"Well, isn't this a nice surprise," Nokomis muses.

Alder clenches his jaw and stares at me with a cold expression.

"You can take your deal and keep it far away from me, Nokomis," Alder says coldly and summons a cloak.

He pulls the hood of his cloak over his head and runs towards the balcony before leaping off and making his wings visible. I watch as they spread out magnificently and he dives down and flies away.

"Hmm," Nokomis transforms into her Silvershadow set and smirks at us, "I think that it's time I take care of you myself.

"Is she crazy?" Salem scoffs, "There's way more of us than her."

Nokomis swings her katana around and smiles before holding it out in front of her.

"She's not crazy," Blaze shakes her head, "She's powerful. She's the same class as me, Xia, but she could easily take on several strong opponents at once due to her strength and agility."

I clench my jaw and step forward and grip the handle of my greatsword tightly in my right hand before moving it in front of me and holding it with both hands.

"Bring it on," I say.

"Oh, and," Nokomis looks to the side slightly, "Maurine!"

Maurine suddenly appears standing on the railing of the balcony. She smiles and hops off of the balcony and ignites a shadow orb in her hand.

"I got this," Blaze smirks and holds her saber out.

"I'll help too," Amorette says.

"Right," Blaze nods and smiles at Amorette before turning back to Maurine, "Alright, come on!"

"The Celestial Sorceress and the Shadow Sorceress against the rest of us," Corliss says, "This will be interesting."

Amorette holds out her shield and swings around Calistena, her claymore.

"You're forgetting me," Lotus giggles as she appears out of thin air and lands next to Maurine.

"Lotus was set free from prison too?" Corliss scowls, "I should've known."

"Stay away from Lotus, Salem," Svetlana says quietly from next to him, "Lotus was kept in a special cell in the prison. She kept driving the guards to insanity."

"You're going back to where you came from, and if you don't, then you won't be going anywhere ever again," Corliss snaps as she looks at Lotus.

"I'm what nightmares are made of," The girl about as old as Lucilla with white hair giggles, but then her eyes glow red, "I'll never go away."

Maurine smirks before running past us into the room behind us, and Lotus follows her. Blaze, Amorette, and Corliss all run after them and Asher goes around the door and watches. Lucilla moves a little bit behind Svetlana and I and the three of us back up to the door.

I race towards Nokomis and swing Andxis in her direction, but by the time I reach her she's already gone. I whirl around and watch as she laughs and continues to teleport all around me. She appears at my side and before I can block her attack she lands a hit on me. I slide backwards a bit and scowl at her. She comes at me again and I swing my blade at her, but she glides right past me and kicks me from behind. I fly forwards and almost tumble over the balcony, cracking part of the railing in the process. I continue to try and land hits on her while in the other room Blaze races around pillars and swings Delphine at Maurine. Amorette then comes up behind Maurine and hits her from behind, catching her off guard. Blaze leaps back and forth between two pillars and when she's almost at the top she stays in the middle and holds her saber above her head as she falls down. She lets herself fall so far before swooping down and flying and swinging her saber at Maurine. Maurine stumbles backwards and shakes her head as she watches the trail of flames that follows Blaze's blade through the air.

"Is that all you got?!" Blaze shouts as she hovers in the air a few feet away from her.

Maurine lifts her head up and laughs wildly before disappearing and reappearing behind Blaze, but Amorette, thanks to her speed, is already in front of Blaze and Blaze uses Amorette's shield as a boost by jumping off of it and doing a backflip so that she lands behind Maurine. Amorette then swings her electrified claymore at Maurine and makes several cuts in her armor and one on her arm itself. Blood runs down the cut and Maurine scowls. Maurine summons a swarm of shadow orbs and sends them all after Amorette and Blaze, who fly around the room as they get chased by the orbs. They fly around pillars, which take the blows for them by getting in the way, and a few hit the walls. Meanwhile, Corliss changes into her Lacerate set, instead of staying with her usual Preventive set. She swings around Acera, her blue and gold spear that comes with her Lacerate set which is more focused on damage, and her gold and light blue armor shimmers when the moonlight from outside catches it. Lotus laughs as she constantly disappears and reappears around Corliss. Lotus summons a wave of darkness to surround Corliss and then she makes mirror images of herself.

"What's wrong, Corliss?" They all taunt, "Can't you find me?"

Corliss slashes her spear through each mirror image until she comes to the actual Lotus, who smiles wickedly at her and grabs her wrist.

"That wasn't very nice of you," Lotus frowns, "You'll have to pay for that."

Lotus throws Corliss, who almost flies into the wall, but is able to steer herself away with her wings. Corliss throws her spear at Lotus, but Lotus disappears and it clatters to the ground instead. She summons her spear back to her and looks around for Lotus as the darkness spell fades. Corliss looks off to the side and reaches out, catching Lotus by the throat and Lotus appears visible. Her eyes widen and she stares at Corliss, who has a grim expression.

"No, you'll pay," Corliss says before tossing her with force into the ground.

Lotus breaks the floor tiles and slides backwards until she hits a pillar and sends cracks throughout it.

I swing at Nokomis again and miss, which gives her the opportunity to hit me once more. I land in front of Svetlana, Salem, and Lucilla, and wince. I stand up and brush myself off before transforming into my Chitose set.

"Two can play at that game," I say.

My greatsword disappears and two red, black, and gold katanas called Raze take its place. My white and gold armor turns into red, black, and gold armor that doesn't give me as much protection that my Sakti set does.

"Aella," Salem touches my arm and I turn around to face him, "Be careful."

I smile at him softly before nodding and turning back to Nokomis.

"You're going down," I narrow my eyes at her and race towards her.

"We'll see about that," Nokomis laughs and runs towards me as well.

I swing my twin katanas at her, but she blocks each attack with her own katana. We continue doing so for several minutes, leaping over debri and swirling and turning around in the process.

"They are evenly matched," Svetlana says, "And they shall remain so unless..."

"Unless?" Salem looks at Svetlana with curiosity.

Svetlana summons her staff and holds it at her side as she stands there in her Angel armor.

"Svetlana?" Lucilla questions.

"Unless Aella does something that could kill her," Svetlana says quietly.

Salem's breath hitches and he turns to look at me while I continue to swing my twin katanas at Nokomis. Seeing that I have no other choice, I leap far away from Nokomis and land in front of the others.

"Chitose!" I command, which makes my katanas have a red glow to them and raises their power to the maximum, while transforming my armor into a tank top that's cut off halfway down my stomach and has straps that lead down from there to my jean shorts, along with combat boots, as well as a jacket to go with my tank top and another tank top beneath the first one so that my stomach is covered as if the first tank top went down the entire way.

"Are you insane?!" Salem shouts, "That isn't armor! You're going to get yourself killed!"

I turn back to Salem and smile as his eyes plead with mine.

"Sometimes there are risks that are just worth taking," I say before turning back to Nokomis.

"I almost pity your incompetence," Nokomis smirks, "Almost."

"Pity yourself," I say before lunging towards her and she leaps in the air as well.

We both swing at each other as we pass in the air and then we both land. I smirk to myself and as I turn my head in her direction I watch as her katana cracks from the bottom to the top and then shatters to pieces. Her eyes widen and she falls to her knees. I summon a pair of handcuffs and place them around her wrists before hoisting her upwards and making her walk over to Svetlana. Just then Blaze and Amorette walk over to us, both smiling, with Maurine in handcuffs. Blaze glances towards the ground and laughs.

"You broke her katana?" Blaze laughs, "Well, she's never getting that back then. Once you break a weapon you can't ever get it back."

"Where's Corliss?" I ask.

"Right here," Corliss walks in holding an unconscious Lotus, who is also in handcuffs.

"Where are we going to take them?" Corliss asks.

"Well, if you take them to the Angel prison then they'll just be set free again," Asher says, "So what about the one here?"

"Do you think that the Queen would let us do that?" I frown as I look towards Svetlana.

"Yes," Svetlana nods, "She is very reasonable."

"Looks like we're heading to see the Dark Angel Queen then," Blaze says.

"Yeah," I say as my eyes lock with Salem's, "Looks like it."

And as we start our trip to the Dark Angel palace I can't help but think about what Bellatrix said about Alder.

"He simply works for chaos itself and does not support either Evangeline or any of you."

Is that true? I'm not so sure, and I'm not even sure how he's alive. I sigh and stare up at the moonlit sky full of stars. Somehow I have a feeling that I'll figure out the answers I want, but it won't be easy.