I like this so far

Now then, I do believe we have other business to attend to." Cromwell said. "Back to Londinium I suppose." He sighed heavily. "Lady Sheffield."

"One moment, Lord Cromwell." Sheffield said coolly, her eyes glancing to the six, now seven, remaining zombies. "I am curious, the Royalists were quite thorough with their destruction?" Surprisingly the question was asked to Aki.

The Zombie girl nodded her head. "Uh-huh, they burned up everyone as they tried to put themselves back together and didn't stop until there was nothing but ashes. Aki only survived because she was blasted all the way to the other side of the docks and got missed. Oh . . . But they took Mizuki and wrapped her up in chains while she was healing and then threw her in their nasty ship's hold!"

"Mizuki?" Cromwell asked as if he knew the girl personally. "Oh my, that is a dilemma."

"Lord Cromwell", Lady Sheffield advised, "It would be unwise to allow one of your soldiers to remain in Tristain's custody."

Cromwell seemed genuinely disappointed. "I suppose that you are right." He raised his ringed hand to his lips. "Alas, what the sacred void gives, it must sometimes take away."

_

Oh and Julio! The other void familiar, I doubt Cromwell will be happy with the pope calling him heresy.

Louise is happy to be told she's done well by her mother, and Asuna is reunited with her daughter!

Morgan le fay? Huh, nice name choice.

Surprise and the unexpected were once again on their side, and all that was left in front of them was the Viscount himself. There were no more Wind Clones, there were no more tricks to try.

Only Wardes and whatever magic he could throw up in his last ditch defense. Kirito's right hand sword bit into a wind barrier, almost bouncing off if not for the force applied by his wings. Asuna followed him, rapid thrust and slashes beating against the shield and driving the fallen Griffin Knight back and back, further until he stood almost at the edge of the cliffs and then finally braking through.

Wardes roared out as he managed to only partly parry Asuna's thrust, the sword sinking to his shoulder as Kirito slashed upward, obsidian blades severing Wardes' left forearm and slicing across his chest.

There was silence. The Viscount stumbled back, eyes wide with shock as he clutched his sword-wand weakly in his remaining hand.

"H-how?" He coughed, tottering dangerously at the edge of the cliff. "How did you know . . . to . . ."

"I didn't." Kirito panted. "There was nothing left to try."

Wardes nodded faintly as if this made perfect sense, and then slowly, his fall gathered speed. He vanished over the edge of the cliffs, the wind carrying his broad rimmed hat back up to settle at Kirito's feet.

_

Thank God, Wardes is gone.

It was going to be close! Caramella bounded the last few steps and then leaped, she felt a hand closing around her leg. She threw Wales free before she collided with the deck herself and came rolling to a stop. She felt hands closing around her wrists and something straddling her waste.

"I gotcha!" Aki cheered childishly as the ninja build girl dropped onto the deck behind her. Aki released her grip on one of Caramella's hands just long enough to throw a punch that left her head spinning. "Caramella did a bad thing, so now she has even more reason to be cleansed." Aki said as she rose up and fished for her saber, it seemed she'd lost it in the tussle, well too bad. "Ah, Caramella-chan, let my borrow this please!" Aki said as she took Arguile's sword and raised it in preparation to run her through. "Praise be the Found-"

-BOOM-

And then Aki wasn't there anymore. Caramella blinked owlishly and then grabbed for the sword that had somehow been left behind. The Ninja girl threw her chain knife and Caramella cried out as the blade sank into her forearms before a pair of long, pale tendrils closed around the zombie, wrapping around her waist, wrists, and ankles, snaking around her neck, and coiling over her chest. Then they began to constrict.

Caramella stared, clutching at her forearm as the Zombie was lifted from the deck, struggling and kicking furiously. Rising from a deck hatch, body squeezing through a space that by all reason shouldn't have been able to hold him. The researcher turned slug type mob, Kimura, casually tossed aside a still smoking cannon with a loud -clunk- before turning his attention back to his . . . Caramella almost used the word 'Victim', but she didn't know if it applied.

Kimura regarded the zombie curiously and then began to squeeze. The girl fought back, arms straining, teeth sinking into one of the tentacles as if to bite free. But Kimura simply squeezed, and squeezed, and squeezed.

The Swordswoman actually felt her stomach knot up, the girl was literally getting smaller under the tremendous pressure. Fae bodies were tough, tougher than a human by a long shot, but even they had their limits. At first, flesh resisted, bones and tissues much stronger than any humans bearing the incredible stress. Squeezed, and squeezed, and squeezed. A strange organic groaning came, accompanied by crunches and pops as ribs began to crack and splinter, limbs were slowly pull free from their sockets, and soft tissues were pulped to nothing. Squeezed, and squeezed, and squeezed. Then, with a final wrenching motion, Kimura squeezed just a little bit further and the thing, which by this point no more resembled a human being than a hunk of hamburger dressed in blood soaked clothing, simply broke apart, limbs, head, and torso squeezed neatly into pieces.

The slug let the bits of Zombie fall to the deck with a curious expression before looking over to Caramella and Wales. "Wales-sama." Kimura lifted the ridiculous hat that he had come to wear at all times. The gesture was so ludicrous that it almost made Caramella's mind rebel against what she'd just seen him do. It was easy to forget just how dangerous a slime type mob could be, it had been Kayaba Akihiko's own little inside joke to make them high level monsters. "Caramel-chan."

For once she was glad that the bastard was on their side, "I could kiss you right now." The slug blinked his large, golden eyes with interest. "I mean . . . I could hug you right now." Caramella corrected. "Erm, pat you on the head . . . Eh, you're alright Kimura-kun."

_

Few the zombie Aki and others are gone.

The dragon's stretched their wings, banking and scattering into four well coordinated flight pairs, the remaining two flying solo. Asuna grimaced as she saw a blue scaled dragon spreading its wings. Was Sir Dunwell really that persistent? But as she looked at it, she had to correct herself, no, it wasn't the Albionian Knight. Her perception ability allowed her to focus on the wind dragon and its saddle and she let out a hiss as she identified the rider.

He must have seen her too, because at that very moment, Captain Jean Jacques Francis de Wardes met her gaze and smiled.

_

Oh boy, oh no!

Yes, what is . . . it." The Dragon Knight paused as he looked the zombie over from head to foot. "Aki, why are you soaking wet?"

The undead Faerie paused and looked down at herself. Her uniform, which had been replaced sometime in the past week, was indeed soaked down to the skin and still dripping as she stood before him.

"Oh." Aki tilted her head as she examined her arms and the way that her coat hung soppily. "Wells-sama told me that the condition of my uniform was 'disgraceful' and to go wash it right away. I didn't have any other clothes so I had to wash it myself in the river."

"I see . . . " Dunwell trailed off, staring hard at Aki.

Scirroco clicked her tongue in distaste. Remaining in her human form had given her ample time to examine Aki and the other Zombies more closely and come to a final conclusion. Something more than a mindless spell inhabited these undead. But it certainly was not the power of the Void.

Spirit magic, and very powerful at that. It was the only thing that she could think of.

Not a spell, but a lesser water spirit, a shapeless, purposeless figment of nature magic, less than a living creature, less even than a thing. Such a thing had been instilled into Aki and the other undead. Seeping into the bodies and their tissues, saturating them completely and instilling a sort of pseudo life to their flesh.

The corpses gave these lesser spirits faculty. Minds with which to think, eyes and ears to sense the world, and hands and feet in with which to touch it. All that they lacked was will. In its place they possessed unflinching Loyalty to the holder of their shared focal point.

When pressed on what this meant for combating them if the need arose, Scirroco had admitted to being at the limits of her knowledge.

_

Oh no, Guichi was attacked by Aki! Attacked!

Oh boy, explosions and ineffective firing range!

Karin couldn't have been more satisfied with the results. Her next full powered Heavy Wind would have ample debris and weak points to exploit.

A jet of flame washed past her and she felt d'Artagnan buck in surprise. She cursed, silently at least, as she realized that she'd missed a mage. But where was he? And why did she suddenly feel so anxious? No, not her, it was d'Artagnan, something had him riled, something that she only realized almost before it was too late.

Looking up, she saw the fireball's real target, and that it had been aimed true as it struck the third bomb and its handlers a mere twenty mails over head.

_

Oh boy!

WAR!

Mother.

Just hours ago Louise had stood with the others at the docks outside the Capital, watching as the ships prepared to depart. Over a dozen battleships had hung in the skies over head with numerous smaller vessels already beginning to ascend to meet with the rest of the fleet. Tristain was committing slightly more than half of its navy to the so called Operation Dunkirk.

Her mother had stood before her, tall, stern, clad in her meticulously maintained chevaliers uniform and armor. And now, for the first time in almost two decades, the Heavy Wind was going to war. For the first time in her life, Louise hadn't been afraid to see her mother in that armor. Instead, she'd been strangely sad, and she didn't quite know why. She'd tried to hide her feelings, to not let her mother see any weakness. But the Duchess had seen through her, and then, placed her hands on Louise's slender shoulders, pressed down firmly but with perfect restraint.

"Daughter . . . These are difficult times. No matter what happens after today, remember to show your strength as a Valliere." Her mother had fallen silent, but had continued to study her for several moments longer as if trying to remember every detail of her face.

They'd hardly talked since Louise had returned from Tarbes. Louise had wanted to say something, to wish her mother luck.

But then, the faint moment of connection had ended as a Griffin Knight, one of the men her mother would lead into battle, whistled from the deck of a grounded ship nearby. The vessel was much too graceful to be a warship, Louise thought it had to be a Germanian Clipper. The Duchess had looked up, and then back to Louise. With a small nod, her mother turned on her heel, and stalked off towards the waiting ship.

_

A little bonding between mother and daughter.

Oh your not easy to work with either Mortimer.

Well, seems Karin has met some fine planberd in morgan and Mortimer.

Yeah,your plan failed, the prince is alive!
So, the prince is Love, so the albion requoin are screwed over. Great!