"Looks like you all had quite the party while I was getting here," McRemitz-san says, reeling her fist back in preparation for another strike. "Mind filling me in once we're done?"
Her presence here, like that of Nurse Ortensia and her servant Lancer, is a surprise to you; but you assume that the twenty minutes she needed to get here had passed, and think no more of it. "Thanks for the assist," you say, keeping your eyes peeled for any more wayward familiars like that one, as in the distance you watch the boundary between Archer's reality and the real world finally fade away.
You're now exposed. "If you've got something you really want to try, now would be the time to do it-" You point McRemitz-san to the distant battle "-Before Archer or Nurse Ortensia's Lancer decides to end it."
"What?"
Of course saying that would grab her attention. Nurse Ortensia's Lancer was supposed to be her servant, after all. "They're here?" You nod. "Okay, now I'm
really going to need a recap when this is all over."
You try to point McRemitz-san to Nurse Ortensia's location, but all you see is the unconscious form of Kure Kirika. At first, you think that she's run off in dereliction of her duty, until you hear her voice, several meters away and wading into the river of familiars as she says
"I will kill. I will let live. I will harm and heal. None will escape me. None will escape my sight." A familiar approaches, lunging at her with an open mouth. Nurse Ortensia doesn't appear to notice it.
She's going to die. Then, she holds out her hand, and saying
"Be crushed" the familiar is burned away with a radiating light. Nurse Ortensia turns, looking back to you and to McRemitz-san, and asks "Well, aren't you going to join me? We still have yet to see what that new arm of yours can do, after all."
"Man, everyone's in a rush to see my arm, aren't they? Still..."McRemitz-san looks out at the river; half of the Black Mountain still remains standing, and despite your surety that Archer's strike had finally killed the witch, you can still see a burning light coming from the center of the river of familiars where the arm fell. "There's no time like the present. Have you and yours taken care of the familiars' intangibility?"
"We were unable to locate and destroy the witch's iconography," you are loathe to report, earning you a
look from McRemitz-san. Still, as you look out onto the battlefield, your allies who are thickest in the river don't seem to be having any problems carving the familiars to ribbons. "And yet, it doesn't appear that we needed to. As long as you keep your wits about you, you should be good to go." You fire a volley of frozen arrows deep into the river of familiars, opening up an alternate pathway into the heart of the river, should McRemitz-san decide not to follow Nurse Ortensia.
She brings her fist into the palm of her artificial hand, cracking her knuckles as rings of vibrant lime appear around her wrists and ankles. McRemitz-san leaves without a word, taking her first steps casually, before vaulting over the railing and launching herself full-throttle directly into the river. "Flash, silver-coloured arm!
Claíomh Solais!"
Even had you not fixed your eyes with magic, it's certain you could have seen the flash of light coming from McRemitz-san's arm. It lights up the black night, burning brighter than even the torch of the Black Mountain or all the light pollution over the city. The entire sleeve of her jacket has been torn away, revealing the brilliant quicksilver of her arm in full, which catches the radiance of the two-meter-long blade of light sticking out of her wrist like the weapon of some character in a science fiction movie, causing her arm to shine like the noon-day sun. You hear the
cackling death rattle of several familiars as the blade of light skewers them through, retracting to a more manageable length of just one meter as McRemitz-san pulls her arm back in preparation for another strike; before shooting out at a length of almost twenty meters to skewer a familiar within striking distance of Kyouko.
"Nice save, McDonalds!"
McRemitz-san pays no mind to Kyouko's nickname, and instead resumes throwing herself into the work of dismembering any familiars within reach of her blade- Which proves to have no real functional limits to its reach, as far as you can tell; it retracts and expands based on, as far as you can tell, the striking distance McRemitz-san needs from it. Sometimes she pulls it in close, wielding it like a short dagger to carve up a familiar that has managed to close the gap; while other times it extends out at lengths beyond what a normal blade could hold to provide a timely save for one of your allies in need. You can see it in her eyes; battle-mania. Without a doubt, McRemitz-san is
loving this new weapon of hers.
"Lancer, let's finish this!" she calls out, either in complete ignorance or complete rejection of the fact that the blue-clad spearman is no longer her servant. "Throw your
Gáe Bolg straight at the heart of this wraith!"
"Now that's the kind of order I like to hear!" The other Lancer finishes his strike with a flourish, and charges, leaping high into the air as he reels both of his spears back, one in each hand. The field is clear of allies, and
"Gáe... ~BOLG!" he cries, hurling each spear one after the other, straight into the burning heart of the river. Each one breaks through the river of familiars, and like a volcanic eruption sends shockwaves ringing out that tear apart any familiars within their reach. The river erupts into flames like a scene from The Bible, and the way to the heart of the witch is made clear at last.
"NOW!" you cry out, hoping your voice is loud enough for everyone on the battlefield to hear it over the din of combat.
"Hit the witch with everything you've got!"
McRemitz-san is the first to spring into battle, directing her sword of light at the witch; Four spears, originating from Lancer, Kyouko, Rider, and the other Lancer, are all thrust in unison; Overhead, Tomoe-san, Mikuni Oriko, and Caster open fire with volley after carefully-aimed volley; And for you and Archer? "Are you ready?" you ask your servant, drawing back your bow, many arrows nocked on your string, and all of them empowered by the magical focus your servant gave you.
Archer grins, drawing back the string of his own bow, calling a long, spiraling arrow of silver, gold, and blue into his hands with a whispered
"I am the bone of my sword". "As always. Let's do this."
You and your servant loose, letting your arrows fly true into the heart of the witch once all your allies and friendly combatants have cleared the field. Archer's arrow twists the air around it as it screams straight towards the witch, drawing in water molecules which your
Isa-borne arrows take in and freeze, your arrows working in tandem to create a lower-powered facsimile of your
Finitora Freccia. Your arrows collide with the witch, causing a brilliant rose of icy white to bloom outwards as the unburdened half of the Black Mountain finally comes crashing down.
The massive frozen rose stands in place for only a few seconds before splintering, revealing the lone form of the witch underneath. The form of the witch, that of the hunched-over shadow of a girl deep in prayer, is badly broken, and the torch held aloft in the Black Mountain's arm has gone out; with its extinguishing there are no familiars left to protect the witch. Faintly, you can hear it whispering, a broken language which only another witch might be able to understand.
"̶̱̬̰̈̑͗̍͗͌̎͋͘S̵̡̻̥̞̘͈͓̍̀͜͜o̷̹͓̘̖̘̥̖͚͖͋͛͛̆̓̒̌̇̔̕͜͝ͅm̸͚̱̋͛̏̃̈́e̶̞̞̲̫͎̟̙̊͜ͅb̴͎̭͔͙͕̥͖̺̫̃͆̀̈̀͆̾̍̐͗̕͜o̵̡̲̜̥̔̓̉̀́̒̕͘͜ͅd̵͚͇̳̭͚́̀̅͂́͋̊̚y̸͍̦̘͇͖͔͙̦̓ ̸̡̩͈̺̲̓͋̈́̈́̊̀̑́́p̷͇̮̻̱̳͎̖͓͎͕̭͒̿̀l̷͇͔̻͕̱͊͗́̅̓ę̷̖̗͚̤̏͂̾̀̀͘å̷̜̞̉̆͆͊̈́͐͘͠͠s̶̢̛̛͔̻̦͐͆͒̓̊͝ḛ̷̢͓̀̍̆́̅̚͘ ̵̨͖͈̗̤̘͖̏͊̌͊͌͛ḧ̷͔́̈́̂̀ḛ̶͓̏̌͊̈́̉̆͌͗̃͜l̸̛̝̦̉̿͗͑͂͗̉̈́̚̚p̷͉͙̓ ̷̦̗̱̑̉̈́̅̈́́̅͌̚͘̕m̶͍̉̑̂͊̈́̇̂ḙ̶̣͍̩̻̲̬͝.̷͖̟͖̗͑̔̀͋͂̑̂͋͝ͅ"̸̺̮̪͕̳͎̭̓̔̉͛̃͒͒̓̃̾͘ͅ
"Sorry," McRemitz-san says, clearly not sorry by the look on her face as she mounts the broken arm of the Black Mountain and strides towards the witch. "I don't speak wraith."
Like an explosive shell being fired from a shotgun, her sword of light pounces forward, skewering the witch before immediately retracting, hidden once more by her silver arm, the fingers of which McRemitz-san flexes as soon as her arm is back to its normal configuration. She leans over, and with some difficulty picks up the Grief Seed dropped by the witch; only, you aren't sure that calling it a 'Seed' is appropriate any more. Perhaps now a Grief 'Fruit' might be more appropriate, given that in its unusually engorged state it resembles a black-stained watermelon far more than it does a fruit-bearing seed.
You've never seen a Grief Seed get so large before.
"Alright, so which one of you girls gets to keep this stupid thing?" she asks, depositing the seed on the ground in front of you once she has returned to the river bank; but looking between yourself, Tomoe-san, Kyouko, Mikuni Oriko, and the still-unconscious Kure Kirika, you aren't sure how the hell you're supposed to divide up even shares of a Seed so massive. "If nobody answers, I'm taking it back with me to the Clocktower to be studied."
"Well, that will be our contribution to the battle," Nurse Ortensia says, her face a mask of complete nonchalance as she snaps her fingers and says "Come along, Lancer. We've still got a lot of cleaning up to do around the city."
"Hold it right there, Ortensia-" It happens in an instant as soon as the air of battle has settled. McRemitz-san has drawn her sword of light, angling it at Nurse Ortensia's throat, but it's been blocked from reaching her by a triple-layered barrier brought up by Mikuni Oriko. The blue Lancer stands off to the side, looking as though he desperately hopes he doesn't have to get involved. "I've been waiting politely and patiently for six years; and now that he's finally within arm's reach you think I'm just going to let you walk away from me with
my servant in tow?"
"Give him back to me, now."
[ ] Wat do?
