World Tree MUSH

    Shirou Emiya is not having a very good day, honestly. Or a week, even. Not with the amount of time he's spent in trying to figure out several metaphysical matters with his very limited knowledge on... everything. He has finally decided to call Anna and Yumi to meet him at a certain motel in the city, and to ask them to bring along with them anyone they know who might have more experience with the multiverse in general, and magic and... anything else at all.

    Or, you know, anyone who might end up just tagging along. These things tend to work out like that sometimes.

    The motel everyone is lead to in the end is a pretty run-down affair. Something cheap. The kind of place people just passing through with a hurried need for some place to lay their head in end up in... or people who have nowhere better to go. You know, like husbands being put in the doghouse.

    And Shirou's room here? Well... It probably wasn't a very fancy or even a comfortable thing in the first place, but it's very much *covered* in seperated notebook pages scattered across the floor, and some even taped into the walls, all filled with strange diagrams, drawings and notes that look like they've been taken straight out of the conspiracy board of a paranoid madman.

    And amidst it all paces the red-haired failure of a magus himself. So lost in his own throughts that he doesn't even immediately realize anyone is coming through the door that had been left cracked open. There's heavy bags under his slightly bloodshot eyes, and he's muttering quietly to himself there. You know, like a perfectly normal person with absolutely nothing wrong with him and who has also definitely gotten adequate amounts of sleep. Why would you think otherwise?

    "But if they weren't trying to kill me, then what were they...?"

    The motel is... Not to Anna's tastes. And this is coming from a girl who has spent nights in some pretty run down inns. But the sheer chaos of pages everywhere just baffles the princess. She's half expecting to find notes about a mysterious Pepe Silvia strewn somewhere around the place.
    Who is Pepe Silvia anyway?
    They don't exist!
    Anna, however, sets to the task of making tea.
    "Shirou? You're muttering to yourself again." She idly notes amid pouring him a cup.

    Yumi knows a few people familiar with magic; but at least one person springs to mind that she's been in relatively recent contact with! So, she's put out the call, and then headed out to the motel herself. "Hey, Shirou, it's Yumi," the redhead greets as she pushes the door open. "I brought some dinner if you're hungry- oh, hey, Anna. I'm glad I brought extra-" It's here she finally stops, because she gets a look at her fellow Redheaded Hero, and... frowns. Frowns so hard.

    "Shirou, do I need to give you the talk about resting and taking care of yourself? Because I will."

    Magilou is quite literally a broke, homeless criminal drifter and she wouldn't stay here. Mostly because she doesn't have enough money to afford it, but even if she did she'd rather just sleep in a ditch somewhere than here. She's also a relatively easy to reach honestly to god technical expert on magic... at least magic of another place. She might not be much help with the magic of here.

    That may not stop everyone involved with being filled with regret when she actually shows up in her normal completely subtle outfit, pausing upon entering the room to take a look at the pages along the walls and the floors, eyebrows raising as she does so.

    "...Someone about to try to will themselves straight into daemonhood or something? It's not really THAT hard to do, if that's what you're going for."

    "GAH!!"

    Shirou actually jumps in place suddenly enough to make it roughly three feet into the air upon Anna first speaking up, quickly spinning around to face her with very, very wide eyes. "Anna?! When did you--"

    And then Yumi is also coming in, with Magilou. And by this point, Shirou is damn near regressing to just vaguely waving his hands around. "I'm fine! I just needed some time to think, I-- er..." He pauses upon looking at Magilou, and just... well. Quite openly staring. "...Are you some kind of witch?" He asks bluntly, thus. "What? No! Nothing like that! I'm just trying to-- guh!"

    Turning to Anna, he's quick to *snatch* the cup of tea the instatn she's done pouring it, and take a long, looong swig from it that damn near drains the whole thing up.

    "Okay, I just... I've been trying to figure out what's going on with those portals and the Servants coming through, and it's been confusing enough on it's own but then I realized Lancer didn't seem to have any killing intent with me and Rider just straight up tried to capture me and I have no idea what is going on with them and and and--"

    He is talking *very* fast. He might very well have started running out of oxygen before he finally stopped to take in a deep breath, and veer back towards vaguely talking down. "Okay sorry, sorry... Yumi, did you already explai--"

    The tea cup in his hand suddenly drops, shattering into a dozen pieces of ceramic and spilling the remaining tea into the carpet (which, honestly, was already of questionable status as for as cleanliness goes).

    "Hhhhhh."

    Shirou's quickly stumbling over, setting one hand against a wall for support while the other presses against his head over what at least looks like might be a sudden sting of migraine. He stays like that for roughly ten seconds, and then--

    "We gotta go."

    Without elaborating any further, the redhead *bolts* for the door, grabbing a sports bag with the hilts of several bamboo swords sticking out from it before he's out with such expediency that the door might be in serious danger of getting dislodged from it's hinges.

    He keeps running. Right down to the yard of the motel, out of the premises, and down the street, just as--

    A loud, sharp sound like a distorted fog horn, or of giant industrial machinery grinding against each other in the distance.

    And up ahead, in the air twenty or so meters above an intersection between busy streets, a massive dark orb of what looks like a pure *void* forms.

    Atop a roof nearby to the forming void orb, perches a white-robed human. This person is peering down at the street level, as if looking for something. She only notices the sphere when her partner, a Shinki floating nearby, taps her on the shoulder and points to it. "Uh. Piera... that doesn't look right." comes the little helperbot's voice.

    Piera herself looks up furrows her brow and then spots movement from down the street. A red-headed young man just burst so hard out of a motel room the door made an impression of itself against the wall. "That also doesn't look right... let's watch for the moment, we can intervene if necessary." she asides to her partner. "Keep an eye on that... thing." she adds before moving to a better vantage point to watch Shirou and his companions approach.

    Claire's just travelling. She's got a bag with some gathered fruits and herbs, and is on her way back home when suddenly void orb in the sky. "Well that doesn't look good." She states, and notices Shirou running past her, and follows. "Hey, what's going on?"

    As Shirou starts to talk very rapidly about how totally fine he is, Yumi's eyebrow just goes higher, and higher. She has folded her arms by the time he stops to catch his breath. But before he can finish his next thought, he suddenly drops his tea and goes into migraine mode. Immediately, she unfolds her arms and takes a couple steps over, face etched with worry. "Shirou-?!"

    'We gotta go.'

    Almost immediately, Yumi has a strong idea what's going on. She's right behind him as he heads out the door; and indeed, as soon as he's clear, she transforms and leaps in one smooth movement, straight out to the street. it only takes her a second to hone in on that hideous foghorn sound - and by then, Shirou has caught up, and she's running alongside him. "Tell me you've got a better way to get rid of it this time. I can pull out Solar Maximum if we have no other options, but it's... it's not easy on me."

    Magilou is brought up short by that question, her attention drawn away from the drawings and all. "I am not merely some sort of witch. I am the evil witch Magilou, who scoffs at the might of dragons and before whom the power of average exorcists and men is but fleeting insects!" She'll let him start talking though, because she hadn't actually gotten an explanation, though she seems notably unperturbed when it comes to the sudden shattering glass and everything.

    "..Your friend is kind of weird, isn't he?" She'll ask Yumi, before following down the street after Shirou, at more of a light job than a sprint. Magilou only sprints AWAY from danger; she mostly just sort of sashays slowly into it.

    "Hmm, is that kind of thing normal around here?" She'll ask, eyes the giant void orb as she draws to a stop. Running closer to that seems dangerous.

    "Be careful it's--" Anna starts to speak.
    Shirou drains the tea.
    "... Hot."
    By now, the berserker princess is staring at Shirou like he has two heads as he starts to speak a mile a minute. But then he drops the teacup.
    Without missing a beat snatches the cup out of the air on pure reflex, as it leaves the youth's hand before it can hit the ground and shatter.
    "Be more careful, Shirou!" She snaps before looking to Yumi. "Honestly... It's like we're dealing with someone who has no idea how to take care of himself, right, Yumi?"
    But then he stumbles.
    "Oh... OH!"
    And he grabbed a shinai to boot and ran right out the door.
    "Whuh...!?"
    For a moment Anna stares at the space Shirou had just occupied before her head turns to follow him out the door.
    "Hey wait!"
    Shirou may have a head start, but Anna can move at a blitz when not wearing heavy armor.
    And Anna doesn't wear heavy armor.
    So she catches up pretty fast.
    "Is it another--"
    She doesn't have to finish asking.
    It's another dark orb thingy.

    "That's one of the things I was asking for help figuring out!!" is the very unfortunate answer Shirou has to give to the magical girl. "Can you at least cut a trench for the mud like last time before it starts coming out?!"

    He doesn't really even pause any further than that even for the sake of answering the questions from Magilou and Claire (though he does send a somewhat concerned look back to this unfamiliar face upon the realization she's decided to just *follow* him towards danger).

    And no, Shirou doesn't even stop himself from running straight into the intersection either. It might not be particularly busy streets at this hour, thankfully-- but that doesn't mean they are *empty*. And there's a car driving down towards the intersection just then, too! At least until Shirou just straight up leaps into the way with his hands held out, causing the driver to slam the brakes with a loud screech.

    "BACK UP! BACK UP! GET OUT OF HERE GO GO GO GO!" Shirou's yelling, waving his hands in panicked gesturing at the car -- the driver of which thankfully gets the picture quick enough and starts making with an u-turn.

    Just in time for pitch-black mud to suddenly start pouring out from the orb of void directly above Traffic Director Shirou.

    Magilou will hum to herself, watching the void orb right up until it starts trying to dump mud onto Shirou. "I'm guessing some kind of dispel for this is what you were after?" She'll ask, seeming far calmer than she normally was. "I don't know that it's really causing that much trouble, but let's see how it reacts to a little bit of energy, yeah?"

    She'll wiggle her fingers - also the rest of her body, because she's basically always dancing and moving and just not standing still - and a few moments later, it's an actual demonstration of some magical prowless. A very minor one, a bolt of water leaping forth at the void orb, mostly because Magilou's just curious about what it'll do.

    Some might argue that it's reckless to experiment like that with something you know nothing about while your friends are under it. Magilou would only counter that she doesn't actually have any friends.

    "Shirou WAIT."
    Shirou's not waiting. Anna is fast, but even she has to balk when the youth shoves himself into traffic and stops a car.
    As the mud begins to fall.
    Anna lunges.
    "MOVE!"
    And practically tackles Shirou to the ground, rolling away from the splatters of dark ichor.
    "No, this is NOT normal." That's to Magilou as she tumbles Shirou to the curb.

    A trench. The way Yumi did it last time, it was costly. But they've got some warning. She's got time to do it a bit slower. Not much, but maybe it will be enough.

    "Right," Yumi replies to Shirou, her expression taking on a hard, determined cast. And then she stops holding her speed back, and lunges ahead.

    Prominence takes shape in the senshi's hand, its runes immediately lighting up with glowing sunlight. Flickers of solar fire dance around the weapon, and as she comes to a stop under the growing hole, the girl steps, hops, and swings downward. Three rapid-fire swings, one after the other, cream-orange hair flowing around her as she whirls. Each strike unleashes a blast of solar fire, heat and impact and cutting power intended to blow open deep furrows beneath the grail. Unfortunately, she's skidding away from Shirou as the black mud begins to flow, putting her out of reach. Anna has him covered, thankfully.

    "Last time we had one of these things, I had to hit it with a concentrated blast of a whole hell of a lot of magic!" she calls out to Magilou. "I can do it again if I have to, but it'll cost me later. So if you've got any really big spells, or a way to cut off reality-warping magic..."

    Piera remains on the rooftop... these are some high-power people and she doesn't really know how she might intervene in a way that actually helps.

    She does recognize the blonde girl, and the witch from the other day... and that farmer too. She looks over to Aquila, making a soft clicking sound in the back of her throat which sends the shinki bolting straight up... ready to Strike from the Sky.

    Claire seems unsure on what to do, until Yumi speaks up and she reaches into her pockets and takes out a slingshot and a couple explosive bullets, and takes her first shot. "So can anyone tell me what's going on? Black void in the sky bad, yes?"

    "Ooof!" goes Shirou as he's tackled by a barbarian princess! Which is absolutely nothing he should be complaining about, seeing as where he was just standing roughly five seconds ago is getting poured on by Evil Mud.

    "Ugh... Are you okay?" Yes, *that* is what he actually asks of *Anna* once the both of them have rolled away, with him ending up on his back just besides her.

    "How is that supposed to help?!"

    He finds himself yelling at Magilou, meanwhile, as she... fires a bolt of water at the void. Which largely just results in the water quickly turning into steam when it inevitably comes in contact with the dark, magical mud pouring out of it.

    "Uh-- something like that!" Shirou yells towards Claire while Yumi's doing some imprompty zoning work to make sure there's a nice big hole for the mud to pour harmlessly into -- at least for a while. It'll be a while before it starts overflowing, probably? "Wait, who are-- uh, nevermind. While Yumi and Witch-san figure out how to close this thing, there's probably going to be some other bad stuff coming out!"

    Reaching out towards Anna from the ground then, he urges, "Give me your axe, I'll Reinforce it for the--"

    His offer is cut short when, indeed, more Bad Stuff starts coming out. From the pool of mud forming in the deep ditch Yumi's magical strikes cut up, several dark silhouettes rise up-- like black paper dolls or shadow puppets, with vaguely humanoid shapes and long, spindly arms that reach all the way down to the ground.

    "...Shadows."

    Well, they're out already, but he's going to hold his hand out for putting magic on Anna's axe regardless!

    "Huh. Looks like you have a little bit of a Malevolence problem. Guess the Tree hasn't done all that much for the hearts and souls and sins of mankind, here." Magilou will say, seeming slightly surprised at the nature of the burning that she sees, but not able to completely work it out. She's definitely not minding getting screamed at, though Yumi's suggesting will at least break through her poise, getting a nod out of her.

    Yumi had been there the last time Magilou had solved things with a big spell - well, sort of, she'd mostly just kind of helped - so if she's asking, Magilou will assume she knows what she's asking for.

    (Or not, but that's also funny to the witch.)

    It won't help that her incantation will be dramatic and extra and completely different than it was the previous time. "Oh, mighty fire, annihilate all that thou touchest!" comes out, red circles surrounding her as Bienfu feeds energy into her working, Magilou taking the EXTRA long time with it to charge it up as much as possible, even after her incantation portion is finished. Hopefully people will prevent the shadows or anything else from interrupting her, if they want the big blast to hit the orb.

    Or they interrupt her themselves if they don't, of course.

    "Why are you asking if I'm okay?!" Anna is incredulous. Then again she... She should know Shirou by now.
    He's exasperating.
    But there's no time for that. Bad stuff is about to come out and Anna unslings her axe, holding it out to Shirou to enchant before...
    The shadows come.
    And thus, now with her reinforced axe, Anna's eyes turn from blue-green to a bloodshot shade of red as she lets go of her rage and lets it overtake her.
    "Rrrrgh!"
    Just like that she lunges, axe swinging wild and reckless into the mass of shadowy figures that have emerged.

    The trench won't work forever. But it will at least work until they can think of something. Yumi shifts Prominence around behind herself, taking a second to assess the situation; Anna's got Shirou safe, Claire is... getting the idea at least, and Magilou, well. That solution isn't much different than Yumi's own. Maybe a bit more wide-area. But as long as nobody's hurt and the hole in reality is stopped, a little collateral damage is fine.

    But if those shadows have their way, things will very much NOT be fine, will they.

    But at the very least, shadowy monsters are something Yumi can deal with. "...right." Around comes Prominence, held high over her head and angled downward in an aggressive ready stance. The runes begin to glow brighter, and then in the next instant, the Senshi of the Sun is on the attack, massive runeblade dancing back and forth with inhumanly power slashes, each simmering with solar heat.

    Well, the water flashboiling on contact makes Piera pause... then creatures emerge from the mud, so conflating the two she weighs her options. "Can't use the Blade... Aquila would get damaged so... Hmm."

    She looks at her bracer, then clicks a caartridge into the special little barrel beside where the Blade emerges. Lifting her arm, she splays her fingers and lines up. The other arm braces the first and with a steady breath in, then slowly released she flexes her arm muscles to trigger the weapon.

    B L A M the loud report of a gunshot rings out across the town, the conical bullet in the cartridge expelling toward one of the shadows at the speed of sound.

    It's just a normal bullet, made of lead, but it might slow one down enough to help.

>> SUMMARY[Piera Forta] >> I have a spell too. I Cast GUN at fifth level!

    Claire thinks it looks like it's bad if this stuff touches people. As such, she does the only logical thing and puts away her ranged weapon and draws her purple sword. She rushes forwards, swiping at the nearest of the creatures that emerge from the mud. "Come on, hit me." She yells at them.

>> SUMMARY[Claire] >> The first tanks were farm equipment

    "--Sorry, *what*?!" Shirou's staring at Magilou working her magic once he's back on his feet. He doesn't really understand magic as much as he'd like to claim (being *technically* a mage and all), but he quickly gets the sense anyway that that might be bad? "Yumi?! Is she about to nuke the city?!"

    He has a *really* bad feeling about this. But Yumi isn't immediately jumping to stop the witch, so it might be fine?! Maybe?! He's at least really hoping that the judgement of the magical girl of the sun can be trusted on this one.

    He doesn't quite leap after Anna once she... well, does what Anna does. The Reinforced axe cuts through the Shadows, disrupting their overall structure enough to scatter, though they are, understandably, starting to slowly, but surely, lift their arms up to swing them at the harassing barbarian and Senshi of the Sun both.

    And soon at Claire too, it looks like. Though hearing the taunting call she gives out, Shirou's quick to come running over with a yell of "What are you doing?!" He's pulling out one of the shinai from his bag, too, already channeling mana to start Reinforcing it, but--

    BLAM. A bullet, of all things, pierces through the shadow Claire drew aggro from. It doesn't really have enough of a head to be an easily discernible body part from the rest of it, but the effect might as well be the same as the creature's head getting blown into a million bits. With it's upper section disrupted and scattered, the whole thing starts waving and flailing uselessly before sinking down into the mud again. Shirou just looks confused, since he hasn't exactly spotted Piera yet.

    More shadows continue to rise up, still. Not that any of them get the chance to move much further from the pit before they are cut down.

    However.

    Something falls from the void above the intersection.

    It's amidst the mud, but seperate from it. A large mass like a meteor falling down into the center of the gathering mud with a heavy sound of impact and a shockwave that sends errand chunks of mud flying into the surrounding area, splattering across asphalt and building walls. The mud continuing to pour down from the void orb above falls directly on it, but instead of burning it, it just... seems to pour directly off and past the thing, like it doesn't even quite manage to touch it.

    What is it? Good question. It has a distinct, solid enough of a shape to not be one of the shadows, and yet... it doesn't seem to have a consistent shape either. THere is something akin to arms, legs, and a head, but it all keeps changing, twisting. Like it's trying to constantly find a proper, unique shape or identity. The only thing one can be sure of is that it is *huge*. It becomes even more clear when it gets enough of a shape to let it stand up on two tree-like, muscular legs -- standing damn near ten feet in height.

    An explosion of motion, damn near fast enough to cause a sonic boom to ring out, followed by the destructive sound of asphalt and pavement cracking with overwhelming force right in front of Shirou as the 'Thing' lands there--

    With a massive slab of stone vaguely shaped like a sword or an axe stopped mid-swing just inches in front of the boy's face.

    "Wh-"

    Instinctively, the redhaired boy leaps back in a fit of panic that just ends up seeing him falling on his butt and staring up at the massive, shifting shape. The thing itself just stands there for a few seconds, almost seeming... confused? It's hard to tell, without any distinct face taking hold for more than a fraction of a second.

    Another explosive force of motion follows after those few seconds, though, with the Thing launching itself from in front of Shirou so forcefully that pieces of asphalt are sent flying into the air there...

    As it barrels with blinding speed towards Magilou, now, with a human-sized foot swinging like a rocket-equipped wrecking ball at her.

    The very instant a gunshot rings out, Yumi's head whips around straight at Piera. She's got good senses and good battle awareness. She's also capable of quickly making out a friendly face; not a threat, then. Rather, quite the opposite in this situation, even if she has issues with the business of assassination. So the magical girl goes back on the attack, swinging her greatsword around herself in controlled, powerful motions. When the Shadows begin to fight back, she starts to weave defensive movements into her onslaught. Parries, deflections, one or two hits glance off her armor - none of it ever manages a solid hit. Not attacks of this level.

    But when something drops out of the hole, splashing that awful mud all around, Yumi dodges. There's no question. She hops out of the way without a second thought, opening some room. But in the time it takes her to gather herself and assess the situation, Shirou is very nearly bisected. "Shirou-!"

    The time for taking it easy is officially past. That colossal slab of hate and force is a threat she can't afford to go half-strength on. When it suddenly erupts towards Magilou, the asphalt shatters under Yumi's feet, and in the next instant she's directly in front of the shadowy being, planting her feet and stalling it out with all her strength. And she has quite a bit of that to spare. "Not happening-!"

    The good news for Magilou is that she's more or less immune to malevolence and any such similar affect. Her feelings don't work, including hatred and similar such problems, some upside with the down. And she's totally about to nuke the city, her spellcasting technically finished and ready to release.

    She's not actually bad at more normal sorts of fighting and dodging either, but they don't really go hand in hand together! As such, she's definitely not going to be able to do anything about the foot lashing out at her, so she might actually owe Yumi thanks if she cared whether she lives or dies. Luckily for her spotless record of never thanking anyone, she doesn't.

    That interferance will buy Magilou enough time to finish her spell; not wanting to blow HERSELF up, she keeps the target on the remaining orb rather than on the thing fighting Yumi and also trying to murder her. "Ready, steady..." And whatever word she says next will be lost to time in the roar of the explosion as red energy surges up around her, blasting into the orb. And maybe blasting out a bunch of windows, and eardrums, and also possibly spreading that mud around, and...

    Bullets work on the weird humanoid blob monsters. Good to know. She ejects the spend cartridge, tucking the remains into a pouch before pulling a new one out and reloading. She's about to take another shot when something comes out of the void and starts blasting around at high speed. "I doubt a bullet will work on that... dios mio." The hand lowers, dips into a pouch at her other side, and gingerly lifts out a gleaming golden band.

    She slips this around her wrist, clicking it into place and wincing as it pulses to activate. An aura flares around her but that wasn't the intention. She lifts that arm, and makes a 'grabbing' motion toward the giant mud-monster, and the bracelet glows with esoteric runes as all the kinetic force starts to drain out of the being.

>> SUMMARY[Piera Forta] >> I lied, I have some actual-fake magic too.

>> GAME >> Piera Forta spends an Edge for: Using the Bracelet

    "Doing my part." Clair doesn't look away from what she's doing when she answers Shirou, and after being pushes back by the sheer shockwave of the big thing she approaches. "Hey big guy!" She yells out as she aims a strike at the tendons, "You know the saying, right? The bigger they are..."

    Anna is going do what Anna does best, and that is... Mostly hurt things and people.
    When you're good at one thing...
    Nevertheless after hacking her way into the shadows, and she spends a good moment going to town on them with her reinforced silver axe until-
    Something else comes out and lands. Something big. Something huge.
    Anna sees it. How it rises. How it nearly misses Shirou with that axe-sword and goes rushing for Magilou.
    "Huge..." The berserker princess growls, pupils dilating at the sight of the mountain of a corrupted hero.
    And then she's off like a gunshot, the shadows are forgotten as Yumi stands in the way of Shirou and certain doom; Anna rushes to meet it from behind, axe raised high. That axe comes down- she intends to bury it in the hulking behemoth's leg and use it to hoist herself- ignoring the fact that just touching anything that comes from the black holes is bad.
    Curses and grudges and hate assail her instantly.
    This would halt a lesser girl in their tracks, but Anna... Anna's fury is so overpowering that it blots out anything that could affect her mind.
    "Rgggggghhhhhhh!!!"
    As she starts to CLIMB.
    Scaling the hulk, the true berserker in this scene works her way up the figure's back, using her axe to hack in and gain leverage where she has to as she tries to reach the behemoth's skull.

    A collision of a massive weight of muscle and magical sword.

    Even just that kick, when impacting with Yumi's sword, is enough to cause a heft shockwave that sends scattered trash and the odd discarded newspaper left nearby flying into the air. The massive beast has been stopped.

    And it doesn't seem the least bit happy about it.

    Enough of a mouth forms at the top of the shape, seemingly for the express purpose of letting out a LOUD, ear-splitting roar. Loud enough to force at least Shirou, even a good distance away, to clapping his hands on his ears in a desperate play to protect his eardrums. This in turn comes with a lightning-fast swing of that slab of stone acting as an excuse for a sword in the hand of the shifting mass, swung down from overhead straight at Yumi. Even when she blocks it, the impact is likely enough to drive her feet into the ground and crater the pavement underneath her. The rebound of the swing seems to take no time at all right after, already ready to strike at her again with truly monstrous strength.

    Only for another, much smaller berserker to suddenly leap on it. It doesn't seem to actually notice at first, not even with the initial hit of the axe used by Anna to leverage herself up along the giant. But once the repeated hits of the axe come beating down upon the skull of the beast - if it even has one? - it starts to stagger, roaring out again with frustration while it's free hand reaches up behind it's head to try and grasp the warrior princess with a hand larger than her.

    But in this time, Magilou's magic is sent out.

    The beast does seem to react to it, and it actually swivels around to reach out for the projectile the witch has sent out instead -- only to slow down significantly mid-motion. It reaches out, but it's leg doesn't quite manage to lift up off the ground to help carry it over. Piera could *swear* an eye appears at least briefly to glare at her in that instant.

    But that doesn't matter for a moment. All sound seems to disappear as the explosion comes.

    Windows shatter across several blocks, abandoned cars are knocked over, and anyone without a decent foothold - Shirou included - will inevitably be sent flying off their feet and rolling across the ground.

    Most of the mud burns. Plenty of it scatters as rain across the street, sure, but for the most part, the pit seesm to have been emptied, and the Black Hole of Void, too, seems to be disrupted. It flashes and scatters like static, trying to maintain shape but not quite managing it enough to allow more mud to pour out. Every reforming attempt only ending with more of it's composition seeming to fade away.

    In that instant, fingers as long and thick as Anna's own arms clamp around her.

    With a furious roar, the beast yanks the princess away from the back of it's 'head' and spins around with such force even the magic from Piera's bracelet fails to hold it in place, and *hurls* her up into the air. It *appears* to be a completely randomly chosen direction for most, but... unfortunately, it is in fact the exact trajectory that aims her at the assassin on the rooftop nearby.

    Even if the ground beneath her buckles, Yumi herself stands fast. The air around her shimmers with heat, and she weathers the storm, prepared to match the semi-formless mass of fury blow-for-blow. Before another comes down, however, the roaring monstrosity is distracted by someone concentrating all the same fury into a much smaller package. There's a hint of surprise even on Yumi's part at just how unstoppably dangerous Anna can be-

    And then everything is exploding.

    It's much, much worse than Yumi expected, to be fair. She thought maybe the immediate area would be slag. But even with her superhuman durability, she comes out the other side of that blast in pain, her ears ringing. "You didn't... have something more focused?" the redhead grouses, pushing up to her feet after sheltering in place.

    And then it throws Anna. "ANNA-!" It's too late to stop the throw, or catch the girl. But it's not too late for Yumi to take advantage - and so she does. Prominence doesn't just glow, this time. It erupts into solar fire, the blade wrapped in gold-white light, flames dancing around the weapon. And in that moment the formless fury is distracted, the Senshi steps in, and begins swinging her sword, again and again. "TEYAAAAAH!"

    Piera's grip seems to be solid. The thing doesn't manage to intercept Magilou's spell, or even move that much.

    But then it wrenches itself free of her grasp, the Bracelet emitting a high pitched shriek like tearing metal before shutting off and knocking the assassin off her perch, flat onto her back on the roof.

    Luckily this puts her out of the path of a certain flying barbarian princess, but the obstensibly ordinary human is down for the current count.

    Magilou will start cackling even before she regains her hearing, because that'll definitely not make all the people associate her with general disorderly conduct even more. She did introduce herself as evil earlier, at least, so it's not like she's trying to pass herself off.

    She manages to remain upright, possibly to the surprise of anyone who would jsut look at her tiny frame, and then shakes her head. "What, do you want more of that?" She'll call, taunting at the remaining beast, even though she's not actually doing anything to stop it and taunting it might just get her face smashed in after all if Anna and Yumi ever decide to let it go after her. "I have plenty that's more focused! Should I use some of it?" She'll ask Yumi.

    Claire is thrown backwards by the shockwave, after seeing her legendary sword do pretty much nothing. She looks around to see if anyone needs help, because she feels a little out of options at the moment.

    One minute, Anna is climbing- assailing her way up the massive berserker's back. And then...
    She's grasped by the most massive hand to ever grasp her.
    For a moment the raging royal wriggles as hard as she can before she deflates, realizing... She's not going to get out of this so easily.
    "Gwuh-?!"
    It's a strangled grunt as the corrupted hero yanks her. And then she's hurled.
    "KYAH?!"
    For all her rage, that sure is a girly squeal as she goes sailing uncontrollably through the air. And for a single, time-halting beat, only a single thought runs through Anna Primrose of Rosalia's head.
    Oh cra--
    This thought is interrupted by her landing.
    Anna's landing is not a good landing, as she sails over Piera, she hits the roof with a jarring thump and a dull thud before she goes bouncing once- twice- three times before she manages to right herself on her hand and knees, scraping her palm and knees bloody in the process as she sits there for a moment.
    "G-gggguhhh..."
    And for a long moment? Anna is just going to sit there, stunned, eyes glossy with pain, blood dripping from her nose and one arm hanging limp as she takes a ragged breath.
    That feels like a cracked rib or three, and a few more fractures in other places, for her effort.
    And for a good moment the princess looks ready to topple over. But instead...
    Anna plants her foot. And then the other. And she starts to pick herself UP.
    "Ghhhhhhhh... Nngh..."
    Wiping the blood from her nose, she grips her axe as she struggles to stand herself up.

>> GAME >> Anna Primrose spends an Edge for: Rapidly Pressing X to GET MADDER. (Also to not die.)

    "ANNA!!" Shirou's voice echoes in time with Yumi's. He was knocked back by the explosion, yes, but even from down on the ground, he couldn't miss the girl getting sent flying like an Anna-shaped meteorite. He's quick to force himself up on his feet and run over, but... it's not exactly quick enough to *do* anything about it.

    "No no no no!"

    Panic comes, the boy managing to only barely stop himself besides Claire to make sure at least *she* is okay. But his eyes are still rapidly moving between the direction Anna was thrown to - and seeing her bloodied form barely manage to get up - and Yumi wildly swinging her sun-blazened sword at the beast. With it's side having been turned to the Senshi during the throw, the sword manages to cut through, and burn through flesh. But the strike should have outright bisected the beast, surely. But instead, it seems to just get a small chunk blown off of it, only for it to take shape *again*.

    "I think I know what that is," Shirou says, in a small voice that likely only Claire can hear. "We might just have to hope that they can do something."

    It looks like Yumi might, at that. Even if each strike of her sword seems to inflict improbably low damage, it is piling up. Chipping away enough, at least, to stop it from immediately counterattacking or blocking.

    But then, a sonic boom rings out. A crack like a gunshot ringing through the air, with a flash of light that pierces straight through Yumi's left side -- and a large, ornate *sword* of all things, lands into the ground right behind her from where she was pierced.

    Above and besides the colossal figure, golden, transclucent discs of magic, like portals to a pocket dimension, have formed. Roughly ten of them. From each, the blade of a sword, and even two spears, slowly extend out, turned to point down at Yumi and Magilou both.

    "...Wha-..." slips out of Shirou's mouth, first. And without even thinking about it, he is running up again, with a yell of "STOP!!!"

    As the boy's yell rings out, the giant shape seems to pause. It turns, to look back at the boy. Even the swords hovering in the air seem to pause, instead of launching themselves at the witch and the senshi.

    Teleportation magic without equipment is something Magilou doesn't have access to, and portals shooting swords out at her is going to be something of a problem for her; she's going to slide her hands into her weird detached sleeves and come out with some paper dolls, which seem to animate themselves to prepare to defend her.

    That's probably not going to go super well for the witch, so it's a good thing Shirou calls for a timeout.

    "...Hey not to be a critic but if this thing is going to just listen to you you probably should have told it to stop before I.. before it blew up half this city."

    It is, without a doubt, the worst injury Yumi Tachibana has suffered to date.

    "HAGHK-!"

    There aren't many things powerful enough to just pierce her like that. Not when she's transformed. She's practically a walking fortress, in her own way. But the sword, fired off as a hellishly fast projectile, is able to do just that. She utters a strangled yell of surprise and pain, a hole opened right through her side. There's a half-spin, and she falls to the ground, uttering a groan of deep, undisguised pain. Even being shot as a completely unpowered human didn't hurt her nearly this bad.

    And yet, impossibly, one gloved hand plants. A hiss of pain, a groan of effort and more pain yet. A knee planted. Then a foot.

    Even with a hole in her side, blood dripping down to the ground, Yumi Tachibana stands up again. Unsteady on her feet, she nevertheless lifts Prominence, this time up into a much more defensive stance... and yet, defensive though it may be, the runes begin to glow again. A wordless threat.

    Claire still isn't sure what to do. Until Magilou says the magic words. That's when she suddenly turns around, and leaps towards the witch. Sword rushing towards the mistress of magical mayhem's abdomen, "If you can't do anything without making things worse, stop trying to help."

    Piera manages to get herself up on an elbow, crawling over to the edge of the roof and looking over... "... Fanculo." she mutters. The Bracelet is in some kind of 'cooldown' state, she doubts her mundane weapons would even scratch that thing and it can fire entire weapons as fast as bullets.

    Piera is out of options.

    She brings a hand up to her lips, puts her thumb and ring finger between her lips and emits a sharp, imperious whistle.

    For a long moment nothing seems to happen; then Aquila comes burning down on full afterburner vernier engines, screaming like an eagles cry as she aims her Bident at the hulking monster's neck-area. On impact she pulls the trigger and fires the integrated laser blasters as the blades sink into the blob-like body of this giant monster.

>> SUMMARY[Piera Forta] >> Aquila: I strike from the Skies, sisters!

    Anna struggles for a moment, before... She finally manages to pick herself up to her feet, stamping one foot to fend off the pain and clear her head as she snarls and...
    Something shiny catches her attention. Something precious and gold- something that goes off like a gunshot.
    "--Yumi!"
    In a cold instant Anna's fury is utterly gone as she sees just how severely injured that one sudden blade from absolutely freaking nowhere has left her friend.
    Staggering for the edge of the roof, Anna forcibly kicks down the fire escape and slides down one-handed before she descends several flights of stairs, and then down the final ladder that puts her on street level.
    On wobbly legs she rushes to Yumi's side, even as the senshi raises Prominence, Anna is limping to her side. There's something in her hand.
    It's a bottle with a reddish substance inside it. And it's the only one she has, as she uncorks the stopper with her teeth and shoves it into the senshi's grasp.
    "Drink it!" She orders Yumi then and there.

>> SUMMARY[Anna Primrose] >> Using my Action to feed my friend a potion. ._.

    There's a strange moment. The massive, constantly-shifting figure simply stands there, seeming to stare at Shirou. It doesn't even react to Anna running over to shove a potion of healing to Yumi.

    Shirou, however, does react to that, with a sigh of relief (though there is very much concern in his eyes for both of his friends still, all things considered!). And he very much does react to Claire... charging sword-first at Magilou?!

    "HEY WHAT ARE YOU DOI-"

    His shout is cut short when he realizes one of those hovering portals is now turning to aim the sword within it at him.

    "--Ah."

    Instead of launching the weapon, though? The beast suddenly *explodes* into a rapid series of shifts -- rapidly trying to take hold of one humanoid shape, only to rapidly turn into a re-arrangement of it's form before any clear face can be seen. Eventually it gets messy enough that several arms stick out of the being at once, and at one point, two seperate heads even seem to appear--

    And then, amidst it all, Aquila descends down upon the beast, in a moment where there's definitely only *one* head. Blades sink in and blasters fire into the still-reshaping flesh -- and though it doesn't seem to cause much in terms of damage, there *is* a reaction. A shrill scream and a deep roar both resound at the same time, and all of that mass gathers into one blob of a shape again...

    At the same time the portals in the air turn and fire the swords sequantially like a line of rifles. THere's no real aim to them this time, though. The magical weapons collide with the ground with shockwaves of explosive force, flooding the immediate area with a cloud of dust so thick that it easily blocks visibility.

    "Shit--! Anna! Yumi! Everyone!" Shirou's left yelling out just outside of the blast range, unable to properly see what is happening amidst the dust and chaos--

    Except for the arrow suddenly flying out from the dust cloud and through the center of Shirou's stomach.

    "--"

    As the dust falls, the destruction is thankfully at least *mostly* revealed to have been kept to the street, on account of the completely blind firing. And the scattering of the dust further reveals that the beast has disappeared, seemingly along with the void orb that no longer hovers in the air above the pit Yumi dug out.

    And on a very unfortunate delay, Shirou kind of... just peeks back over his shoulder at the splatter of blood sent across the street from the exit wound of the already-disintegrated arrow.

    "...O-oh."

    ANd he collapses.

    Magilou is genuinely not used to managing to provoke people to attack her, and there's a giant part of her that thinks she deserves it anyways, and there's an even bigger part of her who is focused on the threat in the sky of the dangling spears and...

    Well, these are all excuses, which don't really matter when someone's trying to stab you in the middle of a battlefield. Magilou's tougher than she looks, but that's a low bar, and a sword through the gut is definitely enough to take her off her feet anyways with a soft gasp escaping her. She's going to have a healing spell wound up before she hits the ground, but her healing spells are more like bandaids than they are like the miracles of a true healer, so it's mostly just going to stop her from bleeding to death or any such foolishness; it also means there's one less healer, even a mediocre one like Magilou, to help Shirou or Yumi out.

    "...Did that make you feel better?" She asks, curiously, the mocking tone leaving her voice. "Not that I REALLY care, of course, but I'm always curious how people feel."

    There is little Yumi can do but huddle behind her sword. It is, as it happens, a wide and long enough sword to shelter her from a barrage of un-aimed magical swords, and unlike her armor, Prominence is not going to let such an attack through. There might even be enough room for Anna to shelter with her.

    But even that healing potion was enough only to partially close her wound. And when the monstrosity is gone... well, that's about all she's got. She collapses to one knee, sweat pouring off her brow. "D'you... have some spare bandages? I just... gotta get home, and there's someone to heal me." It's going to be a long, painful trip home. But as long as she doesn't bleed out, she can make long, painful trips home.

    "Yeah, it did actually." Claire responds. Scratching her head, "Uh sorry. Shouldn't have done that." She carefully pulls her sword back, looking like she's just seen a ghost. She notices the state of Shirou and rushes over, using her rudimentary knowledge of taking care of hurt animals to look if there's anything close enough to what she knows how to handle. Largely ways to stop more blood from flowing out.

    And with that, Piera barely manages to escape being impaled by sheer fact of being on-top of a building. She's going to pull some medicine out of a pouch and start dressing her own wounds. To her mind the red-headed boy is done for. Noone she's met has survived a wound like that before; but this is the Tree, so maybe a miricle will happen.

    Aquila gets blasted backward from the shockwaves of those weapons striking ground. Shrapnel pelts her tiny body but she somehow manges to escape largely unharmed. Just some paint scraped off, and a dent or two in the chassis. The Shinki floats off to rejoin Piera... letting the others lick their wounds as the two Assassins slink off to tend to their own.

    That... That was Anna's only healing potion. And while she certainly does not regret giving it to Yumi, seeing Shirou get gunned down by an ornate arrow almost... Seems to happen in slow motion.
    "Shi-- SHIROU!"
    All she can do is hunker behind Yumi and Prominence for a good moment as things go flying, before... The titan is gone. It's just gone and that makes the raging royal blink numbly for a beat before she detaches from the senshi's side and goes skidding on bloody knees to Shirou's side.
    "Oh gods this is bad-- Shirou- come on Shirou wake up- or at least..."
    Or at least start doing that weird healing thing you did before!
    She doesn't want to say it openly, but she's staring intently at the youth's injury for a long beat.
    "B-backpack." She replies to Yumi. That may have been her only healing potion, but the princess has well more than enough bandages to keep both Yumi and Shirou from bleeding out.
    "We need to get him back to the hotel." She says as Claire rushes over, before grimacing at the fact that she said it.
    That place is nasty, but it's at least quiet enough that she can focus on tending to Shirou and Yumi at the same time as she grunts...
    And hoists Shirou up in her arms to start staggering back before authorities can arrive, to boot.

    Magilou, who has at least managed to make it so she's not going to bleed out, will still look more than a little faint, even as she replies. "Oh, spare me your apology. I'd rather.. hear about how the passions felt." But there won't be anymore hearing about it for right now, because Magilou passes out from the blood she DID lose in the middle of the street, even as Anna carts most of the others off, which is probably going to leave Magilou as the only one the authorities find.

    It won't be her first time waking up in prison, at least, and it probably won't be her last.