Thunder crashes above Genesis as he takes to the wet, howling skies. He is drenched within seconds, the leather sticking uncomfortably to his skin. Nothing else is foolish enough to take flight on this cursed night. By the time that he reaches civilization, his feathers are crooked, his hair is tangled with debris, and his coat will need serious repair from the water damage. Still, it wasn’t the worst way his night could have ended. Within the hour, the house he left has shuddered with one final gasp of life before it collapses entirely.

The clock is ticking.

Primrose nods at Keimusho, still trembling. ”What about...you?” she asks, but the ninja has already turned to leave and she swallows hard, deciding to follow orders rather than ask any more questions. She gingerly climbs out the window, stumbling into the mud. From outside, she can see the full extent of the damage, and she gasps, both hands at her mouth. The roof of the manor is entirely ablaze. Heedless of the rain, it rages on. ”Please,” she whispers. ”Let them all find their way out safely!”

As Keimusho reaches the ballroom, there is a strange, wolfish howl from behind him. He is found by a wild young boy who comes charging towards him on all fours. He’s only half-dressed, and his bare feet are bleeding from stepping on broken glass. Still, he seems insistent on finding someone named “Emma.” They need to evacuate and “rondy-voo.” The boy doesn’t seem to know what he’s talking about, but he’s very insistent on finding the woman in a black suit who had only recently been following along.

Together, Keimusho and Gau manage to find the remaining stragglers in the manor and escape. Though the front door was locked, the combined efforts of Keimusho’s ninja skills and Gau’s feral strength break the hinges, and they all spill out into the rain, coughing and sputtering as thick smoke billows out onto the lawn behind them.

Everyone has been saved. Or almost everyone at least…

Caius phases through the basement door and finds himself in almost complete darkness. It’s disorienting at first -- the hum of strange machinery, the bubbling of strange fluids, and the dim, green-blue light from the glass tubes lining the walls. There are desks here -- messy and clearly already ransacked. There was also a woman, holding a thick metal pipe like a baseball bat. She readies it and swings, smashing it into one of the glass cylinders. The glass cracks. A strange, efflorescent liquid leaks out of the weakest points, but the glass is too strong to shatter in one blow. Inside of it is the ghostly figure of another woman -- Celes.

She’s unconscious and floats there, lifelessly suspended. The other woman -- Cissnei -- readies the pipe for another blow and smashes it against the glass again. More of the fluid bursts from the cracks, but the glass container still doesn’t give way.

Around them, there are other glass containers. Most of them are empty, but several are not. In the others, Caius is able to identify the unconscious form of Captain Faris as well as a girl in an orange jumpsuit and a rich looking blonde man whose container is currently draining.

Caius has found the heart of the manor as well as its captured prey. There isn’t much time left if he hopes to escape it with innocent lives in tow.

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