wounds. Alas, this would have to wait, there were more pressing matters to take care of.
"You can do so if you wish, Avaritia," Victoire said, answering Henry's question about if she called him there just to eliminate the wailing ghost who fought for the Angels, or not.
"However, the reason I called you was much more practical than simply taking care of some random garbage. I believe that you have grenade launchers or mortars in your collection, am I right?" The vampire licked some of her own blood, in an intentionally suggestive way, before continuing with her explanation.
"If that's the case, you can have these," Victoire motioned to the small pile of ruby-like fruits she previously offered to Bonesword.
"Use them in place of your normal projectiles. You can even keep some if you want, just make sure to feed them with lots of fresh blood, lest they seek to take yours." The vicious grin on Victoire's lips made it clear that she wasn't kidding about what she just said.
"These are fruits of my beloved Demon Roses, I have enchanted them so that they'll grow and seek the blood or essence of any target you shoot them with, binding and crushing them with thorny vines while drinking the essence their essence and growing stronger. Obviously, they won't work as well against Angels, especially those like that behemoth from earlier, but thanks to their supernatural origins, my roses should be able to hold even immaterial targets, as long as they aren't hit with fire or holy magics.""As long as you remember these instructions, you can consider these as an advanced reward for your role in this battle, Avaritia. Now, go and start killing our foes," Victoire said, before casually flicking a bud at Abigail, likely making the first victim of her roses in this battle. To make sure that the defenseless ghost would meet her demise, Victoire summoned a number of shadow lances and shot them at Abigail, planning to skewer the ghost while the roses crushed her very soul.
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