6813/Hearts Of Glass: Polychromatic

Hearts Of Glass: Polychromatic
Date of Scene:	13 September 2019
Location:	Tokyo
Synopsis:	The final showdown between the Witches created by Mikoto's efforts to escape her nature... and everyone who had come to stop them.
Cast of Characters:	Lezard Valeth, 7002, Haguro, 6895, Sarracenia, Rean Schwarzer, Staren
Tinyplot:	Hearts of Glass

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Lezard Valeth has posed:
    The sensation of a Witch goes out. Strong, but fragmented. Irregular, but familiar. A collection of sensations, gathering together to create a greater, more terrible whole as the pieces begin to fit together, a puzzle of despair, of hatred, of abuse and neglect, of loss, of grief... And above all, of envy.

    This time, it is not in Mitakihara. That Witch magnet is left alone for a change. This might or might not be a good thing. No, this time, the location that the Witch is felt is coming from Tokyo itself. St. Luke's International Hospital is an imposing sight, a place that gives care and assistance to most of Tokyo. Tonight, its curved, glass-fronted building is sheathed in a twisted spire that stabs into the heavens, a multicolored eruption of faceted gleaming glass that firmly encases tne entire campus within the Barrier. Already, there are tormented howls and screams, sobbing echoing through the corridors, clearly audible through the dimensional distortion that is the defiant supernatual division.

    There is one who would understand the message immediately. Today it ends. Today, they go back to the beginning. One way or another, the story stops here.

HEARTS OF GLASS
CHAPTER 4: POLYCHROMATIC
Theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfhUSYq7jEs

Mikoto Shimizu (7002) has posed:
Mikoto knows this place, even if she is not personally familiar with it.  She was here once, a long time ago.  She has a guess why, of all places, it was here.  It seems that the witch was more than just trying to get revenge directly on her, it wanted to make her stuffer the whole way down.  

Standing in front of the glass entrance, transformed, and holding the sword in front of her, tip into the ground as she takes a breath.  She was going to finish this herself...

But she was sure that she could fail, the possibility was there.  So she left a beacon right outside of the barrier, as she hits the switch on it and smashes her sword into the barrier.  She walks in, sword held at the ready, and simply pushes ahead.  

"Come out, witch.  Either you put me out of my, or I put you out of your misery...or each other's.  Let's not waste any more time, tell your story if you want.  I'm not going to go anywhere."

Haguro has posed:
The Witch has returned. Or Witches. Haguro still isn't completely certain what the story is behind the witches from their last enocunter and that strange connection from them to Mikoto and people from her past, but she's seen enoguh to make a decision on how to proceed today.

Destroy the targets. Obtain the seed(s). That's all that has to happen to put an end to this. She has to harden herself to the sounds of wailing and sobbing as she heads straight for the hospital, turrets armed and ready. There's not even the slightest hint of subtlety or restraint as she's even got her armor in place, and the only thing that has Haguro waiting at least a little is knowing that others will be arriving soon as well. Spotting Mikoto further ahead has her hurrying up, though, as the Cruiser joins the Magical Girl with revolver in hand and turrets on everything else.

"It may run again. Like the last time. Are you prepared to chase it as long as you have to if it does?"

Lilian Rook (6895) has posed:
    'Kind of weird' Lilian thinks 'that it'd end up anywhere in this country with a big old crucifix over the top'. Even changed from Mitakihara to Tokyo, the clash against its surroundings strikes her. 'An old building like this, in that sea of ultramodern opera house out there. Going for an ounce of class?'

    She hadn't waited for a beacon. This particular thing was personal, partially, and professional, certainly, --the screams coming from inside made sure of that-- but she'd neither hurried here with the tense energy of rushing to claim something, nor the lightning fast cool of an emergency responder, but some other kind of strangel, electrically driven energy.

    "It looks like it's properly set up this time." she states, walking forward across the courtyard lawn, dressed up in the greyblack battlesuit this time. "There'll be no convenient way through. Priotize speed and efficiency. Dealing with this as quickly as possible is our only current means to minimize casualties." It's unclear whether she's talking to Mikoto, or simply past her. Seeing no way to slip right past the barrier, Lilian steps through at the moment she draws her sword from her back, with a sound like scraping glass.

Sarracenia has posed:
     When she received a report of the beacon and where it was located, Princess Sarracenia departed immediately on her flagship, the Sundew Sovereign. It has a full crew and plenty of supplies this time considering this is a hospital. There could be tons of injured people that need help, and not just from the Witch attack.

     The big wooden airship with the princess's golden effigy on the front comes flying in over the streets, and Sarracenia leaps down to see what the situation is. The hospital seems surrounded, so she isn't sure they can get anyone out yet. But, she has the cargo ramps lowered on the airship anyway, to take in any civilians fleeing the scene and anyone that makes it out of the hospital. Then, she smashes her way through the barrier and quickly follows the others. "Wait, so the other one was not even a complete barrier?" she asks in a combination of skepticism and disbelief.

Rean Schwarzer has posed:
Rean would've shown up even if Mikoto didn't put down the beacon, but she did, so that at least saved him some time in trying to find the place.

...If the screaming and crying coming from that hospital wasn't a tip off.

He grips the hilt of his sword tighter and runs to where the others are. They needed to end this now.

"I'm not sure whether or not we could even call it a barrier, given how irregular this situation is to begin with." Rean says to Sarencia.

Lezard Valeth has posed:
    There is no time to waste as Mikoto leads the group in breaking into the Witch's Labyrinth. There is no resistance, the thing welcomes them as they arrive. The confrontation is as inevitable as a gun resting on the mantle in the first act. There is no instability in the Barrier, a smooth, pure, clean division that fills in all the cracks and inefficiencies that had been present before. There is no clever slipping or clipping tricks to engage in this time. It has claimed the lives of every patient and practicioner inside this building, and the only way through is into the darkness.

    Unlike before, the group breaches into the Labyrinth. The expected glassy pop-up storybook effect... is not present. Those entering are treated to the relief of existing in three dimensions, standing upon an endless plain of stained glass in curled and interconnected locking pieces. Distorted images from Mikoto's life are strewn about, moments of pain both public and private laid bare in twisted coloration. Above is a roiling foggy blackness, a glistening non-light radiating down through the seething shredded tatters of night that race through the non-sky.

    There is no narration. There is no remaining story to tell. The damage has already begun to take its toll, parts of the ground sagging, other places shattered and exposing a hellish black abyss below. The critical wounds from being broken repeated times, the savage story-destroying bane-strokes of Lilian's own weapon, all have accumulated into a rapidly disintegrating state.

Lezard Valeth has posed:
    It becomes clear now what is happening: It's dying. It's already beginning to fall apart And it's going to take as much as it can with it. Six tattered, shredded beings, many of them barely held together float in a circle. Each alike in their form, non-persons clad in the remains of colored hooded cloakes, broken and cracked masks behind which shines a purple light that passes from one eye to another. And above, hanging over them all... The one in green. The missing piece that stood amidst them all, looking down with Mikoto's own face rendered in china-white. The cape spreads, arms reaching out in a shadowy beckoning...

    And the six fall, the masks shattering as from behind each emerges a glittering silver wireframe pendant... Or a piece of one. Each of them glistens with obsidian and purple as they float around Green in a rotating circle, each dragged inside behind the mask. With a sizzling burst of energy, the multitude of signals becomes singular, even as the creatures are reborn, colored shades spreading behind Green in an even wedge. Green draws a jade blade, and giggles.

    A moment later, the world erupts, shattering as the glass begins to fold in upon itself, green spires ripping up through the fragile ground to attempt to pierce them all as the world folds and contorts, spinning platforms of glass rolling through the air and spinning wildly, making footing treacherous.

Lezard Valeth has posed:
\========================================================================/
  \======================================================================/  
   \====================================================================/  

                             - COVEN OF GLASS -                            

                - SEVEN HEARTS TO BEAR ANOTHER'S DARKNESS -                

   /====================================================================\  
  /======================================================================\  
/========================================================================\

BGM SHIFT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_oEDGONSc4

Mikoto Shimizu (7002) has posed:
Mikoto's blade comes up as the witch brings her own, absorbing the other witches.  This is...new...because usually witches create more of themselves over time, not take in others.  This must be based on the power that created them.  Another reason to be careful in the future, but right now...

The sword grip tightens, as she hooks her head towards Lilian.  "Do you just have to say things and pretend you're in charge?  Rean might enjoy it, but I'm not into that," She says, perhaps trying to lighten the mood, despite herself.  

People came here, she wondered how many were here for her verses here for this thing instead.  Still... "See for yourself..." she motions towards the areas in black in response to Haguro.  "It's hurt, so I guess it's doing what I would in this situation...fight for its survival."

Then jade, Mikoto brings the blade across the front of her, trying to block the shards, but the maneuver wasn't quick enough, as shards stab into her arms and chest.  Blood drips over the wounds, but she doesn't stop.  

She leaps, aiming to get closer to the creature, swinging the blade in a wide arch and attempting to drive it back.  It would have her powers, likely...which means...

Haguro has posed:
It looks like everyone's ready. Unified or not, that's far better than the past few times, and Haguro's ready to blast her way through whatever may come as getting into the hospital proves to be far easier than before. She notices the distinct... Sanity of how everything looks compared to how it did the last few times, and that actually has her slowing down somewhat just to make sure she's not overlooking something.

Nope. Looks normal. She listens. No strange narration, either. All that's left are the six floating figures as they rise, fall, and rise once more behind Green in the broken glass world around them.

The world breaking around them is a minor relief. If nothing else, it's more consistent than everything being normal. Haguro grimaces as the first spire rips upwards, not so much feeling the cut drawing blood as she sees it first and feels it once she starts moving to avoid the rest of the glass coming up at her.

"How sharp...! But we've handled worse. If it's going to fight for survival, then..." She starts towards Mikoto, then shakes her head. "No. Even if it's fighting for survival, we need to make sure. Let's box it in and not give it another chance to retreat!" Juking her way around the continuing spires as best she can, the Cruiser fires off her chain knife in one direction while her turrets fire on Green and the floating figures, opting for more of a covering fire/explosive saturation approach as she tries to leap and swing her way across those platforms.

Staren has posed:
    It's a bird, it's a plane, it's... Robo-Staren!

    The red armored figure flies down from the sky and right through the mirrored barrier. He takes only a brief look around, and decides to keep flying on thrusters (wings appear to give him a speed boost during more sudden movements) to avoid worrying about footing and the abyss and keep his focus on the Witch. And with all his weapons available, he--

    --opens with the good old reliable particle beams. As much as he was tempted to send a tactical nuke on a timer into the barrier, too much could go wrong. And firing everything he's got right away could be negated by some heretofore-unseen defense.

    No, slow and steady will win this race. Picking apart defenses with unrelenting fire, a tireless machine. The witch of glass will break before the man of steel and circuitry.

    "No. This is not survival. Survival would be sublety. Claiming a few lives here and there, not hitting a hospital to draw wrath upon itself. Although perhaps its thought processes are just that alien..."

Sarracenia has posed:
     Sarracenia watches all of this, and...she shakes her head. All of this because her friend accepted help from a person Sarra is pretty sure is a monster. He certainly didn't have anyone's best interests in mind. And now they have to kill someone that would not have even been involved otherwise. Someone who maybe never even knew what happened. She tightens her grip on her hammer as she watches the seven figures above them...

     And is caught quite unaware by the rising spires of green. She yelps as one catches her along her back and catches the back of her dress, carrying her upwards. The princess yelps again and quickly pushes the front of her dress down. "D-don't you dare look!" she warns everyone. She is stuck for a few moments as she tries to figure out what to do without showing more than she'd like. She finally reaches into her purse and pulls out a Bob-omb, then drops it so that it shatters the green spire a few feet below her. She has just enough time to dislodge herself and get her hammer down so that when she lands on the top of the spire she isn't pierced by more glass or jade or whatever it is.

     "Of course she does!" she calls out to Mikoto after that. "She thinks she's better than everyone else and that the worlds would fall to ruin without her!" the princess says with a sneer. "Well, guess what! We would be able to handle this just fine without you!" she says, then pulls out the missile launcher she used last time. "And I'll prove it now!" she shouts as the big missile pod starts launcing a veritable rainstorm of missiles that track their target while the wind created by the launches causes the princess's hair and dress to flutter out behind her. A staccato of explosions follows soon after! "I am sorry about what happened to you, but attacking orphanages and hospitals...I would not even do that!"

Lilian Rook (6895) has posed:
    "I'm the oldest. It's my job." Lilian replies to Mikoto once the two of them arrive at the same plane of existence. It's curt, but vaguely facetious. "Someone has to look after the kids, right?" Though lacking a really scornful edge, it's still slightly too serious for someone who looks to be maybe two years older than Mikoto. Oh well. It's verbal padding until the Witch shows itself, right?

    Just by looking around, Lilian can tell what the state of things is. "We've followed a bleeding wolf back to its cave. Even if we're here to finish it off, it'll be especially vicious while clinging to life. I don't see it retreating again. If it wastes its energy fighting us, limping off again is guaranteed to cause it to bleed out somewhere else in short order."

    The jade spires erupt from the ground. Lilian's seen Mikoto do it, so the Witch wearing her face is less surprising about it. She leaps up into the air aside from one, pushing off it with her hand and arcing over another, twisting her whole body like a high bar vault. A couple of ground flips take her past an advancing row, and then a repeated series of flickering movements rapidly cause her to 'skate' back and forth over the ice through the rest. She slides over the polished, disintegrating ground, revolving towards the Witch. The glamour on her sword burns away, and the black designs crawl over her skin. A palm thrust at the air causes an explosive spike of red-black energy to erupt towards the Witch, breaking a wave of glass around her from the backwards pressure wave of magic, crunching her heels an inch deep into the kalaeidoscope ground. It's like hitting the Witch with, specifically, the muzzle blast of a naval gun, right up close.

Rean Schwarzer has posed:
Rean sighs at Mikoto's comment about him liking being bossed around by Lilian. "I don't /like/ being bossed around, I just don't -" Rean says, but then a jade spike comes out of the ground, scraping his shoulder and interrupting him.

Green's sword is familiar to him too, given the number of times he'd fought alongside Mikoto at this point. So they took her magic as well as her darkness. "...I'm sorry." He murmurs, though who the hell is he apoligizing to? The Witch? The girls whose souls it was made of? Mikoto? Either way, he's likely thinking the same thing Mikoto is, and charges in after her, striking low in comparison to her striking high. The witch can't block both of them at once, after all.

Lezard Valeth has posed:
    Mikoto strikes back quickly, attempting to press the Witch as the multicolored spectres leak out into the world around them, flickering and warping as the Coven meets Mikoto's strike head-on. Or more accurately, the horde of phantasmal animals does, a wave of butterflies, birds, even fish, all of them bearing multicolored wings of ornate glass mounted onto tattered, twisted bodies. She hammers through the horde, slashing past them and driving her blade into Green. Somehow it feels... meatier than the previous versions. More real. The mask stares back into Mikoto's face, a fragile thing overlaying whatever might be underneath.

    Rean follows up with a sword strike of his own, cleaving in with her in an attempt to strike through the throng of animals. Maybe he or others might notice that the Yellow shade seems to be the source of it, his blade strike blunted from the massive number of pseudo-Familiar like creatures sacrificing themselves to tie him up.

    Maybe Staren believes the thing isn't fighting for survival. Maybe he's right. But if it's not fighting for survival, what is it fighting for? Is it unknowable, or is there something more fundamental to answer here? Either way, Staren begins firing particle beams, raining them down upon the Coven. There's no way it could possibly d----[stop]--------[start]----odges easily, the Witch and the shades attending it simply slipping around them in a stop-motion defiance of the attack.

Lezard Valeth has posed:
    Haguro notices that the unspoken words are missing. There is nothing there, like a microphone left open in the back of your mind. Something there. But not. Just silence. Silence scratching at the back of the mind like claws across a chalkboard. Haguro fires, using her harpoon-spike to try to pin down the slippery and deadly thing. She is partially successful, the chain knife skewering the thing and dragging it in to get blasted by cannonfire, punching the thing backwards and juggling it for several seconds until it tears itself free, much like Lilian's estimations of it being a wolf in a trap.

    Sarracenia is intensely offended by this turn of events. Does the Witch intentionally work to enrage the princess or is it simply the matter of its existence? Whatever it might be, Sarra counterattacks with a multitude of missiles. The streaking, screaming missiles surge in, the Witch unable to escape the barrage of deadly force that floods in upon it, only adding to the explosive pounding it receives in the aftermath of Haguro's own blasts. It is left smoking and quivering... But intact, emitting another strained giggle as it twists in the air...

    Only to get instantly caught on the chain attack by Lilian, who is obviously not one to pass up a chance to take advantage of an opener. The impact blasts into the Witch, sending it skidding back across the void as glass shatters in a hail of edges and death around them both. It looks upon Lilian, crimson drops beginning to roll down the front of the mask as if it sees something there... Or perhaps it is a sign of the rampant damage that is rapidly mounting on the wounded and perhaps dying Witch.

Lezard Valeth has posed:
    But it doesn't stop there. The world lurches as the spectres around it begin to move. Red slides past, beginning to fire a barrage of chain knives in a spread throughout the group, trying to pin /them/ down while Violet slides in, glassy particle cannons immediately manufactured in the air, sighting down upon them and raining down blistering salvos of deadly beam-blasts. Green hangs there, red dripping down as it gestrues with that blade... And then finishes the attack with a flicker-strike, blurring as it screams scross the glittering platforms with a void-cleave of brilliant viridian that erupts into a blast of energy that follows.

Mikoto Shimizu (7002) has posed:
Mikoto is thrown back, trying to avoid these attacks, but this time just unable to stay one step ahead of them.  She looks for a way to attack, but right now it just seems impossible.  More than that, she was forgiving defense to try and strike a blow, but this time, more shards take her down.  

Until a burst of magic flares from her sword, as it hits the ground straight down.  The mouth of a giant T-rex tears through the ground, aiming to try and cut through as many of the fake creatures as she could.  It thrashes around, before bearing down on the witch of glass itself.  

Throwing herself back to her feet, the bloodied Mikoto lowers the tip of her sword.  

Lilian Rook (6895) has posed:
    "That trick again." Lilian says, flat, smooth, and cold as the glass around them. Between her first words and those, in the short space of a flurry of blows in exchange, a lot of the life and colour has leeched from her eyes, now increasingly flush with a sort of unblinking hyperfocus that tingles with nerve-wracking energy. "I've planned for it this time."

    Red comes flying at her, perhaps looking to finish what it started last time. Lilian runs towards it, accelerating to an extreme sprint, and then the long and wicked sword is braced across her front with a reverse grip and the flat of her offhand, intercepting the copied attack with the full reverbing shock of striking a solid wall. It's a terrible position to counterattack from, but Lilian is behind it and sweeping rapidly through its back, left-right-left, cutting diagonals down its body and then kicking off it to leap and arch back through the air again to clear space.

    She maintains a reactive distance, forcing the Witch to come to her, over and over. It's clearly paced and finely measured. The Witch is the one bleeding. The longer it fights, the more the advantage tilts in her favour. The black twists and blooms curling across the sides of Lilian's face darken slowly as her watching, unblinking stare becomes that of a hunter.

Haguro has posed:
"Alien...?" Staren's comment actually has Haguro considering the motives of the Witch(es), pausing briefly to observe it even while everyone unites in their efforts to kill the shit out of it. "I wonder... Does it think what it had been doing was right?"

A beat, and then Haguro steels herself once more. "Does it matter? Probably not. It's still an enemy, and it's still responsible for pointless deaths." It probably sounds like she's trying to convince herself of that more than anyone else, and it does certainly help that the target in this particular scenario is indeed responsible for its own share of deaths. But...

The attack from the Witches brings her mind back to reality, but too late to stop her from getting absolutely demolished by their attacks from so many angles. Chain knives hold the Cruiser in place was she gets pummeled by beams and blasts alike, knocking off chunks of armor and leaving deep bruises where her uniform is getting torn in several places.

"Can't get distracted... Just focus!" Shouting at herself in frustration, Haguro charges across those platforms of questionable stability, switching to her anti-air flak to blanket the Witches with exploding clouds of metal shards while moving ever closer into optimal grabbing range!

Sarracenia has posed:
     Sarracenia puts the missile pod away while smirking with satisfaction at all the explosions. "This thing, and I say thing because it was and maybe still is a person but now she's a monster, is only interested in one thing. That's causing suffering. It doesn't care if it lives! It only cares if others suffer!" she exclaims, then mutters to herself. "And people call -me- dense..."

     Sarra is offended, it's true. But it isn't just because of this turn of events. It's everything about this. Lilian being a jerk (at least to her), Lezard using these girls like he did, Mikoto working with Lezard instead of someone like Staren. Targeting places like hospitals and orphanages is a factor in it, but not as much as those other things.

     And also how her dress keeps getting torn! One of those chain knives catches Sarra in the shoulder, but only manages to cut her rather than pinning her down thanks to a glancing blow. This leaves her free to avoid the brunt of the beam cannon fire, ending up with only a few scorch marks. But, that is more serious than it might be on other people. The princess isn't all the durable.

     She chases after Violet, tossing Bob-ombs at her...at least until Green causes that energy eruption and knocks the princess across the glass. She narrowly avoids falling into the void with some scrabbling, then just sits there on her hands and knees a few moments to try and catch her breath.

Rean Schwarzer has posed:
Rean cleaves his way through the phantasmal animals, easily avoiding their attacks. THere's a lot of them though, and he can't exactly keep doing that forever. He then spots Yellow summoning more and changes tactics, aiming for her instead. "That's enough out of you!"  he shouts. He ignites his sword and charges forward again, this time whirling around to bisect the shade.

Staren has posed:
    It copied Lilian's timestopping ability?! or Homura's, but either way, it can DO that?! At least there seems to be some kind of limit on it though, as Staren sees plenty of other attacks hit. Knives bounce off his forcefield, only for him to drop it and take aim for another shot just as a copy of his own particle beams blasts his arm, half-melting one of his beam cannons to slag and leaving part of his arm and shoulder plate glowing hot. Damn!

    "An interesting theory. Let's put it out of everyone's misery." he replies to Sarracenia, flying higher above the battlefield and pulling the laser sniper rifle off his back. He aims at violet first, perhaps slightly extra-annoyed at his weapon being copied and turned against him and his allies.

    Never mind that particle beams he uses were originally a Coalition States design that got leaked to the black market and which Staren put on his armor because it's actually just a really good design. Never mind that.

Lezard Valeth has posed:
    Mikoto is down but not out. Her summoned phantasmal t-Rex erupts from the ground, the massive gnashing teeth ripping through the animals and consuming many of them, crushing others as it crashes down and attempts to stomp on the Witch. The massive foot crashes down, pinning the Witch for critical moments until Red comes flashing past, a pair of high-caliber ship cannons blasting the T-Rex backwards and forcing it off. Hey, those look familiar...

    That's because they're replicas of Haguro's own cannons. She wonders aloud on the motivations of the Witch, but there is no answer forthcoming. Any capacity it might have had to communicate itself seems to have degenerated in the aftermath of the previous encounter, likely one of the first things to go once the decline began. Without the story, there is nothing to tell. Nothing to say. Haguro uses a more pertinent language: That of shrapnel. The chunks of metal tear through the shades, pummelling the Witch back and putting it on its back legs, keeping it unable to interfere as others begin to make their moves on the extensions of the creature.

    Lilian continues to degenerate as she draws upon the true power of her weaponry. How long can she keep it up? Longer than the Witch can, perhaps. A calculated risk, to be sure. Her superhuman speed and capacity allows her to absorb the attack completely, gaining a measure of vengeance as she warps behind the thing and immediately rips into it, the blade cleaving into the crimson afterimage and shredding it. The story is collapsing under its own weight, and the application of the bane weapon only accelerates it, black cracks beginning to spread over Red as it shudders and begins to visibly fall apart. She has the measure of her opposition. The only question is if it can manage to do something she hasn't planned for...

Lezard Valeth has posed:
    Violet gets chased around by Sarracenia. Having her fling bob-ombs might seem almost comical, really, considering the way it flees away from her while getting blasted repeatedly, until you realize just how much power those things pack. They detonate over and over, breaking the shade into bits until the princess is forced to relent for a moment. It zips away in the chaos.

    Rean attempts to pin down Yellow, but every time Rean tries to cleave into the shade another summoned beast comes up to interpose itself. Fish, farm animals, Flying creatures, even an armadillo. It's pulling out all the stops as it is harried back and away... Only for Rean to cleave through them. The blade shears forward.... And only stops when a massive maw intersects, a giant beastly T-Rex emerging on its own to face down Rean. This one looks twisted and mangled, formed of glass and shadow with a terrible inhuman purple gaze from one eye... But that doesn't stop it from attempting to smash Rean flat!

    Staren, meanwhile, seems to understand exactly what's going on in the respect of the stolen particle beam cannons. The sniper blast punches through Violet's form, lancing directly through it and causing it to shatter completely, vaporizing a chunk of the distributed power the Coven is wielding. The entire mass of Witch and adjunct-forms reels from the shot.

Lezard Valeth has posed:
    That is when Green turns towards Lilian and focuses upon the bane-blade bearer. The huntress can feel it reaching out, attempting to metaphysically grasp and take that power for its own. There's just one small problem.

    It can't. The thing is anathema to its own existence. Even with its overwhelming greed and desire, there are some things that it just can't have. The Witch trembles, shrieking in agony as one of its arms flickers, one arm trying to shift into a mirror image of the deadly weapon Lilian bears... But it can't. It's unreal. Something cracks and shudders in the Labyrinth, an agonized rending as an unstoppable force and immovable object collide... And the Witch loses. Those present are given the pleasure, perhaps, of watching one arm briefly manifest and then instantly detonate in shadow and pain. The satisfaction is short-lived, however, as part of the Labyrinth promptly collapses, a chunk of that nullspace promptly imploding into a vortex of annihilating despair and pain. Probably not something one wants to stick around inside.

Mikoto Shimizu (7002) has posed:
Cannons fall around Mikoto, blasted back by their terrible power as she hits the ground and rolls.  Landing flat on her face, she struggles to her feet a third time.  Her grip on her blade weakening...her breathing shallow as she finally takes her body up all the way.  

Part of her wants to die here, feeling that if she just disappeared that...would be best for everyone.  The part that hates herself for what she is, that hates herself for running away from the truth.  The part of herself that avoided her part of the deal...and paid for it with the loss of her second family.  

Tears run down her face, she wants to give up.  It's hard, and she is in pain, and it's just...just...

No.

She looks up, despite all of it, despite all of the pain and depression.  She had to fight, she had to /live/.  She wanted to /live/!  She deserved to /live/.  The world wasn't right for denying her this...and if so, she would change IT.  She lets loose a HOWL of pain, of desperation, of anger...

The upper half of her face is shadowed, as she dives upwards towards the main witch, the thing that wears her face, kicking off of the nearly dead dinosaur who is still flailing around at the remaining family's.  Her blade comes up, aiming to swing it in a powerful arch, before using the SONIC SPEED, to bounce off of the witch.  She pulls out Lilly's gun and fires a barrage of shots down from her falling form.  

Hitting the ground, she swings again, aiming to drive her blade through the witch, aiming to try and slice through to the core using HAGURO'S strength.  Trying to beat the creature again and again.  "I.  Will Not. DIE!  I don't care about you!  I don't care!  GET OUT OF MY WAY!"

Haguro has posed:
Red copies her cannons. Haguro would be more surprised in any other circumstances, but right now, she's seeing red. Also, Red. There's something off about Haguro's movements as she keeps darting around to try getting closer to the Witch. Normally, she'd be taking more precise shots or working some kind of strategy to get in close where her opponent might not want her to be in order to really put the hurt on. Maybe a bit of work with the knives, some covering fire with the sharpnel like she's already done, a bit of mortar fire to force them to a ground battle...

No. This time, she's just going for it. There's an odd look in her eyes, too, one that's almost vacant save for the startled glance back when she feels herself beingpulled into the vortex behind her. Haguro can feel her flesh and armor warping from it, and she has to draw on the powers she had gained some time ago to start warping herself in another way entirely. She flickers in and out of existence, her leg armor shines, and she starts blasting forward once more before she can be consumed entirely.

The pained expression fades, and that anger starts to come out in her tone. "You were so... Outspoken before. You're not saying anything now, though. Why? Why don't you say anything?!"

It almost sounds like a plea. It's an odd plea, considering that as she makes it, Haguro's rocketing at the Witch, aiming to slam herself right into it and start tearing at it wildly. To start firing explosives point blank into it. "You're more than just a... A monster, aren't you? Then say something and prove it!"

Lilian Rook (6895) has posed:
    Lilian had studied the previous battle logs and spent some time devising her combat strategy for this time, preparing countermoves for the abilities she knew the Witch would bring to the battle this time, after watching it flex its trump card last time.

    That doesn't include reality imploding. The function of the Labyrinth *itself* becoming a horrifying maelstrom of weaponized dimensional hazard is a brand new one, and something one neither parries nor dodges. The glass collapses in around her all at once, and after a split second of hurriedly looking for an opening, trying to comprehend what's actually going on, Lilian is buried under an omnidirectional reverse detonation of all the bad stuff the dying Witch is made out of.

    The mental effects more or less bounce off her magically pre-reinforced psyche, already expecting the cognitohazardous effects, but the raw power of the collapse shatters the substrate of the Labyrinth under her. When the vortex burns itself out, it's just Lilians' fingers hanging onto the ragged edge of the floor, cut and bleeding on the inside as she slowly hauls herself out of the sharp drop into nothingness she'd just barely grabbed herself short of.

    A groan and an upwards swing of her arm plunges Night Mist into the ground above, allowing her to haul herself back out, most of her battlesuit smoking and crumbling. The markings on her skin seem somehow aggravated, as if burnt in rather than just layered upon. She spits a little blood from where she'd split her lip, then jumps upright, having suddenly caught her breath very very fast.

    "Do it again. I dare you." she growls, shrugging shards of glass out of her suit with a roll of her shoulders. "Every time you do, you kill a little piece of yourself, right? Is that blind jealousy? Revenge?" Probably, she'd rather the Witch not keep doing that, but she estimates it's starting to reach the end of it's tether if it's escalating like that. Still, the dark, slightly resonant, smoky tone her voice takes on doesn't sound coldly pre-planned.

    The sword lets loose a low, sharp keening sound, like a slow-mo, high pitched scream from a very long distance. Its edges blur and the shadow cast by its blade splits into four, and then Lilian stabs it into the stained glass. Specifically, into a green piece. The sympathetic connection attack aims to establish the half of the blade put under instead emerging from Green's body.

Staren has posed:
    Mikoto can summon T-Rexes? Staren wonders what the limits of that ability are. Could she summon a kaiju...?

    For now, he takes out Violet, and that's one down. It's a bittersweet victory -- One soul, no, the remnants of one soul, put out of its and everyone else's misery. But this witch was, even if accidentally, created by Lezard, who he's got sort of an alliance with. Innocent people had this forced on them and didn't even get a wish or being a magical girl in the bargain, and how many more may have irrecoverably died in the hospital?

    Staren's thinking about such things gets him caught in COLLAPSING REALITY. Oh god it's like being eaten by the Lifehunt only less painful! Staren flees, but a toll is taken from the robotic body -- here and there tiny bits and slices of armor missing, and presumably the internals are in the same state. Thank goodness for redundant systems.

    Green tries to copy... something, and fails. Its arm explodes. Staren sees an opportunity and chases it. Battered, half-melted armor pops off his right arm and it starts glowing as he flies straight for Green.

    He flies past and it happens in an instant -- a high-frequency energy field around his arm cuts like a super-science blade, and in the moment of closest proximity, stored power amounting to a few seconds of output from the nuclear reactor inside his body is dumped all at once, arcing across the tiny slice of air inside the field and striking like lightning!

    Behind Green, Staren has to land for a moment, slightly slumped as clouds of green, vaporized coolant vent from under his armor.

Sarracenia has posed:
     Even catching her breath doesn't work for long. The void implodes around them, and Sarracenia gets caught up in it. She doesn't really have a good way to escape it, either. Her power-ups won't hold out against something like this, and she can't fly without them. But, an idea comes to her as she is stuck there getting shredded by waves of despair. She pulls a Bullet Bill from her purse, grabs on as best she can, then with one hand uses her hammer to hit it on the flat end of the bullet. It fires forward like a rocket, carrying her clear!

     And while she is flying through the air on a bullet as large as herself, she pulls out a steady series of them and twirls atop her impromptu mount. Each one gets tossed up, then smashed with her hammer to fire it at the Witches. It is harder for the Bullet Bills to track their targets at these speeds, but hopefully the extra speed will let the shark-faced projectiles hit their marks!

Rean Schwarzer has posed:
Yellow continues to put more animals in his path, and he cuts through them all, still aiming to take some pressure off the others by knocking out some of the main witch's power.

Then she summons a dinosaur.

Eyes wide, Rean steps back too late and is pinned to the ground by the massive zombie reptile's tail. He hears Mikoto screaming some distance away from him and grits his teeth. A ring of light surrounds him as he starts casting, and when the spell finishes 'loading,' the air above everyone heats up as large, flaming rocks rain down from the sky onto the Witches, and likely the T-rex too.

Lezard Valeth has posed:
    Would it be better if she just died here? Maybe. It would certainly prevent her from needing to continue to exist in this delicate balancing act. The negative emotions she sought to unburden herself from just come leaking right back, being shoved at her through the sacrifice of a portion of the Witch in what amounts to a metaphysical matter-antimatter reaction. Through all of it though, Mikoto does not break. There is still something inside her that refuses to give in. And so she fights. She fights through the despair, even as her emotional state rapidly drains her, even as the raw despair darkens her future. The blade comes up, shredding through the Coven in a deadly arc before Lilian's tacticool gun is unloaded into the Witch. Guns are absolutely valid weapons even here, and the blasts riddle the Witch, driving it back before Mikoto seeks out the core. The blade comes up, stabbing up under the mask.... And the weapon stops, the edge screeching as it notches that mask, grinding against something behind it. Something is gripping the blade, an empty hand, crimson dripping down as it struggles to stop a fatal strike...

    Haguro is consumed in the abyssal wave of despair, but she remains intact. Somehow. Perhaps she traded something in that moment in order to gain the will to surge forward. Something strange happened there... But what, is a question for another time. Haguro crashes forward, bellowing her questions, her demands. She crashes into the Coven, driving it off of Mikoto's blade and crushing it into the ground. The mask looks up, eyeless, bleeding crimson tears from it as it smiles up at her in frozen ceramic joy. The head tilts, looking at her... Is it trying to say something? The head continues twisting... Twisting... And then there is a meaty, bony SNAP as it twists upside down, the mask inverting itself horrifically. A moment later, it is crushed, beaten, blasted. There is no voice, no response, no pleas... And that might be the most terrible response of all.

    Lilian survives. If the Witch is capable of being disappointed in this fact, it can't show it. What drove it to such a self-destructive endeavor in the first place? Could Lilian's demands be on target? Has she managed to psychoanalyze the despair-driven horror-entity? The blade punches down into the green glass floor... and it rumbles as Lilian cleverly uses the sympathetic connections to skewer the Witch itself through those connections. It seems the Witch is not the only one who can weaponize the Labyrinth with a little work as the black weapon erupts from its body like a terrible root of black steel ripping upwards.

Lezard Valeth has posed:
    Staren rips forward. He doesn't have room to delay, he has no space for mercy at the moment. This is a beast that threatens innocent people with insanity and death (the former possibly worse than the latter, considering his abilities). The high-frequency slash tears across the fallen Coven with a horrible wave of deadly force, ripping it in half and knocking it free.

    This does nothing to save it from Sarracenia, who cleverly uses a Bullet Bill to escape dissolution and destruction. The munitions multiply, the grinning bullets ripping into the Witch. It hasn't invested in a Super Mushroom, so there is little to keep the bullets from crushing into the creature, blasting it back over and over as Sarra continues to blast the beast backwards.

    The T-Rex ends up being annihilated in an extremely ironic fashion as meteors crash down from above to shatter it. The meteors crash down upon the Witch and its shades as well, driving down obliterating damage upon them. Finally, Yellow is caught out and vaporizes, the horde of monsters immediately beginning to vanish as the rest are sent reeling from the severing of another piece of self.

Lezard Valeth has posed:
    The Witch hangs there in the air, broken, battered, bleeding. It somehow continues to persist even now, on the verge of destruction. The force arrayed against it is simply too great. There is too much to deal with, it has put everything on the line... And it is coming up short. But what does a Witch know but despair? It, too, must persist. A terrible noise begins to grow, the remaining Shades emitting a dissonant tone as what is left of the Coven begins a terrible, keening sound, a wave of compressed hate, pain, and despair radiating outwards and beginning to shatter the glass rapidly, leaving only spinning shards in the aftermath of the blastwave over roiling abyssal black. The Labyrinth continues to shudder and heave, the creaure seemingly continuing to cannibalize itself in order to strike out once more.

    Maybe it has decided that it is going to take you with it.

Sarracenia has posed:
     Sarracenia watches her Bullet Bills hit their marks...though not nearly as many as she would have liked. She was really hoping to down the Green Witch with that attack. When she sees that it isn't, she looks pretty worried. As tired as she is, she isn't sure how much more she can take.

     It turns out, not much more. Flying on a bullet through a sea of giant shards of spinning glass is a -very- bad thing. Sarracenia is cut to shreds by them -and- knocked off her bullet and back into that void vortex. She even loses her grip on her hammer for once. Just about anyone could pick up the magical hammer and go on a smashing rampage. In the meantime, well...the princess just has to float there, steadily being beaten down by the vortex.

Haguro has posed:
Indeed, something has snapped from Haguro's exposure to the vortex. Even though she had only been exposed to it briefly, that alone was enough to drive her into such a state. Although the disconcerting snapping and twisting doesn't seem to do much to her psyche, the continued lack of an answer just turns the cruiser into more of a frustrated, screaming mess.

The lack of answers might be what she's finding for herself as well. It's not until that awful noise starts to surround the shipgirl and her companions that she finally snaps out of it, glancing around slowly as the Witch continues tearing the very... Landscape? No, this feels more like reality itself being torn apart around her, and she barely even understands what she's moving on or how she's going to get around with all her visible footing just gone.

She still understands pain, though, and her basic survival kicking into overdrive as the glass digs right into her once more, tearing through armor and flesh with no way to get away. Curling inwards to minimize her exposed surface area to no avail, the cruiser has no other choice but to try and find the core of the Coven.

"A weapon... A weapon is strong. Luck has nothing to do with it." She mutters, again sounding like she's trying to convince herself of that than anyone else. She starts getting fired up again, pulling her arm against her side as the knife chain retracts, then launches towards the Witch once more.

"We're supposed to be the heroes here!" Finding her figurative footing once more, Haguro thrusts a fists forward as the chain knife launches forward, again trying to grapple onto the Witch with one arm while her remaining turrets focus their fire on it with the other. Once her chain knife takes hold of something close enough to the Witch, Haguro once again hurtles forward aided by those leg boosters, throwing herself whole body into flying drop kick!

Staren has posed:
    Staren raises his forcefield in defense to protect his battered body. For a moment, as the abyss washes over him, he's trapped in an amber bubble watching the forcefield grow thinner and thinner as it's eaten away, and then it passes.

    "How is this thing so tough?! And Lezard made it... If he was actually able to point something this resiliant at our enemies, it could have been a great asset..."

    Lilian asks for his assessment of the fight. Not great, honestly. The safe thing would be to try to escape, and they probably should, but apparently she has a trump card.

    Staren has seen heroes triumph with the odds against them countless times. If everyone else here is going to risk their lives, then he'll stand with them.

    Staren takes a deep breath, and pulls a slightly oversized, chrome-plated revolver from his bag. He takes careful aim at the top half of Green -- every shot needs to count.

    He pulls the trigger once, and two bullets take flight, empowered by mad science to slay supernatural beasts like this that prey on mankind.

Mikoto Shimizu (7002) has posed:
The bloodied hand grabs the blade at the last second, behind the mask something else exists.  Struggling to push it through, she loses her footing when the Witch moves upwards, falling and hitting the ground with a loud crack as she rolls to one side.  

This unfortunate bit of bad luck makes her unable to do anything about what happens next.  

The shards rain down, as the witch continues to cannibalize herself.  Mikoto is pinned by one arm to the ground, before several more fall on top of her.  She screams in pain, tears running down her face as she tries to yank the crystal out of her arm.  

This is only one, there are several more now in her legs.  A burst from above sends her reeling and eventually hitting the ground in a roll before ending it face down.  Her body riddled with shards all over, painful, she tries to raise...

But falls to her knees, head resting against the blade as the point is firmly point down.  This is hopeless...

She only regrets that she didn't come here alone, that others have to suffer in this fate with her.  Even Lilian.  She coughs out, blood running out of the corners as she looks up.  She struggles again, and again...but simply can not get up.  

She can't stop...

Lilian Rook (6895) has posed:
    The Witch continues to consume its own being to retaliate against her. Its substance is broken to pieces and hurled back at them. Torn up. Smashed to bits. Shredded by wild paroxysms of rage and desperation, picked up and ruined to get back at the people that have wounded it. Just like the root of its being. The monster, on death's door, devours its own tail in spite. Lilian had warned that this would happen. That the vicious animal would chew off its own leg if forced to. The hunters have circled around and cornered it in its cave, and it has taken out some of them already. Lilian pays no attention to the fallen.

    There's only so much Lilian can do about the situation, when the Witch is willing to burn away its own life to overwhelm them. Still, her focus hasn't wavered in the slightest; it has intensified. Pitch black designs edge past the corners of her jaw and brow and onto her face. Her eyes are red; they were green before. The patient, cautious, analytical, tightly wound energy from her is tangibly mounting. The shift in her attitude is like night and day.

    Hails of glass and waves of scorching darkness roil away from the Witch and crash against her. Her sword flickers about her as she moves, turning and stepping and weaving side to side, backing away from the thrust of the assault and slipping in again around it, blade fluttering moth-like around her almost as if fighting independently. Glassy fragments splinter to pieces or are flicked flying off into the void against Night Mist, but further slivers slash through her suit and draw narrow lines through her skin, causing blood to well up and drip from the shallow injuries. The darkness crashes against her, and the lines in her equipment whine and glow as she directs more magic into them, the blast seeming to crash into an invisible barrier ahead of her guard, but the heat causing her protection to blister and pop.

    "That's it. Rage all you like. There are more like you out there. More than can be counted. I need to be ready for you all. This is another stepping stone on the way past it. Your destruction will let me go higher."

    She's almost completely stopped teleporting, despite the severity of the attack, conserving whatever it is she uses and relying on her enhanced body and magic, wincing at the injuries starting to get through to her person, but pushing through it with a brave face, waiting for some kind of opening. She looks around to see who else is still fighting, and asks "Those of you still conscious. You think you can handle this?"

<J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "I thought you were supposed to be strong, not lucky."
<J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "Can you handle it or not?"
<J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "I have a trump card, but I need you to not back down or run away."

    She has a promise. They keep fighting. So will she. She advances into the maelstrom. Her hand slashes back and forth, in violent motions like a conductor's baton out of control. Slashing arcs of bloodred magic cleave through the storm and assault the witch with lashes of crimson fire. She wants to get close.

Rean Schwarzer has posed:
The Witch cries out, sending glass flying in a wave of pain. He braces for the attack as shards of glass cut into him, sending streaks of blood through the air as they pass.

Mikoto and Sarrancia aren't so lucky though and go down, though Mikoto at least /sounds/ alive but, what about Sarrencia? Would they even make it through this?

And then Lilian says something encouraging.

"...Yeah. We'll make it through this. We /have to./ For you, for us..."

He takes a deep breath and raises his sword, igniting it and leaping forward, putting as much weight into the strike as he can with his remaining energy.

Lezard Valeth has posed:
    Sarracenia is left to hang in the void, the shrieking crystalline collapse continuing to assault with oppressive force on mind, body, and soul as the Witch works to simply leave the lot of them scarred or worse in its thrashing attempts to slay them. Mikoto, too, feels the onslaught, attempting to remain in existence even as she is put down. Would it have been better if she simply came alone? To face such a being without support... The despair only continues to grow as the magical girl struggles to remain sane and intact, before that final threshold is crossed...

    Haguro is caught in something of an existential crisis... Or lack thereof, perhaps. Some kind of lack of crisis that propels her onwards and keeps her from falling victim to the murderous waves constantly emanating from the Witch. She buoys herself in the face of annihilation and does what she can to deal with the rapidly collapsing Labyrinth. Perhaps it might be better to escape and simply let the Witch die on her own at this point... But what would it do to the people trapped inside the Barrier to be exposed to those death throes? The knife crashes in and stabs into something unseen, allowing Haguro to ripcord right in and begin blasting the Witch, accelerating its demise rapidly. Already, Red has finishes shattering.

    Staren believes in something. Himself, his ideals, his position in the Multiverse that has perhaps been direly threatened by this entity. What could a Witch do with him? The spectre of intense failure haunts him even as he unleashes the power of the Annihilator. The dual shots blasts the mask, snapping Coven's head back... and cracking the mask, barely avoiding shattering it as violet light leaks out from the spiderweb in the suprnaturally tough china.

Lezard Valeth has posed:
    Rean strikes forward, lunging through the hail of glass and blood and pain in order to cleave with a flaming blade through the Witch. The impact shears down and through it, setting it afire and causing the keeing pain and shrieking to take on an even more intense timbre before he is forced backwards with a renewed blast of energy for critical moments....

    Lilian might have been right in her estimation, but it is cold solace considering the collateral damage. Is this something that she planned for? Has everything been accounted for in her attempt to nudge the Witch into even more self-destructive actions. She moves with supernaturual ability, the roiling id-glass ripping into her and shattering against the defenses of the magus. She has trained her whole life for this kind of thing. Will it be enough? Has she bled enough for this? Will her oaths steel her against the encroachment of insanity and oblivion? She cleaves into the thing, rending it over and over, cracking the mask open with her strike to reveal the burning black-violet abyss that lies beyond. The energy radiating off of it is intense and overwhelming, a void of all-consuming need and despair that combines into an overwhelming maw of hunger. Now that the world is pulverizing, it begins to simply be sucked towards that abyss, the Witch literally consuming itself in an attempt to take everything else with her.

Haguro has posed:
In its final throes, the Witch has fought and continues to try and take them all down with it. What, then, will happen when one of them tries to take it down with her? With the void growing ever larger, Haguro's options are limited, and there's really only one way to find out.

"I have a trump card, but I need you to not back down or run away."
"I guarantee you, it'll be fine."
"...We'll make it through this. We /have/ to."

That's best Haguro could hope for. She's having a hell of a time trusting in herself, but if her allies can? She might as well do her job as a weapon. Turning on the leg boosters once more, she propels herself towards what's left of the Witch. The void pulsing outwards from the being washes over Haguro once more, rending armor and mind alike as that doubt, that despair, that rage all come flooding back again.

She /is/ just a weapon, isn't she? A weapon with no other use than to fight, to kill, and to hurt people. The best she can do here is hurting and killing something else, and...

"Killing's okay if... If it's someone that just wants to kill other people, right?" Even though the monster used to be a person, the Witch no longer is at this point. Haguro repeats that in her head over and over, all while hurtling rapidly at what's left of the Witch. Instead of slamming into it directly as she had so many times before, though, she swings her legs up at the last moment to torpedo herself around it's side, reaching out to catch herself on it at the last moment.

Her goal: Clamping onto it in a mighty bear hug from behind, both to squeeze the life out of it and to hold it down for the rest of her allies to capitalize on, personal safety be damned.

Judging from the dull stare in her eyes, she might not even care about that last part right now.

Staren has posed:
    Staren turns his forcefield back on and takes flight as the energy radiates outward -- trying to find safe spaces, even so, the energy eats away at it where he grazes it.

    Is this finally it? After everything, does he fall here?

    Staren shakes his head. No, that's the witch talking. Focus on the fight. Find a safe spot and aim true.

    He puts the energy rifle on his back and aims the revolver with both hands.

    As reality comes apart around them, the revolver is a symbol. The very idea that people can fight back and create a brighter tomorrow, that if only they understand enough they can change their reality into something friendlier. The power of science is a beacon of hope -- not just for men and women in labcoats or hats and robes, but to all who accept it. Those freed from serfdom's toil. Those saved by medicine. Those who find their place in the world thanks to global travel and communication. Hope. Anathema to a Witch.

    Two more bullets streak towards the cracked mask.

Lilian Rook (6895) has posed:
    "I'm glad I misjudged you. Stick through it. Don't turn your back. No matter how much you might want to. If you can't fight, stay down. It'll be fine." says Lilian. Exhaling releases a thin trickle of inky fog from her lips.

    "Code One. Thou art responsible to the blood before all else; both the blood of thy line, and the blood shed for thee."

    Haguro has it. It's finally the opening Lilian had been hoping for. This is her endgame. Knowing this would be seven Witches in one, she knew that simply killing it once wouldn't be enough to close out a battle. She'd been conserving her trump resource. Her rook. Relying on her physical stamina and magical battery until the Witch was close enough to death to guarantee it.

    Immaculate: Immunity vector. Characterized by traits or abilities that make halting, impeding, or damaging the vector extremely difficulty. High level defenses against broad ranges of physical or magical harm.

    Extinguisher: Instant incapacitation vector. Displays abilities that have disproportionately high likelihood of killing without an opportunity to assess or counter the threat. Preferred classification of 'certain kill' vector. Identification of threat nature and limitations is critical.

    The world continues to disintegrate. The fabric of the Labyrinth is sucked in around her --Lilian, and the Witch-- and ground to dust at its heart, in one last act of spite. This is exactly what she'd counted on. That the girl's darkest history made manifest would respond in this way. She would wait and persevere until the serpent has devoured enough of itself to be within her reach, and then . . .

    "Ceiliúir, Dubh-Ceothan Marfach."

                -----[stop]-----
    Lilian has 40 seconds saved up, before retreat would become exponentially more dangerous. It should be plenty enough. With the world stood still in abeyance around her --Lilian's own private world-- she rushes into the last remaining leg of the maelstrom. She weaves between frozen shards of lethal Labyrinth glass all around, twitches of her sword sending dense clusters spiraling away through the air. She leaps the jagged chasms, and vaults from the larger chunks of stained window, launching herself higher, and higher, and higher, zigzagging between streams of burning darkness.

    She comes to hover before the Witch, and then puts a powerful shove to Haguro, disengaging the Kanmusu's crushing grip around the Witch and launching her to a safe distance. Drawing in breath, Lilian takes her stance, readies her sword, and causes the uncanny flame and keening distortion to swirl back into the blade. The markings crawl back down her skin, as if the sword is pulling them back in too, all manifestations of its aura condensing into the length of its glowing fuller.

    She thrusts into the Witch. While she has causality in her grip, she plants her sword already in the Witch's critical point and releases all of Night Mist's concentrate wrath in a single burst of unseelie magic. Massive, jagged, piercing thorns of blood and shadow and off-coloured fire erupt from all points around the thrust, spearing outward in all directions, magic concentrated into thin, condensed, hypervelocity spears.
                -----[start]-----

    Lilian has stabbed the Witch. The line loops and twists back around, and the blade is in its core. Eerie black and red light --shadowy flame and crimson spears-- explode from it with fantastic, scorching violence. Uncontainable power becomes an eruption of lethal, hyperaccelerated thorns from within.

Rean Schwarzer has posed:
The all consuming void of despair spreads, and the Witch just screams louder, knocking him backwards.

It's still standing. Why was it still standing?! He's bleeding out from all over and barely capable of standing, but there's still just a bit of energy left to try one last attack.

...

Do it for her. Do it for them. Do it to make up for your hand in this, no matter how small it was.

Maybe he shouldn't have said he wouldn't accidentally kill himself trying to help Mikoto after all.

Rean charges in one last time, sword ignited, and putting all of his second wind into the last strike.

Lezard Valeth has posed:
    Haguro works to strike out at the enemy. She pushes herself beyond thought, beyond morality, becoming the weapon she was designed to be. She has to trust her friends. The promised. They have a way to make this right. Haguro can help. She will help. She strikes out, lunging into the Witch, barely scraping past the consuming vortex. Even being this close to it, she can feel bits of herself being pulled off, drawn into the black hole of the ever-greedy maw of the Coven.

    Rean charges in, his blade aflame as he puts everything he has left into a single blow. He carves into the void with his blade, the seething mass attempting to take him with it, dragging bits of him into itself to consume. The thunder behind him saves him, blasting the thing back just far enough away...

    Staren Believes. His faith, only wavering in the slightest in the face of annihilation, continues to fuel him as he raises that gun once more. He gives it everything he can in order funnel that trust and belief into those next shots, the surety that through hard work, knowledge, and understanding that a better tomorrow might be made. That belief, that hope crashes into the held Witch, punching lethally into the thing and exposing the deepest pits of hell within the creature.

    The serpent finally devours enough of its tail for Lilian to strike, and she acts. Time stops. Her own existence begins screeching against the collapsing reality of the Labyrinth as her own power and concepts begin ripping through the location like a boat through a stormy sea. She pushes, freeing Haguro. The Kanmusu will not want to be around this when it happens. Like a surgeon, Lilian stabs into the thing and bids her terrible weapon to consume....

Lezard Valeth has posed:
    And consume it does, the Witch detonating in thorned vines, shadow, and fire, the dark magics ripping through and tipping the Witch past the breaking point. There is a ripping, tearing, shattering noise as everything disintegrates, the thing emitting a final cry of despair as the Labyrtinth is no longer capable of trying to keep the inhabitants trapped inside, allowing it to finally fall in on itself as it is utterly destroyed.

    The real world returns, the hopital mostly intact as the Barrier passes. Mikoto and Sarracenia are left on the ground, as intact as they were before everything ended. Whatever has happened to the people inside, at least they are in a good place to find a remedy to it. Already, emergency services are beginning to take an account of the building. There is only one detail left....

    It is an ugly thing. While most Grief Seeds are beautiful, perhaps, in a kind of gothic horror way, this is nothing so refined. Silver wrapped crudely around a malformed glassy mass that looks like seven lumps mashed together by an apprentice while still cooling... Like some kind of Everlasting Gobstopper of despair. It falls to the ground, tinking against the pavement... Before it quivers, the top-end being drawn up to have the thing stand there on one of its points as if held up by an invisible string with a low, unnatural ringing noise.

    The Grief Seed. Proof of death. It is finally over.

Mikoto Shimizu (7002) has posed:
Finally...

It's over.  She is alive...she is alive.  She could not believe it, she couldn't.  She wasn't so self-absorbed to believe they all did it JUST for her, but the fact that people DID show up...and risked everything.  There was just that tiny bit of hope that shimmered despite everything.  Slowly she dragged herself to her feet, though slowly, and like she was walking through water.

"It's...it's done.  I have to.." she falls to a knee again.  She can't spare the magical reserves to heal enough to move.  Her head looks up towards the malformed witch's Grief Seed.  "Is...is everyone alright?" She says, instead of reaching for the Seed right away.  

Her eyes look up, exhausted...greatly humbled in a not-fun way, but still alive and happy to be there.

Lilian Rook (6895) has posed:
    Lilian's shredded boots reach Earth once again with a pair of muted taps. A lot of her bodysuit is torn up, pieces of armoured insert boiled off like wax, and blood has congealed on plenty of exposed skin, but she seems fairly lively. She doesn't need to see the hospital up ahead, which is good, because it's in complete chaos right about now.

    She coughs. A little puff of black smoke comes out as if she'd inhaled straight from a fireplace. A flourish of the sword and it snaps back into its scabbard with a silver bell chime. 'Fuck me that could have been easier' is what she's thinking inwardly, but "I told you. It's fine." is what she says out loud. Her fingers go through her hair, straightening it out and flipping it back over her shoulder, having come undone in the chaos.

                -----[stop]-----
    Lilian spies the Grief Seed. She recognizes it instantly for what it is, even with the vaguest description. Its aura is unmistakable. She takes a relaxed hold of time now, not wishing to strain her vital force any further, and strides over to it, bending down to snatch it off the ground like a falling coin.
                -----[start]-----

    She has the Grief Seed. Just 'has it'. The needle point balances on the tip of her outstretched finger. "This is it? What on Earth do you do with this?" she says to Mikoto. "You look just about dead, so make it quick." She leaves it held out, examining it herself, but doesn't hand it over completely.

Haguro has posed:
Haguro was prepared to get everything set aflame or stabbed with that maneuver. They had to make sure the Witch was put down for good, after all! What she wasn't prepared for was suddenly not holding onto it and suddenly seeing the Witch falling apart several yards in front of her. The shipgirl grunts lightly as she lands on the hospital floor on her side. She's thoroughly winded after that ordeal and somehow still alive, albeit lacking in general stamina.

They're alive, the Witch has been kiled, and everything's fine now. She doesn't look all that fine, though, barely registering what Mikoto and Lilian have said until she spies some movement from her side.

"That's... Would be good to know. Do you eat it or...?" She forces out a light chuckle, but that vacant stare hasn't left the shipgirl's eyes just yet.

Staren has posed:
    Everyone makes final, desperate attacks. Lilian timestop-stabs it-- No, there's something else too. Some kind of attack spell on the sword? Unfortunately, he's not a battlemage, so he can't really tell much about it. Really, picking apart the abilities of his allies isn't where his mind is right now.

    Is everyone alright, Mikoto asks? "We'll make it." Staren answers, striding over to Mikoto and helping her up to drag her towards the seed if need be -- ah. Lilian was faster, of course. "If you use this, it can't reform?" He asks.

Mikoto Shimizu (7002) has posed:
Lilian has the Seed, she does not let go of it...but it is offered none-the-less.  Staren helps her up, and she takes the offered aid, moving slowly towards the seed.  She looks towards Lilian, then reaches out to her neck to form the Soul Jem from the small gem on it.

Pressing the Gem to the Seed, and assuming it works like it's supposed to, the darkness in the gem slowly fades, as the gem seemingly gains power.  This magic allows Mikoto to slowly regenerate her wounds, allowing her to walk more firmly.

Assuming this all works, or someone doesn't yank the gem away before she could fully recover or something like that.  

"Thank you.." She says as she heals.  "All of you.."

Staren has posed:
    Staren watches the transfer of power between grief seed and soul gem. He nods in response to Mikoto's thanks, then helps her to a chair and goes to check on the civilians caught in all this, to see who needs multiversal help.

Lezard Valeth has posed:
    When Staren gets over to it: the hospital is in chaos as one might expect. More than a few attempted murders and suicides. Some less number were successful. Thankfully, Staren is capable of cleaning up after that, they haven't been dead that long.

    Is it weird that one can think of death in such blase terms?

Rean Schwarzer has posed:
Rean's barely able to focus after his attack, so he misses whatever Lilian did. Still the labyrinth dissolves, and a misshapen piece of glass hits the ground, before casually balancing itself like a 'normal' Grief Seed.

"It....it's over?" Rean manages to sputter out as he fall to his knees. Of course, as Mikoto points out it could probably come back if left alone, but that's dealt with as Lilian gives her it and she uses it.

Rean smiles. "No problem." It'd be weird if he gave up on her now of all times, right? He tries to get up, but his muscles refuse to cooperate. He groans, and casts a healing spell on himself. It doesn't fix everything, but at least he can move now. After double checking to make sure everyone else is ok, maybe he'll join Staren in checking on civilians? Maybe help run supplies or something?

Lilian Rook (6895) has posed:
    Lilian watches the process with glimmering, unblinking interest. She watches the black corruption siphon from Mikoto's soul gem, allowing it to refill with the bright glow of her natural magic, and coagulate inside the Grief Seed. 'Spent energy'. An anti-entropy fuel rod, she'd called it. The power of a wish, catalyzed by the transformation of despair and the birth of a Witch, into something toxic and unusable to magical girls, but supposedly the foundation upon which an elder race powers its entire civilization. The greatest mass of what any wish is made of, untapped.

    Lilian takes a deep breath, holds it, and then releases it. It quavers just slightly. She flicks her fingers to snap the Grief Seed back into her palm, steps backwards from Mikoto, and then steps back again. She glances to the cage of silver and the malformed glass seething with blackness.

    "Cosaint dom, Dubh-Ceothan Marfach." she breathes out more than speaks. She clenches her fingers around the body of the Grief Seed, its silver point sticking out, and then stabs it into the base of her neck.

    The thing burns between her fingers, flickering embers of crimson squeezing free of her clutch, thin, pitch black steam rising off of it. At first, it looks as if some horrible blackness is flowing through her veins, spreading throughout her body, visible in the torn open windows of her battlesuit, but a second glance confirms it's those mysterious, elaborately interlacing designs again, tattooed impossibly dark, growing outwards like the flora they eerily resemble in rapid fast forward. They cover most of her body, curling around her face as far as her nose, then shudder and retract backwards halfway, then surge forward again, and pulse several more times like an irregular throbbing heartbeat.

    Lilian's entire frame trembles with the effort, the magic circuits still intact sputtering out as their capacity overloads. Miniature, resonating waves of displacement fall off of her, carving the ground into shallow ripples, and starting to melt and soften hit with a tremendous amount of waste heat. Finally, the ominous overgrowth fully retracts all the way back into the puncture point, and Lilian releases her hold, coughing violently for the effort, and reaching out to catch herself on the nearby wall. She wipes blood away from her lip on the back of her hand. The silver cage of the Grief Seed has turned white hot, its irregularities crushed in, and its core is a small, vibrating point of blackness hovering at its center, nearly completely spent.

    "Lord above and the holy spirit that hurt." she gasps.

Sarracenia has posed:
     Sarracenia was just starting to wonder if her foray into heroism was already at an end as she floated there in the void. She is vaguely aware that the battle is still going, those stronger than her pushing forward. This too is infuriating in the frustrating kind of way, but it is one kind of infuriating she has been forced to get used to.

     She watches as they finish the Witch in spectacular fashion, and a bit of a smile tugs at her lips. With the void gone she gasps softly in surprise as they end up on real ground once more. She slowly gets back to her feet, and collects her hammer from wherever it ended up before using it as a walking stick to help her get over to the others. She hasn't seen a Grief Seed before, so she doesn't really know it isn't supposed to look like that. "I hope eating it is not required. That seems like it would be extremely uncomfortable to swallow." she says in response to Haguro.

     She watches in tired curiousity as Mikoto absorbs the Grief Seed with a gem of her own. "So...that is the Soul Gem?" she asks quietly, then just watches. She smiles to Mikoto when she thanks them all. "I am glad I could help." she says, then pulls out a small number of green mushrooms and offers them to the group. "It was a hard fight. Some post-battle medicine seems in order."

     At the same time, the piranha plants start filing off from the airship, bringing supplies to help with the relief efforts. More of those mushrooms, as well as basic essentials.

     Sarracenia looks like she is about to say something to Lilian after the exchange of energy between the Gem and the Seed, but she just watches wide-eyed as Lilian does...something. Absorbed the dark energy? Someone wouldn't do that if they didn't think they could handle it, but Sarracenia still asks, "Are you alright? What was that?!"

Haguro has posed:
The entire time, Haguro has been content to just lie on the floor and watch as Mikoto used the seed to purify her gem. That looked simple enough!

The thing Lilian does? Not so much. Again, Haguro watches the whole process from start to finish, and it looks distinctly less straightforward and curative as it did for Mikoto moments earlier. The vacant stare fades finally, replaced by a mildly concerned and mostly clueless one.

"Erm.... No, that definitely wasn't eating it." She murmurs in response to Sarracenia, still trying to process all of that as she finally sits up. THere's a token effort to get up, but she only succeeds in falling back into her seated position on the ground. No sense trying that again just yet.

"Although it did go... Almost into her head. It looks broken now, too." Whatever Haguro's reaction is, it certainly isn't shock or anger. She might just be a bit too exhausted for that. "What does it feel like?"

Mikoto Shimizu (7002) has posed:
While now full of life again, and almost getting off of a high from having her emotional state restored, and uh...having her angst drained out of her, she is good again.  She held onto herself despite the terrible situation...

And then Lilian stabs herself in the neck with it.

Mikoto, a well-adjusted person, full of life and coming down from a sugar high asks a very pointed question as a lady would.  "HOLY FUCK, WHAT DID YOU DO!?"

Of course, before she can just bombard Lilian with a million questions, she gets an answer which causes her to think for a bit.

Staren has posed:
    "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Staren shouts in alarm as Lilian stabs herself and throws into question what little he thought he knew about magical girls, soul gems, grief seeds, and the Incubators.

    He can only watch as the darkness pulses, and in the end, Lilian wins. "So, you're able to draw power from it?" Obviously, the Concord will need to collect depleted grief seeds for study now. Mikoto will probably bring them willingly to Lezard, anyway.

Lilian Rook (6895) has posed:
    Lilian stops to catch her breath, leaning against the wall, as the white hot Grief Seed frame cools in her hands, returning to a smoking silver, smaller, symmetrical. Squeezing it a couple of times experimentally, she delivers the basic theory she had about how that Kyuubey thing draws any kind of power out of the raw wish stuff it gives away, then stands up. Pulling her hair into a bunch again, she ties a basic celtic knot, then pins it together by pushing the baroque silver needle of an eldritch horror's soul into it for safekeeping.

    "You sure talk about 'obtaining power from the Multiverse' a lot, but when's the last time you really did?" Lilian says to Staren, cracking a grin. "Get on my level, cat man." God everything hurts.

Staren has posed:
    Staren smiles back good-naturedly. "With the information I have at hand, that /appeared/ reckless. I've survived over a decade by being careful. I guess it's been awhile since any real increase in power -- for some time, it's been more about breadth and incremental improvement. Hyperglass parts improving my mech's handling, learning about Creation's essence so I can interact with magitech, that kind of thing. And it remains to be seen if what you just did has truly increased your power. Still, good job."