Thunder boomed much louder than before, and with each bolt of lightning that struck the ground, they flinched at the thought of being hit by them. How much stronger had Hurricane become? Was she even still Hurricane anymore? Or a monster?

Kari had no time to process anything. Hurricane had flown right on top of her, Mjolnir reared back for a devastating strike. She met the blow head on with [Destruction], the impact imprinting a crater beneath Kari's feet and numbing her arms up to the shoulders.

The pain, however, pulsed through her entire body.

"Fucking… hell…"

From Hurricane's helmet came a breath of cold mist, and Kari gazed into the slits for any signs of humanity, she found nothing but an unfathomable depth of nothingness.

"How many people have you killed?" Hurricane leaned forward and quietly asked.

"Not as many as you!" Kari headbutted Hurricane, cracking the helmet between the slats of her eyes.

Hurricane's sparking soul-weapon surged with electricity, traveling through their weapons and shocking Kari to a crisp.

[Health: 320/320 ⇒ 200/320]

Brought to her knees and unable to move from her muscles seizing up, Kari gasped for air.

That much damage in a single zap? No way. This was more than just insanely strong, she hit almost as hard as Candy's Rain of Stars.

Candy…

"That's right…You were the one who made Candy eat an angel's soul…" Kari recalled aloud.

"I did. I needed to see how much stronger a magical girl fused with a monster would become. So what?" Hurricane asked, her words assailing Kari's ears like standing next to stage speakers.

"So what…? Because of you… I had to kill my own friend!"

Kari picked up her soul-weapon from the ground and sidestepped another crushing blow from Hurricane. She pivoted on her heels.

"Destruction Incarnate—"

[Health: 200/320 ⇒ 100/320]

[Magic: 110/130 ⇒ 0/130]

A bone-shattering uppercut to Hurricane's chin sent her flying, and the Gallant Knight-empowered Jade was waiting above with a charged-up Justice.

"Judge, Jury, and Executioner!"

The javelin plunged into Hurricane, driving her back down to earth. But Jade wasn't done just yet and crushed a magic sigil in her hand.

"Eat shit, cunt— Judgment, all magic!"

Volley after volley, the golden spears continued to rain down on Hurricane like a deluge of steel. Those that stabbed into the earth vanished to make room for more.

A health and magic sigil appeared in each of Kari's hands. She smashed her hands together to shatter them at the same time.

[Health: 100/320 ⇒ 320/320]

[Magic: 0/130 ⇒ 130/130]

Kari expected nothing less from her partner. When this was all over, they needed to sit down and talk. She had so much to apologize to him for. But now wasn't the time for that.

Eleven more sigils.

Keep track, Kari told herself.

A giant spike of ice erupted from the ground at Jade, coalescing into Hurricane at the very tip and grabbing her by the throat. Before Jade could react, frosty mists entombed her in a block of ice. Kari clicked her tongue. She should have expected it wasn't going to be easy.

"Kari!" Sachi stumbled forward, clutching her daggers and looking ready to fight, but stopped at the sight of their new foe.

"Find Makina and get out of here! Go!" Kari urged.

Sachi hesitated to leave, but ultimately ran for the tree with Iggy following close. They were replaced with Rocky, flying up to Kari and clinging to her shoulder.

"Whatever Hurricane changed into, she's a lot stronger than Candy! It's powerful, but I don't sense it to be a god yet," he said.

A tingle at the back of Kari's neck made her hair stand. She picked up Rocky and dashed away as a bolt of lightning plunged into the ground where she was standing. It didn't disappear. The electric spear exploded, charring and shocking the earth around it.

"Magical girls aren't the only ones you need to watch out for!" Gauntlet, having been enlarged by Grand Cavalry, bear hugged Hurricane to hold her still.

"Get to somewhere safe," Kari told her anthem. "Keep doing what you were doing just now with the sigils. I'm counting on you to know when I need them, and the gun."

Rocky lit up with recognition.

"Roger, partner!" He saluted before flying off to hide behind the enormous tree roots.

Lightning struck Hurricane and Gauntlet, frying the anthem off her. Another bolt of lightning came down, but this one she caught in her free hand and electrified the hammer with. When she lifted the weapon above her head, Kari's legs wouldn't budge. Glancing down, her legs had frozen over.

"Calamitous Storm!"

Dark clouds formed above Hurricane, and the lightning she called down all struck Mjolnir, supercharging the weapon into a screeching ball of energy.

No matter how much Kari smashed the ice at her feet, it wouldn't break.

"Shit!" Seeing death coming, Kari braced herself with [Destruction and Ruin].

But as Hurricane descended, Jade came between them.

"Castle—"

A massive fortification raised up from the ground, blocking Hurricane's deathblow. The attack, however, discharged the built-up energy and shattered Castle in an instant. As soon as it fell, Jade raised a second one. It became a battle of wills between the two. Everytime Hurricane destroyed one, Jade created another.

Hurricane clutched Mjolnir with both hands and smashed the ground at their feet, destroying Jade's defenses and sending them crashing out of Odori Park.

[Health: 320/320 ⇒ 150/320]

They skidded to a stop in the streets and felt the cool winds at their backs. Kari's jaw dropped, looking over her shoulders. The city behind them was gone, demolished in a cone originating from Hurricane.

"That bitch." Jade stabbed Justice into the asphalt to stay standing. "Must've… went through thousands of health… across five Castles…"

Kari swallowed hard. Had those connected with her or Jade, they would have been goners.

"Her soul-weapon's murdering us. We need to get rid of it," Kari said.

"And how the hell are we gonna do that?"

"I got just the thing." She clenched and unclenched her fist in Jade's face.

They returned to the park to see Hurricane charging up Mjolnir again, but Kari extended a hand to the weapon.

"Come Here!"

By all accounts, the hammer should be in Kari's hand right now. She felt the pull between herself and the weapon. However, Hurricane was hanging on tight with her feet planted firmly, defying the skill outright.

"What's going on? You ain't pulling or what?" Jade asked in panic.

"I am pulling… It's not coming! Just how strong is she? Come Here!" Kari shouted again, but neither Hurricane nor the hammer were budging.

Then, Kari thought she saw something like a smirk behind Hurricane's helmet.

Hurricane released her grip, letting the hammer fly towards them. Instead of catching it, Kari dove out of the way as lightning struck the hammer and returned to its owner's grasp.

Jade scoffed. "So much for that plan."

"I'm open to suggestions." Kari grinded her teeth, realizing just how outmatched they were.

"No plan. Just a good old fashioned beat down." Jade crushed two more sigils as Gauntlet landed next to her, and they both charged at Hurricane head on.

Kari took one step and fell to her knees again. Hunger was gnawing at her again.

"Damn it… Why now?"

Everything was growing hazy. Arms numb and legs shaking, it was as though a parasite had eaten through her stomach.

"Kari! Kari!"

Who was that? It sounded like a voice that Kari recognized and longed to hear again.

Kari's eyes snapped open. Surrounding her were Makina, Sachi, Iggy, Pochi, and Rocky.

"Oh, my god! Kari!" Makina threw her arms around Kari and squeezed.

That warm touch. It had been so long since she experienced it. Kari returned the embrace more tightly, breathing deeply of Makina's scent which brought her to tears.

"I thought I'd never see you again," Kari whimpered.

"Me, too…" Makina rubbed her teary eyes against Kari's shoulder. "Did you go and cut your hair?"

"Yeah— Wait, this isn't the time for that. Makina, you and Sachi have to get out of here! This isn't a fight you guys can take, so just leave this to me and Jade!"

Both of them might be magical girls, but they were far too weak to take Hurricane on. Especially with her in that monstrous form.

"No way. I left you once, and I'm not leaving you again! If you want me gone, then you're going to have to make it happen yourself!" Makina defiantly yelled back.

"That makes two of us," Sachi said, twirling the shivs in her hands.

It didn't look like either of them were going to listen. Maybe there might be something they could do. Three soul-carving weapons versus one monster should still hurt like a bitch.

"Makina, do you have the stake Flare gave you?" Kari asked.

"What stake?" Makina returned a confused look.

Kari drew a blank.

"You… don't have the stake?"

The crack of thunder drew their attention back to Jade and Hurricane's battle. They had taken their fight as high as the top of the tree, weaving through the arm branches.

"Sachi, I have a plan," Kari began. "I know you got the highest potential for damage out of us all. Jade and I will bring Hurricane down, and you stab her with all you got."

"I can also help bind her," Makina said.

The three of them nodded.

As Sachi shrouded herself, Kari flew up and snuck behind Hurricane while she was distracted.

"We're bringing this fucker down!" Kari shouted, clutching onto Hurricane's right arm to keep her from swinging Mjolnir.

Jade did the same of Hurricane's left. Together, they brought her down to the earth, where Makina was waiting to sink her fingers into an illusory piano.

"Discordant Melody, Binding Notes!"

She produced musical notes that snaked up Hurricane's legs and mummified her body. The black symbols painted over the ivory regalia, seemingly weighing her down. Icy protrusions erupted from the ground, one of them catching Kari by her legs and Jade in the abdomen.

"Sachi, finish it!" Kari shouted.

Dodging through the spiked obstacles firing out all over the ground with ease, an invisible Sachi leapt into the air. Kari could only tell by the gentle shift in the wind, the graceful dance of an assassin.

Their skills were always uttered so forcibly. As Rocky would put it, passionately. However, Sachi's was spoken through hushed lips, with words lighter than a breeze.

The assassin landed in front of Hurricane and whispered, "Bloodbath Assassination—"

Thrusting the shiv-turned sword through Hurricane's chest, Kari watched as the blade came out the back. The ice holding her and Jade shattered, and they leapt out of the way as the glint of five more shivs appeared, eviscerating Hurricane in a flurry of slashes.

"Did we do it?" Jade asked too soon.

"No, you didn't. But your teamwork was spectacular." Hurricane snatched Sachi's hand to prevent her from drawing the blade out, then smashed her out of magical girl form with a single hit from Mjolnir.

"Crescendo!" Makina tapped the keys to her piano, but Hurricane raised a mirror of ice that reflected the blast back to her.

Their advantage had turned against them in an instant, and as Jade ordered Justice to her hand, Hurricane caught up to them first and knocked the javelin away.

"Cast—"

Another supercharged smash to the ground electrocuted both of them.

[Health: 150/320 ⇒ 0/320]

Hurricane picked them both up by the collar of their shirts. She lost interest in Jade and casted her aside.

"You see this? This is my resolve." Hurricane grabbed the handle of Sachi's sword that was still embedded into her abdomen. She pulled it out by an inch, and a million screeching souls assailed Kari's ears. As she yanked the rest of the blade out, the many souls clung tightly to her with the viscosity and adhesiveness of glue.

However, Kari saw the wound left in Hurricane's body. The attack had punctured through the defenses of her robes, and as the hole began to close…

Rocky materialized Hackman's gun into her hand.

"And this is mine." Kari pressed the gun against Hurricane's open wound and fired upwards.

Hurricane let Kari go and staggered back, clutching her abdomen. The bullet worked

"What… did you do?" she asked, voice filled with fear for the first time.

"American ingenuity. It's always a gamble, but Hackman's research was going somewhere after all. Thanks for baiting me into them. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have gotten this nice little pick-me-up," Kari said, letting the gun vanish to be replaced with a health sigil that she proceeded to crush.

Transforming back into magical girl form, Kari summoned [Destruction and Ruin] to finish the job. But it wasn't looking like she needed to do anymore.

"No… everyone that I lost… that I sacrificed… I can't let them die for nothing…" Hurricane collapsed, gasping between each word now. Broken and defeated, the monster laid there with a part of her mask broken which revealed the right half of her face. The eyes were blank and lifeless, but the ring of her irises and pupils tracked Kari's movement as she walked up to her.

The surface of her body began to deform and distort. Her ivory robes shifted to a darker reddish brown-like pulsating flesh that was blistering up.

Kari drew [Ruin] across her chest, carving away an amalgamation of souls that looked like black slush.

This vessel is broken, a voice called to her from within. There is nothing worth feasting here, but those behind you…

Kari casted a gaze over to Jade, Makina, and Sachi. All three of whom were unconscious. Dragging her soul-weapon over to their still bodies, the desire to consume grew increasingly more overpowering than before. She found herself in front of Makina, [Ruin]'s blade next to her throat.

Feed, Kari.

"I can't…"

The appetizers are laid out in front of you. Eat now. Feed us both. Grow stronger.

An oppressive heat wrapped Kari like a blanket. Her eyes stung from cinders raining down on her and nose wrinkled from the smell of ash in the air. She glanced up to see the entire tree burning. Many of the eyes were shutting and arms curling up, skin peeling and flaking off, all blackening from the fires.

Someone whistled sharply from afar.

"Oh, I love the smell of wildfires in the morning. You did it, Kari! I honestly thought you didn't have it in you, but you did." An empowered Flare clapped incessantly from the base of the tree trunk, with a wry smile on her face.

"I had a feeling you'd show up… What now? Your precious soul is a sewage smoothie," Kari said of Hurricane's body.

"Is it? Well, that's too bad." She shrugged, grinning that she had a secret that they didn't know. "If all these seraphs are connected, then there's one more. Did you forget already? I'll tell ya— it's the one that spawned in South Africa. The one that we left stewing for two apocalypses. Ripe like a fresh fruit ready for the picking. Damn, I can just taste it now!"

A massive hole opened up beneath Flare's feet, and the tree which burned as a monument to Hurricane's defeat began to splinter and break. Some of the falling limbs plunged into the depths, which seemed to quake with life.

"I'm giving you a choice now, Kari. Honestly, it's a whole lot more than you deserve. There's four of you magical girls down there. Who's it going to be? Who wants to die so that a god can finally be born?" Flare asked, floating above the abyssal chasm.

"Four? You can't possibly mean…"

She nodded. "I do. Is it going to be Jade or Makina? They're already knocked out and won't even know it. Or maybe you, Kari? Finally, right? A chance to do something heroic in your short stint as a magical girl. How about it?"

"My answer is fuck off! Stampede!" Kari rushed in and brought [Ruin] down on Flare, but her weapon and skill came to a stop against a phoenix-shaped shield. She let go of the soul-weapon to hold the gun that Rocky materialized in her hand, and brought it up to Flare's face to fire.

The loud bang rang painfully in Kari's ears. She saw the trail of smoke leaving the barrel of the gun first, then at Flare who had craned her neck to the side, having avoided the shot. Her eyes were wide with shock, fixed on the gun that had nearly killed her. The flames that wreathed her grew more intense, drenching Kari in sweat.

"You sneaky bitch." Flare sighed.

Kari thought to escape too late. Five burning fingers clamped down on her face, causing her skin to blister and boil.

"Blast Furnace."

A torrent of flames consumed Kari, the single skill taking her out of magical girl form. Flare tossed her charred body to the ground.

"No, no, no! Kari!" Rocky jumped out of his hiding place to throw himself over her, putting a sigil in her hand. But she had no strength to crush it anymore.

"Well, I think you just made a decision!" Flare cackled from above.

One of them had to die? That wasn't a choice. They were unconscious. The only one left to fight was just herself. It wasn't fair. After everything she did to get this far, it was as though she still had to lose.

"I'll go," Sachi said, climbing to her feet.

"Hm? Oh, hey! Didn't see you there, Sachi. Nice of you to join us. Out of the oven and into the frying pan, am I right?" Flare sneered.

"Wait, Sachi… you can't…" Kari cried.

In spite of her pleas, Sachi walked to the edge of the chasm.

Sachi glanced over her shoulder and flashed a smile. "A while back, you made a deal with Flare to keep me and Makina safe. I get it now. You were just trying to protect me from Flare in Osaka. Sorry for forcing you to make all those hard decisions. I've been looking for a way to make it up to you and Makina, but I fucked up along the way. It was short… but I'm glad we could be friends."

Without giving Kari a chance to say goodbye, Sachi threw herself over.

"What a brave girl." Flare mockingly wiped a tear from her eyes. "She could have made a good mag—"

"Assassin's Shiv!"

The glint of two daggers flew out of the pit. One plunged into Flare's back and the other into Blaze.

Flare howled in agony. Sachi appeared at the handle and buried the knife deeper into her back.

"That's for Ena! And this is for my parents! Bloodbath Assassin—" Sachi choked on her next words from Flare thrusting a wooden stake into her chest. As the assassin fell away, still holding onto the shiv, she locked eyes with Kari and offered a content smile.

Flare was about to go down after her, but she stopped short as fear welled in her demeanor. Meanwhile Kari crawled up to the edge of the chasm, desperately searching for Sachi. But she was gone. Her body swallowed within the abyss.

"That's it… I'm just going to have to kill all of you. All of you until I'm the only magical girl left!" Flare screamed like a deranged lunatic, her expanding flames reflecting the madness in her eyes.