The momentary standstill was broken when both sensed an incoming spell.  Lethe jumped back immediately and then again when a blur rushed past her.  Her left hand, now holding the returned Heavens Judgment sword, lifted to block any attacks but none came.  Instead, a mass of black clothing, dark blue hair streaming behind it, was attacking Victorie.  Only the sudden appearance of a sea blue sword had her relaxing.  What was Gil doing here?  Familiar purple eyes looked over at her (<span style="font-style: italic">accusingly</span>: why did—).  Both of their attention was recaptured by Victorie when the woman shifted into an offensive stance.  Lethe slid into a defensive one as Gil started circling the blonde.  In the seconds both were occupied with the Reaper, Lethe leapt forward at Victorie, forcing the woman to jump up out of the way.  The blonde instead turned her attention to the newcomer, the one that had defeated Lillith.  He was the greater threat of the two, more than the little liar she’d been toying with.<br/><br/>Lethe released a hail of Smite down on Victorie and the ever closer Reapers, forming the latter back and the former to dodge erratically.  The spell was cut short when her magic was suddenly yanked in another direction.<br/><div style="text-align: center;">~~~</div><br/>Cricket slammed into the now once Penance-bound Reaper, cursing YunQiao’s brilliant idea to experiment in the middle of a battlefield.  It was definitely stronger now and it was taking all his skill to not get hit by it or its lovely companions.  He flipped out of the way of another scythe and threw a Banish into his attacker’s face.  Banishes peppered the area around him, trying to hit the powered up Reaper.  While it was busy dealing with the Banishes exploding in its face, Cricket slammed his sword into the Reaper’s chest and then yanked down with surprising ease as his Prayer flared around him.  He jumped away from the falling corpse to find the rest of Team Blonde had convened in his absence.<br/><br/>“Is this unusually easy or is it just me?”  YunQiao wondered, throwing out another three Banishes towards a clump of Reapers.<br/><br/>“Speak for yourself! That one nearly cut off my hair!”  Cricket retorted as he stabbed the Reapers Deimos had corralled to him and Seraphim.<br/><br/>“They should be harder to beat given they can absorb holy magic!  But we’re cutting through them like they’re Sinners.”<br/><br/>Deimos frowned at YunQiao’s words, forcing another Reaper in Seraphim’s and Cricket’s direction.  His own magical reserves were unnaturally high given how long they’d been fighting.  He leaned out of the way as Seraphim started throwing dead Reapers like logs at the advancing enemies, trying to keep the area in front of them clear.  With how many Reapers they’d taken down already, steady footing was getting hard to find.<br/><br/>Leon glanced between them and then squinted his eyes, drawing into the center of the circle they had formed.  “I don’t think that’s it..”  He muttered, eyes tracing invisible lines only he could see.  He lifted the re-charged Faiths Captain had handed to them and followed its path.  He blanched.  “Uh, you guys!”  His panic drew multiple looks of alarm and Valiar formed a defensive barrier around them.<br/><br/>“What?”<br/><br/>“Er, uhm, the Faiths.”  He pointed at his necklace and then at Lethe, to everyone’s confusion.<br/><br/>Adair cursed and grabbed at his necklace, examining it carefully.  Another curse.  “Hurry and finish this. Stop fooling around.”<br/><div style="text-align: center;">~~~</div><br/>That Smite had been weaker than it should have been.  Blocking another failed sneak attack, Lethe mindlessly cut through the creatures trying to swarm her while she evaluated herself.  Magical reserves were about half and steadily decreasing; she hadn’t thought maintaining the Prayers would take so much from her so quickly.  Her physical condition still fine though, only hampered by having one keyblade available to her instead of all eight.  Very well.  Mostly physical then.<br/><br/>She ran towards Gil and Victorie, dodging around the vines that tried to impede her path.  A downward strike had Victorie’s attention on her and she followed it with a side slash from her other sword.  It cut through flesh, but with so much Sin in the air, the wound healed almost immediately.  Demon then; only the pure Sin manifestations and demons had shown ability to heal without spells.  She ignored Gil’s surprise as she continued her assault, keeping the battle at close quarters.<br/><br/>She had been toying with the idea of getting a second blade for a long time but just hadn’t had a chance to truly practice with one until now.  She mostly supported her team from afar and, honestly, requesting an eighth, now tenth, sword had seemed a bit ridiculous. Now she was regretting not finding the time to work on that idea.  One sword redirected a strike at her head to the side of her while the other stabbed at Victorie.  It was a bit insulting the blonde’s attention was mostly focused on Gil despite her being in the other’s face.  She knew she wasn’t as skilled as her fellow Seraph, but this was ridiculous.  A banish was instinctively forming at the tip of her blade when she remembered she couldn’t.  Nonetheless, the sudden influx of magic had drawn Victorie’s attention.<br/><br/><span style="color: turquoise">“Little liar.  Did a Seraph scorn you for you to say they were unkind?”</span>Victorie asked cruelly, grabbing the lavender-haired woman and throwing her at the charging Seraph.  With so much Sin in the air from her preparation earlier, it was easy to form vines to barricade the Seraph’s two sides.  Maybe ‘Thea’ would get impaled on the Seraph’s sword.  Wouldn’t that be ironic?<br/><br/><div style="text-align: center;">~~~</div><br/><br/>Adair cut through another Reaper, trying to keep the Prayer in close around him.  He had noticed it was draining less than usual but had assumed the spell was drawing from the Faith Lethe had powered earlier.  Hah, that was one way of phrasing it.  A sudden influx of holy magic drew his attention.  What were those imbeciles thinking?  He had<span style="font-style: italic">told</span>them not to—when he arrived at the spell’s origin, his anger gave way to confusion.<br/><br/>“Why are you here?”<br/><br/>Despite their ominous clothing that matched eerily similarly to the Reapers they were fighting, the holy auras around the two were impossible to miss.  The squad member who kept calling people ‘normals’ and the other girl whose name no one could remember: they were both members of Master Guilford’s squad.  Wasn’t the other Seraph leading the troops?  They seemed too horrified by the man bound in Penance.<br/><br/>“What” his words were cut off when he realized what he was looking at: a dead Pristine Knight was held aloft by the chains of Penance.  Only the horror on the two Knights’ faces kept him from taking a defensive stance.  “Explain.”