Magical Girl City: Empire of Ice

Honestly, choosing to upgrade my weapon felt like a cop-out. Like I was giving up, and really, it kind of was. After all, it was the safe option. Any perk, or modifier would be an investment for the future, a future I may not even have. Whereas, upgrading my weapon, my uniform, were both something I would have to do eventually. So, may as well do it now.

Not just that, but I was barely even beginning to understand what I already had, so, how could I even begin considering adding something else on top of that?

Decision made, actually using the coin was an all-too easy affair. I didn’t even really need to say what I wanted, or needed, but it always made things easier.

“Usagi, I want my weapon upgraded.” I told them.

“Right away, Pyon, Pyon!” And just like that, the coin burst into gold light. Unbidden, my rifle formed in my hands, and the golden light washed over it. The rifle gleamed and glowed as the golden light slowly soaked into it, changing, altering it.

The end result was… a little disappointing to be honest. The silver barrel had additional markings on it. Making it look a tad more intricate, same with the stock. The skittering blue lines grew in number and complexity. The rifle had, perhaps a bit more heft to it.

Curious, and well, hoping I didn’t just get duped, I summoned up the bayonet. It was covered in skittering lines. It felt, oddly lighter. A single sweeping cut left glittering trails in the air. It definitely felt sharper. It was probably more durable as well, despite it weighing less.

Next, I conjured a bullet, and… here was where the bulk of improvement lay. It was immediately apparent that the bullet had changed. The lines covering it were deeper, more intricate. Not just that, but… I could tell my fundamental understanding of the bullet had change.

I worked through all my bullets, quickly pulling them up, looking them over. They were all changed in some fundamental way, well, except one. My bouncing rounds were unchanged, and that made sense. I was the one to make them and yet…

It only took me a matter of moments to update and adapt it to the newer enchantments etched into my other bullets. Which is where the true value lay. Not only could I conjure the bullets with enchantments, but the enchantments themselves felt… normal. Natural. Like, I’d worked with them countless times before. I understood them on another level, which meant, I could easily replicate them, even without my rifle in hand.

Only… I wasn’t too sure how good that was. I mean, sure… it was an upgrade, yet… Couldn’t I have learned these enchantments on my own, eventually?

Which… led me to realizing another caveat. Because, in a way, I was right. I could have learned how to make these bullets eventually. Even before, even without the rifle if I wanted to, I could have learned to make them on my own. Even now, the enchantments on my rifle weren’t entirely alien to me. As if upgrading it had improved our bond in some way.

Had I been duped? Bamboozled? Sure, I was the one that made the choice to have a rifle of all things, but… was this really that big of a deal?

At least, that’s what I thought until I felt my weapon whisper to me, tease me with another possibility. A new bullet, and… something else.

Curious… I went ahead and formed it. The bullet was… well, it didn’t look special. It looked similar to the explosive round, only, it wasn’t nearly as heavy. Rather, it felt kind of light. Almost hollow, in a sense.

Coincidentally, I was out in the yard, where I was supposed to be animating terracotta soldiers for the coming conflict, but… it was a good place to test out my new bullet, right?

Without a second thought, I placed the bullet into the chamber and readied up. I aimed for a stone lantern at the edge of the courtyard.

At the pull of a trigger, a new sound hit my ear. An almost hissing whistle. Like a kettle on the stove boiling over. The bullet flew true, without dipping or doing anything funny. At least, until it hit its mark.

The bullet hit fine, but… I couldn’t really see the damage it dealt, not when the bullet exploded into a cloud of glittering frosty mist that lingered in the air.

It was… odd. Stranger still, I could feel a bit of a connection with it. Kind of like with the diamond dust that flutters off me when I’m in my uniform. Only, I couldn’t direct the mist, but… If I were in uniform?

On a whim, I acted. In a matter of moments I had transformed, and all at once, I could feel the cloud like it was a part of me. Not just that, but I could direct it, move it slightly, even make it explode, or strike out. Just like the trails of rime I left behind.

Curious, I shot out another. It hissed, and spat out its contents, much like the previous one did. The clad lingered, but I could feel it rapidly fading away. Feeding it magic kept it going, extended its lifespan, but it felt different, in some way… almost… heavier?

“Hey, one of you mind stepping into the cloud?” I said aloud to one of my, now many soldiers. The terracotta shared a glance before one of the first animated stepped forward and did as I asked, albeit reluctantly.

The moment they stepped in, felt, weird. On one hand, they were definitely getting boosted by the mist. On the other, I could almost sense that the cloud was… dampening their senses in some way.

Exactly… how useful was this? I couldn’t say, but… I had a whole invasion to test it out.

And just when I was thinking I was done, my rifle spoke up again. Promised, whispered further possibilities. I was… skeptical, but again, I followed through. Another bullet type would be a good boon, but…

What ended up forming in my hands, was, most definitely not a bullet. It was long, cylindrical, and fit nicely in the palm of my hand. One end was slightly heavier than the other with an odd, segmented head. It almost looked like a baton, with some weight to it.

It was… a bomb? A grenade?

Confused, I did what any sane person would do. I chucked it. Activating it simply required a spark of my magic, the more of a spark, the shorter the fuse. How that worked, I’ve no idea, but that was what it felt like. Like I’d done it a hundred, a thousand times before.

The grenade, made of ice clattered to the ground, landing near a stone post before it exploded. It wasn’t a big explosion. There was a burst of something, and well, it wasn’t impressive. At least, on the surface.

It exploded, sending bits of ice in every which direction in the surrounding area that punched into the stone post and surroundings with ease.

This… seemed to be the shot equivalent… And… the other bullets all had an equivalent. At least, if my senses were correct, and if so… maybe I really wasn’t cheated. I quickly went to testing the other variants.

Normal rounds, were concussive grenades. It was similar to the other type, or fragmentation grenades, only the head was more cylindrical without segmentation.

Piercing, was… strange. Much like the other two grenades, it was stick shaped. Only, the head of it was massive, almost obscenely heavy. Like I was holding a warhead in my hand. It took a bit of effort to heft, and it took a bit of a jolt to start the fuse. When it hit the apex of its throw, the handle exploded first, and deployed a parachute of all things, and the moment it deployed and tugged, a secondary explosion fired.

I didn’t see it. Nor was I prepared for it, all I heard was a loud whistling bang. A large crack and snap as something crashed into and shattered one of the stone posts, whereas the body of the grenade blew apart from the force of blast.

Looking through the rubble of the stone post, I found a hard chunk of ice shaped like a cone.

I was confused, I had many questions, but first, I continued testing the other types.

Explosive was, well, explosive. It had enough force to break a stone lantern, but… well, not my problem. It was shaped like the other stick grenades but had a rounder head. It almost looked like a diminutive mace. The range though was not great. It hit in a small area with devastating effect but didn’t travel far.

As for my new, smoke, or rime bullet, it was a grenade that let out a frosty mist. Pretty much a smoke grenade, only, colder. Much like with the bullet, I could sense the misty cloud, even direct it, plus, whatever dampening effect it had was enhanced. It too was stick shaped, the only difference being the head had an odd, perforated pattern on it.

As for my bouncing bullet? Well, again, it wasn’t granted to me through the rifle, but even then, the rifle provided a variant to my surprise.

A variant that looked nothing like the previous grenades. If anything, it looked like a small canister, or perhaps a mine? In theory, if I set it down and when something approaches, it would ping and explode.

But there was an additional option, apparently, as I felt a familiar feeling wash over me, almost as if my rifle was helping to fill gaps in my construction. Not only could they be set for proximity trigger, but I could create small crystalline threads to make them wire triggered.

The material appeared to be the same material as the odd parachutes and… well… I had no idea how they were made, but they were clearly made of ice and cold... Moreover, I didn’t know how to replicate them. Clearly, my rifle was doing the brunt of the work, aiding me in making them, but even then, outside of making the bouncing mines, or the piercing grenade, I knew without a doubt I wouldn’t be replicating any time soon.

I didn’t really have anything to test its proximity trigger, but… that didn’t stop me from placing it down between some stone posts and giving a tug of its wire thread to trigger it. The result was, surprisingly devastating.

With a loud whirring ping, the upper part of the canister would shoot up to about waist height and then burst, unleashing dozens of smaller segmented balls, that almost looked like mini golf balls. When that happened, it almost sounded like a swarm of bees being let loose onto the world. What was more terrifying was that they’d hit any and every surface before ricocheting off whatever surface they hit, and with each bounce they’d gain in speed and power until they finally shattered to pieces.

Luckily, I had my uniform on as a few of them cracked into my body without warning with enough force to easily shatter bones, or rip limbs off. As for those that didn’t hit me, they went on to completely devastate the surroundings and reached quite far. As for overall utility, it was surprisingly durable and could last some time without me having to have it. Only, I’d have to pre-charge it to improve its lifespan.

After a quick check of all my normal bullets, it became apparent, they were stronger. Additional enchantments to bolster their durability, improve launching speed, velocity, and such gave them quite a bit more oomph. Also, there was now a minute kick whenever I pulled the trigger. Something that hadn’t been there before.

Of course, up to this point, I’d only been testing the base versions, so… it was now time to test the upgraded variants…

In doing so… I realize something. Rather, I noticed… I could go up another tier. With the aid of the rifle, I could now form a new, more powerful bullet. By channeling my magic for a whole thirty seconds. A new tier of bullet formed in my hand.

It wasn’t pure blue, nor did it look like sapphire. The tip was coated in what looked like a steel-grey frost. It felt heavier. As for the power?

If the base bullet had a minute kick, this bullet felt like I was getting kicked by a mule. A standard bullet punched through stone with ease. Even leaving a small crater in the ground where it hit. Going surprisingly deep in the process.

And that was just the standard bullet. I was itching to try more, even seeing how far I could upgrade my new explosives, but, well… My constant testing had gathered some attention.

Still, if there was one issue with my new armaments. It was that my uniform couldn’t naturally produce the new bullets or explosives. Inside the pouches were the usual third-tier bullets. I could store the newest fourth tier bullets. Or stash explosives in some of my pouches, but it was obvious that it wouldn’t produce them.

Making me think, I’d need to upgrade my uniform to unlock that functionality. Something to look forward too and yet…

I also felt like I was being denied something fundamental.

News of my testing spread around the others. It didn’t really change our plans, but my new capabilities expanded my overall effectiveness, and what I could do.

And all too soon, the preparations came to an end. Though, not with good news.

“We’ve lost one of the clans.” One of the ministers said as we gathered up. We’d just about moved in all the refugees, the final preparations were about done, and it was nearing time to start our little gambit. And this was the prelude.

“What happened?” Diana asked, as our representative.

“They were overwhelmed, and despite their best efforts, were eliminated. Some of the surviving members made it here, which is why we know about it.”

Glancing over, it was clear why they’d been overwhelmed. Apparently, this was the same area that went dark before.

“I had a choice. Part of the reason I wasn’t available when you first showed up was because I was putting out fires. I did the best I could, but…. I had to choose on whether to stick around or get in contact with you. I honestly thought they’d hold.” Joseph said after a moment. I could tell he blamed himself, but…

“It wasn’t the wrong decision.” I said. “And not just because it ended us saving my life.” I followed up with. Yet, even as I said that, I noted how the ministers looked, how they avoided gazes.

If I remember, weren’t they supposed to have mobilized the provincial army to assist with the evacuation? Had they not? If so… Had it been intentional and why? How would they benefit from losing so many people? Unfortunately, I doubt I’d get any answers now. But it was another worrying note on the growing list of suspicions.

Robert stayed quiet, not responding to my words but we all knew what came next. It didn’t matter how he felt, or whether or not he made the right choice. Part of the reason we had waited so long was because we wanted to make sure we were ready for that final moment. That included making sure everyone was inside the city and settled in.

Now, with the confirmation that the missing clan was dead and gone, well, there was no reason to keep delaying.

“Tomorrow… we should start.” Joseph said.

The ministers didn’t agree or disagree, but the generals were already moving. Acting as Diana’s second, we worked through the final assignments and plotted out how the fight would go. As plans came together, Diana was faced with a frustrating bit of truth.

“I’ll be here, coordinating with the generals. The rest of you will be on the frontlines…” She said with grit teeth, overlooking us. It was obvious that she wanted to be on the front with us, but somebody had to stay behind and give the orders. Though, she did give me a begging look that I understood all too well. A look I pointedly ignored.

“And, Prima.” She said, looking at me after the meeting was done and over with, at least, for now.. “Since you have a phone, I’ll be giving you direct orders, as to where to go, and where I need you. During this whole thing, you’ll probably be the most active… Are you okay with that?”

“I am. I can promise you that much.”

She nods. Clearly hating that she has to rely on me for this. At the same time, I can see she’s relieved that I’m willing to give my all, or so it may appear. Having someone with my capabilities, and with an upgraded weapon as a rescue team is likely a huge weight off her shoulders as well…

“Now, everyone, I suggest you all get a good night’s rest. After all, starting tomorrow, I don’t think any of us will be getting much sleep. Nobody questioned it, and yet, I don’t think anyone was exactly up for sleeping.

They were too nervous. Muttered conversation, sneaking out of rooms for final conversations before the coming mess. All that was happening, and I was not an exception.

After a quick consideration of my position, of checking over my list. Deciding on whether or not I had anyone I needed to talk with. And, as unfortunate as it was, I did have someone I had to talk too. It wasn’t a conversation I wanted to have, not anytime soon, or ever, really, but it was either now or never. At least, that’s what it felt like.

Whether or not that was ominous or not, I couldn’t say. Only that it was something I’d have to do.

Collecting myself, I made my way through the palace halls to my destination. A room, much like my own. I knocked, waited for a beat for an answer, something, but there was no response, so, I just let myself in.

Sitting on her bed, seemingly lost in thought, was Liche. She looked… worse for wear. Like she hadn’t really eaten well at all recently. She clearly lost weight, with dark circles under her eyes.

Hearing the door open, she glanced p and saw me.

“Oh… it’s you.” She said, in a bored tone. “Here to tell me to stop moping, to get on with it?”

“Is that something I would do?” I ask honestly.

She sighs. “I don’t know, but… why else would you be here?”

Which, was a fair question. “To continue our talk, I don’t think we parted on a high note last time.”

She laughs, more a short bark. “Yeah, I suppose not. But what else is there to say? I’m nothing like you. I can’t do what you do. I’ve realized that… I just want this damn event over so I can just, do whatever.”

“I get that.” I say, taking her by surprise.

“I find that hard to believe.”

“It’s true. I mean, I told you about what I led me here, but… it wasn’t everything.”

She kept quiet and just looked at me, waiting.

“Do you remember, back when I asked for a loan? When you asked how it was I did what I did? What kept me going?”

“Yeah… how could I forget, you were even willing to let me take photos of you naked, all for some cash.”

“Well, I didn’t give you the full picture then. Rather, even I didn’t fully understand the why of it all at the time.”

She eyed me, not quite believing me. And honestly, I didn’t blame her.

“To be honest, what I said wasn’t wrong, but… there was a critical issue with what I said. And that was, I wasn’t flying because I could. Nor was I trying my very best to climb the ladder just because. Rather, the only reason I ever did, was because it was all I knew.”

Again, she just kept eyeing me. Which, made all of this so much harder…

“I was raised to be a tool, to be used, abused, and thrown away. That was what I thought of myself for the longest time, at least, until one day when I fell through the ice.”

“The ice you pulled yourself out of?” She asks, actually contributing.

“I thought I had, truthfully… someone had pulled me out. Instead, I’d… I was, tired. Exhausted. I was skating all day, throwing my all into practice when the ice gave in. The cold, the sudden plunge… it sapped away all my energy.”

I could see her listening. How she subtly edged forward on her bed.

“There was a moment where… I realized I was going to die. Drown in those icy depths and… well, I felt a final spurt of strength. A burning heat… On reflection, I realized… I probably could have pulled myself out with it. A final gasp, but… at that moment, I… I didn’t want to…”

I had her attention, but… even recalling that moment took a lot out of me. Reflecting on it, reliving it. Like facing a past, I didn’t want to confront, but… just awakening my uniform made me confront it. It made me realize the truth.

“I wanted to die. I wanted to drift away in those depths. I just… wanted everything to stop. What brought me back though, was a concerned individual, trying everything they could to bring me back, begging me to live. To do something with my life.”

I took a moment to breathe, to settle myself. To keep the ice at bay. This had to come from the core of my heart. Past the barriers, beyond it all.

“They said… I shouldn’t die. That surely, I had to have something to live for. And well, that, that gave me enough of a spark to keep going on, but even then… I wasn’t really living. I spent my whole life, trying to exceed, trying to climb to the top. Believing that in doing so, I’d finally make something of my life. Even when my parents discarded me, I never stopped, but… I never did think of the why. I never really considered why it was I was doing it all.”

Another pause, as I placed my hand over my heart. As I felt that something pulsing within.

“I realized, when I awakened my uniform, that I’d never really left that lake. That I’d always been in those depths. Just drifting. It wasn’t until then that I realized what it was I truly lived for. To be seen, not just for my deeds, but for who I am. For people to look at me and see my worth. My uniform reflects that, even my name does. I want to be the star of the show, to be under the spotlight, to garner the attention of all and eventually, stand above it all. As a singular star shining above all.”

I said, I stated with finality. My heart pulsed. The core of my being resonating with my words. It wasn’t the same as the thing in the depths. An ugly thing seeking to drag others down with it, but this… this was something else. And clearly, Liche felt it too.

She was clearly at a loss with my words. So, I gave my parting farewell.

“Ultimately, what I’m trying to say… is that it’s okay to want to hide. To want to bury yourself away, but… I think… a part of you wants to step out and shine. To see the sun. To let the world see your truest self. And I think, like me, you might need a voice, a word of encouragement, so… Don’t give up Liche.”

As I made my weay to the door, Liche called out, I paused and turned to face her.

“Prima, tell me… what you told me, that night, in the bath was it true?” She asked, almost begged.

I almost wanted to simply tell her it was, but… “Not entirely, I did kill him, but… even if in the moment it felt right, afterwards, I… I wish I hadn’t. Ever since that day, I’ve regretted, questioned asked, wondered why. Why it was he did that, why he thought that was a good idea…” I trail off to catch my breath. Even now, I still wonder if it was the right thing to do…” I finally say.

Something in Liche’s posture changes. Something subtle, uncertain, vulnerable. I didn’t approach her, no, I just continued to walk out and shut the doors. The moment those doors closed behind me, as I stood in the hallway, heard it the sounds of muffled sobs, crying, and I made my way back to my room. After all, tomorrow was the start of our final gambit.

And of all things, I trusted Liche would overcome whatever it was that was holding her back.