The moon city hung above the world of Nephilz like a lantern. Day or night, Wizard could see it, when Wizard looked, that is. On a tall tower, inside a paraphet filled with a sleekly designed interior worthy fully of the description 'a high status moon elves room,' sat a sturdy moon elf at it's desk. Long blonde hair obscured questions of gender, if there was one, but the ears were as elf as elf could be.

"High Moon Elf's Log

Stardate Whatever-It-Is-Now:" The High Moon Elf began.

"The Anime Girl Magus appears to have made contact with another dimension according to our diplomat stationed in the city of Nephilz in Errera. For the records, the diplomat's name is Elu, cold girl, which is why I personally advocated for her to be sent off as a spy among the lesser races. I have sent her to investigate further. Elu's reported that the No-Life King in the Nephilz has died causing an uprising of the mass of homunculi plaguing the sewers of Nephilz. For our purposes, this is a small matter, but I believe given our other reports of the Anime Girl Magus that she is related to this somehow. As her form is close to human, I believe this means she desires interaction with them."

The High Moon Elf settled back in it's chair, staring at fresco painted on the ceiling. The impressive artwork was lost on the elf— a new Magus was always a pain. This one, however, barely fit the qualifications of 'Magus' in the first place. Elu's report even said she mistook the Magus for a homunculi. And, a Magus whose ideal was Anime Girls? From which dimension did that kind of soul come from? The High Moon Elf waved it's hand at the air, as if shooing off questions one by one.

"I grew suspicious of this new Magus upon first hearing of it, and sent one of our best Psychic Ninjas to gather information. Elu isn't skilled enough to deal with a Magus. I will have to trust in the abilities of the Psychic Ninja Moon Elves in order to put my worries to rest."

The High Moon Elf conjured the fruityest drink possible out of midair, putting the drink to his mouth and sippingly loudly. No one was there, so being rude and loud was a guilty pleasure the elf could partake in gleefully. The elf stood, walking to the window and staring out over Moon City, to the stars, and then, to the planet below. Errera.

~~~

Yarko was hard-pressed already, wounds all over her body, a homunculi lord had her against a wall. It's tentacles attacked like springs, reminding her of her days as a massive Tentacle Beam.

Yarko's thoughts comprise of unequal parts mayhem, violence, bloodlust, and randomness thrown in. That she could speak every language possible was a result of not understanding the concept of language at all. To Yarko, everything was noise and sensation, from the sounds outside of her in the form of words to the sights she saw to the feelings in her body.

She had preferences from time to time about which feeling was better than the other, and it tended towards pushing the limits of structure. Basically, as long as it was in one piece, Yarko wanted it in more pieces. And, she got excited about breaking anything in one piece into smaller pieces. The scattered flesh of homuncli, dwarves, and a rare Psychic Ninja Moon Elf had a hint of beauty in her eyes, until she became preoccupied with thoughts about her body.

Her gut was falling out, that bothered her at the moment. The homunculi lord attacking her had a strange ability to predict her movements. Each tentacle seemed to weave past each strike of her bat, effortlessly tearing Yarko's body apart.

The amount of blood and guts scattered from Yarko's body piled up. There was some thinking about how Yarko's body was dead, but Yarko lost interest in such a small matter and considered how to build a stable company under the new normal of a work-at-home environment. The homunculi lords tentacle knocked her bat from her hand, pressing what remained of her body into a wall. As the tentacle fell away, a grey scarf fluttered out. Whether Yarko had blanked out and returned to scarf form on her own, felt like it because she was tired for some reason, or she was defeated— Yarko ignored all those and began to think on an article she gained from Wizard's memories about the Uncertainity memo from Oak Tree Capital. An interesting read. Entirely unrelated to the events at hand, but the same could be said for anything Yarko thought.

~~~

The dwarves ran from the attacking little girl. She appeared human, yet inhuman corpses assembled themselves out of the flesh around her and fed on their kin, ripping them to pieces, only for the remanants of their kin to rise anew and chase after those still living. Guns were worthless against the abominations, shooting in the brain, like one stupid dwarf suggested, had no effect.

There was nothing they could do but run, run, and die. Mostly die.

The screams grew silent as what little resistance the rest point on the way to the deeper tunnels was torn apart by angry animated meat.

Had Wizard been here, the delicate moral rules Wizard had in mind would have been thrown into question. That, and Wizard would wonder how it all came to this. Wizard was still wondering how it all came to this, over far less dwarf corpses though.

~~~

Wizard plodded amongst the field of corpses on the riverbanks of Nephilz. Such a small time had passed to Wizard, and yet, already her decision to unleash those two on purpose began to show its true merit. Lots of blood, lots of corpses. Wizard puttered about from corpse to corpse, ignoring the homunculi corpses, taking in the full stench of the battlefield in all it's flavors through her twitching nose.

Despair and disappointment, horror and disgust, they painted themselves on Wizards face as one by one she sailed past the massacre and followed the trails of blood until they stopped. Wherever Niji and Yarko were, they weren't here.

Wizard took out a brown and yellow card from her blazer on her chest. Wiggling the card around in her hand, she paced. The card turned out to be analog, at a little push from her mana Wizard sensed she could summon the Anime Girl "Nana Daiba."

"Who is this 'Banana,' anyways?"

And a Psychic Ninja Moon Elf following in a nearby alley gained interest. Wizard said nothing more, pacing around until she pocketed it with a jittery hand. With a flick of her wrist, a long grey-silver katana came out. Wizard swung it around, giving the corpses one last timid look before sprinting off.

The Psychic Ninja Moon Elf wondered why Wizard wasn't wearing shoes.

~~~

And then the 1st person style came back.

I thought something weird like that might happen. When the story gets complicated, then it suddenly switches perspective, so I narrated all that to myself thinking of what be in store for me. I wonder why I'm stuck on the idea of 'Psychic Ninja Moon Elves'? Oh, and if there is any confusion, of course there isn't a High Moon Elf. Nor was Yarko mysteriously defeated by some top class homunculi lord that could damage her, or did Niji go on a massacre.

But, the corpses are still here. And, there are some dwarves. However, it only occurred to me after imagining the worst how it's possible that it was the homunculi that killed these dwarves. It never even came to mind that Yarko and Niji could be innocent. Perhaps asking more about why the two are getting called Demon Kings might have been a good idea. The pressure was on, so, I did what felt easiest at the time, as always.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Unfortunately, the easy road here is going to be a hard one. I sniffed. Anime Girl sent me a general sense of where to go. It doesn't seem like she knows where they are either. Not sure I want to find them anyways, so I'll follow this vague Anime Girl conjured sense of direction.

I brainstormed options as the fields of corpses thinned in the streets around the canals of Adventurer's Mount. In the distance, I caught sight of a thick troop of homunculi charging. I ran to catch up, watching as strange body parts arced into the air along with diverse blood colors. I'd be sickened if for a second there I didn't imagine a rainbow being painted in the sky.

My hand tapped my chest, where the Nana Daiba card was kept. I'm the sort of person who would save items in an RPG until beyond the final boss and never use them, so I'm not worried about using it, but I am worried about not having it. It's just Yarko, right?

And I remembered what little I knew of Yarko. How the first time I talked to my Tentacle Beam, there were plenty of adventurer's corpses I could see through her mana. My massive Strand spell snaked through the then tentacle beam yarko and saw the fighting, along with Ouji marshalling the troops and a little girl with a kitchen knife packing shorn tentacles into a pile for later revival.

They fought for their lives. I haven't had to do that. Even when I fought against Niji and Negi, it didn't feel like I was going to die. More bitter and upset than physically threatened. It bothered me if death was even possible for the Anime Girl existence I am now, but I had more important things to do. Namely, run away.

I'm kidding. Or not. I stopped near the battle, wavering. Yarko's satisfied cackling rising from the melee as homunculi screeches sounded off. Their death knells felt like they were twisting my ears. That was enough reason to desert the situation, go back to Heaven(Pillow Rat Tree), and just let this all sort itself out.

People, people are too hard. I thought when I cast that spell to make clothing that could turn into people-esque entities that I'd be okay, that maybe somehow this would all work out for the better. Really, my expectations were vague from the start. So, it's not surprising that my vague expectations and vague intent begat some vague clothing people.

Really, since I know Anime Girls have a concrete existence now, and I have Anime Girl, shouldn't I ditch them? Those thoughts bubbled. Ditch Stehy, she's demanding and doesn't know how her magic works. What good is a loafer loli whose adventurer's card clearly says she can summon the [U.S.S. Enterprise] but she can't? Was it all a lie? Don't tell me it was a lie.

I closed my eyes, flicking out my katana, I spread my stance, balancing myself. Taking a deep breath, I understood. If it were Anime Girl, I wouldn't be asking the question. Anime Girl is sacred in my eyes, and inviolable existence. If I believe in anyone, it's Anime Girl, and if there is anyone I believe in outside of me...

I came up blank. Trust or involvement, I didn't want either. But, I want that damn [U.S.S. Enterprise]. Okay, let's kill Yarko! Wait wait, if I do that, then Niji is too much trouble as well, no, wasn't Niji more trouble with the heart rip out thing? Yarko hasn't even attacked me, so why am I so eager to kill her off, all of a sudden?

This bloodlust. Maybe, no, it was within me all along. Yarko's bloodlust and battle calls were summoned from within me. Whatever Yarko really is, whether I want her hanging around my neck like the scarf she is or loitering around the city massacring is my business. I'll at least take care of my own business. At least.

I charged into the fray, swinging my katana straight into the back of globulous homuculi. A flash of silver grey, a sprinkle of yellow blood, then the body sloughed into pieces. Didn't I only cut once? Why is it in meaty chunks? I pushed onward despite my observation, carving through homunculi with little effort.

Each swing felt effortless. When I swung, I couldn't tell if there was any weight on the other side or not. Either this [Yumicite] katana is too sharp or my strength is too high, I can't tell. I put more effort into dodging flying corpse parts than into my attacks.

My sword swings felt automatic. Curious, I concentrated on one of them I tried to cut a vertical line down a snake body. My hand traced my mind's eye perfectly, then switched straight into culling a few more within range. Beyond my own speed of thinking and observation, I was moving that fast. Anime Girl, are you backing me up with my movement?

[Hai~]

I figured. Go and shoot some, I saw the gun, put it to use. I want to see how I handle these alone. Anime Girl grumbled in response. That's not like her. Is she still bitter about the fight we had?

[Yarko shinne nai.]

I'm not going to kill her.

[hotoni.]

Her voice wasn't asking if I 'really?' would kill her or not, it was challenging me. Would I 'really' not kill her? I didn't know I wanted to kill her that much. But, if Anime Girl says so, then it must be true, after all she lives in my mind so she must know the landscape better than I do. Okay, Anime Girl, you can stick with me, but shoot once at least I want to see what you can do.

A shotgun appeared out of mid-air and blasted back a wave of homunculi, clearing a full ninety degrees of generous space in the middle of the battle, shredding their flesh and sending bodies collapsing into the ranks behind. Nice.

I cleared the way to Yarko, expecting nothing of note from the melee, a peaceful evening in the melee, perhaps, until the tentacles.

It's always the tentacles, isn't it.

Whips of flesh tore my blazer off. A third tentacle grasped my collar while two slipped my coat upon and over my arms, disarming me in the same movement. As my katana fell point first into the ground, I shook my wrist. It disappeared. I flicked my wrist to redraw. The blazer was gone into a mass of homuculi.

Fear crawled over me even as I kept slicing through homunculi like nothing happened. Devilish speed. It was beyond my ability to process, like it moved in between the moments of my consciousness. Will I be naked? Will I be naked? Again?!

It's okay, it's okay, I still have my shirt— ah dammit. It's already sewn together and painted red from Niji's grab, I'm sure this will end well, I can just tentacle beam this whole thing if I get down underwear, maybe I can forget about the city for a moment I'm sure it'll turn out just fine!

I tried to dodge before I saw anything. It was like swatting away a bee that snuck up on me. Just ran, as my shirt got ripped off, buttons plucking off.

This speed. Despite lopping a giant's head of in the same breath, I felt like I had no ability to fight back against it at all. I reached Yarko, who was covered in what looked like many colors of paint(blood) and swung her bat mercilessly down on a limping homunculi with that eat-you grin common to her kind.

Tentacles snaked up behind her too, tearing off a coat she was wearing. Yarko didn't seem to notice as she smashed a fat one, splattering homunculi around her with orange blood.

Looking at her, I forgot why I was here. I still swung my katana, cutting apart homunculi left and right, finding myself near her before I could orient myself. Homunculi screeches filled my ears to the brim. They charged, a fleshy mass of incoherent nightmares. My sword was moving as if it had a life of it's own, Yarko's bat thudding into homunculi with a similiar tempo. We stood back to back as they pressed in, threatening to overwhelm us with the swear weight of their corpses.

My speed went up. Cut through this one, dice this one, chunk the snake, lot of meatbags got made into meat here—

"Tornado!" I yelled.

My voice came out more shrill than I thought. But what suprised me more, a black whorl of wind spun from my hand. The wind sucked up the flesh like a vaccuum, increasing and fanning out over the battle, sucking in the homunculi in front of me. For a brief second my vision was covered with floating homunculi, then, the mass of meatbags sprang off into the air.

The road in front of me was clear of attackers, chock full of corpses. I watched as homunculi rained down from above, popping as they hit the pavement like raindrops. I turned in response to instinct and cut homunculi reaching for my neck. Yarko's side of the fight got quieter. I checked over her swinging hair behind me to see.

The homunculi fled. As if someone snapped a finger asking them to retreat. Yarko sped after them, bat aloft ready to bash with a grin on her face.

Then, tentacles cut through the ranks. Every single homunculi fell to pieces. The bank grew quiet as Yarko's bat slumped in her hand, then fell to the ground. A tentacle stabbed straight through her chest. Her body ripped to shreds an instant later, her bat flying to my feet, clanking as it hit the ground. A scarf shot out from where her body was, floating on the wind, coiling itself around my neck. I adjusted it, tightening against the wind.

Comfy. My opponent couldn't be seen despite the pile of corpses giving a clear view. The attack came. I couldn't move. My left arm snapped off. I snapped back, feeling a graze of pressure against my neck through my scarf. Almost took my head. Pure chance. Anime Girl, I liked having two arms. Help plz.

[Busou!]