53. Monster
It's not hard to find the ambush site. Nanaya's rage flares like a beacon through the liminal zone, and my metallic frame has no trouble rushing to meet with her before the appointed time. I'm not sure how she intends to ambush anyone given, as far as I know, she doesn't have Melpomene's ability to hide her own magic near-perfectly, but I suppose I'm likely about to find out.
I find her set up inside one of the endlessly repeating buildings of the space, crouched near a window that she can easily look out of to spot her targets coming. I enter the room, and I'm surprised to find she's the only one in it. The only one visible, anyway. It's always possible Melpomene could be hiding somewhere I can't sense.
"Did I get here early?" I ask as she turns to look my way.
"No," Nanaya says. "It will only be you and me."
Oh. Huh.
"Not even Melpomene's coming?" I ask.
"Correct," Nanaya says. "She is elsewhere, exploring more fragments. As is her wont. But I am here under her instruction."
"I see," I say, stepping over to the other edge of the window and sitting down across from her. I wish I could glare, but my face doesn't move like this. "Melpomene told me that you know."
The cold feeling of betrayal burns in my chest, enough to keep my power climbing but not enough that I no longer feel it. I want to feel it. I open a plate just so Nanaya can tell exactly how much hate I feel.
"I indeed know," she confirms. "I have for some time."
"Why didn't you say anything to anyone, then?" I demand. "Why didn't you help me? I thought you were on my side. I thought we were friends!"
"We are friends for as long as you decide we are," Nanaya says. "If you wish to revoke that designation, I do not blame you in the least."
"Then why, Nanaya!?" I demand. "Why let her do this to me?"
She turns to stare at me, an emptiness in her eyes creating a vast gulf between me and the core of burning anger that composes her soul.
"Why do you think, Luna?" she challenges. "I will not say something so trite as 'it pains me to do this,' or 'it is for the greater good.' You may not know me as well as you think you do, but you know that is not what I am. More than anyone else in our group, I understand that I am a monster. The Preservers must suffer. You are a tool to those ends. That is all."
Hate, hate, hate. Antipathy. It boils off of her, and the steam is scalding.
"You're insane," I tell her bluntly.
"Mmm. Most likely," Nanaya agrees. "But what reality can I base my life on if not the one I perceive?"
"Melpomene changed so suddenly," I say. "So fast. It's like she went from zero to super-torture in no time at all."
"No," Nanaya shakes her head. "She has been getting worse for some time. She has just been hiding it as best she can. Frankly, I am surprised it took her this long to assert full control over you."
"…Is Dark World madness real?" I ask. "Is that what this is? Are you all really getting 'corrupted?'"
Nanaya raises an eyebrow at me.
"You ask the mad to describe their own madness?" she says. "I cannot give you a true answer to your question. But if you wish for my opinion… yes. It is real. And I do not care."
"You don't care!? How could you not care?" I press her. "There's something messing with your mind! Even if that feels fine to you, what if it infects the others? What if it hurts Anath!?"
Nanaya chuckles. It's so disturbingly out of place that for a brief moment my thoughts kick into combat mode, stretching the seconds of sound into ages.
"Anath is my point of reference," she says. "One cannot self-diagnose madness. But in her? I see it. Or at least I see the possibility of it. But if the corruption exists in her mind—or in any of our minds, I suspect—it is subtle. It nudges, suggests, tempts. But it does not, cannot force our hand. The choice is always ours to make. The will of the Antipathy tells her, yes, fighting is what gives you purpose. It tells her yes, you will never be her friend. But neither of those thoughts were born of it. They were hers from the very beginning. It simply… makes them feel more real."
Nanaya smiles. Yet another rare sight from her, and in this case not at all a pleasant one.
"And I assure you, my hate already felt quite real before I was trapped in the Antipathy's embrace for months on end. So did the corruption drive me mad? Or was it the isolation? Or, perhaps, am I not mad at all? To me, it does not matter. The task is the same regardless, and finally, after all this time, it is at hand. So to that end, let us discuss our strategy."
God. I just feel… numb. It doesn't seem real. I thought Nanaya and I were getting along so well. I mean, the signs were there, I can't deny that, but… it hurts. It hurts so much that someone I thought I was close to would choose to do this to me. I can barely even comprehend it.
"Did you ever care about me?" I ask. "Was it all a lie?"
Nanaya narrows her eyes at me.
"…An irrelevant question," she insists. "Whether I care for it or not, I am prepared to sacrifice anything and everything for my goals. Any affection I may have developed for you can just be converted into more anger now that the time has come. Now then. The plan. Most likely, it will be Minerva, Aurora, and Veritas that respond to the portal that will be forming imminently. You will take Aurora and Veritas. I will face Minerva alone."
The change in conversation forces my brain to swap gears. Melpomene wouldn't want us to lose this fight. We have to try to win it. But I don't want to hurt those kids!
"Didn't you nearly lose to Minerva last time you fought?" I ask. "What makes you think you can take her alone this time?"
"To be frank, I dangerously underestimated her," Nanaya says. "During my fight with her, I was wasteful, arrogant, and inefficient. The knowledge that I cannot afford to do so again should be more than enough to make up for the difference, but I intend to overcompensate. I dislike making the same mistake twice."
She pulls a small carrying case out of her cloak and passes it over to me. I open it. It's full of LCIs with blue vials. Raw, injectable power.
"She has these too, you know," I point out.
"And so the playing field will not be in her favor because of it," Nanaya says. "On the contrary, this time it is very much our playing field. After all, the convergence about to occur will be quite a large one, and unlike with Earth Guardians, monsters will not attack us if we do not attack them first."
"So in the war on monsters… we're fighting with the monsters," I say, empty.
"What other side would we fight on?" Nanaya asks. "Against a numerically superior force, every possible advantage is necessary."
"I feel like this probably breaks the Geneva Conventions somehow," I tell her.
"The Preservers are not a signatory," Nanaya counters, "and neither am I."
I'd shudder if I was still wearing my flesh, but a weapon doesn't do such things. My mind is already churning, twisting, planning, scheming. It is already prepared to fight and win. Because I don't have a choice. I don't have a choice!
"Nanaya," I say softly.
"Mmm."
"Please," I whisper. "Please tell me you aren't going to make me kill children."
She stares at me for a moment, then looks away.
"…Our objective today is to collect three transformation stones," she says. "What happens after that is not within the bounds of your orders."
"You don't think that stealing the transformation stone of an Earth Guardian in the middle of a monster attack would kill them!?" I demand.
"I think," Nanaya says evenly, "that mercy is exclusively the privilege of whoever most excels at violence. Do your job. If you wish for more, then do it well."
Fuck. Fuck! I'll just have to find a way, then. I'll have to!
"You really are a monster," I tell her.
"I know," Nanaya responds. "I just said that."
Well. I guess there's nothing more to discuss on the matter, then. There's no reasoning with someone who knows exactly how wrong their actions are and chooses to do them anyway. I only have one more question.
"Why me?" I ask. "Why make me fight them? You could have just done this ambush sometime Melpomene was free, and it would probably be far more successful."
"Our actions will come to a head very soon," Nanaya says. "There will be retaliation. There will be consequences. When that occurs, it's best that you are at full power."
She stares me dead in the eyes.
"So I'm making sure you fight the children."
Well. Her strategy is already working. My power reserves have increased to 61%.
"Fine, then," I snap, slowing down my thoughts to pass the time quickly before the battle. I have nothing to do to prepare, really. Beside me, I can feel Nanaya meditating to cool the fires of her rage and make herself a bit less easy to detect, but she feels only partly successful, at best. I haven't felt this much strength rolling off of her while she's outside her incarnate form before. It's a little intimidating.
And soon, I feel three more magical signatures as well. Minerva, Aurora, and Veritas. Three girls who don't deserve anything I'm about to do to them.
"We will strike hard and fast, at our first opportunity," Nanaya says. "There is no sense dragging this out."
"Acknowledged," I confirm. "Going silent."
She nods. I can't keep my plates open or speak with anyone outside the Dark Rebellion potentially getting close enough to notice.
"I will do my best to keep Minerva away from the other two," Nanaya says. "We will each handle our own duties. You will not hold back."
I don't react or respond, but I listen. Melpomene said Nanaya was with her on this, so her words are almost the same as my master's orders. One by one, we will make the Earth Guardians fall. We will tip the Preservers' hands. And we will damn the consequences. What do consequences matter to madwomen and slaves?
Wordlessly, Nanaya and I prepare to leap. Both of us prefer close-range engagements, after all. We're fighting to win. I will not hold back. I will not hold back. I will not hold back.
And there they are. My targets are in sight. Floating high over the false city, their heads on a swivel, they dangle from the arms of my non-target as they search for us. They will find us soon. Nanaya's legs flex with power as she begins to incant.
"I Wɪʟʟ Nᴏᴛ Tᴏʟᴇʀᴀᴛᴇ Tʜɪꜱ," she growls, the transformation washing over her and replacing her usual cloak with her incarnate form's suit. "Fᴜʀɪᴏᴜs Sᴀᴠɪᴏʀ Rᴇᴠᴏʟᴜᴛɪᴏɴᴀʀʏ Nᴀɴᴀʏᴀ!"
And then she leaps, the motion as loud as a gunshot and likely just as fast. Still, Minerva is ready. Tossing her team into the air, she summons her incarnate weapon and blocks Nanaya's strike with her gunstaff. The impact knocks her away despite the block, Nanaya hot on her heels. Aurora and Veritas both reorient in the air to provide supporting fire, each of them starting up spells of their own almost immediately.
But I'm not holding back.
"[Lᴀɢʜʀᴇsᴏʜ]" I incant, the Antipathy word for 'transpose' teleporting me into the air directly above the two of them before they can finish gathering power for their respective attacks. Thrusters deployed, I launch myself straight down, one hand grabbing the head of each target as I thrust them into and then through the roof of the building below. The ground craters, the building blasting apart on all sides, and I lift them both to slam them down again.
My power reserves have increased to 62%.
Veritas screams, half in fear and half in rage as she swings the side of her shield at me. I can't really dodge that, but I don't really need to. My shields eat the hit as I crush both of my targets against the ground again, magical energy from my hands disrupting their defenses and making the otherwise-mundane hit deal a lot more damage than it normally would to incarnate warriors. And since they're already in my hands, well…
"[D ᴜ ᴀ ʟ M ᴇ ɢ ᴀ B ᴜ s ᴛ ᴇ ʀ]"
Power starts gathering in both my palms, just the charge enough to scald the skin of my targets, but unfortunately—
Fortunately?
—my spell is too slow.
"Esᴄᴜᴅᴏ ᴅᴇ Aᴍᴏʀ!" Aurora shrieks, golden light wrapping around both of my targets right before my spell charge completes, blasting both of them at point-blank range.
The energy from my attack pours out of my palms, rakes against the newly formed barriers, and ultimately ricochets, the power spraying out every which-way between my fingers like I had my hand over a garden hose. The backblast finally breaks my grip, my targets and I forcibly pushed away from each other as their protective spell cracks and shatters.
Despite the losses from damage taken and spells cast, my power reserves have increased to 63%.
The two of them take a split second to recover from the shock, but I react immediately, moving to close the distance. I'm not quite fast enough, though, and both of them summon their incarnate weapons, Aurora jumping back and Veritas stepping forward, her lance and shield forming a wall to block not only any attack I might direct towards Aurora, but also most of my ability to see her. Not that I need line of sight to my targets to know where they are. It won't help her that much.
The first time Veritas and I fought, she was all undirected anger, making wild strikes and reckless charges in a pointless attempt to overpower me. She's different now. Cautious, controlled. Trained. She wields both her lance and shield with purpose, determined to remain a wall between me and her partner. She's grown so much in just a few short months, fighting and training and learning to push past her limits.
But I'm going to take it from her. I, someone who has essentially just sat on her ass and prayed that this day would never come, taking no steps to truly avoid it. But Veritas is a child, and I am a machine built for war. I step forward, I watch her muscles move, I see every twitch of her body, and I know exactly where that lance will land before she even starts thrusting it. The calculations lead to an inevitable conclusion, and I obey them like a divine ordainment from god.
The lance passes less than an inch to my side, and I twist my body to kick the arm holding it, thrusters emerging from my leg and foot right before I make contact with her elbow. A full burst of thrust launches me backward, my body rotating in the air to weave between the orbs Aurora was trying to strike me with from behind, and the sickening snap of a broken joint is quickly followed by a child's scream of pain.
My power reserves have increased to 65%. I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry.
Aurora immediately moves to heal her partner, but a rumbling pulse of power washes over the entire battlefield, the Dark World portal opening to disgorge dozens of monsters almost immediately. Each of the beasts tries to shove past the others to be the first to the meal table. Fear floods both of my targets as they realize the sheer scope of the danger they're in, and since neither of them are primarily eastward casters, this is nothing but yet another advantage for me.
I hold my hand out toward them both, light gathering in my palm. Aurora is still trying to cast her healing spell, so Veritas hunkers behind her shield to protect the both of them from my attack. But the light was just a bluff, a basic manipulation of magic while my real spell completes. With her own vision blocked off, she doesn't notice until it's too late.
"[Lᴀɢʜʀᴇsᴏʜ]"
I teleport again, appearing directly behind the both of them. There's nothing left to protect the healer. A thrust-empowered stomp to the leg is enough to break another limb. So much of the way I fight is based around anticipating and preemptively countering my opponent's moves, after all. The more I limit their mobility, the more oppressive my capacity to do that becomes. Given my opponent is a yellow mage, psychological warfare is important, too. My foot still holding down her broken leg, I point my palm at her.
"[F ᴜ ʟ ᴍ ɪ ɴ ᴀ ɴ ᴛ T ʜ ᴜ ɴ ᴅ ᴇ ʀ]"
Her eyes go wide, but Veritas manages to turn and intercept at the last moment, shoulder-checking me away from Aurora but taking the hit in her place. The lightning arcs through her, eliciting yet another scream.
Fear and anger bloom behind me at unprecedented levels.
"Aʙʀᴇᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ: Hᴇᴀᴠᴇɴ's Rᴇᴊᴇᴄᴛɪᴏɴ."
I turn my head just in time to see the source of the magic circles blooming into existence around me. Minerva hovers high in the sky, her staff pointed at the stormcloud rapidly blooming above my head. Her face is twisted into the most intense—
And most deserved.
—expression of hate I've ever seen in my life.
Stolen novel; please report.
And then, the lightning falls down. Too fast to dodge. I wasn't prepared for it, since my orders were to focus on my targets, and I assumed Nanaya would be able to keep Minerva off of me. The Abreaction crashes into my shields, driving me down to one knee as it devours nearly twenty-five percent of my power reserves in one shot.
If I could feel pain, that would have really hurt.
Minerva looks like she's about to follow up, but a screeching melodic sound rings out over the battlefield, and a red shockwave rockets up from the ground and blasts Minerva head-over-heels out of the sky. She tries to right herself, but another song follows up the first, and I can almost feel the agony through my locked-up plating. All three Earth Guardians cry out in pain, and Minerva is forced to redirect her attention back to Nanaya… just in time to see the woman leaping into the air and swinging a viola into her skull.
Blood splatters and dissolves into magical motes as Nanaya lands a decisive blow on Minerva, the girl tumbling out of the sky, entirely unconscious. I know that doesn't mean Eliza is down for the count, though. The job is only halfway done.
"Lɪʙᴇʀᴀᴄɪᴏ́ɴ: Cᴜʀᴀ Dᴏʀᴀᴅᴀ!"
Golden light envelops the Earth Guardians, broken bones and even cracked skulls mending themselves together. Minerva doesn't wake up, impacting hard with the ground, but her incarnate form manages to maintain cohesion long enough to stop Eliza from dying on impact. What I need to worry about is the fact that all the damage I've done has just gotten undone. Damn it, damn it, damn it!
I don't want to have to keep hurting you!
"Okay, she's fast," Aurora says, wincing as she stands up on her once-broken leg. "But we're not going to be surprised like that again, right?
"Right," Veritas grunts, resummoning her lance.
Part of me wants to attack them while they're chatting, but I have a much more prudent move to do. I have the upper hand; I shouldn't let a burst of healing take any advantages from me. I open up my plating, blue and teal steam venting into the air thick enough to make Aurora nearly choke with horror.
I summon one of the LCIs I previously put into my magical storage, shoving it into the port on my thigh and depressing the injector. Veritas looks like she's about to attack me, but she takes one glance back at Aurora and holds steady instead. I'm weirdly proud of her, though it's a thought that gets shoved deep into my emotional engine as soon as it comes. I don't deserve to feel something like that.
And besides, it won't help them anyway.
- - -
Everything is spinning. Everything hurts.
Don't fail!
Wh… what?
DON'T FAIL!
Oh! OH!
"I Wɪʟʟ Nᴏᴛ Fᴀɪʟ!"
I hear a tsk of annoyance above me, my wavy vision noticing Nanaya aborting her attack and jumping away before the shockwave of my transformation forces the issue. The magic causes me to rise into the air as my body shifts, helpful for getting a lay of the land but also nice so that I'm no longer lying crumpled in the dirt.
"Fᴜʀɪᴏᴜs Aᴠᴇɴɢᴇʀ Sᴜʀᴠɪᴠᴏʀ Fᴜʟɢᴏʀᴀ!"
And everything comes back at once. My vision, my strength, my memory of the fight. God damn, Minerva got hit hard. I'm surprised she's still conscious in the back of my head at all.
There's no time to rest. We have to help Veritas and Aurora!
They'll have to handle themselves for a bit! If we give Nanaya the space to play music, the damn artifact will wipe the floor with them, with or without our help. They can't resist it!
Incoming monsters!
Shit! Shit, shit, shit! The portal is open, I can't ignore that. Nanaya is forcing me to engage her, I can't ignore that. But the artifact has officially taken off its kid gloves and has been hurting MY TEAM, and I can't ignore that either! I have to somehow deal with… the whole battlefield at once.
God damn it.
Catharsis? Now? Already?
We don't have a choice. Hit it up, Minerva!
Crap! Fine!
"Cᴀᴛʜᴀʀsɪs!" we roar. "Cᴏɴғʟᴜᴇɴᴛ Sᴜᴘᴇʀsᴛᴏʀᴍ!"
The atmosphere churns with power, my magic roaring through the air. To my right, the tide of monsters leaping at my team gets hammered with lightning. To my front, Nanaya's attempts to play her precise instrument are foiled with battering winds. At my back, my power howls, ready to thrust me into the fight at a moment's notice. With three words, I have turned the tides.
But now, I'm on a time limit. I have to take Nanaya down hard, and I have to take her down now. I leap forward, only sparing a small glance at my team as Veritas desperately fends off an assault from that damn artifact. I am going to turn it into fucking scrap! How dare it hurt them! I AM GOING TO RIP THE ENTIRE REBELLION APART!
"Aʙʀᴇᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ: Hᴇᴀᴠᴇɴ's Hᴀᴍᴍᴇʀ!"
Heedless of the incredible energy cost on my already-dwindling time limit, I swing my staff at Nanaya right as I smack her from behind with a burst of wind pressure. The last time we used our Catharsis on her, we were forced to do so in a mostly defensive manner, but we wouldn't even have that option right now if we wanted it. Our only option is total, unrelenting offense, finishing the fight as hard and fast as we can. Nanaya blocks my strike, but only barely, the force of the blow shattering her incarnate weapon. No more songs, at least until she can reform it.
"Sᴏᴜʟ Fʟᴀsʜ!" I cast, speeding up further as I rain blow after relentless blow on her. No feints, no hesitation, just raw violence. Nanaya parries the first two strikes and ducks under the third, countering with a brutal uppercut to my chin that knocks me flying away from her.
I don't even try to dodge it. We don't have time! So I just take the blow and reverse my momentum as soon as she knocks me away, my Catharsis blowing me back into melee range to resume the offensive. Nanaya isn't expecting it, so I make my hit count.
"Lɪɢʜᴛɴɪɴɢ Aʀᴄ!" I roar, landing an empowered blow to both sides of her head, one after the other. Blood flies and splatters, but the wounds rapidly repair themselves, Nanaya taking a page from my playbook and countering immediately.
This isn't a fight anymore. It's a brutal slugfest, each of us determined to slaughter the other at any cost to ourselves. I don't even care that I'm the only one of the two of us who can't heal. I will take it, and I will win.
"Aʀᴍᴀɢᴇᴅᴅᴏɴ Iᴍᴘᴀᴄᴛ!" Nanaya incants, landing a blow to my stomach and launching me away too fast for my Catharsis to stop. "Aʙʀᴇᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ: Tᴀᴄᴛɪᴄᴀʟ Pʀᴇᴄɪsɪᴏɴ Sᴛʀɪᴋᴇ."
She launches a shot into the air and leaps after me, so I just aim down my staff and shoot her right in the face.
"Tᴡɪɴ Fᴜʟᴍɪɴᴀɴᴛ Tʜᴜɴᴅᴇʀ!"
Twin spiraling beams of red and green lightning crash into her in midair and knock her on her ass.
"Fᴜʟᴍɪɴᴀɴᴛ Sᴛᴇᴘ!"
I appear behind her as the lightning passes through her, already swinging at her back.
"Aʙʀᴇᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ: Hᴇᴀᴠᴇɴ's Hᴀᴍᴍᴇʀ!"
I feel her spine crack as I send her tumbling through a brick wall, ordering my body to leap after her and follow up but finding myself only staggering a single step. I cough, magically formed blood ejecting itself from my throat to dissolve on the ground.
Already? Am I almost out of power already? That can't be. Where's my rage? I feel the embers of the flame, but they flicker weakly in the darkness of exhaustion. Come on, stoke it more. Stoke it a little more! Remember the sound of their screams. For them, for them! For the girls we're so proud of!
I take another step, strength returning bit by bit, but in front of me, Nanaya shoves off the rubble burying her and climbs to her feet. And her wounds heal. This was a bad idea from the start. Why did we… wait. What's she doing?
Nanaya pulls out a vial full of red liquid, tears the cap off of the needle, and injects it directly into her neck. What the fuck is… wait. The injectors. The things Uma'tama gave us to use in an emergency.
I… I completely forgot we had those.
Shoving my hand into one of the many pockets on my incarnate form's outfit, I retrieve the case of red and green LCIs Uma'tama entrusted to me. Wow, there's a lot in here. Two of each should be good.
Wait, what?
We don't exactly have time to pussyfoot around, Minerva. I collect all four injectors into my fist, prep them all, and stab myself in the neck, too. It hurts like hell, but I press the buttons on top and let the magic flow in.
My team is going to die.
AND I AM GOING TO MURDER EVERYONE RESPONSIBLE. Letting out a wordless roar, I drop lightning on nearly the entire battlefield at once, slaughtering hordes of monsters while hammering Nanaya and the artifact with magical judgment. With Minerva screaming incoherently in the back of my mind, I leap at Nanaya with all my might. She ducks the wild swing aimed at her skull and tries to uppercut me again, but I twist out of the way in midair, the wind always on my side.
"Lɪɢʜᴛɴɪɴɢ Aʀᴄ!" I bellow. "Lɪɢʜᴛɴɪɴɢ Aʀᴄ! Lɪɢʜᴛɴɪɴɢ Aʀᴄ! Lɪɢʜᴛɴɪɴɢ Aʀᴄ! Aʙʀᴇᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ: Hᴇᴀᴠᴇɴ's Hᴀᴍᴍᴇʀ!"
"Rᴇᴠᴇɴɢᴇ Bᴜʀsᴛ!" Nanaya chokes out just in time to blast me away before my finishing blow, her body spasming painfully as secondary shocks dance through her muscles. "Aʙʀᴇᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ: Sɪʟᴇɴᴛ Dɪᴀsᴘᴏʀᴀ!"
Darkness floods the battlefield, cutting off my senses. I immediately rush the last place I saw Nanaya, but predictably she's no longer there.
"COWARD!" I spit.
"Fool," she calls back. From where? I strike out toward the sound and hit nothing. "Though perhaps I should not be throwing stones. This is twice I have underestimated you."
Every second I waste listening to her yammer is another second she gets to heal. I drop lightning down everywhere around me at once, earning myself a grunt of pain. I leap toward it, swing wide, and… nothing. Again. Running like a little mouse.
"Sᴏʟᴅɪᴇʀ's Éᴛᴜᴅᴇ," Nanaya incants, a sad, simple song crying out and filling me with yet more rage. Behind me, a firing line of shadows unloads magical bullets into my back. "It pains me to admit you are besting me in a straight fight, but my forte was never in head-on assaults regardless. Time is not on your side. Your Catharsis will bleed you dry eventually, and I simply have to outlast it."
I roar and lash out again, but nothing. Nothing! Every time, running running and running when I need to—
Calm down. Calm down calm down calm down!
I'm going to fucking kill her!
FOCUS! We beat her darkness before. Feel the wind. I can't use my body anymore, but I can still help us win this fight.
The… wind?
The wind. Remember. We did this together. Our Catharsis beats her Abreaction. She's desperate. We just need to focus.
Focus… right. Right! Feel around with the wind, embrace its currents. The thick miasma of her abreaction feels different than the rest of the air, and it follows me as I move. She's not in here, is she? She's hiding somewhere outside, in a building, away from the fight entirely as she licks her wounds. My storm doesn't care about inside and outside, though. All air in my domain is wind, whenever and however I will it. And soon, I find her. Huddled up in the darkness.
Now show her who's the better mage.
"Fᴜʟᴍɪɴᴀɴᴛ Sᴛᴇᴘ!"
I teleport out of her spell, away from the shadows firing on me from all sides, and directly next to my enemy, staff already swinging. This is it. The decisive blow. My staff crashes into her, huddled in the corner like a coward, and…
What?
My staff strikes only shadow. Before me isn't Nanaya at all, but one of her shadowy summons shaped exactly like her and made solid enough to fool my wind. My staff cleaves through its throat, but the head stays right where it is, grinning with triumph. Silhouettes of plastic explosives leak wisps of shadow from where they're strapped all over her chest.
There's a clicking sound, and the shadow explodes. The entire building explodes, the whole thing rigged to blow as an arcane suicide bomb. I'm sent flying head over heels through the air, careening through several other buildings before I manage to tumble to a stop. My head is spinning, my body is aching, and when my eyes flicker open they spot a red bolt of deadly magic descending toward me at hypersonic speeds. The precision strike Nanaya fired earlier. It found its moment.
Move!
I force my broken body to leap, the pain still not enough to keep me down. I have a team to protect! I will win this fight! I will!
The ground detonates behind me, a bright red explosion vaporizing the spot where I had landed a split second earlier. I quickly get to my feet and—
"Aʀᴍᴀɢᴇᴅᴅᴏɴ…"
No.
"Iᴍᴘᴀᴄᴛ!"
My head turns just in time to see Nanaya's fist connect with it, the woman jumping out of hiding at the last moment for a decisive attack while I was still too rattled to sense her. Pain floods through me as I am once again sent tumbling through the air, and this time when I crash through a wall it hurts, sending agony through my body almost as intense as the direct magical blow. My Catharsis sputters into nothing around me. My magical energy is exhausted completely. I barely, barely have the presence of mind to cling desperately to my incarnate form until the moment I stop moving. But then… that's it. I'm done. I revert to my human body, the pain of my battered incarnate forms too intense for me to move.
We lost.
No. Oh god, please no.
Minerva's tiny spike of fear isn't enough to keep us going, and it sputters to nothing as soon as it starts. The end is here. We lost. We're going to die. The girls are going to die. And even though I know I need to, it is so, so hard to care.
We… we have to… agh. It hurts.
It hurts.
"There you are," Nanaya says, approaching us directly. Here to finish us off. Once she reaches us, she steps down on our chest with one of her huge, monstrous feet, wrapping the finger-like talons around us and pinning our arms against our torso. We won't be moving anywhere. Not that we were going to before.
But what happens next is… odd. Nanaya reaches down, grabs the front of my shirt, and tears it away. I am more than a little confused at first, but then her clawed fingers reach down to wrap around the necklace I keep hidden beneath.
My transformation stone. She wants… my transformation stone.
No.
A simple tug isn't enough to free it from my neck, so she splits her arm apart and starts lifting my head with a three-fingered hand so she can drag the chain up and over.
No!
I don't disagree, but there's nothing we can do. Even with the fear managing to push its way through the haze, both of our incarnate forms are broken and beaten. We can't transform. We'd die.
We are better than this. What did we train for, if not this!?
Nothing. This was it. This was the moment. Our team is losing. Our team is dying. But at least this time, we get to go with them. We didn't run away.
Screw that. No, actually, FUCK that! She doesn't get to take that. She doesn't get to take everything we are!
Wait! Minerva, stop! She broke your skull! We can't use your incarnate form!
I! Don't! Care! We are better than her. Our team is better than her! And I am not letting some monster act otherwise any longer. This is our city, not theirs! We are its protectors. And we will not fall here!
My arm snaps up and grabs Nanaya's wrist, stopping her from taking the stone at the last moment. She tenses.
"Round three, bitch," I hiss at her. "Wᴇ Wᴏɴ'ᴛ Rᴜɴ Aɢᴀɪɴ!"
Fear and anger. We pushed our limits of each, and we still couldn't succeed. But that does not mean we lose. Because we won't lose, so what is there to be afraid of?
The light descends and my body shrinks, a green glow enveloping our form as I become something right. But this green is lighter, a yellow tint that marks it as a meaningfully different color than before. My outfit forms, but instead of a shirt and knee-length skirt, it's a full dress of yellow-green and white, down to the ankles. My gloves climb up past my elbows, and the tiara that usually rests on my head grows into a full crown. It feels perfect. And now, there is nothing left to do but fulfil that overwhelming urge to shout my name.
"Pʀᴏᴜᴅ Qᴜᴇᴇɴ Eɴᴛᴡɪɴᴇᴅ Mɪɴᴇʀᴠᴀ!"
Oh, that feels good. This has been a long time coming.
Nanaya has the presence of mind to leap away before my transformation blasts her away, but distance is fine by me. With a flourish, I summon my scepter, thicker than my old gunstaff and topped with a brutally spiked yellow-green gem twice as large as my fist. I aim it at my target, power flooding into me like never before.
"Fᴜʟᴍɪɴᴀɴᴛ Bᴀʀʀᴀɢᴇ!"
Magic circles bloom in the air all around Nanaya, twisting bolts of lightning converging on her from all sides. I fly up higher in the air, power gathering all around me. The storm is still mine. It has always been mine. I don't need a Catharsis to tame it.
Holy shit.
Quit gawking and help out!
"Sᴛᴏʀᴍ Sᴏᴜʟ!"
Woah! Haha! I can feel it. I am the wind and the rain. I barely feel like I'm part of Minerva's body anymore, instead spreading all across the field, Nanaya already in my grasp. I condense the air behind her thick enough to be a fist, launching it at the back of her head as she tries to heal off the electrical burns.
The blow rattles her brain, but she still picks up what's going on, fighting off my second and third attempts to take her down. But in the back of my mind, I can feel Minerva hasn't been idle.
"Hᴇᴀᴠᴇɴ's Rᴇᴊᴇᴄᴛɪᴏɴ!"
What was once my Abreaction, now let loose as a basic spell yet no weaker for it. A massive bolt of lightning the width of a city street descends on Nanaya from above, leaving her no time or hope to escape. I can hear her scream from up here. I can't say I feel bad about it in the least. But still, despite all that punishment, she isn't down for the count. She launches herself up at me, fighting past Fulgora's ethereal blows and injecting another LCI into her neck.
"Cᴀᴛʜᴀʀsɪs: Oᴍɴɪᴄɪᴅᴀʟ Wʀᴀᴛʜ!"
The air ignites. Red magic roars in fury as my brand-new outfit begins to burn. But frankly? I don't care. I'm better than her now. I've been better than her for a long time. I just had to stop being afraid and accept it. I aim down the length of my scepter, sights pointed right at her snarling teeth.
"Aʙʀᴇᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ: Fᴜʟᴍɪɴᴀɴᴛ Aɴɴɪʜɪʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴ."
The burning air splits apart, a thin beam of yellow-green light ripping through the magic in the air and the woman in its way with equal force. The light scours through Nanaya, lancing a hole from her chin all the way down and out of her thigh. The roaring flames around her explode, launching her bleeding body through the air and knocking her clean out of her incarnate transformation.
The Corrupted can cast without their transformations, though.
Yep. Better follow up.
"Cʏᴄʟᴏɴɪᴄ Hᴀᴍᴍᴇʀ."
Stormclouds gather above and ahead of Nanaya's path, growing, condensing tighter, and growing again. Over and over, more and more pressure builds in the roiling thunderhead until the cloud is dense enough to crack stone.
Oh, I'm going to love this part.
Fulgora's will lifts the entire construct, and as soon as Nanaya is in range she brings it all down. Nanaya's untransformed body is smashed into the ground hard enough to crater, and I angle my body and launch myself right at her as she hits. I make it there moments after she lands, my arrival blowing away the dustcloud formed by the impact. Twisting in the air, I press my far-smaller foot into her chest and aim my scepter at her head.
"You—" Nanaya starts to speak, but I don't see any reason whatsoever to let her.
"Fᴜʟᴍɪɴᴀɴᴛ Tʜᴜɴᴅᴇʀ."
With a crack and a flash, she's unconscious and barely breathing. I reach down to her ankle and rip off her transformation stone, because apparently we're escalating that far now, and I simply do not give a crap anymore. I still have a battle to win.
I'll take care of the monsters. You get the kids!
My team. With nothing but raw flex of magical might, I bury Nanaya up to her head in rubble and launch toward where I feel Veritas and Aurora. They're alive. I can feel that they're alive, and that grants me such a bloom of strength I feel like I could fight forever. I am, after all, so very proud of them.
When I actually reach my destination, though, what I find is not so empowering. The artifact is waiting for me, staring right at the spot I arrive before I even get there. And my girls… oh, god, my girls. Veritas is unconscious at the monstrous machine's feet, and Aurora is in her arms, conscious but thoroughly defeated. They're both in human form, the artifact resting one foot threateningly on Veritas' neck while it holds Aurora in a position that looks like it's one twitch away from breaking her arm. I stop where I am, hate filling every fiber of my being.
"I am going to turn you into scrap," I threaten, meaning every word of it. But in response, the merciless thing just adjusts its grip enough to elicit a whimper of pain from Aurora. And I know the girl is trying to hold that in, trying not to give me a reason to surrender, so whatever it's doing to her must be agony.
"Give them to me," I growl, and to my utter shock the robot actually responds.
"NA-NAY-A," it says, its voice flat and synthesized, one unnatural syllable after the other.
"What, you want to trade?" I ask, and it nods.
Dang it. Dang it all! Could I take it out before it… no. I can't. It has both of them. And they're so vulnerable right now, so utterly empty of magic that even just the air of the liminal space could be hurting them as we speak.
"Fine," I allow, reaching out a hand and my magic all the way back to where I buried that damn monster, yanking her out of the rubble I buried her in and pulling her all the way into my grasp. "Here she is. Now let them go."
It indicates the ground at its feet. Grr.
I can try to smack it away from them?
No. It'll sense you. Its reflexes are insane, remember?
God fucking damn it! I can't believe you get this strong, and then we end up losing to a hostage situation!
It's not entirely a loss. We still have Nanaya's stone. I toss her to the robot's feet, at which point it releases Aurora, shoving her toward me. …But it doesn't give me Veritas. Instead, it kneels down, starts rummaging around in Nanaya's cloak, and pulls out a familiar machine.
"You'd better not—" I start, but it hits the button on the remote anyway, a Dark World portal opening behind it. Grabbing Nanaya, it jumps in, and then the portal closes. But… it leaves Veritas behind. So that's enough, I guess. At least for now.
"Are you hurt?" I ask Aurora.
"We're okay," she lies. "But it took our stones!"
Oh. Right. Up one, down two. Damn it. They came out on top after all. But why do they even want the stones? Are they recruiting more members? Are they going to turn more humans into monsters like them?
"I'm sorry," Aurora says softly.
"No," I tell her. "You did good. You did great, even. You stayed alive. At the end of the day, that's what matters. The transformation stones can be replaced."
"But—"
"It's alright," I insist firmly. "We won't let this happen again. Next time we see the Rebellion, it's going to be the end of it."
I'll beat them all myself if I have to, but this? This was the final straw. This was over the line. And now, I know I have better things to do with my pride than insist I need to do everything myself.
The next time the Corrupted show their faces? I'm calling in everyone. Including Castalia.