Chapter 28: The Arm Of God
Sirens wailed across Tokyo-3. Powerful motors roared to life and began pulling buildings to relative safety underground. NERV security began escorting the population to sheltered evacuation bunkers. Deep below their feet, in a briefing room within Central Dogma, the Magical Girls assembled.
"The next Angel has appeared." Lindy informed them. "The target, designated Zeruel, is currently moving underwater towards Old Tokyo. When comes ashore, you girls will be there to engage it."
"It feels weird to be doing this without Hayate." Vita mumbled.
Their friend was hospital-bound, paralyzed from the waist down. This would be the first battle that the rest of the Magical Girls would have to fight without her.
"I know what you mean." Lindy said. "However, we can't exactly call a time-out. The Angels are going to keep coming, whether we're ready for them or not. The best thing for you to do is destroy the Angel quickly so you can come back home to Hayate as soon as possible."
"Then let's stop talking about it and do it." Vita said. "Open us a portal, Shamal."
Shamal touched the ring on her finger, and Klarer Wind's magic created a green-rimmed portal in the air. A salty sea breeze blew through it into the briefing room.
"Good luck, girls." Lindy said.
The Magical Girls stepped through the portal and onto the shore of Old Tokyo — though it occurred to Nanoha that the region might need a new name, as the ruins of the old Japanese capital had been completely obliterated by the Angel Ramiel. The Magical Girls stood at the rim of a bay that had been carved out by the Angel when it had turned its powerful beam weapon on Nanoha and Fate. Local geography made no difference to the Angels, however; they always progressed in a straight line from the New Dead Sea towards Tokyo-3, meaning that the newest one to have awakened would also be passing through this spot.
"It's coming." Signum said.
She pointed across the bay with her sword, towards a disturbance in the water where something large was surfacing. Zeruel arose from the waves and approached the Magical Girls. The Angel's body resembled a human torso; however, where a human would have arms and legs, the Angel had only stumps. It lacked a neck entirely, instead gazing out of a skull-like mask set into the upper portion of its body. A massive glittering rod core was set into the black skin of its chest, enclosed by a cage of rib-like white bones.
"Axel Shooter!" Nanoha shouted.
"Plasma Lancer!" Fate added.
A storm of shining pink and yellow energy bolts shot towards the Angel. Instantly, a blue magic circle snapped into existence and intercepted the barrage. However, the girls were by now quite familiar with the defensive Barriers employed by Angels. Even as Nanoha and Fate's attacks were exploding against the shield, Shamal and Vita were leaping into action.
"Swallow Flier!" Vita shouted.
She swung Graf Eisen and sent a ball of seething orange energy hurtling through the air. At the same time, Shamal opened a portal. One end opened in front of Vita's projectile; the other appeared inside of Zeruel's Barrier, facing its Core. The blazing sphere of attack magic shot through the portal... and impacted a second Barrier that appeared behind the first, sandwiching Shamal's portal between two defensive walls.
"What?" Vita said.
More Barriers sprang up in front of the Angel, expanding in a stack in front of it like an unfolding accordion. The onrushing Barriers began plowing through the ground like a battering ram, gouging a trench into the edge of the bay. Signum immediately leapt into action, tackling Vita out of the way of the oncoming wall of energy; a moment later it rushed past them, pulverizing the ground where Vita had been standing.
"I don't believe it..." Shamal said. "How can we fight against that? How can we possibly fight against that power?"
"The damage!" Signum said, spitting out a mouthful of dirt. "It's in a line!"
Fate understood. When an Angel raised its Barrier, a blue magic circle appeared in front of it. Though the magic circle only seemed to cover its front side, the Angel's entire body was enclosed in a spherical shield. However, when Zeruel had extended its Barrier forwards, it had only gouged a linear path in the ground instead of a crater. That meant that while the visible portion of the Barrier had been bolstered, the back and sides were still only one layer thick. A frontal assault would never work, but maybe...
"Plasma Lancer!" Fate called.
She summoned more balls of crackling lightning, but this time did not launch them directly at the Angel. Instead, she sent them flying past its body on both sides. As soon as the spheres of energy were behind Zeruel, she focused her will on Bardiche. Her attacks stopped mid-air, then reversed direction, hurtling towards Zeruel's back. As Signum had said, the Barrier there was still only a single layer thick. However, it was a strong layer; the numerous blasts exploding against it still did not penetrate.
"We need more firepower." Fate said. "Nanoha — use Divine Buster."
"Got it." Nanoha said.
She leveled Raising Heart at the Angel, and pink energy began building up at the tip of the staff. However, before she could complete it, the Angel abruptly retracted its stack of Barriers. The long stack of magic circles snapped back to the Angel's chest like a rubber band, so that only the single original circle was visible. The Angel then surged forwards, rushing down the trench it had gouged out of the ground with incredible speed. It blew past the startled Magical Girls in an instant.
"You won't get away!" Nanoha shouted at the Angel's back. "Divine Buster!"
She swivelled to follow the Angel's movement and fired her charged attack down the trench after it. Before it struck, however, the Angel's magic circle appeared to rotate around its body to covers it back. It then stretched into a stack again, crashing headlong into Nanoha's oncoming beam of energy. The lance of pink magic blasted harmlessly against an impossibly thick cylinder of layered shields; Zeruel could only extend a line of multiple Barriers in one direction, but it could choose which direction. As soon as Nanoha's beam attack had faded, the Angel retracted its Barriers once more and continued speeding onwards into the distance.
"Unbelievable." Nanoha said. "Lindy, we have a problem. The Angel ignored us. It's heading towards Tokyo-3 — and it's a lot faster out of the water."
"We see it; the MAGI are tracking its position." Lindy's voice came over the earpieces worn by the Magical Girls. "I recommend you portal back to the perimeter of Tokyo-3 and re-engage the Angel there."
"Acknowledged." Signum said.
"It took us by surprise this time." Vita said. "That won't happen again. Next time, we'll be ready for it."
Shamal opened a portal that took the Magical Girls directly back to Tokyo-3, once more in the path of the invading Angel. They positioned themselves on the outskirts of the city and prepared themselves for a second attempt at stopping it.
"The Angel still picking up speed." Lindy reported. "That could be a problem. If it ignores you again and goes straight for the city, it could do a lot of damage before you can stop it."
"I have a plan." Shamal said. "As soon as it comes into sight, I'll open a portal in front of it. The Angel will have to stop and change direction to get around it. That's when we can hit it."
"And if the Angel's going too fast to stop itself in time, well, you can just snap the portal closed and guillotine the damn thing." Vita pitched in.
"While I block the Angel's advance with my portals, the other girls will hit it from multiple directions at once." Shamal said. "We'll break that Barrier."
"Good plan." Lindy said. "Get ready, because the MAGI report the Angel should be coming into range any moment now.
"I see it!" Nanoha said, pointing.
The Angel had built up considerable speed. It was continuing to move in a straight line, using its stack of powerful Barriers to simply plow through anything unfortunate enough to be in its way. A trail of destruction was left in its wake.
"I'm opening a portal now." Shamal said.
A circle of glowing green magic appeared in the air between them and the rapidly approaching Angel. The Angel immediately began decelerating, apparently recognizing the danger posed by Shamal's magic. Though one would expect something so large to have too much momentum to stop easily, the Angel's magic allowed it to defy the ordinary laws of physics, bringing it to a halt safely in front of Shamal's portal despite its impressive bulk.
"Fate and I will go left." Nanoha said. "Vita, Signum, you take the right."
Before the girls could implement their plan, however, the Angel took action. Infernal white flames kindled inside the hollow eyesockets of its skull-like face. A moment later, beams of light stabbed out from the holes, joining together into a single spear of devastating energy. The beam struck the ground in front of Shamal's portal, creating an explosion so massive that the shockwave broke windows in the city behind the Magical Girls. They quickly raised defensive shields as a wave of heat rolled over them and shards of debris pelted down.
"I don't believe it!" Lindy shouted. "It just penetrated eighteen layers of armor plating with a single shot!"
The haze of the explosion slowly dissipated, allowing the girls to view their opponent once more. The incredible intensity of the eye beams had carved a gaping tunnel into the ground, and the Angel had begun to descend into it. Previous Angels had tried to travel to the center of Tokyo-3 before attempting to penetrate the GeoFront, because that was where the dome was thinnest and they had the greatest chance of breaking through. Zeruel, however, seemed to be confident in its ability to carve its own path into the GeoFront — and not unreasonably so, given the apparent destructive power of its eye beams.
"Shamal!" Nanoha called. "Can you open a portal inside the tunnel? Block its path?"
"I'm trying!" Shamal said. "It's not working! I think it's because... I can't open a portal in a space that's already occupied by something else. I think the Angel has extended its Barrier to fill up the tunnel so that there's no room for me to open a portal."
The ground trembled, and a fresh gout of smoke and flame blew out of the end of the tunnel.
"GeoFront armor has been breached!" Lindy said. "It's breaking in!"
"I'll portal us down to the GeoFront." Shamal said. "We'll intercept it down there."
She opened a portal in front of the Magical Girls, and they all rushed through, heading underground to attempt to face the Angel for the third time.
They girls emerged inside the GeoFront just in time to see a portion of the dome collapse. Fortunately, because the Angel had still been a considerable distance from the city when it carved the tunnel, the damage was to a lower section of one of the far walls of the dome rather than to the upper portion from which the buildings of Tokyo-3 hung.
"We have to stop the Angel here." Nanoha said. "If it ignores us and rushes forwards again, it'll destroy NERV."
"This time, I'll give it something it can't ignore." Vita said. "I'm going to hit it head-on. I don't care how many Barriers it has; I'll break through them all! Missile Hammer!"
Orange magic gathered around the head of Graf Eisen. On one side, it gathered into a sharp, piercing cone of focused destructive power; on the other, it began burning like a rocket engine, propelling Vita forwards at great speed. The Angel saw her coming and began extending its stack of magic circles towards her, but Vita didn't slow down even as she approached the wall of defensive magic at break-neck speeds. There was an almighty crash as she impacted, and the other girls were blinded by a brilliant flash as Vita's magic struck Zeruel's Barriers. When the cloud of mixed blue and orange sparks had faded, they saw that she had actually broken through the first few of the Angel's Barrier. Vita was continuing to press Graf Eisen forwards, a look of grim determination on her face; and as the other girls watched, another one of the blue magic circles shattered into blue shards under the relentless pressure of the burning orange magic drilling into it.
Zeruel ignored Vita when she first flew at it; however, when her magic began breaking through its Barriers, it began to show a reaction. Its skeletal eyesockets filled with blazing light as it prepared to unleash the destructive eye beam that it had used to blast its way into the GeoFront. However, Nanoha had begun summoning her own magical power the moment she saw Vita rushing to attack; and when the Angel released a blazing gout of fire from its eyes, Nanoha fired a blast of her own to counter it.
"Divine Buster!"
Nanoha's beam of pink energy collided with the torrent of power released by the Angel. Though Nanoha's magic initially held back the flood of hot white fire pouring from the Angel's eyes, the incredible strength of the Angel's offensive energy began overwhelming her own. The beam began pushing Nanoha's Divine Buster back, towards the tip of Raising Heart. However, Nanoha didn't stop struggling, even as the heat of the encroaching beam began singing the fringes of her Barrier Jacket. As long as she could keep holding back the Angel's attack, it would be unable to target Vita, who was still steadily drilling her way through the Angel's Barriers. As thick as Zeruel's defenses were, Vita had been making steady progress through them, pressing closer and closer to its body. Only four magic circles still blocked her path... three... two... one...
Nanoha couldn't hold back Zeruel's fire any longer. The beam of white energy surged forwards, devouring her own faltering pink beam and enveloping her. Nanoha raised a protective shield around herself at the last moment, but it was simply impossible for her magic to withstand the Angel's overwhelming might. There was a large explosion, then Nanoha tumbled to the ground, flaming shreds of her Barrier Jacket falling around her. As she hit the ground of the GeoFront, there was a shower of blue sparks, and Vita penetrated the Angel's final Barrier. The young Magical Girl leapt forwards with a shout, driving the magic-laden tip of her hammer for the Angel's large, exposed Core. The last glowing embers of Zeruel's last barrage of energy were still fading from its eyes; there was no way it could charge up another blast before Vita's attack hit home. Vita gave a yell of triumph —
— which abruptly gave way to a shout of pain, as something struck her from the side. Two long, thin, ribbon-like arms had dropped down from Zeruel's shoulders and extended to strike the girl moments before she would have hit the Core. Though the Angel's arms looked flimsy, the magic imbued in them made their structure strong, their movements rapid, and their edges razor-sharp. Their rapid impacts knocked Vita away before Graf Eisen could connect with the Angel's Core, hurling her to the ground with blood spraying from deep cuts where the Angel had cut through her Barrier Jacket as though it was ordinary fabric. Not satisfied with the damage it had already inflicted, the Angel then sent one of its arms slicing down like a guillotine, aiming to cut Vita's head off.
"Violet Lightning Flash!" Signum roared.
She had begun moving forwards to engage the Angel the moment Vita had pierced its Barriers. Now, seeing the danger her friend was in, she altered the course of her flight. Bright red flames wrapped around Laevatein, and the magically enhanced blade tore through the Angel's arms. The severed portions dissolved into blue slush, which rained down harmlessly on Vita. She then turned around, seeking the Angel's Core; but since she had altered course to save Vita, she was no longer directly in front of it, and the Angel's rib bones protected its Core from the sides. Signum began gathering energy for an attack strong enough to break through the bony material, believing she was safe because the Angel's arms had been severed and its head wasn't flexible enough for it to turn its eye beam on her. However, the Angel did something she wasn't expecting: it suddenly accelerated forwards, physically body-slamming Signum. Its large bulk hit her like a freight train, sending her sailing backwards through the air, into to range of its fiery eyes.
As the Angel unleashed its devastating blast, a green portal opened in front of it. Shamal caught the beam before it could strike Signum, and the paired portal sent it straight back at the Angel. Zeruel immediately stopped putting power into the beam, its eyesockets overflowing with held-back flame, but the energy it had already released was enough to do considerable damage. Though the Angel's ribs protected its Core, the force of the explosion shattered those bony projections, causing them to crumble away in a slew of blue sparks.
Zeruel's eyes flashed, and it released the remaining energy that had built up within them. Shamal opened another portal in front of herself, but she had misjudged the beam's trajectory. Zeruel had aimed not directly at her, but at ground below. As the blast detonated, a pillar of flame shot up from the impact point, and Shamal was engulfed in the midpoint of a cross-shaped explosion. Taken by surprise, she didn't manage to raise a shield in time, and the sudden inferno scalded her through her Barrier Jacket. She fell to ground, trailing smoke and flame, and the sky was left empty. Zeruel cast its eyes about, looking for the lone Magical Girl that had not yet engaged it.
Fate stood on the ground next to Nanoha. When the Angel's first attack had knocked Nanoha from the sky, all thoughts of engaging it had fled from Fate's mind; her only concern was checking that her precious friend was still alive. Nanoha did still live, but she was severely injured; large portions of her Barrier Jacket had burned away, and the skin beneath was charred. Seeing Nanoha's condition, Fate's mind had been overtaken by a rage the likes of which she had never before felt. She had focused all of that anger into Bardiche, focused it into her magic. Now yellow energy boiled around her like a condensed thunderstorm. She leveled Bardiche at the Angel and screamed, pushing all her strength into the attack.
"Trident Smasher!"
An enormous beam of yellow power erupted from Bardiche. It forked as it roared through the air at the Angel, splitting into three beams of incredible intensity, all focused on the Angel's glittering Core. The beams struck, and the Angel was engulfed in an explosion so massive that it caused the entirety of the GeoFront to tremble. Zeruel was obscured at the center of a roiling cloud of debris created by the shockwave.
"Did... it work...?" Nanoha asked feebly.
Slowly, the smoke began to clear. Zeruel's body had been heavily damaged by the immeasurable quantities of burning magic energy that Fate had struck it will. Rivers of blue blood fell like waterfalls from numerous wounds. However, as for Fate's target, the Angel's Core... at the last instant, a clamshell-like shield of bone had snapped closed around the Core, and not even Fate's threefold attack had managed to pierce it. Fate slumped to the ground, having exhausted all her energy in the failed attack. The Angel slowly moved towards her, its body regenerating as it approached. As soon as its ribbon-like arms had repaired themselves, the Angel extended them towards the two girls. The end of the arms split into crude hands, two fingers and a thumb, which seized the two Magical Girls. Zeruel hoisted them into the air and began squeezing them mercilessly. The pressure forced the air from their lungs, preventing them from even screamin.
"Graf Eisen — Gigantform!" Vita called. "Destruction Hammer!"
Vita was bleeding badly, too weak to stand. But when she saw the other girls in danger, she summoned up what power she had left and poured it into Graf Eisen. The hammer grew to gigantic size and the handle extended, allowing Vita to slam it against the Angel's back. The force of her hammer strikes made the Angel's entire body tremble, and great gouts of blue blood erupted from the point of impact. Zeruel dropped Nanoha and Fate like rag dolls and turned around its arms so they pointed behind it. The arms extended rapidly, shooting forwards like spears; and Vita, too feeble to move, could do nothing to dodge them.
A moment before the razor-edged arms would have pierced her, a portal opened in front of her. As soon as the arms had passed through, it snapped shut, severing them. Zeruel turned around once more, refocusing its gaze on Shamal. Though portions of her Barrier Jacket were still smoldering from the fire that had washed over her, she had regained enough focus to employ her magic once more. However, while were well-suited to defending her friends, she had no means of actually attacking the Angel. She could do nothing as Zeruel patiently waited for its arms to regenerate. As soon as the razor-edged tips had reformed, it sent them hurtling towards Signum. Shamal was prepared to open a portal to defend herself, but the Angel sent its arms curving in opposite directions, striking at her from two sides at once. Shamal caught one with a portal, but the other slipped in under her guard and skewered her, punching through her Barrier Jacket and the flesh beneath with no resistance. Shamal cried out in pain as the Angel's appendage pierced her side.
Signum rushed to the stricken Magical Girl's aid, severing the arm with Laevatein. She then took a moment to rekindle the magic flames coating the blade and re-energize her flight spell, then leaped towards the Angel. However, she hadn't completely thrown off the effects of the hard hit she'd taken earlier; her movement was considerably slower. She was still moving towards the Angel when there was a blue shimmer in the air and a magic circle inscribed itself in front of her — Zeruel had raised its Barrier once more. Before Signum could react, more Barriers formed, extending forwards into a battering ram the plowed her into the ground and pressed her flat against the dirt. The stack of Barriers then retracted, leaving Signum at the bottom of a shallow cylindrical cut-out of compressed dirt in the ground. Though she was clearly injured, Signum fought through the pain and drew herself back up to her feet.
"Fire... Dragon... Flash!" Signum managed to say.
She flung a lance of red fire from Laevatein at the towering Angel. The magic exploded impressively against the Angel's Barrier, engulfing it in a sheet of crackling flames; but breaking one Barrier meant nothing when there were dozens more beneath it. The stack of Barriers extended once more, pounding Signum into the ground again; harder, this time, embedding her deeper in the ground. And still she tried to pull herself to her feet once more, leaning on her sword for support as she tried to drag herself out of the grave the Angel had created for her.
Zeruel drew back from the injured Magical Girls. It appeared annoyed, as much as such an emotion could be said to apply to an Angel at all, by the unexpected persistence of the Magical Girls in the face of its overwhelming might. But it seemed the Angel was determined to put an end to any further resistance with a single strike. Annihilating light poured once more from the Zeruel's eyesockets. But this time, instead of being focused into a single coherent beam, it spread out over an area. A field of pillars of brilliant white fire erupted from the ground across the GeoFront. Horizontal arms spread out from the pillars as they rose towards the ceiling, giving the explosions the shape of crosses. The field of crosses gave the ground of the GeoFront the appearance of a giant graveyard for the Magical Girls lying prone on the ground below.
Slowly, as though with exaggerated deliberation, the Angel turned towards Central Dogma. Its eye beams lanced out, punching a flaming hole into the side of the black pyramid. Zeruel floated over to it, then began to descend.
"Girls!" Lindy shouted into the comm. "Girls! Can you hear me!"
"It's no good." Shigeru said. "The MAGI say that they're in no condition to fight anymore. They're all unconscious, or else..."
"They are not dead!" Lindy shouted, tears in her eyes. "They can't die! Not like this!"
The Command Center suddenly shuddered violently, causing the lights to flicker for a moment.
"All of the bulkheads have been breached!" Makoto said. "The central shaft is wide open! The Angel is descending! It's heading... heading..."
"My God!" Maya cried. "It's heading here! It's coming right for us!"
"Evacuate the Command Center." Precia said.
Her voice perfectly calm, as though this was an order she gave every day. When she saw everyone staring at her in shock rather than rushing to obey, however, she sharpened her tone.
"Now." Precia said. "This area is no longer safe."
"The MAGI..." Maya began.
"Cannot be relocated." Precia said. "You, however, can. I suggest you do so immediately."
"Come on, people!" Fuyutsuki shouted. "We're relocating our operations to the backup Command Center. Move!"
The bridge officers had never before heard Fuyutsuki raise the level of his voice. The shock of it broke them out of their stunned confusion, and they began running towards the room's exits. Fuyutsuki began moving towards the nearest exit as well, then stopped and sent a questioning glance back at Precia. The Commander had not moved an inch from her normal post.
"Go on ahead, Professor." Precia said lightly. "I am putting you in charge of the backup Command Center for the remainder of the battle. I will remain here, to greet our most rude uninvited guest."
Then the Commander smiled. And although Fuyutsuki knew that the enormously powerful Angel tearing its way through the heart of NERV might be only seconds away, it was the expression on Precia's face that made him turn around and bolt for the door as fast as his old legs could carry him.
Less then a minute passed between the moment when the evacuation of the Command Center was announced and the moment when Zeruel arrived. The Angel burst through the wall of the Command Center, causing the holographic battlefield display to dissolve it static. Though the room had a spacious design, the massive Angel's bulk filled nearly the entire space. The hollow eye-sockets in its skeletal mask seemed to take in the scene: the three bulky MAGI computers, the empty computer stations, and the single woman who had not evacuated. Precia Testarossa stood at her station, staring defiantly back at the intruder.
"You will not be allowed to advance any further." Precia said, the words directed at the monstrous Angel as frigid and emotionless as the tone she used in ordinary conversation. "Nor will I permit you to damage the MAGI."
The Angel showed no sign of understanding Precia's words. White light gathered within its eye sockets as it prepared to unleash a devastating magical blast. And Precia stared back, twin points of brilliant white light kindling within her own pupils as magic roared forth from her like a tsunami. She simultaneously summoned three protective magic barriers, which enclosed the MAGI within thick shells of purple energy that not even the terrifying might of Zeruel would be able to penetrate. At the same time, she raised her right arm in a sharp, slashing motion. A thick cord of purple lightning sprang from her fingers, and the Angel did not even have time to raise its Barrier before the attack struck it. Precia's magic whip tore a deep gash in the Angel's body, just below the bony mask and above the shell covering its Core. Zeruel screamed, its voice containing equal measures surprise and pain, and the destructive energy that it had been gathering fizzled into nothing.
Precia showed no reaction to the sound of the Angel's cry, nor to the spray of sparking blue blood that gushed from the wound she had inflicted. However, when the injured Angel began thrashing about, doing further damage to the already structurally compromised Command Center, she raised her other hand. Another protective magical barrier appeared around her; then all four of the barriers began to expand. As she poured more magic into them, they fused together into an inexorably advancing wall that pushed the Angel back through the tunnel it had blasted in Central Dogma, back into the open air of the GeoFront. Precia rose into the air and floated after the Angel at a leisurely pace, the aura of magic around her making her shine like a malevolent star.
Despite its increasingly desperate attempts to resist, the Angel picked up speed as it was forced backwards through the tunnel. By the time it reached the end, it had picked up so much momentum that it was hurled like a cannonball through the air. It landed on its back with an enormous crash at the same moment Precia rose up into the air of the GeoFront. She dispelled the magical barrier she had used to batter Zeruel as she ascended to the peak of the black pyramid of Central Dogma.
Zeruel drew itself back up, its magic allowing it to flip easily upright despite its stumpy limbs. The wound that Precia had cut across the Angel's chest sealed itself and vanished in a crackle of blue energy. At the same time, white fire began to gather once more within the Angel's eye sockets as it tried a second time to unleash the devastating beam attack that had annihilated the defenses around Tokyo-3 with ease. Precia raised her right arm and extended her index finger at the Angel at an almost leisurely speed, at though she was entirely unconcerned at the inferno of energy swelling within the Angel's eyes. Then a massive purple lightning bolt erupted from her finger. It forked as it covered the distance between Precia and the Angel, and each branch of sizzling, crackling power plunged directly into one of the Angel's eye sockets.
After a moment, the lightning bolt faded. In the next moment, jets of blue blood began spraying from the Angel's gouged eye sockets. The Angel did not scream this time; it did not appear to be able to. It drew in air, as though preparing to bellow; but when it opened its mouth, a veritable waterfall of blue blood gushed out. Precia hadn't just poked out the Angel's eyes; she'd poured a current of highly destructive magical energy directly into its body. Her magic was still breaking the Angel's body down just as fast as it could heal itself.
As the energy Precia had poured into the Angel's body slowly exhausted itself, the Angel drew back upright. Blue sparks crawled across its entire body as it used the enormous magical reserves of its Core to regenerate. Though Precia's attack had temporarily incapacitated it, her magic had not been able to break apart the Angel's well-protected Core, and an Angel could eventually heal from anything so longs as its Core remained intact. The Angel's eyes, which had been directly impacted by Precia's lightning bolt, seemed to suffer the worst residual effects; waterfalls of blue blood continued to fall from the sockets even when the rest of the damage to the Angel's body had been regenerated.
Its primary weapon clearly non-functional, the Angel extended its whip-like tentacles from its stubby arms. It wasted no time in Despite the evident damage to its eyes, the Angel did not appear to be impaired by blindness; it was not using mere human senses. Zeruel's left whip scythed through the air with perfect accuracy, coming down in an arc that would cut Precia in half lengthwise if it connected. However, as the Angel's whip-like arm approached, Precia clenched her hand and a whip of her own materialized there. A cord of purple energy lashed out from her whip, easily tearing the Angel's flimsy arm in half. At the same time, however, the Angel extended its right arm. The cutting edge shot towards Precia like a spear. At the last moment, a magic barrier suddenly sprang up in front of Precia. She didn't even flinch as the Angel's arm slammed viciously against it. The magic circle flashed at the impact and released a bolt of lightning which traveled back up the Angel's arm to its shoulder. The arm crumbled to ash, and there was a spurt of blue blood from the Angel's arm stump.
Zeruel backed up slightly and raised its mighty Barrier. More Barriers then began flashing into existence in front of it, forming a cylinder of blue defensive magic that rushed towards Precia like a battering ram. Precia didn't even attempt to dodge, instead standing her ground and pouring more energy into her own magical shield. When the Angel's rapidly extending rod of layered shields finally impacted, the sheer force of the magic pushed Precia backwards like a rag doll. The cylinder drove towards the pyramid of Central Dogma, attempting to crush Precia against the black wall behind her. However, the farther the Barriers extended from Zeruel's body, the weaker they became. The speed at which Precia was being forced backwards rapidly decreased; and by the time she had reached the pyramid, she had regained her composure. As her feet lightly touched the slope of the pyramid, she pressed both of her hands against her shield and sent a surge of magic into it. Her magic circle flared brilliantly, and the Barrier pressing up against it shattered into glittering shards. Before Zeruel could react, Precia pushed off with her feet and began flying straight towards the Angel. Barrier after Barrier broke to pieces as Precia barreled through the Angel's overextended defenses like a cannonball. The Barriers became thicker as she approached the Angel's body, but Precia concentrated her power into a wedge that pierced all resistance. She erupted through the final Barrier and slammed into Zeruel's chest, her magic giving the impact such force that the Angel was knocked onto its back.
Precia raised one hand, and her whip-like Device rematerialized. She swung the crackling lash of energy downwards into the thin line where the two halves of the shell that had closed around the Angel's Core met. The tip of the whip dug into the tiny gap, then forked into two. With agonizing slowness, the tips spread farther apart, prying the Angel's last defense open like a clamshell. Though she was only able to reveal a small wedge of the Core, it was enough. Still holding her whip in one hand, Precia dropped to her knees and thrust her other arm into the red crystal up to the elbow. Zeruel screamed in agony as cracks spread out from where Precia had penetrated it. Then the cracks began to shine with an internal purple light as Precia began channeling her magic directly into the Angel's Core, ripping it apart from within. There was a tremendous explosion as a second sun bloomed within Zeruel's torso, bathing the entire GeoFront in an unearthly purple light and causing pebble-sized fragments of red crystal to pelt the dome's far walls. A moment later, the deceased Angel's body melted into a lake of blue slush. And Precia rose up into the air above the Angel's rapidly evaporating remains, surrounded by an aura of flickering magic, looking like the advent of a Goddess of storm and fury.
The MAGI located the Magical Girls were lying amidst the devastated scenery in the GeoFront, and medical teams were dispatched immediately. Miraculously, all five girls were still alive, though all were severely wounded. They were immediately rushed to the infirmary to receive treatment. The girls were unconscious when the were brought in; upon seeing their condition, Dr. Akagi immediately gave them sedatives to keep them unconscious. It was hours before the woke again; and even with the medical work that had been done, Dr. Akagi had to give them painkillers before the were able to speak.
"The Angel...?" Nanoha asked.
"Destroyed." Dr. Akagi said.
"By who?" Signum inquired. "I thought I was the last to be taken down, that all of the other girls had already fallen. Who..."
The door to the infirmary opened, and Commander Precia Testarossa strode imperiously into the room.
"I defeated the Angel." she said.
Precia snapped her fingers, sending a sparkling mote of magic drifting through the air.
"You... you're a Magical Girl, too!" Nanoha said
"Mother?" Fate asked, an expression of wonderment on her face.
"All our power combined could not defeat the Angel." Signum said. "For you to have prevailed alone... your strength must be truly incredible."
"You should be more concerned with your weakness than my strength." Precia said coldly. "I am very disappointed in you all. It was your duty to stop the Angel, and you failed. This kind of performance is simply inexcusable. You should all be ashamed to have lost to an opponent I was able to defeat with only the most meager exertion of my power. I will not tolerate another failure such as this, do you understand? In fact, you should consider yourselves lucky that I do not terminate your employments immediately. What is the point in even having you fight the Angels, if you are only going to lose and force me to handle them myself? Indeed, you should consider yourself lucky to still be alive. Had I not had the foresight to grant myself magical powers, there would have been no one left to stop the Angel after your defeat. It would have penetrated Terminal Dogma, initiated Third Impact, and brought about the end of the world. Do you understand? Your incompetence today would have wiped out the entire human race, if not for me. The blood of billions of innocents would be on your hands, if not for me. I hope you all think about that very carefully while you are recuperating."
Precia cast her gaze back and forth across the Magical Girls. Shocked by the Commander's caustic words, none of them dared meet her eyes. After a long, uncomfortable moment, Precia turned on her heels and left the room, letting the door slam shut behind. She then proceeded to walk directly to Dr. Akagi's office.
"How long until the girls are once more combat ready, doctor?" Precia asked.
"Their magic lets them heal fast." Ritsuko said. "They'll be fully recovered by the end of the week, and probably in good enough condition to fight against an Angel a few days before that, if absolutely necessary."
"But for the next several days, I will be NERV's only defense should an Angel appear within that time frame?" Precia asked.
"Yes." Dr. Akagi admitted. "Though the odds of two Angels awakening in such a short period of time are low, and you seem to have had no problem dealing with Zeruel yourself, so I'm not sure about the reason for your concern."
"I am not concerned." Precia corrected her. "I am displeased. I have five Magical Girls in my employ precisely so I would not have to personally intervene in combat with Angels. No doubt I put on quite a show for the old men at SEELE — with our MAGI hacked, they can use their override codes to access our records of the battle. They are probably already having their own MAGI units analyze and dissect my strength, abilities, and tactics, looking for weaknesses to exploit when they make their move against me. It makes me wonder about the usefulness of keeping them around at all. Tell me, how long until Fate has recovered enough for me to properly discipline her for her failure?"
Ritsuko flinched and looked away.
"I'm sure she did the best she could..." Ritsuko began.
"She did, did she?" Precia said. "Because if this loss were the result of her laziness and general failure to live up to her full potential, than that would be a problem that might be rectified through a sharp lashing and a stern reminder of her duty. If, however, she gave the very best effort she could and still lost, that would make her utterly worthless. Garbage that should be discarded immediately so it stops weighing us down. Is that what you think, doctor?"
Ritsuko lowered her head.
"I'm sure you're right." she said, trying to keep the loathing out of her voice. "I'm going to release the girls from the infirmary tonight, with instructions to spend the next couple of days resting. A day or two wait should be enough to let you beat your daughter without any risk of accidentally killing her."
Precia stared at Ritsuko for a moment with her cold, compassionless eyes, then gave the doctor a sharp strike across the cheek.
"Call her Fate." Precia said. "Do not call her my daughter."
The Commander strode away without waiting for a response.
Over the course of the day, the girls' depleted magic reserves slowly replenished, allowing them to begin healing themselves. By nightfall, they were all in stable enough condition for Ritsuko to release them from the infirmary, though she strongly advised them to come in for daily checkups over the next two weeks and not to waste their magic on anything other than healing until she approved it. After assuring Ritsuko that they would follow her instruction, the girls were sent back to their homes. Nanoha and Fate began the walk back to Lindy's apartment. While they were waiting for one of the lifts that would take them up out of the GeoFront, Fate spoke.
"Nanoha..." Fate said.
"Hm?" Nanoha asked.
"When we were fighting Zeruel, I thought that we really might lose this time." Fate said. "That we really might die. And I realized... that if that happened, my biggest regret would be never confessing to you."
"Fate...?" Nanoha said.
"There's no longer any doubt in my mind." Fate said. "I love you the same way you love me. Romantically, and unreservedly. With all my heart."
Nanoha tried to speak again, but Fate raised a delicate finger to Nanoha's lips, silencing her. Fate slowly brought her head in close, until Nanoha could see nothing but her large, beautiful eyes. Then Fate leaned forwards, bringing their lips together. Nanoha raised her arms and embraced her, and it seemed like the moment would last forever.
Finally, Fate took a step backwards, breaking the kiss. Nanoha felt herself blushing as Fate gave her a radiant smile.
"Will you be my girlfriend, Nanoha?" Fate asked.
"Yes." Nanoha said. "Of course."
The two blushing girls held hands as they walked the rest of the way back to Lindy's place.
"My first real battle, and I have emerged triumphant." Precia said. "An Angel that all of our Magical Girls combined could not combat, and I defeated it singlehandedly. What do you think, Fuyutsuki? Rather impressive, was I not?"
Impressive it was. But also frightening. When they had first discovered that Intelligent Devices could only successfully bond with pubescent girls, Fuyutsuki had feared the consequences of putting so much power into the hands of such young children. They were immature, he had told Precia then; lacking the wisdom and temperament to use such enormous power responsibly. But now, having seen the powers of a Magical Girl wielded by Precia, he thought perhaps he had been wrong. Looking at the yong Magical Girls, he saw innocence, naivety, and the sincere belief that they could use their abilities for the good of the world. Looking at Precia, he saw only ruthlessness, an unyielding determination to destroy everything that stood in her way. The girls had said after their battle with Matariel that they would never use their powers against fellow humans; but Precia, Fuyutsuki had no trouble imagining her reigning down annihilating lightning upon the old men of SEELE with the same blank expression she'd worn when she shattered the Angel's Core.
As was so often the case when speaking with his former student lately, Fuyutsuki hid his true feelings behind a facade of humor.
"I don't know, I was a bit disappointed." he said lightheartedly. "You went about it so directly. I was hoping I'd get to hear you shouting out fancy attack names like the girls."
"You should know me better than that, professor." Precia chided him. "I would not make a spectacle of myself like an adolescent child even if I was capable of using spells the way they do."
"I don't quite get your meaning." Fuyutsuki said. "Are you saying the way you use magic is different from them?"
"Fundamentally so." Precia said. "The Angels bound within them have been lobotomized, but still retain some degree of functionality. Hence the name Intelligent Devices. When one of the girls wants to perform magic, her pet Angel does the difficult job of directing its magic towards a specific purpose, then hands the result to the Magical Girl as a pre-packaged spell: shout "Divine Buster" to attack, "Protection" to defend, "Flier Fin" to fly, as so on. The more intelligence the Angel is allowed to retain, the more effectively it can serve its purpose as an Intelligent Device. Hayate had the most powerful spells because she had the most assistance from the Angel whose power she was using. Of course, you know how that ended."
"Poorly." Fuyutsuki said.
"To the contrary." Precia said. "I once had the MAGI calculate the probability of a Magical Girl surviving the awakening of her Intelligent Device, and Hayate should consider herself extremely fortunate to have come through with nothing more than paraplegia. I am not willing to take such a risk with my own life. Before undergoing the bonding procedure myself, I instructed Dr. Akagi to modify SEELE's procedure for converting Cores to Intelligent Devices, so that its mind would be not merely limited but entirely destroyed. Though this has eliminated the risk of it taking me over, it has also removed its ability to assist me with channeling my magic. It can do nothing but provide me with raw magical energy, which I myself must mold into a usable form."
A useable form, she said. Fuyutsuki realized then why her Device had manifested not as a staff or sword like Raising Heart or Laevatein, but as a whip. Precia had modeled it off of the whip she used to punish Fate.
"It is time to move things forward, Fuyutsuki." Precia said. "We can no longer tolerate the continued presence of the SEELE spy in our midst. The potential harm of any treachery was limited while the Magical Girls were intercepting the Angels; but if I must enter battle myself, well, that is a different matter entirely. Betrayal at a critical moment in a battle against a powerful Angel might endanger my life. No, the mole within our ranks must be found before the next Angel attacks. This must be our top priority, even above repairs to Central Dogma."
Fuyutsuki nodded mutely, not daring to interrupt.
"We will find the source of the poison rotting us from within, no matter what it takes." Precia continued. "The spy will not be allowed to slip through our nets again. No stone will be left unturned, and no person spared investigation because they are above suspicion — in fact, I'll begin the interrogations with you, Fuyutsuki. Be at me office tomorrow at noon."
Even though she said it casually, Fuyutsuki knew it was an order. He was mostly unconcerned, as he had been so intimately involved with the running of NERV that Precia had to know that she'd never have gotten as far she had if he'd been a mole. But not entirely unconcerned. Knowing what he did about the depths of Precia's cruelty, he could never be entirely unconcerned when she cast her gaze on him. For instance, he was almost certain that the Commander would never lash him for a failure the way she did Fate — but the mere fact that he felt a need to include the "almost" was enough to send a cold shiver up his spine.
"Yes, Commander." Fuyutsuki said.
"The investigation will start at the top of the hierarchy and move downwards." Precia said. "Obviously, the lower the position of the mole, the less damage they are in a position to cause; and therefore the less the risk of taking a while longer to find them. The spy is likely someone in Central Dogma, given that they were able to access the MAGI during the blackout. Start a list, Fuyutsuki: Major Harlaown, Lieutenant Ibuki, Lieutenant Hyuga, Lieutenant Aoba... oh, and put our guest Clyde at the top of the list. I doubt his superiors at SEELE were foolish enough to tell him the name of their second spy; but he might have deduced it himself over the course of his observations, or the spy might have unwisely established contact with him. Unlikely, but worth investigating. And if that fails... I will have to do it the hard way."
