"If there was any indicator at Kaci, using Obsulyte against them will only make it worse! They feed off of it!" Ikarisa yelled.

"Not entirely true, I could kill some of them without physical attacks...take the risk or not?" Lass informed Ikarisa.

Terna looked behind them, "We need cover!" she let out another aria, creating a barrier of hard materials behind them, in the shape of a wave that engulfed them.

Ikarisa joined her, "It's not my thing, but here!" she slammed her lance down, fortifying the rest of their front with a surge of her power, creating a ball that protected them, translucent from the front and completely shut off from the back, "Ok, we got that down...what do we do?!"

"You tell me, they're not attacking or anything anymore, just waiting for these two to dramatically walk up here!", Anya got ready to counterattack, "Omni something, get your butt up here and tell me something, anything!"

Her phone flew out of her pocket, "Sorry master, but despite me knowing about Shadowers, these ones are a new species! However, I can confirm that if you attack with conversational Obsulyte, it will power up the normal Shadowers!" Omni informed them.

"Again, not true, I did it before and I can do it again," Lass said.

"Well of course you are the exception! The Gate Of Eternity can break through all sorts of defenses like that, and cut down even the sturdiest of foes if given exactly proportionate powers at a 1:1 ratio with the material to cut in question."

Lass looked at his sword with surprise, "Deadass?" he said with a straight face.

"Of course! The power outflow cannot be absorbed either, and judging off your Obsulyte signature, it would even work as a poison against those very few instances that work as an exception, only weakening them! It's a truly fascinating Gate!"

"Answer received then." Lass increased the grip on his sword, taking an offensive stance, "Let's see exactly how much space this can create then.'

By using all of his strength, he made a wide area slash in front of him, cutting down a massive number of Shadowers easily at once, seemingly evaporating them in an instant as the red flash disappeared along with them. However, despite that, the ongoing surge of Shadowers from the bunker was quick to cover the missing numbers mere seconds after. Also, to their dismay, the direction where Lass unleashed his massive slash was where the two commanding Shadowers walked at. They remained completely unaffected as they moved forward, only briefly stopping after receiving the slash, almost as if they doing it purposely, just to mock him.

Lass exhaled, "Ok. Thanks for telling me that when you should. Although, I wished another one did so when they should." Lass referred to Yuno.

"You honestly expect me to just start gushing out every single piece of detail I know at random? I forgot to mention it, ask me and I'll tell you!" Yuno echoed.

"Didn't do much anyways...they're all back." Ikarisa kept her fortifying stance, "Even with what little I remember from Cecilia, I won't be able to hold this forever!"

"Hmph!", Anya punched a bunch of Shadowers back, "And I'd much rather have a 1v1 with these guys instead!", she seethed her weapon, "I guess that's sidetracking for ya because we ain't getting out of this one without a miracle or paying with limbs." she lost some of her hope.

"Guys, maybe...I need to overload myself." Lass whispered.

"I can't take over with the current power surge, and if you do overload, I told you the risks. Even with me taking over to keep the mental levels of yours at bay...I have no idea how your untrained body will handle this." Mellistar remained calm in order to think.

"Obsulyte users have ups and downs in their surge all the time, we'll be fine!" Yuno stated.

"Not at will, midget. His emotions are so much in check, that adrenaline almost never gets going until he specifically chooses or is forced into overloaded. He's anything but normal in that regard."

"What the hell are you saying, they can! Have you not seen Obsulyte users get easily harmed outside of combat?! Their abilities, Obsulyte surge and fortifications aren't activated until they absolutely choose to!"

Mellistar got annoyed, "No, they get ready to take in the surge, that's what happens! If you want to school me about Obsulyte, be my guest. Lass is able to go from 0-100 plus more at will since he's a moron that told me to seal his Obsulyte away! Normal Obsulyte users don't have that option, because they're forced to live with active Obsulyte at all times, not just during combat or other stressful situation that causes it to spike, whether they like it or not! The human body, despite its severe adaptability, has always been weak compared to other beings, we have no idea if he will just explode upon overloading again so soon! Plus, even with his overload, his body was just exerting energy back with that titan, he wasn't even able to use it properly enough, and even Excelsior wasn't of use for breaking that thing's skin until she showed up and killed it in one go! What tells you that he will be able to make a dent in these two things, with similar consistencies to that?!"

"Ok, enough! I won't overload, but we need a plan. These monsters have all those bullshit ceremonial murders and it's pissing me off, so we need to think fast before these two big ones break the barrier!"

As those words were spoken out and as everyone looked up front, despite the hindrances, the two general Shadowers made their way up in front of them, being blocked by the material barrier Ikarisa was desperately trying to keep intact, showing very well that she was not used into doing that move. They softly ground their claws against the barrier first, one from the far left and another from the far right, as a sound similar to what grinding your nails on the chalkboard sounded, echoed throughout the area. Eventually meeting back in the center, they both quickly pulled their left and right hand back respectively, before turning it into one singular, massive spike that ran across their arm. Thrusting it forward, Ikarisa briefly yelped in pain as she was simply not expecting their strike in unison to cause as much damage as it did. Despite the sparks flying around from the barrier that briefly burned their skin, the two monsters kept thrusting forward, before pulling back as they lost the momentum of the first strike, taking their positions again and preparing for a second thrust. Meanwhile, two phalanxes of Shadowers lined up behind them both, as if they were instructed and were waiting for their generals to break through enemy defenses for them to swarm in for the kill.

"N-No..." Ikarisa kept her position, "I've never done this barrier thing before, I'm just copying Cecilia! It won't hold!" she warned them.

"Big guy, what about just using all we've got left?!" Anya suggested.

"I'm still thinking! You saw how this corrupted Obsulyte thing works, one wrong move and we're becoming their friend after!"

From the distance, a voice could be heard closing in, starting and stopping as it was followed by a massive crushing and explosive sound every time, signifying the worst for them all, as they realized that even more monsters were rallying together.

"More?!" Yuno questioned in horror.

"This can't be the end..." Terna's face turned grim.

"Look, Lass, I can't be infected! That same beam that would have turned me into them, they use corrupted Obsulyte to either kill or weaken their victims to a state where they can take their bodies over! That's why in Kaci, there was that explosion that set everything into chaos!"

"Doesn't help either way, because these two bastards are a hell of a lot stronger than what you're used to facing...they evolved much too quickly after just a few days ago." Anya pointed out, "Escaping infection or not, doesn't matter. We need to outright kill them."

"Sorry, you two..." Lass widened his stance and prepared to burst once again, "There are drawbacks to everything in the universe, equal and opposite reactions but...there's just no other way around this."

Mellistar got worried, "Think before you act!"

"Think of what?! The only one other than me who has a sliver of a chance to win against them is Risa, and that's a big if, considering we don't know the extent of her powers and haven't seen her face them before!"

Yuno prepared himself, "Lass is right. I'm getting ready to at least minimize the overflow. Don't stay in your delusion of desperation anymore, 'Mellistar'. There's no other way that the risk doesn't overtake the reward. Even Risa would have to dip into using her Obsulyte, as opposed to using the raw physical power of her attacks."

"I am the exception, as far as we know, so let it be. Until we can confirm others can also stand up to them, we're leaving here, right now." Lass prepared himself.

The voice once again echoed from afar, now able to be more clearly heard. This time, actual words could be made out, as the yelling got louder and more intense, with the intensity of the breaking, exploding and crashing sounds being intensified rapidly.

"How---I have---you pieces of---pipe down!" the voice closed in, as spare words could be clearly heard.

Lass briefly paused and stopped himself from overloading as he heard the voice, "Wait, there's no way. Actual intelligent people? Reinforcements?!" he got his hopes back up.

"Watch out!" Ikarisa stepped back briefly, anticipating the hit and grabbing her pinned lance tightly, almost as if she tried to contradict the force of an incoming blow.

The two Shadower generals, ignoring the incoming voice, thrusting one after the other this time, with their full force as they tried to go for the kill. Thankfully, due to Ikarisa's yelling, everyone quickly spread to the left and the right, avoiding the generals. The first hit of one general swiftly shattered the barrier to bits, Ikarisa grunting softly as she let go of the defensive barrier herself and still stood her ground while the others spread around, while the second hit, barely avoided by Ikarisa as it went right by her, briefly hurting her in the chest, completely shattered the earth based shelter Terna had made. Now, their defenses are completely broken, in front and behind them, the group was fully surrounded with both generals at each side.

"You ok, Risa?!" Terna reached out to her.

Ikarisa briefly kneeled as she grabbed her chest, "Y-Yeah! Flesh wound!" she curled briefly, taking her lance off the ground, "No, stop...doesn't matter if those things melt like butter, the stronger ones will be an issue...even for you." she whispered as she started healing the wound with the infected Obsulyte, not at all having the same issues they witnessed it causing on others before, "At least that confirms my infection immunity...what now?" she looked at the others as they closed back in on her.

Lass stood with Ikarisa at the front while Anya and Terna pushed their backs against them as they looked at their backs.

"Lass, now or never." Yuno worryingly said.

The voice in the distance finally closed all the way at them, a major pile of Shadowers being flung above their heads as it approached from their front, all of them crashing far away as they gazed to see at the source of it. A girl appeared at the front, with a massive double axe at hand as she slid across the floor on the left, pinning her axe on the ground to cut her momentum as sparks flew towards the right before eventually coming to a stop. As she moved as well, another large group of Shadowers followed her from the right to the left, them too being thrown towards her moving direction as she stopped moving, having her stance in a somewhat crumbled position to lower her center of gravity to a halt. As she recovered, she placed her massive axe on her shoulders and looked ahead, making eye contact with Ikarisa and the rest of the group behind her, only to then gaze back down to the two general Shadowers and all the other normal ones that had surrounded them.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"That's the reason why you dickheads are stockpiling again?", she pushed against her axe with her right shoulder, bringing it down on her left hand as it crashed on the ground, "I'll swipe all of your dumb asses again, a hundred times over, until there's none of you left!", she prepared to engage them.

She ran forward extremely quickly, stopping all her forward momentum at once by stomping her left foot, cracking the ground below her and finishing with a roundhouse slash in front of a group of Shadowers. The Shadowers directly in the precise sweet spot of her double axe's edges got cut clean in half, their bodies going from stale to rapidly accelerating backwards at extreme speeds, showing just how devastating the slash was. Their torn torsos and legs collided with other Shadowers further back, sending them flying as well, her quickly recovering and bringing her axe above her head in anticipation. Her prediction was more than correct, the Shadowers almost completely forgot about everyone else as they switched their target only on her, closing in with a scattered, non-cohesive formation unlike previously. Having already prepared, she slammed her axe to the ground, easily making the earth itself give in, as like a nuclear bomb, everything in front of the slam was completely annihilated, the rest of them flung backwards like ragdolls as nearby buildings, already damaged, collapsed under the ground shaking, even having the others who were still surrounded struggling to stay upright from the force of the ground shaking.

"I swear to get that I can't even breathe in this shithole without you bastards getting an interest! Every god-", she punched a Shadower's head clean off, "Damn-" she swept a Shadower's feet off the ground with her axe, before twisting around and slamming her axe on its chest as it fell down, "Time!", she kept mowing enemies down, each slash more brutal than the last, "I have to do this every day and you won't even [REDACTED], coming straight for my ass, you [REDACTED] for the love of [REDACTED] I'm gonna make sure to [REDACTED]."

Lass paused, "O-Oh. Ok, wow. I did...hear those things correctly...right?"

Anya paused, "And you thought I had no filter?" she looked at Lass.

"That was...not something I've heard before." Ikarisa paused.

"This is why we call them demons?" Yuno paused.

"I-I doubt I can ever turn this experience into a song...or convey it otherwise in any way I know." Terna paused.

She unloaded a massive flurry of what seemed like very carefully crafted, extremely offensive to every single being insults with no filter whatsoever to the Shadowers, even causing the others to be dumbfounded briefly as they looked at her with disbelief for both her strength and her horrid words. At that point, their numbers rapidly diminished, even the general Shadowers turned their backs and darted towards her. The first general tried to directly go in for the kill on her, aiming for her chest with its sharp hand, only to be blocked by her axe's flat side as it had its stance broken from the sheer force of the knockback, one of its feet getting off the ground. Before she could counterattack, however, the second one came in with the exact same move, it too barely getting blocked and forced into the same state as the other one, this time with the girl also briefly stunned as she was slightly pushed back and used her axe to balance herself back into position.

She got extremely angry at the general Shadowers, "You're fucking done."

As she recovered from the slight knockback, like a professional baseball player, she pinned herself into position and brought her axe on her shoulder. She then started her swing extremely slowly as she increased the grip on her axe to that of its limit before breaking the actual handle, putting all of her weight behind the move without a milligram excluded. When she released the swing at the first general Shadower standing in front of her, a massive gust of wind had absolutely no choice but to follow along with her move. The so-called durable and extremely powerful general Shadower by the others was completely annihilated, as the sound of metal pounding against a rock-like surface echoed so violently that it almost caused the Ikarisa who stood at the furthest point to the front, to cover her ears. Limp for limp, the general flew completely out of their field of view in almost an instant, completely erasing that worry of theirs away.

Not finished with her move at all, she stood from her right profile, bringing and completely pinning her axe behind her with her left hand as she forced even herself to turn to her left profile from the sheer force of the move, she grabbed her axe with both hands again. Taking one step forward, like an executioner at the guillotine, she hammered her axe from above, directly onto the last general Shadower's head, cutting through not only it with ease, but shattering the exact same spot she did on the ground yet again, now causing an actual earthquake, having the others kneel as they could no longer resist the ground shaking, the buildings in the distance feeling her wrath as they shook as well as they did, the two halves of the cut general Shadower flying left and right. For the first time ever, not witnessed by another person, the rest of the Shadowers, upon the earthquake being over and the dust flying away, briefly looked at the girl who had absolutely no scratches on her whatsoever, slowly lifting her axe back up on her shoulder, steam flowing behind her as she walked towards them, all started to flee. For mere monsters to even come close to realizing a battle had been lost and choosing to flee, a natural instinct to overpower their overwhelming and constant aggression, it was no laughing matter. Witnessed by experts they too would be astounded, as they would then realize that the world's ever-growing complexity has brought before them another being capable of the same intelligence they were bestowed with.

Upon seeing them flee, she wasted no time and ran after them, completely bypassing and ignoring the same group of people she originally tried to save, blocking their escape route as she began cutting every single one of them down one by one. Like a herd of sheep, lacking further basic knowledge, they kept going back and forth from where the girl ran to catch up to them, essentially going around in circles as she slowly finished them off with ease, eventually catching the very last one, as no one dared to make a move around her enraged presence.

She finished the last Shadower off by slamming her axe on it's neck at an angle, cutting its head clean off, "Remember that! And next time you might as well suck my [REDACTED], you piece of shit!" she pinned her axe down as she dusted her arms off.

"You wanted to find anyone left alive here. Looks lively enough." Lass said, looking at Terna.

"Yeah no kidding." Yuno echoed with amazement in Lass's head.

"T-That I did...in the most amazing way possible." Terna nodded.

Anya gave the girl a thumbs up, "Hey, thanks!"

"Uh, provoking interactions with her right now might not be such a good idea," Ikarisa warned Anya.

The girl slowly turned around to face the team. She had a bruised-looking armor on her body, no horns on her head as it was traditional by demon demi-humans to have, instead wearing what looked like a special helmet that posed two horns instead, and having a tail obviously larger than what most would. Her weapon, though bruised with the tainting of battle, gave off a simmering glow, as if it was eager for more. Her height was a bit taller than Ikarisa and her hair was a brilliant white, she seemed to be getting bigger and bigger as she got closer to Ikarisa.

"Hmm? Who the [REDACTED] are you?" she briefly looked at the others, "Hmm...How many of you are here? Just you, or more of you came for another finishing round?"

"Well, my name is Ikarisa and-" Ikarisa got stopped by the girl.

"Wait, actually, I just reminded myself of a critical piece of information: I don't give a shit." she grabbed her axe, moving along, "What kind of second-hand smoke, suicidal dumbasses are you all, that you decided to come here? You look all too young to recruit that someone would send here to get things over with."

"Well we ran out of supplies so-" Terna got stopped by the girl.

"You kidding me? Look around you. Does this look like a supply line is up for you? You can see that we're [REDACTED] from the watchtowers in Reingard." she scoffed, "Tsk. Not that they would give a shit for assisting. At least, with how meek and pissed scared you look, I can also see from the distance that you ain't nothing but the same kind of idiots that would go to the treasury, so you also pose absolutely no interest or threat to me. Scram." she shooed them away.

"And you saved us just cause? I doubt it. We clearly weren't properly equipped to deal with what was ahead of us, over-relying on our Obsulyte to get us through, which was clearly ineffective here, while you were also clearly a much better match for them as they posed zero issues to your primarily physical attacks." Lass approached the girl.

"I was expecting to find someone else. Maybe clicked on hope too far before I saw a furry and the crew of misfits. Now back off before you regret it."

"Stand down and let's talk, instead of resorting to constant violence here. Come on, even you know it's childish to go back and forth with insults and threats of beating each other when talking is an opt-" Lass was interrupted by the girl choosing violence.

Everyone went dead silent, looking at Lass went up to the girl. As soon as Lass was at striking range, the girl wasted no time as she went in for an uppercut. Her somewhat smaller than Lass's but powerful fist was grabbed by and stopped by him, holding her firmly, her still in her striking stance as she appeared unsurprised and unaffected. A small gust of wind briefly flew from Lass's palm as she strongly punched the center of it, a loud slapping sound being heard as their skins clashed with such force.

"Two words: anger management." Lass let her go.

"Play badass all you want, that hurt like absolute hell." Mellistar echoed.

"I know but I drop the bravado and I'm dead." Lass very quickly whispered back as he held his pain inside.

"Huh." she disengaged from Lass's grip as she backed off, "For an outsider, your balls may actually be bigger than your tiny head. You know I could've been off with said head, just for you doing that, right?"

"I doubt it." Lass folded his hands, pushing his palm against his chest as he tried to hide the lingering pain.

"What a senseless meat bag. I'll kick your ass-", the girl was stopped by Ikarisa, before she went in again by raising up her sleeve.

"Hey! We just wanted some supplies, bullets, food and whatnot, that's it! When we saw that there was such a huge destruction going on, we still came here, simply because we wanted to help! So please, don't keep this unneeded aggression up." Ikarisa pleaded.

"'Let me see…ah yeah.” the girl checked out Ikarisa, “The shy, caring type, I suppose. Fine. Treat your girlfriend to something nice after this, 'Lass'. She just saved your ass from not being able to sit for a week."

Lass sighed, "She is not, my girlfriend." he pointed at Anya, "If you look at her, the reason she's like this, is because she assumed so as well."

"Hey, learn from your mistakes, as they say. Let her poke fun at the subject too." Anya whispered.

"Whose side are you on?" Lass gave an angry look at Anya.

"Screw the ship already sank, now I'm coping with the results of it as I look at the wreckage." Anya shrugged.

The girl waved her arm as she quickly started to walk away, "Ok, yeah, whatever. Don't have time to mingle with your teenage drama bullshit. I've got a city to restore. Call me when you actually grow up to what your age is supposed to represent."

"Coming from you that's more than precious to hear." Lass scoffed.

"And we can help you! We just need to know a little more to do so. I've seen everyone here in first handed action, they're amazing. It was my idea to not turn back when we were at the city gates as well, not just for the supplies. The destruction and everything we saw, it was different from what we were taught, and we all wanted to find out what exactly happened! The genocide of Corosta was one thing, but there's so much more we want to learn to be able to assist however we can." Terna pleaded.

"And you will help how? Do you hold any power or position that will help me restore this place in any shape or form?" the girl paused.

"I can honestly help you build this city back up in a week." Anya nodded.

"I will repeat myself. Do you hold any power or position that will help me restore this place in any shape or form? Because you can throw a trillion greens on this, and it'll be raised back to the ground a day after it's done."

"And you do?" Ikarisa promptly answered back with her own question, forcing the girl to completely halt as she sighed, knowing full well what the answer was to Ikarisa's question, and afraid to admit it.

"Because if this is 'your' city, we at least deserve to have some intel as to why we saw all...this?! Because that definitely wasn't normal!" Yuno yelled as he merged out of Lass.

"My ass. You knew what you were in for, from looking at it from a distance..." the girl exhaled deeply, "Both the battle you knew that would commence, and the sight you were going to see."

"Look around you. If you also know what we are being told about this subject, then you also know that we were expecting a battle, yes, but not...this!" Lass spread his arms, emphasizing the bodies around him.

A moment of silence followed as the girl let go of her built-up aggression and adrenaline from the battle before, being much more composed and way less sassy compared to what they thought she would draw out their entire conversation to be like.

The girl had a long sigh, "You [REDACTED], screw it. Min-uh, Tiki. Tiki Dremona. That's my name. And as for what happened in Corosta...it's a long story. For now, follow me back to the safe house. Out here, we are begging for a beating. I'll explain everything along the way. Hurry."

"We won't talk about that stutter on you saying your name wrong?" Lass caught on to that fact.

"I'm more interested as to why we won't talk about the fact that we can hear all the obscure vulgarity coming out of her mouth, but she shows up censored with, '[REDACTED]', during her dialogue instead." Mellistar pointed out.

"You needed something to call me by, that'll suffice. For all I know, you might be the same type of, or directly the assholes behind the reason why the main plaza of the city is reduced to a dead body stack. Now move your ass, or leave. I'm giving you the minimum amount of common courtesy and kindness I've got, because of the mere fact that you're the only conversable and beyond kindergarten-level intelligent beings I've run across in a while."

"Oh not you too, are you serious?" Lass facepalmed.

"Better than 'Enemy', that's for sure." Yuno echoed.

"Yes, I am dead serious. Now follow or stay here and die like you were about to." she started her way back.

The girl took the lead and walked forward, having everyone follow behind her, their options limited as they failed completely to understand what kind of hellscape they had stepped into. Their curiosity kept getting higher and higher, as they were all hanging from her lips for a word as to what had happened to lead to these horrific events.