Never in the hooligan's fisticuffs record had there been such a devastating blow. It did not shatter the jaw, but now he emerged more bereft of dental fortitude than any old geezer. The throbbing of his dental cavities resonated akin to the disarrayed beating of countless drums. Gone was his youth. Blood mixed with viscous saliva seeped through to form a series of nasty red smears. With no teeth barring his voice, his purest form of shriek thundered unperturbed. A well of tears pooled in his eyes.

First the Pirates, then a random pyromancer, the whole Magisterium, and now the entire city. Failed was the lass' attempt to conceal her brilliant might.

The forever gentle Alicia must have tensed with regret, especially in light of that agonising scream. Uncomfortable as her expression was, her stance remained resolute.

"Yatsu da! Hontō ni yatsu da!" bellowed the hooligan from his hollowed maw.

"Hontō ni yatsu da!" The fellow goons in the rear summoned the plume of smog. As the smog cleared, what met Alicia's eyes was no longer a mob of pierced hooligans, but rather a mob of women. Their armour stood out as familiar. The mauve lightning coursing through their veins bespoke Alicia's nightmares.

Senbō's pirate crew.

"Oh, clipe," Alicia whimpered languidly. The onus of purification slammed into her shoulders again. Not at a good time, to say the least. "Sirs and Ma'ams, I don't know what you're saying, but I'm sure none of us want to end the day on a bad note, do we?" Alicia pleaded, Orb still ensconced in her grasp. "Unless...," her gaze shifted to the grizzled hooligan. "Your day is already ruined by dental misfortune—but let's not make it worse!"

"You brought this on yourself, bitch!" the hooligan swore, a mouthful of reddish saliva accompanying his invective. "Our boss wants you and that Arcane orb!" His hands began to interlock, weaving together strange shapes. Too fast, almost indecipherable to the naked eye. "Though we did want to afford you some pleasure before handing you over to our superiors. But you asked for torture, didn't you? If that's the case, I don't mind a less reward in exchange for the bruise on your cheek and red on all your white teeth!"

Alicia could see four female pirates in the background already manipulating various mountain knots, before shouting, "Ninpo: Zenkankaku no Bougaisha!"

The unexpected happened. The quartet let out a long whistle. Yet as time elapsed, the whistle turned hollow, ethereal, a murmur of a spectre. Then it seemed to blend with the ambient nocturnal sounds.

What spell are they chanting? Are they summoning something? Alicia wracked her brain. Adept at magical trivia as she was, her extensive reading never brought up the most complete compendium of spells across various magical disciplines. No. I can't just sit around waiting for whatever it is to come!

"Someone! Help me! A bunch of strange goons want to do immoral things to me!"

The lass' plea fell on indifferent ears.

"Please! Anyone! Civil Guard! Magisterium mages! Help me!"

Panic surged within her. She looked at the houses. The windows remained bright. Faint echoes of men and clanging objects did not escape her hearing. Why did none of them respond? Fear, perhaps? Have the local civil guards been taken down?

She stole another gander at the hooligans before her, still frozen, none had raised their hands to gag her. Instead, they simply smirked vile grins.

"No one will ever see or hear what happened between us!" declared the grizzled hooligan with a malevolent laugh. "You're on your own now."

I see. Not a summoning jutsu. I had the choice of injuring the four shinobi's hands or running away. No, it's not worth it. I'd better run!

Alicia swiftly pivoted and was about to break free of gravity's reach. Yet, the hooligan's nimble handwork hastened. A zephyr tussled his fluffy hair.

"Yotta Kage no Jutsu!"

The incantation... It rang similar to what Alicia had heard in the past.

In a flash, the bespectacled lass hurled an Arcane projectile at the hooligan, felling him to the ground, but in that same instant, her movement was cut short! Alas, her shadow was intercepted by the shadow of another female pirate.

"You managed to hit me twice! I applaud your prowess!" The toothless hooligan got up, wiping the blood from his lips with a swipe of his arm. From his pocket issued a garden knife. "But you're trapped now. I'll mark you with the first cut. And many more will follow."

He licked the blade, swallowing it into his mouth like a toothbrush. Disgusting. Alicia's stomach churned when the knife was smeared with the gooey liquid. Her nose was already imagining the stale, sour, rancid odour that came with it.

"Hold her still," ordered the grizzled hooligan. He took one step at a time, his pointing knife leering in thirst at Alicia's white cheeks. It was the second time she found herself ensnared in a shadow-binding spell. Even so, she preferred to believe that the shinobi at Trinketshore had treated her more as a proper lady than a mere plaything for violent lechers.

Whether fortune smiled upon her or she had expected it, Alicia's fingers still felt the caress of Orb's delicate Arcane threads, and nothing would ever be able to separate the two of them.

Orb's light intensified, and white flashes exploded with an ear-piercing ring!

Now's your chance, Alicia! Orb's humming sounded so distant. Alicia, free of magic, was still affected by her ballmate's flash. As her vision gradually returned, the lass unleashed a flurry of blue eels. Some assailants fell in a quivering heap, but most displayed the agility of shinobi. Too agile.

Even the grizzled hooligan, who slid and rolled from each of the snaking Arcane currents, raked Alicia's heel and knocked her flat on her back. His grubby hands managed to get the panicked lass by the neck, but to his great chagrin, it rendered his cheek a naked target for Orb's scalding surface! Another mark for the grizzled hooligan instead, still sizzling like butter in a hot pan.

As the hooligan bemoaned his cheek, Alicia crawled backwards, and one by one the savage criminals were about to come at her. Alicia could not help but be resourceful with Orb because the shinobis were too clever to be beaten with the same moves: an Arcane shield to throw back the bulky one, then a scorching Arcane noose that bound two female pirates and threw them against a stone fence to its collapse, a barrage of Arcane blasters to prevent other shinobis from intertwining their hands, and a boom of blinding beams that devastated the pirates who wanted to string her up with wire.

Some were so infuriated to the point that they deliberately set out to destroy the very essence of her existence with explosive papers, all to inflict a slight deterrent on Alicia! Yet, no matter how violent the explosions were, they only caused a dull strain on Alicia's two hands supporting the Arcane force field.

No more follow-up attacks were coming. But the shinobis appeared to take the shortcut of sinking into the ground. The path on which she rested was no longer safe.

With that little momentum, Alicia shot straight into the air. Fighting them by showing off Arcane was, after all, an utterly reckless discourse. Reckless with her current state.

But it seemed the Divine had not yet had his fill of cursing her.

In midair, the dome's rows of dim ceiling lights grew dimmer and dimmer until, to Alicia's eyes, they appeared nothing more than a smudge of black. The world became a pure darkness soon after. Alicia looked down; the hooligans and pirates were still there, one of them with a Ninshu gesture. As if the surprise was not tiring enough, the ink-blackened ground undulated and out came three pairs of colossal hands from behind the pirate, posing the exact Mountain Knot. Their size was bigger within each row!

The celestial side seemed to tell a foreboding sign too, as lightning began to colour the wavering sky, prodding downwards as though something was trapped behind it, eager to break free.

"This magic...?" Alicia muttered to herself, looking back at the pirates. "Infinite Sovereignty?"

"Mugen no Shiha i: Teippai!"

The heavens ruptured. The ground gave way. From the twin flaming fissures, countless hands burst forth. From each hand sprouted another, and from each finger birthed five more. An endless branching of limbs that entrapped Alicia from both sides!

Tis indeed the Infinite Sovereignty spell!

Alicia foresaw the impending impact by forming an independent Arcane barrier, but the encompassing grips from every direction generated intense vapour on the barrier's surface, weighing her with overwhelm. The giant Arcane circle was shunted to the ground. Inevitably, she would have to channel more Arcane to her protective energy and grapple with the Empathy Curse lest her ball-shield crumbled and left her buried in a pool of hands.

"Don't let her die out of breath! Taicho needs the Arcane source and its wielder!" cautioned a pigtailed pirate woman to the dishevelled spellcaster.

"Shut up! I know what I'm doing!" snarled the spellcaster. Her hand seal changed, and all hands went from crushing the girl to lifting her and carrying her before the hooligans. Once again, Alicia scrambled to her feet, but the smattering of hands swiftly grabbed hold of her Arcane barrier again. Their nails scraped and mangled. The Divine Grace crushed their finger bones. Their wrinkled skin melted. All that, and those hands still knew no fear. The Arcane's rolling explosions only made their proliferation all the more unconscionable. Orb's protection was too cumbersome to ascend. Too cumbersome for Alicia.

Clipe! Clipe! How could that chap manifest his subconscious with a jutsu! Alicia pondered, teeth gnashing. What kind of meditation can a disgusting pervert do? I can barely attune to my own subconscious!

"There's no point in fleeing, my lady!" sneered the spell-casting pirate. "If you wait for which chakura to run out, it'll be an inexperienced girl like you who falls first!"

"T-that so, eh...?" Alicia feigned a comeback. "Then I'll defend this barrier until I breathe my last!" she glowered. "Ye willnae extract anything from me or Orb!"

Her bluff worked. The pirates began to exhibit signs of restlessness.

With pain running through every nerve, Alicia's pain resistance waned. Simultaneously, her vision flickered with a blinding glare.

No! Not again! Control yerself! Alicia shook her head.

"How could a nerd like you have a death wish!" the pirate instigated once more.

"Maybe we should knock her unconscious," Kagatse's pigtailed companion suggested.

"No need. She'll surrender on her own."

"You're risking her life! It's the same as presenting your head on Taicho's plate!"

"She's not going to die! Look! Her head is already trembling."

"But the blue glint in her eyes is dubious!" the ponytailed pirate mimicked the shape of Alicia's glasses with her hand, then pointed at the lass again.

"Whatever she says, she's right!" Alicia interjected. "Don't... you see anything wrong with me...? Please, let me go!"

"You shut up!" The pigtailed pirate switched languages, snarling. "I never suggested letting you go!"

Alicia's eyes gave off a strange light again. Arcane energy overflowed, and her protective circle pushed away the absurd hands of the rogue. Competing in endurance by staying within pairs of hands was no longer a prudent strategy, Alicia had surmised. Thousands of hovering hands were already spreading blisters beneath the veil of her clothes, and Alicia's own two hands were already experiencing epilepsy, a war for control between her consciousness and the innermost depths of her mind.

Alicia glanced at the black sheath of the domain that trapped her. Arcane could certainly destroy this veil easily, with or without Khaos inside.

Alicia's body turned redder than usual, and the fellow pirate with the pigtails had run out of patience. "That's enough!" she said. She pulled out a Montain Knot and called out, "Mugen no Shiha i: Jaketsu!"

Surrounded by total darkness, a giant, braided snake head billowed from the void, lunging from behind the pigtailed pirate with its jaws wide ajar towards the Arcane barrier!

Orb ceased its flow of power. The divine fortress cracked and ruptured. Hands pierced through. The giant serpent pulverised all in its path. But with very, very little momentum, Alicia let herself soar, intending to collide with the spell-summoning pirate with Arcane energy already accumulated in her hands!

Must shoot that pirate's hand, then run away! Alicia thought to herself.

However, a swifter pirate hugged Alicia and the two tumbled down. The shot missed.

"We got her—"

The pirate was sent hurtling by a bolt of blue lightning!

Adrenaline rushed through the lass' system again. Not just her hands, but her whole body was convulsing with electric sparks snarling in all directions. Instead of lending a hand, the pirates strode backwards, apathetic to the fate of their fallen fellow. That bookworm before them was not a real person, but a short-circuited decoy automaton, thought one pirate. Others debated that they had incurred the wrath of something residing within her. Whatever it was, Alicia was just as confused, just as panicked, her control ebbing and flowing in record time.

"Breathe! Breathe! Just like Lord Domen taught me!" Alicia exclaimed to herself painfully, which added another layer of goosebumps across their skins. A long inhale, then a gradual exhale. Alicia tried to remain consistent, even as her consciousness wavered.

"What exactly is that girl trying to do?" asked one of the pirates again.

Alicia paid no heed. The meditation teachings had to work, they could not be left in vain. Amidst her predicament, Alicia seemed to get a glimmer of inspiration that she was sure was a message from the recesses of her subconscious. Something that indicated protection and self-perseverance. While at the same, Courage. Something that indicated a loss of paranoia about the gates of Hades. But what were they? What was her subconscious trying to say?

While Alicia wrestled with her own thoughts, the snake moved backwards and returned to the pitch-black space, waiting for her guard to drop before pouncing from an unexpected direction. At least Alicia had gained something, and the convulsions in her body began to subside a little.

The snake suddenly appeared from a different direction, and Alicia swung her favourite orb right over the head of the slithering monster! Its braids caught fire, its head was perforated, and its entire body turned into a hollow shell ravaged by immolation.

Only a short later, her strange symptoms flared up again. Her subconscious was not satisfied. She cursed herself.

Witnessing the heart-pounding scene, the city hooligans and pirates felt a shiver run down their necks. Yet they were still blaring, "Put her down," with legs pumping and arms pointing.

Until eventually, Alicia became as rigid as a standing corpse.

Her ruby eyes went completely blue.

The thugs petrified themselves, waiting to see what would transpire next.

The next thing they knew, Orb produced a pole and stayed atop its peak.

A sceptre replica.

No, it was a monstrous mace, as Alicia swung the pole and sent a thug tumbling across the face!

But then, the light in Alicia's eyes vanished, and she glimpsed the result of her Arcane crafting. Alicia screamed. Seeing a hooligan on the ground, her heart clenched, tighter and tighter. "Orb can do that?" she wondered. "No! Of course, it can! But it's dangerous. And way too—"

Alicia welcomed an elbow from a pirate. The other pirate aimed a nunchaku peck at her right temple, but Alicia dodged and slipped. An opportunity! The other pair of hooligans quickly pulled Alicia's hand back before her eyes lit up again. What fools those two were. Did it not occur to them to separate the lass from her Arcane source first?

With agility uncanny to her, Alicia glided upwards with an Arcane surge, and when she overcame her two captors, she spun around, landing behind them and rocking them to their knees.

One challenger desperately grabbed her pigtails from behind. What a despicable act, was it not? Alicia—or her subconscious—refused to let the dirty deed slide. Steeling herself against the painful dragging, Alicia caught her foe's upper arm with one hand, his forearm with the other, and gave the connecting joint a forceful shove until gnashing resounded in the air, and a scream of pain followed! Alicia swivelled, the hovering Orb back in hand, then smashed that abused face with Orb over and over again, as primal as smashing one's head with a rock, as merciless, until all she could discern was blue mounts and blood rivers.

But all of a sudden, Alicia's eyes lapsed back to normal, and her heart nearly tore out with her own screams (as well as the battered face right before hers). Muscle memory still guided her arm to smash that swollen face a few more times.

"Orb! Why didn't you stop me!" Alicia's voice trembled as she tried to block and duck the retaliation of the pirates. The chakra blast issued by the snake-summoning pirate caused Alicia to drop again.

You're the one in sync with me! You're the only one in control of yourself! Orb swatted away.

But Alicia could not. She did not want to echo that again in front of her ball-mate's face.

When the others launched the next round of attacks, Alicia no longer wanted to linger there and decided to fly back. The snake-summoning female pirate's hand managed to catch Alicia's floating thigh, assisted again by the rest of her comrades. The domain spellcaster was still upright with her hand pose. A scattering of hands from both holes began to creep up, trampling over each other in a bid to be the first to grasp Alicia's hand. The grizzled, toothless hooligan leapt up and clutched Alicia in his arms. The burden grew heavier. Alicia declined downwards.

"You're not going anywhere, little girl!" huffed the grizzled hooligan. He caught Alicia's hand holding Orb, squeezing her flesh.

"No, Orb!" Alicia's palm tightened and her fingers stiffened. Her control over Orb slowly faded as she became distracted by the pain in her hand.

"I'll break your hand if I have to!" the hooligan threatened again.

The flesh on the back of Alicia's hand already felt like it was being scorched. One could not tell what sort of art that skilled hooligan was using. Alicia's resolve, however, had already been tested by a tortuous past. She would not rot in a den of thieves. She would not be held hostage, let alone conveniently enslaved by a bunch of degenerates. She belonged to her alone. Arcane as massive as her determination overcame the pain, shooting through the bespectacled lass' body.

But such determination seemed to have a rather steep cost. Her self-control slipped away again.

The flickers of blue energy around her turned into tendrils of electricity, and they zapped the interceptors like true electricity. One after another they were blown away and fell.

And as if that was not enough, Orb acted just as uncannily as the now expressionless lass.

"Enlightenment of the Three Gods! Her Arcane source is multiplying!" screamed a feared thug.

Orb literally split itself in two before their eyes.

With a gesture of Alicia's graceful limbs, the two "Orbs" twisted in space and launched more lightning than anyone had ever seen during a storm! The hands from the portal that desperately pierced through the electric pillars were reduced to ashes. The pirates holding Alicia jumped back to the ground with their clothes on fire!

Instead of running away, this beast-mode Alicia set her jaw to deliver them all. Her feet back on the ground, she rained down tadpole-like Arcane mortars and then chased after the criminals to fry their brains with two swirling Arcane orbs. Fifteen people. Some kissed the ground, others disappeared into the black vista. Their hands were not agile enough to block the two orbs with Ninshu's magic attack.

Ah, it was not that all those powers were impervious to the Divine Grace.

There was only one that still stood their ground. Although the sensory saboteur spell had been cancelled, this false world still existed. The spell-summoning pirate remained headstrong apparently, amidst her comrades already scurrying around, clothes in tatters, bodies charred. Oh, the savage Alicia was delighted at this sitting duck. What kind of spells could split the spellcaster's two hands and tear down this endless domain, she wondered?

With a strange twirling motion of her hands, her two orbs rotated accordingly. Their blue forms turned glaring white.

"Where are you all?" the summoner's pirate raged. None answered.

"There's fifteen of us, dammit!" she scolded again.

Each of Alicia's orbs swelled and revealed two beams of light!

All the strange hands rotted away. The pitch-black sky again faked itself as a dimly-lit dome as the pirate was sent hurtling to the wall of a house, crumbling the whole structure and leaving its sleeping residents shrieking in disbelief. It was then that everyone in the neighbourhood had their share of cardiac arrest. Shouts of ire emanated behind their walls as if the cacophony outside was a form of juvenile delinquency. It was.

And it was not long before Alicia was convulsing again and her true consciousness managed to regain control. But it was too late. The residents of the house had gathered around her and shouted abuse. Alicia saw a number of street thugs who were knocked out and intercepted, but not the pirates from the Senbō faction. Even the ones who ground the whole house were gone. Alicia could only hug Orb tightly, her face almost in tears, when the civil guard unit broke up the crowd. []