It’s Nana! Falling from the center of the glyph. The air resistance is fluttering her pinafore dress and hair wildly. Hovering an open book in one hand and the other outstretched, palm flared,

‘Can’t believe I’ve wasted my ulti on mob characters.’ before she turns to meet their eyes,

‘I’ve missed a few.’ she says, reaching into her book. Pulling a giant pair of metal scissors out. The size of her body. Waving the book away, another dreamcatcher’s drawn midair to act as a platform. Changing her trajectory as she kicks herself off it. Launching towards them, diagonally downwards, with her scissors lanced before her. Just as the sea water, behind her, finally geysers up into the skies from the backlash of her Magia blast, raining as hail, from the cold air that’s yet dissipate.

Feno’s still stupefied by the whole event but Fray’s reacted in time. Scribbling a honey comb barrier as Blitz manifests his scythe with a swing of his arm, leaping forward to receive her with his weapon winded, swung. He’s cut air. That's a bait. There’s another dreamcatcher emblem summoned inches before Blitz’s scythe. She’s flew through it before they’re able to clash. Making her disappear.

Beside Feno, Blanc’s sudden yelp draws his attention. She’s bleeding from her lips, slightly parted open to let out a suffocated, throaty groan. Looking as though she hasn’t quite registered yet. Feno’s still turning his head over his shoulders. Nana has emerged at their backs.

That emblem doubles as a portal. Fading away behind her. Scissors through Blanc’s heart. It’s impaled out, beating on the sharp tip as Nana retrieves her weapon, organ, with a stuttered jerk. She’s so quick Feno’s only now reacted, waving in an ice sword to swipe at her. But she’s leaped away again. Onto the ice platform a safe distance apart as the cotton bird beneath their feet collapses. Bringing them to the ground. Blanc’s lifeless body bleeding out in a puddle.

‘Nana?’ the shaken quality of his voice portrays his shock in perfect clarity. He’s anticipated a traitor, but he doesn’t wish to believe it’s her.

‘Surprise, surprise.’ she’s tossing Blanc’s heart in her palm like a baseball, before dropping it on the ice with a wet splat. The thunder clouds above them clears to moonlight. Reflecting a pearlescent spark off an awfully familiar golden band on her finger in the place of where she once wore Altyria's adventurer ring. That's what Elena’s sealed Beelzebub in. She’s infiltrated Altyria to retrieve that.

But the only thing that’s able to leave Feno’s lips is a single stuttering,

‘Why...?’ he's still processing the entire event.

But Blitz and Fray aren’t dwindling further. Blitz’s already beside Nana, his scythe, pulled beneath her nape that he’s dragging forward. Nana’s backflipped from his trajectory, making Blitz miss. Midair, she’s waving her finger about to draw more dreamcatchers. Kicking one that’s manifested beneath her feet to change trajectories, she’s launched herself towards Fray that’s bolted for her, 1 o’clock from Feno, with an attack buff behind his back and daggers replacing his quill. Clasing weapons. Holding him down in a lock. She's looking past Fray's shoulders with a bitter smile,

‘Why?’ as if she’s truly meant it, when she wished that they could’ve been friends. Nana reveals,

‘That’s because, Luci is my Mama.’ her next statement is strengthened with resolve,

‘I won’t let anyone harm her.’ it’s all making sense now. Everything Nana’s doing, is to fulfil Luci’s wish. That’s where her true loyalty lies. She admits,

‘But I really don’t feel like killing you, so stay out of it, alright?’ before turning her attention away to Fray, focusing on the black crystal that's manifested midair where their weapons met.

A jet of ink black Magia, spears outwards from the crystal towards Nana. She’s weaving a dreamcatcher in its trajectory. Another, manifesting at Blitz’s side. Relocating Fray’s projectile to Blitz, who’s now behind her. Mid swinging for her looking as though he’s intending to cleave her in half. But Fray’s rerouted projectile, stabs through his right bicep at point blank. It’s caught Blitz unguarded. The pain’s made him drop his arm. Forcing his scythe to anchor to the ground. Inches beside Nana. The wind lash throws her hair up. She didn’t even bother evading him. Spinning around, her scissors lances. It compels Blitz to retreat, admonishing Feno at the same time with furrowed brows,

‘Get over it. She’s betrayed us!’ before she’s able to impale him. Dragging his scythe in the ice with him as he does, a red beam, ripping out the cracks. Exploding the ice beneath her but she’s already dodged. Again, flinging left into her teleporting dreamcatchers. This time, to emerge beside Fray with her scissors pulled wide open. The blades, framing each side of him. He leaps backwards just as her scissors snap close. But she’s immediately jabbed it forward for his heart. He catches it with the flat of his dagger. The ice is slippery. Her force is sliding him back. Another black crystal manifested between their clash. A needle of black Magia spears towards her.

Behind her, Blitz’s oriented from the pain, tearing the scythe down towards her neck. Sandwiching her in double peril. But she archs her spine backwards, pulling her head away. Blitz’s attack misses. Instead, the black Magia that’s aimed for her, gets Blitz through the right shoulder.

That’s the second friendly fire she’s made Blitz take in just two moves with a hundred percent accuracy. It’s panicking Fray now,

‘Blitz, you’re going to lose your arm on the third!’ he warns, retreating like he doesn’t wish to engage in close combat anymore. But Nana’s chasing after Fray, replying him,

‘I was wondering what that projectile did. Doesn’t seem to do much damage.’ her scissors wielded as a lance. She fights like a fencer, light with her footwork as she continuously jabs forward with rapid strikes, Nana taunts,

‘But thanks for telling me you’re Intelligentia specialized. Lemme guess, Incantatio?’ that’s the same class as Elena. Blitz is trying to intercept her from behind with midrange, berserker like swings,

‘Then quit fucking up!’ he’s putting the blame on Fray.

Blitz’s actions weren’t as fluid as it used to be, there are two sets of black hieroglyphs spiraling around his right arm where he’s been shot. It’s acting as some sort of a seal that’s slugging his speed and precision. Making it easy for Nana to dodge Blitz’s attacks simultaneously as she keeps pressing forward upon Fray. She’s trying to force Fray to block her once more to get his skill off. Fray seems unable to cancel his own debuffs once it’s placed. So, he’s instead, ducking, dodging, retreating.

But they’re getting completely outclassed by Nana with sheer refinedness of her close-range combat. Every move is made with specific intent, every step she takes, gives her opportunities for counter. Despite Blitz has more frontloaded destructive strength, splitting the ice beneath him into drifting platforms with explosive red Magia every time his scythe touches the ground, the way Nana’s dancing through the battlefield, makes her difficult to land a hit on.

She’s slippery as an eel, completely outmaneuvering them. She’s going to turtle this out, Fray’s beginning to slow with how his reflexes is being pulled to a constant strain by Nana’s relentless forward barrage. He isn’t even given the split second to blink otherwise she’s going to take an organ out the same way she’s taken Blanc’s.

She’s already forced Fray into a ledge in the few short instances. Blitz, still chasing closely behind her missing attacks, otherwise parried with a quick twirl in pin point precision.

She’s made sure there wasn’t gaps for Blitz to intercept between them. Fray briefly glances over his shoulders measuring the next ice cap. It’s drifted away from stepping distance. She’s persuading him to leap for it by swiping at his feet. That he does, backwards. That’s where she’s wanted him, midair, he won’t be able to dodge. She jumps after, scissors pulled to her side in a lance, right as Blitz smites his scythe for the spot, she stood half milli-seconds ago. Nana’s put Fray in a checkmate, either he blocks this attack, or she pokes his heart out.

It’s at this point, Feno finally snaps himself out of it. Stabbing his sword into the ground. Icicles spiking upwards and rampantly towards them in running trail. It isn’t fast enough so Fray still had to block Nana’s attack with his daggers crisscrossed before his chest. A black crystal manifesting, yet to shoot. The force of her strike’s pushed Fray backwards to land on the ice cap. Skidding him away from the lack of traction. But it’s just fast enough to reach her now, before she follows suit, to freeze up her shins, knees, thighs. Holding her up in the air between the two ice caps, in time for the jet of ink Magia to get her dead middle of her chest. Spiraling a hieroglyph around her heart. Phasing through her torso that Nana instantly flickers down to examine.

The moment that hits, Fray’s dreadfully shouting,

‘I’m sorry!’ towards Blitz, behind Nana, that’s just oriented himself from the previous attempt he’s missed as everything occurred simultaneously.

In that instance, a dark orb expands from a dot from the center of the spinning hieroglyphs. Obliterating flesh in its path from the inside. It pops Blitz’s entire right shoulder off, his scythe wielding arm. Falling to the ground in two pieces, severed from his biceps where the second needle has landed previously.

The same thing’s happening to Nana, only in the middle of her chest, the orb’s eaten through her torso. Leaving a massive gaping hole its place, like a bowling ball was shot through her. Blood, forces up her throat spits out her mouth. She’s still half frozen at the hips when she folds lifelessly forward. Arms dangling off to the sides, relinquishing the scissors clutched in her hands to let it clank against the newly formed ice beneath her from Feno’s frost, linking the two drifted ice caps shut.

Behind her, Blitz’s clutching into his bleeding shoulder socket. Biting a grunt and looking as though he’s going to collapse, Fray immediately waves his daggers away and rushes to catch him before he falls, apologizing again,

‘I’m so sorry!’ helping him stagger forward. Looks like Fray really doesn’t have complete control over his own curse spells. They’ll detonate regardless if it’s placed on friend or foe. Blitz grimaces difficultly, furrowing his brows at the pain,

‘Spare it. My arm for her life. Projectiles are a poor match up against a Proelium Magum.’ that’s the same class as the redhead they saw in the freeze tag trial. Now Lilith understands why, their portals are able to make any bulleting attack be rerouted to connect at point blank. It’s impossible to dodge.

Feno’s running forward to join them, apologizing,

‘I’m sorry too, for not reacting sooner.’ he’s looking at the grisly wound. His shoulder socket is completely destroyed. Leaving his bluntly cut clavicle to jut out from the surround of bleeding flesh. Bits of white fluff, from his coat trim’s sticking onto the raw muscles and tendons. Blood mottled dark as the black fabrics he wears. That must’ve hurt, but Blitz still brings himself to mock Feno,

‘First time getting betrayed?’ before he softens up,

‘It’s whatever, kid. Get used to it. All is fair in love and war.’ did Blitz just implicate; he no longer holds a grudge against Feno for winning Lanara’s love? What a weird time for an emotional discovery. Feno’s finding more priority to say,

‘Let me freeze the wound for you. You’re going to bleed out otherwise.’ as he reaches out a hand. Blue Magia radiating out, the ice sprawling under it is making Blitz muffle a groan into his lip. It’s crystallizing his blood. Beside him, Fray is glancing into the distance as he leads them forward with slow staggered steps, supporting Blitz up with his intact arm over his shoulders,

‘Vaegil and division one are fighting the crimson witch’s army right now.’ Fray commentates towards the shores of the eastern lands. It’s shrouded in thunderclouds. Whirlpools, spiraling into the skies, electrified with purple lightning to turn even the water luminescent. That’ll explain why the tentacles never came back. Although the eastern lands are still too far away to see anyone beyond the flashy explosions of destruction. Fray continues,

‘We’ll have to join up with them and get a Medicus to patch you-’ but he’s unable to finish that sentence. A swish of colors darts across Feno’s sight in an instance. Ramming Fray back with it, rapid like a bullet train. The pink dreamcatcher the figure has emerged from, undrawing itself midair before them.

By the time Feno’s turned over his shoulders, all he’s seeing is a flutter of brown cloak, sprinting away rapidly. A rotted away hand, clutching into the back of Fray’s skull, pressing his face into the glacier, as if against a grindstone, and dragging a trail of blood and brains on the ice. Thudding Fray’s lifeless body, neckbone dislocated, atop the icy surface like a blanket being shaken.

He’s... very dead.

The shrouded figure’s going towards Nana. She’s straightening herself, the wound in her chest seaming close. Shattering out of the ice that’s holding her lower half in place before bending down to retrieve her weapon by her feet. The pink emblem, fading away the surface on her palm, the same that she’s drawn on Feno,

‘Ahh... that hurts like shit.’ she’s lied about the yearlong cooldown! How many times can she actually use that skill? It’s broken!

‘It’s unfair. Three of you ganging on me like that. Let's even the match ups a bit.’ wiping the blood from her mouth with the back of her hand, she blows at a stray piece of fringe away from jabbing into her lashes. The shrouded figure stops beside her as she says,

‘You see, I’d rather not die again in the next hour or so, otherwise I’m gone for good.’ so that’s the real cooldown timer?

But unlike the first time, Blitz looks a lot more wary. Bending over defensively with his scythe waved into his offhand to anticipate them. Neither is Feno moving. His gaze is focused on the familiar golden number hovering above the figure.

1000 x

Is that...

His voice is badly shaken when he disjointedly mutters,

‘La...nara?’

The figure’s turning around. Still not letting go of Fray’s lifeless corpse that she’s clutched in a death grip like it’s something precious she doesn’t want to lose. Shards of his spectacles have eaten into whatever remaining flesh on his face.

It is Lanara.

Half her skull’s bashed in, her brains, rotted dark with maggots. Same with her emptied eye sockets where decay’s eaten away. Flesh, missing in chunks revealing her retracted gums and blackened teeth. Her trachea is completely exposed to her decolletage, an empty husk of ribs where her heart once laid. She’s still wearing that black tracksuit. Only it’s been to poke full of holes from battle tear. Parts of her spine are no longer connected so her back's jutting in erratic directions as though a ghoul from a horror film. She looks like she's trying to say something, but her jaw's snapped loose so it's instead coming out in undecipherable grunts.

It’s heartbreaking to witness what Luci’s done to her.

And Luci’s done a lot.

Too much, the weight of it all, is finally crushing Feno. After everything that’s happened today, this is the final straw that shatters him.

His shoulders are trembling, tearing up, he whispers again,

‘Lanara...’ beside him, Blitz immediately snaps,

‘It isn’t her anymore! She’s gone. Don’t call that thing, Lanara.’

‘Oh?’ Nana leans on top the handles of her scissors that she's stabbed into the ice, with a sarcastic retort, she taunts,

‘And I thought it’s going to be a heartwarming reunion. The princess, lover and suitor all in one place.’ but Luci’s already won. She took away Feno's will to fight. Took away all reasons that he has remaining to fight for. Lanara’s squadron is gone. Everyone he cares about is dead. Showed him the futility in it all. No matter what he does. Feno isn't able to save anyone.

And now, now Luci’s forcing him to brutalize Lanara’s corpse. Forcing him to humiliate Lanara even in her death. Forcing him, to inflict suffering on the person he so dearly loves.

Feno’s collapses against the ice. Folding on his knees, he mutters quietly, pleadingly,

‘Just kill me...’ towards Nana, ‘please.’ he’s done with it. He’s had enough of this. Feno’s heart, is far too soft for this war.

Nana’s mercy towards him has become ironically inhumane,

‘I already told you, I don’t feel like it. You were nice to me, so stay out of this, alright?’ straightening herself. She draws her weapon from the ground to point forward at Blitz,

‘But I don’t really give a shit about you, so I’m afraid you’ll have to die.’ the moment she does. Blitz sprints forward, blood, cracking out of the ice where Feno’s frozen his wound. Gushing out like crow’s wings, as if it has a life of its own. Scythe winded on his other hand. Looks like, Blitz have more up his sleeves than he initially lets on. But before he’s able to reach them, Lanara flings Fray’s body forward. Slingshot like a baseball at Mach speed, so fast, it blurs into a smudge of colors with the air slicing woosh.

Blood, whipping out from Blitz’s severed arm, crystalizes before him like an ill forged shield to receive the body that’s thrown at him. The force of it, completely explodes the corpse into pieces like a water balloon. But Lanara’s following close behind, her jaws are rattling, letting out a hallowing mess of noises. The next is the impact of her punch at full kill potential.

Is she trying to convey something? There's water in her eyes. Disfigured as she is, Lilith can't help but to think, she almost looks tormented.

They don't have time to ponder, because the moment the hit lands. The surface supporting them cracks apart. It detonates even the ocean beneath them. Water, like a volcanic eruption, spraying upwards into a geyser. Taking both Blitz and Lanara into the skies. Along with large chunks of ice caps. The backlash of it, stirs tides, that’s pushing the platform Feno’s on backwards. Rocking him as if it’s a row boat drifting further and further, but he doesn’t even react to it. Doesn’t care for the waves lapping across his body like whips. He’s just seated on his knees, blankly watching the destruction unfold.

Blitz and Lanara are on a falling ice cap in the whirlpool that Lanara’s spiraled to the heavens. It’s insane that Blitz’s blood Magia is actually capable of withstanding her hit. Is he Vi aligned? He’s countering immediately when Lanara still has her fist latched onto his blood shield. It’s collapsing its solid form now, spearing forward into jagged spikes, as if splashed paint to skewer Lanara back.

It gets her in the stomach. Pushing her off the platform, then immediately he turns, catching the ledge of his scythe against the tip of Nana’s scissors. She’s teleported into the whirlpool to join the fight. Locking her there with his weapon, he doubles down. Blood, tearing upwards from Nana’s feet. Resembling a claw. It forces her to twirl away, retreating back into her portal. But the moment she does, Lanara from beneath them, punches through the platform Blitz’s standing on into pieces. Making him lose his footing. Above him, she kicks herself off another falling ice chunk, launched herself forward like a leopard mid hunt, fist drawn. One direct hit is all it takes for her to kill.

But why is she moving like that? It's so uncanny the way her arm's trembling like she's trying to retract it.

Falling, Blitz can’t dodge. Instead, when she’s close enough, he hooks his scythe behind her back, as if grabbing a bag with an umbrella’s handle, to spin her one eighty into the drifting glacier beneath. The force he’s thrown her, cracks her through the ice, into the sea. Displacing a splash, big as a boulder’s been launched into it. But he’s immediately speared full of holes with darting pink Magia of Nana’s follow up from the ground. Summoned from the dreamcatcher she’s drew directly above him with a turn of her scissors. Puncturing him with holes. The immensity of the bullets, crashes him down, into the raging waters. Dying the waves red with blood. It’s crystallizing on the surface, making a surface for Blitz to climb on.

Despite how utterly battered he looks, he carries on. Leaping off it, towards Nana. Scythe twirling in his hands as he swings for her that she elegantly parries. But he’s driving her backwards, with brute strength. She’s caught him with her scissors overhead. Reaching with her left hand, she pulls her weapon apart into twin blades. Trying to catch him off guard with a stab to his mid. It actually goes through, spearing out the other side through his spine. But he’s smirking at her,

‘Got you, you little bitch!’

The puddling blood on the ground immediately crystallizes over her into a husk. Freezing her completely like a capsule. It was intentional. Blitz was bleeding all over her to dye the entire ice cap red. The more blood he spills, the greater his attack flexibility gets. Judging from how tanky he is, he’s definitely Vi aligned. Even poked full of holes, his movements didn’t dull. Straightening himself, Blitz’s drawing back with his scythe winded. Imbued red with violent Magia, swinging downwards intending to cut the capsule in half.

But before he's able to, the glacier between them splits apart the center. Lanara bursting through it looking like she’s leaped herself up from the ocean floor. Plummeting downwards, Blitz is forced to fling backwards to evade her hit. Jumping onto another ice cap. But she’s immediately withdrawn her fist to chasing after him. Fly kicking with a leg. He blocks her attempt with the blood shield.

The force of her, rippling out in a shockwave upon impact sends him flying. Her wheezing's getting louder. Frantically shaking her head. She's near screaming something at this point. It's hard to make out her words. What is she trying to say? But her actions, definitely doesn't look normal.

She's moving like a glitch out character that's lost control when she grabs his ankle. Pulling him back to punching range. He’s horizontal in the air, yet to find any ground from the backlash, her fist drawn to strike him straight in the head. Blitz’s is out sped when they’re this close range despite he’s trying to retaliate.

Feno is listlessly watching Blitz’s impeding demise unfold in slow motion, as she encroaches, closer, closer.

It's then he focuses her face. Are those tears streaming down her cheeks? Or is that just sea water?

Her lips are parted open, repeatedly mouthing something she's been trying to convey since she got here.

What is that?

'n...o......nt'

What is she saying?

'n...o...wa...'

Is she still, in there?

Straightening his back, something's rattled Feno. He must've heard her because it's making his vision fog like crystals.

There’s a whip of cold aura that instantaneously freezes the ocean into ice. Even faster than the first time Feno's got bombarded with buffs. Seeping out in a pale blue frost, shrouding around him. It’s piecing into hovering blades behind his back. Furling out like glass wings.

In less than a blink, he’s beside her, blades thrown forward to force her back. It sends her sliding. Stabbing through the sides of her ribs like popsicles, freezing up the wounds. Behind him, Blitz’s just slammed to the ground from the 1-meter fall. Feno isn’t turning his head to check on his wellbeing. Instead, bolting forward, he’s focused on Lanara.

She’s oriented, countering with a swing kick to his left. Strange. She's completely stopped groaning and glitching now.

He catches her with the four hovering blades, pieced shut like a shield. Her strength explodes the ice blades into star dust, but he’s simultaneously looping four others past his back towards his right. Again, he darts them forward. This time, it impales her stomach, skidding her with its force.

Frost, crystallizing from them are slowing her down. She continues wildly lunging for him. Looking to punch. There's the faintest resemblance of a smile when she hits the ice duplicate. Crumbling to snow. He’s weaved behind her, bending down, sweeping the string of swords for her feet. Cutting them clean off in a diagonal in the trajectory he’s straightening himself from. That stumbles her forward. She falls flat on the ground. Perching on her elbow, she’s trying to get up. But ironically, she looks... almost peaceful?

Feno stabs a blade through her back. Pinning her in place against the glacier beneath her. She’s struggling, as if a bug on a stick. More, and more frost’s biting into her body. That even her bones, in places where they are exposed, have frozen a pale shade of blue.

He’s standing over her, futilely holding back tears that're relentlessly streaming down his face. He lifts a finger to command the blades over her. Funneling downwards, all eight of them stabbing simultaneously into her, impaling each limb. It freezes her in an ice crystal. He blinks his vision into focus before they glaze over again. Looking at her.

It's her funeral, yet she's smiling to her last breath. With a sharp inhale, he clutches his trembling hand. The ice shatters into sparkling specks. Leaving not even a body behind.

It's his victory, but he's crying as she disappeared.

He heard her.

Lanara doesn't want to be a monster.

‘That was incredibly heartless of you.’

Feno’s snapping his head to a side to watch Nana, teeth gritted. Her voice's detached as ever. His sight's fogged to a indistingushible mess of colors.

But even then, he can tell, Nana's seated on Blitz’s lifeless body. Severed in clean halves. His intestines, spilling out like a pinata. Looks like, in that same short instance, Nana’s managed to break free from the blood cage and deal the finishing blow. Beside her, there’s a hologram that she was speaking to. It’s a man’s voice through the other end. Luci has more living allies than just Nana. She’s waving it away too quickly to get a good glance of the hooded figure she was conversing with. Half lidding her gaze, she softly comments,

‘You shouldn’t have done that. Mama could’ve fixed her.’ he isn’t trusting her words anymore. He's lost it. Feno looks to kill. Rushing forward, blades propelling. But Nana doesn’t retaliate against him, instead, she picks herself back up, dodging him,

‘There’s no point for me to stay any further. Your guild leader’s won the front, the port is now yours. Goodluck, Feno.’ summoning a portal behind her,

‘The next time we meet. I’ll have to fight you for real too.’ she truly looks like she doesn’t want to, she’s dropping him a line of encouragement,

‘If this is your conviction. Stick to it. Don’t waver anymore.’ before she disappears through it, leaving him alone in cold ice.

He became the monster instead.