Night 59: Main Hallway, 1-West
[from here]
Kirk ran into the main hallway and found nothing there except more pink light coating everything. His gut feeling said that if something was happening, it should've happened already, but he was a loss to explain what was going on. The system (if he could call it that, vague as it was to describe the whole Landel's torture/ ( Read more... )
Kirk ran into the main hallway and found nothing there except more pink light coating everything. His gut feeling said that if something was happening, it should've happened already, but he was a loss to explain what was going on. The system (if he could call it that, vague as it was to describe the whole Landel's torture/ ( Read more... )
More bloodied rats and bats waited for them in the main hall, along with all other manner of bloody chaos. Insect guts littered the ground, a dead pack of dogs lay further ahead, and all the way down the hall was blood, blood, and more blood. Utena's breath quickened. She was already getting Doyleton flashbacks. Nothing had been this bad since that night with the zombies.
The only thing that eased her nerves slightly was a song. Of all things, there was a song being sung. Utena realized after a moment that she recognized the singer's voice, too: it was Tear, and she was using her powers the way she had with Renamon the previous night. Instead of healing, though, it seemed to be making all the remaining monsters in the area fall to the ground. "Whoa..." Utena said with wide eyes, watching as the other girl finished and beat a hasty retreat out of there.
"...Here's hoping the guys get here before more of these things do, then," said Utena after a few moments of wary silence. She moved an arm partly in front of Aigis, a protective gesture she made out of habit. They had to stay alert, even if things seemed safe for the moment. One slip up and they could both get hurt really, really badly.
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Aigis took Utena's cue and held back from charging further though she waited on restless feet. The whole area around them was swarming with monsters. Whatever bit of her that still held her sensors was screaming at her to run or fight. Her trigger finger twitched on the cold metal of the Evoker. Athena could not be used hastily in the tight space of the hall, but it was reassuring knowing she was there at the slightest touch.
Unfortunately it seemed the spell-caster's song was losing effect rapidly on several of the creatures around them, but that was not their primary concern. A small team of chattering necrits were skittering their way towards them on their clawed feet.
"Tenjou-san..." Aigis whispered a warning. She turned to look behind them, but as she expected the earless creatures had managed to surround them rather effectively. Aigis reached for her claws, returning the Evoker to her pocket as she did so. Then, before they could leap upon them all at once, Aigis rushed forward in an attempt to skewer one with a swift swipe. She reminded herself to stay loose as Taura had taught her. Adding injuries due to carelessness would not be smart.
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And as she raised her sword, she felt that sense of something familiar within her again. She didn't consciously know it was there. But it embraced her gently, trailed across her arms and down her back like the warm ghost of a lover, keeping her movements steady and precise despite how much she felt like shaking. Somehow, Utena was able to face the creatures with a confidence and precision of focus she hadn't felt since Ohtori.
She lunged out as Aigis did. "Haaaah!" Utena thrust forward, her blade skewering dead center through one of the necrits as though it had been guided there. Not missing a beat, she swept the blade in a wide arc, cutting down another and knocking two more off balance.
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Vino was disappointed. Perhaps all that waiting really had been for nothing, even if he'd gotten a healing boost in the process. He'd missed out on a lot of the fun, it seemed, judging by the amount of animal carcasses strewn here and there in the hallways. Despite his early start, it seemed several other people had already gotten to dealing with the stirrings in the shadows before he had.
One thing was consoling though -- the buzzing excitement in the atmosphere hadn't gone yet. Vino could perhaps still eat his fill at the feast, then. That was nice to know. Still, the sheer number of corpses already littering the place was alarming! How much could possibly be left for him if this many had already been taken down?!
On his way to to the west end of the main hallway, he'd passed by a girl singing a curious tune that had made all the creatures in the vicinity drop to the floor. Which definitely wasn't fair at all, but Vino made the effort to ignore that, and instead, took the moment to glance at her hair color, her dress.
He was fairly certain the person he'd been conversing with on the bulletin board was a female, judging by the handwriting mostly. How had she described herself again? Long pink hair, duelist jacket (whatever that was), and shorts... shorts? Weren't those only worn by young boys? ... But he'd been so sure that Tenjou Utena was a lady? Perhaps not, but the long pink hair bit had certainly threw him off.
In any case, the girl clearly didn't have pink hair and she seemed to be moving in the opposite direction anyway. Moving on. Vino made no attempt to skirt the bodies in his way, only stepped over the ones directly in his path or pushed them out of the way if they hindered his progress enough.
From a distance, he thought he heard chattering, but it sounded strange. The farther west he went, the louder the chattering became and the more inhuman it sounded. ... It looked like Vino would have his chance after all.
The source of the strange chattering presented itself soon enough. A swarm of deformed monsters, each reaching just above the heights of his knees, were attacking two young girls. And one of the girls had pink hair and was wielding a sword. Vino watched as she gave a cry, stabbing her sword into one of the creatures, then went on to knock back a couple others.
Ah! He'd found the person he was meant to meet. But first...
Vino slipped into the skirmish as easily as if he'd been a part of it from the beginning, swinging the railing into one of the pesky creatures with enough force to launch it into the wall. The impact must have shattered something in the small monster's frame, because the strange chattering that issued from its mouth grew shrill in pain, and it didn't stand up again. Brittle things, weren't they? A light warm-up then.
"Miss Tenjou Utena?" he asked, just to confirm, though he had a feeling he was talking to the right person. He might have mispronounced the name, but it sounded foreign, so that should be excusable, right? Vino swung the railing again, nailing another beast, before continuing. "I talked to you on the bulletin board earlier."
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She managed to knock back one of the necrits with the claws, the sharp edges biting into the grey flesh and causing the creature to rattle in pain as it was knocked back. A second swipe from her other arm had the creature wailing a death cry and it toppled back and to the floor, motionless. A second one received the same treatment, and Aigis felt that perhaps she might actually be growing accustomed to the claws despite their initial unwieldiness.
She expected more of the little creatures would be upon them soon, but no, now some larger beasts were waking from their slumbers and returning to the fray. One, a large dog, gave Aigis pause. She did not want to raise her claws to attack a canine, not when she had once fought alongside a very loyal dog back home. But this one seemed to hold no feelings of kindness or loyalty towards her. Its entire physical presence screamed hostility but still she dared not move.
Then it struck, biting deeply into her left arm. Gasping, Aigis tried to pull away but that only managed to make the beast clamp down harder. It yanked back, tearing a good chuck of flesh from her arm and, for the first time since being at Landel's, Aigis saw herself really, truly, bleed. The uniform had blocked what could have been critical damage, but it was a long ways away from the armor plating of her robotic chassis. The claws clattered from her suddenly shaking hands and
__________________________pain
_______________blinding
________________________________________hurt
Aigis couldn't form coherent thoughts, let alone scream. She stood for a moment, gaping, gasping at the red gushing from the gash in her arm. Then the predatory growling got through and Aigis' preprogrammed fighter instincts kicked in. She pulled out the Evoker with her right hand. There was no longer any hesitancy as she put the barrel to her temple, calling on the power from within.
"Athena!" The sound of breaking glass and the blue glow of summoning surrounded her. Air crackling with life whipped at her blond hair, the red ribbon and the few loose folds of her uniform. Then She materialized; the mechanical goddess wielding her lance and round shield. She was not the watered-down, flickering image she had been when she had been summoned to heal Erika the night before. This was Athena in all her glory, fully materialized, and hungering for battle.
She rushed the hound and bludgeoned the creature with her shield, once, twice, knocking it back against the wall with a loud crunch of bone. The dog whimpered and crumpled to the ground. One more enemy was out of the way. However, more were waking and snarling around them. Athena faded from sight, but she was still there for the summoning. Aigis backed up, her uninjured arm moving to hover near the gash. They would soon be surrounded at this rate.
Behind her, Utena was being addressed by a young man, but Aigis didn't dare turn about to face them. She had to watch their back. She could not let them be harmed.
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The dogs rushed, and so did Utena with another guttural battle cry. With their rotting body parts and disfigured faces, she had no trouble seeing them as nothing more than things, threats to her and her friend. With another sharp thrust guided by the spirit that enveloped her, the Sword of Dios seemed to shimmer in the moment before it rammed through the dog's mouth and throat, piercing through skull and flesh to the other side, dark blood flying. With a wet gasp and a whine, the dog crumpled.
With the strike so singular, however, Utena was left wide open for an attack by the second of the dogs. Her eyes went wide as it jumped. She scrambled to slice her way out of the first dog's body. Too slow.
The thing bowled her over, jaws clamping down into her shoulder. She shrieked, nearly letting go of the Sword's hilt. Her right epaulet cracked and shattered under the power of the dog's jaws - though, the epaulet was also the only thing that kept those jaws from sinking in further and faster than they could have.
Utena and her attacker both hit the ground, the momentum finally letting Utena draw her sword from the carcass that encased it. "Ghaaah!" She swiped wildly, focus draining as pain overtook her and the dog threatened to tear chunks of flesh from her shoulder. One flailing slash caught the creature on the side of its throat, finally causing it to release her. And it was in that moment that Utena was able to see behind her at last, to where Aigis was also being attacked.
"Aigis!" Utena called, a wheeze in her throat as she struggled to push the ravenous dog off. "Nghh! Ahh!" She cut and cut and cut, slicing ribbons of flesh from the thing until one more slash struck true, slicing through its neck and taking off its head. She didn't have time to be properly horrified. Aigis was still in danger. "Aigis! Hang on-!"
"Athena!"
Utena froze as she got to her feet, stopped just in time to see the other girl put the gun to her temple. Before she could cry out, though, the sound of glass broke around her, and a blue glow surrounded her friend. And from that glow came an ethereal figure with a lance and shield, standing tall above Aigis. Utena could only watch with jaw slack as the figure, Athena, took out the last of the dogs with a mere couple of hits, then vanished.
And it was in that state of mind that she realized someone had just said her name.
"What...?" Utena could barely turn, both from the pain of her injury and the shock of everything that had just happened. There was a man with red hair there, and he had just taken out another beast that Utena had been too distracted to notice coming. He had helped her and she hadn't even known it. And he was talking to her like nothing weird was going on. ...Yeah, this had to be the guy from the bulletin.
"Y... Yeah, that's me," she said after taking a few breaths, gaze darting around, looking for more enemies. "Sorry. Kind of caught us at a bad moment..."
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Noise in its territory. Shouting. Cutting. Fighting. Didn't matter who or what was causing it. It had to get it out. All of it.
The lurcher groaned as it turned the corner of the hall, three figures visible in the painful, rosy light of the halls. They were causing it. They were the ones. It wanted to rend their bodies limb from limb, if only it would make the noise cease.
With a roar, the lurcher took off charging with hulking limbs outstretched, eyes fixed on the shortest of the figures, the one with golden hair.
[Eryn]
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Storming forward with his bloody boots thundering down the floor and his hair whipped back around his head and the number "6" drawn crudely upon his temple, Sechs was rapidly approaching the main hall, his eyes and grin were wide with excitement as he dashed through the rioting populace. He was hell-bent on getting to the center of the chaos and attacking any weaknesses the institute had; surely that red glow couldn't be protecting everything!
Then something out of place grabbed the charging Replica's attention. Something blue was glowing up ahead. Like a single star shining brightly against a sky covered with blood, a blue aura flickered into existence, a calm entity that stood out against the institute's chaos. Yet before Sechs could get close enough to see the source of the enigmatic light, it was snuffed out instantly like a candle in a strong wind.
The reddish colors of violence and destruction took over where the blue glow once was by the time Sechs skidded to a stop in the west section of the main hall. There were far more bodies to greet Sechs here, yet not all of them appeared to be dead. Sechs paused to take in the world-wide ruckus that was taking place around him. He had to figure out the best way to use his returned powers against the institute fast, but where could he start?
A reminder in the form of flashing pink grabbed Sechs' eye, and he spotted three figures huddled together not too far away, surrounded by an increasing population of monstrous dogs. Once he realized that the wave of pink was someone's hair, Sechs remembered what he had originally planned to do that night. He was supposed to meet someone named Utena, a girl with pink hair! The return of his strength had almost knocked that memory clear out of his mind! Now he knew exactly where to channel his powers.
Before the android could take another step forward, he was alerted to the thunderous pounding of something big and very angry stampeding its way towards the three patients. The enraged roar that announced its arrival confirmed Sechs' instincts that it was one of those huge ape things he himself had fought nights ago. At the same time, a brief illumination of short blond hair flashed in the corner of Sechs' eye. A small figure, cradling a bloody arm nearby Utena and the other patient, was right within the monster's murderous path. The girl turned her head, and Sechs instantly recognized her.
"AIGIS!"
The monstrous ape had its arms reaching out for the fellow android, its eyes wide and blind with fury as its toothy maw dribbled hungrily for flesh. That sight alone was enough to ignite a powerful rage inside Sechs' heart, and without any thought or doubt of his power, the Replica exploded into action like a bullet, flying towards the rapidly shrinking space between Aigis and her attacker's enormous hands.
"SECHSTER ANGRIFF!!"
The Replica was nothing but a black blur with an axe posed forward, a speedy form of deadly precision and offense. Before the hairy monster could bend a single finger around Aigis, Sechs streaked through one of the creature's reaching arms, giving way to a sickly sound of an entire limb being slashed completely through in a single cut.
What followed next was a burst of wind from the Replica's attack, and before the creature could realize what had just happened to its arm; Sechs made a rebound from the wall and struck at its torso with the side of his blade, intending to knock it clear away from his allies.
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Vino took it upon himself to avoid underestimating others. After all, surprises and sudden plot twists in stories were completely likely, right? They were part of the charm of the stage act, in his opinion. If everything were predictable, it would be quite boring, wouldn't it?
Now, claiming that there was nobody who could compare to himself? That was just fact! That wasn't underestimating at all. It was just that so many opponents tended to overestimate their own abilities compared to his, and that was no fault of his.
Anyway, the fact was that Vino had no problem accepting that the two young ladies he had met up with were perfectly capable of holding their own against these monsters. But one could say he hadn't quite expected just how well they'd do it.
He'd barely managed to take out even a few of those pesky creatures before he found his flow interrupted simply by the lack of new targets to destroy. And then the larger dog creatures had provided a better challenge, though there really weren't enough of them at once to even work up a sweat from. To make up for that, though, Vino might have been a bit more thorough with his exercise than absolutely necessary. At this rate, he actually would have to remember to clean the blood and gore off his weapon sometime. The railing was getting too slippery to keep a hold on, really.
But then, there had been a strange, blue light and Vino had turned to behold the other girl, the blonde one, conjure up some warrior-spirit to attack a dog. Which had to be amazing magic! The spectacle was amazing to watch. Vino spent a moment or two gaping, actually, though he wasn't distracted enough to miss throwing a hit at a dog attacking from behind. There sure were a lot of people with amazing abilities, weren't there?
And then he realized she'd just done something more amazing than he had. This was why he preferred working solo; there was more for him and no one else who could take the spotlight.
"There's no need to apologize," Vino said, miffed and currently taking it out on a dog. There wasn't a need to snap the creature's spine in three places, shatter its rib cage completely, and then bash its skull in enough times for the head to be utterly unrecognizable as anything except a bloody mess of bone, flesh, and mashed brains, but it made him feel better.
He would have said more, but more dogs were picking themselves up from the floor and surrounding them. Warrior-spirit magic or not, Vino couldn't let himself be shown up, right? Right.
He wouldn't have missed the thundering sound of the approaching ape-monster, but yet again, things happened too quickly for Vino to properly react. Suddenly, there was a fourth person on the scene. Vino watched as the newcomer appeared with a flashy entrance, ripped the beast's arm off, and then doubled back immediately to attack the monster again. Impressive, but...
"... I could do that, too, if I wanted to," Vino muttered, steadily on his way towards a pout. He'd help, but what was the point of sharing a kill?
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She was about to raise the Evoker again when suddenly a bellowing cry drew her attention. And then he appeared. "Sechs-san." And for a moment she felt like smiling again.
But now was not the time.
The lurcher was almost upon her, but Sechs was quicker. Her mind returned to the battle at hand and she returned to raising the Evoker to her temple. She called out to Sechs one more time. "I leave this in your hands!" Then she pulled the trigger.
Another glowing blue light surrounded her and the shatter of glass once again sounded around her. Athena, awakened again, appeared directly above Aigis this time. She spread her mechanical arms wide and a comforting white light enveloped Aigis before the metal goddess disappeared. In seconds, Aigis' wounds resealed and her pain evaporated into nothingness. The mental draining that would normally come with summoning Athena barely affected her. Tonight she didn't seem to have the same limitations as previous summonings had led her to believe.
Turning towards Utena, no longer focusing on the beasts, Aigis fired the Evoker again in quick succession and the goddess Athena blessed the pink-haired girl with her healing power as well. The redhead talking with her seemed to be keeping up well-enough on his own but were he to find himself in pain Aigis wouldn't hesitation to go to his aid as well.
This was different. Her roll in battle was typically offensive. For once, it seemed she would have to be their healer. She didn't mind this. Athena strained for more battle, but Aigis would concentrate on support while it was needed. Even with her powers returned it didn't mean they were limitless. She would still have to conserve or the fatigue would make her useless to them all, and that was the one thing Aigis never wanted to become.
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The oncoming dogs were the first thing to shake Utena back to full awareness, out of her shock and confusion. She joined the red-haired man in attacking them, vaguely aware that the powerful man in black that had joined the fray behind them must have been Sechs. She hacked at the creatures and skewered one or two of them with the guiding strikes she seemed to be blessed with tonight. Fewer of those strikes than before, though; with her shoulder mangled the way it was, all she could do at times was flail and shout, just hoping to hit something that wasn't a friend.
"No one asked you!" Utena answered the redhead in a clipped grunt, kicking another dog's legs out from under it. Before they could exchange any more words or blows, however, blue light filled the hall again on the heels of Aigis's voice, and this time it was followed by an even brighter white light that enveloped the other girl totally. And then somehow, miraculously, Aigis emerged totally unharmed.
Before Utena even finished putting together what had just happened, the same was happening to her too. One blast from Aigis's little gun and the figure, Athena, appeared before her as well. The spirit's white light took her within it. It was warm. Utena couldn't help but let her eyes slip closed for a moment.
...The prince...
That was it, she realized. The warmth of Aigis's power and the warmth she'd been feeling in the back of her mind since the fall of night were different, and the latter was the warmth of the prince. He was here with her. That was why she felt so at home on the battlefield tonight. He was...
Utena's eyes snapped open at that, the white light fading but that warmth and renewed sense of strength staying strong with her.
She could swear she smelled roses now, even moreso than blood. The last of the dogs went down under the redhead's hands, and so that left only one thing for the four of them: the giant that had tried to attack Aigis.
"I won't forgive you," Utena heard herself murmur as she set her sights on the beast, lifting her sword in front of her. The words were more for the people in charge of this place than anything else, even if she knew they would never hear them. And with that, she lunged forward, aiming to sever one of the thing's remaining limbs.
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The creature let out a ghastly wet bellow as its arm came clean off, cut swiftly by the figure in black as he next kicked off the wall and slammed the flat of his blade against it. It hit the wall with a grotesque sound of bones breaking and muscles squishing from the force of the impact.
Lurchers were made of tougher stuff than most institute monsters, however. With its thick hide and its never-ending drive to protect its territory, it was able to keep its other arm from being severed by the girl in pink. The sword sliced through part-way, severing some nerves and damaging most function beyond repair, but it did not come off. And the monster bore its injuries with another roar, lashing out at the black shape with a massive headbutt. It was the only thing it could do with the lack of limbs it could attack with.
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Sechs' second strike hit right on target with a satisfying smash, and he couldn't stop the victorious grin from growing on his face as he landed heavily to the floor with an excited growl hissing through his bared teeth.
Nobody he was allied with was going to die under his watch now! He was no longer slow, weak and vulnerable! Such empowerment charged the Replica like a surge of pure electricity, a potency that no shot of adrenaline could offer. Sechs took Aigis' words in stride, and he tore off towards the fallen monster. That creature was his all right!
Following his instinct's haunch, Sechs easily dodged the monster's charging head, his lanky body swiftly curving around the attack as he grabbed a fistful of hair growing from his foe's hulking shoulder. Using his grip as leverage, Sechs swung himself legs-first into the air before landing into a crouch posed for attack behind the lumbering ape's neck. Sechs knew from his last fight with this creature's kind that damaging its limbs was the least effective attack, and he didn't have time to bleed his foe out and have it fall down from a balcony; so he readied his right hand and tensed up his muscles for the perfect move for the job, a technique which had nearly broken that same limb the night he first woke up in the institute...
By now there was no need for hesitation, no time to think about the potential agony that violent choice could cause, yet for a risky millisecond Sechs did not strike. What if that power had not returned to him? He couldn't risk becoming a liability with a wrecked arm--
Suddenly there was another flash of blue, the same calm ambiance Sechs witnessed earlier. The bright aura had reemerged from Aigis and healed her arm in its enigmatic glow! In that fleeting moment, Sechs couldn't help but gaze at the blue power in awe. If Aigis could summon a power like that, so could he!
Before the monster could reach up to throw the Replica off its humped back, Sechs opened his right palm and struck it upon his enemy's skull, forcing immense power in the form of deadly vibrations to come charging down from his muscles and into his target.
"HERTZA HAEON!!"
Heart Hitting: A deadly attack exclusive to Panzer Kunst, a powerful assault that could easily render the toughest armor into dust and render any enemy with fatal organ damage. Sechs directed this dangerous kinetic surge into the ape's brain and heart, shattering apart every muscle, bone, tissue and vein connected between the two vital organs. The hairy bastard might as well go out with a bang, right?
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Utena had returned to the fray without missing a beat, and a moment later she watched out of the corner of her eye as Sechs' attack shattered the Lurcher into a bloody pile. Aigis felt her confidence in her friends soar. The redhead was also doing a number on the other dogs and creatures still tagging around, but the potency of their attacks must have started to get through to the creatures. What monsters remained mobile began to beat a retreat. With the Lurcher down, it seemed the smaller ones were less keen to attack.
"Is everyone all right?" Aigis asked. She glanced quickly between the three around her. Did she succeed in healing all that was necessary? Yes, it seemed so. The blood that covered them all did not seem to be their own any longer, at least.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Aigis moved towards Sechs with a smile. "Thank you for your support, Sechs-san. And to you as well." She addressed the stranger with a slight bow of her head.
Upon reaching her fellow android, she very lightly touched his arm with her fingers. The slight touch was her expression of gratitude. The warmth of her gaze was open and honest. They had fought together and bled together and won together. That kind of bond made their friendship with her all the more precious. But they had business, and her gaze turned from Sechs to Utena, ready for instruction. "Let us continue then."
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Utena let out a surprised shout, jumping back to avoid the outer spray of blood and tissue from the shattering remains of the monster's upper body. Whatever Sechs had done, it was more than she could have hoped to do on her own. Her eyes were wide, the flow of the prince's spirit within her quieted by what she had just seen. She just barely fumbled out a "thank you" to the wild-haired man, followed by "That was amazing... All of you."
It was the acrid stench of blood and guts that snapped Utena back to full attention. "Yeah, but we have to get out of here, and fast," she said after Aigis spoke. She didn't know if the basement ballroom would be any safer, but it was worth it to try. From what she remembered of it, that place had been completely empty, and with all those heavy doors, it was probably hard for monsters to get in. If it was still that way tonight, then the sooner they could all get down there, the better.
"Everyone, grab onto me! We're leaving!" she said to her three new companions. Shoving a hand into her jacket pocket, she withdrew the red ring and slipped it onto her right ring finger, making it a dark mirror of the Rose Seal on her left. She remembered how she was supposed to activate it, and moved back toward the wall for that reason. Once everyone had a hold of her, she punched the wall behind her hard, shattering the red gem like Sechs had shattered the creature.
[To here]
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