Chapter 6 - Crash Course

"What do you mean, 'something is in here with us'?" IRyS asked, glancing around the dark room. Due to the only source of light being dim, inconsistent, red emergency lighting, visibility was extremely limited.

IRyS wanted to use some magic to get a better look at her surroundings, but it might draw the attention of whatever Amelia had just mentioned. Since she did not currently have either of her daggers and her magical output was halved, it would be in her best interest to keep a low profile until she knew what this thing was.

"I can feel its presence," Amelia replied, looking through the doorway towards where she had been attacked. Her hand was firmly wrapped around the light dagger, ready to fight. She would not let herself be surprised again.

"Is it your magic?" Ina asked. Amelia nodded carefully. She was probably close to angering the Elder Ones with how much info she was spilling. However, she needed to tell the others about the danger they were in.

"Something like that." All three girls stood next to one another, covering each other's blind spots. Neither IRyS nor Ina felt anything yet, but Amelia had put them on edge.

They carefully crept into the next room, trying to see any odd or peculiar shapes in the dim, red lighting. Chairs, desks, and cabinets were turned over and broken all around them. Papers and unrecognizable debris littered the floor.

Amelia stared straight ahead at the doorway to the next room. She had turned her back to it trying to warn the other two and hadn't seen the attack. So whatever killed her had to have come from the doorway… Or it had been too fast for her to perceive.

Taking short and shallow breaths, she tried to keep her wits about her. The only thing giving her even the slightest amount of comfort was her ability to reset when she died. As long as she could ensure her own death, she could redo all of this with new info.

A multitude of other unknowns still left her unsure about the limits of her ability, though. Did she have a limit on the number of resets? Did this limit reset after enough time or did it stick permanently? Would reaching that limit cause her to slowly run out of magic or would her injuries begin to persist beyond her resets? Will whatever this thing is realize her uniqueness like IRyS had and try to capture her alive?

The only thing Amelia could do to manage those unknowns was to avoid dying as much as possible. Only when it was absolutely necessary would she allow herself to die and reset. Since she had yet to get used to dying, she still feared death quite a lot, making this objective fairly easy.

"Give me the daggers," IRyS whispered suddenly. Her voice was on edge and the words were fast. It was apparent that she could feel the danger approaching them. Still, the ticking had yet to return to Amelia, meaning she at least was not in danger.

Amelia thought about giving the light dagger back to IRyS, but decided against it. Without some kind of weapon, she was completely defenseless. Plus, she didn't know if IRyS was intending to use the dagger to fight or simply wanted to run away with everything returned to her first.

"Hell no," Amelia replied in a hushed voice. They were getting fairly close to the other doorway now. Her grip on the dagger tightened further.

"At least the crystals then, so my magic-" IRyS began to ask, but Amelia interrupted her.

"I already said no-" Amelia, too, was interrupted when the ticking in her mind suddenly returned. A low snarl emanated from the doorway. All three girls had barely turned towards the noise when a dark mass charged straight at them.

Ina and IRyS both tried to fire off spells, but it was too fast. The sound of flesh being torn apart filled Amelia and Ina's ears. Blood splattered against the walls and pooled on the ground, appearing black due to only red light illuminating the room.

IRyS' body laid on the ground in two distinct pieces, having been torn in half with one slash from this thing.

Before either girl could process what had just happened, the thing attacked again. Ina only got out a small squeak before she was violently slammed into the wall. The rest of her scream bubbled up through the blood that filled her mouth and spilled onto the floor.

Ina collapsed into a pool of her own blood, twitching incessantly. All of her organs had been flattened by the impact and had ruptured internally, allowing blood to spill everywhere it wasn't supposed to be.

Amelia was frozen in place as the hulking shadow in front of her slowly turned towards her. Her shaking hands held the dagger out in front of her, but it provided no help stopping the creature when it leapt at her, too.

Two thin, white eyes glowed in the darkness, allowing Amelia to see the creature's massive jaw open up. Hundreds of inky black teeth sank into her torso and neck, as her flesh was ripped off her body.

The pain was white hot and intense, but it was over quickly just like last time.

Amelia found herself once again in front of Ina and IRyS with the distinct urge to throw up. She steadied her breathing, trying to keep her bodily fluids inside her. Ina once again made sure she was ok, while IRyS simply watched off to the side.

"Are you ok, Amelia?" Ina asked her like last time. Amelia stood back up and nodded.

"I feel like I'm being watched," Amelia replied cryptically, "Like something else is in here with us." Her follow up statement put the other two girls on high alert. They both glanced around the room, checking each dark corner for anything lurking within the shadows.

"What makes you say that?" IRyS asked, her voice lowered out of caution. She hadn't yet felt any presence nearby besides the other two girls.

"My magic is acting up in the same way it was before you attacked us," Amelia clarified. She then motioned towards the door in front of them. "Just beyond that room. I can feel my magic avoiding that direction." If she was going to make stuff up about what her abilities truly were, she might as well put some fake logic behind it, as well.

Her magic would be like a warning radar, she decided. That way she could mention possible threats without having to explain how she knew a threat was lurking. Of course, if she wanted to explain away other things like knowing her opponents abilities or attacking patterns it might become a bit more complicated. But she was still learning about magic. Discovering new things she could do with her own magic would just be a part of that process, so it shouldn't be that suspicious.

"Is it in the room or further ahead?" Ina asked, narrowing her eyes in an attempt to see anything in the next room. Amelia took a few steps towards the door, placing her in front of the other two.

"Not this next room, somewhere further ahead, but closer rather than farther," she explained. IRyS and Ina both began to walk forwards, following Amelia's lead. Amelia could tell that just like last time, neither girl could sense any enemies around them.

Now came the hard part.

No, not fighting against this thing. Amelia was certain that given enough resets to gather info and correct usage of tactics based on that info, she could defeat just about anything. She truly believed any problem she faced could be solved with correct application of her ability.

The hard part was that she was going to have to trust IRyS.

It may seem simple at first, just give IRyS her daggers and crystals back and let her fight against whatever this thing is. However, Amelia wasn't sure she could trust IRyS just yet. The only reason they were working together was because the Council commanded them to do so. Hell, they had already attacked one another in the Corridors before.

It was not as simple as it may first appear to be.

Still though, Amelia saw no way for them to win against this thing without allowing IRyS to fight.

Taking a deep, quiet breath, Amelia glanced back towards IRyS. They had just crossed into the next room and the ticking remained silent in her mind. Both Ina and IRyS appeared to be on edge from Amelia's statement and not because they had sensed anything.

IRyS met Amelia's gaze, her heterochromatic eyes holding nothing but a steely clam look in them. She was neither scared nor excited. She was in fight mode.

"Here," Amelia said, reluctantly tossing the light dagger to IRyS. The Nephilim caught it after a moment of surprise. She stared at her newly returned weapon, turning it over in her hands and running her fingers along the edge of its blade.

"Why?" she whispered, looking back up at Amelia. Even in the limited lighting, Amelia could tell that IRyS' eyes had brightened in mood.

"I'm not letting you sit on the sidelines," Amelia told her, "Give her the other one, Ina." Ina hesitantly handed over the dark dagger, as well. She was far more trusting of IRyS than Amelia, but that still didn't mean that she fully trusted her.

"And these, too." Amelia also gave IRyS the light crystal with Ina following suit. IRyS placed her crystals back into the wing-like structures that adorned her back. She felt her powers double in strength, returning her to her original strength.

The ticking began once more within Amelia's mind. However, it was quieter this time compared to either time before. It seemed like this thing was not aware of her specific presence. Most likely, it only sensed IRyS' increased strength and was going to attack her. This still put her and Ina in danger, but less so than her previous attempts.

A low growl emanated from a nearby doorway. It was further away than normal, but that thing was coming for them.

"Get ready," Amelia hissed at the other two, moving to the side to get out of the way. She was mostly defenseless without the light dagger, so it was best she kept out of this fight. Her contribution had been alerting them to the threat in time for them to be prepared.

"Thanks, Amelia," IRyS called Amelia by her name for the first time. The Detective didn't even have time to process this before IRyS shot off.

In the opposite direction.

The Nephilim blasted through several walls, causing whatever structure they were in to creak and groan. The growl turned into a howl and a large, dark shadow moved out from the doorway towards them.

"That fucking bi-" Amelia was cut off when she suddenly found herself back with IRyS and Ina looking at her.

Surprisingly, the strong residual pain that usually followed each of her deaths was far weaker. Her neck only slightly hurt, but it quickly dissipated. Maybe she had died enough that she was getting used to it. That thought slightly frightened her with the possible consequences.

What she did feel, though, was a burning hatred towards IRyS. She had left them for dead the instant she was given her shit back. It pissed her off to no end, but right now she was still stuck in this place with whatever was hunting them.

"Are you ok, Amelia?" Ina asked for a third time. Amelia still felt slightly nauseous, but otherwise was fine.

"My magic is acting up," she said confusingly. Ina tilted her head at her. "I think it's reacting to something else in here with us," Amelia quickly added. Both IRyS and Ina glanced around the room, analyzing the shapes and shadows of various objects that were around them.

"Do you know what this thing is?" Ina asked, lowering her voice slightly at the thought of the second possibility.

"I'm not exactly sure what it is," Amelia said, "but I don't think it is friendly." Ina curled into a far more defensive stance upon hearing that. IRyS, on the other hand, just seemed to be displeased with Amelia.

"Why do you have to be so damn cryptic? Just say you think there's an enemy nearby," she said, voicing her displeasure of Amelia's roundabout way of speaking. It took every ounce of willpower that Amelia had left in her to not scream at IRyS.

"Shut the fuck up," she said in an angry, hushed voice. IRyS rolled her eyes, but also entered a combative stance. Slowly, the three of them made their way out of the first room and into the second.

Amelia took out the light dagger from her jacket, feeling how her palm became warm when pressed against its smooth surface. It felt like she was imbuing it with her very essence.

Now, once again, came the hard part of trusting IRyS.

However, Amelia now knew that IRyS would likely only run once she had all her items returned to her. All she had to do was keep some of them to keep IRyS from running.

But that still wouldn't guarantee that IRyS would fight. She could try to snatch the rest of her stuff away from them while they were getting torn to shreds by that thing and then flee. So, Amelia continued to advance towards the doorway she knew the shadowy thing was lurking beyond, allowing IRyS to sense the creature.

"Give me my daggers." Amelia silently smirked, knowing that her plan was working. She knew that IRyS wouldn't run if she first sensed that an enemy really was nearby. Her current lack of power and worry that her things might be damaged or lost in a fight would force her to fight against this thing.

"Ina," Amelia whispered, indicating that Ina should give the dark dagger to IRyS. She did a little more than Amelia was expecting, handing both the dark dagger and matching crystal back over to IRyS.

IRyS' eyes began burning a hole through the back of Amelia's skull, begging her to give back the light versions she possessed. Amelia ignored her, flatly refusing to do so.

The ticking began once again, louder than last time but quieter than the first two. This creature was still probably going to go after IRyS first, but her and Ina were still far from safe.

A deep growl swept through the room from just beyond the doorway. All three girls readied themselves to fight.

It lunged out from the doorway straight towards IRyS. However, IRyS was now much stronger than the first time where she was unable to dodge fast enough. The sharp, shadowy teeth nearly grazed her, but IRyS was able to just avoid it. The creature crashed into the wall behind them, almost smashing straight through.

It quickly got back up on its four powerful legs and roared at the three of them. The sound was almost deafening in the enclosed room.

Ina fired a beam of magic, striking the beast in its side. The attack didn't seem to do much more than anger it, with it turning its large head towards Ina and snarling.

Just before it leapt towards the Priestess, Amelia fired her pistol at its face. This attack also didn't do much beyond angering it, but IRyS rushed it right after. Her attack was far more powerful than either of the others.

She swung her dark dagger in an upward arc, slamming the blade through the beast's jaw. Most of its lower jaw exploded, throwing black sludge all over the room and all over the three girls.

Despite missing most of its lower jaw, the beast still roared and tried to swat IRyS away with one of its front legs. Ina summoned several tentacles and held the leg in place, preventing it from countering with that leg. However, it had two front legs and tried to use the other instead.

Amelia ran over and plunged the light dagger into the other leg, feeling her burning veins ignite when she made contact. The black material that the creature's body was made from was not that hard to get through. It had the consistency of gelatin, but Amelia could tell that it still held an immense amount of power. This substance seemed to be mostly composed of raw Dark magic.

The beast's left front leg disintegrated from where Amelia had stabbed it. It roared in pain, as IRyS planted the dark dagger into its chest, causing more of the black sludge to be launched around the room.

Using its hind legs, the beast kicked off of the wall, ramming into IRyS and knocking Amelia away. Ina's tentacles kept it from moving too far, but it was still incredibly powerful.

IRyS slammed into the opposite wall, blood running down her face from where a tooth had scraped her head. She stood up and quickly attacked again, sliding underneath the beast's left leg which it tried to use to intercept her. The dark dagger again caused more of its body to explode, but the damage still wasn't enough.

Despite missing most of its jaw, having a large hole in its chest, and nearly losing its front left leg, the beast was fighting as if it was unharmed. Also, IRyS could have sworn that more of its jaw had been missing before. It was most likely capable of slowly regenerating on top of being incredibly powerful. At least it hadn't shown any signs of being able to use spells so far.

The beast slammed its right front leg into the floor, causing the building to shake violently. This move also created some slack in Ina's tentacles, which it then used to forcefully rip through them.

Ina fired two consecutive beams into its face, blowing off small amounts of black sludge. It roared in response, seemingly unperturbed by the attack and began to rush towards Ina.

IRyS dug the dark dagger into one of its rear legs, causing it to stumble and collapse onto the floor. Ina wrapped several tentacles around it, binding it to the floor.

"Amelia!" IRyS called out to her, "I can finish it if you just give me the light dagger!" Amelia stood to the side, gripping the light dagger with enough force to turn her knuckles white. The beast roared and struggled underneath the tentacles, attempting to free itself.

Amelia knew it was risky to give up her weapon. It would be optimal if she could deliver the finishing blow herself, but she didn't know if she had the power to do that. Despite her reservations, Amelia threw the light dagger to IRyS who caught it and plunged it into the beast's side.

The beast continued to struggle, while IRyS dragged the light dagger along the length of its left side. The dark flesh along its left side was turned to ash and smoke by the sharp edge of the light dagger's blade. After it let out a final wimpy growl, the beast went limp underneath Ina's tentacles and its tiny white eyes closed shut.

IRyS removed the light dagger from its body, breathing heavily. She still hadn't fully recovered from being stabbed several times in the Corridors and this fight had not been an easy one. She turned around and put her hands on her knees, catching her breath. She looked up at Amelia and almost felt thankful that she had listened to her.

"NO, DON'T-" Amelia cried, seeing IRyS turn around and Ina begin to retract her tentacles. This creature was closer to an animal than a sentient being. However, it had shown enough intelligence to create slack in Ina's tentacles before ripping through them. Sure, it might have been accidental, but during a fight you should never assume something was accidental.

If it was intelligent enough to do that, then it could also be intelligent enough to close its eyes and go limp. Both of those things happening seemed too good to be true, like it was playing them up for effect.

They should not have assumed that it was dead and dropped their guard just yet.

But Ina and IRyS already had.

The beast's body regenerated much faster than before, healing its legs enough to jump into the air. IRyS turned around and Ina tried to hold it in place with the few tentacles she still had around it. But neither was fast enough.

With a swift kick from its newly healed front leg, it smashed IRyS clean through a wall. Ina tried to summon more tentacles to hold it in place, but it ripped straight through each of them, charging straight towards her.

Ina summoned a large tentacle low to the ground and launched it upwards, smacking the beast in its jaw which had yet to fully regenerate. It was stopped temporarily, as it instinctively tried to bite through the tentacle without a lower jaw. That lower jaw began to regenerate faster, allowing it to get through the tentacle after a few seconds of trying.

Amelia ran up behind it, punching it in the leg with the light crystal tightly clenched in her fist. A decent portion of its flesh burnt away, but still could kick at Amelia. She was able to meet the kick with another punch, but it was still strong enough to knock her away.

More beams smacked into the beast's face thanks to Ina, but she was only delaying its advance now. It opened its gaping maw, putting every one of its deadly teeth on full display before lunging at Ina.

Their delaying was successful, though, allowing IRyS recover enough to fire a beam through the hole and into the beast's face. The Light magic swirling around penetrated through its flesh and the Dark magic core impacted deep within its head.

The beast's head violently exploded from the dual magic beam.

And yet that still wasn't enough to put it down.

It collapsed just before it could sink its teeth into Ina, but it got back up and turned to face IRyS. Half of its head was missing, with the other half being in tatters and its lower jaw hanging loosely to the side.

IRyS yelled loudly, as she threw herself out of the way of the beast's charge. She sliced up a leg with the dark dagger before stabbing the wounds with the light dagger. This leg was quickly reduced to nothing but a smoking pile of flesh.

The beast tried to get up and attack IRyS again, but it was far too injured now. IRyS was able to jam the light dagger into the remaining half of its face. It squealed and thrashed violently, as its head was burnt away by the Light magic pouring into it.

Even without its head, it still twitched and gurgled, indicating that it was still alive. This was proven beyond doubt by its flesh beginning to bubble out from where its neck had been. In this terrible state, the beast was still trying to regenerate and continue fighting.

"Enough…" IRyS said, her voice low and monotone. She lacked the energy to put any force behind it. All she wanted was for this to be over.

She climbed up on top of the beast's twitching body and drove the light dagger deep into it. After a few more seconds of gurgling and twitching, the beast's body finally seized up.

IRyS felt like she was about to collapse from exhaustion, but a little more was demanded of her when she began sinking into the flesh of the beast. Its body was now melting into a puddle before evaporating. Collapsing here would be very nasty, so she attempted to move out of it.

But her legs simply did not have the strength in them to push through the thick, gelatinous flesh. She unceremoniously fell forwards, unable to even muster the energy to break her fall.

A small tentacle caught her just before she collapsed into the dark flesh puddle beneath her. Ina carefully walked through the flesh and put one of IRyS' arms over her shoulders. Amelia couldn't help but sigh and shake her head. Ina helped IRyS out of the slimy puddle and sat her down in a mostly undamaged section of the room against a wall.

Amelia walked over and crossed her arms while looking down at IRyS. She hated to admit it, but she was quite impressed by the Nephilim's display of power and resilience. She looked back over at the puddle of dark liquid which had mostly either evaporated or been absorbed into the floor.

"Never in y-your dreams…" IRyS wheezed out, "could you hope to do th-that…" Amelia cracked a small smile and laughed lightly.

"Maybe right now I can't, but just you wait," she replied, looking back at IRyS. She gave a short laugh in response.

"Think you'll be able to walk soon?" Ina asked her, looking over her various wounds. It appeared like she had several broken ribs and a possible fracture in her left arm. Blood coated her face and hands, but it had clotted quickly and was no longer an issue.

IRyS grunted, attempting to get to her feet on her own. Ina and Amelia both saw her struggling and helped her to her feet, keeping her upright by providing support under each of her arms. She didn't have the energy to push them away or tell them to go, so she reluctantly accepted the help.

"Let's get out of here," Amelia said, with both Ina and IRyS nodding in agreement.


Amelia and Ina helped the injured IRyS wander through several more rooms, down a staircase, and through even more rooms. They eventually found a dim exit sign that led them out of the building. Once they were free from the dark red rooms and halls, they took a moment to figure out where they were.

But nothing could have prepared them for what they saw.

The sky was dark with clouds, only a tiny amount of light passing through to illuminate the ruins around them. Skyscrapers that once towered over the streets were either shaved down significantly or outright leveled. Only a couple remained somewhat close to their original heights.

The streets were littered with abandoned vehicles, most of which had burned down to their frames. Piles of dust and debris covered the sidewalks and ruled out any possible travel by wheeled vehicle.

It was a scene straight from an apocalypse movie.

Amelia and Ina both recognized that they were back in San Francisco. The first thought that came to Amelia was that of her dog and parents. Had they survived whatever happened? As much as she hated it, she knew that the truth was they most likely had not.

Another thought that occurred to everyone was, what had caused this?

The beast from earlier had been quite strong, but there was no way that it had the power to do this.

That was unless there were more of them.

This theory was shortly proven to be accurate, when all three girls heard howling not too far from where they were. It only took a couple more seconds for them to see three more hulking beasts running at full speed towards them.

Even though the sun wasn't providing much light, it was still far easier to see outside than it had been in the building. The beasts' flesh was still pitch black, meaning the lack of light wasn't what caused the first one to appear the way it did. They each had small differences in size and proportions, but their basic features remained the same as the one they had just fought. Each of them reassembled a dog, ran on four powerful legs, and had a large head with two white eyes and a large jaw containing far too many razor sharp teeth.

Any questions or thoughts they had regarding the state of their home city would have to wait. Amelia and Ina got ready to fight what was surely going to be nothing but a slaughter.

Amelia knew that she would most likely have to reset here, but that didn't mean she was just going to lay down and die. If her reset point had moved further forwards to just after they had exited the building, then they might have to fight off these things. In fact, it was more than likely that their fight from earlier had attracted them. So unless they could stealthily avoid the first fight entirely, they would have to fight this group afterwards anyway.

"Can you fight?" Amelia asked IRyS, who was still using Amelia and Ina as supports to keep herself standing. She was still breathing hard, clearly not able to recover enough in the short time they spent wandering through the building to fight properly.

"P-Probably not…" she said between deep breaths. It was a struggle for her to stand, much less fight. Amelia and Ina were going to have to be the ones to kill these next three beasts.

They were almost on them now, only a few more seconds remained. The beasts knocked cars out of the way like toys and kicked up large amounts of dust as they sprinted straight towards them.

Ina fired a large beam of magic straight at the closest one. It moved to avoid it, but the beam still caught it in the side. The glancing blow was enough to seriously damage one of its legs and knock it down. It wasn't out of the fight, as they could probably regenerate much like the last one, but it was a start. Now they only had two to deal with initially.

Amelia took the light dagger from IRyS, who was kind enough to present it to her. That dagger was her only true means of offense or defense currently, so it was needed for her to fight in any meaningful capacity.

The second and third beasts leapt through the air, trying to snatch up any of the three girls in their jaws. Amelia, Ina, and IRyS all stood their ground, waiting just long enough to guarantee that their counterattacks would hit.

Ina summoned a tentacle from above, slamming one of the beasts straight into the ground. Amelia moved towards IRyS and Ina, avoiding most of the beast's jaw. She swung the dagger out in front of her and successfully destroyed the remaining part before it could bite down on her.

The beasts collectively howled in pain. Individually, they seemed to be weaker than the one they had just fought, but together they were going to be stronger due to there being multiple.

Amelia drove the light dagger through the beast's glowing eye. She quickly pulled it out and retreated once it began pawing at the wound.

Ina bound the other beast to the ground with more tentacles. She then slowly began to cast a beam spell, but because of how many tentacles she was using it was slower than usual.

IRyS stabbed her dark dagger into Amelia's beast's paw, causing it to explode into pieces. Amelia took this opportunity to slice up the remaining leg with the light dagger. It quickly burnt away to ash as the beast rolled away from them, crying out in anguish.

Ina's beam spell was almost finished, but the first beast had recovered and was charging at her. This forced her to retarget her spell and fire it at the incoming threat. It impacted on the same side when the beast dodged the same way. The damage was less severe than last time, allowing it to more quickly recover and begin charging once more.

The bound up beast was slowly chewing and clawing its way out from under Ina's tentacles, as well. IRyS fired a weak beam of her own at the restrained beast. It wasn't nearly as powerful as the one she had used before, but it was strong enough to do reasonable damage to one of its legs.

Amelia was suddenly yanked down towards the ground by IRyS. She almost fell over completely, but pulled back with enough strength to remain standing. She glanced over and saw that IRyS was bleeding from one of her eyes now and a small trail of blood flowed from the corner of her mouth. It was plainly obvious that she had hit her limit. Any more magic use would probably be fatal to her.

Amelia didn't personally care if IRyS survived in the long run. However, right now in this wasteland of a city with these beasts freely roaming around, IRyS was a very powerful asset to keep them all safe. She couldn't die just yet.

"Hold her!" Amelia yelled at Ina, pushing IRyS onto her. Ina caught IRyS and watched as Amelia charged at the restrained beast. Ina covered her friend by blasting the first beast aside again, allowing Amelia to reach her target.

She plunged the light dagger deep into its head. The beast squirmed and squealed in pain. It tried to swipe at Amelia to get her off of it, but the tentacles prevented it from reaching her.

After what felt like a whole minute, but was most likely only a few seconds, the beast's body twitched violently before going rigid. Amelia felt the blade of the dagger slowly begin to sink into the softening flesh, as it slowly melted into a puddle.

However, this victory was short lived, as the beast Amelia had attacked before successfully regenerated and rushed at Ina. The other beast also recovered and charged at Amelia.

Ina tried to wrap some tentacles around the beast going after her, but with IRyS hanging off of her it was much harder to focus on her spells. The beast tore through each tentacle she tried to use. It wound back a paw, attempting to slash both her and IRyS in one swing. Ina was forced to use a large tentacle defensively. She also kept herself in between the beast and IRyS in order to protect her.

The slash ripped through the tentacle and cut into Ina's arm. The force of the blow was enough to send Ina and IRyS flying backwards several yards. They landed on a tentacle that softened the impact, but neither was able to stand back up before the beast came at them again.

Amelia held the light dagger in her right hand and the light crystal in her left. She stared down the beast in front of her, watching carefully as its claws regenerated. So far, she was able to intercept each attack with her own, destroying the claws it tried to use to cut her. However, she was not left unscathed, as blood began to run down her arms and hands from the small cuts inflicted on her.

The beast slowly circled her, growling as it did. Amelia looked over at Ina and IRyS, seeing the other beast stalking towards them. Ina was trying to use tentacles to stop it, but her strength was waning. Amelia sighed, knowing that they were not going to be able to kill these remaining two beasts.

She turned back towards the beast closest to her, watching as its jaw opened wide and it lunged for her head. She reflexively held her arms up in defense, but it wouldn't matter. Even if she could burn through some of its teeth with the dagger and crystal, there were so many that it was inevitable that she would be bitten. She waited for the sharp pain of the beast's razor sharp teeth piercing her skin.

A bright blue flash suddenly sent the beast flying just before it could chomp down on her. The bolt of blue light continued carrying the beast, catching the other beast, as well. Both beasts were sent flying into a nearby pile of rubble by this mysterious blue light.

Their howls of pain turned to gurgles of suffering, as both of the beasts' necks were cut clean through by several more bright blue flashes. It only took a few more strikes for their bodies to begin melting into puddles of black sludge.

From the carnage, Amelia could see a short figure emerge. They carried a large trident with them and had a reassuring smile stretched across their face. That wide smile consisted of dozens of razor sharp teeth.

"Ya'll ok?" the short girl asked. Amelia noticed that her hair was white like snow with light blue highlights matching the color of her trident.

"I-I think so…" Ina replied with heavy breaths. Her arm was bleeding heavily, but it wasn't going to endanger her life if she could focus on healing the wound immediately. Amelia simply stared at the girl in silence.

"Well ya'll certainly don't look like you're ok," the girl said after getting a better look at the state the other three girls were in.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Amelia broke her silence, throwing several questions out at the mysterious new girl. She tilted her head in response, seemingly confused by Amelia's slight aggression towards her. After a moment, she straightened herself and smiled again.

"The name's Gura," she announced to the three of them, "And what I want is for you three to come with me."


Author's Note: I said when I first started this story that I would be releasing chapters as I finished them. I guess that means that it might take months to get a chapter just right. In all fairness, I was a little burnt out from writing in general, but now I'm feeling much better. I was also doing additional planning for the overall story and now I'm 90% finished with the outline. There are still a couple little things to iron out, but they'll come with time.

Oh yeah, did I mention that this is technically a post-apocalypse fic? Maybe I should adjust the tags on it slightly...

Amelia needed to abuse her ability a little more to get out of that tricky spot, but she was saved from having to use it more by Gura! This story will in fact feature more members from Myth than just Amelia and Ina! I doubt any Advent members will appear since this was created way before they debuted. Maybe I'll get around to writing a new fic involving them.

Now the gang have to figure out how to survive this wasteland of a city and figure out how it ended up like this. I think there is a very probably answer...

Next Chapter: Readjusting
Any feedback/criticism is appreciated!