In the aftermath of the events that led the closure of the dark rift the group had found themselves back in the comfort of the travel carriage. Lily had clearly been exhausted, taking the opportunity to enjoy a little nap while Nyancelot was seated beside her, looking up at Mia with a grin. "I'll give you this win Mia~ But ya only won because Lily didn't participate!"

The Exceed exclaimed in a faux grumbling as he crosses his arms underneath his chest. "I kinda wish I could have seen her go into her Super Saiyan two form, but that's a big no no. If she were to lose control and go berserk then we'll be in a serious mess."

The Exceed hummed energetically as he continued. "Despite her looks her power is actually more martial based. Transformations that strengthen her body, powerful blasts of energy, the whole shebang~ But because the magic relies a lot on the person's own emotions and the willpower to control them, Lily struggles immensely the further she goes into the power. One time she even reverted to herself prior to her reincarnation."

The Exceed grinned, knowing the word would lightly stir Mia again. "Don't be mistaken, she wasn't born special or anything. Nope, it took years upon years of trials and tribulations for her to get to that point. In fact she was trained directly by the guild master of Blue Pegasus! But the thing that scares me about her is that she is somewhat zealous in her efforts to protect these dear to her, and to accomplish the things she desires. It's because of that zealous nature and curiosity toward the unknown, and the desire to surpass the limits of what people perceive as normal that she was both adored by some and hated by others. Some felt encouraged and motivated by her drive to grow, others were charmed by her playful and cheerful nature. But others then were jealous of her accomplishments and suspicious of her motives."

The Exceed sighed deeply as he looked at Lily. "And then during her work in the Rune Knights she got flatlined. Her own subordinates betrayed her during an investigation, and she got murdered. Doesn't help that in the aftermath she was forced to get back, and then bam Lily emerged from the tree with no recollection of her past, or the fact her old self is still slumbering somewhere inside her."

Leaning back in his seat he grumbled softly. "Don't like it at all. World can be pretty unfair and shitty at times, but to her what others might see as a privilege is a burden to her. Screw being a hero, she just wants to find a place to belong to, and for people to accept her for who she wants to be: Just simple Lily..."

Sniffing lightly in the air he looked suspiciously at Mia. "Umm, you did shower after that bloodbath right, something smells..." And it certainly wasn't the Exceed! For Lily stirred lightly, her eyes opening as she muttered softly. "Dahlia... it seems we arrived too late, carriages are making a detour."

The Exceed peered outside the window at the fumes covered village in the distance. "Doesn't look good at all... And then there is this stench in the air... I got a baaad feeling about this."

WC: 550/1200

Mia let out a mild scoffing noise as she heard the borderline cheeky quip from Nyancelot, but with what little she knew of the kitty creatures nature she was fairly sure he was still being genuine despite the way she’d take those same words from anyone else. She let out a long, low breath, her trench coat off now and practically being used like a towel now as she wiped the sweat off of her forearms, cracking the stiffness in her neck to either side. “I mean, you have to. I did win.~”

She glanced across as yet another ‘special power’ of Lily was mentioned, Mia crossing her arms and quirking her brow. “Where exactly does this gal’s power stop? Special eyes, reincarnation, spirit bomb, this… super Saiyan, whatever that is? Are gods just fighting over which one of them gets to give her blessings or something?” She asked, genuinely becoming more confused than frustrated or anything close to envious at this point. Lily seemed like such a meek creature afterall despite all this power crammed into her. She certainly didn’t seem the type to ‘go berserk’.

She crossed her arms and listened to the talk about it being martial based, which perhaps did spark a twinge of envy. She heard ‘in your face’ casters tended to be rare. Its part of why she was trying to pursue her own particular brand of magic. From what she’d heard, it was a brutal, in your face style of casting beyond a few exceptions, and she wanted to make her mark in that ‘area’, but if even the meek looking Lily supposedly ‘exceled’ at that… perhaps the feeling was less ‘Envy’. More… a sense of premature defeat.

“So she’s at risk of becoming who she was before? That sounds like more of a positive than a risk doesn’t it?” She asked, genuinely just trying to follow along.

Mia let out a long sigh as the Exceed tried to ‘reassure her’ that this wasn’t all just being born special, but she couldn’t quite accept that. You excelled at something through work, or you were gifted at it. This…? This was… so many things crammed into one package. Hard work could be a factor, sure, but it felt harder to take that the more Lily added on. She was chosen by some god Hermes as a vessel, eye shit, she could go over it all again but it felt tiresome to harp on, even internally.

She tried to look on the bright side, but even the ‘simple Lily, wanting to be seen as herself’ line just didn’t quite sit right with her… there was a contrast between who she wanted to be, and what she actively was, that was hard to balance in Mia’s own mind, but she’d at least be respectful enough not to put it forward.

When asked on the shower though, she sputtered. “I’m sorry, where do you expect me to have a shower in the middle of a journey like this?”

With lily waking up, the girl talking about being too late, she narrowed her gaze and looked out the window of the carriage, shifting to pull herself out it’s window, sitting on it’s edge and holding onto the rooftop to get a better look at what lay ahead for them.

WC 550/2000

"hmm, it would be if it wasn't for the fact such a process would likely erase Lily's identity as a consequence..."

The Exceed couldn't help but chime playfully in response. "True, we didn't stop by any springs on the way." Yet as Mia looked outside she would see that in the distance the village of Dahlia had been covered in some sort of smog, a mysterious and ominous looking structure rising high into the air from the center of the village. Noticing her, one of the escort guards on horseback addressed her. "Seems Dahlia has fallen to the Dark Raiders. Some of our scouts reported movement inside the village but we're not equipped to deal with such a force so we are taking a detour.

Meanwhile Lily was uncomfortably shifting back and forth in her seat, clearly restless for some reason, a reason that would be revealed several minutes later. After about a half hour since the carriage took its detour the group would find themselves forced into another confrontation as from among the trees shadows could be seen emerging, one in particular lunging straight at Mia! While the figure looked human, their decaying flesh and savage, feral nature betrayed their existence as either a zombie or a ghoul! It seemed this journey was going to be far from peaceful...

WC: 200
Total WC: 750/1200

"hmm, it would be if it wasn't for the fact such a process would likely erase Lily's identity as a consequence..."

Mia furrowed her brow at that thought, but shrugged mildly. “I mean… is the old her not, suppressed in there too? You make her sound like she was nice, AND powerful. Doesn’t feel fair she gets to just be… in the background of someone else’s brain because of a turn of fate eh?” She gave a mild shrug again to end her thought. She didn’t mean it as an offense to Lily, but she knew if she climbed to the top of the ladder, she wouldn’t be satisfied being attached to someone else like some background parasite, just watching their mistakes, or their own rise, with no way to influence it beyond scarce, barely lasting moments.

She looked down to the guard when she came out to have that peak, her brow furrowing. More of these dark raider guys eh? It made her shoulders tense a little. She didn’t feel like they’d been much of a challenge, but to take down a whole place like this? Guess they were more of a force than she gave them credit for. She crossed her arms over the roof of the carriage, remaining sat in the window as she thought on what was ahead of them, a deep exhale as she tried to consider what a detour could bring them, but ultimately knowing she didn’t exactly have the expertise in their route to overturn any such decision. “Sounds good.” She finished, pretending she knew this was the best move.

Mia remained on her odd little perch for now, idly kicking a leg back and forth inside the carriage as she kept a lookout, the nature of the smog and the danger ahead of them keeping her on alert, but seemingly not as much as the special-eyed girl inside the carriage. The motion of the shadow caught her attention before it was too late, but still late than she would have liked. Mia sweeping herself out of the carriage entirely and onto the roof as the shadowy figure came for her, it’s humanoid maw gnashing towards her as she locked hands with it to keep it from getting too close, but even with her strength, it seemed to be a mild struggle to hold it back, gritting her teeth as she dug in her heels on the roof of the carriage.

Throwing it’s arms down, she brought her knee up to it’s falling chin, blowing it off the carriage, but given the surprising speed it lurched towards her with, she doubted that’d keep it down for long, calling back into the carriage. “Guys looks like we got company again!”

WC: 450
Total WC: 1000/2000

So that was the stench Nyancelot was talking about! The moment Mia got attacked the feline jumped into action, hopping onto the rooftop of the carriage to see if she was doing fine. However, it was in that same moment the carriage grinded to a halt. "We're surrounded!" came a voice from further up ahead, meanwhile Nyancelot had jumped down toward an encroaching ghoul, sword drawn and cleanly impaled the head of the fiend yet to his surprise the Ghoul didn't go down! No, far from it, its hands reached for Nyancelot, attempting to grapple the Exceed while ignoring the sword that had impaled its skull.

However, the moment the Exceed got grabbed a flash of golden light emerged from inside the carriage and a blur crossed through the window. The ghoul was suddenly propelled several meters as it came crashing against a tree, the culprit of the ambush soon revealing herself.

Lily stood quietly next to Nyancelot, one hand holding the Exceed as if she wordlessly told the Ghoul that the Exceed was hers, while the other was raised toward the Ghoul, a surge of mana following as an energy blast made the tree above the ghoul collapse, crushing the creature underneath it!

"Mia, we likely should try to go to the front and help them clear the road so the carriages can continue!" The Exceed called out to their partner while he hopped out of Lily's grasp.

WC: 200
Total WC: 950/1200

“OH of fucking course. Your great at yer jobs ya know that!?” Mia couldn’t help but let her frustrations vent at the wrong person right now as the carriage guard announced they were already surrounded. The dark rift she understood, that popped out of nowhere, but could they really not keep a proper watch? She’d apologize later, it wasn’t like they were equipped for this, but for now she had to focus up, raising her arms in a more ready defense as she squared up a stronger position on the roof of the carriage, her breath steaming a little as she’d been using her magic a lot today, her body warming up in contrast to the chillier autumn air as a result.

“Guess they don’t go down easy huh? No counting them twice okay kitty?” She tried to joke in her words but her tone was a little more serious than last time. These weren’t just bandits from some spooky portal. This was something a little grander by the looks of things, while also seeming far, far lower at the same time. Leaping off the roof of the carriage, she delivered a swift kick to the head of an encroaching ghoul to knock it back, shaking out her arms and loosening up for another fight. Boy she was glad this job was paying well at this point, but, ya know, it also came with the thrills of being a step above saving kittens from trees!

“Right. Nice shot by the way Lil~” Able to appreciate her unique talents more when they were on her side, Mia darted out ahead of the carriage, yelling back, spinning as she ran to call back to the guards- “Make sure the wheels stay safe we got the road-!” And spinning right back ahead to focus forward. The good thing about Ghouls at least is she lost a lot of moral qualms about punching through someone’s skull and killing them. These fuckers already looked plenty dead to her!

Throwing fists through ghouls, Mia knew by now she was mostly here to fend them off, pounding them back, aiming for blows to the head where she could and fighting her own urges to try and see the cracking of skulls to against her knuckles as more cool than gross. Each blow though was more delivered with the intent of getting these ghouls back and away than it was actually killing them. That was always a bonus, but while Mia was prideful, she knew her place in a team once she learned it.

“Okay Lils! Whats up next? Super mega blast!? A door to the underworld? Call in a favor from god!? I’m all ears-! GAGH!” She was trying to be jokey, teasing her about the options at hand, but while she grabbed a ghoul and cracked it’s skull against her knee, it may not have came off with the tone she was intending.

WC 1500/2000

It seemed Lily wasn't entirely sure what idea to bring out to deal with this enemy as well. Considering the overwhelming numbers of the Ghouls, it seemed only natural that the best way for them to deal with this mess was by forcing a way open for the carriages to travel through. It seemed like the most logical option to the elf who lunged at the ghoul approaching Mia! A fist collided against the head of the ghoul, making it stagger to the side as she raised both of her hands toward the torso of the ghoul and quite literally blasted a hole into it.

"They are too many Mia! Our only option is to carve a path for the carriages to escape through." The Exceed smiled at these words, his sword beheading another ghoul while he chimed in amusement. "If this doesn't get Mia a payraise then I sure as hell don't know what will~"

Meanwhile Lily had raised a hand toward the side, her aura flaring into existence once more as she started her chant. "Ka..." As the sphere of energy started to pulse in her hands she pulled it backwards, ignoring the incoming Ghoul that either the Exceed or Mia would likely intercept. No, instead she allowed the energy condensed in her grasp to grow larger. "Me..." she could feel it, the energy of her surroundings collecting into the sphere as it started to pulse violently in her hands, only intensified by the destroyer god aura she was expelling. "Ha..." Further ahead more ghouls started to emerge from the forest. "Me..." almost... A Ghoul had almost overwhelmed a nearby escort guard and tried to jump toward Lily while the girl pushed the sphere of energy forwards. "HAAAAAAA!" The sphere soon turned into a large beam of energy, evaporating the encroaching pack of ghouls while she turned toward the drivers of the carriages. "Now! continue along the road, we should reach the end of the forest soon!"

Tiredly she turned toward Mia to see how she was doing.

WC: 300
Total WC: 1200/1200

“Yeah that’s kinda what I’m hoping for!” She called back as Nyancelot restated the obvious element of all this. She’d expected some grand move to drill a whole in these punks before they became a much larger issue, but it seemed that wasn’t something Lily could pull out the bag in an instant. A heavy exhale escaping her, she darted back into the fray and worked hard on keeping the ghouls back, especially when the Exceed joked about her getting a pay rise. “Oh please! I’m not doing it for the money at this point! This is the best adventure I’ve had so far!” There was a clear sense of joy in her voice as she said that that would be impossible to hide.

The carriages at the back behind their efforts were growing more than a little nervous. While some average joes could pack magic, the guards for transport like this weren’t bound to pack anything extra special. The smarter ones reacted quickly to the Ghouls durability, aiming for headblows and using the uncanny valley to their advantage in helping them strike killing blows without mercy, but it was clear they were starting to get somewhat overwhelmed, drivers moving back to the horses and getting them ready to move, as Lily seemed to be charging another coup-de-grace of sorts. Mia herself glancing over her shoulder to take it in, with a wild grin on her features.

“There ya go! That’s the way!”

Mia shot a sharp kick across a Ghoul that lunged for Lily before quickly darting out of her line of sight to make sure she wasn’t in the path of her aim. The odd chant she was performing didn’t get much recognition, but hey, if the big bomb thing needed her to raise her hands, she could buy this one needed funny sounds to make it work. She herself practically grunted and growled with every throw of her fists, so she was hardly one to judge just cause Lily’s sounds actually seemed closer to making sense.

Mia was seeing the additional ghouls start to emerge, staggering for a moment and looking back to Lily at the wrong moment as one lunged and latched onto her back- “Agh gahdammit-!” A sharp Elbow knocked it off and into the path of Lily’s strike, the brilliant sphere of energy surging ahead of a larger beam behind it obliterating the Ghoul with ease, Mia’s eyes growing wide with alarm at another intense display of Lily’s power. Why this girl ever bothered to protect a little shop in the dark was beyond her, but it was clearer and clearer with each encounter she was leagues above Mia… Jesus…

Shaking off the stunned expression, she looked back to Lily, a faint sigh, but with a pleasant tone behind it. There was a groaning in the air around them, and Mia heard the Carriage drivers call out that the back end was still under attack and they had to move. Charging forward quickly, she swept a hand under Lily’s legs without thought and rushed back towards the Carriage while holding Lily in a bridal carry, the Carriage already starting as Mia leapt aboard while it was mid motion, making sure to set Lily down with a cheeky wink.

“There ya go princess. Back in yer throne.~”

WC over 2000