The Forest of Memphis

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Olivia did as she was instructed, looking fearful like a frightened rabbit. "I can't fight back, not with my arms full like this!"

Eleanor emerged from the darkness of the room, lunging forward at the woman attacking Olivia from behind. Her kukri blades were covered in a smoky aura as she aimed to plunge them deep into the woman's back and make an X-shaped exit wound with them. "Go with them and take that kid with you!" Eleanor ordered.

"Right!" Olivia made a break for it, heading in Six-Two's direction. As she ran, she shouted an incantation once more in order to summon her celestial spirit Capricorn once more. "Capricorn, make sure they don't follow us on the way out, and help the others! Use your land form!"

Capricorn appeared from the key at her belt again as ordered, but on two humanoid legs rather than her previous mermaidlike tail. She took an offensive stance and held out her palms, which crackled with blue electricity. "If you want to go against my master, you will have to go through me first!"
 
The Dark Gunner took only a moment to glance at the hole inside Mecha Samurai before opening up his wings, the dark angelic figure pushing himself backwards.

"I'm sorry, I can't let you fight." He stated in regret. The two fell into a purple portal, everything going black. As if someone covered Mecha Samurai's eyes, he couldn't see anything, but he could hear. He could hear the slimy grasp of tendrils, the resounding echo of darkness, the shrieking of the damned, and the slow, painful, dying of the stars' light.

In a moment the two were at the vans, inside one actually. Mecha Samurai was left inside the passenger seat, and in a moment after his eyes were uncovered a seat belt was dragged across his body and locked into the place, the door slamming shut and locking. The Dark Gunner was on the other side of the door, looking in from the window.

"Don't leave." He stated before another portal opened, him falling backwards into it.

- - - -

The mercenaries counted out how many of the enemy fell, keeping in coordination with each other. Some of their own fell, mostly support riflemen, while the shotgunning point men seemed to be sturdier. In the close quarters combat, their weapons hit much more accurately, and much harder, increasing their lethal fire even as they themselves were in danger of dying. Some of the rifle men tried to fall back, patching up the wounded with basic medical supplies and throwing out smoke grenades to try and hide themselves. The shotgunning point men remained up close, trying to withstand the attacks and unloading strangely powerful shots, as if the current situation triggered something inside their augmentations. Lastly, the snipers remained at the back and continually fired off round after round, their companions having occupied the enemy giving them the ability to just keep firing, though their aim as impaired by the fact they were indoors.

- - - -

Fire-team Six was outside the dungeon and back in the forest, flashlights providing light. When Olivia got attacked, they pulled out secondary pistols and began to fire, the smaller guns less likely to hit the girl.

Six-Two meanwhile started to move, his augmented flesh quivering slightly, the light from his shotgun providing a illuminated beacon back to evacuation, radio chatter could be heard from him, giving instructions. The test of Fire Six took up defensive positions outside the dungeon entrance, awaiting for the women to break through, setting up a kill zone.

"Go go! Follow Six-Two and get out of here!" The captain yelled.

- - - -

The Dark Gunner reappeared inside the dungeon, fighting alongside his Meeting mercenaries. A revolve in one hand, a small shield in the other. He fired shots off at the women, parts of his coats extending and retracting, reloading his gun whenever he paused in his firing, and using the shield to hold off blows, occasionally creating a blue energy shell around him that broke as soon as it was hit. The indigo optics looked to Aquario, his grip around his gun tightening. A purple portal appeared just behind the mage, barely as large as a man.

"If you want to leave, there's your escape route!" He shouted to the rest of the group that was still inside the dungeon. "Anyone else, stay and slay!"
 
Mecha Samurai was unresponsive, his bright red grew grey, until it blacked out. His entire body went into a failsafe—in event that his body was injured beyond its control, it will shut down and resume later. 

---

About twelve women stand against Capricorn, each of them radiating red-like energy from their bodies. Despite the warning, they lashed out against her like a pack of animals, throwing themselves at her while failing their arms around. Each swung leaves a wave of destructive energy in their wake. Upon impact, if they dodged, resulted a violent, explosion, that would tear through the soil. Six of them jumped on Capricorn, disregarding her abilities and their willingness to end their own lives to shave off mere minutes for the rest disperse to another direction to throw others’ guard off.

After being slashed by the Eleanor, she flail her arms around before dropping to the floor. One of those waves managed to be sent off near Olivia’s direction as a result but missed by mere margins. The explosions; however, knocked Magiana out of her hands. 
The other remaining leftovers stormed their way onto Blazrin, grabbing him by the arm. Some of them even start biting, to tear away his flesh. 

---

Bodies after bodies, these women dropped like flies. All of them screech like crows as they rushed through them in the storm of bullets. One of them managed to grab onto the shield, placing her face nears Dark Gunner’s.

“You should’ve ended us when you had the chance, but now you’re going to pay with your pathetic lives! Hope this ripple across your nightmares!” She gripped her fist and jammed across his face. 

One of them spotted a mysterious portal appearing in the distance. Taking no chances, she’d opened her mouth. Her pupil vanished as red ball of energy form at the center of her mouth. Without wasting a second, she fired off the devastating blast towards Aquario and the portal in attempts to annihilate them.
 
"Ouch! Ow! Hey, quit biting me!"

Blazrin yanked his arm back from the biting women and slammed his axe down directly on one of the women, slicing her almost clean in half. The impact from his ax made a small shockwave that sent the closer women around him flying back slightly. He didn't stop there as he grabbed the closest woman and shove her face to the floor, stepping on her body while he slashed away at the ones still attacking him.

"Yeesh! I thought Elilinor was feisty! At least she not biting people or other kinky stuff! Right, Elilinor?!" Blazrin laughed, despite the situation. "I'll cover you Elilinor, just help big ol' Hazel eyes and the unconscious girl!"

Blazrin pointed to Olivia and Magiana before flipping one of the girls over his back, stomping her head out.




Aquario growled towards the Gunner, close to belittling him about the situation he created until he noticed one of the women fire a large energy blast towards him. He gasped and held up his wand for one last powerful magic attack. 

The air in front of him started to crystallize until it suddenly turned to that of a mirror. Aquario waved his wand one final time before mumbling a spell and yelled out as soon as the attack touched his mirror shield.

"White Magic Secret Technique! Reflective Mirror!"

When the blast hit the mirror, it was absorbed and reflected back towards the attacker, nearly twice as strong. The amount of energy it took out of Aquario forced him to stumble back, trying hard to keep his consciousness but unable to do so. It wasn't long until Aquario fell backward into the portal, despite his attempts to avoid it.
 
Olivia was knocked to the ground, out of reach for Magiana. She had stretched her arm out before watching the women swarm her summon. "Capricorn, no!"

Eleanor crouched with a grimace on her face. "Fine, fine! Just try not to get turned into mincemeat wouldja?" Throwing her arms back, she launched herself forward with a burst of speed and stuck out her blade to slice through any of the women that were in her way as she got to the girls, mainly aiming for their necks. "Get out of my way!" She shouted as she rushed through them, skidding to a halt near Magiana's body. Eleanor noticed Olivia was panicking over what to do; protect the girl or help deal with the women who could do serious damage to Capricorn and ultimately take down one ally able to fend them off. Olivia also looked like she was close to fainting from witnessing all the carnage. 

"Don't you pass out on us! Think up a way to help your goat thing and I'll handle this." Eleanor sat up the unconscious Magiana before pausing. She stared off into the air before regaining her concentration, taking a free hand holding her kukri blade and placing it dangerously close to Magiana's neck. "Playtime's over, you meat sticks! Take another step and I slit her throat right open!" Wrapping her other arm around Magiana's waist, she positioned the other blade at her stomach. "And if you try to kill any of us, I spill her guts too!" She threatened loud and clear across the dungeon room, backing herself up into a wall with Magiana's limp body in front of her. "So who wants to dare me first!?"

"Are you insane!? You fool!" Capricorn struggled against the mass of women attacking her, only able to grip two of their necks before unleashing a stream of electricity through their bodies using her magic. Her hair lifted in the air from the static, but she saw what Eleanor was planning. "Do you know what you're even doing!?"
 
The Dark Gunner's face was knocked away by the punch, but the indigo electric optics merely looked back at the woman before pressing the button on his shield, watching as a blue aura started to form around the two... And ended up as a bunch of floating, broken blue lines. Without pausing he responded by jamming the shield towards the woman's torso, a small smirk on his face as he brandished a new revolver from his coat and fired it off at her face.

"I am my nightmares." He stated in response to her taunt. He then heard a body fall behind him.

"Well there's one person evacuated." He remarked, before looking to Eleanor holding Magiana's body hostage. "Why isn't that girl on my Operatives list!?" In response to that, a few Meeting captains started to lose moral.

"What the Hell, is the Gunner insane!?"
"I didn't sign up for murder!"
"What kind of sicko is this guy!?"
"We've already got men down, some already dead, and now the Gunner's considering killing a kid!?"
The statements of discontent immediately had an effect on the rest of the Meeting soldiers. They reloaded guns slower, looked more wary, aimed less accurately, and some even tried to dodge attacks rather than hold off the cult-driven insane woman.
 
As the explosion disperse after Aquario’s Reflective Mirror, more Cult-driven women rushes through the scenery and overwhelm Dark’s Gunner reinforcements. In turn, the same scenario happen with Blarzin, as more women jumped on him. Some women fell from the group’s powerful attacks, but they kept on coming. 

However, all of them stopped the moment Eleanor held Magiana hostage by knife-point. All of them narrowed their eyes when the all-powerful Queen that their minds subjected to is now in danger.

One of them grew angry. Veins erected from their skins, they’ve grinned their teeth and shouted at the former-convict. “Unhand the Queen of Shina Ania! You dare mock the soul of the shepherd?!” But she knew her threat wasn’t a bluff and didn’t take a single step towards her and Magiana.
 
"There are too many of them!" Blazrin continued to toss the girls off of his huge body and slashing away at the ones who got too close. "Gwaah! Get off me!"

Blazrin continued to hack away at the girls until he noticed Eleanor holding and threatening to kill Magiana. While the girls were frozen with fear at their Queen in danger, Blazrin used this chance to use his brute force to cut away at the number of the girls. 

"Elilinor! What the hell are you doing?! You can't kill that girl! She ain't got anything to do with it!" Blazrin yelled after he got done finish cutting up a few of the girls around him. "Don't be stupid, Elilinor!"
 
Capricorn thrust her hands out and unleashed a dome-like projection around herself and the women swarming her, letting out a battle cry as the dome filled itself with electricity. 

Eleanor was sweating and her system was full of adrenaline. Despite this, her shark-toothed grin never faltered. "Yeah, maybe I DO dare! How about this..."

 Keeping her knife close to Magiana's throat, she continued to speak. "We came here to recover at least a few bodies, so I'm taking the Queen with us for a nice long nap. I won't do anything to your precious Queen in exchange for letting us out of here in one piece. If you still want to die, we'll make it quick and painless for you if you quit resisting. Either way, make one wrong move and I gut her like a fish. So what's it gonna be!?"
 
The Dark Gunner seemed confident, the alien being continued to fire and try and kill as many of the women as possible while they were stunned.

However, one by one, the Meeting's guns fell silent. All of the soldiers stopped firing. They stood there, patient, still.

"You let us out of here in one piece. We won't do anything else to you." The soldiers stated. The Dark Gunner looked annoyed at his men's lack of murderous instinct, and kept fighting alone. But it was obvious it was without the support of his own soldiers.

- - - - -

Aquario fell out of a portal inside a Meeting Van, into a seat.
 
The Watchers women found themselves in a crutch of what to do. They were ordered to save the queen and returned her to the ruins, but they cannot do anything when Eleanor is threatening to kill her. Some thought it was a bluff, but they sense her killing intent—she was serious.

They ponder, debated in their minds of their next move, but all of them risk the death of the queen—they were not fast enough to stop the blade from slicing her throat wide open nor had enough people in their groups to launched an attack after so many of them died during the onslaught. Eleanor had checkmate them.

“What do we do…?” One of the women asked.

“Nothing. Let them go.” A mysterious woman suddenly appeared out of the ruins. “They’re nothing we can do at this point. You may leave this place.” She was a tall, curvy woman. She had white skin, purple hair, and purple eyes. She was a buxom of beauty—her aura released an aroma of lust around her. Her lips glitter every time she spoke and walk passionately if she was seeing a lover. 

“Lust… are you sure?”

“The Watchers knows that the Queen won’t be harm…” Lust responded as she turns to the group. “You may leave, but these women stay. This is our bargain, or risk all of us dying in a bloody mess.”
 
"I think we should listen to them, Elilinor." Blazrin said, slowly backing away from the girls near him. He inched his way to Eleanor in case anyone made a move. He glanced towards Olivia and urged her to closer to him so he can help protect the two girls. "C'mon Hazel-Eyes, let's stick close in case things get nasty."

Blazrin stared at Lust and had a very bad feeling about her, even if she was good looking on his book.

"We let these ladies go, with that Queen, and you'll still have a Queen left to worship. Can't promise Elilinor won't slice her up. She's crazy, y'know."
 
Eleanor's grin faded upon having her eyes lock on Lust, unsure of her threat level until she spoke with the women. She didn't move until the new woman finished her piece. Narrowing her eyes, she made a small smirk, although she didn't let her guard down just because Lust was a pretty lady.

"Deal. Now, was that so hard?" Eleanor pocketed the blade she had been holding against Magiana's stomach, who was sleeping without a care in the world. But she felt guilty about having to leave the kidnapped women's fates uncertain seeing as they're now under complete mind control. "But seriously, you ought to give these poor souls a bath and a meal if you insist I don't put them out of their misery. They deserve that much at the very least."

Without any further word, she slung Magiana over her shoulder and turned to the others. "Let's go." She said, her tone less animated than it was just before. Her other blade was still out in case anyone tried to do something, but it wasn't at the neck anymore.

"Y-yeah..." Olivia stepped behind Blazrin, with Capricorn following close behind following her master's warning to cease any further fighting. "I have business with the King, so we part ways once I reach my ride back." She whispered to him, trying to avoid the gaze of the women and especially Lust since she gave off an intimidating aura somehow.
 
The Dark Gunner stowed his guns away, looking at the dead bodies around everyone. With the deal struck, the Meeting soldiers immediately started to leave, walking away disgusted with their leader and the event, dragging injured or dead comrades and their guns. They all retreated to their vans, got in and drove away, utilizing portals to go back to the Desolate Lands.

The Dark Gunner, meanwhile, watched over the group of adventurers.
 
Lust smiled as she licked her lips. “Glad you are seeing this our way…” She turned to the surviving women on the battlefield. “Return to the ruins at once and don’t waver! The Queen is not held captive, but instead, bidding her time to relinquish her full strength!” She moved her body back and forth seductively  as she approached to one of the women, gently placing her hand on her chin, lifting it up slightly so their eyes meet. “Our Queen will be returned in top form once the puppet is no longer in control of her own body and we shall commence the take over of this wretched land!”

All the women’s eyes light up, being sway by her powerful speech and head towards the ruins. She turned around once more, seeing the others walking away from them. “Try as you might… but the soul-bonding is forever permanent with the strength of ancient magic… nothing of this world can break it…” She disappeared into the ruins.
 
Blazrin kept his guard up, making sure that Eleanor, Magiana, and Olivia left safely. He still refused to turn his back to Lust until she was completely gone from view. A sigh of relief escaped his lips while he let his shoulders slump.

"Sheesh... talk about absolute control. That lady has all those girls eating from the palm of her hand." Blazrin said as he turned on his heel, following after the girls. "She ain't as scary as Elilinor tho'. Anyways, where's Mecha and my bro-- errm, I mean, that powerful mage? Weren't they here a few moments ago?"
 
"That's what happens when you let your mushy feelings get in the way. We've made a dog's breakfast of it now... we should've killed all of 'em when we had the chance. Now that the freaky lady's stepped in, we're leaving with more problems than we did when we showed up here." Eleanor remarked with a scowl. She jerked her chin over at the Dark Gunner. "You should ask him. They're both probably with the ones who came in those cars. But last I saw, Tin-Man got all scrapped up. It might just be the both of us goin' home by boat."

Olivia kept her eyes worriedly on Magiana, wondering why she hasn't woken up yet.
 
The Dark Gunner approached Eleanor. Though supposedly an enigmatic being, he looked rather ridiculous with his recent actions of breaking all hell loose.

"The mage who broke into my opera house and the robot who assisted us in battle earlier are both in a van not far from here. I'm uncertain of the mage's condition but the robot is pretty badly torn up. I'm afraid for his condition." He stated, having a remorseful tone when discussing Mecha-Samurai. "Regardless, that's where you'll find your compatriots. And if you're willing to accept it, a one way ticket to wherever you need to head." He added. "Though given my last attempt at helping is what got you all injured in the first place, it'd be more than appropriate to refuse any aid of mine."
 
"We should report this back to the Clan, Elilinor," Blazrin placed his axe securely on his back strap. "They should hear about this mess. We should probably split up after we report what happened. I'll be taking Aquario back to the Sisterhood and while I'm at it, I might as well bring that little one with me." Blazrin pointed at Magiana. "Maybe they have some spell or something that can help her. You should take Mecha to Robot Island, I heard that's where robots are made. If anyone can fix him, it should be the people working there."

Blazrin turned to Olivia. 

"I'm not sure where you're heading to, Hazel Eyes, but you can stick with us if you got no plans. We need a little cutie to balance out all of Elilinor's rough edges!" He waved a hand dismissively to the girls. "I'm kidding! I'm kidding! But you should return from where you came from, it's not safe here."

The large man dusted his shoulders and stretched his muscular arms before shifting his gaze towards the Dark Gunner.

"We can use this guy's vans to take us back to the Clan and wherever Hazel Eyes might be headed to." Blazrin chuckled. "Maybe during the ride, you can think up better ways to help us! You can tag along if y'want."
 
"Well, the King of Shina Ania himself asked me to check out what's been going on. Now that we're out of mortal danger, I'm obligated to report back to him as soon as possible about everything I've seen." Olivia said, holding up her fingers and whistling for the Pegasus Elewa lent to her. "If I ask him about who exactly the Queen really is, it might shed some light on the kind of rituals they've been performing on those women. It might be different than the kinds Paradicans are used to seeing." She glanced over at Magiana worriedly. "There seems to be a lot more to the story than what we've seen, so I'll try and write to the Sisterhood if I find anything noteworthy here in Shina Ania. Once you hand her over to the Sisterhood, it becomes a matter of me being the liaison between Paradice and Shina Ania on his behalf."

"Wow, sounds like you've got a pretty big job to do then. We'll get outta yer hair. You aren't from around here, are you?" Eleanor asked with a raised brow.

"No, no," Olivia chuckled. "I'm actually a Desolatian, I've just been traveling a lot these days. Who knows, maybe we'll cross paths sooner than you think. You guys are from the Clan of...?" she trailed off.

"Swords." Eleanor finished for her.

"Right! Well, you have other matters to attend to, being part of a Guild and all that. I'd just get in the way, and I'd rather not keep His Majesty waiting now that there's no reason to linger around here." Olivia petted the horse's mane as she spoke. "But I'd gladly accept a ride in one of your vans to get to Johannes Palace if I didn't have another option."

"Yeah, Gunnie! After the shit you dragged us into, the least you can do is give us is a ride to make up for it!" Eleanor turned to the Dark Gunner with her hands on her hips. "And I sure as hell ain't getting on that damn boat a second time." Saying that aloud, she just remembered she hadn't met the leader of the Clan of Swords yet. Uh oh...
 
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