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Vergil     Fortuna was a damn sight nicer last time.

    The walls of the warpgate customs office have collapsed, no one behind the desk asking arrivals to wear a mask if they've felt ill recently. Out into the twilight-lit streets, and evidence of carnage abounds. Smashed windows, scattered gardens, and the bodies of the Order members who fought against the demonic tide litter the streets. There are even piles of ash where demons once stood, indicating the resistance wasn't utterly futile.

    But still, creatures from beyond the veil roam the streets, leaping from wall to wall, scampering on rooftops. The bulk of them are strange, patchwork things, akin to scarecrows, seemingly made of bright cloths and fabrics, their heads obscured in hoods. But their arms are massive, sinister curved blades. Others meanwhile have one of their legs replaced by such a blade. They cackle constantly, twitching and jerking as they hunt.

    More sporadically are larger, more organic demons. They're lean and vaguely reptilian, bipedal with long tails and small, triangular heads. A constant wreath of fog follows them, like they're chilling their air with their very presence.

    The moment one of them spots the arriving Elites, it's like a ripple goes through the pack. The Scarecrows begins dropping and assembling, giggling madly before beginning their assault. The ones with arm blades rush in and swing wildly, while the ones with leg blades hop around the flanks, doing tricky tumbles and handstands to lash with long, sweeping slashes.

    The bigger, reptilian ones hang back, observing carefully. The air drops a couple of degrees as they manifest a thick shield of ice on one arm, while razor sharp stalactite claws grow from each finger on the other arm. They hang back, spreading ice across the ground, both in sheets to slip, and razor shards to skewer feet. Anyone who dares to focus entirely on the Scarecrows will be greeted by them, lunging quickly to slash with claws before backing off.

    The fight has scarcely begun before the constant sirens (adapted from WW2 air raid sirens) suddenly cut, replaced by a stuttering voice. "T-T-Thank goodness you're h-here! Demons, came in d-during a test! Can't close the g-gate! Please! Come towards the great b-black monolith on the skyline!" Agnus, communicating from somewhere. The distant sound of thumping is audible on the broadcast. The 'hurry' is implicit but loud.
Cantio Why, oh why didn't Cantio voice her misgivings when she had the chance? Perhaps she was just being too optimistic at the time, but seeing the carnage in person has the purple-haired girl with the too-bright white and purple jacket dress go grimacing as she forces back a hoarse noise before it can fully come out of her throat.

"Dammit... Of course they'd try this in the middle of the..." Cantio inhales slowly, exhales slowly, and then she raises an attache case in front of herself as the matching symbol of her city on the case slides open, letting pieces of translucent purple metal flow out of the case. They slow to a stop just before hitting the ground, then flow back upwards until the case itself joins in the weird flow of materials, eventually turning into a big ol' sword in front of her.

"We've gotten the coordinates, so we can at least try to save whoever's still alive." She glances at the bodies and ashes, then leans forward with her sword slung over her shoulder. "I'll head in from the front. There might still be survivors on the way there, though, so call them out if you see them!" She takes one more deep breath to psyche herself up, then rushes headlong into the demons now occupying the streets.

The Scarecrows, as promised, get the bulk of her attention as she thrashes her sword around wildly while charging right into them, brandishing her blade with wide cleaving motions while loud noises burst out of her weapon as though she was wielding something far heavier and crunchier with each slam, all in service of making her sound that much more impressive and dangerous to ignore. She has to slow down when she reaches the icy floors, though, opting for heavier stomps to keep her balance even as she continues swinging for the fences.
Raziel 'The call for help came from a cry from a man in a panic, though I was unsure what had happened, once I heard the words 'Hellgate' I got most of the information I needed to know about the situation on the ground.  While the situation might be what he deserved, it wasn't what others uninvolved deserved...especially as he seems to have survived it.'

Raziel's out of the warp gate, his glowing eyes observing the area around it.  Demons had already gotten this far, and seem to be arranged in various 'types'.  However, those who knew Raziel would notice that he looks /dramatically/ different than he did before.  Instead of the wretched form, he inhabited before, he was now in a rather normal-looking body.  

Differences between it and just a normal, if not very handsome, looking human were claws instead of normal hands.  Feet were similarly formed into claws, and two leathery wings on his back.  His skin was quite pale, one might even say unearthly pale.  He walks forward but it was only a moment before he was seen with the others who had come to help.

'It seems the danger had reached all the way to the gate.  How long would it be before these wretches would stream into the greater multiverse itself?  The most numerous and wretched demons seemed to move like animals, moving at us relentlessly.  In the back, slightly less wretched lizard-like ones stood to take advantage of the cannon fodder rushing for them.'

Raziel abandons the body he had formed through willpower and seems to fade from view like a ghost might. He runs, fading through the cannon fodder and moving to where the lizards were.  Where he manifests into the physical world.  To the observer, it just looked like he disappeared and appeared behind the lizard demons.  In his hands the spirit reaver manifested.  The spectral sword slashes down in an arc, aiming to cleave from a direction that the ice shields were not pointed at.  
Lilian Rook     Lilian can't even take pleasure in seeing this happen. For once, Fortuna was one of those places where she wished she wouldn't have to say 'I told you so' later. A place in this world that can deal with demons productively. That could treat Amii fairly. That seemed to know what it was doing. That . . . had a very sketchy Pope-like guy literally called Sanctus running it but . . .

    She of course arrives instantaneously, cutting line through several warpgates in a row. Considering what she'd been wearing for the past month, her combat skin is in good repair, so she's evidently been free to gather up the handful of tacticals that she actually owns, rather than requisition, and summoned up approximately half of Sword Unit under her command, the remainder lagging behind as a second wave.

    It's never been her style to screw around with banal observations and 'assessing the situation' on arrival. The second there are boots on the ground, Lilian is blitzing her way down the main road, metaphorically tearing up the flagstones with a rifle to her shoulder. Four squads of four men and women in heavy black-plated powered armour --slashed with unit Amber and stenciled Paladins green-- follow not far behind, fanning out into an increasingly wide chevron as they go. They don't need a tactical briefing; they can see targets every which way. Lilian only has to give the signal to fire at will and a double beep to engage in immediate rescue of any civilians along the way. The medical squad is two minutes out.

    The scarecrows are met with a wall of advancing fire. Anti-Antegent assault weapons burst down the cannon fodder demons, ten fragmenting slugs at a time. Tactical uplink between squads and constant awareness updates have them efficiently selecting individual targets and covering overlapping cones within moments. There's no point in seeking cover against meelee enemeies, so they simply fire as they move, expanding into the surrounding streets to wipe out the scattered, randomly attacking demons, and consolidate a safe beach head.

    Lilian herself is spearheading straight towards that plaza she remembers, so she can head towards the gigantic onyx slab that is the city's major feature from there. Conserving energy is her priority for the time being, so she cuts her way through with hundreds upon hundreds of rounds, spitting waterfalls of black brass and cutting streaking arcs of blue fire around street corners and between buildings, strafing above the head level of fleeing pedestrials and into the upper chests of the bulkier demonic hordes.
Blemishine     This is the second time in a very short timeframe that a certain knight has witnessed what looks like a hellscape on earth.

    Though it's a bit more literal this time. Actually, much more literal. The demons roaming the streets of Fortuna are the real deal straight from hell itself, not the 'demons' of her home world. Reconciling that fact is going to have to come later however, as there are other things on her mind sprinting out of the ruined entry office and seeing the chaos outside. Destruction, the dead, and...

    These things look giddy to have found new prey. Sword and shield are brandished, and Blemishine's face falls into a strained grimace. "This is absolutely awful..." Scarecrows...lizards...even as they begin approaching the arrivals, her eyes shift to the city's horizon, marking out the monolith that Agnus brought to attention. To Cantio, she calls back, "I'll do the same! If we're lucky, their reaction means any survivors already evacuated..." But not a guarantee. "...We better hurry!"

    With that, she dives in as well, alongside Cantio--and Lilian's unit. The Scarecrows are immensely tricky to deal with, and all the more with the reptilian demons backing them up. She opts to play defensive against the former, weaving out of the way of their odd movements and blocking what she can't, focusing more on forcing a path through them than anything else and allowing the supporting fire from Sword Unit to handle them while they're occupied in a melee with her.

    The icy ground and spikes, when she gets a clear moment, she opts to simply get a running start to leap over and close the distance quickly - to come down upon one of them, strafe around to get around the lizard's shield, and go for a pinpoint stab in the vitals before moving on to the next, and further ahead from there. There's plenty of assistance here, so the most important thing is to keep moving rather than cut down every demon in the way - who knows how long Agnus will be in the clear after that cut off?
Meridian The tall, green haired girl with the glasses had arrived sometime later, finding her way around these places took a bit of time and the software on her vehicle's navigation device was long due for an update. After finding a spot she figured would be sufficient, she heads into the Warpgate leading to the location of the disaster. When she got through to the other side, she had to take a moment to assess the situation. There was certainly a lot more demons here than she knew she could handle by herself, but she figured the best thing to do would be to deal with the most immediate threat, those creepy looking scarecrow creatures seemed to be the things that took notice of her first.

There was already somebody who had shown up before her, charging into the fray with their weapon drawn, she figured the first thing to do was to tilt the playing field in their favor, as she concentrated for a moment, building up a reservation of negative emotion within her in order to empower her abilities. Demons, the most base and violent creatures to come crawling out of the most decrepit places that could be found on the other side of the veil. They normally came to the mortal world looking for trouble, so she might as well play the tour guide to Downtown Troubleville.

With her grudge against these creatures sufficiently built up, she focused her senses on the ground near the Scarecrows, raising one of her hands slowly as water began to seep through the ground in a plume of dark smoke, filling the general area surrounding the demon as it starts to swirl in a vortex of shade and water.
Vergil     Cantio carves into the hordes with booming wide heavy slashes. The Scarecrows aren't quite as light as their materials would have them appear, but they are still light enough to be sent flying after being cut in twain. Clouds of soot bleed from their forms before they dissolve into ash. Some of them attempt to clash with Cantio with their blade-limbs, but the metal is of poor quality and they shatter and bounce off easily.

    The Frosts are well-bred for frontal combat with their shields, but their hunched backs and forward-facing heads mean they're surprisingly vulnerable to attacks from behind. Raziel's sneak attacks amidst the fray takes one by surprise, and puts the rest on-guard. Immediately, the advantage they bring vanish as they cease paying attention to the other Elites and constantly watch their backs for the ghost.

    This allows Blemishine to press the advantage, rushing them and striking around the shields to destroy vitals. The anatomy of these creatures is alien, but they seem to have important things in roughly the right place. They collapse into piles of ash and sludge.

    Fortuna is a small island town, no stranger to water, but Meridian brings it all closer than the coast. Cobblestones explode into shrapnel as geysers erupt under the Scarecrows' feet, launching them high into the air. The darkness that bubbles up with it corrodes their forms, eating away at the fabric until whatever makes up their insides comes flying out, leaving only sodden rags that crumble to nothing before they can hit the ground.

    With the demonic lines softened up, Lilian and her Amber unit plough right into them and break through. They don't do a thing to try and retreat, only flail desperately at the hardened veterans as they're torn up by gunfire. With the path opened, the group can advance from the warpgate towards the ominously glowing monolith in the distance. Agnus comes in again over the sirens to start shouting directions so they might get to him quicker. "Take a l-left here! Go past the n-next three turns, then right. Centre r-right!" It's... not abundantly clear how he's tracking them. If Fortuna has surveillance cameras, they're well-camoflaged.

    Agnus' directions soon lead them into a plaza that screams 'tourist trap.' A hotel is here, and every open inch of the area has some kind of cart selling something, or signs pointing at a cafe or art exhibit or museum. Most concerning however is the cries of panic coming from the hotel. But before anyone can act, they're cut short by the roar of a gun, and a Scarecrow flies through the glass automatic doors, twitching in agony on the ground.

    "Oh, I recognize you!" a voice calls from inside. A woman steps through the hole the demon left. She's old, with wispy fading blonde hair and a cigarette seemingly glued to her lip. She's covered in cuts, but cradles a frankly gorgeous double-barrel shotgun in her arms, which she uses to put the Scarecrow out of it's misery.

    "It's me, Nell Goldstein! You're Tony's friends, right?" She points to Lilian and Cantio specifically. "Glad you're here, I ain't really cut out for being on this side of the gun. I make 'em, not shoot 'em." She coughs hard for a moment, her form doubling over, but she straightens up and smiles. "But I'm here on family business, and not even the forces of Hell are keeping me from doing what needs doing."

    Speaking of said forces, more appear on the roofs that form the plaza.. These are akin to the Frosts from earlier, but wear rudimentary helmets and shields instead of manifesting them. Frills on their heads flare out as they roar their challenge at the group before leaping down. And then leaping again in mid-air, mixing up their descents to pile on the Elites. Some slash with massive claws, others roar at incredible volumes, aiming to blow out eardrums and shatter the ground underfoot to destabilize footing.
Raziel The Spirit Reaver grows hungrier as each strike sends another lizard demon to its death, the reaver devouring the creature entirely, soul and all.  He weaves in and out, moving slowly towards Blemishine's position to help cover her course to regroup with Lilian.  Then he vanishes entirely, only to reappear with the advancing group.

"It has been a while, Dame Commander Rook," Raziel says, materializing once more.  It's all he cares to spare given the situation, his blade flashing out in a flurry as they move to help keep the demon forces in their way, out of their way.  Though coming onto the relatively quiet square, he moves to get ready for the attack...only to see that the demon wasn't attacking, but rather getting bodied.  

'Weathered, as humans are mortals and do eventually suffer the ravages of time.  However, despite this, she manages to hold her own in a fight, and against foes that have fallen what this world would call experienced soldiers.  She does her kind credit.'

"Raziel, I am not familiar with the man you speak, but I am new to the affairs of this world," he explains simply.  However, the moment was ruined by more demons surrounding and rushing them from the roofs.  Forced on the defensive, he readies the Spirit Reaver and clashes with the few that swing at him.  

Though the sonic blasts do little to damage his hearing, he does have his teeth rattle and internal bits of him injured.  Forced to spit up some green glowing blood, rather than the regular kind, he grumbles.  His right claw reaches up towards one of the ones on the roof.  His hand clenches, causing a telekinetic hold to wrap around the throat of the demon before launching him towards the nearest spiked thing.

Raziel continues this, aiming to send what demons he can into various sharp objects, off long falls, or into each other to deny them their height advantage.
Cantio There's a visible sense of relief coming over Cantio when she sees Raziel carving through the lizards and Blemishine advancing against the scarecrows alongside her. She starts to say something, but stops when gunfire from Lilian's squad erupts from behind them. "Good work! Lilian's right I'm afraid, so let's keep moving before they bog us down with their numbers!"

After she carves through more of the Scarecrows' blade arms, Cantio continues her rapid advance towards the spooky scary monolith. She jumps aside as she sees some of those Scarecrows getting tossed into the air and practically melted by Meridian's water bursts before looking over in the unfamiliar girl's direction. "Another...? Welcome! Sorry we couldn't meet under better circumstances, but... We'll figure it out later!"

Agnus' directions make it easier to figure out which way to go, at least, although the lack of obvious tracking does raise even more questions in the back of her mind. Cantio can worry about it later, though, as the danger at the hotel becomes apparent upon reaching the place. She starts running forwards again and stops briefly when a Scarecrow comes blasting through the doors in a heap followed by a familiar voice.

"Miss Goldstein? Yeah, Tony's... Is he here? Or Vergil?" She asks while switching to an underhand grip on her overly large sword for a moment to start casting some healing magic, directing it towards Nell in case she needs the boost. "We'll take care of things here. I'd say not to strain yourself, but..."

The Armored Frosts come crashing down, and Cantio switches back to her regular grip while splitting the blade right down the middle. She grips the weapons in both hands, giving the one in her left hand a testing swing before striking a pose not unlike a dual-wielding movie-samurai might. "Fight defensively, and don't get yourself killed. That's our job!"

Once again, Cantio rushes right back into the fray, dashing forwards in a brief blur as a Frost's weapon just narrowly avoids smashing into her face. She swipes at that Frost in passing with a quick laser shot to its back to make sure it doesn't forget that she's there, then turns right around to start slashing away at another Frost that's screaming right in her face before firing back with her own weapons' built in sonic-cannons to fight wide-area noise with more focused head-bursting noise.
Meridian The green haired girl watched as the gathered group of individuals had begun to make headway through the hoards of demons that imposed themselves between them and their destination. She was not familiar with the layout of this area, and had to rely on those who took the lead, as she kept a discreet distance from the melee to avoid getting surrounded.

Sadly, her efforts to keep herself at arm's length from those sharp, bladed appendages that were in front of her meant she failed to check her six for any that were approaching from that direction. It wasn't until she felt the pin-prick pressure of a demon's grip against the front of her abdomen that she realized she had made a dire error.

She yelped in shock at the blood that oozed from the wound that was torn across that area. The pain took a while to hit her, but it seared like hot oil once she could feel it. The girl used that pain to empower her next assault, sending gouts of negatively charged water spewing from the nearby storm drains in order to knock the demonic creatures off their feet.
Lilian Rook     The very first time Angus gives her directions, Lilian's mind already jumps wondering to how he even knows where she is. She forces herself to stow it for its irrelevance to the task at hand; no doubt liable to come back and bug her later.

    Slicing her way through the weak points in the demonic ranks, rather than get tangled up in fighting the tougher targets hand to hand, Lilian arrives at the plaza, and sends coordinates to the rest of her team. At the same time, she hits up the local broadband to start coordinating whoever else is on scene, knowing full well she doesn't have the numbers to sterilize the whole area before unacceptable casualties occur.

    The second half of her unit is just now arriving --this one equipped with combat medics, though they still look just as futuristic Jin-Ro-ass intimidating as the rest-- but their role is to follow in the vanguard's wake and start rescuing civilians, bringing them to a triage point and performing necessary first aid. Owning that plaza will make an ideal fallback point, so the first half of Lilian's unit is forming up on her there, having covered the intervening distance fast enough that-- don't worry about how!

    Lilian herself is just about to skip onward, with a guilty glance and a grimace at the hotel she doesn't have time for, up until the old woman comes out. Lilian's rifle lowers slowly, but her eyes widen instantaneously at hearing that name. "Tony Redgrave? You're that Nell?" she utters without elaboration. It's followed by a little pause, an exasperated sigh, and a quiet "God dammit." She collapses the rifle stock and folds the foregrip, tucking it in close to her shoulder in carbine form, and freeing up her other hand. "Family business is fairly auspicious coming from someone such as yourself. I'd like to ask you to come with us and--"

    Lilian stops and looks up just one uncanny moment before the new reptilian enemies appear. "Behind us!" she calls out to Nell. She doesn't need to tell the troopers arriving anything; having sixteen well-trained guns at her back is a convincing argument for safety, once they begin magdumping into the enemy, forcing them to cover behind shields and tearing up those who won't. Lilian herself immediately flicks her fire selector to maximum and tears into the first few enemies that lunge at her with a sound like shredding paper, while withdrawing and extending the metal wand from the tactical case at her hip with her free hand, smoothly slinging the former over her back and extending the latter out imperiously at arm's length in the same motion.

    Stood at the head of the gunwall, side on like a pistol duellist, Lilian calmly aims, calculates, and slices through the the first few attackers to reach her at point blank with overlapping halos of grainy black-gold distortion. As if rehearsed, like she already knew what was coming, she speedily throws up a sequence of barriers against the sonic shockwave, then sweeps her aim low to burn rings of ogham script into the ground beneath her and her squad's feet, creating a stabilizing area of natural resonance that anchors the earth together and prevents it from splintering.
Blemishine     Ash and sludge...that's probably going to get washed away underneath Meridian's waves. Maybe? It's hard to tell when shadows are mixed in there, too.

    Civilian or not though, she's glad for the extra help for one. "...Right!" Shouting back to Cantio and rushing on ahead after some brief back and forth, Blemishine can't help but be curious on exactly how Agnus knows exactly where they are, especially having not been to Fortuna before. Is there something in that towering monolith that lets him see across the city? You know, zoom, enhance? Or like a crystal ball he can see into? She shouldn't mull it over too hard for now. They'll be there soon enough.

    Into the plaza, she's readying herself again--before it becomes very obvious that at least one person doesn't seem to need saving. "Ah." Wow. For saying she's not the one to 'shoot 'em', Nell sure has every vibe of someone who'd shoot through the entire horde they just beat if she had to. "...Mm! You can leave it to us, Miss Goldstein! Whatever family you're here for, I hope they're--"

    She lacks critical information--no, not just of the familial connection here, but of the fact they're getting ambushed, though she catches on to the Armored Frosts' descent before it's too late, immediately moving to defend Nell. Blemishine is ready for shields and claws, though it's the deafening roars that catch her off-guard, forcing a pained wince and a full-body brace as the concrete beneath her feet cracks and gives way.

    Her balance being thrown off means when she goes to block one of their claws, it puts some severe strain on her shield arm, buckling backwards under the force. "Ngh...! Oh no you...!" The knight stops herself and swings her blade forward - as she does so, light gathers at the guard and then streaks across the blade, becoming a sudden flash of blinding light focused upwards. If they're going to try and disorient them, she'll go to blind as many of them still coming down as she can, and make them far easier pickings for the others.

    The residual radiance left behind remains surrounding her weapon, every swing of it in the resulting melee sending off waves of warmth that'll dull wounds and accelerate their healing. It's /far/ more volatile to the lizard hide she's attempting to cut through however, like a hot knife through butter!
Lilian Rook     Once she sees the brand new face --one she seems to believe is a concerned specialist civilian-- arrive, and take a hit, she motions for one of her fireteams to move over. Within seconds, four tall, heavily armoured individuals in amber-striped all-black have all but blurred their way over to Meridian, forming a four point wall, three of which are now shooting, and one of which is cracking open an emergency responder kit and asking her through a gravelly vocoder to allow them to see the wound, as of yet unaware of Meridian's ability to shrug it off.
Vergil     In terms of 'spikes,' Raziel is out of luck. Fortuna may be a mysterious place, but it is also a living area, so those kinds of things aren't really around. But there's plenty of things that can become spiked with a little effort. Flagpoles for example, or drainage pipes running down from the roofs. These Assaults are fast, but they're not all that tanky either. Massive internal damage caused by impalement causes them to collapse to ash and scraps of their armour.

    "I dunno! They didn't come with me at least, and I ain't their sitters," Nell grouses good-naturedly at Cantio. Her healing magic causes the cuts to close, but it seems to home in on the gunsmith's chest for some reason. Any further comment is cut short by the arrival of the Assaults. Cantio wades in, juking their assaults and shooting them in the back while deploying her own sonic assaults. These creatures must have the internal earplugs to protect them from sonic attacks, as her attacks only force them to cringe away, obeying some kind of social instinct. Maybe the ones who can shout the loudest become pack leader or something?

    As Meridian takes the claws to her back, Nell blasts the offending demon before kneeling down to help her back up. "You good girlie? I got your back!" The water rises from the ancient sewers at Meridian's beckoning, sweeping up the Assaults in its fury. They might be terribly acrobatic with their double-jumps, but they're not strong swimmers. Several manage to leap to cling to the plaza walls and stay out of the corroding negative energy however

    The field medics that follow Lilian enter the hotel and find a mix of tourists and Order members. Some of the latter are badly injured with swords next to them, no doubt having thrown themselves at the demons to protect others. At least some people in this sect are forthright. Lilian herself finds her magic shredding the demons, and her men blow them apart just the same as the last ones. Those shields are thin and mass produced, more for crashing against a spear wall than deflecting bullets. These Assaults seem bred to do just that and nothing else. Any solid defensive line just crushes them.

    Blemishine's blinding light catches several of the demons by surprise, causing them to stumble and fall mid-jump, leaving them prime prey. She tears them apart, her blade parting their flesh and even armor easily. Her healing light filling the plaza. Citizens watching from the windows see her and gasp in awe. Some even seem to be praying. To her, or for her?

    The Assaults run out eventually, leaving the group free to advance. "Sure, I can stick with ya. Pretty sure we're heading to the same place anyway," Nell says grimly to Lilian as she slots more shells into her shotgun. The monolith isn't much further now, close enough that Agnus' directions aren't needed. Good thing too, since he's gone quiet.

    The monolith is massive, at least 10 stories tall and dominating its own wider plaza. Up close, one can see it's not pure black, but also engraved in gold with strange symbols that drape down from the top. However, an ugly red gash dominates the middle of it, from which the demons pour. Some kind of device is projecting light at it, seemingly causing the portal.

    But before the group can approach, they come under fire. Strange sprites fly about in the air, masses of shadow that seem to wreath vaguely insectoid demons. Most of them are red, with spindly hands that bear freakishly long and glowing index fingers. Others are larger and white, with more evenly sized, bright red fingers. They point at the group, before their fingers suddenly becoming enormously long, lancing at them to stab with vicious strength, enough to shatter the ground underfoot when they miss.

    They fire in sequence, always one there to back up another, take advantage of a dodge or hammer on blocks with repeated strikes. The plaza is wide and empty of cover, a perfect killzone. These things will have to go before they can even approach the gate.
Raziel Raziel finds that there is no gothic architecture to take advantage of.  However, flag poles, drainage pipes, and fences will do in a pinch.  Another demon goes flying, with a satisfying scream before it falls silent.  Lilian makes him aware of the 'civilian' and requests that he closes ranks a bit.  He fights towards such a position, though notices that she shrugs the wound off better than a civilian should.  

However, he does not have time to do more than comment on it.  He offers one of his clawed hands up, without much of a word, and moves on with the rest of the group through more of the hellscape city, until finally, their goal is in sight.

'I could barely hear the buzzing on the wind, but whisps of black orbs floating around.  Straining my eyes, I could see individual demons in the swarms.  It seemed that demons exist of all sizes in this city, which would quickly become an annoyance.  I did not have time to deal with the small ones, but in this case, literally.'

Finger darts come, and Raziel remains moving, trying to avoid being struck the best that he could.  Sword smacks the initial assault away, but more follow-up than even his fast blade work could keep up with.  A few hit, piercing his body.  Though, thankfully, he has no vitals that can be effectively hurt.  The strain remains on his ability to remain manifested.  

The Spirit Reaver changed from the greenish glow, into a red glow.  Fire trails in its wake as he swings his sword arm in a massive upper-cut swing, and then back down in an overhead swing to not only strike nearby demons but also release a wave of flame to set a wider area on fire.  

Raziel moves to push Meridian down after he notices her wounds.  "Stop getting in the open, stand behind me specifically if you must," he provides in the way of strongly worded suggestion.  "Cantio can not keep feeding you your health back forever."
Cantio After hearing (and then seeing) Meridian's injury, Cantio leaves her second blade to float behind her and continue firing bursts of sound at the demons while doubling back to regroup with the...

"Are you a magic-user? Ah... Don't worry, you'll be fine." She states confidently, albeit a little shakily as she casts some healing magic on her gut wound after patching up Nell. Her magic isn't going to be a replacement for more focused and long-term medical care, but it's certainly potent enough to staunch the bleeding without too much fuss or medical knowledge on her part.

"It /has/ been a while since the last time I saw them... But I'm sure they're fine." Cantio comments as she turns her attention right on back to the Assaults and notices that they don't seem quite as susceptible to the sonic attacks as she would have hoped. She'll have to keep that in mind the next time she runs into them.

With the hotel secured, Cantio only has enough time to take a quick breath before advancing once again. "We're getting closer, but... I don't hear him this time." She comments, noting the lack of Agnus-sounds over the radio while attaching her sword halves back to each other. She slows down briefly as she sees the monolith up close-ish, narrowing her eyes at where the demons are coming out of. She spots that device, and it doesn't take long for her to put two and two together.

"What are the odds destroying it would just make it worse?" She asks aloud, glancing over at Meridian and Raziel as if expecting them to be more knowledgeable about demon-summoning portals than herself, Blemishine, or Lilian. There's no time to actually test that theory, though, as the group is once again attacked by the strange sprites ramming their fingers down at everyone.

"If we can't dodge them... Just try to weather their attacks instead!" Cantio warns while doing so herself, flinging up her blade to use it as a buffer between the glowing fingers and herself. She winces painfully as they scrape past her weapon and into her limbs, twisting sideways at the last moment to minimize the risk to her vitals. Advancing is difficult, too, when they start alternating their attacks to maintain a persistent danger-radius.

Deciding to fight fire with fire, Cantio plants her sword right in the ground. The edges of it, made of numerous smaller pieces, curl towards the finger-blasters and glow ominously while she channels more of her own energy into the weapon. Instead of trying to engage them at close range, she stays right where she is and fires off a spread of lasers around them that curve inwards at the last moment to barrage the demons from multiple angles at once.
Meridian The fight seemed to not be in Meridian's favor, she had figured after that backbiting maneuver that she could be ready for anything else that came her way, though assaults from rooftops were something that were now going to be anticipated, bombardments were an entirely different story.

She lets out a panicked whine as numerous wounds rip into her body. This was discouraging enough, though the berating coming from one of her allies was enough to break her resolve. She knew she had to withdraw before she became a serious liability.

"Yes, I cannot do anything else here, not even defend myself. What was I thinking?" She said while attempting to move behind the advancing Amber Clad forces that were attempting to establish themselves in the area, "I wasn't thinking at all." She mumbled under her breath. Her previously pepared attack had just evaporated into a light, gloomy violet glowing rain that seemed to cover the general area.
Lilian Rook     As the Assaults clear out, Lilian breathes a sigh of relief, only to turn and raise an eyebrow at Nell. "Beg pardon? Why on Earth are you . . . no, don't bother answering. Just stay close. It'd really be a big problem for me if you got killed here, you know. And I'm certain that Redgrave wouldn't much appreciate it either." She gestures rapidly between identical full-face helmets. "Sword nine, your team is on Goldstein. Sword five and sword thirteen, left and right flank, slice corners, report clears. Sword one, four point stance, pick two vanguard and two rear; your discretion."

    Once patching up is done on Meridian, the fireteam returns to the greater mass and forms up a roving diamond. It looks a little odd with Lilian at the front, a foot shorter than every other figure in the formation, but she has the sort of presence that makes it seem natural. "I'll need you to answer me honestly about this, though, Mrs Goldstein. If family business has to do with that monolith, are we prioritizing rescue, or . . . ?" she leaves the rest implicit. Just in time for someone to call a visual confirmation, spread targeting uplinks, and the sound of electric-crackling tearing gunfire to fill the air.

    The flying enemies, evasive and erratic, maintaining distance and covering one another, are a more challenging issue. Even that many automatic weapons has trouble landing meaningful damage; especially with those billowing shrouds concealing the actual body of the demon within, leading to accurate bursts of fire only tearing shadows.

    he troopers would ordinarily be easy targets in return, but they apparently aren't equipped to just stand around and shoot like movie extras. The armour isn't just to conceal their faces menacingly; for the most part, they're able to accelerate even from a standstill to leap and dive out of the way of being skewered, either with raw strength or the use of integrated microthrusters, reacting with the aid of some kind of predictive sensor warning(?). A couple of dedicated engineers are able to throw down hard cover that can stand up to a few of those attacks, providing refuge for those who are struck in the side or extremities and suffer armour breaches. When the gunfire isn't proving all that effective, fireteam leaders order a coordinated volley of grenade canisters, which sail merrily into the air and detonate into colossal blossoms of coruscating fire; apparently Lilian had taken the time to apply her runes to some of their munitions before.

    Lilian is still trying to deal with the swarm efficiently, which goes wrong the moment one of them aims for Nell. Lilian shifts into the way, sights along the axis of the telegraphed pointing finger, speed-conjuring up a short column of overlapping magical circles, and fires her beam. Striking the demon first misaligns the ridiculously tightly threaded overlap of attacks, and for her ambitious efforts, she is stabbed in--

    The arm. Somehow. It looked as if it was going to go between her ribs, but  somehow, she just managed to intercept with the heavier armour on her lower arms; even then, the severed appendage has punctured deeply enough for blood to smudge the composite when Lilian tears it out with a quiet hiss. And yet . . .
Lilian Rook     "Cool it." Lilian says to Meridian. "You're here already, so it's too late to start regretting your choices." She isn't looking, wholly focused on speed-casting. The tactical wand sputters out when its internal battery dies, forcing her to refill it from her own reserves. A constellation of miniature circles float in shifting patterns around her. "That's not a bad thing. You thought you could help, so you tried to do what you could. You didn't do anything wrong. But when you're over your head, you need to focus on what the best course of action you can take right now, and nothing else. Once you lose your head and start fussing over 'should-have', you'll die. Focus for me. Okay? Don't start falling apart now. Just do your best."

    A final slash of her wand causes the helical tip to spark with a miniature monochrome sun, and the wall of mini-circles to discharge a twisting spiral of thinner, target-seeking (or, target-anticipating?) beams, curving by the dozen to precisely skewer flying demons through the head and quasi-magically induce convenient smoking holes.
Blemishine     Only after the Assault Frosts around the hotel have been dispatched does Blemishine allow herself a moment to breathe and relax...and, as she stands up straightly again, notice the reactions of the civilians in the windows. "Ah..." Blinking in surprise for a second, she transitions into an expression that's both slightly awkward and somewhat embarrassed - before she returns to full seriousness, holding her shining sword high as if to show that there's nothing to worry about.

    She never was good at showmanship, but if they can rest a little more assure that things will be fine, then that's good enough for her. It's time to move ahead though, with Nell joining in on their close-knit group. She knew the monolith would be gigantic just from how far away they could see it from, but it's seriously an impressive sight as they draw near. Impressive, if not for the horrible rend in space marring its surface, which draws a strained sound as she takes the sight in...and also that of the device ostensibly responsible.

    She'd love to study it closer up and make a guesstimate on Cantio's question, but there's no way to do anything about it right now. "There are so many different kinds of these things...but if this is the source, we just have to get through them!" Easier said than done, however. Of all the methods of attack she could imagine, extending their fingers to pierce through them wasn't high on the list, and Blemishine is forced to immediately go on the defensive.

    She's a blur of brief but hasty movements, narrowly avoiding getting speared center of mass or in a way that'd cripple her movement. The one time she makes the mistake of blocking directly, a combination of strikes beats into the metal and stabs right through it in several places, barely missing her arm past it. Gashes begin building up across her white armor, more than a few drawing blood.

Brute forcing a path through a barrage this heavy isn't going to work...! There's no cover, either...keep it cool, Maria. There's a rhythm to it, which means there are still some small gaps! Wait for it--!

    In the split second between one finger coming behind the other, the knight throws aside her damaged shield to grab her weapon with both hands, weaving and slicing the spot she just occupied in order to lop the extended finger off. The next, she steps in and does the same, anticipating then counterattacking to disarm (or rather, de-finger) her aggressors one slash at a time with her light-edged blade.

    She might not be able to hit their main bodies very easily--but she can sure make them hurt every time they try to attack her, and create openings in the constant barrage for the others in the process.
Vergil     Going after these strange demons with fire proves to be a good idea. The shadows that wreath them are thin and fibrous, almost like hair, and the light of the flames burn and banish them, leaving only their thin, insectoid forms. Without the shadows to absorb blows, they panic and scraper, making them easy prey.

    Cantio lets out a scattering of lasers. These demons might be able to fly, but they don't really move all that fast, mostly just lazily drift around. As such, they can't really move fast enough to avoid attacks that come at lightspeed. Their shadowy mantles soak the beams for a bit, but eventually they lance through and slice the thin body underneath in twain.

    Meridian gets down in the dumps after the injuries she's taken, and it's hard to blame her for it. But a shot rings out beside her from Nell who scatters a pack of the demons with a blast of buckshot. "You were thinking you wanted to help, so you did," the old woman says gently. "And that's mighty good of you. World would be better with more like you in it. Take those wounds with pride; if it weren't for you, someone else here might have gotten hurt instead. Someone who couldn't defend themselves at all." She pats the green-haired girl on the shoulder in an almost motherly way before slotting a slug into her weapon.

    She would have died the next moment had Lilian not taken the hit from the Faust. "Whoa! You good?!" she exclaims, returning fire at that specific one. Finally answering her earlier question, she adds, "Oh, I know he's alive. We heard him over the sirens, didn't we?" That would mean Agnus is the one the 'family business' is with. Her strange spells lance through the demons as they struggle to drift clear of attacks, as if anticipating the movement. They plummet to the ground and lay still. Her soldiers manage to make some headway into the plaza, their barrage of grenades ripping them to shreds, and banishing their protective shadows when they don't entirely reach, sending the demons running.

    Blemishine tosses aside the shield and starts taking fingers when they dare to fire. The injured demons scream in offence with every nick and pull back to nurse the injury. Considering how precious they are about it, it brings to mind a sulky child. With that last lot sent running, the plaza is clear, and the group can advance.

    A trailer has been set up beside the machine connected to the monolith. It's covered in dents and scratches, the curtains pulled. They twitch for a moment, and the relieved face of Agnus peeks out. The doorknob rattles, but the frame has been warped too much to allow him to step out.

    But, he's not the only one here.

    Huddled under the trailer are three children. One, a boy, lies unconscious, a cut on their head bleeding. Another, a girl, weeps softly as she clings to the third. The third, with white hair and angry blue eyes, watches the Elites come into the middle of the plaza.

    Kyrie, Credo, and Nero. The children from the previous visit.

    Bolts of lightning suddenly erupt from the portal upon the monolith. But unlike lightning, it moves with purpose, bouncing around the plaza and surrounding the Elites before coming to an abrupt halt and resolving into demons. Again, they're very lizardlike, but these ones stand taller and broader than the Frosts and Assaults. They movie with purpose, confidence even as they make a loose ring around the group. Some of them even seem to smirk as they sniff the air.

    And then they become lightning once more and begin blitzing the heroes, rushing through their midst to slash and jolt, constantly moving in and out, a non-stop assault that leaves no room for error.
Raziel Children..?  Why are there children here of all places?  Raziel's blade comes to his hand again, this area should be the thickest of it, but it's empty.  Even though the sounds of their rescuee can be heard, it would explain how he managed to escape alive.  The children left alive though..?  They must be playing with them.

The lightning strikes put Raziel on notice, forcing him back into the group.  They're trying to surround them.  They vanish, and Raziel quickly changes the elemental alignment of the blade in his hand, turning it into the Earth Reaver.  With this, he's able to increase his own density, and with that when the lightning strike and /the worst enemy ever/ strikes down on him he's not thrown off guard.

Though the electricity DOES flow through him, he does hold his own with the blade aiming to parry the demon.  Even as he strains to hold it back, he does so through injury to his arms in the process.  He kicks the demon back, before holding the reaver aloft.  He then slams it down into the ground, as the earth shakes around him.  Spikes jut up in directions all around the group, aiming to provide cover AND impale the demons.

"Now would be a good time to figure out what we're doing with that gate."
Meridian The tall girl seemed subdued, any attempt to withdraw now was futile, as more demons began filling the streets and making an egress all but impossible. Her first attempt to venture outside of her homeworld might end up being her last. With no option to take shelter, she realized she needed to make this moment count, if only for the sole reason of being undone for a lost cause. To give into primal fear during this moment would have made her no better than some four-legged livestock, predestined to get slaughtered. She was in enough of a single piece that she'd have the chance for one last great act of defiance.

Her fatalistic ruminations had been cut short by Nell's words, which broke her mood enough to realize her being here was not a complete and total washout. She could still fight, even if she was looking like a pinata, after several rounds of kids taking a stick to her. If it was somebody else out there, they probably would have been already prepped for a dirt nap by now after what she took, and probably would have had to be carried home in a grocery bag as well.

"Uh-huh, I'm not on my back just yet. Though they're going to wish they had put me out of their misery much sooner." She said in a darker tone as a nearby manhole flew open due to an eruption of compressed steam. What soon followed was a pillar of superheated water that seemed to branch out in several directions like a briar made of liquid.
Cantio The extending finger demons retreat, and Cantio gets another chance to breathe. Noticing Meridian's internal crisis, she falls back briefly again to give her a light touch on the shoulder while lowering her voice.

"If it helps any... You're not the only one that feels like this. Or has ever felt like that." She manages a light chuckle while shouldering that blade again, looking over at Blemishine for a moment before starting to move towards the gate and the monolith once more. "... But that's what experience is for. You learn your strengths, your limits, and you keep on improving. It's like what Miss Goldstein said: Someone else would've gotten hurt if not for you, and it might've been someone who isn't like us. It could be someone who can't survive the types of things we do."

That's about all the reassurance she can give at the moment before breaking into a run again once she sees familiar faces inside and under the trailer. Even if she hasn't known the children for more than that one time she's met them, Cantio still has enough of a soft spot that she's rushing a bit too much to get to them, and it costs her when the bolts of lightning blast downwards. Before she can muster up a proper defense, the Blitzes arrive out of nowhere and start tearing into her, forcing Cantio to huddle behind her sword just so that she's not getting cut up from every angle at once (just most of them).

That defensive huddle isn't only a desperate defense, however, but a calculated move! At least, that's what Cantio's going to say if anyone asks later, as she soon starts building up magical energy beneath her. She bides her time until another wave of slashes crosses right over her, and then she detonates her sword, sending fragments of it bursting towards the Blitz squad to begin her counterattack.

"Cover your ears, kids!" Cantio shouts in warning shortly as the sword fragments embed themselves all over the ground where she and her allies are fighting the Blitzes. It almost looks like she's just scattered broken glass all over the floor, but a keen eye or ear will notice that the fragments are glowing, vibrating, and turning themselves ever so slightly. There's a dull hum that rapidly turns into a loud static that, thanks to the tuning of each piece, starts barraging the lizardmen with concentrated sonic force and lasers alike, ricocheting everything around in a buffet of light and noise to shred them apart both internally and externally.
Blemishine     "Hah..." Honestly, when one thinks of demons, you really wouldn't expect them to be so...is emotionally vulnerable the right term, looking at how they reacted to her attacks? Though running away, she'll give them, given the various combinations of gunfire, flame, deathwater, and more that they were subjected to. They'll have to be properly cleaned up later, but for now, she has to retrieve her shield to repair later and...

    Ah. Huh. Hm.

    Hm. "...For some reason, I was expecting an experiment this big to be done out of something a little more professional than...um, this..." Blemi idly notes as they approach both the trailer and the machine that seems to be responsible for Fortuna's current predicament, before she takes notice of more than just the man who she assumes to be Agnus. Her eyes go wide in surprise, taking note of the white-haired boy's fierce expression...and his companion's injury. Why are--have they been out here this entire time...?

    "You three...hold on, I'll--" Her step forward and impending offer to get them somewhere safer while the gate is dealt with both stop short.

    Lightning crackles around the plaza, instantly putting her back on the defensive and struggling to track it until the demons stop and allow their actual forms to be seen. That attitude of theirs...is worrying in its own way. The knight immediately shifts closer to the trailer protectively, even though the kids are very much out of sight and out of mind of their foes for the moment. It'll stay that way if she has anything to say about it.

    When they're very literally Blitzed down, it's all she can do to keep on her toes and use her sword to defend against each blow as they come in. Sidestep, parry, deflect--each time, lightning jolts through her weapon and forces her to brace against it, forcing tensed muscles to move to stop the next.

    Once again, she's watching and waiting, biding her time as damage slowly piles on. She can't track electricity, but she can predict where it'll strike next, observing their movements whenever they come in for the kill. Let them get confident she's stuck guarding, and...!

    --She moves just as one of the demons comes in for her again, stance shifting to an offensive one and blade arcing through the air, moving to sidestep past it and slash at the waist as she passes by, to turn its own speed against it and cut clean through the lightning with her light-edged sword. Just like that, she goes on counteroffense, attempting to meet each Blitz coming for her with a preemptive strike that'll leave them speeding past her in two pieces rather than one.
Lilian Rook     "I'm perfectly fine." Lilian replies to Nell. It's hard to tell if she's just trying to keep her calm or if she really does cooly mean that. She flexes her hand to check, apparently satisfied the injury isn't deep. When she catches what Goldstein says next though, her tone changes completely. "Wait-- You can't be serious. Really? That's . . . Well, no, that would explain something, but really?" A beat. "Are you religious too? With the Church of the Sword, that is."

    There's little time to continue that line of discussion while the group is moving. It doesn't take long to reach their destination, and even less time before they're right back in action again. "What the hell is a trailer doing here?!" Lilian cries out. "Agnus! I see you there! Turn that goddamn thing off right now or I'm going to destroy it! There's no time to screw around; do whatever it takes!" Of course she's entirely aware that the reason he's been hiding inside must be because he expects he'd be killed the instant he stepped out to do exactly that; the new, lightning demons look like far too much for a scientist to handle.

    Actually, they're rough even for Lilian's squad to handle. Their sheer speed makes it nearly impossible to to shoot them, and the repeated hit and run assaults are more than capable of wearing them down, as claws strike armour here, lightning ruptures a weapon there, toku sparks and crackling electricity fly, and ranks close to cover for downed teammates being helped up. Lilian tries for a little while to land a wide area magic attack, and when even that doesn't work . . .

    At last, Lilian draws her sword. Lurid scarlet light runs through the whorled etchings along the five foot jet black blade. Ostensibly, an even worse weapon in this situation. Large, heavy, only viable in point blank, slower to swing than a trigger can be pulled, and just asking to get electrocuted for even swinging at something made of lightning.

    So when one of the lightning demons streaks right across Lilian's field of view to strike her, Lilian moves a hair too late, and has already struck the monster, actually. Foot forward, arm extended, sword swung down to her hip and already being flipped over-hand to ready it above her shoulder. There's no sign of electrical damage on the woman herself.

    Which makes sense, because the sword includes no steel. And the demons' lightning speed doesn't matter when they aren't moving. Even better that they fall under its exact, supernaturally effective purview. An ideal demon-slaying weapon. Lilian systematically moves on to a second. Then a third. Then . . .
Vergil     "Me? Nah, I'm not the faithful type. It's... complicated," Nell tells Lilian. "I'll explain later, once we got this wrapped up." When the fighting begins, she throws herself on the children, protecting them with her own form and keepingt hat shotgun raised, ready to menace any demon who gets too close.
    Raziel grounding himself with his elemental shift helps, the electricity flowing into the ground. It also means he can resist the impact of their claws as they rush past. But his retaliation throws the demons off-guard. Several slam straight into the spikes he throws up and fall to the ground, the impact having snapped their necks. The others quickly adjust, but the added obstacles force them to go around or above, making the pattern of their attacks more infrequent.

    Meredith pulls herself from her slump and brings the storm! Water gushes up from below, wetting the ground and air and scalding the Blitzes. Those soaked immediately spark out of control, their demonic power flowing out uncontrollably and forcing them to reassume their physical form. They scowl at the woman, and start stalking their way over to her.

    But Cantio to the rescue! Her scattered weapons turn the plaza into a deadly rave. These ones don't have the internal earplugs, so they double over at the sonic assault, and then crumple as the lasers sear through them. Denied their speed advantage, they're not so tough.

    Blemishine unfortunately, has to deal with those who managed to avoid getting doused. With how on the defensive she is, they seem to notice and start dogpiling her, constantly pressuring her in the hopes of breaking through her guard. Which is why when she suddenly goes on the offensive and bisects one while still in lightning form, they abruptly scatter, hanging from Raziel's spikes and staring daggers at her. A few more try their luck, only to meet the same fate.

    "I cannot!" Agnus calls from the trailer, voice muffled. "The c-c-controls are on the device itself!" The woman draws her sword, a great heavy thing, and somehow eclipses the speeds of the Blitzes, killing them the instant they seem to hit her. With that, only one remains, standing atop an earthen spike, watching the group cautiously.

    And then it notices Nell and the children, and everyone present could swear that it /smirks/.

    It leaps, and rushes right at them. Nell raises her gun and pulls the trigger, only to hear a click. In the chaos, she has neglected to reload. Kyrie buries her face in her fallen brother while Nero watches in panic as the demon gets closer. He screams, raising his right arm. As a shield, or as if to fight back?

    "AaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

    A phantasmal blue arm manifests next to his own arm and lashes out, slamming the Blitz square in the head and sending it flying, crashing into the device connected to the monolith. Something important is damaged in the impact and it shorts out, the gate upon the tall black stone quickly dwindling to nothing. It's over, for now.

    Nell looks around, having covered her face and eyes in that moment, and breaths a sigh of relief. "Thanks for the save everyone. Now, if you'll excuse me..." She gets up, dusts herself off, and walks up to the trailer. Despite the bent frame, she wrenches the door free, strides inside, and slams it behind her. The sound of her muffled yelling at Agnus goes on for a good while. The name 'Nicoletta' comes up often.

    Nero is just standing there, still and eyes wide. And then, whatever happened to him takes his toll. He sinks to his knees and faceplants on the stones.
Raziel 'The moment I unleashed that attack, I knew I had pushed myself too far.  Strained my physical body to its limits, limits that go far beyond the average physical being.  Slumping to the ground, I could hear the sounds of dwindling combat.  The Reaver turned its attention on me, I could feel it start to eat at my own energy.  Quick thinking lead me to avoid the worst possible outcome...but at the cost of not being able to aid those still fighting.'

Raziel lurches in pain after the strike, the blade seemingly starting to turn itself on him.  Raziel was forced to grab his own arm as the blade tried to wrest control from him.  He manages to control it just long enough to slam the blade into one of the nearest dying demons...thankful it could feed on something that wasn't him.

Of course during this small emergency, one of those demons goes for the children.  However, the manifesting of the blue arm causes his own eyes to widen.  With that single action, the portal start to close...and they are spared further incursions for a time.  
Cantio "On the... Really?!" Cantio's patience with Agnus is noticeably thinner as she concludes her attack on the Blitzes, still unable to relax even when only one Blitz remains standing. She launches her sword fragments towards Nell and the children to intercept the Blitz when it turns to attack them, but that proves to be unnecessary when the mysterious blue arm appears to smash that Blitz into the distace.

As luck would have it, that's enough to disable the machine, and Cantio can shift gears. Taking up a position back over by the kids, she checks on them and treats whatever injuries they may have with her healing magic before starting to do the same for the rest of the group. As she does so, however, she glances over at Nero every now and then with a curious eye.

It's clear that there's more to him than expected, but she doesn't know what yet. She'll just have to keep watch to try and find out more later.
Meridian Exhausted, barely able to keep on her feet, and having to focus in order to remain coherent enough to note the gist of everything that was going on around her in the aftermath of the incursion. The air around her was extremely humid due to the attack she had unleashed. She could feel her body start to feel muggy on top of being injured.

She had scalded several of those lightning creatures, keeping them from regrouping in their much more nimble and hazardous lightning-fueled forms.

Though addled that they were, they were still a threat, one that almost took the lives of Nell and the Children that were there, if it were not for the hidden power of one of the ones present. She only saw it out of the corner of her eye.

She couldn't quite tell what had fully happened, but they had managed to save the live of the others who could only brace themselves. The machine had been disabled, powered down, the portal having vanished from the face of the monolith.

With the sounds of chaos having died down, Meridian allows herself to slump against the side of a shelter, before she finds herself sitting on the ground.
Blemishine     Following her series of strikes, Blemishine is left panting for breath and working to keep herself steady, having exerted no small amount of energy maintaining the Arts enhancing her weapon or physical stamina keeping up with the Blitzes. Not to mention the accumulated injuries. A hasty look around makes her think that all of them have been dealt with at first...

    --No, that's wrong. One more was lying in wait, and it's looking at... "No--!" She tries to move, but she's never going to be fast enough. Outspeeding one of these things even at peak condition wouldn't be possible, but she tries anyway.

    Only to stop, in surprise more than anything else, when Nero more than just sends it flying with that spectral arm. He outright breaks its entire body against the device keeping the gate going. There's a long moment where she's also just standing there in wide-eyed surprise, idly registering Nell brute forcing her way into the trailer and going off on Agnus as if a severe demon incursion wasn't just in town. She kind of reminds her of her aunt in a few ways.

    Then Nero hits the ground, and that snaps her out of it enough to hurry forward and join Cantio in checking over the kids and making sure they, and everyone else, will be okay. Credo, at least, needs that cut patched up and to be sure he's not knocked out from anything more serious. Meridian is going to need a checkover too, for sure.

    She really has no idea what Nero just did...but whatever it was, it looks like it was something he's not used to doing. Maybe never did before? It's probably not the time to worry too much. After all...

    "...We're still going to have to clean up any leftover demons in the city, aren't we?"
Lilian Rook     "I gathered that you ass!" Lilian yells over the roar of combat. "Why do you think I'm out here fighting?! Go!"

    It's too much to expect, too late, from the timid scientist. One of the kids is in the crossfire before Agnus can do anything. Nell takes the job of intercepting, only to have lost count. Lilian turns with her prior slash, following the weight of her weapon, to find Nero, body tensing, about to sprint, about to wish for it to stop, before Nero beats her to it.

    Well, Lilian is still in business mode. She blinks over to Nero's side to check he's still breathing, then waves over two troopers, ordering them to stay as personal guard detail (and looking askance at Cantio). "That's correct." she says to Blemishine, unlimbering her rifle again, ejecting the magazine clattering to the cobblestones, slamming in a fresh replacement and slapping the charging handle. "We have plenty of cleanup to do, and there are still injured and endangered. Keep moving. We can't afford to stand around here. If Credo's men are out there too, support them however you can, so move out."