A young boy climbed through the rubble that Alice had left behind. "Now that seems more fair. If there is a good version, there must be a bad version, right?" The boy tripped and fell, tumbling down onto the pavement. A young fox girl held out her hand "Hey are you ok? You should hide or something it is a little crazy here right now." The boy had started to cry, his face had a small cut on it. However, upon seeing Luna, the buff man grabbed her hand "You're so kind! I will make sure nothing happens to you!" The massive man, still with a cut on his face, picked up Luna, who wore a confused look. "Were... weren't you small a second ago?" The man looked at himself "No, I don't think so."

L watched as Luna stood up and ran over to a boy who had fallen out of the rubble of the double Alice entry. L tried to call Luna back, but her mouth had run dry and her heart had started to beat furiously. Her instincts started screaming for her to flee from the man. She had only felt this once before, in the alleyway as they escaped the noble quarter after the Champion of Life died. L tried to warn V, but he was distracted by Alice and the new foe, and besides, fear and horror still paralyzed her. As she struggled, a new sensation arose within her. The instinct to play dead, her fear and horror compelled her to try and crawl away, but the new feeling desperately was commanding her to play dead, lay still, appear weak. Was this her demonic side?

O and the fire champion had only just noticed the new Alice. However, O was too deep in her berserk rage to take her attention off the champion of fire. Consequently, the Champion of Fire was also too busy to do much other than desperately defend against her. It was quite a problem that her body had seemingly become immune to fire, as that was, for the most part, his one trick. On the other hand, as she mostly only had brute force behind her, he was unsure if O could even kill him. He had turned into what amounted to a fire elemental after all. The Dragon, still paralyzed, was under attack by the crafting champion. It seemed to be charging a massive blast of energy from its face plate, aimed at the dragon’s head. 

"Hey. Thanks and stuff, but we should probably still hide." Luna spoke as the man held her with one arm. "What about them?" The man pointed to L and the other two unconscious champions. "Are they your friends? They seem dead." Luna shook her head. "No! My friends are not dead! Well, only one of them knows me. The others are too hurt to be my friends right now." Luna's eyes reflected the man's face for a few moments. "L, the lady with both of her arms still, is very strong. She is just pretending to be hurt! You know, to catch the bad guys by surprise." The man looked at L's body "Ya... she does look strong. She could not defeat me though. I am the strongest!" Luna nodded "Yes well, maybe you can put me down? Trouble might be coming." Luna struggled to get out of the man's grasp. "If you think that is best..." He sat her down and she ran off to L.

L had managed to fight her horror down, and lay perfectly still, only breathing lightly enough to keep herself alive. Playing dead so to speak. She waited, only catching a few of Luna's words through the noises of combat all around her. "Thanks... but we should probably..." Suddenly L was in front of the God of Honor, who had a sour expression on his face. And then suddenly she was back, laying on the ground pretending to be dead. "Only one of them..." Luna was still talking to the man as L struggled to understand what had happened. Then suddenly her strength returned to her. Her pain was gone, her body was healed. She felt as if she had never been wounded in the first place. Confusion ripped through her mind and she struggled to figure out what was going on. Yet her instincts continued to urge her to play dead.

Swearing to himself, V hung around on the outside of the double Alice fight. "What can I do to help?" V had decided that with a dragon around, and apparently evil flying clones, that escaping the situation was no longer a tenable goal. Alice was the strongest person on the nominally "good" side of things that was mostly undamaged, so V had decided to try and assist her. Alice called out as she crossed blades with the "Evil Alice." "Nothing if you do not have a weapon. Just get everyone out of here. The Mad God's Champion created this...thing. JUST GO!" Alice struggled against her evil compatriot. The Mad Champion? That's not good, V thoughts churned. If the Mad Champion was here, at-least it was probably safe to say that things could not actually get any worse.

The young boy watched Luna run back to her companion, she was a nice girl. Maybe they could be friends someday after this game was over. He surveyed the battlefield; it was hard to see what was going on with the two people in the fire wall. He strode over toward O and the Champion of Fire. "You're that horrible man who burnt those people to ashes before they had a chance to fight back right? That did not seem fair." The small boy angrily chided the Champion of Fire. "Maybe you should-" The boy's words were cut off by the Champion of Fire. "You dare judge me, child?" Green flame enveloped the Mad Champion. The woman inside the green fire spoke, her voice was wet and dripping with venom. "Ohhh burning children now? So, naughty... maybe you should be trying to put that heat to better use somewhere else..." The woman waved the flames away. "Just kidding of course. I do not really like child murderers. Hey, big woman. You look like you could crush that fireman. Do me a favor and kill him would you?" Asking O to kill someone that she was already fighting was not a particularly hefty request, but O growled. "I am trying, it’s hard to crush flames however. My strikes go right through him." O once again brought her fist crashing down on the Fire Champion. This time however, she felt bones? Well, no... she was not exactly sure what had given way under her fist. The Fire Champion cried out "How...what?" As his right half collapsed. The woman laughed darkly "So pathetic. A single blow from that monster of a woman and your already dying? You don't deserve to be called a man. And you certainly never deserved the power given to you.  O confusedly grabbed the body of the Fire Champion. He was no longer made of fire. In-fact, there was no green fire anywhere anymore. Never one to stop killing just because she was confused. O broke the man over her knee, and ripped his heart out, crushing it on her forehead.

V spotted who he thought was the Mad Champion, he had trouble remembering what exactly she looked like. She was speaking with O and the Fire Champion when the green flames suddenly vanished. V wondered if her primary ability was to take away blessings. That seemed... unfair, but he had to deal with it somehow. Giving one more hesitant look at Alice and her evil companion, who had now flown into the air in some form of grapple before he slowly, cautiously moved toward L. "Charge Complete." The Crafting Champion announced as a massive beam of light erupted from its face plate, crashing into the still paralyzed dragon, reducing its head to ashes. "To ensure safety of host, returning to lower power mode." The silvery being stopped flying, and walked back over toward L and the other injured champions. Taking up its previous position, while observing the other champions in the area. V cautiously knelt down to L and whispered "Are you alive?" standing in the silvery being/Crafting Champions shadow as it silently stood there looking around was sort of unnerving. 

L, in the lowest voice she could, replied "Yes, I don't know how but I seem to be... healed." Luna nodded "Ya she's totally fine! Did you see the big man boy who's now a woman? I think something might be wrong with him... it... her?" She pointed toward the woman who bowed to a confused O, and was now walking back over their way. V was certain there was nothing man or boy or even big about her, but Luna fairly often made no sense. As the young boy wandered over back to their group, Luna tilted her head. V stood, "I might be dead in a second, but if I am not, you need to try to help Alice kill... that thing." L nodded as subtly as she could, still playing dead.

"I think I remember you! You were fighting that little man in the alleyway. The one who tried to kill me? Thanks for the help!" That was not exactly how V thought the situation went down, but when he thought about it, that must have been what had happened... He looked at the Mad Champion a moment. "Well, it's nice to see you again. Do you uh, need something?" V had almost no information on what the Mad Champion wanted. Neither in the short term or the long term, he hoped he could figure out something to aid him in dealing with the boy. "No not really...but..." The boy tilted his head, "Why can't I see your status?" an aggravated look started to creep over the boy’s face. "It's only fair that everyone can see everyone else's status!" V began to speak "I cannot see every-" then he realized he could see everyone's status. Not only that, but for some reason he could properly see everyone's secondary race, no longer hidden behind the "Other" descriptor. Also, he appeared to be able to see that Alice had a hidden title. Hidden perhaps even from her, as it was written in that strange font. "I am asking you a question!" The boy angrily yelled.

"I don't know?" V was unsure how to mollify the boy, it seemed as if the Mad Champion could cause everyone's status, and perhaps even the secret elements as well, to be visible to everyone. V truly was doing nothing to make his status extra hidden or anything, so he had nothing else to offer as an explanation. The boy's face started to take on a strange expression. A wild, insane expression that twisted his face in in-human ways. T's voice again appeared in L's heart "Uh, you need to do something to distract the Mad Champion from whatever is currently going on down there. Don't let the Mad Champion's primary personality manifest. I can feel it starting to overcome his other personalities, I cannot do anything to him at this range. Hold out somehow for five... four minutes." L opened her eyes as the boy spoke, "I said it's not fair! I hate when things are not fair!" She had trusted T up to this point, and to be honest, she liked T more than she liked whoever... or whatever this monster near her was. In so much as she only wanted to kill T, she wanted this thing to be excised from existence.

Jumping up, L spoke harshly. "You dare judge my master? Who are you to make such a claim? A child has no right to meddle in the games of men." L figured "pissing him off" was the most distracting thing she could do. The man recoiled as if he had been slapped. "Boy?! You dare call me a boy? I will show you what the true meaning of manhood is!" He jumped passed V, who was wildly unprepared for this turn of events. He had expected the man to attack him, not L. Luna scampered backwards, tilting her head and looking confused. For her part, L was easily able to hold the man off. She knew that the Mad Champion should not be easy to kill, multiple champions spoke his name with fear and trepidation, but she did not even have her sword and she was able to stand evenly with him. V looked at Luna "Go! Grab L's sword and bring it here!" Luna hesitated for a few moments but shrugged and skipped happily toward where L had previously been laying. V picked up a rock. He was certain "Smashing the Mad Champion with a rock" was not really enough to kill him, but what else was he supposed to do? Just watch?

"Recalculating... recalculating... recalculating..." the silvery being had been softly repeating the same word over and over ever since the Mad Champion had approached their group. "Error, recalculating." V shrugged, no help from that department. He ran at the Mad Champion from behind, and brought the rock down on the man's head as hard as he could. This... seemed to have accomplished nothing. The rock broke on his skull without any apparent damage, nor did this even seem to cause the Mad Champion even the most minor of distractions, V might as well not even be there. L dodged the man's punches and also looked confused. She had connected her fist with the Mad Champion's jaw a moment ago and it visibly caused him pain. V's frustration was mounting, how were they supposed to fight a Champion who made no sense? It was as if even basic logic did not even apply. Which... made sense sort of. Given that he was the Champion of the Mad God. "You’re a good fighter! Perhaps someday you will even be able to match me!" The man laughed as he fought L, "For now however, I am still much greater than you could imagine!" With a speed and force multiple times stronger than the man had displayed up to this point, he swept L's leg, and slammed her into the ground with one of his elbows. L gasped as the air was knocked out of her lungs. She had no time to explore the possibility of being able to function without breath right now, as at the moment she seemed to require it.

The old man turned to V. "As for you, I doubt you could be this woman's master. Your wisdom and power are far below that of a true master." V wondered if the old man had gotten the term master confused, but had little chance to respond. "I will show you! A mere fragment of the power needed to be a true master." The old man pointed toward V, and suddenly a clone of himself appeared. V's clone looked exactly like him; it was not some twisted reflection in the same way the double Alice was. The clone shrugged "Sorry about this, I was created for it. I guess?" Clone V began to attack V, immediately overpowering him. The clone outmatched V in both speed and power. L had dragged herself to her feet and attempted to aid V against his clone. "Sorry Miss, this is a lesson he must learn alone. No one can interfere with a fight against one’s self after all." L found that she was in-fact unable to get close to the V vs V struggle. It was not a force field or barrier per-say. She just... couldn't help. The old man calmly watched for a few moments before speaking. "I suppose this will take a long time if they are only using fists. I am quite old and don't have the time to waste." The old man muttered something that sounded like a magic spell, and V's sword appeared in both of the V's hands. The clone V seemed roughly as skilled with the blade as V, but his speed and power still easily overwhelmed V. It was all he could do to avoid getting skewered.

L took a deep breath. She had been in non-stop crisis mode since... well... since she last talked to V pre-night of the Curse of Violence. Panic, fear, pain, as a warrior she long ago learned to center herself and not give in to those things. Even now a large part of her still urged her to flee from this Mad Champion. However, she would not give in to base emotions. She calmly assessed the situation, as she should have in the first place. She suspected V had about forty seconds at max before he was killed by his clone. For some reason, she could not physically get closer to their fight. She doubted she could kill the old man, as if he was that easy to kill, the Mad Champion would not have such a reputation. She suspected throwing something like a rock or other debris would also fail, blocked by whatever unknown force was keeping her from interfering. If this fight was caused by the Mad Champion's blessing... somehow, perhaps she could break the rules again? She had no real idea how to use her demonic aspect however and possibly more relevant, if she was able to assist V it would likely prompt a reaction from the old man. She watched the fight for a few seconds. In actuality, both V and clone V were exceedingly poor swordsman. At-least in comparison to her. If V simply used a better technique, he could still beat his physically superior version.

┌——————┐
Consigliere wishes to provide counsel.
└——————┘

The sudden status message almost distracted V enough to cause his death, but he quickly willed his assent. Frankly he had almost forgotten the Family Unit that his blessing had formed. The Curse of Violence and following struggle had sort of left little time to experiment and determine what exactly the titles meant. However, he was about to die to himself, so he hoped this was somehow helpful. The status message disappeared, nothing immediately seemed to happen which was disappointing. He had expected to hear L's voice, or something along those lines. However, as clone V charged him, he suddenly realized that his clone version had left so many exploitable openings. V took advantage of his opponents poorly designed charge, tripping him. His clone rolled out of the way of V's follow up strike and jumped up, slashing toward V's shoulder. Again, V realized that the way clone him held his sword was actually rather sloppy. To both his and his clone’s surprise. He easily knocked the sword out of his clone’s hand, and followed up by slicing across his chest. Utterly flabbergasted, his clone had no time to react before V stabbed him through the heart. "Well, this sucks. Born to die and all that." Clone V declared as he slid off V's sword. 

The old man's face began to take on a dark countenance. "No... that is not possible, it’s not fair!" The man's face began twisting into a horrible grinning visage. Suddenly, T called out as he walked through the front gates of the city at the end of the street. "Hi! What's all this? Things look a little out of control here." The boy standing near L recoiled in fear. "No... why are you here? Don't kill us!" The Mad Champion started to stumble backwards before tripping and falling. As T casually strode toward them, V noticed that O had vanished in the chaos. To be fair, he also would have run away from the Mad God if he had the chance. Alice and evil Alice were still fighting in the air, and neither seemed to be able to make any progress. "Up to your old tricks again eh boy?" T smiled as he approached. The boy held up his hand, as if to ward off T. "Just let me go! I never hurt you did I, I.. I.. don't kill me!" T laughed again as V and L watched the unfolding situation with increasing confusion. Once T had gotten close, both of them noticed that his eyes were covered with a black bandana. Maybe he had gotten wounded in the night of the curse?

T stood still for a few moments, as if appraising the situation. "Alright fine, get out of here. I hope I will not have to... see... you again." The way he said the word "See" was obviously emphasized. The boy jumped up and just started flat out running away. "Thank you! Thank you so much!" by the sound of his voice, the young boy had started crying. T "watched" the boy go before turning to V and L. "Well, glad I made it in time. You guys were absolutely about to die."