AN: The trailer for the final part of MGQ Paradox has been released, along with a couple of fan translations. It's possible that the game might actually come out before I get to that point in this fanfic. If it doesn't, I might put this fic on hiatus (possibly doing another, short MGQ fic in the meantime) until Part 3 comes out. Either way, I'll be revising my existing outline of this fic. I'll also mention that I will not include everything that Paradox might have based on the trailer. I want to finish this without spending 5+ years on it.

Between this, RWBY: Ice Queendom and RWBY Volume 9, there's a lot happening for both source materials of this fanfic.

Pyrrha slashed with her sword, rammed with her shield and breathed fire from her mouth. Her opponent, Jaune, would have no hope of blocking all of these simultaneous attacks…

...if he was the Jaune of the past, that is.

The current Jaune slammed two shields together, edge to edge, generating a translucent blue barrier in the shape of a hemisphere. This barrier blocked Pyrrha's sword, shield and fiery breath nearly perfectly, with Jaune himself only being pushed back a few inches.

Pyrrha then tried moving around Jaune to attack his unprotected back. Jaune responded by stepping forward, hitting Pyrrha with the barrier before she could circle around him.

Of course, that wasn't enough to put Pyrrha down. Jaune's barrier might be incredibly solid, but he wasn't yet able to use it as an effective weapon… and, based on Ilias' teachings, that wouldn't ever be possible.

Next, Pyrrha tried using her Semblance of Polarity. However, Jaune's shields didn't budge at all no matter how much force she put in. It was clear his barrier could outright shut out her Semblance.

Of course, it can't protect the surrounding environment!

Pyrrha magnetically picked up a dozen pieces of metal and threw them at Jaune from all directions.

"Not… enough!"

The barrier surrounding Jaune glowed even more brightly, then grew out to cover him in an almost-perfect sphere, one that only flattened against the deck beneath. Pyrrha's entire barrage was stopped.

"I didn't know you were able to do that, Jaune!" Pyrrha exclaimed.

"I was keeping that a surprise!" Jaune replied. "Though I also wasn't sure if I could pull it off in an actual fight!"

"Then… how about this!?"

Pyrrha changed Miló from sword form to spear form, then thrust it between Jaune's barrier and the deck and heaved. With barely any effort, she sent Jaune flying, barrier and all.

"Whoa!"

Jaune brought his shields apart, dismissing the barrier, and used the bases of the shields to catch on the ship's railing, barely keeping himself from going overboard. He then reverted the shield in his right hand to ring form—a recently added enchantment—and used his now-free hand to clamber back onto the deck.

"That was close…" Jaune said. "Looks like no matter how sturdy the barrier is, I can still get lifted up."

"If you mastered the shield knight style, even that would be prevented, since you could anchor yourself to the ground," said Ilias, watching from the side. "But that is for the future. Still, you have made good progress so far, Jaune."

Ilias raised one hand, glowing with dazzling white light.

"Now, ready yourself again! I shall test your defences personally!"

All of them were improving day by day. Pyrrha was learning how to mix her new draconic abilities into her fighting style. Jaune was becoming an increasingly unbreakable defender. Ilias was learning more inventive uses of her holy power, such as the focused laser that she was currently trying to pierce Jaune's barrier with. Then there were the others.

Elsewhere on the main deck, Sonya was using her club-like staff to knock down various projectiles that Nuruko shot at her. A small fraction of the projectiles managed to hit, but Sonya quickly healed herself and continued on.

Ruby and Yang were sparring up on the ship's poop deck. The former could now shift between different elemental modes of Eclipse Rose while attacking, making her nearly impossible to predict. The latter could now unleash her Semblance in controlled bursts instead of just violent explosions.

Nora and Ren were sparring on top of the ship's forecastle. The former had learned one spell well enough to use in combat—a lightning spell, which meant she could now charge herself up via her Semblance for increased strength. The latter had learned a different spell that momentarily hid him from view. When combined with quiet movements and a Semblance that could cloak his fighting intent, it was nearly impossible for others to sense his surprise attacks now.

Hild and Radio were at the top of one of the masts. They were throwing targets off into the sea behind the ship, then attempting to shoot them at long distances. Pyrrha had seen some of them land shots at distances of over three hundred yards despite the targets moving in the waves. Even their missed shots still created large explosions of steam.

Promestein, Chrome and Lucia were below decks as usual. But from what Pyrrha had seen of their work… she certainly wouldn't want to be their enemy.

As for Luka and Alice? The former was sitting down on the deck, his eyes closed, while the latter practised various kinds of magic right in front of his nose or next to his ear. Sometimes Luka opened his eyes in surprise, but most of the time he was able to keep calm.

It looks simple, but it must actually be quite difficult, Pyrrha thought. So that's what it takes to learn the power of water…

Last was the newest addition to their group: Alma Elma. The Heavenly Knight was as free as the wind she represented, spending much of her time—including right now—flying away from the ship. She was quite diligent about returning to the ship for mealtimes, however.

Unlike the rest of us, she doesn't need more training… But we can't afford to relax. We've encountered many enemies we couldn't defeat, and as we travel further, that's more and more likely to happen.

Pyrrha looked down at her scaly and claw-tipped hand. A famous celebrity becoming something like a faunus would be a great scandal back in Mistral, especially if people knew she'd undergone this willingly.

But that doesn't matter if I can't even return home in the first place… if there's no longer a home to return to.

Somehow, no matter what it takes, we must find a solution to chaos.

-ooo-

Four days after leaving Grand Noah, the Ilia Grace made landfall on a beach near the boundaries of the Noah and Gold Regions.

"Any further than this, and Grangold'll take notice," said the captain. "Are you all ready?"

"We're as ready for this as we'll ever be," Luka replied. "Thank you for bringing us this far, Captain. We won't let the alliance down."

They disembarked and began the overland journey towards Gold Fort. The journey itself was short, taking less than twenty minutes. They managed this speed because most of them crowded into the Pocket House, which was then shrunken down to be carried by Alma Elma.

But even in the Pocket House's shrunken form, it was possible to look out of the windows. And what they saw along the way was… sobering.

First, the land itself was scarred. The footprints of armies and the craters of large-scale battles could be seen everywhere. And even though the rest of the Noah Region was lush with vegetation, this area was almost barren—presumably, the plants had been harvested for food, medicine and other uses by the armies.

"Some of these tracks still look pretty fresh…" Sonya murmured. "We must have just missed the Grangold army as they marched out."

"At least this means the plan worked, leaving Gold Fort weakened," Alice said.

Second, as they neared Gold Fort, they could see a village in the distance. And even from this distance, it was apparent that the village was devastated, with some of its buildings levelled.

"That's Lima… the first of the villages destroyed by Grangold's raids," Ruby said. "If we can't stop them, more will end up like that…"

"Is there any chance someone's still alive there?" Yang wondered out loud. "Maybe people moved in after it was attacked, thinking Grangold's army wouldn't attack the same place twice."

"Well, if you're so curious, we can always have a look," Alma Elma said.

Alma Elma changed course towards Lima Village and also began climbing upwards. By the time she was above the village, she was so high that anyone in the village would probably mistake her for a bird.

Pyrrha's group looked down at the village from their high vantage point, some using binoculars or telescopes to see properly.

The only people who prowled the ruins of the village were four-armed Ant Girls and mechanical Automata Girls. The village's inhabitants could also be seen… but as nothing more than bones. There were enough bones for several hundred people, none of them buried.

Yang shook her head. "Why would they do something like that? Even conquering the place would've been better than just wiping them all out. They're acting just like Grimm."

"I've been wondering that as well—if nothing else, they could have abducted Lima's people as food and playthings," Alma Elma said. "I suppose we'll just have to try capturing one of the Lilith Sisters alive. There's various ways of getting people to talk… not all of which are fun."

After that glimpse of Lima's ruins, they moved on.

-ooo-

There was a large stone bridge joining the Noah and Gold regions. This looked relatively new, which made sense—the two countries had been contiguous up until the Great Disaster thirty years ago. Underneath the bridge were spaces large enough for most ships to pass through.

At the other end of the bridge lay Gold Fort. With high and solid-looking walls, it was a sturdy bastion guarding the entrance to the Gold Region… at least, it would have been under normal circumstances.

"There's… no one here?" Luka said, raising an eyebrow.

No guards were visible in front of the fort's doors, through its windows or on its battlements.

"They couldn't have stripped away the entire garrison, could they?" Pyrrha said. "That would be an extremely basic mistake."

The reason they'd landed near the fort and left the Pocket House was because they expected some form of resistance. If most of them remained inside the Pocket House, they'd be much more vulnerable to attack.

"...No, there are certainly people here," Alma Elma said. "I can sense the breaths of a few hundred, mostly humans, mostly unconscious. And… huh. I didn't expect to run into two of our targets so soon."

Those words caused everyone else to tense up. Nobody asked for clarification, nor was it necessary.

"Are we really up to the task of fighting the Lilith Sisters?" Sonya wondered. "Won't we… ah, I'll just come out and say it, won't we hold you back?"

"Don't worry, those ugly old fossils won't be a problem," Alma Elma said.

There was a shout from inside the fort, sounding vaguely like "I heard that!", but it was muffled by the thick walls. Pyrrha's group raised their weapons or began casting spells, but no one came out even after a few moments passed.

"Well, we knew we would have to face them sometime," Luka said. "We might as well go in. Everyone has their defensive charms, right?"

There was a series of nods and replies in the positive. With the exceptions of Hild and Radio, they would need Tamamo's defensive charms in order to avoid falling victim to the mind control spell covering Grangold and its territory.

Then they moved forward, inspected the doors for traps and pushed the doors open.

Beyond was an entrance room… which looked like a scene out of a pornographic video. There were dozens of human men, human women and Ant Girls scattered around, in various states of undress and moaning faintly. The only ones who were still conscious were a few robots and two succubi.

Pyrrha recognised both of the succubi, one by personal experience, the other by description.

"Welcome to Gold For—" began Lilith, the purple-haired succubus in a sweater and long socks.

"You've got some nerve, calling us ugly!" snapped Morrigan, the blue-haired succubus. "I bet you can't even—"

Lilith's tail coiled around Morrigan's mouth, blocking her voice.

"As I was saying, welcome to Gold Fort," Lilith said. "We haven't come here to fight you today. Rather, we're here to negotiate."

"Negotiate?" Nora said. "Who would ever negotiate with the ones who are mind-controlling an entire country, and forcing them to commit genocide on entire villages!?"

"And even if we ignore all of that, you've just raped the entire population of this fort," Ren added. "It's not the best starting point for negotiation."

Morrigan pulled off her sister's tail. "Hah! We just showed these pathetic losers the best time of their lives—"

Lilith silence her younger sister with a withering glare.

"...We simply hoped to speak to you without interruptions, so we incapacitated the people here… non-fatally, I might add," Lilith said. "But if you want a starting point for negotiation, then that's simple. We all have the same goal: to save the worlds from chaos."

That threw Pyrrha and her companions into confusion. They could understand all of the words, but those words simply didn't make sense in the current situation.

"...Based on what you've been doing until now, there's no way we could ever work together," Alma Elma said. She slammed one fist into the palm of the other. "Because it looks like your idea of salvation is 'killing everyone so they won't suffer from chaos'."

"You misunderstand," Lilith replied, not at all intimidated. "Though I suppose that's only natural. What we are trying to do is stop chaos from devouring everything."

Pyrrha narrowed her eyes. A way to stop chaos was something they all wanted, but it was hard to see how inciting war could help in any way.

"To give a brief summary, chaos is spreading because there are multiple worlds in existence," Lilith explained. "Thus, it can be stopped as long as there is only one world."

"That makes no sense!" Jaune said.

"Actually… it's consistent with our current information, which is admittedly limited," Promestein said. "But, how would you put that into practice? Worlds are not something you can simply manipulate like clay."

"Worlds, perhaps not, but the souls of people are a different story," Lilith said. "First of all, have you ever wondered how we three sisters managed to enter this world?"

That was a genuinely intriguing question. Pyrrha quickly reviewed the possible answers.

First, by going through a Tartarus. The obstacle to this was that strange set of indestructible doors which only Luka could open. Did the Lilith Sisters have a Luka in their world, or someone else with that capability?

Second, by going through one of those extremely short-lived portals between worlds. So far, only White Rabbit had shown the ability to make such portals at will. Given how unpredictable the strange being could be, they couldn't rule out the possibility that she'd sent the Lilith Sisters here.

"It was by no method you may be imagining," Lilith continued. "Rather, it was by using a certain method left behind by Ilias."

"A method I left behind…?" Ilias murmured. "Wait! It can't be—the Soul Return Network!?"

"What's that, Goddess Ilias?" Sonya asked, though she still didn't take her eyes off the two Lilith Sisters.

"It… To put it simply, it was a way of catching a human's soul upon their death, then sending it back in time to their still-living body," Ilias replied. "Due to its function, it could theoretically be used to cross the space-time continuum, sending a soul to another world… but to do that…"

Ilias suddenly cast a bolt of holy lightning at the Lilith Sisters. The two succubi dodged it easily, so the lightning simply struck and scorched the opposite wall.

"HOW DARE YOU!?" Ilias shouted. "HOW DARE YOU ABUSE IT FOR YOUR ENDS!?"

Then a revelation hit Pyrrha like a physical blow. Ilias' Soul Return Network apparently worked with the souls of the dead, so in order to send people en masse to another world, people had to be killed en masse.

The others realised it too, with several unleashing attacks of their own. These were casually dodged or blocked by the Lilith Sisters, with the exception of a lightning-fast punch from Alma Elma. Lilith managed to catch that last one, but she visibly strained herself to do so.

Next was an exchange of magic-enhanced blows too fast to see, accompanied by a deafening series of explosions. Pyrrha and the others could only pull the unconscious garrison of Gold Fort out of the way. There was no way to intervene in this fight… for most, at least.

Pyrrha glanced at Ruby. The younger huntress could briefly match those speeds by using her Semblance, and her cybernetic body could resist the main form of attack used by succubi. However, she couldn't match any of these three legendary succubi in physical or magical strength.

Then there was Alice. If she used her full power, she could certainly match or exceed the Lilith Sisters in strength. However, she'd be completely vulnerable afterwards. It also might be impractical for her to only take down the Lilith Sisters without hurting her own allies.

There's a third sister as well, who might be waiting in ambush… and there's also those robots.

Despite ostensibly being under the Lilith Sisters' control, the robotic monsters had yet to make a move. They didn't even try to resist when Pyrrha and the others carried them out of the room.

Though that's more convenient for me. Fighting against robots is still… slightly uncomfortable.

Then the clash of succubi ended. Alma Elma jumped back to the midst of Pyrrha's group, now sporting a split lip and a few scrapes on her limbs. Lilith and Morrigan likewise had a few minor injuries.

"Are you satisfied?" Lilith asked coolly. "We are carrying out this plan solely because it is the only way to save every person from every world."

"By killing them first!?" Chrome retorted. "Even as a necromancer, that sounds totally insane to me!"

"What do you think is better: a temporary death for most, or permanent death for all?" Lilith asked.

"Do you have any better ideas!?" Morrigan added. "Because we're open to suggestions here! And if you've got none, then shut it!"

"There must be some other way—something that doesn't involve killing billions, possibly trillions of people!" Pyrrha said.

"There's no way my mother would go along with this!" Alice shouted.

"She's reluctant, of course, but she sees the necessity of it," Lilith said. "Why do you think she's done nothing to stop our work in Grangold?"

"She… She wouldn't…"

"Why do you think she sent you away? Because she didn't want you to be burdened with—"

"Shut… UP!"

Alice threw a fireball at the two Lilith Sisters. The fireball was snuffed out by a barrier of wind.

"We can never go along with a plan like that," Luka said. His body was brimming with the power of wind and the power of earth… though not the power of water. "In the first place, what are you doing with the people brought to your world? Somehow, I doubt it's anything good."

"They are being provided for as best as possible," Lilith said, a non-answer that likely didn't fool a single person in the room. "But it's clear you aren't willing to negotiate… which is understandable. A pity, Mother expected more from you…"

"Minagi's expectations are not something to even consider," Ilias said. "To be blunt, she was a fool to think that any of us would change our minds."

"Then it seems we have no other option," Lilith said, her eyes shimmering purple. "I was hoping we wouldn't have to resort to violence."

"Speak for yourself, Sis," Morrigan said. "There's no other way this could have turned out!"

Pyrrha examined her surroundings for usable metal. There was none on the Lilith Sisters' bodies, but there were some metal household objects lying around, as well as weapons dropped by the unconscious garrison. She began extending her Semblance to them…

Suddenly, a third succubus teleported in with a burst of purple energy. Pyrrha and her companions quickly turned towards this new threat. She had red hair, red eyes and mostly black clothing—she could only be Astaroth, the second of the Lilith Sisters.

She also had painful-looking burns on her left arm and torso.

"Astaroth!?" Lilith exclaimed in what sounded like genuine surprise. "Did she—but how did she manage to overpower you!?"

"There's no way she could've beaten you in a fair fight!" Morrigan said.

The other two Lilith Sisters hurried towards their newly arrived member, no longer paying attention to Pyrrha's group.

"We underestimated her…" Astaroth groaned. "She learned about the castle's defences, about how to interfere with the mind control spell… thanks to that, she managed to blindside me like this." She gestured at her burns. "I decided that instead of fighting… it would be better to flee and tell you what had happened…"

"Wait, you're talking about Cinder?" Pyrrha asked. "So she's taken over Grangold now?"

"Yes… it's a surprise to us as well, to be clear," Lilith said, frowning. "I won't deny that we were using her for our own purposes, just as she planned to use us. It seems she has taken this chance to break free."

"She's not getting away with this!" Morrigan growled. "Let's go back right now and show that overconfident bitch who she's messing with!"

"We could do that, but instead, I have a better idea," Lilith said. She looked at Pyrrha's group. "I believe some of you have a personal score to settle with her, don't you?"

"That's an understatement," Nora replied. "She's the reason why our school's half-ruined and—"

Ren raised a hand to stop Nora from revealing anything else. "We certainly have a score with her."

"Then as a small token of goodwill, we'll allow you to deal with her personally," Lilith said. "In exchange, we simply want you to consider our words."

"Wait, that has to be a trap," Sonya said, still clenching her staff tightly. "If we go to Grangold and beat up Cinder, we could then stop the spell you're using to control Grangold."

"It's not our spell… technically," Astaroth replied. "Anyway, you can do as you please there. Grangold was never… a vital part of our plans."

"It's annoying that we can't take revenge on her ourselves," Morrigan said. "So you'd better give her hell from us, got it?"

"We have no reason whatsoever to trust you," Ilias said bluntly. "But if you will not oppose us, then we can… accept that."

"Then I hope we can meet again under better circumstances…"

After leaving those ominous words, Lilith and her sisters teleported away. That left no more hostiles in Gold Fort… and plenty of questions.

"...Well, that didn't turn out as expected," Luka said.

"Now that's an understatement," Alice said. "We went on this mission hoping to defeat the Lilith Sisters, maybe capture them to interrogate. Now we just watched them run away, while the main enemy is now someone different."

"Is it possible that they're working together to lure us into a trap?" Pyrrha suggested. "Even those burns Astaroth suffered might have been part of the trap."

"I don't know, those looked very real to me…" Jaune said.

"Trap or not, we'll be heading into dangerous and unpredictable territory," Ilias said. "Which we knew from the moment we heard of this mission. In that sense, nothing has changed."

"It's a shame we couldn't at least beat those old fossils now," Alma Elma said. "But if we'd gotten into a real fight, this small fort would have been destroyed. I might have survived, they might have survived as well, but…"

There was no need for her to say anything else. There were hundreds of unconscious people within Gold Fort, with no way to save all of them in time. Even Pyrrha and her companions might not have been able to escape unscathed.

Their choice of negotiation site was cunning… Pyrrha thought. it made us more reluctant to fight seriously…

"There's one thing I have to ask about," Chrome said. "Ilias, you have a way to bring the dead back to life?"

"Had, Chrome Artiste," Ilias replied. "And even when I had that ability, it wasn't something I could use freely. It was always on one human at a time, to shape the course of history to my will… How can the Lilith Sisters, or their masters, be using it on entire multitudes of people?"

"If we'd talked to them longer, they might have revealed more information," Lucia said. "Since that didn't happen, we can only speculate with what we know. It might be easier if they're not sending souls back in time, just to a different world… though even that sounds unbelievable."

"Anyway, for now, we have to help all these people," Ruby said. "Some of them might die if left alone."

They thus dispersed through Gold Fort to examine its inhabitants. Most were exhausted due to the Lilith Sisters' attentions, but fortunately none were in danger of dying. The robotic inhabitants were conscious but still largely unresponsive.

One of the Automata Girls did speak when spoken to. All she said was, "Orders to remain on standby. Orders to remain on standby. Orders to remain on standby…"

A few of the unconscious people were woken up using healing magic and the occasional splash of cold water. They still remained under the effect of the mind control spell, however, so they picked up weapons and attacked with zealous fervour.

"Intruders…? Must kill them for the queen!"

"No one invades the queen's land!"

"Die for the sake of the queen!"

The resuscitated people were quickly incapacitated again using sleep spells.

"Isn't there anything else we can do for them?" Ruby asked. "Do we have any way to free them from the mind control?"

"We only have a couple of spares of the defensive charms," Alice said. "Even if we could free them from the mind control, we couldn't make them stay that way."

"The only way to free them all would be to stop the spell at its source," Ilias said. "We have no choice but to continue on as soon as possible."

After all, even as they spoke, the allied armies were currently delaying the Grangold army. Every second was precious.

They began moving the unconscious people into more comfortable positions. It would take a few hours for any of them to start waking, by which time Pyrrha's group would be long gone.

"Still… I have a hard time believing you could actually wind back time, Ilias," Alice said, while carrying a person in each arm. "I know there are ways to slow down time, speed it up or stop it… but I've always been told that reversing its direction was impossible."

"It's certainly possible, though not easy or intuitive," Ilias replied, setting down her own load of people. "There may even be other individuals who currently have that ability… I wouldn't be surprised if that White Rabbit, for one, could do it."

"I also thought rewinding time was impossible until now," Promestein said. "But if it can be done… the sheer possibilities…"

Pyrrha imagined a world in which Beacon had never been attacked, then one in which the Great War had never happened. And that was just what occurred to her. It was likely that Nora and Ren were imagining a world where they hadn't been orphaned, Ruby and Yang a world where they still had a mother… everyone had to have some things they wished had turned out differently.

"There are endless possibilities, but also endless risks," Ilias said. "Sometimes, I wonder if toying with the flow of time has caused some of the problems we face today…"

-ooo-

In a cave in the east of the Gold region, the Lilith Sisters sat together in a circle. Astaroth's burns were already healing due to her natural regeneration, though she still winced sometimes when she moved.

"Ah… still can't believe I was so careless," Astaroth said. "I never thought she'd figure out the spells in the castle so quickly, when she only came to this world a few months ago."

"Even before that, she was being trained in magic in her own world, and apparently quite skilled at it," Lilith said. "There's no need to blame yourself. None of us expected this from her."

"By the way, Astaroth, do you need to feed?" Morrigan asked. "There's a couple of villages around here that you could grab a man from—"

"As much as I'd like to, I think I'll pass," Astaroth said. "Hero Luka and his party might be a bit more reluctant to trust us if there's any strange disappearances around here. And I'm not in the mood for leaving a man alive."

Morrigan twirled one of her twintails around a finger. "You say that, but will they trust us anyway? They already hate us for a bunch of things, including me attacking them a while ago."

"Yes… and I also treated one of them roughly, while in the Monster Lord's Castle," Astaroth said guiltily. "But we don't need to give them more reasons."

"I believe they'll come to trust us in the end," Lilith said. "Not all of them, but at least the ones we need. The threat of chaos can easily make people rethink their priorities. After all, didn't that happen to us?"

The other two sisters weren't able to refute these words.

That's true… in the past, we would never have been willing to kill ourselves to travel to another world, Astaroth thought. We can only hope it's worth it, in the end…

"More importantly, what about Tamamo's reaction?" Astaroth asked. "She's involved in this as well, and might not like having her project ruined…"

Lilith froze. It was rare for the eldest of these three sisters to lose her composure, but now was one of those occasions.

"...We'll have to ask Mother to deal with her. Assuming she hasn't decided to act already..."

-ooo-

In the west of the Noah region, a male human soldier by the name of Francis was fighting for his life. All around him was a mess of bodies and weapons and blood, with corpses dropping to the ground like flies.

I won't—I won't die here!

Francis thrust his spear into the leg of an Automata Girl. While metal dolls like her didn't feel pain, they still used their limbs to move around. This slowed the Automata Girl long enough for one of his fellow soldiers to lop off its head with an axe.

"Gotcha!" shouted the other soldier. "Who's next!?"

Suddenly, a stream of fire whooshed across the battlefield. Francis dropped to the ground, so he merely felt a burning heat on his exposed skin. His fellow soldiers, including the one who'd just assisted him, weren't so lucky. They screamed, collapsed and flailed around in a desperate attempt to extinguish the flames.

"Damn… you!"

Francis clambered to his feet and charged forward recklessly. The doll responsible for this attack was one of the service models, retrofitted for combat by adding a flamethrower. The downside of this weapon was that it couldn't fire continuously. This gave him the chance to reach melee range.

"Die! Die! Die!"

Francis stabbed at the doll repeatedly with his spear. The metal tip blunted and then broke away from the shaft, but he didn't care, continuing to beat the doll using the shaft until it broke as well. In the end, the doll was left an unrecognisable mess of plastic and metal.

"Hah… Hah… Gah!?"

An Ant Girl barrelled into Francis, knocking him down. In the next instant, he felt agonising pain in his right arm.

"Aaaaaaaarggghhhh!"

The arm was broken, it had to be. But before the Ant Girl could do anything worse, it was lifted up off him.

"H-Huh?"

With a swing of a flail, the Ant Girl's brains were dashed out, adding to the blood and gore that already soaked the ground.

"Hey, can you still fight?"

Francis' rescuer was a lamia, meaning she had to be from Grand Noah's army. Francis himself had been part of Sabasa's army. But all semblance of organisation had long since disappeared from this battlefield.

"I-I can! Thanks for the help!"

Francis used his unbroken arm to snatch up a spear from the ground, whose owner had died a few minutes ago.

"Heh, if you want to thank me, buy me a drink afterwards!"

Francis and the lamia met up with some other soldiers, and together they began hunting down the remaining enemies.

It was gruelling work. Even though some of the alliance soldiers had lost morale and fled, none of the Grangold soldiers ever did. They fought to the end, suffering mortal wounds in order to hurt their enemies even more.

Two more soldiers were killed around Francis. The lamia had one of her eyes taken out by an Ant Girl's swipe.

But after what felt like an eternity of screaming and clashing weapons and explosions, the battle was over. Every Ant Girl and doll now lay on the ground, thoroughly dead. While hundreds, possibly over a thousand of the alliance soldiers had died today, a victory was a victory.

Francis used his spear to help support his weight. His other arm dangled uselessly at his side.

Ahh… the stories always made it sound so glorious…

In every direction were the bodies of the slain. Francis had known some of them, drank and gambled and laughed with them over the past few nights. Now they wouldn't be doing anything other than feeding the crows and the worms. Even with a twofold advantage in numbers, so many had died.

The lamia placed a reassuring hand on Francis' shoulder. "War's definitely a messy business," she said. "But we're alive, at least. We have to make the best of what we've got. They wouldn't want us to live on in misery."

"...Yeah. Yeah, you're right," Francis said. "Um… for now, we need to help anyone who's wounded but not dead yet."

"Shouldn't you be asking for help first?" the lamia asked, pointing at Francis' broken arm. Then she brought a hand to the bloody socket where her right eye had once been. "Well… guess that's hypocritical of me as well…"

"Then we can both ask for help," Francis said. "And when we get back, I can buy you that drink—"

Out of the corner of his eye, Francis spotted a group of white lights, almost like miniature suns in their brightness. Before he could even shout out a warning, the lights struck.

Francis, the nearby soldiers and everything else within a hundred yards was obliterated from this world.

-ooo-

On a distant hill, the king of Grangold watched his handiwork silently.

He was a young man in his mid-twenties, with pale skin, short blue hair and soft green eyes. He wore elaborate vestments of white and gold, but not a single piece of armour. There was also not a single weapon or shield in his hands, not even a staff to focus his magic. He was far from what most would consider a warrior king.

And yet, with a single spell, he had turned loss into victory.

But his work wasn't done yet. He could sense more battles occurring on the horizon, between the forces of the alliance and the forces belonging to Grangold.

He had to eliminate all enemies of his queen.

AN: One of the great revelations of the setting has happened much earlier than canon. When I planned the Lilith Sisters (two of them) negotiating instead of fighting, I decided it would make sense for them to reveal this now.

Originally, I planned to have Alice use her true form briefly in this chapter. I changed my mind on that, but I'll include what I've already written below.

"I ask thee, fundamental laws... Reveal my body, yoked in time... Return my true body to me!"

Alice suddenly reverted to a true form. That caused Lilith and Morrigan to both flinch in shock.

"No matter what you say…"

Pale blue magic circles appeared from Alice's hands. Jaune quickly put up his barrier and the others retreated behind it.

"...we'll never listen to you! Frost Ozma!"

A blizzard of ice filled the room. Despite being behind a barrier, Pyrrha still felt cold that chilled her to her bones.

When the spell finally subsided, almost every surface of the room was covered in foot-thick ice. The stone of the building was creaking from the abrupt temperature change, causing Pyrrha to fear it would collapse on them all.

Alice reverted to her child form and began collapsing, so Alma Elma hurried out to grab her so she couldn't be used as a hostage.

Though the Lilith Sisters were in no condition to do that. Unable to escape in time, it seemed that Lilith had covered Morrigan with her body and then cast a barrier around them both. However, said barrier must have given way at some point, for over a third of Lilith's body was now coated in frost.

"S-Sis!" Morrigan cried out. She glared at Pyrrha's group. "You'll pay for that—"

But Lilith held back her younger sister with one hand. Two frozen fingers snapped off from that hand, causing Lilith to grimace in pain.

"We… did not come here to fight," Lilith said. "As negotiations have failed… I will ask you to let us retreat."

"Why should we let you do that!?"