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Dragons rise from the lake at a tremendous rate. Okuu can only shoot down a couple of them with her power over Nuclear Fusion, and the rest she has to dodge. They come at her so rapidly that she can't even focus on the ancient, who she's since lost sight of. If there was an opening the raven would take it, but this attack is so ruthless she can't even see a path to approach. It might be soon for her to release the big guns.
"Warning: Explosion Sign, Peta Flare!"
Explosions rock the sky. In a wide range multiple detonation occur before the aim of her "3rd Leg." Like those flares from before, they start as ultra-hot balls of fire, but as they travel outward they rapidly shrink in size. This decimates the army of dragons, if not destroying them completely by blowing them to bits. It's a good way to clear a field if you don't care about collateral damage.
Cirno is nowhere to be found. However, as from where the dragons were coming, she was looking down. Turning skyward, she's just in time to see the blue devil racing towards her.
A high speed slash with her sword of ice, neglected as far back as her battle with Suika. Cirno lost the element of surprise soon enough for Okuu to block with her Control Rod. With her speed and strength of her sword, she almost expects to cut the raven and her infernal device in two, but her sword effortlessly breaks upon impact. Not completely surprising, at her speed she's outside the raven's melee range in a flash. Getting close is perhaps the most dangerous thing the ancient can do.
Okuu is about to pursue, but a glint catches her attention above. Reflecting light from her multitude of flares, an icicle betrayed it's master by revealing it's position. Worse yet, it wasn't the only icicle. As if it were the end of the world, hundreds of thousands of spears of icy death are raining down from on high.
The nuclear powered raven starts by dodge the first few, but then fires a couple of blasts while she tries to wait out the storm. Unfortunately this hail will be without end. Past from where the icicles are being born are several glowing blue orbs. Alice, Reisen, and Youmu would recognize them.
Approach was impossible plus it was very hard to see every single orb that had been created. Too much firepower would be wasted while she tried to find them all. So she would take them all out in one fell swoop.
"Warning: Subterranean Sun!"
While she might not have been underground, little did that matter. Okuu's body glows to the point of being indistinguishable, and energy emerges from her. Engulfed in her own ball of fire, it's unknown if the ball is coming from her body or if she's been devoured by her own power. Whatever the case, the ball slowly expands.
The expanding ball wasn't the only problem. It wasn't simply a ball of fire, but an actual star. Cirno herself can feel the pull of gravity, but her great speed and maneuverability is more then enough to combat it's effects. However, those stationary orbs hold their positions no longer. As they continue to spew an endless amount of icicles, they are being pulled into the miniature sun. It's no surprise where this is going.
After a half minute, they unimpressively fizzle into nothingness as they're eaten by the star.
Still does the star grow. Pulling loose snow, foliage, and other random junk. As long as it continues to eat it will continue to grow. For how much longer will it expand? The answer was probably for as long as Okuu wanted it to. For Cirno a simple option was before her. She could run. The ancient's power has met it's polar opposite, and facing such a foe head-on is tantamount to suicide. However, that doesn't rid her of the threat Okuu possesses. This Sun created by Okuu has to power to destroy her, but it's a stationary threat. Cirno doesn't need to face her. However, not more then a few minutes before did the ancient tell Reimu that she'd never once did anything to prolong her life, naturally or otherwise. If it's her fate to die then that's that; Cirno will never run from what's been placed before her.
The three wings on her left side wrap around her arm. It kinda looks like a funnel made of ice. The base, over her shoulder, is wider than the tip that reaches far past the reach of her own hand. This is more of a cannon than Utsuho's.
"At where all things cease," Cirno chants, "beyond heaven and hell, beyond the reach of the abyss and oblivion. In this world where all things stop, all life ends, where even the base form of all, energy, can die. I judge upon you, sacrilege of the sanctity of the universe; end."
Something builds before the body of the ancient. It's small, thin, and is rectangle in shape. Any and all in Gensokyo would recognize this. It's a spell card.
"The World Arcana, Ice Age!"
From the recoil of the blast, Cirno's long hair whips back and her clothes desperately hang on her body. Focused and condensed by the wings wrapping around her arm, a beam of the brightest white is fired. Aimed directly and Okuu's Sun, it hits with a forceful impact. One might think it would only serve to feed the star, but the result is exactly the opposite. Not only does it cease it's growth, but it's mass decreases. Shrinking from the strain put upon it, that intense light begins to dim. It changes color, from an impossibly intense pinkish-white, to a duller blue. The star is dying.
Ice forms underneath their current position. Nowhere near is Cirno's attack aimed at anything other than Okuu, but effects are felt throughout. Water freezes, leaves shatter under the pressure, and fluttering snow forms without precipitation or even clouds. Cirno's spell changes the face of the Earth by it's mere existence.
The three wings on her right side jerk in reflex. They cover for her body, absorbing the force of the three arrows that were fired at her. It isn't particularly much, but her body is rocked and her aim thrown slightly to the side. That beam she'd been firing is jarred off target, focusing off Okuu and into the helpless beyond. The beam drew upon the water for only a moment, but for that time the water froze. Not just the surface, but deep below all the way to the earth. Only for a second did Cirno allow her magic to spray around wildly before she stopped it herself, but in those few moments did the entire lake freeze, again.
Cirno disengages the cannon on her left arm, making use of all her wings again so she doesn't end up flying around in circles. In the distance, atop the roof of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, is a lone figure with a bow and arrow. Her long white braid sways in the breeze. It's the doctor of Eientei, Eirin Yagokoro. Even at that great distance she is perfectly accurate and can hit her target.
Okuu wastes no time canceling her spell and making herself mobile again, flying up and putting herself at a distance that isn't too close or too far away from her adversary. Subterranean Sun is one of her best moves, and for it nearly to be the end of her meant she has to adjust her game-plan. Apparently she wasn't in this alone, so with aid came additional options. However, it's hard to come up with a solid strategy if the two can't communicate. This didn't particularly make things any easier.
Switching her glance between one and the other, Cirno is cautious on how to proceed. Of the two, Okuu is the much greater threat, but neither can Eirin be discounted. Those lasers she sometimes fires can be just as bad as Okuu's basic attacks, but can she utilize them at that great a distance? Even without lasers those arrows aren't something she wants to take too many of. Her ice wings fared well, but at this point they are probably stronger than her own body. This battle has been long fought, and her injuries and damages are numerous. While she wasn't reckless before, it definitely wasn't the time to be now. She'll wait and see how these two respond to the sudden cooperation.
Similar to the "pop" she heard when the flares were fired, another controlled explosion takes place, but this one bigger and louder, rattling the eardrums of all who hear. It comes from somewhere in the forest, behind the cover of trees. Faintly can Cirno perceive something being shot at her, so she makes a sudden movement and hops to the side. Something barely visible passes by her, some kind of projectile that doesn't give the glow of magic. Whatever it was it missed-
Suddenly that "thing" explodes behind her. Without knowing what's happening, Cirno can feel small shards rip into her. With durability comparable to steel, Cirno's icy flesh isn't so easily pierced, but whatever shards, whatever shrapnel resulted from that explosion accomplished no easy feet. Underneath her shredded clothing, Cirno's body had great chunks chipped away.
Same as with the flares which was produced by the kappas because of a game, they had other toys developed as well. Nitori wasn't communicating with the others of her kind simply to lighten the battlefield, they were moving, positioning, and installing these such "toys" to aid in the battle against Cirno. However, with the loss of the barrier they were no longer able to operate what they'd so painstakingly prepared. Although, they weren't the only ones capable of operating them.
After Momiji gave her final report, Marisa and Eirin was stopped by Nitori before they got too far. She told the pair about the multiple batteries that had been installed beforehand, and how to operate them. While Eirin felt she could perform well without the use of devices, the human magician wasn't as confident. Even if Nitori didn't have the power to stand, she could still coordinate the efforts of those two over the radio.
What Marisa found in the forest was an odd metal device bolted on top of a wagon. It had twin barrels, two cranks to adjust it's aim, and a sight to check it's target. Nearby was a crate filled with bullets larger than her own arm. One shell had already been loaded, and they were way too heavy for her to load another. Nitori told Marisa that all she had to do was aim and pull the trigger, but to only fire when Cirno was a specific distance away. The magician awaited the cue from the kappa.
Cirno spiraled uncontrollably to the ground, but catches herself before she crashes. That one blow was just as bad as everything she'd suffered from the out-of-control Patchouli. The ancient's back felt as if it were on fire, and if blood coursed throughout her veins she'd be spilling it in buckets. Nobody could have survived such a blow but her, and Cirno wasn't even certain of the surviving part. The cold tingling of death felt near. For the first time since she's awaken, Cirno feels as if she can honestly die.
This would be the perfect opportunity to pounce, to make a final push upon the Ancient World Slayer, but just as they recognize that fact, something causes all three to shudder in fear. Cirno lays still in midair as she recovers, but a chill and an odd vibe runs through all who see her. Is it a premonition of danger? A fight or flight mechanism that's built into every living being? As if it weren't already true before, the three can feel that Cirno has become impossibly dangerous, far beyond what they've come to know.
An eruption occurs on the lake. To what they've become familiar, it's one of those high-speed serpent-like dragons. However, it's their target that is this time different. Instead of Okuu, the one hidden in the forest, or the one atop the mansion, it focuses on Cirno. It make's no mystery of it's intentions, opening it's large maw and swallowing the ancient whole. Certainly it couldn't have killed or even harmed the blue-haired woman, but it wasn't a pleasant scene to witness nonetheless. What happens next, however, is the true horror.
Another dragon is born from the lake. Growing and racing at it's ridiculous speeds, it turns on the first dragon and devours a segment of it's neck, decapitating the head from the body. As it falls to the ground with an absence of grace, a third dragon sprouts. Like it's predecessor it attacks it's elder. Eating segments of the other's body, it's only a few short moments before the third dragon is killed by a forth. Then a fifth. Sixth. Soon they are born in such rapid succession it's become impossible to count. As they stem from the lake they have no tail end, only their very long necks and head. With as many of them that there are now, if observed collectively they don't resemble dragons at all, but a multi-headed hydra. Now all those heads have turned on another, cannibalizing itself for no known reason.
Aghast at the sight, the three now see nothing more than a cluster of those heads eating each other, but something odd is noticed. They're losing their forms. Individually they looked like dragons, but in this configuration they are all lurched upon each other forming a kind of ball. Or maybe a fruit. Bits and pieces of the devoured fall to the ground and are discarded, but otherwise, as a whole, that tangled mass is growing larger. It's forming into something else.
They can't tell if they're eating each other anymore, but their bodies are mingling, twinging together, creating a very distinct shape. At first there was the solid mass in the middle, but four appendages are formed. From it's front and rear, if the two were distinguishable, longer shafts are constructed for a head and tail. Six wings sprout from inside, though it's clear they're not from culmination of serpents; they're Cirno's own. As the head is shaped it's taken a distinct and clear form.
On four legs with razor sharp talons, a scaly hide, a sharp tail, and a head resting atop a lean neck, this is unmistakeably one and only one thing, a True Dragon. It's scale is completely unlike those facsimile from before, and that avatar when battling the oni. Covering nearly, from end to end, all of Misty Lake, if it were to swing it's tail it could easily reach and demolish the Scarlet Devil Mansion. It's claws alone are twice as large as even the tallest human, it's legs higher than the tallest building in Gensokyo, and with the reach of it's neck it might be able to peek into the crater of Youkai Mountain without having to climb. Utsuho, who was nearby, doesn't even register as a speck in comparison to this massive creature.
Underneath it's feet ice is formed and growing. The frozen nature of it's body strips the surroundings of heat, bringing about winter and it's eventual Ice Age just by being there. This is a creature that can't be supported by this current Earth, and it will alter that just to survive.
As it breathes, the rumble in it's low tone is an assault on the ears. Okuu and Marisa, who are the closest, are uncomfortable just listening to it. It's like the continuous crashing of a waterfall, thought that might be soothing to some.
For a while it just stands there, and it's adversaries do the same. Such a grand creature was surely capable of wreaking untold havoc. Did anything in this world stand to contest the destruction this dragon might cause? Okuu, as well as the others, are frozen in as much fear as in awe.
It's massive wings flap once, stirring a draft so powerful it nearly blasts the hell-raven out of the sky. She catches herself and keeps from crashing, but Okuu can't even imagine herself trying to opposes this beast. If this wasn't asked of her by her Master Satori, the mere pet would have run back to Youkai Mountain and hid underground, but she was told she might be the only one able to solve this incident, so she summons the courage to stand her ground.
This is fear taken form. No one person could hope to gaze upon it's magnificence and not be stricken with terror. All three of them want to run away, and had they not known weren't alone they might. No one person would be the one to end this menace. No one person could even hope to compare. Only would a great many efforts combined could hope to save this world.
Another of those loud cannons fire, this time not by the hands of Marisa. The kappas installed many artillery in the surrounding forests, and the magician found only a one. Now somebody else is using it as they like.
The shell detonates at it's fixed interval moments before crashing into the giant. A dark cloud of smoke is produced in the blast and sparks flash as fragments collide with the dragon's icy hide, but other than that there is no effect. What nearly ripped apart Cirno before doesn't even scratch her beast.
As Marisa sprints through the forest in search of another battery, she comes across her miko friend Reimu. She tells the magician that the last shot wasn't her, but an awakened and enraged Yukari. Despite the loss of the boundary, and essentially Yukari's core, she still possesses great strength and can create gaps that can quickly move her from one place to the next. As they're conversing another cannon is fired. The youkai can make use of the weaponry much faster than the humans could possibly ever hope, so they must find another way to be effective.
Okuu finally gathered her courage and will to fight. To test things out she fires only a couple of blast to measure their effectiveness. Unlike when she devastated the individual dragons, her power over Nuclear Fusion barely even singes the dragon's hide. The problem lies with the immeasurable cold radiating from it's body. Okuu's ultra-hot orbs lose most of their power before even reaching their target, and what makes it that far is a pittance of their temperature. This was going to require some serious effort on her part.
Amidst the barrage inflicted upon her, the dragon does little but survey the surroundings. Nothing they are doing is having much of an impact. The arrows from Eirin and the flak cannon shellings from Yukari do little but dent it's massive frozen skin, but it's only a matter of time before Searing Divine Flame figures a way to overcome the Absolute Zero temperatures and inflict real damage. While impressive, Cirno crafted this massive monster as an armored shell, something to protect her while she prepares her greatest move. Once she loses the dragon her life is very likely to be next. This is probably her last move.
The dragon takes a few steps, widening it's stance. Craning it's neck back, it opens it's mouth and begins to exhale. As if pulled by gravity: frost, water, and other elements are gathered in an area far above it's mouth. At it's core ice starts to form, suspended in air, growing larger by the moment. Eirin recognizes what the ancient is doing.
As the party continues their near-futile effort on the base of the dragon, the ice above continues to grow. What was thrown at Eirin and Keine and destroyed by the fist of Meiling, was a colossal mass larger than the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Quickly does this surpass that. From the size of a building, it grows to that of an island, than the size of the lake, even larger to where it eclipses the sky.
While the ice was growing the party continued their attacks, but gradually took notice of what was looming overhead. They saw what was being planned and turned their attention on it. However, what they could destroy was being outpaced by what was being grown. Desperately they struggled to deal it damage, but their efforts were too few. Once it came the size to obstruct the sky, and it continued to grow larger still, they couldn't continue anymore.
If it were given a name, it might have been something like this:
Ice Age Sign, Continental Fall.
Marisa stands next to Reimu, lost of all strength to even stand. On her knees she looks up to they sky in wonder.
"What are we supposed to do now, ze?" might have been a rhetorical question.
To this the Hakurei Priestess gives no response.
Atop the Scarlet Devil Mansion the bow falls from Eirin's grip.
Okuu sees the vast plain of ice about to be dropped upon them. A hard swallow goes down her throat. In her mind she wonders if she possibly has the power to fight against this. Surely she can damage it some if she expunged every ounce of power within her, sacrificing herself as a result and blanketing the sky in fire, but exactly how much good could that do? It would be sad that she'd never see Satori again, but if the pet can stop this then hasn't she obeyed her master's orders? A tear rolls down her cheek as she considers her options.
The dragon breaks.
That impenetrable surface loses all consistency in one instance, no longer held together by magic and surrendering to gravity. Falling in an avalanche, everything that made the body of the dragon drops in a downpour of snow; a scene as beautiful as creamy white silk. The snow pours in a waterfall, drenching the lake below and bursting like a dropped package of flour. Revealed underneath is a confused Cirno, no more understanding than those in attendance.
She's not in enough frame of mind to quickly notice the figure that races towards her at high speeds. At the last moment she does, and blocks, but the ancient takes a blow so heavy she's pushed several dozen meters back. Her left arm is severed as a result, it tumbles into the distance before dissolving into a breeze of diamond dust. After that initial blow, however, the attacker pays no further care to Cirno.
The white and red clad figure soars into the air, facing the now falling sky with reckless abandon. At the moment the two collide, the figure glows in a brilliant light, then it's body is lost in a dazzling display of magical force.
Next, one of the most surreal scenes take place. As if they were looking upon the Earth from some aerial platform, a bomb seems to be detonated upon the surface. Perhaps this was the view of the gods and they were watching an earthquake. From the figure's body, magic blasts devastates the surface of the falling continent of ice. At it's core, the blast erupts into four, perfectly angled in a symmetric pattern. Traveling in four directions, the blasts reaches as far as the bystanders' eyes can see.
It resembles a massive scarlet cross.
Breaking into four pieces, the falling frozen landmasses still represents a devastating threat. However, separate from the scarlet cross, unexplained explosions rock the four fragments, each breaking them into smaller and smaller portions. Seemingly without cause, this nearly appears as divine providence, the will of God. It only takes a dozen seconds, but the entire ice shelf has been broken into dust, rendered into gracefully fluttering snow.
Silence overtakes the battlefield as this strange, yet lovely, occurrence concludes. Gradually the snow blows away, and the one who faced the falling ice is revealed. Barely concealed in a shredded white dress, it's a small girl appearing no older than 10. Albino skin covers her frame and her head in hair of light blue. Crimson eyes glow in satanic delight. A pair of ebony wings sprout from her back, matching that of the only mammal that can fly. Sharp fangs are pronounced in her smile.
"I should thank you for not killing me," is told to Cirno by Remilia Scarlet, "but don't expect me to return the favor."