The Battle Rages--Dorthaunzee and Svilran

The <Wishing Fountain>--this section of the battlefield was faring the best. Despite that, this battlefield's participants were just as distressed as their allies, if not more so.

Dorthaunzee was in a state of panic as her tentacles whipped around, destroying demons. She had to be--that was the only way the tentacles would appear. She had to be cognizant of the fact that she could die.

Her fatigue was not making the matter any better. The more tired she got, the more worried she became over somehow missing a demon. If something went wrong because of her negligence and one of her friends or loved one got hurt--

Another tentacle sprouted out in response and struck many demons at once. A direct response to her anxiety.

She didn't want to think about it, but this uncomfortable fear had rooted itself in her mind.

Svilran, meanwhile, was firing magic blasts at demons from within the safety of the fountain. The demons couldn't get close, but if they did, the fountain's natural barrier would keep them out.

Svilran studied their situation. She didn't have access to the Holy Light element, the perfect counter element to demons in general, but she had her divine spark-charged Divine Light element.

The spark of divinity could harm the lesser demons--primal malice and negative feelings given form--by virtue of its sheer power. Even though she wasn't a goddess of Holy, Good, Justice, Sanctity, Purity, or Devotion--all Concepts that could lead to a god wielding Holy Light--she could still fight.

Dorthaunzee, meanwhile, had none of those Concepts behind her, but her tentacles were completely destroying the Lesser Demons regardless. Every time a tentacle skewered a demon, it disintegrated. Svilran wanted to understand how that was possible, but she had no time. She knew the Neo Demons were still in their skies watching, she knew Kanae was currently safe, blasting demons that approached the <Mess Hall>, and she knew Elma and Dehlia were having trouble--and that final note--that was what had her frantic.

"I don't know what to do," she whimpered as she desperately kept releasing blasts of divine light at the demons. "I don't know! There's too many of them!"

***

Down below the surface of the Hero Hub, in the Underside called the Inverse, Narlivs stood, calm, but with her eyes closed.

"Come on, Svilran. You shirked studying the ways of war, but surely you can sense you are capable of more," Narlivs said to herself. "There's a reason the Hero Hub's human is assigned a divine attendant. It's because you need to cover any weaknesses with divine superiority. Only gods have the Divine component."

"Will that really work?" Inverse Fainn asked, a little concerned. "Didn't you and Svilran use up the majority of your divine power?"

"Yes, but it's more complicated than that. Svilran used up our divine power and died as an Earthbound God, but she was immediately reborn as the Hero Hub's Attendant and gained a new well of divine power. She no longer has all the power that comes with being from Earth, but she is still relevant here on the Hero Hub. Things like her aura wouldn't work if that were not the case. That aura is proof of her divinity."

"So the problem now is..."

"Like all things, Svilran is too caught up in her head to hear me. I'm trying to tell her what to do, but she's too frantic and afraid of Elma and Dehlia dying. I won't be able to give her inspiration like this. She can't hear me over her heart's shrieks of terror."

"And I can't yell at her. The demons around me are more tenacious than I thought they could be... And I guess she must be too frantic to focus on me when she's focusing on the girls..." Then, Fainn got an idea and grinned. "Hey, Narlivs, your voice won't reach her, but what if you get a burst of emotion so powerful it causes her to stall out for a second?"

Narlivs opened her eyes. "Hmm? What do you mean, Fainn--"

It was a swift movement. Fainn stole the subconscious's lips, and sent her maidenly heart flying.

***

Upstairs, Svilran's eyes suddenly went wide, and her cheeks went red. She was suddenly feeling hot, and her heart was thumping loudly.

"Svilran, bless the girls with your light. You can do it. Your light's already everywhere on the Hub."

"Fainn?" she asked as she looked around. When she saw he wasn't standing next to her, she looked up at the sky. She knew his voice had somehow reached her despite her not paying attention to him. "Can we talk to each other without being near each other?"

With his voice ringing in her ears, her mind quieted down enough for inspiration to strike.

"That's it! Can I... Can I really do that, though?"

Svilran looked at her hands and had a ball of light appear in each hand.

"Please work..."

Svilran used her awareness of the Hero Hub's space and sent the two balls of light into the sky. She then guided the balls' flight past the many demons. The closer they got to their the targets, the more anxious she became.

"Please... reach them!" she yelled.

"You can do it, Svilran," Fainn's voice said, reaching her heart.

"Okay... I can do it..."

The balls of light approached their targets--Elma and Dehlia. They both turned to look at the balls of light coming at them.

Dehlia's eyes reflected the warm light. "That's--"

"Madam Goddess!" Elma said.

The balls of light hit both Elma and Dehlia, and the moment they did, Svilran's voice reached them.

"I'll always support my Heroes!" Svilran cried, overjoyed that she was able to do something. "No one gets to bully them!"

Svilran had done it--she had blessed them with an enchantment.

"My dagger," Elma said, looking at the radiant, golden dagger.

"And my hands..." Dehlia followed, looking at the golden aura radiating from her palms. She grinned and faced their enemies. "So this is what it's like to have a god behind you!"

"Dehlia! This way!" Elma said as she started running. "I've got an idea!"

***

The Battle Rages--The Neo Demons

The two intruders maintained their position in the sky. The silver-haired child examined the battlefield with his hand on his chin and a comical look on his face.

"HMMMMMM..." he said, very loudly.

"Are you sure you don't want to join the fray?" Dominguez asked, himself very tired from being dragged around from one battlefield to the next. "It's a waste of resources to throw small fries at them and not assist."

"And get this face busted up again? No way," the child replied. "These people were tougher than I heard. Did you know those tentacles could destroy demons outright? I don't want to touch that."

"I didn't... but that was because the pawns could not enter the previous world. If I had them at my disposal, I could have investigated and collected data."

"HMMMM..."

Dominguez sighed, annoyed by the loud thinking. "Maybe we should retreat and wait until we're able to rally more of our comrades--"

"Who knows when we'll all be back together again? No, forget that idea..." The child stared at the battle with a scrutinizing eye. "We need to extract as much value as we can from this battle now. I have a feeling these people will become more dangerous in the future. Hmm?"

The child's eye went to one particular combatant, and he cocked his head. "Wait... isn't that..."

"What's wrong?" Dominguez asked.

The child cackled as his grin grew impossibly wide, revealing razor-sharp fangs all messily overlapping each other.

"I'm going home!" the child said, turning around and opening a black void in space.

"Huh!? But you said we were staying here--"

"You will be! I'm just going to go get something, and I'll be right back!" The child crossed into the void and then poked his head out. "Hold down the fort until I get back!"

Dominguez sighed. "Fine... but why all of a sudden?"

"I found an interesting target!"

The child left with nothing but a vile glee in his heart.

Fainn, Svilran, Elma, Dorthaunzee, Kanae, Dehlia--the child had set his eyes on one of these combatants.

An unimaginable attack was coming--

Fainn, Svilran, Elma, Dorthaunzee, Dehlia--none of them could be prepared for what was coming.