A single blow to the neck should have been enough, but it wasn’t.

Their sword sliced deep, but not as deep as it should have. Instead of simply leaving the creature without a head, a good four or five tentacles were sliced clean off, collapsing to the ground like great dying snakes. Cars and people were crushed, the fronts of shops blocked or crumbling under the heavy weight.

The creature itself, unable to foresee this, stumbled, its main body swaying side to side as the remaining tentacles attempted to keep it airborne. Before this, the only thing that had allowed his body to remain steady had been his composure and the fact that his mass of tentacles had weighted heavier than his relatively small body.

But now, one of those unshakable pillars had crumbled, his mind flooding with panic and pain. His whole body trembled, tentacles shifted and lost their grip on the Earth. But, if left alone, he might have been able to regain that composure he’d lost. But the magical girl - hippie alliance would not let him. Or, rather, Sikrat wouldn’t.

Out of all the magical girls, of all the people with Alters in Humbugg, Sikrat had the greatest grudge against this creature. Not only had it killed dozens of people if this incident was to be counted as well, but it had completely upheaved both of their lives. Jessica had lost her brother, and, sure, he was “back”, but… he was different. She didn’t like thinking about him. This creature had ripped a piece of the soul of her household and malformed it. She couldn’t forgive it for that, not for the pain her brother surely had gone through those few moments before his “death”.

To Kratos, the situation was somewhat amplified. Status as Evil God aside, that certain event aside, all those horrible evil deeds aside, this creature had harmed his friend. Adam. “Harmed” was an understatement, no, what Antenora had done was beyond that. They hadn’t found a trace of Adam beyond a few scraps of clothing. He couldn’t imagine how Tiftos had taken it. Those two were practically brothers, and now… Gods only knew where Tiftos was now, but… This creature was a plight on Lutum, and here, it will only cause more destruction, more widows and more orphans. If even those remain.

The creature, black and green and horrible, shifted. Its heavy head turned to face its aggressor, finding Sikrat, perched upon its shoulder, sword dug into its flesh, drawing blood. White, soulless eyes peered at the lone magical girl. Their eyes were focused, bright and ready. The creature, trembling and unsteady, did not yield its gaze. It seemed… confused. Like a backstabbed ally, its gaze was sad.

Sikrat did not linger on it. Behind them, from the shadows the creature cast, a girl emerged, excitement hampered only by her own fear. Followingly closely, two sorcerers floated up, one as lax as anything, the other alternating between reverie and awe.

As a Beast of the Spirit, Adam could only truly be vanquished by sorcerers. The swordsman was of no significance. Tentacles could be regrown, and even if his head was lopped off, he could just absorb his body back in. That is, if he even had enough Magick to do that by now. Judging by the empty feeling in his chest, he barely even had enough to stand. If even that was possible. Somehow, the way that little red ant was looking at him made him pretty certain it didn’t want him standing. Or existing, for that matter.

And, sure enough, with teeth gritted and gaze narrowed, the little spirit of vengeance once more lunged at its much larger foe, two much too large swords in its hands.

It felt like fighting a titan. Sikrat knew very well that there were people who had battled the Evil God of war and something, whatever her name was, and although they certainly hadn’t won, this must have been what the felt at. Running along sickly protruding collarbones (which must have been an illusion of some sort, as they knew very well that creature had not a single bone in it), hands clutching at a pair of swords, trying desperately to land a good blow.

They knew this creature was not the kind that could be defeated by mere weapons. But, somehow, they knew something was off. Unlike the last time they had fought, the gashes and tentacles they’d cut off actually remained so, purple, clearly not edible goop gushing out as it would from an actual wound. Sikrat didn’t actually have any faith in being able to kill it by decapitating it, but considering how weakened it seemed, it might actually do something.

What truly gave Sikrat hope, however, was that they were backed up. Lily may have decided to fight only by attempting to stab the neck of it (and failing stupendously), but if Bro and Helio entered the fight, this creature wouldn’t stand a chance.

With newfound determination, Sikrat once more aimed for the neck and slashed deep. As it turns out, whatever acids this creature contained, they were powerful enough to melt steel. But Sikrat possessed the power to materialize and control swords, so every sword destroyed could be replaced instantly. Maybe they’d be a bit more effective if they ditched the “I’ll slash it myself” mentality, but the Kratos part was too frigid about his love for swords for that to happen.

At having its neck and several more tentacles almost fully removed, the creature threw its head up as if to scream, but not a sound came from its sealed lips.

It was enough. It was one tentacle too many, and with a final, uncertain quiver, the whole creature collapsed in on itself, tentacles falling atop buildings and streets, a fair few structures collapsing under the immense weight of the tentacles, bricks and insulation melting when covered with the acidic blood of the beast.

Adam’s main body fell onto the main street, where he was given a proper look at just how large he was compared to just hours before. Despite lying on his stomach, all four of his arms stretched out around him, only barely able to keep his head and chest off the ground, he was well over three times as high up as he normally was. So, his gaze was at about six metres.

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What his gaze met, at this lofty height, was the sight of about three white-and-blue bugs, the same kind as the ones he had travelled in before when going home for the first time in so long. If he’d had the Magick to, he was sure he could have lifted one in a single hand. Around these bugs, he could see various blue-dressed humans. Police, he remembered. The same as his father. Adam hoped John wasn’t here. That’d just make things somehow even more chaotic.

The people, there were just under a dozen of them, all had small, black things raised and pointed at him, or, rather, his head. With those two slashes to his neck, Adam was pretty sure his head would fall off at any second. He’d survived that once, but back then, he’d had the Magick to heal it instantly. Now… he wasn’t too sure.

Within only a few seconds, the form the red ant surfed down on their sword, before nimbly hopping off to stand right in front of Adam. Sword in one hand, they aimed it straight at Adam’s head: a warning. They knew that they were in control here. Adam hadn’t fought back any time they had met, and now would not be any different. They knew it, Adam knew it.

Soon, the other members rained from the sky as well. Both Helio and Bro floated down, one having wings of light, the other simply gliding along on a puffy, twilight-coloured cloud. Bro seemed to be puffing on that rosewood pipe of his. Adam recognized him immediately. He really shouldn’t have been surprised that Chad had transformed at some point, but this only cemented the fact that if Adam did anything, anything at all, somebody he really cared about could die. But, what this did mean, was that Chad hadn’t gotten hurt. Just that fact made Adam’s body relax a bit.

Sikrat noticed this change. They’d been as focused on the arriving sorcerers as they knew Adam had been, but even so, the way those beady white eyes had focused so intently on Bro of all people… There was something going on here. But that would have no wait.

From above, a squeaky sound could be heard. Like a steadily approaching mosquito, slowly coming closer and closer, until, finally, the sound could be recognized as screaming. Adam would have turned his head to look above, but he couldn’t. Instead, he was given a clear view of Sikrat going through the five stages of grief, from denial to anger, to bargaining, to depression, and finally acceptance.

And just as Sikrat accepted what was happening, a figure slammed into the ground. Well, more like they continued falling, straight into a shadow, to disappear forever, swallowed by the darkness. Forever only lasted a few seconds, however, before the cause, Lily, slowly crawled out of the shadow, like some beast of hell trying to escape.

“You-,,, h-, hey, we’re supposed to be a team!! You can’t just let me-,, hurghh” she said, before heaving over to release her body of her breakfast. Humans could be quite funny when they wanted to. Sikrat didn’t respond, and neither did Helio. Bro might have responded, but he looked far too high on whatever he was smoking to do anything but stare up at the sun. “I regret this.”

“Lily, I am not leaving this creature out of my sight. Raise your weapons and spirit,” Sikrat said cruelly. Man, that was cold. Stone cold crazy, that’s what. Then again, this did give Adam an idea. He had no Magick, but Bro and that other guy did. Adam did know a few spells he could use to steal Magick from them, but most of them either required Magick or direct touch, the latter of which was…

Adam glanced at one of his many hands. He could easily grab the one that wasn’t Bro, but if he did, there were many things that could go wrong. For one, Bro might not like him anymore. And considering that memories transferred over to Chad afterwards, the idea of having Chad always spooked of Adam (albeit in this form) was not an appealing one. But the far more logical reason was that if that sorcerer had any skill, which he most likely had, he could easily blast Adam’s hand to smithereens. What made this even worse was that if he did that, the acid and poison in Adam’s hand would splash over them, killing the whole bunch, including Bro.

this left Adam with only one option. Take a spell head-on, and try to absorb it the moment it makes contact with him. It would be risky and take a whole lot of skill, but skill was all Adam had. Once he absorbed the Magick from the attack by transferring their element to pure Magick, he could use Ingest to absorb all his blood and loose tentacles, and once he did that, he could use some spell to escape before using Humanification again.

“Wh-, who are you?! Identify yourselves!” one of the various policemen barked, gun still pointed at Adam. At least they had manners. Logic dictated that Sikrat would be the one to answer this, as they were the leader of the group at all times, it turned out, but Lily would not allow this moment to slip her by. Fully crawling out of the darkness, she stood tall, her robe billowing in the wind.

“We, officer, are the Yet-To-Be-Named Magical Girls! We have come to defeat this evil creature, using the magic in our hearts and souls! Do not fear-,”

“Um, dude, like, it’s Magick, not magic. Totally different,” Bro mumbled from over on his cloud, which he was still lying on top of, for some reason. Lily glared at him, teeth grating at being cut off.

“Magic.”

“Nah, like, Magick. With a K ‘n stuff.”

“-Anyhoo, officer, we are here to defeat this evil creature and bring peace to Humbugg!” Lily said, finishing her speech if only to finish it. Bro, in response to being completely ignored, took another puff of his pipe and went back to cloud-gazing, or whatever he was doing. But he wasn't completely ignored. Sikrat had noticed how he knew more than they did. Sikrat themselves would not have been able to remember that it was magic with a k, and Helio didn’t seem to have remembered it either.

Somehow, Bro knew something they didn’t. But considering what Bro was like, this wasn’t out of some sort of malintent or anything. He seemed too high to do anything of that sort. This all aside, that did leave them with this big creature to deal with. Its neck was almost completely bisected, and although it was clearly alive, it wasn’t moving at all. All it did was prop its torso up just a little.

Maybe… maybe Sikrat had been going at this all wrong? After all, this creature wasn’t inherently malicious, in fact, it seemed as much a victim of circumstance as they were. It had caused death and destruction, but if it wasn’t evil to begin with, was there any harm in just… speaking with it?

Yes, there was. Kratos, if he had been the only part of this fusion, would have known very well that the Evil Gods could not be bargained with. They took lives as they pleased, looted and pillaged and burned just for good measure. Not one of those heinous creatures was sinless. But Jessica was of a different nature. She was violent and almost cruel, but not hopeless. She was an optimist at heart, and if she believed there could be good in something, she wasn’t willing to give up on it.

Together, these two sentiments cause Sikrat to approach the creature. Curious eyes gazed down upon them, like one gazes at an insect, or an ant carrying a particularly large leaf. Interest and amusement lingered in those eyes. But beyond those two emotions, a third, despairing one lay hidden. Sikrat could see it.

“Creature of the deep. You have travelled far to get here, and so have I. So have those behind me. We do not wish to fight, and I suspect, neither do you. I do not speak for my teammates when I say you may not be of a malicious nature, I speak only for myself. Whether I am right or wrong, only you can confirm.”

Well, ain’t this a pickle. Without Magick, Adam will surely die. That is how his body works. But… now he’s being extended an olive branch? The red ant wishes for peace-?

If he wasn’t about five minutes from death, he might have accepted it. But as it was, his only hope of survival was being hit with a fireball to the face. If he wanted to live, he would have to play the bad guy, attack them, infuriate them… however he could do it, he would have to earn their ire.

Either he dies a hero, or he lives and becomes known as evil incarnate.

Whichever he picks, he’s doomed.

Oh, what a dilemma.