As the trio entered into the casino - only one retaining any caution being the sword saint who spread her divine sense to carefully monitor for any traps - the doors slammed shut behind them. Vivi did tilt her head backwards toward the noise in curiosity. However, that just let the ten tailed kitsune man walk past her with all the caution of a drunk man.

Once she turned back to the front (to see that he actually walked on ahead) Vivi of course decided to run to catch up. A scene that Vibrant couldn’t help sigh over. If she had the ability; there was no doubt that she would facepalm at the impatient pair of demons.

“Gruwa!” <Vivi>

“*sigh* Why couldn’t Leviathan have just resisted the influence… I would even take the gerbil or that spider over this blood thirsty pair of dunkards…When one relies on chance they will find themselves running out of luck. Unfortunately it appears that my luck has long run out and I clearly have been abandoned by the Dao to be left babysitting these manic murders.” <Vibrant>

Her grumbling did not change a thing nevertheless she followed behind the two. At least she took in the sights as they made their way down the corridor, one that seemed straight at first yet on closer inspection very slightly turned in on itself, causing the sword saint the frown. There were also the walls that were adorned with various ornaments in order to spice up the trip down the red carpet; although a lot of those ornaments were not exactly… “Normal”.

Or maybe they were simply too normal.

When there wasn't a rare artefact on display there were framed pictures of children. These children were of different ethnicities as well as races yet each of them seemed generally happy and a good thing too since the security arrays on the photographs were awe inducing. If one attempted to just nudge the kids slightly askew they would literally have their soul knocked out from their body to be sent somewhere else.

<I’m not sure where but I’m sure it will not be good for your health.>

The other two obviously didn’t care yet {The Apex} decided to study these children as something about them gained her attention. It also didn’t take long for her suspicion to bear fruit - opening her eyes to take a direct look across the portraits a glimmer of recognition fell across them. There were actually a few kids she recognised and they seemed to each hold a special place on the wall as they appeared once the corridor did a full 180 spin (she wasn’t sure what magic was used to make the corridors but she did not care enough to find out).

The first of the kids was the most unique of them all due to how many of ‘her’ was being displayed; to the point there were even picture frames on the roof just to fit as many as possible. Her appearance was honestly quite average with average brown hair, body type and eyes yet that also made her stand out more among these flawless children. There was one ‘version’ that seemed slightly older with a larger bust as well as a larger weight yet that just meant she got filled into “tubby & busty library girl”.

Another girl she felt was reminiscent was someone with short-mid length violet hair with a seemingly innocent smile as she held a bandaged up stave in the air happily. However, being Vibrant, it was impossible not to notice the similarities between this girl and the brat of a third which had run off ahead of her as well as the dragon they left to guard the rear. More specifically… It was as if someone tried to recreate Lizzy with Violet’s DNA instead of “his” thus resulting in a more petite girl.

When they finally reached the end of the red carpet; they reached a set of double doors that simply said pull on them despite having no handle. Something that made Vibrant wince. She didn’t focus too long on that as the very last canvas caught her attention - located above the door as if to prevent anyone from not being able to notice it. Written in divine metals were simple line.

“To the first who gave me a reason to continue fighting.”

There - in front of a background that was constantly shifting into shapes one couldn’t comprehend with mere thought alone - was a single black haired boy. A bandaid sat across the bridge of his nose while gauze was wrapped around his hands up to his elbows. What stood out was that, under the bags that spoke of his terror induced sleepless nights, were a set of purple eyes she claimed she had seen recently.

Something about that boy was so reminiscent yet she couldn’t put the tip of her sword. The boy seemed to be just visibly depressed but she kind of understood why. Every other picture had an average background that seemed normal enough yet this boy was the only one unlucky. Being stuck in such a terrifying place by himself.

Looking away from that boy led her to, by chance, glancing to the dark corner on the ceiling only to find one last barely visible child (as if even Cheshire didn’t know where to put them)  with a background that seemed… Apocalyptic.

There was a funky character who looked exactly like an uninjured Cheshire - including that freaky signature grin - except there were two things hard to ignore. First was that the kid actually had bi-colour eyes that made Vibrant narrow her eyes as she linked them to “him” unconsciously. A more noticeable difference was the fact the child had far darker skin than their other ‘siblings’. Moreover there was a level of loneliness in those large eyes that was overshadowed by the anarchy that cheshire grin promised.

In all honesty it was clear that the last two were related to Cheshire just based on appearance.

“*tch* Those two brats seemed so similar yet that dragon couldn’t be more different now..” <Bloodleaf>

“You know them?” <Vibrant>

Hearing the foxes' words made Vibrant decide to take a deeper look into both of the two, allowing her to notice that the two were indeed spirit beasts. The hidden child had cat ears while the “first” had a pair of curled ram-like horns on the side of her head. She sadly didn’t get any more answers.

“Who are you again?” <Bloodleaf>

While Vibrant frowned; the demon god empress slid her fingers between the handleless pull door and surprisingly managed to slide the doors open.

“That cat is sadistic… How’d you know to do that?” <Vibrant>

“Instinct!” <Vivi>

<Every day we stray further away from the heavens…>

Finally they found the source of all the noise; on both sides of the massive room were just about every single type of gambling you could imagine. The room filled with people from every race & power level found themselves competing for precious resources that one would be impressed by if the trio weren’t the upper echelon of the powerscale. When they were in their peak.

Even the room itself could be said to be precious as it was made from enough rare metals & materials that it would take a significant chunk out of even Vivi’s bank. None of them cared about that. Instead their gaze fell on the cheeky little cat who stood on the opposite side of the room - waving at them with that smirk.

Understandably the fox, not caring to play any more games with the game, charged toward Cheshire with his two wooden swords slowly winding up to cleave her head from her body. This made Vibrant give out yet another sigh while shaking her head. Not because of his recklessness but because this was obviously stunk of being a trap.

Sure enough; when the ten tailed demon fox was halfway across the room he suddenly found himself surrounded by a grey glowing barrier. Seconds later the insides of the barrier seemed to almost shrink down yet the actual barrier itself stayed the same size. That, of course, included Bloodleaf who was now about the size of an ant yet still exuding a perpetual aura of “so what”.

That was soon answered as (from above the kitsune) a rift opened up from which some very familiar group of eldritch birds began to fly out. In mere moments their mocking laughs could be heard as tendrils attempted to grab onto the fox to tear him apart. Both the present thirds of Violet turned to look at eachother, towards the ambushed fox, towards the awaiting black cat in the distance and finally turned to one another once again.

“Let's go on ahead.” <Vibrant>

“Nn.” <Vivi>

The two did not even cast another glance at Bloodleaf to instead focus on chasing after Cheshire who began skipping into the background. All the while a group of Munzimira pulled up chairs to the edge of the barrier. Making a show out of the ambush.

Meanwhile, the fox himself, Bloodleaf just batted away any attacks the swarm of eldritch vulture gods could throw at him. With his trusted wooden swords of course. He wasn’t being pushed back despite being outnumbered by more than ten people who (theoretically) should be on the same level as demon gods as well as being the most combat experienced spirit gods other than the big cat herself. In fact he was even able to counteract with his powerful crimson aura - easily cutting through the tendrils and causing abyssal blood to end up all over.

This did not mean he was defeating them or overpowering them - any wounds those birds were inflicted with were promptly healed. Quickly leading to a battle of attrition where they couldn’t get past the towering blockade to victory created by his skill. Yet he also couldn’t finish them off. A situation that made those assassins laugh out as they continued to verbally lambast him.

“You did not expect Cheshire to also come up with the same little ploy as your masters did you?”
“Those two have already left you to die just like they did your ‘fated one’.”
“We will ensure you never make it out of this pseudo-divine realm!”
“Seems he’s not only forgotten his name but also what it takes to win.”

But he did not care.

“You think you were sent here to kill me?” <Bloodleaf>

That made those birds cackle once more, however they weren’t laughing for long.

“I ain’t even used a single sword art you fucking bird brains… Cheshire sent you here to die; even I know that she only ever saw your ilk as barely useful enough to not be a liability. Now that the time of war is over and she has a bunch of crouch spawn… Well you’re out of the job due to your past.” <Bloodleaf>

“H-he’s making it up!”
“It’s true that we don’t match up with her beliefs…”
“There is no way?”
“Freedom is in sight once that cat is dead!”
“That would explain why she would want rid of us!”
“Then we just need to outlive her like we always have banked on…”

To that a malicious grin appeared on Bloodleaf's face as he slowly took a pose with those two swords as blood red aura; lowering her stance and crossing his swords in front of his face.

“[Spider Lily Orchestra Art - First Dance]” <Bloodleaf>

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Elizabeth had seen better days as many little black wounds littered her body, black mist rising from her countless little wounds, even damaging the scaly pearl ice gauntlets she wore.

Despite that… The large smile on her face couldn’t betray her enjoyment.

Walking down that twisting corridor while still feeling the exhilaration of such an enjoyable fight - her gaze falling across the many pictures of children. Her mood is only improving. Sometimes she even giggled while reminiscing what those little brats looked like in addition to remembering how they acted. That was until she reached the sliding doors which made her chuckle.

“Mama sure is a troll…” <Elizabeth>

However, the moment she looked up, her smile vanished as her eyes finally fell upon the picture of the kid that proudly sat above the door. Her face even scrunching up as an expression of disgust nobody would expect from her appeared. She even lifted up her hand to have a swirling blizzard slowly grow and threaten to destroy that photo.

Eventually she let out a sigh as she crushed the magic before it could fly out to submerge everything in its path into an eternal ice age. Although she still made her displeasure known. Raising her foot to kick the sliding doors so hard that they were sent flying across the room. Yet, as soon as she did that, a liquid seeped between her gauze wrapped toes causing her to look down to see…

Blood.

So much blood.

No matter where she looked there was nothing but blood.