Elfen High 2: Skin to Bone, Steel to Rust

[Nationstatelandsville]

You know the old advice that, when you see a bear, you should play dead?

It's not like bears are dumb enough to think you actually are dead - fuck no, the bear just thinks you're a stupid shit and not worth mauling. The best way to escape an angry bear is to convince it that you're a pussy.

At any rate, that's not to say that bears are fond of their death. Bears don't really mourn, it's just not in their nature. So when a bear dies, they just shrug, call the deceased a moron/weakling, and walk away.

Furthermore, bears hold nothing but contempt for demons. As far they're concerned, demons are loud, obstructive, invasive, and mildly unappealing sacks of meat whose only real use is their resilience - in fact, they had quite a similar attitude towards human beings.

So, zombie demons? Basically a homicidal bear's wet dream.

"BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINS!" the bears of the horns (Slotheater's army was still concerned with the ring) roared as they adopted a spontaneous (and surprisingly effective) strategy. The spearmen would stab a zombie and bring its knees, perhaps bashing ts head in with its shield to further dissuade it from fighting. Assuming they had time, they would then tear the head off with their jaws. If they didn't, an infantryman would swoop down in a short amount of time and gorge themself on zombie flesh.

As it turned out, death was good seasoning.

The wizards, meanwhile, just blow their heads off with lightning.

"Crowley, I don't like this," Slotheater said to the wizard (from now on, the use of communicators will be merely implied), ramming his shield through the neck of one zombie and cleaving its head off, "Seven rings. Zombies. Dragons. Those things take dark powers - I think Azazel is using us."

[Nightkill the Emperor]

Loki shook his head. "Too many guards, too much magical protection." he explained. "Now, I think you can make your way back to the camp at Pani. Or I'll just tell you where it is-" he snapped a GPS into James' hands. "And I think I'll let you fight through the zombies. You're having some obvious fun with that."

"What about us?' Horn asked.

"Yeah, I'll take you back." he said, grabbing Horn and the soldiers and teleporting them off. "You let out some of your steam here." Then Loki blasted away.

---

A lot of the undead indeed charged, directly toward Ivy. Odin was busy with a few of the other ones, easily smashing them with his sword and the like. Daisukebot helped out, all of them having a good fun over this.

But then the fun started when a bright blue light appeared in the sky, simply hovering there.

---

Crowley glanced at the bright blue light in the sky, turning off his flaming surfboard and wave. He looked at Slotheater. "I'll be honest with you- I'm genuinely concerned about whatever Azazel's doing. And I have no idea what that light is." he explained. "This won't be too good though, I can promise that." There was a pause. "By the way, how many of your fellow soldiers have died so far?" He casually asked, seeing a few bear corpses begin to get up.

---

Horn and his soldiers would land next to Anton. Yeah.

[Nationstatelandsville]

Loki shook his head. "Too many guards, too much magical protection." he explained. "Now, I think you can make your way back to the camp at Pani. Or I'll just tell you where it is-" he snapped a GPS into James' hands. "And I think I'll let you fight through the zombies. You're having some obvious fun with that."

"What about us?' Horn asked.

"Yeah, I'll take you back." he said, grabbing Horn and the soldiers and teleporting them off. "You let out some of your steam here." Then Loki blasted away.

---

A lot of the undead indeed charged, directly toward Ivy. Odin was busy with a few of the other ones, easily smashing them with his sword and the like. Daisukebot helped out, all of them having a good fun over this.

But then the fun started when a bright blue light appeared in the sky, simply hovering there.

---

Crowley glanced at the bright blue light in the sky, turning off his flaming surfboard and wave. He looked at Slotheater. "I'll be honest with you- I'm genuinely concerned about whatever Azazel's doing. And I have no idea what that light is." he explained. "This won't be too good though, I can promise that." There was a pause. "By the way, how many of your fellow soldiers have died so far?" He casually asked, seeing a few bear corpses begin to get up.

"A flugtron," Slotheater replied cryptically. A flugtron wasn't an actual measurement in bear culture - it was just easier to lie than admit that it was more than Slotheater would have liked.

A zombified bear rushed Slotheater and he grinned wickedly. The bear raised its spear and attempted to stab the general in the throat, which he parried with the butt of his own spear. The zombie stumbled, allowing Slotheater to slam the butt of the spear into its skull. The zombie fell backwards and Slotheater pushed its shield at it, but was blocked the zombie's own shield. It cried with the rage of the dead and pushed back at Slotheater with unnatural strength, forcing the older bear to pace backwards. Slotheater felt his back press against the inexplicably warm (and, if he could trust his senses, throbbing) skin of one of Dys' towers. He attempted to stab the zombie in the throat, but the monster blocked the attack it with its own spear and pinned Slotheater's arm to the tower by stabbing through the general's wrist and the tower itself. Slotheater yelped in pain, throwing his head in the air. The zombie roared and flew at Slotheater's throat, attempting to tear it out. Slotheater smiled to himself and smashed his skull into the zombie's head very, very hard. The zombie stumbled back and Slotheater removed the spear with his teeth, before stabbing it into the zombie's back. He grabbed the undead bear and slammed it through the foundation of the tower and inside, before smashing his shield into its neck. The beast cried, wounded but not dead. With a final snarl, Slotheater stomped the shield straight through the zombie's spine and severed its head.

"I'm too old for this shit," Slotheater grumbled, "How are things in Pani? We're pressing on the next wall, but the demons here are more than we expected."

[Nightkill the Emperor]

Crowley was going to answer- then he was punched directly in the back, a bone snapping back there. He fell down to the ground, wincing.The attacker was a demon, a demon with spiked shoulders, dark blue eyes and dark blue armour on his body.

Crowley's back started to heal rapidly, but the wizard was in a state of some shock at the suddenness of the attack. It seemed like the demon had simply come out of the towers...

Which he had. Hundreds of demons were fleeing inside the towers, literally walking through the walls. Zombies often joined them in doing so. Then the demons would emerge again out of the towers a minute later, looking healed and ready for battle once more.

Crowley groaned. "Oh fuck." he said, slowly getting up again, his back largely healed.

He was then kicked directly in the chest, the demon's foot going right through. "This is troublesome." Crowley noted, looking down at his chest. The wizard grabbed the demon's leg, sending electricity charging through and making the demon let out a low roar of anger. But the creature pulled out a handgun, repeatedly shooting Crowley in the face while the wizard shocked him.

"Some help would be useful here!" Crowley yelled out to nobody in particular.

[Nude East Ireland]

Then Anton punched the demon that was shooting Aleister. He punched the demon again, and stabbed it with his bone sword. "This isn't good," he noted. He grabbed Aleister's magic sci-fi communicator bullshit. "Get your soldiers and destroy those towers," he ordered Slotheater. He pulled his sword from the demon's chest, and Fus Ro Dah'd it into a nearby building.

[Nightkill the Emperor]

Then Anton punched the demon that was shooting Aleister. He punched the demon again, and stabbed it with his bone sword. "This isn't good," he noted. He grabbed Aleister's magic sci-fi communicator bullshit. "Get your soldiers and destroy those towers," he ordered Slotheater. He pulled his sword from the demon's chest, and Fus Ro Dah'd it into a nearby building.

The demon groaned in pain, flying off into a nearby building. However, its foot was in Aleister's vital organs, so the British mage flew off into the building as well. There was a brief ten second pause filled with British swearing "YOU FUCKING WANKER CUNT WHORE FUCKER!" and then Crowley emerged out of the ashes of the building, covered in demon blood and a slowly healing hole in his chest.

"Blow down the towers." he said with a growl over the communicators.

Sanchez nodded on his side. "Affirmative." he said. "Tanks, fire." The tanks began firing down at the towers, which was surprisingly resistant to the blows.

There was a brief shout over the communicator. "I'm seeing somethi-" Then it was cut off suddenly. Sanchez's eyes widened.

"What the fuck is going on?" he roared over his communicator. Then he turned around and saw a creature begin to slowly approach him. "Oh boy." he sighed briefly. "Raptor 2? Fire down if you will."

Then Sanchez started to run the fuck away while a drone fired two missiles down at the demon on the ground...and ran right into another demon of the same type. Then he found the demon's claw smashed through his chest.

[Nationstatelandsville]

Then Anton punched the demon that was shooting Aleister. He punched the demon again, and stabbed it with his bone sword. "This isn't good," he noted. He looked at Slotheater. "Get your soldiers and destroy those towers," he ordered. He pulled his sword from the demon's chest, and Fus Ro Dah'd it into a nearby building.

"No shit," Slotheater rumbled. Whoever gave Anton a communicator was going to be fired.

"Alastor!" Slotheater boomed, "Tell me you're holding something back - bring the towers down now! Sanchez, Crowley, as soon you can break from the camp, I need you here! Michael... fuck, do something!"

Slotheater switched his communicator off and swore loudly in the bear tongue, which caused several of the demons to piss blood.

A surge of demons rippled from the tower Slotheater was near, clearly not too pleased with the presence of a wounded and elderly bear. They immediately opened fire, eliciting another swear. Slotheater fell to all fours (abandoning his weapons), but shouted in pain - fuck, his wrist. He bounded away, bullets scraping against his back and colliding into his leg, slowed heavily by his wounds. Luckily, a wall of flames blocked the demons off of Slotheater's path just as the general collapsed in a tired heap.

"Help," he whimpered to no one, for his communicator was still off.

[Hardened Pyrokinetics]

Loki shook his head. "Too many guards, too much magical protection." he explained. "Now, I think you can make your way back to the camp at Pani. Or I'll just tell you where it is-" he snapped a GPS into James' hands. "And I think I'll let you fight through the zombies. You're having some obvious fun with that."

"What about us?' Horn asked.

"Yeah, I'll take you back." he said, grabbing Horn and the soldiers and teleporting them off. "You let out some of your steam here." Then Loki blasted away.

James shrugged.

Then carnage happened.

Five minutes later, he was standing face-to-face with Loki, Bizon down to two shots and boots covered in blood and gore.

[Zarkenis Ultima]

As if on cue to Slotheater's distressed call, something happened. Well, actually, a lot of shit happened. At first, most noticeable was the fact that the bombings were now focusing on the towers, but soon more became apparent. Minotaurs rushed into the battlefield, crushing whatever enemies they could crush and ramming into the foundations of the towers. Giant armored snakes started slithering around the glowing structures and pelted them with fire from their cannons. Shredder birds descended from the sky and started helping against the new armored enemies. Cavalry, both light and heavy, rushed into the battlefield, attacking with their maces, cannons, swords and bombs, and helping injured bear and human forces evacuate. Entire battalions (Or whatever) of demonic wizards chanted together and hurled enormous fireballs at the towers, while walls of infantrydemons shielded them from the enemy, firing with their rifles at anything hostile that approached. A rider charged into the zombie horde in front of Odin, slaying dozens before finally falling. A dozen more riders then charged forth to avenge their brother. Similar things were happening all around the battlefield.

Alastor appeared next to Slotheater with his magic weapon in hand, ready to enter the fray, though he was still in contact with the wizards back at the base.

"You look like shit." He commented as he fired against the demons beyond the flame wall. Then he heard an explosion to his left, and watched as an enemy was torn apart. He looked to his right and saw an infantrymen rushing by and giving him a thumbs up, which the warlord replied to, before hurling a few bolts in his direction to kill a few enemies and return the help. He then continued firing at Slotheater's pursuers.

---

Ciel and Celes were still resting when the zombies started rising up. Fortunately and coincidentally, they were sitting on top of a building, just because. So when the zombies came, the two of them simply started playing, their magic causing a few demons nearby to come and attack the zombies, and a few zombies to simply catch fire. On the short run, that was probably not so beneficial for the ground forces, but hey, it was a good idea on the long run. Or, so they thought, anyway.

Suddenly, Ciel looked to the left.

"Firewave!" She shouted, distressed, and immediately stood up.

"What?" Celes asked, confused. But she was dragged away, just in time to avoid Crowley's attack. "...Nevermind." Celes said afterwards.

The two of them then continued playing. However, Ciel had a clever idea. This time, rather than playing a song to burn the zombies, they started playing a different song. One that caused the ground to shake near them, causing some of them to trip, which was beneficial because soldiers some distance away could then easily pick them off.

They were interrupted, though, as they had to crouch to avoid being singed by the fire of one of the horses of the Valkyries. They crawled away a little and then stood up, looking in awe at them and the norse warriors that rode yellow clouds. Then something splashed their backs. Zombie brains.

"Move, dammit!" A soldier shouted after having blown off the head of the zombie behind them. Ciel and Celes immediately complied, almost literally vanishing as they ran to a safer spot to play. They ended up going to another roof, because hey, at least melee fighters couldn't get to them there without jumping or climbing, which they'd notice. Probably. Either way, once there, they started playing a song that caused thunder to fall from the sky and into the armored demons, all while bullets and explosions flew around them.

[Constaniana]

"Damn cracka's using their gypsy cocaine sorcery on dead homies," Dunefiend ranted, smacking a zombie's head off with a baseball bat like Bullroarer Took in battle with Golfimbul. "Just stop complaining and kill them!" Eldliam shouted, charging a black and white ball of energy in his right hand before firing it into a group of zombies, where it proceeded to explode in a cool, colourful fashion.

[Nightkill the Emperor]

Loki shook his head. "Too many guards, too much magical protection." he explained. "Now, I think you can make your way back to the camp at Pani. Or I'll just tell you where it is-" he snapped a GPS into James' hands. "And I think I'll let you fight through the zombies. You're having some obvious fun with that."

"What about us?' Horn asked.

"Yeah, I'll take you back." he said, grabbing Horn and the soldiers and teleporting them off. "You let out some of your steam here." Then Loki blasted away.

James shrugged.

Then carnage happened.

Five minutes later, he was standing face-to-face with Loki, Bizon down to two shots and boots covered in blood and gore.

Loki was busy discussing something with a Chinese general, but glanced at James. "What do you need?" he barked.

"Damn cracka's using their gypsy cocaine sorcery on dead homies," Dunefiend ranted, smacking a zombie's head off with a baseball bat like Bullroarer Took in battle with Golfimbul. "Just stop complaining and kill them!" Eldliam shouted, charging a black and white ball of energy in his right hand before firing it into a group of zombies, where it proceeded to explode in a cool, colourful fashion.

This is where a meteorite flew down out of the blue light in the sky, but the meteorite was destroyed by a shot from Porter Rockwell's gun. "Run off, boy!" Rockwell yelled, firing at the flaming rocks now falling everywhere. "Take cover!"

---

Loki quickly threw up a magical shield, one that managed to protect the Pani neighbourhood from the meteors, if barely. The meteorites were putting obvious pressure on the shield, which shook under the flaming rocks. "This is troublesome." he noted.

---

The sky thundered viciously and bolts fell from the ground, smashing into several demons. But the blasts were scattered and were occasionally repelled by the demonic wizards on the ground, who started to throw the blasts back at the ISSR soldiers. One of them was blasted in the chest by this bolt of lightning, shaking with pain.

Then Michael exploded into existence next to the Ciels. "Good work." the archangel nodded, a cigar in his mouth. "Keep it up. But I have an idea here...can you use your magic to increase the power of our troops? Heal them, or give them energy?"

[Nude East Ireland]

Anton ran over to his undead fire horse, stopping just before one of those friendly monsters punched the horse, breaking its spine and ripping its head off in a quick motion. The wizard cursed, and fired a bolt of lightning at the beast, sending it back. He turned, noticing demons coming towards him. He backed up slowly, hacking them down with his bone sword, until they began to outnumber him. Anton blasted the ground with fireballs, forcing the demons to stop. He threw a wave of fire at the group to keep them back, killing a few. From behind, a bloodied and beaten demon charged him, slashing his lower back. He screamed, turning to slash the demon's head, and lodging his bone sword into the creature's head. He let go of the sword, letting the body fall to the ground. He turned back to the hoard, noticing that they were advancing through the flames. He got ready to blast them back, when the friendly monster punched him, sending him back. The monster charged, smashing him with hit-after-hit.

Anton fell to the ground, sliding away from the demon. He grabbed a submachine gun that was lying near him, and began to fire at the demon. However, a steam of bullets only inconvenienced it, as it adapted quickly and walked towards Anton. When the submachine gun ran out of ammunition, Anton tossed it aside and elbowed the wall behind him, shattering it. He ran through the hole, followed by a few quicker demons. They ran along the walls and ceiling, eventually encircling him. Anton sighed. He was healing, but it wouldn't last if they kept fighting him. His back was slashed by a demon's claw, causing him to fall down. He was kicked in the face, landing on his back. He punched a demon, breaking its face. He punched another, doing the same.

I'm not dying. Not here, he thought. He struggled to his feet, but the large monster punched him, sending him down the hallway. He struggled up once again, blood dripping from his mouth and nose. He aimed his hand at the monster, feeling the power try to urge through his veins, but it wasn't so.

"Powers... failing..." he muttered through the blood. He turned to run, but the beast charged him and sent him out into the street. His shirt had ripped and torn off, revealing a unicursal hexagram tattooed on his back. The slashes on his back had ripped his skin, ruining the hexagram. He spat blood onto the street, and clenched his teeth - the ones that were left anyways, seeing as how most of them had fallen out.

The beast charged, but Anton leapt over it, landing behind it. He turned, punching the demon with enough ferocity that he broke the creature's spine. He grabbed its head, and kicked out its knees. "I won't die. Not today, you hear me? My children won't live without a father!"

Then he crushed the demon's head with his hands, sending brains and blood everywhere. He sighed, making his way towards an abandoned alleyway. "Crowley," he said, trying to contact Aleister. "I'm bleeding. A lot. Need some help."

He slumped against a wall, and spat. "Killed some demons. Powers failing. Not sure if you can hear me..."

Then he blacked out.

[Hardened Pyrokinetics]

James shrugged.

Then carnage happened.

Five minutes later, he was standing face-to-face with Loki, Bizon down to two shots and boots covered in blood and gore.

Loki was busy discussing something with a Chinese general, but glanced at James. "What do you need?" he barked.

James grinned, slapped Loki across the face with the decayed liver of one of the zombies he killed, and ran back into the fray. His three last shots from the Bizon easily blasted apart three zombies, and he quickly discarded the submachine gun.

Pulling out the Valtro shotgun, the one loaded with Dragon's Breath pyrotechnic rounds, he went to work turning legions of zombies into gigantic candles.

[Zarkenis Ultima]

The Ciels were slightly taken aback by the sudden appearance of Michael next to them, but they did not interrupt their music, as they had noticed that, despite the occasional damage done to their own allies, the thunders were doing their job admirably.

Hearing Michael's question, the two of them nodded at him, taking a moment to crouch beneath a stray thunderbolt that was hurled back at them. They could indeed heal and empower their allies. They had tried something similar back in Egypt, and, while it hadn't been as noticeable back then, they were sure that it would help in this battle. Besides, they were stronger now, and Ciel even had Banjie's help.

"We can do it." Celes said, and looked over at Ciel, who nodded. The two then began playing a different song. The music generated by Celes' flute helped heal the wounds of their allies and enhance the regeneration of those who had it, while Ciel's power, further increased by Banjie's own magic, served to strenghten allied troops, filling them with energy and vigor, erasing fatigue and exhaustion. The two of them began to sing as well, to further increase the power of their music. A stray bullet sent Celes' hat flying away, but the two did not stop.

[Rupudska]

Yuzuki was - where else? The bus. Compared to other things, she had been with it so long she may as well have married it. Which she probably planned on doing if she were into marrying inanimate objects, which she most definitely did not intend on doing. Inanimate objects were rather dull sexual partners.

At the current moment, it was doing a rather skilled impression of a bulldozer as it dealt with zombies by simply running them over and crushing them under its enormous weight. The combination of mass and speed was devastating to any zombie that dared to cross its path, and the machine guns lining the sides mopped up the rest. The massive battleship cannon was silent, as it wasn't terribly useful against zombies. Unless a tank showed up.

[Nationstatelandsville]

As if on cue to Slotheater's distressed call, something happened. Well, actually, a lot of shit happened. At first, most noticeable was the fact that the bombings were now focusing on the towers, but soon more became apparent. Minotaurs rushed into the battlefield, crushing whatever enemies they could crush and ramming into the foundations of the towers. Giant armored snakes started slithering around the glowing structures and pelted them with fire from their cannons. Shredder birds descended from the sky and started helping against the new armored enemies. Cavalry, both light and heavy, rushed into the battlefield, attacking with their maces, cannons, swords and bombs, and helping injured bear and human forces evacuate. Entire battalions (Or whatever) of demonic wizards chanted together and hurled enormous fireballs at the towers, while walls of infantrydemons shielded them from the enemy, firing with their rifles at anything hostile that approached. A rider charged into the zombie horde in front of Odin, slaying dozens before finally falling. A dozen more riders then charged forth to avenge their brother. Similar things were happening all around the battlefield.

Alastor appeared next to Slotheater with his magic weapon in hand, ready to enter the fray, though he was still in contact with the wizards back at the base.

"You look like shit." He commented as he fired against the demons beyond the flame wall. Then he heard an explosion to his left, and watched as an enemy was torn apart. He looked to his right and saw an infantrymen rushing by and giving him a thumbs up, which the warlord replied to, before hurling a few bolts in his direction to kill a few enemies and return the help. He then continued firing at Slotheater's pursuers.

"Up your ass, goatdick," Slotheater mumbled - yay, racism! "Don't you have a job to do?"

Slotheater breathed heavily, rolling onto his back. Fuck, bad idea - there were more than a few bullets on his lower back. He gritted his teeth and rolled back onto his paws, crying involuntarily.

"Get me to a healer," he demanded tritely.

[Nightkill the Emperor]

Ciel's music washed over the EH and friends gang, giving them more stamina or healing them slightly. Sanchez had been chucked to the side by the mutated demon succubus, but felt some energy re-enter him. He slowly stood up and fired twice at approaching demons before a bear wizard roared and blasted them away. A healer from the ISSR rushed toward Sanchez, walking him away.

Anton felt his energy slowly start to return, though just barely at the moment. Fortunately, Crowley was there, having sensed his pain and heard his cry. Crowley grabbed his arm, sending his own healing energy through. "Don't worry. You aren't going to die now." he reassured Anton. He did say "now" though. So he couldn't be accused of dishonesty later.

In front of Yuzuki, a tank showed up. Because I couldn't resist. It bellowed loudly and then jumped on top of the bus, trying to punch a hole through.

[Zarkenis Ultima]

Ciel and Celes looked around the battlefield and were pleased to see that their music was indeed helping the troops all around them recover from their wounds and regain the energy they needed to keep on fighting. As long as they helped turn the tide, however slightly, they would consider themselves satisfied. With these thoughts in mind they continued playing and singing to help their allies.

---

"That is incredibly old. I am disappointed. And my job is being done as we speak, thank you." Alastor stated casually as he ducked under a stray thunderbolt, still firing his weapon. He then opened a portal on the ground and dropped Slotheater through it. He would land next to Michael, because really, I don't know where else to send him.

Alastor then looked up, and saw a human metal bird sweeping in above him. "Shit." He said to himself, before quickly teleporting to a different area. He now stood on a roof, from where he saw the explosion caused by the bomb that dropped from the plane. He looked at the mess all around him as he fired at the enemies below. Someone slapping a god with demon remains. Crowley helping out Crowley. An enormous demon attacking a bus.

"That looks troublesome." He said after observing that last situation, and then decided to head over and help. He jumped down, utterly crushing a zombie as he landed, and then used his sword to lop off the heads of a few others who were standing by, before turning to a particularly menacing cluster in front of him. He was about to fire at them, when a large sac dropped from the sky and released a poisonous and flammable gas. Soon a fireball struck it, igniting the gas and burning all of the demons and zombies inside the cloud. The warlord looked up just in time to see a particularly large demon leap towards the cockroach from a rooftop and kill its rider. Knowing that it was unlikely that either survived, Alastor continued, passing by the burned remains of what were once his enemies, and turned a corner. Immediately, he crouched to avoid being singed as a Valkyrie flew right past him, only to be gunned down by several demons. Up ahead of him, a bear slammed its spear into the throat of an ISSR soldier, while two other scared soldiers fired at it. The bear in question had a nasty injury on its chest, so it was likely a zombie. Or a traitor. Either way, Alastor quickly ran over and, once he was almost in melee range, fired his weapon at the creature, the bolts slamming into it with great force, before running by, while the other two soldiers tried to go back to the others.

At last he emerged onto one of Dys' streets, where the bus currently was. Seeing the huge abomination trying to punch a hole into the bus, Alastor charged up a large black bolt in his hand, before firing it at the beast.

[Nationstatelandsville]

"That is incredibly old. I am disappointed. And my job is being done as we speak, thank you." Alastor stated casually as he ducked under a stray thunderbolt, still firing his weapon. He then opened a portal on the ground and dropped Slotheater through it. He would land next to Michael, because really, I don't know where else to send him.

Slotheater landed with a thud next to Michael, falling on his back (whic hurt like all hell).

"Hey, Antony, I can see up your skirt," he remarked with distaste before passing out.

[Ende]

A lot of the undead indeed charged, directly toward Ivy. Odin was busy with a few of the other ones, easily smashing them with his sword and the like. Daisukebot helped out, all of them having a good fun over this.

But then the fun started when a bright blue light appeared in the sky, simply hovering there.

Ivy looked up at the light for a moment. It spontaneously appeared out of nowhere - one moment, she was bracing herself for an assault, and then, suddenly, out of nowhere at all, a bright blue light just...appeared. It wasn't even gradual - one moment, there was nothing, and then, the next, there was an luminescent blue light piercing the skies.

And then, suddenly, a zombie demon dug its teeth into her arm. Screaming in pain, she ripped her arm free, tearing several bloody gashes in her arm. The rotting corpse looked as if it was smiling - its broken jaw hung down from its skull, revealing rotted black stumps of teeth, and its mostly eyeless sockets festering with maggots staring a sightless stare at her, the remnants of its rotten face hanging from the crumbly bone of its skull. Clutching her arm, dropping her sword, and rapidly backpedaling away from the shambling corpse, she tripped over a hand rising from the ground, which gripped feebly at her foot. With a thud, she landed on the ground, the impact sending tines of fire through the scars on her back. Several others shambled closer, their lifeless smiles gaping wide, revealing blood-crusted throats.

Desperately, she scrabbled around for any sort of weapon, filled with panic, quickly losing any semblance of rational thought. She didn't belong here. She couldn't handle this. Any of this. Or anything at all, really. For a few moments of sheer terror, she thought she was going to die. But Calliel depended on her. She couldn't die. But did she really even love -

Fuck it, that didn't matter. The only thing that mattered at the moment was not being torn apart by the living dead.

She could figure out the rest later.

As one of the pack charged closer, she struggled to break free from the wrist - it clamped down on her tightly, and another hand poked its fingers out from the soil, reaching into the sky. Desperately, as a last resort, she jammed her hand into Hell's soil, feeling for any sign of life. There was always life. Even in the most desolate desert, the most isolated island - there was always some sort of plant. A root, a twig, a weed, a vine - and, sure enough, there was. It was faint - but it was there. A seed, packed forty feet beneath the earth. The slavering jaws of the undead drew closer, their macabre smiles growing ever nearer - and then the ground opened beneath their feet, a circular chasm tearing itself into the ground, nearly twenty feet in diameter, nearly two stories in depth.

Quickly draining the life from the soil, tentacles forged of roots whipped out from the abyss and latched around the feet of the dead, pulling them into the abyss, where they were decimated, vivisected, and eviscerated by the lashing abomination below. The hellplant was already lethal in nature - anything in Hell was, really, but she twisted the very basics of its DNA - it was more like a predatory cancerous tumor than anything else, rapidly multiplying with no rhyme or reason, draining the soil of any sort of life, killing and devouring everything in sight. Breaking her foot free from the wrist clutching it - it broke with a snap - she rose shakily and painfully to her feet, a quivering tentacle tossing her sword to her. She caught it, spun around, and then cleaved a head in two with one downward slice. There were still shamblers coming at her - there were more than she could count - but she could deal with that. A Daisukebot flew by, setting several ablaze, and a gunshot from a nearby soldier caused another head to spatter into shards of bone.

Ivy clenched her fist, and the rising corpse below her was crushed into a bloody pulp. One hapless member of the ranks of the dead charged at her - she extended her arm, and a spire shot up through its back, causing it to rise into the air, spilling organs and blood from the body. Suddenly, she felt horribly sick - the stench of death filled her lungs - the bodies of the dead surrounded the living, and...why had she here? She didn't belong here. She was drained, exhausted. There was nothing else to run on - she was running on empty - the only things to keep going for were D, Calliel, and her child. But they were worth it. She could hold together.

She wasn't really sure about that, actually.

[Nightkill the Emperor]

Before I forget.

Loki was hit in the face by the zombie demon liver. As a result, he briefly lost his concentration and the magical shield broke. As a result of that, a meteorite broke through and killed one innocent kitten, walking along on the ground, trying to avoid death.

That kitten was tragically murdered. It had kind and loving parents and a large loving family who all grieved its death. The body was utterly destroyed, so no corpse could be made into a zombie.

But the kitten...was dead. It was a young one. It had never experienced real sorrow or pain before and it was a promising life cut tragically short. It had always wanted to be a ratcatcher like daddy, to have a happy family and to eat all the rats they wanted. And now it couldn't. Life was a fragile thing and the kitten never experienced it in full.

For a minute, the world seemed dimmer to all.

[Hardened Pyrokinetics]

Elsewhere...

Streets glowed as limbs, heads, and torsos burned like candles. James Callahan was making splendid use of his shotgun, helped by him utilizing his feet and hands to tear apart those who got too close.

Coincidentally, his journey through the hordes of zombie demons brought him to where the kitten died just as the meteor stuck it. The feline's eyeballs separated violently from its head, landing on James' vest. He grabbed them by the nerves before they fell to the ground, looped them around the front of his belt, and tied them together. Yes, James Callahan had a pair of kitten eyeballs hanging between his legs.

What the undying fuck is wrong with you!? Snowflame yelled. Seriously, what the fuck!?

James just grinned and returned to killing zombies.

[Rupudska]

Yuzuki swerved the Bus hard, so hard it nearly rolled on its side. A feat in itself, considering that the Bus was rather bottom-heavy by design. The force was certainly more than enough to throw the tank off, considering how top-heavy it was. "ALL RIGHT, LOAD UP THE CANNON! I WANT A HOLE DRILLED IN THAT THING NOW!" The cannon operators scrambled to comply, lifting the microwave-sized shell up to the cannon on the roof.

[Nightkill the Emperor]

The Tank was shot in the chest and started to bleed profusely. But before it did, it gave a powerful dying punch. The punch was so strong that the Bus actually flew, going through the air...and crashing a foot away from James Callahan.

[Hardened Pyrokinetics]

The Tank was shot in the chest and started to bleed profusely. But before it did, it gave a powerful dying punch. The punch was so strong that the Bus actually flew, going through the air...and crashing a foot away from James Callahan.

James finished kicking a zombie demon baby to pieces, then looked at the bus. "HEY! YUZUKI!" He yelled at the vehicle. "CHECK OUT MY CAT EYE-BALLS!" He thrust his hips forward and began shaking them, causing the eyeballs to swing back and forth.

You are absolutely revolting.