Daylight sparkled off of the jagged facets of rosy crystal as it expanded outwards, the starry-eyed girl underneath it still struggling to understand what she’d just done even as she was still doing it.

  She… She’d never practiced anything like this before. She’d never even thought about it as something she could have done to begin with. The sensation of it rapidly growing to cover her like a second yer of skin was completely foreign, and yet… it felt comforting all the same, like a familiar bnket wrapping around her.

  Gwyn snapped her attention back to reality, gaze returning to the two crouching in front of her, locked in pce by confusion and fear.

  “…c’mon, r-run already, you’re safe now!”

  “…oh, right, we… thank you…!”

  The less injured of the two of them rapidly pushed them both back to their feet, shuffling off as fast as they could towards the street corner ahead.

  “I don’t recall giving anyone permission to leave…!!”

  Frustration pin in her voice, Beelze spun nimbly, her swarm swinging around past her as she directed them forwards once again, unching them at the trio for a second round before any of them could move out of the way.

  Gwyn had already turned back towards her once more, sprinting in a straight line right for her opponent, barreling headfirst towards the thick cloud of flies as it rushed to meet her.

  The magical girl who only moments ago was struggling to not completely shut down from fear clung to her newfound confidence tight, not letting go of that fire she felt growing inside her heart as she ran, silencing every fearful voice in her head through sheer hard-headed determination.

  More pink crystal expanded to cover her limbs, her arms crossing over her face as she met the swarm head on, the constant buzz just as deafening to experience from within the second time.

  She could feel countless tiny insects scratching and biting and stinging at everything they passed over, ravenously attempting to peel through her newfound armor as they hunted after the soft, warm meat underneath it all.

  But try as they might, her new skin proved too durable to perforate immediately, Gwyn emerging from the other side of the cloud before they managed any real damage.

  And as the constant nibbling and crushing sensation passed over her, she uncovered her eyes once again, eyes locked onto her opponent as she pushed herself to move even faster still.

  “Nnngh… durable little brat…!”

  Beelze attempted any kind of retort, her own confidence faltering just barely. already spiraling on her heel as she tried to recall her horde of flies, attempting to step back and away from the encroaching magical girl as she broke past her defenses.

  She twirled, moving away as far as her long legs would allow her, not dropping her dance for even a moment as attempted to regain control of the situation once more.

  But as her gaze spun back towards Sugar Free, she was already atop her, a boulder undeterred by anything before it as she rushed the taller woman, a fist already reared back as crystallized feet skidded along the ground.

  Stone grew atop skin as the fist flew forwards, every ounce of momentum Gwyn had behind the first punch she’d ever thrown, her entire arm now ending in a massive club of solid diamond as it hooked hard into Beelze’s chest, a loud, ringing clonk forcing the wind out of her lungs as she was unched backwards from the sheer weight of the impact.

  She flew backwards, barely managing to stay on her feet as she slid down the pavement, huffing and clearly injured to some degree from the heavy hit even as she tried her best to maintain herself.

  Gwyn smiled, still leaning into the weighty punch she’d thrown… before realizing she wasn’t leaning into it that significantly, her entire body still sliding and spinning to the side as she struggled to stop herself, every motion she made carrying excessive inertia behind it, every movement she made trying to stabilize feeling massively exaggerated.

  Her thick yer of protective armor felt almost entirely weightless on her, but it had still made her significantly heavier, only now realizing she’d stomped a crater into the pavement just from how hard she’d stepped into her right hook.

  “Gnnngh… it’s been quite a while since one of you managed to strike me… I fear I’d forgotten the unpleasant sensation entirely. I’ll have to punish you properly, little fly.”

  “Y-Yeah? I’ve got plenty of p-punishment left for you too, so… l-let’s dance?”

  She tried to beckon her opponent on confidently, her fingers still stuck together under the boulders capping the ends of her arms as she tried to move them, her stance unbanced and uneven as she tried to brace herself in pce, still burning with more energy than she’d ever felt before.

  Beelze had already recomposed herself, her stance tighter and more practiced than it had been before, the woman adjusting from halfheartedly causing chaos to dedicating her efforts towards exterminating a particurly stubborn pest.

  Gwyn charged her once more, not wanting to let the other woman regain her bearings just as she had put her on the back foot, the rapid thunk thunk thunk of diamond-encased feet striking the road underneath them echoing as she rushed ahead.

  Her entire body felt sluggish as she tried to adjust to her new ability, still worn down from pushing herself too hard training earlier in the day, adrenaline and bravado alone doing all of the heavy lifting to keep her moving at this point.

  Still, sheer bullheadedness was a hell of a drug, and as the massive horde of insects assembled in front of her yet again, she didn’t even think of slowing down.

  It struck her like a raging river against a dam, the impact of so many tiny bodies tackling her all in sequence enough to throw her off bance, the swarm beating her back and forth as it swirled about her like a storm, rather than simply mindlessly streaming over and past her.

  She pushed ever onwards even still, shielded forearms doing their damnedest to protect her face as the countless bugs bit and stung at her from every angle all at once, managing to take minuscule bites out of her armor as they chipped away at her.

  Even still, she just had to push on. She just needed to push through this, to endure it all long enough to get in just once more, just long enough to nd a second solid hit on her. Surely even she could manage that much--

  That cloud parted suddenly, faster than she’d expected to come out the other side, the sudden returning sunlight blinding her for just a moment before her eyes adjusted once more, just in time to see the leg soaring in from her side.

  Her reactions were sluggish at best on a good day, and with her bance completely shifted on top of her encroaching exhaustion, there was no way she could move fast enough to respond to it, Beelze’s leg homing in on her opening as it swung in like a pickaxe at the exposed diamond.

  There was a loud crunch as brilliant sunlit gss was crushed by the kick, Gwyn hacking up a mouthful of blood as the heavy impact carried through her armor and into her rib cage below.

  She was flung off to the side as the kick followed through perfectly, Beelze already returning to her unending dance as Gwyn tumbled gracelessly down the pavement, groaning as she was id out.

  “You’ve been a lovely partner, little fly, but I’m afraid I’m left with so little time to indulge myself these days.”

  “I-I’m not… I’m not done y-yet…!”

  “Oh my sweet little fly, I’m sure you aren’t. But my Mistress is not a patient woman, so I fear I must be done.”

  The sun overhead briefly blinked out, Gwyn weakly forcing herself to roll to the side as Beelze’s heel struck the pavement below where her head had just been, the sheer impact alone cratering it far deeper than Gwyn had managed.

  “Come now, just hold still-- nnn...?!”

  The older woman sighed in mild annoyance, lifting her foot from the crushed asphalt… only to find it refusing to lift, looking down to find a crystalline mitt cracked open to exposed the fingers underneath, all five of them clutching down tightly around her slender ankle.

  She was too slow to try and wrench it out of her grasp, Gwyn managing a bloodied smirk as she yanked hard to the side, throwing the ballerina’s perfectly trained bance off entirely, grunting with effort as she threw her opponent up and off with all the force she could manage from her position still lying on the ground.

  As strong as she was, Beelze remained a featherweight, being tossed aside almost effortlessly like a rotten piece of fruit, unable to continue her directing dance as her feet were kept off the ground, her swarm unfocused as she struggled to guide it back to her once more.

  She twisted and contorted her body in midair, steering herself towards a perfect nding, her feet finally once more returning to solid ground, immediately returning to--

  “I told you--”

  The wind was once more knocked from her lungs as a mass of solid sugar crystal much rger than just a fist struck her all at once, gemstone arms grabbing around her waist to lock her into the forceful embrace, the weight of a truck striking her all at once before she’d even managed to regain her bance.

  “—I’m not done yet…!!”

  Gwyn cked any kind of grace at all, everything she could manage clumsy and unfocused and nearly useless against someone as strong as this, someone who could shatter her newfound armor like it was little more than wet paper.

  But even still, training and raw ability could only account for so much, and almost half a ton of solid rock smming into a woman built like a scarecrow would always hurt like hell.

  She kept rushing forwards, tackling the other woman as she carried her along, not giving her a single millisecond to catch her breath, roaring as she scaled the impassable cliff she’d been stuck below for so long, her entire body crying out as she forced herself far past her own limits, the shadow she’d been chasing growing closer as she pushed herself still further past the st scrap of energy she had left.

  The pair of them struck against a solid brick wall, Gwyn not slowing them even slightly as she smmed them both into it, Beelze coughing up her own blood as she was sandwiched between two unbreaking walls at once, no room left to wriggle free as she was crushed by the hard impact.

  It took the wiry woman entirely too long to recover from the attack, feeling several of her ribs completely shattered as she panted, struggling to find the strength to push the magical girl off of her before she could attack again.

  But as she tried to squirm free, she found no resistance beyond the unyielding grip on her, no attacks of any kind trying to follow through on the tackle that had caught her unaware.

  A smile pstered to her face still, Gwyn Lapin stood limply, held up by the wall before her and her own stony armor, having fallen unconscious well before they’d even struck the wall, blood streaming from the cracked crystal along the side of her ribs.

  She’d pushed herself as she could manage, and her poor, battered body colpsed as it fell just short of the top of the cliff.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  “C’mon, faster, I need to go NOW!”

  “I’m trying, shit, it’s, uh…”

  Lonnie Ga poured over a map of Grace City, checking street names against the ongoing news broadcast, Alice looming over her as she bounced from foot to foot impatiently, eyes repeatedly darting back to the TV, watching footage of Gwyn struggling to hold her own alone.

  “Dammit, come on, she’s--”

  “Here, Fen Street! That’s the one, and… yeah, this is that intersection, I got it!”

  “Let’s go then, get me over there!”

  Lonnie paused for just a second before shaking her head roughly to clear her thoughts, raising her hands towards Alice as she prepared to transport her away rather than back for once.

  “Just… Just come back okay, alright?”

  “I always do, yeah?”

  She gave the older woman a smile, that same one she always gave after she got herself ripped apart, that kiddy grin that refused to ever think about consequences.

  Lonnie smiled back, nodding back at her.

  There was a fsh of light, blinding Alice entirely, and when it cleared she was standing somewhere entirely different, a wholly ruined and abandoned street.

  Her head snapped from side to side, hunting for anyone nearby, the broadcast having been several minutes behind, panicking as the possibly of her having been too te slowly boiled into the back of her mind.

  “Gwyn! Gwyn, where the hell are--”

  As she cried out for her friend, she finally found her, that gentle face she could never forget at the other end of the street turned to face her, sapphire eyes gzed over, her entire body wreathed in pink diamond as it fell to ground below, blood pooling on wet asphalt beside her as she still smiled.

  The other woman that had been on the broadcast stood overtop her, panting as she tried to catch her breath, a single foot raised before it smmed down hard above Gwyn’s heart, stomping down hard enough to loudly crack the crystal trying it’s best to still protect her.

  She stopped thinking, her legs already moving, a slow walk turning to a brisk jog breaking into a manic sprint, seeing her friend broken in front of her, the woman responsible for hurting her still standing, having arrived too te to protect her, having left her to fight all on her own.

  Emotions erupted unbidden inside of Alice’s heart, a cavalcade streaming forth from within her, her eyes locked onto that woman in front of her as she rushed forward with all the focus of a predator chasing down prey.

  In that flood of emotion, she hadn’t even realized the Focus was back in her hand.

  Impulses that were only half her own boiled up from inside her, remembered words streaming forwards from her lips.

  “Hearts beat free!--”

  “Alice, stop, control your--”

  She couldn’t even hear Sclera’s voice, something much louder already screaming inside her head, raw animal instinct driving her along.

  “--Sin Change!”

  The Focus opened wide to her as she called out, feeling her entire body ripping itself apart from the inside out, every single nerve firing off at once, organs twisting and tearing open to make way for something new to be born from the surge of unchecked energy burning her alive.

  The sound of a heart beating filled all of Alice’s senses, and she sank her teeth deep into its raw, blood-drenched meat, letting the sanguine ichor dribble down her face as she gave herself over to pure, insatiable hunger.

  Beelze’s foot rose once more to crush Gwyn’s chest in fully, ready to never have to worry about the stubbornly durable magical girl ever again.

  It was never given the chance to fall.

  Instead, a force like a train smmed into the unfocused woman all at once, her arm tched onto by a vice lined with daggers as she was lifted effortlessly, animalistic snarling accompanying the sudden attack as she was wrung about like a chew toy, the sound of bones snapping as she was tossed about.

  Before she could even begin to see what had attacked her, she was tossed far down the street, the experienced combatant still managing to nd on her feet even with her increasing number of major wounds, her left arm barely still able to move as blood poured from dozens of tiny stab wounds.

  “Who the hell dares… to… to interrupt…?”

  Her voice caught in her throat as she looked upon her attacker, having expected a second magical girl to have arrived to save the other.

  Instead, the thing that stood there wasn’t a magical girl at all, or even human to begin with.

  An animal made head to toe of raw, bleeding meat hunched protectively overtop the wounded magical girl, a low growling that sounded closer to a jet engine rumbling out from within its massive body. A bouquet of countless eyes bloomed from the left half of its face, every single one of the emerald orbs fixated on her.

  Misshapen limbs sporting more cws and joints than a living body should ever have twisting as it adjusted its stance impatiently. A mane of pale blue fur cascaded off of it like a filth-den stream, wrapping about its body like a clumsy approximation of a long, flowing coat.

  “…what… whatever you are, my Mistress’s work will not be interrupted…! You and that fly will both die here, I swear it on her name…!!”

  Her arms raised boriously, struggling to continue her performance as her obedient swarm returned to her side once more, standing her ground against the horror that had appeared before her.

  The right half of the beast’s face peeled open in a snarl, a long mouth torn across that entire side of its skull, hundreds of jagged teeth lining the flesh within as it drooled hungrily at her.

  Beelze gestured forwards, siccing her horde of flesh-eating flies upon her new opponent, knees trembling as she tried to steel herself.

  The wolf that had been Alice Decaras gdly lunged forwards to meet them.