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The long night left the youma general incredibly weary, yet relieved. For all the toil and disappointment that stemmed from pursuing a means that excised the youma from his body, he finally discovered a method that may wholesale lift his soul from the wretched lump of flesh he inhabited. For that, he would adhere to any price - be it rending every splinter of bone from his own two legs, or backstabbing a morally ambiguous acquaintance.

Truthfully, he far preferred the latter to the former.

For that reason, he now leaned against one of the larger boxes in the unimpressive storage space, not far from where the great swath of fabric covered a looming mirror. And for a moment, he considered that the only thing preventing him from falling asleep entirely may be the sneaking suspicion that, somewhere beyond the mirror, the woman introduced to him might be watching - waiting.

Context of all events experienced alongside Zirconia allowed for a rudimentary plan to formulate - once Zirconia summons Cassandra, steal away the crystal and trade it for a one-way ticket out of his body and into the next. For all its simplicity, though, several glaring errors may yield from any attempt at navigating their strange dimensions. Once already he braved the bizarre confines of the mirror, a short trip though it was, and what he saw entailed a world that he couldn't possibly hope to understand. Zirconia's feverish babblings on the concept of navigating the mirror confirmed it.

For now, though, he sat wearily on the concrete floor, waiting for the arrival of the one who may just finish the job that purification so gloriously failed.

Ellie could have worn the smug grin of someone who was right and knew they were right. She had seen such smug expressions upon Zia's face several times. However, now was not the time or place for it. Instead, Ellie's face was fiercely serious as she listened to Noah's frustrations.

She barely even seemed to notice the fact the place was definitely a lot nicer than her parents' place as she followed the man. "I ain't makin' any promises... but I'll try to pull some punches if it comes down to it again...but... no promises..." Maybe it had something to do with being an observer when the coma epidemic happened that made the whole situation that much more suspicious to Ellie.

Putting special pet names (such as b*tch) aside, the blonde stated "...alright... so was Zia stupid enough t'bring that damned mirror home... literally home with her?"

Bischofite was starting to doze when the sound of smooth metal through a pulley system roused his attention. Most employees using the elevator stopped on the lobby floor at closest, giving him a margin of several feet without being heard. However, the elevator settled on his floor, where the great steel doors shuddered slightly before granting passage to the group therein.

And what a group it was.

Bischofite recognized the strength of some of the signatures - and one of the identities - before the motley crew stepped across the threshold. Zirconia's exceedingly uncanny aura sparked the first of his attentions, earning a measure of lax from him due to no need to hide himself away. However, the following signatures without looking over the top of the box yielded great cause for concern - among them, an eternal senshi, a knight, and a squire by feel. Quietly he seethed a breath through his teeth as the adrenaline, so often dead in his veins, wearily sparked to life. It looks like I may end up paying out the nose for even having a shot at this. Last time I met Zirconia, she had Kairatos in tow... And what are the chances that the knight signature is but his own? Perhaps enough of his passionate trust still remains in my name. I could use that.

The creature stood slowly and without intent to startle. Immediately he recognized Kairatos for his Roman armor and bull insignias, Zirconia for her entirely obvious cat parts, and the plainclothes Princess herself - Iris, this time donning an eternal's garb.

"Zirconia." Gold eyes shifted to the next target. "Kairatos." Then the blonde's. "I forgot your name." And lastly, the lilac-haired squire. "And I don't know yours. Quite ze party."

And entirely impossible for him to thwart, unless he had all the energy of the sun at his expenses. Instead, he reserved a meager trickle for all of one important teleport - and that was assuming he was in the right position to play that game. For now, he would watch.

It was a powering-up party in the elevator, and it didn't take long for Iris to join in (though hers was a tad more sparkly than the rest of the transitions). Due to the rush, she didn't get a chance to respond to now-Alfheim, but she had been up front about her stance.

No promises

The senshi couldn't say she was expecting anything in particular when the elevator door opened. However, what was there to greet them was definitely not on the immediate list of "things to expect." Already a bit on edge, the blonde tightened up a fist and leaned back a bit before fully comprehending who was there exactly.

It was only when the half-youma, half-man creature addressed everyone that the senshi seemed to ease up slightly. Only slightly, since clearly the General did not have manners enough to remember someone who had risked quite a bit for his benefit.

Not that Iris was the most evident example of manners in the world.

Cocking her head as she sauntered out of the elevator, Iris made a point of doing some introductions.

"Alfheim... this is Bischofite... Bischofite... this is Alfheim..."

Simple, to the point, and did not include her own name. If that b*****d couldn't be bothered to remember it, she wasn't going to remind him.

Kairatos' cries received a stern look from Iris, followed by a brief explanation. "Followed 'er a** over'ere after she woke up from a coma... that's all."

Natually Kairatos commenced with the Losing His s**t directive, to which Bischofite offered very little explanation: "Lurking isn't ze phrase zat I would use, Zirconia. I was taken here once before, Kairatos - by ze impossibly optimistic furbag to your right. It seemed a good idea to monitor how ze whole of zis... Exchange... Will come about. I am certain it will be somesing memorable, especially wis' ze lot of you involved.

"Alfheim." He nodded toward the squire. "We will likely never meet after zis. I hope you are prepared."

Yet in hindsight, the implication that he might be prepared himself fell gloriously short when Cassandra manifested her power over the lot of them. He could not, with either language, accurately explain the phenomena that occurred - it was nothing close to traveling through a mirror, where the weight of water pulled on his bones. No, he never touched the mirror - only Zirconia managed it, and only for an instant. From context alone, this was all Cassandra's power, and yet she managed to continue standing before them.

Now they stood amongst the evening tides of another realm, with nothing but a forest and a shrine further beyond to give the illusion of environment. The whole of the place lacked the eeriness he expected from her presiding over the Nightmare Realm - truly, by looking at the others, he found nothing of the sort. "Tartaros. Right." Mostly it looked benign, absent all the trees sporting eyelids and bleeding puncture wounds that he would've expected. Even the tiles themselves lacked the exciting presence of sandworms beneath their exterior. "Nossing here looks to qualify your realm here as a nightmare, Cassandra."

Nothing except for him.

The youma general, once himself merely unsettling in his appearance, now took on further egregious maladaptions that facilitated his subconscious expectation of weight on his back. While the human portion of him remained unchanged, his fingers knew more of a grooved, elongated look than before. Additionally, the wings he once knew before now looked curiously similar to those known in the strange dreams that heralded the future - no longer coated in feathers, they now loomed as bone constructs with nothing but a few tatters of leathery skin linking between the long fingers. Interestingly, the bones themselves lengthened far beyond what would normally be expected and thus dragged on the ground for several feet, appearing closer to soft cartilage.

Bischofite himself felt the drag of bone against earth the instant he took a step, and glanced backward to discover what became of his dream state. Biting his lip, he looked toward the sky for a moment before uttering his wholesale disgust for this reflection of himself. "<********. Me."

For all the atrocious visage, he certainly didn't feel any more powerful, or energetic, or even whole. Instead he tried desperately to focus on following the pair, Cassandra and Zirconia, without dwelling on his wretched appearance.

If anything, the whole ordeal had left Iris feeling vindicated. It wasn't exactly ideal to be brought someplace that a powerful Priestess seemed to have control over, but one had to try and adapt to it all.

If things hadn't happened so fast, the blonde might have attempted a partial wave or bow to the Priestess before being swept away into her realm. Upon reflex, her body cringed upon the initial sensation, and once it seemed over, her body slowly straightened up.

However, as her body moved, a familiar sensation seemed to catch her attention. "...what the...?"

Turning to look over her shoulders, she found two familiar shapes taking residence there. Though the shape was familiar, the coloring was off. Rather than taking a simple white color, the feathers seemed to shimmer and change of varying colors. As she stood gazing over the wings, they twitched and moved as if she was testing their functionality.

It was only after she seemed to accept her current form that she minded the rest of her uniform shifting to the dress many of them were familiar with. "...so much for remaining discreet..."

Giving one firm flap of her wings, the appendages folded up to a more restful position before she took to listening to the Mauvian's explanation.

"...oh... so it is you and not her..." the blonde stated flatly, not seeming any more enthusiastic at such a fact. Iris might not have had reason to dislike Zirconia yet, but the explanation was enough to irritate the Princess. Rather than get left behind, the tall woman tugged up the edges of her dress before moving forward.

This was no longer their realm. To be careless at this point would be a death sentence.

For bringing destruction and corruption wherever she goes, Zirconia is starting to sound like a more accessible and faster paced Metallia, albeit with far less power that I've seen. How peculiar. It looks like we've unwittingly sat in on a politics game, with no idea of who might be the dirtier player. Cassandra, though... She's not exactly winning my loyalties. Time to make things interesting.

"Nightmares are a form of Chaos itself. You, Cassandra, haf' at least zat much in common wis' Zirconia, if zat is somesing you're so ashamed of. Everysing naturally approaches disorder, or entropy." And you're both very good at playing the bullshit game. And here I don't have the knowledge to even make a viable player... But even death barters better than living on like a starving rat.

Let's play some games.

Running felt undeniably awkward beneath the protest of his emaciated legs, but he paid it little heed. The wings would have to adjust to trailing on the ground or simply hang limp as they would without tendons. It didn't matter. The pounding of footsteps held no interest to him while adrenaline beat furiously, urging him on a path to steal the ornate box and further send negotiations of this strange interim dimension straight to hell. There was no reason against it. Safety didn't matter anymore when his only promise upon return was more of the same slogging months of life spent lurking in shadows and borrowing on goodwill and ploy.

The box met claws in a fumbling grip, but he snatched it nonetheless. Momentum carried him several feet further, into the decorum hosted by the garden, and he soon stopped short to whirl around toward the party. Soft bone twined about his legs loosely, spraying outward in a fan of spines at his feet. The box felt unusually light, but it didn't matter in the moment.

"Since your decision is no, zen I suppose it's alright to just shatter this golden chunk of rock into dust, is it not? And Zirconia, I suppose somesing is amiss wis' ze forest if you're motivated enough to warn against it. So how about zis crystal and I go wandering off into ze woods and you two return to your inane prattling about rightful succession to a srone zat we will never even see.

"I'll say it again, Cassandra. You can take my starseed to your dimension wis' zis crystal, or you can watch me skip into ze woods wis' your most prized possession. Your choice."