The rest of Team Lethe appeared before the last syllable was out of the enraged woman's mouth.  "Uh, we may want to rethink the human part" Cricket commented under his breath with a nod to the now black sword in Victorie's hand.  The others said nothing in response, eyes focused on the 'Reapers' that had been summoned.<span style="color: silver">"Sorry."</span>Lethe accepted her proffered sword, the holy magic swirling around her immediately extending into her blade.<span style="color: silver">"I'll take on Victorie; you all focus on the Reapers.  I'll assist where I can."</span><br/><br/>"Just focus on what's ahead of you, Captain. Let us deal with the rest."  Valiar murmured back, hefting his sword.  No standing still in the back today.  It looked like it was time to earn his pay.  The Reapers moved to attack first but Lethe was already there to block the downward strike, one of her Heavens Judgment swords in her hand as she sliced through the scythe.  The Seraph dashed straight for the Mayor, Roland's sword cutting through all in its path.<br/><div style="text-align: center;">~~~</div><br/>The mousy woman looked at the now empty space beside her.  Lillith was really stupid enough to go off on her own even after what she’d said?  If only Victorie wasn’t busy with that<span style="font-style: italic">liar</span>who had dared deceive her… But better to know these things now rather than later.  She stood up and walked to the balcony, threads trailing from her fingers.  She wondered if her little sister would ever notice, but no, probably not.  Lillith was too stupid.<br/><div style="text-align: center;">~~~</div><br/>The two blades clashed with a resounding<span style="font-style: italic">clang!</span>before a series of smaller<span style="font-style: italic">clang!</span>s rang through the air as the blades met in rapid succession.  Victorie’s swordsmanship was hindered by her rage.  How<span style="font-style: italic">dare</span>they trick her!  How<span style="font-style: italic">dare</span>they try to make a fool of her!  Her strikes were sloppy, fueled by brute force rather than finesse.  Lethe blocked another too wide strike, eyes flickering to the opening she didn’t take.<br/><br/><span style="color: turquoise">“I’ll kill you!”</span><br/><div style="text-align: center;">~~~</div><br/>Seraphim knocked aside a Reaper’s arm and punched at its chest with her other fist but hit nothing.  Ducking under the other arm, she grabbed it and flipped the creature to the ground.  Lights above, it was hard to gauge the right distance with their cloaks.  She channeled Absolve into her hands but it did nothing more than elicit a scream of rage from the captured creature.  With a sudden burst of strength, it sent her flying off it.  Adair snagged her from her flight and prevented her from colliding with any bodies.  “It seems stronger now?”  She gaped in disbelief, watching the Reaper swipe at Cricket with greater speed than before.  Thank Light that the cross-dresser was faster than her because she didn’t think<span style="font-style: italic">she</span>could have avoided that slice!<br/><br/>“You too?”  Adair asked, grunting as he forced another Reaper away from them.  His sword snaked out and beheaded the Reaper.  Oddly enough, the Reaper didn’t dissolve into cleansed Sin sparkles like with slain Pure Sinners.  Seraphim changed the holy magic in her gauntlets from Absolves to Banishes, curving the magic into claws.  After so many days travelling with Kanna, it would have been embarrassing if she hadn’t picked up anything from the other brawler!  The claws also helped her overcome her lack of depth perception given the billowing cloaks, or they would have if they seemed to work!  She grappled with the closest Reaper, wondering why the claws didn’t seem that effective.  Honestly! She wasn’t so bad with holy magic that she’d screw up a basic shape manipulation!  She yanked her Reaper to her height and swiped her Banish-claws against its throat.  It gurgled in response, head flopping limply, but it wasn’t dead.  Seriously?!  She punched it in the neck and the entire body toppled backwards.  Deimos appeared and stabbed his sword through the thing’s chest.  “Wha?”<br/><br/>“YunQiao says holy magic harm them, but it has to be physical attacks to put them down permanently.”  The blonde Knight explained, tossing her a pair of claws similar to what Kanna wore.<br/><br/>“And we can’t risk them getting up right now.”  Seraphim commented sourly, dodging out of a downward scythe strike.  She yanked on the overextended scythe shaft and sent its owner flying into a collection of other Reapers, knocking them over like bowling pins.  She hefted the weapon in consideration but decided it was too much trouble.  A flick of her hand had it spinning like a boomerang into the now standing up Reapers, felling them once more.<br/><br/>Valiar danced past with a string of Reapers following him, parrying blades and strikes with disgusting ease.  “Better hurry up, Sera.  Cricket’s at twenty already.”  The cleric laughed and de-legged one of his followers.  Seraphim blinked in disbelief and then grabbed a Reaper.  “Hey! Get your own!”  Valiar protested as he hurried to finish off his followers now that Seraphim was poaching them.<br/><br/>“Que Sera Sera!”<br/><div style="text-align: center;">~~~</div><br/>Words were easy.  Action was harder.<span style="font-style: italic">I’ll take on Victorie.</span>I’ll slay her.  She ducked under the next swipe: Kidneys, stomach, lungs, armpit.  All of them were exposed from the haphazard attack.<span style="font-style: italic"><span style="color: turquoise">“It inspires me every day to work my hardest.”</span></span>Humans couldn’t summon Sin the same way holy magic could be summoned.  If they did, the taint inevitably mutated their body until they took on the guise of Sinners.  Even the latent miasma in the air, even stronger now from the numerous ‘Reapers’ present, could transform the more sensitive into Sinners.  For Victorie to be able to wield Sin..  Her blade slid against the other woman’s leg, cutting flesh to reveal dark blood and muscle.  The wound sizzled and then started to heal, gathering mass from the ambient taint.<br/><br/><span style="color: turquoise"> “Lying bitch!  I’ll rip out those false eyes!”</span>Lethe staggered from the force of the overhead strike, both hands wrapped around her sword’s hilt to stop it from falling.  She looked up into Victorie’s face with resignation.  Stupid.  She’d been so wrapped up in her thoughts, she’d gotten stuck in a battle of strength.  Being the shorter of the two, she was at a natural disadvantage.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">“It’s a bad idea.”<br/> <br/>“Lily! Lily!”</span><br/><br/>When had she gotten so blind to what was in front of her?<br/><br/><span style="color: red"><span style="font-style: italic">“Little little Lethe~ Always hiding! Always denying!”</span></span><br/><div style="text-align: center;">~~~</div><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Pure Sinners, slide the boulders to the front of the troops to form another barricade.</span>Syndra glanced at the ex-Councilwoman from her puppet’s eyes.  No change there.  Then she was at Lindenberg Pass.  A single Knight was holding off the troops there.  Whatever, it kept him from the battle.  She could expend them.  She slowed the advance so it would take longer.  Back on the frontlines, she looked at the camp around her.  The preparations were almost complete. Good.<br/><div style="text-align: center;">~~~</div><br/>Leon whirled around defensively, trying to keep the Reapers in his vision.  He had somehow gotten separated from the others and now there were too many for him to handle.  He brandished his sword but it didn’t seem to deter them much; there were too many of them, advancing from every direction.  Something slammed into the back of his calves and he yelped in surprise as they swarmed him.  There were flashed of silver and light gold and then all the Reapers slid apart in front of him.  Deimos landed on one of the corpses, hauled him back up, and then vanished once more.<br/><div style="text-align: center;">~~~</div><br/>When had she—Lethe gasped and fell to the side, barely rolling out of the way when Victorie’s sword came crashing down at where she used to be.  The Seraph coughed for breath, trying to reorient herself over her momentary black-out.  She felt another tug and she scrambled to her feet.<br/><br/><span style="color: #0080FF">Why did you kill Bryn?</span><br/><br/>A vehement kick sent her spare sword flying into the mess of Reapers and she threw herself backwards to avoid the next attack.  The holy bolts of Smite fell down around her to grant her a temporary reprieve, piercing through mess of vines that reached out to her.<br/><div style="text-align: center;">~~~</div><br/>YunQiao ducked under a sword strike and lunged forward, impaling the Reaper’s stomach.  A disgusting smell wafted from the Reaper though it still moved, albeit jerkily.  He forced a Banish through the sword and the Reaper glowed with the holy light.  It screamed in pain and then slumped forward like a boneless mess, almost crushing the black-haired Knight underneath it.  Banishes harmed them; Absolves seemed to power them up; and Prayer did nothing.  He ran towards Adair and planted himself behind the other Knight.  “Protect me!” He shouted, focusing his attention on one of the Reapers.  Green eyes glanced back but the man did as requested, drawing closer to the brunette.  The chains of Penance erupted around one of the Reapers.  Despite the bindings, the creature still inched forwards.  Rather than rendering the creature immobile, like with Sinners or Pure Sinners, it appeared the Penances were dragging the Reaper down, as if they were weights the Reaper now had to carry with it.  “Leave it alone, though it might get powered up by the time the Penance wears off."<br/><br/>"Which is of course why we're leaving it alone..." Cricket suddenly appeared as various limbs fell to the ground.  "This just isn't hard enough right now.  Let's make them stronger."  One of Captain's swords whizzed through the Penance-bound Reaper before it paused, seemed to reorient itself, and then zoomed back the way it had come, puncturing holes in the two Reapers Adair had been blocking.  "... They still count as mine,"  was all the amber-haired man said as Cricket simultaneously commented, "I guess Captain didn't like your experiment."  YunQiao simply cast Penance on another Reaper in response.<br/><div style="text-align: center;">~~~</div><br/>Satisfied with her survey, the brown-haired woman turned her attention to Victorie.  The blonde had been overcome with rage.  With a shake of her head at the other woman’s carelessness, she reached out and forced the personality into its cage.  Much better.<br/><div style="text-align: center;">~~~</div><br/>She didn’t have time for that!  She wasn’t going to let another of her Knights die.  She rushed towards the suddenly still Victorie, refusing to mind the part of her the screamed to not attack a defenseless person, to try to absolve it, to try to save another soul that was just lost as she had once been.  No.<span style="color: #0080FF">Why did you kill Bryn?</span>No. Her strike was suddenly stopped when Victorie twisted her sword in place to defend the attack  with a finesse that bad been previously absent.  When Victorie finally looked up, expressionless eyes stared at her: one turquoise and the other chocolate red.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">We cannot close our eyes to the truth.</span>