Blessed Sacrament [THE END]

Hey guys.

Agrona returns to the school she was imprisoned in and intends to make her dreams of godhood a reality. Beata Academy's defenders are walled up within the main school building, ready to fight.

posting plan
1. My first post.
2. Your lovely replies. Your characters are doing whatever you have planned for them. Finish up your posting in other plot topics during this step please.
3. I will post again.
4. Our designated heroes will handle Agrona.
5. I will post one last time. The site will end.

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Autumn was returning to Beata Academy. There was a smear of red and gold in the hills, and a hint of ice in the wind, sending dead leaves skittering across the abandoned streets. Kayla shivered as she stepped out onto the road. A legion of men and women in black were blinking into being all around her, as if stepping through invisible doors. Just seconds ago, they had been standing in the wreckage of the old mansion, but Agrona had taken them here with just the lightest brush of her fingers. She appeared last, and the crowds parted as she strolled her way toward the front of the pack, a current of soldiers swirling in to fall behind her.

Rosebury was a ghost town. She remembered her last summer here, and how such a small, crowded place could feel so busy and alive when classes were over and the sun was shining. There was no buzz of conversation, no snippets of overheard gossip, no piercing laughter that could be heard through the hum of people, just the tread of heavy footsteps. The shops were all boarded up, as if it mattered, but others left in more of a hurry, doors hanging open to darkened homes, where she could still see pictures hanging on the walls.

All it took was one Esper message. You have less than 24 hours. Yield or die.

Maybe they all ran, and that meant they could all just call it a day. She felt her insides tying into knots, familiar faces lurking in her thoughts, and being forced to wonder if she would have to look any of them in the eye today.

Beata Academy loomed ahead of them, its sharp silhouette etched against the sky like the outline of a battleship. The red bricks and yellowing trees took on a gray cast in the pre-dusk gloom. Her breath hitched in her throat as they approached the gates, and she almost faltered on the fateful step over the campus boundary, but she kept up her purposed stride, staring up at the school windows through her bangs. There were no traces of life in the courtyard, just the trickle of the still-gushing fountain and the whisper of wind through the leaves.

She ground her teeth. It wasn't as if she hadn't thought about blowing the damn place up herself once or twice, but leaving this shitty school was the hardest thing she'd ever forced herself through, and she'd done it for Lain. For Lain, she would've done anything, killed anybody they wanted her to, that's what had made this arrangement bearable. But he took her. Right when she had her, within arm's reach, even if it was only as a prisoner, he'd taken her. Was he doing her a favor? Or Lain? Because if she wasn't doing all this right now for Lain, then who the hell was she doing it for?

Trying to come to terms with it in her head just gave her a migraine. It was easier if she was just pissed off. Kayla gazed up through the tall upper windows, freezing in place when she caught a stir of the curtains, the shadow of movement. A grand piano came crashing through the glass, as if flung from a trebuchet, and crashed among Agrona's forces. Kayla flinched from the sickening splinter of wood, bones, and keys, and that's when hell came alive on the grounds of Beata Academy.

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Beata's heavy oak doors were braced with stone and steel and propped up with a barricade of furniture. Students crowded the halls, teachers, Guardians, and the helpless with nowhere else to run, everyone who had stayed behind to fight rather than flee or surrender. Addison ran her palm over the sleek surface of a metal bat, dented in where she'd slammed it against some freak in a suit, back in Europe... This was the fight of their lives, and she'd shown up with a little league softball bat. She needed a gun, a knife, even a can of pepper spray... and maybe if she asked around, somebody would have a spare sword just lying around somewhere, that she could use. People were weird like that here.

But what would she do with a weapon like that, if one just slipped into her hands? Would it even make a difference?

Somewhere upstairs, there was shattering glass. It's started. Fear jolted her heart, and her eyes flashed toward the front doors, dilating into slow motion as the barricade melted into whiteness. She saw it before she heard it, a beam of blue light blasting through the doors, and then a sound like a clap of thunder, or the kickback on a Howitzer. Black cloaks spilled in through the opening in the wall, and the school halls erupted with violence and the cacophony of slaughter.

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Phoebe didn't move. Not at first. The school, despite all its renovations, still had the same austere and dour facade. To look up at it now was like looking up at it for the first time all over again. Father had carried her up the steps, because he hadn't left any feeling in her arms or legs, and whispered to her how it would be their new home. She only remembered being locked in his gentle sway, catching glimpses of the exterior through half-lidded eyes, listening to his uneven breathing. It'd been fifteen years since she'd last been forced to endure the sight of this place, but seeing it now was like a poison being extracted from her chest, leaving her with a rushing exhilaration.

Her home. After she leveled it to the ground, she'd build something far grander. A glittering city! Or even better, she could let the forest grow over the ruins, and let the world forget there was ever anything here besides clean and empty wilderness.

Agrona could taste victory. She started into a casual stride through the hole where the doors had once been, two of her favorite pets falling in at her flanks. On her right, her faithful servant, a curiosity without a name. On her left, the little unkempt Katherine, dark eyes reflecting the gleam of electric currents. They cut through the maelstrom of fighting, past columns of flames and stepping over puddles of gore, down the stairs and past rows of disused offices, toward the door at the end of the hall. A flickering light stretched out from beneath the frame.

"Paradise," she breathed. "The Island."

When she reached out for the brass knob. The room might have been a water closet originally, but when she opened the door, she could sense the anxiety quicken in the little girl beside her. A white veil, like a curtain of static electricity, stretched across the entryway. It pulsed with a stormy gray light, sinking into a swirling vortex that seemed to stretch on into infinity. Leaning into it, she could swear she could hear whispers in a language she couldn't understand, and yes, the portal was drawing her in, calling to her... Wind enveloped her, swaddled her limbs, there was the roar of blood in her ears, and she let herself plunge into the dimensional current.

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Kayla swallowed back vomit as her knees folded under her, hands sinking into fine white sand. She clumsily found her feet as the nausea subsided, the same queasiness that always took her when she traveled here. Too many times. Swallowing, she glanced around her, at the outline of overgrown ruins in the vegetation, the black sea that lapped up against the shore... The fight was outside. Why were they wasting their time here?

"Collect yourself, Croft." The witch crossed her arms, ruby eyes glinting in the half-light that swathed the Island. "This privilege is wasted on you."

What privilege is that supposed to be?

She almost voiced it out loud, but felt her tongue curdle in her mouth when Agrona's voice cut in. "Now, now. Be civil." Her saccharine tone sent ice down Kayla's spine, and she and the woman with no name fell into silence, falling in behind their master as she spoke. "Katherine, you don't come from a gifted family, so you didn't grow up with our stories. Have you ever heard the legend of the oasis?"

Electricity flickered in her palm. "No." Oasis. She'd heard the term thrown around here and there, but she couldn't keep track of all the evil monologues. "Is that why we're here?"

"That is precisely why, Katherine." They trekked through a tunnel of huge curling ferns, trampling over peculiar flowers, pushing deeper and deeper into the heart of the Island. Kayla raised her eyes upwards, toward a flattened plateau ridged with twisted trees. "I was obsessed with my father's fables when I was a little girl. His stories about the oasis was my favorite.

"Everything you see now was once part of a great kingdom. The gods catered to humanity's every want and need, but they lived like beasts in the field. One day, while picking flowers in the meadow, a beautiful goddess laid eyes on a mortal man, and at once her heart became sick with longing. She desired him for a husband, but her brothers were outraged, and sent terrible creatures to rip the man to pieces."

"Did she save him?"

"The birds whispered to her what they had overheard the brothers plotting. Against her father's advice, she hurried as fast as she could to the meadow, and despaired to find it was the truth. She wept over the sight of her dead lover, and desperate and sorryhearted, bore the pieces away on a soft and fragrant breeze, carrying her dead lover to the sacred spring where her ancestors had been laid to rest. She walked into the waters with her dead lover bundled in her arms and let herself drown. But with the goddess' sacrifice, the man re-emerged whole and reborn from the spring, with godlike gifts and divine might to match the immortals who had been so cruel to them. He avenged himself on his lover's family and brought his people out from docile slavery into a new age."

Kayla couldn't help but glower, despite her instincts to stay silent.

"What a shitty story to tell your kid."

The words slipped out before she could restrain herself, and she felt a sudden pang of anxiety in her gut, but Agrona just gave a sharp bark of laughter, as harsh as the splitting of swords. "Yes, perhaps. My father wasn't interested in star-crossed romance. Only his studies." They were nearing the lip of the plateau. Kayla felt a tightening in her throat as the shadows deepened around them, being led under the shade of strange-leafed trees. "Now I know it was more than just a fairy tale. It was my life dream to find this place and now I have." The curtain of foliage peeled back as they approached.

A still pool of dark water stretched out ahead of them, so dark that it was almost black, like a puddle of oil. No grass or flowers or trees grew near the barren shore, and her sneakers slicked over mud as they came closer to the water, electric currents flickering involuntarily between her fingers. She found herself getting lost in its depths, being drawn closer to the waterline. The oasis? Was this what you could call an oasis? "Why here?" Electricity crackled in her hair, a twinge of disbelief seeping into her voice. Just when she thought she had a grasp of what this was all about, she was left feeling more clueless than before. "All of this, the suits, the killing, it's to chase your bedtime story? What is this place really?"

"Silence, Croft—..." the woman with no name started.

Agrona merely stepped out, her hands gliding gently over Kayla's shoulders. Sparks ran harmlessly over her pale fingers, numb to the shock. "Katherine. You've disappointed me. From the very first day, you've disappointed me. You were born with a great power you can't even harness, and if I were to strip it away, you would become nothing. Just a girl." Her voice bordered on a whisper, almost motherly in its tenderness, despite the acrimony in her words. "I already have what I required from you and your sister. Now there's no place for you left, no one that would take you. Don't you understand? This place is exactly how I described it to you. This spring is the fountain from where all gifts were molded. Your sacrifice will make me a god." With a sharp shove, Kayla went plunging into the water.

She sank like a stone, as if sucked in by an invisible current. The cold shocked her system, but it wasn't cold as she'd ever experienced it. The chill sank into her core, a devouring cold that seemed to engulf her and strip the flesh from her bones. Her legs churned and kicked, searching for purchase, but the pool seemed to have no bottom, and she continued to sink, and sink, into oblivion. Water flooded into her mouth, up her nose, forcing down into her lungs. Bubbles exploded from her mouth.

Her head flashed back above the water. Seconds ago, she'd felt like she was drowning in an infinite ocean. Now, the water barely sloshed up above her knees, but the cold hadn't left her. Kayla sucked in a deep gasp of air, electricity flicking out from her arms as she found her feat. "I..." Exposed to the air, she thought she might crystallize and blow into dust. I'll kill you... That's what she wanted to say. The biting freeze only seemed to sharpen, deepen, until it burned like an oil fire coursing through her blood. "Ah... Agh..." Her quick and shallow breaths started to come out in puffs of steamy vapor, as the water began to evaporate from her skin. She felt like a candle burning from two ends, wicks for each arm. Her head felt like a stick of dynamite, racing, rushing, melding, blending as she clutched at herself.

She'd never gotten to see him one last time after all.

"Magnificent..." Agrona watched starry-eyed from the shore, hands clasped under her chin in either prayer or girlish excitement. "So the stories were true."

"Master." The woman with no name stepped back, with no more mocking sneers or harsh commands. "What have you done?"

"I'm seeing what it does."

She felt like she was being unstitched and unraveled like an old sweater.

"Stop..." she breathed. "I won't let you... The flame sparked to life in the pit of her stomach, spreading up her chest, blazing into an inferno that threatened to consume her from the inside out. Feverish heat filled her skull, the ends of her hair starting to crisp and curl. The firing hammer cocked back in her head. Blood trickled from her nose. Her eyes flashed, turning from mousy brown to the color of burnished copper, the vapor weaving into a mass of storm clouds that spread out across the oasis' stagnant surface. Kayla stood wreathed in lightning bolts, white currents threading down her arm, arcing up to the tips of her fingers, rubbing her thumb against her middle finger.

A swell of energy roiled up from within her and exploded out. Snap. Thunder flashed across the lake. There was a splitting of flesh, the shatter of bones. Lightning blasted out from her finger tips, a white shaft of light that sliced through the trees and mountainside, tearing a pinhole in the gray clouds that had gathered over the Island. Her vision faded back to a world with muted colors as the blinding radiance faded, a thin red mist hanging in the air where her arm had been only a moment before. The woman with no name fell away into black ash as Kayla staggered back, conscious thoughts rapidly empty out of her head. Shit. Shit. She couldn't d̴̀i͞͞ę̀.

The hum of electric currents dissipated into silence as they fizzled out, her whole body swaying in the shallows of the dark spring. Agrona blinked back into view just as her eyesight began to dim, and began to clap. "Truly magnificent." Kayla flopped back into the water, sinking soundlessly back into the blackness.

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Phoebe stood alone on the shore of the oasis. When they looked back on her reign, they would say it began today. She shrugged off her black coat, slipping out of her shoes, letting her slacks puddle around her feet before setting her first step into the water, and at once she began to feel its cleansing power.

Yes.

This was the moment she had been born for.

That day would go down as one of those "Where were you when _____ happened?" kind of days. Barry, Edward, Erik, Paris, Thomas, and Christopher were at the school, ready to defend. Mikaela and William were defending the children, scared for the life of the little ones. Sophie and Fauntleroy ran immediately after the Esper message. Neither of them had gotten attached enough to care about the school so they ran. Nobody blamed them. Kaito, however, was panicking amongst the crowd. He needed to get out but he still didn't have a good enough handle on his gift to use it reliably. The only thing he could do was hope for the best. He concentrated and felt the familiar feeling coming up in his nose. Sneezing, funnily enough, activated his gift. As he sneezed, he felt a few touches. If he got a few other students out as well then so be it.

Barry, Ed, and Erik were some of the first to charge into battle. They all wore metal gloves to increase the impact and the damage of their fists, moving faster than the speed of sound. The moved around the battlefield, not staying with one target much longer than a few milliseconds to try and increase the range of their attack. Even if it didn't take the enemies out, it sure weakened them. Erik was the first to get hit. He quickly stumbled to a halt and Ed was the first to notice him. He sped over to the younger Speedster and helped him stand. His leg was slashed, but it wasn’t life-threatening. He still couldn’t run, however. Together, Ed and Erik speed-stumbled back towards the Beata militia, so Erik could get something to stop the bleeding. As they were making their way back an Island Creature reared back and grabbed Ed, pulling him backwards. He pushed Erik and told him to make a run for it. Erik hesitated but nodded, hobbling back to safety. He approached the makeshift fort and Chris tended to his wound, using his gift to chill it to serve as a makeshift ice pack. The white-haired boy wrapped the Speedster’s leg in a bandage and gave him the go-ahead to get back out there.

Ed turned back to the creature to see a giant troll-like being. Trying as hard as he could, the Speedster punched and kicked in an attempt to get free. That only served to anger the troll creature. It threw the silver-haired boy against a rock and he landed hard, the breath being knocked out of him. As he lay there dazed, his legs splayed in front of him, the troll brought down one massive fist on his left leg, completely shattering it. Ed screamed in pain; pain he had never experienced before. Ed couldn’t get away now. He knew this was the end. He screamed at the unintelligent creature to just end it already, to get it over with. As the troll was about to bring the same massive fist down on his head, a bolt of lightning struck the creature in the head, completely vaporizing it. It fell backwards with a thud and Ed sighed with relief before the threat of death wore off and the pain came rushing back. Paris was soon by his side, doing the same thing Ed had done to Erik. This time, the Speedster had to lean very heavily on the Andrews boy. As soon as Ed was safely tucked away at Beata’s base camp, Paris dashed back out to rejoin the battle. Chris did all he could, which at that point was just numb the wound with his gift, but it didn’t look good. The look on the makeshift medic’s face was all Ed needed to know that his running days were more than likely over.

Barry, however, was doing pretty well for himself. He was going through creatures and nameless Agrona Supporters left and right it seemed, fueled by an unquenchable fury that had built up over months and months of unhealthy coping mechanisms. Despite getting cut and scratched and bruised, he kept fighting as if nothing had touched him. It was probably the adrenaline, but it was partly the sheer will of the Speedster. It was almost as if nothing could stop him. Almost. Shortly after hearing his twin brother’s scream, he stopped dead in his tracks for a split second, his heart skipping a beat. He was quickly thrown out of his daze, however, as people and creatures kept attacking him. He didn’t have time to see if Ed was okay. In the back of his mind he knew he was at least still alive; that sort of twin intuition kind of thing.

Thomas and Chris were back at “base camp” as makeshift medics for those that came in who needed on-the-spot treatment to be either sent to a medical facility shortly or to get back out there. Chris had already treated two of the Speedster clan, and Thomas had seen his fair share of cuts and broken bones. They thanked whatever Power Above that neither of them had to go into combat just yet.

Manila didn't know what to do. She was afraid. She made no progress with her gift at all in the time she was here. She wanted to help her siblings but she knew she was dead wright. All she could do was run. The brown haired girl had turned and started to run away from the mess. She could see another student just standing there. She reached her hand out to get the boy to start moving but as soon as she did, it felt like she disappeared.

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Ed.. Where was Ed? Rose was running through the chaos. Her first instinct was to run, but she just couldn't leave Ed behind. He was the only one who kept her sane at the end of the day. The brown haired girl moved through the area, not caring about the cuts or wounds she got. If someone got to close she would stun them long enough for her to get through. Her gift was reaching for everyone it could find and eventually when she made it to the base camp she turned it off.

Rose looked around the base camp looking for the familiar form of Ed. Brown eyes looking around with worry. So many people some of them in very bad situations, but some where better off than others. Soon enough she found the boy she was looking for. Rose didn't say anything to Ed, she just sat down beside him trying to give him some comfort in the very bad situation.

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Eliza was stuck in her own little situation. She didn't know where she could possibly go but she knew that she had to somehow defend herself. So she sat in a little safe corner, using her gift to keep everyone at bay. She barricaded herself in, if they tried to get through she used her gift to toss them away. This was the only way she could keep herself safe. She had too.

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Magic knew this day was going to come. He tried to be prepared for it as best as he could. He hoped that Adeline was okay but he couldn't let the school go defenseless. With a random sharp weapon in hand the boy used his gift to knock back the monsters, and the enemies. Some of them got torn apart by the sound while others who wondered to close received a fatal blow from his weapon. He had his own wounds but he didn't pay them any mind. He had felt worse.

This was the only place he had left. The only place he could call home. The place who had people he cared for still, people he loved dearly. Laine was the only good thing in his old home. He was going to give everything he had for this place and defend it at all costs. He let a small sigh before stepping back into the battle, fighting more monsters.

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Janya, and Finn both fled the place not neither of them strong enough to fight in this battle. Both felt bad for abandoning the place but they had to keep themselves safe. They couldn't risk their life for a place they were only at for a short time.

From the direction of the makeshift camp a hail of arrows and crossbow bolts erupted, some of which headed straight for some of Barry's attackers. Together several of them fell with pierced heads, necks, and hearts. The beasts and people in black who weren't felled by one projectile or another soon found themselves being charged as men and women wielding all manner of tribal and medieval weaponry charged over a rugged barricade that served as the camp's last line of defense. At the front of the charge was Montare with a shortsword in either hand, one of which he thrust into the first monster in his path, immediately bringing his other sword down on its head. The sound of its skull cracking was shortly followed by its form collapsing onto the bloodied ground whilst Montare drew his blades from it. All around him his clansmen fought back against Agrona's own army and the monsters from the island that they had unleashed. Before Montare could find another opponent to fight, one came to him as a man in black came at him, combat knife in hand. The next thing the man knew, however, he was impaled on Montare's sword and being shoved off of it and onto the ground. Montare continued on, cutting down every enemy in his path, his swords, clothes, and green and grey cloak getting increasingly saturated with the blood of humans and monstrosities alike. Never before had he seen or brought about so much death, but he couldn't afford to let that faze him now. The smallest mistake could spell doom for him, so he focused on fighting, cutting down a man here, decapitating a monster there.

Only when dozens had fallen before him like wheat to a scythe did he return to the camp, growing tired from all the fighting. As he watched some of his wounded clansmen being brought back to see medical help while the bodies of others began to litter the school grounds that had begun to masquerade as a warzone, Montare wanted nothing else than to put an end to this battle. But, the enemy's leader was no where to be seen.

Pax and Anima both had been fortunate enough to make contact with Kaito when he sneezed, and when he vanished, so did they.

Stavros made his way to and fro through the camp, doing what he could to help take care of those who came back wounded. Not being much of a doctor himself, he put himself to use primarily by mentally triaging the growing number of injured students and Guardians. He'd also made sure to memorize and plan out several escape routes from where they were in the case that the camp started to get overrun and running like hell became his best hope for survival.

Kenelm would've fled when danger came if this damned school wasn't the only place that felt even half like a home to him. Where was he going to go if it fell? Due to his lack of any remotely good answer to that question, he stayed and fought. Every now and again some monster or member of Agrona's army would find themselves being stabbed in the back by the eagle winged-boy, only for him to rip his tri-dagger free and fly off again.

The halls had been flipped into choke-points, lockers and desks and tables piled to form barricades, classrooms and offices transformed into camps and and the peaceful school grounds transformed into a war zone. This was nothing new to him, the slaughter and carnage or the smell of charred flesh, but Ryan felt his stomach twisting into knots whenever his eyes fell on the corpse of a kid younger than him.

His uncle had been murdered in this building, and his father had never forgiven the slight on their family honor, whatever that was. That's what this had been all about for him. But now his father was dead too. Who did he have to declare war on for that? In the end, he guessed it just boiled down to being on the winning side. Soon it'd be all over. Maybe then, he could take it easy and forget about all of this.

It's either them or me.

But this wasn't what he wanted.

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Blood and tattered fabric spread up the wall in an arc, like a gallon of paint splashed across white canvas, oozing down to soak the wood floorboards. She stalked down the hall, flushed and breathless, red dripping from her dark stained nails. "Come out, come out, come out..." She saw him scamper somewhere this way... People had tried to get in her way. A big scruffy bearded man, and a thin blonde lady, but she hadn't liked that, so she'd made them disappear. Pop! Oh, the master would be so pleased with her, she couldn't wait, she couldn't wait, she couldn't wait she couldn't wait she couldn't wait.

Hey! There he was! A little boy with hair the color of wheat. And wherever he went, that's probably where the others were too. Oh, she couldn't wait. The barest glimpse of him disappearing around the corner, the echo of his receding footsteps, she could feel her blood rushing as she ran and turned and...

"Ryan?"

There was a flood of overwhelming heat, a flash of light, the roar of flame.

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Agrona emerged from the pool, flipping back her dripping hair. Her eyes flashed open, with a fire coursing through her heart and a flood of vivid new sensation across her skin, like a whole new spectrum of experience opening up before her. She breathed in the sulfuric air of the Island, filling fresh lungs. I did it... A girlish giggle exploded from her lips. She had done what her Father was too weak to do. And now this school, his legacy, she could wipe it all into dust. Gifted kindred would no longer live in hiding and shame. Her beautiful city would find a place for every misfit and outcast.

The portal bulbed out from the closet, like a plasma screen, slowly expanding, bubbling. A shadow faded into view, then a hand reaching out from the vortex, as if to part the veil of light. As soon as the woman in all black stepped back into the world of tangible reality, there was an instant flip in the atmosphere, like the flick of a switch, an unnatural cold that flooded throughout the entire building.

She moved like a wraith through the walls, and the halls seemed warped and distorted when viewed through the thick miasma that seemed to flow off her. Approaching her invited madness. Those who did, as she first walked out into the open, in view of all her subjects, melted to the floor in fits of convulsions, raw screams, or hideous, screeching laughter. And those who dared to look at her right in her face, in her blue eyes, some struck out their own eyes, while others knelt in servile capitulation, babbling out pleas for mercy.

At long last, her reign would begin.

One moment the battlefield was full of battle cries, weapons clashing, and blood being splattered every which way. The next every man, woman, and beast was collapsing as if the very life had been sucked out of them and reduced them to mere husks. Then the screaming began, shattering the silence as quickly as it came. Montare found himself on his hands and knees trembling before he even knew what was happening, utter horror weighing on his body as if trying to flatten and crush him against the ground. In defiance of this feeling he pushed himself up onto his feet uneasily to find that he was among only relatively few who were still standing. Picking up his swords, Montare started to march off towards Agrona, his feet feeling heavier and heavier with every step. However, his pace didn't slow. He'd cut her down himself if he had to; she'd join all of her minions that laid slain on the blood-soaked grass.

For a split second overwhelming horror overtook Stavros and caused him to stumble and nearly fall over before his mind began to adapt and the fear faded from him again. It didn't take a genius to see that the few who were even capable of staying on their feet didn't have a chance in hell of killing the goddess in black. Without a second thought Stavros reached into a satchel with him filled with a plethora of gadgets of his he'd gathered together when he realized the campus would become a warzone. From it he took out a cylindrical object that seemed to have a glass case within it. His eyes darted towards the portal Agrona had come from. They'd not be able to kill her, but if they just managed to send her back the way she came, he'd make sure she never came back.

He'd been feeling sick to his stomach. When he felt that familiar creep up his back, like eyes watching from some unseen place, he could feel his nausea sharpen, a stone lodging in his throat. All around him, friends and enemies began to collapse like bowling pins as a cold wave spread through the crowd. She could see into him, taste the fear that welled off him, recognize the betrayal in his heart. She could see. When he turned around to look at her, he saw his father again, limbs being pulled from his sockets, a beast on fire; the hall seemed to darken where Agrona loomed, impossibly tall, her face contorted into indescribable horrors.

It felt like molten fire being poured down his throat, hollowing out a cavity in his chest. He could feel his heartbeat quicken, a faint flutter in his ears, as if threatening to give out. Ryan fell against a wall, soot-caked sneakers smearing streaks of black into the floorboards as he began to slump to the ground. Images flashed through his mind of spiders and burnt faces, a blur of hallucinations racing through his mind. Clenching his eyes shut, gritting his teeth, he forced himself to his feet, forcing steam and shallow breaths out through his nose, and stood upright, flames wreathing and spiraling around his arms.

Go to hell.

A great serpent of flame jetted from his outstretched palm, scorching down the floor and up along the wall, racing toward the lady in black.

Where would they go if Beata were to fall? What place would be safe for his young son? They had to stay and protect the only home where they didn't have to be afraid to use their abilities, to be free. Which is why the Hermans stayed. Children from the daycare who couldn't leave were hidden in the far back of the school, hidden away behind barriers upon barriers of desks, bookshelves and other deterrents. Leo's mother, father, and sister were the last line of defense, just behind the other parents at Leo's side. He stood in front of the barricade, sharp features fit into a frown. Men and monsters had gotten this far, only to be struck down without mercy by vicious parents. Yet, it concerned the angel that students at the front lines were not able to completely stall the monsters that were flooding in. That he had to resort to killing.

It startled him at first, the quick and easy movement that Leo took to shoot the man. He didn't think. Just a deliberate arrow into the man's jugular. He hadn't realized he had killed him until the man's gargled gasp was his last. Leo only had a moment to come to terms with it before another wave arrived. However, when one almost got past the barriers, Leo showed no mercy using the light to slam the creature into the wall with a shuttering thud. At that moment, Leo understood that some angels sought peace and kindness--then some hunted and killed evil in the world. The parental desire to protect his son got him there. He couldn't fail.

---

Icarus watched everything happen in slow motion. He never truly understood how the events of this time turned into his own until this moment. The speedster had taken a step around the corner and felt terror beyond anything before. With shaking hands, the speedster ducked back behind the corner. Everything had worked out before. Icarus shut his eyes, squeezing them until he was seeing stars behind his lids. Everything will work out this time. Right? Nate had told him to only observe, and to never interfere with this time period's events. He could only watch. And if things worked out before, it would only be a matter of time.

>Pres does the Zappy Zappy

>Lynn's running around helping people

>Ishiko is mirin' that Ryan booty

>Nate is probably standing there looking cool idk

>> lowell, u thought he was dead
nope, he punching agrona in the face
gets his ass handed to him and grows admiration for her cause (lowkey wants to join it)

>> steph is a good gril and healin all the peeps but she worry bout cayden and restin on iceman when she not busy healing the peeps u know

>>farkasisdead

>>harvey is in the back chillin with the 2.5 kiddos, casually bouncing nick on his lap with a look of disdain
>>john candy is getting even more fat if that's possible

>> ben/kyou/genny/elaine are out of state uknow

everyone else that ever existed in my roster is either dead or not at the school have a good day i'll edit this later

Yet nothing stopped her. No hero came from the midst of fearful students. This wasn't the history he knew, this was not how the world was to continue on. A thunder arose in his chest, and his head told him to run, to run as far as he could. His heart told him to stay. Icarus's violet eyes peered past his lashes, staring out across the hall. Screams were like a discordant song, to the speedster lasting in an eternity. The teen closed his eyes as another wave of terror tore through him.

Only observe. Do not interfere with this timeline's problems.

They never emphasized how they got rid of her. How would a god-like figure such as Argona be captured? No one came. No one stopped her. This isn't their history. Had his mere existence in this timeline stopped the hero from stopping her? Had him coming back in time prevented the world and Beata from total take over?

She took another step. She was coming closer.

The song of terror grew louder as the speedster found his mind slowing. Violet eyes flickered with energy. If that was true, he had to right the wrong of his existence. To ensure his existence in the first place meant giving his now. With a fixed glare, the speedster vanished through the halls, skidding to a halt as far back as the hall would allow. The boarded up emergency exit light illuminating the dark corner of the building.

A boom shook the building as the speedster launched himself down the hall, blowing past students and teachers alike. The portal, and death head. The song of terror turned song of death. He barely felt the collision with fear herself. He barely felt the push into the dark, the push into the portal. His pink hair vanishing into the darkest of nights.

This sanctuary was to be protected from then and on into the future.

They couldn't even stand in her presence. A shiver ran through her, sweeping her gaze across the hall, bodies folding wherever her eyes fell. Convulsions struck the crowds. Just ahead, a girl crawled on hands and knees over fallen comrades to move further from the source of fear pulsing from the heart of the school grounds. Some, worthier than the rest, dared to stand, dared to still face her. It was barely even worth the effort to strike them down; merely a sharp glare or shift of her head seemed to knock them over, not to get up again.

It was over. This was her moment of triumph, and she paused to bask in her victory. The world was at her feet, and she stood tall, letting her eyes flutter close.

She was untouchable. But her moment of secure bliss shattered with the crack of a sonic boom, a heavy weight plowing into her middle, sending her flying through the corridor. The halls blurred around them for one sharp moment as she dug claw-like nails into the creature's back, but she felt momentum, crashing through the white well and back into the world of the Island. She slid disgracefully through the sand, whirling around just as the portal began to collapse on itself, first to the size of a portrait, then a dinner plate, then an iris, diminishing into a singular white pinprick, and then seamless red sky.

As soon as Agrona was tackled through the portal, Stavros threw the device in his hand right at it. Once it got close, the portal started to get sucked into the center, shrinking smaller and smaller until there was no more portal. As if he hadn't just put an end to this chaos, he walked up to where the portal once was and picked up the device. The glass case of the device now seemed to hold a far smaller version of the portal, or rather, two smaller portals that seemed linked together.

With Agrona absent, the assorted shapeshifting warriors started to rise once again whilst those of Agrona's minions who still lived began to flee. Celebratory cries sounded out as it grew clear that Beata had weathered the battle and was going to remain as a safe haven for gifted.

i'll add more to this shitpost later maybe get fuckt agrona