While Kasumi and Ayla were on their path to return to where Kenji was, Amara, Suzuki and Lucy, were still dealing with their side.

First, it was Amara.

After slithering through the city, she found the building that Kenji had marked on the Map. She entered the building, and passed through the people that were on the lookout there.

Strangely enough, for her, those people, seemed rather alike to her. Ignoring them, but still intrigued, she followed the path that was ahead of her, which led to a basement.

The Nether-Gate was at the end of a long tunnel, in an open space. The Gate was right in the middle of the room, with people being sacrificed right in front of it. The person doing so, was a woman.

Amara felt some kind of connection to this woman. After all, the woman had a strange aura surrounding her. The same one, that Amara could feel on herself. Something connected to nature.

“Who’s that woman?”

The woman was using her arms towards the people that were brought in front of her. The people who were brought, started to panic, and tried to look away. However, the woman’s hands morphed into vines, entering through the ears of the person in front of her.

The person started trembling their heads, and after a few seconds, the vines appeared from that person’s nose and eyes.

Blood started to flow, and the woman morphed her body yet again, connecting the vines like a canal towards the Nether-Gate, and the blood flowed from one arm to the other, entering the portal. All of that happened, while the person was still alive.

Amara glanced at the portal, seeing several strange letters. She felt like she knew those, but was also confused.

For her, it was confusing, but the portal had the same appearance as the portal that both Ayla and Kasumi had saw. 2 pillars, with Holy Letters, with a crack in the middle, looking like a cloth was ripped apart from both sides, and stretched.

After taking mental notes of everything else, she slithered out of there, returning to where Kenji was.

On her way out, however, she noticed that both Suzuki and Lucy were fighting a group of Onis.

Now, going to Suzuki, she was caught really quick. However, instead of being killed on the spot, the Onis did something unusual, at least for her. What was that exactly?

She was challenged. As in, the Onis, guarding the place, saw her blade, a Katana, and proposed that, if she wins a match against them, they would give her information. Of course, they were all underestimating her, as Ayla had previously said that Onis looked down on women.

She was skeptical, but ended up agreeing. After all…

“Ha! I wouldn’t expect a girl to know how to handle a blade. Better off on my bed. HAHA!”

That made Suzuki furious. She started the fight, and defeated a fair number of Onis. More than 30 Oni warriors fought against her, and all of them lost.

The problem, was that she was reaching her limit. She faced more than 30 Onis, and more were appearing, attracted to the commotion. Shit! How did this happened?

She got into this situation thanks to her own carelessness. The reason? She ended up ignoring the sound of the Cloaking Device going off, and when she was about to enter the place where the Onis were, she was caught.

“Dammit! If this thing had a more loud sound!” I’ll be defeated at this rate!

She kept fighting the Onis, since they started to gang up on her by this time. Thankfully, a companion was looking through the skies, and plummeted towards her.

While Suzuki wasn’t having an easy time, Lucy sure had.

She was able to enter the building that Kenji marked for her to go, and that area was overlooked. In simple words, it was the slums. Wearing her usual clothes, she was attacked a few times. She simply knocked the people out, since she was stronger, and with one punch at that.

After arriving at the place that was marked for her to go to, she simply activated the cloaking device, and entered the building.

Surprisingly, the building wasn’t being guarded, probably because the people from the Slums knew, that if they tried to do something there, they would suffer.

In the entire Slums, the building she entered was the least shabby. It stood out so much, that in comparison to the other buildings on the slums, this one seemed that of royalty.

Inside, she noticed that there were some thugs around, only drinking booze, or dozing off.

“Thugs for guards. But why they have those marks on their hands?”

Lucy passed through some thugs, since the cloaking device was about to go down. She kept a counting in her mind as soon as she activated the device, and while doing so, she saw that some thugs had a serpent symbol on their hands.

She deduced that the symbol belonged to someone. The gorgon she fought previously, the mother of Vermivia, Radreiale.

She didn’t want to keep wasting time, not even wanting to know HOW those thugs got that symbol, so she followed the passageway that had on the floor, that led to the catacombs.

As the other girls found on the catacombs, so did Lucy.

A huge room, with 2 pillars in the center, with Holy letters inscribed on them, with a crack, like a ripped cloth portal in the middle. And people being sacrificed to the portal.

But different from the others, Lucy felt something eerie coming from the portal. Like something terrible would happen.

“The… Nether-Realm Overseer. I need to-”

“GAAAAH!”

She had the device off a few seconds ago, but as soon as she was about to activate it again, one of the Children that was there to be sacrificed, yelled as soon as she spotted Lucy. Shit!

The child grabbed her, and pulled her towards the portal. Of course, the Thugs instantly took notice of her. They grinned widely, and licked their lips.

“Dammit! I’m sorry, Mr. Kenj!”

Grabbing Vernichter, she pushed the child away, and smashed the thugs. She kept doing that, until she finally reached the door outside.

Spreading her wings, she took flight, and was heading towards the place where Kenji was, and as she glanced below, she saw a commotion, and at the center of that commotion, it was Suzuki.

“What is happening? Wait, she’s in trouble!”

She asked herself, but noticing Suzuki having problems, she plummeted towards her.

As a blade was approaching Suzuki from behind her, she was seeing things in slow motion. And as the blade was about to reach her, the Oni got smashed away from her.

The Onis were alerted by the sudden arrival of a flying enemy, that being, of course, Lucy.

“You looked in trouble!”

“Thanks! Can we finish this and talk later?!”

“Fine by me!”

Grinning to each other, Lucy and Suzuki got with their backs to each other, and started dishing it out against the Onis around them.

Whenever an Oni broke through Suzuki’s guard, Lucy’s Vernichter smashed that Oni, and when an Oni broke through Lucy’s guard, Suzuki would slash at that Oni.

However, that wouldn’t work until the end. And the more they were fighting, the more Onis were appearing. Soon, they wouldn’t be able to keep up, and would be overwhelmed.

Now, they were being backed out against each other, and just as the Onis were about to attack them, they were tossed away by a giant snake that suddenly appeared.

““AMARA!””

Both of them shouted.

“What the hell did you 2 got into? I was just going back.”

““NO TIME TO TALK!””

Amara asked the 2, but as she lashed at another group of Onis, Lucy and Suzuki hit and slashed, respectively, at another 2 Onis coming from behind them.

Lucy smashed through the Onis trying to pass them, but the more they fought, the more Onis appeared.

“What is with this place?!”

“It’s like there’s no end to them!”

“What the hell?!”

As they kept fighting, the Onis surrounded them completely, and they didn’t have an exit. Even if Amara tried to push through, the amount of bodies(they didn’t kill the Onis) that were pilled, passed the hundred.

“Shit!”

“Dammit.”

“...”

They were looking around frantically, searching for a gap for them to escape. That was when…

“Passing through!”

A woman with white thin horns, being red on the tips, appeared from the crowd, with 2 small one bladed swords in hands. She cut through the Onis easily, and reached the middle of the crowd.

“Hey! We came to help! Why… why are you 3 looking at me like that?”

However, Lucy, Suzuki and Amara were just looking at the girl, with expressions of disbelief. Of course, if you haven’t noticed by now, this Oni girl was Ayla. And the issue with her going to the MIDDLE of the crowd, is that now she was trapped in it as well.

“Ah!”

She noticed a little too late(not so little). However, as they were being pressed more, spheres made out of Dark flames and lightning hit the Onis around, scattering them. Of course, the one doing was a small black fox, Kasumi.

(You could have at least worked that entrance better.)

“I didn’t think it through, ok!?” - Ayla

“We all can see that.” - All the other girls.

But now, since they were together, they just glanced at the amount of Onis, and smiled faintly. Except for Amara, she had a wide grin on her face. Which actually terrified some Onis.

“We'll kinda need to pass through them. Well! As Kenji usually says…” - Suzuki started, to which the five girls completed.

““LET’S GET THIS THING DONE!””

The first to move was Suzuki and Ayla, slashing through the Onis with ease, passing through their light armor, with Ayla actually causing more damage due to her Oni-Vampire heritage.

Following behind her, was Amara, who slid through the 2, which stepped to each side, and Amara, with her giant body, lashed her tail against another group of Onis approaching Suzuki and Ayla.

As for Kasumi and Lucy, they were still in the back, specifically, because Kasumi was on Lucy’s shoulder(a rarity), preparing a spell, while Lucy was striking the Onis with her weapon.

(Ready when you are.)

“You just had to say it. OUT OF THE WAY, GIRLS!”

With Lucy’s shout, Amara, Suzuki and Ayla glanced at her, and they soon noticed why she said to get out of the way. Her weapon, Vernichter, was glowing in a yellow, almost golden light, on her right hand, and right on her left side, a blade of black lightning was pulsating with each second.

They understood, that if they did not get out of the way, they would be fried. We better get out of the way. Pressing the button once again, Vernichter dislodged itself from its base, becoming a flail, and ready to hit anyone in its path.

Lucy opened her wings, and rushed ahead, moving her weapon with extreme prejudice. The flail hit the Onis in its path, not killing them on the hit, however, having a secondary effect. Each time the flail hit an Oni, the lightning passed through that Oni, onto another one. And so, it created a chain lightning, making the Onis get paralyzed.

And so, Kasumi entered in scene now. Her Dark Lightning Blade cut through the Onis that were hit by the lightning of Lucy, like a hot knife on butter. With that, not only were they able to take down the Onis, and open a path for themselves to run away, but also taking down their numbers to a future battle.

Running through the alleyways, and through the main streets, they rushed through the dirty pavement. Some Onis were still following them, and right as they were about to reach their base, the Onis simply stopped, and gave up their chase.

Stopped at the door of the base, they were panting, and retrieving their breath. And just as they caught their breath, and Ayla moved her hand to open the door, the door opened itself. All girls flinched at the strong and intimidating atmosphere around.

“Well, well, well… If it isn’t the people who made a mess… out of a stealth mission?”

Of course, the one who opened the door, was none other than Kenji… and he had a very big vein popped up on his forehead, and was smiling… though his left eye was twitching, just as soon as he opened his eyes.

“Inside… NOW.”

After a very long sermon from Kenji, and almost hitting Ayla’s head for grabbing the 2 blades he left on the table, did Kenji stopped, and finally asked why the noise.

“So? Why the noise? Hm?”

Of course, he already knew about Ayla and Kasumi, since the 2 had returned early, but just as the 2 returned, Kenji, who was making something(would do something with the 2 blades) saw the 2 rushing out, and Ayla had grabbed the 2 blades.

He would go behind the 2, but he stopped himself, and would wait for them to come back.

After Amara, Lucy, Kasumi and Ayla gave their reports about the places they went to, did they all turn their head towards Suzuki. She just kept looking down, however. And it was Kenji who broke the silence.

“You failed, didn’t you?”

She nodded. Sighing, Kenji started to dart his eyes around, and just he was about to say something, Vermivia, who had gone out, entered a rush, and shouted towards the group.

“VICTOR IS MOVING! AND SO ARE THE PEOPLE!”

Kenji frowned and once again, his left eye started twitching. Breathing in and out, Kenji just looked upwards, cracked his neck, and glanced ahead.

“Alright. Things are going faster than I expected to. Fine. Let’s move as well, then. The plan will be as following…”

As Kenji’s expression’s changed from a worried one, to his grin, showing that he would have fun while causing a huge mess.

The girls were just apprehensive, while Vermivia was worried. As she was about to go out, Vermivia was stopped by Kenji’s words.

“Where are you going? This party needs you to make it a big shot.”

And so, they had started their plan faster than they’d expected, but even though Vermivia was worried about this whole situation, Kenji still had his big grin plastered on his face, even though this whole situation could spell his doom.