VioLinja leaned forward, still playing her violin from atop Gisella's shoulder. She spoke with smug cheer, more to herself than to anyone else.

"Who is this fool?" she asked, unaware it was Gumi. "And why aren't you running?"

Gumi silently stared up at VioLinja, her pick hovering over the strings of her guitar.

"Gumi? Is that you?"

As the trio stared at one another, VioLinja's music made its way down to Gumi. She was playing a balletic lullaby, both fateful and romantic. It spoke of a jilted lover and her descent into madness; a staccato dance with death.

VioLinja seemed to be playing it right into Gisella's ear.

"I can't believe it's you!" VioLinja said, practically cheering. "Oh, I'm glad you're here. Things have gotten so out of hand since you've been gone. It's like I can't obliterate evil fast enough. Why, it's everywhere!"

Gumi had no intention of wasting her precious Powder of God talking to the person who started all the chaos. But the lilt in VioLinja's voice dumbfounded Gumi. When coupled with the hypnotic Folie de Deux VioLinja was playing, words were forced from Gumi's mouth.

"What are you talking about?"

VioLinja played with vibrato as she next spoke, both her voice and her violin sounding happy. "It has been a nightmare! I mean, I'm sorry for what I did to you. It was a big mistake!"

"Obliterating people without the Powder of God is always wrong. It will lead to ruin."

VioLinja agreed wholeheartedly. "Yes! And now, look at what's happened. The world is just… it's coming apart. Why, it's falling to pieces!"

Gumi nodded in agreement. She was still in awe of the giantess Hunter had called Gisella. And indeed, in awe of everything she'd seen since escaping Hell.

"It's not right to obliterate good people," she said up to VioLinja.

"Who said I was obliterating good people? I would never do that! Obliteration rids the world of evil."

Gumi gained a bit more composure. She prepared to blast VioLinja with the best obliteration chord she knew as the two continued exchanging pleasantries.

"You're not performing The Winnowing," Gumi said. "How do you know who's good and who's evil?"

VioLinja laughed in full throat, playing her violin with gusto. "Oh, little Gumi-chan. You're so naive! I don't need to perform The Winnowing in order to tell who's evil."

"Yes you do."

"I've seen what The Winnowing has done to you. Why, it's killing you! Without the Powder of God in your vocalizer, you can hardly speak. And you certainly can't sing! I know who's evil without letting the Powder of God eat away at my face."

"The Powder of God has consequences. With responsibility comes sacrifice."

VioLinja grew menacing. "The Powder of God is for fools! By earning the right to obliterate evil, I've been granted an awesome power. Yet you squander yours, wasting time performing The Winnowing when you could be destroying evil faster. Ha! You're letting this so-called responsibility destroy you!"

Gumi remained resolute. "I know what I'm doing. You don't."

Again, VioLinja laughed. "You have no face! I mean, really. Let me see. Take off your mask, little Gumi-chan. Let's see what the Powder has done."

Embarrassed, a flush of red sparked Gumi's snow-white cheeks. "I know what it does. I don't have to show you."

VioLinja took in her surroundings, turning carefully so as to not fall from her perch, or strike Gisella with her bow. "Well then, could you help out a bit? I mean, in case you haven't noticed, all Hell has broken loose around here since you've been gone."

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VioLinja then stared at Gumi intensely. "And speaking of Hell breaking loose, how did you escape, anyway? Weren't you the first person I sent there?"

"I was," Gumi said, nodding slowly. She prepared to obliterate VioLinja at any moment. "You sent Miku next, and she was an angel. She's never wronged a single soul, ever in her life. Yet you obliterated her."

VioLinja's music crescendoed, rising with her ire. "She questioned my judgment! She insulted me! She said sending you to Hell was wrong!"

Gumi blinked at that. Apparently, what Hunter had said before being obliterated was right.

VioLinja was freaking bananas mad.

"And what about Hunter? What did he do that was wrong?"

"Who the hell is Hunter?"

"He used to be the guy where this hole is now."

VioLinja scoffed a bit. 'Oh. Him. Well…"

VioLinja's performance faltered as she thought about her answer. Gisella faltered as well, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, almost as if she had stumbled. Gumi pressed VioLinja further, sensing the advantage.

"The Winnowing sorts good people from those who are evil. Miku tricked you into obliterating her so she could save me. She sacrificed her life for mine. An evil person wouldn't do that. Miku wasn't evil."

VioLinja played abstractly as Gumi's words soaked in. She began noodling with the notes of the composition. As she did, Gisella again stumbled, the motion further hampering VioLinja's performance. Gisella parted her lips as if to speak, bending a bit down towards Gumi.

"Miku saved you?" VioLinja asked Gumi. "You escaped Hell because she helped?"

"She brought my guitar to me. As a weapon against evil, I used it to destroy Hell.

"You destroyed Hell? All of it?"

Gumi again nodded, never taking her eyes off VioLinja, who sawed at her violin. She peppered her interpretation of the melody she played with flourishes, forcing Gisella to stand at attention.

"You didn't destroy Hell, you bitch! You set it loose on the world!"

Gumi inhaled sharply, knowing VioLinja was right. It was bad enough coming to the conclusion on her own, but far worse to be accused of it by a maniac like VioLinja. Rage boiled inside Gumi, filling her with self-hatred. She had vowed to rid the world of evil, yet by destroying Hell, she had set the world on a path towards ruin.

Gumi spoke calmly, to convince herself of the truth behind her words as much as to convince VioLinja. "I had to escape from Hell. I have to stop you from obliterating good people."

Rage now boiled in VioLinja as well. It flew from her strings, directed at Gumi. And as VioLinja hammered on her violin, Gisella readied her Stratocaster bass guitar.

"I'll show you how I perform The Winnowing!" VioLinja screamed.

Aiming for the pickup on Gisella's guitar, Gumi blasted out a power chord a scant half-beat before Gisella could pluck a string. It caused enough feedback in the Stratocaster to keep the note from coming out.

Gisella blinked, as if wondering what had happened. She then played another note. To that, Gumi let loose another chord, aiming this one at VioLinja's head. She ducked to avoid it, forcing Gisella to shift her weight. This sent the blast of Gisella's second note a bit to Gumi's right. As concrete and dust flew from where it struck, Gumi sprang into action. She ran at Gisella, passing between her legs. VioLinja and Gisella both looked down, watching Gumi pass by. As she did, she directed her next chord straight up at their faces.

Gisella reared back to avoid getting obliterated, tottering on her heels. Now behind her adversaries, Gumi hid behind a ventilation shaft just outside the Concert Hall, using the decorative concrete cube as a shield. But another note from Gisella's monstrous guitar blew the shaft to pieces. Gumi fired off chords in all directions, ducking and diving and rolling to avoid being obliterated by one of Gisella's notes.

Now using the dust and flying debris as a shield, Gumi raced back inside the Concert Hall. The thuds of Gisella's ballerina flats were close behind. Gumi hid inside her dressing room. She picked her way through the maze of broken props that were there. She got on her hands and knees to crawl further into them. Dust and dirt were everywhere, all of it thick with cobwebs.

Gumi found a spot as far into the props as she could crawl. There she sat in silence, barely allowing herself the luxury of breathing. The sound of Gisella and VioLinja crashing about while searching for her seemed to come from all directions. As Gumi hid, she noticed a trail of rat droppings leading through the props. With scant hope she followed the trail, bending and twisting her way through more junk. Being as quiet as a mouse, she poked about.

While moving broken bits and pieces out of her way, she made a heartwarming discovery. There, laying open and disgusting, was her bag of the Powder of God. Its contents were spilt on the ground through a dozen rat-chewed holes. With careful precision, her belly flat on the filthy floor, Gumi recharged her vocalizer with as much reasonably clean Powder of God as she could collect. She then drew out several lines and, in the filth, snorted them into her nostrils.

The feeling of confidence that the Powder of God gave Gumi played against the pain of her necrosis, as some of the powder shot out the holes rotting through her lips and sinuses. Still, feeling recharged and safe, Gumi decided that she would hide no more. It was time to face VioLinja.

As Gisella crashed about in search of her, Gumi bolted from her hiding spot. She gathered up an amplifier, a cassette deck, some practice tapes, and her megaphone.

And then high-tailed it for the rooftop of the Concert Hall. From there, she would have her final confrontation with VioLinja.

And with her, giant Gisella.