Heal-Do looked around for the other guilds, unable to find any of the Trinities or the Saviors due to their position. Once the barriers had fully vanished, however, the battle had officially commenced, and – without a doubt – the Battle Vixens jumped from their vantage point and immediately made their way towards the Fire Castle as they were closest to it. Suddenly, they would hear a voice in the air…
"Forward, White Trinity!" cried Ray, ambushing the Vixens from above alongside Lee and Raien. The Gun-Knight harried them with a barrage of bullets whilst Raien immediately headed straight for the fire castle. Lee backed up Ray with some melee interference, deflecting the Blacksmith's attacks whilst Heal-Do chased after Raien.
"Get back here and fight, coward!" Lupi taunted, slashing at Ray with her lance, which he easily evaded. The Gun-Knight went straight after Heal-Do and shot at her with a Cracker, but it missed its mark, allowing Heal-Do to turn around and attack him with a swift slash of her katars. But suddenly, a hail of ice bolts struck at her feet.
"What?! Where did these come from?!" gasped Heal-Do, taking great care in avoiding the shards of ice. This gave Ray the window he needed to head straight into the fire castle after Raien, but would be greeted by a trapdoor beneath the two of them.
"Tch! I knew this wasn't gonna be easy…!" commented Raien.
"I got this one!" Ray said as he stabbed his blade into the floor and pulled the trigger, launching him high into the air from the force of the gunshot, allowing him to easily traverse the trapdoor and towards the roof of the building. Lee was overpowered and retreated eastward while the Battle Vixens stormed the castle. Being the only line of defense, Raien steeled himself for the onslaught to come, but just as they were within feet of engaging the Ninja, a storm of flames emerged from outside the castle walls, knocking away anyone who wasn't White Trinity back a considerable distance.
"White Trinity claims the Fire Castle!" declared Kafra Misty. "The castle of waves shall now activate!"
An Ice Wall would appear in front of the castle entrance so as to annoy the Battle Vixens, now wondering where Thiji was.
"I don't get it, sisters… where is that Sapphire Emperium?" Heal-Do asked as she looked around. But she did not have much time as another volley of ice bolts began to chase them!
"We'll have to figure it out ourselves. Let's move!" Aege commanded, evading the Wizard's attacks. Thiji was doing an exemplary job covering his tracks while still providing long-range support for his comrades. A giant pillar of water engulfed a structure, activating the shard inside the castle of waves located within the southern portion of Britoniah.
"Down the bridge!" Ray ordered, but would be beset by a fireball launched by Lupi as a deterrent. "Dammit…!"
"Ray!" Lee and Raien shouted.
"Don't worry about me! I'll take care of this; go and get that castle!"
The Holy Saviors had begun their advance towards the Castle of Waves. Heal-Do jumped into the waters below and swam at great speeds to catch the Holy Saviors unawares.
"Oh, no, you don't!" Raien yelled as he and Lee jumped down a cliff, using Agility Up by the Monk to make their movement fast enough to be able to run on the water, catching up to the Assassin who retaliated with her variation of the Grimtooth attack, shooting forth spikes of hardened water at the duo, which they would dodge with ease.
Lupi, Aege and Elua continued down the bridge, noticing the "dormant" castle on the center island before continuing down towards the southern bridge and toward the Castle of Waves. Meanwhile, Thiji took this time to rest and recuperate as he maintained his vigil over the Fire Castle, watching Ray extinguish the flames with his brute strength.
"You're dead meat, Saviors!" Lupi cried as she charged ahead with full force up the hill to engage the Holy Saviors. Heal-Do had made it across the lake and jumped high into the air, landing on dry land and continuing her ascent up the hill, passing Lupi as she scaled the rocky terrain, ignoring the winding path upward.
"Impudent little wretch…!" Tsubaki snarled as she fired a bolt of dark energy from her fingertips. The tunnel vision prevented Heal-Do from dodging effectively, and would thus receive the brunt of the attack to the face, sending her flying toward her sisters, colliding with them.
"Oof!" grunted the Vixens. Tsubaki chuckled and turned to enter the castle with her sisters.
"Hey, Chuckles! You're gonna stop with that laughing or else!" Raien threatened.
"Or else what, little Ninja?" Tsubaki replied.
"Or else this!" Lee answered, preparing to deliver a powerful attack, but Youmei stepped in front of her sisters and cried, "Holy… Cross!" and slashed the air in the form of a plus, sending a cross-shaped wave of holy energy toward the Monk, stopping him as he rose his arms to guard against the strike, forcing him back as well. Raien retreated with Lee after he got back to his senses as Heal-Do returned for another round.
"I will not let them control my element…!" she thought to herself as she resumed her nimble ascent up the hill, her katars enveloped in water energy. Youmei rose her shield and cried, "Guard!" but then the Assassin tripped and landed on her face, causing Tsubaki to laugh…
Youmei: I… was not expecting that, honestly.
Botan: Wow, I feel sorry for her!
Momiji: Me, too…
Lupi: What the hell, Heal-Do…?
Elua: How… how does that happen? Especially to Baby Sister?
Aege: That was so embarrassing to watch…
Heal-Do, from behind them: You're the ones who should be sorry!
Her sisters gasped and cheered Heal-Do on.
Tsubaki: What?! How did you…?!
Heal-Do: Cloaking has its uses! I made it so that you'd throw off your guard! And now for the stone…
The Assassin scaled up the walls of the Castle of Waves and found the water shard upon the rooftops. After gently placing a hand on it, the Holy Saviors were flushed out by a torrent of water.
"The Battle Vixens take the Castle of Waves!" declared Kafra Misty. "Now, back to the north! The Castle of Stone is now available! Hurry!"
"That's our cue, girls!" Aege chimed, immediately taking point back up the bridge. While Raien and Lee recuperated, they hurried back down the lake with their enhanced speed while Heal-Do ran past the waterlogged Saviors to reconvene with her sisters. From his vantage point, Thiji watched the battle unfold…
"Still no sign of that precious stone…" he thought to himself. "And now our forces are scattered, and Ray is alone… I can't give away my position just yet. I will have to find the proper moment to strike."
Meanwhile, Ray had finally gotten through Lupi's raging flames and jumped off the roof of the Fire Castle, heading westward to the Castle of Stone. After taking the time to reload, he would be attacked by Elua's Arrow Shower.
"Shit!" whispered the Gun-Knight, looking over his shoulder to see the Battle Vixens closing in behind him. "I have no choice but to use this…"
Pulling out a second revolver from his holster, he sheathed his blade as he absorbed four coins into his body, aiming them straight at the Vixens before crying, "Madness Canceller!" and "Rapid Shower!" before rooting himself and firing a continuous stream of bullets that would collide with the remaining arrows from Elua's attack, and soaring straight through toward the sisters. Thanks to the blessing of flame, they would stagger a little from the continuous volley, still closing the distance, but at a much slower pace. Thinking on her feet, Heal-Do, who had seemed to be the MVP of this battle thus far, stepped in front of her sisters and took advantage of the blessing of the waves to deflect the bullets with her increased attack speed. Thiji attempted to intercept with another Cold Bolt of Ice volley, but he would see Lupi head into the Fire Castle amidst the confusion, and Raien and Lee had just made it back from the Castle of Waves.
"No…! I can't let Lupi get that blessing!" Thiji said to himself with clenched teeth before he concentrated for a brief moment and conjured an Ice Wall directly in front of the castle entrance, barring Lupi's path.
"Where in the flying fuck is that Wizard?!" Lupi bellowed, searching wildly for Thiji.
Back at the outskirts of the Castle of Stone, Aege and Elua, led by Heal-Do, had finally caught up to the Gun-Knight.
"Whoops!" he yelped in panic before quickly flipping a coin. With luck, it landed on heads and floated around him, giving a total of two coins, which was enough to activate his next trick!
"Cart… Revolution!" cried Aege, slamming down upon Ray with all her might using her Merchant's cart she lugged around. But Ray was prepared.
"Adjustment!" he cried as he no longer felt himself stuck to the ground and instead felt more fleet of foot, dodging the Cart Revolution – as well as Heal-Do's, Elua's, and Mukuhawk's attacks – and evaded with a backwards roll, heading straight into the Castle of Stone, avoiding any traps and pitfalls he could while Ray and Lee chased after Lupi, who had melted the Ice Wall with her fury.
"This is becoming a wild goose chase at this point…" Thiji thought to himself again, noticing the Holy Saviors now heading down the bridge. With their last burst of speed, Lee and Raien caught up to the scarlet Knight upon the rooftop of the Fire Castle, but she immediately forced the two of them back with a Magnum Break.
Ray, however, had made it to the top of the Castle of Stone himself, and just as he was seconds away from claiming it…
"White Trinity has lost the Fire Castle to the Battle Vixens!" announced Kafra Misty.
"That bitch…!" yelled Raien as he and Lee were sent flying out of the castle in a storm of flames. Acting quickly, Ray touched the earth shard and the castle was sealed in a wall of solid rock, claiming the Castle of Stone for White Trinity.
"Behold now, the Castle of Light! It has activated at the center of Britoniah!" announced Kafra Misty once more as a ray of divine light crashed down from the heavens and illuminated the light shard, "turning on" the castle. The resulting force caused Thiji to lose balance, trying his hardest not to break his cover.
"For Odin, my sisters!" Youmei boomed. "The Castle of Light shall be ours!"
"But where is that Wizard?!" Tsubaki asked in frustration. "Botan! Momiji! Find that Wizar –"
She turned around and saw the Acolyte twins frozen in ice. In a growl of anger, she broke them free with a punch from her dainty hands as they quickly crossed the southern bridge and headed for the Light Castle.
"I gotta stop them here…" Ray thought aloud to himself. "It's now or never… Earth, be with me!"