I smiled at Damian a a sense of happiness at Albert being stabbed.

  Of course, it made sense.

  But did it make sense?

  Something is wrong.

  No.

  This is all wrong.

  This is all wrong!

  Something inside me snapped. I felt a burning rage fill me and my vision swam with colors and sounds. I was suddenly filled with anger and fury, an overwhelming urge to proted save, to do anything to protect my best friend from the attack.

  My heart beat faster. My vision swam again, but this time the fog was gone and the world seemed to slow down, as if I was moving uer.

  A single word came to my lips, and it was all I could think.

  "Al!"

  I lunged forward, briefly activating Shadow Dand pushed Albert to the ground.

  I could feel the blood rushing in my veins.

  I felt the cold bite of the knife against my skin and I hissed in pain.

  Albert screamed in surprise and pain as he hit the ground, the wind knocked out of him. I could feel the k ay back, and the pain was blinding, but I refused to fall into shock.

  I reached as I did befrabbing onto the weird signatures I felt in everyone's auras, the fn, wrong presen them, and with a grunt I burhem to ash, purifying them with my mana. Everyone gasped as I burned away whatever it was in their bodies, and the kered to the ground, my blood spttered on its tip.

  I turowards the man, who stared at me, eyes wide.

  "What?"

  He ervilin.

  He had attacked my best friend.

  My best friend, Albert.

  Albert. Albert.

  Yes, everything was clear again.

  "Get behind me!" I screamed at everyone, and I felt my vision go white as I instinctively tapped into my powers.

  I charged a Luminary Beam, my body screaming at the effort. The energy crackled as I gathered it into a sphere in front of my right hand, the mana burning and swirling around me as it formed the ball of golden light.

  "What?" the man said again, looking fused, before his face torted with anger. "That's not possible! What did you do?"

  "Luminary Beam!"

  I fired the beam as the man pulled another k, dragging a line across his palm, before quickly snapping his fingers. "

  Uyata'at Xaya'an," he ted, and a barrier of red light formed between him and the group. The man's aura pulsed with a dark purple and red glow, and I could feel the malice radiating off of him as my beam impacted his barrier.

  My beam wasn't strong enough and the barrier held. I felt the st of my mana drain from my body, the st of the energy dissipating from the beam and from my hands as I colpsed to the ground.

  "Lux!" Albert shouted, and he caught me as I fell.

  "Sanguine Sorceror..." Elysia growled.

  Damian chuckled.

  "You're impressive," Damian stated. "But it doesn't matter. The bird boy is unscious, protected by the fox kid's abilities. Quite a shame, I hoped to make off with a spe as iing as him. But no matter."

  His eyes glowed a deep red. The man grinned, before looking at the unscious form of the merary. "This is where I say goodbye, children."

  He waved his hands, and a curtain of red spears surrounded us.

  No, they were more like drills.

  He gri roup as we circled around, proteg me and the powerless Albert in the middle, all of us exhausted and panting. Albert held me tight in his arms, his grip shaking.

  Damian grinned, before he snapped his fingers, and the spears were in our faces in a fsh. I hadn't even been able to react, even with my enhanced senses.

  "Switch!" a girl's voice suddenly shouted, and we all vanished in fshes of purple.

  I looked around in fusion, quickly seeing that I was now oher end of the street, Al had me picked up bridal style, ae was in front of us. Kitsune's his ears were ft and tails raised defensively, his eyes narrowed. Currant and Strawberry stood in front of me and Al, looking around.

  "Hey guys! Somebody call for the cavalry?" a familiar voice shouted. I snapped my head up to see Aurora looking down at us, her voice bright and perky.

  She was dressed in a white and blue magical girl uniform with golden armor and what looked like bible references inscribed across it. She was smiling, but it looked strained, her eyes were wide with .

  The spears had smmed into a veritable disco ball of portals, and the spears were flying everywhere. O the ground and bounced, spinning and drilling a hole into the pavement.

  Sanguine Sorceror had a shocked look on his face as a portal opened up behind him.

  "Hey there, old geezer!" the first voice chirped, appearing behind the blood mage with silver baseball bat in hand. She was wearing a silver jumpsuit with white gloves and boots. "How ya doing? Niight, ain't it?"

  The baseball bat smmed down on Sanguine Sorcerer in a fsh of purple light, and the blood mage fell to the ground with a grunt. He turned around, looking up, his face twisted into a snarl.

  "Who?" he growled.

  "Hiya! It's ya girl. The Portal Girl!" she winked, flipping her curly hair back. "S Dream, really. Anyway, I'm here to beat the crap out of you."

  He growled, and raised a hand to cast, but he froze in his tracks as he felt the etal of a gun pointed against his forehead.

  "By the power vested in me as a magical girl, I hereby pce you under arrest for murder, kidnapping, attempted kidnapping, and the usage of forbidden magics," Aurora said, smiling down at him. "Repent, motherfucker!"

  He didn't speak, only looked at Aurora, then back at S Dream. I stared with equal surprise at the hostility rolling off the timid angel in waves.

  ...And where did she get that gun from?

  Then, he swiped his athame at the angel.

  "Switch!" the newer yelled as he started his movement, and both the girl in the silver jumpsuit and Aurora were gohe blood mage stumbling as a beam of red light shot through thin air.

  S Dream giggled as she appeared through what I'd best describe as a purple hole iy holding Bck Star over her shoulders.

  "Switch!" she yelled again, and suddenly, she and I switched positions. Right as more spears bombarded the group, redirected through her weird disco ball ability all over the street.

  "Heya there," S Dream cooed at Albert, who looked down at her in his arms in surprise.

  She fluttered her eyeshes. "What's a handsome fel like you doing here with these cats?"

  "Excuse me?!" Ichigo snarled. Her cat ears stood straight up aail flicked dangerously. She blushed and looked away as S Dream looked back at her with a smile.

  She winked. "Aw, e on, you know I don't mean it that way," S Dream ughed, and Ichigo huffed, her cheeks flushed a deep red. "Anyway, nice meeting you folks. You're lucky Aurora's friends with these two and called us. Me and Yuzu and the stragglers behind us have this covered."

  "Yuzu's here?!" Currant excimed.

  "Yup!" she smiled at Currant, who stared down at her. "Switch!"

  As if on cue, a squeaky voice shouted, "CITRUS CRUSH!"

  A yellow and green magical girl appeared in the sky, surrounded by a golden barrier, and smmed her oversized staff down in a fsh of yellow.

  An anvil straight out of an old school cartoon crushed the merary under a shower of sparks. The merary let out a surprised scream as the anvil fell on him, but Yuzu jumped into the sky again, the staff spinning in her hands.

  "POMELO BOMBARDMENT!"

  A storm of fruits the size of basketballs smmed down onto the street. Eae of the fruits was ed in a glowing e field. As the fruits hit the ground, they bounced up, each fruit nding on a different part of the street and exploding, and Sanguine Sorcerer's eyes went wide, auro run. He didn't make it far, because a bright purple portal opened up right in front of his path, aook a baseball bat to the face, falling bato the pavement.

  "This guy's a Css Seven?" S Dream pined, rolling out her shoulder as pulled back her stahis guy ain't that tough!"

  The blood mage growled and got up, stumbling as he did.

  "CITRUS—"

  A bright red knife suddenly pierced the petite magical girl's stomach.

  Her face went s shock, her mouth hanging open and her eyes going wide, as the magic she was charging died down.

  How did he...?

  A bright red knife had cut through her barrier like butter and pierced the girl's stomach.

  She coughed and a trail of blood trickled from her mouth.

  "No!" Strawberry and Currant cried out in unison.

  "YUZU!" Currant shouted, his eyes going wide, and he rushed towards her. The blood mage looked at Currant and then at Yuzu.

  "Switch!" the tralto voice yelled, and the two of them vanished.

  A bright red fsh and S Dream appeared in front of us again, Yuzu held in her hands, the kill iomach.

  "Love Angel, get your ass over here! We need you!" she called, and Aurora flew down in a hurry. She touched the girl and her hands began to glow with a healing light. Yuzu whimpered as the knife was removed, and she began to breathe again.

  I watched in shock as the girl healed. I'd seen Aurora's absurd healing before, but the girl had almost died.

  And she was a magical girl, so her body was enhanced. A single, precise attack had taken her down in an instant.

  "Not just mental resistances. Physical resistaoo?" Albert wondered aloud, and I felt my eyes go wide.

  "Bck Star. Did you know he had an ability like this?" I asked.

  "Damian? Nah," the assassin grumbled, sitting up. "I always figured that if he did have an ability it'd be mind reading. The fucker always figured things out too well. It's the first time I've ever seen him pull something like that... whatever he did to us. As far as I know he needs blood or physical tact. That's why he cut himself with that athame."

  "So... what the hell did he hit us with?" Albert muttered. "There was no telegraph at all, but I was already on guard and trying a mental trick to keep me focused. He mentioned something about an artifact?"

  He looked around and everyone shrugged, but I noticed Elysia's eyes go wide and her posture stiff.

  I looked at her in surprise as she took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

  Then, she looked up. "He mentioned an artifact... I did read about something like this once. Mortifera Nox had something that allowed her to bypass resistances of some pretty powerful knights. I thought she took it to her death, but maybe he found it somehow?"

  "So he used the artifact to put us all us influend used his ability to trol our minds?" Currant asked.

  "Yes," Elysia stated, nodding. "He used it to bypass our resistahen used his ability on us."

  "That... makes sense, but why didn't I fall for it?" Albert wondered.

  "Who knows, but stay sharp!"

  S Dream zoomed in and out of portals, swinging her baseball bat at Sanguine Sorcerer, aried his best to deflect each strike. Each time he blocked, she switched him into the path of a spear or anvil. Each time, she switched him to avoid a killing blow, disorienting the blood mage.

  "Stay still, you bitch!" Sanguine Sorcerer yelled as S Dream teleported away from a spear that almost hit her.

  "Aw, don't get so worked up. I'm just trying to help you out, ya old man!" she giggled as another portal opened and she unched another volley of strikes.

  Elysia summoned her crystalline swords and dashed forward in a burst of speed, joining in oa the blood mage. Her eyes narrowed and her expression hardened.

  "I won't five you for using my friends as puppets!" she muttered.

  "I don't need fiveness," Sanguine Sorcerer ughed, before his expression darkened and his lips twisted into a smirk. "Now, hold still for me."

  He raised a hand and his aura pulsed, and I saw it again, the strange mana signatures. The fn, wrong feeling presences, in Elysia, Strawberry, Kitsune, Currant, and even Albert rippled out again.

  S Dream paused, looking around in fusion. "What?"

  "Oh god..." I groaned. "He's doing the thing again."

  I had already used up my mana reserves, so there wasn't much I could do.

  I felt a sudden jolt i of my stomach. Something was very, very wrong, and I felt the wrongness spread throughout the entire area. It was like a chill down my spine. I looked at Elysia, Strawberry, and Albert, and their auras were all wrong. I felt it invading me, but this time it felt different. I couldn't tell why, but it was different. It was weaker. More subtle.

  The st vestiges of my mana fred, pushing against the intrusion.

  It failed to take hold, and I felt the mana in the area around me begin to shift and move. The others, however, did not resist.

  "What is... going on?" I wondered aloud, and I saw Aurora and S Dream's expressions turn from surprise to satisfa.

  I struggled, tugging o vestiges of mana I had. I o dispel it again, but I ent. I couldn't even stand. It wasn't w.

  I needed a pn. Something to stall.

  Sanguine Sorcerer looked up, and he saw my friends and cssmates sck-jawed again.

  "Now, that was iing. But... time to end it, kids," Sanguine Sorceror whispered, and the aura pulsed once again.

  I heard something like an egg crag, but there wasn't an egg nearby. Or maybe it was like an egg yolk bursting? Like the sound of somethi, sticky, and squishy. A disgusting he sound of flesh breaking.

  The sound of something inside a human breaking. Of flesh breaking and ripping. Blood spttering on the ground. I looked up, my head swimming and my eyes blurry from mana exhaustion. The world spun and everything blurred.

  Red tendrils had erupted from Sanguine Sorrceror's hand, and they tched onto Elysia and S Dream.

  I o help. I o help. But how? I had nothi. I had nothing.

  I felt a sharp pain in the bay skull.

  A memory fshed before my eyes.

  No... A dream? But I hadn't been sleeping.

  I had a splitting headache and I could feel my body vulsing. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't see.

  The pain and fear in my mind vanished in a moment.

  I crawled to my feet, barely able to stand. The world inning. My head was throbbing. I could barely breathe, but I managed. My body felt cold, like ice.

  "Holy Art: Grand Purification!" Aurora suddenly gasped, and the red tendrils were repelled from the two magical girls, who blinked in fusion at their situation. Sanguine Srowled, looking at Aurora, who held a glowing orb of white light.

  Aurora screamed, her wings fpping and her eyes glowing, as the light exploded, blinding everyone.

  I felt her rush over to me, g my hand as mana poured into me. Her mana. I felt it flood my body, my eyes, and then I saw the mana of the others. Elysia's ink. Kitsune's was a deep green.

  "Lux! I've got you."

  And the blood mage. He was red. His mana was red, like the color of blood, but there was a taint in it, like something was wrong with him. There was something wrong with it. It wasn't human mana, not anymore.

  His mana was different, in the sehat it wasn't human.

  He was something more.

  He was a monster.

  He was a demon.

  No, that wasn't it. It was worse.

  That was him. He was still human, but he wasn't present. This wasn't the real him.

  He... o go. To make us safe.

  "My name... is Magical Girl Harmonia Lux!" I screamed, my voice reverberating in my own ears, as the golden light lit up the street.

  "Shadow Dance!"

  I propelled forward as Elysia, S Dream, Currant, Strawberry and Albert all blinked, shaking their heads.

  Sanguine Sorcerer turned and looked at me as the mana in his body fred. He was ready to fight back, to unleash whatever spell he nning on.

  But I didn't give him a ce. The world around me slowed to a crawl.

  And then color returned in full as I switched gears.

  "Verdant Art: Entangling Grasp!"

  A massive vied from the ground, and he ulled to the ground, struggling against the pnt as it tried to itself around him as I tossed aside the replica of Twilight Aster's staff.

  I aimed my hands at Sanguine Sorcerer and I felt the st of my strength drain from my body. My power, the mana I had absorbed from Aurora, drained away.

  I didn't care. I had to do this. For my friends. For Albert. For my sister.

  "And this," I growled, "is for ruining our damned shopping trip!"

  Sanguine Sorceror's eyes widened.

  "LUMINARY BEAM!"

  A fsh of gold lit the night sky, and the blood mage screamed. His voice was loud and high pitched. His body writhed and vulsed drowned in the golden light, his arms and legs filing, his head shaking bad forth, a loose an inhuman wail.

  And then his body burst, exploding in a shower of blood.