The fingerless bck gloved hand bursts forth like a spectre's vengeance, gripping tightly onto the back of Fox-Mask's neck!

  Those were hardly the only things that flew out of the back! In a fsh of silver, multiple knife-like projectiles found their targets! The first flying knifes struck the tall window behind us, shattering it instantly! The other two differently shaped projectiles home in on Prinz and the red-robed cultist's foreheads, knocking them into an unconscious slump easily! Fresh air enters the room through the destroyed window, slowly dissipating the pink mist!

  We... I'm saved!

  Oracion tightens her grip on Fox-Mask, pushing it down on the floor and wrenching one of its arms at a painful angle! Our pink-haired friend puts her entire body weight on the weirdo giving off vilin vibes, but there is nary a grunt nor struggle from Fox-Mask, who merely turns its head to the side and eyes it with gssy and still eyes,

  "Oh dear. A failed pything."

  "I have a LOT of questions to ask...!" Oracion pulls Fox-Mask's elbow back with a ghastly snapping sound, even your small and cute detective has to lurch back a bit from the second-hand pain! Even so, it doesn't look like Fox-Mask is in any pain at all! It remains completely silent and immobile on the floor, almost as if...

  "Oracion! Don't breathe in the pink mist---!"

  "Pft, I know that. This isn't the first time I've seen this---!"

  It is at this moment that low, guttural words are uttered from the floored auctioneer,

  "Delta Self-Destruct Order: 3-7-4."Those incomprehensible words that came from the body lying on the floor were not meant for Oracion, (me), or even the creepy Fox-Mask itself, but rather...

  The st person standing in the room.

  Wolf-ears, who has been forgotten by everyone in this whole mess, leans down to pick up the loose, transparent tool on the ground. The very same tool that was used to draw blood from her arm---

  --- that she now holds horizontally across her neck!

  In a pose not unlike one who pys violin with the side of their neck,

  there was very little doubt what the 'self-destruct order' meant!

  The transparent naginata-like bde nears the pulsating vein on her neck, she now looks to press it down ---

  Oracion reacted faster than anyone in this room.

  In a blur of messy pink hair, Oracion leaps up from Fox-Mask's body, grabbing the wolfgirl's wrists! Twisting the self-harming arm downwards, she forces the wolfgirl to release her hold on the potential murder weapon! Having gotten around her target, Oracion's other arm hooks around wolfy's neck in a rear chokehold! In great contrast to Fox-Mask, wolfy struggles with unnatural vigor against Oracion's hold, trying to reach the implement which cttered on the auction stage with suicidal strength!

  It is when Oracion is locked in a struggle against Wolf-ears that the vilin slowly pops up from the pink mist, dusting itself off with its one good arm, the other one hanging limply at the side.

  "A mistake. You threw your complete victory away."

  Oracion doesn't even bother giving orange Fox-Mask the time of day, having toppled onto the floor with Wolf-ears in a grunting full-body chokehold! It wasn't a mistake by our pink-haired autist...! She simply chose what was more important!

  Heavy banging now sounds out on the Red Room's entrance, like there are multiple heavy and muscur bodies trying to break the door down!

  Even Fox-Mask must be wise to the banging of the Horseguys outside now, and starts backing off through the curtains!

  "Strange. The [Exposer of Conspiracies], a failed pything, and an obvious fake, all working together..."

  (Me)? An obvious fake? How could you tell anyway?!

  "Damn you! Don't--- run!"

  I don't know if Oracion is saying that to the wildly filing wolf-girl she has trapped on the floor, or to the creepo foxo, but the frustration is clearly felt here too!

  Fox-Mask lifts the red curtains to the side, just before it ducks into the darkness of the back---

  --- I could feel its gssy gaze linger upon (me).

  For a single shivering moment.

  Then, with a wordless swish of the curtains,

  Fox-Mask was gone.

  "Not AGAIN!"

  Oracion's mouth is full of Vespanol curses that are too impolite to repeat here! Just as Fox-Mask dips out from the back, the wolfgirl also stops struggling, settling into an unconscious and light breathing. She flops onto the ground with the sleeping wolfgirl lying on top of her, pounding a single fist into the auction stage!

  "Ah, ahhhh! Oracion, if you don't mind! We have big problems right now!"

  Those big problems are about to burst down the door to this room! Gesturing wildly to the unconscious Prinz on the floor, then motioning with a single-fingered throat slitting motion with the other, I try to get my point to our autist friend across! Now is not the time to wallow around! If the Horseguys see us here with the Prinz's unconscious body, what do you think they are going to think?! You WERE the one who smacked her head with whatever blunt instrument you hide in your thighhighs, you know!

  Thank all the abyssal sea gods that Oracion gets my point, and her upper body jerks up in measured response! Being the only person with a clear head is such a hard thing sometimes! Especially when your small and cute brain has been dosed with weird pink chemicals just moments before!

  "What do we do, do we fight, hide or...?"

  Oracion scoops up wolfgirl under her arm with one arm, and scoops up the unconscious Prinz with the other, holding two bodies under both arms like a pair of oversized, rolled up futon bedding, she puts a thighhighed foot on the exposed window. Face scrunched up with anger at being forced to let her target go, she makes the second wise decision of the night!

  "We're running, Ayano."

  Great! So put Rufti down so I can hitch a ride on the bedroll express...

  Oracion doesn't seem to have heard my inner monologue, since she immediately thrusts off with her foot, right out the window!

  Ah no no no, you're suppose to take (ME) with you!

  Running to the window side, I can only stare in shock as Oracion runs vertically down the chateau's two floors, baggage in both hands! Each step leaving a sharp heeled imprint in the wall, she twists her feet at the end to burst outwards, she nds with both feet on the front garden, both her high heels snapping underneath the momentum! That's nothing short of a miracle if that's the only thing that's broken from such an audacious dive!

  Now it was my turn...?

  Am I supposed to pull off that wallrun too?

  I am now gingerly crouched on the window ledge. This isn't the first time I'm up this high, in fact, I've gone out through the window many times, but always with Madi-san's help. In the cold night breeze blowing upon my thighs, the more I look down upon the garden greenery below, the more I feel like this is an impossible task! Maybe I SHOULD invest in an escape rope like how Madi-san does!

  [SFX:CRASH!]

  Too te to ponder upon this now! The Horseguys have broken past the Red Room's door, and I can only grip the window ledge a little tighter to steel myself---

  A sharp pain courses through my hand.

  Ah. Of course.

  I still have a sharp piece of orb silver there.

  The jolt of pain knocks me off kilter, entire body falling backward,

  straight towards the gardened first floor!

  I'm falling...!

  I'm falling!!!

  I'm dead.

  I'm so dead.

  If I do die...

  I am NOT leaving my manga collection to Madi-san.

  She has ZERO appreciation for Usxgui or intellectual manga.

  I don't mind leaving it to Sachiko-senpai though.

  I wonder if my will can be properly transmitted if I am turned into meat paste?

  Maybe I should have set up an epitaph as well...

  [SFX:POMF]

  Hmm?

  That doesn't sound like someone being mauled by a pavement.

  I peek out between all ten fingers which I have covered over my face. Somehow, my mind is still working. Somehow, I am suspended in mid-air, and I can see Oracion racing across the front garden towards the main gate, gifts in hand. Somehow, a pair of arms are holding the underside of my body and beneath my knees. Looking up, a familiar blonde haired face comes into view...

  "Ayano-dono, you're really heavy..."

  Val-sama is princess carrying (me) with a forced grimace, treading the air with some difficulty. Each burst of swirling green magick from her [Skystep] keeping us in flight for just a moment longer! Green eyes glower in the darkness of the room behind us, which I quickly put out of my sight by turning my head away!

  Each step of Val-sama's angled flight takes us further across the front garden, away from the chateau of horrors, until we touch down before the main gate. There, a purple-haired madwoman is wildly waving her flipphone with the fshlight on, signalling to the rapidly approaching aircraft!

  "Ah great-grans, we're safe! Safe!! For real this time...!"

  Tumbling out of Val-sama's embrace onto the ground, I can only show chattering appreciation to my saviour by clutching onto Val-sama's bare legs with my good hand, scratching at the grass to make sure the ground isn't an illusion! You can pout and put your hands on your hips all you want Madi-san, you weren't the one risking life and limb this time! Val-sama colpses to the ground on her feet, panting heavily. Has she been evading the Horseguys all this time?

  "No good! The gate's magickally locked!" Oracion kicks the front gate with her bare feet, thoroughly displeased at the very appropriate security measures taken after MULTIPLE intrusions in the chateau!

  "I'll [Skystep] everyone out--- Eep!"

  Madi-san sps the back of Val-sama's skirt to veto that idea! The front of Val-sama's face is already dripping with sweat, eyelids drooping slightly from exhaustion!

  "What? And have you faint halfway?! Ehehehe! I already called for help!"

  "Help? What help, Madi-san?! All four of us are here! Who else is there to help us?!"

  "Tsk tsk! My accomplice can't be this incompetent! Think, Aya-chan, think! Who else knows we are here?!"

  [SFX:Howl!]

  Just as Madi-san finishes that thought, a gigantic shadow leaps over the outer chateau wall! Casting a vast shade over us, the monstrous beast was at least two carriages long and half a block high! Inky bck and dripping with dark liquid, it skids sideways; pawed cws throwing up dirt and grass! The monster just did a move into the front garden that would make tofu delivery boys proud!

  Approaching our motley party, the monster with the crocodile's snout crouches down on its doglike fours before Madi-san, as if expecting us to grab onto its back!

  All four of us instantly recognize this viscous, inky magick as belonging to a certain auburn-haired sorceress we know!

  "Well?! Its not everyday the Based Department sends us a ride!"