Before we begin, I need to explain something. For the majority of this chapter, Eyelander is going to be referred as female in this chapter (with some exceptions) because he will be possessing Falcom until the end, so the ghost is technically a girl now.

Interdimensional RED-Coded Contract

Interlude: Possessing the Helm

Neither side moved an inch. Both waited for the other side to go first, warily sizizing each other up in the meantime. Angela's undead forces were surrounding the Possessed Falcom, but the tension was on another level than when they were against normal Falcom. They already had problems stopping their opponent before she was possessed, now she'll be practically unstoppable.

And she was.

Possessed Falcom suddenly lunged towards the group behind her back, the Eyelander raised high and shining with a toxic emerald light. With just one fast swing 11 heads rolled all at once. Possessed Falcom was much faster and stronger than her normal self, far more than her opponents expected.

There were few who managed to even raise their blades before Falcom struck them, and those weapons were shattered in an instant, the shards of metal hitting the ground, followed closely by the heads of their wielders.

It was over in an instant.

Angela's jaw loosened a little, and she took a step back. Her numbers stopped being an advantage if Possessed Falcom can just decapitate a huge part of them with just a single swing. She should retreat, run away and make a plan.

But her legs froze in place.

No matter how much her brain screamed at her to run, her legs just wouldn't move.

And the Possessed Falcom just stood above their corpses, and let the others gape at her and her handiwork, like an exhibit in a museum. "Do you still think numbers can save you now?" She smugly taunted. Her eyes glowed much brighter than before, those glowing eyes of doom burned their image deep inside Dark Magician's mind.

Angela had to reconsider her strategy, she couldn't possibly have a chance against such a monster like this. But her legs just won't move.

While the Dark Magician was overtaken by panic, the possessed adventurer advanced towards her with slow, calm steps. A few butlers mustered shreds of their remaining courage and tried to stop the ghost's advance, but the Eyelander steamrolled through any attempts of stopping her.

Behind the dying crowd Zeta pushed the shell-shocked brunette away from danger, and ushered her into running away. Unlike the undead maid, her contractor had only 1 life and is in a vulnerable state. She can't die here!

But nothing the others did stopped Falcom for even a brief moment. Undeads' headless bodies fell one after another, none of them surviving for more than a quarter of a second against the Eyelander's full might.

"Time is ticking, Dark Magician." Possessed Falcom grinned her target. "Find a way to stop me, or die an embarrassing death."

Angela's breath grew rapid but she calmed down quickly. Yes, time was ticking. Those words helped her recover from the shock.

She bared her teeth and tapped the floor with her staff, and the ground beneath Possessed Falcom turned black a moment later. Falcom tried to jump away but she couldn't, in fact, the dark floor was (quite literally) taking a hold of her feet.

Possessed Falcom tried to break free, but the shadows were holding her legs tightly. She giggled at the sight of them. "A nice start, I'll admit it. But it's not enough." This ominous warning was backed up when the Eyelander, the sword and not the ghost, glowed with bright colors.

"Photon Blade!"

Overcharging the blade with Falcom's SP, Eyelander slammed her old body against the floor and sent a wave of violent, pure energy towards Angela and her minions. The magician was pushed back but not even a scratch was made on her thanks to her barrier; the zombies weren't as lucky.

Possessed Falcom was surprised. She hadn't expected it to work, but it did… even better than she expected. "Oh! So this woman DOES have her own magic." She exclaimed. "I wonder why she never used it, did she forget about these or something?"

Now, there was nothing between the immobile ghost and the Dark Magician. In the span of 2 minutes, the Eyelander controlling Falcom's body completely turned the tide of the battle. Now would be a perfect time for Angela to run and make a new plan.

Which the brunette gladly did, and bolted away from the possessed body of her former acquaintance.

Climbing the stairs, the Dark Magician formed a plan in her head.

Unless Possessed Falcom somehow managed to prematurely leave it, her Shadow Hold spell will last up to 4 minutes. That's all Angela has until Possessed Falcom can move again, and those 4 minutes is all she has to prepare accordingly.

Not much time...

She knows that the Eyelander can sense her from afar, so hiding is futile, she also needs to remain in the castle so escape is not an option. Instead, Angela will focus on creating her last stand and hoping for the best. The Eyelander should predict such a move and expect an ambush, but this is the best she can think of. There was no surrender. It's either him or her.

Angela reached her destination; a balcony with a view on the lake around the castle, and the city of Planeptune standing in the background. It's a dead end with no escape route bar the balcony, but the hallway here was wide with no flanks.

Actually... there are doors leading to other rooms, but there's no way Possessed Falcom will be able to use them in this fight. They're dead ends too, and the sole entrance to them is through here.

Fighting one-on-one is a death sentence, she'll need to overwhelm the possessed swordswoman with numbers. Her staff have no room to dodge in a tight hallway, but in an open-area the advantage would go solely to Possessed Falcom. Here, her Familiars can fight comfortably in a group with plenty of room to move, but not enough for Falcom to circle around them.

If Angela were to die here, she'll make Eyelander work for it.

The Dark Magician drank several SP Charges in rapid succession and went to work.

First was the resurrection and upgrading of her Familiars. As they currently are, none of them can stop Possessed Falcom for even a second, but those bodies were designed for domestic service, not battles.

She didn't think she would need to use all of her cards, but she needs it now. Her pride was her downfall, but Angela learned from this...

The Familiars' new bodies were much different than the comical zombie butlers and maids. Now everyone, man or woman, had a body of a proper guard, including pieces of armor and shields for protection, and a halberd or sword for offense.

That made a dent in her SP, but it's easier to win with a well-equipped army.

Next step… Runes.

She actually doesn't know if they'll even be effective against Possessed Falcom. Her usage of SP Skills and this strange kind of magic was a surprise in itself, so how many other surprises were that girl and Eyelander hiding?

Time was running short, but she has no choice but to go for it.

Creating a map in her mind, Angela made hand gestures that looked more like swiping at bugs than real sorcery, but soon as she was done, an orange glowing circle with a glyph in the middle appeared on the floor. Angela felt something like a sadistic glee when she imagined Eyelander's reaction after stepping on it.

If Possessed Falcom's abilities are too unrefined see those runes, then it will be a great weapon to use against her. And even if she could see those, then they'll work like a psychological deterrence, and one more thing for her to be wary of.

She can't beat them with pure strength, so Angela will have to resort to trickery and preparation.

With more gestures, the Dark Magician spawned more runes all around the hallway, creating a minefield that her opponent will have to cross and fight on. All it takes is one wrong step, and the advantage will come to her...

Angela also placed them around herself, in even greater density than anywhere else. They won't be set off by the brunette herself, but Falcom will have to think twice before trying to get close to her. Of course, Eyelander proved that he has access to ranged attacks which remains very problematic. She should create some cover for herself, and also high ground. It's very important.

Angela raised her staff and the shadows slowly became tangible and visible. From a dark mist that appeared near the balcony, a set of stairs and walls was created for her to climb. They were black as night and Angela never saw them break from anything.

The low ceiling didn't allow for much room to build, but she's still higher than the heads of her little army, and that's still great. She'll have an easier time aiming at the Possessed Falcom, and there were even 2 walls on either sides for her to hide behind.

Now it came to her that she could use those shadows to barricade herself and wait, but the Dark Magician ultimately decided against it. It won't fix anything in the long-run, it won't defeat Possessed Falcom, and it won't make her go away either. All Angela will accomplish with it is just exhausting her SP and waste time.

Cover, army and traps…

Was there anything else she could prepare?

Some illusions? They can't do anything directly but… but it could hide her traps. Let's do this.

Angela took another SP Charger to drink and looked into her inventory. She hopes she brought enough supplies to last. Once Falcom breaks free, there will be no resupplies. Everything she brought with her is what she has to work with.

Luckily though, she has plenty of SP Charges, and there are even some Nep Bulls if she gets wounded.

Angela focused on her power and willed it to work. Not a moment later a thick, purple smoke engulfed the floor completely, making the surface invisible to the naked eye. Now it didn't matter if Eyelander could see the runes or not.

What else can she do? She has an army, she has traps, ranged attacks she'll handle herself…

Her mind rushed to think of anything else she could add to her defenses. Anything that might save her life against that monster...

But that didn't matter anymore, the time was up.

"I'm free, Angela! Hope you're ready!"

Possessed Falcom began her hunt.

The shadows which kept the monster in place steadily grew weaker, but they still kept the Eyelander and his vessel in place. He laughed at how tough his bindings were, they withstood even his sword and magic.

But eventually they let go, and the Eyelander was free.

"I'm free, Angela! Hope you're ready!"

The ghost announced, stretching his host's legs. The combined voice of Eyelander and Falcom traveled far and deep into the castle, but he got no answer from the Dark Magician.

He knew where she went, and she knew it too and prepared for it. She was 2 floors above him, and far into the right. The Eyelander could guess what she has in store for him, but will that be enough to stop him? This one they both need to test in battle.

Possessed Falcom readjusted her grip and gave chase, running with the speed of Scout she skipped the stairs and climbed onto the same floor Angela where made her last stand.

Her work could be seen even from here, the whole floor was covered with thick mist, and Eyelander could spy with his little eye Angela's little army… looking different. They actually seem competent now.

Eyelander took a moment to ponder whether or not those decaying punching bags could pose a threat to her, but her thinking process was interrupted by several projectiles coming towards her. Possessed Falcom easily dodged the threat, which could have ended badly if she didn't. Those projectiles, a series of dark discs, seemed to be very sharp based on how they destroyed the wallpaper and the walls themselves. The ghost allowed himself to watch the marks left from the dark saws before tapping into the woman's SP.

"Magic Sword Sorcarian!"

It irked the Eyelander that she has to shout the Skill's name each time he wants to use them, it's even worse when those names are so needlessly long. But nonetheless, the damaged blade was enchanted with icy power, and with several swings of it Possessed Falcom sent forth an endless spray of ice cones…

...Which none of them hit. Each icicle hit either the floor or walls...

"Don't use it at long range, lesson learned." The ghost noted with a hint of disappointment, the skill looked promising but there was too much of a gap between him and Angela. Then the icicles disappeared in a great explosion, making Eyelander whistle. "Okay, that one was pretty impressive." But while spectacular, even that did nothing but make a show.

The recent failure left the ghost feeling slightly embarrassed; he sucked some air through Falcom's teeth while Angela wondered what the hell that was supposed to be. At least, Eyelancer could always count on the ol' reliable "Caputus crepitus!" fireballs. Two fiery orbs left Possessed Falcom's outstretched hand, slowly travelling towards Angela's army. Those left them with plenty of time to react, but damage wasn't something the Eyelander wanted from them.

In an attempt to dodge the fireballs, the guards herded themselves together. They put their shields and halberds forward, preparing themselves for the charging Eyelander. The gap between them quickly diminished, even Angela's fire didn't slow them down.

When Possessed Falcom was close enough, she jumped onto the wall and bounced off it like a spring. Several shocked heads were raised to see their death soaring above them, as she pointed her finger and chanted. "Pactum diabolus."

The huddled group of zombies was surrounded by a ring of small pumpkins, no bigger than Demoman's sticky bomb. They were quite harmless-looking fruits, if you were blind and didn't see the explosives attached to them. And those were surrounding Angela's main force.

But as Possessed Falcom landed, an explosions was struck, and it wasn't one of the pumpkin bombs. It was one of those Runes that Angela had placed, and it just saved their lives.

Caught off-guard, the burning body of Possessed Falcom soared yet again through the air. Her second flight lacked the grace the first had, but Possessed Falcom still landed on her legs and rolled to kill the rest of the momentum. The hot flames gnawed at her legs and boots before the Über Heal spell extinguished them. So this is why there's a fog covering the floor, Eyelander realized it now. Angela has created a minefield and hid it with fog, making it dangerous to get close on foot.

"I didn't want to use those at first, but you pushed me into doing that." The Dark Magician spoke to her, her voice cold and merciless. "Blood for blood, an eye for an eye."

"I see you have prepared, good for you." Responded Possessed Falcom. Her eyes switched from the brunette to the open balcony, and saw the city in the background. Planeptune, the home of Nepgear, Histoire… and the mercenaries.

…Falcom still has her phone, Eyelander could call the mercs for help. Those guys would make short work of just one wizard. The ghost smirked; that was his trump card, the most dangerous force in Gamindustri just one call away.

But that would spell trouble if the mercs, especially Demoman, saw him possessing Falcom. Consent or not, he can't let them see Possessed Falcom.

Guards charged at the adventurer, but the Pumpkin MIRVs were still in place, and one Ball O' Bats was enough to set them off, kill a few of them, and surprise the rest. Surprisingly, the remaining guards didn't yield or even flinch from the explosion, and so Possessed Falcom was forced to retreat. Except she didn't.

She hopped onto the wall and instead of jumping above the guards, she went for Angela.

The Dark Magician swallowed hard when Possessed Falcom came near her, but the adventurer got stuck in her barrier, vulnerable to a counter-attack. "That won't work." The Dark Magician pointed her staff at Falcom's face, its tip glowing with blue…

Seeing the spell slowly charging, Possessed Falcom frowned and pointed her free arm at the ground. "Deus invictus."

Angela had no time to react before she was blown upwards by the Ball 'O 'Bats, she crashed into ceiling before plummeting onto the hard floor. Her already pained body was bit viciously by the horde of angry bats.

Eyelander was surprised too. Her last-ditch attempt actually worked and they finally caused some damage to Angela. So there is some sort of way to overcome her barrier, but what is it? AOE?

Possessed Falcom tried to finish off the distracted Magician, but someone threw their halberd at her and came very close to Falcom's face. Interestingly enough, the spear didn't actually penetrate the weird, shadowy wall but rather bounced right off it.

Another guard charged at Falcom, his sword raised high in an obvious strike. She dodged it and retaliated, he caught it with his shield. The first guard retrieved his halberd and a third one came to try skewering the adventurer. She backed off a little, and stepped onto a Rune…

This mine didn't explode like the first one, there was no pain, but it did toss the adventurer far away, even further than the last.

Possessed Falcom was knocked far away from the battlefield and the minefield. The guards didn't take this opportunity to strike as they were busy protecting their Contractor from the bats.

"That. Pissed me off a little." Possessed Falcom growled, wiping off blood from her lips. Eyelander took this moment of calm to reevaluate her position and who she's fighting with.

Respawning army of idiots, heavily trapped and defended position… This was his and Demoman's daily life back in the Gravel War. This is basically yet another fortress he's so used to destroying…

It would be dumb to push from the front, the defenses there are strong. But there's a gaping flank that Eyelander hopes Angela was too dumb to think about…

Possessed Falcom smirked and made eye contact with Angela. Her hair was even messier than before, there were holes in her robes.

And she was bleeding...

Blood flowed freely from the countless bite marks the bats left on Angela's body.

The seemingly invincible magician lost some blood, there IS a way to bypass her barrier.

It was just a matter of finding it out…

Possessed Falcom retreated, which made Angela frown at her disappearing form, slowly standing up and wincing from pain. She was hurt, greatly, either from the fall or those magical bats.

But why did Eyelander flee now? She was vulnerable and open for follow-up.

Was it because of her runes?

Maybe, but she can be certain that he will be back. They challenged themselves to fight to the death, and they'll finish this. So what was he planning?

"What in the world are you planning, Eyelander?" Angela asked herself. She thought on the possible moves that the ghost could do, but the pain gave her misery, distracting her mind and screaming for attention. She isn't exactly the toughest girl around, just one of those bites is enough… and there are many of them.

Angela sucked some air through her teeth and searched for some Nep Bulls that she knew she had… "W-Where are they, I remember having at least 1-." She found the bottle in question but…

But it was broken.

Angela clicked her tongue and discarded the broken bottle, now she had to be wary of the shards of glass that may cut her hand. As more time passed, Angela became more frustrated because all she found were more SP Charges and broken glass, she threw away the later and kept the former in the soaked purse.

But after a while, her luck smiled upon her. There was one, and only one more bottle of Nep Bull lying on the bottom, underneath a dozen of other bottles, and not even a crack was on it.

She quickly grabbed it, and winced as her finger scrapped a broken shard of glass, then she pulled it out more carefully than before. With haste, she ingested the bitter content that Nep Bull is famous for and could think again.

There's no way Eyelander simply chickened out of the fight, not a ghost of this caliber, he must be planning something. One possibility was that Eyelander simply retreated to resupply and will come back soon for round 2. There are patches of Healing Grass growing in the gardens and outside the walls, so Possessed Falcom will have plenty of resources to heal up herself…

That gives Angela time to upgrade her defenses, but Eyelander knows what to expect by now…

It's possible that she may try finding some flank to bypass the runes. If that's the case, Angela wishes her good luck. She's over 30 meters above the ground and this hallway is a dead end with no side-routes. There's no way she'll appear from anywhere but the hallway.

And now that she raised this flag , there's 100% chance that Possessed Falcom will come from anywhere but the hallway.

Wait, does that cancel out the previous flag?

The Dark Magician's knowledge of tropes and flags wasn't that big to know this, so instead she tried to predict from where Eyelander could strike.

There's just one route that she could take from the ground, and that is the heavily protected hallway… however Eyelander most likely knows that this is not a good idea, but there isn't any other route that she could take.

What if she can fly?

This was just one, short thought but it wouldn't leave her mind. What if Possessed Falcom can fly? Or jump very high? That opens up a whole lot of options to choose from. For example that balcony behind her…

The brunette turned around to face the possible hole in her defenses. It was unprotected, completely devoid of obstacles towards her… A perfect flanking route.

There was this crazy man in Planeptune, using a rocket launcher to propel himself with explosives… what if she's going to use a similar technique to get to this balcony?

"You six, man the balcony! Tell me if you see anything!" She barked an order. She won't be stupid and discredit the possibility of Possessed Falcom accessing the balcony, she has access to magic Angela has never seen before. She doesn't know Eyelander's cards…

"You idiot… you should have picked the hallway by the toilets…" The Dark Magician mouthed to herself. The designated squad stood on the balcony and watched the area from every angle they could, including above and below them, but not a sight of Possessed Falcom was there.

"Strange." She frowned and climbed back to her podium, Eyelander wasn't charging through the hallway, and she also wasn't climbing the castle to reach the balcony…

Not much time has passed, maybe she's still traveling.

The Dark Magician took some comfort in those thoughts, at least she has some time to work on her-

A loud sound came from her left, it was unmistakably the sound of glass shattering.

Angela turned towards her left-

Just in time to see Possessed Falcom kicking the doors open, and the doors themselves flying right into her vision.

She doesn't remember what happened next, everything that came after that was a dream. Brief, blurry and fleeting lapses in and out of consciousness. There were a lot of moving figures, shiny things and lights, loud noises and screams. Sometimes they disappeared entirely from her vision, only to reappear in the next lapse. Angela gave up on trying to follow with it, it was just too hard for her.

The Dark Magician was confused, she didn't know what was happening. She tried to move, but her body wouldn't respond. She felt cold, but warmth was spilling all over her. Was she bleeding or something? There wasn't any pain though, just this feeling of pins and needles across her entire body, from neck to legs.

Her breath was ragged, it was hard to draw air, weird… why was that? What happened to her?

The figures stopped moving, there was only one of them still standing while the rest lay on the floor, motionless. And the sole standing figure was looking at her with their painfully bright light, it hurt her eyes just looking at it.

She couldn't move her arms or legs, something was crushing the latter. What was it… she knew the answer, it was at the tip of her tongue… gates? Doors? Something like that.

Angela lost consciousness and regained it shortly after. The figure was creeping towards her, stomping their foot on the thing that was crushing the magician's legs. Finally she recognized this face, and the red hair on their head… Falcom? No. This was someone else.

They roughly grabbed her hair and in this moment, Angela felt the worst, absolutely agonizing, burning pain in her entire life. Her entire neck burned with the raging inferno as the person stared at her with those unblinking, shiny orbs.

"Broken neck, legs and skull, huh?" They stated. Their voice so demonic, so twisted, so wrong… Eyelander. "Oof, I actually wasn't expecting that. Luck must be on my side."

"Aaaaauuuugh- Aaaa- Aaah!" The Dark Magician could only squeeze her eyes and try anything she could to bear this excruciating agony.

Make it stop, make it stop, make it stopmakeitstopmakeitstopmakeitstopmakeitstop WHY DOES IT HURT SO MUCH!?

Eyelander dropped her head, which intensified the pain by an infinity. Angela couldn't focus on anything but her burning neck, nothing else mattered anymore. Not the demon in front of her, not her killed servants around her, not her goal.

Help me, heeeeelp meeeeee!

"It hurts, doesn't it?" The demon asked, but Angela wasn't listening, she just wanted to stop this pain, she would even take death over that.

JustkillmeIdon'tcareanymorejustkillmeandmakeitstop!

Almost as if responding to her thoughts, Eyelander stood up and raised his sword. "You can thank me later for this." The ghost said, tilting her sword for a clean and quick decapitation...

Which she never had a chance to do.

"Wh-What is this?!"

Instead, Eyelander was screaming in pain, while Angela felt… relief?

Back in the white void, the observer was watching the fight between Angela and Possessed Falcom, just like his placeholder name was indicating. He was supposed to just wait and see what happens, but things were going too far already. He had to go against Histoire's advice and act.

"How do you like this? Jackass."

He said to no one, casually watching the Possessed Falcom in pain and munching on some popcorn. He made himself very comfortable on a large bed, the sole furniture in his world.

He continued watching their interaction, planning next moves, while the two women were clueless to what was going on.

Eyelander stared at her hands in shock. They were boiling, steaming, and hurting for absolutely no reason. The sword fell from their grasp but it wasn't any concern for the ghost, she had more pressing matters at hand.

It wasn't just her hands that hurt, this mysterious pain slowly traveled into other parts of her body, and Eyelander could feel its progress. First were her shoulders, then the chest, her head and it finished on her legs. Falcom's entire body was blistering and vaporizing, and Eyelander had to do anything to stop this.

Possessed Falcom reached out with her hand, and shouted.

"Tear!"

But nothing happened, she tried again only to get the same results.

"Tear!"

The pain wasn't subsiding and a disturbing realization came to the ghost. Eyelander tried to use Falcom's healing Skill, but he couldn't even tap into the woman's SP. This magical force was refusing to do Eyelander's bidding, she was losing control over her body.

"Gaaaah! Wha-What is this light!?" Possessed Falcom roared in pain, raising her hands to shield her face from the source of her pain, the sunlight coming from the balcony. But it wasn't just like any other sunlight, it wasn't… natural. Otherwise it wouldn't bother Eyelander.

If Falcom's spells wouldn't work, then perhaps her reliable Über Heal will work, if only to get out of that light for just a moment. "Barpo kabalto." Her voice was rasped, like her throat dried out. The chant of the spell also pushed the ghost into a barrage of coughs.

But just like before… nothing happened. Even her own spell failed. It was weird, impossible, unrealistic. The sunlight shouldn't bother her like that, but it's doing it, and it hurts so much.

"H-Hey… did we win?" Falcom, the owner of this body woke up, yet another annoyance for Eyelander to worry about.

"I'm kinda busy here. Something unexpected happened." The ghost replied, annoyance ran deep in his inner voice. The woman picked the worst time to wake up from her slumber. Already, his weak control over the female body was weakened even further.

Just as Possessed Falcom was falling onto the ground, the soul of Falcom was continuing her conversation. "Huh? You mean this voice that is asking me to take back control of my body?"

"Don't. Don't listen to it." Immediately the Eyelander ordered, he felt himself being dragged back to the sword, this light was kicking him out of the woman's body.

Falcom knew that Eyelander is being forced out as well. "I know I shouldn't but…" No matter what the adventurer did, she couldn't stop the process. "I don't really know how to resist it. I'm slowly taking my body back, and I can't stop this..."

The last thing that Eyelander managed to say before he was forced back into the sword was: "Goddamnit…"

The adventurer open her eyes, gone were the green shining orbs that substituted her vision organs, gone was the malevolent spirit and his great power. No, the person that woke up was Falcom the adventurer, a full female human.

And the first thing she did upon waking up, was taking a breath so deep she choked on her saliva.

You can't lie to me that you didn't do that at least once.

But anyway, while Falcom was coughing from her bodily fluids going where they weren't supposed to, Eyelander made an observation with a hint of exasperation. "This burning feeling seems to subside." He was back in his sword, which lay right at Falcom's feet. The redhead picked it up and stood up.

"Well, I don't feel anything." She noted, watching her left forearm. It looked just fine and didn't hurt at all, well maybe except a slight fatigue, but that too was disappearing. "Actually, I feel quite nice standing in the sunlight and-." Her gaze found the Dark Magician and froze on her.

The word that Falcom would use to describe Angela would be: confused. The brunette was leaning against the handrail of the balcony, tenderly rubbing her throat with her face showing amazement, intrigue and other synonymous emotions. Bite marks, blood stains and holes in her clothing were clearly visible to everyone, showing that the Dark Magician went through a lot during her fight with Eyelander.

At the same time, Falcom was as good as ever. Her clothes were in pristine condition, not even a scratch was ruining her body and the once mildly annoying muscle fatigue was already removed.

"I see you didn't kill her." The adventurer noted with a small smile. She was still alive and Angela was defeated, but also not killed. A true victory for her and Eyelander.

But the ghost was less than happy for this. "I swear, I was THIS close to decapitating her! I saw her broken neck, how the hell has she fixed it so quickly!?" He shouted, uncaring to everything and everyone. He was pissed off that the first decapitation by his own hands in ages was not only interrupted, but also totally prevented.

"I-I have no idea what's going on, this wasn't my doing. How on Gamindustri did I survive that?" Angela mumbled to herself. Her ghostly-looking palms were still caressing her bloodied neck, oblivious to the fact that Falcom was standing and walking towards her.

The adventurer put her foot on the wooden staff, finally catching brunette's attention. Her purple eyes darted from Falcom's foot to her face, and then back to her staff, unsure what will happen next. Falcom wordlessly kicked the weapon over the edge, making it fall into the castle's courtyard right at the bottom. Angela's eyes widened, she tried to catch her falling weapon, but it was already too late. She was disarmed and at Falcom's mercy.

"It's over, Angela. I won." The adventurer announced, pointing the Eyelander at her. It was a pretty weird feeling, the redhead could feel the ghost trying to move her hands and decapitate the magician, but Falcom somehow had an easier time resisting the ghost. Was it the sunlight or just her own experience?

"How the heck did you heal your freakin' neck? I don't think that falls into the dark-type of magic." Eyelander asked, still attempting to make the woman cut off her head, but Falcom easily resisted his grip, which was actually an achievement.

"No, it doesn't. But it's not my spell." Angela paused, trying to find the right words to explain this. Eventually she pointed towards the sky, right at the sun. "This- This entire sunlight we're in right now, it's a spell of someone else. Someone just casted an AOE spell on us."

Falcom's eyes shot wide when she heard this. Someone else was here too? "Huh? Someone else? Who!?" Why did Eyelander never tell her about them?

The answer was, he was also clueless about it. "A third party? Here? But I sense only us here…" The ghost answered, feeling confused as well.

"Yes!" Angela exclaimed. "That's why I'm so confused!" She lowered her gaze and stroked her neck once more. "They fixed my neck, but why? From where? I dunno but-" She didn't finish her sentence as she was interrupted… by a strange phenomenon.

There were just a few clouds in the sky, and none of them were dark, and there wasn't any rain… but that still happened.

A lightning bolt appeared out of nowhere, and took Angela right with it. It was faster than the blink of an eye, in one moment Angela was talking to Falcom and Eyelander, and in the next not even blood remained from her. Poof, she was gone.

Falcom jumped away in fright, white as paper. She stared at the spot where Angela was just a mere moment ago, expecting her to be back any second now… but the Dark Magician didn't return. "Y-You saw too, right Duke? Angela was right there and then she just… disappeared, right?" She didn't imagine it it, at least she doesn't think so. She was just talking with the brunette and then BOOM, a sudden lightning took her away. Only the blood trail remained, acting as sole evidence of the Dark Magician's former presence.

"Yes, that happened." Eyelander agreed, saying that he wasn't at least slightly spooked by this was false. "And now she disappeared. Hell I can't even sense her anywhere." She, and every spell that she cast here, was gone. The fog, the runes, the shadow walls and even the corpses of guard, they're all gone.

"...Let's just leave... I-I don't really want to be here."

"Remember that we still need to go for the Gehaburn."

Falcom wanted to internally scream at his casual reminder. They just fought with a practitioner of dark magic, and the first thing he says afterwards is THIS?

"Really?" She groaned. "Really? You still want to meet her?"

"Take her. We need to take her." Eyelander corrected, Falcom could imagine him raising his finger as he said it. "And yes, we really need to. Do you want this sword to fall into ASIC hands? A sword actually capable of killing CPUs… as rumored." He said with a pause as confusion briefly took him. He's already seen Nepgear die, why would this sword be needed? No wait… That's right, Nepgear is a Candidate, a lesser goddess. This one was for those supposedly immortal proper CPUs like White Heart. Well his point still stands.

"No, I don't want that." She sighed. He has a point, leaving a weapon powerful enough to kill a CPU is too much of a risk. Especially when there are people like Angela or groups like the ASIC. It's better if she takes it to Histoire and let her decide what to do with it.

And besides, he will find a way to force her into following him. It's easier to just roll with it.

"Then take a short breather and move to the secret entrance. This time Gehaburn actually wants to meet you."

Now that surprised the adventurer. "Really?" She raised her eyebrow. She caught the attention of an ancient ghost who hates the CPUs? When? How?

"Yes, although I'm not sure why…"

And just judging by Eyelander's tone, he's also clueless about this.

Should she be worried?

Interdimensional RED-Coded Contract

Interlude: Possessing the Helm

And we're nearing the end of this side-arc, and to the scenes that I was waiting for SO LONG. One of those was even preceding this whole fanfic.

And onto the explanations.

The reason why Possessed Falcom is so strong is for following reasons: 1) Falcom is already physically strong on her own, fight with monsters all day builds up some muscle after all. 2) Possessed people have tendency to have inhuman strength, multiplied by the fact that Falcom and Eyelander are/were capable fighters (in the case with the later, it's pure fanfiction I dunno if Eyelander's backstory was explained at the time of writing this chapter)

So Eyelander wipes the floor with zombies, and Angela is frozen on the spot. This is a common behavior in real life when faced with events like those, the adrenaline just makes you freeze, especially when a person is lacking combat experience, like Angela.

She couldn't run away, because Angela needed the Gehaburn, and she also couldn't hide or barricade herself. So her best available choice is to prepare the Last Stand and hope for the best… She could technically barricade herself in the secret passage and grab the Gehaburn, but Angela didn't realize this until it was too late. And even then, Eyelander would still attack her one way or another.

Now, Eyelander wasn't exactly fighting seriously during the majority of this battle. He was going easy on her because this was his first fight in ages, he had a new unfamiliar body, and his opponent was someone he kinda respected, if only by her goal. Because of that; he was unsure how much he could do with his new body, and he also wanted to test out Angela's fighting capabilities. Runes genuinely caught him off-guard though.

The trick to bypass Angela's barrier wasn't the AOE, but the surprise itself that allowed the Ball O' Bats to go through her barrier. It was designed to stop and freeze any attack that she is aware of, but it doesn't do anything against surprise attacks. Which is pretty hard to achieve when you're alone against a group and the enemy is already expecting you. So Angela opted for this type of protection instead of typical shield that was weaker and more SP-consuming.

A great way to overcome any fortifications is to just… go another way. Like Germany going through Belgium to bypass the Maginot Line, or any TF2 player with 5+ hours in the game going flanks to shoot the poorly placed sentry from a distance. Eyelander used the same strategy and retreated to attack from a flank. No, he wasn't going to the balcony, his goal were the rooms that were on sides that Angela completely disregarded. Eyelander could reach those thanks to his Teleport and Blast Jump spells. They aren't Rare Spells so it falls into his ability.

The thing that hit Angela was door that Eyelander kicked out of its hinges, it was pure luck that he managed to hit the Dark Magician with it, and barrier was too late to save her.

So yeah… Eyelander incapacitated Angela by sheer luck…

Also, my acquaintance who claims to have a medical knowledge confirmed that this is possible for a person to have a spine injury and not feel any pain. So Angela head got hit by the doors on the head, breaking her skull. Then the force slammed her into a wall and broke her spine, and finally she and the doors crashed onto the floor, breaking her legs. That's more/less what happened there.

And if that wasn't already clear enough, it was the Observer who stopped and exorcised Eyelander. The same spell also healed Angela and Falcom.

Did I make this clear enough for you? If not then just ask, I'll try to explain it better.

Responses:

kerrowe-

Well, good for you then. Because you're going to see another fight pretty soon. Where roles gets reversed.

FourElemental-

I knew I'm boring people with this! I'm sorry, but this is going to be pretty crucial for the ending, so I can't rush this. But the ending is pretty near, just bear with it.

- Harmless Orange