- WARS OF THE ROSES -

Hi everyone ^.^ Thanks for checking out this new chapter of Wars of the Roses, an alternative vision and universe of Marimite. In this much harsher, colder, more brutal world of aristocrats and axes, wolves and warriors, knights and knaves, the three long-divided households of Chinensis, Foetida, and Gigantea united to first fight off the worst of the Hanadera Republic's colonialist invasion. But the foreign onslaught was to become something much more terrifying when the Lillian loyalists discovered that an ancient prophecy had realized itself in Yumi, soeur of Chinensis baroness Sachiko.

With a temporary truce struck between Hanadera and Lillian, Sachiko lured her own soeur into an ambush that spared no resources from the four allied factions. The pieces are in position, and the last game has begun as the goddesses manifest their prophesied return through Yumi. Lillian's three noble houses must gather all they can to muster a final stand against the the prime Roses' unstoppable force of divinity.

This is the eighth act of a Nordic fantasy vision of Marimite. I hope you enjoy it.

- Act 8-

- Echoes of the Dying Aesir -

Three moon-cycles ago, Chinensis Palace

It had been many ages since the three Houses of Lillian sat at one table as the "Lily Council". In the ancient days of lore, while the Rose saints were still hunting down the remnants of the primeval demons, meetings between the three noble houses would take place around campfires or yurts, without much pomp or prestige. By the time the office of the High Queen was established, the Lily Council began to be held in the Royal Palace, in neutral ground beyond the heartlands of the green hills of the Red House, or the plains of Foetida, or the tundras and wastelands of Gigantea. Once more, in the age of the reign of High Queen Shiori, they convened once more. This table was again humble, small, and round, stripped of all pomp and finery. Even the room was sparse, its only window draped modestly with a single red curtain that bespoke of the castle's Chinensis allegiance. Rosa Chinensis chaired the once-in-an-epoch but understated meeting, her brow furrowed as she stared at her two peers. Their troubled faces were illuminated by the single candle burning silently at the centre of the table, melting noiselessly like the heart of a woman in love.

"She wouldn't say anything. She's hiding something." Youko glanced at Sei. "Yumi-chan has been behaving strangely, Sachiko even more so. I had spies observe Yumi-chan when Sachiko wasn't in a position to notice."

"Rei and Yoshino-chan confessed her misgivings to me too," agreed Rosa Foetida, scowling. "It was as if Yumi wasn't herself - not even a mad witch would talk to herself as if there were three people lurking within her."

"It is almost like a trinity. Don't you think?" said Sei softly, elbows pressing on the table, chin resting on relaxed hands. "A triune chorus of insane divinity, far more terrifying than any musket the Hanadera colonialists could throw at us."

"The ancient prophecies that Yuki-kun and the Hanaderians came for," noted Eriko grimly. "That's what you're alluding to, isn't it?"

Sei pursed her lips, her silence indicating her agreement. "I'll talk to Her Majesty about it. As we all know, this is not a mere foreign invasion we must fight. I would wager that our ancestral spirits are far more formidable foes than men with gunpowder. This is a battlefront against goddesses of war, and we can't let their very natural lust for battle swallow Lillian in Ragnarok's fires."

Youko looked at Sei in surprise. "But to approach Her Majesty means you've no more hesitation. Are you sure your clarity is so... unqualified?"

"To be honest, no. But you can certainly return to Sachiko and question her very sanity," said Sei softly. "Deny the divine hate that she glimpsed in Yumi-chan's eyes as she was throttled on her own bed."

"Easy, White Rose," said Youko, grimacing. "I was only asking."

"It was you who told us of Sachiko's plight," replied Sei, looking somewhat impatient, "and I'm inclined to be moved by her distress. I know you are too... but time is short. Something is wrong with Yumi, everyone knows that."

Youko pursed her lips. "And I agree, but we cannot make war against someone in our own house - my House of Chinensis - without the Great Seal of Her Majesty. An unprecedented act demands an unprecedented declaration of permission from the High Queen."

"And that's what I'm going to seek out," concluded Sei. "I hope Her Majesty's consent to kill one of our own will set your hearts at ease."

Eriko nodded. "It is you and Youko who have emotional attachments to Yumi-chan. So you have my agreement to proceed."

"How goes the import of the new weapons?" asked Sei.

"Good. Rei is a quick learner with Hanaderian firearms. Our dragoons will be as thoroughly trained as any of those Hanaderian musketeers. Combined with our knights, our reformed military will win every front this war opens to us." Eriko rose from the table, flicking back her hair and adjusting her noble's brooch, which held her golden mantle together. "I'm going to bed. You have a spare chamber for guests, surely, Youko?"

Sei grinned, reaching out putting a hand on Youko's shoulder. "Rosa Chinensis won't be getting any sleep tonight. As our hostilities have dissolved, we're not holding back."

Youko rolled her eyes, and Eriko sniffed elegantly. "I can't do anything about that, White Rose. Don't be too loud. I want to sleep."

Sei laughed as her Yellow counterpart turned her heel and made for the hallway. Rosa Foetida had barely closed the door when Youko positively pounced on Sei, pushing her against her chair and kissing her deeply. Sei could only glimpse the cold stone wall before she was subsumed in Youko's loving eyes, submerged in the wet adoration of her mouth.

"Finally, finally, we are free," whispered the Red Rose, releasing Rosa Gigantea only to breathe briefly. Sei could barely get a word in edgewise as Youko began tearing at her armour, stripping her, ripping off her silk and linen. "It is our shared triumph, Sei. The unity of not only our houses in the face of Hanadera, but against these prime Roses."

"You don't sound worried at all." Sei felt Youko's lips ravishing hers roughly, and she returned the affection aggressively, clutching at her Red counterpart's waist: if Sachiko sought comfort in Yumi and Youko, Youko sought comfort from her nemesis, a nemesis she wanted inside her.

"Let's see how the Norns decide our fate against the Rose saints. I am effectively asking Her Majesty permission to rebel against our kingdom's founders. Until then, I shall bask in this newfound liberty with you."

The panting, sobbing women would soon lose themselves in each other's lust and affection. Their daggers would pierce into each other, their hearts and flesh drowning in pain and pleasure.

The moon shone brilliantly above the forest. Pressing her green hood around her head so as to protect her identity, Sei spurred her horse on through the gnarled woodlands, branches hanging over the duo like hungry hands. "Hurry," she whispered to the steed, and the stallion did his best do so without crashing into the ominous dead trees around them. "This is important."

Her steed galloped on, hooves kicking up a string of crinkled leaves and dirt on the forest ground. Owls hooted quietly around her, and the clanging of her stirrup and the stallion himself were the only sounds ringing loudly in her ears. She needed to go to Shiori's side.

She was bearing witness to a revolution in Lillian - a revolution in war, in politics, in the three houses, in the entire Kingdom's self-understanding. The Rosa saints were here on earth. She needed Shiori to be part of it.

Time flew like a deadly arrow in haste. The trees now opened into a large clearing, beyond which lay a wide moat. The infinitely tall spires of Lillian Palace loomed over her, almost blotting out the night sky and blocking the moon's beams. The massive drawbridge began to creak, before hurtling down from the castle's white walls and slamming violently at her neighing horse's hooves. Sei let out a cry, and her horse ran across the drawbridge, into the vast courtyard and nearing two guards.

"Halt!" cried one of the women, raising a steel-encased hand. "State your name and office! Why have you come here so late in the witching hours?"

"I am the White Rose," declared Sei, throwing back her hood and glaring down at the shocked guards. "I must see Her Majesty!"

"But Your Highness, Her Majesty is surely asleep and unprepared for an audience," sputtered the soldier.

"Wait. Let me talk to her," came a lilting, calm voice. "Perhaps I can let her in without any fuss to you."

Sei turned her head. Stepping out from the shadows near the fortress wall was another woman in a grey, hooded cloak. "I expected you to come," she said, lifting up her hood and revealing feline eyes and short black hair. "Welcome to the centre of the Lillian polity, the body and bread of our civilisation."

Sei smiled down from her snorting horse. "Shizuka. Royal Bard. It's an honour. Is Her Majesty in the chapel?"

"At this time of night?" asked Shizuka. She smiled at Sei. "Her body is weak, you know that. She must rest."

"It's urgent. Please, Shizuka."

Shizuka smiled, looking down at the ground.

"Just this once, or Her Majesty will be displeased with me again."

On the highest floor of the Royal Palace, Sei kneeled before the cloaked Royal Guards, who had crossed their spears before the door to the Queen's bedroom. They spoke together sonorously. Even the Roses had to kneel before the Queen's protectors, for they were not individuals, but extensions of her limbs, tongue, and eyes. "For what reason have you come?" they asked, but it was a mere ritual formality, for they would never allow anyone to come so close to the imperial bedchambers without having known her reasons long ago.

"Your Majesty, the White Rose begs for your audience," declared Rosa Gigantea.

The Royal Guards remained silent, for their owner hadn't asked them to give an answer. They were not to deliberate on anything, but act on whatever the High Queen decided.

"Open the door," came Shiori's quiet voice at last.

The guardswomen obeyed, uncrossing their spears, and the humble wooden door quietly creaked open. Sei rose from her genuflection and slowly, carefully passed the Royal Guards and walked into the sparse, modest room. Its only indication of prestige was the purple curtain, which bore the coat of arms of the incumbent High Queen: a hooded Virgin, with thorned vines entwined around her bleeding neck.

Grim indeed, Sei thought wryly to herself. Far worse than any of our Houses' heraldric aesthetics.

She was on her bed, a humble, single bed that didn't betray her rank as the supreme, reigning monarch of Lillian. She smiled blearily at the approaching White Rose, utterly vulnerable and exposed, a young woman who was completely at her visitor's mercy. It made Sei's heart ache, that two years ago, their illicit courtship in the royal circles had had to be severed after Sei's ascension to the throne of Gigantea... and Shiori's to the throne of the realm.

It was a tragedy, true, but not quite as devastating as it could have been. At least they could still see each other, albeit as liege and humble servant.

Shiori's true, formal title was extended and extravagant: Her Majesty High Queen Kubo Shiori of the Kingdom of Lillian and its dominions, Queen of the Realm, Empress of the Isles and the Stately Banners of Chinensis, Foetida, and Gigantea, Defender of Our Faith in the Virgin Mary and the Rose Saints. But typically, all Sei spoke now was her name, and to have Sei utter her first name helped Shiori feel warmer within than any royal accolade.

"Shiori."

"Is that you, Sei-sama?" cooed the High Queen after a few moments of rubbing her eyes.

"Shiori," repeated the White Rose, giving a short bow. "You are the High Queen. Why do you still address me as a senior?"

Shiori stretched her sleepy limbs, purring in comfort as she savoured Sei's loving, protective presence. "We are sorry. It is a force of habit."

The White Rose slowly and gingerly walked over, noticing that Shiori was still addressing her in the royal plural. "I need to ask you for something. Urgently."

"Anything We can give," murmured Shiori, beckoning Sei closer, "We would gladly give to you, Sei-sama. We still love you. We don't want you to fall in battle."

"I won't," declared Sei, kneeling by Shiori's bedside and clasping the hand of the woman whose flesh was the body politic of the realm. They stared into each other's eyes. "But I need you to give Royal Assent. I moved to strike a truce with Hanadera, and we three Roses moved to unite under the High Queen's banner. But I need you to give Royal Assent to a battle we must fight, a battle of sacrilege and blasphemy."

"Royal Assent? We've been unable to use that since my reign began," whispered Shiori. "None of you Roses could agree to anything in the past. How the tide has turned against Our enemies' favour. But We can at last ask you..." She pressed Sei's hand against her lips, closing her eyes. "Who shall We condemn? Who shall We consent for you to ruin?"

Sei closed her eyes too, taking a deep breath. "We seek to topple the very women who founded our great kingdom, who unified our island and continent into the great realm of Lillian, of the Virgin Mary. Saint Chinensis, Saint Foetida, and Saint Gigantea - they have returned to Lillian, as the enemies of our generation. They have made explicit their desire to begin anew, sweeping us all away in a conflagration for their own designs. We have no choice but to resist them if we wish to maintain our traditions, our civilisation. We need to... defeat our own makers."

Sei opened her eyes, expecting a horrified expression on Shiori's pious face. To her shock, the High Queen never looked more serene. "Now that you speak with a unified voice against a prophesied enemy, in the name of protecting yourselves, our sisters, and me, how can I not give full Royal Assent?" she said, a single tear making its way out of the corner of her eye. She had given up on the royal protocol. "I never dared to dream I would be the High Queen who would oversee the reunification of the three houses. And now... now... you rally yourselves against Ragnarok itself!" Sei felt Shiori clasping her hands tighter. "So be it, Sei-sama. Do what you will, I would follow you into the furnace of Muspelheim if you wished me to. Sally forth and meet our former masters head-on. I will be waiting to welcome you and your victorious soeurs."

"We must kill one of our own soeurs to save the realm. To save our isles, we must murder the goddesses that gave birth to it," said Sei flatly, as if not daring to believe Shiori would be so unshaken.

"It is as you say," whispered Shiori whimsically. Sei looked even more shocked, and the High Queen began to titter quietly. "You once threw me into doubt about everything. About myself, and about my devotion to the Virgin. This will be one of those few occasions that I follow you unquestioningly. If you feel what you are about to do is necessary for the preservation of everything we treasure, then I will follow you into the depths of Hel.

"Valhalla awaits us all, my love. An honourable death comes through battle. So let us fight that battle, and take my hand as you die so my crow-pecked corpse may rot with yours."

Sei bowed her head and closed her eyes, humbled. She carefully raised Shiori's hand to her lips and kissed a snow-white, moonlight-dappled knuckle reverently.

For the first time in a long time, she uttered some very serious words.

"I will repay your trust in me, Your Majesty."

This was no longer the past.

This was the present moment.

A moment of heartbreak and bloostained, green robes.

Her body on the verge of falling apart thanks to the many wounds inflicted on its small, diminutive frame, Yumi spat in rage as Sachiko twisted her sword inside her breast, impaling her heart and effectively killing the girl the Red Baroness had knighted as her soeur. But there was plenty of fight left inside the destroyed form: the goddesses refused to relinquish Yumi, and directed her hands to clasp the tip of Sachiko's sword.

"Ogasawara Sachiko," bellowed Saint Foetida from within Yumi. Yumi's large eyes of cosmic turquoise and cerulean glinted malevolently, far from lifeless, and far from defeated. "You would dare expel us from our new home inside this Yumi?"

"Yes," spat the Red Baroness from behind, warm tears streaming down her cheeks. "To give Yumi dignity and rest, I would dare to defy you, Goddesses Three! I love you, Yumi. You won't be damned to slavery by these demons!"

"You will regret that!" howled Saint Chinensis, and as Yumi tightened her grip around Sachiko's sword, the steel of the blade began to melt into molten. Sachiko released her weapon, shouting in pain from her burning hands, while Yumi staggered away, the disintegrating sword oozing down her festering wound and sliding lazily down her bloodstained torso and coat. The assembled soeurs and Hanaderians watched in horror as Yumi heaved, blood pouring from her mouth.

"You will repent of your resistance, I promise," snarled Saint Foetida from within Yumi, turning to face the decimated but unbroken armies surrounding her.

"This was suicide, Saint Gigantea," declared Sei, as the billowing black flags of Hanadera rose in the distance. Reinforcements from Kashiwagi's ships were coming. The Chinensis and Foetida knights had also regrouped, and Rei's surviving dragoons leapt off their steeds, lining up to point their primitive, unwieldy arquebuses at Yumi. "Three hateful spirits trapped inside their own dead vessel, crawling into a hole to die a second death."

Yumi the Draugur (for that was what she was now) glanced at Sei, hissing. "This was what we prophesied, and what drove these Hanaderians to these shores. The destruction of every living on Lillian, to clear a path for the new creation. Hanadera's fire is Surtur - and we are the Aesir! But we will endure, even after this... Fukuzawa Yumi... has rotted for the worms. We are gods. You are all decaying jetsam!"

"Why Yumi, Saint Chinensis?" wailed Sachiko, falling to her knees. "Could you not have made a crueler choice against such an innocent child? I would have surely offered a more ideal body for your incarnation on Midgard..."

"You would have resisted longer than we preferred!" snarled Yumi, icy Nordic fire conjuring itself amidst her heavy breathing. Blistering particles, defying the cool spring climate, began to chill the atmosphere, and the soldiers and knights looked around warily, visibly cold. Sei kept her eyes on Yumi, who continued to taunt Sachiko. "Fukuzawa's body allowed us just enough time to germinate our poison within her brain while we led that boy's destruction to these isles, in preparation for a glorious conflagration," declared the possessed girl, pointing at a furious Yuki. "The sun has set forever on the Kingdom of Lillian. There is a black moon above the northern lights. Eventide swallows the promise of our heirs - "

"What are you all waiting for?" screamed Yuki, waving his hand. "Shut those demons up, for God's sake!"

"No, not yet!" shrieked Rei, but it was too late, as several hundred Hanaderian musketeers unleashed a furious hail of metal at Yumi -

"Enough of you eyesores!" bellowed Saint Gigantea, and the Draugur stomped her boot against the shrivelled, burnt grass, summoning a tremor that was succeeded by a blinding wave of lethal light. Sachiko screamed and threw herself against the ground, and Rei held Yoshino tightly as they closed their eyes frantically. "Get down!" barked Sei as she dove down, and the panicking knights and dragoons obeyed. For the Hanaderians, who were distracted with loading and firing, it was far too late. The hateful light washed over them - over their weapons and eyes - burning into their bodies and hurling them to the ground. Entire formations of tall, strong musketeers and horses were blown apart, scattered like leaves, some instantly dead, others blinded. Yuki was only saved by Kashiwagi's determined charge, crashing into him and throwing him to the ground as the tidal wave of killing, searing fire tore into the screaming Hanaderians and incinerated like a collective, mass funeral pyre. The battlefield was not only stained with rivers of blood, but glimmering eerily with ghostly remnants of Yumi's power.

The Hanaderians were but useful idiots in the Rose saints' hands. They had instigated all-out war on these ancient isles in the name of saving Yuki's treasured sister, but they would not be spared to see Ragnarok's climax. Yumi glanced around her, satisfied. "Your part in our epic poem has ended, Fukuzawa Yuki," she declared, as Yuki and Kashiwagi looked around their annihilated armies in horror. "Kneel in silent obedience and watch our melody end it all."

Unharmed but ruffled, Goronta hissed softly, prowling around the sneering Draugur. Yumi looked up at the cat, then glanced at the three Roses. Youko, Eriko, and Sei watched their original, primeval rulers warily. "Well, you three? Are you ready to embrace the fires of Valhalla? Are you ready to enter the Hall of Heroines as I choke you all to death?" invited Yumi, licking her lips.

"Now!" roared Rosa Foetida en bouton, having recovered slightly. Yoshino burst from her cousin's arms, lifting her deadly mace and charging straight for the Draugur. "Yumi, forgive us!" But Yumi couldn't hear her, too occupied with catching Shimako's axehead in her bleeding hand. Yoshino crashed into Yumi and pushed brutally, screaming ferociously. Boots digging deeper into the soil, Yumi barked in frustrated rage as she grabbed Rei's rosary hanging around Yoshino's neck. A frightened Yoshino yelled in protest, but she could do little as Yumi yanked her forward, opening her growling mouth as sinister starfire began to burn from behind her tonsils, itching to burst out and incinerate Yoshino's head to ashes -

"Die, little girl - "

Shimako rolled past Yoshino and slashed her axe upwards, in an arc that carved a deep gash in Yumi's abdomen. Distracted, the fire within her belly fizzling, Yumi maintained a grip on the struggling Yoshino, pulling her close again and smashing her forehead cruelly against Yoshino's nose, crushing it into a mushy pulp. "Your mace can't match my bones!" she cackled over Yoshino's whimper. She shoved the limp, incapacitated soeur away and swiped at White Princess, who coolly shuffled back and parried another wild strike from the Draugur. Losing patience with Shimako's she-wolf instincts, Yumi gathered herself, before opening her mouth for another starbeam. She began to vomit one into existence, shooting directly for Shimako's widening eyes -

That ethereal eagle's cry again... her spell fizzling uselessly in the face of a shaft of blinding light, Yumi glanced to her side in rage, glaring at Yuki, who had turned his sword at her, directing that Renaissance brilliance to dispel her starfire.

"Yuki," murmured Kashiwagi, looking down at his slumped form.

"Enough," said Yuki wearily, his eyes exhausted. He looked like he wanted to cry, but he would be saved that indignity as his three rivals, the leaders of Lillian's noble empires, walked past him. He glanced up. "This is the extent of my resistance, after all. It was all my science could do in the face of divine evil. I'm ashamed, but I'll have to hand this over to you."

"You're hurting," observed Youko. "Stand aside and rest. We are many. Sei was right: they are but three, trapped in one rotting body, crawling into the ditches to die. With Sachiko's resolve, we'll give her the strength she needs to kill Yumi and expel these goddesses from our world."

Yuki nodded, staring at the ground.

"Roses of Lillian, heirs to the Prime Roses," snarled Rosa Chinensis, drawing her ruby-encrusted sword and glaring at Yumi. Grimacing, Rosa Foetida and Rosa Gigantea followed her lead, and together, they slowly crossed their swords, raising the lightly touching blades high in the sky. Yumi stared at the united Roses darkly as their three blessed weapons glimmered with Valhalla's light.

"Kill our founding mothers!"

Sei was the first to lower her arm and charge at the heroines of primal legend. She lifted her blade and swung it directly at Yumi's head. "Sorry, Yumi-chan!" she called, "For your sake, I'm going to beat them out of you." Yumi ducked and evaded Sei's attack, but staggered back as the three Roses lunged at her as one, a battle-delirious unity, hacking and slashing hatefully at the possessed body that held their nation's founding spirits. Youko cut at Yumi's side, whilst Eriko's sword swung down from above. Yumi blocked Youko's blade with her forearm, which drew a copious torrent of blood, and barely managed to sidestep Eriko's attack. A flurry of three colours, hurling themselves with suicidal, human determination at an invincible, transcendent foe. Even Sachiko was momentarily stunned by the magnificent, inspiring sight of those three rose-decked mantles - billowing vermillion, gold, and pearl majestically forcing Yumi on the back foot. Yumi snarled in exertion, struggling to avoid or parry the swordstrokes raining down on her. Youko's contorted face was particularly fearsome, Eriko's eyes were possessed with a certain madness, and Sei looked slightly ridiculous with her thrilled, adrenaline-saturated expression.

"Knights! Fire arrows! Dragoons, your muskets!" screamed Rosa Foetida, banging her sword repeatedly against Yumi's raised arms. "Ignore us! If you can hurt her, then do so!" The Draugur glanced at the advancing ladies and their horses, their silver armour glimmering. Their faces looked encouraged, if slightly hesitant about attacking while their rulers were in the way.

"You foolish mortal women! Enough!" shrieked Saint Foetida in infernal protest from within Yumi, and the entire battlefield seemed to shiver. Yumi shoved away the Roses and punched a fist into the sky. "To me! Old guardians of these sceptred isles! Your true mistresses have returned - abandon these pretenders to our thrones, and unleash your fierce fires on their forlorn faces!" bellowed the prime Roses.

Another mysterious tremor tore through the sky. And then, a rising cacophony of reptilian howls shook the sundered battlefield. The dragoons looked around, troubled, and the Chinensis knights began muttering amongst themselves. Then, one of them squinted towards the horizon. "What are those?" wondered the warrior.

Shimako's large eyes narrowed. Her sharp nose could smell roasting flesh.

"No... Onee-sama, we are in danger!"

"I thought we already were," answered Sei dryly, advancing against the smirking Yumi.

"No, onee-sama. This... this... is something else."

Yoshino and the Yellow Duchess looked up and further away, and their hearts sunk once they could hear the roars. Shimako was right. In the distance, wings flapped and long horns gleamed. Magnificent teeth bared themselves as gouts of fire rumbled from deep down their stomachs and throats. In between great gestures of their majestic flying limbs, the immortal protectors of Lillian - the friendly, quiet, docile dragons of time immemorial - flapped their vast wings and swooped towards the dismayed Lillian forces and Hanaderians.

"I don't dare to believe it. The treasure-hoarders are moving against us," whispered Sachiko. "They, the dragons of Lillian!" Several men began to scream, but Yuki didn't feel an urge to flee. Yes, there was terror and awe strangling his chest, but his legs didn't even give way. No, he wanted to die standing upright against these ancient protectors. But the truth was that he had never prepared his invasion of Lillian for this.

"Fall back, Foetida warriors!" shrieked Rei, and her women took up her cry. Squires propping up the sinking banners of red and yellow flora began to falter, backing away, and the morale of the ladies fell further. "All houses, retreat! Here be dragons."

"How could they betray us like this?" cried a near-broken Sachiko, her flickering hope almost snuffed completely. "They are supposed to be our guardians! They never harmed human beings before... they were supposed to come to us in our time of need."

Yumi cackled, the Rose saints' voices drowned out by the cacophony of draconic howls. "Did you really think they would remain loyal to you after the founders of this Kingdom returned? These ancient beasts, who we rode to rid this world of demons and civilize its forests, plains, and springs? They were our steeds in life! They've seen generations of Roses come and go, but they waited for us!" Goronta hissed and her fur rose. She turned to make for the roaring dragons. "Oh no you don't!" shrieked the Draugur suddenly, with a terrifying voice. Suffused with renewed power, Yumi vomited out a stream of starlight at the distracted cat, and the cannon of pure power stabbed through the World Serpent's twitching body.

"Goronta!" screamed Sei, real concern showing on her terrified expression for the first time.

Goronta mewled quietly, a wet, bloody hole sizzling through her back. Her legs buckled from the severe wound. Her furry knees trembled, and the great cat crumpled towards the grass, whimpering as Yumi wiped away the blood from her mouth. "Kneel before me, Goronta... Jormungand. You are but a child of a god of mischief. But not even you can devour goddesses!"

The World Serpent was trounced, crippled. And several dragons were already descending to finish her off, hurtling through the clouds and diving straight for the weary Lillian women.

The three incumbent Roses stared up at the burning sky and the hostile dragons grimly.

The world they ruled, and were sworn by oath to the High Queen to protect, was dying before their very eyes.

"We will die, and drag those three spirits with us back into Valhalla," gritted Rosa Chinensis, blinking away hateful, angry, helpless tears.

Rosa Foetida and Rosa Gigantea nodded, clutching their blades in desperate abandon.

Her icy magic contrasting almost poetically with her dragons' flames, Yumi raised a fist, thundering rime crackling and howling around her clenched hand. High above her circled her reptilian servants like vultures, belching fire and preparing to incinerate the Hanaderians and Lily Council's women forever. From within her ruined belly, the prime Roses issued their death sentence. "This Draugur is dying, it is true. And when Yumi's body falls apart, you will see us in the spirit - fully fattened and feasted on her flesh!"

NEXT ACT: TERROR IS HERE.

WILL SACHIKO EVER SEE YUMI AGAIN?