A few days after the battle with the hivemind, we heard a bunch of bells and followed its sound into the city. We arrived in a neighborhood that seemed to be utterly destroyed as the sounds grew louder. There was a layer of distortion there which affected our vision as well. We pushed through the sounds and the distortion and arrived at a lone church in the middle of the destruction. The bells no longer tolled but were replaced with 1930s style swing music. Everyone except Drew, who was in his power rangers uniform, went in through the front door. He decided to climb up the building itself hoping for a better vantage point.
We entered the church, which was basically a nightclub for a bunch of weird creatures. On the stage was a singer wearing a plague doctor mask with dark red hair. She introduced herself as Petrichor and the doors slammed behind us. A couple guys in the back glared at us and Petrichor touched Sylvia’s arm with her wooden-feeling skin. The crowd roars after she hyped them up, and a Corrupted got up and brandished his tentacles. Battle time.
Aesop and Aran argued over knives, which was met with Aesop’s annoyance. Aesop said "Literally die, Aran. It's what I've got right now.”, which seemed to interest Petrichor who then snapped Aran’s achilles tendons and forced him to the floor. He gave me one of his katanas, much like the knives from the last time. Aesop and I defended our fallen friend against Petrichor, who grew wings and was flying about like some kind of RPG boss battle. I slashed at the wings when she was down by the ground, which was effective. An arm grew out of the wall targeting Aran, which broke some of his bones. I swung my dueling broadsword at the arm. It was enough to break him out, but the damage was done. He was in really bad shape. Petrichor continued on her attack, summoning blades and hitting Harmonia in the arm.
After some time passed, Petrichor threw an energy wave and knocked us all back. Drew gave me a medkit and I tried to stabilize and patch up Aran’s wounds. The ground became moist and Petrichor summoned root-like tentacles to capture all of us separately. We all hacked away at our tentacles using whatever we could, attempting to break through and deal more damage. Petrichor took enough damage and dropped us all, including Aran. I caught him before he splat. As if Aran hadn’t been harmed enough, thorns were poking out of his skin, tearing up his organs and limbs and infecting his wounds, leaving him inches from death. We tried to help but it was ultimately too late. Either we mercy kill or allow Petrichor to land the final blow. Aran decided to take his fate into his own hands with a knife, but Petrichor used the knife to finish the job. He was gone. The Tall Man appeared and stole Aran away from us, which angered Petrichor.
In a fit of rage, Drew launched himself at her and attacked her with his suit tentacles, which caused massive damage. We continued to defend against whatever attacks were thrown at us, but Harmonia finally had enough. While Petrichor was downed, Harmonia shot her point-blank in the temple, ultimately finishing her off.
The chapel we were in disappeared. In place of it was a hole, which we all jumped down without much thought. We landed and followed the tunnel towards the light, which came from a house. We entered the house and met with Pluvio, who was relaxing and watching old vines on loop. She told us where we were, the first circle of Hell, near a town called Whitewall. Pluvio guided us to a hotel which is where we relaxed for a week or so.