Operation: Rescue Artoria

Deeper into the Cavern (30 minutes later)

It was gruesome. Hundreds of bodies littered the cavern. It turned out that she was wrong. The largest force, by far was in this cavern. She had passed by quite a few training areas during her raid, Esdeath will be furious once she finds out. Luckily for her, these were all small fry, so she was able to get through it in her sealed state without too much trouble.

Her divine sword in hand, she made short work of anyone who got close. Their bodies disintegrating on contact. She made sure to go for body blows to prevent them from cutting off the effective area, something she learned from the way Akame wields Murasame. A sure kill cut to the arm can be mitigated if the arm's removed before the curse reaches the rest of the body. Her powers of destruction work using a similar principle.

Suddenly she felt three approaching to her left. Without even looking, she parried the first one's longsword, disintegrating it in the process and quickly cut off his head, then she proceeded to make quick work of his friends. This was really too easy. Then again, their faction-killing strength would have come from a massive ritual invoking the purest principles of life and soul manipulation. They hadn't done that yet.

Looking to her right, she noticed her two companions having an easy time as well.

Hanabi's fighting style seemed to revolve around shooting precise injections of chakra through her fingers into key parts of the body, disabling them. Another thing she noticed was that she was fast, really fast for a human. She was moving at the speed of a high-class knight pieced devil, those known for their speed. It didn't even look like she was trying. From what she read on the Otsutsuki Clan's white eyes, she figured that Hanabi was using their 360-degree vision, though from the looks of it, there might be a small blind spot by her late reaction time to some angles toward her back. She would have to ask about that later.

Laeticia was using a thin silver sword shaped like a cross. The guard was a rounded silver bar attached to a simple silver pommel. Interestingly, there were silver metal ribbons fitted around the guard enhancing the sword's aesthetic appeal. Attached to the guard was a thin, long silver blade coated in golden flames. She suspected that to be a partial manifestation of her sacred gear attached to Jeanne's sword. Either way, Laeticia was efficient in her kills, appearing to kill as quickly as possible, likely as a show of mercy.

Reaching cross-roads. She reached out through her 'vision'. A great concentration of evil was located on toward the path she felt lead to the Graal and one of slowly crumbling resolution on the other.

"We need to split up." They nodded. "You too go towards Artoria down that path, while I take this one to get to Valerie. I'm expecting a battle on my side; it may be against Rizevim from the feeling I'm getting, so it might take a while to complete my objective. From the feeling I'm getting, you should be able to prevail against any enemy you run into, but be careful."

"Right!" Hanabi said as she began heading down her assigned path.

"You as well." Laeticia finished before she went after her.

Rias smiled before she started running down her path. She began to reinforce her spatial freezing as much as she could. Whoever was ahead could not be allowed to escape.

(Laeticia's P.O.V)

Rushing through the narrow passage, the two cut down the various vampires that got in their way. There was something odd though as they reached a clearing.

'Good lord, what is that?' In front of them stood a small platoon of abominations. Women with sickly skin tinted in various colors stood in front of them. Each had different features that looked like grotesque combinations of vampires and demonic beasts, some more than one.

"They would go this far. They would defile these women to this extent?" She whispered as her hand covered her mouth. She was doing her best to keep some semblance of composure.

"You shouldn't be surprised. This base belongs to the male dominated faction and they needed to run tests before they performed the real ritual. It makes sense that they would need test subjects." Hanabi said without showing any real signs of concern. During the final days before the end of her people, they ended up using the labs of a rogue shinobi named Orochimaru as a safe haven. His experiments resembled this and worse; they were also performed with much more frequency. Compared to that, this was pretty tame.

"But, how could they do this!" Laeticia exclaimed, clearly horrified as she prepared to give mercy to these creatures. A swift death was all she could offer.

"They felt these were just deaths as they contributed to their grand cause; they must feel that these women should feel honored to contribute. That and they don't assign any real value to women, especially Carmilla women." Hanabi finished.

"Then, let's set them free. It's the least we can do" Laeticia finished as she charged into the horde.

To reduce the numbers and scatter the horde, she reached out to her sacred gear, covered her blade with as much sacred fire as she could and swung. A crescent of flames flew forward into the hoard. It cut through the front line and charged into the center. Once there, it exploded, scattering the platoon across the clearing.

She took the right and Hanabi took the left as they systematically dismantled the hoard. The rest was easy. While they may have become chimera's, their weakness to demonic energy was still present. With them crippled by the pain of the flames, the two were able to rip through them like paper.

Looking deeper into the cave, Hanabi's eyes narrowed.

"There's only one enemy left Laeticia, but he's at least ultimate class. His power's frightening. Do you know anything we can do to win?"

"Is he in the same room with Artoria?"

"Yes, he's standing in front of her by the door."

"Then, I'll distract him, while you free her. If my attack doesn't do serious harm to him, then Artoria will be our final hope." Laeticia finished. She had just the ability for this situation, but it would be very dangerous. Hanabi needed to get Artoria free or they may just die here.

"Sounds like a plan." Hanabi said as she started to hang back. Laeticia seemed to pick up on Hanabi's plan from her lack of expression.

Rushing forward, Laeticia saw that she was coming to the clearing an began to channel her power. While the being very likely knew they were on their way, taking the initiative was their best option. If Rias's visions were accurate, this was probably a devil, one experienced at manipulation through words. No, she needed this fight on her terms.

Gathering as much magical energy as she could, she began to focus on her sacred gear.

"Balance Breaker: Burning Saint – Hand of God." She declared.

As soon as those words were spoken, the cavern exploded in fire. The holy aura started saturate the air in a heavy fog. Her blade began to glow in an increasingly radiant white light reminiscent of the sun. A cross could be seen manifesting behind her. With its presence the fog thickened even further until the world around them disappeared.