Kari and Hurricane waged a cataclysmic battle under the violent monsoon.

Blinded by rage and grief, Kari swung wildly at Hurricane. Everytime she landed a hit on her with [Destruction], the area of impact merely sparked where it should have bled. However, none of that registered to Kari. Minato's lifeless eyes were painted at the forefront of her mind.

The laughs they shared, the words the three of them exchanged, staying up late and getting into trouble… Memories were all Kari had left of him.

Every droplet of rain pricked at Kari like needles driving into her skin.

"After you, I'll rip that nun to shreds!" Kari screamed as she swung for the kill.

Hurricane electrified her hands and sent a crackling bolt into the dark clouds. "Calamitous Storm!"

Lightning struck all around, and one was all it took to bring Kari hurtling to the earth.

Health: [100/200 ⇒ 53/200]

"Cage of Light!"

Kari was pinned to the ground, imprisoned by Sister Claire's entrapment skill. As thunder roared in the distance, Hurricane landed next to Kari with an apologetic demeanor.

"I'm sorry about your friend. I really am. But this goes beyond just him or you, or that girl you're in love with. Our future is at stake, and I won't hand it over to some alien god just because it granted us these powers," Hurricane said. When she extended an arm to the sky, a lightning bolt shot down and placed a hammer in her hand. Electricity gathered the metal head and sang a screeching tune. "Behold, my soul-weapon— Mjolnir."

Kari braced herself as Hurricane shattered through the cage and smashed the hammer into her chest.

Health: [53/200 ⇒ 0/200]

Defeated and broken, Kari laid motionless in the crater in her human form. The rain stung her eyes more than the tears. More than the scorches that blemished her from head to toe.

"You're not getting to her without going through me!" Rocky came to her defense and threw his arms out as if to stop the final blow.

"Inyanga's anthem?" Hurricane remarked with recognition. "No wonder you're so strong, Kari. That makes you the ring's third inheritor, but who knows how many innocent girls Flare tricked into wearing that before you. I imagine you're worth a lot of points, but I won't be the one taking them."

As Hurricane turned to leave, Kari saw the ring on her finger. It wasn't buried into the skin like her own.

"You've never killed anyone before… have you?" Kari grabbed onto Hurricane's ankle to demand an answer. "Your ring. I know better than anyone. How couldn't I notice? Every time I kill a magical girl or human being, the damn thing bites deeper. But yours is still on the surface. If you don't have the guts to kill anyone, then you can forget about going after Flare…"

"All that means is you're turning into a monster. Taking innocent lives is nothing to be proud of. I wonder if it started with Yuria? No. By the look in your eyes, it started the day you became a magical girl." Hurricane sighed and wrenched away from her grasp.

Rocky started shaking Kari by the shoulders, urging her to get up. "We can still fight. Ask me to buy sigils for you! Come on!"

The magical girls saluted Hurricane as she returned to them.

"Offer Kari and Sachi to whatever is born from the cherub. Maybe their combined points will elevate it to a seraph. When you're done here, go to your designated locations and ensure rapture continues smoothly. We have the rest of the world after Japan," Hurricane said..

Sister Claire clutched the cross around her neck, calling down a beam of light which bathed Hurricane and the other magical girls. When the light vanished, so did they. She and Sniper were the only two who stayed behind. Another, much more massive column of light the size of a building's lot beamed down. What it brought forth was anything but holy. A giant egg-like cocoon with crimson, pulsing veins running along the surface sat before them.

They had seen this before on television. A similar cocoon had appeared in South Africa a few weeks ago. Something like that wolf was going to be born from it like Hurricane mentioned. And once it does—

"Where's Hurricane and Candy?" an irritated voice asked.

Everyone turned their eyes to the sky, where Jade watched in her empowered form with a scowl. Sniper immediately fired a shot at her only to have it deflected by the flying javelin.

"If you're here, then Emma must be dead. I did tell Hurricane that girl wasn't fit to stop Jade of all people alone," Sister Claire said.

"I better get an answer, or someone's getting their ass whooped. Where the hell are Hurricane and Candy?" Jade reared her javelin back for a throw, but the twitching cocoon robbed everyone's attention.

It began to throb, like a pregnant woman's stomach churning from a kicking infant.

Sister Claire cackled manically. "Behold, ye sinful. An angel descends—"

"Judge, Jury, and Executioner!" Jade wasted no time throwing the javelin into the cocoon. Her weapon pierced the shell like a toothpick through jello and came out the other end.

Whatever was inside didn't like that, because it let loose a bellowing groan.

An ivory sword pushed through the opening Jade's javelin had made and carved upwards. The cocoon split away, and there stood a giant humanoid with a body made of interlocking arms. Where its head should be were two large hands pressed together as though in prayer, four wings unfurled behind its back, and in each hand were swords as long as a utility pole.

"What… the fuck?" Jade muttered.

The giant glared at Kari. It had no eyes but knew exactly where she was, and then thrusted a sword toward her.

"Rocky, two sigils!" Kari demanded.

"You got it!"

Kari crushed the sigils as soon as they appeared in her hands and transformed. She manifested [Destruction and Ruin] in time to block the attack. The impact brought her to her knees, but the blade screeched against the hammer axe's shaft and embedded into the ground behind them.

"Get Sachi out of here!" Jade shouted as her javelin rose into the sky. "Judgment!"

Thousands of javelins replaced the storming showers. With Rocky and Iggy's help, Kari picked up Minato's lifeless body and Sachi and hoofed them behind a partially collapsed building. Sharpened steel rained down on the monster, however, a single beat of its wings sent most of them scattering away.

Sister Claire and Sniper didn't stand idly by while they battled. Jade alone fended off against that thing and two magical girls. Kari was about to join the fray when Sachi grabbed her arm.

"I'm sorry… for being so weak…" she apologized before passing out.

It was for the best that she fell unconscious.

"I need your help," Kari requested of Iggy.

"W-What about me? I'm your anthem!" Rocky complained.

"It's because you're my anthem that I need you close by," she said. "I need Iggy to find Sister Claire and Sniper's anthems for me. They're somewhere in those buildings behind them. Tell them we can try to negotiate. Can you do that for me?"

"Diplomacy it is! Leave it to me!" Iggy flew off, taking a wide berth around to avoid the fighting.

"What do you have planned?" Rocky asked.

"Trust me on this. Stay with Sachi unless I call for you. In the meantime, get me two more sigils." Kari glanced at Minato and committed the sight of his pale demeanor to memory.

When Rocky nodded, Kari jumped back into the fight as soon as the sigils appeared in her hands. Anguish welled up within her heart as she gripped [Destruction and Ruin]. For all the physical pain inflicted on her up until now, this one might never subside.

"Apocalypse Power Up!"

[Magic Capacity: 60/80 ⇒ 30/80]

[Base Physical Strength: 36 ⇒ 108]

[Physical Resilience: 35 ⇒ 0]

[Magical Resilience: 35 ⇒ 0]

As her defenses fell away, Kari received an incredible surge of strength in exchange.

"Haha! You keep trying and trying, but you're only going to fail a third time!" Sister Claire taunted, bringing forth destructive beams of light which annihilated everything within them.

Kari weaved through them with ease. "Destruction Incarnate!"

[Health: 200/200 ⇒ 100/200]

Magic Capacity: [30/80 ⇒ 0/80]

She crushed the two sigils given to her earlier, restoring both health and magic back to full.

The giant angel cut a wide swath across the block toward her, toppling buildings and traffic lights in a single cleave.

Before the blade reached her, Kari struck first. "Stampede!"

Physical Strength: [108 ⇒ 540]

[Destruction] tore the entire left arm off from the shoulder and knocked the creature to the ground.

"Nice!" Jade pumped a fist in the air and whooped until Sniper fired three bullets into her chest.

"Killshot: Electrocution!"

Electricity sparked throughout Jade's body. Aside from looking peeved, she plucked each bullet off and appeared unfazed.

"That all you got?" Jade asked the rifle-toting magical girl.

The second Kari reached out to either Sniper or Sister Claire, they broke line of sight behind buildings before she uttered a word.

"I found them!" Iggy shouted between two buildings, leading the unsuspecting anthems out into the open.

"About time." Kari swung her hands in their direction instead. "Come Here!"

A turtle and bumblebee anthem rocketed into her hands, their terrified expressions drawing no sympathies from her. Sister Claire and Sniper went wide-eyed.

Kari crushed their heads to everyone's horror and tossed the remains away like trash, herself surprised by how fragile anthems were.

"H-How could you? You monster!" Sister Claire cried.

"Change of plans! We're retreating!" Sniper held the nun back and tossed multiple capsules which exploded into a smoke screen.

Cage of Light's magical enclosure trapped both Kari and Jade.

Through pure rage, Kari ripped open the prison and chased after them. But they were already gone.

"How do you like that?" Kari shouted at the top of her lungs. "You take my friend away, I take away yours! And when I find you, I will rip your throat out a hundred times over! You hear me, bitch? We're not done yet!"

"Kari… the hell's gotten into you?" Jade asked.

Kari turned around in time to see a downward slash sending Jade cratering into the ground. The angelic monster stood up and lifted the severed limb up to its shoulder. The many arms and hands linked together to make it whole again.

Their fight wasn't over just yet.

"Still standing, huh?" She growled.

"I got some choice words for you after this." Jade rose from the rubble and shrugged debris off her shoulders. "That's most likely an angel. It's exponentially stronger than what a Malevolent Domain has to offer. I'm willing to bet Jaws is the same thing."

Both of them dove away from its decapitating swing. The blades cut through the earth like it was made of butter, the impact sending debris flying everywhere.

Kari saw, where it had fallen earlier, some of the limbs from its body laid still. She met the monster head on and sliced through with [Ruin], ripping away the individual souls of each arm. Those soul-severed limbs fell away from the main body, but the many that remained quickly replaced them.

"We're not fighting a single monster, but a whole lot of them connected together!" she shouted.

Jade glanced over her shoulder to see the devastation its swords wrought and clicked her tongue. "It's too dangerous to fight it here. We're taking it to the sky."

Both of them flew upwards to lure the monster away from the ground. It took the bait, following them into the sky while brandishing the two deadly swords. If the tumultuous winds from Hurricane's storm weren't bad enough, the gale from its beating wings battered them good.

They couldn't lead it on a wild goose chase forever. Something needed to be done. The only way to kill it would have to somehow be all at once. Wanton Smash was an option, but it likely wouldn't hit as many given how large the monster was. Kari had just the thing with Collateral from her Siegemaster subclass, but if that Stampede earlier was any indication, she would need to hit a whole lot harder.

The only way to do that…

"This is going to sound crazy, but I need you to stab me. A few times to activate my Enrage skill, then go behind the monster. How hard of a hit can you take?" Kari asked.

"Bring it on." Jade revealed a magic sigil in her hand.

Kari ended Destruction Incarnate's effect to let Jade stab multiple times—

Health: [200/200 ⇒ 107/200]

And again—

Health: [107/200 ⇒ 14/200]

Kari recoiled from the extraordinary pain that was like having a scalding rod stir her intestines. Through gritted teeth and panting breaths, she uttered the Destruction Incarnate skill, further halving her health and draining every point of magic.

[Passive Skill: Enrage has activated.]

[Base physical strength: 108 ⇒ 216]

"You better… get out of… my sight…" she said as an intense anger overwhelmed her sense of self and reasoning.

Jade went into free fall to distract the monster.

[Stampede (12): Become impervious to movement impairing effects and charges into one nearby enemy of your choice, dealing 500% of your current physical strength as damage to the primary target and 200% to all enemies in the line of path.]

"Stam—"

At that moment, before the last shred of sanity vanished, Kari realized that she had forgotten to tell Jade one important detail— that for all her high defenses, none of it would matter to Destruction Incarnate.

Kari became the living incarnation of a catastrophe.

"—pede!"

[Physical Strength: 216 ⇒ 432]

[Destruction] tore through the angelic monster's head and continued through its body. The countless arms were popping like balloons. Collateral's rippling overkill damage chained off every limb, too slow to detach from the main body to end the effect.

[+2,000,000 Apocalypse Points]

However, Stampede had one final target.

[Physical Strength: 216 ⇒ 1080]

They locked eyes the second the hit landed.

"Gallant Knight!" Jade took the full brunt of an enraged Stampede. Most of her armor shattered instantaneously. The two of them plunged to the earth with an explosive crash.

Sore all over, Kari somehow snapped back to her senses. Lying next to her was the unconscious Jade, every piece of her armor broken and seemingly in no shape to fight anymore.

How? Kari herself was no longer in magical girl form. She recalled having some health left and only magic damage could have finished her off.

"I changed you back," Rocky said. He, alongside Gauntlet and Iggy, stood over the mutilated bodies of the two anthems she had murdered earlier.

"I thought… you wanted to negotiate?" Iggy wept.

Kari had no excuse to give. It was what she intended all along.

"What does it matter? You guys come back to life later if you die anyway," she said.

"No." Sachi's anthem shook his head. "They were unwilling to leave their hiding place at first. I convinced them… to go against their magical girls' orders to stay put… because they believed there was another way."

Which meant they forfeited their chance to reincarnate. Too bad. They only had their magical girls to blame.

"They were innocent… Neither of them deserved this…" Gauntlet shed his helmet to mourn.

"Yeah, well… Neither did Minato," Kari said, walking over to where Sachi was hidden.

Sachi was sitting upright against the wall and opened her eyes when Kari came around the corner. "I heard everything."

"You going to chastise me, too?" Kari asked.

She shook her head. "No. Figured you're beating yourself up enough as it is."

They sat together in silence until Kari mustered up the courage to pull out her phone and tell Makina what happened, but the fighting earlier had broken it into pieces. Sachi reached into her pocket for her phone, but it was also broken.

"You know, I only just met the nerd, but I… Man, I'd never say it to his face, but I liked him right away. If I was friends with you guys sooner, I wonder if… if…" Sachi swallowed hard.

After all the fighting had ended, Kari finally got her chance to rest. To reflect and sort out her emotions. She almost wished the fighting hadn't stopped, or maybe wished she had died because a very different kind of pain was now rushing back.

"Minato." Kari stopped fighting back tears and let them flow. "He was a real dork. Whenever Makina or I got sick, he'd be the first at our door with some porridge, manga, and a whole lot of stupid jokes… Yeah, you really would have liked him…"