So, uh, a fair warning for the rest of the Leona/Lien fight in this chapter. It goes places.

The flames around the room didn't fade too much over time – it was still burning bright, and fit well as a symbol of how heated the battle between Lien Neville and Leona got. We'd yet to see either of them break bones, but they were not without their battle scars received on not just their bodies, but their clothing as well – to the point where both were now baring more than they'd both imagine.

The action started to pick up its pace again the moment Leona threw the knife that was buried in her back just a minute before – and Lien caught it, internally thankful for the return to sender; just in case she needed to use it again, depending on how much further she may go in this tournament...

Instead of pocketing the knife, Lien found herself having to just handle it for now, since her wrist gauntlet fell away with the rest of her upper-body gear in the brief stripping. She kept a snail's pace with her approach...

Leona approached just as slowly, keeping her eyes on the knife that penetrated her skin once before – knowing that it could happen again at any moment...

Both ends of the fight encircled into a decreasing space, at an identical pace to the fading burns of the flames.

Lien was already testing the waters with that bloody knife, back-handling it as she kept her right elbow curved and let the toothy, hungry end of the blade face forward – however, the most she was getting to contact with her opponent was the struggling grapple Leona pursued with.

The heat of the nearby flames were already threatening to get the ladies drenched with their own sweat – the close-clinch struggle wasn't doing favors on top of that, especially with them both being topless now.

The first strike following what was a good couple minutes of physical inactivity, was a driving knee from Leona to Lien, knocking the latter to her knees briefly. Leona reeled herself back as she prepped a big thrusting boot straight to the face...

…Lien blocked it – with the sharp end of the knife making contact with the rough bottom-heel of Leona's boot. Though it probably had the potential to bite right down onto anything in its way, the knife didn't quite make its way beyond the surface of the boot heel, and Lien didn't bother experimenting quite yet with the knife's sharpness, instead swinging the arm sideways.

Leona reeled her kicking foot back again and set it back down, and this time leapt in with her body fully flying in for an attempted forearm smash. Defense didn't switch over into center stage in her mind until the last moment, as soon as she saw Lien's knife-gripping hand try to stab down at her side.

The Ikari Warrior caught the arm, and dragged Lien back to her feet as she swung her around by the arm, looking for a direction to fling the rival out.

However, Lien took quick notice of the consistent assortment of gym equipment she was being thrown towards, and with a couple of steps, she climbed up the seat of the weight machine ahead…

…hopped off towards her right, onto the control panel of a treadmill...

…and went flying back towards her opponent with her empty-handed arm outstretched, slamming her forearm against Leona's face – only to mild results, as Leona, while staggered, didn't leave her feet. The soldier even managed to recover quicker than Lien, who was half-kneeling before she was caught.

Yet again, Lien was left with one arm locked down, wrapped around her back thanks to Leona, as the knife grazed lightly with its blade's duller back-end.

Lien growled in defiance, "I'm not letting go of this, if that's what you're thinking!"

"I'll make sure you don't have a choice." Leona was tweaking harder the torque of her hammerlock on the blonde's weapon-handling arm.

With a backwards roll, Leona took Lien along for the ride, and climbed onto her hips to hold her down. Lien wrapped her free arm around Leona's back, smacking against it to little budge with the struggling fist to pass the time while forming her plans... When it came to forward-thinking, Leona was a slight more ahead of what her rival had, especially with what Lien was now lacking, including the wrist gauntlet that was dropped not too long before it came to this moment.

Lien continued to sit herself down as a defiant sort of bitch – even now, she wasn't going to let the stoic soldier break any bones. The overpowering, at risk of her arm being bent even further into worse condition, was all she had to go through with in order to get Leona out of her business – how to keep her away for the long-run, she had yet to fully figure out.

Now standing, Lien fought back against the hammerlock with knees to Leona's irritated body wounds, and this targeted effort seemed to be working well enough once the Brit felt Leona's grip loosen slightly with every additional instance that the kneecap made contact with ribs.

Lien threw Leona over her shoulder as soon as the opportunity came knocking for her to start throwing shit around – and while the Ikari Warrior was down, Lien struck her again with a swinging punt in the gut; basically playing soccer with her body, complete with the kick causing Leona to roll a little way's away.

Each time Leona was getting slammed straight into the pavement, it was harder to get back up. By this point, she was starting to spend a decent amount of downtime while Lien stood over her – and the constant targeting on the body cuts were of no fucking help. She was still climbing to her knees, at the least, under her own power...

"Now-now, Leona. Don't slow down on me just yet..." Lien shoved herself further into Leona's personal space just as the latter was getting up, and before long, Leona was eating an elbow to the jaw before getting her ponytail grabbed and yanked under Lien's firm grasp.

As soon as her rival had a handle of blue locks, Leona quickened her pace of fighting back, jabbing against Lien's gut with a few punches before lunging herself closer and trying to tackle her yet again. Lien simply weaved aside, shoving Leona off and letting her scamper back down to the ground under her fatigued feet.

Lien seemed increasingly focused on stalling the sweet release of this agony she was promising herself to put upon Leona...

"I swear... you're starting to seem desperate now..."

The Ikari Warrior couldn't confirm or deny her consideration to 'desperate measures' – she had thrown a couple of dirty tricks in this tournament, if simply to deal with her grudges. Seeing how she was now, it was debatable if she was going to win with mostly squeaky-clean tactics; hell, considering the topless state of both ladies, there was no way things were going to be even 10% clean by the end.

There was at least a bright spot of chance to Leona's current position, gleaming inches away from her sights: the gadgetry, that Lien had to drop in order to semi-strip herself, was out of contact with her... but open for a tossing.

With momentum on her rotation, Leona chucked the piece of gadgetry underhand, and PWANG! When least expected, it came crashing against Lien's nose with all the force that'd make her wish she took a shot from one of those dumbbells instead. As a result, her already roughed-up nose was put further into a bloody, dreadful condition – basically one note beneath being broken – and she was left to a faint grogginess as just a little more of that dark red life force came a-pouring.

The moment she was back to her feet, quicker than expected due to the adrenaline of opportunity, Leona tackled Lien with more success this time, as they went a brief distance together until stopping against a wall. Leona went on a pursuit of body blows, first starting with desperate shoulder thrusts against Lien's stomach.

With all this constant pressuring on the stomach, squishing it in, the average fighter would've eventually lost their lunch. Lien, being far above average as far as we've seen in her tournament showing, wasn't guaranteeing vomit as a possibility on top of blood-spill – while we've yet to know her limit on seeing red, one could imagine, after the ending to her bout against Mignon, that she had seen far enough puke for a day—no, for the whole damn tournament.

Lien jabbed defiantly against the stab wound on Leona's back, continuing to slam the elbow down until it started getting painted with the gooey red slowly pumping out of her cut.

Leona opted, in turn, to yank Lien away from the wall, and then slam her back in with the countering force of her shoulder – and then continued to do so for several more smashes in a row.

One brief uppercut out of Lien's arsenal did manage to stop Leona from doing any more damage on the spine, briefly staggering her – but the recovery was quick. As Lien charged forward with a spinning back-elbow coming forth for side-skull contact, Leona was right back into on-point defense, catching the arm and wrenching it backwards before crashing Lien back against the wall – now with the added 'benefit' of having one arm crushed between her own back and the hard wall.

The demand for a pained wince burrowed its way out onto Lien's frown without her permission... "Urgh... don't get testy, Leona. You might get blood or sweat out of me, but not tears."

"If you think I'll shed tears first, think again." Leona again smashed a shoulder against her opponent's body. "You aren't going to break me."

Lien chuckled between pained breaths. "You say that, facing me? High fucking doubt, right there."

Leona's angered yet motivated expression held for a long while – she briefly separated from Lien, with a brief slap aside as she backed away, keeping the Brit's right arm wrapped behind her back with an insisting boot pushing against her gut for a lingering moment longer, just to be sure her rival was positioned properly for more punishment.

With a hopping start to her momentum, Leona torpedoed herself straight towards Lien again with the most impactful shoulder-smash of the bunch...

...and just as swiftly bounced back, bent forwards as she stumbled backwards, as the sudden bluntness of head trauma caught her by surprise somehow.

Okay, a little more than somehow, as it turned out.

At one point, Lien had managed to tuck Leona's head under her arm and allowed the opponent to end up crashing her head against the wall – the effects were immediate, as Leona's tight hold loosened up quickly from the unfortunate tingling in her head overwhelming her. Throwing your head against a wall, without slowdown, was not going to be good in the long run...

Lien wriggled her arm to shake off the cramped feeling, before throwing it forward with an elbow smash, turning Leona's head 90 degrees to the right to make her look at the remaining fires in the background of the brawl.

A worrisome look into the fight's future, perhaps? Hard to say...

By this point, as the ratio of her attacks wound down into the wrong direction, Leona was finding it harder to keep up with this UK export from deep in Southtown's slums. Especially after taking one head bump too many, it seemed like Leona was out of it, as mindless haymaker was caught into Lien's hand and crunched under her fingers. Leona gritted against it with a combination of anger and pain on her face, long having cracked away from stoicism to assure an end to Lien Neville's dominance...

The problem was, that it was a highly debatable possibility when Lien was on the high ground momentum-wise, twirling herself behind Leona and shoving her aside with another sharp elbow that this time clocked the soldier in the back of a head...

…Yet she couldn't bear to let her target get away too soon, as she quickly got a hold of that ponytail, recklessly pulled Leona by it – nearly to the point of tearing away the thin strip that held it in place – and wrapped herself against the neck of the soldier with a choking sleeper hold.

"You don't have to resist anymore, love. It's going to be over soon..."

Leona was giving up gradually on words with all the battering she tanked from Lien's arsenal. She would prefer beating her opinions into her opponent by any means necessary. Her right arm swung back half-blindly with an elbow trying for Lien's right temple, but it was ducked – and that arm wound up trapped around her back, in an unfortunate change of events from her rival's previous predicament.

"The fuck did I just say, soldier?" Lien was none too pleased with the continued defiance against her control over the battle. "I thought you'd know better, considering who raised you... who trained you... trained with you..."

"You leave them out of this..."

Lien wrenched harder with both arms, painfully tweaking Leona's trapped arm along with putting extra pressure. "I'm not leaving anyone behind in my wrath, Leona."

Leona was then swiftly slammed down onto the readied knee of Lien, her spine bending . The blue-haired soldier, however, had at least a free hand left to retaliate, trying to gouge against one of Lien's eyes – but it was defused...

"Not a damn chance..." Lien criss-crossed Leona's arms behind her back and started to lift her off the ground with adrenaline built within her vendetta.

Leona again met the blunt end of Lien's knee, being dropped on her gut and then let her fall the rest of the way to the ground and writhe over the pain brought to her scratched body again.

Just barely being granted the permission to glance up to her opponent, Leona caught the sight of Lien swinging her leg up high in a crescent motion going down, and dropping her heel with all the force she could bring upon. It may have dropped just short of her head, but from what the Ikari Warrior wound up realizing too late, that was not the intended target.

Originating from beneath Lien's smashing heel, a blasting geyser of energy erupted beneath Leona, launching her upwards, a higher distance than expected compared to a more realistic way of getting airtime in your opponent's body.

Leona eventually found a landing atop a surprisingly sturdy shoulder, back onto a carrying arm of Lien.

Somehow, the concrete would've been preferable...

Lifting upon her shoulder, Lien gave herself a running start as she darted straight for the nearest available weight machine to use for means far more brutal than designed.

With a seismic forward-toss, Leona was thrown with extra momentum put from the starting charge, and she hit one of the vertical bars going up on the machine! Unfortunately she was unable to bring her hands up to block the impact, so she instead ended up meeting with the machine with full skull contact.

Didn't help that her landing was far from clean, with her nearly landing on the side of one of her ankles as she staggered back into the all-too-familiar half-kneel – just seconds before Lien grabbed her by the temples and flung her against the thin but strong metal with even harder force!

The thud of the flesh hitting metal was one you wouldn't want to behold, at the detriment of who was making too much contact. From the first smack against that shiny railing(soon to be spotted with 'dirtiness'), Leona was smashed across the face inside and out with negative electricity circling her mind – she was damn near concussed at this point, and it was a shocker she wasn't the full ten miles into that sort of injury, considering all she took, leading up to this.

Without any more than a couple seconds pause as she checked to see if further blood was drawing – to her disappointment, not quite yet – Lien pulled the soldier away for a short breath, and once again immediately swung her against the now barely-dented sidebar of the machine.

And again.

And again.

Again.

Again.

AGAIN.

IT WASN'T STOPPING.

…

Correction: there was a stop. Fortunately.

A stoppage a moment or two later than Leona would've wanted given the end result.

Which was of the side of the victimized weight machine being given such a raspberry-red splatter that it could be used as a Rorschach test... if it was arranged by a psychopath.

All Leona could do as her face sat against the dirtied weight machine, the center of her head split open from the potential skull fracture she had received, was catch her breath. Her ears were ringing now, and she could barely even see the bloodied metal bar right in front of her without it being foggy.

Aside from that, it was simply serenity, but only for a little bit.

The relief would be gone before long, as Lien again got a grasp and pulled on the tail of her hair, forcing her head up towards the ceiling. Even through the blurred vision, Leona could still make out the sinister essence of the woman who had beaten what was now most of the life out of her body.

"Look at me, Leona..."

Leona had a brief struggle, trying to scamper past the weight machine, but Lien only pulled harder on the hair, her other hand now wrapping around one side of the soldier's face.

"Leona Heidern, I want you to look at me; one last time before I finally put an end to this..."

"Urk—!" Leona grimaced in pain as Lien jabbed a finger in to the pooling blood on her forehead

Her finger being the paintbrush to a little disasterpiece upon her face, Lien brushed the dark red fluid across both ends of her face, two thin lines like eye black on a sports player. She knew there was very little her opponent could do (unless a miracle were to happen) while she took all her sweet-ass time...

"Whoever comes my way next, they'll see this, and remember what I did to you." Lien gestured to the bloody war paint applied right below her eyes, that was nearly starting to mix with the drying blood that poured from her nose.

Afterwards, she wrapped her arms at forearm-length around Leona's neck and forehead, with intent to send her opponent into a slow but 'sweet' slumber – much like a previous victim in King way back in the first round. That first round seemed like a much more simple, less gruesome time compared to now.

The increasingly bloodied face of Leona showed desperate grit, attempting to grasp the objects in front of her – but Lien continued to drag her out of reach, slowly trying to make her way into the center of the room where there was very little for the sleeper recipient to cling onto.

Lien sounded just a slight more serene, seeking victory at the endgame of this... "Enough of this resisting... Just let it happen—" THWACK!

Lien felt the sudden pain wrap under the bottom half of her mouth, and a new taste of iron as she reeled backwards. She was simply jaw-jacked, as Leona put the last of her strength into thrusting herself upwards, smashing her head upwards.

Potentially a tooth or two lost, a tongue nearly bitten in half, among plenty more possible little injuries from that uppercutting headbutt, as another part of Lien started to draw blood.

Before she could fully retaliate with what she was hoping to be a finishing blow against the Ikari Warrior, Lien had one moment and one moment only to see a brief dot flying up around her direction.

The earring. Of course she had one fucking left, Lien realized internally.

A spotlight was not checked – Lien knew too late what was coming between her and that fucking earring—

BOOM!

Total whiteness flushed down Lien's sights – she couldn't see, but she could definitely feel herself flying backwards, and from the slight increase in heat from where she landed, she would be unsurprised for her sight to come back and for her to be closer to the flames of the gym room's collateral damage.

When her sight faded out from the white...

…disregard... it seemed as though only one of her eyes was regaining sight.

The other eye, her left specifically, could only make out blackness with a tint of red. She rubbed at the left side of her face with the coinciding hand, and immediately felt the burning irritation that was introduced to her skin.

When she winced and retracted the hand, she saw an unhealthy leakage of blood poured onto her palm.

With all that was personally gathered, she could more than confirm that the explosion had not only left her half-blind – something she hoped wasn't permanent – but that the better part of that left side of her face had approached levels of a second-degree burn. Epidermis and dermis suffered in the combustion, and her natural good looks were farther gone than before.

Not good at all.

"Fuck..." God knows how much time it could take for Lien to recover from these burning wounds, let alone the brunt of the damage brought upon her eye. The rest of her body wasn't too much better, especially within the range of that combustible jewelry thrown right in her face, and she could only start in a crawl before she could manage even the slightest strength to climb back to her feet, let alone her knees...

What a cruel 180 that was taken upon her, and as she stared out at Leona – who too was on the ground recovering above the pooling blood spilling from her head wounds – Lien almost refused her possible equal standing with the Ikari Warrior.

"No... I'm not letting this be how I fall..." The blonde had been willing to put an end to things for far too long.

Lien took a glance with her only available eye, towards the left at the heated aura – the silently roaring embers glowing orange not so distant from where she laid. A few partially demolished weight machines and a bit of the room itself, with its crumbled foundation and loose planks and other wood assortments from the wall and etc. blown away at the first few moments.

She plucked one of those busted planks, which was given an offering light at the opposite end of where she wielded it – with the orange fire carried at the edge, causing discoloration into blackness at the tip.

Though with a limp, Lien still managed to power herself towards the opposition, who still barely moved from where she laid.

"I don't care if all I get from this tournament is a load-of-shit concept called 'bragging rights'... I'll be climbing out of my hell, before you get out of yours..." Lien's torch held out just a slight closer...

Leona's body continued to struggle with the concept of standing back up, even as she vaguely felt the warmth approaching her. Her face seemed even further buried against the ground, to the point where the floor gathered a wider pool of blood than what remained on her head after SO MUCH PUNISHMENT...

"One more thing, Leona," Lien spoke up again... "While you're laying there – battered, bloodied and likely unaware of where your head is now – after all you've been through... are there any tears left in there to shed?"

She looked ready to prod the flame against the Ikari Warrior once or twice if needed, to check just how close she was to the limit...

…but a harsh clunk wafted past Lien's ears as Leona suddenly curved a leg backwards and kicked away the burning 2x4.

"Tch... have it your way~" The moment knocked aside, Lien almost immediately went into combat over the near-fallen foe, attempting to cling onto her opponent and put an end to things, preferably closer to the flames...

...only to find a sudden pain in the pit of her stomach only seconds later, catching her quicker than she could see – as Leona was now suddenly back to her feet. One arm was snug around Lien's body to hold too close, and the other was familiarly burrowed against her bare, targeted stomach.

This was the moment where Lien found herself losing the self-decided title of 'executioner' in the endgame of the fight – the moment the fizzling, burning of the Rebel Spark was the moment Lien's dominance peaked and took a freefall; at the least, as far as common combat knowledge was settled in the world that hosted the King of Fighters, it was nigh-impossible to truly escape something like this.

Didn't stop Lien from trying – as she put pressure against the explosively-charged fist, trying to pry it away. The heat of Leona's strength matched that of the sensation that continued to linger on the burned half of Lien's face, and the sweat raining down her face didn't help with those burns, simply irritating it further and prompting a resurgence of bloodfall.

"Urgh..." Lien refused to believe she was going down like this, like many of the rest not only earlier in the tournament, but throughout her Ikari soldier opponent's fighting career. All the years of training and less desirable memories didn't pile up for her to receive such a flaccid outcome.

There was one thing she wasn't counting on – the hidden influences that the soldier controlled. The blue turned red in Leona's hair was in itself a red flag

The matching red in Leona's eyes, handling that cursed power as much as she allowed herself to, only further bolstered her strength – and the fact that things were finally ending for this long and brutal bout.

"To hell with you..." Lien gritted, only slightly approaching the possibility that she was done.

Leona responded, with subtle fury... "No. To hell with you."

BWOOSH! The biggest explosion of the match commenced then and there, forcing separation between the opponents; one stayed where she stood, bracing the burning aura of the spark, while the other...

...well...

From the looks of the resulting damage that was only visible once the dust cleared, the double-doors of the gym were now smashed off their hinges, on the ground – and Lien laying over the destroyed scenery, a new crispy burn spot on her body where the sparks flew to complement the tarnished beauty marked onto her face. Unlike previous instances in the tournament we've seen of Leona's finale moves, it seemed like this time, there was an extra burst of energy, motivated by how sick of Lien's shit she was, and the results were clear...

To a little more of a cost this time – not so much her sanity, but more her body. The adrenaline of the move was gone merely a moment after she unleashed that last burst of energy, and on top of the bloody mess she became and the accumulated injures?

It was to no surprise that Leona nearly lost consciousness herself, collapsing to her hand and knees, staring at nothing but concrete and blood drops.

A winner was clear here, and it was with relief that it didn't boil over into a tragedy…

WINNER: Leona

As she witnessed the Lien vs. Leona bout from start to finish, live through the convenient TV in the room she was slotted to stay in for now..

Athena grew to realize how high the stakes could possibly go as the tournament burrowed deeper into the later rounds. It wasn't about simply bragging rights anymore – it was about dropping blood and beating enough life, and dignity, out of your opponent until they just couldn't continue. After the first round, those themes of violence and humiliation started to escalate.

It would be easy for someone like Athena to start questioning if they didn't, "What the fuck did I get myself into?", after that affair.

Though it was for the best that she had to be in the know of who came out on top in the latest bout of this increasingly intense tournament, a part of her would've felt better off mentally not having to see the violent possibilities, especially between that rivalry of fighters known to have hands trained to kill if necessary.

The Psycho Soldier was now feeling she'd have to rely on luck to have a clean fight at this stage of the tourney. If anything, she only found relief that the right lady won in the last battle – whatever punishment the Psycho Soldier herself was going to endure at the hands of hostess Elisabeth was going to feel like a slap on the wrist in comparison.

Speaking of, Elisabeth seemed to be away for a fairly decent amount of time – more than you'd think that mending a headache would do, on top of temporarily handing duties off to the second-in-command.

At the same time, Athena wouldn't be surprised with how drastic that 'headache' must've felt like, considering the other end of the altercation that indirectly landed Athena in hot water.

Mignon, on the other hand, spent the whole time shriveled against one of the corners of the bed, arms wrapped around legs and knees covering her face. Plenty o' shame, she must've felt, for the cracks she must've received on her ego – especially now that she was aware of who was the superior between her and Betty.

Athena's eyes read of concern – something she didn't think she was going to feel so much for someone who quite literally started biting her a while before.

"Mignon... Are you... are you okay?"

…

Suddenly, Mignon's body uncoiled from her fetal position, and she slammed her hands down in front of where Athena sat.

"I'm sorry, alright?!"

The shouting sounded close to that of a woman frustrated and angry, but there was a clear indicator to the feelings deep inside – and outside – of Mignon's body; the tears pooling down from her eyelids. It looked as though she had been crying (albeit silently) for a little while leading up to now.

"I'll admit it, just this once, I'll hold responsibility – for what I am, what I've become this week, and what's going to happen to me when Lady Blanctorche comes back!" Any semblance of her narcissist third-person way of speaking was gone, as was her annoying type of charisma. "Is that what you wanted, Asamiya?! IS IT?!"

Athena didn't have anything to say for a little while, as she had to let through her mind the frustrated but defeated proclamations of her 'rival'. Mignon, on the other hand, had to momentarily go silent herself just in case those proclamations created yet another mistake...

After that little moment of speechlessness, Athena admitted with honesty...

"Mignon, I... I don't even know how to deal with you anymore. Minutes ago, you were owning up to your way of thinking, and you're only now realizing you're in the wrong?"

Mignon's arms shriveled inwards against her body as she meekly grasped admittance. "...it takes some time to think, to really know your mistakes. Sometimes you don't realize it until it's too late..."

"...You're not implying you were actually thinking before Elisabeth yelled at you, were you?" Athena wasn't simply going to forgive just because of this one time Mignon may have learned a lesson. "Mignon, you—you still had plenty of time before and during that match, and you still chose to jump in – why on Earth did you think that was a good idea!?"

Mignon's volume toned down significantly as she tried to fumble back thoughts. "I dunno, heat of the moment? Urgh... this is so frustrating...!" She was starting to bop herself in the head over her idiocy.

"Don't get me started on that comment about Alice."

"Oh god..." Mignon's hands found a home upon her face, regret building further, as Athena continued to discuss.

"Even with a broken ankle, she was still stepping up to save a friend – a friend who was basically getting raped. You can't just overlook that and say 'she didn't know any better' – why the hell even would you?"

"Because I'm a fucking idiot!"

Athena had to physically lean back a bit – not just from Mignon leaning forward and shouting in her face how she really felt about herself, but because both Athena and Mignon knew that the witch seemed like the type of person to hold back from harsh language. Let alone just straight up shouting 'fuck'.

Athena only figured as much because the type of lifestyle Mignon seemed to want was around the same kind of wholesomeness as her own with her idol career.

It took a certain level of emotion to consider that 'all bets are off' as long as you said what you wanted to say.

Mignon grew depressingly silent after that precise moment of admittance, quivering lips and eyes glossed with remnants of tears. There was no more left to admit – all that was left were the waterworks. She dropped her face against Athena's body, muffling her cries as she clung on tight to the Psycho Soldier's person.

Athena was at a loss for words – for what she knew, she may have only helped in breaking Mignon emotionally, alongside. She didn't mean to, at all, yet she couldn't say the same just yet for Elisabeth, given the amount of punches the hostess pulled in telling Mignon off were zero, and from beyond that, she probably didn't mind having to crack into the human psyche a couple of times if it meant maintaining order in this tournament.

If the idol wanted to know for sure how much Elisabeth cared about Mignon's feelings, she wouldn't have to wait long, as the door started to open again – someone was on their way own

No... two were on their way in – the upholder of the Blanctorche legacy, and someone else...

"Apologies if I took a little longer than usual. I had to be sure Iroha was able to walk under her own strength..."

Elisabeth was intriguingly accompanied by Iroha, who was walking with a little bit of a hobble in her step after the collateral damage Mignon left in that controversial step-in earlier today. It was kind of weird was just off to 'mend her headache'—though on second thought, considering Iroha, one wouldn't want to think too hard on it unless they wanted some interesting thoughts...

Mignon approached first, quickly trying to wipe away the tears, and in turn, some of the patheticness she felt she had looking like that. "H-have you... made your decision now... m-milady?"

Mignon reluctantly bowed to a single knee before Elisabeth – but she was insisted against it quickly by the noblewoman.

"Mignon, please. Not right now." At Elisabeth's demand, Mignon returned to her two feet.

"I mean... in a way, we are still waiting on your words..." Athena brought her hands down and close together, holding back her own attempts to bow when not necessary. "Trying not to disrespect you – especially in front of those who work for you."

"It's not just on a respect standpoint that you're here, Athena," said Elisabeth. "As far as we know, one of you dug yourself deeper than the other... but I'm a woman who understands how to look at separate ends of a conflict equally."

"And Iroha?" Athena was the first of the two girls in the hot seat to acknowledge the maid's presence. "How does she fit into this?"

Elisabeth casually answered, "In the case that you'll have difficulty enduring the punishment – scars physical or emotional."

Mignon stood by with a slight more concern on her face, feeling as though this 'punishment' might actually warrant medical attention of some sort.

"Scars?" Athena seemed increasingly uncertain after what Elisabeth had said, especially as she saw the noblewoman brandish her riding crop a little too tightly for it just to be a prop. "Do you mean what we might be thinking you mean, or...?"

The riding crop curved in Elisabeth's hands. "Ten lashes." The crop then made a loud snap as it straightened out. "Each."

The pieces clicked completely to the severity of the punishment... Mignon was already starting to panic internally over the possible scars on her dignity, and her regret was ready to double – if not triple – over her intrusion on that qualifier match, and her helping hand to the sibling, if it meant getting struck for ten by that whipping crop.

Athena, while considering that she was clearly more of a helping hand to the situation than Mignon 'attempted' to be, she still realized soon after she was gonna have to accept the punishment.

Intending to diffuse the tension beyond the punishment, Iroha bowed calmly before the girls. "Please understand – it's for your own good."

Elisabeth added, with one slightly suggestive suggestion. "If you're willing to get through this in an orderly fashion... I suggest you two lay on the bed..."

Mignon visibly gulped, while Athena silently sighed in a reluctant acceptance to what's to come.

The suspense upon the decision was done with; soon, it was going to be time to endure.

Next Chapter: Athena and Mignon take part in the punishment (they should be glad they won't endure nearly as much as Lien and Leona have) – and the next two competitors in line for the third round prepare for the next fight.