I stared at Alison as she took in the room, grinning to herself all the while. I had very conflicted feelings about Christian’s death, but those were thoughts I needed to push aside for the present.

Alison was dangerous, and insane. According to her story, she had turned the world into a pocket dimension just to prove a point, and was now grinning at us with malice in her eyes.

Hazeel, Vanessa, on my signal. The two women replied in consent, and I began to walk toward Alison.

Her eyes narrowed and her body tensed. She clearly hadn’t expected me to start moving towards her by myself, and she was cautious of flankers.

Of course, I didn’t expect her to be the same person she was all those years ago. I wanted to play it safe, and assumed she had gotten better at sensing and stopping dimensional energies. So…

“Alison.” I said, causing her to flinch. “Join us, and help us kill your Terminus Eater. Do that, and we won’t have to ever fight again. After this, we can return to some semblance of normalcy, or we can go live in another dimension.”

She turned her back to me, and her shoulders started shuddering. “Alison…” Vanessa said, and she spun around, laughing in our faces.

“What makes you think I’d help the likes of you!? Oh, you’re still so high and mighty, Leo! Still on your pedestal! You think that just because you have more people standing with you that you’re better than me!?”

She paused to take a breath, and seeing my chance, I commanded, now!

Vanessa ran up to Alison and summoned her blade from dimensional storage. “Oh, please. Anyone with a pulse would have seen that attack coming from a mile away.” Alison leaned back, dodging, but that left her open to an attack on her left by Hazeel.

The wood elf swung down with her buster sword, meaning to cleave the woman’s arm off her shoulder.

“Fucking amazon!” Seeing the annihilation of her limb in her future, Alison tried to open a portal, which I moved to block.

“What!?” I couldn’t stop myself from exclaiming my shock as she brushed off my attempt and fell through the ground, landing on the far side of the room.

“So rude.” Alison sighed, brushing her clothes off. “Did you really think that I wouldn’t make any progress, even without you here?”

However, she only got that thought out as Hazeel and Vanessa were back on her in a moment, and they attacked her throughout the massive room.

I grit my teeth, and looked back at Zare, Rexir, and Leresa. I called to the three of them, getting their attention off of Alison’s form.

“Listen. I’ve… I’ve severely underestimated Alison’s power. Hazeel, Dantae and I should be able to take her on, but this shouldn’t be your fight. If you want to leave now and go back to the hotel, I understand.”

I turned back to face the three women fighting, and saw a flash of light out of the corner of my eyes.

“Did you really think we’d turn our tails and run? The Minami family always finishes it’s business.” Leresa stood next to me and grinned, the ornate sword made from Rexir in her hands.

‘Exactly. You’ve done so much for us already, it’s time for us to see your story through until the end.’ Rexir’s voice was projected into my head.

Zare walked up to my right, already in full magic armor. “I don’t really care what happens to your world, as long as Rexir and Leresa come back with me to ours, but…”

She summoned her massive earth blade, and several other copies, making them float at her back like a cape. “If my brother and sister are committed, then I’ll do my best to help.”

I smiled and ruffled her hair. She swatted my hand away, and her eyes gave me a scowl, although a small smile was on her lips.

“Let’s go then!” I took a step forward, opening a portal and taking my second step right behind Alison.

She clicked her tongue as I grabbed her body, and held her still as Hazeel cleaved, and Vanessa slashed. She opened a rift on top of her body, and both Hazeel and Vanessa’s attacks missed. Zare joined in, but Alison ripped herself free of my grasp and moved out of the way.

Hazeel and Vanessa joined hands with me, and transformed into their respective weapons. Leresa began to chant something behind us as Zare and I continued to frontline and aggress on Alison.

She was getting more desperate, and tried to distance herself from us again, so she could start firing her pistols efficiently. However, she was stopped by the collective effort of the five photon users against her.

Her eyes widened as Zare sliced downwards, cutting into her arm. She snarled and shot at Zare, nailing the princess in the thigh.

The Minami Princess cried out and fell to the floor, but that was exactly when Leresa finished coalescing energy, and shot a beam of concentrated photons at Alison.

Alison began to panic as she realized that she couldn’t teleport, and took the beam head on. She screamed as it hit her in the stomach, piercing a hole right through her.

A wave of energy detonated with her as the epicenter, making me stagger back, and exploding the ceiling and roof off of the national monument.

After all the debris had landed, Alison looked down at herself, and saw the gaping wound. “Oh, shit. No, no, no!” She panicked, and stumbled to the floor.

Leresa fell to one knee, having exhausted all her energy, and leaving me the last one standing. I walked over to the fallen form of Alison Walker, who smiled madly at me.