Halloween Town

[SINIB]

Ivanna

María Aipárthene kósmu pantós Kiría, Áhrante Nímfi Pánagne, Déspina Panagía, María Nímfi Ánassa, harás imón etía, Korí semní Vasílissa, Mítir iperagía, Timiotéra Heruvím, iperendoxotéra Ton asomáton Serafím, ton Thrónon ipertéra.

As Ivanna continued to sing, reality continued to respond to her calls for help, warping around them and weakening the rules of reality. The rocks hurtling towards her stopped, refusing to interfere with the works of the Seraphim. They hung stubbornly in the air as floating platforms, ignoring the calls of gravity and momentum in favor of Ivanna's voice. She stopped ascending when she reached an aitutude equal to that of the highest arches, slipping up out of the way of the scorching-hot plasma hurtling towards her.

She reached out into the air with an outstretched hand, clasping down on a seemingly invisible object which flared to life, generating an immense axe bathed in fire and soaked in the blood of her Lord's enemies.

[Panda]

Nanako

Nanako frowned as her projectiles simply stopped in mid-air uselessly, held in place by forces she couldn't understand and had no time to figure out. Lacking any other options to get at the Seraph without simply being blasted out of the air, Nanako tore up more of the ground, darting about the tallest pillar and hurling clusters of it straight at Ivanna from various positions. Even if she could catch it all, every chunk of earth would hopefully be another blind spot.

...because I was born into this world...

This foolishness wasn't worth Ivanna's life, even with her rejection of a chance to learn more. So much for informed choices.

[Elf]

Forest

Forest bit her lip as she looked at their place in the line and then back at Nika.

"There's that, or we could just walk up and charm the bouncer."   Forest wondered if she could focus what Taro called her "sexiness" like she knew Gabe could do with her Lure.  "Or we could just pay the bouncer a tip and go in."

[Kotomine_Rin]

Zeke

The reaper's eye whirred and worked like clockwork, observing all of his surroundings in moments to calculate the optimal trajectory - moving his body above and beyond its parameters. Every blind spot of hers, he'd take advantage of.

He wouldn't defeat her by running about.

As he dashed past another column... he disappeared. As if he never exited the arch he ran through. Before a normal fighter could realize what occurred, two things happened:

1. Zeke emerged from another pillar, shrinking the distance with surprising tenacity - simultaneously followed by a dozen more of 'him', each from the previously approached structure's blind spots. One of them moved unlike the others, flicking his fingers back towards him as he ran.

2. The sun that shot past Ivanna slowed down and stopped alarmingly, moving back as if pulling whatever was next to it back into its gravity - circling into Ivanna's orbit with no delay, expanding rapidly until it'd reach the size of a house. Its brightness and power, both comparable to the morning star.

Both leaving room for the third act.

Swords gnawing at the skies from every direction, seven in total.

[SINIB]

Ivanna

Two distinct voices intoned from within the angel's form. The first was the one whom continued to chant, singing praises of her lord and lady above. It stopped the rocks which Nanako had continued to throw, before they slowly reversed their courses, falling harmlessly downwards and melting back into their proper places as if Nanako hadn't torn them up in the first place. The second was a deep, churning, powerful chuckle. It resounded throughout her entire form, quickly morphing into a manic sort of laughter that came from deep within herself. It sent chills down the spines of all creatures within earshot. All beings with even an ounce of sanity knew that something deep within her was fundamentally wrong.

"Come at me, then!" She roared. With a flap of her wings, she soared downwards towards Zeke's many bodies, her own wings flaring outwards to meet him in mortal combat. Her wings shielded her from the infernal fire, and she began to spin. She wrapped herself up with two of her wings, spinning at him like a drill which would pierce the heavens!

She would defeat this great evil in front of her, much as she'd done before. Her blood boiled with righteous fury, and her voice had a mornful, uncanny edge to it. "Today you shall breathe your last, demon!"

[Panda]

Nanako

Nanako shuddered as that manic laugh rang out, barely noticing the rubble reversing course back into the ground. She didn't have time to think about it, but pure instinct screamed that something was dreadfully wrong here. They were past the point of talking anyway. It didn't dampen her resolve, however, if anything only strengthening it. It was clear now more than ever that if Ivanna might have stopped short of killing Zeke before, she certainly wouldn't now.

Shifting her grip on the pillar to be on all fours, Nanako launched herself from the obelisk, rocketing through the air to intercept Ivanna, turning in the air and tucking her legs in. With the gunshot crack of sluggish sound far behind her, the squirrel girl crashed into the side of Ivanna's wing drill with a thunderous dropkick, trying to divert it away from Zeke with sheer force and momentum.

She wanted Zeke to survive this mess, despite the way his intrusion crawled under her skin. That, and he still owed her some answers.

[Kotomine_Rin]

Zeke

The swords slammed against the invincible wings and bounced off, breaking. Only one was shred in its entirely as if it were made of mud. A chance out of six.

More importantly... Is that... a drill?

"Hrm!" Their stare intensified, and Zeke's features darkened. She was strong, absurdly so. Zeke... had to respond to that strength... with everything at one's disposal.

As muscles tightened, Zeke saw and felt everything they felt. His jewels were being butchered by the seraph; it'd be less than a second to stop her.  But if he awakened everyone in this district with his scream, he could have an army at his side. It was the rational thing to do. Thus, Zeke took a deep breath, and -

Lola

Lola looked at what could only be called zombies.  "Can you start by ceasing with that?  What we need to empower is the dead, not the corpses of the fallen.  We are going to rebuild our way."

Doubt. Hesitation. For a moment, it was enough to stop Zeke.

"Heh."

Dying screams couldn't even be rung. The numbers Ivanna shred to nothing soon reached double digits, with no time left. As she slammed down on him, he was also ripped into shreds of mud like all the rest. And yet he smiled peacefully.


"I've observed it."

A voice rang to Ivanna’s left, but it was already too late. Zeke’s fist clenched against a rotating wing. It was the moment she shot past him, even if his forearm had to dress with a dozen cuts. Avoiding her wasn’t enough, he had to set up fakes to distract her and dodge in the nick of time. Even the fakes he swapped with. All of this, for a single moment.

A chance out of six billion.

He stopped her deadly technique – and swung her with everything he had straight into Nanako’s foot.

"We have no interest in the current you, caged songbird.”

This emotion was impossible. Zeke was an irreverent, cavalier beast. It enjoyed slaughtering and being slaughtered. It'd gladly throw anything into the abyss if it meant being closer to its dream. So this expression made no sense on such a monster. But it couldn't be denied.

Anger.

[Hibiki]

Nika

"Maybe it's time for parting the sea. You know, sometimes people just don't get into your way if they feel they shouldn't get into your way."

All things considered, would that even work in this case? The ratio of your average cog in a society to someone with spine must have been way in the favor of people who wouldn't just instinctually move away when she flexed a bit of her leashed ego within.

She did try. Few people ahead the duo suddenly started nervously looking for a reason to leave to check if they didn't forgot anything and other such excuses, but the majority of the line was unphased. Too long queue perhaps, too many monsters who wouldn't even notice the predatory aura unless she focused her attention and entered a tug of war of wills.

"That leaves the normal way." Sighing, she conceded that "defeat". "Things like this remind me I'm just one of many sharks in the pond. I'm fine with getting carried by the currents then rather than going against the flow, this one time."

And so she made up her mind about waiting in the queue. If Forest wanted to give it a go, she could be her guest, but this time she'd obey rules even in this relatively lax place. Even as the impatience set the longer she had to hear the music (industrial rock, unbeknownst to her) while waiting to be processed by the bouncer.

She could already glimpse that people at the front of the queue were being checked for guns and some were leaving their weapons in "deposit". Gah, not like that'd make her or some people who left those guns for safekeeping any less dangerous, but maybe some incident did happen that warranted such inspections. Maybe the owner of the club had to repair some holes in the roof in the past.

Again, she glanced at Forest if she was packing some heat too. The Colt in her holster was a sort of memento, so while she'd leave it in deposit, she'd move heaven and earths to get it back if it were missing.

[SINIB]

Zeke

The swords slammed against the invincible wings and bounced off, breaking. Only one was shred in its entirely as if it were made of mud. A chance out of six.

More importantly... Is that... a drill?

"Hrm!" Their stare intensified, and Zeke's features darkened. She was strong, absurdly so. Zeke... had to respond to that strength... with everything at one's disposal.

As muscles tightened, Zeke saw and felt everything they felt. His jewels were being butchered by the seraph; it'd be less than a second to stop her.  But if he awakened everyone in this district with his scream, he could have an army at his side. It was the rational thing to do. Thus, Zeke took a deep breath, and -

Doubt. Hesitation. For a moment, it was enough to stop Zeke.

"Heh."

Dying screams couldn't even be rung. The numbers Ivanna shred to nothing soon reached double digits, with no time left. As she slammed down on him, he was also ripped into shreds of mud like all the rest. And yet he smiled peacefully.


"I've observed it."

A voice rang to Ivanna’s left, but it was already too late. Zeke’s fist clenched against a rotating wing. It was the moment she shot past him, even if his forearm had to dress with a dozen cuts. Avoiding her wasn’t enough, he had to set up fakes to distract her and dodge in the nick of time. Even the fakes he swapped with. All of this, for a single moment.

A chance out of six billion.

He stopped her deadly technique – and swung her with everything he had straight into Nanako’s foot.

"We have no interest in the current you, caged songbird.”

This emotion was impossible. Zeke was an irreverent, cavalier beast. It enjoyed slaughtering and being slaughtered. It'd gladly throw anything into the abyss if it meant being closer to its dream. So this expression made no sense on such a monster. But it couldn't be denied.

Anger.

Ivanna

Ivanna was an angel of the highest order. With her full power, she'd have been able to destroy both of them with a single word. She was privy to the deepest of secrets, the darkest magiks better left forgotten else somebody actually try to use them. It was because she was trusted. He could trust her. She would get the job done, unerringly, unfaltering in her step with single minded determination to achieve her goals and by extension, His goals.

Even when she had to make difficult choices.

Even when she was forced to sacrifice loved ones.

Even when it had to be done by her hand alone.

Ivanna was an executioner angel, one whom burns. She'd worked closely with Thanatos herself. She should not have been having this sort of trouble. With her full power, they'd have been absolutely nothing!

"Useless. Your struggles are useless." Ivanna's voice deepened with her growing frustration. The fire coursing along her wings snaked up to engulf Zeke, buring with divine fury and focusing all of its deadly powers directly over his eyes. Even with his powers to consume, it would take a few precious moments to destroy her flames.

And that was all that Ivanna needed. She flapped her wing, diverting the course of her body out of the way of Nanako's impacting foot, converting the centrifugal force of her spin into a dodge, bending her wing around and bringing her weapon to bear against the unclean one.

An axe came bearing down on his shoulder, three wings accompanying them to strike different vital areas. "Underestimating me shall be your downfall!" She roared.

[Panda]

Nanako

Rocketing through the air, Nanako's eyes widened as Zeke somehow outmaneuvered Ivanna to bodily throw her into the path of her dropkick. When Ivanna's wings flared to avoid it, however, trained reflexes kicked in, even as fire blossomed across her body, warm tongues licking fruitlessly at clothes and exposed skin. As they became seemingly more desperate to kill each other, Nanako felt all the more driven to stop them, their madness fueling a new one within her.

That presence pushed harder, cried out louder, but now it was different. Where before it might have pulled her into her past, inside herself, now it pushed her forward, pushed her harder.

The squirrel girl reached inwards, wings bursting from her back and flapping hard before vanishing in a puff of feathers, launching her right at Ivanna once more, Nanako twisting in the air to kick the seraphim's weapon arm away from an unexpected angle.

[Kotomine_Rin]

Zeke

The dark man noted a lack of response, of impact. A dispassionate glance shot at the wings wrapping around and circling his frame. But what kind of expression did the body express, when the soul was wrapped by God's ghastly flame? The terror of heaven was something even he couldn't ignore.

But they could.

"How long are you going to keep playing a part?" Someone suddenly jeered, but its tone was oddly affectionate. A mass of burning, black mud. Zeke's visage didn't twist or change, but something grew in the corner of his eye - someone. Only for them to be swallowed by the flames.


A Prayer of Hope

Among the stars, sleeping by the End Sky, stories weave and glitter freely. They move with the roll of a dice, casting countless possibilities on the board. Beauty, ugliness, happiness, despair... all mix and swirl to become colors that paint many tales.

This is one of them.

Spoiler for Hiden:

The boy sleeps peacefully, swimming in a cradle of aqua vitae. As the incomplete body rots and regrows, new pains and sensations fill the boy's eyes. But even something no woman hoped for... can carry hope of its own. It hopes that someone will break this glass ball. That it could grow strong enough to make the voices go away.

It never knew words or concepts, so it isn't able to pray for a God. But if it could, it probably would have given up by now.

Instead, the broken body dreams. Of unknown colors, of bright dragons, of vivid sights and happy sweets. Of love, of somebody's touch, of little joys it will never have.

It stares at the empty white wall. The emptiness stares back.

What is the price of freedom?

The one who fell to the Holy Sovreign.

The first may not have been the first who took its breath, but it was the first whose breath was seen. It had been kissed by Ivanna's flames already, so it was fine to vanish by them. It smiled and burnt to nothing. The hopeful mud dissolved one last time.

You can hope for your tomorrow, I'll show you something beyond that.

Zeke's darkness swallowed the flames aimed at him, even when they licked his shut eyelids. A flinch was all Ivanna needed to destroy him. Instead, a compact stance kicked off, far less wild than the spread of corruption. The punches hurled at Ivanna swallowed up the fire with fervor, ripped it from her wings, and drained them dry. It only made his incoming blows stronger.

"I know you're great, Seraph. But your sword is aimless. You don't even know who you're fighting. Can you even say why?"

Punch. Punch. Punch. And so the glowing horn bled his face, ever so slowly - while his body rushed the attack. The next impact will be beyond heroic.

Outsider, you should leave. This battle will only bring you suffering.

[SINIB]

Ivanna

The foot of the foolish child smashed into her arm in a moment of weakness, diverting her blow and causing the scalding heat to brush past Zeke with little more than a burn to show for it.

The angel's head turned with unnatural fury. Her eyes gleamed with anguish and self-loathing. How could she have allowed herself to fall to this level, how could she have lowered her guard for this precious moment.

She continued to sing, calming herself with the repetitive actions. She was at a disadvantage, and could not allow herself to lose her cool. One clean hit from either of them onto her vulnerable body could spell her defeat in the state which she remained.

"FOCUS!" She roared, ignoring the dull thudding pain of repeated punches against her wings. The tip of one of her wings came hurtling out from a small opening between them, impacting his face with enough force to break out of his grapple. She spun around in the air, pulling back to gain distance from him, and to take the foolish squirrel out of the fight while she was still open. Even if she could divert her course midair, all that meant was that Ivanna needed to counterattack with that in mind. The axe vanished from the arm which Nanako had kicked, rematerializing with a burst of flame in the hold of one of the pristine wings behind her with the scorching heat of the tip facing down towards Nanako's back. It seared through the air, and with a brilliant conflagration, sought to pierce through her back and send her hurtling downwards to be buried into the ground.

[Panda]

Nanako

Nanako's momentary thrill at successfully deflecting Ivanna's strike didn't last long as instinct made her turn in the air, trying to dodge the retaliatory strike. It was to little avail, the squirrel girl's next breath filling her mouth with blood as she flaming spear pierced her lung instead of her spine. Searing pain spread through her back an instant later, Nanako grunting through the mouthful of blood, catching herself on the arches, and spitting it out.

"So that's it? Some disagreement and you're fighting to the death?" Nanako called out, reaching back with her free hand and yanking the blade out, skin crawling as her healing tried to cope with the damage she'd just taken, "What happened to informed choices?"

[Kotomine_Rin]

Zeke

The fists connected, impacted. Ivanna's godly defense was crashing against the waves, it was clear they would relent - they couldn't.

That's when a lance slipped from behind her shield, blowing Zeke's head back with a smoking blow. The reaper's eye whirred... up was down, left was right, and senses mixed while the brain shook inside the skull. Zeke's whole body arched backward, seemingly falling, his toe alone keeping his body connected to the ground.

Marvelous.

Like a spring, Zeke shot back with that momentum, launching a nuclear kick straight into Ivanna's side in a surprising instant.

"Keheeeeheheehe~! Iiiiidiot! Silly silly woman! There is no better way to prove your thesis... than to roar it through another's ribs! Rip and tear your point into their bones!"

As Nanako's burning guts and gore exposed themselves, something crawled from the puddle of filth. A sneer. A cackle. It must have been a trick of the mind, perhaps it was inside the beast girl's mind. No...

Perhaps it was in his.


A Prayer of Health

You could never understand, the pain of being denied even a chance to fight.

Spoiler for Hiden:

A body too weak to live, a sickness too harsh to bear. A rot that could never embrace anyone.

A rot that would be embraced by no one.

Ring-a-ring o' roses,
A pocket full of posies,
A-tishoo! A-tishoo!
We all fall down.

How unfair this world could be, to carve such sickness into a boy so young. As he walked down his final road, children laughed and cast their stones, drawing filth and pus from the breaking body. As the men and women of the hamlet made their prayers and shuddered in disgust, the penitent spat at the thought of God.

If only this body were fierce enough to break the ropes.

If only...

Ring-a-round the rosie,
A pocket full of posies,
Ashes! Ashes!
We all fall down.

The stake was set ablaze. What did the boy see within the flames, as his skin and guts kissed the pyre?

It was nothing at all, just the sight of cooked meat - and the laughter of sizzled fat. Zeke's blow bridged the distance - carried a burst of explosive power that'd devastate whatever was in his way. No, it was the fact he didn't hesitate or give his body a second to pause. Driving his flesh and bones to the edge of their limits.

"Words prove nothing, fists scream louder."

Against the Seraph's attack, the crystal inside him reacted - and a second shard tore out of Zeke's skull painfully.

[SINIB]

Ivanna

She felt the halbard bury itself inside Nanako's lung. It pierced all the way through her body, melting through her sink and even the bone underneath. It was impossibly hot, scorching heat emanated from the blade buried inside of her. It burned, seared, and cooked her flesh from within.

In these briefest of moments, Ivanna took the chance to pull back and gain some distance.

"Beast! Deceiver!" Ivanna roared with the fury bourne from disgust. She needed to drag this fight into the sky, out of the reach of the interference if this idiotic squirrel.

She could, no, would, deal with her later. Now, this abomination came first.

The weapon buried inside Nanako's back disappeared, reappearing in her left hand.