Last Day


"Those who play with the Devil's toys will be brought by degrees to wield his sword…"

-R. Buckminster Fuller


The place: Kazamino Central Park. The time: 10:28. An hour and a half remained before the lockdown on the Demon Summoning Server was removed, and the one who controlled it would decide the fate of the world.

To say tensions were running high among the ragtag rebellion formed to defy the Flock was a severe understatement.

Demons attacks had been common the night before. Perhaps the creatures sensed the intentions of the park's inhabitants, and were hoping to kill them and avert their banishment. Nobody had been seriously hurt, but vital rest had been made difficult to find.

Not helping the situation was the fact the unnerving red miasma over the hospital had managed to spread all the way out to the park, bathing them all in a hellish crimson glow. Tomohisa had told everyone that Danica assured him that the miasma was harmless, and that they had bigger things to worry about. By what seemed like sheer luck, panic had been averted.

It would've been nice to find out exactly what the miasma was, even if it was harmless, but at this point Mai knew Danica wasn't about to let that slip until she was good and ready, and there was little she and her friends could do to force the issue. For the moment, Mai figured the best thing to do was to fuse up her new Fiend, give it backup in the form of the strongest demons she could muster, and try to actually wake up.

She couldn't for the life of her understand it: the Mai Sawaguchi 100% Test Preparation Strategy was guaranteed to relax the body and increase focus. If anything, she felt worse than before: tired and sore all over. Giving her head what seemed like the fifth solid shake in the last minute, she focused on the phone in her hand as she wandered out of the ladies room. It had taken some brainwork and almost every bit of her Macca, but she had finally managed to chain the fusions together that she needed for her masterpiece. Now all that was left was to confirm.

With a touch of a button, the process began: the Jaki Legion and the Tyrant Tzitzimitl appeared, their cards circling each other faster and faster as the magic circle behind them glowed brighter and brighter. Faster, faster, brighter, brighter, until…

As the light faded, Mai felt a shiver run through her body. Her new Fiend, Trumpeter, was almost angelic in appearance: clad in flowing white robes, spreading feathered wings and clutching an ornate horn in its hands. But the face…

Like Matador, its face was a leering skull.

"I am the Fiend, Trumpeter!" the screen proclaimed. "My song heralds doom: together, we will make all of creation dance to it!"

It took Mai a second to realize how intensely she was looking at the image on the screen. Unconsciously, she had begun staring it down, as if the moment she took her eyes off of the Fiend it would leap off the screen and attack her. 'A ridiculous notion', she told herself, but the primal part of her brain couldn't be ignored. A horrible feeling was spreading throughout her body as she stared at Trumpeter, a familiar one at that: she had felt it back then, hadn't she, when Matador had made his fateful appearance. A numbing feeling of dread. Fear so strong it was like a palpable force.

Shivering, she exited the results screen, put her phone on standby, and slipped it into her pocket as she strode over to her friends. She had to put her worries aside, she realized. Like it or not, the Fiends were the only shot they had at stopping Phillips's mad ambitions. Unsettling as Trumpeter was, it was on her side: that was the important thing.

She sat down at the bench her friends were gathered at. Reo looked up at her lover, then scooched over to sit closer to her. It was clear the others were feeling just as jittery as Mai: even Sara, ever-peppy Sara was pale and stiff. None of them seemed quite certain how to break the oppressive silence.

Finally, Sara cleared her throat. "So…er…your Fiends all ready?"

She got a chorus of murmurs and stiff nods in response. Sara took a shuddering breath and tried to smile. "Well, this is it. Wild week, huh? Going from summer vacation to fighting for our lives against a demon outbreak. And now…we're gonna save the world."

She tried to put as much certainty into those last words as she could muster, but the way her voice cracked somewhat undermined it. She tried to chuckle at it, but even that seemed hollow.

More uncomfortable silence. Reo leaned up and looked around, her eyes narrowing. She was just considering asking what the heck they were all doing waiting around as time ticked away from them when the screaming started.

The girls jumped, scrambling to their feet as they looked around wildly for the danger. Tamers were rushing toward the gate. "Another one…" Mai grumbled, looking over her shoulder. "Anyone down for giving these Fiends a test run?"

The eager smile on Sara's face made her answer clear. In fact she was already hurrying for the gate. Phones in hand, the others gave chase, following their brunette companion as she shoved to the front of the gathering crowd. But as they caught up with her, they saw with a chill that any joy and eagerness at using a super-awesome new Fiend had left Sara in a rush. The brunette was standing rooted in place, staring in wide-eyed horror at the one attacking the park. One look at their opponent made her reaction entirely understandable.

Towering, broad and bearded. Even with the hood pulled low over his face, the girls knew instantly exactly who they were looking at.

Two of the Tamers that had been standing guard at the gate were crumpled on the ground, and they didn't seem to be breathing. The third was alive and struggling, his neck pinned in the crook of the giant's arm, and before anyone could do anything, the giant gave his arm a sharp jerk. There was a pop like a firecracker, and the man went limp.

"Brother Chick Jackson…" Sara's breathing had gone ragged as she watched him drop the dead Tamer like a wad of dirty laundry. Kaede looked over at her cousin, a chill running up her spine as she saw the uncharacteristic look of venomous loathing on her face.

"Sara, are you…?" she whispered.

The Tamers steeled themselves as Chick started forward, taking extra pains to step on the man's corpse as he tromped toward the park. "{Whoops, didn't see ya there…}" He sneered, then looked up at the assembled Tamers, spreading his arms in a mocking display of faux cheer. "Heeeeeeeey! 'Sup, ya Tamer shitheads? Name's Chick! Brother Chick Jackson, Flock Lieutenant! I'll be slaughtering you today!"

He was answered by a crowd of silent glares. A few of the Tamers had begun backing away: they recalled Tomohisa saying something about this man and his Archangel. Others had mustered their courage, staring the giant down. One young brunette man actually scoffed. "What, on your own? Well, nobody can say you lack confidence."

Chick scratched the back of his head. "Yeeeeeah...what can I say? Boss-man might've gotten his head out of his ass, but he still wants us all back at the hospital, guarding the Server and all that. Gonna have us kill y'all after we banish all yer demons. I'll admit, killing you when you're defenseless, that's got its appeal. Buuuuuut I'm admittedly not all that good at the whole self-restraint thing. Honestly…I just couldn't wait."

A change came over Chick. The jovial facade he was exuding faded, to be replaced by an aura of pure murderous intent. The brunette Tamer took an involuntary step back, a cold sweat suddenly breaking out on his brow. When Chick spoke again, it was with a terrifying monotone.

"So here I am. And you're all fucking dead." He whispered. "Raphael and I are going to butcher you, slowly and painfully, one by one, until the whole Park is a big red puddle. And then Phillips is gonna march us out of the city…and we're gonna take on the world. We're going to kill. And kill, and kill and kill, until the survivors swear fealty to us. No military on the planet can stop the Archangels." His voice picked up an utterly psychotic tone. "It'll be…like crushing…ants."

Despite superior numbers, a wave of fear had swept over the Tamers, and they were drawing back as the towering Lieutenant continued to stalk towards them. The brunette Tamer that had threatened Chick looked like he was a second away from wetting his pants.

"We're taking him…right?" Sara's voice was trembling with anticipation as she looked up at Mai. "I mean, our Fiends can…this guy, we need to…"

"Of course we're taking him, Sara-san." Mai said calmly as she looked over her shoulder at the other Tamers. "Everyone, stand back." Taking a deep breath and pushing down her fear, she and the others stepped forward to meet their approaching nemesis. "We'll take care of him."

One look at the girls stopped Chick dead in his tracks. He leaned forward slightly, practically squinting at the six girls lining up and forming a shield in front of the park. "Waaaaaaait…" he mused. "Wait a minute…aren't you…" he gave an exaggerated gasp as he leaned back, chuckling in amazement. "Oh my god…no, NOBODY'S this stupid! Yeah…yeah, you're those brats! Those brats I stomped back at the hospital! And what was that abo…did you seriously just say you were about to 'take care of me'? Okay, you're either suicidal or retarded, 'cause…!"

The rest of his sentence cut off in a gasp: he had reacted in time to jump out of the way of the Bufudyne sent flying at him, but he wasn't fast enough to get entirely clear. The ice shot past him, leaving a trail of frozen pavement in his wake and ice crystals on his pant leg. His head snapped up in time to see Frost Ace vanish back into Sara's phone: the brunette was glowering at him with uncharacteristic hatred on her face.

"Quit blabbering and summon Raphael." She snapped. "I've got a bone to pick with you, a new demon to break in, and somewhere to be. You came here to kill us, didn't you? So quit screwing around and try it, if you think you've got what it takes!"

She was either trying to channel some stock shonen hero, or she truly did feel such burning animosity toward Chick. Kaede would have believed either one. Either way, the gauntlet was thrown: she braced herself as Chick growled. Mai could sense the Tamers behind her backing away, giving as wide a berth as they could to the impeding battle. Chick's mouth turned up in a psychotic grin. A low whistling of wind picked up as he clapped his hands together.

"You hate me. You hate my guts. And you know what? That's good." he hissed. "Because only when someone despises me, when they want nothing more than my death, can I show them that they can't have it. It's only when someone detests me that can I truly destroy them! IN NOMINE PATRIS ET FILII ET SPIRITUS SANCTI!"

The whistling turned into a deafening howl as a roaring tornado materialized around the giant. Mai raised her phone. "Here we go…time to see what these Fiends can do!"

As the winds died down, Chick became visible again: he was looking over his shoulder at the rapier-wielding Archangel that had materialized to hover behind him. Then he turned back to face his opponents. "Breakin' you all is gonna feel so good…"

His blood turned to ice.

Trumpeter hovered high above the girls, its empty skull leering at him as it raised its horn to its mouth. Beneath Trumpeter was a hideous crimson beast, with seven crowned, horned heads that snarled and snapped at each other as they twisted on long serpentine necks. A skull-faced maiden was perched on its back: maiden raised the white, jeweled chalice in its hand as foul fumes billowed out of it, in a mockery of a toast.

In front of Mother Harlot, four dark figures emerged. The first was a robed skeleton with a crown on its head. It rode a white horse lined with twitching blue eyes from snout to flank, and held in its hand a bow and arrow. The second appeared moments later: a hooded skeleton astride a bright red horse that snorted and pawed the ground restlessly as its rider raised the broadsword it held. The third rode a horse as black as night, and held a pair of scales in its hand that tilted back and forth of its own accord. Finally, a robed skeleton astride a pale horse appeared, rider and steed alike standing unnervingly still: it hadn't even raised the wicked scythe in its hands.

Mai suppressed a shiver. As soon as Trumpeter had appeared, a horribly cold feeling had begun spreading through her body. Seeing the angel of death hovering beside its apocalyptic brothers-in-arms only seemed to intensify it. The collective malice between the Fiends was overwhelming.

Sara's face had twisted into a smile that was borderline-psychotic. "Hey Chick…didn't you threaten my girlfriend and throw me into an elevator shaft?"

A cold sweat had broken out on Chick's forehead. 'The Fiends…all six Higher Fiends…how did these little whores get their hands on them?! Tch…Matador was one thing but this…no, no, get it together Chick! You have Raphael! You don't have to fight them! Speed right past the Fiends, slit the brats' throats and then take out the rest of your park at your leisure. Simple as that. No one beats Brother Chick Jackson. Nobody!'

"Ooh, good memory. Yeaaaaaaah, I did, didn't I?" He scoffed. Sara seemed incredibly miffed that he wasn't showing any apparent fear at the sight of her awesome new Red Rider. "And if you think it's gonna end any differently this-KILL THEM RAPHAEL!"

What happened next was a blur of violence. Raphael vanished from sight, speeding forward with his rapier aimed right at Sara's throat. But the blade didn't even come close to her: Raphael came to a halt, drifting backwards as a metallic clang echoed through the air, his eyes going wide as he realized that he had been left holding the hilt of his sword as the blade went spinning away.

Somehow, impossibly, Pale Rider had been fast enough to intercept him, and had snapped his sword in half with one swing of its scythe.

But the beatdown was just getting started. Sara's Red Rider galloped forward, bringing back its sword as unholy fire roared around it. Raphael was so stunned at having lost his weapon that he didn't see it coming: the blade struck him, engulfing him in flames and sending him flying backwards. Reo's Black Rider raised its scales as the bowls wobbled back and forth. Raphael let out a cry of pain as a huge spike of ice exploded from the ground behind him and impaled him through the back to jut out of his chest. Ice was just starting to creep across his breastplate when White Rider, Trumpeter and Mother Harlot entered the fray; White Rider bent its bow back and fired an arrow right into Raphael's forehead. Trumpeter let out a blast from its horn that smashed the ice into smithereens and slammed Raphael into the ground hard enough to make a crater and send a wave of dust and debris into Chick's face and tear his hood from his head. Raphael was barely lucid when Mother Harlot's beast came down on top of it: the seven necks stretched unnaturally as the heads shot forward, one of the mouths clamping down on Raphael's leg and flipping him helplessly into the air. Raphael gave an inarticulate scream as the heads chased him upward, biting into him one after the other. An arm, a leg, his head, across his chest…

And then the heads pulled in unison. Chick could only gawk as he watched his Archangel get pulled apart like a cheaply-made doll, Mother Harlot cackling darkly as her beast devoured Raphael armor and all, before turning its fourteen eyes on Chick himself.

With a terrified whimper, Chick spun around, fleeing as fast as he could toward a nearby alleyway.

A rush of energy swept through Sara at the sight, almost drowning out the odd, numbing cold that had filled her since the fight began. "Oh, no you don't!" She crowed, swelling with pride as the Tamers behind her cheered. "You're not getting away! GO, RED RIDER!"

Red Rider kicked its steed's sides, spurring the crimson horse forward in a full gallop. Chick looked up, eyes wide with shock and horror as he raised his hands in a futile attempt to defend himself. Red Rider's skeletal face leered down at him, the horse letting out a furious whinny as its rider raised the sword in its hand.

Then the Fiend brought the blade crashing down.

Sara's breath caught in her throat. A gasp came up from the crowd as the cheering stopped abruptly.

The Fiend's sword had sliced through Chick's body in one magnificent cleave. Blood went everywhere as Chick's head and right arm went flying in one direction and the rest of him was thrown to the ground like a sack of potatoes, both bursting into flame moments later.

Sara felt like someone had just chucked a bowling ball into her midriff. A few people let out whoops and cheers at the sight, while others were leaning back, staring in shock and disgust at the little girl's brutality.

Kaede tore her eyes away from Chick's burning body and rounded on Sara. "Sara-chan, what…?!"

"I…I didn't mean it!" Sara heard herself babble. "I-I just wanted Red Rider to cut him off, get in his way, I mean, so we could take his wristband! I don't…Red Rider, get back here!"

To her immense relief, Red Rider vanished obediently back into her phone. The other girls followed suit, returning their Fiends to their phones. Mai let out a breath of relief, feeling the oppressive cold force bearing down on her lift as Trumpeter disappeared. Sara looked shell-shocked by what had just happened.

"I…I didn't…why did Red Rider do that?! I swear on my life, I didn't want to kill him, I just wanted…! I…I didn't…!" she croaked.

For a moment, Yuuna looked around at the others, trying to read their expressions. Nanami looked scared, and so did Kaede. Reo and Mai looked far more impassive, though their paleness betrayed their true thoughts. Taking a deep breath, she looked back at Sara, trying to think of what to say. But the look on Sara's face caught her attention: the brunette had fallen silent and was staring off over Yuuna's shoulder, gasping softly in surprise.

Yuuna unconsciously balled her hand into a fist. Already she knew who had appeared from thin air behind her, even before she heard the soft, cool voice.

"Neatly done. Didn't I say the Fiends meant business?" Danica strode up to them as casual as you please, smiling proudly at the girls. "The Archangel Raphael, crushed like an insect. Michael and Gabriel won't be nearly as helpless, but that should just give you an idea of the power you now wield."

Unsurprisingly, Reo was the first to react to this. Before Mai could stop her, she shoved to the front, pointing an accusing finger directly at Danica. "You!" she demanded. "Explain!"

Danica stopped, raising an eyebrow. "Hm?"

"Sara Kitajima's Fiend killed Chick Jackson without her telling it to!" Reo snapped. "Why?! Our demons have never acted out of turn before! What's going on, Danica Louis?!"

"Ah…" Danica said, nodding. "Well, before anything else, be assured that your Fiends are not about to turn on you. If a demon is under contract, it's binding and completely unbreakable, and that goes for them too."

"Comforting to know that." Mai said coldly. "But the fact remains that our friend's demon just killed someone in cold blood without her ordering it to."

Danica looked over to Chick's burning corpse. "You can't tell me you feel sorry for Chick Jackson. Most Flock members still under Archibald Phillips's command follow because of fear or blind loyalty. Chick Jackson followed for the violence. His psychopathy rivaled Archibald Phillips: he was a sadist the world is better off without."

Yuuna's expression hardened. "None of us here is going to mourn Chick. But regardless, if Sara-chan didn't want to kill him, why did Red Rider take it upon itself to do so?"

Danica chuckled, shaking her head. "Of course she wanted to kill him! That's why it happened!"

For a moment, there was a chilling silence. Danica looked calmly between the girls, who had suddenly started glaring daggers at her. A few of the Tamers who had been watching enraptured from the park entrance had started muttering amongst themselves. Kaede steeled herself and stepped forward to confront the platinum-blonde woman. But Danica began talking again, with that force of authority in her voice that made it almost impossible to interrupt.

"Let me be clear on this point: the fact you hadn't willingly taken human lives up to this point is impressive to say the least. Sara Kitajima, the one who just now slew Chick Jackson, only yesterday endeavored to spare the life of one of your enemies: Shusui Naito."

Sara's face burned, and tears gathered in her eyes as she looked away.

"Despite everything you've endured, your innocence has remained intact." Danica continued solemnly. "But…circumstances are going to change today. The Flock is going to make its last stand. It's every bit do-or-die for them as it is for you: in short, they're desperate. More than they've ever been." Her eyes narrowed. "And there's no enemy more terrifying than one who's truly desperate. They'll never retreat. They'll never surrender. They'd sooner try to kill your demons with their bare hands than admit defeat now. Up until this point your human opponents had the sense to retreat when beaten and the luxury to do so. The Flock, at this moment, has neither. When you get to that hospital, it's kill or be killed."

Mai tightened her jaw. "Will it even be our call? Or will our Fiends just butcher everyone in sight as soon as we summon them whether we want them to or not?"

"Relax, Mai Sawaguchi. I already told you your control over the Fiends is foolproof. They will only attack the ones you order them to. That being said, these are incarnations of Death we're talking about. Don't be surprised if they get a little…enthusiastic when dealing with your foes, particularly if they sense you hold murderous feelings." Danica gestured to Sara. "Case in point. And you will have to…" she said darkly. "If you want the Fiends to reach their full potential. Not that you planned on fighting Archibald Phillips with anything less than the intent to kill. You can't if you want to win."

She looked past the girls to the spellbound crowd watching their conversation at the gates. "And that goes for all of you, too! Remember who you're about to face: the cult who caused all of your misery. Who killed your loved ones and destroyed your city! Who lied to you all, brazenly! Who intends slaughter you all, strip mankind of freedom and force it into a new dark age of mindless worship! Their master is pitiless and impenitent, and in their fear of him his underlings will show no mercy! Anyone among you who intends on fighting with less than lethal intent, you'll need to get over that! If you don't…" her face hardened. "You're dead."

She turned back to the girls as the Tamers buzzed nervously. A smile was back on her face. "Anyhow…" she said cheerily, clapping her hands together. "Taichi Tomohisa should be coming back in short order. I confess, when I sensed Raphael's presence, I couldn't help but rush ahead to see if I could catch the action. I hope he's not too annoyed with me."

Reo raised an eyebrow. "Taichi Tomohisa? What the heck has he been doing all this time?! We haven't seen him all morning; why'd he just up and vanish at a time like this?"

"Oh, right, you two weren't around." Kaede nodded. "He took my cell phone-the non-demon one-over to the JNN news station on the other side of the city. He intended to make a broadcast of his own: figured that if things went wrong on our end, at least the truth would be out there."

Reo leaned in. "How'd it go?"

"Luckily for us, a few of the technicians were still there, holed up as best they could manage." Danica said. "The Flock members guarding it had abandoned the place once Archibald Phillips called them all to the hospital: it took some doing, but we managed to convince them to make the broadcast."

"Leaving them defenseless after they worked so hard for him." Nanami whispered. Her hands balled into fists. "He really doesn't care about anyone but himself."

Mai tried to read Danica's expression. "So…"

"We put it all on display: the Server, your fight with Archangel Raphael, everything your friend Kaede Kitajima recorded. There's no way of telling how the outside world's reacting to the truth yet, if that's what you're asking." Danica said, smiling. "But I can imagine it's gotten people talking."

Yuuna actually felt herself smile a bit, an ember of hope smoldering in her heart. "So we win. No matter what happens, the Flock's reputation is trashed. There's no way they can come back from something like this." She clenched a fist. "Now it's just a matter of taking down Phillips himself…make sure we get out of this alive."

Danica looked satisfied with her words, nodding to herself. Then she started a bit, looking over her shoulder. "Ah. There's our friend."

The girls looked past Danica: Tomohisa was approaching, followed by Nakazawa and a few other Tamers. The policeman noticed Kaede, reaching into his pocket and pulling out her cell phone. Kaede reached out and caught it as he tossed it to her.

Mai caught her friends' eye, giving them a nod as she led Reo back to the park, Danica and the others following close behind as they rejoined the other Tamers back at the gates. Sara noticed with yet another twinge of shame how a few of the Tamers were giving her wary looks, or even drawing away slightly.

Mai didn't even hear Tomohisa start giving a speech to them all. Her mind was racing. Kill or be killed…

Had they been lying to themselves? Had they been holding on to some delusion that they'd win the day and escape this nightmare without taking that final step? Sara, according to her testimony at least, hadn't made the conscious decision to take Chick's life, but according to Danica she still had felt murderous enough for her Fiend to obey those subconscious desires.

The implications made her shiver: cheerful, sunny little Sara, without a hateful bone in her body, or so she had thought…

The week had changed them all, Mai realized. Already they had done things they never would have considered doing before, and if Danica was to be believed it was only sheer fortunate circumstance that they hadn't already been driven to kill. Was their luck about to run out in that regard? Would it ultimately come to them willingly slaughtering their way through a pack of desperate cultists, before capping it off with killing their leader?

In the back of her mind, a nasty little voice whispered to her: 'Well, it's not as if sparing someone like Phillips isn't a much more palatable idea, is it? After everything he's done, and everything he's planning to do…I can accept sparing his flunkies if we can, but Archibald Phillips definitely needs to die…'

With a start, Mai was brought out of her thoughts by Yuuna shaking her shoulder. Looking around, she realized that the Tames were hurrying past her and her friends, filing out through the gates with phones in hand.

This was it. The operation had started.

Taking Reo by the hand, Mai strode after the Tamers with her friends sticking close. Yuuna caught her eye.

"So how are we going to do this?" She whispered solemnly. Mai raised an eyebrow. "The Fiends." Yuuna clarified. "I don't know about you, but…but I plan to use Mother Harlot only as a last resort. Use it against Michael only or Gabriel if we absolutely have to. After what happened, I think it's clear we can't approach them as we do our normal demons. We have to be incredibly judicious with them."

"I'm down with that." Nanami whispered. "I mean, White Rider…as soon as I summoned it, it just felt wrong. I felt…"

"Cold?" Reo said haltingly. "Weak? Shivery?"

The look Nanami gave her caused a knot to form in her stomach. Mai shook her head. "It's settled then." She whispered. "We save our Fiends for the Archangels. For everything else, we have our normal demons."

Everyone nodded, falling silent again as they and their comrades headed deeper into the city, approaching their final battle.


It started as it always did: a ringing in the ears and growing headache. An unpleasant sensation to be sure, but Phillips felt his heart leap as it started.

He hadn't heard from his master in days, and after the mounting disasters of the past week a fear that he had lost his master's favor had started to worm its way into his mind. Uncaring of any stares his underlings may have dared to give him, Phillips lowered himself to his knees, bowing his head and clasping his hands together.

"Archibald Phillips." The voice in his head was booming, monotone and pitiless. Regardless, Phillips felt a shiver of relief at its sound. Finally, someone worth talking to after all this time.

'{Lord Metatron…}' he prayed. '{It is a great comfort to hear your voice again. I feared you had abandoned me! Cursed as I am in this forsaken place, surrounded by incompetent, foolish humans…}'

"Cease thy rambling."

Phillips fell silent. Metatron didn't sound happy in the slightest. "A great calamity approaches thee, Phillips. Not long ago, I sensed the destruction of the Archangel Raphael, and soon afterwards…the presence of the Fiends. And now…now they are on their way here."

Phillips froze. '{Th-the Fiends?!}'

"Our worst fears have come to pass. Just as thou hath been chosen to enact the will of God Almighty on Earth, so too has the Lightbringer chosen his champions to defy us."

Phillips felt an explosion of rage in the pit of his stomach as the realization came to him.'{Mai Sawaguchi…Mai Sawaguchi and her rotten friends!}'

"The name means nothing to me." Metatron's voice was icy cold. "But if you saw the danger this…Mai posed to thee, why didst thou allow it to continue? Explain, Archibald Phillips, how it has come to this."

'{I did everything I was meant to, Lord Metatron!}' Phillips squeezed his hands tighter together. '{We lost control of the Summoning Server through no error of mine! My incompetent followers allowed the situation to degrade as they did! Despite controlling heavenly warriors, the gifts you gave to them, they were slaughtered like sheep! Our numbers were plummeting against an endless tide of demons! And…and in a moment of frantic weakness I…I reached for any aid I could find! I…I believed a pack of desperate children would pose no threat to our plans! Why would they!?}'

Metatron didn't respond. Phillips was clutching his hands together so hard they were shaking. '{My lord, I beg of you: let me redeem myself! Once the Server is back under our control, we will banish the demons, and exterminate anyone who knows the truth! We will spread the message to the four corners of the Earth: that their fate belongs to the Lord! The fate of this fallen city will be warning that His will is not to be defied, as once it was with Sodom and Gomorrah! My eyes are open: humanity is sinful to its core! They are blind to goodness, to the light of God! My attempts to guide and shepherd them, to present the Flock as a guiding beacon have failed, and so…so as it was in the days of the Pharaohs, the Flock shall be a plague upon humanity! Pitiless and unrelenting, until Man prostrates itself before Him!}'

For a moment, Metatron remained silent. Then he spoke again: "And what will thy role be in all this? Wouldst thou remain cowering behind thy followers, as thou didst before?"

Phillips felt a jolt of anger at the implication. Cower? He was needed back at the park, to spread the Word. Besides, there was little reason, at least to begin with, that his followers needed help fighting demons: pathetic as they were, even they couldn't cock that up, right?

Shows what he knew.

Regardless, it would be idiotic to argue, so he shook his head. '{My lord…I will cower no longer. If Mai Sawaguchi and her companions truly command the Fiends, there is no one in this city who can stop them. No one but myself. In which case, I will be the final line of defense standing between them and the Server…}' His face twisted in a wicked smirk. '{…and I will take great pleasure in ending their lives.}'

Metatron gave no response. Phillips was just debating with himself whether he should press a little harder when an incredible surge of energy began to build in his body. The aches and pains of age were making way for a feeling of such vigor that it was actually starting to hurt a little.

"{God preaches mercy and forgiveness. Despite thy failures thou art still a necessary part of all this, and thus The Lord shall grant thee clemency. For the moment.}" Metatron said sternly.

The dazzling light Phillips's body was emitting all of a sudden was catching the attention of the surrounding Flock members. A few of them had taken their eyes off the entrances to the loading bay they were guarding to stare in shock at their grandmaster, who was being lifted into the air by an unseen force and glowing brighter by the second.

"{But you will not fail us again, Archibald Phillips.}'

There was a blinding flash, forcing the surrounding Flock members to shield their eyes. The light lingered, engulfing the entire room in a whiteout; it drowned out sound as well as sight, plunging the room into an eerie silence, one that was broken by a low rumble of thunder from outside.


"Oh, sure, RAIN! RAIN BUCKETS OUT OF NOWHERE!" Reo screamed, her voice drowned out by the storm. "GAAH! WE DON'T NEED THIS RIGHT NOW!"

'Out of nowhere' was about as accurate as it could have been. One moment, the Tamers had been moving in a tight group as quickly as they dared to the hospital. The next, there had been a tremendous clap of thunder and sheets of rain had begun pouring down on them all as howling winds threatened to send them tumbling down the streets. It was probably through a prodigious amount of luck that the lightning crashing down around them all hadn't struck them.

Mai had clutched onto her ranting girlfriend, squinting in vain against the storm and trying to get some sense of her surroundings. She could only make out vague shapes, but one of them was gesturing wildly toward a dark shape in the distance, trying to shout above the rain and thunder. As good a lead as any: she urged Reo forward, bumping off of a few of the other Tamers around them as they staggered half-blind toward their destination. They only realized they had entered a building when they realized they were no longer getting drenched. Mai wiped the water out of her eyes, gave Reo a look-over to see if she was okay, then tried to get a handle on her surroundings.

The other Tamers seemed to have made it into the building in one piece, surrounding her with the sound of mumbled curses and squishing shoes. The building they were in seemed to be just one of the many generic office complexes that the city had housed, one that had somehow stayed relatively intact throughout the week (a few broken windows were letting in gouts of rainwater and the wind was making an eerie whistle through the gaps). Tomohisa was straining his ears, trying to hear above the storm. It didn't sound like any demons were lurking around, but it would be best to keep his guard up.

"What the heck was…*ptoo*…was that all about!" Reo squawked, taking a moment to spit out a mouthful of rainwater as she brushed her bangs out of her eyes. "A hurricane out of nowhere?! Seriously?!"

Mai was about to answer, when a thunderclap and a blinding flash of lightning cut her off. When her eyes stopped watering from the glare, she could see Reo's face. Judging by her expression, she had come to the same realization Mai did.

"Michael…" Yuuna pulled a face as she stepped toward the doorway, trying to squint through the storm and get some kind of handle on where they were in regards to the hospital. Nothing doing: the driving rain was like a wall. Another blinding flash of lightning, and her face hardened further. "Uriel was fire, Gabriel is ice, and Raphael was wind. That would make Michael lightning."

"Able to create a supercell out of nowhere…" Kaede whispered, awestruck. "The other Archangels were powerful, but none of them could alter the weather!"

One of their Tamer compatriots, a tough-looking high-school kid with a truly magnificent pompadour that had somehow survived the outbreak and the storm had stepped up besides Yuuna and was staring out a window, a dour look on his face. "Alright, everyone done with the 'ooh's and 'ahh's? 'Cause I'm not gonna die 'cause of some fuckin' rain." He snarled, cracking his knuckles for emphasis. "Never be able to face my mates down in hell if I did."

"Slow down, kid." Tomohisa said sternly. "These are storm conditions: just look, we can barely see a few feet in front of us. We rush out there, best case scenario is that we get lost."

The delinquent rounded on him. "Demons killed my gang, old man! My brothers! The hell kinda bancho would I be if I didn't take down the guy behind all this?!" he roared, making Yuuna lean away from him slightly. Wheeling back towards the window, he squinted even harder into the rain. "Tch…fuckin' cop." He muttered to himself. "We're so close. There's gotta be a way..."

"The wind and rain we can fight against." Tomohisa mused. "But we can't just wander blindly…considering how much mayhem we're about to cause at the hospital, it stands to reason…"

He pulled out his phone, typing through the menus before nodding with a smirk. "Thank you, Mortician's List." He looked up at the others. "We've got him. The Mortician's List's map function will lead us right to the hospital."

They were back in business, but the implications were clear. All of them had realized it, at least on some level, that this was war, and in war people died. Tomohisa clearly had no intention of reading off any of the names on the list. Besides, Mai realized, even the Mortician's List wasn't infallible. She couldn't speak for any of her friends, but personally she had no intention of dying until she was good and ready.

A flash of light caught everyone's attention: Sara had darted over to the doorway, summoning a massive black shape. Black Frost was standing outside, bracing itself against the gale as its master smirked back at them all. "Not much we can do about the rain, but Black Frost'll work for a windshield!"

Tomohisa nodded. "Alright, we can't waste any more time! Let's move!"

The Tamers answered with war cries, raising their phones like swords above their heads. Yuuna looked back at her friends, giving her head a quick jerk. The gesture was redundant: already her friends had come up behind her. They and the other Tamers moved quickly out of the building. Mai glared past Black Frost's back out into the storm as she clutched Reo's hand tightly.

'This isn't going to stop us, Phillips.' She thought. 'We're coming for you, you psychotic old bastard!'


"Dammit…dammit, dammit, DAMMIT! We…*gack*…we are NOT going to let a little drizzle stop us!"

Takako Suminoe could barely hear Naito shouting curses and words of encouragement in roughly equal measure. She was focusing all her efforts on keeping a solid grip on Runa, the two of them having come to a stop in the middle of the road and hunkering down against the relentless downpour. The young teacher was almost certain that if they tried to move, they'd be blown off their feet and sent tumbling down the road by the howling winds. Of course, staying still was practically begging one of the countless lightning bolts crashing down at random to turn them to charcoal.

For God's sake, what were they even doing?!

She had felt tears of joyful relief spring to her eyes as she watched the APCs pull up to the front of the park, realizing that the long nightmare was over: she and Runa were about to cast away their haunted cell phones, abandoning their demons for good, and escape the hellhole city. But Runa had turned away from the SDF as they began moving into the park, and before Takako could stop her, her young student had joined a group of Tamers using their demons to jump over the park wall. Takako pursued, and they had scurried deep into the city, far away from the park, before coming to a stop in a run-down warehouse. There, Takako could only stand there in dumbfounded horror as a scarred man in a tattered purple suit waxed lyrical about his own plans for the Demon Summoning Server, handing out phones to those who didn't have them, and Runa had listened with the others, enraptured at his words.

Takako was cursing her weakness with every fiber of her being, cursing her inability to put her foot down, to take Runa by the shoulders and demand to know what in the name of sanity she's thinking throwing her lot in with a clearly-unbalanced Yakuza Patriarch who wants to unleash hell on earth.

If there was a silver lining to the whole situation, it was that the storm had brought their travels to a dead stop. As long as they weren't struck by lightning, drowned or hit by a wind-tossed car or something, perhaps Takako wouldn't end up responsible for the destruction of modern society.

As soon as the thought entered her mind, the rain pattered to a stop. The winds died down. The thunder rumbled into silence.

Naito, who had been shouting himself hoarse to make himself heard above the storm, slowly looked up. "The hell?"

Takako released Runa, who brushed herself off, straightening her soaked raiment before taking one of her oversized ponytails in her hands and wringing out a prodigious amount of water. Takako took a moment to look around, her heart thumping in her throat as the Tamers around her muttered to each other.

"What was that all about? That ended as quick as it began!" A young man mused.

"Beats me." A girl in a Saint Michael's uniform answered. "I've never seen weather like that. Huh?" she suddenly gasped, holding out her hand to catch a little white speck floating down from the sky. It sent a jolt of cold through her palm as it landed, then vanished from sight. "Snow?!"

Indeed, small white flakes were starting to drift down lazily around them all. Naito slowly pulled out his phone. "Everyone, stay on your guard…alright, we know you're there. Show yourself!" he demanded of the slowly growing mist surrounding them all.

For a moment, he received no answer. There was a chilling silence as the Tamers slowly circled around, watching their surroundings for any sign of the imminent ambush. Then one of them shouted out, pointing into the distance. Takako heard them before she saw them: in the eerie silence, the footsteps of a large group seemed to echo all around her. Slowly, a crowd of shadows became visible in the mist, growing darker and darker as they grew closer.

Naito aimed his phone, readying himself for a fight. "Don't try anything funny! I'm warning you!" he shouted.

The footsteps came to a stop. For a moment, Naito seemed almost surprised that these newcomers listened. But then the mist parted unnaturally, like a theater's curtain, revealing the ones who had approached them. Naito's eyes narrowed.

"Oh, great." He muttered.

Takako's heart sank. As if the situation couldn't possibly get worse, now the Flock was here. The same crowd from the day before, by the looks of it, as they had doffed their hoodies, and at the front was that same brunette woman who had been leading them. Colette, if Takako remembered correctly. The former Lieutenant was staring at Naito's group coldly, and above her floated that beautiful angel she had summoned before: despite a serene look on the Archangel's face, Gabriel was exuding a sense of overwhelming power. A jolt of realization shot through Takako as a snowflake floated in front of her face: now she knew what had stopped the unnatural storm.

"Shusui Naito." Colette said softly. "It seems you haven't given up on your schemes."

"Colette Phillips." Naito gripped his phone tighter. "The hell do you want?"

Colette glanced over her shoulder at her comrades, then turned back to Naito, sizing him up. "An alliance. I hope that you're smarter than Tomohisa was." Her eyes narrowed. "Listen to me: Gabriel can counter Michael's influence, at least to some extent. Without her protection, you won't get anywhere near the hospital, and if by some miracle you did without our help…" she shook her head. "You thought Uriel was bad? Michael is thousands of times more powerful. With Gabriel's help we may stand a chance, but there's no way either of us would be able to beat him alone."

Naito sneered. "So we work together to take down a mutual enemy. And then?"

Colette's eyes narrowed. "We'll see where we go from there."

Naito looked around at his comrades. Then he sighed and hung his head. "What a pain in the ass. Fine, if it gets the old man out of the way. And then…to the winner go the spoils."

Colette actually smirked a bit.


Even with Black Frost shielding them all as best it could, the wind and rain still mercilessly pounded away at Tomohisa and the others. Regardless they pushed on, fueled by desperation, by fear of what fate awaited them if they failed, by hatred of the lunatic who had invaded their city and destroyed their lives. Nanami could barely see a foot in front of her: she was clinging to her lover, hoping Yuuna was able to navigate better than she could.

With every step, the storm seemed to intensify. The wind's howling turned to a banshee's shriek, waves of freezing rain fell in a relentless deluge. Lightning was crashing down all around them like an unending mortar barrage.

And yet, Nanami could feel a grim sort of satisfaction in her heart. 'You're scared, aren't you? You're cornered and desperate, trying to drive us away. You're afraid of us, Archibald Phillips. You know what'll happen when we get our hands on you.'

And with that, she doubled down, fighting against the weather even harder.

Tomohisa looked down at his phone. His job involved a fair amount of inclement weather, so luckily he had ended up buying a fancy waterproof phone. He didn't want to think about what would happen if that vital little device was brought low by a short-circuit at this point in the proceedings.

They were close. According to the Mortician's List's map, the Hospital was just around the corner. And not a moment too soon: the storm had turned what should have been a half-hour walk to an hour-long slog in the dark. A half-hour to battle their way through the Flock's toughest defenses, while exhausted from their trek.

Still, it was better than nothing.

"Keep it up!" he screamed above the storm. "We're nearly there…!"

The words had barely left his mouth when the winds died down. The rain stopped on a dime. The lightning stopped falling. One moment they were in the middle of Michael's supernatural hurricane, struggling to keep upright, and the next the atmosphere had become eerily calm. Shrouded in the gathering mist rising from the road, the hospital loomed before them like an obelisk.

Mai let out an 'oof!' as someone crashed into her from behind: Risa and Miya had clearly not been expecting the sudden cessation of the storm and overbalanced, stumbling forward and slamming right into her. After taking a few moments to untangle themselves and mutter apologies, they joined their murmuring fellows in looking around, trying to make sense of what was happening.

Reo spit out a strand of wet hair that had been blown into her mouth, pushing up her wet bangs again as best she could to see better. "Huh…I guess Michael ran out of gas." She said, a hopeful note in her voice.

The delinquent from before seemed to have realized something was up; after pushing the shattered remnants of his pompadour out of his face, he pulled out his phone, getting into a fighting stance as he looked around, tensing himself up. "C'mon kid, really? This ain't any more 'normal' than that storm was."

Tomohisa seemed to be in agreement, closing out the Mortician's List and readying his demons as he looked around. A flicker of movement caught his eye: he focused on the tiny white speck drifting lazily down to the ground, and with a start he realized that there were more of them. "Huh?!"

The Tamers were chattering in amazement and confusion. Miya stared in disbelief at the tiny white dots that had started falling around them all. "That's…it's…it's snow." She said, in a voice so stunned it came out as a dead monotone. "It's started snowing."

Tomohisa paled: in his mind's eye he could see the beautiful, teal-skinned Archangel Gabriel generating massive spires of ice. Yuuna seemed to have come to the same realization by the way she whipped out her phone and joined the delinquent in bracing for an ambush. "Tch…Colette!" she snapped.

At the sound of her warning, the other Tamers snapped out of their daze and hurriedly prepared themselves for combat. There was no movement in the mist, at least not yet, but Nanami could feel it in the distance: a cold presence closing in on them second after second. It was Gabriel. It had to be: another Archangel suppressing Michael's influence.

Any second now, she would be upon them. Sara swallowed the lump in her throat, navigating to the Summoning screen with shaking hands and preparing to summon her Fiend…

Tomohisa stared into the mist for a moment, then caught Mai's attention with a wave of his hand. "We're out of time. Get to the Server." He snapped.

Mai blinked. "Wait, what…?" she began.

"You and your friends are the ones with the Fiends. You're the only ones here who can beat Archangel Michael! Whatever's coming, we'll keep it off your back: you need to get in there and take down Phillips. Got it? Now get moving!"

Kaede looked a little hesitant. "But what about…?"

"Dammit, kid, don't argue!" Tomohisa barked.

Kaede heard Risa shouting from a few feet away. "We've got this one!" she crowed. "So get in there and save the world already!"

A few of the other Tamers raised a chorus of shouts, cheering the girls on. Kaede hesitated for a moment, then turned to her friends.

They returned her gaze with steely resolve. Mai nodded, looking over to Tomohisa. "Stay safe. All of you." She said, then turned to the hospital, squaring her shoulders.

"C'mon…we're ending this."

And with that, she hurried toward the hospital with Reo at her side and her friends close behind her. Tomohisa watched them vanish into the mist, listening as a voice in the distance shouted in English before letting out a grunt of pain and falling silent. He said a silent prayer for their luck, and then turned back to the billowing mist before him and his comrades just as a series of dark shapes slowly became visible.

Then the mist parted. For a moment, the two sides simply stared at each other: Tomohisa and his followers on one side, and Naito and Colette and their followers on the other. Tomohisa noticed with a jolt that Gabriel was already out: it made sense, as she was clearly the one dampening Michael's influence. Still, the opposition having an Archangel already out on the field was not a comforting feeling.

Steeling his resolve, Tomohisa forced a smirk onto his face. "Shusui Naito and Colette Phillips. Never thought you two had a thing going."

This elicited a few chuckles from the Tamers gathered behind him: nervous chuckles more than anything. Naito snorted in derision. Colette took a step forward.

"For God's sake, Tomohisa-san, see reason!" She said firmly. "However you feel about us, we're not the biggest threat here! If my grandfather wins, we're all dead! You want to fight for the Server after we've stopped him, that's fine by me, but for the moment, we're on the same side!"

Tomohisa's expression became icy. "No. We're not." He growled. "We've got people moving in on the Server right now. And while they're doing that…" he raised his phone as his other hand reached for the gun strapped to his belt. "We're going to be doing our damndest to keep you dillholes from getting anywhere near that hospital."

Colette's teeth clenched, her eyes roving across the Tamers assembled against her. They were staring her down, raising their phones as demons started appearing one by one. With a start, Colette realized what Tomohisa was talking about: a couple more quick glances across the gathered Tamers confirmed the absence of those six familiar girls.

'Nanami Oda…Mai Sawaguchi…and your friends! You're seriously planning to take my grandfather on your own?!'

A series of popping noises brought her out of her thoughts: Naito was cracking his knuckles as he shook his head. "So much for diplomacy. Guess we're goin' through you." With a well-practiced motion, he produced a butterfly knife in one hand and his phone in the other. The screen glowed brightly, and a demon materialized behind him, floating in midair: a bat-winged, smirking humanoid with long blonde hair clad in a purple jumpsuit.

"Loki, Maziodyne!"

Tomohisa took a fighting stance as the demon raised his hand. Electricity flared all around him, growing brighter by the second. With a sharp snap of his fingers, Loki unleashed a torrent of electricity.

"Purple Mirror, get in there!" A Tamer cried, raising his phone: an ordinary-looking hand mirror burst from the screen, held aloft by an unseen force and speeding to the front of the group. The glass face took the electricity dead-on, and with a pulse of energy reflected it right back where it came from. Tomohisa watched Loki block the rebounding attack with one of his wings, then pointed his knife at the Tamers.

"CHARGE!" he bellowed.

Colette grunted under her breath, raising her wristband and conjuring a Sraosha as both her and Naito's followers let out a deafening war cry, raising phones and batons as their angels and demons appeared one after the other. Gabriel would have to focus most of her power on keeping Michael's storm at bay, so she was out of the fight. She would simply have to make do.

The ground quivered beneath the feet of hundreds of stampeding demons rushing to meet each other, angels swooping into the fray with weapons raised. The two sides met in the middle, and the din of combat echoed through the city.


Mai didn't even have a chance to shout a warning: by the time she saw the blinding light, she and her friends had already broke through the guards posted outside the smashed loading bay door and charged almost face-first into it, stumbling with cries of confusion into what should have been the loading bay.

SHOULD have been.

Instead, Mai realized as her eyes adjusted to the glare, the pearly gates themselves had apparently managed to manifest within the hospital, and she and her friends had blundered right up to them.

"This is…I don't believe…" Nanami managed to stammer before her speech devolved into a series of little astonished noises.

It was a breathtaking sight. She and her friends came to a stop, gazing spellbound at their surroundings. It wasn't Heaven itself. It couldn't have been. But it had to be pretty close: it was like whatever architect had created it had given the most wondrous dream of the place form and substance. Where there should have been hard concrete flooring, the girls were standing on a bank of white fluffy clouds. The temperature was perfect, a welcome balance of bracingly cool and comfortingly warm, and the air was so clean it was intoxicating; Nanami started to worry that it would lull her into slumber. In the distance, if Mai squinted, she could see the vague shapes of Greco-Roman architecture: closer to them, marble pillars stretched into the infinite, wrapped with lush rose vines. In the distance, an ethereal choir's song floated on the breeze, singing in a language Mai couldn't understand. Latin, or Enochian, or something.

It didn't matter. Now that the initial shock of it all was starting to wear off, Mai was bringing herself back to reality. Her expression darkened as she looked over her shoulder. The door they had entered through was nowhere to be found: clouds and blue sky stretched out behind her into the infinite.

"So, this is an Angel's Domain." She whispered. Yuuna looked over at her.

"Then…" she began. Mai nodded.

"He's here. He's gotta be. And we're not getting to the Server until we dispel this place." She tilted her head back, taking a deep breath. "There's nowhere left for you to run, Phillips! So quit hiding and face us like a man!" she screamed into the distance.

For a moment, nothing happened. But then the clouds welled up, parting to reveal a crowd of hooded men and women standing in front of them. Six or seven by Yuuna's count, far less than the number Colette had mentioned. Were the others simply standing guard throughout the hospital, oblivious to what was happening below them, or had they finally had enough and fled as Colette's followers had?

It didn't matter. The less Flock she and her friends had to take down, the better.

For what it was worth, the hooded men and women seemed far more shocked and confused than the girls did. Clearly they didn't expect to suddenly end up where they were. But when they saw Mai and her friends staring them down, they got into fighting stances without a word, drawing their batons and summoning angels.

"So they're all trapped in here too. No way to retreat for them either." Yuuna muttered. "Oh, wow, this is gonna get ugly."

Sara hesitated for a moment, then stepped forward. "H-hey! HEY! Hold up a second!" she shouted, ignoring Reo's flabbergasted stare. "You don't have to do this! We know most of you are doing this because you're scared of Phillips! Please, just stand aside and let us stop him, or help us even, and we can bring this to an end! Please!" she pleaded. "I know most of you don't want to do this! And we don't want to hurt you if we don't have to!"

It was a foolish proposition. Anyone could see that. Given the choice between culpability in genocide and facing the wrath of their psychotic leader, the choice the cowardly cultists would make was evident. And yet, for a moment, the hooded men and women glanced at each other, a hushed whispering slowly rising between them.

Then, in the distance, a thunderclap boomed. The Flock glanced over their shoulders: despite the hoods obscuring their faces, they were practically radiating terror. Then they whipped their gaze back around to the girls.

Sara's face fell: even someone as optimistic as her realized any chances of talking it out had died at that moment. Indeed, the next second, the Flock raised their batons, letting out war cries.

"{IN THE NAME OF GOD!}"

"{TO THE DEATH!}"

"{KILL THEM ALL! OR DIE TRYING!}"

"{DIE, YOU TAMER DEGENERATES!}"

Powers, Virtues and Dominions were appearing one after the other, the red-armored angels winding up and tossing their spears: Reo went pale as she reached for her phone.

In a flash of light, something bright red burst from Mai's phone, speeding forward to meet the descending spears. There was a symphony of loud metallic clangs, as the incoming projectiles were swatted in every direction. Having deflected the assault, the crimson figure struck a fighting stance and hissed at the angels like an animal.

With bright red skin, an outfit festooned with skulls, and six muscular arms each bearing a wicked sword, Mai's demon Kali was a fearsome sight. There were flashes of light, other demons began to materialize alongside it: Frost Ace, Vritra, and Lilith.

Reo raised her phone, calling Rangda forth as Mai leveled a finger at the Flock, her face set in a cold glare.

"TAKE 'EM DOWN!" she screamed.


A world away, chaos reigned in the parking lot of Saint Michael's General Hospital.

Desperate to break through for their chance at the prize, the strange alliance of Naito and Colette's followers threw itself at Tomohisa's defensive line. Already there had been casualties on both sides: any hope of holding back at this late stage of the war had long been abandoned. And yet the combat surged more and more violently with each passing second, despite the slowly-falling number of combatants.

Gabriel hadn't entered the fray, having devoted most of her energy to preventing Michael's storm from overtaking them all. The Archangel simply hovered high above the battlefield, watching as her master engaged Tomohisa's followers herself: wielding a baton with Sraosha by her side, the ex-lieutenant was a force to behold as she subdued demons one after the other. Even so, she couldn't find an opening: through sheer numbers and tenacity, Tomohisa's followers managed to force her back whenever she seemed to be gaining a foothold.

Naito meanwhile had found his own opponent: Tomohisa. An attempt to attack him from behind had failed, and now the two were locked in furious combat: the Yakuza don wielding Loki, and Tomohisa Asura. The Norse trickster god gave a ghastly smirk as he swooped high into the air, spreading his wings as cold air coalesced around him into wicked shards of ice. With a cackle, Loki sent the shards speeding towards Asura. Tomohisa grunted, raising his phone.

From the screen burst a pale, effeminate-looking young man in crimson samurai regalia, clutching a sword in each hand. The samurai fearlessly stared down the speeding ice chunks as they closed in on him.

"Yoshitsune!" Tomohisa commanded, and the Hero leaped into action: with a battle cry, Yoshitsune brought his swords to bear, swatting the ice out of the air so quickly his arms were a blur. Protected from the assault, Asura was free to bring one of its fists back, generating a fireball and launching it at Loki with a mighty punch. Loki scoffed, extending a hand as it approached: the inferno was snuffed out like a candle with a quick Zandyne. Loki's twisted smile widened as he flared his talons, swooping low to the ground and outrunning his own ice as he closed in on Yoshitsune. The samurai's eyes widened as the trickster swung his claws right at his neck: with both blades occupied, there was no way for him to raise a defense.

Luckily, Asura came to the rescue, Loki shifting his attention to the Deity as it rushed up to intercept with fists flying. Despite only having two hands and being significantly scrawnier, Loki was able to swat aside the barrage of punches as he backed off. Deflecting the last of the ice, Yoshitsune joined the fray, flashing his swords as he leaped at Loki. The three demons fell into a chaotic dance, the Tyrant in the middle bearing an infuriating smirk as he fended off his two opponents.

'Look at them go!' Miya thought with a twinge of bitterness as she returned her attention to the fight between one of Naito's Tamer's Byakko and her wolf-like Fenrir. 'I can barely follow them…guess helping Tomohisa-san's right out. I'd just get underfoot in a fight like that.'

She registered Risa's shout of warning just in time: leaping to the side automatically, she felt the breeze off the Flock member's baton as it whooshed just past her. Entrusting the Byakko entirely to Fenrir, she focused on the Flock member stumbling past her, raising her golf club and swinging it at his head.

The swarthy, well-built man was clearly a lot more experienced in combat than she was: in a subtle movement, he effortlessly deflected Miya's improvised weapon and ducked out of sight. Miya cried out in shock as the man hooked the baton around the back of her knee and swept her off her feet, sending her crashing painfully to the pavement. Her club went clattering away as the man loomed over her: Miya's attempt to summon something was stymied when he saw the screen flash; he kicked it out of her hand and knelt down on her, pinning her to the ground as he raised his baton for a devastating blow to the face.

Risa jumped to her girlfriend's rescue, quite literally in fact. The significantly larger man gave a grunt of surprise as the pink-haired girl leaped onto his back, hooking an arm around his neck and squeezing with all the strength she could muster. Beyond dragging him off Miya, she clearly wasn't doing all that much to him: the Flock member looked far more annoyed than anything, and already he was reaching up in an attempt to dislodge the girl.

Unfortunately for him, Miya had recovered from getting the wind knocked out of her, and Risa had bought her the opening she needed. Scooping her club off the ground, she wound up and swung it like a baseball bat at the Flock member.

Direct hit to the temple. She wouldn't have gotten a better shot in if she had aimed.

Risa had released the man seconds before the blow landed, and watched as he was spun a full 360 degrees by the impact, stumbling around and trying in vain to stay upright. His eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he crashed to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut. Miya leaned down, scooping up her cell phone as she moved to stand back-to-back with her girlfriend, the two of them surveying their surroundings as two Powers and a Rangda closed in on them.

"Avatar Pabilsag! Miya, you alright?" Risa brandished her phone, and a hideous demon appeared: a twisted cross between a bipedal humanoid with a skeletal face and a scorpion. She glanced over her shoulder at Miya as Pabilsag crouched low, raising its venom-soaked tail over its head and staring down the approaching Powers. Miya had already engaged the Rangda, her Norn trying to smite the witch with Ziodyne as it swooped to and fro, cackling wickedly as it dodged the lightning bolts and returned fire with Agidynes, which Norn dodged in turn.

"I'm fine. Thanks for the save. The line's holding..." Miya grumbled. "All we can do is hope the others have what it takes."

"Sara-san…Nanami-san…" Risa whispered as Pabilsag's tail struck home: slipping past a Power's guard, it slammed right into the angel's face. For a moment, a prodigious smell filled the air as the metal helmet began to smoke and melt. Then the angel disintegrated into feathers and little balls of light. "Hey, Miya…"

"Nope." Miya said firmly as Norn intercepted Rangda's Agidyne with a Ziodyne, both attacks detonating in midair. "We're needed out here, keeping these guys off their backs. You saw their Fiends, right? They've got this!"

Rangda let out a screech of pain as Norn managed to strike it with lightning, sending the witch crashing to the ground. Another merciless thunderbolt finished the job, disintegrating the Rangda; its master was already manipulating his phone, summoning a towering Ariavata. In a flash, Norn was replaced with Fenrir, who charged barking furiously at the white elephant as it lumbered toward the two girls. Dodging tusks and crushing feet, Fenrir darted beneath the elephant as the chain wrapped around it stirred to life, lashing out like a snake and ensnaring Ariavata around the legs. Ariavata's shocked trumpeting was like a foghorn right in Miya's face; her ears were ringing so badly she couldn't even hear the Avatar hit the ground with enough force to smash the pavement.

"Heh…I got something for ya." Miya raised her phone. "Summon Ongyo-Ki!"

From her phone came a jet of black smoke, tracing a contrail as it shot high into the air, congealing into a huge humanoid shape: twirling a double-ended polearm, the demon crashed down from above like a meteor, driving one of the pendulum blades at the end of its spear into Ariavata's skull.

Again, the white elephant let out a deafening shriek, shaking Miya's demon loose as it lumbered to its feet. The black-robed, masked ogre landed gracefully in a crouch, twirling its weapon like a baton as it stared down the furious pachyderm. Fenrir was trying to hold its ground and keep Ariavata's legs pinned, but to no avail: the wolf was yanked clean off its feet as Ariavata charged.

Ongyo-Ki stood its ground, aiming its spear and preparing to counterattack. But then Risa looked up, her eyes going wide. "Huh?! MIYA!"

If her scream didn't catch Miya's attention, the first explosion did: a rainbow energy ball crashed down to the pavement, smashing it to chunks as Ariavata cut its charge short, rearing back in shock.

The ambush was just getting started: Holy Dance blasts were crashing down from the sky one after the other like a meteor shower. Ongyo-Ki took to the air in a leap that was far more graceful than its size and bulk would suggest. Twirling its polearm, the ogre deflected a number of the incoming blasts before they could threaten its master and her girlfriend. The Power Pabilsag was up against wasn't so lucky: one of the blasts hit it dead in the face as it looked up, obliterating its cranium entirely. Ariavata wasn't having much better fortune: its sheer size made it a prime target for the Holy Dance, the onslaught sending it crashing to the ground as the damage caught up to it. It and the angel both dissolved as Ongyo-Ki landed, Risa, Miya, and the two Flock members looking around in shock for the interloper.

The Yakuza member suddenly let out an angry shout. "HEY!" he snarled. "Check your fire! We're on the same side, ya little brat!"

Risa and Miya followed his gaze to the little blonde twintailed girl striding toward them with a brunette young woman close behind. "Sorry 'bout that. It's hard to aim a Holy Dance." The blonde said, shrugging.

For a moment, it was as if the fighting all around them had stopped. Risa and Miya both looked so astounded that it was true fortune that no one decided to attack them from behind. "R-Runa-chan?" Risa whispered, her expression of shock slowly morphing into one of fury as realization started to assert itself. "Runa-chan?!" She pointed a trembling finger at the Yakuza. "WHAT DOES HE MEAN YOU'RE ON HIS SIDE?!"

Runa opened her mouth to say something, but something drew her attention. Her eyes snapped over to the Flock members, who were clasping their hands in preparation to summon more angels. "Ah-ah. No ya don't." she snapped.

One of the Flock members looked up: he didn't even have time to gasp when a jet-black blur fell on top of him. Nyarlathotep's kick slammed the man's face into the ground with a wet crunch, the Outer God's faceless head already turning to the man's companion as a ball of white light appeared in its talons. The man let out a short yelp as Nyarlathotep's attack slammed into his chest and blew him off his feet, sending him flying over the battle raging around them; seconds later, the Megidolaon detonated, leaving only a fine cloud of carbon dust where the Flock member had been. The two cultists out of the way, Nyarlothotep turned its attention to Risa and Miya; already balls of rainbow energy were gathering in its palms.

"Ongyo-Ki!" Miya shouted, her ogre raising its spear and prepared to deflect the imminent assault. What it wasn't prepared for was an attack from the side: a Zandyne that slammed into it and tossed it like a ragdoll. Miya glanced to the side, her face falling as her eyes roved over a massive, all-too-familiar black dragon hovering in the air, acidic saliva dripping from its maw and corroding the pavement beneath it. "Set…Takako-sensei, this is disgraceful. Are you really on her side, or just too craven to put your foot down?"

Takako, who was standing beneath the Egyptian god of chaos, turned away, her face burning with shame. Runa's expression hardened. "You'll wanna watch how you talk to her. She's my lover after all."

Risa was only vaguely aware of the Yakuza summoning a Vritra to take the place of the Ariavata he had lost; most of her attention was focused on the little girl she thought she had befriended. "You…you miserable, backstabbing little goblin! Why?!" she demanded.

"Why? Why is Sensei my lover? Or 'Why am I throwing my lot in with Naito?'" Runa shrugged. "I'm in the market for what he's selling. This Summoning Program…" she tossed her phone to herself a few times. "Well, truth be told, I'm not ready to give it up. Once Sensei and I get out of the city, with this thing on our side…" she wiggled the phone for emphasis as her grin widened. "We can really go places. NYARLATHOTEP!"

Risa clenched her fists to stop her hands from trembling as Pabilsag took the full brunt of Nyarlathotep's Holy Dance, the energy balls blowing off huge chunks of exoskeleton and sending it bouncing backwards along the ground. "Give up and let us through." Runa said calmly, her expression softening a bit. "We've been around each other long enough to know you can't beat me. We may be on opposing sides right now, but we were still comrades. Believe it or not, I enjoyed our time together, and I don't want to hurt you if I can help it."

The answer came in the form of a polearm crashing down from above, aimed right at Nyarlathotep. The Outer God jumped back off the fallen Flock member it was standing on, the weapon whizzing through the air where it had been moments before and coming to a stop stabbed deep into the ground. Moments later, Ongyo-Ki had reappeared, extricating its weapon from the ground and taking a fighting stance, staring down Nyarlathotep and Set. Risa turned to stare down the Yakuza and his Vritra, Pabilsag turning to face him, as Miya and Ongyo-Ki stood before Runa and Takako. Fenrir padded up beside the giant black ogre, baring its teeth and growling at Nyarlothotep.

"Well, unfortunately, Runa-ch…no." Miya's voice was calm, and her gaze was icy cold. "Houraisen. Unfortunately, Houraisen, it can't be helped. You want that Server? Then you'll need to go through us."

Runa pulled a face. For a moment, she looked genuinely remorseful. But then she shrugged, shaking her head. "Suit yourself." She snapped, as Nyarlathotep spread his mighty wings and Set let out a deafening roar.


Danica hadn't been exaggerating. If anything, when she had told Mai and the others about how desperate and ferocious the Flock would end up being, she had severely understated it.

The hooded men and women they were facing were psychotic, suicidal animals. Any sense of tactics had been completely abandoned. Driven half-mad by fear of failing their master, the focused, if somewhat-weak angel-wielding warriors were gone, leaving a howling mass throwing themselves headlong at the girls right alongside their angels with reckless abandon. Too reckless, in fact; the frantic rush the Flock was employing only served to throw them past the safety of their angels and into the reach of their demon opponents, who capitalized on this ruthlessly.

Kaede watched her demon, the mechanical dragon Fafnir, catch a charging Flock member by the arm as he swung his baton at it. He had presented his left arm: bad move. There was a sickening crunch of glass and plastic or bone or all three as Fafnir's claws tightened, and the man let out a howl of pain as he released his baton and fell to his knees, a Dominion Yuuna was battling vanishing in the same moment. Fafnir gave a snort, a metallic noise that sounded almost autotuned, and hurled the man away like a ragdoll. Then it was off to the next one, its mighty claws smashing a Virtue's head into shards as it attempted to cut the dragon down with its razor wings, and immediately following up by sending a charging Flock member flying with an almost casual backhand.

"Stop this!" Mai snapped, as she watched a Flock member charge at Kali. The crimson Hindu goddess barely gave him a second glace as she cut down a Dominion with one of her six swords and casually deflected the man's baton with another. The man stumbled back, staring in horror at the half of a baton still clenched in his hand. "Give up! You can't beat us!"

The man hesitated for a moment, seething as he tried to psyche himself up. Then to Mai's horror, he let out a primal scream and charged Kali, tossing away the hilt of his baton and throwing a haymaker. He received a devastating kick to the face for his troubles, sending him crashing backwards into the clouds.

Mai looked around, her heart sinking: despite their injuries, the Flock members were getting up after being tossed around by the demons, limping back into the fray with psychotic determination, to be struck down again. She moved toward Yuuna, who was watching as Lilith fried a Power and its master with a Maziodyne.

"Yuuna-san, I…I can't take much more of this. This is sick!"

Yuuna shook her head as she watched the man Lilith had just attacked struggle to his feet: the snake wrapped around Lilith lashed out, coiling around the man's neck and lifting him off the ground as Lilith seized the man's arm and removed his wristband. The snake tossed the man aside as Lilith shocked the wristband into slag. "These men and women would see us dead. All of us. They're either too cowardly or too fanatical to stand up to a genocidal maniac: sympathy will have to come from a better woman than me." She pulled a face as the Flock member struggled to his feet and took a clumsy swing at Lilith, who sidestepped and gave him a swift chop to the back of his neck. "Of course you're right that this is unsettling: fanaticism is terrifying indeed. And worse…" her eyes narrowed. "We simply don't have the time for this nonsense."

Mai gritted her teeth, glancing back at her demon: Kali had engaged a Dominion, decapitating the angel after dodging a couple of Zandynes. The Flock member who had been controlling the angel clapped his hands together for another summon, but Kali was too fast for him: a solid whack to the forehead with the pommel of one of her swords sent him sprawling to the ground. At Mai's unspoken command, Kali strode over, planting her foot down hard on the man's left arm, shattering his wristband…and by the sound of his scream, his wrist. Just in time too: another Flock member had stepped up, his breathing labored and blood dripping from his mouth to stain his hoodie.

Clearly, Kali's kick hadn't been enough to keep him down. And therein lay the biggest problem. Every second that passed fighting these mooks was time wasted, time that they needed to fight Phillips himself, and thanks to the psychotic strength that had filled them all, these Flock members were refusing to stay down. Without their angels, they simply fell back on their batons, and without their batons they were willing to throw themselves at the demons and try in vain to kill them with their bare hands.

With every passing second, neutralizing these men and women without lethal force seemed less and less feasible.

At the very least, the attacks seemed to be slowing down, if only a little bit. Four of the Flock members continued to force themselves to their feet, one after the other, stumbling back into the fray as if sleepwalking. But the human body, regardless of fanatic determination, still has its limits, and their accumulating injuries were starting to push them toward theirs. The others hadn't gotten up at all; some were breathing, while others…Nanami made a pointed effort not to look at them, instead focusing on the approaching Flock members still spoiling for a fight. The one leading the pack seemed to be having difficulty clasping his hands together for a summon: he kept…well, missing.

"Ish…ishzat…all you…you go-got?" he slurred. "You…you're not getting anywhere…anywhere near…anywhere…not getting…"

He let out a weird grunting noise and collapsed to the ground. Yuuna looked away, making a little disgusted sound as Mai stepped forward, glaring at the three Flock members still standing as Kali raised her swords.

"It's over." She snapped. "Where's Phillips?!"

The reeling cultists glared the girls down as best they could. One of them, the one bleeding heavily from his mouth, leveled a quivering finger at Mai as he tried in vain to stand up straight. "You dare…you dare speak his name in vain? You dare speak of Lord Phillips with such contempt in your voice?!"

Yuuna scoffed. "'Lord Phillips' indeed…not sure what you can do to stop her. You've got your hands full trying to stay on your feet."

The Flock member growled under his breath. "He is God's Own Chosen! God spoke to him: commanded him in dreams and gave him his holy work! To defy him is to defy Providence itself! You rail against the Divine Order! You invite eternal punishment upon you, and by thunder you shall have it!"

Mai and her friends steeled themselves as he clasped his hands together, preparing another summon even as he wobbled dangerously on his feet. Sara's eyes were drawn to his compatriots: something was definitely different about them. Unless she was much mistaken, they didn't look nearly as gung-ho as the bleeding man.

But she didn't have time to mull on it for long. Something else drew her attention: to be specific, a voice from everywhere and nowhere.

"Enough of this idiocy."

Everyone, Flock members and Mai and her companions alike, stiffened. They all knew that booming, powerful voice. Again, there was a thunderclap. But this one was different: while the one before had been a distant, threatening rumble, this one was loud, and close.

And it had teeth. There was a blinding flash, and a brain-rattling 'kaboom', and a chorus of agonized screams. Then silence.

As the stars blinking in front of Sara's eyes faded, she looked past her friends, and her face went pale.

"Holy…" she whispered.

Kaede was shaking her head. "So…so cruel!"

"I couldn't watch another moment of their incompetent bumbling. Worthless…imagine, losing to children. And upon their defeat they couldn't even die properly." Phillips's voice echoed around them again, dripping with scorn.

"Not even his own followers mean a thing to him." Yuuna said icily. "He can't be saved."

Mai stared in dumbfounded horror at the quartet of bodies crumpled on the ground in front of them. They were the enemy. They had thrown their lot in with a psychopath, whether due to dedication or cowardice. Regardless, this latest display of cruelty, the sight of them sprawled in the clouds, lifeless and smoking, was quickly filling her with a sense of righteous anger so intense it was dizzying. To smite even his most devoted, without hesitation or mercy, and to heartlessly mock them afterwards…

She felt something surge inside her, like a white-hot explosion in the pit of her stomach.

"PHILLIPS!" She screamed. Reo let out a gasp as dark energy and swirling wind erupted around her lover, and when it faded, a ghastly robed angel had appeared high above her. The girl seethed, her teeth bared and her eyes wild. "WHERE ARE YOU, YOU HEARTLESS, INHUMAN BASTARD?!"

The sight snapped their friends out of their trance. One after the other, their own Fiends appeared, until they had assembled in front of their masters, who were bracing themselves for the battle fast approaching. Red Rider was the last to appear: Sara had clearly hesitated before raising her phone and bringing the sword-wielding horseman forth, shivering as an unnatural cold once more filled her body. Again, Phillips spoke: his mirthless chuckling echoed around them all.

"Of course, you aren't ordinary children, are you? You have been chosen by the Lightbringer, to spread his evil influence, just as I have been chosen by God Almighty to quash it. Very well then: let us not put off Armageddon any longer. You, and the Knights of Death you command, are the last enemy to be destroyed."

There was a loud gust of wind, and the clouds boiled up, whirling around in a twister before dispersing, revealing a tall, dark figure standing before Mai and her friends. The round, reflective sunglasses caught the Domain's dazzling light and flashed dangerously as a smirk slowly grew on his face. "And I assure you, you will be destroyed. I will make certain of it…and I will do so with great relish."

If it hadn't been for his outfit, for the scarf, the hat, and the reflective sunglasses, Mai probably wouldn't have recognized him. It was Phillips. But it looked as if time had gone backwards sixty years for him, maybe even more. His face, once marred by wrinkles and liver spots, was now the face of a young, handsome man in his mid-to-late twenties. His thinning gray hair had become thick and chocolate-brown. His posture, formerly stooped, was now proud and straight-backed, and his cane no longer supported him: instead he tapped it nonchalantly on the ground as he strode towards them.

Nanami was breathing hard. There was pure venom in her eyes as she trembled with rage. "Phillips…" she snarled.

Mai managed to unstick her tongue. "Phillips?" she choked. "You're…!"

Phillips stopped and spread his arms. "Yes. I am young again, Mai Sawaguchi." He said softly. "I am strong again. Handsome again. Look upon me, all of you. By the grace of God, where once was age and sickness, now there is youth and health…and power. Can there be, now, any doubt as to His might?"

Mai had to admit it was an imposing prospect. Still, she kept her gaze steady on the man, staring him down as fearlessly as she could muster. Phillips scowled, lowering his arms.

"But I already know the answer. Even now, as far as you're concerned, I am merely your final trial; the last thing standing between you and a return to your…sinful, fetid lives."

He shook his head, reaching up and pulling off his sunglasses. For the first time, they could see his eyes. Green, and dead. There was no other way to describe them: just cold and dull and…hateful. The look he was giving them was unadulterated hate. Pure, concentrated malice.

"It's the same garbage philosophy that's infected all of mankind. The testament to its boundless arrogance…the reason I came here to begin with." Phillips continued. "Diseases, natural disasters, terrorist attacks, economic and social instability…time was that people saw such things as what they truly are: punishments, passed down by a just and righteous God in response to our sinful ways, and we repented accordingly. When we did, God forgave us, and prosperity reigned once more. Such was the way of things. But now…"

His expression darkened.

"Nowadays, rather than realizing our folly, we stiffen our necks. We fill our veins with poison when He inflicts us with disease, and build our towers of Babel ever higher and stronger in the face of storm and quake. We see His punishments not as recompense for our failures but as trials…obstacles to overcome in our ridiculous quest to prove…something! What, that we don't NEED Him?! That our medicine and machines can defeat His divine judgements?! That we are greater than Him?! RIDICULOUS! What is humanity, compared to Him and His angels?! Brutish, arrogant, greedy, lustful, petty, inconsequential NOTHINGS! A crass, shallow parody of the divine! Weak in body and dead in spirit! Insects pretending we mean anything before perfect, powerful, eternal beings like them!"

Phillips had been working himself into a frenzy, waving his arms in dramatic gestures as his voice boomed over the girls louder than any human could possibly manage. Now he dropped his arms to his sides again, his voice lowering to a cold whisper once more. "My intention was to give mankind a plague they could not overcome. A punishment so terrible as to make humble their hearts and put righteous fear in them, as they realized just how worthless they truly are, and leave them groveling at the feet of the Lord."

Yuuna snorted a bit, causing Phillips to glare at her in anger and confusion. "A misanthropic religious lunatic…oh, Phillips, that's almost hilariously clichéd. So…the outbreak was meant to be the next legendary biblical plague, meant to reduce humanity to hand-wringing supplication?" She shook her head. "Well, I hope you kept the receipt."

"It's over, Phillips: the whole world knows." Mai said, her voice frigid with hate. "We made a broadcast before we came here: enough evidence to nail you and your cult to the wall."

Phillips scowled. "Cute." He snapped, then shook his head with a sigh. "But it's true, isn't it? You've effectively ruined any chances of a peaceful resolution." A cold smirk grew on his face. "But before you pat yourselves on the back, let me tell you exactly what that means. It means more outbreaks will be needed to win compliance! It means thousands will end up dying raising a futile resistance against us! It means that when we finally win the day, our empire will be an oppressive, crushing one rather than the utopia of godliness we wanted! Don't you get it?! Had you kept to yourselves, the outbreak would be over by now, and you'd be back to your lives in a city with a new perspective, a renewed faith in the Lord, but instead you've signed this city's death warrant! YOU AND YOUR IDIOT FRIENDS HAVE MADE EVERYTHING WORSE!"

His smirk had widened into a twisted leer: he was practically foaming at the mouth at the thought of it all. "It almost makes me want to spare you: the idea of leaving you to live with the consequences of your actions is a tempting one. But I know better…you'd never stop your pointless resistance." He slipped his glasses back on and brought his hands together. "After all: you're only human."

Mai took a fighting stance. "Here it comes! On guard, everyone!"

"IN NOMINE PATRIS ET FILII ET SPIRTIUS SANCTI!" Phillips roared.

There was the biggest thunderclap yet. Even the ones that had set Mai's ears ringing on the trek to the hospital were mere rumbles in comparison. The sound was so intense it was like a physical blow to the solar plexus. The lightning bolt it accompanied was eye-searing, and she could feel every hair on her body stand up as it exploded from the sky, striking the cackling priest. Then there was a howling gust of wind, whipping over the girls and nearly knocking them off their feet. If their hearing was working properly, they would have heard the frightened whinnying of the Four Horsemen's steeds, the riders trying to keep the horses under control as they stared with empty sockets into the thunderstorm growing in front of them. Mother Harlot's beast snarled and snapped at the maelstrom, the woman riding atop its back raising a bony hand to its veil to keep it from blowing off.

Slowly, the wind died down, allowing Mai and her friends to look up.

The summoning of the Archangel had utterly changed the Domain: the once-fluffy and white clouds were black and laced with lightning as they boiled angrily. The welcoming atmosphere with its pleasant scent had been replaced by an overwhelming feeling of foreboding that bore down on them all.

And there he was. Larger than life, hovering above Phillips with lightning crackling all around his bright orange body and the spear clenched in his hand. Michael was the biggest angel yet, bigger than even Uriel. His glowing white eyes glared down at the girls and their Fiends, narrowing with contempt at the sight.

"Archangel Michael…" Nanami whispered.

Phillips glanced up at his Archangel, a wistful smile on his face. "Indeed it is. And I assure you, your Fiends are nothing before him." He looked down at the girls, the smile gone and replaced by a vicious glare. "Kill them!"

Michael's eyes flashed as he raised his spear. The sparks arcing around his spear exploded violently, engulfing the weapon until it was a thunderbolt clasped in the Archangel's hand.

"Here he comes!" Yuuna shouted. Mai nodded, bracing herself as she looked skyward.

"Alright, time to see what these Fiends can really do! Trumpeter, Horn of Judgement!"

Inhaling deeply, the skeletal angel raised its horn as a blinding white orb of light built in its bell. With a mighty blow, the Fiend's trumpet let out a chilling note as the attack erupted from it: a white beam doubled, then tripled in size as it raced toward the Archangel.

Phillips smirked. "Fool…" he muttered, as Michael stared down the approaching energy blast. The Archangel's eyes narrowed as he lowered his spear, the lightning coursing around the weapon collecting at the point. There was a blinding flash and a tremendous noise as a beam of electricity erupted forth, colliding with Trumpeter's attack in midair.

The lightning brought the beam to a dead stop. For a moment, the two were suspended in midair, radiating waves of power as each tried to overpower the other. Ultimately the lightning bolt won the contest; slowly, Trumpeter's blast was pushed backwards, picking up speed as Michael's attack shoved it right back where it came from. Mai realized what was happening just in time to cover her ears: Trumpeter's own attack plowed into it, engulfing the Fiend as it let out a shriek of pain. The energy rippled for a moment, then detonated, sending out a wave of force that nearly knocked Mai and her friends clean off their feet.

Spreading his mighty wings, Michael swooped forward, spear at the ready. Yuuna's eyes widened as she shook off the worst of her disorientation in time to see Michael barreling toward her and the others.

"Mother Harlot, go!" Her ears were ringing so badly she couldn't even hear herself give the order.

The unholy beast let out a roar that made the air around it ripple, the skeletal woman atop its back cackling as the seven heads lashed out, jaws unhinging as they closed in on the charging Archangel. Michael's eyes flashed, the divine warrior rushing fearlessly into the jaws of the Fiend. Yuuna's stomach lurched as the insight came to her: there was no way this was about to end well for Mother Harlot.

Moments later, her fears were realized.

The crimson beast, its seven jaws mere inches from closing around the Archangel, let out a sudden yowl of pain as its heads were thrown violently back: Michael had wielded his spear so quickly and so fluidly that his strikes were impossible to follow. "Tch…" Yuuna muttered. "Ultimate Hit! His attacks are Almighty!"

In a second, Michael had swatted all seven heads away, and had aimed the glowing point of his weapon at the woman atop the beast, bringing it back for a finish blow.

"No you don't: RED RIDER! BLADE OF RUIN!"

"You too, Pale Rider! Deathscythe!"

Michael looked up just in time to raise his defenses: Sara and Kaede's Fiends had taken off, galloping toward their target through thin air as if it were solid ground. Red Rider's sword churned with flames as Pale Rider's scythe glowed with unearthly light, the Fiends closing in on Michael and raising their weapons high.

With two metallic clangs, the Fiend's weapons locked with Michael's. The Archangel's brow furrowed in concentration as he struggled to push the horsemen away, his eyes locking on Mother Harlot. The scarlet-clad woman was raising her chalice, the profane steam rising from it flowing into her nose as the Fiend inhaled. Michael's white eyes widened and he pushed himself backwards in the nick of time: seconds after he got clear, Mother Harlot's jaw flopped open, the Fiend exhaling a jet of white smoke that shot between Red and Pale Rider, where the Archangel had been seconds before. Michael swooped down to the ground, readying his spear as he stared down the three Fiends, preparing his counterattack.

But then his eyes narrowed again: two blurs had shot out from behind Mother Harlot and were making a beeline right towards him.

"Take him down, Black Rider! Soul Balance!"

"Go, White Rider! God's Bow!"

In a flash, the two Fiends had flanked Michael: White Rider pulling back an arrow as Black Rider raised its scales, the bowls tilting back and forth as a huge icicle materialized above the Fiend's head.

Michael jumped back, the ice missing him by inches and sticking into the clouds. White Rider had held off on its attack, and was shifting its aim to follow Michael as he alighted next to his smirking master.

"Take this!" Nanami shouted, and White Rider loosed the arrow. The projectile glowed with an unearthly light as it sped through the air, and suddenly there was an entire swarm of them: the arrows seemed animated by some preternatural force as they weaved around each other, closing in on Michael like a swarm of angry bees.

Raising his spear over his head as it crackled with electricity, Michael gave a war cry as he slammed its hilt into the ground. There was a reverberating explosion as lightning crashed down all around him, annihilating the arrows before they struck. But it was clear the electricity was meant for more than defense: two huge, radiant, lingering lightning bolts were moving forward, racing like pillars of destruction toward Reo and Nanami's Fiends.

They were moving too fast…!

The horses let out shrieks of pain as the lightning slammed into them, nearly throwing their riders off as they were tossed through the air by the force of Michael's blasts. And the lightning kept going, rumbling relentlessly onward, toward the girls. Mai braced herself. "Nngh…" she grunted, but Yuuna stepped forward.

"Big mistake. Move aside, quickly!" she snapped.

Red and Pale Rider zoomed out of the way as Mother Harlot's beast roared, charging forward to meet the lightning bolts, necks stretched out like a grotesque fan for maximum coverage. Both bolts plowed into it, the Fiend's innate Electric absorb kicking in and nullifying the attack, using its power to heal the wounds Michael had inflicted earlier.

Phillips let out a bark of laughter as Michael took to the air, spear glowing brightly. "Fool! Michael, finish that Fiend off: Heaven's Blade!"

Michael's eyes flashed, and the glow around the spear flared even brighter: from the tip, a shining white beam slowly grew, extending outward until the spear had become more like a naginata, with two beams jutting out vertically at its base, creating for what was all intents and purposes a radiant white cross.

Yuuna paled. Even from the other side of the battlefield, she could practically feel the energy the attack was giving off. Phillips smirked as Michael brought the weapon up for a slash. "I told you, didn't I? Your Fiends are as nothing before the power of Archangel Michael-!"

It was then that Michael was struck from above: a surging ball of wind hit the angel's breastplate dead center. For a moment, Yuuna could see his pure-white eyes bulge in pain: a second later, the Zandyne had erupted in a tornado that sent the Archangel flying backwards into a nearby vine-laced pillar. The marble spire snapped at the base like a matchstick under the force and Michael, lodged in a crater that he had punched in it slowly fell backward with a look of agonized confusion on his face. Archangel and pillar hit the clouds with a loud crash.

Phillips's eyes turned skyward as his upper lip curled in a sneer. The blast had damaged Trumpeter, but it was clear he had been too hasty in writing the Fiend off. Mai and her friends stared him down as their Fiends regrouped, Michael disentangling himself from the rubble out of the corner of their eyes.

"So...that should do it for the warmups." Mai hissed. She returned Phillips's livid gaze with a withering glare of her own. "What do you say we quit the foreplay and get to the actual fight, hm? Trumpeter, Zandyne!"

Trumpeter let out a quick blast on its horn, firing a ball of wind at the Archangel. Michael shook off his daze and took a stance, staring down the oncoming air blast.

"Heavens Blade, without delay!" Phillips commanded, and Michael obeyed, once more generating a shining, cross-shaped blade of light around his spear. This time the attack went off, as the Archangel swung his spear and launched a wave of light that intercepted Trumpeter's Zandyne. Sparks flew as the attacks pushed against each other.

For a moment Phillips's face lit up as he saw the inevitable play out in his mind's eye: the Zandyne would collapse under the force of Michael's attack. The Heaven's Blade would plow right through Trumpeter's puny attack and crush the girls and their Fiends with one fell swoop…

"MAZIODYNE!"

A new attack came down on the Heaven's Blade: seven lightning bolts crashing down one after the other and striking Michael's attack. This put it over the edge, and the Heaven's Blade exploded with the force of a small bomb, churning the clouds and nearly blowing Phillips's hat off his head. Mai looked over her shoulder, nodding.

"Nice, Yuuna-san!"

Yuuna didn't look at her: she had taken a fighting stance. "Alright, let's go, Mother Harlot!"

Mother Harlot let out a bonechilling cackle as her mount roared, the thunderous sound from the seven fanged mouths causing the air around it to ripple. Nanami stepped forward, back straight as she glared daggers at Phillips. "I hope you're ready, you scumbag! White Rider!"

Her Fiend raised its bow and drew an arrow as its steed tossed its head and snorted, the eyes lining its body twitching spasmodically. White Rider was quickly joined by its three fellow horsemen, scythe, sword and scales in hand as the riders bellowed war cries. The unearthly sound was joined by another: the haunting drone of Trumpeter blowing its horn.

Phillips glowered at the sight. All six of the Apocalyptic Fiends stood united against him and Michael, and if Sawaguchi hadn't gotten rid of it, there was a Lesser Fiend still waiting in the wings. They were whipping themselves into a battle frenzy, all of them thirsting for blood.

But at the end of the day, it was no consequence. He had been chosen, after all. Heaven, Hell or Earth, nothing in creation could subvert the blessing of God.

It was time to make that abundantly clear to these upstart children.

"Michael," he commanded. "End this farce. KILL THEM ALL!"


"Yoshitsune, Hassohappa! Asura, Deathbound!"

"Loki, Mabufudyne! Cerberus, Piercing Hit!"

The battle between Naito and Tomohisa had grown more intense with every passing second. A few short-sighted Tamers and Flock members had actually given into temptation and stopped to gawk as the cop and the Yakuza don's demons clashed. They quickly came to regret it, of course, when enterprising fighters from opposing factions struck them ruthlessly from behind.

Tomohisa gritted his teeth as Naito's demons closed in: Asura's faces contorted with effort as his massive muscled arms came up to block the glowing claws of Naito's Cerberus. The talons bit deep, Asura grunting in pain as he tried to keep the snarling, snapping Beast at a distance. Yoshitsune dodged and weaved around Loki's ice, blades flashing inches from the Norse trickster as Loki danced around them, chuckling mockingly at the samurai's frustration.

Naito spared a glance over his shoulder. Colette wasn't coming to his aid any time soon: Tomohisa's crew seemed to have realized the threat she posed, and a number of them had come to stand fearlessly against her, fighting off her Sraosha despite the clear gap in power. Their attacks didn't seem to be doing much more than annoying the high-powered angel, but they had brought her advance to a halt.

Cerberus's pained yelp brought Naito back to reality. Asura had dislodged the hellhound, getting the sizable Beast airborne with a single punch to the snout. But the assault didn't stop there. With a lunatic warcry, Asura unleashed a blinding-fast flurry of punches, juggling Cerberus as it pummeled it from head to tail, before winding up and slamming one final fist through the dog's head, smashing it to smithereens. Cerberus vanished into black smoke. Loki realized the danger in the nick of time: spreading his wings, the trickster jumped back as Asura's fireball obliterated the pavement where he had been seconds before. Asura and Yoshitsune turned to glare at Loki as he alighted next to his master, who was already raising his phone.

"Awright, try this one on for size!"

The screen flashed, and blue flames boiled around him, hiding him from view. Yoshitsune and Asura steeled themselves as the fire began to twist and contort, forming ominous shapes: snarling, emaciated dogs, dead-eyed horses that whinnied and tossed their heads, with hooded riders wielding torches, swords, pitchforks and scythes.

The Wild Hunt: a fathomless, phantasmal army.

Tomohisa blinked. 'Okay, calm down, Taichi. It's ONE demon, it's gotta be…'

A fearsome figure with a horned helm near the back of the ghostly entourage raised a hunting horn to his lips, letting out a loud, droning note that made the hair on Tomohisa's neck and arms stand on end. With a battle cry, Wild Hunt charged with weapons at the ready. Yoshitsune rushed to meet them, glowing with a blue honeycomb of protective energy and twirling his swords so fast they were a blur of flashing steel.

The blades cleaved through the specters one after the other, deflecting incoming weapons as Yoshitsune hacked off the legs of the horses, bifurcated riders and decapitated hunting dogs. It was like a hot knife through butter: the swords cut the ghosts through without resistance and the instant they did so the ghosts evaporated. It was as if Yoshitsune was cutting through mist rather than a solid foe. Despite the apparent ease of the task, the samurai's brow was furrowed: for every one he cut down, another took its place. There was only so long he could keep up his defenses, and Wild Hunt's ranks seemed limitless. Even now they were beginning to overtake him, slowly surrounding him and waiting for their opening.

Realizing Yoshitsune's predicament, Tomohisa ordered Asura to jump in and help. But no sooner did the command leave his mouth than a Mabufudyne smashed into the ground mere inches from the Deity. Asura glowered up at Loki, who was slowly descending before him, smirking and waggling a finger. Asura was forced to dodge another blast of ice, and moments after he did so, Wild Hunt broke through Yoshitsune's defenses.

The samurai let out a howl of pain as a pitchfork slipped past his blades and plunged deep into his chest. Yoshitsune was hauled bodily off the ground as the specters roared in triumph: one was spurring its horse forward, bringing his scythe back.

Tomohisa gritted his teeth, raising his phone and hammering the touchpad. "Wukong!"

Yoshitsune vanished in a flash, the scythe whooshing through empty air. Wild Hunt turned its collective empty eyes on Tomohisa as the Monkey King appeared. Wukong let out a screech as he brought his staff back, the weapon telescoping to the length of a telephone pole.

Naito flinched. "Tch…LOKI!"

But it was no use: just as Asura had been pinned down by Loki, Loki now found himself unable to aid Wild Hunt, as the Deity kept on a steady stream of fireballs and punches.

Winding up, Wukong swung his staff with all his strength at Wild Hunt as the specters charged at him, trying in vain to reach him in time. The weapon slammed through them, scything them down and dispersing them en-masse into blueish fog.

All except for one.

There was a hollow thunking sound as the staff caught on something: the specter with the horned helm that had sounded the hunting horn had been struck, its horse shrieking and flailing its limbs in the air before it dissolved. The specter was sent face-first to the ground, tumbling and rolling before coming to a stop. Tomohisa blinked as the horned specter struggled to its feet; already, it was gathering blue flames around it, and the first rudimentary shapes of dogs and hunters were starting to form.

The wires sparked in Tomohisa's mind. "THAT ONE! TAKE HIM DOWN!"

Wukong retracted his staff to more manageable length and swooped forward, the Flying Nimbus leaving a contrail as it carried its master to his target. The King of the Wild Hunt looked up, its glowing eyes widening as it pulled out its sword.

Blade and staff clashed, Wukong forced to back off after a moment as specters materialized around him, taking swipes and stabs at him. Despite having repelled the Monkey King for the moment, Naito was fuming: the illusion had been broken. Wild Hunt's vulnerability had been revealed, and Wukong was entirely capable of plowing through the fragile specters with that staff in one big swing.

To make matters worse, Loki had slipped up, firing a blast of ice that Asura ducked. With a roar, the Deity lunged, driving a fist into Loki's solar plexus. Loki's eyes bulged as he let out an agonized wheeze. Asura didn't stop there, however: one of his arms shot down, grabbing Loki by the ankle. With a roar, Asura swung Loki helplessly through the air, slamming the trickster back and forth against the pavement before chucking him back to his master. Naito jumped out of the way as Loki bounced past him. Loki took a moment to struggle to his feet, clutching his stomach: the smirk the Norse deity had been wearing was nowhere to be seen, replaced by a mixture of hatred and pain.

Tomohisa glared back as Asura returned to his side, giving a sideways glance to Wukong as the Monkey King clashed with Wild Hunt. "That all you got?"


As lightning flashed and thunder roared, the battle between Michael and the Fiends raged on, and neither side was giving an inch.

Holy Dance blasts burst from the Scarlet Beast's mouths, mingling with the swarms of arrows White Rider was unleashing one after the other. Black Rider galloped around, dodging lightning bolts and returning fire with shards of ice. Pale Rider's and Trumpeter's Zandynes roared through the air, forming raging tornados that tore at the Archangel, and Red Rider was conjuring firestorms with every swing of its sword.

And yet, Michael fought on, simply powering through what attacks he couldn't dodge or deflect and returning fire with searing lightning bolts that covered the battlefield in an electric blue glow. At one point, White Rider's arrows managed to force him into striking distance of Mother Harlot, whose beast eagerly extended a head, mouth agape to swallow the Archangel whole. But Michael pivoted in the air, his foot glowing bright white as he drove a bone-shattering kick to the beast's chin and sent the head snapping backwards. Mother Harlot gasped, scooting to the side just in time before the wayward head struck her.

If there was anything Mai could take pride in, it was that Phillips clearly hadn't expected the match to be so even: impatience was plain on his face, aggravation that his almighty Archangel hadn't crushed the girls as effortlessly as he had hoped.

Michael flew backwards and raised his spear for a Heaven's Blade, and Trumpeter moved to intercept, launching a full-power Horn of Judgement. Even as Michael adjusted his grip to defend, Phillips scowled: Black Rider was moving into position. Occupied blocking the Almighty attack, Michael could offer no defense as Black Rider hit him with a Soul Balance, sending the Archangel careening through the air as ice crystals glistened on his wings.

Credit where it was due: the girls certainly had the 'teamwork' thing down. More than he could say for his senseless followers. They were bumbling at the best of times, and couldn't fight in harmony to save their lives: the humiliating death toll they had accumulated over the week was testament to that. Phillips supposed he shouldn't be surprised: unlike him, they weren't warriors. They were actors, if that, formed of his congregation in the megachurch he presided over before he had heard his master's words and formed the Flock. They had come to this country expecting a nice, small outbreak to play with, no real danger…instead they had found horror and butchery.

There was little sympathy to be had for them, though: after all, it was their incompetence that let the Server slip from their control. Were it not for their idiocy, he wouldn't be in this situation!

Righteous anger at the realization swelled in Phillips, and he extended his hand as Michael struggled to recover from Black Rider's icy blow. The sight of the Archangel reeling only infuriated Phillips more. "{Enough of this, Michael! Stop fooling around and crush them, you imbecile!}"

Michael spread his wings, aglow with lightning as he tilted his head back and let out a war cry. The clouds above him churned and darkened, unleashing a torrent of electricity. Black Rider, who Reo had foolishly ordered to pursue Michael, took a direct hit. The horse screamed as the Fiend was thrown to the ground, unseating the black-robed figure. Black Rider struggled to move, crawling to retrieve its scales as more lightning bolts closed in on it, but just as Phillips's heart leapt at the thought of destroying one of his opponents, another one moved to defend: Red Rider leaped into action, summoning a whorl of fire that refracted the lightning in every direction but that of its target. Phillips let out a snarl of fury as Black Rider was allowed to recover, fire billowing around Red Rider's blade as the Fiend brought it back.

"Eat it, old maaaaaaan!" Sara howled as Red Rider swung its sword, launching a crescent wave of flames at the Archangel. Lightning bolts converged around Michael, defending him from the inferno. But just as Michael began to think the assault was over, something plowed through his defenses: two Zandynes, mingling together to form a single raging tempest, exploded through the firestorm and managed to punch past the shield of electricity, slamming dead-on into Michael's chest. Kaede let out a joyous gasp as the Zandyne exploded, engulfing Michael in raging winds. Mai pumped a fist as Trumpeter and Pale Rider cackled. "Direct hit!"

Phillips's face turned bright red as he watched the lightning fade away and his Archangel plummet like a stone, letting out a scream of primal gibberish. Somehow, Michael managed to right himself and land on his feet, and though he was breathing hard and needed his spear to help support him, he pushed himself upright, standing as resolutely as he could manage before the girls.

"How…how much fight does he have in him?!" Nanami whispered, aghast. "We're pummeling him like crazy and he's still coming at us!"

"Don't lose faith, Nanami. He's wounded." Yuuna mused. "We're doing damage. Of course…" she looked around at the deathly ensemble of Fiends. "Our Fiends are in much the same state. The end's approaching, that much is certain."

She was right: just as Michael was weak-kneed and breathing hard, so too were his foes. Foam was dripping from the mouths of the Riders' steeds and the Scarlet Beast, and the skeletons atop them were hunched over.

The sight of his wounded, winded Archangel seemed to be sending Phillips into conniptions. Mai watched his face twisting every which way with open satisfaction. "He's not measuring up to the hype, huh, you psychotic old bastard? Feeling a little buyer's remorse?!"

In all likelihood, Phillips didn't even hear her. He was too busy bellowing at Michael. "{What is going on? Are you not the greatest of the Archangels?! You call this wretched display fighting?! I am God's Own Chosen, and you will not degrade me any further! You will crush these worthless infidels at once! DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?!}"

For a moment, Nanami could have sworn she saw Michael's jaw tighten in anger at his master's verbal abuse. She didn't understand what Phillips was screaming, but by the tone of his voice it was unlikely to be words of encouragement. She shook her head in disgust. "Not even your Archangel is immune. Is there anyone you don't talk down to? Anyone you actually respect? Anyone at all?!"

This caught Phillips's attention: he turned his glare to Nanami, who returned it with a withering gaze of her own. "And to think I looked up to you! I can't believe how depraved you are! I can't even console myself anymore thinking you're just some misguided extremist: the Flock, your angels, humanity itself, you don't give a damn about anyone but yourself! Nobody matters to you but you, is that it?! You're such a LOSER!" she screamed.

"I AM GOD'S OWN CHOSEN!" Phillips bellowed back. "Hand-picked by the Almighty Himself! The messiah of the modern age! I am to be the fulcrum around which the world shall revolve! I AM the only one who matters, you insolent little brat! This world and everything in it belongs to me!"

Nanami was seething in fury, tears rolling down her cheeks. "No forgiveness. Not ever." She snarled. "I will never, ever forgive you! EVER!"

This really got Phillips seething. "Forgive?! How dare you?! How DARE you insinuate I need to be forgiven, particularly by you! Just who the hell do you think you are, you arrogant little twit! Passing judgement on me…weren't you listening?! I! AM! GOD'S! OWN! CHOSEN! All I have done is in His name! It has been done with His blessing! I've done nothing, nothing that needs forgiveness! You, you are the ones who are sinning! You are enemies of the divine, and I will not suffer your presence a moment longer!" He rounded on his Archangel. "MICHAEL, STOP WASTING TIME AND KILL THEM ALREADY!"

With every last bit of strength he had left, Michael took a fighting stance, generating as much lightning as he could muster. The girls braced themselves.

This was it. Yuuna could feel it in her bones: Michael was about to stake everything he had left on this final assault. She slipped her hand into Nanami's; it felt clammy, and it trembled with rage. "Get ready, everyone…"

Mai nodded. "I know. Here he comes…!"

Michael took off like a shot, roaring at the top of his lungs as he tore through the air at the Fiends, lightning following in his wake as his spear glowed brightly. Reo extended a hand, and Black Rider raised its scales, conjuring a huge, spiked glacial wall. Michael didn't even slow down: the Archangel slammed headlong into it with a horrible crash.

"HaHA!" Reo shouted. "That's right, crack your head ope-"

Michael's lightning flashed even brighter, and with a shattering noise he plowed right through the wall. Spears of ice had managed to pierce his armor and now stuck out of him all over like a pincushion, and the damage had slowed his advance considerably, but this didn't stop him from striking Black Rider with terrible force. It was too much: as Michael shot by, Black Rider and its screaming steed were thrown through the air, disintegrating into black smoke.

Reo paled at the destruction of her Fiend as Sara stepped up, Red Rider swinging its sword and sending waves of fire out that consumed the charging Archangel. "Yeaaaah!" Sara shouted. "Scorch 'im good!

But Michael burst from the flames, readying a Heaven's Blade even as he wobbled dangerously in the air. Red Rider took a defensive stance just in time to mitigate the worst of it, but the force of the attack still threw it from its steed and sent its sword flying from its hand. It wasn't enough to destroy it like what happened to Black Rider, but for what it was worth, Red Rider was out of the fight.

Emboldened by the fall of two of its adversaries, Michael put on speed as the next wave of the girls' attacks closed in on him: a swarm of Holy Dance blasts and shining white arrows. Mother Harlot and White Rider laid it on as thick as they could as Michael spun his spear, deflecting swaths of their attacks even as others slipped past his guard and crashed into him. The damage was enough to force Michael to kneel on the ground, but just as Nanami dared to hope that they had struck a decisive blow, Michael sent another Heaven's Blade careening toward them. The two Fiends took the attack dead on, and though Mother Harlot was able to hang on, White Rider was not so fortunate.

Michael forced himself to stand, smirking as he watched the Scarlet Beast collapse in pain and the eye-ridden horse and its rider fade away into nothing. But then his smile faded: he could hear something racing toward him at a full gallop. Instinctively, the Archangel whirled around, planting his spear in the ground. The weapon dug deep into the neck of Pale Rider's steed, but it wasn't enough to completely stop the Fiend's attack: as the skeleton was thrown through the air and its horse vanished behind him, it swung its scythe and its aim was true, the blade of the ghastly weapon slamming through Michael's breastplate and coming clean out the back. Michael gagged, expelling shining white blood from his mouth as he was dragged to the ground. Pale Rider struggled to keep a grip on its scythe and the Archangel pined as Michael fought to extricate himself. With a scream of fury, Michael gripped the handle of the weapon, and seconds later searing bolts of electricity coursed around him and the Fiend. Pale Rider groaned as the voltage tore into him, fighting valiantly to stay on its feet.

Kaede watched for a moment, taking a deep breath as she turned to the dark-haired girl beside her. "Mai-san, end it!"

Mai clenched her fists, looking skywards. "Trumpeter…give it EVERYTHING!"

The bell of the Fiend's horn glowed a blinding white as it poured everything it had into one final attack. Taking a deep breath, the skeletal angel blew into its instrument with all its might, firing the Horn of Judgement straight down. Michael looked up, giving a gasp of fear moments before the Almighty attack engulfed him and Pale Rider.

Phillips's eyes widened. No…it was impossible…even with Michael's dismal performance there was no conceivable way…

The Horn of Judgement pulsed, and then detonated with a blinding flash and rush of air. The force of it was enough to shatter a couple of the marble pillars nearby. Phillips grabbed his hat to keep it from flying off, and the girls clutched their partners, hunkering down as the blast wave swept over them. Mai had told her Fiend to 'give it everything' and Trumpeter had delivered.

As the blinding light faded, an eerie silence fell over the Domain. Even the ethereal chanting in the distance had stopped. Mai slowly looked up, releasing Reo as the two turned to survey the damage. Pale Rider was nowhere to be seen, but something was pushing itself up through the clouds, spreading a pair of huge wings as it struggled to its feet.

"No…" Yuuna whispered. "No, no, no…!"

Michael raised his spear in shaking hands as electricity began to course around him once again, growing steadily more intense as he leveled his weapon at the girls. Phillips leaned in, his face lighting up with sadistic glee. "{Yes…yeeeeeees! It's over-!}"

Michael's eyes went dead and his arms went limp, the spear slipping from his fingers and clattering on the ground. The Archangel wobbled for a moment, then dropped to his knees as his body lit up in a blinding light. Seconds later he erupted in a huge pillar of light that slowly faded away, and when it vanished, Archangel Michael was nowhere to be seen.

Mai's heart skipped a beat. Phillips's expression hadn't changed from a twisted, open-mouthed grin, even as his eyes went dead. "{Huh?}"

For a moment, both sides seemed simply too stunned to react. Yuuna glared at Phillips as he stared blankly at the spot his Archangel had been. "He's gone. Your Archangel is dead. And with that…it's over. We win, and you lose." She hissed. Phillips slowly looked up at her, his face pale and expressionless, even as his green eyes burned with rage. Testing her luck, Yuuna took a step forward.

"I hope you're ready, Phillips, for what comes next." she said quietly.

Phillips was legitimately trembling with fury as he held out his cane, slowly releasing it and leaving it to hover by his side. Then he brought a quivering hand up to remove his glasses, tossing them into the clouds. The hat was next to go, cast away without a second glance. Finally, he gripped his collar. "And what do you think that is? You think this is finished, child? Fool." With a swift tug, he tossed his jacket aside, leaving him in his pants.

It was more than just his youth that had been restored to him. The man had the body of an athlete. Reaching out again, he plucked his cane out of the air, holding it like a sword.

Nanami instinctively took a defensive stance. "What are you…?"

A twisted smirk wound its way across Phillips's face, and Nanami realized with a jolt that he had come to hover a few inches above the clouds. The realization hit Mai like a ton of bricks, and she summoned Kali as fast as she could. "Everyone, he's…"

That was as far as she got: Phillips took off like a shot, speeding along the clouds and making a beeline toward the girls as he pulled his cane back. Kali moved to intercept him, swords meeting cane with a soul-cringing crash of metal. Phillips scoffed as he deflected the blades, opening Kali up for a devastating strike to the midriff. Kali wheezed in pain as the Femme was tossed aside like a wad of paper by the force of the blow.

Despite how badly Kali's attempt at defense had gone, it had bought necessary time: by the time Phillips had turned his attention back on the girls, an army of demons had planted itself between them and him. The mad priest grunted, tilting his head back and forth as a series of cracks and pops issued from his neck.

"It's for the best, really. After all the suffering you caused me, I will find great pleasure…" The wicked smirk on his face grew. "In killing you all myself."

And without another word, he shot forward, leaving a contrail in his wake as he descended on Mai and her friends, snarling like a lunatic.


Somehow, incredibly, the battle outside the hospital had become even more pitched. The demons were to thank for that. Without Phillips's storm keeping them suppressed, they were back out on the streets, and were launching an attack of their own on the hospital. Whether it was simply due to the concentration of people there, or an uncanny realization that their presence on Earth was in jeopardy, a huge number of them had made a dynamic entrance and began attacking Flock member and Tamer alike, and all at once the already-disorganized melee had become a chaotic hairball.

Leading the pack was a fearsome demon indeed: a towering, scowling, red-skinned humanoid clad in golden armor, wielding a huge trident. He declared himself to be Bishamonten, and had wasted no time in charging into the fray himself, swatting angels, demons and humans alike, anything that got close, as he boomed orders to his fellow demons in a voice clearly audible even above the din of combat.

Tomohisa and Naito had been forced to turn their attention away from each other for the sake of self-preservation, trying to beat back the tide of demons while taking potshots at each other when the opportunity presented itself.

Asura seized a Vritra by the arms, the Dragon's eyes going wide as the Deity brought his foot up, slamming it into his foe: Vritra flew backwards, relieved of its arms, and was promptly blown to dust by an Agidyne. Naito saw the explosion out of the corner of his eye and scowled. "Quit fucking around, Loki!" He snapped.

The trickster rolled his eyes, grabbing a charging Macabre by the face. The Jaki tried to raise its scythe for an attack, but already it was too late: ice engulfed it, and a quick squeeze from Loki smashed the demon's head into frozen smithereens. Wild Hunt had reconstituted itself, and the phantoms were swarming over a pair of Behemoths, hacking at the hippos' bodies as the Wilders thrashed frantically. Naito took another glance over at Tomohisa and went pale: Asura had just dodged a small green dragon's Bufudyne and returned fire with a point-blank Agidyne. Culebre let out a screech as the fireball obliterated it, and with it gone, Asura had a direct shot right at…!

"Oh fu-FUCK! LOKI!" Naito screamed, his voice cracking.

Asura threw a straight punch, firing an Agidyne right at him. There would be no dodging it: Naito braced himself for the pain…

But rather than searing heat, a wave of cold swept over him as a wall of ice erupted in front of him, the Agidyne exploding harmlessly against it. Tomohisa's eyes widened. It wasn't Loki: the trickster was too busy kicking a fallen Culebre that had tried to attack him. Even as the realization came to him, the Archangel responsible descended from above, her cold eyes glaring down at him. Naito glanced over: indeed, Colette had appeared beside him.

"Huh. Well, this is embarrassing." Naito snorted.

"We need to stop fooling around and get into the hospital." Colette snapped. Her eyes narrowed. "Something's happened in there: Michael's influence has lifted." Naito glanced up at Gabriel, who was casually flicking her sword at Asura, the Deity frantically hopping around trying to avoid the spikes of ice shooting up around him. So that explained why Gabriel had suddenly entered the fray: no more freaky lightning storm to counter out. But why was Colette so spooked about it?

Tomohisa overheard her, and when the realization dawned on him, his face split in a huge grin. "So that's it. We win!" He shouted. "Looks like the girls and their Fiends handled it just fine."

Even Colette's freckles went pale. "Fiends?" She breathed. "As in plural?!"

Tomohisa scoffed as Asura and Wukong fended off the last of the wild demon opponents, placing themselves between their master and his two foes. "Heh…told you we had a secret weapon."

Colette stood gobsmacked, shaking her head as she let out a pair of sparse, dry chuckles. "{I was right…it was him. It was Lucifer, all along. I told you, but you wouldn't…stupid, stupid old man!}"

Naito looked unnerved at his partner's outburst, while Tomohisa leaned in. "The hell are you on abo-"

Colette whirled around to glare at her Archangel. "GABRIEL!" she screamed.

Gabriel's eyes snapped open, raising her sword and flinging it point-first into the ground. Tomohisa's eyes widened as a field of ice spikes erupted from the ground, sending chunks of pavement flying as they surged in a wave toward Asura, Wukong and Tomohisa.

Tomohisa's instincts, sharpened by years on the force, kicked in. He raised his phone, recalling Asura as he turned to his other demon. "Wukong!" he snapped. Obediently, the Monkey King scooped him up, the flying nimbus leaving a contrail as the two flew high into the air, out of the reach of the razor-sharp spikes.

Gabriel's ferocious attack caught everyone's attention, demon and human alike. Bishamonten spared only a moment to drive his trident's points into the face of a Flock deserter and kick her aside before turning impassively away to gaze at the Archangel, his eyes narrowing. "Hmm…" He grunted.

Gabriel's attack wasn't over yet: swooping down, Gabriel seized her sword and stabbed it into the air. Instantly, the ice spikes shuddered to life, bursting one after the other randomly from the ground and shooting like bullets at the airborne Monkey King and his master. Tomohisa's stomach lurched as Wukong took evasive maneuvers, weaving around the flying spikes as they shot past him. But Gabriel still wasn't done: with a flick of her sword, the airborne spikes splintered and came apart, and now the attack was coming from above. A sheet of glistening, pointed hail raining down on Tomohisa and Wukong, enough to shred them both into fine salsa if it connected.

Tomohisa thought fast, hitting a button. "Race Skill: Asura Destiny!"

Wukong's body seemed to flicker for a moment, as if he were an image on an old television. Then, with whooping battle cries, two identical copies of the demon shot out from behind him, twirling their staffs and flying up to meet the scintillating hail. The whirling weapons smashed the ice needles to harmless fragments. Their job done, the copies vanished, leaving Wukong looking unsteady and drained.

Despite her attack's failure, Colette didn't seem all too perturbed. She crouched down, preparing to sprint for the hospital door: with any luck, Tomohisa would reach the ground just in time to stop Naito from following her. But just as she took off running, tuning out Naito's angry shouts behind her, something smashed into the ground, blocking her path.

For a split second, she recognized it as a golden trident. Then the weapon vanished behind a wall of fire, and a wave of explosive force smashed into her, sending her tumbling backwards tail over teakettle.

"You aren't going anywhere."

Colette shook herself, struggling to right herself as Bishamonten strode over, extricating his weapon from the ground as the flames around it faded away. Tomohisa and Wukong swooped to the ground, the cop re-summoning Asura and giving Bishamonten a wary gaze. The Kishin noticed, giving him a sideways glance. "The Archangel Gabriel. She's the biggest threat on the battlefield, to both you and my fellow demons. An alliance to destroy her is only natural." The demon boomed. Tomohisa snorted.

"Well this is new: a wild demon working with a Tamer of his own volition." He mused. Bishamonten scowled.

"Only until Gabriel falls, mortal. Then you and your ilk will serve as a victory banquet."

Tomohisa grunted. "Yeah, keep telling yourself that…"

Colette shook her head as she got to her feet. "Stupid Deva…get out of our w-" her sentence choked off as she sensed an intense killer intent from behind her. Whirling around and drawing her baton, she deflected Naito's butterfly knife seconds before it buried itself in her back. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" she screamed as she struggled to keep the much larger man at bay.

Naito smirked down at her. "Ya tried to run off without me, bitch. If that doesn't say to me 'you've outlived your usefulness', I don't know what does."

With a herculean effort, Colette shoved him away, taking a swing with her baton to make sure he backed off. Loki was making a move: generating a lightning bolt, the trickster sent it sizzling down toward Colette. Gabriel conjured a wall of ice to block it, but was blindsided by a joint fireball from Bishamonten and Asura. The Archangel was thrown to the ground, more dazed than injured, calling up another wall of ice to block Bishamonten's second fireball. Colette seethed with anger as Loki and Wild Hunt glared at her, Naito twirling his butterfly knife with a smirk.

"You seemed pretty confident you could take whatever's in there on your own." He chuckled. "And if you can, so can I…which means I don't need you anymore, do I?"

"Idiots…you're all idiots!" Colette was whipping around, trying to keep all her opponents in view at once. "Don't you get it? We've been had! All of us! Lucifer is-!"

"Yes…His Excellency's plan is coming together splendidly." Bishamonten chortled. "Soon, his acolytes will fulfill their destined role. It is the prerogative of I, the mighty Bishamonten, to ensure that comes to pass. That means stopping you, o slave of the Great Will."

Tomohisa glanced at him. "The hell are you…" For a moment, his eye flickered toward the hospital behind him. Bishamonten noticed and his eyes narrowed.

"I hope you're not planning to interfere, human." He said darkly.

For the first time since the battle began, cold doubt began to nestle in Tomohisa's heart. 'Mai-san…and all of you…I hope you know what you're doing.' He thought. Then he took a fighting stance, staring Colette down. "Come on!" he barked.

Colette was backing up, trying to reposition herself to face down her three opponents. "Idiots…" she was muttering. "Godforsaken idiots…Gabriel!" she commanded. Her Archangel took to the sky, summoning an aura of freezing air. "Wipe them all out!"


"It's glorious…it's sublime! For the first time in my life, things are truly as they should be! This fantastic power…at last, I have shed my weak, abhorrent humanity! I'm an angel! An angel in body and soul!"

Having entered the fray himself, what little decorum Phillips had been showing was rapidly evaporating. The priest had clearly given himself over to the divine power fueling him, he was surging at Mai and her friends' demons like a rabid animal, and it was all they could do to keep him at bay. Any hits they had landed on him only seemed to agitate him further. Not helping the whole situation was the fact Phillips refused to shut up. From the very beginning of the battle, he had been ranting and raving about his new power, about how he had finally escaped the 'curse' of his humanity, how he had transcended death…

"I am God's Own Chosen!" he screamed as he smashed Kaede's Vritra's skull with his cane. "The Lord is with me, guiding my hand and hardening my blows! You degenerates who have turned from the Light shall never…!"

Mai tried to tune him out as she glanced over to Kaede: her friend was replacing her fallen demon with an armored swordswoman with short blonde hair. Jeanne D'Arc set her face in a determined scowl as she drew her sword and pointed it at Phillips, a cape colored like the French flag billowing behind her. Kaede noticed Mai's gaze and returned it. "Any ideas, Mai-san?" she whispered. "This guy's crazier than a balloon sandwich, but he's still got it."

"Definitely wasn't expecting him to jump into the fray himself." Mai hissed back, staring at Phillips.

'Our Fiends are exhausted. So how do we beat him? He's strong, he's fast, he's got those wicked-ass force blasts, and for all his talk about being an angel and transcending humanity the scan came up with an error message. Guess it's just a matter of brute force until I come up with something better!'

Reo would be so proud of her, she thought with a sardonic twinge. Just the kind of scheme her girlfriend loved. And with that, she ordered Kali into the fray, Jeanne charging alongside the Hindu goddess as they bore down on their target.

"Idiot demons…" Phillips smirked as he raised his cane above his head. With a roar, he slammed it into the ground. For a moment, the air around him seemed to distort, and then a colossal explosion reverberated around them: Mai and her friends were almost blown off their feet by the wave of force that erupted from Phillips and swept over them like a hurricane. Jeanne and Kali were sent tumbling backwards through the air as Phillips laughed. "I will send you crawling shattered back to the pit! You and the harlots you serve!"

Nanami was already rushing over to heal them, her demon close behind. Amaterasu, a woman with a kind, beautiful face, flowing black hair and billowing white robes, held out her hands over the two injured demons, casting Mediarahan on them. Sara snorted under her breath as she and Reo stepped forward, Frost Ace taking a fighting stance and Rangda flashing her claws. "Oh, just listen to you. You must've been waiting all week to just go nuts like this. I bet you think you sound so cool right now." Phillips cracked his neck as the two demons prepared to attack.

"You know what you sound like, Archibald Phillips? You sound like a total dork!" Reo screamed.

Rangda shot skywards, cackling. The Femme extended her claws, all ten razor points glowing with fire. Phillips grinned madly as Rangda let fly with a barrage of fireballs, bringing his cane back and swinging it like a sword. The fireballs were snuffed out by a surging blast of force, and Rangda was sent spinning backwards with a shriek as the wave washed over her.

Satisfied with his work, Phillips turned his attention to the other demon closing in on him. Frost Ace leaped up, bringing a fist back and swinging it as hard as it could at Phillips's face. Phillips's palm shot out, catching the punch with a reverberating 'whack'. Phillips grinned broadly as he brought his cane up for a devastating strike.

But Frost Ace was faster. With a "Hee-ho!", the little masked demon brought his other hand up, clamping it around Phillips's wrist and hanging on for dear life. Phillips's eyes widened in confusion for a moment, then the madman let out a howl of pain: ice was starting to creep over his arm. Sara's eyes widened.

"His arm…the wristband! Frost Ace, smash the wristband!" she screamed.

"IMPUDENCE!" Phillips bellowed, raising his cane. Frost Ace pivoted, swinging itself to intercept the incoming staff. The Hero's foot struck Phillips's wrist, forcing him to release his cane as his hand went numb. Phillips fumbled for it for a moment as it toppled away, before realizing the danger he was in. With a roar, he threw a punch at Frost Ace. Releasing Phillips's wrist and dropping to the ground as the man's fist swung over his head, Frost Ace coiled like a spring and leaped forward, driving his fist past Phillips's guard to connect with a sickening crack.

Phillips's eyes crossed as he let out an agonized wail.

Sara's heart leaped even as she cringed involuntarily, hearing her friends cry out in shock behind her. Pointing a triumphant finger at her reeling, gasping adversary, she laughed raucously. "BULLSEYE!" she crowed. "I don't care if you're an angel: that! Had! TO HURT!"

"Khh…kill…you…!" Phillips groaned. The divine strength that had been flowing through his body seemed to have left him entirely, leaving a mass of pelvic pain in its place. He could do little but stumble backwards, doubled over and clutching his groin, eyes watering and stomach heaving as he tried to regain his bearings.

Frost Ace darted forward, crouching low. With a loud "HEE-HO!", the Hero leaped up, launching an uppercut to Phillips's chin that lifted him clean off the ground. Reo's eyes widened as she watched Phillips land hard on his back. He lay there, motionless. "He-he's down! LET'S GET HIM!"

Rangda and Frost Ace hurtled towards the prone Phillips. Mai, Yuuna, Kaede and Nanami leaned in: even Amaterasu had looked up from her attempts to heal Mai, Yuuna and Kaede's demons, holding her breath in anticipation.

Phillips's eyes snapped open. The scream he let out barely sounded human. Rangda and Frost Ace were blown back as a whirling twister of force exploded around Phillips, churning the clouds and hiding him from view. Mai grunted in aggravation. "Dammit…!"

Frost Ace hit the ground and staggered trying to keep upright, and this moment of vulnerability proved lethal for the diminutive snowman: Phillips burst from the cloud, hand held like a claw as he brought it back. With a mighty swipe, Phillips smashed Frost Ace's head to smithereens, killing the demon instantly. Sara raised her phone, shuffling through her inventory for a replacement demon as Reo recalled Rangda and summoned forth a new demon to take the witch's place: a squat, rotund, red-skinned creature that floated cross-legged a few feet off the ground. Reaching behind it, Yaksa pulled a wicked scimitar off its back. Phillips stood hunched over for a moment, wheezing like a winded rhinoceros, before he shook himself and straightened up, reaching his hand out to the side. There was a whirring sound as his cane flew through the air, returning faithfully to his hand. Phillips ran a hand through his hair, taking a deep breath.

"You don't know when to quit, do you!" Sara growled. Phillips chuckled.

"Defeat would be unbecoming of divinity." He scoffed.

"And now you think you're a god." Yuuna said quietly, shaking her head. "Has your arrogance no limits?"

"Arrogance? I speak the unvarnished truth." Phillips snapped back. "I told you, didn't I? I am God's Own Chosen, hand-picked to enforce His will, enact His justice upon this blighted world. Humanity has never accepted me among them, and now I know why: it is the nature of evil to fear and despise good. Its defiance and hatred of me is proof that I am righteous!" His eyes narrowed. "Once I've killed you, and everyone else in this forsaken city, I will move on, unrelenting. The wages of sin will be swift and inescapable death, until humanity lies sobbing and broken before Him, cursing themselves for every sin they've ever committed. And once victory is mine, I will be rewarded…rewarded beyond the dreams of mortals." His eyes had glazed over and foam was gathering at the corner of his mouth. "I will be granted dominion over the highest spheres of Heaven. I will be beloved by God above any other…ruling alongside Him as an equal…or perhaps even MORE than that! Yes…I'll have done what the host of Heaven, what the Almighty Himself had failed to do! It's only natural I would be…!"

So engrossed was Phillips in his daydream that he never saw the blade fly through the air towards him. The scimitar stabbed through his chest, knocking him flat once more. He struggled to his feet, teeth bared as he glared at Kali, who was pulling another sword out of thin air to replace the one she had flung. Jeanne and Lilith were standing beside the Hindu goddess, taking fighting stances.

"I am so done listening to your drivel." Mai whispered.

Phillips clenched his hand around the blade through his chest, pulling it loose with a swift tug and a grunt of pain. Clutching it in both hands, he snapped the weapon like a candy bar and tossed it aside. "How dare you…" he hissed as he brought his hand up to the gaping wound in his chest. It was healing rapidly, but far slower than the other injuries he had sustained through the fight, and bleeding heavily. "To have the gall to raise your hand against me…to…to harm God's Own Chosen and tell him to be silent…you repugnant little brats, how DARE you?!"

He bent his knees and rocketed forward. Reo's demon charged to intercept, intercepting Phillips as he brought his cane crashing down toward Reo: the walking stick clashed with Yaksa's sword, and Reo raised her phone triumphantly.

"Eat THIS!"

Yaksa let out a rage-filled howl. Reo had activated Aggravate, and Phillips went pale as he realized the demon was changing shape: its potbelly melted away to reveal a rippling six pack and its arms were swelling grotesquely, and Phillips's cane was creaking ominously as Yaksa pushed back against him with all his might. With a final grunt of effort, Yaksa shoved Phillips back, the man stumbling as he tried to regain his balance.

"He's reeling! Hit him now-!" Mai shouted, but even as the words left her mouth she realized it was too late: Phillips caught himself as Yaksa charged headlong. Reo's heart skipped a beat as Phillips brought his cane back, hoping for a split second that he would somehow screw up again and try to overpower the clearly-stronger Touki. No such luck: a strange rippling aura billowed around Phillips's cane, and with a battle cry, he swung it though the air. Yaksa grunted as a wave of solid force erupted from the staff, plowing into him and sending him flying back, his muscles returning to normal as he landed.

Phillips watched the Touki sail backwards for a moment, then stiffened suddenly and jumped back. Just in time, too: Sara's newest demon had tried to sneak up behind him and attack in the confusion. Clad in a green jumpsuit overlaid with beige Kevlar armor and wearing a metal helmet styled like Jack Frost's grinning face, the diminutive demon had taken aim with a futuristic-looking assault rifle and opened up on the priest. The bullets churned up the clouds where Phillips had been standing moments before. Realizing his target had moved, Demonee-Ho spun around, taking aim at Phillips as the priest retreated through the air. Phillips's cane whirled through the air, sparks flying as the bullets were deflected in every direction. But Phillips didn't stop there: extending his hand as he landed, his face hardened in concentration. Sara went dead-white as she realized Demonee-Ho's bullets were coming to a stop, hovering in midair.

A flick of his wrist, and Phillips had redirected the bullets entirely: Jeanne grunted in pain as the projectiles tore into her, her charge reduced to mad stumbling before she crashed to the ground entirely. But in a surprising display of agility considering the demon was clad in full plate armor, Jeanne expertly turned her fall into a forward roll and then a fearless dash towards Phillips, her blade flashing.

The priest saw her approaching, and smirked wickedly as he raised his cane. Sparks flew as Jeanne slammed into him, their weapons clashing together and locking in a clinch. For a moment, Phillips grinned like a lunatic as he slowly shoved Jeanne back, her blade creaking so badly for a moment he was certain it would snap. But then he realized something: despite being forced back, Jeanne was smirking too. The realization hit, Phillips whipping around with a gasp just as Kaede cried out.

"SARA!"

"BREATH!" Sara screamed.

Demonee-Ho had darted behind him, changing his grip on its gun to favor an attachment under the barrel. With a pop and a whoosh, a jet of freezing air sprayed forth, washing over both Jeanne and Phillips. Phillips let out a howl of pain as ice began to creep over him, struggling to detach himself from Jeanne, but the Hero had him pinned. Through the freezing cloud, he could see Jeanne sneering, even as ice began to engulf her as well.

It was the sight of the demon leering at him that put him over the edge. Phillips let out a furious, primal scream and tore himself loose from the clinch, leaping backwards through the air out of Demonee-Ho's attack. The diminutive Hero quickly cut off his attack, aiming it at Phillips as he landed a short distance away as Kali and the other demons formed up beside him.

Mai's heart leaped as she saw Phillips stumble trying to stay upright. "Kali, Deathbound! EVERYONE, LET HIM HAVE IT!"

Phillips's face twisted in an inhuman grimace of fury as the girls' demons closed in on him. "SCUM! FILTH!" He screamed as he brought his cane back, swinging it in a blind frenzy and sending blasts of force in every direction. It was berserk, directionless and clumsy, but it did the trick; the waves were impossible to read, and the demons were swatted away one after the other. "EYESORES! INSECTS! STOP STRUGGLING AND DIE ALREADY!"

Nanami watched as Lilith was thrown through the air by an air blast, dutifully rushing over to the fallen Femme with her demon close behind. "Amaterasu, heal her!"

Nodding, her Megami went to work, the Shinto sun goddess's white silk robes and raven hair billowing around her as she focused her healing magic on Lilith. The serpent-woman jumped to her feet, rushing back into the fray just as Jeanne was thrown aside by another one of Phillips's frantic blows, crashing to the ground a short distance away. Nanami and Amaterasu glanced at each other, then rushed over to Kaede's demon. Kaede nodded as Amaterasu cast Mediarahan on Jeanne, then turned back to Mai.

"We can't even get close to him!" she said. Mai shook her head, never taking her eyes off of Phillips, who was still thrashing all over the place and sending air blasts everywhere.

"Just look at him: he's losing it. He's wild, unfocused, sloppy…we're getting close to breaking his guard, we just gotta keep at him!" she hissed. "Kali, go!"

Indeed, just as Mai had said, Phillips was too busy sending energy waves everywhere to actually offer a proper defense, and he was slowing down as he ran out of breath. There were a few close calls, but Kali managed to slip past the waves and close in on the preacher just as he realized he was in danger. His bloodshot eyes widened as he tried to defend himself, but it was too late.

Kali landed the most vicious hit yet: all six swords cleaved into Phillips at once, sending him sprawling as blood sprayed everywhere. He was on his feet shockingly fast, though, scrambling forward and charging with astonishing speed. His shoulder crashed into Kali's midriff, sending the two of them to the clouds. Phillips was shrieking like a psychotic monkey as he swung his cane wildly over and over into Kali's face. But though Kali was in no position to counterattack, the others were, and Phillips, in the throes of a rabid, frothing meltdown, had completely lowered his guard.

Yaksa was the first to reach him: Phillips managed to deflect the Touki's initial swing, but it was a feint: Yaksa's actual attack came in the form of a devastating palm strike to the madman's jaw. Phillips stumbled, wobbling like a wet noodle as the force of the blow sent the world tilting around him. Then he cried out in pain as an Aggravate-powered sword tore into him, the force of the blow lifting him off of Kali and hurling him into the air.

"Eat this, skeezball!" Sara shouted. "DESPERATE HIT!"

Demonee-Ho darted forward, dropping to one knee and sliding up under Phillips, taking aim as his gun changed shape: from the top, bottom and sides, panels opened up, revealing arrays of micro-missile pods. "FIRE!" Sara commanded. Phillips was just starting to descend when the barrage crashed into him, a relentless series of explosions carrying him higher and higher into the air.

Jeanne D'Arc followed up, darting forward as her cape fell away: a pair of shining, feathered wings burst from her back and her hair grew out until it fell past her waist. Taking flight, she weaved around Demonee-Ho's missiles and shot past the ascending Phillips. Positioning herself above him, she aimed carefully as the sword in her hand began to glow.

"Jeanne, Holy Strike!" Kaede commanded, and the Hero obliged, stabbing the blade downward toward Phillips. A javelin of pure light erupted from her sword, piercing downward and stabbing through Phillips's sternum. Phillips's eyes bulged as a glob of blood burst from his mouth, the force of the Almighty attack carrying him back down to the ground again. He landed hard on his back, the world spinning around him and his chest thundering with pain. Phillips tore the energy blade out of his sternum and jumped to his feet, when he realized the clouds above him were boiling with electricity.

"Ziodyne!" Yuuna cried. Lilith smirked as she brought her hand down in a slashing motion. A lightning bolt split the heavens, smashing into Phillips with a crash of thunder that drowned out his scream of pain. "NANAMI!"

Nanami took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. "Amaterasu." she whispered.

Amaterasu extended a hand toward Phillips, conjuring what could only be called a miniature sun in her palm. With a grunt of effort, the Megami sent the searing blast directly at him. It touched for an instant, stopping in place as it engulfed him entirely. Then it pulsed once, twice, growing in size and power as a loud rumbling filled the Domain. The heat it was emitting went from intense to overwhelming. Beams of piercing light burst from the orb once after the other as its light became blinding.

And then…

"Burn." Hissed Nanami.

The blast was deafening. The force it let off was devastating. Amaterasu's Agidyne, infused with every ounce of Nanami's hatred for Phillips exploded with terrifying force. Mai and her friends found themselves blinded as the shockwave blew a billowing bank of clouds into them, engulfing them in thick fog. Reaching out and groping blindly, Mai felt for Reo. At length, she felt Reo's fumbling fingers close around her hand, and the two clutched each other, bracing themselves for what they would find when the chaos died down.

Slowly, the fog cleared. Squinting, Mai was able to make out a column of smoke where Phillips had been lying, and for an exhilarating moment she wondered if it was all that was left of him. There was no way it couldn't be: Nanami, sweet, fragile little Nanami had just hit him with enough fire to level a city block. There was a few seconds of deafening silence, broken by the loud 'clank' of Phillips's cane falling out of the sky and bouncing against the ground. There it lay, half-melted and smoking.

Then, silence again.

Hesitantly, Mai released Reo's hand, inching forward. Step by step, she approached the thinning column of smoke, squinting in an effort to see through it and get a look at their adversary.

There he was. Covered in burns, eyes vacant, mouth gaping open as smoke rose out of it…there was no way he could be-

Mai nearly jumped out of her skin as Phillips's body jerked violently, and he began coughing, gasping and sputtering. Sara gawked in amazement as she watched Phillips stumble around, trying to stay on his feet. "No…no way! He's still coming at us?!" she squawked.

"No. Look…" Kaede said softly. She watched Phillips stagger to a halt, gasping for breath. His legs were wobbling violently, and it looked like a light breeze would have knocked him flat "It's over."

"He's got nothing left." Nanami could scarcely believe what she was seeing. "It's…it's finished. We've won."

Mai's eye twitched. She took a moment to stare at the broken man before her, then started forward with quick, furious strides. Her blood was thundering in her ears as she balled her hand into a fist, clenching it so tightly she could feel her fingernails digging into her palm. Another step, and then another one, faster and faster, until Mai had broken into a dead run, sprinting at Phillips as she brought her fist back.

"FUCK! YOU!"

She didn't brace her wrist properly: she felt a jolt of pain shoot through it when the punch connected with Phillips's face. Despite her sloppy form, it got the job done. Phillips was knocked clean off his feet, thrown backwards into the clouds like a ragdoll. Mai stumbled, managing to regain her balance before she fell on her face and turning her wild eyes back on her fallen adversary. Storming over to him, she kneeled down, straddling his chest and pinning him to the ground. Through the thin bank of clouds, she could see him, his head lolling dizzily on his neck and his eyes rotating in different directions. With a feral scream, she clasped both hands together, raised them above her head, and brought them down like a hammer into his face.

And she was far from done. Her hands were moving on their own: she was bellowing a disjointed stream of obscenities, only vaguely aware of the growing pain in her knuckles as she slammed them into Phillips's face again and again.

And again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again…

Her friends watched her from behind, with varying expressions. Yuuna's face was blank, and Nanami looked rather disgusted at the way Mai was losing it. Sara and Kaede wore near-identical stunned expressions, and Reo seemed caught between awestruck pride and horror at her girlfriend's uncharacteristic murderousness.

Finally, Mai's fatigue caught up to her. Her knuckles were split, oozing blood and screaming for respite. She landed one last half-hearted punch before her arms went limp, and she simply sat there, gasping and staring down at her bloody, bruised handiwork. Even such an assault hadn't been enough to knock him out cold: still, he was lingering on the edge of consciousness, moaning as his head flopped back and forth. Regardless, the fight was over, and now Archibald Phillips, the madman behind so much pain, was in her grasp.

'He tortured me! Tried to kill me and my friends! Tried to kill Reo! Destroyed countless lives! And now…now he's at my mercy! What am I even waiting for?!'

Phillips's eyes widened as Mai reached out and wrapped her hands around his throat. She was vaguely aware of something in the back of her mind laughing a dry, cruel laugh as she squeezed his neck as hard as she could, her heart pounding as she watched him turn blue and listened to him gasp for breath…

A hand clamped down on Mai's shoulder, breaking her out of her trance. Whipping around, she stared wild-eyed at Yuuna, who gazed impassively back. "No."

Mai looked apoplectic, even as she slowly relaxed her death grip on Phillips's throat, leaving him to gasp for air. "What the hell are you talking about, he needs to…!"

"Exactly!" Yuuna snapped. "I know! He needs to pay for what he's done! He needs to suffer! So we're not going to kill him. We're going to destroy him. Mai-san, think: it's over. His plan is ruined. The Flock is in its death throes. Everything he worked for has amounted to nothing and everyone knows what kind of monster he is." Her eyes narrowed. "He goes to prison. He'll rot there, scorned and powerless, as the world he hates goes on safe from his madness. He'll have nothing to do but wait. Wait to die. Like a human."

She was right. Beating the life out of the madman would be a mercy he didn't deserve. It would leave blood on Mai's hands and a sour taste in her mouth once she calmed down. Mai knew that, and still the thought of leaving Phillips alive, even for the sake of a fate worse than death infuriated her.

She chuckled softly as the adrenaline surging through her started to fade and Yuuna helped her to her feet. 'The week's changed me. It really has.' She thought bitterly. 'Look at me…actually thinking about murdering someone in cold blood. He's beaten. It's over. And I still feel like if I don't kill this son of a bitch, I'll go insane!'

To make matters harder for her, Phillips had begun chuckling, looking positively deranged as he cackled softly with blood oozing from the corner of his mouth. "Is that…is that meant to frighten me?" He croaked. "Fear is unknown to me. What cause would I have to be afraid? The authority of man is meaningless. I am beholden to a higher power. I have shed my disgusting humanity…become the angel I was meant to be. Death has no hold over me. I will outlive any chains, any cage. I will outlive the forests, and the mountains and the seas and this whole festering world. Because no matter what you do to me…I am God's…Own…Chos-"

Mai raised her foot and slammed it down on his face, eliciting a gasp from Nanami. She felt his nose buckle under the blow as Phillips jerked violently, then curled up moaning. Mai wasn't done yet though, and gave him a swift kick in the ribs for good measure.

"Mai-san!" Yuuna snapped.

Mai shook her head, a full-body shiver running through her as she looked back at her friends, pointing a finger down at him.

"Oh, that felt good." She proclaimed. "That felt SO good!" Noticing her friends looking at her, she nodded. "Right…right, we have work to do. Hey, garbage," She addressed Phillips. "Let us out of this Domain." She demanded. She got no response and bent down, planting a knee on his chest to keep him pinned. "Get. Rid. Of this Domain! We won. The Server is ours. Show a little dignity for once in your life and accept defeat like a man!"

For a moment, Mai thought Phillips was mouthing wordlessly. But then she heard him: a thin, weak, reedy, barely audible voice that sounded absolutely nothing like him. "{N-never…I…}" The realization hit: his eyes widened in shock as a hand went to his throat. "{M…my voice…my voice! What's going…nngh…aaaugh…!}"

His eyes bulged in shock and fear as his body went rigid. Mai's eyes went wide, and she heard Nanami give a gasp from behind her. Before her very eyes, Phillips's face had started changing. The healthy glow in his countenance was dimming, and wrinkles and liver spots were sprouting all over it. The brown hair was either turning silver or falling out entirely. The muscles rippling along his torso melted into fat, and his eyes were growing milky and ridden with cataracts. As Mai and her friend watched in revolted amazement, Phillips aged back into a geriatric, feeble old man.

Within seconds, the transformation was finished. Raising his thin, wrinkled hands to his eyes, Phillips let out a weak moan of despair. "{Nhh…aah…no…noooooo…}"

Moments later, a voice rang out from everywhere and nowhere, one she realized with a jolt was Phillips's own, as loud and reverberating as it had ever been.

"Yes, human." The word 'human' dripped with contempt. "That IS thy voice. I lent thee my own, so that thou may spread the Word, and you squandered it."

Phillips looked stunned, then absolutely heartbroken. "{Lord…Lord Metatron?} he wheezed.

Nanami went rigid. "Who…?" she squeaked, looking around.

Yuuna moved closer to her, brandishing her cell phone. "Tch…so there was someone behind the curtain the whole time?" she muttered.

Mai glared at Phillips. "So all this time you were someone's flunky, huh?" she hissed. Looking skyward, Mai braced herself for an attack. "You're the real leader of the Flock, aren't you? Who are you?!"

"Do not foist responsibility for what happened here solely upon me, Mai Sawaguchi. My part in this all was quite limited: I heard this man's fervent prayers to punish humanity for its sins and answered them, giving him the power and the knowledge to make such a thing a reality." The voice boomed. "And look at what has come of it. What a waste of skin thou art, Archibald Phillips: I gave thee everything you needed, and look at you now: brought low by the Morningstar's acolytes. Children, no less."

"{Lord Metatron, please, listen to me!}" Phillips rasped. "{God…God preaches forgiveness! Please, forgive the transgressions of your servant, empower me anew, and let me redeem…I-I am God's Own Chosen!}" Terror had given way to impotent anger. "{He chose me, Lord Metatron, you can't do this to me! You need to show mercy!}"

"Thou would beg forgiveness? Beg for another chance? Beg for MORE power?!" Metatron thundered. "God DID forgive you! You let Lucifer sabotage the Server, and you were forgiven! You let demons overrun the city, and you were forgiven! You let children…CHILDREN…uncover your ruse and drag God's name through the mud, and you were forgiven! You proved yourself to be an egocentric, blasphemous, misanthropic narcissist, incapable of accepting responsibility for your shortcomings, and we found it in ourselves to forgive you! Time after time after time! You were given all the chances and all the power you could ever need, and against all odds, YOU FAILED!"

Mai felt something unyielding strike her: her friends cried out as she was thrown backwards, Reo having enough time to squeak before her girlfriend slammed into her, sending both to the ground in a heap. As she did so, Phillips let out a howl of pain: he was being lifted into the air, arms pulled out to the sides in a grotesque parody of a crucifixion. Mai disentangled herself from Reo, helping the blonde to her feet as she and the others watched in mortified amazement as veins bulged all over Phillips's body, his eyes rolling in their sockets as a blinding light began to envelop him.

"Redemption, Archibald Phillips? After all your shortcomings you wish for redemption?" Metatron shouted. "THEN REDEEM YOURSELF!"

Phillips went stiff, a haunting, wheezing moan issuing from his throat as light burst from his mouth and eyes. With a lurch of nausea, Nanami realized that the old man's body was disintegrating, quite graphically at that: flesh was being seared from bone as beams of light erupted all over his body. Whatever power that had taken hold of him was destroying him from the inside out.

The light had become blinding, a deafening rumbling noise reverberating around Mai and the others. Phillips had completely vanished, and in his place was a blinding cross of pure light. Shielding her eyes as best she could, Reo looked up at Mai.

"What's happening?!" She screamed over the rumbling. Mai gritted her teeth.

"I think he said his name was Metatron?" She shouted back. "Get ready, HERE HE COMES!"

Over the rumbling came a new noise: the scraping of metal and the whirring of servos as a pair of sharp metallic wings unfolded from behind the cross. As the light began to fade, a tremendous shadow fell over the girls, and as Mai lowered her arm to get the first look at her foe, her blood turned to ice.

"Oh, fuck me…"

Towering and immaculate, bathed in divine light, a colossal angel composed of shining metal. His golden hair and silken robes flowed in the wind, his green, dead eyes narrowing as they focused on the girls in front of him.

Reo had gone dead-white. "He's…he's huge!"

Nanami was trembling from head to toe: whatever power high she had gotten from the fall of Phillips had vanished without a trace. 'What an overwhelming presence…' she thought numbly. 'It's like a physical force; I can actually feel it bearing down on me…!'

"Behold me, humans." He spoke without moving his mouth, or changing his expression in the slightest and his voice was booming, noble, and held a metallic undercurrent. "I am Metatron: the Face, the Voice, the Sword. More than can be said about Archibald Phillips."

Mai kept her guard up, glaring up at the huge angel. "Where is he? What did you do to him?"

"His body? Destroyed. Consumed." Metatron said simply. "I used the Magnetite his flesh held to manifest in this world. As for his soul…I do not know. Not even we of the Heavens know such a thing. Perhaps it burns in Hell for his blasphemy, perhaps it vanished from existence along with his body. Whatever the case, it is irrelevant: it would behoove us to focus on the matter at hand. You…"Servos whirred and metal joints creaked as he pointed an accusing finger at Mai and the others. "The accursed disciples of the Great Darkness, who cast into ruin our plans to bring salvation to this world."

Yuuna tried to calm her racing heart and look as calm as possible as she stepped forward, giving her hair a flip. "I have no memory of becoming anyone's disciple. We took up the Fiends and stood against Phillips because he was a piece of sentient garbage that needed to die screaming. Now I don't know who this 'Great Darkness' is, and I can't speak for my friends, but I assure you I have no loyalty to such an individual." Her eyes narrowed.

"Not that it matters to you." She said softly. "We all know why you're here. Right, girls?"

Mai nodded, not taking her eyes off Metatron even as his light made her eyes water. "It may have been Phillips's idea, and he may have done the heavy lifting, but at the end of the day, none of this would've happened without you, Metatron. Isn't that right?" She snapped.

Metatron glowered. "And what of it? What couldst thou possibly accomplish, with thy exhausted Fiends and thy paltry demons? To hope for victory in thy condition is madness." The angel floated higher into the air, shining even brighter. "This is thy ultimatum, mortals: submit to the Lord and repent for thy sins, and thy deaths shall be swift and painless."

He was right. Their Fiends were in no condition to fight. Half of their teams had been destroyed or wounded by Phillips, and none of the demons Mai still had in stock measured up to this mechanical aberration. Regardless, she steeled herself, and out of the corner of her eye, she could see Reo taking a fighting stance, too. Kaede hesitated for a moment, taking a moment to psyche herself up before shaking herself and raising her phone alongside Sara. Yuuna entwined her fingers with Nanami's, and then they too produced their phones, aiming them at the colossal angel. Mai raised her phone to her eyes.

"Metatron. Divine class. Weaknesses are Lightning and Ice." She said. Her tone made it clear that it was more than a simple relaying of information to her friends. A challenge had been made.

"Fools…dist thou not hear me? Thy Fiends and demons would avail thee nothing were they fresh: what hope do they have against me injured? I will command thee again: stand down, and die painlessly." Metatron boomed. A machine he may have been, with a suitably mechanical monotone, but Mai could have sworn she heard surprise and confusion in his voice. With a touch of the screen, Mai activated the Summoning Program. The winding, serpentine form of Kohryu was the first to appear, followed by her ace in the hole: Matador looked fearlessly up at the colossal angel, raising his sword.

Beside her, her friends were following suit: Reo summoned Barong and a new demon. Resembling a festering pile of green sludge stacked three stories high, Abaddon's cavernous mouth opened, its yellow eyes flashing and its tongue flailing as it let out a bellowing roar. Kaede's demons were next to appear: a huge floating, cobalt dogu statue with glowing slitted orange eyes, and a red, lizard-like humanoid, who aimed the trident in its hand at Metatron. They were joined by Black Frost and Nata Taishi, Sara stepping up beside her prince and clenching a fist in a gesture of solidarity.

"Summoning Demons: Lilith! Zaou Gongen!" Yuuna commanded. From her phone burst the snake-clad woman, and a fearsome blue ogre-like humanoid wrapped in chains and white sashes and wielding a spiked golden Vajra. Turning to her lover, Yuuna gave her a nod. "Nanami?"

Nanami glared coldly at Metatron as she raised her phone. "Amaterasu, Samael!"

Amaterasu appeared, and in a whirl of cold wind a new demon appeared by her side: a crimson, serpentine dragon with multiple eyes and even more wings lining its sides and head. The serpent's tongue flickered as it and Amaterasu gazed up at their shining mechanical foe. Mai took a moment to look over the friends watching her back, giving them a reassuring nod before turning back to their adversary. "We've still got demons, Metatron." she said coldly. "As long as we got demons, we can still fight, and as long as we can still fight, we will." She leveled a finger at the colossal angel. "We're ending it. Right here, right now. Right girls?!"

She was answered by battle cries, cheers, and a hearty "Screw you, Megatron!" courtesy of Reo. Metatron's cold green eyes glowed as he raised his arms. Above his palms, two billowing, ominous clouds began to form. "Foolishness. So be it. Anael, Sariel, to me!"

At his command, the clouds shot forward, weaving through the air as they raced toward Mai and the others. The two contrails struck the ground, exploding in clouds of red and black smoke. The girls raised their phones as they stared down the two figures slowly becoming visible through the smoke. Angels, clad in flowing robes and bearing mighty feathered wings. And yet, they seemed a perversion of divinity: where the other angels they had seen were beautiful, or at the very least imposing and dignified, the creatures hovering before them were anything but. Indeed, they had the appearance of gaunt, balding, crimson-eyed old men, and in their hands were clutched wicked scythes. They may as well have been twins: identical in face, height and build, each with a cross-shaped marking on their forehead. About the only thing that could be used to tell them apart was the color of their skin: one had blood red skin, the other skin as black as night.

"Why are you doing this? Do you believe there is strength in defiance?" The red-skinned one said, in a soft, creaking voice devoid of emotion. Yuuna blinked.

"Wha…" she stammered.

"Do you believe it is admirable to stand against that which is superior to you in every way?" The black skinned one said, in an identical cold, soft voice.

"Do you think it is noble to deny The Lord, your father, your creator, your king?" The red one said. Yuuna realized with a jolt they were hovering closer to her and started to back away.

"That it is venerable to let Man's arrogance guide his hand?" The black skinned angel said softly.

"To stand stiff-necked and proud against the God that is in you and is all around you?" Said the red angel. The two came to a stop, glaring at the Tamers bracing themselves for combat.

"Foolishness." Snapped the red angel.

"A childish tantrum." The black angel shook his head.

"The Lord's Word is absolute." The red angel said.

"It is the Way of the world." The black angel proclaimed.

"To deny it is to deny creation itself."

"To choose Chaos over Order."

"Suffering over peace."

"Death over life."

"Madness."

"Folly."

"Sin." The two decreed at once. An ominous silence fell as the two raised their scythes.

"Foul Demon Tamers, we have come to end your lives." The red angel declared.

"Wicked servants of darkness, we are here to kill you all." Said the black angel.

"In the name of God, you shall poison this world no longer!" The two's crimson eyes flashed as they let out a terrifying aura.

"Three of them, six of us. Two for each of them." Yuuna whispered. "We've got the red guy."

"So we're on black duty." Kaede responded. "Mai-san, Reo-san?"

"And we'll take care of Metatron." Mai said. "Right, Reo?"

Her girlfriend nodded. "Let's do this." She hissed. "Abaddon, Barong, GOOOOOO!"

Her demons roared, Barong shaking its head and jangling the jewelry that adorned it for good measure before charging at the mechanical angel, alight with electricity. "You're weak to electricity, Megatron?" Reo shouted. "Then take some!"

"Insolence!" Metatron barked. "Anael, Sariel, kill them!" Obediently, the scythe-wielding Angels swooped to intercept, but were blocked in turn. The ebon-skinned Anael gave a grunt of surprise as chains wrapped around it, yanking it to the side and away from Barong. The angel managed to shake itself free of Zaou Gongen's grasp in time to dodge a lightning bolt launched by the serpentine Samael, coming to a stop in midair a distance away from Metatron and Sariel as Yuuna and Nanami closed in on him, Lilith cracking her knuckles and grinning as Amaterasu conjured fireballs in her palms.

"You're fighting us!" Nanami snapped.

Sariel had run into a problem of its own: it had brought its scythe down, attempting to cleave Abaddon in two and stop it from firing a Bufudyne at Metatron, but something huge and blue had gotten in the way. As soon as the blade hit Arahabaki, the dogu doll's form flashed, and Sariel was thrown backwards, having just enough time to recover and raise its scythe in defense: Nata Taishi's spinning, flaming wheel came down on the handle of the scythe, sending sparks everywhere as the sickening whine of a circular saw on wood echoed all around.

"Eyes on us, featherface!" Sara shouted, turning to Mai and Reo. "We've got 'em, you two! Metty's all yours!"

Reo was way ahead of her: thanks to her friends intercepting Metatron's lackeys, Barong had a clear shot. "ZIODYNE!" she roared, and Barong obliged, howling to the sky as it aimed a lightning bolt directly at Metatron's face. Metatron's cold green eyed flashed as he stiffly raised his arms: there was a roar of wind, and a raging tornado erupted all around him, deflecting the electricity.

"Mazandyne."

At Metatron's command, the tornado exploded outward, the howling gale smashing into Barong and sending the Avatar flying backwards. Instinctively, Mai seized Reo's hand and pulled her behind the huge Abaddon, and just in time: Abaddon braced its gloppy body against the ground, managing to shield the two from the wind. Kohryu and Matador were relatively unaffected, the Fiend being outright immune to wind attacks and the majestic golden dragon was simply too big for the offhand blast to harm it.

'Offhand' it had indeed been: it was clear at a glance Metatron had barely put a fraction of his power into it, and it had still packed enough punch to send Barong tumbling and cause the vitals displayed on Reo's screen to plummet. Metatron took a moment to observe his foes with a cold glare. Then, he went on the offensive.

With a flick of his wrists, two more tornadoes whirled into existence next to him, black and ominous and crackling with lightning. They moved unnaturally, like twisting serpents rather than weather phenomena, snaking through the air and closing in on their targets: Kohryu seemed to realize it wouldn't be able to simply endure a direct hit, and it opened its mouth wide as the crystal orbs clutched in its talons glowed brightly. The incoming tornado met Kohryu's Megidolaon dead-on, the attacks shoving against each other, sending sparks spraying in every direction.

Taking a deep breath and puffing itself up like a bullfrog, Abaddon let out another roar, the accompanying gale of icy wind generating a thick glacial wall between itself and the oncoming tornado. Metatron's attack slammed into it, sending ice chips flying everywhere as the whirling wind tried to drill through it.

Yuuna saw her friends begin their battle with Metatron out of the corner of her eye. Whispering a quick prayer for their safety, she tuned it out, focusing all her effort on the angel in front of her. Despite its frail appearance, Anael was a monstrous combatant: Magical attacks had proved to be ineffective, as the angel with quick with Tetrakarn, and it wielded its scythe with brutal efficiency, forcing Zaou Gongen on the defensive as it batted away the Kishin's chains and dodged its fireballs. Samael had tried to get in a Holy Dance from behind, but Anael effortlessly blocked it, delivering a devastating slash to the Fallen before turning its attention right back to Zaou Gongen.

Sariel was much the same on Sara and Kaede's end, only rendering physical attacks useless with Tetrakarn instead. As Kaede shouted a command, hidden hatches opened up all over Arahabaki, missiles bursting forth with a series of piercing whistles and spiraling through the air toward Sariel. The crimson angel raised its scythe, slamming the hilt on the ground: almost instantly, beams of violet light crashed down all around it, vaporizing the missile barrage before it could get anywhere near its target. Kaede's Belial was blundering around trying to dodge the randomly-falling beams. Already Arahabaki had been hit, and the dogu doll was letting out a metallic groan as the energy bore down on it. Black Frost had been struck as well: the colossal snowman was simply too big to escape the rain.

"H-hey, look out!" Sara shouted, she and Kaede jumping back as a pair of blasts came down where they had been standing moments before. "Nata Taishi, get in there!" Her Touki shot forward, twirling and weaving around the raining energy blasts with the grace of a figure-skater. Sariel growled in frustration.

"Demon filth! Submit yourself to the light of Judgeme-OOF!"

Nata Taishi had found an opening, and gleefully sent an Agidyne into Sariel's face with a sharp kick. Sariel stumbled back, its concentration broken: the pillars of energy fizzling out. Sara turned to Kaede. "Kaede-chan?"

"On it!" Kaede barked. "Arahabaki, Awakening, then Ziodyne!"

Arahabaki wobbled back into the air, letting out another rumbling metallic groan as its eyes slid open, glowing red as a bright aura flashed around it. Sariel raised its scythe as bright white lightning flashed around the huge metal construct, gathering around its pointed antenna before lancing outward at Sariel, who was still recovering from the Agidyne.

It was a direct hit: Sariel was blown backwards by the force of the lightning. "Yeah! That's my Prince!" Sara cheered. "TOAST HIM AGAIN!"

Kaede wasn't planning on letting Sariel stand up again anyway: the sooner they took Metatron's mook out, the sooner they could help Mai and Reo. "Awakening!" she commanded. "Then another Ziodyne!"

Nothing happened. No aura, no lightning, nothing. Kaede blinked, her determined glare melting to make way for fear and confusion. "Huh?"

"A-anytime, Kaede-chan!" Sara said hoarsely, watching as Sariel struggled to its feet. It was difficult to tell at the distance, but she could have sworn the red-skinned angel was smirking. Kaede looked down at her phone and went pale.

'How?!' She thought numbly, unable to believe what she was seeing. 'Arahabaki's…where'd all its MP go?! There's no way I used all of it-!' The realization hit a second later, and she took a step back. "S-Sara, be careful!" she stammered. "That one attack: I think it damages health and magic!"

Sara grimaced, looking down at her phone. Sure enough, Black Frost's health and MP had both been cut in half. "Seriously?! Ohhh, that's not good…" she rounded on Sariel. "So that's your plan, huh? Suck up all our magic attacks, and we'll be left with physical attacks against those stupid Tetrakarns, right?"

"The methods I shall use to slay thee are my own to decide, fallen one." Sariel sneered. "I assure thee: thou shalt find all of my means to be quite effective…HOLY STRIKE!"

Whipping its scythe around, Sariel sent a wave of blinding light flying straight into Arahabaki. The Deity was blown backwards, slamming into the ground with a crash. Kaede's face fell.

'An Almighty attack?! Rrgh…I thought at least Arahabaki's Physical Reflect could tide us over a little, but with such low HP and MP it's dead weight!' she thought bitterly as Arahabaki struggled to right itself again. Sariel's attack had left a huge gash in her demon, revealing the empty void inside Arahabaki's chrome body. There was nothing to be done: raising her phone, Kaede recalled her demon. 'I've still got Belial, but who compliments him…? Something that can dodge Sariel's draining attack. Something fast, agile…maybe…!'

"BALDUR!"

There was a terrible noise as her phone lit up: a clanking, clattering sound like metal on metal. The clouds next to Belial erupted, revealing a cocoon of iron chains. There was a shattering noise as the cocoon burst apart, revealing a radiant figure. Dressed in white armor that reflected the light around them all in a hundred dazzling ways, the demon was a handsome, grey-skinned man with shoulder-length white hair. Chains were looped around it from head to toe, clinking hauntingly as the demon took a fighting stance.

Belial glanced over to its new ally, raising an eyebrow in surprise. Baldur noticed, glancing over to the Tyrant and nodding.

"The Norse God of Light." Kaede muttered. "Knowing our luck, Sariel will just whip out a ream of mistletoe and be done with it…"

"Light, human?" Sariel scoffed. "There is no light but His, and your pagan creature will find his powers worthless against His loyal servant. Observe…"

Clutching his scythe, Sariel raised it above his head. Sara cringed. "He's winding up again! Nata, go!"

"Belial, Baldur!"

Their demons took off sprinting, desperately trying to close in on Sariel before the angel could fire its attack, but already it was too late: Sariel slammed its scythe into the ground, and the skies split open, once again raining down violet bolts of energy.

Despite the weight of its cursed chains, Baldur was light on his feet, leaping to-and-fro and dodging Sariel's attack as it tried to close the distance. Belial was even more slippery, darting like a lizard around the falling blasts and aiming the wicked points of its trident at the angel. Sariel grunted as it changed its grip, catching Belial's thrust between the trident's prongs. With the angel's focus broken once more, the energy bolts stopped. Sara's heart skipped a beat.

"Now's our chance! GET 'EM!" she shouted as she activated Nata Taishi's Race skill, the robot's eyes flashing as the flaming wheels on its feet blazed. The Touki skated forward with Baldur hot on its heels.

Sariel grunted. "Useless!" the angel barked, shoving Belial away. For a moment, Kaede dared to hope: all three demons were practically on top of Sariel; there was no way for him to safely launch his draining attack at that distance without leaving himself wide open…!

The hope died quickly, though, as she realized a violet glow had gathered around the blade of the angel's scythe. She didn't even have time to shout a warning: Sariel had already swung its weapon, catching Baldur, Nata Taishi and Belial in a single, devastating slash. The three demons were thrown backwards, their health and magic reserves plummeting.

Sara blanched. "Since when can he…ohhhh, that's not fair!"

Sariel chuckled. "I have no intention of being 'fair' to forsaken creatures like yourselves. Just like your kind, isn't it, to swagger and boast when the advantage is thine, and whine and complain when it is not. You are in this situation of thy own choosing, child. The responsibility for your predicament is thine. You sowed the seeds of thy destruction. And whatsoever a man soweth, so also shall he…" The angel lifted its scythe, the blade glowing ominously. "…reap."

This was a grim situation. There was no way Kaede could dispute that, and a quick glance over at Yuuna and Nanami told her theirs was much the same: Zaou Gongen looked exhausted, and Samael couldn't get a hit in to save its life. As for Mai and Reo…

"Crap-crap-crap-crap-crap-crap-CRAP!" Reo babbled, watching petrified as deep cracks began to form in Abaddon's ice wall. Despite the Vile's best efforts, Metatron's wind was going to break through. On instinct, Mai clutched her girlfriend, hunkering down behind Abaddon and bracing for impact.

With a terrible shattering noise, Metatron's Mazandyne smashed through the wall, slamming into Abaddon like a javelin. The Vile's roar was nearly drowned out by the howl of wind: even behind the demon's bulk Mai and Reo were nearly bowled over by the force. Kohryu had had slightly better luck: with a final tremendous effort the dragon's Megidolaon deflected the other wind spear. It clearly took the lion's share of Kohryu's reserves, though: the golden dragon was nearly foaming at the mouth as it gasped for breath.

Barong had recovered and was slinging lightning bolts as it charged back into the fray with Matador close behind firing Zandynes. Metatron grunted in pain as the attacks struck him, but the mechanical angel was clearly far more annoyed than anything. With a flap of his sharp metal wings, Metatron blew Barong away again, and as Matador leaped up for a close-range attack, the Fiend was met with Metatron's swinging hand, which swatted him like a fly back down to the ground.

"Thou shalt not touch me!" Metatron boomed, raising his arms. Above his palms, two blazing orange fireballs flared into existence. The flames pulsed, and then split off into many: whistling like fireworks, the blasts arced out in every direction, raining down like a meteor shower.

Mai flinched: Metatron clearly had no intention of limiting himself to fighting herself and Reo: Nanami, Yuuna, Sara and Kaede were also in his crosshairs. Nanami's Samael was hit from behind, the Fallen sent crashing down to the clouds face first seconds before it could unleash a Ziodyne. Anael roared with laughter, and was promptly nailed by one of Metatron's stray blasts, engulfing it in flames.

The noise was spectacular: everywhere a blast struck there was a massive explosion, all of them drowning each other out as Metatron rained his attack down with yet more intensity. If the angel's supernatural carpet bombing wasn't stopped, Mai was certain she'd pass out from the sheer noise. Clamping her hands in vain over her ears, she looked skyward, hoping and praying her demon would be able to hear her above the blasts. "Kohyru, get in there!"

She didn't even hear herself, but somehow Kohyru got the message. Roaring, the serpentine dragon raced forward, lowering its head and plowing clean through the rain of energy Metatron was unleashing. Metatron let out a snarl of rage as Kohryu coiled around him, binding him from head to toe. The attacks stopped as Kohryu constricted with all its strength, causing Metatron's metal body to creak from the strain. Mai shook her head to stop her ears ringing as she and Reo stepped out from behind Abaddon.

"Zap 'em, Kohryu!"

Kohryu opened its mouth wide, clamping its jaws around Metatron's head. The angel let out a muffled scream of rage and pain as Kohryu's majestic antlers crackled with electricity, the sparks growing rapidly into a raging storm of lightning that coursed around the two of them.

Anael was struggling to its feet, staring in horror at its master's plight. "Lord Metatron! Do not give in-GUOOOOHH!"

The rest of his sentence vanished in an agonized wheeze: Zaou Gongen had closed the distance and sank his fist into Anael's chest. The angel doubled over, paralyzed, as Zaou Gongen darted behind him, wrapped his arms around the angel's waist and suplexed him headfirst into the ground. The only reason he stopped his assault was the rumble of thunder above him: the Kishin looked up to see purple lightning aggregating above him, and he released Anael to flee the incoming Judgement. Anael recovered just in time to spread his wings and scramble clear of his descending attack. It had been cut short, but Yuuna's demon had done some damage: the blonde smirked as Anael tried to right himself and stumbled, raising a gnarled hand to his head as he tried to stop the world from tilting.

Sara noticed what had just happened and let out a whoop. "Awesome! Bet he felt that!"

Metatron had noticed as well; heard, or perhaps simply sensed one of his underlings taking a massive hit. Infuriated, the Lesser YHVH summoned every ounce of his strength: Kohryu sensed its quarry struggling and clamped down harder, but already it was evident that it was a losing proposition. If anything, the resistance Metatron found in trying to break free only enraged him further.

This farce had gone on long enough. It was time for these brats to despair.

Kohryu's eyes widened as a blinding red light beamed out between its teeth, a dreadful heat filling the air, and moments later, the dragon's head was obliterated entirely in one massive blast. Two searing beams of energy had erupted from Metatron's eyes, tearing Kohryu's head to smithereens as if it were made of alabaster. The dragon's grip went slack, its golden body already starting to disintegrate. Metatron's body flashed with blinding light, and when it faded the angel had appeared behind the falling dragon, reaching out a hand and clamping it around Kohryu's corpse. Reo's heart skipped a beat as Metatron wound up, taking careful aim.

"He's not gonna-" she squeaked.

"RUN!" Mai shouted, realizing even as she said it that there was no way they'd be able to outrun something so massive. Already Metatron had swung his arm forward, sending the slowly-disintegrating corpse of Kohryu on a collision course with them.

Something hit Mai hard: a slimy, unyielding something that slammed into her and Reo and sent them careening through the air at dizzying speed, flying clear of the falling dragon moments before it would have crushed them. They hit the ground hard, Mai's vision swimming nauseatingly in front of her and her diaphragm screaming for mercy. Reo had somehow managed to land without getting the wind knocked out of her, but by the sounds she was making she wasn't in much better shape.

"Guh…gkk…GAAAAAAAAAAH!" She screamed, her voice filled with equal parts disgust and anger. "ABADDOOOOOOON!"

Mai managed to regain control of her breathing, clutching her stomach as she turned to where her girlfriend's demon was. The sludge monster was in a heap on the ground, the last bit of Kohryu draped over it evaporating away. Abaddon's massive, hideous tongue was stretched out to its full unnatural, lolling across the ground like a grotesque fruit roll-up.

Mai realized with a jolt what the slimy stuff coating her side was, though as disgusted as the idea of being covered in demon slobber was, it was a lot better fate than being crushed by her own demon. She had bigger things to worry about, though: her demon was down, and Metatron was coming. Kali materialized in front of her as Metatron turned to face them.

"Thou believed that would work?" The seraph sneered, his eyes glowing ominously. "Just how little dost thou think of me?"

Mai didn't break eye contact as she raised her phone. "Race Skill!" she commanded. Kali raced over to Abaddon, aiming a sword and sending out a wave of healing energy. The blob shifted and struggled to right itself, groaning. Unfortunately, Metatron noticed and raised a hand: another fireball appeared, once more splitting into myriad blasts that all homed in on the two demons. Abaddon opened its mouth wide, letting out a deafening roar and exhaling a relentless wave of ice in an attempt to block the oncoming attack.

The effort was in vain: the fireballs tore through Abaddon's defense and came down on the two demons with ferocious force. Abaddon shrieked as huge chunks of its festering oozing body were torn off, the Vile disintegrating moments later. Kali's valiant attempt at deflecting the blasts ended just as well: the first one knocked the swords from her hands, leaving her open to the rest of them, which atomized her completely. Metatron's eyes flicked from the smoldering spot the two demons had been standing to their masters, who were backing away, pale and hands trembling as they raised their phones.

"Look at you. So small, and soft, and weak. What repulsive beings art humans." Metatron sneered. "Flesh that tears, bones that break. Debased hearts and fallen souls. Lifespans measured in mere decades, and nonexistent magical power, forcing you to cling to soulless trinkets and tools for the simplest of tasks. If not for its ability to worship and give praise to The Lord, humanity would be truly without meaning or purpose. And if my memory serves me, your meddling has taken that from us. There is no reason to spare a useless world, and so…"

His eyes glowed brightly once more as he raised his arms. "It will burn. BURN!"

Mai's blood went cold as a thrill of foreboding rushed through her. "Reo…!"

"BURN IN THE FIRE OF SINAI!"

Mai caught but a glimpse of the seraph's eyes flaring bright red. Then, there was nothing. Their friends, on the other hand, saw and heard exactly what happened.

Nanami had been the first to react, whipping around at the sound of the colossal explosion. Her blood had gone cold as she saw the two beam of searing red energy stream from Metatron's eyes and strike the ground in front of Mai and Reo, who were backpedaling furiously to get out of range. It wasn't enough: the ground erupted in wave of burning red power, catching Mai and Reo in its upheaval and throwing them through the air like dolls. Nanami stared in dumbstruck horror at the two as they landed hard, smoking and barring a few twitches, unmoving.

"NOOOOOOOO!"

Her guard had completely dropped: Anael's eyes flashed with murderous glee, and with a swing of its scythe, the angel sent a wave of force at the distracted girl: it flew right past Samael and struck Nanami dead-on, throwing her to the ground as blood sprayed from the wound across her chest.

"Nanami…?! NANAMI!"

Moments later, Anael was forced back by a ferocious wave of fire and lightning from Zaou Gongen and Lilith. "YOU HURT MY NANAMI, YOU BASTARD!" Yuuna was screaming. Anael managed to get its footing long enough to fire another wave at Lilith: it caught the Femme in the neck, decapitating her. Yuuna's eye twitched in fury as she raised her phone. "SUMMONING DEMON: ASMODEUS!"

From her phone appeared a mighty horned figure, one that looked as if it were constructed entirely out of red-stained bones piled each upon the other in the shape of an infernal, bipedal figure. The Tyrant's green eyes narrowed as it raised its razor claws, its tail smacking against the ground as it took a fighting stance against Anael.

Sara had seen Mai and Reo go down too. "No…no, no, no! Reo-sama, Mai-sama-!" she babbled, before a wave of energy nearly took her arm off, forcing her attention back to the task at hand. Sariel was grinning.

"What was that you said, mortal? Eyes on you?" it chuckled. "I'm your opponent: leave those fools to the wages of their sin."

Sara trembled with rage. "Frost, Nata Taishi, go!" she shrieked. Kaede watched in horror as the two demons shot forward, hyperfocused on their enemy.

"Sara, don't overextend-!"

Too late. The demons' attacks couldn't have been more telegraphed if they had screamed it out loud. They charged headlong into a purple pillar of energy that crashed down right in their path: Black Frost was forced to its knees, and Nata Taishi disintegrated under the force. Sariel raised its scythe, zooming forward for the finish blow.

Kaede raised her phone. "Baldur!" she commanded. For a moment, the Nordic god's body flickered before vanishing entirely. Sariel grunted in surprise as Baldur materialized in front of it, raising its chains and deflecting the scythe.

"Mighty Hit!" Kaede shouted, and Baldur obliged, throwing a devastating punch that threw Sariel backwards. The angel recovered quickly, rolling into a defensive stance as it stared Baldur down.

"Hrmph…True Phantasm." The angel snorted. "Well played."

Sara was seething as she raised her phone. "We can't waste our time with this! We gotta help them!" she shouted, as Demonee-Ho materialized, dropping to one knee and aiming its assault rifle.

Kaede didn't say anything. Perhaps it was her natural pessimism talking, but already her hopes of helping her friends were crumbling away. What was stopping Metatron from simply finishing them off and turning on them, if they were even still alive at all? Sariel was brutal enough, but once Metatron got involved…?

Metatron wasn't exaggerating. Their Fiends were exhausted, and so were their best demons. Now two of their number were down, or worse. It would take a miracle to turn this around. And considering the circumstances, a miracle was the last thing they were likely to get.

A dark cloud of despair began to worm its way into Kaede's heart…

"M…Mai…"

Somehow, Reo hadn't passed out from the blast, though her brain was screaming at her for reprieve. This was a mixed blessing, of course. On the one hand, to faint at this point would mean to die. On the other, this meant she was perfectly cognizant to the pain crashing through her.

Pain beyond description. A leg that she had landed wrong on. It had to be broken. Burns from the heat of Metatron's attack…

'Fire of Sinai' he had called it? Devastating. She couldn't begin to imagine how she had survived. She had survived, but…

"Mai…!"

It took everything she had to crawl along the ground, the clouds blanketing it covering her vision in a haze of white. It was probably the only reason Metatron hadn't finished her off: he simply couldn't see her through the fog. This…this was good. It was a start. If she could just find Mai, she could…she could something!

Her vision swam. For a moment, she thought she was going to throw up or pass out or both. Pushing it down, she continued her blind fumbling, hoping and praying that-

There. She felt her hand close around something familiar. Soft. Five fingers. It squeezed back.

"Mai..." Reo croaked.

"I'm…here." Came her lover's voice. "We…we're in trouble, aren't we?"

Reo dragged herself closer, the pain in her leg reaching a fever pitch. Through the fog, she could make out Mai's vague outline. Her lover was lying on her back, staring blankly up at nothing. In the fog, she could see a wistful smile on her face, even as tears rolled down her cheeks.

Reo fumbled for her phone. Somehow, she had kept her grip on it. "Hang on…I'll get Rangda…she'll heal us…!"

Mai stiffened as Rangda materialized, and almost instantly Reo realized her mistake. Any second now, Metatron would know where they were...!

Indeed, the seraph scowled as he saw the Femme take shape, sending a wave of green energy down into the clouds. "There you are!" He proclaimed, as his eyes once again glowed hellish red.

Matador sprang into action, taking a desperate leap toward Metatron with sword at the ready. Metatron saw the Fiend coming, though, and with a swing of his arm, he swatted Matador out of the air, turning his burning gaze toward the Fiend and aiming carefully. Howling, Barong let fly with a lightning bolt that caught Metatron dead in the face; stumbling backwards, Metatron's attack went wide, shooting harmlessly off into the infinite. Though this saved Matador from being disintegrated, it didn't keep him from slamming hard into the ground.

With a grunt, Metatron swung his foot, catching Barong and sending the Avatar flying with a yelp of pain, before turning back to his real targets.

The robot's eyes narrowed. The distraction had cost him: Rangda had finished her work, and the two girls were struggling to their feet, desperately clinging to each other as they supported each other's efforts to stand. Reo's leg was trembling badly: even though Rangda had healed it, it still throbbed with pain. They were both looking shaken and wan, but were still somehow, infuriatingly alive.

Another Fire of Sinai would finish the job, though.

Metatron shook his head. "Why? What does this accomplish?" He sneered. "This…this tantrum. This refusal to submit. What stand thee to gain? But of course I already know the answer. You stand to gain nothing: you defy me because you are human. Half-formed creatures cobbled together out of dirt and sin. The Lord's greatest mistake. You do this because it's what you DO. And this is how Man will meet its end. To the last they will scream and complain and stomp their feet and gnash their teeth and swat away every hand of mercy extended to them…and then they'll die. That will be Man's legacy." His eyes glowed red once more. "Truly one to be proud of."

Reo stared up at the slowly building power bearing down on her and Mai, then slowly released her lover, stumbling forward and raising her phone as Barong and Rangda formed up in front of her.

"You're not going to kill us, Megatron." She hissed. "We're going to take you down…and then Mai and I…we're going to spend the rest of our lives together!"

"Reo…" Mai breathed. The blonde was trembling in fear from head to toe, but her expression was resolute as ever.

"You understand, you clattering pile of scrap metal?! YOU CAN'T KILL US!" she roared, even as her voice cracked.

Despite it not changing in the slightest, Reo could practically feel the scowl on Metatron's face darken. "Farewell." he snapped, and without further ado, the Fire of Sinai was launched directly at Mai and Reo. Reo steeled herself, then raised her phone. Obediently, Barong and Rangda poured every ounce of their power into their attacks: fire and lightning met the holy energy in the middle, Metatron's attack slowly but surely overtaking them as Barong and Rangda struggled to keep him at bay.

Reo jumped a bit as a new attack joined the clash: a beam of pure white energy, fired in a stream into the oncoming Fire of Sinai. Mai had recovered enough to summon Trumpeter, and now the Fiend was pouring every ounce of its remaining power into that one final attack. Moments later, something green blurred into sight next to the Fiend, and Matador added a raging Zandyne to the pile. Fire, Lightning, Holy energy and Wind were surging forth, sending shockwaves and bolts of electricity arcing out through the battlefield.

The mayhem was enough to catch the attention of the other combatants. Sara, Kaede, and Yuuna had all stopped to stare in shock and horror, as Anael and Sariel watched proudly. Anael turned to his opponents as Amaterasu finished healing Nanami, helping the girl to her feet. "You will watch this." The angel said smugly. "Watch what happens to those who face the Voice of the Lord. See what fate awaits you all."

Indeed, despite Mai and Reo's demons' valiant efforts, it wasn't enough. Metatron's attack intensified still further, and the two beams of energy slowly but surely started to push through the demons' attacks. Matador had dropped to one knee, and his extended sword arm was trembling with exertion as the winds issuing from his blade began to die down. Reo rounded on Mai. "Mai!" she screamed, her voice cracking. "WHAT DO WE DO?!"

Her blood turned to ice.

Mai was just…staring. Her gaze was dead, vacant, her eyes bulging in horror, tears streaming down her face as she gasped shallow, rapid breaths.

The Horn of Judgement shoving against the Fire of Sinai fizzled and vanished: Trumpeter could no longer maintain it. Barong was taking slow steps back, its electricity coming far less intensely now, and Rangda was clearly crumbling under the strain as well. Slowly but surely, Metatron was winning the clash. The holy flames streaming from his eyes were closing in on Mai, Reo and their demons, and the girls could feel the intense heat building around them.

Reo stared at her girlfriend for another moment. For a moment she seemed at a loss for words. Unsurprising: what could she say with death roaring at the two of them. But then she stared back at the oncoming flames, her brow furrowed in that characteristic glare of hers. "We're not going to die." The blonde shouted in a trembling voice. "We…we're not dying here! You hear me, Megatron?! I SAID WE'RE! NOT! DYING HERE! GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

It was baseless prattle. Meaningless tantrum-throwing denial, just as Metatron had claimed. Even as the words left her mouth, Reo would have been completely unable to detail exactly how they were going to survive their impending doom. Metatron had all but won, and their deaths were imminent.

And yet…

Yet as Reo screamed the words from the bottom of her heart, refusing to accept her fate, even as Rangda and Barong were engulfed by Metatron's Fire of Sinai, her phone flickered to life. It caught the girl's attention, and as she raised it to her eyes, staring in confusion at the screen, the white light issuing from it flared to blinding intensity. Barong and Rangda's bodies had likewise began to glow, and as the aura brightened, the oncoming Fire of Sinai was brought to a stop.

Metatron hesitated. "What in Heaven is-?"

The light surrounding Barong and Rangda flashed even brighter, and this time, the Fire of Sinai was blown out completely. Metatron was shoved backwards a few feet as a wave of force washed over him. "Nnh…URGH!" The seraph grunted. "What's happening?! WHAT IS THIS?! WHAT TRICKERY IS THIS, HUMAN?!"

Reo couldn't answer, both because of the awe seizing her tongue and the fact she genuinely had no clue what she had set in motion. Staring in amazement, she watched as her demons were completely engulfed by the blinding light, and the phone in her hand became so hot she thought for a second it was about to explode. The white light surged upwards, forming a shining pillar of energy that parted the clouds above them before slowly fading away. Mai, who had been brought out of her terrified stupor by the blinding light, slowly lowered her hand as the blinding light abated, blinking the spots out her vision as she tried to make out what had just happened.

For a moment, her heart skipped a beat as she realized Rangda and Barong were nowhere to be found. But just as she began to worry that the two demons had indeed spontaneously combusted and left them truly defenseless, something in the clouds began to stir. Metatron drew back as a tall shape emerged, rising to its full, 10-foot splendor as four lithe, muscular arms unfurled from around its body. Mai could vaguely make out what the new demon was holding: a trident, a sword, a golden ring.

Blue-skinned, bare-chested and handsome-faced, with black hair down to his shoulders, Reo's new demon took a deep breath through his nose, staring up at Metatron. Then, without a word, he aimed his trident and fired. Metatron didn't even have time to cry out as the lightning erupting from the prongs of the weapon struck him square in the chest, knocking the Seraph out of the sky and sending him crashing to the ground with a scream.

Mai blinked. "Whoa." She finally squeaked.

Sara stared in amazement at her rival's new demon. "Kaede-chan? Wh-what is that?" she babbled. "What the heck did she just summon?!"

Kaede was too awestruck to answer for a moment. "Shiva." She finally breathed. "That's Shiva, Lord of the Dance! Shiva the Destroyer! One of the three principal gods of Hindu mythology!"

Sariel was backing away, his eyes fixed on the colossal blue demon as he raised his arms and, true to his title, went into a jerking, foot-tapping dance, twirling the ring he was holding around one of his index fingers. "A fusion?! Fusing mid-battle at the last possible second?! No, no, no, that's not fair, we had this won!"

"Where is thy faith, Sariel?!" Anael snapped, as it raised its scythe with trembling hands. "No pagan creature can subvert the Voice! To claim he can is blasphemy! Lord Metatron will grind this 'Destroyer' to dust!" The black angel's wrinkled face split into a large grin as a huge shape rose from the clouds. "Just watch."

Metatron had taken a massive hit, true, but one look at him made it clear he was far from finished. Bursting from the clouds with a roar, the mechanical angel glared down at the slightly-smaller Destroyer as Shiva took a fighting stance. Reo heard Mai chuckle next to her.

"Fighting angels, the last thing you'd ever expect is a miracle." She clapped a hand on Reo's shoulder, giving it a comforting squeeze as the two looked at each other's eyes. Mai was beaming; the look of pride and adoration she was giving Reo made the blonde's heart leap. "You made a miracle happen, Reo! Now…" Mai raised her phone. "Let's end this! For real this time!"

Chuckling, Trumpeter descended to take Shiva's side, Matador struggling back up and standing beside his fellow Fiend. The Destroyer gave the two a sideways glance, nodded, and took a fighting stance.

Mai took Reo's hand, the two standing before Metatron and steeling themselves for battle. "For real this time." Mai repeated. "Get ready, Metatron!"

"Ready for what exactly, human?" Metatron sneered. "My victory waits at the end of this pointless conflict, and I assure thee: that will not change no matter what demons you conjure! Two exhausted Fiends, Shiva the so-called Destroyer…it's high time you learned just how little they mean to the Voice of the Lord!"

Raising his arms, Metatron once again summoned twin fireballs. "I am Metatron! The Face, the Voice, the Sword! The executor of His will on Earth, and I WILL NOT BE DENIED BY CHILDREN!"

The fireballs pulsed, unleashing their payload and raining searing flames down toward Mai and Reo.

"Trumpeter, Matador, GO!"

"SHIVA!"

At their masters' command, the Fiends and Omega charged into the fray, Shiva's trident and Matador's sword twirling as they deflected the raining fireballs in every direction. Metatron's attack seemed to have minor homing capabilities: a swarm of fireballs had locked onto Shiva and were closing in from every direction as the Destroyer darted forward. Gracefully pivoting, Shiva struck a pose, raising his trident high, and the oncoming fireballs were blown away by a blinding surge of lightning. Trumpeter stared impassively at a barrage of flames rocketing right at him and Matador as he raised his horn. Summoning what strength he had left, Trumpeter blew into the instrument: the sound sent ripples through the air, and as they passed over the fireballs, the flames exploded harmlessly in midair. Giving the fading smoke one backwards glance, Matador turned his attention back to Metatron, putting on an extra burst of speed and readying his sword for the attack.

Metatron made no attempt to dodge; holding out his hand as Matador leaped into the air, the seraph caught the oncoming blade dead on, sparks flying as the point crashed into his palm. Chuckling smugly, Metatron raised his hand for a counterattack, generating a fireball he planned to slam right into Matador's face. The Fiend gave the flames a quick glance, and with a roar of exertion he threw all his weight behind his weapon. There was a creak and a twisting of metal as the saber punched right through Metatron's hand to come out the other side.

Metatron's scream of incensed pain was deafening. The angel's eyes blazed red as he prepared to launch a Fire of Sinai, Matador trying desperately to yank his sword loose from the angel's palm.

But it was Shiva who ended up saving the Fiend. With a few quick strides the Destroyer had closed the distance, driving his trident right into Metatron's chest. Matador pulled his sword free and tumbled away as Metatron was sent stumbling backwards from the blow, firing the Fire of Sinai straight up and freeing him up for Shiva's next move: clenching the fist of his one free hand, Shiva wound up and threw a haymaker. It struck home, and with a grinding of metal and snapping of springs, Metatron's entire face buckled, leaving it a mangled mess of loose, sparking wires, cascading bolts and shards of glass, and a jaw that swung precariously from a single joint as the seraph toppled backwards, laid out flat from the force of the blow.

As that fight raged, Mai and Reo's friends continued their own pitched battles against Metatron's minions: inspired by the appearance of Reo's new demon, they had begun attacking Anael and Sariel with even greater ferocity. Despite the angel duo's repeated usage of their MP-draining Judgement attack, for perhaps the first time they found themselves on the defensive, and now it was anyone's guess how it was going to end. The nimble Demonee-Ho was darting around the battlefield, dodging falling Judgement attacks and countering with quick sprays from its assault rifle. Belial was supporting, sending blasts of fire at the angel every time the Tyrant saw an opening. To make matters worse for Sariel, Kaede seemed to be realizing what Baldur's Race Skill could really do: any attempts to launch an attack on one of the two demons attacking him resulted in the Norse god materializing at the perfect angle to defend it, and Sariel had already taken a punch from Baldur that had left him seeing stars.

Anael was having problems on his end, too: despite Asmodeus's bulk, the Tyrant moved with astonishing grace, even more than Zaou Gongen. It was almost a dance, really, as the incarnation of lust bobbed, weaved, pivoted and twirled around the raining Judgement blasts, closing in on the dark angel.

It wasn't just his claws and tail that posed a threat: the sharp bones that made up Asmodeus's body essentially made his form one big spinning blade. Anael got a painful lesson in that fact when his scythe was ducked, and the angel was forced back as Asmodeus pirouetted, swinging his tail like a whip that just barely missed the angel's neck: the demon lord shifted his weight into a hip check, and a bone protruding from his elbow slammed clean through Anael's chest.

Anael groaned in agony as shining white blood burst from his mouth, Asmodeus moving his arm around and twisting the blade in the wound. "Yes…" Yuuna hissed, a rather scary look in her eye as she watched Anael squirming. "A wound to your chest: one good turn deserves another, no?!"

"Don't…don't mock me…human!" Anael choked, and then proceeded to do something very stupid. Asmodeus looked up as a purple glow enveloped him and the angel, realizing only at the last moment that a Judgement was coming right down on the two of them. By then, it was too late, and Anael and Asmodeus vanished behind a wall of radiant purple energy. The Tyrant was the first to emerge, jumping clear of the blast, but the damage was done: as soon as his clawed feet hit the ground, Asmodeus stumbled, his energy cut drastically by the angel's attack. Yuuna pushed down her irritation, and braced herself for the angel's inevitable reappearance. Amaterasu appeared in her peripheral vision, gliding past her and turning her healing magic on the winded Asmodeus as Samael took point beside them as well. Yuuna glanced over at Nanami: the pink-haired girl was walking up beside her, tossing her severed, now-useless bra away and making a valiant effort to hold her slashed shirt closed for a modicum of decency. Catching her lover's eye, Nanami gave her a nod, and the two stared into the radiant pillar of purple energy as it slowly faded away.

One look at Anael made one thing abundantly clear: the angel was not immune to his own attacks. The Judgement had gouged into his health and magic, and now Anael could barely hold his scythe. The angel's black skin was gray now, and he was gasping and wheezing for breath. Asmodeus took one look at the angel, then threw his head back and let out a truly diabolical laugh. Yuuna scoffed.

"Your aim could use some work, angel." She snorted. Nanami glanced over her shoulder at the battle raging behind her, frowning as the two clashed in a beam struggle: an orange-yellow blast ringed with white erupting from Shiva's forehead and Metatron responding in kind with Fire of Sinai.

"We should end this quickly, Onee-san." She said. "Even with Reo-sama's new demon, they still need our help." Her girlfriend nodded.

"Right…one more push should be enough." She mused. Anael heard her: mustering the last of his strength, the angel raised his scythe and took a fighting stance.

"Enough for WHAT, human?!" Anael gasped. "You think…you think you can slay an Angel of Death? I am retainer to Lord Metatron! The almighty Anael! And I do not need magic…TO CUT YOU ALL DOWN!"

Despite his injuries, Anael managed to close the distance between himself and Asmodeus astonishingly quickly. The Lord of Lust raised his arms to block the oncoming scythe, and the blade sent sparks flying as it crashed into Asmodeus's guard. Anael was bearing down with all his strength, and Asmodeus's legs were trembling under the force.

"In the name of the Lord, I will NEVER stop fighting!" Anael boomed. "WICKED CREATURES, I CAST YOU OUT!" A blur of motion caught his eye and he disengaged in the nick of time: Asmodeus's tail came within mere inches of piercing his eye. Recovering quickly, Anael dove forward again, swinging his scythe, and Asmodeus howled in pain. Yuuna's eyes widened as she watched a good third of her demon's tail go flying.

Nanami stared in shock, trying to find a good time to call an attack with the two locked in close combat. "He's still got so much left in him!"

Yuuna sneered as Asmodeus was forced on the defensive, grabbing Anael's scythe and trying to keep it away from him. "Not enough, though. ZAOU GONGEN!"

By the time Anael saw the blur of motion, it was too late: Zaou Gongen had darted past him, and moments later, something hot and metallic clamped down around his neck, squeezing his windpipe shut. Zaou Gongen's fierce face twisted in a triumphant smile as he pulled the chain it had looped around Anael's throat as tight as it could. The dark-skinned angel dropped its scythe, scrabbling in vain at the burning metal and trying to free itself, as Zaou Gongen hardened its stance and pulled with all its might. Anael was pulled through the air and brought crashing down again like a hammer, slamming into the ground with bone-cracking force. Yuuna looked back at Nanami as Zaou Gongen pulled again, this time yanking the screaming Anael off the ground and swinging it round and round like a tetherball.

"Nanami!" She shouted, as Asmodeus brought his hands back, generating a roaring fireball.

"Right!" Nanami clenched her fists. "Amaterasu, Samael!"

The Megami and the Fallen stood side-by-side, charging up an Agidyne and Holy Dance as Anael came back around. On an unspoken cue, the three demons let fly with their attacks, sending them roaring through the air directly at the helpless angel.

Their aim was impeccable: the blasts struck Anael dead-on, engulfing the angel in a massive explosion. Nanami's heart leaped: a textbook combination attack with Onee-chan. From within the smoke, a blinding light erupted, forming a huge white pillar that stretched to the sky before fading out with Anael's screams. When the smoke cleared, Nanami's heart leapt: Zaou Gongen's chains were empty.

"GOT HIM!" she cheered.

Sara saw Anael's destruction, and hope swelled within her once again. Maybe they could win after all…!

"Awright, Demonee-Ho! Let's shoot that pigeon full 'o holes!" she commanded, pointing a finger at Sariel. The red-skinned angel was staring dumbfounded at where Anael used to be, and the two girls rushing off to aid Mai and Reo.

"Anael…my other half…my brother-in-arms…!" The angel was trembling with fury. "Dying to humans…the shame of it…his name will be cursed forevermore! You have RUINED him!"

A dark purple aura billowed around Sariel as he raised his scythe, facing down the armored snowman taking aim at him. "You malignant, pusillanimous monkeys! I WILL MAKE YOU SUFFER! YOU WILL PAY!"

Sara took a step back as Sariel howled to the heavens, the aura around him raging so powerfully that it nearly swept her off her feet. The tiny Demonee-Ho actually was knocked off-balance, stopping its attack as it struggled to keep itself from getting blown away.

"Good feeling's gone." Said Sara in a tiny voice.

Kaede clapped a hand on her shoulder, not taking her eyes off of the furious angel. "We can do this, Sara." She had slipped into her 'prince' mode, looking as self-assured as she could manage. Despite knowing it was 90% act and her lover was just as scared as she was, Sara still couldn't help but feel more confident at the sight.

They could do this. They were going to do this.

They WERE going to win!

"Go, Demonee-Ho!"

"Belial, Baldur!"

Their demons bellowed war cries, rushing forward to meet Sariel as the crimson angel brought his scythe back, the blade ablaze with purple energy, and swooped to meet them, screaming at the top of his lungs. The demons scattered as Sariel came crashing down where they had been standing moments before, moving outwards in an attempt to flank the furious angel. Twirling his trident, Belial sent an Agidyne slamming into Sariel; the angel stumbled, but recovered easily and sent of blade of energy at Belial with a swing of his weapon. Belial threw himself to the ground just in time: the energy wave seared off a few of his spiky gray hairs as it roared over him. Unfortunately, Belial choice of evasive maneuvers had left him open for a follow-up, an opening Sariel was all too eager to take. Raising his scythe, the wildly-grinning angel prepared to bring it down on the defenseless Tyrant.

Baldur had other ideas. Warping in front of Belial, the Norse god held up his chains in an attempt to block the oncoming scythe. Despite his fury, however, Sariel was not blinded by rage. Expertly changing his swing into a feint, he redirected the scythe into an upward swing, slipping the blade past Baldur's guard and into his sternum.

It was clear the purple energy surrounding Sariel's blade wasn't just for effect: Baldur's legs buckled as his health and mana reserves plummeted. Sariel's eyes flashed with malicious glee as he raised his hand and power built around him, the angel preparing to finish the job.

Kaede grunted as she punched in a command on her phone, hoping it would work. Baldur flickered out of view, causing Sariel to overbalance and stumble forward. Wheeling around and searching wildly for his foe, Sariel found himself staring down the business end of Demonee-Ho's machine gun. Sara clenched her fists as her demon's weapon opened up, once more revealing mini-missile pods.

"FILTH!" Sariel roared, raising his scythe. The angel wound up, preparing to let loose with a wave of energy that would cut whatever the diminutive demon had in store out of the air…

But that's when Belial made his move. Jumping to his feet, the Tyrant drove his trident into the angel's back. Sariel went rigid, letting out a croaking groan of pain as his arms splayed out, the scythe dropping from his hands. Belial chuckled as the trident began to glow a searing orange, baking the hapless angel from the inside out.

"NOW!" Kaede shouted.

"DESPERATE HIT!" Sara bellowed.

With a chorus of piercing whistles, missiles burst from Demonee-Ho's gun, weaving through the air and closing in on Sariel. The angel's eyes went wide as he mustered his strength in a desperate attempt to break free. It wasn't enough: Sariel didn't even have time to cry out before the missiles were on him, pummeling him from head to toe with a drumroll of explosions.

Kaede had no intention of letting this battle go on any longer. Even now, Mai, Reo, Yuuna and Nanami were engaged in a pitched battle with Metatron, and despite being four-on-one, the seraph was keeping all of them at bay. They needed as much help as they could get.

It was time to end it.

The glow around Belial's trident flared even brighter, heralding an explosion that sent Sariel spinning forward through the air, limbs flopping lifelessly as he reached the apex of his ascent and came crashing down again. Limping forward into his path, Baldur brought his fist back, focused what power he had left into it, and let fly with the strongest punch he could muster. His glowing fist swung up to meet the falling Sariel, and with a crack of bone, the impact obliterated the angel's head.

Sara let out a cheer as she watched the angel dissolve. "You got him!" she hollered. Kaede allowed herself a little glow of pride: this was the first major opponent she had finished off, after all. A victory like this wasn't something known to happen to her, she could say that much…

Regardless, she couldn't lose focus. Turning to her cousin, she put on a serious expression. "Now the hard part. Come on!"

She and Sara took off running to their friends, their demons close behind. Metatron watched them approach, hitting an approaching Shiva with an offhand fire blast: the Omega blocked the worst of the damage with his arms, but it was still enough to send him flying backwards. By this point, Metatron's face, which had been almost entirely demolished by Shiva's punch not long before, had almost completely repaired itself. A highly destructive robot angel with regenerative capabilities…this didn't bode well at all. The last dent in the solemn, motionless face popped itself back into place as Sara and Kaede stepped up beside their friends, the six of them staring up at the solemn, motionless continence of their foe as Shiva returned to the front line, taking a fighting stance.

"Both of them? Both of them actually lost?! How do angels of death lose to humans?!" Metatron growled. "It would appear I overestimated them somehow. Perhaps the stories regarding them were somewhat…embellished. But I assure you, my power far exceeds theirs. It's greater than your Destroyer, and your Fiends, and all life on Earth put together. Greater than I could have ever imagined…"

Yuuna snorted. "Well, you can't believe everything you-" Her voice trailed off. "Wait, what?"

Metatron chuckled darkly. "How blind I was, to think that mere glimmer of strength made me divine. I could never have conceived the power a true angel holds."

A chill had gone down Mai's spine. "He's…talking weird. H-he's not making sense!" she muttered. "Why wouldn't Metatron be able to imagine his own power-"

Her heart nearly stopped as the realization dawned on her. Yuuna seemed to be coming to the same conclusion. "No…no way." She whispered. "You couldn't be. You couldn't possibly…!" Her voice was drowned out by a terrible creaking noise. For the first time, Metatron's stony face was changing, shifting unnaturally until it bore a ghastly parody of a smile.

"And why not, Yuuna Matsubara?" he said coldly. "Come now: you didn't think you'd be rid of me so easily, did you?!"

Yuuna could do nothing but gawk for a moment. Her friends seemed just as dumbfounded by what they were hearing. Only Mai seemed to be able to speak, and when she did it came in a full-volume, hate-filled scream.

"PHILLIPS!" she roared.

Reacting to her surge of violent emotion, Trumpeter sprang into action, raising its horn and launching a Horn of Judgement directly at the mechanical angel. Raising his arms, Metatron conjured a whirling tornado that deflected the incoming blast, before exploding outward and knocking the girls and their demons off their feet. Only Shiva had been able to weather the blast, hunkering down as best he could and raising his weapons, readying himself for battle. Metatron, or whoever he was, looked down his nose at the girls as they picked themselves up, glaring up at him.

"Phillips?!" Nanami was babbling. "But that's…how?! He's gone, he disintegrated, we saw it…!"

Unbidden, Mai's thoughts returned to something she had heard earlier. 'As for his soul…I do not know. Not even we of the Heavens know such a thing. Perhaps it burns in Hell for his blasphemy, perhaps it vanished from existence along with his body.' Metatron had said. Suddenly, Mai realized she knew the answer.

Had it really been Metatron who had said that? At what point had Phillips wrested the angel's body away from him?

"It would seem Metatron's attempt to stab me in the back didn't pan out, did it?" The angel gloated, raising his arms to stare at his hands. "His use of my Magnetite to manifest was the second biggest mistake he ever made. The moment he realized I was about to take control, that he was the one to be sacrificed…he learned a painful lesson, didn't he? That though my body had aged and withered, my will was as strong as ever, and all he had managed to do was free it from its trappings! He learned that nobody: human, devil, angel, god, NOBODY crosses Archibald Phillips!"

Mai helped Reo to her feet, glaring daggers at Phillips. Sara jumped up, wobbling a bit as Kaede tried to hold her steady. "This is like a nightmare that won't end!" the brunette seethed, shaking her head. "Why don't you just give up already?!"

"Why would I?" Phillips laughed. "Why surrender when victory is at hand?" Once again, the metal face twisted and buckled into a demented smile. "I'm going to destroy you all. I'll erase you all from existence, and once I do, I'm going to bring every ounce of my new power to bear and turn this rotten mudball planet into a smoldering asteroid! I'll tear open the miasma above the hospital, and relish the sight of demons flooding the world, exterminating every last disgusting human! And when I'm done…when my dream is realized and humanity and all its repulsiveness has been expunged from creation…I will turn my gaze to the Heavens. Archibald Phillips, the TRUE Almighty God, will at long last sit the throne, and I-"

A humungous thunderbolt caught him square in the chest, followed by a Horn of Judgement and barrage of other attacks that knocked the staggering angel to the ground. Phillips's body creaked as he sat up, glowering at the girls assembled against him.

"Weren't you listening, Phillips?" Mai said quietly. "I told you: I am so done listening to your drivel."

Phillips's body lifted off the ground as if it were a marionette on strings, righting itself stiffly as he flared his metal wings, growling. Mai met his gaze without wavering. "I frankly don't give a damn what you've become, Phillips. Human, angel, whatever…we're putting you down. We're going to send you screaming to Hell where you belong! Everyone, let's do this!"

Her friends answered with a singular bellowing war-cry as their demons readied themselves. Phillips raised his arms, once more generating two huge fireballs. With a thunderous 'boom', the flames burst apart, raining down on his opponents. Mai and her friends scrambled backwards out of range as their demons danced around, dodging or deflecting the falling fireballs. Matador managed to close the distance, homing in on Phillips's leg as the angel brought his foot back, intending to punt the Fiend across the Domain.

Luckily, Kaede saw it coming and raised her phone. "Baldur!" she commanded, and the Genma's Race Skill warped him instantly in front of Metatron's swinging leg. Baldur crossed his arms and braced himself, the significantly smaller demon fearlessly staring down the incoming kick. The blow connected with an ear-splitting 'crack', and packed enough of a punch to send Baldur sliding back a few feet, but somehow, incredibly, the Genma remained standing. In fact, Baldur had enough wherewithal to counterattack, wrapping his chains around Phillips's leg and pulling, putting on a valiant effort to keep the angel's leg trapped.

Unfortunately, Phillips had other ideas. "Rotten little…!" he snarled, looking downward as his eyes glowed bright red. Kaede raised her phone, but it was too late: Baldur was engulfed by the Fire of Sinai, and his mythological invincibility, if he had it at all, availed him nothing. Baldur disintegrated instantly.

Phillips grinned smugly as he watched the demon dissolve…and then let out a howl of pain as a huge gash opened up across his chest. In the moment he had become distracted by Baldur, Matador had darted up his leg, and was now slashing and swiping at every inch of the metal angel he could reach.

Phillips reached up, intending to swat the Fiend like an insect, but in that moment of focus on Matador, the other demons laid into him. Matador jumped clear in the nick of time, and Phillips was almost buried under a barrage of fire, ice, lightning, wind, and Almighty attacks. Shiva was leading the charge, trident aimed right at Phillips's chest and unleashing a torrent of electricity. Phillips quailed under the relentless assault, drifting backwards.

"We're doing it." Mai whispered, more to herself than anything. "We're pushing him back. We've got him on the ropes. We can do this…!"

Mustering all his energy, Phillips threw out his arms, summoning a green barrier of energy and shielding himself from the assault. The girls braced themselves for the imminent counterattack as Kaede summoned Jeanne D'Arc to replace her fallen Baldur. The Hero watched as Phillips dispersed his barrier, gesturing toward the girls and sending a howling tornado screaming toward them.

"Brace yourselves!" Kaede shouted, as her demon stepped forward, raising her sword and driving it into the clouds: a beehive-patterned dome of energy emanated from the blade, engulfing Jeanne and her fellow demons just as the tornado collided with them. Even partially shielded from the wind, Mai and the others were nearly blown away again by the gale rushing past Jeanne's force field, and within its protective space she could see Kaede's demon straining to keep the barrier up.

"C-come on!" Mai shouted, trying to make herself heard above the howling wind. "Is that all you got, you psychotic old bastard?!"

Jeanne's eyes widened as she saw a crack appear in her barrier. She doubled down, pouring as much power as she could into keeping it intact, but she was losing strength. Ten, maybe fifteen more seconds, and they'd be at the mercy of Phillips's gale force. Luckily, Mai had no intention of letting that happen. Hyperfocused on the demons in front of him again, Phillips had once more completely lost track of small, quick Matador, and thanks to his immunity to wind, the Fiend was entirely capable of closing the distance and leaping onto Phillips's left arm. Steeling himself and raising his blade, Matador brought it down like a guillotine.

Sparks flew, the wind died down, and Phillips let out a scream of demented agony as his arm slid apart at the forearm, the huge metal appendage crashing to the clouds. The seraph's attention immediately turned to the Fiend clinging to his upper arm, whose sword was poised as he prepared to strike at Phillips's neck. "YOU HORRID LITTLE GNAT!" Phillips thundered, reaching out with his remaining arm to crush Matador in a vice grip.

"SHIVA, GET HIM!"

The Hindu Destroyer charged at Reo's command, driving his trident into Phillips's chest. With a burst of effort, Shiva kept going, carrying the impaled, screaming angel into a huge marble pillar, which collapsed almost instantly under the force. Heedless of the punches Phillips was driving into him, Shiva shoved right past the rubble of the pillar and plowed right into a marble pantheon. The temple was enough to stop Shiva's charge, though it buckled under the force. Now pinned, Phillips was at the mercy of Reo's demon, and Shiva capitalized in full, driving punch after punch into the downed angel.

"Yes!" Mai shouted, her heart thundering as she watched her girlfriend's demon pummel Phillips. "Do it!"

"Go for it, Reo-sama!" Sara cheered. "Punch his fat, empty head right off!"

Frantically, Phillips concentrated, his eyes glowing red once more as he prepared another Fire of Sinai. Shiva stiffened as he realized he was about to take the attack point-blank. Even a deity like himself would be much the worse for wear should that happen. Thinking quickly, Shiva released his spear and clamped two hands around Phillips's head, brutally tilting it back. He made it just in time: the Fire of Sinai nearly singed his eyebrows off as it exploded from Phillip's eyes, shooting straight upward. The clouds above them parted as the red beam of energy exploded through them, creating a ring of blue sky punctuated by a pillar of searing red light.

For a moment, the two strained to overpower each other, the servos and joints in Phillips's neck grinding as he tried to tilt his head back down and Shiva's face twisting in exertion as he tried to keep Phillips's attack from melting his face off. Any false move, even an attempt to use his other arms for a sucker punch of some kind, would result in his concentration faltering and Phillips breaking free. For a moment, the Destroyer wondered exactly where to go from this position. Unfortunately, Phillips managed to react first.

There was a sudden grinding noise, like metal against metal, and all of a sudden Shiva was stuck hard on both sides of the head. For a moment, his vision swam, and he nearly let go of Phillips's head. Then another blow, and another one, slamming Shiva's ears relentlessly. The blows felt hard, cold and metallic, and with a jolt Shiva realized where they were coming from: Phillips's severed arm had regenerated, and now Phillips was boxing the Hindu god's ears with all his strength. Shiva released his ring and sword, and used his two remaining hands to hold the swinging arms at bay, but by this point it was too late. Slowly but surely, his grip on Phillips's head was weakening, and the Fire of Sinai was creeping ever closer to his head. Phillips's cruel laughter rang in Shiva's ears as the hairs on the top of head began to smolder. Any second now, and his grip would slip entirely, and he would get a faceful of searing, divine energy.

No help was coming: Shiva's own charge had carried the two of them too far away from the other demons. This left only one option, at least according to his master's thoughts. One way to save himself: follow Mai's example and wing it.

Releasing Phillips's arms, Shiva clamped his hands over Metatron's eyes. For a dizzying second, the beams seemed to stop entirely, and Reo wondered if she had somehow pulled off yet another miracle. But then reality asserted itself: beams of red light burst from between Shiva's fingers as the Destroyer cringed in pain, Phillips letting out a terrified scream as a terrible sound filled the air, like ten jetliners all taking off at once. Moments later, both the Omega and the angel vanished in a huge explosion.

Even at such a distance, the heat that swept over Mai and her friends was near-overwhelming. The shockwave from the blast threw the stones of the pantheon and collapsed pillar through the air like missiles, and the girls and their demons were forced to scatter as the hefty chunks of marble crashed down all around them. Shiva was thrown bodily through the air by the force, hurled backwards and sent tumbling pell-mell until he finally rolled to a stop. His weapons landed one after the other moments later, the sword reduced to a hilt and a tiny scrap of metal and the trident broken entirely in half, with only God knowing where the actual blade of it had ended up.

Eventually, the mayhem died down, the last of the boulders slamming into a pillar and knocking it over in turn before an eerie silence filled the Domain again. Reo's ears were ringing, and she was debating whether to pat herself on the back for quick thinking or kick herself for nearly getting herself and her friends reduced to red smears beneath falling rubble.

"Well, that was certainly a thing!" Sara shouted, louder than she likely meant to.

Kaede noticed her cousin's lips moving, but the words were drowned out by the incessant, high-pitched whine in her ears. "Come again?!" she shouted back.

"I SAID!" Sara yelled. "THAT WAS CERTAINLY! A THING!"

"WHAT?!"

Yuuna shook her head, trying to clear up her newly-found case of tinnitus. "That's one way to put it." She said, staring at the column of smoke where Metatron still lay. "I just hope it did the trick. Blast that size, if that wasn't enough, we're in trouble." Her gaze flicked over to Shiva, who was still sprawled out on the ground. With a lurch of her stomach, Yuuna realized the hands the demon had used in that moment had been blown to stumps. Nanami registered her friend's injured demon and urged Amaterasu forward. In a fight that long and after taking a few Judgement attacks, her Megami had maybe two more heals left. She would have to make them count.

"Not sure what we can do about his weapons." She said to no one in particular as Amaterasu went to work. "But at least we can get him back on his feet…"

"Guys!" Mai's voice rang out, tinged with fear. "GUYS! HEADS UP!"

Everyone froze, slowly looking over to the ruins of the pantheon and dreading what they knew what they were about to see. Reo tore her eyes away from the wrecked body of her strongest demon and watched, stupefied, as a dark shape rose from the ruins of the pantheon.

"No." She heard herself whisper. "No way…!"

Phillips was certainly worse-for-wear: the damage to his face was several orders of magnitude worse than what Shiva's punch had done to him. To be frank, he barely had a face at all at this point, just an empty, smoking hole with flickering lights, half-melted springs and jammed gears. His movements were more robotic than ever, and the sounds he was making as he staggered toward them with painful, zombie-like steps were like that of an old jalopy on its last hurrah.

But in spite of it all, and against all logic, the mechanical angel had survived the blast and was forcing itself back into the fray. For a moment, Mai tried to look at the positive: he may have been upright, but he looked like a light breeze would knock him flat again. They hadn't won on the spot, but they were so close she could taste it…

But no: even as the thought crossed her mind, Phillips's face began to reconstitute itself. Damaged springs and gears were falling out like rain and replaced nearly instantly by shiny, new ones. Metal was twisting and bending its way back across the gaping hole, reforming the angel's handsome, solemn face. The process took about thirty seconds, and when it was completed it was as if the explosion had never happened. Phillips stared down at them, tilting his head back and forth as two pairs of green lenses flicked down to fill the two blank holes in his face where his eyes belonged.

"Not fair." Sara mumbled. "Not even remotely fair."

'He's got to have a limit.' Mai thought. 'A limit to what he can regenerate. I mean, he's walking now, not flying. Th-that's gotta count for something! We're hurting him, if only a little bit! We've just gotta hit him hard enough to push him over that limit, take him down in one hit that he can't come back from!'

Amaterasu had finished healing Shiva, and the Destroyer was standing up, his legs still weak as he trudged over to the line of demons standing before the approaching Phillips. Despite the Megami's magic, Shiva still looked weary. Still, he steeled himself, taking a fighting stance and staring Phillips down.

"To turn my own attack against me…to humiliate me so…" Phillips snarled, his mechanical voice skipping a few times as he staggered closer to the waiting demons. "That…will not go unanswered…I assure you."

'It's not a perfect cure.' Mai's brain was spinning. 'If it was, he wouldn't be acting like this. Staggering, voice glitching out…he may be healing his wounds on the surface but he's gotta be under incredible stress.' She glanced at her girlfriend's demon. 'Shiva can't take much more either. One single attack…all of us, we need to risk it all on one final attack. Completely overwhelm him with a single strike, damage him so much he can't come back from it!"

"Reo…that one move." She said quietly. Reo blinked.

"Huh?"

"That one attack. That blast Shiva's got. Can you…can you do that again?" Mai said, her heart starting to race. "You have enough power?"

"For Pastapastry?" Reo responded, mangling the word so badly it was a miracle Shiva didn't smite her on the spot for it. "For a shot or two…I think. But he blocked it last time. I mean, it deflected his eye-beams but it still didn't get through!"

Mai took a deep breath, glancing over her shoulder. "We didn't have them last time, did we?" She said quietly.

Reo followed her gaze, looking over the four girls assembled behind her. They couldn't hear what the two of them were mumbling about, but one look at their faces made it clear that whatever their plan was, they had their back. Reo took a deep breath, looking back at Mai.

"You saw it, didn't you." Her girlfriend was saying. An attack like that, if it lands, it's gotta work. It's just got to! One single attack, with everything we've got." She was raising her voice so that the others could hear her. "Whatever he throws at us, we'll overwhelm it! Together! We got this far watching each other's backs, and that's how we'll beat this bastard!

Phillips had come to a stop, and without a word, his eyes glowed red once more. Even across the battlefield, Mai could feel the heat growing more intense with every passing second. It seemed Phillips too was about to put everything he had into one final ferocious assault. Mai glanced down at Reo, her expression hard and focused. "Ready, Reo?!"

Reo gestured with a grand flourish. "Prepare the Pastapastry!" she shouted.

Shiva rolled his eyes. If not for his contract he would have had a few strong words for the little human's insult toward his most feared weapon. Regardless, he hardened his stance, leaning in toward Phillips. The center of his forehead opened up, revealing a third eye. As Shiva concentrated, the eye began to glow with overwhelming light, particles of energy building up around it faster and faster, congealing together until it formed a radiant, intensely hot ball of destructive power.

Nanami's heart was pounding in her throat, her nerves so shot that she barely registered Yuuna clutching her hand. Sara braced herself, awaiting Mai's command as Kaede clasped her shoulder, giving it a comforting squeeze. Mai took a deep breath.

"Steady, everyone." She said, trying to make herself heard over the steadily-growing rumble of Shiva's impending attack. "Steady…!"

From across the battlefield, there was a blinding red flash: the Fire of Sinai was on its way, packing all the firepower Phillips could muster. It was time to respond in kind.

"GO FOR IT!" Mai shouted.

"PASTAPASTRY, FIRE!" Reo commanded. Shiva clenched his fists, and the orb of light flared brighter than ever.

"PASHUPATASTRA!" The Destroyer roared, and with a blinding flash, an orange-yellow blast ringed with white erupted from Shiva's third eye. The Pashupatastra roared across the battlefield, meeting the oncoming Fire of Sinai head-on.

The sound of the collision was incredible. The shockwave the clash emitted smashed nearby marble pillars into rubble and parted the clouds above the impact point. The Lord of the Dance and the hijacked Attendant of the Almighty were locked in a brute force contest, each trying to overwhelm the other's blast and neither willing to give an inch.

"HAHAHAHA! This again, Shiva?!" Phillips cackled, pouring on more energy and shoving the Fire of Sinai a few inches closer to the sweating, straining Destroyer. Shiva dug deep, pushing back hard and somehow managing to regain the lost ground. "You could not overtake my holy flames last time! What makes you think this time will be any different!"

It was a testament to Metatron's voice that Phillips could make it heard over the sound of the blasts smashing against each other. Mai clenched her fists. "Because this time, Phillips…it's not just Shiva. Everyone!" She shouted, turning to her friends. "LET HIM HAVE IT!"

A singular moment of understanding swept over the others. Sara raised her phone, Demonee-Ho and Black Frost darting past Shiva with Jeanne and Belial close behind.

"Desperate Hit! Bufudyne!" Sara commanded.

"Bufudyne! Fire Dance!" Kaede yelled.

Their demons obeyed, launching their attacks right into the distracted angel's chest. Entirely focused on keeping Shiva at bay, Phillips could offer no defense: he took the attacks dead on, letting out a grunt of shock as he staggered back. For a moment, the Fire of Sinai faltered, and Shiva very nearly slammed his attack home. But somehow Phillips caught himself, managing to keep up the relentless beam despite the pummeling.

"Oh, come on!" Sara groaned. "Even that didn't-!"

"Zaou Gongen, Asmodeus, Agidyne!"

"Samael, Holy Dance! Amaterasu, Agidyne!"

Phillips let out another grunt of pain as more attacks joined in the barrage, Zaou Gongen, Amaterasu and Asmodeus flinging fireballs one after the other and Samael breathing rainbow energy blasts as fast as it could.

"Horn of Judgement! Zandyne!"

"Come on, get in there, Shiva! Push! PUSH!"

Shiva doubled down as Matador and Trumpeter joined in the fray. Now ten demons were attacking Phillips with everything they had, while an eleventh was devoting every bit of his strength in an attempt to overpower the angel's mightiest technique.

And even still, despite all of this, despite the plumes of smoke that had started to billow from his joints, despite the spurts of sparks that had begun blooming at random all over his body, despite the high pitched whine of tortured machinery and the acrid smell of hot oil, Phillips was refusing to give in.

Judging by Shiva's condition, Phillips's stubbornness was paying off. It wasn't just the angel that looked on the verge of collapse: Shiva's complexion had paled to an ashen baby blue, sweat was pouring from his brow and his legs were shaking badly. The other demons seemed to be running out of energy as well: the fireballs from Asmodeus and Belial were coming far slower, and Amaterasu was doubled over, hands on her knees as she panted for breath. Once again, Trumpeter's Horn of Judgement flickered and vanished, and when Mai looked down at her phone, her fears were realized: the Fiend was tapped out. Its magic reserves were in the single digits. Matador wasn't doing so hot either: his magic wasn't all that great to begin with, and Mai doubted his Zandyne was making much of an impact.

Phillips must have felt the pummeling on his chest subside slightly, because he took this as the opportunity to put even more energy into the Fire of Sinai, even as his mechanical body groaned in torment and the whine emanating from it became more and more high-pitched by the second. Slowly, Shiva began to buckle under the attack, dropping to one knee and dredging up what strength he had left to keep up what was now a defensive maneuver.

Mai watched her friends starting to back away, fear growing on their faces as they realized their final gamble was turning against them, and an odd calm swept over her. Her mind worked clinically, coming to a final conclusion: they couldn't just hope Phillips blew a fuse before Shiva's strength gave out. She needed to do something. Something drastic, and now.

Reo blinked in confusion as she watched Matador cease his Zandyne and rush back toward them. "Mai, what are you doing?!" She screamed.

"What I do best!" Mai called back, her heart pounding as Matador crouched, preparing to jump. "Improv! Winging it! Making up as I go…AND HOPING TO GOD IT WORKS!"

Matador leaped into the air, directly toward his fellow Fiend hovering above him. Despite its exhaustion, Trumpeter had enough strength for this: grabbing Matador by the collar when he came within reach, Trumpeter wound up, and with a grunt of exertion, hurled him like a javelin at Phillips's head.

The girls watched, spellbound: Matador skimmed the two beams shoving against each other, his knees coming within mere inches from being seared off by them. As it was, his raiment had caught fire in such close proximity, and the Fiend was gritting his teeth against the pain as he shot toward Phillips like a cannonball. Raising his sword, Matador braced for impact, taking a deep breath.

"OLE!"

There was a reverberating crash, and Phillips let out a grunt of pain and surprise as Matador crashed headlong into his forehead, his sabre plowing through the angel's metal armor and burying itself deep in his cranium. Phillips stumbled backwards, his head tilting back slightly from the impact. Matador lost his grip, and without a sound he tumbled into the Fire of Sinai, where he was vaporized instantly.

But despite the Fiend's destruction, his job was done: in that moment, that one crucial moment, the surprise attack had shaken Phillips's concentration.

They would never get a better chance.

"REO, NOW!" Mai shouted.

"SHIVAAAAAAAAA!" Reo bellowed, and her demon dredged up the last of his strength, pouring it into the Pashupatastra. The beam swelled in size, ripping through the weakened Fire of Sinai as the other demons scrambled to escape.

Time seemed to slow for Phillips. His Fire of Sinai extinguished, he watched disbelieving as Shiva's attack closed in on him, crawling inch by inch as his whirling mind tried to process what was happening.

It couldn't. It simply couldn't. Even with it unfolding right in front of him, he couldn't comprehend it. How could he? It was a blatant impossibility, so ludicrous it wasn't even worth considering. He was Archibald Phillips! God's Own Chosen! Chosen to be God! He had gained the body of the greatest of angels! He had done everything he was supposed to! He couldn't lose! HE COULDN'T LOSE TO CHILDREN-!

That was about as far as his thought process got: at that point, the Pashupatastra made impact, drilling through his invincible metal body as if it were made of paper, and Archibald Phillips's mind vanished.

The girls watched as Shiva's attack threw Phillips backwards, a massive hole blown right through his chest. Sparks and smokes were billowing from every orifice, electricity coursing around him as he began to collapse. "SY-SY-SY-SYSTEMERRRRRRR…" his deep voice slurred, skipping and changing pitch with every syllable. "CORE MELTMELTMELTMELTDANGER! DANGER! DA-!"

*KABOOM!*

Phillips erupted in a fiery mushroom cloud, sending a shockwave rippling over the girls. Moments later, the great blonde head fell back down again impacting ground with a reverberating crash. There it lay, the green glow in its eyes flickering as the angel's severed head stared right at Mai and her friends. There was silence for a second, and then for one final time, Metatron's voice boomed out, weak, skipping and glitched.

"Tha-tha-tha-tha-thank…yyyyyyyouuuuuuuuuuuuu…"

And with that, the lights gave one last flicker, and went out.

Mai found her voice first, still not quite believing that her desperate plan had worked. "We did it." She whispered. "W-we got him!"

"No more, right?" Nanami squeaked. "We've got nothing left…please, tell me it's over!

Yuuna looked down her nose at the busted head of the angel: despite her regal poise, she was breathing hard, her heart thundering in her ears. "Yes…with that, it is finished."

The green eyes flared to life again, and a thrill of awe and foreboding hit the girls like a physical force. They backed away instinctively, raising their phones to defend themselves from whatever was coming next. Static was crackling from the robotic head, and his eyes were flicking to-and-fro before coming to a stop on the girls. The static abruptly stopped, and then a voice issued forth:

"Indeed it is, Matsubara Yuuna. My servants have all failed Me, and My plan to spread My Word has met with catastrophic failure..."

Nanami's heart skipped a beat. "Your plan? Your Word? You…you're…!"

"But know this, My wayward children. You know not victory, and I know not defeat. You cannot prevail against Me, any more than you could prevail against air, or the mountains, or the waves. How could you? For I am all of these things and more. I am the very fabric of Creation itself, and soon you will all learn what a fool's errand it was to make an enemy of Me."

Metatron's head became enveloped in an ethereal light, glimmering motes of energy rising off of it as it began to disintegrate. "You cannot elude My judgement forever. The day will come when you will break. You will prostrate yourselves before Me, alongside the rest of this world, and give account for the lives you lived. And I assure you…I will remember the sin you committed today. Until that day, I condemn you: as your inescapable fate closes in, may your lives be filled with dread!"

And with that, Metatron's head flashed, glowing brighter and brighter, before erupting into a huge pillar of shining white light. As Mai and her friends shielded their eyes from the glare, a loud rumbling filled their ears as wind whipped around them. Slowly, the light began to fade, and as Mai lowered her arm, it took her eyes a few seconds to get used to the darkness of the hospital's loading bay.

"We're out! The Domain's gone!" Kaede gasped, looking around wildly. "And…and there it is!"

Everyone turned to follow her gaze, and sure enough, the Server was right there, black and ominous and looming over them all. Mai checked her phone: 11:52. They had just made it. "Okay…" she whispered. "Okay, we got eight more minutes before the lock goes down…we just gotta make sure no other Flock goons get in here! Let's set up an ambush, somewhere we can keep an eye on the Server. How the heck are we gonna contact Dani -"

"Hold it."

The voice was quiet, but it silenced Mai instantly. She and her friends recognized it on the spot. Mai took one look at Nanami, who was looking past her, and the baleful expression on her face confirmed it. Slowly, she turned, raising her phone alongside her friends and staring Colette down.

The brunette was breathing hard, red in the face and posture limp. Regardless, she was staring at the girls with fire in her eyes. Mai noticed her glance flick down to the mangled cane resting a short distance away. "Grandfather…" Colette whispered. "So…it's done, then?"

Mai nodded silently. Kaede blinked, drawing in a sharp breath. "Tomohisa-san-!"

"He tried to stop me, and I dealt with him. We'll leave it at that for the moment. Right now, we have bigger things to talk about." Colette's expression darkened. "You pulled it off. Fiends worked as advertised, then?" Her lip curled up in a snarl. "You fools. Do you realize what's happened? What horrors you've become?! You've been had! We all have, and because of your naiveté the world is in worse danger than it ever was from my Grandfather!"

"You're stubborn at least, I'll give you that."

Danica's voice made them all jump. In that uncanny way she had, the woman had appeared behind Mai, unnoticed by any of them. Colette stared at the woman. "Sister Danica? Where did…?" Her eyes darkened. "You…it was you all along, wasn't it?"

"Dog of the Great Will…the game is finished. Your leader is dead, your ranks are broken, and you…you are overextended. Alone against the Chosen Ones." Danica's expression darkened. "There is no victory to be found here for the Flock. Now leave, or die."

Danica didn't even hesitate. She clasped her hands together, the girls going rigid at the sight. "The Flock?" Her eyes narrowed. "You really think this about the Flock!? The Flock is dead! This is about me being the last one standing against the Darkness! Chick, Ethan, my Grandfather, they're all gone! It's just me left, me keeping you from winning!"

"Me?" Danica cocked her head innocently. "I'm here to support these girls and stop the outbreak at this point. For what it's worth, I've already 'won'."

Colette stiffened as Danica's eyes glittered. "See, we've sent out video evidence of your schemes. Probably going viral right as we speak. You really think God'll eat lunch in this world again after a scandal like this? His reputation is in shambles. THAT'S my victory."

Colette slowly unclasped her shaking hands, staring wide-eyed at Danica as the platinum-blonde woman chuckled. "What were you expecting? Hell on Earth? Seals and beasts and the end of it all? A horrific nightmare world where demons roamed killing at leisure?" Danica's smile widened. "Last time I checked, you had that covered, and I don't want to cut in on that territory."

It was a pitiful sight. The magnitude of the Flock's failure had hit Colette like a falling anvil, and she was trembling as she began to comprehend the trap the organization had walked into. Danica watched her distress and really began to foam. "So simple, so elegant…all it took was a few lines of code. A few lines of code, and I had turned your own scheme against you."

On the one hand, it was sheer cruelty, and Danica was clearly reveling in it. On the other hand, it was Colette who was on the receiving end. Honestly, Nanami didn't know what to think. She could see it in Colette's eyes: her spirit was all but broken by the revelation. Danica was stepping forward aggressively now, the smile on her face giving way to a disgusted glower. "Pitiful little soldiers you all were…no, not soldiers. I have faced soldiers of God, who were unafraid to show the world their monstrosity, who wore their zealotry as a badge of honor, crushing all who stood against them by force. On a certain level, at least, I could respect that; if not their cause, then their honesty. Their dedication, their principles. Because they truly believed they were doing the right thing. They were proud of their work, and I can respect pride."

"IN NOMINE…!" Colette's voice cracked, and tears were rolling down her cheeks. "IN NOMINE PATRIS-"

"But the Flock? You were actors and actresses, lying through your teeth and playacting at heroism because you knew what you were doing was wrong!" Danica snarled.

Colette was making one last desperate attempt to regain her resolve. Bowing her head, she clasped her hands together. "I-in nom…nomine…" It was no use. In her heart, she had already admitted defeat. Panic and despair had gripped her mind. Even if she managed to get the words out, she doubted her faith would reach Gabriel. Her legs buckled, and she crumpled to her knees.

"You know who I am, do you not? Then you know how many times I have clashed with the forces of the Great Will. Without a doubt, the Flock has been the most incompetent, practically handing me my victory here!" Danica proclaimed. "And of their ranks, you are easily the most pitiful, Colette Phillips, knowing full well the evil in what you were doing and going along regardless! You think turning against Archibald Phillips at the last possible moment erases such a sin? Especially when you seek even now to carry on his legacy? You didn't turn on him because you cared about these people. Not even those girls who you once called your friends." She jerked her head over to the girls. "But because you didn't want cold-blooded slaughter on your hands. You didn't want to consider yourself a bad person, even as you indirectly threw thousands to the wolves."

Colette tried to force a determined expression on her face and managed a pitiful grimace. "I…I won't let you…" Danica kneeled down in front of her.

"Yes. You will. Because you don't have the strength of character to stop me. That, without a doubt, is why I've always hated you the most. Of all the Flock's members, you are the worst of them. Worse than Chick Jackson, worse than Ethan Samuel, worse than even Archibald Phillips. They were fanatics. Rabid animals, pathologically destructive, incapable of nuanced thinking. But they were honest. They truly believed what they were doing was the right thing. Same for your starry-eyed followers, spellbound by Archibald Phillips's honeyed words. But you? You knew deep down what they were doing was wrong, and you went along regardless, rationalizing it every step of the way and calling yourself a hero. It takes a special kind of evil to just…disregard your conscience like that. Coward."

She reached out, grabbing the trembling Colette by the collar and hauling her close. "Get out of my sight, you piece of scum. Go stew in your failure somewhere far away from me. I have bigger things than you to concern myself with."

Colette whimpered. Danica shoved her away. "Go!"

Colette scrambled to her feet, tripping over herself and falling down a few times before she managed to get her footing. Danica watched, satisfied, as Colette fled for the door, sobbing, then turned around and approached the girls again.

"My Faith is gone, cried he after one stupefied moment…" Kaede said softly.

"Tch…tell her how you really feel, Danica-san." Yuuna muttered.

"There's no call whatsoever to have you keep fighting these idiots, not when we have bigger issues to address. Ladies…" Danica spread her arms. "Every test you overcame, my every expectation you surpassed. You are, without a shadow of a doubt, worthy."

The girls stared at her as she slowly approached them. "Michael, Archibald Phillips, even Metatron, Attendant of the Divine, have all fallen by your hand. Not even I expected you to pull it off against that last one, with wounded demons and everything. I was on the way to aid you when I sensed his presence, but wouldn't you know it, you came through with flying colors. Truly, I made the right choice. And, as promised," she said, turning away. "Your efforts will be rewarded."

Sara raised an eyebrow as Danica strode off toward the massive machine in the center of the room. "W-what are you doing?!" She demanded, raising her phone with a shaking hand. Danica stopped, glancing over her shoulder and looking genuinely confused.

"You wanted me to stop the outbreak, didn't you? Now, this will only take a moment…"she said, approaching the Server. Reaching out, her hands danced over what Mai could only assume was a keyboard.

"But-but the lockdown! We still have-" Sara continued. Danica snorted.

"Come now, I'm the one who made it! No point in just sitting on our hands at this point, not when we have so much to discuss. Aaaaaand…done!"

She hit one final key, and the girls cried out as a tremor lurched through the floor. Danica stepped back from the Server as the glowing, spinning thing in the glass tube pulsed with unnatural light. "Aah, shame we're in here. The miasma in the sky? All the demons are being sucked into that right now. Hell of a sight."

Mai's eyes narrowed as the realization dawned on her. "You had us all freaking out over nothing: the Flock never would've gotten their way, even if they controlled the Server by noon. They couldn't do anything with it without your help!"

Danica laughed outright this time. "Please! This was a test, true, but do you really think I would've just rolled over and let the Flock have its way if you or Naito had failed? If they had definitively 'won', I would've just ended the outbreak on the spot, destroyed their Server and made a quiet exit. After, of course, dealing with Phillips myself. I just figured you could all use a little pressure. Luckily, it didn't come to that. As I've been saying, this outbreak was a test." Her smile broadened, revealing sharpened canines. "And you all passed."

"So…so the outbreak's done?" Nanami whispered. "I-it's really over?"

"Well, the wild demons are gone. What to do with the Tamers, though? I haven't nullified their contracts just yet." Danica mused. "Imagine the shock the Flock would have if I banished all their angels. Leave them helpless against the Tamers. After everything they've done, they deserve it, don't you agree?"

Yuuna shook her head, her expression hard as she stared Danica down. "End it. Program and all. For the Tamers and the Flock. This nightmare is over."

Danica frowned. "If you say so." She said, turning back to the keyboard and punching in a few commands. "And there we…go."

Yuuna instinctively pulled out her phone, raising it to her eyes. Nanami gazed into her face, holding her breath…

Her blood went cold as she saw her lover's expression change. This made it three times the look on her face had been that virulent. Slowly, Yuuna looked up, glaring at the softly-grinning Danica.

"What is this?" she whispered. "What in god's name are you playing at?"

Sara looked down at her phone and blanched. "Wha-it's still here! I-I've still got the Program!"

So it was with her friends; they gave quick glances at their phones to confirm the situation, then turned accusing gazes toward the unflappable blonde woman standing in front of them. Danica sucked her bottom lip as Mai took a step forward. "What's going on, Danica?" she said dangerously.

"Ah…" Danica looked up at the ceiling. "About your copies of the Program. I can't get rid of them. Not yet. We have some things to discuss first."

Mai shook her head. "No. No more games! We're not talking about anything -"

"Yes! We are." For the first time, Danica sounded genuinely frustrated, and Mai's indignant rebuttal hit a roadblock on the way out of her mouth. "Do you know why? Because this entire outbreak, every. Second. Of it. Has been leading up to this moment. The moment my plan comes together."

Her expression had never changed. It remained blank and empty, even as an aura so dark and perverse it seemed to claw at Nanami's soul began to swirl around her, and her eyes glowed with a malefic light. One of them had changed color entirely: her right eye was no longer electric blue, but a horrifying red. Her clothes and short, bob-cut hair began to billow slightly, as if caught in an updraft, and slowly, as the woman raised her arms, she lifted off the ground entirely, to hover a few inches in midair.

"You wanted this, didn't you?" She said softly. "No more cryptic half-answers. No more manipulation. It's time you learned exactly what's going on. After all you have done for me, you deserve the whole truth. So allow me to introduce myself properly."

The girls found themselves backing away involuntarily, Nanami's eyes widening as a cold sweat broke out on her forehead. As the girls watched, dumbstruck and horrified, six dark, spreading membranous wings burst from Danica's back, and a pair of twisting horns grew from her head. "I am the Great Darkness. The king of Hell. The radiant Morning Star!" Her voice had changed: from the woman's mouth came the voice of a man, deep, rich and thundering with power and authority. "I…am the Demon Lord Lucifer."

"Lucifer…the Demon Lord Lucifer. Y-you're not just a demon, you're their king. The devil himself…" Kaede's brain had gone numb. She was babbling in awestruck terror. She knew as well as any of her friends that Danica hadn't been human. She was expecting some revelation and a twisted transformation to boot. But this… "You're the devil. Phillips was telling the truth…we've been helping the devil himself…oh…oh, God help…no, but God is…I-I mean…!"

Danica, or rather Lucifer, shook her, or rather his head, raising a finger. Instantly Kaede fell silent, and by the startled choking noise she let out it hadn't been voluntary on her part. "Yes." The demon lord boomed. "I am Lucifer. God's great adversary. And now, as promised..." Lucifer cocked his fingers. "The truth."

He gave his fingers a sharp snap, and instantly Mai felt weightless. The world around her twisted and stretched like silly putty, blurring sickeningly around her until she and her friends were surrounded by alien geometries. One after the other, images formed before her eyes: demons and angels and humans throwing themselves at each other in grand displays of violence. "This city, this world, really, was simply one more battlefield in a long and terrible war." Lucifer's voice thundered around them. "For untold eons, two factions have clashed, over and over again, across countless parallel realities." The world shifted again: a legion of angels hovered in Mai's mind's eye, Metatron towering over them and high above him glowed the bald head of a golden, stern-faced old man. "The forces of Law, led by YHVH the Creator, seek to subjugate all of creation, erasing free will and reducing humanity to mindless worship of them. Opposing them is my faction: the forces of Chaos, formed of demons, pagan deities, and other outcast beings. Poor souls demonized and cast down by YHVH and His angels. It is our sworn oath to crush the forces of Law, prevent their ruthless conquest and instead usher in a shining new age of free will for all of creation."

The images faded for a moment, leaving the girls standing dumbstruck in the middle of an endless black void. Lucifer paused for a moment, then continued speaking. "Of course, demons are not the only ones battling the forces of Law. Indeed, the most renowned of our champions are or were as human as all of you."

More images were materializing: a young man with a long black ponytail raising a long katana against a shining, vaguely-female eldritch figure. A bare-chested boy lined with glowing green tattoos standing resolute before a ball of glowing white light. A man in futuristic armor that bore a striking resemblance to Demonee-Ho's brandishing an assault rifle and firing a barrage of bullets at towering cross emblazoned with the image of an unearthly beautiful woman. A young man dressed in black, wielding a sword and revolver, standing against a trio of colossal, skull-faced locusts…

"Godslayers. Humans who have taken up arms against the Creator and his minions. Godslayers commit the ultimate sin, and defy God for the sake of humans and demons alike, some of them even doing battle with YHVH Himself." Lucifer said softly. There was genuine reverence in his voice, profound respect for the beings Mai and her friends were seeing. The last image, that of a long-haired young man firing two handguns against a giant, floating golden head that was screaming in fury at him, slowly faded away, leaving endless darkness surrounding them all. Lucifer reappeared before the girls, the Demon Lord's face blank.

"And what I would like…is for you six to accept that vaunted status." He said softly. Mai tried to shake the fog out of her brain. The rapid-fire images had set her mind spinning, and by the look of her friends they were in much the same state. For a moment, it looked as if Sara was about to actually throw up.

"Wh…wha…?" Mai slurred. Lucifer's eyes narrowed.

"You passed my test. Succeeded where Shusui Naito failed." He leaned in, dropping his voice to a dramatic whisper. "You proved yourselves strong in body and mind, adroit with the Demon Summoning program, and willing to stand against God's tyranny. All six of you are worthy, worthy to hold that title. Worthy to join the ranks of those legendary champions. Girls…join me. Be my Godslayers."

Mai dropped to her knees, gasping for breath. Reo was whimpering next to her: clearly Lucifer's little presentation had knocked her for a loop. Yuuna shook her head, but that just made the pounding worse. "God…shlayer?" she slurred.

"He's the reason for it all. All the suffering you went through over the span of this week was Him acting through Phillips." Lucifer said quietly. "And all across the multiverse it is much the same: The Creator God seeks absolute control over all life, no matter what sort of misery He causes. Throw away your preconceived notions of a benevolent, loving Father: you heard Him, didn't you? I sensed but a fragment of His power, but he was here. He spoke to you, threatened you. And you know full well that after everything you've done, he has abandoned you."The fierce, scowling face softened slightly. "But fear not: His blessing was a curse, one that kept you subservient to Him, and you've seen His true nature for yourselves now. In place of His blessing, you shall have mine. And should you join the fight, my blessing is but the first of the wonders in store for you."

Mai struggled to her feet, helping Reo to stand as she stared into the Devil's eyes. "Wonders?" She asked, trying to keep her voice as impassive as she could manage, a difficult proposition with her heart thrashing so badly.

"I told you at the very start, didn't I? 'If you prove yourselves worthy, you will gain access to power beyond your wildest dreams'. Well, I am a man of my word: you proved yourselves worthy, and the opportunity to collect has presented itself. You will retain your demon servants, while you yourselves will transcend your humanity: infused with demonic power, you will gain eternal life and unimaginable strength, becoming beings that could rend entire worlds should you desire to. So now it is time to decide where you are going to go from here. Will you join me, and fulfil your destinies? Discuss it among yourselves to your heart's content. Do not concern yourselves with your allies outside. Time, after all, has no meaning in this place."

Sara couldn't help it: she felt herself involuntarily perk up with interest at the word 'power'. Becoming a superhuman, living forever alongside Kaede-chan with demons at her beck and call. Some deep, dark corner of her heart had already begun whispering to her at the thought. Kaede had noticed, though, and pulled Sara back slightly, bringing her out of her thoughts before they could take hold. Yuuna clearly had a very different opinion of what she was hearing.

"So this is what you wanted the whole time. If you wanted to bring down the Flock from the inside, as you said down in the tunnels, you could've done that all on your own. In the end, that was secondary: what you wanted was us."

Lucifer said nothing. "I mean, you said as much, didn't you?" Yuuna continued. "'Cultivating the growth of the Tamers?' That had nothing to do with stopping the Flock. This was the end you had in mind. Us, as your weapons in your war. Your slaves!"

Lucifer's red eyes flashed, the towering figure letting out a low growl as a menacing pressure bore down on Yuuna. The blonde stepped back, but managed to keep her defiant glare on him. "Mind yourself! Do not compare me to the Great Will again!" he snapped. "Our desires are different as night and day: it is he who wants unthinking slaves, not I! What I desire are champions: willing warriors who do as they please, and fight the Creator of their own volition, so that all sentient life can do the same!" his face softened again. "Free will, human. Nothing in all of creation means more to me than free will. I am the patron of all those who turn away from YHVH's dogma, and who travel a path of their choosing. Now I'm opening a path for you all to walk should it so please you. An opportunity to take the fight directly to YHVH."

Yuuna's eyes narrowed. "If you truly value free will and choice, you should find no issue with our refusal." She snapped, rounding on her friends before Lucifer could answer. "We came here to end the outbreak and go back to a semblance of our lives. I promise you here: if any of you let yourselves be seduced by what he's offering, then we have reached a parting of the ways!"

Such vehemence was understandably met with stares of amazement. Seeming to realize what she had just implied, Yuuna looked down at her lover. "Nanami-" she began, weighing her words, but there was no need to go on: Nanami was shaking her head.

"No way! I'd never have joined him, even if you hadn't said such a thing! E-everything we've done was to end the fighting, and I'm done! I'm done fighting angels and demons and stuff!"

"I see…" mused Lucifer, as he looked at the other four. "And all of you? Does my offer pique your interest?"

Mai let out a grim chuckle. "I'd be lying if I said it didn't. But I'd be an idiot if I took you up on it. I mean, putting aside the fact it's coming from the Devil, you said yourself that God's lost His grip on our world." She shrugged. "So we don't have to worry about Him anymore. What, we're supposed to throw ourselves into a multiversal conflict we have no stake in anymore when we're not even out of high school?"

"Hrm…and you?" Lucifer looked at Reo, a hint of disappointment in his voice. The corner of Reo's mouth was twitching.

"Uhh…well…" she hemmed and hawed.

Mai stared aghast down at her girlfriend. "Reo!" she admonished. Reo flinched slightly in shame.

"I-it's cool as long as we stop the outbreak right? That's what we came here to do, right? I mean…" she shook her head. "I don't wanna give up my demons, alright?!" she whined. "I just got Shiva! I mean, you saw him, he's so cool!"

"Steady, Reo…" Mai said. "Don't fall for it…!"

"I know!" Reo was twitching rather badly as she turned to Kaede and Sara. "Gaah…you two! Refuse him, now! Just…just do it quickly, like a Band-Aid!"

Sara and Kaede looked at each other. By Kaede's expression, she knew what Sara was thinking. Her look wasn't judgmental or pitying, but entirely understanding as she clapped a hand comfortingly on her shoulder. "You don't need them, Sara. You don't need them to be strong."

Sara laughed dryly. "Yeah, if I did, I wouldn't be here right now." She said.

"S-Sara, I didn't say tha-" Kaede began, but Sara shook her head, and when she looked into Kaede's eyes, they were bright and lively. The look that Kaede knew her by, and had missed with all her heart.

"C'mon, Kaede-chan, I'm a sucky Tamer." She chuckled. "No way I'd be able to handle some interdimensional war. You know better than anyone: I'm a lover, not a fighter!" she gave Kaede a playful swat on the butt, grinning a bit as she saw Kaede's face redden slightly with embarrassment. The maroon-haired girl managed to compose herself, however, and put a resolute look on her face as she pulled her knight closer. "You heard us, Lucifer. We're done."

Yuuna gave the two a nod, then turned and glared back at Lucifer. "It's unanimous. We refuse!" she said firmly.

Lucifer's red eyes narrowed. The pressure in the air intensified. "Do you, now?" He growled. "It was because of me that you are here at all. If not for my aid, you would have died in this city a thousand times over! I gave you everything you needed to save your world, and THIS is how you thank me?!"

Nanami's heart nearly stopped as the dark figure raised his hand…

But then she heard a soft musical jingle from her phone.

"Oh, fine..." Lucifer said simply, as Nanami looked down at the device in her hand. Her friends' phones were letting out little tunes of their own. Mai stared in confusion at a large red button that had appeared on the screen, above a line of six black dots.

"Wha…?" She stammered. Lucifer chuckled.

"I hope at least you will accept one final present from me." He said. "Just be sure you're well clear of this place before you unwrap it."

Sara seemed thoroughly confused. "Wha-ju-just like that? You're not gonna…I dunno, freak out and attack us in a rage for not joining you?"

"S-Sara, don't-!" Kaede babbled in a panic, but Lucifer was chuckling warmly.

"Encourage me?" He laughed. "Please. I am many things, Sara Kitajima. 'Hypocrite' is not one of them. I said I am a man of my word, and that's precisely what I am. You made your decision of your own volition, and I will honor it. You deserve as much for everything you went through." His red eyes glittered suddenly. "Unless of course, you WANT to fight me. One final spar before this affair comes to an end? Here, hold for a moment…" He waved his hand again, and the girls' phones vibrated in their hands. "There, your demons are fully restored."

His eagerness was almost childlike. It was clear he wanted a bout with them. But Mai shook her head. "I don't think so." She said quietly. Lucifer lowered his arms, looking quite plainly disappointed.

"As you wish. And with that, I believe our business has concluded: God's forces are defeated, His reputation is ruined beyond repair in this world, and the Sons of Man shall forge their own paths free from His tyranny. All in all…I think this has been a productive week for the Forces of Chaos."

There was a low rumbling as a bloody red miasma began to gather, forming a huge oval portal that hovered in the air behind him. "It was a pleasure working with you all, and a shame we cannot continue to do so. This is where we part ways, but know this: I am always watching over you. If ever you stumble, and lose your way, look to me and find the strength to forge onward, beholden only to your own whims. In all your future endeavors, Daughters of Man…I wish you all the best of luck."

And without another word, the Demon Lord flew backwards into the portal. The moment he vanished through it, there was a blinding flash of light, forcing the girls to cover their eyes. When the stars stopped blinking in front of them, they lowered their arms; lo and behold, they had returned once more to the loading bay. Mai let out her breath in a whoosh, falling down painfully onto her butt as her trembling legs failed to support her weight. Her friends were in much the same condition; the sheer weight of what they had been witness to had been overwhelming.

"So..." Mai finally managed to say. "That was a heck of a thing."

Kaede was staring down at her phone, pacing aimlessly as she tried to find her voice. "Guys, I…I think he came through. The Summoning Program, I…I can't access it."

It was true. Nanami tried everything, but the only thing she could access was the strange red button app that had appeared in place of her Summoning Program. "Our demons are gone." She said, too stunned to manage anything more than a monotone. "It's over."

"Well, ours are gone but…" Yuuna said hesitantly. "What about everyone else's?"

Mai strained her ears. In the short time between fighting Phillips and talking to Lucifer, when they had been confronting Colette, should could hear the faint sound of combat from outside, as Tomohisa and the others fought to keep Naito's and Colette's forces away from the hospital. But now those sounds had stopped. For that matter, the whole loading bay was eerily silent. Mai turned to look at the Server. The yellow, hovering spinning thing in the glass tube had stopped hovering and spinning, and had descended to the base of the machine. Now that it wasn't whirling like a dervish, they could get a clear view of it: some kind of huge, diamond-shaped, yellow multifaceted crystal. Without its wild spinning, the rumbling sound the Server had been making had stopped.

Mai became aware of Reo grunting next to her, and when she looked over, she realized with a jolt that her lover was pressing the red button on her phone over and over again, looking more sour with each attempt. "Ah-dih-dih!" Mai babbled, trying to catch Reo's attention. Reo looked up at her in confusion. "Careful! Lucifer said not to touch that until we're away from here!"

Reo pulled a face. "Doesn't even do anything! Look!" Holding up the phone to her girlfriend, she hit the button a few times. Indeed, nothing of note happened. That is, except for one of the black dots below the button lighting up yellow every time she held the button down.

A realization clicked in Mai's brain. "Ohhh…so that's what it does." She mused. Now Reo looked really confused.

"What does what? What?" She stammered. Mai turned to the others.

"Yeah, this thing'll work when we all hold the button down at once." She said, holding up her phone for emphasis. "And like he said, we're gonna want to be faaaaaar away from this place when we do."

"What do you…ooooooh." Sara's face lit up like a child on Christmas morning. "BOOM, right?"

"Boom." Mai nodded, that familiar glimmer in her eyes. "The perfect end to this nightmare. Now come on, let's…wait."

Reo, after going pale and making sure her phone was safely off and securely in her pocket where she couldn't accidently blow herself up, raised an eyebrow as her girlfriend strode over to a corner of the loading bay. "Mai, what are you…?"

Mai was leaning down, picking something up off the ground. When she turned around, Reo saw that she had retrieved Phillips's mangled, half-melted cane. Hefting it a few times, feeling its weight, she turned back to her friends. "Alright…let's go. They're waiting on us."

And with that, the six of them strode out of the loading bay. Only Sara stayed behind for a moment, just long enough for her to take the wristbands she had taken from Chick and Ethan out of her pockets, dropping them on the ground behind her before hurrying after them.


They emerged onto a scene of carnage. The battle that had raged outside had ripped the parking lot to shreds; it was littered with as many craters as dead bodies. The people still standing were simply milling around, seemingly unsure of what to do with themselves, until one of them noticed Mai and her friends emerging from the hospital. Suddenly, all eyes were on them, Reo instinctively ducking behind Mai to avoid the barrage of intense gazes. Mai stared around at the gathered men and women. She couldn't recognize many of them, but she knew Tomohisa's thin, foxlike face at a glance. His blue police uniform was torn up, his hat was missing entirely, and his revolver was held limply in his hand.

Nanami's heart leaped at the sight. These were the Tamers. Their allies. They were still alive.

For a moment, nobody said anything. Then Mai raised the cane she was holding and hurled it to the ground in front of her, a huge grin blooming on her face. "Suck it, Phillips!" she crowed.

That broke the spell. The Tamers erupted in cheers as the reality of their victory sunk in. The few remaining Flock deserters in the crowd glanced among themselves, and then took off running like hell on wheels. Runa grabbed Takako's hand without a word, dragging her sensei along with the rest of Naito's followers, who were following close behind the fleeing ex-Flock members. Risa made to follow, but Miya grabbed her shoulder. "Forget it. They've got nothing left."

"But-" Risa began. Miya shook her head.

"Houraisen made her bed. Come what may, she's gonna sleep in it." She said softly. "We've got bigger things to think about."

Tomohisa was hurrying over to the girls. "You should've seen it!" He said breathlessly. "Out of nowhere, all the wild demons attacking us got sucked into that miasma in the sky. I could see it happening all over the city! And then right after, all the demons and angels we had up and vanished too! So you got 'em. It's over, you did it!"

Mai nodded. "Probably couldn't have if you hadn't held the line for us. So what were you up against out here?"

"The works." Said Tomohisa. "Naito and Colette teamed up to try to bust through, and then a bunch of wild demons joined the party."

"Those two working together?" Yuuna chuckled. "Never thought I'd see the day…"

"Worked, though. Gave us a run for our money. Colette broke through once she brought out her Archangel." Tomohisa said bitterly. "Nothing I could do to stop it, that thing was a beast. Sorry about that. Still, you took care of it."

Yuuna allowed herself a little smile as her mind flashed back to the sight of the sobbing, broken Lieutenant. "And Naito?" she asked.

This time it was Tomohisa who pulled a face. He gestured behind him aimlessly. "One of the bodies." He said quietly. "Soon as all the demons just vanished he…well, he lost it. Started screaming some nonsense about a new world and charged me, howling like a maniac, and I…well, I did what I was trained to do."

Yuuna took one look at the revolver in his hand and nodded. "Naito, Phillips, Colette and the ex-Flock, and the demons. They're all gone. The outbreak is all but over."

Tomohisa holstered his gun. "'All but'?" he queried.

"We have one last thing to do." Mai interjected. "But we need to get a good distance away from this place to do it. We're gonna make sure that Server is never used again."


Back at the park, the anticipation in the air was thick enough to hang from. The Tamer had all gathered around the gate, staring at the six girls standing resolutely in front of them and awaiting their next move. Figuring they had built up enough tension, Mai reached into her pocket.

"Phoooooones out!" she barked. If they were going to do something like this, they were gonna do it right. "Safeties off!"

At Mai's command, she and her friends unlocked their phones, revealing the waiting red button. The Tamers leaned in as Mai poised her finger above the screen, and the others followed suit. Mai took a deep breath.

"Three…two…one…!" she slammed her finger down on the screen. "FIRE!"

Below the red button, one of the dots lit up yellow, followed by the other five in quick succession. When all of them appeared, they turned bright green, flashing rapidly, and…!

And…

For a moment, nothing happened. An awkward silence filled the park, broken by someone in the crowd of Tamers clearing their throat. Yuuna rotated her hand, looking uncharacteristically impatient. "Aaaand…" she muttered.

Mai looked down at her phone, hitting the button a few more times. She turned to her friends, opening her mouth to say something, when an awestruck cry came up from the Tamers. Nanami was pointing a shaking finger in the distance. "Look!" she shouted.

A white light was building over the rooftops, brighter and brighter until suddenly it flared to the point of blinding. Mai brought a hand up to shield her eyes as the ground beneath her began to quiver. In the distance, she heard a whooshing noise, as if something huge was flying through the air at incredible speed.

"Okay…" Yuuna nodded. "There we g-"

Moments later, the shockwave hit.

There was a thunderous, deafening explosion. Reo let out a scream as she was thrown off her feet, Sara, Nanami and Kaede tumbling to the ground alongside her. Windows in the buildings around them were smashed to pieces as the air rippled and the ground heaved, nearly knocking Mai and Yuuna over too. The Tamers cried out, trying to stay upright as the shockwave rippled past them.

Mai lowered her hand, staring above the city skyline as a plume of flames rose above it. "Yep, there it goes!"

Yuuna moved to help Nanami to her feet. "And with that, it's over…" she said softly, pulling her lover close. Looking up, she watched as the ominous red clouds that had been leaking out from above the hospital began to clear before her eyes. Within moments, they were all gone, leaving a normal sky of blue and clean white. "The Server's gone."

Kaede was helping Sara to stand when a strange, triumphant jingle, sounding like it was being played on a tinny pipe organ, issued from her phone. She looked down just in time to see a word flash across the screen:

'CONGRATULATIONS!'

Moments later, the word faded. The screen went black for a moment, and when it lit up, Kaede's heart did a flip.

Her old wallpaper: Sara in a pink bikini with white lily designs, striking a provocative pose. Her face turned crimson, and she instinctively crammed the phone in her pocket, glancing over her shoulder to see if any of the Tamers had noticed. But by the look of them, she had dodged that particular bullet: they were staring over the horizon.

"The hell was that?"

"The Server…I think the server just self-destructed!

"H-hey! Hey! That means we did it, didn't we? We won! WE WON!"

The shock of the explosion was beginning to wear off, and as the realization sunk in, the murmuring of the crow built. It was a few sparse whoops and cheers at first, but it built like wildfire until the park grounds shook with the noise. The Tamers were roaring with glee, a few crying from the weight of their emotions. Some men and women were reaching out, grabbing complete strangers to dance with, hug or even kiss.

Mai scooped Reo off the ground, twirling the blonde around as their lips came together. Nanami and Yuuna were likewise making out: it seemed only through great effort that Yuuna was keeping herself from taking that extra step and tearing the pink-haired girl's clothes off in front of everyone. Sara and Kaede were being far more conservative, electing instead for a joyous dance together.

Mai was out of breath: for the first time in what seemed like all week, the adrenaline coursing through her body had truly stopped, and now she felt more exhausted than ever. She and Reo sank to the ground, ending their passionate kiss and kneeling there together, gasping for air. Reo was so overjoyed and relieved that she had broken down sobbing. So had Mai. The two of them were simply too drained to do much of anything but stay there in each other's embrace, as the Tamers' revelry echoed around them all.


A few hours after the destruction of the server, the JSDF rolled in. Only this time, they seemed far more open to discussion with the survivors. Apparently, an anonymous tip (Mai instantly knew who it had been) had come in that the Flock had been routed and the demons banished, a rumor that the survivors were all too eager to confirm. With that, they had been loaded onto APCs and carted out of the fallen city to reunite with the rest of the survivors. Outside, Mai had been nearly tackled off her feet by her mother, who had dragged her to the ground sobbing hysterically as her father and siblings joined in the pile. Nanami was reunified with her parents soon afterwards, and an unfortunate paparazzi who had shoved a microphone in Reo's face and demanded an interview had been on the receiving end of a haymaker, courtesy of her father, followed by a verbal beatdown from her mom.

The evidence that Kaede had collected and Tomohisa helped reveal to the world had been a resounding success. The video had gone viral in a matter of hours, and as the truth spread like wildfire, public opinion of the Flock all over the world had gone from 90s to single digits in just a few days. If one turned on the news, there was a high chance of seeing a refugee from the park being interviewed, expressing disgust at having believed in the cult.

The Flock members and ex-Flock members had vanished entirely, though the SDF was hard at work searching for them, confidently assuring the public that they would be hunted down and brought to justice. For what it was worth, the Flock's ambitions had been brought to a definitive end. Their façade of heroism had been utterly destroyed. There was no coming back from a scandal like this. Needless to say, between the reveal of the demons' existence and the true, wicked nature of the angels, the state of religion all over the world had been turned on its head, the Abrahamic ones in particular having taken a devastating body blow.

Of course, things hardly went back to normal with Phillips defeated and the demons gone. Weeks after the outbreak had ended, the sad business of picking up the pieces was still going on.

It had been bar none the worst terrorist attack on Japanese soil in recorded history: Kazamino had been rendered uninhabitable. Rebuilding the city to the point where even a few people could move back in would take decades. It would be centuries before it regained its former glory. Already the whole affair had brought the country's view of Americans to an all-time low. Minor witch hunts had broken out, citizens all over Japan turning on the gaijin who they had convinced themselves were members of the cult, waiting to strike again. The United States government was frantically trying to reassure the Japanese population that every effort was being bent to hunt down any remaining Flock loyalists still in America.

The death toll was mind-shattering. In keeping up with the news, Mai had learned that as packed as the park had been, the survivors made up a scant ten percent of Kazamino's population. The rest were either confirmed dead or missing, with a grim prognosis for the latter: fifty, maybe a hundred had been discovered holed up in basements or safe rooms. Twice Mai had gotten phone calls, the first from Kaede, the second from Yuuna. Kaede had been sobbing so badly she had barely been able to convey the death of her mother. Yuuna's call had been even worse, as she confirmed tersely with a trembling voice that both of her parents had died at the hospital when the demons first appeared, then hung up without another word.

And deaths in the family were just the beginning.

Nanami had been expecting it in the back of her mind. She knew, deep down, that her mom and dad's efforts to rebuild their lives wouldn't prioritize Yuuna. They had tried to console her, telling her that she still had her number and her email, and even beyond keeping in touch, once she learned how to drive she could visit Yuuna any time she wanted. Nanami had nodded stiffly, excused herself to her room, and spent the rest of the night sobbing like a child.

Sure, what did it matter that her lover was an orphan now?!

Reo's news to Mai had been even worse: despite getting into a shouting match with her folks over it, the decision had been final: she and her family were off to Paris. Something about her mother's connections getting her a job with some financing company…whatever the case was, Mai had rushed out of the hotel and grabbed a bus to the Mitakihara hotel where Reo was staying. Her father, a banker-looking guy with short blonde hair and a pencil moustache, had met her at the door. He had listened to her story with a blank expression on his face, then strode wordlessly into the nearby closet, pulled out a pair of swim trunks, and brushed past Mai, walking down the hall without a backwards glance. Reo had made herself known moments later, and the two spent the next half hour making the best…and saddest love they ever had.

On her way back to her hotel, Mai downloaded a budgeting app. She honestly hadn't expected to spend her adult years in Europe, but then she hadn't been expecting a demon outbreak either, had she?

Another week went by, and her parents finally located a nice apartment in Kamihama, a city over in the Kansai region. So after packing what meager belongings they had left, it was off to the train station. Mai had spent the whole trip there on the phone, talking with Reo, before the departure was announced. She swore on her good name that they would be reunited, that she would save every last yen to make it happen. Then she hung up, and she and her family hurried across the platform, boarding the train.

Resting her head against the window, Mai stared out at the station platform, drinking in the last sight of relative familiarity she would see for a long time. Her eyes roved over the crowd bustling around, restlessly waiting for their own trains to arrive. Men, women, children, and…

Mai started, sitting straight up as her heart skipped a beat. Time seemed to slow down as she realized what she was seeing. The sharp-faced platinum-blonde woman mingling in the crowd was staring at her, unmistakably right at her, looking into her eyes and smirking that familiar grin of hers.

And just as quickly, the moment was over, the train picked up speed, and Mai and her family were carried out of the station. Onward they raced toward a future full of possibilities, a future both bright and uncertain. A future free from God and His angels, and from demons.

A future that Mai Sawaguchi and her friends had fought for and won.

END

(A/N: The adventures of Mai and her friends were not the only ones undertaken that harrowing week.)

The tale of Risa and Miya has yet to be told…