Nastassja Sergeyevna Tolstaya, the Branch Director of the Japanese FIS, strides into the command center with Dr Adolf in tow.
"As such, further discussion of our two collaborators will have to wait," finishes the blond scientist. "However, I require your approval for sharing our stores of LiNKER—"
"Doctor, I requested your transfer from America because I have faith in your abilities and judgement. If you trust our new allies, then I also trust them," interrupts the indigo-haired commander. A stern looking middle-aged woman, Nastassja had seen her fair share of hardship. The black mask covering the scarred right side of her face is a testament to her years of service.
A bald officer stands from his seat and gives his report, "Madam, at approximately twenty minutes ago, an aufwachen wave matching that of Nephilim's was detected in the old downtown area. Unfortunately, we do not have any functional surveillance in that sector. Team Seven has already been dispatched to evacuate any civilians as well as provide visuals."
Nastassja nods. Turning to Adolf, asks him, "Is Serena on her way to the scene?"
"No, Director. She is currently still gearing up. Should I ask her to make haste?"
"There will be no need for that. Ask our collaborators to confront the Nephilim for now. Have Serena deliver LiNKER—"
The bald man speaks up again, interrupting Nastassja, "Madam, Doctor, an aufwachen corresponding to that of Gjallarhorn has been detected in the same location as yesterday."
Upon seeing the three versions waveforms her officer put on screen, Nastassja asks, "Hold it. What is that distortion?"
"Try filtering out the Gjallarhorn's aufwachen and see what we have left," suggests Adolf. He tips his sunglasses slightly as if trying to get a better look at the screen before heading over to the officer's terminal.
The Director stands bold upright, hands planted on the table. The little color left in her gaunt features seems to drain out shade by shade. Her lilac eye fixes on the six-pointed star on the display. It's faint but there is no mistaking it. Nastassja's remaining eye twitches and she mutters, "Back from the dead… Gungnir."
"I think I get the gist of it, but there's one thing that bugs me," says the grey-haired Hibiki, "You just asked her for it, and she just gave it to you?"
The fight having been stopped by her intervention, Hibiki brought us inside to talk things out. At some point, her father had slunk out without us noticing, apparently going to his part-time job.
The skin on Hibiki's left arm, which she had used to stop Miku's punch, had ruptured from the force of the blow. A thick purple ichor leaks out from the cracks in the skin. After wrapping it in gauze, Miku holds on to the limb like it is her lifeline as she glares at me distrustfully. Meanwhile, the hand that the other Gungnir wielder had used to stop me seems to be just fine.
"Oh. Erm, our Hibiki doesn't have the Gungnir Fragments in her chest anymore," Chris answers. Noticing that our host seems more confused than before, she elaborates, "She got hit by the Shenshoujing's light before the fusion could kill her."
"Yeah, sure. But she just gave it to you?" she repeats with the same incredulous look. Still topless, Hibiki leans back on the couch and sighs, "So there's a world out there where things didn't go the same way."
Bracing myself, I ask her, "Hibiki, do you think it would work for the two of you?"
The disfigured girl looks at Miku before answering. Freeing her hand from Miku's grip, Hibiki leans forward, elbows resting on her knees while she polishes her palms. With a voice like an old car engine starting, she gives her reply, "I've always wondered what I would do if I no longer had Gungnir. What would a world be like where Darling and I could live happily as if none of this every happened. But now that I know there's a world where there's a Hibiki Tachibana and Miku Kohinata living without our afflictions… being 'cured' of them feels like admitting that the path we went down was wrong."
The atmosphere sours immediately. Both Hibiki and Miku have unreadable expressions, but I can tell they seem to take offense at the idea that they exist in sort of a "worst case scenario."
"Besides, it's not like we can be 'fixed' anyways," Hibiki smiles as best as she can, sitting upright and gesturing at the left side of her abdomen. "This is what happened to me after I took a hit from Shenshoujing last year. Even if the light could heal me, I don't think it can fix my case of butterface. As for Darling, neither of us wants to go through trying to remove that machine again."
The area Hibiki is pointing to is right below her rib cage. It's paler than the area around it, but compared to the rest of her body, the large patch seemed to be missing much of the tissue underneath. Her body never completely regrew that chunk of flesh. The large indentation has smaller pits inside it, as if it was once bubbling, but the bubbles had all popped. Disturbingly, similar patch of skin covers the right side of her face.
Chris and I recoiled at the sight, but neither of us commented on it. I had seen similar injuries on some of the other receptor children and Chris had probably seen worse in her day.
"So… your arm is going to…" Chris starts, breaking the silence.
"This? It's nothing. It will heal up. The wounds that Shenshoujing inflict only make it a bit harder to heal up. Something about anti-relic properties?"
A loud beeping ringtone sounds. Chris pulls out her communicator. She apologizes to our hosts before taking the call. "Hello… Yes…" she clicks her tongue, scowling as she continued — "You got a lot of explaining to do… No, not now… Give me the coordinates."
She hangs up without saying goodbye.
"What was it for?" I ask. It's probably someone from this world's FIS. They're the only ones we can contact anyways.
After repeating the string of numbers to herself several times, she answers, "Maria. We're leaving. It's the Nephilim."
"What? But Hibiki killed it yesterday! How is it still alive?" There's no way it could have lived. Hibiki tore its heart out and crushed it.
The tanned girl in question chuckles, "Must be nice living in a peaceful world. Project Legion. A plan to duplicate the primordial giant. They screwed something up, and now those brownish-purple bastards are crawling around everywhere."
"Why would anyone do such a thing?"
"Greed…" This time, it's Miku who answers. "Ffffear…"
Then it dawns on me. Serena is the only Symphogear adaptors that the FIS know of. They thought the last of them had died off two years ago. It's no surprise that they would try to weaponize the Nephilim again. If they can control the Nephilim clones, even if it's just a little, they would have a powerful force to use against other nations.
But even if they could create duplicates, how would they awaken them without a Symphogear adaptor? Would they just store them underneath stadiums and pray that a random concert would generate enough phonic gain to awaken it?
Hibiki Tachibana laughs, "Why? Do people need a reason to seek the power of a god? Everyone's the same. They spend so much time thinking about if they could, they never think if they should. Ah, what right do I have to criticise them? I'm pretty much the same."
Her tone seems to be one of self-deprecation. Laughing at her own foolishness. Openly bashing herself for previous actions. I have no right to judge her for it though.
Saying our goodbyes to the broken couple, Chris and I leave the Tachibana residence.
"It's twisted," I mutter.
The silver-haired girl raises an eyebrow, "What is?"
"How can they suffer like this and still call it happiness?"
In a bleak environment like this, people should be struggling and striving to make a better life for themselves, not sitting down and accepting their fate.
Chris replies with a slight bitter tone, "Look. I'm not an idiot like our Hibiki, nor am I unobservant like Tsubasa. You grew up in a warzone. Everyone fought tooth and claw for every meal. Erm… What I'm getting at is that you of all people should know that it's possible to find happiness even in the shittiest of times."
"It's still messed up."
"I never said it wasn't."
"No! No! No!" screams Dr Adolf, his voice barely audible over the sound of wind whipping past the open windows. He clings to the car's grab handles for dear life as Serena takes another corner. "I should have never gotten in the car with you!"
"I told you I'm a mean driver!" laughs the brown-haired Symphogear adaptor. With the driver in question being barely able to see over the steering wheel, it's a miracle they haven't crashed yet.
Adolf squeals once again as the passenger side of Serena's sedan scrapes against a concrete barrier. The now-broken door flaps as the vehicle snakes around the ruined road. The driver slams down on the brakes, the passenger feeling a moment of weightlessness as the back end of the sedan lifts up a few inches. "Fun's over. Come any further and you'll probably get killed by shrapnel or something like that."
Without waiting for a reply, she pushes the blond man out of the car, placing the briefcase of LiNKER on the passenger's seat before speeding off. The scientist is only here to provide support as well as direct Team Seven. All Serena needs to complete her mission is already here. A stash of LiNKER, a means of transportation, and her Airgetlam Symphogear. Using her left hand to steer, she grabs her pendant with her free hand.
"Seilien coffin Airgetlam tron"
The Symphogear forms over Serena's body with a bright flash. A skin-tight base suit in pastel colors materializing first, and the silver armor second. Each part attaches to the undersuit and docks with its neighbour. Some mechanical whirring can be heard for a split second as each component adjusts itself before locking into place with a metallic hiss.
"Twenty years old and I still look like a child," Serena mutters after checking her reflection in the mirror. Squinting into the distance, she spots the two temporary collaborators fighting the Nephilim. Her expression lightens, and in a louder, more confident voice, she remarks, "Well, I suppose the main heroine always arrives fashionably late."
The Nephilim isn't in its giant form yet, thankfully. It reminds me of the one we fought on Frontier, with red markings and plenty of rockets to throw around. Chris has been intercepting every one of the missiles with her own barrage, but there is only so much time before she wears out. We've been here for about ten minutes already, and we don't seem to be making any progress. The entire team of us six Symphogear adaptors had trouble dealing with it, but that thing should still be beatable without X-Drive, just not possible with two of us alone.
"Shit!" Chris curses. She pushes me out of the way as an explosion sends a metal girder flying through the air where my head used to be.
Coughing up blood as I get up, I thank Chris, "I owe you one."
But I can't get up.
Both my hands are behind my back and a knee is planted on my shoulder blades. A cold metal muzzle presses against my neck.
"You owe me nothing."
She pulls the trigger and a sharp pain bites me as pressurized LiNKER is forced through my skin.
The Ichaival user clears her throat, "I'm not doing this for you or anything stupid like that. You know exactly what you're doing. But what am I supposed to tell those idiots at home if you don't make it?"
My vision sharpens and my pulse slows down.
"Thanks Chris, I owe you one," I repeat, but the red Symphogear adaptor ignores me and climbs onto the roof of the nearest car to fire several more waves of rockets while muttering. Probably something about me.
Doctor Adolf's voice broadcasts over the coms, "Maria Cadenzavna Eve. Chris Yukine. Serena will be arriving soon. I'll set up the communications system for you."
After a few seconds of static, I hear my sister's voice howling as a black sedan appears over the horizon, "Out of the way! Move out of the way!"
The two of us dive towards the sidewalk as Serena's car flies past us, its wheels barely touching the ground. She abandons the vehicle before it crashes into the legs of the Nephilim, the explosion lighting up the street behind her. "The modern Renaissance woman, one-of-a-kind polymath, Eighth Wonder of the World, Serena Cadenzavna Eve has arrived!"
The Ichaival user retorts, "Ah, I see you're early to the fight. Don't worry. Take your time— Hey, Midget Airgetlam, aren't you a bit too little to be driving cars?"
"I'm in my twenties," my sister bites back.
I scan Serena from head to toe before asking, "Can you even see over the steering wheel?"
"A true genius can drive vehicles by sensation alone. There is no need for sight."
"But Serena, you can't reach the pedals yet."
"Don't sweat the small details."
Chris clears her throat, "If I die because the two of you are busy with your family reunion, I'll haunt you!"
A stray thought comes to mind and I give the silver-haired girl a hearty retort, "I can't imagine the one who's afraid of ghosts coming back as a spirit."
"Twelve doses. That's all we can spare you," Serena tosses me a briefcase. The silver case has a tag attached to it with the batch number and amount of LiNKER stored within.
"You're supposed to help rehabilitate the druggie, not feed her addiction," Chris snarks. Without looking back at towards the Nephilim, she stops the next barrage of missiles by shooting each one down with the submachine gun in her left hand. "Just so you know, I'm going to run out of juice soon."
She's exhausted. For the entire time we've been in this world, Chris and I have been getting into fights. Even if I'm in better shape after taking a dose of LiNKER, that doesn't change the fact that I'm still recovering from the strain of fighting Miku without using the drug.
I still think we have a chance against the Nephilim. We should be much stronger than we were when we first fought it in our own world. There definitely is a way we can pull it off, but how?
My sister clears her throat, "Hey, Chris Yukine. Do you remember that attack you used to deflect Kadingir's beam?"
Chris nods. I don't know why Serena would assume that Chris knows what attack she means. Perhaps Adolf told her about us?
"Do it again without the whole Swan Song part. Angle it thirty degrees. You'll know what to do," orders the Airgetlam wielder, "Maria. We're going to make the Nephilim fly. Also, no Dainsleif. Both of you."
Chris spins her two submachine guns around her trigger fingers and mutters something about being used to taking orders. Her armed gear's transformation is much more impressive in real life than in the grainy footage I had seen while I was part of the FIS. Her two guns merge into one large barrel, several metal bars extend from all over her armor to anchor her to the asphalt, and a dark visor drops down over her eyes.
"Serena, just out of curiosity, is there a reason why we shouldn't use the Ignite Module?" I ask.
She looks down for a bit before answering, "The power of curses. Curses. There are too many of those in this world."
Cryptic.
The Airgetlam Symphogear adaptor flicks her wrists and two whips shoot out from her sleeves. I never noticed until now, but her arm guards share a striking similarity with Shirabe's. They definitely aren't the same pair I remember seeing on my world's Serena. The whips are similar to the one from my variation of the Airgetlam, a thick metal wire with blades every few inches.
… And I thought that my fighting techniques with the silver Symphogear were unique.
I can't let Serena hog all the spotlight with her new abilities. Just like I had seen Hibiki do at the Queens of Music concert, I clasp my hands together, but instead of summoning Gungnir's spear, I transfer both gauntlets onto my right hand. With a series of metal clicks, they lock together. Just like in that movie with CGI robots, the components of my fused gauntlet begin to rearrange themselves into the shape of an arm cannon. I suppose anything else would be too much to ask for. Punching is Hibiki's thing anyways.
"It's time for the curtain to rise on Earth's greatest stage!" I declare as I brandish my new Gungnir arm cannon.
Serena and I sprint towards the Nephilim with our weapons ready. While I draw the beast's attention, she uses her whips to restrain it, wrapping the seemingly endless chain around the monster's torso and under its limbs. When I look back at the primordial giant after a few more seconds of running, even its mouth had been bound shut by Airgetlam's whip swords.
We are safe from any attacks for now. With its mouth bound shut, the Nephilim can't fire its devastating beam attack. Its limbs are restrained and it doesn't seem to have any rockets ready yet.
Serena catches my attention with a shout, "Maria! Go!"
Airgetlam's blades dig into the giant's skin as it drops to all fours and a purple ichor seeps from every cut. If that thing collapses, I'll have lost my chance to send it into the air. If we can't take this thing down, all of us are dead. There's no room for failure here.
I dash back towards the Nephilim, having switched my thrusters to maximum. My feet barely touch the ground as each step covers several meters in distance. With only about a meter left of height clearance, I slide on my back to get under the giant.
"Chris! Fire!" I call out as I unleash the full force of Gungnir's cannon. As I thought, it packs much more of a punch than using a spear to fire the beam, but it's also harder to aim.
The purple ray from my arm cannon carries the Nephilim into the air and its restraints snap, throwing Serena back from the recoil.
Chris braces herself and fires a beam at the primordial giant with a fierce bellow, "EAT THIS!"
A bright magenta flash lights up the sky and the dark clouds part as the laser passes through them. Small hints pleasant blue peek from behind the grey blanket and a shower of warm sunlight kisses the earth. The remaining portion of the evolved Nephilim, now missing the head and most of the torso, crumbles into ash before it can hit the ground.
Serena lets out a sigh. Chris collapses as her Symphogear disengages. I let out a weak laugh. We took out a Nephilim. One in its evolved state. A Nephilim in its evolved state which we could barely keep up without X-Drive. It's not the giant cataclysmal world ender that needed six Symphogears in X-Drive to defeat, but taking out this monster with three adaptors is no small feat.
"Great work, girls," I exhale as I slowly get up from the floor. My cape is mostly gone, and much of the armor on my back has been roughed up. The left antenna on my headset had broken off during the fight. Fortunately, the Symphogear armor regenerates itself every battle, though I might want to send it in for maintenance.
Not letting her exhaustion get in the way of her sarcasm, Chris croaks, "Yeah. Go team. Rah rah rah."
Our communicators set themselves on speakerphone and Adolf's voice comes through "—wachen… coming… get out of there! Now!"
But the message is too late. As I register the last words of the doctor's message, a cacophony of glass breaking, buildings collapsing, and cars exploding echoes throughout the city. The source of the disturbance rapidly approaches our position.
Serena and I scramble to help Chris up, but it's too late. A smaller Nephilim, one of the same variant that Hibiki had killed the other day, limps into view half a block from us. Crusted ichor cakes its limbs and much of its hide is covered in cuts.
Before the wounded Nephilim can take another step towards us, a great orange and white spear drops from the sky, pinning the beast down. The giant twitches before crumbling to ash with a pitiful whine.
"That oughta do it! Try hopping worlds now, you purple bastard!" a familiar voice crows. Squatting on the other end of the spear, a girl with a mane of fiery orange hair throws me a cheeky grin. "Wow, you weren't kidding about being a Gungnir wielder after all."