This was one of those chapters I was originally unhappy with, but now that I've updated it, I feel much better. For anyone who may be reading this updated version after reading the original, what do you think?

"This is entirely your fault!"

Church berated Hachiel as the two of them bolted down the halls of Vance castle in an attempt to escape from their seemingly homicidal pursuer.

The pink-haired angel flew alongside Church, giving him an apologetic look but not really feeling at fault regardless. "I'm sorry! How is it my fault exactly?"

"She would never have known I wasn't a servant if she hadn't seen an angel next to me!"

Hachiel had no time to reply as they heard the voice of their pursuer echo from the halls behind them. "The more you run, the angrier I'll be! If you just surrender now, I'll at least make it quick!"

The fact that she had not mentioned quick and painless was not lost on Church, who pushed his legs even harder than before because her voice sounded closer than before. "Son of a bitch, I think she's gaining on us!"

Hachiel frowned, forgetting the severity of their situation for one brief moment. "Please, refrain from using such language in my presence, as I don't-"

"You be quiet! This whole situation is your fault anyway, so you have no right to complain!"

With no way to refute that statement, Hachiel fell silent and merely continued her flight alongside Church. The thought that it was almost impossible for the human chasing them to hurt Hachiel was completely lost on the angel as she panicked over the situation just as much as Church did, leaving confused servants and soldiers in their wake as they bolted past them.

Having accomplished the mission she had been sent to the castle for, Airi had been quick to reunite with Melona, who, although feisty, had been smart enough to let the Vance captain of the guard pass her without incident. Although the wraith could've ditched Melona and just left by going through the roof or some such, she decided against it, because she didn't trust the troublesome slime to just leave quietly on her own. With Elina avoided, the two of them were now sneaking back out of the castle. Unfortunately, even with Airi accompanying her, Melona still wasn't quiet.

"Airi, you bitch! Leaving me back there alone just when that tiger-girl showed up!"

The redhead sighed in exasperation. "Are you telling me that you couldn't have handled her yourself? Have you become that weak?"

The pink-clad assassin flipped a middle finger at her friend. "Of course I could have taken her, but the fact that you left me is what's important!"

"Since when did you care for such sentimentality anyway?"

"That's beside the point: I mean, what kind of-!"

Melona's retort was cut off by an unusually loud clap of thunder, followed by a palpable, tingly vibe reverberating through the air.

The peculiar feeling caused Airi to shiver. "Well that was... ominous..."

Melona shrugged, apparently not affected, or not caring even if she was. "Well there's this astounding phenomenon called nature, Airi. Geez, I thought you were supposed to be the brains of the group."

"You know, cutting you in half with my scythe may not physically hurt you, but if I have my ghosts fly away with half of your body, it could be mildly entertaining."

"What kind of castle has a hallway that leads to a dead-end on purpose!?"

Church and Hachiel both stood in front of a flat stone wall, at the end of a long and twisting hallway that they both thought would have actually lead them somewhere. Church clutched his head in frustration.

"Whose idea was this?!" (Somewhere, Private Myles' great-great-great grandfather turned in his grave).

Knowing that shouting at the wall wasn't going to accomplish anything, Church and Hachiel turned to face their mutual enemy, who was just rounding the corner to catch her prey. The blond woman ran her tongue over her lips as she approached, lending even greater credence to her tiger image. In some bid for escape, Church turned to his angelic companion.

"Hachiel, you're super strong, right? Just paste her and call it a day!"

Said angel blanched at the mere thought of engaging in violence. "I-I would never do such a thing! To use the gifts I have been granted for violence is sin of the highest caliber!"

Church scowled, wondering how anyone could advocate peace in a situation like this. "Well don't you have any angelic powers? Laser eyes, or a sonic scream or something?!

Hachiel eyed the man she was trying to rescue incredulously, wondering what on Earth he had been told about her kind. "What are you talking about? Who convinced you of nonsense like that?!"

Their short-lived argument was interrupted by their impatient huntress. "Are you two going to be fun and resist me or just quarrel until I skewer you?"

Hachiel's face showed sign's of queasiness as she imagined being impaled, gutted, or 'skewered'. The fact that a human weapon would barely scratch her still had not dawned on the poor girl. Church on the other hand, was unfazed. He had an angel on his team, how could he lose?

...right?

"I'll have you know that this angel here is powerful enough to pulverize every bone in your body with one punch! So no one is getting skewered! Such a pathetic threat wouldn't affect me anyway!"

The blond cat woman grinned wickedly, clearly not intimidated in any way. "Is that so? Well then, there was this one time in the village nearby when I saw one of the peasants castrating a pig..."

Church's face completely drained itself of blood as he tried to imagine how the innocently cute and sweet looking little girl in all of those portraits had grown into such a terrifying woman. "I had you pegged all wrong. Yep. Allllll wrong... h-how could someone so gorgeous be so scary? Even Echidna wasn't like this..."

Elina didn't seem fazed at all by Church's words since they seemed to be little more than the pitiful ramblings of a soon to be corpse. After all, she considered herself gorgeous in the eyes of all commoners. Even exceptionally handsome ones.

That said Church received no relief from her silence, so he turned to Hachiel for a solution. "Well don't just stand there! Save us!"

"B-but how?!"

Church's mind worked as fast as it could, but he started getting a little panicky as his pursuer began sauntering closer to him with that malicious gleam in her eyes.

"You said angels were super strong, just punch a hole through this wall or something!"

"T-that's a little beyond me! Perhaps Nanael could, but I can't manage a feat of level!"

Both of them watched as their impending death in the form of a vicious and violent blonde came ever closer to them. It was fortunate that she was taking her time in scaring them for sadistic pleasure.

"Damn it Hachiel, can't you at least fight out of self-defense?!"

"S-stop yelling at me! I don't believe in violence!"

Church and Hachiel backed up against the hard stone wall behind them, which only put a few more feet between them and their casually advancing pursuer. Church couldn't help but see the malicious hunger in her eyes that could only be sated by suffering, and he wondered what could have driven someone that, like all children, was once innocent to such a state. No one became like this without some need for catharsis driven by a past event. Then again, she could have just been mental. It was certainly a distinct possibility.

Lamenting his bad luck, which seemed uncannily continuous all things considered, Church wondered what his odds were of taking on an armed woman with a spear that likely knew how to use it. And unlike Echidna, she didn't seem to be the kind of person to not go all out with the intent to kill or maim him. However, it turned out that his luck wasn't quite as terrible as he imagined it to be.

"Miss Elina!"

The voice of a young girl from behind the three engaged in this disastrous event served to momentarily interrupt it. The spear-wielding blonde turned to face the one who had called her, who had appeared at an intersection further back in the hallway. "What do you want, Florelle? Can't you see I'm busy?"

The brunette young teenage further back down the hall, who was strangely dressed like a boy, was unfazed by her superior's irritable tone. "General Claudette is back! She's crossing the bridge right now!"

"R-really!? Already? I can't believe she found Leina so fast! Let's go, take me to her!"

A look of confusion crossed the young squire's face as she pointed to Church and Hachiel, who had unwittingly wrapped their arms around each other in preparation for their demise. "But what about those two?"

The woman who would've been the death of Church (Hachiel would have been fine) sprinted past the girl and grabbed her sleeve, dragging her along. "Forget them Florelle! Take me to my sisters now! Let's go!"

Church and Hachiel watched as their brush with death forgot them entirely. Heaving a sigh and releasing each other from their fear-induced embrace, they could scarcely believe their good luck. Hachiel decided this was an appropriate time to make some sort of comment about divine protection.

"As you can see, those who serve heaven receive divine-"

Church interrupted the pinkette before she could finish whatever she wished to say. "Don't even. Let's just go before she comes back for us, since you would rather let me die a horrible death than lift a finger to fight."

Hachiel hung her head at the scorn, sulking as she followed Church away from the dead-end and hopefully towards an exit. She mumbled to herself all the whil, trying to convince herself that her lack of action had been justified.

"...violence is wrong..."

But since Church had no idea how to get out of this accursed stronghold, thanks to his panicked retreat from that crazy cat woman, he really had no idea where to go.

"How the hell are we going to find our way out of here...?"

"You screwed up, Melona: again. I wish I could say I'm surprised, but I'm not. I'm really, really not."

Melona and Airi stood on one of the castle parapets that overlooked the main courtyard far below them. They had found an exit leading to these ramparts, and had already dispatched the few guards that were on patrol on this section of the wall. For Airi, it had marked the first time in a significant while that she had actually killed someone.

Not that she was a stranger to that, as it was hardly the first time she had struck down a mortal in her service to the Witch, but she couldn't help but note the unmistakable feeling of guilt during this occurrence. It was hardly the first time she had felt that either, but even so she couldn't help but feel it a little more acutely than ever before. In fact, she even knew why she felt this way, and it was because she was holding herself to an unrealistic standard thanks to the image of herself a particular man had presented her with.

It was another reminder that she was losing sight of her purpose. She was supposed to be used as a tool, but more importantly she was supposed to be content as merely a tool, and so the opinions of others weren't supposed to matter to her. And for the most part they didn't. But she couldn't help imagining Church's reaction to her eviscerating someone with a her scythe, and in no scenario did she imagine it as a pleasant one. It wasn't supposed to bother her and she wasn't supposed to care, but she did. Even the knowledge that such feelings were contradicting what she was didn't stop them from existing.

Either way, the two supernatural girls now stood over the corpses of two steel clad Vance soldiers as they looked down on the main courtyard from their elevated position. A decent sized unit of Vance soldiers had just entered through the castle gates, and they were led by none other than the Thundercloud General.

Airi placed her hands on her hips as she laced her words with obvious sarcasm. "I thought you said she 'Should be gone for several months?'"

Melona scowled at her ghostly companion. She was just as displeased about the situation, and did not need to be ribbed by the girl beside her.. "Shut up, Airi. She was supposed to be gone for a couple of months. It's not my fault she forgot to pack a spare thong or something."

"Clever. This is still proof of your lack of ability in espionage you know. Isn't that what you're supposed to be best at?"

"And isn't being a mindless slave with no feelings for anything but loyalty to your master all you're supposed to be good for? Fuck off until you're fine with us dragging Church back to the Swamp Bitch to be enslaved."

While this earned a severely heated glare from the Infernal Temptress, ultimately she could not deny the truth of Melona's words. Being a master of facades herself, the Slime rarely failed to see through acts and illusions.

"Fine. It doesn't really matter anyway, as this could definitely still work in our favor."

The slime cocked an eyebrow at the undead maid. "How exactly? People have speculated that she could fight even Aldra on fair grounds. And we both know the latter is out of our league."

Sure enough, there was no denying that the reigning Queen was practically a legendary fighter on par with even world renowned fighters like a certain Elf and the monster slaying duo that had roamed about a decade or so ago. In fact, it was quite possible that she was beyond them, since said Queen had never unleashed her full power during either tournament she had won. Even so, it was fairly obvious that someone who could crush all opposition with frightening ease at age twelve was a near inhuman force of skill and strength.

Personally Airi didn't think the Thundercloud General could take Aldra in a straight fight. Of course no one was invincible, and certainly there was someone out there stronger than the reigning Queen, but even so it was widely held belief that Aldra was the strongest woman on the Continent right now. That said, there were many fighters that had not bothered going against her that could prove themselves superior.

For now, the point remained that Claudette was a powerful force to be reckoned with, and one that could feasibly defeat both Airi and Melona despite being of great strength themselves. Of course, that was only if they fought fairly. The fact remained that getting rid of a fighter this powerful would serve the Swamp Witch very well in the future. And so Airi made sure to make her point very clear.

"We have every reason to eliminate someone this powerful while we have the chance, and we even have the perfect opportunity to do so. She's surrounded by dozens of faceless grunts she'd hardly care to identify. And no matter how strong someone is, a knife to the back is always a sure win."

Melona glanced down at the retinue of troops Caludette had with her as she stepped into the castle, obviously getting the point with little trouble considering her abilities. "I guess it could work... but you are going to back me up if this goes sideways right?"

To her credit, Airi looked offended that she would ask. "Seriously Melona? We are on the same team, I'd hardly let you go into a fight like this without my assistance."

For a moment Meona considered having a sappy moment in which she truthfully thanked Airi for her support, but she quickly decided that it wasn't her style and that she probably would have messed it up somehow. She generally wasn't one for sentimentality, even though she was more than capable of feeling it.

"Alright then, let's give it a shot I guess... shit I hope this works."

Claudette scanned the courtyard of her home intensely, looking for anything out of place. Some sort of imposter was masquerading as her, and chances were that such deception was being employed to infiltrate Vance castle. But as far as she could tell, everything was as it should be. Nothing was wrong here: the only bad thing currently manifesting itself was a thunderstorm brewing in the dark skies, and that could have very well been the work of her own agitation.

"Your orders, General?"

The Thundercloud General barely spared a glance for the soldier that had questioned her, too focused on whether or not she had acted too hastily in returning straight to the castle. She had asked the soldiers at the bridge if 'she' had seemingly returned to the castle already, but they had stated that no such thing had occurred. There had been mention of some vagabond being brought to the dungeon after mentioning Leina, which was suspicious, but Claudette had only one immediate concern regarding anyone trying to infiltrate the castle.

That said, she was just about to issue orders for her troops to sweep the premises for anything unusual while she went to search for the Count, but in the brief moment before she spoke, she recalled that the soldier who had spoken to her just a moment ago was not one of hers. She knew everyone in her personal unit by a face and name at least. And that begged one very important question that she couldn't answer.

Spinning as she drew her sword from its sheath on her back, Claudette turned to face her foe just in time to partially deflect a thin, long blade that was coming straight out of the Vance soldier's arm. Unfortunately she hadn't realized the danger quite soon enough, and the weapon of the enemy still sliced open her side deep enough to be considered a grievous wound.

Knowing there was no time to take in the pain, Claudette sent a shock of electricity through her blade, blasting away her assailant at their point of contact.

The obvious imposter flew a few feet but rolled to her feet in a mere moment, taking in the dozens of drawn blades that Claudette's true soldiers had now leveled at her.

"Well shit, I guess it's never easy is it?"

The mysterious assassin swung her arms out in both directions, launching globs of her own body at the soldiers that surrounded her. Each of these projectiles exploded when they hit the ground, or more unfortunately, a soldier themselves. The series of small blasts knocked away everyone and covered the immediate area in rubble and smoke.

It didn't take long for the latter to clear, at which point Claudette was treated to the sight of her adversary's true form; an unfortunately familiar humanoid monster that sported far too much pink for anyone with suitable taste. The area was also now littered with the bodies of Claudette's soldiers, many of which were struggling back to their feet even as some failed to move at all.

The woman that had attacked Claudette,, though said General hardly considered her one at all, smirked as she glanced around at her own carnage, though her clover gaze settled on her real target in the end. "So, I don't suppose you could make this easy and just bleed out from that wound I gave you?"

Claudette grimaced at the sight of the large gash just between her ribs, silently thankful that her cut was not any deeper, as it would have almost certainly been a critical blow to a major organ if it had. As things stood now, she was fit for battle, but only for a limited time. She would need to be treated relatively soon, a fact her Lieutenant made clear as well when he managed to get to his feet beside her.

"G-General, you're wounded! We'll take care of this, you must get help immediately!"

Needless to say, this suggestion went entirely ignored. "Lieutenant, gather our wounded and get them to safety, then search for the Count and make sure he is safe. I will handle this."

"B-but General-!"

The bastard child of the Vance family leveled a glare at her second, letting the man know that the gravity of her orders was not to be taken lightly. The soldier in question had nothing to say to her after that, instead ordering his surviving comrades to recover the injured and dead and then search for the Count. Thankfully Melona ignored them as she pondered how to best tackle the foe before her, giving Claudette time to identify who exactly was endangering her home and her life.

"You... you are the one that attacked this castle before, are you not? You are truly foolish for returning here, where I can punish your transgression as I will."

Totally unfazed (what did Melona have to worry about, being practically invulnerable when it came down to it?), her amorphous adversary only smirked back at her as she folded her arms. "What can I say? I just really, really hate you all. Say, I'm kind of surprised you fixed all the damage I did so fast..."

"I won't suffer your mindless small talk. Prepare yourself."

Not one to mince words, Claudette drew Thunderclap and pointed the blade towards the woman that stood before her, shooting a single bolt of lightning at her in an effort to be done with this fight as quickly as possible.

While caught off-guard by the sudden assault, Melona reacted quickly enough to avoid damage by melting into a puddle and letting the bolt pass over her, after which she reformed.

"Geez, you don't talk nearly as much as your damn bimbo sister, that's for sure..."

Her quip was met only by another blast of lightning, spurring Melona to leap over this next one and close the distance. After all, she was positive she was just as invulnerable to lightning as she was most anything else, but getting zapped still really fucking hurt.

And of course, being devoid of any silly human limitations like muscles, Melona was quite a bit faster than Claudette expected her to be, though it wasn't enough to stop the redhead from blocking the gelatinous sword that came her way with her own.

Unfortunately for Melona, Claudette's ability to harness electricity through her sword meant the Slime couldn't afford to press against the woman, which would have been ideal all things considered. After all, she had an ally in this fight who still had the element of surprise, and all Melona had to do now was give her an opportunity to strike.

With that in mind the Slime focused less on landing a real blow and more on distracting her opponent with a rapid flurry of slashes, all of which were blocked a little too easily for Melona's comfort. It was obvious that she wasn't exactly a match for Claudette in swordsmanship. But that was fine, because the sight of actually welcome red hair behind the woman was sign enough that the fight was about to be over.

Having materialized behind the Thundercloud General as she exchanged mortal blows with Melona, Airi drew back her scythe and prepared to cleave the woman in two, trying not to think about the gruesome aftermath of the blow as she swung her weapon in the rather wide arc it needed to hit anything with real force.

However, halfway through her swing her blade was stopped in its tracks, the cause of which was a steel cable that had wrapped around her wrist from behind. A quick look over her own shoulder revealed Airi's attacked to be the exact blonde she was expecting, the cable that was currently restraining the wraith's death blow wrapped around her own steel gauntlet.

"So, there's actually two pieces of utter garbage working together? Who would have thought that any of you actually had friends?"

Instantly taking a great dislike to this woman that spoke to her the same way a particular man from her living past often had, Airi made a show of pulling back on the cable that held her, forcing her new adversary to do the same to hold her. At that point it was only a matter of letting her body lose any sense of the corporeal, which made the cable around her wrist go through her without obstruction and more important plant Elina on her ass at the lack of sudden resistance.

Needless to say the pleased smirk on Airi's face was enough to make that particular fight personal.

On Melona's end of things, she quickly realized that the odds had turned against them the moment another combatant showed up. Not to say that she didn't have faith in Airi's ability to win against the stupid tiger blonde, but Melona knew she was outmatched in a straight fight with Claudette. Of course, that just meant she had to break a few rules, which was easy enough for her.

As Claudette made to stab her blade into Melona's torso and subsequently electrocute her gelatinous mass, Melona allowed the first part to occur, but made sure to thwart the second half by having a dozen spikes jut out of her torso and stab back at the woman that was now closer to her. Claudette was quick to pull back from the danger, but all it did was put her at enough range for Melona to blast her with more globs of her own mass.

Elina was a little too busy with her own affairs to immediately worry about her oldest sister disappearing in a small blast of flame and smoke, as a scythe proved to be a very intimidating close quarters weapon of choice. Each swing Airi made with the tool of both farming and war threatened to cleave one of Elina's limbs clean off, if only the blonde failed to dodge it with her feline agility. To make matters worse, Elina didn't have her usually distinct advantage of range here, considering that Airi's weapon had roughly the same reach as her lance.

That meant they were more or less dancing around each other's swings and stabs, trying to make contact at a safe range that didn't exist thanks to their equally long weapons. But there was a relatively obvious solution, at least as far as Elina was concerned.

All she had to do was get close enough that her adversary couldn't swing her scythe effectively, at which point the blonde could still use her claws to deal damage. With that in mind she ducked under the next high swing at her neck and rushed her redheaded foe with enough speed to get as close as she wanted. Were she not so eager to maim the enemy, she may have noticed that Airi made no attempt to regain distance, which should have worried the youngest Vance sister.

Having opted for a lunge in closing with her lance, Elina was displeased to see Airi sidestep it, actually catching the rapidly approaching blonde in her arms rather than doing anything else. Needless to say Elina was dumbfounded by this maneuver, as it was both strange and notably uncomfortable to be hugged so tightly by an enemy in the midst of a fight. The pressure of their sizable busts pressed together didn't make it any better.

"What the hell are you-"

Elina's words of real curiosity were cut short when she realized she could feel the strength of her own limbs being sapped away and at an alarming enough rate to warrant some serious concern. It was obvious enough that whatever was happening was Airi's doing, and that required an immediate response.

Airi was just about to lean in for the life draining kiss that would put her foe out of her misery when she felt the sharp steel talons of Elina's gauntlet bite into her lower back, slashing her flawless skin and splitting it open with lines of crimson. The pain of the injury was enough to loosen Airi's grip, but not before she viciously kicked the blonde away from her in retaliation.

Melona watched as her ally hurriedly floated back to her side just as the smoke from her explosive attack on Claudette began to clear. She had half a mind to ask if Airi was alright, but by the time the notion even occurred to her the redhead's skin had mended entirely, and her torn clothes were beginning to do the same.

Recovering from the physical blow she had been dealt but still suffering from the fatigue Airi had inflicted upon her, Elina came to stand by her older sister, who was now sporting many light burns along with the dissolved tatters of her less resilient clothing. The sight of her older sister both injured and humiliated spurred Elina forward, but it was the redhead herself that stretched out an arm to hold her back.

"Enough. I'm going to end this right now."

The several dozen streaks of lightning that arced across Claudette's sword told Airi and Melona that they needed to move, but even as they attempted to evade the oncoming attack, it was obvious that its scope was too much for them to escape on such short notice.

Having finally located an exit from the interior of the castle, Church and Hachiel stepped outside, but unfortunately onto the castle wall, instead of into the courtyard. Church hadn't even realized he had somehow made it upstairs during his flight from Elina. He could only guess that he had been too busy running to really pay attention to where exactly he was running to.

He was about to ask if Hachiel could carry him to ground level when a flash of blue lightning came crashing down into the courtyard below them, causing both individuals to recoil from the ensuing explosion below, not to mention the wave of force and deafening sound that threatened to blast the duo's mortal clear off the wall.

After several moments of shaking off the ringing in his ears, Church questioned the unusual phenomena of nearly being struck by lightning.

"What the hell?! Even the sky is trying to kill me!"

As if his words were some kind of cursed trigger, it immediately began pouring rain. The heavens must've opened their gates extra wide, because the cold water from the skies began falling in sheets that quickly drenched everyone who stood outside.

Church looked up at the dark skies in dismay, wondering who was up there actively trying to make him miserable. "Oh, God dam-"

Hachiel swatted him in the back of the head, cutting his expletive short. "I'm sorry, but what you were about to say was blasphemous!"

Church eyed the pink-haired angel irritably, but refrained from making a retort. Instead, his attention was attracted to another familiar angel descending from the skies above. Nanael wasted no time in getting out of the air as quickly as possible, and she landed beside her fellow angel and her human charge.

"For the love of- is that woman just followed by inclement weather or something?!"

The ninth angel of heaven eyed her far lower ranked companion disdainfully. "I thought I told you to stay up there and keep watch. Why are you down here?"

"I'd like to see you up there during a torrential rainstorm!"

Hachiel crossed her arms, thinking of this as explanation as rather flimsy. "Nanael, you are protected from such things by heavenly energies: you were in no danger whatsoever."

Naturally this truth didn't cause Nanael to admit anything. Besides, she was worried about lightning for a far more paranoid reason. "Yeah, well if the Seraph wanted to fry me and make it look like an accident, this would be the perfect situation to do it!"

"Well if you were more-!"

Deciding that this was no time for an argument, Church interjected here. "Look ladies, as much as I love to hear you bicker, can we please focus on the problem at hand?"

Nanael finally acknowledged the human's presence, not that she had been ignorant of him in the first place. "What problem? Besides the fact that I'm soaked..."

Having brought that up, Nanael had inadvertently drawn Church's attention to the fact that she was soaked, and that both she and Hachiel were both clad in nothing but white. He could literally see right though their garments, revealing everything for his viewing pleasure. Subconsciously, he found it amusing that even the patterns on the girl's panties were respectively blue and pink.

Still, the lovely view before him aside, Church could not help but think it was a special kind of wrong to view angels in such a way, and he tried his best to dispel any lewd thoughts of the girls before him. It was a significant challenge considering how much more shapely Nanael was revealed to be when her generally loose fitting clothes were slicked against her body.

Unable to stop thinking about the sight before him with willpower alone, Church sought a distraction by moving towards the edge of the wall to view the damage the lightning strike a few moments ago had caused to the courtyard below.

He did indeed find a distraction, but certainly not in the form he had hoped for. Church had finally found the two friends he had come here to aid, but he was evidently late to the party. Airi and Melona were squaring off against a woman with a sword nearly the size of the wielder herself, and by the looks of things, they were in dire straits. Airi was still standing, though she was clearly having difficulty managing even that. Melona was on her knees, struggling to stay conscious at all. If Church had been a little closer, he may have noticed that Melona was having a little trouble maintaining consistency, but the distance and the rain obscured this from him, and Church no more aware of the inhuman nature of his friends than before as they literally sizzled from the heat of the attack they had just received.

Nanael and Hachiel peeked over Church's shoulder to view the damage for themselves, the latter commenting on the situation below. "Ah... fighting with the Thundercloud General? That was a very unwise decision."

Church tried to identify the woman Hachiel was referring to. It was pretty easy to spot the only unscathed combatants in the courtyard, and even easier to identify the one that still had electricity crackling around her. "T-that woman with the claymore? She did this?"

Hachiel nodded her affirmation. "Her blade allows her to channel electricity, and she is also a peerless swordsman. Your companions made a foolish mistake, and possibly a fatal error as well. The General looks none too pleased with them."

Church watched as the apparently formidable woman advanced towards his friends, with the blonde that had pursued him earlier merely gazing after her in awe. Was she going to kill them? She was too far to really identify the expression she wore, but her body language spoke volumes about her wrath. He had to do something fast, and he only had one option. Church turned to face the angelic duo that was currently his only weapon.

"Then what are you guys waiting for?! You have to help them!"

Nanael replied incredulously before Hachiel could say anything at all. "Are you crazy? Those two are not our friends. In fact, the General is doing us a favor!"

Church couldn't believe he was hearing this from angels, of all things. As far as he knew, angels were supposed to be agents of good. He couldn't imagine an angel saying no to protecting the defenseless. "You can't be serious! The two of you are angels! You're not really just going to stand by and watch as two people are killed, are you?!

Both angels visibly cringed as Church accused them. They both seemed uncomfortable with the judgment being passed. Sure, the Swamp Witch's minions were their enemies, but Nanael and Hachiel were heavenly beings: helping those in need was supposed to be at the core of their values, regardless of who they were.

Seeing that he was making some impact, Church pressed on. "Hachiel, if you hate violence how can you possibly stand by and watch it happen when it's in your power to stop it?! And Nanael, you're the most beautiful, powerful, most amazing angel in all the universe right?! Prove it!"

Facing the very boasts she had presented to Church when first introducing herself to him, Nanael felt more inclined to uphold her image. After all, this man was putting his faith in her to save his friends. No one ever put their faith in her. For anything. Regardless of her standing in heaven or just with others in general, in this one moment she could really be a hero for this one person.

Still, she had to at least act like she wasn't excited about the notion. "F-fine, I'll save your stupid monkey friends. But this is a one time thing, got it?!"

The blue-haired angel turned to her friend, trying to school an excitable smile off her face.. "Go check on those morons and get 'em out of here. I'll hold off Sparks."

Hachiel nodded, an uncertain frown all too evident on her face. "I will, but I don't think the Seraph would approve of this..."

Church watched as both angels flew down to the ground below to save his friends. He thought to himself as he watched them.

I'm apparently a lot more persuasive than I thought I was...

Unfortunately, Church had no choice but to stay up on the wall and watch this accursed fiasco from above. After all, unlike his angelic companions, he couldn't fly, and if he jumped from up here, he would only paint the ground below a very nasty shade of red. He watched as Nanael landed in-between Airi and the woman advancing towards her, jabbing a finger at the Vance woman as she did so.

"Alright look, as much as I hate to say it, these monkeys are under our protection. Back off and nobody has to get hurt. Well, y'know, nobody else has to get hurt."

Claudette stopped her advance, but hardly seemed to take Nanael seriously. "This is none of your concern, angel. This conflict is completely outside of your jurisdiction. Step aside."

Hachiel landed beside Airi, who was surprised to be receiving aid from her sworn enemies. "I don't know why you're helping us, but if you think we're going to pay you back for it somehow, you're sorely mistaken."

As nice of a person as she was, Hachiel was not very fond of anyone even remotely associated with evil. This being the case, her words were a little more abrasive than usual, though they were still pretty mellow. "Would you prefer that we not save you? We're only doing this because of your friend Church, so you should be more grateful!"

Airi cocked an eyebrow at Hachiel as the angel slung the wraith's arm over her shoulder. "What on earth are you talking about? There's no way Church could have sent you here, he's back at the... shoreline..."

Her sentence petered off as Hachiel pointed a finger at the walls above them, revealing that Church was not were Airi had thought he was. "What the hell is he doing here!? He's going to get killed!"

Not quite sure why Church had gotten into the castle herself, Hachiel had no answer for the woman whose weight she supported. She instead turned her attention to the confrontation between Nanael and Claudette, the latter of which was not happy to be interrupted in the midst of her battle.

"If you intend to get in my way, I will have no choice but to defeat you. This is your last chance."

Most everyone knew that Nanael was not the purest of angels, so not even Hachiel was surprised when she opted for flipping Claudette off instead of answering the woman. Naturally Elina was unhappy about this level of disrespect, but the level of weakness she was feeling from Airi's drain earlier kept her from physically making any attempts against her enemies.

" I see... methods aside, your answer is clear. If that's the case, prepare yourself!"

Claudette's command was punctuated by a blast of lightning that shot forth from the edge of her sword as she swung it in Nanael's direction. The bolt of blue lightning streaked towards the defiant angel before her with blinding speed. Nanael had only a moment to react, and since there was no time to dodge, she bent her left wing in front of her as a sort of shield. The sizzling lightning bolt impacted the soft bluish-white feathers a moment later, causing an explosion that showered the area with small bits of debris.

Church cringed from above, genuinely concerned for Nanael's safety. "Oh hell... if she gets killed doing this, I'll never forgive myself..."

Fortunately, Nanael was no closer to dying than she had been five minutes ago. As the smoke cleared, the maximum extent of damage to her person was a few singed feathers. She looked irritated more than anything else. "Hey, this is the one good wing I have! If you mess it up, I'll seriously crush you!"

Obviously angered, the aggressive angel rushed towards the redhead that had attempted to fry her. Church was curious to see Nanael fight, but unfortunately he would not get to watch the conflict below.

"Hey! How did you get up here!?"

Church's attention was drawn from the battle below and towards the voice of an enemy soldier patrolling the walls. While he knew it would likely fail, he decided to use the same excuse that had tricked Elina earlier. "I'm the... uh... servant boy?"

The soldier ignored Church's lame excuse and charged forward with her lance at the ready. There were only a few paces between her and Church, so the Legion commando had to think fast. As the enemy came in range, Church grabbed the hilt of his attacker's spear just behind the blade and used the long weapon as leverage to swing the light-weight soldier over him in a move that looked similar to vaulting.

The arc sent the poor girl careening over the edge of the castle wall, and over the side opposite to the courtyard. Church, basic lance still in hand, ran over to the edge to determine the fate of the soldier; fortunately, she had fallen into the tumultuous lake that surrounded the castle.

"Sorry! Just don't try to impale me next time!"

Now the waters of the lake were a little rough, thanks to the thunderstorm currently wracking the area, but Church was pretty sure that girl could either swim to shore or back to the castle. After all, he didn't want to kill her. She was just doing her job: or failing to do so, as it were.

Speaking of deadly storms, more lightning struck the ground in the courtyard behind Church. Now slightly more wary of enemy soldiers, Church moved back to the other edge of the wall to get his bearings on the battle below. Even in the short time he had been distracted, the destruction that had been wrought was tremendous. The General's electric strikes blasted large craters in the ground, and every time said general dodged one of Nanael's attacks (Or the angel just missed because she was sloppy) her blows tore huge chunks out of whatever inanimate object she hit instead.

Melona had apparently collapsed at some point, As Hachiel had her unconscious body under one arm. Airi was leaning against the girl's other side, held up by Hachiel's angelic strength. She was looking up at him, yelling something, but Church couldn't hear a word of it over the storm and the battle, and so turned his attention to Nanael, trusting Hachiel to get his friends to safety.

Church watched as the General charged up another bolt of electricity. The strain on the woman's face seemed enormous, and Church could only assume that meant this attack would be more powerful than the last. Nanael, aware that she would be able to dodge the attack more easily in the air, proceeded to rise to a higher altitude. It seemed like a good idea to Church, but it only took a moment for him to realize that there was now a linear path from the General to him, with Nanael in-between. Which meant that if Nanael dodged it, shit was going to hit the fan very quickly.

Before Church could inform Nanael of her terrible positioning, the General released her charged elemental attack. Church could almost watch the whole thing unfolding in slow motion. A streak of blue lightning coming his way, Nanael moving to the left to avoid it... the outcome of this poor tactical thinking was inevitable, and all too obvious.

"Oh, son of a b-!"

The commando's expletive was cut off as the powered lightning strike impacted the stone wall he stood on. The entire section fragmented and pushed away from one another, including the part that Church stood on. It was a peculiar feeling, to be standing on a solid surface that was careening through the air. It was like being rooted to the ground yet not feeling the weight of gravity.

As he fell, Church thought he might have heard someone scream his name: but the ringing in his ears was too severe for him to be sure, and there was hardly any time to think at all as the stone shower of debris crashed into the lake that surrounded the castle. Church was plunged into the cold and frothy waters with heavy chunks of stone above him. Before he could move out of the way, one of the larger pieces pinned him under its weight and forced him down to the bottom.

He couldn't get away: not from this weight. Not only that, but Church had not been ready for the impact. Any air he had stored in his lungs had been forced out of him when he slammed into the lake. He kicked and squirmed, but the boulder that restrained him was too much. The force behind its descent kept Church helplessly stuck under it, and so his struggle was in vain.

How far had he sunk already? His vision was fading, and he was losing strength in his limbs. His lungs burned with the inner fire of oxygen deprivation. This situation was hopeless. There was no escape, no salvation. This was the end for him, as he could see no way out.

These were the only bitter thoughts Church had, as he was forced to the bottom of the lake, and his mind faded into oblivion.

Man, this chapter had a huge overhaul. Lot's of dialogue changes, some descriptors here and there: basically an overall improvement to the original that I am far more pleased with than before.