No intense explosions, no walls and floors collapsing, the four fight through the mob with strikes only damaging the very targets they've chosen. While this results in individual attacks being unable to sweep crowds away, the combined efforts of the four, each occupying their own quadrants thus handling tighter spaces, ultimately leads to a rapid elimination of the invasion, all until just a single monster is left who climbs up a table that a teenage boy hides underneath, his head facing up in horror. Yet as that monster shrieks, its shoulder is shot by a crystal round, causing it to stumble back before its hip is struck by a physical hook that then pulls it off that table and straight into the swinging saber that cleanly cuts diagonally across the chest, separating the demon into two which fold out away from the Spirit.
After holding that followthrough for an extra moment, the Spirit loosens his stance and straightens his posture, turning around to examine the full court. Upon his panorama, he finds not a single monster remaining in any of the quadrants, as his three teammates now stand or hover, also inspecting the room in anticipation to find no other threats. They ultimately turn to face him to which he nods, and both of his handheld weapons are set ablaze as are the grapple devices on his hips, erasing away as the Artificer's shoulder cannons are collapsed under and her arms revert to reintroduce her hands. As she hovers towards the Spirit, the Alchemist also walks towards them, inspecting his handgun before stashing it in his inside pocket, and the Vanguard hovers to the Spirit too as the lightning coursing around her arms dissipates now that such concentration isn't needed any longer.
As his team approaches to regroup, the Spirit again examines the room as he exclaims, "The room's clear, you're all safe now!"
Practically immediately, civilians begin to pop up from their hiding places, revealing themselves from under the vendor counters and sliding out from under the tables and chairs. They murmur to one another and review the court for themselves, confirming those words with warrants reactions of relieved sighs among them along with an upbeat shift in the tone of their voices.
Men and women rush over to tables across from them to assist their friends and lovers after the difficult separation, reuniting with sincere embraces.
Mothers and fathers find and rejoin their children with heartfelt hugs, clutching the heads of their dear family whom they thought they were about to lose.
Watching the serene rekindling of friends and family, the Spirit then turns around to find his team reaching him, stopping in a circle. The Spirit next briefs, "We'll need to escort them outside this building now, given the coverage of roots outside we'll need to leave from the ground exit. Let's move in a minute, survey the room for any injuries."
The three nod and the Artificer accepts, "Alright, we'll sweep." She turns around as do the other three and they all begin to return to their quadrants, just as a random man's voice delicately asks, "Rohan?"
All three of the Bellators stop in place, and Meditat turns around apprehensively to find an amassed crowd of those civilians now standing in front of him, and at the head is some middle aged man with receding gray hair dressed in a navy blue coat, standing beside a teenage boy who looks to be his son, dressed in an orange hoodie. That older man takes a step forward to his son's notice, and with suspicion he asks again, "Is that…really you?"
Stunned by the sudden confrontation, the three Bellators just stare at the man, Kokei's and Ekitai's expressions clearly shocked, glancing quickly at Meditat, waiting on his response. He just stands in place, staring at the man and the crowd behind him, silent as he seems even more perturbed.
Steady footsteps begin to approach from all directions, prompting him to spin again to find crowds of people strolling to the center of the room where the four stand. Some people are being supported by their companions, seeming to bear light injuries, but all of them are focused on that one man in the middle, and he feels the weight of all those gazes. Their soft murmuring doesn't help ease any anxiety either, surrounding him with countless voices all speaking about him.
He takes a step back, towards his team as if in a nervous retreat, concerning Dana who begins to reach her hand out to comfort him. That's when that man speaks again, "That was…incredible," which stops him again.
That suspicious gaze has become one of amazement accompanied with a genuine smile, similar to his son who takes a step forward and praises, "Yeah, I thought I was a goner there, but woah that was crazy! I mean I've heard stories but like…that was all so real, that really just happened!"
Another voice speaks from behind, that of an older woman who Meditat faces as she reminisces, "It was just like that day, May 17th, 2845. You saved me from that attack in Space Square against that fire tornado…it's like nothing changed."
Meditat takes one step towards her to respond before another old man speaks from his side, prompting him to turn again to find that man recalling beside a young woman seeming to be his daughter, "2847 in that Festival Cruise, my baby girl was almost pulled into the water, I was going to lose her forever but then you showed up…I remember it all like it was yesterday. I never thought I'd get to see you again, I never thought I'd get the chance to thank you for that."
Suddenly those voices surrounding Meditat become clearer as he spins around, hearing accounts from older folk like "There was that attack on the highway at 550 from that cult, he stopped them so quickly…," and reactions from younger companions like "So it was just like this? Woah, that's amazing!"
Listening to those voices too, Dana lowers her arm back to her side, not in disappointment but rather a relief that becomes peace, facing directly at Meditat to watch his own reaction as he's surrounded suddenly by the recollections of his past, almost overwhelmed as he can't focus on any one voice.
That's until he again hears the voice of the man in the navy blue coat apologize, "Sorry, no, I misspoke. You're still Meditat to me, you're still the hero that kept us all alive for all those years. I am forever in your debt," before he bows with his head.
Facing the apologetic father, Meditat takes a deep breath and grabs the edge of his hood to throw it off, causing his mask to expose gleaming blue cracks that rapidly cover the mask before it crumbles to particles that fade away, leaving behind the human face of the man whose starry azure eyes are stuck to that man, his wavy black hair free to flow out and rest. Facing the man directly, he shakes his head and assures in his unfiltered voice, "You have no debt to pay, I was just protecting my home."
Murmurs and gasps arise for a moment, initially nerving Meditat as his exposed face tenses while glancing around, though upon more keenly listening he hears one man comment, "He looks just like my college friend."
That anxiety begins to wear like the tension on his face as more voices of wonder follow such as "He looks kind of like my friend's dad" and "I have a coworker who has that same hair!"
A gentle smile begins to grow on Meditat's face as a comfort settles for him, and behind him Dana's golden face begins to melt, pouring the excessive plating onto the chest where it's absorbed as her natural face is redefined and her amber hair poofs back out. Her light green eyes shimmer as Meditat glances back at her, catching her own gentle smile, satisfied to find the hope she had held on for being verified.
He glances at Ekitai and Kokei who have similarly warm expressions as if his smile's infectious, and he then turns back to face the man who thanks, "And I'm thankful we have you."
That father in the coat nods respectfully and adds, "You might've always been soaring in that suit and doing things I could never, but I always knew you were one of us."
A few other civilians in the crowd exclaim praises like "Yeah" and "Part of the city," growing that smile on Meditat's face, the sense of warmth from a life he once thought he lost, returning to him after so long. He huffs to calm himself, shaking his head but unable to shake the smile off. He does at least recenter himself to glance around and proclaim, "We're going to get you all out of here and to safety, follow us!"
Cheers rise from the crowd instantly, their Spirits burning bright with a newfound optimism.
Meditat turns back to face Dana who nods and reports with a smile, "I was running scans, everyone's here and accounted for. It doesn't look like anyone's badly injured."
He nods back and faces the back corner of the court where the group of circular railings are which he begins to march towards, followed immediately by Dana, Ekitai, and Kokei before the crowd of civilians start to follow.
Scattered around the center of the food court are the many civilians, and yet just as the caped man begins to march along with his team, all of those civilians start to flock around to move behind him. Parts of the crowd stand between the leader and the platforms, so they split off to the sides to wrap around behind him, respecting his leadership such that they'd fan out in his presence. As he reaches past the center, becoming the head of the full group, his cape flows like a flag from above, and behind that waving flag is the huge flock following him in migration. They weave between the vendor counters and tables along with the lead, moving at a steady pace to reach the escalator.
At the escalator, Meditat is first to step onto the ramp leading down, his cape settling now that he stands still, followed by his team. Right behind them, the flock of civilians board the escalator, being led down into the next floor, waiting in anticipation as they murmur amongst themselves.
Being transported down the escalator composed of many elevation pads moving in tandem, Meditat is first to catch a better glimpse of the next floor, which is already vastly larger than the food court by many magnitudes, better resembling an indoor shopping mall with several bridges running in parallel and crossing into each other, sitting above the full base floor far below. Between the bridges have risen many thick roots, and now standing so much closer to it, its scale has been truly realized as multiple magnitudes wider than that encountered before. Those roots carry branches that more densely cover the mall, leaving it with a sight almost abandoned and overgrown despite having been fully operational earlier this hour. Along the walls are countless open shops, and several small lounges are scattered about the bridge intersections, providing sofas and tables for relaxation. They are however all empty as the mall is devoid of customers, though there is indeed a humanoid presence, as scattered around the bridges are those same Pawns snarling and hunting, entering and exiting shops to seek out any cowarding survivors.
Just as he enters this view, few of the monsters notice his too, and they are quick to shriek a piercing alarm that then alerts all the other monsters who shriek as well like a sonar, facing the team standing before the survivors, quick to prepare themselves as Meditat's hands ignite at once. He equips himself with two firearms, one of them being a submachine gun resembling a PPSh-41 in that it has a drum magazine, though it lacks a stock to allow for greater mobility, and the other resembling a Beretta assault rifle though lacking its stock too, its magazine regularly sized. Both of Dana's arms transform into diamond conal guns and her shoulders extrude the same missile dart launcher although the grid cells have been slightly scaled up even at the cost of fewer cells overall, quick to raise both arms and unleash barrages of cyan bolts as Meditat holds the trigger to release his own barrage of frosty crystal bullets. As Ekitai pulls his own handgun out and begins firing purple bolts, Kokei's body sparks again, lightning surging to her arms once more in preparation for concentrated strikes.
Once Meditat reaches the bottom of the escalator, he begins marching forward, his cape flapping behind him as he rapidly triggers bursts on the hordes of monsters ahead, charging straight at them as he uses the PPSh-like gun to target closer monsters while his other rifle is used to pick off further mobs. Dana reaches Meditat's side and spins around and walks backwards upon noticing another horde chasing them from behind, concentrating fire on them which Ekitai aids in, moving beside Dana. While Dana's arm cannons fire barrages of energy bolts, her shoulders release larger darts that soar on their own, striking monsters with greater detonations that consume a wider area. Kokei reaches Meditat's side and releases two swarms from her arms, suspending groups of monsters, but rather than drawing them in for a punch she instead moves them into Meditat's natural line of fire, acting as a direct assist to help minimize frantic aim for him. Recognizing this assistance, Meditat's shoulders each breathe a flame that manifests into a drone equipped with a physical gun hanging a belt of crystal rounds which moves along the gun as those drones open fire on the suspended hordes.
Behind the four warriors, the crowd of survivors make a line that keeps space for Ekitai and Dana to obtain clear targets, allowing them to pick off the chasing horde from behind as Meditat and Kokei lead the group down the bridge.
As they approach one of the bridge intersections leading to a lounge, Meditat moves his PPSh to aim on a few monsters sprinting down that lounge, unloading an automatic barrage onto them until they're entirely mowed down. After passing that section, he allows the drum to be ejected from the gun, and as that drum is erased in a flame, another one manifests in its original place, allowing him to swiftly resume firing on the monsters already frozen ahead of him.
Further along the bridge, Meditat and Kokei pass a shop displaying winter jackets on racks, some puffy and others lined with fur. Inside that shop are also two monsters who roar as they charge for the group outside, alarming Meditat to aim his submachine gun and fire down on them as his drones continue to focus ahead, still clearing the path long enough for both monsters to drop, riddled with holes, allowing Meditat to return his focus forward down the swarms of pink arcs crawling from Kokei's arms.
Getting closer to the end of the bridge, the next downward escalators can be seen along an intersecting bridge connecting the two long ends. That however is behind a collection of branches that has stretched enough to barricade the corridor, leaving a physical barrier impeding the evacuation. After Kokei freezes the remaining monsters between them and the barrier, letting Meditat's drones tear them apart with a rapid volley of ammunition, Meditat then aims his right hand to guide a flame firing from his shoulder, forming a pair of cylinders facing forward, the bottom one notably larger than the other, both connected by rings. The contraption materializes where the bottom cylinder is made entirely of frosty crystal whereas the top cylinder is a metal device housing a propulsive vent in the back that flashes before propelling the device forward at abrupt speeds.
The device resembling a battering ram augmented with its own rocket crashes straight into the wall of roots, breaking open a wide gap which opens the corridor back up, causing the detached roots to wither away and vanish. As that ram is erased in an open flame before striking the shop at the end of the bridge, much larger than the others as it seems to be a department store, Meditat walks through the hole alongside Kokei, reaching close to the escalator with only a few more monsters in the way.
After the last monster on the intersecting bridge is struck by a flurry of bullets, they fall to let Meditat and Kokei reach the escalators, once again boarding the one whose platforms move down. Dana and Ekitai catch up to their side, followed by the line of survivors joining the trip down. Meditat allows both the magazine and drum from his firearms to be ejected, replacing them with fresh ammunition.
Reaching the bottom of the escalator, the team is greeted by another horde awaiting them, shrieking and charging. As they gun down the mob, Dana and Ekitai elevated above Meditat and Kokei which allows them to all fire simultaneously, they do reach the bottom of the escalator where they continue marching onwards. They land on the base floor, no longer restricted to narrow bridges which allows them to spread apart more freely, however that freedom is given to the monsters too who charge from all directions rather than simple pathways. While there's more angles now to handle, the benefit of the escalator being at the far end of the mall allows the Bellators to all focus in the same direction: onwards. They return side by side and press fire, better able to control the wider area of danger at an exponential advantage, their coverages overlapping as some monsters explode into yellow slimes holding guts together which splash onto neighboring beasts, holding their charge back as they're then struck by a missile dart that devours them in a cyan blaze.
Marching side by side, they lead the survivors who glance back to confirm no pursuing monsters, for they've all been eliminated. They huddle together, some of them cupping their ears from the bombastic booms, moving in a tight formation in desperation for freedom.
Not all of the monsters from the upper floor have been defeated, as more sprint towards the edge of the bridges where the gunfire and explosions emit from, seeming to have been roaming further from the action originally. As they reach those closer bridges, they grab onto the railings and peer over to find the train chug steadily down the center of the mall's hall, the head fanning out bullets, bolts, darts and lightning to target the monsters chasing them head on.
Watching the attempt at escape, those Pawns on the upper floor roar before launching themselves over the railing, aiming to pounce on the survivors, but swarms of lightning catch them midair, freezing them to then be struck by a few darts that detonate the predators, leaving them in a cyan blaze that silences their screeching shrieks.
Inside shops, shelves and racks placed in the stores to be walked past like aisles are shoved over or ran completely through without care by the monsters, flailing their arms like rabid animals, climbing over the wreckage they leave behind. Their haste is all in service of reaching the exit of the store quickly to charge for the evacuation crowd moving down the hall, whether ahead of them or behind. Those leaving stores behind the crowd chase straight at the unarmed civilians, unhinging their jaws in preparation for their attack, but some of them are then shot by red radiating bolts that, on impact, cause them to explode into an orange juice while others are shot by green bolts that inflate those beasts rapidly to the point of exploding, catching close monsters in their radius.
Along the corners of the approaching intersection to the mall are food vendors identified by their counters and the stands presenting their foods, one of them selling cinnamon buns with the name 'Cibun.' One of those corners however has been decimated by a root that had grown directly under it, covering the space between the bridges above with branches that darken the area. At that intersection are scattered tables with chairs, and on many of those tables are meals left behind, like trays with rice or noodles, still mostly fresh though they have likely gone cold.
Already by that intersection or sprinting in from the other halls, Pawns continue to pour towards the crowd, snarling and roaring, their mouths wide to reveal their glowing teeth as they shove aside the tables and chairs in their way. They don't reach too close before being put down, some first being frozen by fields of pink lightning or blocks of ice cast by radiating bolts before then being riddled with physical crystal bullets or cyan energy rounds.
Steadily, the crowd advances to that intersection, moving between the tables and chairs, though it now places them in the center of a convergence of three other halls all of which are flooding in with Pawns, forcing Ekitai and Dana to each take aim at the paths to their side as Meditat and Kokei focus ahead. They do maintain decent resistance though the monsters noticeably reach closer just in the few seconds of the switched formation, proving this strategy to be only effective temporarily.
Ekitai's finger pulls the trigger rapidly to handle his own side, his thumb swiping the screen to change his ammunition, trying to keep himself steady though he can clearly register the decaying effectiveness of his sole defense.
Next to him, Meditat glances down all three divided routes before ultimately facing the one Ekitai is actively fighting against, pointing down that one before resuming his march towards it. The group once again mobilizes down this hall, leaving the smaller food court to continue towards escape. Towards the end of the hall is a gated play area, a square planted in the middle of the floor which houses structures resembling natural trees with brown bark and green leaves, though clearly artificial as they have a glossy, plastic-like shine. On that tree is a ladder leading to a hollow center which leads to a slide, and past that slide are other structures like short models of silver bridges and other structures meant for young children to play in as there are benches along the walls for the parents, though of course there are neither. Past that play area is the end of the hall where an exit can be discerned as a clear, glassy door past which the outdoor plaza can be seen under its white light, however much of that view is obscured by a thick root just in front of the door with broad branches that form a dense barrier.
Regardless, it's an exit which the group advances towards, allowing the Bellators to readjust their formation, letting Meditat aid Ekitai in the effort of clearing the hall ahead of them. There is however now the flood of monsters chasing from the other halls all converging in from behind, pulling Dana and Kokei to focus on them as they ward off the horde.
Darts and energy shots are propelled from Dana's guns and cannons as Kokei guides her lightning in wide fields to capture as many monsters as she can, letting her then pull her arms together which clump those beasts into balls that get obliterated by the barrages and explosions.
Crystal bullets fly out of Meditat's two automatic guns and the turrets hovering by his shoulders as Ekitai swipes between different types of shots of varying colors, his shots slower but each one delivers a wider effect as fields of spikes jab multiple beasts at a time and other monsters are shot by bolts that electrocute them, causing that electricity to chain to any nearby monsters, dropping groups in a single shot.
Upon reaching the play area, both Meditat and Ekitai split to the two tighter spaces between the gated perimeter and the mall walls, each leading a half of the survivors to not slow the rate too heavily. There's still some monsters past that area but before that gate, with more piling in from the shops by the exit, though there's also monsters in the play area which they both target, each taking their half of the area, coordinating their zones wordlessly.
Behind them, Dana and Kokei split to each protect a different subdivision of the survivors, though their targets are still of the same batch of monsters racing down the open hall, snarling and roaring before they drop to the floor.
That artificial tree in the play area stands aligned with the devilish black tree blocking the door, both unnatural but one in service to bolster the creativity of the youth and the other to bring about mass slaughter. Climbing atop that play tree, monsters shriek and pounce off, swinging their claws at the survivors before being shot back by scarlet bolts which encase them in an airy bubble keeping them suspended in place, but those bubbles then rapidly shrink until they pressure the monsters so much that they're crushed, collapsing their limbs until their bodies are squeezed together so hard that they implode into a goop.
Past the play area, Meditat and Ekitai fire down on the final few monsters left ahead of them, leaving just the thick root and its branches restricting access to the exit. Both of Meditat's firearms dissolve in an open flame, freeing those hands to aim at the root as both of his drones spin to assist Dana and Kokei's resistant efforts. Meditat's hands ignite in a fire that blows his wavy hair back as they breathe out to form another cylindrical crystallic battering ram mounted on a rocket, which he then guides to fly into the root, causing it to shake heavily yet it remains standing up.
After taking a glance at the tree, Ekitai's wince tells of his uncertainties to helping dismantle such a sturdy blockade, and so he instead turns around and dashes to join Dana and Kokei who move at the back of the evacuation line, allowing the survivors to stand safely between the warriors.
They huddle together, keeping their ears cuffed as booms ring loud among those grating shrieks of demons, their gazes constantly bouncing between the three warriors fending off the horde to the leader trying to break through the thick root, erasing that failed battering ram and firing two flames to form two battering rams to command both to strike the barrier simultaneously, causing a few smaller branches to be detached and wither away though little damage is sustained to the barrier itself.
In a line, Kokei, Ekitai, and Dana press constant fire on the final accumulation of monsters now all charging them at a single point, at the edge where there's no escape. Kokei uses both arms to create two electric fields to suspend and clump herds of monsters for Ekitai and Dana to raze through, a reliable system but one that keeps their faces clenched from the pressure to hold back the flood, remaining in place for an uncomfortable duration. It's enough that curiosity takes Dana over, as she raises an eyebrow before turning her head around to assess Meditat's efforts, finding the root still standing tall despite being bashed in constantly by those large rams seeming to deal little effect. She then spins her head around, her amber bangs flying, to glance at Ekitai and Kokei and shout: "I'll help him, keep them back!"
She then spins her whole body and sprints off to the leader, leaving Ekitai and Kokei to hold the fort, firing radiating bolts and launching swarms of lightning as quickly as possible.
Upon each ram of the rocket-powered devices, Meditat's hair and cape are repelled backwards, his starry eyes squinting just to observe the little success he's making. He grunts to the failure, erasing those rams and setting his hands ablaze to replace them, but before manifesting another creation, Dana reaches her side as her shoulder cannons collapse before shouting, "What's wrong? We need to get out of here!"
Meditat turns to face Dana before exclaiming desperately, "I know, though my options are limited! I can't overcharge my crystals to the point of exploding with all these civilians this close, I'm trying to brute force the root but it's not enough!"
Dana lifts both of her arms and places them together before her forearms begin morphing, connecting together to join into one larger arm as the conal gun is reshaped into a single flat opening, almost resembling a railgun in its long, wide diamond barrel. She digs her clawed feet into the ground and clenches her teeth before then firing a continuous cyan laser beam –as thick as the root itself– straight into the root, though it doesn't melt through immediately. Instead, the beam is caught against the surface, however almost immediately it begins to slowly push into the material, denting the alien bark in a steady process.
With the radius of the beam, the chunk it would be penetrating through would be tall enough for the crowd to run past, and upon this very observation, Meditat moves his arms and fires his next flames away from the center, instead manifesting the two new remains not to aim at the main root but rather target the branches at the sides. After their creation, he then commands them both to another ram as the crystals brighten, and on that next collision more of the branches are snapped off, disintegrating away seconds later. More are left remaining, and so the rams are replaced, burning away as another two are crafted from Meditat's hands before then being commanded forward, slamming into those branches which snaps more, pushing through about half of the branches in the way of the door as the laser beam continues to sink itself into the tree, nearly reaching half of the trunk.
On the other side of the survivors are Kokei and Ekitai, continuing to press their own against the floor as Kokei continues to clump monsters together and Ekitai picks them off swiftly. Among them are also the two drones Meditat had deployed for support, and together their four efforts do consistently keep the monsters back, preventing any of them from even reaching the play area. However, both of the drones simultaneously stop firing, and upon taking a glance, Ekitai comes to the horrid realization that both of their belts have been fully consumed, leaving them without ammunition.
He spins his head towards the back to call for aid, but quickly stops to recenter his gaze forward upon the realization that his full effort was needed, as even a slight release of his concentration could collapse their efforts especially given that Kokei could only freeze the monsters but needed his assistance to eliminate them permanently. He winces from that unfortunate truth, continuing to hold back the roaring monsters who fall into piles by the play area, inching slightly closer than before.
Another two rams are built by the azure flames dancing from Meditat's hands, and after he jerks those arms forward, those two rams are fired straight into the barrier, crashing themselves which shaves off even more branches, as the force of the collision is great enough to snap those roots, and those detached roots then dissolve away. In fact, half of the remaining branches have been destroyed in that one ram, meaning that it'd only take another pair to fully demolish them, and so Meditat is quick to replace those rams and begin manifesting another set.
At the same time, at his side Dana maintains steady concentration of her laser beam, which has now cut well past half of the main root, and is in fact reaching close to the other end, nearing the total obliteration of that whole section of the root as it'd only be seconds more. She stands her ground, her feet tightly gripping the floor enough that it's sunk through the metal tiles, focusing on nothing but the beam's energy output.
Both Meditat and Dana's eyes are squeezed to peer through the impacts of their drilling efforts, their hair dancing wildly behind them side by side, the humanity within them interacting with the supernatural components of themselves.
Buying those two the time to drill through the barrier, Kokei and Ekitai hold off the monsters desperately, their arms moving with greater haste to handle the wider coverage necessitated from them. Above them are those two drones still in place as if trying to still fire on the monsters despite lacking the bullets to propel.
Pressure is placed on Kokei to spread her fields to capture the widest area of monsters and bring them together hastily for Ekitai to rapidly trim through those amassing lumps, whose larger sizes add difficulty in swift batches of eliminations. Despite moving their arms as quickly as possible to complement each other, grouping monsters and incinerating them with bolts that erupt red flames or collapsing them into miniature black holes, the monsters approach near the end of the play area, having gained concerning ground in seconds.
Lining up his arm, Ekitai directs his handgun at the next cluster of monsters held together, and he pulls the trigger to fire a reddish orange bolt which strikes the head of the monster closest to him, causing the head to flare bright red before disintegrating as that reddish flare spreads back to the rest of the body, catching onto the other bodies in the ball, causing all of their bodies to be erased in a straight path until there's none left remaining.
As the final monster is disintegrated, another field of lightning grabs a group of monsters and draws them together, held stationary for Ekitai to aim at them next and pull the trigger, yet when it does, there's no shot that fires from the gleaming barrel. Instead he receives a simple click from his gun, causing his eyes to widen in shock. He swipes the interface with his thumb and pulls the trigger, but once again he's just meeted with clicks. Kokei turns to face him with concerned perplexity as Ekitai's own shock turns to horror as he continues swiping with his thumb while pulling the trigger, but every pull just results in another click, and the realization dawns on him with the grit of his teeth.
"I'm out, shit I need to reload," Ekitai exclaims as he suddenly flips his handgun, popping out the cylinders to reveal every flask being empty. He steps back as he reaches into his overcoat's pocket to begin grabbing flasks as Kokei stares at him dreadfully, shouting in bewilderment: "ALREADY?!?"
"I DON'T KNOW, THE MOD IS EATING THE JUICE FASTER," Ekitai desperately reasons, but any argument wouldn't resolve the situation Kokei faces forward to return to, as she's faced with the final horde of monsters charging down the hall. The flood clearly has a backline now with no others past it, proving that in fact they have nearly defeated all of the monsters, yet there's still a dense horde that remains, charging straight for the group of survivors guarded by the empty drones, Ekitai who hastily tries loading his handgun with full flasks, and Kokei who can only trap the beasts, for pulling them close for a charged punch would bring them dangerously close to the civilians.
Her teeth grinding upon the insurmountable pressure drowning her under her flaring electric eyes, Kokei is left with the only possible action to aim her arms forward, charge them with surges of pink lightning, and carry those arcs out of those arms to spread them across the hall. Those arcs capture the front line of the monsters, crawling past them to wrap around the remaining Pawns, slithering like countless snakes until the field has expanded to reach all of the predators, coiling around them passively as they're frozen in place.
Kokei clenches her teeth as hard as she can before clenching her fingers, overcharging the arcs from her arms to the field spread over the final horde, causing the lightning across the swarm to flare nearly white and for the monsters to shriek in pain as though being painfully electrocuted until the white glow in their bodies cease including that in their teeth.
At once, the two crystal battering rams drive straight into the branches covering the wall, breaking through the remainder, severing their connections as those slimy roots glowing with white caustics begin to dissolve as at the same time the cyan energy beam fully penetrates through the main root, reaching far past to the door as in a single moment the entire barrier is fully cleared.
Immediately next, the root above begins to drop down, but Meditat speedily releases a breath of fire over the cleared opening which materializes a frame made of pillars at the side and a long beam at the top, materializing with a metal body that projects a holographic net above to catch the roots from closing the exit.
Meditat and Dana swiftly spin around as the leader shouts, "Let's move," though both his and Dana's eyes widen in shock to find that past the survivors stand both Ekitai and Kokei in front of those final monsters left standing, but as the electric field coiled around them dissipates, those bodies drop to the ground.
Kokei starts losing her balance, swaying from side to side before stumbling backwards to which Ekitai drops his handgun to the floor to grab onto her, stopping her fall.
Meditat and Dana watch in bewildered concern, but Meditat quickly turns his head back to find that past the supporting frame, the exit has been fully cleared with even a hole burned completely through the door, leaving a path out of the mall and to the outdoor plaza in the infested city. From a glance, there aren't any immediate monsters ahead, and in fact he watches the squad pod descend from the skies to approach the entrance from where the group of soldiers watch in astonishment. Examining the clear path out, Meditat turns back to face the survivors before commanding, "All of you, move out!"
Without question, the civilians run past him and Dana, relieved with sighs and cheers, bumping into each other but at least leaving space for the two warriors. They hurry past the hole left in the door to the plaza where the soldiers shout to them as Dana's laser cannon dissolves to allow separation for both arms as the two regressing halves revert back into her forearms.
Her and Meditat then rush in the opposite direction, deeper in the mall to reach Kokei and Dana as the drones above them burn up and are erased. Meditat offers his hands to support Kokei and cries, "What happened?" He faces Ekitai also holding her as Dana runs around to examine Kokei's face directly, her eyes wide to find Kokei seemingly drowsy as Ekitai explains, "She went overboard, I'm sorry I didn't realize I was draining my solutions faster, I should've paid attention to that, I just figured-."
"I'm fine," Kokei groans, shaking her head with shut eyes but opening them again. All three allies face her immediately, watching her shake her head again, her drowsiness dissipating as she rubs her eyes, apparently recovering.
Dana reaches for Kokei and urges, "Hey hey, don't move so much-," before Kokei interjects, "No really, I feel fine," as she swipes Dana's hand before leaning forwards off of Meditat's and Ekitai's support. She stands upright, stumbling forward to which Meditat immediately steps towards her, yet she claims her balance immediately thereafter, spreading her arms wide to help stabilize herself. She gazes down at her feet, stunned to find herself standing, able to turn around to face her three worried friends to whom she assures, "Really, I feel okay."
Ekitai and Dana look at each other in disbelief, as in all instances they've witnessed Kokei defeat enemies directly through overcharging her fields from a distance, she's fallen unconscious nearly right after with no exception. Yet here they find an exception, unable to speak in response to it, but it's Meditat who drops his arms to his side and smiles softly before nodding and accepting, "That's good to hear then. Good work protecting them, I apologize that it took longer than I would've hoped for."
He takes a step towards Kokei and pats her shoulder twice before slipping that hand back to his side and turning around to watch the group of survivors approach the pod now low to the ground. He then begins to stroll towards them, reminding: "They're not fully safe yet, let's move."
Dana and Kokei turn to Meditat, then to each other, and then to Kokei who catches their gaze and flashes a smile back to them before reassuring, "Really, I feel great." She raises her hands in front of her to inspect them with a look of wonder as she contemplates, "I feel like…I could go further. It's weird…like I don't feel tired…I feel more awake than ever."
She drops her arms to her side and cheerily relays, "Come on, we're not done," before she jogs off to follow Meditat, leaving the two warriors left in the mall in astoundment. They ultimately come to an acceptance as their expressions normalize, and Dana sighs before remarking, "Looks like our job will be a little easier," followed by her strolling off to follow the team, leaving Ekitai to just scoff before smirking and shaking his head.
On the floor is the handgun whose cylinders have been collapsed automatically, left by the man's brown shoes. That man's bony fingers then reach down to the gun, grabbing it by the handle and lifting it back up to his side. He then pivots around and ambles to the large hole in the door, approaching the rest of his team who are approaching the survivors approaching the pod.
Meditat catches up with the survivors who've reached the pod, standing by them in a circle, many of them confused and concerned. After noticing those expressions, he walks past them to reach the pod hovering just a few feet above the ground, which descends just a foot more upon his entrance.
Squatting down, one of the soldiers aboard the pod first blinks twice in surprise to the exposed face of the hero as do the other soldiers, but he calms himself with an optimistic smile before he praises, "Holy, thanks man, you guys are a one in a million, we're in your gratitude forever."
Meditat shakes his head and assures, "Don't worry, we're here to help. Let's move them to the train your companions were defending and get them out of the area."
Behind the pod and far in the distance past many of the silver buildings, a distant roar can be heard which absorbs Meditat's attention as well as that of the soldiers on the pod. They turn towards the sound to find a train rising from the distance where they had come from, ascending to the skies at an angle moving away, which is the same general direction where the other trains in the sky are driving towards.
The soldiers then turn back to Meditat, and the one who spoke first lets out a disappointed sigh before elaborating, "Yeah sorry boss…they said they're full and couldn't stall much longer. But it's alright, there's another evac zone not too far past it and they're still boarding, we can lead you all to it. But uh…we can't really lift you all because…well you know…," before he gestures his hand to the open cabin of their pod, reminding of its current full occupancy of soldiers who sigh with guilty frowns.
Meditat shakes his head and raises his right arm perpendicular from the pod, straight for an open area of the plaza which he then fires a flame from through his hand. That flame extends about thirty feet before expanding perpendicular from there, taking on the general shape of a bus before materializing into just that: a silver bus pod already hovering about a foot off the ground, whose door automatically vaporizes open to reveal the ramp up to the driver's seat and aisle past it. Just a second later, its engine kicks in with a deep roar quickly softening to a hum, which Meditat's hand continues to point to before he drops it while assuring, "I can handle it, just lead the way."
He then turns around and calls over the crowd, "Everyone, board quickly! We'll be escorting you to the nearest evacuation zone where a train will take you to safety!"
At once, the crowd begins strolling to the bus pod, forming a line at the door where one by one they board the ramp, the only ones to not begin boarding immediately being the other three Bellators standing behind Meditat who smiles confidently.
Smiling back, the officer nods his head and thanks, "I'll try not to say this too many times but I'm glad you're here. We'll lead you to the train, good news is this is the last of the people reported in the infested zone, once we start moving we'll be able to prune this nest real quick. And the boys are eager to blow these roots away so I'm sure we'll get a nice sight on the drive out."
Listening to the news, Meditat nods before turning his head to observe the boarding process, finding it already near completion rather quickly, only a few civilians left in the line. He faces the soldiers again before accepting, "We'll follow your lead, officers."
He then turns to his team and nods, communicating with them to begin strolling towards the bus before Meditat follows after them. The four join the line as it empties, leaving them to board the ramp one by one until Meditat steps in and lets the bus door materialize behind him.
The soldiers watch the door close with a smile, and the officer who had spoken slaps the metal hull of the pod by the frame of the door before standing up straight and turning towards the drivers before declaring, "They're ready to follow, let's start moving to the next active zone."
The pod begins to rise in the air and spin around, its nose lifting as the vehicle begins its route.
A few seconds later, the bus pod lifts in the air as well, turning around to face the officers' pod which it begins to drive towards, its nose rising too. Its hum grows as the engine kicks in, driving away from the mall and its plaza as the two pods move away from the super nest, climbing higher.
It doesn't take long for the bus pod to ascend above the fin-shaped mall it's driving away from, those holes left at the top still slightly visible. Past that mall are other silver skyscrapers covered in roots, for the nest remains a plague on the city, but one moving not much farther.
At the driver's seat of the bus is Meditat, facing the large windshield ahead of him augmented with gauges, mirror screens, and a map. He doesn't need to focus on any of them though as his navigation is straight ahead of him, that being the pod leading them about fifty feet ahead. Next to him is another window screen displaying the skyscrapers being passed which Dana watches, standing beside him, leaning on her arm holding the dashboard.
Dana then turns down the aisle to find Kokei and Ekitai standing in the aisle close to the driver's seat, able to stand straight without any worry of stumbling. Upon being greeted with Dana's soft smile, they smile back before all three of them turn back to observe the rest of the bus which is now packed with the civilian survivors, many of them murmuring to each other, some facing the windows they're accompanied with.
Dana then turns to Meditat who leans forward and gazes down, prompting her to do the same.
From staring at a downward angle from the bus's windshield, the city's white streets can be seen, and from those streets there can also be seen the black roots that have penetrated and wrapped around buildings. However, those roots only extend for so long, and at that moment the bus soars right past their edge, surpassing the nest and continuing over clear grounds, which is then when Dana hears Meditat note, "They weren't kidding."
She raises her head to follow Meditat's gaze now lifted up, and following that gaze shows her a fleet of black military pods soaring higher above them, moving in their opposite direction: straight for the nest, flying right past them.
Survivors on the bus stick their faces close to the window screens, watching those pods fly past them and straight for the zone which they turn to, eager and hopeful, relieved smiles on their faces to have escaped such a dangerous situation.
It's not only that one fleet of pods past the silver bus, but in actuality there are several approaching the infested borough, entering from different angles, all pushing in at the same time. Their roars dominate the sky, moving in a V-shaped formation like a flock of birds, holding together tightly at a steady speed that begins to decelerate as they approach the nest.
Onboard one of those pods, a squad of soldiers prepare the attack, tuning the weapons over their forearms as they knock against the silver board, inspecting their handheld artillery one more time. They gaze at each other and firmly nod to one another in confidence, the white epaulets on their shoulders shining against the diffused light from the snowing sky, brightening their navy blue uniforms.
All of the soldiers hear a voice command, "Bombardment is a go, fire at will. Light the city up," to which all of the soldiers raise their weapons out of the open doors, two lines per opening.
Over the shoulders, the soldiers study the city streets below them, and that's when they catch a glimpse of the edge of those roots, the bounds of the nest. Instantly upon recognition, they unleash a barrage from their firearms, every shot like a thunderous boom deafening inside the cabin.
Discharging from those thundering guns is the lightning: cyan bolts as thick as the guns themselves with nearly unstable fluctuation. At speeds faster than a sniper round, they travel from the high altitudes of the squad pods down the skyline and reach the alien black roots on the ground. On impact, the sheer power of the bolts result in explosions like a missile strike, blowing away multiple roots at once in a cyan blaze, ripping chunks of the street enough to reveal the black metal material under the snow.
These bolts fly down at the rapidity of a minigun, and so these explosions all strike in succession many times per second all across not just this street but the nearby streets, obliterating all the roots in a radius from the pod, every explosion booming the crack of lightning following the thunder with even greater ferocity.
All at the same time from all over the rim of the super nest, cyan bombardments rain down faster than the white snow, demolishing roots as though they were being struck by meteors, incinerating them before they could even wither away naturally.
Craters are left in the points of impact, the surface initially black as the metal of the street, though just upon creation it steadily is covered in white by the snowfall, snow that would've otherwise disintegrated against the unnatural roots. In a sense, nature gradually begins to return to the city, purifying the darkness as the layer of snow reclaims the ground.
At a quick rate, the entire infested zone of the city begins shrinking as the boundaries are trimmed continuously from all of the fleets working together, their reach ending at where the adjacent fleets end, covering each other with perfect formation. Blocks are freed in seconds, using artillery far too bombastic to be deployed near civilians, though that issue has been resolved.
Now the roots that had coiled around silver towers are being struck down by the rapid bombings, the same thickness as the one blocking the mall door, now being torn apart in a second by just a couple shots. Pieces of the root are detached and wither away though some of those fragments are caught by other shots, incinerating them preemptively.
Roots strung across buildings are an easier target as those bridges are shot down from multiple points, causing them to collapse into several fragments that disintegrate on their own, clearing the skies of those overcast shadows.
Down on the streets, hordes of monsters roam wildly, searching for prey. They instead however find the cyan rain, and before they react they're ripped apart by the immense force of the barrage, their shrieks cut off as their bodies are extinguished in droves. Entire mobs vanish in seconds, wiped off the streets with craters left behind in their stead.
Inside the bus pod, the rear view screen displays the circle of fleets closing the zone, that cyan rain visible even from a distance, approaching the center of the zone where the tallest skyscraper stands nearby, defined by the pillars at its center.
Glimpsing between the leading pod and the rear screen, Meditat observes the efficient elimination of the nest alongside Dana, Kokei, and Ekitai, watching the show as they drive the survivors to safety.
Onboard those pods, the soldiers keep their focus trained on constantly switching to the next batch of roots in sight, automatically firing as they trace their paths with their bolts, dragging their aim to the next roots which are extinguished right after putting them down the sights.
Their concentration is locked to the elimination of the roots composing the nest, so much so that some of them don't notice the huge black flashes flickering by the base of the X-Prints tower at the end of their bombing path.
From the base of that tower, beneath the foundation itself suddenly emerges a single root drastically thicker than all the others, as it is in fact wider than the block that the tower sits on, rising from the ground from those flashes, shattering the tower's base as it cuts up its body, even destroying the roots coiled around the silver exterior.
That continuous boom ultimately pulls the attention of the soldiers, halting their bombing run to face the supreme tower to find it crumbling before their eyes as the black trunk grows in its place in a shape not perfectly straight but instead curved like that of a tree trunk, leaving only debris to be blown off to the sides.
At the driver's seat of the bus, both Meditat and Dana fixate on the growing trunk in immediate horror, which surpasses the coverage of the coiling roots, approaching the middle of the tower quickly to which both of them turn around with wide eyes and dropped jaws from utter shock.
Without slowing down, the ginormous black trunk rises past the pillars at the middle of the skyscraper, crumbling them too with ease and continuing up the remainder of the tower as branches begin to sprout from the trunk, these ones also far thicker than the roots that had crawled over the city before. They branch out and multiply as the main trunk continues to rise, devouring the tower of the company led by both of the Bellators for decades, now being destroyed without alert all within seconds.
All happening for the soldiers in the bombing squads to watch, the trunk ultimately reaches the top of the skyscraper, collapsing the last remnants of the skyscraper once dominating the city, replacing it with the devil's monument. Rubble collapses off the top, some of which are caught by the branches growing off the trunk which spread over the nest speedily, casting a far greater shadow over the zone.
Staring at where was once their tower which stands no more, Meditat and Dana just silently watch in dread and disbelief, silent as the grief has consumed their ability to speak. All they can do is stare, stare at that towering tree behind them.
Also staring at that tree are the soldiers in the pods who watch the branches approach them, darkening the zone as quickly as they were trimming it. One of the soldiers gazes down at the base of the tree, triggering shock in his eyes before he points with his free arm and exclaims, "OVER THERE!"
The other officers follow the soldier's finger to find that at the base of the tree emerge a whole flood of roots larger than the ones they were eliminating, but furthermore they grow out far faster than the initial nest, spreading over blocks at traffic speed, branching off to paint the white streets in black.
Not only that, but the roots that had yet to be trimmed begin to start growing autonomously, their bodies thickening in the process to about double their original width, reclaiming the lost ground as the trimmed ends crawl forward and branch rapidly. Roots rise and coil around buildings once cleaned off, and other roots penetrate through towers to form bridges in the air, undoing the work of the soldiers before their very own eyes.
Watching this horrible sight, the soldiers grit their teeth in a mixture of dread and defeat, but one of them shouts: "WE CAN'T LET UP NOW, KEEP FIRING," before he raises his arm to take aim at the root, and resumes firing his bombardment down on the growing nest. He locks in on the mission once again, so much so that he doesn't notice the black flashes flickering in the branches of the newly formed tree, though some of the soldiers do notice as they raise their fingers in curiosity, and one of them mentions: "What's that-," just as a black streak zips from the branch and into the middle of the pod within a second's fraction, and in the next instant there are no soldiers onboard.
In the next instant after, that pod which has been split in two then explodes in a fiery flame, and just as screams emit from the neighboring pods of that fleet, black streaks fire from those flickers straight into those pods, blasting through them instantly and leading them to explode in fragments.
Just like how rapid cyan barrages were deployed down on the city, a rapid barrage of black streaks are fired from the tree, bombing those bombers just as quickly, decimating whole fleets within seconds.
Even as some pods begin banking away from the fleet as the soldiers scream in horror, they're caught in a streak that obliterates the pod and all those onboard, a flash of black light razing straight through the vehicles.
All above the trimmed perimeter of the zone, orange explosions appear where the fleets once were, lighting a ring of fire around the region in the air.
That view is projected on the rear view screen of the bus's windshield which Meditat stares at in terror as gasps emerge all over the bus, placing their heads against their window screens to watch the sudden collapse of the bombings. Meditat's eyes fixate then to the tree dominating the sky, and that's when he catches a glimpse of another streak, not one firing into a distant pod, but one zipping straight for the camera.
Meditat clenches his teeth, only able to exclaim: "Shit-."
Despite banking hard to the right, the black streak catches the bus pod, grazing its edge. The rest of the streak continues into the military pod leading the bus, catching it entirely as that pod combusts wholly into a fireball, though the bus isn't safe either as an explosion erupts in the back of the bus, causing it to immediately begin nosediving.
Inside the pod, those gasps become terrified screams as civilians slide against the seats in front of them, and both Ekitai and Kokei stumble forward into Dana's back as she deploys tentacles to grab hold of them while sinking her feet into the metal floor. Meditat chuffs as the bus begins to dive, and he shouts: "EVERYONE, HOLD ON FOR AN EMERGENCY LANDING!"
Plummeting into a nearly straight dive, the bus pod descends quickly towards the floor as the tree behind continues rapidly firing streaks in all directions, able to use its many branches as barrels for its own artillery. That ring of fire begins to disperse as the tree's branches finally stop growing, reaching just far enough to cast a shadow only that ring, its branches bending down by its own weight, leaving a striking silhouette as it lacks any color from this distance.
Focused no longer on the rear view, the bus's driver focuses ahead on the approaching road, gritting his teeth as his golden shoulders ignite azure flames that are released out into the bus ceiling. At the speeds of their plummet, they reach the ground in just a matter of seconds.
In a matter of seconds, they make an impact with the white streets of the city that were close to being saved, and yet the battle has declared itself far from over.