[Hawthorne Park]

Isn't it just the worst when you're trying to avoid killing the bad guys but then they kill themselves and turn into gribbly monsters?

That's definitely one of the worst sorts of cultists.

Lapis dives at the cultist she had hurled her spear at moments before and lays into him with a sword thrust, neatly evading all of its flailing limbs and running it through the weapon. It sort of... well. Flails kind of importantly, really. It was already in bad shape. Then its buddies lay into Lapis in turn with their horrible void crabby claws!

This, of course, means all of them eat a healthy helping of lightning from Lapis' barrier. That absolutely cooks the one she just skewered and zaps the heck out of the other two, leaving them both in pretty bad condition. The skirmish definitely isn't going in their favor, here.

Things go from bad to worse when Carry grabs one and clobbers the other with it. With the damage already inflicted by Lapis' defenses and the earlier explosion from her Lightning Spear that's just more than enough for the monsters. Their shells split open, pouring out frosty caustic colorless goop everywhere.

"Ew ew ew I don't love these barf monsters even a little!" Lapis says, dancing away from the explosions of mire.

Meanwhile!

Karaglen uses the Chaos invocation on the boss!

This doesn't...

Have quite the effect she was hoping for, probably. Spurts of caustic slime spray out of his void heart and from his eyes, causing a groan of agony. This doesn't appear to be good for him! He reacts by ripping out the remains of his heart, too. "Now behold my true powaeeAAAAARRRRGH!" Just the worst.

As the cultist leader swells void energy burns around him, eating through the materia barrier Karaglen placed around him! Seeing that Karaglen has apparently jumped straight into a DOOM ZONE Lapis bolsters her with a barrier to try to take the brunt of deadly void magic!

Stupid boss monsters having two forms.