The fake Jack stood stoic in front of the others who faced her.
Mary, Yune, Mirey, Cainus, and Venomion were all ready to battle.
Mary had fought her for only a little bit, but her fighting style was different.
Yune expected it her to be like an animal. Full of power, but no aim or direction.
Mirey, Cainus, and Venomion all thought that the fight was going to be easy. It was five against one, but both Mary and Yune knew it would be a hard fight.
Jack wasn't afraid. Even if she could feel fear, she felt that she was strong enough to stop them. She lit up her machete in a large flame and waited for them to attack.
"Alright, let's just end this quickly," Mirey said as she conjured a huge amount of guns aimed towards Jack, "I don't have anything personal against you, but I do owe these people my thanks."
The guns fired relentlessly against Jack. Jack stood her ground and blocked the bullets. The ones that reached her face scraped by her.
Mary was surprised by this power, but felt that Jack could easily defend herself against it.
Jack rushed forward out of the gunfire and attacked. She struck her flaming machete down on the ground spitting volcanic rocks from underneath.
The five girls split up to attack from all sides. Yune threw out her chains and covered Jack in them. Then, with just a thought, electricity surged into the chains frying Jack. At the same time, Mary began firing her claws straight at Jack. However, it was nothing that Jack couldn't handle.
"When did you learn how to do that?" Mary and Yune asked each other at the same time.
Venomion continued by shooting out waves of snakes at Jack that bit her. Then, Cainus trapped Jack in her yo-yo threads, and began to pummel her with the head of the toy.
Mirey continued firing wave after wave of bullets.
They all maintained distance from Jack. The three new girls figured out that Jack must have been a short-range fighter considering that she charged at them.
As Jack was getting bombarded skin was being shot and ripped off. However, she didn't feel a thing. A flaming blaze surrounded Jack. She used her strength to free herself from the chains and threads. She grabbed onto both and pulled them closer in to their surprise.
The fire masked what Jack was planning. Yune and Cainus assumed that they were being pulled into the fire, so they dug their feet into the concrete floors. But instead of what they were expecting, Jack sent out a seething fire along the chain and thread trail.
The fire reached up to Yune and Cainus and burned them before they could make their weapons vanish.
And at the moment they vanished, Jack conjured two machetes. She made a quick choice without really needing to think too hard about it. She threw one flaming machete straight at Cainus, while charged at Yune using the flames to cloak herself.
When Mirey saw that Jack was going towards Yune, she began to fire in that direction. However, Mary had the same idea. Mary dashed in to strike at Jack.
As for the machete thrown towards Cainus, Venomion shot out a bundle of snakes at it to stop it.
When Mary came to strike at Jack who looked like she was going straight at Yune, Jack immediately grabbed Mary by the throat. The bullets flied fast and towards Jack, but she used Mary as a shield. The bullets would have hit her if Yune hadn't conjured her chains once more. She created a wall of chains to block the bullets from hitting Mary and Jack. This is when Yune realized that this Jack was different than the one she knew. This one was far more calculating. This Jack had no emotions as she fought. All she could do was think about her moves rather than being taken over by rage and anger.
Jack was about to stab Mary with her machete, but Cainus constricted her arm with the yo-yo threads. Mary shot one claw at Jack's eye. However, Jack didn't flinch even as she bled with a claw stuck in her eye. She threw Mary away and yanked at the thread pulling Cainus towards her.
As soon as she saw that Jack was going to send out her flames using the thread, she made the weapon vanish.
Mirey was being frustrated. Her powers were godlike if there weren't so many allies. Hordes of enemies were easier for her.
Jack charged at Mirey thinking that she would be the biggest threat. Mirey continued to fire, but the bullets started to just bounce off her armor. Jack blocked her face with her arms and continued forward.
Yune threw in her hook to slip Jack up, but when she did, Jack conjured another machete and threw it at the hook pushing it away.
Mirey continued to evade and jump around, but Jack as insistent. Venomion's snakes bit into Jack, but as soon as they did they would instantly burn up into flames.
Then, Jack grabbed onto one of Mirey's floating assault rifles and began to fire. However, Mirey saw this as a big mistake. The gun wouldn't fire if Mirey didn't want her to.
But what the team didn't know was that Jack began to break apart the weapon's bond to Mirey. It started to burst in flames and the metal turned red with streaks of yellow. Jack aimed it at Mirey and began firing. The bullets were made of flaming pellets made up of Jack's armor. Now, Jack had a weapon for close and long quarters.
Mirey defended herself by created a wall of guns, but the bullets would just go back them.
Yune tried to hook the weapon out of her hand, but as the hook was about to reach the weapon, Jack grabbed the hook. Jack has never been able to use this power before until now. She shot at the chain that held the hook and broke it. She held the hook tightly and with a red flame, the metal turned bright red.
Jack's armor molded itself around the hook creating her own chains.
She said, "I would never have been able to discover this power while I was alive. It requires a lot of concentration."
Jack threw her flaming chain-hook around like a whip. Yune conjured another hook for herself, but the one that Jack held was hers alone, now.
Mirey began shooting again. As the bullets were about to hit Jack's face, her armor quickly molded around her head knocking the claw out of her eye in the process.
Jack couldn't see or move her head like this, but she didn't need to. She created another torrent of flame around her that would burn everybody in the entire room.
Yune created a cocoon of chains around herself and Mary.
Cainus surrounded herself and Venomion with threads.
Mirey conjured a number of guns to cover her.
However, the heat was strong. And when Jack's head was free from the armor, she was able to see the others behind their walls of weapons. Jack knew that now, none of them could see.
So, she focused her heat in those directions. The ground boiled and felt like standing on lava. As long as there was that fire outside, the group couldn't get out of their defensive shells.
However, Mirey used the same idea that Jack had. She began to just fire in all directions while inside. The bullets flied crazily, but Mirey knew that the others would have also put up some defensive barriers, so she didn't worry about them.
As Jack was being fired on, her concentration diminished lowering her flaming tempest. It was just enough, for the Light Guardians to be able to react. In that moment, Yune opened a small section of her chains. A barrage of claws came rushing out towards Jack. The fire decreased even more as she focused on defending herself.
Then, Cainus while still in her thread shell, shot out her yo-yo straight at Jack.
As Jack was going to just swipe it away without thinking about it, the yo-yo increased in size at the last second. And before she could realize it, the ground underneath her shook. A giant serpent came rushing out from underneath. She jumped up to avoid it, but it took the arm holding her chain-hook with it. There was no blood. Then, the yo-yo slammed straight at Jack pushing her away.
Then, as Jack was in the air, Yune threw out her hook towards Jack's other hand and sharpened it. Jack noticed and was about to fire at it, but Mary shot out one of her claws straight at the weapon disabling it.
Yune's hook grabbed onto Jack's other hand. At first, the metal was too hard, but after giving an electrical surge and the hook sharpening even more, it went right through like butter.
As Jack fell, Mirey continued to fire at Jack who could do nothing but take it. She covered herself with the metal, but the amount of metal covering her body didn't change. It spread itself out, but that made the whole armor weaker in general. The bullets went through some of the parts in the chest, legs, and arms.
However, Jack's head was safe. But it didn't matter. She knew that she had lost.
She fell to the floor. Her armor cracked and began to leak out lava. Jack no longer had the strength to fight. It was over.
Yune rushed over to finish Jack, but when she put her hook to Jack's neck, she still didn't see any emotions coming off of her. It could think and speak, but there was a piece missing. It didn't feel fear as Yune's hook-blade was at her throat.
"Go ahead. Do it," Jack said, "I'm not even supposed to be alive. Take your revenge against whatever you think I did."
Mary, Cainus, Mirey, and Venomion rushed over, but there was nothing else for them to do.
Yune said, "I want to. But I know that you are just a fake Jack, so that killing you means nothing."
"Fake Jack? I suppose you can say that. But then the Jack you want to kill is already dead."
"No. The real Jack is still alive and well," Mary said.
Jack replied, "If by alive, you mean whatever you three are, then I suppose so. But like me, you all aren't the real versions, either. You're all just bodies living with memories. Unlike me, I don't have the emotions to go with them."
Cainus, Venomion, and Mirey listened but had no idea what Jack was talking about. However, Mary and Yune understood. They understood clearly. They stopped to think about it for a moment before speaking.
Mary didn't have any words to share. There was nothing to say that could prove whether they were that or not.
However, Yune chose her words carefully knowing that there were other girls there.
Yune said, "Maybe, we are... just like you. But either way, I will continue living my life whether I am what you say or not."
As she spoke, all of them began to sense a Night Demon nearby. They all jumped up and pointed their weapons towards where they sensed it.
Then, the creature rolled out. It was Tasha rolling around.
"Ahh! Kill it!" Venomion yelled before Yune and Mary stopped them.
"Wait! Don't attack," Mary said as she went between herself and the others.
Then, Yune said, "Don't attack her. That one's a friend of ours."
"A friend? A Night Demon as a friend?" Mirey asked.
"I don't believe that," Cainus said.
"It's true. Her name is Tasha. Don't hurt her," Yune said as Tasha rolled along forward until she reached Jack's head.
Tasha was there during Yune's fight with Jack, although now she thought of a way to help Yune.
Her tendrils wrapped around Jack's lobes. She motioned one of her tendrils towards Yune. She made no words, but Yune understood what Tasha wanted.
She knelt down besides Tasha and let her tendril touch her forehead.
And within the blink of an eye, she began to see everything that Jack saw. The memories that Jack had were all being sent into Yune slowly. However, the memories didn't seem right. It was like she was looking at Jack from an outide perspective.
She saw as Jack's parents died. She saw as Jack was being bullied. She, then, saw Jack transform the first time. There was so much fire and blood everywhere, but it wasn't her fault. Then, Yune watched as Jack killed many other Light Guardians. There was so much rage and destruction just like how she usually is. But each time Yune looked at them, it still felt like she was watching from elsewhere. She wasn't quite experiencing the memories from Jack's eyes. There were so many dead Light Guardians. She was a monster, but then it reached the part to what she needed to see.
It was like she was watching from a treetop. There was Mizu and Jack fighting some kind of Night Demon. Yune tried to call Mizu, but her voice was empty. It was only a projection. The monster was destroyed, but then Jack struck Mizu with her blade in the shoulder after they spoke for a little while. There wasn't any doubt before. This just hardened her belief. She saw Jack kill her best friend. Her real family died in that moment.
But the memory kept going even after Jack left. But as she was gone, Mizu coughed. She was still alive. She crawled only a short distance away. There was no blood. Just a cauterized wound on her shoulder. Then, as Yune watched, the projection began to move as if she was looking through somebody else's eyes.
She approached Mizu's gasping body.
Mizu said hoarsely, "Help me..."
But then the voice replied back, "You have some stamina. Jack usually never leaves her victims alive. Guess, I'll have to fix that."
The girl held out a rod towards Mizu's forehead. A beam of light penetrated Mizu's head without leaving a mark. Then, Mizu was dead. It wasn't Jack who dealt the final blow.
There were rustling in the bushes. Yune could hear herself and Eli in the distance. The vision shot back and she was looking at the trees. Then, she watched for just a moment herself and Eli distraught in finding Mizu's body.
And then, the projection left. Yune woke up. It her mind it was hours, but, in reality, only a couple of seconds.
She realized that Jack didn't kill Mizu, but another girl dealt the final blow. A girl with a rod for a weapon. It didn't click for her immediately who that was after feeling distraught seeing that.
She muttered aloud, "Girl with a rod. A girl with a rod."
"Hmm. Do you mean Annie?" Mary asked.
"Annie? The girl that Jack was chasing?" Yune said realizing who it was.
"Yeah. That reminds me, we got to go. Jack is fighting her right now," Mary said.
"She's here," Yune muttered as she got herself up, "Thank you, Tasha."
Then, she looked down at the Jack in front of her.
Yune said to her one last thing, "I don't forgive you."
And with that, she cut Jack's head and the body stopped moving. However, Yune didn't feel any better. Even though, Yune knew that Jack didn't kill Mizu, she definitely had the intention to. Her opinions about Jack hadn't changed, but right now, she needed to focus on finding Annie. She felt the same kind of fury that Jack had towards her. She now saw Annie as the murderer.
But Yune didn't want to involve the others.
"Venomion. Cainus. Mirey. Thank you, but I will be going with Mary forward. I'm sure you three will find your way out the same way you came in," Yune said.
"What? We're not going to leave you, now. We've come this far," Venomion said.
"I don't care. I'm done. I owe nothing to you guys, now. I'll be leaving. But if you want to visit, you can find me at Mirey's Bakery," Mirey said as she walked away.
"Okay. Maybe, she will leave you," Venomion said, "What about you Cainus?"
"I'll come with you. I wonder what else we can find in this hellscape," she replied.
Yune was happy that they would stuck up for her and come with, but this was one thing that she needed to do without them. Tasha crawled up to Yune's shoulders and licked her mask gently like a cat.
Tasha looked up and saw Tendra hiding in the shadows. It was also no longer able to hide from Light Guardians, but since Tasha was there, the guardians didn't know that Tendra was there. However, the creature didn't attack. It crawled up the ceiling and disappeared. Tasha knew that Tendra was still a monster, but still gave her a prayer to any God listening for Night Demons. Tendra, the original Tasha, was still like a daughter to her all this time.
Mary was glad to have Yune back with her. Now, she just needed to get to Jack and then, she hoped that the three of them wouldn't decide to split off again.
"Alright, Yune. Let's get going," Mary said.
And the four of them dashed forward to the end.
But before the entered the last door, Mary asked curiously, "Venomion, huh? Is that you're real name?"
"Of course it is," she replied with a pout.
Mary still didn't believe her, but didn't have the time to really argue about it.
And then, they were off.