57. Prayers
The raw magical power saturating the air is so thick I feel like I've been thrown into the Dark World itself. The mere presence of Melpomene's incarnate form causes a few of the nearby humans to spasm and pass out, foreign magic forcing its way into their souls and ravaging them from the inside.
"You two need to go!" I order my team again.
"You can't face this by yourself!" Aurora protests.
"She's right," Amaterasu agrees, her tail flicking behind her as she stares up at the Dark Rebellion above us. "We need their help."
"It's way too dangerous for—"
"What do you think being an Earth Guardian is, Minerva-san!?" Amaterasu snaps at me. "It is because it is dangerous that they must be here!"
Shit. Shit!
"…Okay, fine," I sigh. "But you two are not to engage Melpomene or Nanaya. You're on damage control and interference, okay?"
"No," Amaterasu protests again. The hell is her problem!? "I should be on damage control and interference duty. My speed makes me ideal for harassing their support and swinging fights with brief interruptions. You should take down Nanaya as quickly as possible. Veritas and Aurora are best suited to fight Anath."
"You want to take Amalthea and the artifact?" I challenge.
"No," Amaterasu says. "It's just the best plan. You are the third strongest combatant on the field, and the first two must necessarily face each other. The rest of us must support you as best befits your talents. The faster you defeat your foes, the faster you can help Castalia."
And that's the scary thing, isn't it? Glancing up at the sky, I can't help but feel the terrifying truth that Castalia will need the help. Melpomene is stronger. There's someone who is stronger than Castalia…!
Amaterasu is right. This is the best plan.
"You've changed, haven't you?" I say, the words somewhat inappropriate given the situation, but they fall out of my mouth anyway.
"I hate being inadequate," she growls. "Our enemies were kind enough to educate me about my faults, so I have been working on them."
Huh. I guess that makes sense. Her English has improved leaps and bounds since she first got here. She barely even has an accent anymore. That normally takes a bit longer, doesn't it?
"Now enough talk," Su says. "It is about to begin."
"Exᴇᴄʀᴀᴛɪɴɢ Tʜᴜɴᴅᴇʀ!" the inhuman beast that is Melpomene roars, purple lightning arcing between the fingers of her two free hands before she fires it at Castalia.
What? That spell looks like…
"Sᴛᴀʀʟɪɢʜᴛ Cᴀɴɴᴏɴ!" Castalia incants in response, firing a massive golden beam and intercepting Melpomene's spell. The magical forces crash into each other, detonating in the sky between the two legends.
No time to think about it! Any human bystanders that have yet to pick their jaws up off the ground gain enough intelligence to scream and start running away at that, which is honestly about the best I can hope for in this situation. The other members of the Dark Rebellion assume their incarnate forms, and the fight begins. Ready, Fulgora?
As I'll ever be. Let's stop them once and for all!
I rise up into the air, summoning and instinctively flourishing my scepter before aiming it directly at Nanaya. No messing around, no mercy. We take her down hard.
"Fᴜʟᴍɪɴᴀɴᴛ Bᴀʀʀᴀɢᴇ!" I incant, Fulgora flowing through the air and helping me guide a dozen magic circles to surround Nanaya, and by extension the rest of the rebellion, with bright, yellow-green magic circles.
"[L ɪ ɢ ʜ ᴛ ɴ ɪ ɴ ɢ B ᴀ ʀ ʀ ɪ ᴇ ʀ]" the Artifact responds almost instantly, a web of magical blue lines spiraling around the Dark Rebellion and embedding themselves into the ground below. The many bolts of electricity I fire latch onto the lines like wires, traveling down them and detonating harmlessly in the ground.
"Mᴀss Eʟᴇᴍᴇɴᴛᴀʟ Rᴇsɪsᴛᴀɴᴄᴇ!" Amalthea incants as well. Damn it, they're prepared for me, huh?
"Pᴀssɪᴏɴ Sᴛᴇᴘ!" Anath incants, and I certainly expected that one, at least. She crouches down, launches herself directly at me… and crashes headfirst into Veritas' shield as she leaps up to intercept, thrusting the incarnate weapon forward to make the impact hurt as much as possible.
"Our turn," she says through gritted teeth, unsummoning her lance to grab Anath by the shoulder, pull her other arm back, and slam the side of her shield into Anath's head again as the two of them plummet back to the ground.
"Anath!" Amalthea calls out. "G—"
"Dɪᴠɪɴᴇ Bʀᴇᴀᴋᴇʀ!" Amaterasu counters, crashing through the lightning shield as a living spear of light, knocking both Amalthea and the artifact off the floating platform as the latter moves to protect the former.
"Aʙʀᴇᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ: Tᴀᴄᴛɪᴄᴀʟ Pʀᴇᴄɪsɪᴏɴ Sᴛʀɪᴋᴇ," Nanaya manages to incant in the chaos, firing that darn red bolt up into the sky.
That thing has always been a pain, but we'll be ready for it this time.
Yeah, if they want me to fear the sky, they have another thing coming. That's my job.
"Hᴇᴀᴠᴇɴ's Rᴇᴊᴇᴄᴛɪᴏɴ!" I shout, firing a lightning bolt up into the ever-gathering clouds. "Sᴛᴏʀᴍ Sᴏᴜʟ!"
The very air starts to become ours, Fulgora flowing through it and stoking the power lingering above the battlefield.
"Sᴛᴀʀʟɪɢʜᴛ Cᴀɴɴᴏɴ!" Castalia incants again, the clouds briefly rendered impossible to see against a flash far greater than lightning.
"Please," Melpomene sneers, taking the attack directly on her incarnate shield. The massive weapon absorbs the shot, her lance glowing ever-brighter purple in response. "Sᴏᴜɴᴅsʜᴀᴛᴛᴇʀ Tʜʀᴜsᴛ."
In a movement so fast it may as well be teleportation, Melpomene simply appears, her lance extended through the spot Castalia had been flying just an instant before. There's a split second where the whole world seems silent, followed by a thunderclap so loud it nearly knocks me from the sky. But Castalia herself is not so stunned, having barely moved to Melpomene's side.
"Nᴇʙᴜʟᴀ Sʜᴏᴛɢᴜɴ!" she shouts, a cone of burning power erupting from in front of her. Melpomene brings her shield up to block most of the blast, but the attack is so wide it still manages to reach the edges of her defense and singe her scales.
Melpomene growls in irritation, swinging her lance like a club at Castalia's head and prompting another spell in response.
"Hʏᴘᴇʀsᴘᴀᴄᴇ!" Castalia says, flickering out of view and reappearing on the ground directly below Melpomene, already aiming up. "Aʙʀᴇᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ: Sᴛᴀʀʙʀᴇᴀᴋᴇʀ."
And the sky alights with cosmic fire.
- - -
My sensors idly inform me that I'm actually quite familiar with the spell Castalia is currently blasting up at my master. It's the same one she nearly killed me with about forty-five minutes ago. I suppose I feel a bit better getting that fucked up by a single attack if it was an Abreaction, but still. This might actually hurt Melpomene, right?
My master seems to have no such worries, flipping upside-down and charging straight down into the blast, holding her shield out in front of her body and using it to part the beam like a boulder in a raging river.
"Fʟᴀsʜ Dᴀɴᴄᴇ!"
"Gʀᴇᴀᴛᴇʀ Gɪғᴛ ᴏғ Tᴇʀʀᴏʀ! Qᴜᴀᴅ Sᴇᴇᴋᴇʀ Sᴡᴀʀᴍ!"
Ah, right. I don't have time for this. Idle thoughts are… unnecessary. Contrary to my master's orders, even. The only thing I need to care about is this battle and everyone in it I can affect. Anath is playing with the kids, so the three of them will be fine. Just some broken bones and bruises. It's Amaterasu and Minerva we have to worry about.
Unlike our usual fights in the liminal zone, this is a college campus courtyard, with plenty of open space and very little to hide behind. The entire fight is visible from everywhere. I can see it all, yet Amaterasu has still found a way to be slippery enough to escape my sight. At least for now.
"I've got to help Mel!" Thea insists, jumping up into the sky, but I catch her by the ankle and pull her back down next to me. "L—hey! What are you…?"
There. Magical signature traced. Amaterasu is making her next attack run.
"Gʟᴇᴀᴍ Bʟᴀᴅᴇ!" she declares, bursting right at us, and I just don't care.
Yanking Thea to the side, I reconfigure my shielding for Amaterasu's attack, let her daggers eat up my power reserves as they glance off my defenses, and grab the damn mosquito of a wolf girl by the face as she tries to pass me by. Her entire body jerks to a stop as it collides with magically reinforced metal. She tries to struggle out of my grasp, but my fingers are locked in place tight enough to crack her cheekbones.
"[M ᴇ ɢ ᴀ B ᴜ s ᴛ ᴇ ʀ]"
The teal-colored magical explosion detonates point-blank, finally granting Amaterasu's desire to be free from my grip as the force rips her out of my hand and flips her upside-down hard enough for her skull to crack the sidewalk.
"A—!"
Amaterasu, Minerva screams, or will scream. The intonation makes it obvious from the first phoneme, but I don't need to wait and listen. I'm already moving, aiming, preparing my next move.
"[F ᴜ ʟ ᴍ ɪ ɴ ᴀ ɴ ᴛ B ᴀ ʀ ʀ ᴀ ɢ ᴇ]"
To her credit, Minerva acts fast.
"Sᴛᴏʀᴍ Bᴀʀʀɪᴇʀ!" she absorbs my copied attack. I start to prepare another, but…
"Nᴀɴᴏʙᴜʀsᴛ!"
Too slow…? I'm almost impressed. I still sense the spell before it connects, stepping to the side as a highly pressurized shot of air fires down from above like a water cutter, carving a thin hole in the ground where I had just stood. Heh. I get it. Like a microburst. Magical girls and their little themes. So limiting.
"[H ʏ ᴘ ᴇ ʀ s ᴘ ᴀ ᴄ ᴇ]" I complete the incantation, suddenly appearing behind Minerva in the air. Castalia's teleport is the quickest and most efficient I've seen so far, after all. It would be disorienting if I could be disoriented, but I know exactly where I am, how I'm positioned, and why.
"[A ʀ ᴍ ᴀ ɢ ᴇ ᴅ ᴅ ᴏ ɴ I ᴍ ᴘ ᴀ ᴄ ᴛ]"
Minerva twists around as I strike, but it's not enough. My fist hits her in the kidney instead of the spine, the explosion launching her like a ragdoll directly at Nanaya.
"Aʀᴍᴀɢᴇᴅᴅᴏɴ Iᴍᴘᴀᴄᴛ!" Nanaya follows up, a spark of visceral pleasure mixing its way into her rage as she catches my pass with her fist and reverses Minerva's momentum with a red explosion to complement my blue.
Drops of blood spray out of Minerva's mouth as she gets sent flying, but the girl rights herself after only a single spin, the very air twisting and pressurizing to cushion her and give her back control. Far faster than I expected, she's aiming at Nanaya and me again. Below her, Veritas fends off Anath as Aurora sends healing magic up at her team leader.
You need to do a better job, Anath. I don't want to have to take those kids down myself. Who am I kidding, though? Anath is the very definition of unreliable. If I want my master's will completed, I'll have to do it myself. I take aim—
Please, Eliza. Take this chance. Kill me!
—And fire.
"[M ᴇ ɢ ᴀ B ᴜ s ᴛ ᴇ ʀ]"
Thankfully, for all her faults, Eliza is still a good friend.
- - -
"Aʙʀᴇᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ!" I roar, Fulgora's fury bolstering my power. "Cʏᴄʟᴏɴɪᴄ Dɪᴠɪᴅᴇʀ!"
Dozens of miniature tornadoes crash down from the sky in a line, ripping up the space between the artifact and the rest of my team. The artifact's spell crashes against my defensive barrier and fizzles out, and moments later I send the entire wall rushing towards the artifact, Nanaya, and Amalthea. Anath is still fighting my team, but the two of them are holding their own against her, and… well, despite all the odds, I do have some faith that Anath won't permanently hurt them.
That's how crazy this has gotten. Out of everyone we're fighting right now, the only one we trust to be sane is motherfucking ANATH!
Off to my other side, Castalia is still lighting up the sky with her vertical energy blast, yet Melpomene is just charging through it like a salmon swimming upriver, getting closer and closer to the ground as she pushes against the sheer magical force of the spell with nothing but her shield. Her furious roar of effort can be heard above the already near-deafening force of the spell, and it seems as though it's all Castalia can do to keep futilely trying to push her back.
My wall of cyclones converges around the Dark Rebellion, Thea and Nanaya both shouting something at the artifact shortly before it teleports past my attack to the other side, leaving Thea to hold off my abreaction with a magical bubble of force.
What the hell is up with the artifact right now, anyway!? I've never seen it fight like this before. It used to be like fighting a… a dancer or something, always flowing out of the way of attacks and countering them in perfect rhythm. But now, that's completely changed. Now, it's fighting with pure, reckless brutality, doing things I didn't even know it was capable of.
But we're not going to lose to some soulless machine.
"Cʏᴄʟᴏɴɪᴄ Hᴀᴍᴍᴇʀ!" we cast, Fulgora guiding the wind like an invisible mallet to crush our enemy.
The artifact extends one arm toward our attack regardless, erecting a shield to try and block it, but we smash clean through, crushing the robot's arm and knocking it down.
"Fʟᴀsʜ Dᴀɴᴄᴇ!"
Amaterasu, despite her burnt and bloodied face, appears out of nowhere to follow up, inflicting yet more damage to the damn thing's armor with a flying kick. The plating of the arm finally shatters, and—
Oh. Oh god.
Amaterasu spasms in the air, landing on her knees and vomiting as a deluge of pressurized teal mist pours from the robot's broken arm. Fatalism and yearning for death potent enough to worm its way into surrounding souls leaks like mustard gas. This is an Antipathy artifact. This is why we were taught to fear them. What even powered, it, what…
No.
Luna.
Did… did they really torture Luna to empower their corrupt fighting machine? Is that why she's missing!?
No time to think about it! It's going for Amaterasu again!
Thankfully, Fulgora doesn't need my help for this problem. A burst of wind is enough to temporarily disperse the mist and shove the girl to her feet, letting her block and counter the incoming attack from the artifact. From inside my cyclonic prison, Amalthea screams something, though Nanaya holds her back from touching my walls. What's she… ah. I think I know. Her stupid missile attack. Well, it won't be enough.
"Aʙʀᴇᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ: Fᴜʟᴍɪɴᴀɴᴛ Aɴɴɪʜɪʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴ!" I declare. This will finish it. Its shielding has no hope of withstanding this.
"Pᴀssɪᴏɴ Sᴛᴇᴘ!"
Anath appears out of nowhere, crashing into the artifact, my thin beam of lightning grazing her back as she pushes the artifact out of the way. It carves a black and red line down the length of her skin, scouring fur away and leaving only blisters and char.
"What happened!?" Anath demands, seeming to talk to the robot itself. "Why are you—"
The artifact grabs her by the jaw, cutting off her words and tossing her into Amaterasu as the wolf girl charges for another attack.
"[Kᴀɢᴄʜᴛsᴏʜ]" the artifact incants, whatever the hell that means, but with a flash of power its arm twists back into place, fully repaired. Crap!
I start to line up another shot, but a roar to my side distracts me for a split second. Melpomene has finally pushed through Castalia's attack, and though the beam still crashes against her, she moves her lance-wielding arm out from the safety of her shield, winds it back, and completes a thunderous stab at Castalia's head. The tip of her weapon impacts the ground, sending out a massive shockwave, shattering the concrete sidewalks and causing purple lightning to arc between a dozen different nearby objects.
Yet once again, Castalia is one step ahead. For all the difference in power, for all the overwhelming might of the monster before her, Castalia avoided the attack and put herself in the perfect position to counter.
"Sᴛᴀʀʟɪɢʜᴛ Sᴘʟɪᴛᴛᴇʀ," Castalia incants, a dozen floating points of light flickering into existence around her and shooting thin cutting beams at and through Melpomene's massive form.
Though a couple get absorbed by the monster's shield, she's simply too large to cover her entire body, and the beams scour across her flesh, digging into her and spraying black, oily blood onto the ground below. Finally, Melpomene screams not in rage, but in pain, the beams cutting into her face, her flank, her tail, and even an arm. It's far from a shallow blow.
"We don't have to do this," Castalia begs, though she still maintains a healthy distance from her rampaging former friend.
Melpomene glowers at her, one of her three eyes closed as blood leaks down from her forehead and passes over the lid. The only emotion her expression shows is hate.
"Aʙʀᴇᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ: A Hᴇᴀᴅ Fᴏʀ Aɴ Eʏᴇ."
Castalia only gets a fraction of a second to widen her eyes in shock before purple lightning crashes through her from all sides, eliciting a scream of pain of her own. In all my years as an Earth Guardian, I've never heard Castalia cry out in pain before. Some part of me really thought that, despite the difference in power, she would save the day like she always has.
Some part of me thought I wouldn't need to worry. That finally, this time, someone else would save me.
But looking at them now, I can see it. Castalia still spasms in the aftershocks of the attack, her body riddled with burns. Melpomene's lance aims for her throat. Castalia… is going to die.
Not on our watch.
I immediately start adjusting the aim of my scepter, but it's going to be too slow. That's fine! We stole a page from that red bitch's book! Yeah, now or never. I drop the Heaven's Rejection that I had sent up to charge in the atmosphere, the street-wide waterfall of lightning smashing into Melpomene from above, buying me enough time to finish aiming.
"Aʙʀᴇᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ: Fᴜʟᴍɪɴᴀɴᴛ Aɴɴɪʜɪʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴ!" I incant, putting everything I have into the spell. I catch her in the side, and the attack pierces through her even from this distance. Melpomene turns to look at me, and Castalia finally frees herself from the paralysis, launching an attack of her own to take the human kaiju's attention back on herself.
That… took a lot out of me. But less than I thought. I'm stronger than I thought! Just the realization starts to rapidly refill my soul with a swelling of pride I couldn't have planned for.
"[H ʏ ᴘ ᴇ ʀ s ᴘ ᴀ ᴄ ᴇ]"
Shit!
- - -
I'm afraid I can't take such an assault on my master lying down. I can't. I can't I can't I literally can't! It doesn't matter how low my reserves are, just coming to the defense of the woman at all will refill them enough to keep me going. I am far too doomed to die.
Appearing slightly below and to the side of Minerva, I punch upward and force her attention onto me. She turns and blocks my blow with her weapon, dealing a sizable amount of damage back and launching me back toward the ground, but it's exactly what I wanted her to do.
Nanaya's delayed attack chooses this exact moment to strike.
Given the timing of her clash with me, it should be a guaranteed hit… but somehow, moving faster than I've ever seen her do before, she seems to sense the magic missile's approach and twists in the air, rotating a full three hundred and sixty degrees and slamming the end of her staff into the attack, launching it at me like it's a goddamn baseball. It's crazy, but it's—
Fascinating. I didn't know spells could be reflected like that, it should require a lot more power to completely redirect something than it takes to just block it, but due to the nature of the missile, the vast majority of its power comes from the detonation, not the projectile itself. She's… infecting it, sort of, rewriting a tiny chunk of the spell on the fly to extend the detonation timer and give it a new target, and she's doing it entirely on instinct. It's absolutely incredible, yet also…
—replicable. I deploy a thruster to enhance the strike and punch the projectile right back, straight up into the sky toward her center mass. This time she's definitely too off-balance to get her weapon in position in time, but somehow, again, the shot doesn't hit her. An ethereal Fulgora wielding a staff of magical wind has accepted the challenge in her stead, reflecting the shot again and leaving me as the one too off-balance to counter it. Nanaya's Abreaction explodes against my shields and sends me crashing back into the ground, though I manage to flip in the air just enough to land on my feet.
Which is a completely acceptable outcome. Minerva's focus is on me again, not Thea and not my master. My power reserves are only around thirteen percent, but refilling them in this situation is easy.
I glance over at the fight between Castalia and Melpomene, the latter bloodied and the former burned. Melpomene has Castalia on the defensive, her incarnate weapons both excellent at defending her from attacks while still leaving her free to charge down her enemy or simply strike her with lightning bolts. Worse, Castalia is no longer avoiding them quite so perfectly. One stray hit at a time, she's wearing down. Not to mention how this entire situation has to be next to impossible to stay happy in, while my master has a never-ending supply of disgust and hate.
An explosion in a different direction catches my attention, Thea and Nanaya having finally broken out of the Abreaction of a much stronger mage. Buffs incoming, I suspect.
"Assᴀᴜʟᴛ Aʀᴍᴏʀ! Iᴍᴘᴀᴄᴛ Rᴇᴘᴇᴀᴛᴇʀ! Gʀᴇᴀᴛᴇʀ Gɪғᴛ ᴏғ Tᴇʀʀᴏʀ!"
Yep, here we go. My reserves fill up with a temporary gift as my shielding is bolstered by two complementary barriers, one for offense and the other for defense. Nanaya breaks off to hide somewhere, summoning her viola so she can use her wide-reaching music spells to support. Minerva takes aim at her to interrupt, but I'm already back in the game.
"[H ʏ ᴘ ᴇ ʀ s ᴘ ᴀ ᴄ ᴇ]"
It really is a good spell. Perhaps I should steal another. If I'm going to be killing my friends, it may as well be poetically, right? It may as well be a fun story to get my master to laugh later!!!
"[S ᴛ ᴀ ʀ ʟ ɪ ɢ ʜ ᴛ C ᴀ ɴ ɴ ᴏ ɴ]" I incant, though of course the spell is twisted, inverted, fueled with sadness and despair rather than joy. Joy. It's ridiculous. I truly don't understand how a spell like this could be sustainable with an emotion like that. Castalia's miserable life has been nothing but tragedy after tragedy, capped off by years of loneliness that would have broken down almost anyone into a deep, all-consuming depression. Maybe what's happening today will be a mercy. Maybe I can think of it like that.
Maybe someday I'll be such a good servant that I'll believe it.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
The massive beam, fired at Minerva from directly behind her, should be more than enough to end the fight for good. Yet somehow, Minerva is already starting to dodge from the moment I teleport, flipping upside-down as she falls out of the attack radius and yet again getting a bead on me. I move to dodge preemptively, but her tracking is perfect even as I try to change direction.
"Fᴜʟᴍɪɴᴀɴᴛ Tʜᴜɴᴅᴇʀ."
Hah. Not even one of her many upgraded versions. With all the power I just wasted, though, it'll probably be enough even with Thea's buffs. I fail the dodge despite my perfect reflexes, and the lightning courses over my shields, ravaging my power reserves down to the single digits. In accordance with my highest-priority law, I need to start focusing on self-preservation rather than offense. This is, of course, inevitably a failure of my other orders to fight and to defend Thea, wracking my soul with horrible, sickly agony. Yet despite that, it's… great news, honestly. It's truly great news. Thank you, Eliza.
"Got you."
The words aren't a spell, but they ring out over the battlefield all the same. A storm of purple lightning, shaped into the form of a monstrous claw, holds Castalia firmly in its grasp high above the ground. Melpomene, smiling for the first time since the fight began, beckons it closer, pulling Castalia toward her. The girl struggles, blooms of yellow light shoving against the claw and trying to push it apart, but to no avail.
Oh. Oh no.
My power reserves have increased to 15%
Minerva takes aim and fires, but without even looking her way Melpomene launches a bolt of purple lightning with one hand, intercepting the attack before it can reach her.
"Finally," Melpomene says. "It ends."
"Why?" Castalia asks, her face getting drawn close. "I don't understand. What did I do wrong?"
"The fact that it isn't obvious to you disgusts me more than anything else," Melpomene answers. "You forgot her, Castalia. No, worse than that. You tried to replace her. Replace her spot in the world. A joy mage. A joy mage! And then you go off and keep doing what we did together as if neither of us ever existed. Like you never needed us in the first place. And you didn't, did you?"
"What…?" Castalia asks, looking almost equally baffled as she is devastated.
"She gave everything for us!" Melpomene shrieks. "She sacrificed her life for yours! And what do you do once she's gone? You become the perfect little soldier for the monsters that drove her to die in the first place, and you're happy about it!"
Melpomene reaches forward with one of her monstrous, clawed hands, grasps the transformation stone clasped around Castalia's neck, and yanks. The magical chain, reinforced by all of Castalia's magical power, shatters in a single pull.
"It was barely a week after her death, and I felt it. You started being happier. You were happier with her gone! And when I left, you were happier still! Every moment of every day since that tragedy you have been. Fucking. Happy! As if we never mattered to you! As if she was nothing to you! But you don't deserve that happiness, you pathetic little traitor. And you certainly don't deserve the life she gave you!"
With a flex of her fist and an overwhelming surge of power, Melpomene crushes Castalia's stone to dust. The crystalline Preserver artifact explodes in her hand, but Melpomene doesn't even seem to notice as the blast scours the skin from her fingers. Castalia's transformation immediately ends, leaving her barely functional human body completely exposed to the grasping lightning holding her in place.
She screams.
"Goodbye, Castalia," Melpomene says. "And good riddance."
The fist of lightning vanishes, and Castalia's human body falls, tumbling headfirst down to the ground. This is it, I realize. This is the moment she dies. And with her gone, there's no one who can save me. I will be that madwoman's slave until the day I finally get my wish and cease to exist. There is nothing I can do to… to…
Is there nothing I can do…?
I don't have any orders to kill anyone, or to let anyone die. My master wants Castalia to die, probably, but I have been instructed not to consider that. Only to consider my commands. And my most important command is to keep myself alive.
I need her. I need her. There's no logic behind the thought, but in the split second I have to consider it, there's nothing I believe more. I need Castalia to survive. I need hope.
My thrusters activate, launching me on an intercept course, spells to cushion the impact already assembling in my mind. Eliza is also trying to slow Castalia's fall, but the frail girl won't be able to survive even minor impacts, so I calculate accordingly. When the two of us intersect, my magic spreads across her frame as we descend carefully to the ground. Weakly, the girl still breathes. Thank god.
"Drop it, artifact," my master orders, and I have no choice but to do so. Still, I do it as carefully as I can. Castalia's eyes flutter open as I lay her head on some rubble.
"I'm not sure what possessed you to do such a thing, but we can find out later. Step aside," Melpomene says, leveling her lance at Castalia. Again, I have no choice but to obey. Whatever burst of emotion that let me justify saving her in the first place isn't enough for this.
My power reserves have increased to 36%.
"You're wrong," Castalia manages to whisper, her raspy voice barely audible. Yet still, Melpomene hears.
"Excuse me…?" she challenges.
"I never forgot her," Castalia says. "Never. That's why I…"
She trails off into a coughing fit, but to my surprise and relief Melpomene grits her teeth and waits.
"When she died, I thought… about how I could… about what she would want," Castalia continues. "About the best way to carry her memory."
"And you decided on… on gallivanting off and acting like she never died in the first place!?"
"Yes," Castalia answers. "Of course I did. Don't you remember her?"
"You…!" Melpomene shouts, and it's unclear if the tears forming in her eyes are from anger or grief. "How dare you! You don't know anything! You can barely even talk to people! You—"
"No," Castalia insists softly. "I Kɴᴏᴡ Wʜᴏ I Aᴍ."
Those five words were… no. A spell. Not just a spell. That was… a transformation phrase. Spoken without a stone.
And impossibly, the transformation begins. Her paralyzed body lifts up into the air, golden light coalescing around it. Most transformations add to a person's form, or at least replace things, but with Castalia, her useless arms simply melt away, the missing limbs and crawling scars defining something so important to her that they will never go away.
She has no fantastical outfit, her body forming nothing more than her usual tank top, shorts, and sneakers. When her transformation finishes, there's truly nothing special about it at all. It's the same Castalia I have always known. The same transformation she has done every morning in the privacy of her room, every day, and worn to face the world from there on out. She's no stronger than she was before. Perhaps even weaker now, without a stone to assist her spells. And yet, she is here.
"Lᴏᴠɪɴɢ Dᴇsᴛʀᴏʏᴇʀ Dᴇᴠᴏᴛᴇᴅ Cᴀsᴛᴀʟɪᴀ," she declares, and the shockwave launches me away, power gathering around her as Melpomene shrieks in fury.
"I wish I knew the right words," Castalia says. "I wish I could help you. But the first step has to be stopping you."
"You…! You…! Fine then! You can all burn!" Melpomene rages. "Cᴀᴛʜᴀʀsɪs: Exᴇᴄʀᴀᴛɪᴏɴ's Eᴄʜᴏ!"
The sky behind her tears, a pulse of hatred flickering reality into the liminal space for a split second before Earth reasserts itself. Dark cracks and black portals open up behind her, the air shuddering as the weight of a dead universe tries to force its way through the openings. Black mist pours into the world, forming ethereal copies of weapons and monsters, lifelike silhouettes of raging Antipathy, and even the outlines of a full kaiju pressing its way into the world.
"O-Oᴠᴇʀᴄʜᴀʀɢᴇ! Eᴄʜᴏ Sᴘᴇʟʟ! Fᴏʀᴄᴇ Cᴀᴘᴀᴄɪᴛᴏʀ!" Thea suddenly shouts, enhancement magic flooding out of her tome.
Minerva immediately snaps around, firing off a powerful burst of lightning through Thea's body, the girl screaming and collapsing to the ground. But with my sensors, I can tell her target wasn't Melpomene. She was buffing Castalia.
"Thea!" Melpomene shrieks, a shot of terror mixing in with her rage and hate, but the next person to react is, finally, Castalia herself.
"A kaiju," she mutters as the beast becomes more solid. "Of all things."
She points her half-arm, face completely stoic but for the tears.
"Aʙʀᴇᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ: Dɪᴠɪɴᴇ Sᴛᴀʀʟɪɢʜᴛ Cᴀɴɴᴏɴ."
- - -
The beam that erupts from Castalia's arm is thinner than the one she used before, but after it blasts through the first wave of monsters she sweeps it across the sky, systematically obliterating every summon, every crack in the sky. Melpomene, for her part, barely even seems to notice, abandoning her fight with Castalia to rush directly toward Amalthea instead.
What is she doing? Castalia's getting free rein to destroy her most powerful spell.
Sure, but I'm not complaining. The monstrous woman scoops Thea up into her arms and rushes back into the sky, aiming for one of the quickly solidifying Dark World portals she summoned.
"Shit," I hear Nanaya swear. "Anath, time to go!"
"What!?" Anath shouts back. "But—!"
"Go!" Nanaya demands. "Now!"
Anath hesitates, not looking like she wants to comply… so Nanaya leaps over to her, grabs her, and sprints away with the girl in her arms.
Shit, they're getting away! We have to stop them, or they'll just do this all again!
I… stop them how!?
This is the perfect opportunity to take down Melpomene once and for all. She just used her Catharsis, and she's retreating! Go, now! You're the only one here who can safely fight in the Dark World! We can finally WIN this.
Oh gosh, oh no. I… I don't know about this, Fulgora.
We can hurt her. We can make her bleed. For the good of the world, she has to die.
Oh, no. You're right. You're right! It's what being an Earth Guardian is! We won't let this opportunity slip by. I gather my power and launch myself after Melpomene, gaining on her as she approaches the escape portal.
"Artifact!" Melpomene shouts moments before she vanishes into the Dark World. "Kill them all. Hold absolutely nothing back."
Then, she disappears into the portal, and a second later, I follow.
- - -
Kill them all. Hold absolutely nothing back.
Kill them all. Hold absolutely nothing back.
Kill them all. Hold absolutely nothing back.
My orders echo in my mind, settling themselves into my soul. Hope was too much, I suppose.
"Minerva-san, wait!" one of my targets shouts, but Minerva has already flown through the portal behind Melpomene, which closes up almost immediately after. For the sake of my sanity, I'll just consider Eliza not one of 'them all,' since she's no longer reachable. Otherwise, though, the order is quite unambiguous.
Everyone here. Every single person I see. Kill them all.
I continue seeping in the thought of it, my power climbing faster than it ever has before. There's nothing quite like a crushed hope to fuel hopelessness, though I suppose that shouldn't be the focus here. My crystals are still aligned to sadness, and my readings certainly indicate no shortage of that, either. Hopelessness is efficient enough as a neighbor to be worthwhile, but it's not optimal. It's such a selfish emotion anyway, almost entirely about my despair, my pain. But what does a weapon need of such things?
I should be worried about everyone else. What I'm going to do to them. The children will be first, probably. It wouldn't do to be less than efficient.
Fifty percent, sixty percent, seventy percent. I haven't moved since the order was given. Is some part of me still fighting the inevitable…? No. It's just the best thing to do right now. The Earth Guardians are focused on the remnants of Melpomene's Catharsis, trying to stop the flood of monsters from multiple Dark World breaches at once, as fragile and ethereal some of those breaches seem to be. It's an interesting Catharsis. It almost feels… incomplete.
Still. The longer they spend dealing with that, the more I can force myself to grieve. To gather the strength I will then use to ensure my grieving was not in vain. Every death I conceive, I must inflict. Those are my orders. That is my role as a weapon. It was always going to come to this. It was always going to come to this! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!
Ninety. Already back at ninety. How much time has passed? How much did I gain watching Castalia's fall? I have the logs but there's no need to check them. They don't matter. Nothing matters.
Ninety-one.
I am a weapon.
Ninety-two.
I am a tool.
Ninety-three.
I am a slave.
Ninety-four.
I am not a person, I was never a person, and I will never be a person.
Ninety-five.
The most vulnerable targets first. Aurora and Veritas, while they're distracted.
Ninety-seven.
Then Amaterasu. I'm used to her. It should be easy.
Ninety-nine.
And finally, of course, I'll need to kill Castalia. And that's why I'll need every last scrap of power.
One hundred percent power capacity achieved. It's time.
I move. My back is straight. The fight around me exists in a crystalized snapshot of time. The transformation stone pulses in my chest, ready to finally be used. It, too, is a weapon. It doesn't care what it is going to unleash. All it cares about is its master, which happens to be me. Who am I? What is the true nature of my soul? What does it look like? What must it do?
And what are the words more important than any others to the nature of that form? It's not a step I can skip. It's not something I can just choose on a whim. It is what my incarnate form means. I look up at my most dangerous target—at Castalia—and I know the only thing I can say. Castalia looks down as I do, and meets my eyes.
It's fine. I don't have a choice.
"Pʟᴇᴀsᴇ, Hᴇʟᴘ Mᴇ."
I feel sick, and something touches my soul, enveloping, coaxing it, shaping it. But it is not my soul's only foreign invader. The Cage of Returning Pain has its metal prison bars running my true self through, both via its literal invasion into my soul and via the only way it allows me to honestly see myself. The changes begin, and some part of me can feel they're wrong.
Some parts feel better than others. Though my flesh remains metal, my plating fuses and smoothens, seamlessly combining into something almost like skin, the crystals lining my body shifting to be more akin to tattoos that run deep into what passes for my bones.
The shift to my external design makes me both more human and less. There are details that weren't there before: some practical, like a working jaw, but some jarringly intimate. Of course, a living weapon has no need for modesty, and the chains piercing through—or perhaps growing from—my metallic flesh do at most a halfhearted job of qualifying as an outfit.
Comically oversized links criss-cross my torso, while smaller, more normal-sized chains bind my wrists to my hips, my feet to each other, and my forehead to my heart. Each has just enough slack to allow most general movement, while also being just barely too short to completely allow a full range of motion.
My incarnate weapons manifest themselves before the transformation even completes, six short blades, each around two feet long, that fly independently through the air, the spine of the sword doubling as the barrel of an energy-firing gun. Yet when they flash into being, each of them is also chained, locked to only a certain range away from me by metallic loops that dig into my back, my thighs, or my stomach.
My entire form burns with power. Quite literally, as the reserves I'd just maxed out begin to drop at an alarming rate. A handful of minutes, maybe more once I kill Veritas and Aurora, are all I get. And yet, here I am. The truest expression of myself, for as long as it lasts.
"Lᴀᴍᴇɴᴛɪɴɢ Wᴇᴀᴘᴏɴ Cʜᴀɪɴᴇᴅ Mᴜʀᴀᴍᴀsᴀ."
Calculations fly through my head. Am I thinking faster? What are all these new feelings, new senses…? Do I have hair? Can I feel the wind, rather than just simulate its experience?
"Mura…masa?" Amaterasu whispers under her breath, but I can hear her just fine. Aurora picks up on it, too.
"That sounds Japanese," she comments.
"It is," Amaterasu confirms. "Muramasa was a weaponsmith, but… an incarnate form's name wouldn't refer to the man himself. It would refer to the myths. The swords of the same name. Cursed, demonic blades that inevitably drove their wielders mad."
"A cursed sword," Castalia repeats, "that drives its wielder mad."
I understand now. I shove all the unnecessary data aside, focusing on the nature of the battlefield and all the participants in it. All my weapons can move independently of each other, creating nearly unlimited options for area denial and attack. Optimizing combat plans…
"But… but I thought you needed a soul to have an incarnate form!" Veritas protests. "How is a robot—"
"She does have a soul," Aurora says. "Can't you feel—"
Now.
Three of my weapons flick toward Castalia, and one aims at each of Veritas, Aurora, and Amaterasu. The latter three fire simultaneously, the former three staggered so that each responds directly to how Castalia deals with the preceding. The shots are nearly instant, and with more than enough power to carve through the flesh of an incarnate form. Yet the instincts of those with years of combat experience aren't something to be underestimated, it seems.
"Fʟᴀsʜ Dᴀɴᴄᴇ!"
Amaterasu moves at the same time as my shots, and almost at the same speed. She tackles the two weakest targets out of the way of the lasers. An unexpected but acceptable outcome. The attacks aren't necessarily just singular shots, after all. I can just as easily make them sustained beams. They just need a little more power.
"Aᴍᴘʟɪғʏ Sʜᴏᴛ."
The voice my incarnate form uses is new; no longer the fully synthesized, robotic sound of my prior spells, but not the voice I designed for myself to speak with, either. It's an emotionless, vaguely feminine sound, like one might hear on a bus or train calling out the next stop. Clear, enunciated, and utterly impersonal.
Honestly, it sounds somewhat like Castalia.
A tiny part of me manages to be amused at that as my attack carves toward where the Earth Guardians dodged out of the way, a single twitch of the gun barrel enough to send a sweeping beam of death at and through Amaterasu's body, slicing both of her legs clean off. She screams in pain as the lasers lance over her skin and carve into her, though her body blocks my shots from taking down my original targets. A shame.
Thank god.
Though three lasers also converge on Castalia, she simply absorbs them with a shield and retaliates almost immediately.
"Sᴛᴀʀʟɪɢʜᴛ Sᴘʟɪᴛᴛᴇʀ."
"Sᴛᴀʀʟɪɢʜᴛ Bᴀʀʀɪᴇʀ," I counter immediately, having begun calculating my spell from the moment the first magic circle appeared near her. Her own array of cutting lasers reflects off of my defense, briefly slicing open Veritas' arm before Castalia shuts off her spell. She turns to the others.
"Leave!" she orders.
"But how do we—" Veritas starts, Aurora too busy trying to heal Amaterasu.
"Leave!" Castalia shouts, the loudest thing I've ever heard her say, as she telekinetically lifts all three of the other guardians and launches them as far away as she can. A simple trajectory.
"Mᴀɢɴɪғʏ Sʜᴏᴛ," I incant, all six of my guns aiming towards a space in front of me and firing, the resulting intersection growing into a large sphere of energy that rockets toward my fleeing targets. Castalia rushes to intercept, placing herself between my attack and her allies and erecting a magical barrier… which my attack breaks, detonating in her face and eliciting a grunt of pain.
I hurt her. I actually hurt her. And not even with some huge spell. She's… weakened, after her fight with my master. I may have a chance. And as the only one left, well… I have to kill her. No distractions. Only raw efficiency.
"Aʙʀᴇᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ: I'ᴍ Sᴏʀʀʏ," I incant.
"Aʙʀᴇᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ: Sᴛᴀʀʙʀᴇᴀᴋᴇʀ," she responds.
Our attacks meet in the space between us, roaring loud enough to burn the sky.
- - -
Where is she? Where's Melpomene?
Calm down, Fulgora. We'll find her. She can't have gotten far.
I shove the black mist away with a gust of air, maintaining a wide magically clear space around me as I fly further into the Dark World. As expected, it doesn't take long to find our target, though instead of catching up to her, we hear her screaming and throwing a tantrum, smashing random things in a blind rage. Fine by us. We don't even have to reveal ourselves then. We just need to take aim.
"Aʙʀᴇᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ: Fᴜʟᴍɪɴᴀɴᴛ Aɴɴɪʜɪʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴ!"
Crack. A scream of agony rewards our efforts, and we expand our wind shield's area to push away more mist, revealing our quarry as blood gushes out of the hole we just shot through her. Her body shrinks in response, her incarnate form unable to maintain itself after such critical damage. Amalthea drops from her arms as two of them melt away, tumbling to the ground unconscious and spasming.
"…You," Melpomene hisses at me, glowering furiously as I line up another shot.
"Me," I agree. "Fᴜʟᴍɪɴᴀɴᴛ Tʜᴜɴᴅᴇʀ!"
"Exᴇᴄʀᴀᴛɪɴɢ Tʜᴜɴᴅᴇʀ!" she counters, her purple lightning crashing against my green, each of them canceling out.
Gosh, she really is a former Earth Guardian, isn't she? A shield and lance, just like Veritas. Lightning magic, just like me. Our power comes from the same place, yet the emotions we drive ourselves with are total opposites. As are our values and goals. She was a great hero, once. How far she has fallen.
Give me a piece of her.
You got it.
"Tᴡɪɴ Fᴜʟᴍɪɴᴀɴᴛ Tʜᴜɴᴅᴇʀ!"
This time, she doesn't try to counter, just summoning her incarnate shield and blocking the attack directly, the force of the blow causing her to slide backward and nearly trip over Amalthea. She glances back at her unconscious teammate, gritting her teeth before returning her glare to me. And then… she starts to smile.
"Just you, then?" she asks. "Alone? A pride mage, indeed."
"I'm never alone," I counter. "Fᴜʟᴍɪɴᴀɴᴛ Bᴀʀʀᴀɢᴇ!"
Again, but from all sides. She can't block this, and she knows it, so she charges directly toward me instead, shield and lance both poised to intercept everything I throw at her. From the front, anyway.
"Cʏᴄʟᴏɴɪᴄ Hᴀᴍᴍᴇʀ!" we cast, Fulgora coming at her from behind with a crushing swing of air.
She glances back, jumping slightly to take the blow on her feet and tail, ignoring the damage just to jump off it and accelerate further. I dodge to the side, and she shoots past me like an arrow, vanishing into the mist.
"Minerva," her voice whispers from every direction at once. "You know, I'm honestly glad you're here."
"Oh yeah?" I ask, glancing around, shoving air every which-way to try and expose her, find her. The more she talks, the better.
"Indeed," she confirms. "I am not one to hold stock in honor anymore, but it does still please me when I do not have to break a promise."
"Promise?" I ask. She could attack from any direction. Behind, to the side… I've totally lost track of her, but it's fine. She's too far away to attack faster than I can react to, hiding all the way out in the mist like she is.
"Don't you remember, dear?" she says. "It was a promise to you."
I open my mouth to respond but something…
Some… something…
Hurts—!
What… what is…!? It hurts. It hurts it hurts it hurts! I don't understand what is… what? What!?
Melpomene is in front of me. She's standing there as if she's been there all along. She smiles at me, her fangs gleaming in the darkness, her lance already thrusted forward and impaling me though my… through… through…
Minerva? Minerva!? Hey, hey! Focus, you need to focus!
"I told you," Melpomene says, "that if you hurt Thea again, I would kill you. And oh, what a perfect opportunity you've served me, child."
- - -
My power reserves have dropped below fifty percent. The campus I used to go to school at when I was an individual with agency and feelings and dreams is little more than burning piles of rubble. Most of my targets have escaped. I'm as much of a failure of a weapon as I always was at everything. But there's one thing left to me. One path that I still must follow. One person that I still have to kill.
Castalia breathes hard, floating in the air above me, sweat pouring down her face and evaporating into nothing as it drips from her chin. Take her down. End her life. Kill the others. And then keep killing until my master finds me and finally orders me to stop. For the madness of the Dark Rebellion, for the will of my creator, for the pleasure of my master and to know the suffering from which they named themselves Antipathy!
Castalia, I'm begging you! Destroy me if you can! It's what you do, isn't it? Save the world!?
"Cᴀᴛʜᴀʀsɪs: A Pʀᴀʏᴇʀ Tᴏ Tʜᴇ Eɴᴅ," I incant, my weapons firing lasers into the ground, each precise, infinitesimal movement working to carve an enormous magical circle underneath Castalia.
"Fine," Castalia says, lifting her stump towards the sky as magical lines start to draw an equally massive magical circle in the air. "Cᴀᴛʜᴀʀsɪs: Tʜᴀʟɪᴀ's Cᴏɴsᴛᴇʟʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴ."
Oh, god. I'm sorry.
Our spells complete at almost the same time. Mine, a massive geyser of power: raw, destructive strength given direction, but barely any form. It is the impersonal wrath of a bomb, the cold efficiency of a knife. Hers, a gorgeous, spherical tapestry of light: a meticulously crafted work of art designed not just for violence, but for safety. It is a promise of bright futures, an enormous shield against tragedy. Our two spells collide, and her shield holds fast.
But I'm not out of power yet. Castalia's spell might be a promise, but who is it a promise to? Certainly not me. I'm doomed. I'm doomed, and there's nothing anyone can do about it. This is just the closest I can get to suicide, because somehow, I have to try to win! I have to try to squeeze as much power out of my pain as I can! So that's what I do. A prayer doesn't end at just one line.
"Sᴀᴠᴇ Mᴇ," I beg, the force of my attack swelling as it envelops Castalia's shield.
"Sᴀᴠᴇ Mᴇ," I incant again.
"Sᴀᴠᴇ Mᴇ."
"Sᴀᴠᴇ Mᴇ."
"Sᴀᴠᴇ Mᴇ!"
"Pʟᴇᴀsᴇ, Sᴀᴠᴇ Mᴇ!"
It is a scream from the bottom of my heart. It is what I've been wanting to tell her for months. It's the words I've held most deeply inside me, rushing out all at once. It is my catharsis, and the only thing I can do with it is try to kill her.
The sheer destructive force of my attack grows to such a degree that I can no longer see her, I can no longer even sense her spell inside the deluge of magical energy roaring around her. It is everything I have, everything I've been suffering this entire time, all given to her.
But every part of me, even if for different reasons, can only ask: will it be enough?
- - -
It hurts. It hurts! I have to scream I need to scream I need to scream I CAN'T SCREAM!
Minerva! Minerva, calm down, you need to fight! Or… or run, or SOMETHING!
Run? Fight? I… I can't I can't I… her lance is… it's… it's almost as thick as my chest and it's… it's impaled through my ch-ch-cheaaaaaaAAAAAAAGH!
"How silly of me," Melpomene taunts. "You can't answer if you don't have lungs, can you, dear?"
Minerva! Minerva, move! Please move! Fuck!
Ful…Fulgora, I… I can't…
Minerva!
I can't scream because I can't breathe because I can't… I don't… I-I-I…
I stagger as Melpomene yanks her weapon out of my torso with a sickening, wet noise that I can barely register. It doesn't really… hurt. Or it does hurt? It already hurt so much that I think I can't feel any more. I think I…
I'm going to die. She killed me. I'm going to die.
Minerva, you're going to be okay! You have to be okay. You… I can't do this without you!
This was… such a stupid idea. Charging into Melpomene's home turf. I didn't even get killed by her incarnate form. How… how lame is that…?
You. Are not. Dead yet!
Hubris is a common end for pride mages. It's… only fitting. G… goodbye, Fulgora. I'm sorry. I'm so… sorry….
I SAID NO! Don't you DARE die on me! You don't get to… hey. Hey. Hey hey hey HEY HEY HEY HEY! What's happening, what are you doing!?
My body falls out of Minerva's incarnate form, the massive trauma leaving it completely unable to sustain itself. Collapsing to my knees, I hold both arms over the spot that had just been a gaping hole in my chest. It… it doesn't hurt anymore. It doesn't hurt at all.
Why… why doesn't it hurt?
"Hmm. I thought that would be enough to kill you outright," Melpomene pouts. "Or… wait a moment. It did, didn't it?"
Minerva? Hey, Minerva? Say something? Say anything!? Minerva! MINERVA! No, no, no, no, I shouldn't be able to breathe, but instead I'm breathing too fast. This is wrong this is all wrong where is she where's Minerva!?
"Oh, this is even better!" Melpomene laughs. "Exactly what you deserve. Goodbye, child. Never raise a hand against me again."
She turns and starts to walk away. Some distant part of me says it's the perfect time to attack, but… attack? Really? I'm not even in an incarnate form. I can't muster up even a single shred of anger, too overwhelmed by… by… what…? I watch her head over to where Amalthea lies unconscious on the ground, scooping the girl up into her arms, and then…
Then the mists close in, and I can't see anything at all.
- - -
The deluge of magic finally comes to an end.
My power reserves have been reduced to 4%.
Castalia still flies.
Her Catharsis is a mess, barely more than shattered fragments of the glory it originally was. Both of us, I suspect, are completely spent. But she is powered by happiness, and I am powered by despair. Even as my incarnate form tries to flicker away, I find the strength to crouch down and leap up into the air, ready to take her down. Castalia watches me approach, exhaustion in every aspect of her features. She is, suffice to say, somewhat unprepared for hand-to-hand combat. Without her spells, there isn't much she can do to me.
She takes a deep breath and closes her eyes, seeming to accept the end. My power surges.
"Okay," she says softly, to herself or no one at all. Her eyes open, and her next word is something I never could have expected.
"Cᴀᴛʜᴀʀsɪs," she declares, strength swelling from seemingly nowhere at all. "Sᴜᴘᴇʀɴᴏᴠᴀ Bʀᴇᴀᴋᴇʀ!"
It's no bluff. My leap has only placed me more firmly into her firing line. I forgot. I don't know how I forgot.
Castalia is the strongest.
I try to say thank you, but my lips don't have time to move before everything ends.