"Fainn, that demon child said, 'let the Angel Hunt recommence.'" Svilran and I glanced over at Kanae, who scowled at the brat in response. "Are they... here for Kanae?" Svilran asked.

I took a step forward and studied the scene. I watched so many of what  I could only imagine were Earth's demons, pour out from the fissures in our sky.

"Doesn't matter. We aren't giving up our Heroes... Svilran, how did you know what that kid said?"

"I can hear everything within the Hero Hub. I usually try to respect people's privacy, but demons don't really deserve that courtesy."

Elma rested her hand on Svilran's shoulder and smiled at her. "Thank you."

I, meanwhile, split off into the Inverse so that I could have Narlivs by my side.

[Narlivs: I am ready to eavesdrop for you, Fainn! By the way, those creatures flying out are lesser demons. Just pure, instinctual egos... They are like hounds to the masters, which are the named demons.]

"Everyone," I said, "our home's being attacked by a couple of idiots we probably all have grievances with. Remember, we can perish here, so don't be stupid! The Hero Hub. It's the place where we are not supposed to die. We have to do our part."

The girls sounded the affirmative.

"We're going to fight intelligently. Svilran, do you have any combat capabilities?"

"I can fire Divine Light! It's not as potent as an angel's Holy Light, but I can hurt them! All of Earth's gods can hurt them."

"Okay! Svilran, you and Dorth will take a position at the <Wishing Fountain>. Dorth's tentacles can't cross the fountain's barrier, so jump into the fountain, Svilran. Meanwhile, Elma, Kanae, and Dehlia will stay as a unit."

"What about you, Fainn?" Kanae asked.

"I can't kill enemies, so Elma needs to lead coordinating with me since she's the only one with the experience of handling my power..."

"I understand. You exhaust them, and we'll attack where possible!" Elma said.

I groaned. "It's one thing to say it... It might not work exactly how we want, but we'll try."

"Fainn, they're coming!" Svilran screamed. "They're targeting Kanae!"

Sure enough, the lesser demons flew toward us, shrieking as they did.

"Yeah, right," I said as I snapped my fingers and expanded my nightmare dome. When it stopped growing, I pushed it further. I wasn't stopping until a good portion of the skies was mine.

I sprouted my wings--they came out as Dorthaunzee's fear--and I took off into the sky with the toothy blade tearing out from my arm. "Like hell am I handing over one of the girls!"

[Expand your awareness, Fainn! The Hero Hub will help you! Striking these demons should be as easy as striking the foolish mosquito landing on your arm.]

"Understood," I whispered back.

[We're together, Fainn! We can do this!]

I flew directly into one demon and slashed through it. Then, I grabbed its head and felt the fear response.

"Here we go!" The changes started happening, and I grinned. "What does a demon fear, then?"

The change was sudden, the wing on my right turned white, and its skin--if I could call it that--disintegrated. In its place, white feathers tore through. My right wing was the wing of an angel. Suddenly, the shrieking intensified, and dozens of lesser demons flew into me, all of them clawing and scratching me. Joke's on them--I got a whole lot of fears at once!

My body kept changing. The wing on my left turned black, and black feathers grew from it--

Huh? A black wing?

I felt something tear out from my back and rise to float right behind my head--it was something like a halo. The skin on the right side of my body turned white, and a brilliant sword appeared in my right hand. I swung that sword and blew away some of the shrieking demons. Then, a black, wavy sword appeared in my left hand, and I swung that sword.

With a roar, the halo behind my head let out a burst of white light with black outlines, further disintegrating many of the demons. As they shrieked in terror, more wings grew from me until I had three wings on each side of my body.

I flew away from the mess of demons regaining their being and the others shrieking at me. There, as they were starting to circle me, I studied my form, noticing the black chest plate I was now wearing and the white sashes and scarves that crossed over it and hung from my body.

(Insert: Author Note For Where I need to put an image in the future. Sorry readers. I'm keeping the artist too busy. Also, if you're reading this note on amazon, please report it. This is a plagiarized copy.)

"What is this form?"

I couldn't keep my eyes off the--what seemed like hundreds--of demons ahead of me. I needed to start exhausting them.

Narlivs gave me the heads up that there were 720 Lesser Demons attacking. I had the attention of 460--including ones outside the current dome.

"This is a little more than I thought..."

I adjusted +Nightmares ARE Fiction's+ dome so that it was a sphere centered on me, one that caught the 460 for sure.

"This way, the girls will be able to land damage that sticks as long as I time it right... Narlivs!" I said in time with my Inverse self. "Tell me whenever the girls are in danger of a critical hit! I'll expand +Nightmares ARE Fiction+ to negate it."

[Got it, Fainn!]

"Let's make them regret being idiots."

 

***

 

Battle Rages--Kanae

Two hundred and sixty demons were descending on the women of the Hero Hub, many of them spewing balls of black flames and further raising flames across the Hero Hub's soil.

In the midst of black flames and swirling masses, Kanae avoided attacks.

A swarm of demons flew toward Kanae. She dashed to the side, and they flew past, all so clumped together that they looked like the body of a serpent in both color and movement.

They separated me from Elma and Dehlia in an instant... Kanae thought.

Kanae leaped back and released many fireballs up at the swarm coming from directly above. The fireballs hit and ruptured, but that was all--the lesser demons were not even pushed back. They descended on her like the rabid dogs with wings that they were. She released more fireballs in response and leaped back from the resulting conflagration. The demons were not deterred. They flew out of the flames and toward Kanae.

This is how they separated us... The jewels in Kanae's horns twinkled. Our attacks aren't hitting them right.

She fired her vitality-powered lasers at the oncoming swarm. The lasers boomed when they hit the swarm and blew the demons back, scattering them but not destroying them.

My laser beams can do something... but it's not enough...

Kanae dodged demons as they came, releasing short bursts from her jewels and stunning the annoying attackers.

She touched her chest. "I might need your help."

More demons were coming. Recalling what Fainn said about the <Wishing Fountain> having a barrier that could repel Dorthaunzee's tentacles, Kanae ran toward the <Mess Hall>.

The lesser demons lost her for a second, but the dastardly named ones who had their eyes on her directed the others. That idea spread through a swarm of sixty, and they flew into the <Mess Hall> after acknowledging that their flames were not harming the building.

The demons entered, and then, a moment later, blue flames mixed with golden light exploded out of the doors of the <Mess Hall>, the shrieks of the lesser demons intensifying. There were many golden flashes, and blue flame could be seen expanding and raging through the <Mess Hall's> windows. Every time there was a flash, the ground would rumble, and the shrieking would lessen.

What was occurring within was most definitely a violent affair, but the <Mess Hall> stood. Kanae's gamble had paid off--the <Mess Hall> could not be destroyed easily. With only one entrance, she was blasting the demons that dared approach her with the power of her blue flames and the miracle that saved her life.

 

***

 

The Battle Rages--Elma and Dehlia

"Damn it! They separated us from Kanae!" Elma yelled.

A demon broke out from the swirling swarm and lunged at Elma. She leaped backward, jeweled dagger in hand. She landed without disruption, but had no time to rest. Another came down, and she moved quickly, dodging yet again. Another came from behind her. She twisted her body out of the way, running her dagger into its face as she did. It let out a shriek, and her dagger passed through the demon's face, smoke leaking from it as it flew by.

She clicked her tongue and dodged the next demon that followed. Taking a chance, she fired her five right fingers at the annoying gnats and discharged the magic packed in them when the fingers were close enough to their faces. The demons took the bursts of withering mana without any sign of damage and lunged at Elma.

She, with jaw clenched, met them head-on, swinging her daggers and spewing withering mana as they clawed at her.

"Damn it!" she screamed as she punched one in the face, and slashed another from chin to eye. One demon punched her in the stomach, and she headbutted it. "My mana's not working!" she roared.

All sorts of thoughts were rushing through Elma's head. Why weren't these demons being affected? The glasses demon had been affected by her mana, so why?! She already had an answer in her head--these demons were more like the snake made of flames than they were the other Neo Demons.

Another demon came up behind her and opened its mouth, ready to take a bite out of her. Elma tried to respond, but a demon in front of her grabbed her by her bangs and yanked her downward, preventing her from attacking the demon behind her.

+Nightmares ARE Fiction's+ sphere of influence expanded down toward Elma just in time. The demon took a bite out of Elma, and she rolled forward, slipping out of the cluster of demons.

"Thank you!" Elma yelled as her shoulder had the damage nullified as per Fainn's power.

She couldn't see Fainn--she just knew he was in the center of the giant cluster of demons. Demons were falling from that cluster, and landing on the sphere's surface exhausted, but not at the rate they needed them to.

Elma looked around quickly--Fainn's power could not be escaped, so what was he going to do? Surely, the others were able to hurt them, but the damage would only stick outside the dome.

She got her answer when the dome disappeared. She looked up at the cluster and understood.

"So, that's the trick..."

Fainn canceled +Nightmares ARE Fiction+ and then restarted it. That was how he was protecting the girls at the critical moment. Elma growled and released her mana into her cluster of demons. More demons came from her right, and she dodged them before releasing another cloud.

She was angry--she hoped that Fainn hadn't been harmed in the moment that he canceled his power.

"Fainn, I won't drag us down!" Elma yelled as she ran toward a demon and leaped onto it, stabbing it in its pitch-black eyes. She took it to the ground and stabbed it repeatedly. Every time she did, black smoke spewed from its wounds, but nothing else.

"Damn you!" Elma yelled, frustrated she was useless.

Demons lunged at her from behind. She turned toward them with eyes full of rage, but then, a beam of raging water tore through the air and pushed them away.

"Keep your head on, Elma!"

Black fireballs rained down toward Elma's left, crashing around the other combatant. She, clad in bone-colored and rune-covered armor that gave her the form of a humanoid shark, broke through the flames and picked up Elma, holding her beneath the arm. She ran while blasting demons away with powerful beams of water.

"I've got you! Just hold still!" Dehlia yelled.

She was determined, but Elma noticed it--Dehlia's magic wasn't accomplishing much either. Before Elma could say anything, Dehlia spoke--

"Don't get upset! Our magic doesn't work--that's even more reason to be careful and not get angry!"

Elma clicked her tongue. She was getting saved yet again. "I'm sorry," she said.

Dehlia threw Elma toward a demon that Elma slashed at with her dagger. The demon winced, and Elma fired her fingers into its eyes while Dehlia fired beams of water from both hands and further pushed the demons away.

"Where did these things come from!?" Elma yelled as she kept punching, kicking, and slashing demons. It wasn't much, but her actions were earning them a few seconds at a time.

Dehlia blasted any demon Elma struck and stunned, further giving Elma room to breathe. "I'm happy that the island didn't have to deal with these enemies, but goodness, what a terrible surprise!" Dehlia gasped as she saw Elma blast her fingers into more eyes. "Elma! Are you just firing your fingers around bare?!"

"Yes?" Elma replied, glancing at Dehlia with a confused look. A demon came for Elma, but she grabbed it by the arm and threw it over her shoulder and into the ground. She jumped away from it as Dehlia's water blast washed it away.

A couple of paces from Dehlia, Elma released her mana into a swarm, and then Dehlia blasted them with another stream of raging water.

"After this is over, we need to get you finger armor. " She showed Elma her hand, showing off her stylized and razor-sharp-at-the-nails gauntlet.

"You think we're getting out of this?" Elma said, a dry smile on her face.

"Tsk, tsk, Elma. Now's not the time for gallows humor." Dehlia smirked. "I can't wait to tell Mister Fainn you gave up even when he went out of his way to protect you."

"Wait, don't," Elma said, losing her composure.

Dehlia released streams of raging water and sent them in all directions. She looked at Elma one motion later and smiled. "I'm just teasing."

"Still... We're in trouble if we don't find a way to hit them." Elma pressed her back against Dehlia's. "That's just a fact."

"Oh my, how negative... Let's believe in our allies, yes?"

"It's not about that... We can't just hold them back, though," Elma whispered, her brain working overtime to find something--anything--that could help them.