Sundering Edge

While Tynan and Calyx helped bandage Shyrin after the battle with Jinshu, Valiesha's spider tanks blew up the skeletal barricade and sent the Skelengels flying. Sunder threw smoke bombs at the defenders and Edgemoth. The ninja threw shurikens at their heads as the Shima Enagas stormed Edgemoth. The cyborg butterfly flapped its wings, launching topaz wind that blew everyone off.

While Sunder threw shurikens at Edgemoth, both Valiesha and Firaga got their hands dirty with the Skelengels. Firaga whacked her shotgun into faces like a baseball bat while Valiesha smacked the stock ends of her pistols to knock heads unconscious. When the Skelengels threw trilobite droids, the Shima Enaga pecked them over and stabbed their bellies with their beaks.

Edgemoth was unaffected by Sunder's attack and extended its razor wings. The wings launched metal boomerangs that spun toward Sunder. After analyzing Edgemoth with her goggles, Sunder hopped on each boomerang like a stairway to land on top of Edgemoth. Sunder slashed her katana through the monster's wing, making Edgemoth click in pain. The butterfly lost one wing and faceplanted as Sunder landed.

Sunder then noticed some boys sneak out from the backyard entrance. They were Viers Center survivors that Dr. Eins rescued. The blind and deaf boys worked together to escape, using the secret route Dr. Eins told them. While Valiesha's group overwhelmed the Skelengels, Sunder noticed Frion's group just arrived with pickups to recover the survivors.

Sunder quickly video-called Shyrin and signed to her. Shyrin, tell Frion to wait! We have more survivors!

Sunder met with the new survivors, telling them to meet Shyrin and Frion. As she led them away from the mansion, the one-winged Edgemoth used its last wing to launch steel boomerangs at the students. While Sunder used her shurikens to repel them, Shyrin threw a knife into Edgemoth's last wing. She jumped on top to cut it off.

While Frion and his friends assisted the disabled students, Sunder and Shyrin faced Edgemoth, who stood on its six IV line legs.

"Sunder! Shyrin!" Valiesha and Firaga signaled to her and Shyrin that they were entering the mansion.

"Go on! Shyrin and I will make sure all survivors make it!" Sunder nodded with Shyrin. "We're not letting any more boys die tonight!"

As Valiesha and Firaga led the rebels into the mansion, Edgemoth curled its larvae-like body as if standing upright. The monster lifted its six legs, which extended into six needle-sharp rapiers.

"Heh, six swords. That's it?" Sunder recalled her days as a mercenary ninja. "I dealt with worse!"

Sunder lifted her short katana while Shyrin drew knives under her Kyudo skirt. Edgemoth lifted two swords higher than the other four, letting them spin like giant buzzsaws. They grazed the floor as Edgemoth slithered slowly slithered toward the two. Pieces of metal flew as the two blades screeched against the floor.

Shyrin threw knives at the spinning blades to stop them, letting Sunder lunge forward with her katana. Edgemoth blocked Sunder and clashed six blades with her and Shyrin. When Sunder threw a smoke bomb, Shyrin jumped over the monster to attack it from behind. She screeched her blade across Edgemoth's armored back, but it was too hard to penetrate. Shyrin jumped off, avoiding Edgemoth's tail pincer. Edgemoth spun its six blades across like a helicopter to deflect Shyrin and Sunder's attacks from opposite sides.

As Sunder defended herself, she smiled. Before meeting Valiesha, she used to work for opposing gangs, robbing and assassinating mobster lords who wielded spiked yo-yos and double-bladed swords. Sunder felt the thrill once again as she battled Edgemoth beside Shyrin.

***

Firaga, Valiesha, and the rebels entered the mansion. They were puzzled how the mansion looked medieval red on the outside but looked as metallic as a spaceship's interior within. Makyuran guards moved in milliseconds, scratching the rebels and birds with their needle-like fingers. Although they didn't eat them, they still slashed them apart. The girls used their hand mirrors, smashing them into their orange-cycloptic eyes to ensure they saw their reflection shatter.

"Where do we find and stop Senri and Jezebel?" Valiesha reloaded her pistols.

A purple-haired lady with glasses wearing a white coat emerged from the ruins of the Viers Center.

"You must be Valiesha and Firaga," Dr. Eins greeted. "I destroyed the Endromen factory. All of the boys within have escaped."

"Dr. Eins, good to meet you at last. Thank you for helping us," Valiesha shook hands with the doctor. "Can you lead us to Senri? She has Chirus!"

"Senri must be in the basement where Jezebel's altar is. I can show you!"

As the rebels crushed the last Skelengels and Makyuran guards out of the way, Dr. Eins led them across the metallic labyrinth.

"Dealing with Senri is one thing, but none of this is going to end unless Jezebel dies!" Dr. Eins told the girls. "It's down here!"

Once she pointed to the stairway down into the dark basement with pillars of bloody red writing, the birds dove headfirst. The Shima Enagas squeezed their round white bodies to fit inside.

"Eins!" A voice shouted.

"Who's that?" Firaga asked.

"You two go!" Dr. Eins recognized the voice and quickly gave Firaga syringes. "These are quinolone drugs that can make Jezebel photosensitive to light. It's almost dawn, so use them well."

"Thank you, but what about you?" Firaga asked.

"Eins!" The angry voice echoed again.

"This is my fight," Dr. Eins hugged the two. "God bless you all. Please destroy Jezebel once and for all!"

"Valiesha," Dr. Eins patted her shoulder. "I taught Chirus. He is a good man. Promise me you'll take care of him."

"I promise," Valiesha nodded.

As the Enaga girls entered the basement to chase Senri, Dr. Eins huffed at the familiar voice. "I thought I already killed you, Decivel."

She turned back to see the blonde professor covered in crimson necrotic skin. Dr. Decivel no longer looked human but a walking infection.

"Jezebel offered everything us women wanted!" The zombified lady roared. "How dare you spit at it all!"

Dr. Eins glared. "Look at yourself! What on earth have you become?"

Dr. Decivel's bloody hands morphed into a spear of segmented rods that looked like rod-shaped bacteria. "I must kill you, and Jezebel will reward me!"

Dr. Eins drew antibiotic syringes. "Decivel, I see now that you've become the infectious pathogen yourself, and I am the cure. Expect no mercy from me."