All around them were faint screams and panic. Gunfire erupted upstairs. People ran away from the window as head hounds leapt forward, one of them hitting the glass and leaving behind a bloody body print. Neither Hackman nor Dr. Gene was anywhere to be seen. They must have already escaped.

Three head hounds spawned in the room Kari and Kanae were in. Sensing that they were magical girls, the monsters circled them with caution.

"Let go!" Kari demanded, but Kanae wouldn't release her hold.

"What's the matter, Kari? Aren't you curious about the other side? Heaven or oblivion, what awaits people like us?" Kanae asked, one side of her face deforming and the other smiling like a demented fool.

There it was again. The distortion to Kanae's face. Laying eyes on that broken visage brought a familiar pain like the time she faced the creature asking her to stop the apocalypse. Like her own mind couldn't handle perceiving such a thing.

"Flare… What the hell are you?" Kari asked, primal fear biting at her mind.

The head hounds lunged at them just as the doors bursted open. Six soldiers entered and filled the monsters full of holes. The ship lurched forward again like something slammed against the hull. One man lost footing and, his feet slickened by the head hounds' blood, slid towards Kanae, and she finally let go of Kari to punch his head clean off, snatched his gun, and shot the other five all in a matter of seconds.

A survivor was crawling to his gun, but Kanae pressed the barrel of the rifle to his helmet and opened fire. She picked up his gun and tossed it to Kari, who almost lost hold of it and was still stunned by all that had happened in such a short time.

"You know how to use that thing, buckaroo? Because it's about all we can count on without our transformation," Kanae said.

Kari raised the gun at Kanae instead, drawing an exasperated and unimpressed sigh from her. While the alarm was going off, and more trained soldiers were likely rushing to them right now, the two of them faced each other down the barrel of their guns.

"Do you know how many times I've died?" Kanae asked, seemingly more disappointed than angry.

"What does this have to do with me thinking about blowing your brains out?" Kari fingered the trigger.

"Eleven. Eleven times. It hurts like hell and doesn't get any easier. That's probably why we're only supposed to die once. This thing you see is a part of me, and it's going to happen to you, too. It's what happens when we die without our souls intact. Throw rocks at a window long enough and you might not like what you see inside when it breaks. So what do you plan to do? Clock's ticking, and we're probably going to get swarmed soon. Two sounds like a lot better odds than one, doesn't it?" She grinned.

Why did killing Kanae have to be so difficult? So much doubt wreaked havoc within Kari even though the means of doing so was at the tip of her finger. It was fear that ultimately lowered the gun. Fear of the misshapen half of her face that was more monster than human.

Kari saw her own reflection in Kanae's eyes. The top right of her head was like a black mist, but putting a hand to it only touched skin and skull.

"Until we find our anthems and the serum wears off, we only have ourselves to count on. Whaddya say, partner?" Kanae gestured toward the door.

As much as it pained Kari to admit it, they needed each other to get out of here. Neither of them knew anything about this facility nor the layout of the ship. With monsters and armed crewmen roaming about, one wrong move meant they would go right back into the mice cage— assuming Jormungandr didn't kill them all first.

The pair began their move, exiting the experiment chamber and peeking out into the corridor. Both directions led back to the observation room upstairs, where Dr. Gene and Hackman had been watching the experiments unfold. Only humans and head hounds alike laid dead there now, the entire floor was stained in their blood.

A single door, broken at its hinges, led out to another hallway with screaming and gunfire aplenty.

If no one else was coming to check on them, they were fools to expect six armed soldiers to be enough to subdue two untransformed magical girls. That advantage most likely wouldn't last very long once Hackman or someone tried to radio in their whereabouts. To make things worse, their wrists were still bound by the metal box-like cuffs which made holding the guns unwieldy.

"Alright, so what's the plan?" Kari asked. "We aren't catching trained soldiers off guard again like earlier. Getting into a firefight is only going to put a hole in our head."

Kanae was typing into a computer and grew increasingly frustrated until she shoved the devices off the desks. She rummaged through the pockets of several dead scientists, then pulled off an intact ID card from someone's neck.

"Couldn't find out where our anthems are. We can't leave without them. As for where to go…" Kanae pointed to a vent above their heads.

They ripped the metal grate away and crawled inside. Every vent they passed over gave them a glimpse of the bloodbath. In one room, a head hound toyed with the bodies of three scientists. In another, a group of armed men were unloading into a broken lady.

As they were coming up on another vent, a heavy blow to the ship caused everything to groan and lurch to one side. Kari slipped out of the vent she was trying to crawl over, falling into the room below.

"Kari?" Erica gasped, and two of her colleagues pressed their backs to the far side of the wall.

It was a cramped bedroom with two bunks to each side, and only enough width for two people to stand shoulder to shoulder.

"Hello, ladies and gentlemen!" Kanae dropped down gingerly after her and greeted the room. "Would you be so kind as to unlock us, return our anthems, and show us the way out?"

They stared at her in disbelief, including Kari who only now noticed someone by the door.

"I-I have to get out of here!" A younger male scientist ripped away a flimsy ironing board which was all that barricaded the room. The second he threw open the door and stepped out, a monster tackled him.

"That's one way to say no." Kanae quietly shut the door.

"How… How did you two escape the chamber?" Erica asked.

A large number of footsteps rushed down the corridor. Kari put a hand over Erica's mouth, and Kanae did the same to the other two scientists.

Gunshots rang out again, likely at the head hound from earlier.

"Don't talk," Kari quietly warned.

When the younger woman in Kanae's grasp started banging against the wall, she crushed her skull. The man in her other hand went wide-eyed with terror as his colleague's blood splattered on his face.

"Where the hell did these fucking things come from?" someone outside the door asked.

"I dunno, but I'm not getting anything from the admiral. Surveillance room's gone dark, too. When I radio 'em, no one answers back," another said.

"Gotta clear that room to get our eyes on the ship back."

Their heavy boots eventually clomped away, but the commotion was far from over. Kari and Kanae let the captives go, and they both gasped for air upon release.

"Jesus… you killed Jen," Erica said in disbelief.

Kanae shrugged, lifting her foot and grimacing like she had just stepped on a pile of shit. "Well, there's two more of you, so—"

"Let me talk to her." Kari pulled Erica closer to the door, facing her away from the dead colleague. "We need to find our anthems and get out of here."

"After you murdered my colleague? Forget it. Jen had her whole life ahead of her, but Flare snuffed it out like a candle. You two are better off returning to the chamber and waiting this out," she said.

"Keeping us here won't help anyone. It doesn't matter how good your guns and missiles are, they won't bring down a seraph. Flare and I can. You have twins, right? A son and a daughter to get back to. This isn't your fight, it's ours. Help us stop it."

The conflict in Erica lasted much shorter than Kari expected it to be. Bringing up her children worked like a charm. She probably also knew, having been among those who studied the monsters, to realize that they were in great danger.

"I… always thought Hackman was kind. He told us we were saving the world, that your sacrifices would be worth it in the end. Now I'm not so sure. My kids turn eight this December. Promise me, you'll save us," Erica pleaded, clutching her arm with a trembling hand.

"You have my word." Kari nodded.

The two returned to Kanae, who had an arm around the other, more terrified man caked in sweat.

"Only because Kari convinced me, I'm going to help you two escape," Erica said.

"Erica, you can't be serious… They just… Jen is… What will Hackman think?" he asked.

"Andrew, we both saw pictures of what was out there… If you have a better idea, I'm waiting." She sounded to have genuinely challenged him, hoping for a better alternative.

When there was none to be had, all four of them were left with a single answer.

"Dr. Gene… has the key to open your bindings," Andrew reluctantly began. "Chances are, he's in the main lab where your anthems are also held.

"Which is on the floor above us with no telling what or who we might run into," Erica added.

As they tried to come up with a plan, it became increasingly obvious there was no good one to be had. Andrew was right, of course. If it weren't for the cuffs, Kari and Kanae might have been able to fight off head hounds at the very least. Running into any soldiers was just as bad, seeing either of them not accounted for.

"Both of you are just going to have to pretend you're bringing us back to the lab. Anyone questions you about our armed escort, just tell them they died," Kari said.

Kanae reluctantly passed the gun to Andrew, and Kari gave hers to Erica. They seemed perturbed to hold it. Chances were, both of them lived too cozy of a life until now without having to kill anything. Given the means, even if their lives were at stake, it seems humanity's claws were blunted after all.

Erica peaked out of the room first. The body of the young man who had run out earlier was lying still on the floor with half his throat missing. A head hound laid to his side, riddled with bullets.

They began their move down the corridor when the lights suddenly shut off. A second went by, then a low-intensity light turned on which only provided a dim glow.

"First the surveillance room, now the engines… It's like these monsters are intelligent," Andrew muttered under his breath.

"Come on," Erica urged him. "The stairs are just—"

A soldier was tossed into the T-intersection they were about to come up on. Both of his legs appeared to have been crushed up to their knees.

"Get out of here! Go!" he screamed at them, then scrambled for his rifle to open fire at something down the left hall.

A gigantic hand appeared and swatted down on him like a fly. Crawling out with its head scraping against the ceiling was a broken lady. It picked up the soldier's mangled corpse and tossed him toward them, plopping at their feet like a wet rag.

"Run!" Kari yelled.

The four ran for their lives down the opposite way. The broken lady bent the walls and caved in the ceiling as it tore through the hall in pursuit. When they finally reached the stairs, the entrance into the stairwell proved to be too small for it to fit through.

They breathed a sigh of relief too soon. The broken lady's larger arm reached through and caught Andrew by the ankle.

"Help!" Andrew cried to them.

"Andrew!" Erica shrieked and tried to turn back.

Both of them unloaded their guns into the monster's arm until it finally let go, but Andrew's right ankle had been crushed. Kanae offered him a shoulder to lean on so they wouldn't be slowed down

Emerging from the stairwell, they found the bottom floor was no better off than above. Down this corridor littered with bodies led to the laboratory containing live and dead specimens of magical girls and monsters in test tubes. The double-door entrance, however, was barricaded by desks from the outside and guarded by armed soldiers behind it.

"Are those the magical girls?" Someone behind the barrier raised their gun and five others followed suit. "Stop! Put your hands in the air!"

Kari did so without hesitation, and Kanae haphazardly raised her hands because an injured man was using her shoulders as leverage.

"Don't shoot! I'm Dr. Erica Thurman! Andrew Kaczinski is with me. We were bringing magical girls Kari and Flare back when monsters attacked," Erica explained.

There sounded to be confusion on the other side.

"Something isn't right. Behrmann and the others were supposed to bring them. What happened?" an officer asked suspiciously.

"I just told you, monsters killed them! Please, we don't have time. I have to give both of them an injection or their powers will come back," she warned.

Kari and Kanae tensed up, then traded glances. They were beginning to wonder if Erica had only pretended to help, but neither could find an opportunity to do anything about it. Especially not while six guns were being pointed at them.

The officer locked eyes with Kanae and shuddered.

"Alright, let them through," he said.

They cleared the furniture only enough for them to squeeze by. Inside the laboratory was only brighter than the corridor thanks to the many test tubes casting an almost radioactive glow. Bodies floating inside them made for an eerie sight.

"I hope you're not thinking about turning on us," Kari whispered to Erica.

"It was only to throw them off," Erica said.

At the far side of the room, a number of scientists were huddled up in front of a display screen. One of them was hunched over the computer, head buried in his hands. All of them appeared too engrossed by what was on the screen to notice them entering.

"What's inside those serums anyway?" Kanae asked. "Kind of nuts that you've developed a way to stop a magical girl's transformation cold turkey like that."

"We've dubbed them M-blockers. Like we mentioned before, the key is all in your blood. The serum we created blocks the spike proteins on your blood cells and—"

"Erica, is it really a good idea for us to tell them this?" Andrew interjected.

"You should if you want us to get you out safely," Kari said. "When do they wear off, or how can we change back?"

The man bit his lip. "You have come in physical contact with your anthem. It acts like jumpstarting a car—"

An explosion rocked the ship. The impact cracked some of the test tubes. Kari backed into one of them and was startled to see the head hound inside gazing back at her. It was alive.

"Erica, Andrew?" Dr. Gene rose from his seat, gawking at Kari and Kanae. "Get in here! They were supposed to be put down!"

"Tch." Kari slammed her metal cuffs into the test tube, shattering the glass and causing the head hound to spill out.

Kanae went to do the same on the others, and when the soldiers entered the room, they were immediately pounced upon.

"What are you doing? Stop!" Erica cried, but Kari shook her off and stomped up to Dr. Gene.

"Your protection is dead or dying, so we're the only ones you can count on now. Unlock us and bring our anthems out!" Kari demanded.

Dr. Gene hesitated, so Kanae snuck up behind to smash the back of his head and he dropped like a rock. She rummaged through his pocket to pull out a metal, cylindrical key the size of a pinky finger, then pressed it into a like-sized hole in the cuffs. They fell away, and she proceeded to unlock Kari's when a shot was fired in their direction.

"You two… were never planning to save us, were you?" Erica asked, the gun in her hand was raised at them.

"Are you sure it's us you want to be pointing that at?" Kanae asked in return.

"Erica!" Andrew shouted to warn her, only for himself be pounced upon by a head hound.

Another monster lunged at Erica, knocking her to the ground and forcing her to use the rifle to hold back its snapping jaws. Meanwhile, two more were banging their heads against the larger tank that contained a broken lady, and it was cracking quickly.

As soon as Kari was released, she grabbed at random one of the scientists who was with Dr. Gene and shoved him onto a computer. "Let our anthems out, now! Or we're all dead!"

He typed something in, opening a panel in the ceiling which lowered two test tubes. Rocky and Blaze were in each one, pounding against the glass in vain.

Across the room, the broken lady shattered the tank made brittle by the head hounds and craned its head their way.

"Open it!" Kanae yelled.

The scientist's hands were trembling too much. He was petrified. Kari cursed under her breath, picked up the glass container Rocky was inside of and smashed it on the ground.

"Rocky!" The second Kari held her anthem, a shivering feeling spread through her body, allowing her to transform at last.

"Holy crap, Kari! You guys made it out!" Rocky exclaimed excitedly.

Kanae had done the same and was back to her fiery magical girl form known as Flare. The broken lady launched a massive fist at her, who stopped the limb with one hand and caused the monster to combust.

"Okay, okay! You're magical girls again, now please… help me! Don't let me die!" Erica cried, full of scratches on her body and face from the head hound pawing from above her.

"Ah, well. I never promised anything. Your deal was with Kari. Toodaloo!" Flare flew straight up and out of the ship, leaving a gaping hole behind.

Erica turned her fearful and pleading eyes to Kari.

"I appreciate the help," Kari said. "Sorry, but the sole purpose of you guys and everything in here is to fight magical girls. You see how that's problematic, right?"

"No, no, no! Don't leave me! I won't— I'll give it all up! I just want to see my children again!" she pleaded, but Kari had already made her decision and flew out to catch up with Flare.

They emerged from the interior of the ship at last, but they had gotten out of the frying pan and into the fire. Literally. Ships were burning and overrun with head hounds and broken ladies, flying monsters swarmed together to outmaneuver jets and helicopters, and people who had jumped into the sea were being picked off creatures lurking in the waters.

Humanity's claws, as Hackman so proudly branded themselves, were still putting up quite the resistance.

However…

The ship they were on tilted and groaned as something enormous swam past them just beneath the water's surface. It created waves that slammed into the hull, nearly knocking it over.

Then the gargantuan monstrosity surfaced. Water cascaded down the incredible length of its body. A ship in the distance opened fire with enough explosive ordnance to destroy a city, but the paltry blasts didn't so much as tarnish its ashen gray scales. The serpent dove into the water and coiled around the ship, crushing it like a soda can in a sumo wrestler's hand. It turned its massive head to one direction and then the next, leisurely deciding which prey to attack next.

This was the infamous world serpent from Norse mythology, Jormungandr.

The other two, Bhairava and the hundun paled in comparison to the sheer awe this seraph wrought.

"How the hell are we supposed to fight something like that?" Kari choked.

"Something like this would have been cake for Candy, but you killed her in Fukuoka, didn't you?" Flare asked.

The skill, Rain of Stars, would have roasted Jormungandr out of the water.

At the moment, Kari was more concerned about where Admiral Hackman had gone. If they were slowly getting decimated, they might become desperate enough to launch a nuclear missile to end the apocalypse and magical girls together. It was why they had come to begin with.

A fleet-wide siren echoed across the seas. Every ship that was still intact— of which there were plenty that remained— made a 180 degree turn and were sailing as far from shore as possible.

"That can't be good," Flare said.

On the deck of an aircraft carrier which Kari recognized was where she was originally shot at were preparing to fly out two jets.

"There!" Kari pointed as both planes took off and were fast approaching land. She flew just over the surface of the water, then extended a hand to each of them. "Come here!"

The planes defied physics and made an abrupt turn to fly in her direction. Both crashed into the water, one pilot was dead from the excessive g-force of the impact. But the other shook it off and pressed something inside his cockpit.

Kari saw her life flash before her eyes, then—

"Solar Ecliptic Prison! Maximum output!"

A sun-blinding flash of light was contained at a fraction of a second before the explosion went off. Something like fire raged within the sphere the size of a car, then a baseball, and finally vanished from existence. Flare had done the unthinkable. She suppressed a nuclear bomb. The two planes were gone, not even smoke remained.

"Whew." Flare wiped the sweat from her brow. "Now for the real fun. Time to play an unfair game of battleships. Hackman is all yours if you want."

The fiery magical girl, as if she didn't just pull off a miracle, left to wreak more havoc.

"Rocky, you don't want to be here for this. I'm pissed the fuck off, too, and need to let off some steam," Kari said.

"I.. don't think they are good people, so do what you have to do, partner." Rocky nodded.

Kari seized the opportunity to pay Hackman a visit. She flew straight into the aircraft carrier's control tower, killing a crewman on board going through the window. The admiral was by the door in the process of leaving, but stared in horror at who had come.

The other crewmen drew their guns.

"Wanton Smash!" Kari pulverized them into pancakes before any could open fire.

Hackman gritted his teeth and reached for his gun, too.

"Come here!" She grabbed Hackman by the throat and ripped the gun from his hands. "Let's have a little chat, shall we?"

Kari flew both of them out to sea and made him watch as Flare set fire to every naval vessel in his fleet. If she didn't do it, Jormungandr would have, and the monster was quickly going around swallowing up people who jumped ship. To anyone who didn't know any better, they would have thought Flare and the seraph were working together.

Only Kari knew. The only reason Flare didn't outright explode every ship was so that she could force people to abandon ship, that way the seraph would eat more and more.

"Your military operation is over," Kari said, throwing him onto the sandy shores.

Half-eaten bodies were washing up by the dozens.

"It's not over until the last human being on Earth is dead. I don't care if it's magical girls or monsters, humanity will pull through," Hackman snarled defiantly.

"Do you remember what I promised when we first met?" she asked, summoning [Destruction and Ruin].

The man stood tall and brave, awaiting his end. Kari cleaved Hackman's soul from his body, which dropped limp to the ground. The courage and stoicism quickly morphed into existential terror.

"Your god does care about you. All you needed to do was to die because that's what the big man in the sky wanted. Too bad I'm not going to let your death be a pretty one." She stomped his head, smashing it like a watermelon getting hammered. "Now let's see how you taste."

Monster! You're going to get what's coming to you, Kari! Hackman's ghostly screams filled the space around them.

"Maybe being a monster isn't so bad." Kari ripped the soul from the bladed edge of [Ruin] and swallowed it like a strand of spaghetti, silencing his screams.

"You see now? That's not the Kari you once knew," Flare said.

Kari spun around to see Flare behind her.

"Kari… what have you done?" The familiar, sweet voice that was supposed to instill warmth and love in Kari sent shivers creeping up her spine.

"Just in time," Flare said, a smug and triumphant grin flashed across her face. "My insurance has arrived."

Kari's gaze snapped to the air. It was Makina, dressed in a frilly magical girl robe. By her side, hanging on her shoulder was a fox anthem.

"Makina…?" Kari stared in disbelief.

"It's me, Kari." Makina smiled. "I'm a magical girl now. This was the surprise I wanted to tell you about back in Okinawa. I came here hoping to help, but… I didn't expect you to be hurting people. So it's true. You really did kill Candy? And all those other magical girls?

"No! It's not like that. Flare is— Flare…" As she tried to process the revelation of her best friend having become a magical girl, rage welled like a torrential storm knowing that it was Flare who did this.

"Thank god, you're here, Makina!" Flare suddenly put on a much more panicked tone. "Kari's gone crazy. I don't know if I can stop her alone!"

"Flare, you fucking bitch! You turned her into a magical girl— Come Here!"

Flare rocketed into Kari's hand, but before she could crush her throat, musical notes wrapped around and forcibly separated them.

"Kari, stop!" Makina cried.

"You don't know Flare like I do, Makina! She's batshit insane. Psychotic! I don't know why she made you a magical girl, but it can't be for anything good! I have to kill her! It's the only way," Kari implored, and was then baffled that she was being held back.

It was magic. Makina's class was some sort of magic relating to music.

"The only one I see going crazy here is you!" Makina shouted back, hurting Kari more than she realized. "I don't know what happened to you… but what you've been doing is… wrong. It's because I let you do it all alone. I should have become a magical girl sooner."

"Come on, Kari. Stand down. We don't want to have to fight you," Flare said.

Kari could neither believe nor understand what was happening. Why? Everything was going so wrong. It all went back to Flare. It was always her.

"Destruction Incarnate!" Kari empowered herself and summoned [Destruction and Ruin] to her hand, then locked eyes with Flare. "Stamp—"

"Crescendo!" Makina's fingers pressed the keys to an invisible piano in front of her.

An incredible magical force assaulted Kari like a flurry of unending blows. Each time Makina tapped the unseen keys, the pain intensified alongside a tranquil melody until finally…

Discord. There was no climactic finale, but a deafening disharmony.

The attacks reduced Kari's health pool to zero, knocking her out of magical girl form and on the verge of passing out.

"Nice work, Magical Girl Muse. I'd be minced meat without you," Flare said.

Makina raced past Flare to check on Kari and lifted her head.

"I'm sorry, Kari… " she whispered. "Let me and Flare take care of the apocalypse, okay? Wait for me."

Kari wanted to say so much, but she couldn't utter a single thing.

Don't go. Whatever Flare told you, she's lying. Don't leave me.

Whatever feeling Kari had left in her body she felt Makina's reassuring hand. Watching her leave with Flare was more pain than anything could have inflicted on her.

Get up.

Kari awakened on the shore lying next to Rocky, who was unconscious. In front of her was a city, still shrouded by dark clouds. Behind her was the ruins of the fleet and the charred remains of Jormungandr, floating belly-up in the waters.

A voice was calling to her, but she had no strength to get up anymore. Flare had turned Makina into a magical girl, now her soul had been permanently changed because of it. That bitch planned for this to happen.

Get up. Get up

"Shut up…" Kari growled.

It's too early for you to die.

"Get out of my fucking head!" She glanced up and gasped.

A magical girl. The woman had deep brown skin with a reddish hue, black hair in cornrows wrapped around the base of her neck like a Cleopatra necklace, and a purple outfit that saw heavy embroidery work in colorful dashiki style.

This person wasn't unknown to Kari, because she had seen pictures of her before. But for her to be here physically was impossible.

"You're… Inyanga… but how? You should be—"

"Dead? I am. Died years ago in South Africa, fighting to stop the apocalypse," Inyanga solemnly confirmed. "I'm only an echo of the soul once called Inyanga. There are many echoes of those who had worn the ring before you."

More and more magical girls appeared until a dozen surrounded her. A few of them were foreigners, but most of them were Japanese in appearance.

"Get out of my head… get out of my head… I don't want to see any of you…" Kari curled up, still despairing from the way Makina looked at her.

Behind the thin layer of worry, Makina was filled with disgust and horror. Of her.

"If that's what you want, Kari, then you know how to make it happen. Draw [Ruin] across your neck and end it so you can go to sleep forever. Or you can take my hand," Inyanga offered.

"What… for?" Kari asked.

"To show you what happened in South Africa. To show you that, unlike us, you can still save what you hold dear," she said.

Kari clenched her fists full of sand, then reached out to clasp Inyanga's hand.