Chapter 173 - Things escalate

"… Any reason why you're still keeping those Shades on, Nico? Cause you had your fun a while ago, but you never took them off once."

"Yeah, well since I put them on, they've started growing on me, IF. Recently, things all 'dark' and 'edgy' have started to become more appealing for me, so I guess my inner child's starting to come out…"

"Ah, I see."

"Awww, but I wanna see Nicky's sexy eyes more, especially them filled with panicked innocence as I take off his clothes whilst pinning him under me and-NEPU!"

BONK!

"Down, girl. This ain't the time for your wild fantasies, Nep. Plus if you force him, no doubt that his Kagune would come out to stop you, whilst it likely won't 'kill' you, it will definitely protect him."

"Mou, Iffy's a meanie…"

'… Pretty sure that wouldn't happen, as I recall there was a time when the young Planeptune CPU did indeed pin you under her in that hotel room, and nothing happened…'

'Well, I DO have a stronger connection with my Ghoul side now Biko, plus with my recent… encounter in my mind if you catch my rift, there's no telling whats changed about me…'

'True…'

'WELL, I CAN SAY YA NOT AS MUCH OF A IDIOTIC, DENSE WIMP NOW I CAN TELL YA THAT MUCH.'

Nico mentally rolled his eyes at the jab from his Ghoul Persona, but didn't retaliate against him.

After the whole snowball fight spectacle, the Party had taken a while to journey to their Destination. It didn't help that nobody knew the way anymore since, thanks to the land being mostly covered in Demonic Power, the whole scenery kept changing at random intervals. Rivers would suddenly shift direction, mountains would rise and fall at seemingly random intervals, and sometimes explosions would attack them for no reason. This DEFINITELY wreaked of the Lord of Change, Tzeentch, the Chaos God's power stopping their progress at any turn. It seemed as though the land itself had come to life, and had started to try and hamper their journey.

Boy did Neptune have a few choice words to say about THAT when they'd digured this out.

Though, throughout the journey Nico kept getting this feeling that they were being watched, yet for the life of him he couldn't figure out where this feeling came from. Not even with using his various sensing abilities could he figure it out, which likely meant that whoever had been watching them (if they existed, which his gut seemed to believe and he trusted his gut a lot) they had quite adequate stealth capabilities to be able to hide from his gaze.

Then there's the other feeling that he had, one concerning another part of the Landmas that had changed. That being the Abnormals which resided here, not only did they look MUCH unlike previously seen on past missions here, but nearly ALL of them partially carried the Chaos Taint within them, driving them madder than usual… akin to Khornate warriors, actually. Though lets be real, Tzeentch and Khorne may differ in both aspects as well as their ideals, but the former didn't dismiss the power of bloodlust entirely. Thus, Tzeentch seemed to promote said feelings within the wildlife on this Landmass, making them increasingly savage and twisted versions of themselves that attacked them on sight. Yet, even so, Nico STILL felt that Tzeentch wasn't the one watching them… or rather, it wasn't the ONLY one watching.

He'd made the wise choice to keep that part to himself though.

On a high note, some of the group's antics had returned thanks to getting more used to the ever-changing environments around them.

One time IF had to pry Vert off her with more than a FEW of her weaponry (lets just say the clinginess that the blonde possessed for their resident BOW couldn't be underestimated) when the blonde CPU had gotten the chance. Pulling her face into her bountiful cleavage… of course the brunette didn't need to breathe due to her current body, but nonetheless she still broke free.

Of course, Neptune had laughed it off as Vert just being who she was… though she quickly changed her tune when the Leanbox CPU, in a similar attempt to 'warm herself up' with body heat, tried pulling stunts on Nico as well. Fortunately, the male had his Kagune out in case of something like this, so it did its job well: keeping her at bay

Things had been a long, downright tedious affair for them regardless though thanks to the lack of true 'challenge' that the Party had in dispatching the Abnormals, but at long last they could see the silhouette of a City in the far distance, one which (fortunately) didn't look all that twisted and corrupted by Chaos unlike the majority of the areas they'd seen on this Landmass so far. No lakes of pure fire or chaotic energy, no living flora which tried to ambush them whenever they tried to take breaks, none of the sort… one could only imagine how relieved the Party felt upon seeing this, huh?

"Yay! Look, there's a City over there!" Neptune chirped, raising her right hand and excitedly pointing her trembl;ing finger at it.

Meanwhile, Nico hummed as he looked it over critically, cupping his chin with his index finger and thumb. "From the looks of things, that City's the Capital of Lowee: NINTENDO. Despite this Nation being cold all year which IF stated before getting womanhandled by Vert…" he began, trailing off when he noticed the blonde seemingly tryin to 'discreetly' edge closer to the brunette BOW. He would have intervened so a repeat of what had happened before didn't happen, but IF seemed to have it covered when the arm closest to the blonde woman morphed into her Tentacles, halting Vert's progress.

Thus, he continued. "According to what I recall, although given the scenario I'm not sure if its true still, Lowee paid a great amount of attention to having fun and catering to the young/elderly folk alike. One could almost say that leaned more towards things that families would enjoy, in particular families with young children. You'd find no shortage of amusement parks, Fairs, festivals that sort of thing in this place, one could almost FEEL the cheer in the air instead of the cold climate's chill." Nico explained, frowning as he recalled the few times his Missions had taken him to Lowee, mostly the time of the rebellion against the Coalition.

With things as they had become, the male wondered what became of the people from back then, and their ultimate fates… the male didn't have much hope for things on that front, the powers of Chaos aren't something that any normal person could ever hope to prepare themselves for after all.

"Who cares about that stuff right now, c'mon guys lets hurry! Finally, we can get some food and other stuff!" Yet, despite the information dump that the male had dropped on them, much like the snowball fight she'd caused, Neptune hardly seemed to pay attention and instead went off on her own merry little way… although this time, in order to prevent any tedious moments Nico swiftly caught her with a couple uncloaked Tentacles then brought her back, much to her obvious dismay when he finally dropped her back beside him, his Kagune receding into him once more. "C'mon Nicky, whty'd ya stop me?"

At this, Nico made to respond with one of his dry retorts in a manner not unlike thatof a certain brunette BOW, but before he could do so that said brunette then stepped up, bonking Neptune on the head. "Stop wasting time, Nep, and keep close to us. Since this place is like a freaking Demon World according to Nico, and we've seen enough proof of that already, it'd be exceedingly dangerous to wander off carelessly." She stated, before she strode forth towards the city's direction. Glancing behind her, IF then spoke her final piece for this scene. "Anyways, lets get moving guys, and keep your wits about you. This city may LOOK normal, but things aren't always what they seem especially in this situation."

"Agreed."

A unified response of agreement came from the rest of them (although Vert seemed to want to hug the BOW again but refrained for the time being), as the Party proceeded to head over to the City and hopefully get some answers to their questions on what was going on here, answers which they'd likely have to go to the Basilicom for.


By the time the Party arrived at the city, even NEPTUNE became quick to notice something to be off, and it wasn't that hard to see why.

"What the…?"

"The City, it's…"

"So deserted… why the heck is it so deserted? Where is everyone?"

'Yeah, where are they? Though, I have a hunch and I'm not going to like it if its confirmed…' the redhead male thought, glancing over to Aiiden and Ivan as he heard the comments Neptune, Compa and IF made. The two males sent him concerned looks back, ones which his own face mirrored even if his eyes remained hiddn by his Shades.

The main street looked… barren, for lack of a better word. What image Nico had been painting of the Land of White Serenity before had been quickly crushed to bits without mercy just from this sight alone, and when he had tried to sense any signs of life in the city with his Pesquisa, the redhead found very little. All energy signatures that he DID find seemed to belong to various insect colonies living beneath the city itself, which caused multiple alarm bells to ring inside his head.

Nico did not like this. This eerily reminded him of Racoon City in it's aftermath, when he had once paid it a visit just before his one-man war with Umbrella. Although there was literally nothing left of the City thanks to the Nuke that blew it up, Nico could still picture the desolation, loneliness and emptiness of the time in Lowee's Capital.

As she surveyed the surroundings, Lucy herself had a forlorn look on her face, yet… despite this, she didn't look NEARLY as unsettled as the rest, with only Raven sharing a similar expression, even Aiden and Ivan looked more diturbed by this than they did. Although, since Lucy herself had lived for over 3000 years in a world as hellish as this Gamindustri, this likely hadn't been the first time she'd seen an abandoned city like this. Instead, it would be more accurate to say that she had grown so used to seeing thing like this that it hardly phased her anymore. 'This place… it reeks of a trap being set up; any second something might spring up out of nowhere when we least expect it. If I were to guess, something must have happened to the CPU of this Nation, since from what I know of her she doesn't seem like the type that would have let this happen to her capital City without putting up a fight. Odds are that the forces of Chaos are involved somehow…'

Glancing over to her companions, Lucy continued her thought process whilst analysing their facial expressions for any signs of their thoughts on the situation. 'Looks like out of all of us, m, Ravey, Aidy, Ivy, Nicky-Dear and Iffy are suspicious of this nature. Noirsey seems like she might, but she's hiding her feelings way too well. Someone with great experience in keeping a blank face must have taught her how, likely the Heroic Spirit she's being possessed by, a similar situation seems to have taken place with Vertsey too.' She thought, mentally switching to coming up with some tactics to ensure their survival.

Whilst that happened and Team RAIL lost themselves within their thooughts all whilst looking like they were paying attention to some things, Nico then sharpened his gaze when something got picked up by his Pesquisa. 'Huh? Looks like there's two energy signatures heading this way… judging by their size, they aren't thatuch of a threat if at all, but they're moving fast. Likely they're running towards our location, and should be coming into view right… about…'

"Ah, look! Some fine young maidens have arrived!"

"Yes, yes indeed!"

'… Now.' Nico finished his thought before letting out a mental exhale of exhaustion, already predicting what may happen in the next few moments based off the tones that the two newcomers possessed upon seeing them. In his eyes, those two dropped several levesl on the respectability poll, one reason being that they used the word 'maidens' despite them having a CLEAR view of the three guys in the joint Party. That meant they were paying more attention to the females of their group something which irritated the male WAY more than it ever had in the past, and he got an idea why), then there were the way their eyes seemed to 'discreetly' try to glance towards the girls' torso areas, something which the male picked up on in the following seconds, already making him want to neuter these fools for even thinking they could breathe the same air as his comrades.

But before he could think any further on how he could toment and punish these two unknowing souls, Nico decided to give them a rundown to see what else he could pick up about them… something his Spec Ops Trained instincts had him do despite him not wanting to know any more than necessary about them.

It looked like these two were siblings, due to their identical maroon hair and eyes, with one being taller with adult-like facial features, and the other looking like he had just hit his late teens with more… boyish features instead. Both of them seemed to wear long, woolly coats over their persons to shield them from the elements, and according to his sense of smell, they had concealed weapons under said clothing pieces due to the smell of metal coming from beneath. Possible soldier or adventurer background? 'Doesn't look like they are Agents due to their behaviour, DEFINITELY not a Spec Ops or at least true Spec Ops if the lack of composure in their walks is any indication.' The male thought, concluding his analysis with the following description:

Just two idiots with some small firearms.

Striding on over to the Party, the older looking one of the two males gave IF, Compa, Lucy, Raven and Vert a lookover, paying no attention to Noire, Neptune, Nico, Aiden and Ivan as he lowered his upper half to politely bow, before proceeding to speak. "Please, let me introduce myself to you, mrs lovely maiden. I am Older Brother, it is my GREATEST pleasure to make your acquaintance, as well as your fine friends." He proclaimed like someone who had a LOT of experience talking to females. Also, was it just them, or did his teeth just glint like metal did when exposed to sunlight? "Your presence literally lights up the scenary wherever you walk, my lady."

"U-Um…"

Rightly, Compa did NOT look at all comfortable with what was being said to her, contrary to what one might think. Instead, she looked like she had started sweating slightly at the forehead whils shuffling on the spot, looking mighty unsure as to what to do.

After all, thanks to her having a strong crush already, Lucy had taken it upon herself to teach the young Spirit how men tend to try the whole 'nice guy' approach, just so that they could get into the pants of any woman they find attractive enough. She'd done so by exposing Compa to all kinds of 'nice guy' lines said to her by various men of varying ages, although none of them dared touch her with the 'eye of the devil' that Lucy always sported whenever they got too close to her. Let it not be said that Lucy didn't do her damndest to take care of her student in these matters.

As a result, Compa could IMMEDIATELY detect the fakeness in those words, or rather she could detect the hidden motives behind such empty flattery. As such, she didn't want to have to give any proper response, but for the sake of politeness, she did so with a slightly strained smile. "Um, well, its nice to meet you too, I guess…" she replied, her discomfort the older of the two brothers proceeding to not give it much thought.

Then the other one, the boyish one of the two sauntered over to Vert and did the same thing, this time speaking as if he were a butler addressing his mistress in the morning. "I am Younger Brother myself, and before you ask, these aren't our real names but aliases we like to go by." He said quickly, as if trying to gloss over their… admitingly weird naming sense. "As for you, my green, fair and firm lady, may I please have the honor of knowing your lovely name as well?"

"Ah, how polite. Ufufufu, you may call me Vert." A pleased response came from the blonde- haired CPU, pride flowing through her as her attention seeking self cried out in happiness at how much they paid to her melons, after all they WERE her pride and symbol of fertility. Even as they threw compliment after compliment her way as well as Compa, IF and'Ufufufuf, though I will admit that it did cross my mind, using these to garner some information from these two boys…' she thought to herself, hearing a smaller chibi Vert wearing a succubus-like outfit cackle madly with the kani for 'sinister intent' written on a bandanna on her forehead. All the while, the hibi succubus Vert fluttered around through her being, hidden beneath a pleasant exterior.

Like the others, she too understood exactly what it was that the boys were ogling at since they came along, but unlike them she just flaunted her goods as her source of pride. Hey, if you have the goods be proud of them and show them off. At least that's how she now viewed it.

Each of the girls whom the boys didn't pay much attention to, as in Neptune, Noire and Cecil, looked on with their own reactions. Noire looked to be fuming with silent anger, as ecvident by the angry red tint on her face with her eyes gaininga vicious edge to them. Despite this, she maintained her calm façade… although inside her blood boiled as she fought the urge to castrate those scumbags for this. 'Tho-Those jerks! They give Compa and Vert all the attention just because of some damn sacks of flesh on their chests called breasts!' She yelled in her mind, utter outrage flowing through her.

Worse, was that behaviour like this wasn't something that Noire hadn't seen before either, since more than a few male politicians had tried playing such cards against her back when she'd been trying to win back her people's trust (both pre and post Temen-Ni-Gru incident), so she didn't take long to figure out what these two were doing. If anything, their attempts paled in comparison to navigating the labyrinth that was the political world.

Her feelings got shared by her fellow 'smaller boobs' squad too, as they bristled with indignant anger.

'Come on, now we're being dissed because of our chests?! This whole nation's wacked up beyond repair!'

Their group consensus.

IF also had another thought, mentally thanking lady luck up above that she had her current body as she got side-complimented along wit her Goddess of worship… although as someone who had once been in Neptune and Cecil's situation, the brunette felt obligated to do something to ereove tis issue for the sake of all womenkind! Thus, the brunette made to make a move to take down the two perverts who didn't evebn ATTEMPT to hide their looks anymore, even when Aiden and Ivan tried to get some information out of them like whatwas going on here only to get ignored…

That is, until a dark shadow appeared behind the two boys, blocking the sunlight (although the sun was currently red in Lowee for some reason, likely Tzeentch's doing), causing both boys to pause, rhen stiffen.

"NOW then… WHAT do YOU two BRATS think YOU are DOING, eh?"

Dread and fear built up inside the two males when they heard the distorted, multi-voice belonging to a certain DPU behind them, whilst each of the girls correctly chose to take a few steps back since they had figured what would be happening soon enough. Even Aiden and Ivan looked at the two with pitying gazes… though those gazes got diminished by the 'you deserve this' smiles they had on, smiles matched by Lucy and Raven too. As for that DPU, Nico glowered behind the two Lowee residents as his form looked like nothing but a black mass in his shape, his eys hollow and glowing crimson whilst crimson gas escaped his mouth in the form of breath, utter fury and malice radiating off him in waves.

Behind the male, a silhouette of some kind of… hideous creature, as in hideous beyond any kind of imagination or descriptive possible, loomed overhead with a vicious glare aimed down at the targets of its creator's ire.

Nico's arms shot out and grasped the two by the necks when they tried to run whilst looking like the victims in a horror movie, and as they tried to break free Nico's Kagune came out to restrain them, oiling around the two like snakes with 2 Tentacles each DISTURBINGLY close to their manhood areas… with their tips that of twisted looking mouths and eyes to boot. "NOW, from MY perspective, IT looked LIKE you WERE trying to SEDUCE these MAIDENS… in FRONT of ME no LESS… you DO realize THAT calls for PUNISHMENT, do YOU not? NO? Then… allow ME to EDUCATE you on WHAT happens WHEN you FLIRT with these MAIDENS before ME!"

"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"


Across the world of Gamindustri, several events happened at the same time:

Married men got the urge to stay goddamn faithful to their partners no matter what.

Players got the feeling that they should run for the darkest conrnes of Gamindustri then prey for their souls.

Single men got both feelings of elation as well as fear, much to their confusion.

Everywhere, women got the urge to cheer in joy, as if they could FEEL the screams of two perverts getting their just deserts.


"… Now THAT was brutal."

A collective agreement got reached between the girls, Aiden and Ivan as they beheld the sight before them, looking like they had seen some sort of slasher get a bit more 'creative' with his kills than what was suggested of him. Nico had LITERALLY went to tow on the two mals, showing absolutely zero mercy in his 'lecturing' on the reasons why they shouldn't act like horny perverts interested only in big-breasted females… though in a sense he may have ended up going a little 'overboard' with this stunt. The end result had left the two boys broken both physically and mentally, their bodies looking so unrecognizable that they barely resembled anything human anymore, just two lumps of flesh in the middle of this deserted street.

For once, each of them felt glad nobody had been around to witness this nightmare-inducing display.

'Whew… man, just barely managed to hold myself back from killing them at the last second there…' Nico thought to himself, wiping the sweat off his brow as if he had pulled off only a merely strenuous task that had left him a sweaty mess, instead of a downright torture session. He didn't see anything wrojng with it either as Nico stretched his arms above his head, ignoingthe pined groans that erupted forth from his two 'victims'. 'Didn't epect there to have been so much aggression in me, well, more thanmy predicted estimates at least. This could have gone on for more than a few hours at least if I hadn't come to my senses at the last moment…'

'… You do realize what you just did, right?'

'Hm? What do you mean, I was justtalking to these two, wasn't I?'

… Why did he hear someone groan inside his head? What was that all about?

'…Moving on, then. Anyways, don't you think that its strange? Usually, you never employ the use ofyour Kagune unless you have no other option, not just out of your preferred fighting specifics but also due to the potential of you going out of control. Yet, you 'talked' with those two with your Ghoul side, and nothing happened as a result… not even from that supposed 'submission' team meant to act as a failsafe to keep you from going too far into the madness your Ghoul side is filled with.'

Biko's words caused Nico to pause for a moment, before a confused frown formed on his lips as he realized just how correct his Demon Persona had been. He DID have a point, since Nico had been so angry that he had stopped hoilding his Ghoul side back, a lapse in judgement if anyone were to ask him although he didn't regretit, but the fact that he'd harmed two Lowee civilians with it remained. Yet, a quick scan of the surroundings tld him no submission teams had been sent to bring him in, what the heck was that about? Did the situation in Lowee have such a high severity that him 'acting up' was deemed as less of an importance?

Lack of submission teams.

Deserted Capital City.

Land being manipulated by Chaos.

'Okay, something is SERIOUSLY wrong with his place…' the male thought, although he had to admit that had been made insanely obvious by this point. However, the situatipn's scale may as well be much worse than he had feared.

Whatever the case may be, it would be best to gather some more information at the Basilicom, and to that end, Nico turned to head on over to the rest of the Party (who didn't look too traumatized by his actions, a relieving sight to be sure), before something registered for him. 'Oh yeah, why not get some information out of those two, as residents they might know something?' the male realized, fisting his left hand's palm with his right.

Turning to the two boys, Nico released 2 uncloaked Rinkaku Tentacles and morpthed their tips into a pair of Syringes, having imagined the shape of Compa's original Syringe to do so. He then impaled both boys with a single Tentacle each, proceeding to apply the powers he got from the Nature Elf Core to start repairing the damage done to them.

This happened in the form of Nico injecting them with his RC Cells, which would then act like microscopic robots similar to that artificial blonde bounty from that one anime in order to repair the damaged cells inside the body. This resulted in bones being fixed, muscles being fixed and eventually leading to the two boys being sprawled across the ground, unconscious. This caused the male to arch a brow, as finally a feeling that he had PERHAPS gone a bit overboard came to him. "Did I… not hold back enough? I thought I gave them a light love tap…" he mused as his Kagune receded into his back, causing sweat drops to form on the onlookers' foreheads.

'Definitely overkill there, Nico!' Each of them thought.

"Hey Nicky." After recovering, Neptune then skipped on over to his side, smiling sweetly as she patted his shoulder repeatedly to get his attention. "You want to get some info out of them, right? In that case, lemme have a crack at getting em back awake." She suggested, causing the male to hum thoughtfully for a second before stepping back a few times. He COULD have just beheaded them and ate their brains with his Kagune to gain their memories, however Nico doubted that would go so well in the long run, and if he did so without understanding the whole situation unexpected problems could arise in the future. Plus, he kind of wanted to see how Neptune would handle this situation, since NONE of the girls in the Party needed any sort of protection from 'these' kinds of guys in any sense. They had just too much self-respect for something like that.

As such he rejoined the party (whilst getting asked a few times by Aiden for advice on how to be that good at 'punishing others' much to his inner discomfort), whilst Neptune stood over the two unconscious males, humming as she pictured what she wanted to do in her mind. 'Hmmm… how should I go about this? There's a few options I can go with here… Ah! That'll work!' After a couple seconds passed, a smirk formed on her lips as a… unfamiliar gleam blinked into existence from her eyes. Oh, how she'll be having fun with this… ufufufu.'

"Hey there, boys…"

"Uuuuuuuggggghhhhhh… big boobies… best boobies…"

"Massive mellons… need melons… to feel better…"

Several comments escaped the two males in their sleep as dream-like expressions formed on their features, showing just how they truly were deep down… though, to be fair they didn't really try to completely shy away from their true natures. However, Neptune had anticipated something like this, and as such she quickly started the transformation process into one of her alternate forms, a big grin on her lips as she spoke the following words. "Big boobies, eh? Well two such things are in front of you, I'll have you know."

"?!"

FLASH!

Those words served to jumpstart the males back into the land of the awake judging by how their eyes shot wide open, however just after that they had to close them again when a bright red flash blinded them temporarily. When the flash died down and the two males shot too their feet in search of the 'big boobies', they became entranced by the sigh of the floating… Blood Heart, a hand on her hip. This combined with the alluring, sultry smirk on her lips as well as the matching gaze directed at them… and her impressively sized cleavage, it all but drew the two in like moths to a flame.

"Holy heavens… what fools we have been! To not have notice this maiden's ferocity behind her flat fortress!"

"She is NO queen of the plains but a princess of the hills!"

Both boys immediately had their own freactions tothis transformation, and if they took the forms of dogs right now their ears and tails would be wagging with panting sounds escaping from their snouts. Behind Blood Heart, Nico frowned in disgust at this as he felt the previous feelings of malice start creeping back into the forefront of his mind. Seeing other guys think of the girls who had 'saved' him back in Leanbox as objects like this, it seemed like a good way to press all the WRONG buttons inside of him.

Heck, if what had happened earlier had been a 'lecture', a simple slap to the wrist, then what he felt like doing right now would be going on a freaking CRUSADE!

However, instead of acting up on those feelings, Nico noticed something behind the transformed maiden, how one of her hands had placed itself above her tail and had offered the rest of them the fingers crossed sign… something which calmed the male down immensely since this meant that Blood Heart had a plan.

Speaking of which…

"Well boys, did I lie to you?" Blood Heart questioned, her sensual body all the more enhanced by the slightest of movements, like a master succubus not even flexing all that much to get the attention of everyone around her. Placing more weight on her right leg, Blood Heart jutted her hip outwards which caused her breasts to jiggle slightly, something which REALLY charmed the two males before her. 'Ufufufufu, its SO easy that I could cry, sometimes it amazes me how simple the male mind can be…' the demonic Goddess thought to herself in more amusement than disgust… especially with what she had planned for these two boys.

"My lady, I sincerely apologize for the grave oversight on my part. Truly, the denizens of heaven blinded me, for me to have not noticed the true potential that is held within those mammories of yours." Older Brother responded, lowering his upper half in a gentlemanly bow as his words became coated in sweet honey… almost as if what Nico had done to him before hadn't happened at all. Younger Brother did the same thing, spouting similar comments to his sibling as Older Brother looked up towards the transformed maiden. "May I please have the honor of knowing this fine maiden's name?"

Making a show of considering it, Blood Heart put an index finger on her chin whilst looking upwards, tilting her head slightly. "My name, hmm…? Well, sorry to burst your bubble boys…" she began, trailing off with an unapologetic smile as she suddenly vanished, leaving a slight whirwind which caused the two boys to quickly cover their eyes.

Over with the main Party, Nico suddenly felt a presence behind him with a predatory gaze which sent shivers down his spine, causing him to stiffen. Heck his Kagune almost came out had he not restricted it… that and there was no killing intent directed at him. Just as he made to turn around, he saw a pair of hands reach out for him, one cupping his right cheek wnilst the other wrapped around the front of his neck from behind. The cause, this being Blood Heart herself, smiled deviously as she… slammed her lips RIGHT onto Nico's.

"MMPH!"

"WHAAAAAAAAA?!"

"NEP-NEP?!"

"WHOA, WHAT THE HELL'S GOING ON HERE?!"

"MY GOODNESS…!"

"HAAAH?!"

Startled and outraged cries filled the air from multiple sides, whilst poor Nico got one HELL of a passionate make out that he would likely never forget for his eternal lifetime. His eyes trembled rapidly alongside the wet slurping sounds filling his ears as Blood Heart forced his mouth open and began a tongue battle with her own, easily dominating the male who remained frozen at such a 'fierce' affection form.

'My… this is most unexpected. This reminds me of a few times Erebus managed to capture you, Byakko… she would try to have her way with you after avoiding your Kagune.'

'DON'T YOU FUCKING REMIND ME, BASTARD! THAT WOMAN, THAT DAMN PEDO! SHE TRIED TO VIOLATE MY ASS MORE TIMES THAN I CAN COUNT! DAMNIT KING, I'D SAY MORE BUT THIS REMINDS ME WAY TOO MUCH OF THAT DAMN BITCH!'

'… I'll make sure to tell her that, then.'

'DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE, BASTARD! OR I'LL SICK OURANOS ON YO ASS!'

Inside his head, Nico's alternate personas had their own wars to fight, even as flabbergasted as the main persona in charge at the situation they had found themselves in. In Devil Trigger, it had been recorded that Neptune's perverted tendencies got cranked up a dozen, but THIS! This was WAY outside of their predictions!

Unaware of the things going on in her hubby's mind, Blood Heart merely elevated herself slightly higher, so her head was coming down on his allowing her more of a position of power over her love interest, her wings spreading out and then wrapping around him. Though, she made a rather 'showy' show for the onlookers as her Tail slipped into his pants… going to the one precious area for ANY man whatsoever.

This caused the redhead to snap back to attention, yet before he could break away from the hold Blood Heart had on him, the demonic Goddess pulled back both her lips as well as her Tail, floating back down so she could wrap both her arms AND legs around him from behind, looking over at the two brothers with a smirk on her lips… one which widened seeing their absolutely FURIOUS, not to mention jealous as all fuck, gazes. "But the only one worthy of knowing this form's name and… affections is the one I'm in control over." She proclaimed, making it a point to slam her statement home by pressing her breasts tightly against a flustered Nico's back, along with rubbing her crotch area against him like a beast in heat. She even used her Tail to write on the ground beside them 'NICO – MARKED BY HIS WIFEY' just to rub it into their faces.

"… is it weird that I don't pity those assholes in the slightest?"

"It is not CYBORG."

"…Thanks Aiden."

Seeing the absolutely MISERABLE state that the two brothers got reduced to (to the point where nobody believed they would be giving out any information thanks to Neptune going a LITTLE too far), the Party decided to end things here so they could get to the Basilicom. They proceeded to leave the two brothers alone, who had fallen onto their knees whilst looking absolutely petrified, tears streaming down their pale faces as their eyes became hollow white from the absolutely maddening jealousy in their bodies.

As two men who had… moderately handsome features, seeing a hot as fuck woman with huge bazookas not only outright REJECT them without even giving her name, but to also DOMINATE another man in ways that they had never experienced themselves REALLY drove things home for them. They may as well be considered mentally SHATTERED at this point…

Not like any of the Party cared as they moved on, leaving the two petrified brothers alone in the streets.


By the time that the Party arrived at the Basilicom, of which Nico had found there was still a strong enough signal for him to finish downloading Lowee's Dungeon Data onto his Bracers, things between them had grown... tense.

"You okay, there Nicky?" a now detransformed Neptune questioned her male love interest, leaning forwards whilst walking beside him, ignoring the jealous glares sent her way. "You look like you're thinking about something real hard. Is it what's going on like a super emo edgelord?" she questioned.

To her surprise though, he shook his head before looking down at her. "Nope, just thinking about what had happened back there..." he started, trying not to blush at the memory of Blood Heart... but failed miserably. It just went to show how affected he had been by that display, something which Neptune mentally cheered at since she had chosen to transform into her Devil Trigger state for exactly THIS reason... well, that and she didn't want to risk exposing her identity as a CPU just yet. "If anything, I'm just... baffled, yeah that's the word, I'm baffled by the stupidity those two showed earlier." Nico explained, gritting his teeth from the newly revived angry flames in his chest whilst gripping his biceps with his crossed arms.

"What do you mean, Ni-Ni?" Approaching his other side in an attempt to 'state her claim' herself, Compa questioned him whilst frowning towards Neptune, who frowned right back. However, she didn't remain doing so for long since she instead focused her attention on what had been REALLY important right now. "I heard from Lucy-Sensei, but aren't a lot of guys like that?"

Nico nodded again at this, as the party proceeded to enter the Basilicom. "True, but then again guys can have some of the weirdest... kinks, imaginable. They could like all sorts of things on a woman, yet they never seem to question the big thing about a relationship..." the male explained, before going silent. At first the others thought he wasn't going to say anything, but then the redhead caught them by surprise a couple moments later. "I mean, whats the point of liking a certain thing about a woman's body, when they don't even know or like the woman they're attached to?" he questioned, looking at them... only for the girls to not meet his gaze. "Hm? Uhh, you guys ok?" He questioned again, this time with a higher octave as panic started settling in. "Was it something that I said?" Just after asking that, did the male mentally play back his words and quickly turn red in the face. Steam rose from his forehead as he found the ground particularly interesting at the moment. "... I think I'll shut up now."

None of the girls answered, too caught by surprise at the smooth move that the redhead had played on them. Really, the guy had to watch what he said around them, since he was slowly but surely becoming one hell of a smooth talker, and THAT could cause his popularity with the ladies to skyrocket. They'd have to get some 'real' strong ladles to use to bat them all away... or they could et a bit more 'creative' with their methods.

Fortunately, the atmosphere generated by Nico's unintentional smooth moves got broken when someone came up to them whilst they weren't looking. "Welcome to the Lowee Basilicom. Have you come to see Lady White Heart?" a female, refined voice with a tone similar to what one would use with a 'business smile' and the like. This caused the Party to turn their attention towards the female, discovering it to be a young woman, one who looked to be in her late teens... similar in size and figure to Cecil actually. She had long, blonde hair like the said Spec Ops Agent with similarly coloured eyes, whilst sporting a red and white maid uniform that consisted of the following: a red dress with a skirt which reached her knees in length, a white apron over it, a white frilly headpiece, cuffs over her wrists, black stockings which went into her uniform and crimson high heels.

'Hmmm, judging from her posture, I suspect that this person's quite high up on the work staff structure here in Lowee...' Nico thought to himself whilst cupping his chin, recalling his last few visits to Lowee since a few took him into the Basilicom itself. Whilst he didn't interact with the staff much there. he did at least observe enough to figure out this much.

"Yes." Compa then responded in a posh, haughty sounding voice which caught Nico off guard slightly, although he later rationalized that the young Nurse-In-Training had gotten caught up in the woman's 'formal' atmosphere. Compa had always been someone who did that on occasion, guess that hadn't changed after what had happened at the Gala. "There's a number of questions we'd like to ask."

On IF' side, something quickly caught her attention, shown from the faint glint that appeared in her eye, though it vanished afterwards. 'Hmmm... this woman... I don't trust her, she's been making a lot of unnecessarily forced movements since she came over to us... almost like she's either testing us or putting on an act. I bet some of the others have noticed too, so I'll keep quiet for now...' the brunette thought as she glanced around, noticing quickly how Noire, Cecil, Lucy and a couple others seemed to share her thoughts.

Back behind the Party, Vert leaned over to Nico, whispering into his ear with a rather calm, yet serious tone hidden beneath. "You know Nico, do you still think it wise that we just entered the Basilicom without any hassle?" she questioned, her lips curved into a frown. "I didn't see anyone else inside before, so if the Basilicom is as deserted as the city, could it be that those place's safety isn't as guaranteed as it should be?" As much as the embarrassment of what had happened previously had her all flustered, Vert also couldn't help but note the severity of the situation at hand. A Basilicom was meant to be a place of safety and sanctuary, provided by the divine protection the Goddess residing within, so the Basilicom's current state proved more than a little alarming.

After hearing her words, Nico glanced over towards Raven and Team Rail briefly, before his gaze fell back onto Vert's as he gave his response. "I'm counting on this being a trap since the beginning." he told her, proceeding to explain. "Me and Raven checked our collective Gear, we have some general Eject Buttons so we can escape battles if need be, not to mention I can Warp us all out of here at a moment's notice with Ouranos' help. We should be fine, mostly. Moreover, once we head up to see Lady White Heart we can confirm the state of things with Lowee with her regardless. Just in case though, I'd advise that you ready any weapon you can, cause if my hunch is right..."

He didn't need to finish that sentence, since Vert looked like she understood what he had intended anyways.

"Very well. To start, I am Financier, Lady White Heart's Chamberlain. It must have been cold for you outside, let me make you all something warm." the newly named Financier politely offered, making to head off to... wherever to get such refreshments.

"Ooh! Can I get a nice warm bowl of stewed pudding?"

"I would be happy if I had a cup of sugar tipped with hot chocolate."

"I'll have milk tea."

"I'll have the same. Oh, but a Darjeeling pure blend for the tea leaves."

"...You guys, this is a BASILICOM, not a restaurant..." Nico stated with a sweat drop whilst he heard the main members of the Party making some... rather strange requests. Well, Neptune's was the only strange one, but meh, semantics. His expression did get mirrored by the rest of Team RAIL and Financier though, proving that they were more on the same wavelength. Shaking his head, the redhead then turned his gaze back to the young Chamberlain. "No need for that, Mrs Financier, we can handle the cold ourselves. If you'd be so kind as to just bring us to Lady White Heart, that'd be enough, is that alright?"

"Yes, as you wish. Come, follow me Lady White Heart likes to remain in her quarters these days, so it'll be a long walk."


One long walk through multiple staircases (much to Neptune's chagrin, though apparently the elevator system wasn't working correctly) later...

"Lady White Heart. We have some people here who want to see you." Upon stepping up to a large looking door, Financier promptly pushed it open to let the Party go inside, allowing them to find themselves within a large, and admittingly spacious, room. The room looked like it was shaped like the tip of a cylindrical tower, which explained why there had been one last spiralling staircase that lead up to this scenery, with there being a dome-shaped ceiling around them. It must have got painted over or something, or else the glass made dome would have showed them the truly gruesome, twisted sights of the far off Lowee Landscapes instead of this nature reserve-like setting. Then, there was the king-sized, lavish-looking bed concealed by lush purple curtains, curtains which hung from a hexagon-shaped structure which surrounded the bed. Behind that structure. looked to be two portions of a steering wheel like one which steered pirate ships so long ago.

"So, they finally came.. let them enter."

All this got taken in by the Party in a couple seconds as they filed in, the more mentally capable of the group quickly becoming suspicious when they heard what had been said by supposedly the Lowee CPU. This quick identification mostly came due to having to quickly scan surroundings for any sneak attacks, though it all came to a head when their gazes fell upon the person standing in front of the bed, waiting for them.

A young woman, again similar in height to Cecil (whom mentally whooped for joy knowing that she wasn't the only 'small' person in the world... in more ways than one), stood before them with her hands crossed over one another in front of her crotch area. Her light, sandy brown hair looked to be about chin length, with her eyes sporting a dull, dark bluish colour as they took in the various appearances that the... colourful group before her sported. In comparison to them, one could say she looked rather 'plain' in comparison, given her assemble. Said assemble consisted of a big white cap with light blue ruffles and a brown and gold under and centre piece on top of her head. Over her body she wore an opened white jacket with powder blue markings, dark brown linings, and light coloured brown fur, beneath it being a white dress with dark brown lining and markings on it. Around her neck was a light blue choker with a single white stripe in the middle and a blue gem/badge in the centre. She also wore power blue sandals with a white ribbon around in her right leg resembling a bandage.

'So... THIS is Lady White Heart, eh...? Like the last few times, first time meeting Lowee's CPU. But, since we hardly know ANYTHING about Arfoire and Mundus' plans, perhaps something might have happened to Lowee's leaders, which would explain the situation across the land. Furthermore, its curious that she knew that we were coming given how Lowee's so isolated. Perhaps this person can help me confirm a few things, although just to be on the safe side...' Nico thought to himself, quickly analysing her with his Pesquisa, negative emotion sensing, and lastly the perks from his Avenger Package, to be more accurate the Presence Detection. As he did this, Nico discovered something which caused him to internally frown, a bigger picture emerging within his mind at the revelations his discovery lead him to. 'Hmmm... just as I thought.'

"Hi Lady White Heart!" Neptune joyously bellowed, slinking on over and sliding up to the other CPU. She, unaware of the others rapidly increasing suspicions, the purplette continued on with a hyper chirper in her tone, one that anyone would use in order to make a decent first impression. "I'm Neptune, and this here is..."

"I know who you all are, especially YOU Neptune... You all are QUITE famous."

"Eh? W-We are? Aww, shucks now I'm all embarrassed. I-"

"Ooookay, that's enough of that."

"Nepu?"

"?!"

SNATCH!

It all happened so fast, one second Neptune had been standing close to the CPU of Lowee without much issue or trouble. The next thing she knew however, Nico had launched one of his Rinkaku Kagune Tentacles, wrapping around her waist and pull9ing her back to his side. Good thing too, cause the moment that Neptune's feet lifted off the ground, a long, spindly arm made from organic flesh erupted forth and tried to stab through the space where she had once stood. By the time the purplette managed to get her bearings back, everyone else had already taken up arms.

Nico had his full Rinkaku out, alongside his Rebellion with his Kakugan eye narrowed into a beady eyed glare behind his newly donned Mask and raised hood.

Compa had a frown on her lips, an angry gaze in her eyes whilst METATRON floated above her head and CAMAEL got gripped in her hands by its shaft.

IF had donned her full body Armour, her arms having become her blades whilst her Tendrils got deployed, positioning themselves like Spider legs.

Noire had deployed Balmung with her Dragonblood Form having been assumed, letting her fierce draconian gaze settle upon their 'enemy'.

Vert had a similar demeanour, her Beninuki out alongside her Brynhildr Spear in her hands whilst an aura of angry bloodlust erupted forth from her being.

Ceicil, looking just as outraged as the rest of them, had already summoned her Devil Bringer and had Berial in her hands, waiting to be unleashed.

Team RAIL... well, you get the picture, they each had deployed their main weapons and were all on guard, ready for a fight.

"Eh? Wha?"

Poor Neptune, she hardly managed to process anything, though it wouldn't be slowing things down any time soon.

"Hmph, quick on the draw, aren't we?" the CPU commented, a slight smirk starting to tug on her lips as she summoned a white and black two-handed Hammer into her waiting hands. "I must ask, boy, what gave it al away?"

Nico huffed indignantly, his lone Kakugan eye rolling derisively. "No need to answer someone like you, faker." he stated, causing Neptune to gape at him but he continued anyways. "Saw through that disguise of yours a mile away, now are you gonna show your true self, or are we going to have to get a bit physical on your ass?"

At first, the urge to tell a dirty joke filled her being until what he said truly kicked inside, at least somewhat since she wasn't sure of the specifics, but she got the gist of the situation. Turning towards White Heart to see what her response would be, she saw the sandy brown haired CPU give an equally derisive chuckle. "How about we go with option 3 instead?" she retorted with a question of her own, although this one didn't get an answer in the verbal sense. Instead, White Heart clicked her fingers...

Prompting each of the Party Members to glance behind them as what looked like a bluish-white portal showed up, spiralling inwards like some kind of energy whirlpool. "A portal!" Ivan exclaimed. instinctively pulling out a generalized Eject Button from his inventory. Quickly pressing it, his eyes widened when he glanced down, seeing nothing happening even after repeated presses. "Uh oh..." he muttered as shadowy silhouettes started approaching the portal from the other side. Quickly trying again but with the Spec Ops Agent issued Eject Buttons, Ivan paled when the same result happened, quickly making him inform the rest of the party. "Shit guys, our Eject Buttons aren't working!"

'Wait, WHAT?!'

A collective wave of shock passed through the group, all the while a dark, smug ass all hell chuckle escaped White Heart's lips whilst the Party quickly confirmed Ivan's words, twirling her Hammer in one hand before stabbing its rear end into the ground. "Of course they don't, you fool. Thought I'd let you escape that easily?" she questioned with a heavy sense of sarcasm. All around her, the room seemed to start undergoing a... rather grotesque, hideous transformation, with faces starting to appear on the glassy walls which rapidly turned into fleshy versions. The ground became that of humanoid entrails that slithered about like serpents, eyes and appendages bursting out here and there. "Lets just say I did my homework, you brats won't be getting off that easy."

Then, to make matters all the more severe for the group, the silhouettes fully emerged from the Portal, letting it close behind them so they could surround the now INCREDIBLY cautious Party, with Neptune quickly activating HDD and transforming into Purple Heart. These silhouettes took the form of a group of 9 armoured males, similar in appearance to the Khornate World Eaters with their Armour being blue and yellow in colour. Each of them wielded a set of weapons each: a crooked staff which constantly crackled with violent, chaotic Demonic Power whilst their ranged weapons took the forms of these long gattling gun-like weaponry.

"Hmph! Such wimpy-looking non-believers... They shall be purged of their sins."

"Our master deems you mortals unfit to continue your meagre existence."

"Let your souls be cleansed...!"

'Uhhhhh, this doesn't look good...' Nico thought to himself as he watched these dudes aim their Staffs at them, the crackling energies only getting worse by the second. He couldn't see their faces due to their Armour's helmets, but he did NOT doubt the mad cackling they did like dirty old men who had sadists streaks. Worse, was the feelings he was getting from these guys, since to him they felt similar to Mages of Gamindustri, and he did NOT like fighting Mages, combine that with them being Chaos followers and members of a deity GOVERNING sorcery, an you have something Nico would have nightmares over. His instincts quickly told him to either dodge or flee, that attacking was NOT the right idea here, and if one knew him then they'd see that he'd trust his gut with his life.

"Guy's, SCATTER!"

His one bellow emerged just a few seconds before the following happened: the Staffs each unleashed a rapid volley of arcane energy blasts, ones similar to miniature stars themselves as they flew towards the Party. Fortunately each of them had the right mind set to get the fuck out of those shots ways, even if they only managed to evade by a hair, as in this limited space the amount of speed they could use was limited. Fortunately for them, Compa managed to apply GABRIEL's enhancements through her BARD OF RESTRAINT to apply extra defence on their side, although thanks to the chaotic energies the armoured Soldiers used she couldn't restrain them, thus she instead fired back with METATRON resulting in an intense trading of projectiles between them. "Nep-Nep, try making some of those Crystal golems of yours, pretty please!"

"Kiiiinnnda got my hands full here, Compa dear!" Neptune, who stood in front of Cecil, called back whilst holding a Panel in front of her, having to put her attention into that lest the panel get destroyed by the assault. This action she had been doing the entire battle, and thanks to this she hadn't the opportunity to create any minions from her crystal manipulation to help fight. Heck, she didn't have the chance to use TRACKLESS STEP to get in close, nor did she want to know what kind of effects those blasts had on her body despite its ability to heal. Magic didn't follow the same rules as more conventional things, after all.

Quickly, Raven (whom had been covered by a wall of Vines generated by Lucy for the rest of the Team) stomped on the ground to create a sheet of Ice which rapidly spread across the floor, having used Compa's retaliation as a distraction to her advantage. Seeing as how none of them had noticed this, Raven made to generate some Spikes beneath their feet to try and impale them... sadly, one of them randomly glanced downwards to see this happening and quickly sashed his Staff into the icy sheet. This ended up releasing a wave of chaotic energy through the sheet, which then abruptly vanished out of sight like it had never been there. 'Tch…!' the black haired woman cursed as she conjured several ice blades from the air around her to launch instead, only they got blasted to bits before they could be launched.

"Geez, i'd rather keep my life the way it is, thank you very much!" Ivan yelled as he morphed his Bionic Arm into it's Cannon Mode t try and disable their adversaries long enough to get a chance to retaliate, however unlike previous targets all those strikes did (the ones that hit and didn't get negated by the energy blasts that is) hardly did ANY kind of damage to them. Behind him, Aiden kept applying hit and run tactics by launching short bursts of Gunfre from his dual Handguns then retreating behind cover, since the limited space the room provided made his primary attack style of flying about like the creature he ha his Codename for inefficient.

As for Nico himself...

'Nico, you and the others need to get out of there, quickly! This is just the tip of the iceberg, if you don't get out of here things will get REAL dicey too quickly, you'll not be able to protect everyone AND fight at full capacity!'

Biko's warning quickly cemented what the redhead already believed to be the case, even as his Kagune lunged forwards to strike at the Men, ignoring the slight pain he got from when their blasts hit them, only for the Soldiers to expertly wield their staffs as if they had been trained in the art of the spear all their lives, expertly blocking each strike they made (and stunning him with their staff's makes being able to block those strikes at all). They needed to get out of here, and the best way to do that aside from using the eject buttons... "Guys, we have to break our way out of here!" he called to the others, whom had their own set of problems to deal with in regards to being put under suppressive fire from the gattling guns.

"We're all ears, Nico!" IF called back, having morphed her blades into her Bio cannons to fire back whilst using her Tendrils to whip rounds of arcane energies away from her. Unfortunately, this had the effect of reducing her Tendrils to mush upon contact with the rounds, much to her ire as she had to quickly send Biomass into them to speed up their regeneration to cope with their high firing speeds. Similar situations had befallen the rest of the Party, with their saving graces being how they were healing quite quickly thanks to their own sources.

"I'll create an opening for us, the rest of you don't think about anything else, just LEG IT!"

BOOM!

After yelling that out, Nico unleashed his Bikaku, launching a set of Talons from all four Tails at the same time, scattering them around the room to cover it in a greyish smokescreen. The attack had managed to also knock down the nine armoured men, although he didn't check to see how much damage he had been able to do as he instead split his Bikaku up into its many smaller variants to swing at a piece of the transformed fleshy wall beside him. As such, the Talons dug into the flesh, before they too exploded, creating a gigantic, gaping hole in it. Nico swore he heard some pained groans or something, but he didn't give it much attention as he quickly grabbed the others with his Rinkaku. "Alright everyone, go-go-go!" he bellowed, tossing them out the hole and then following after them.

"Tch, idiots! Well no matter, the Lord shall be offered sacrifices this day regardless. You all, you know your orders, so get to it!"

"ORAH!"


After jumping outside, each member of the Party flew through the air via their own methods: The Goddesses with their HDD forms, Raven with icy Wings, Nico with Wings made from his Rinkaku Kagune, Aiden with his Jetpack whilst carrying Ivan, IF with her Wings, Compa with her Astral Dress and Spirit Powers all while carrying Cecil. However, the atmosphere around them could hardly be described as anything even REMOTELY related to peaceful, especially with how they could sense something changing within the city, although what that change was eluded them.

"Going by the whole theme that's been surrounding our encounters with the Goddesses in their own Nations..." Purple Heart began as she and the others flew in a formation, with Nico being in the rear, IF and Compa slightly ahead of him with Team Rail acting as their flank support, and finally the three CPUs up front. Originally she would have preferred that her hubby be in front but in her current form she had a bit more rationality compared to her human one, so she was fine with this arrangement. "I'd say this outcome isn't all that unsurprising for us, eh?"

At that. Black Heart made to refute that statement, but paused to think on it some more at the last second to realize that Planeptune's CPU had a point. Thinking back on it, it seemed that each of her attempts to contact with them (her, Vert and Blanc) got met with conflict in the end, something which she grudgingly admitted through gritted teeth. "As much as I loathe to admit it, Neptune's got a point, although this is a first for me, being considered an outlaw in another Nation." she commented. "Still, everything back there just seemed so... off, that I can't believe it for a second. A CPU working with a foreign element to Gamindustri like this? Even though things have gotten so clearly out of hand?" she remarked, gesturing to their surroundings outside NINTENDO. "Just doesn't make sense..."

Also, another thing popped into her mind as she flew, how surprisingly calm she felt in this situation, calm enough to actually start discussing this event even as they were potentially being chased. It definitely wasn't something that should be discussed right now, but Black Heart found herself doing so anyways, which showcased just how low she felt in terms of threat levels now that she wasn't being peppered by magic attacks. No doubt she'll be getting an earful from Siegfried later, if Jiang Chen didn't talk to him first... though, part of her actually felt ELATED right now, elated and excited to be on the run, the thrill of running from the law and authority. Black Heart attributed that to the instincts of both the dragon and the devil within her, but she still couldn't help but note how strong these invoked feelings within her were.

Humming thoughtfully, Green Heart glanced behind her and past the rest of the Party, in order to see if they were being followed. Fortunately for them, it didn't look like it but she didn't put it past Lowee's CU to not put up a fight whilst they retreated. "Such logic does make sense, although as you said Noire I too fail to grasp what Blanc could be possibly thinking, allying with the forces of chaos like this..." she mused, a concerned frown on her lips. As someone whom had just come to terms with how she would be leading Leanbox, seeing a fellow CPU ad a rival of hers stoop so low as to work with their enemy really bugged the living daylights out of her. Not to mention it just didn't fit with Blanc's character, according to what she knew of her anyways. She REFUSED to believe that what she had seen of her had been an act, for it just didn't seem like something that girl would do, plus Green Heart kept getting the feeling that there was more going on here than what they had just seen.

A feeling which she felt was present in everyone in the Party, with varying levels of depth to it depending on how well they knew the Lowee CPU.

"Whelp, whatever the case may be, looks like it was indeed a trap, guys." IF commented as her Wings flapped several times, her form coating itself in Armour as a self-defence mechanism. Whatever the identity of this city's change was, it had been enough for her to react on an instinctual level, which pretty much CONFIRMED something to be wrong. Though, the things she and the others had experienced before could have been enough of an incentive. "What's our play going forwards?"

Glancing behind her, Raven narrowed her eyes as she started observing the City itself, noticing some of the buildings starting to... shimmer, something akin to a mirage actually. This sight caused her to realize something, though she prioritized giving out orders as the one with the most experience in Leadership. "First priority should be getting as far away from this place as possible, keeping to our current form of mobility to make it harder for them to track us down. Those Soldiers use of Magic confuses me since there was Demonic Power involved, but the way I see it this is the best plan we can go with, with our current quantity of information." she explained to the others. "We just need to get out of here as soo as possible. This whole place needs to be as far away from us as feasible."

Behind them, Nico listened to their conversations, all the while keeping silent as he mulled things over in his mind. 'Hmph, the girls do have a good point, something was definitely up there with Lady White Heart. Well, I don't think that was really Lady White Heart in any case, no her presence felt way more demonic than divine if you ask me, like she's been accustomed to staying close to a HUGE source of said energy... like a DPU for example. In that case, it might actually be Arfoire in disguise, although I'd like to know how the heck she got her hand's on Lady White Heart's form. Odds are, its just her copying ability, but still. What Mundus' role in all this is also worries me...'

'It does not help either that I've been getting this strange feeling myself... a feeling which has been bugging me since we landed on Lowee. I do not understand why, but I am getting the strangest feeling that we have stepped into some form of... well, natural concentration. Like, a forest, or a jungle. Here, we are simply no longer the only predators here, and if we don't find our place on the food chain, things will end up becoming perilous for us later down the line.'

'Yeah, plus-OMPH!'

Before Nico could respond to his Demon Persona's words, his eyes widened when he felt something transparent slam into him from the front, like some kind of invisible wall or force that resulted in him halting in the air. 'What the...?!' the male wondered as his senses temporarily got boggled up from the sudden shock of the impact. Shaking his head multiple times as his wings constantly flapped to keep him floating in the airspace, the redhead reached forth and tried to see what he had slammed into, only to feel some sort of... force on his hand, like something indeed WAS there, but something which couldn't be seen.

Soon however, he got his answer when all of a sudden a whole DOME of various runs and arrays suddenly appeared over the shimmering NINTENDO, encasing everything around the city's boarder whilst the image of the deserted city all but vanished, leaving behind what could only be described as a ruined land just after an invasion. The Buildings changed into desolate, rusted versions of themselves with pieces missing like they had been ripped out by projectiles, some of them even slanting over due to loss of support whilst the streets became messy and littered with various vehicles. Everything about the city changed, leaving no signs of the once pristine-looking settlement that showed itself as Lowee's Capital and instead took on the form of a relic from the past, like it lacked any form of prosperity for a long time...

'Oh shit, this is-!'

Seeing all this, Nico quickly came to the logical conclusion in his mind, that this was a restriction Array and a particularly large one at that given how this one seemed to cover the entirety of the ruined city, NOT the capital NINTENDO like they had been made to believe with that likely illusion earlier. Worse still, was that it had been too late for him to contact the others to inform them that he had been trapped. Because he had been in the formation's rear, only he himself had experienced this with further proof being how the girls continued their journey without him, quickly fleeing from the city themselves and fading off into the distance.

'Not good! We've been caught! I just KNEW something had been off with this whole thing! Perhaps that had been why we were able to escape so easily whilst little pursuers had been detected.'

'CALM THE FUCK DOWN, YA RETARD! KING, YOUKNOW WHAT WE HAVE TO DO NOWW, SINCE WE'RE IN A NEW JUNGE, MIGHT AS WELL DEMONSTRATE TO THOSE ERBIVORES JUST WHOSE TOP DOG AROUND HERE! STRATEGY AND TACTICS BE DAMNED, WE NEED TO SHOWCASE OUR CLAWS NOW!'

It was pointless trying to contact them too, since by the time a couple seconds had passed they had already exited the SHINGAN's range, leaving him separated from them. Not like they could have done anything given their situation and their abilities with Wardcraft, either, but still, this didn't lessen the situation's severity.

He had been trapped...

and amongst the countless inhuman roars he heard seconds after the Array's appearance, Nico quickly grasped the following fact that he wasn't alone.

Perhaps Biko's words earlier had more merit now than before: this INDEED had turned into some kind of jungle, with all its predators focused on one: HIM.


Chapter end!

Whew, things just got from bad to worse for our heroes! Poor Nico, just got singled out by the Barrier and now is trapped in the 'fake' NINTENDO whilst the girls remain blissfully unawares. Anyways, since this chapter's been overdue, I'll not write too long an AN and just start on the next chapter, which will have some content originally meant for this one in it but since this Arc's got such a flimsy update schedule already (partially due to my laziness, lack of inspiration and RL problems) what we have here will have to do for now. Hope you all like it, especially the whole Younger/Older Brother scene (they appeared much sooner than in CANON, eh? Wonder what's up there, hehehehe…)

Anyways,

Peace Out.