Chapter Thirty-Seven: In the Pale Moonlight
She was not born, in the strictest sense.
The entity that would one day be known as Tsukuyomi began its existence as a small, spherical piece of silver-blue crystal contained in a tank of clear liquid. In contrast to the larger, darker blue crystal in the tank next to it, which appeared to have taken its notes on how to glow from a fireworks display having a seizure, it pulsed in a slow, regular pattern as it absorbed ambient magic which was shaped and solidified by the master computer.
The lead researcher looked in at the twin gems, and a pulse of magic filled the tanks, briefly creating the outline of a humanoid shape. No other details were available this early in the creation process; the gems seemed to have minds of their own, even before they did have minds of their own. The shape of the guardian created varied wildly between each of them, though the general ability level was always roughly the same. Honestly, in better circumstances, it would have been fun to see how they developed. Now, however, two things kept his nature as a scientist from coming out.
First, the simple and indisputable fact that these guardians had been created for war. The battles had been raging for longer than anyone in this room could remember, and would likely continue for long after each of them had died. This was the reason behind the guardians' creation: the enemy had far too many advantages, with vastly more powerful individual magi who the alliance could only compete with from positions of overwhelming numerical superiority. They had far more soldiers to lose, this was true, but even with this advantage, the loss of thirty magi to waylay a single enemy knight was unacceptable. The guardians had been created to counter this advantage. The only individual soldiers who could face the enemy down on their own terms and hold an advantage in raw power.
This was a divine duty, the creation of guardians for the protection of the alliance and her citizens. To treat it as anything less than the somber task it was would have been impossibly disrespectful.
However, it was also hard to be amused because of who was looking over the situation.
"I question the need for them," the blue-haired woman said. "I've served fine in the advance unit until now. I belong on the front lines, not back playing babysitter."
"Amaterasu," the golden-haired woman chided her, "you know that the protection of VIPs is just as important as front line combat. More so, in fact. Far too many encounters have been lost by shifting battle lines or attack squads decapitating our ground command."
"I know, I know. But I'm built for the front lines. For combat."
"And you'll get more than your share as the head of the new command defense squadron. Gods know our nerve centers are under attack often enough. The only safe zone is Al Sethis itself."
Amatearasu turned to face the blonde in the eyes for the first time, her gaze cold. "Then let them do it themselves. They're the new models, aren't they? Combining the advanced social programming of the advisory unit, combat programming of the advance unit..."
The blonde rolled her eyes. "You are, of course, ignoring that you are the prototype of that same model. Try to hide it behind that veneer of heartlessness all you like, little one, but if you were that cold, you would follow your orders without complaint instead of showing so much... well, pardon the term, but so much fire."
Amaterasu sighed, her eyes locked on the two glowing gems floating serenely in their tanks, and said, "Well... maybe I'm just not sure I want to be the 'big sister,' I guess. I've had a good run in my current position, and now they're asking me to train and command two entirely new units? I don't know. What if command doesn't suit me? What if they don't measure up to my standards? What if... well, what if I don't like them?"
The blonde woman smiled warmly and stood, readjusting her plain white robes. "Oh, I wouldn't worry. You're nothing if not adaptable, after all. Besides, they'll be blank slates when they emerge, won't they? It's not like they'll have any way to forge meaningful connections to anyone else before they meet you and start their acclimation and training."
And in the tanks, the tiny crystals glowed, just for one second, in perfect unison. And while they were not yet capable of anything like genuine thought, the impulse passed between them in some imperceptible way.
This is something that's like me.
Tsukuyomi looked at the forces surrounding her, eyes narrowing.
"What are you doing here?!" Nanoha snapped. "I... this was supposed to be personal! I needed to do this on my own."
"Not what I want to hear from you," Vita said flatly, her gaze never leaving Tsukuyomi. "You walk out here to fight someone you can't win against. You think we're just gonna let you kill yourself? And her, to even think it was acceptable to do something like that..."
"Vita," Shamal said. "Isn't manipulating a weaker warrior into a duel something that you would have done not so long ago? You were always rather ruthless with lesser mages when it came to gathering linker co-"
"Do not help, Shamal, I can make my own points!" Vita snapped. She then turned to Nanoha and said, "Do as I say, not as I do, Takamachi! I'm allowed to be a hypocrite, I'm older than you."
"You... you... grrrrrrrrrrr!" Nanoha said eloquently. "Tsukuyomi, you have to believe I had nothing to do with any of this. It's just that all of my friends think they're smarter than me and they run around making decisions on what to do without me!"
"It's okay. I'm not offended," Tsukuyomi said mildly. "This may be for the best."
Her body began to glow with silvery light, a star appearing in the air behind her. "You see, all I really need from this battle is the information we were dueling for. And there was always the possibility that I would accidentally kill you and not be able to learn what I need. Now... I have options."
"Summoning: Kiyohime."
"Where," the violet serpent-woman snarled immediately upon emerging from the star, "Is the little brat who keelhauled me?"
"Technically speaking, it is impossible to keelhaul someone without a ship," Tsukuyomi said mildly. "And I'm afraid you'll have to take it out on his friends, since he isn't here."
"Luckily," the creature smiled, a malicious smirk coming across her oddly pretty face, "I'm petty enough to take it out on them, so it works out just fine."
"Suppress the support network," Tsukuyomi said, inclining her head toward Shamal. "Don't let them heal. Don't let them be enhanced. Kill her if you can, cripple her if you can't."
"I only get one?" Kiyohime said with a pout.
"The other three are mine," Tsukuyomi said flatly. "It won't take long. Suijin, my blade."
"Full Moon Dance," Suijin said, a ball of pure silver light appearing in Tsukuyomi's outstretched hand, stretching out and reforming in her grip...
And then she vanished.
"What the Hell was..." Vita began, her eyes wide. She wasn't that fast, she'd never been that fast. Even after her power-up, nothing that Vita had seen suggested she was any faster than Takamachi, but to move so quickly the human eye couldn't follow it? That was more than anyone she'd ever seen except Fate and very occasionally Signum when she was really booking i—
"Vita! Behind you!" Zafira roared, bursting into motion despite the fact he was already far too late to intervene.
Vita spun, Eisen swinging about. Behind her, she heard a rush of air, and saw something silver and shining out of the corner of her eye. She swung her hammer around to intercept what appeared to be a broadsword, the blade formed of solid light like Testarossa's Zanber, though not so absurdly large, and solid silver instead of the coruscating golden of the younger girl's. The energy blade struck up sparks against Graf Eisen's shaft, but the weapon held without issues... though the scratch being dug up on the metal told Vita her flesh might not have held up as well.
On the other end of the blade, Tsukuyomi inclined her head. "Good reflexes. I'd hoped to cut you in half at the waist and make the odds here a bit more even, but this will be complex after all."
"We can't always get what we want," Vita growled, loading a cartridge into her weapon.
"Raketenform," Eisen said, taking on the spike and booster of her first advanced combat form, the rocket on the head igniting and pressing back against the other girl's sword with enough force to hurl her backwards despite her own enormous strength. With perfect timing, a bolt of pink light scythed in on her from behind as Takamachi took advantage of her disorientation...
… And missed, as she vanished from sight without a trace once again. The Divine Buster struck only empty air, and the girl was nowhere to be seen.
"Takamachi, you taking it easy on her again?" Vita snapped.
"No way! My shot on-target, no question!" Nanoha complained. "I didn't see her dodge at all, even! Did she teleport? But to cast a spell like that so quickly..."
"Shining Howling Moon," the girl's device said from directly below them as she fired upwards, a multi-pronged blast that split to target both Nanoha and Vita simultaneously. Nanoha recognized the spell name and dodged aside in time, but Vita was not so lucky. She managed to avoid the full brunt, but the dodge was mistimed. The silver light clipped her shoulder and sent her tumbling, shreds of her armor spiraling around her as she fell.
Okay, Vita... get your flight under control, now, please... she thought groggily, before something that managed to be both hard and soft slammed into her, halting her fall.
"Go limp, Vita," Zafira rumbled. "I've got you."
"Ugh... thanks, Zaf. Head's a bit spinny, and I think my shoulder's dislocated," she muttered. "Hold onto it?"
Zafira nodded, placing a hand firmly onto Vita's right shoulder. Without a word, Vita twisted her arm sharply jamming it back into its socket with a loud crunching noise. "GAH! Oh, wow, that felt bad. Okay, ready to beat this chick's head in?"
Zafira did not quite smile. "Never change, Vita."
"Eh? What does that mean?"
The creation process behind such an advanced AI was slow. Under nearly any other circumstance, it would have taken years, most likely. It was only through the influence of Yggdrasil that the calculations could be completed within the space of the six months needed to bring the guardians to combat readiness.
And during this six months, something unusual happened.
The two core materials had begun to synchronize more and more often, a phenomenon that had never occurred during prior development, even on the occasions two units had been activated in the same chamber. It was not certain if this was because the core samples had been taken from the same area, or because they had been put into production so close together, but it was clear some connection had formed. When one gem's glow waned, the other would grow brighter, as if trying to cheer it up. Occasionally they would flicker randomly, as if having a conversation. More and more, the ghostly image of a humanoid shape took form, and when they did, they were always staring directly at the other's tank.
The kicker had come when Unit Lightning, upon achieving sentience, had somehow hacked into the control code for the tank and changed Unit Ocean's informal designation from Tsukishiri, the old Zan-shi for "Moon Tide," to Tsukuyomi, "Moon Flower." When queried on why it had done this, all it said was, "I suggested that name awhile ago, and she liked it better. I just couldn't change it until now."
This meant that not only were the two development units able to somehow speak to each other before they were even technically sentient, but they actually seemed to somehow know what gender each other's final forms would be before these bodies even existed. Again, the development team cursed the urgent need for haste in bringing these units to the front as soon as possible; under ideal circumstances, slowing their development down to study it in detail could have advanced AI research by a decade.
Still, despite the seriousness of the situation, everyone involved in the process had given some allowance to the whimsicality of it all, and had fondly taken to calling them "the twins." They knew it was not proper, but they were still men and women of science, and this was a unique occasion. It merited a little joy. The only potential problem had been when Unit Flame and Unit Aura had overheard two researchers joking about it, and demanded an explanation. Well, Unit Aura was generally too polite to "demand" anything, but...
Still, it had turned out all right. Once Unit Flame had calmed down and been convinced to just leave in a huff, the only real "consequence" was that every few days, a petite blonde woman with a gentle smile would come down the lab and sit near the tanks, and read to them from a book for a few hours, just to say "hello" to what she'd already cheerfully adopted as her new siblings.
It got in the way of the data observation, but the twins seemed to like it, so the research team let her do as she wished.
The silver-lined fist struck from the left. The glowing red hammer, spewing flames, struck from the right. From below, a giant beam of pink energy flashed up.
All three hit empty air.
"How. Is. She. Doing. That?!" Vita shrieked.
"She wasn't this fast before," Nanoha muttered, her eyes darting back and forth, trying to find some sign of the girl. She got one, in the end, just not the one she was hoping for; the blade of silver light slammed home into Raising Heart, sparks shooting off it. "Maybe I was holding back. Maybe I'm not fast at all, and you're getting slower. Maybe it's all been in your imagination, and maybe it doesn't matter, because even if you understand you can't do a thing to stop me..."
Nanoha gritted her teeth, her arms aching from the impact, and feeling herself being pressed back, despite Tsukuyomi putting no visible pressure on the blade. "Tsuku, I..."
The blade flared with light, and the voice of Suijin said, "Eclipse Dance." A core of darkness appeared in the center of the silver blade, and it shifted; the weapon lost its rigid form, curving around the shaft of Raising Heart and leaping towards Nanoha's throat. The girl in white leapt back, a quick application of mana letting her feet find purchase on thin air...
Just a little too slowly.
Searing pain filled one side of her face; not hot, but a cold so deep it burned. No blood flowed down her cheek from the cut, but a numbness spread from the point of impact and left the vision in her left eye blurred.
"No more words from you," Tsukyomi said, pulling her hand back, the energy-whip in her hand now jet black. Nanoha was still off-balance, the shocking cold and pain dulling her reflexes, and Tsukuyomi was primed for the killing blow.
Fortunately, some others had their own thoughts on the subject.
A spiked hammer trailing flames struck in at the side of Tsukuyomi's head. As before, the blue-haired girl vanished before the moment of impact without any sign of motion, but at the very least she was no longer preparing to cut Nanoha's head off. "You okay, Takamachi?"
Nanoha raised a gloved hand to her cheek, wincing at the touch. "I think so. My vision went blurry, but I think it was just tears. It really hurt."
"You have any idea how she's doing this? You're the one with the experience in her weird fighting style," Vita asked, her eyes scanning the skies. "Is she teleporting? Some kind of dimensional warp, or what? I've never seen a trick quite like it."
I think it's an illusion, Nanoha said, switching to a telepathic communication to make sure Zafira heard as well. That's her specialty, and more than that, when we can actually see her moving, her speed isn't any higher than its ever been. It's not that she's moving fast, it's that when she wants to move unseen, our eyes just can't track her.
You heard her, big guy. We can't trust our eyes, so that would be your run, Vita thought, nodding at her fellow Wolkenritter. Sniff her out, rig-
She was cut off mid-thought by the energy blade, reformed into a sword, slicing halfway down her back.
Vita threw her head back, what was meant to be a scream of pain coming out as more of a hiss as her vocal cords choked with the agony and blood leaped from the wound in a scarlet arc. She heard both Takamachi and Zafira scream her name, but at the moment she was less concerned with their opinions on her status, and more interested in the fact that the girl with the silver sword was drawing her weapon back for another stroke.
She gritted her teeth and swung her hammer around, despite the numbness running up and down the side of her body. She could be in agony on her own time, there were problems going on right now.
The wall of turquoise light shattered under the hail of black arrows, and Shamal fell back.
"Such a pretty mouse," Kiyohime purred as the knight flew back, staying low to the ground and using the rock outcroppings as cover. "Don't worry, little one. My species might be constrictors by nature, but I'd never do anything that would ruin your good looks by crushing up that lovely body. You'll be alive when I eat you."
Shockingly, not reassuring, Shamal thought dryly. Honestly, how had this happened? She was supposed to be the rear support. She should have been waiting cheerfully at home with Hayate for everyone to come home so she could patch their wounds and cluck over them for not being cautious. Instead, she was out here alone in a toxic wilderness hiding under rocks so a creepy snake woman didn't cannibalize her.
Well, technically, since I am not a creepy snake woman myself, it isn't cannibalism, Shamal admitted in her thoughts. Just because I'm under a lot of pressure is no excuse to not pay attention to my choice of words.
Of course, her real problem, above and beyond her need to make sure her possible death was described in the right way, was that this was really not her specialty. Oh, it was not that she wasn't fully capable of being out there on the front lines with her fellow Wolkenritter. It was that she wasn't fully capable of being out there on the front lines without them. While she did have spells for combat, she did not have terribly many that were purely offensive. Binds to trip up the enemy while others dealt with them, shields to repel attacks, jamming and barriers to corrupt enemy communications and prevent targets from escaping her more offensively minded comrades. The few damaging offensive techniques she did have tended to be slow to invoke and most often required the target be either distracted or unaware of her presence. Had Signum, Vita, or Zafira been by her side to hold Kiyohime back, their teamwork could likely have defeated the creature in a matter of minutes. Without them, however, things were getting a bit troublesome for her...
A violet-scaled face set in a mocking smirk poked around the edge of her hiding place. "Found yoooooooou."
Shamal took flight, but she was not the fastest of the Wolkenritter, nor the most agile. And when Kiyohime leveled her finger and incanted, "Vector Break!" things went... badly.
A solid bolt of black energy limned with violet struck out, scything across the ground and digging up a deep scar in the earth as it engulfed the fleeing Wolkenritter. A half-formed barrier took some of the bite out, but in most of the ways that mattered the hit was direct and devastating. Shamal was sent skipping across the rocky ground, her Knight Armor in tatters around her. Pain flooded her system; her entire body was burning, and in terms of specific damage, one leg tingled with a shocked numbness that told her something in it was most likely broken, and her right eye was already beginning to swell shut.
But she was still a Wolkenritter. She was not the warrior her companions were, but that in no way meant she was not used to pain just as much as they were. Where some would have used the damage as an excuse to stop and fail in their duty, Shamal instead used the dust of the explosion as a cover to readjust her flight and seek cover.
"Little mouse is running away agaaaaain?" Kiyohime's mocking tone rang through the rocky canyons. "You can only get away for so loooooooooooong..."
By all means, keep talking, Shamal thought, green light flaring in the palm of her left hand once she had settled behind one of the larger outcroppings. She touched the light to her numb leg, and felt the prickles be replaced first by searing pain, then with a soft "pop," cool relief. She pressed the leg down onto the ground experimentally, and found it able to take her weight with only minor discomfort. Smiling, she repeated the process with her eye.
She might not have been the best at inflicting damage, but she was not half-bad at absorbing it.
Vita fell back, wincing as the impact of the girl's blade pressed her through the sky. "You know, you are really getting on my nerves."
"I think that should be my line," Tsukuyomi said flatly. "You should know by now that you have no hope. Even all three of you together are barely managing to break even. Why do you never have the good graces to just surrender like a sensible person?"
"You wouldn't, would you?" Nanoha asked. "If you won't give in, then neither can I. It's as simple as that. No matter what, I will keep trying until I reach you. I knew when I started that it wouldn't be fast or easy. But I also know that you don't really want to do any of this, no matter how you act. So I am going to get through to you, somehow. And if the only way to do it is to just keep fighting until something clicks, so be it."
Vita rolled her eyes. "Takamachi, why is it you feel the need to drag me into your crazy garbage? Let's just beat her unconscious and worry about the friendship speeches later."
Tsukuyomi actually smiled slightly at that one. "I agree. By all means, let us go about ending this as soon as possible."
She lowered her hand, the blade of light vanishing from her hand. Vita did not, however, take much comfort from this, as the aura of soft light that her final drive created around her only intensified, streams of energy flowing off of her like cloth fluttering in the wind. "Targets acquired, commence program, prepare transmission. Dimensional creation confirmed..."
This sounded bad, to Vita's trained ears. Being herself, she chose not to wait for whatever it was. Two cartridges loaded into Graf Eisen, and the rocket on the head of the hammer burst into flame, sending the weapon and the girl attached to it spiraling toward the glowing girl.
This was unfortunate, because moving towards the girl was absolutely the worst thing she could have done.
"Lunatique."
From Tsukuyomi's left hand, the streamer of energy snapped out like a serpent. Vita reversed her charge, but it was not the attack spell she'd been expecting. Rather than try to cut into her, the energy streamer stopped a few inches in front of her face and exploded, an eye-burning burst of white light that for some reason she couldn't close her eyes against...
The world spun, dizziness overwhelming her and stopping her hasty retreat cold. She raised a hand to clutch her forehead, trying to keep from throwing up. She heard the blast of Nanoha's counter attack going off, the familiar crack of one of her busters slamming into a shield overwhelming... and followed by the sharp snap and small scream of Nanoha being hit with the same disorienting attack Vita herself had taken.
Okay. Okay. Focus. It's... it's a magic flashbang. You've kept fighting after having holes punched in you more than once, Vita. You will not let something like this break you, Vita thought, her anger overpowering her nausea.
She opened her eyes... and saw Tsukuyomi twenty feet away, a glowing staff raised in her direction, the light of the full moon overhead illuminating the cold expression on her face as she held a bolt of energy ready to fire.
Vita eyes widened, a barrier springing to existence over her hands, the scarlet aura dispersing the silver beam around her. It wasn't much of an attack, as cannon blasts went; she had only spent a second charging it, and her staff form was weaker than the final drive she'd been in...
So why did she go back to it...
Eh, well, I can figure it out after I beat her down.
Ignoring the niggling feeling in her gut, she prepared; a red aura surrounding her to act as a buffer against the incoming attack. She knew it was too powerful for even her to tank it completely, but she also knew that a head-on strike was the last thing the other girl would expect. The strong ones always assumed you'd run.
The bolt of silver light flashed out, and rather than dodge it entirely, she charged at a barely noticeable angle. The bolt struck, but rather than hit her head on and most likely kill her, it hit her defenses at an odd angle and skipped off.
Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. Vita thought eloquently, as her left arm went numb from the shoulder down. But it was still attached, at the very least. She only needed one arm to cave that bitch's skull in, and she was already halfway there...
The moonlight was shining down brilliantly, casting a pale, silvery glow across the battlefield. It seemed so natural, the perfect setting for a final battle.
Nanoha fell back with shock as Tsukuyomi slashed aside her buster, the pink light dissolving and the girl charging in past it. She didn't see where Vita had gone, but it wasn't the time to worry about that. She raised a palm, letting the silver saber slash in against the magic circle of her shield. It was a heavier blow than she had expected from such a light weapon, but then it wasn't too odd; Tsukuyomi was far stronger than a human... and besides, the weapon did stop.
"Reaction bind!" she snapped, a trick she'd picked up from Yuuno. Chains of light leapt off her barrier, wrapping around the other girl's arms. "Got you...!"
Tsukuyomi narrowed her eyes. "Underhanded. I suppose that's like you."
"I already said it once, didn't I?" Nanoha snapped. "I said I would save you. I promised to get you out of the darkness you've been caught in, even if I had to be a devil to do it!"
"And I said that if you were a devil... I would just have to exorcise you," Tsukuyomi muttered, drawing her weapon hand back. The blade flashed, severing the chains, and she lunged forward again, her sword leading the way...
The full moon filled the starless sky, and even the blood seemed to shimmer where its glow fell. Beneath them, the ocean reflected the light, redoubling the glow and letting the illumination spread in shimmering waves through the utter blackness of the void. The world was divided between black and silver, a contained universe where everything was perfectly defined. There was light, and there was darkness. It was a world of flawless contrast, of absolute black and white where the enemy was clear and the path ahead starkly defined.
And it seemed so very natural that beneath that light, nobody could even begin to think that it had been the middle of the day above a stark, dead landscape only a few short minutes ago.
The light of the moon reflected off the endless ocean, bringing only madness with it.
Tsukuyomi did not smile. There was nothing to enjoy about this. She just watched as Vita swung her hammer in again, the weapon smashing into Nanoha's barrier with enough force that the circle of pink light cracked like glass.
She raised a hand, a pillar of silver light shattering against her gauntlet.
"What did you do to them?!" Zafira roared, his face set with more rage than Tsukuyomi could recall ever seeing in it. "Vita! Nanoha! Stop, before-!"
"They can't hear you," Tsukuyomi said softly. "The illusion is not in the light around them, this time. It was projected directly into the electrical impulses of their own brains, the most powerful spell of deception in my arsenal. Lunatique... every enemy could be an ally pleading for mercy on deaf ears. Every friendly face could be a serpent ready to strike. The only thing that is certain... is that in Lunatique's dream-world, you can never trust your eyes."
She tilted her head to one side, her expression blank and uncaring. "Be proud. It's not a spell that human power can cast. To push me so far, you are truly amazing young people."
Zafira's eyes narrowed, even as Nanoha swung her hand wide and sent a hail of bullets raining down on the frantically dodging Vita. "Then they..."
"Each one sees the other as me. Neither of them sees anything else, and what they hear is only what will drive them further and further into conflict," Tsukuyomi said simply. "Of course, the one with the hammer is wounded. She puts on a brave face, but I at least damaged the muscles in her back, and she can't attack with full force anymore. I suspect this handicap will allow Nanoha Takamachi to be the victor in the end. That should be an interesting moment... when the illusion ends, the first thing she sees will be the broken body of her friend, laying at her feet."
This time, Tsukuyomi did smile, just a little bit. "You see? She isn't the only one who can play mind games."
Zafira's eyes hardened. "If this spell is your doing, than I should think incapacitating you would undo it. I apologize in advance if I kill you, but supporting and protecting my teammates is the most basic trait of a guardian beast, and an angry wolf is not one that holds back..."
Tsukuyomi raised a hand, and a silver star appeared in her palm. "There's no need to be upset for them. What they are experiencing is far, far more merciful than what is about to happen to you."
It was in the fifty-seventh year of the great war that Unit Lightning and Unit Ocean, Protector-class Guardian Models #02 and 03 came online.
While the team had delighted in calling them the twins, the final form of the two units had been very different. Unit Lightning had ended up taking on the form of a teenaged male, which in fairness did suit its odd personality; it had delighted in reprogramming its own computers any time it could make a data connection, and took an inordinate amount of joy in making the science team panic.
In contrast, Unit Ocean had surprised them all. Its personality had been stoic, calm, collected, almost emotionless in every way. They had all been expecting an cold, stern lord like Unit Conquest, or an elegant lady like Unit Aura. Instead, the final form of the guardian had been a child, the physically youngest of all the completed guardians.
She had opened her eyes, looked at her 'twin', himself only active for a little under fifteen minutes, and said, "Good, you are older. I think the form I took would be too childish if you were the younger, but you were born first after all."
Brushing off the researcher attempting to take his initial readings, Susanoo smiled at his little sister, the first smile she would ever see with her own eyes. "I told you I would finish first. You were always so calm about everything, you really didn't approach your development with the kind of passion it demanded. But that's okay... it just means I'll be the older brother, and I'll take care of you in among everything else."
The door to the lap slid open, and Amaterasu strode in, her face set in a disappointed scowl. "So, they finally woke up, then? All right, get them off the tables, we don't have any time to waste on coddling babies. It's time to begin combat programming and physical training for..."
Her voice faltered, her eyes widening as she actually saw the two for the first time. "... for... for the... front..."
"Um, hi!" Susanoo said, smiling widely. "I think you're our unit commander, right? Um, I'm Lightning Unit, but you can call me Susanoo. This over here is our littlest sister, Ocean Unit, but her better name is Tsukuyomi... she's a bit quiet, so don't be too hard on her, okay? But for now, I'll just say it's nice to meet you, big sister! Please teach us well."
"... front... lines...?" Amaterasu murmured, a blush rapidly running up her face.
Behind her, the golden-haired lady who had accompanied her previous visits entered, smiling warmly. "Ah, Amaterasu. So you heard that the new units had reached comple-"
"Too cute!" Amaterasu screamed, grabbing the new arrival by her shoulders. "Big sister, who told them to make the new models this cute?! I don't think I'm able to mentally tolerate this, big sister! It would be like training with you, only twice as bad because there's two of them!"
The golden-haired woman sighed. "You... maybe you should have stayed on the front lines. Staying back and dealing with people up-close has made you so oddly... quirky. And in only a few months... I know you're supposed to be more human and your behavior adapts to new information, but is this really okay?"
Without another word, Amaterasu sprinted from the room.
"... Did I say something wrong?" Susanoo asked.
"That is our sister?" Tsukuyomi muttered. "I do not understand her at all."
"Well, we are young. Maybe she'll make more sense when we're older."
The woman with the golden hair sighed. "Oh, I wish that were true."
Shamal was far too elegant to curse under her breath, but she sorely wanted to.
The fact of the matter was, she was just not built for this. The battle had fallen into an inescapable pattern of narrow escapes, distractions, and healing the injuries she had taken from the battles thus far. Her offensive powers were limited, and her defenses were not terribly outstanding either. The familiar, or summon, or whatever it was, had her outclassed in direct combat, particularly with her master's mana increased to such an oddly intense degree. She would need to be clever about this, but...
But I'm not terribly good at being clever about such things, I'm afraid, Shamal thought, a bit embarrassed by the admission. She was quite certain that Signum or Zafira would have found some clever solution by now. Vita... um... well, Vita would almost certainly have hit something hard enough with her hammer that something good would have happened as a result. She usually solved her problems in such a manner and it almost always worked well.
Shamal sighed, casting her gaze over the edge of an outcropping. This is not going well at-
Kiyohime smiled at her from less than five inches away, looking over the rocks from the opposite side. "Hello again, little mouse."
Oh, you are absolutely just the worst, Shamal thought, pushing off and throwing herself backwards as fast as she could. This was, unfortunately, not remotely fast enough. The long violet tail lashed out like a whip, slamming into her midsection and sending her sprawling.
As she fell, a trail of blue-green light flickered behind her fingers.
Kiyohime smiled, not even bothering to fly. She slithered toward the fallen knight, taking the time to delicately savor the little emotions as Shamal held onto her now-cracked ribs. "Silly little mouse. Trying so hard, when you don't have the fighting capacity to bring down a schoolhouse full of toddlers. Don't you think we would both be happier if you just stopped? Well, you wouldn't be happy, exactly, but you wouldn't be suffering anymore. Isn't that something?"
Shamal put on her sweetest, move lovable smile. "I... agree, actually."
Kiyohime stopped, blinking in confusion. "Wait, what?"
"I do think I should stop randomly running and succeeding in doing nothing but making myself suffer. I was thinking it might help if you suffered instead."
Shamal drew back her fingers, and snapped the binding she had created beneath the dust as she fell, cracking it like a whip. It struck the serpent from a dozen angles at once, tangling among her coils like a fishing net and, most importantly... lashing across her face. The creature fell back, thrashing wildly at the shock of her sudden inability to see and unable to even bring her hands up to clear the rope of light out of her face.
Shamal took flight, gathering up the spell in her mind and silently casting it, the anti-detection ward covering her entire body with soft, cool tingle. She figured she had a few moments of uninterrupted flight before the snake-woman broke free of the hastily constructed binding, and she did not wish to be seen when she landed.
There.
A small cavern, set into the side of the valley. It was hard to see from above; she'd only found it by staying low to the ground, and even then nearly missed it. Kiyohime was far enough away that there would be no lucky spotting, and it would take her some time to find Shamal by magic, no matter how good her spells were. She had at least five or six minutes of uninterrupted time to work.
That was slightly more than she needed.
"Klarwind, scrying mode," she murmured. "Form the Mirror of Travels."
"Pendelform." her device said, the gems of the pendulum that emerged from her rings tracing a circle in the air. The thin line of green light filled itself with opaque energy, and from this, the image of Kiyohime slowly emerged.
This was a spell of limited utility, under most circumstances. Defensive spells, even low-key ones such as a basic barrier jacket, would repel it. It could only be used against foes who were off-balance, vulnerable, their defenses thinned to the point of almost non-existence.
Such as, say, a familiar with no active barrier jacket or knight armor, who had just been subjected to a binding that, among other things, had forcibly canceled her active defenses, even if only temporarily.
Shamal reached into the scrying field, and was reward with the sound of a scream on the edge of her hearing, and the warmth of a linker core filling her palm.
And then she squeezed.
Tsukuyomi swatted aside another of Zafira's attacks, her return fire shredding the Guardian Beast's barrier and sending him skidding across the ground, the difference in their powers making this even less of a contest than normal.
"I'm sorry it came to this," Tsukuyomi said. "I clearly cannot trust your word, but if you surrender, I will accept it. I will have to inflict a crippling injury to ensure you don't rejoin the battle, of course, but you will be alive. Do you accept?"
"A knight... does not... surrender..." Zafira growled.
Tsukuyomi tilted her head to one side. "A knight does not. But you're just a familiar. Shouldn't staying alive for your master be more important than a warrior's pride?"
Zafira's eyes went red, his already-sharp canines extending into the razor-edged fangs of a full wolf. The growl that filled the air was so low that Tsukuyomi felt her bones vibrate with the harmonics of it.
"I suppose not, then. What a shame..." she said as she looked over the massive blue-gray beast. "I never enjoy putting down animals."
Silver light began to gather in her palm, and...
She stopped, turning her head, her eyes widening in shock. "Kiyohime...?"
The wolf's fangs clamped down onto her shoulder, striking up sparks, and sending metal shards and blood flying as his fangs tore through the armor of her breastplate and digging into her shoulder.
Damn, she thought, hissing in pain as the giant beast bore her to the ground. She was physically strong, to be certain, but she was also off-balance and she had some very large spiky teeth buried in her body. The wolf shook its head back and forth worrying at her shoulder, sending shocks of agony down her entire body.
Oh come now. You're not a human. Pain is not something that controls you. That blood is not your life, that flesh is not so soft and weak. Focus through it. Throw the thing off and kill it, or you're too weak to be called anything like a god.
Tsukuyomi would have sighed, had she not had a wolf on her back chewing on her shoulder. Training had been rather unforgiving, when she was younger. It had been awhile since the strident, sadistic voice of her trainer had...
Wait, hadn't Amaterasu trained her? Yes, that was how things had gone, and while her big sister could certainly be sadistic, that sadism generally did not take such a blunt form.
This is perhaps not the time to ponder this, she thought as a fresh shock of agony ran down her arm and forced her mind back to the present.
She was not at a good angle for attacking, sadly. She couldn't move one arm, and she couldn't find purchase in the ground beneath her with the remaining one. And of course, any kind of spell that she attempted that required any sort of concentration was doomed.
Of course, there were always certain techniques that didn't require anything more than a lot of mana. There were no other threats nearby, so she could probably afford the regeneration time...
"Suijin..." she muttered between gritted teeth. "Detonate barrier jacket."
"Reactor Break."
The silver breastplate shattering beneath Zafira's fangs took on a brilliant silver sheen, and he tried to withdraw, only for the girl's free hand to snap around and clamp onto his neck.
And then her barrier jacket exploded right into his mouth.
Nanoha fell back, the girl's sword once again skittering off her barrier, pink sparks dissolving into silver moonlight.
I don't understand. This doesn't feel right. Nothing feels right. The pressure of her blows, the scent of the air, the taste of magic around me...
But it was real. It had to be real. The pain of her wounds wasn't something that could be faked by any sort of illusion. There had been only glancing blows, but the cuts had opened, and... and...
And what? She thought. It seemed like there should be more to that thought, but the girl was attacking so fast and furious she had no time to consider it. It wasn't the same power she had come to expect, but Nanoha was alone, Vita had... Vita had...
Vita must have been defeated. Yes, that was logical. It would explain how Tsukuyomi had been so much weaker than normal, if she'd somehow managed to defeat Vita and taken wounds in return. It was the most sensible thing, wasn't it? It was... everything was...
Something was wrong.
Something had to be wrong. If only she could just remember what.
Tsukuyomi's blows were coming slower and slower. She hadn't lost power, but for some reason she was having trouble bringing the sword down as quickly as before, despite how light it was. Nanoha knew enough about this attack pattern to break it. All she had to do was shape a buster, and hold it at the ready until a properly timed barrier threw her just a little off-balance and...
And would Tsukuyomi, even if she was wounded, fight with such a straightforward approach?
It wasn't that she hadn't ever done so. But the time she had, she had been furious beyond all reason, unable to even think clearly. Now she was cool, collected, even mildly amused at the fight, her smile mocking Nanoha's efforts and words.
But if she was so confident, why was her fighting so simple...?
Nanoha closed her eyes, and the sound she heard was still Tsukuyomi's blade swinging down, cutting the moonlit air. The scent was still the salt of the ocean. Everything that her senses told her, told her that everything around her was exactly as it appeared.
But that couldn't be. And there was one way to test it. Probably not a good way, but... well. She could give it her best shot, at least.
She raised the barrier, and intentionally let just enough power slip out of it. If she was wrong, then this was going to hurt. A lot.
The sword collided with her barrier and the pink shield cracked at the edges before shattering, it's job done. The weapon's downward descent had been cut, momentum lost, and it struck the top of her shoulder and God it hurt so much...
But it didn't cut.
The force on her shoulder hurt. It hurt impossibly so. But it was blunt. And unless the sword had totally lost its edge in the space of so short a battle...
And why would she even be using her metal blade?
Nanoha snapped a hand out, and grabbed the weapon around the blade, and felt not even a tiny bit of sharpness beneath her fingers. Just cold, smooth metal.
The moonlight flickered, and went out in her eyes, and she stared into the wide and very confused eyes of Vita.
"Hi," Nanoha said, exhaustion filling her voice. "I'm glad I'm not dead."
Vita blinked. "What the... that was... weren't you just someone else a second ago...?"
"Yeah. I think it was some kind of shared illusion. It fell apart when I spotted the thread and... tugged on it," Nanoha said.
"Good thing. I mighta killed you, jeez."
"I was actually winning. I let you land that last shot, I could have blocked it and blasted you out the sky."
"... … I am gonna hit you for that later, but for now, let's move on with our lives," Vita said primly.
"Never change, Vita. We love you just the way you are."
"Why do people keep sayin' that?!"
Tsukuyomi sighed, looking down on the unconscious wolf, still smoking from the close-range explosion.
That was too close. She thought, gingerly touching her fingers to the blood running down her arm. Still, she had brought the creature down. She focused her thoughts inward, gathering power, and the outer shell of her barrier jacket began to glow, magic flowing inward and taking solid form, reshaping itself into a metal shell.
Concentration should not have been a problem. But then, being caught off-guard seemed to happen to her so very often lately...
The bolt of pink light struck her full-on . Cracks ran through her armor's breastplate as the buster sent her tumbling, skipping along the rocky ground with enough force to leave the rocks crushed under her.
"Y-you..." Tsukuyomi muttered, coming painfully to her hands and knees. "H-how did you...? That illusion should have been inescapable..."
Nanoha smiled sadly. "I know my friends. And I know myself. It's the only advantage I have over you, and it came through again."
"Advantage..." Tsukuyomi growled, her eyes widening. "Over me?"
"Takamachi's got a point, kid. You coulda killed Zafira by now if you wanted to. You coulda killed her before we ever arrived. Only reason for that that I can see is that your heart just isn't in this, and that's the kiss of death for a knight," Vita said with a shrug. "Look, this isn't really my way of handling things, but maybe we should just do this her way? Just stop. Fighting us in that state isn't gonna get you anywhere."
Tsukuyomi wiped a thin trickle of blood from the corner of her mouth, silver light beginning to gather around her fingers. "Perhaps... you're right. I am not... at my best."
She raised her head, and Nanoha's blood went cold. Her eyes, normally the same deep blue as her hair, had gone entirely black, the pupils growing so wide they covered the entire orb. As they watched, a pinpoint of silver light appeared deep in the darkness.
"Which is why I am lucky," Tsukuyomi intoned. "That I don't really need to be."
She raised a glowing palm, and slammed it back down onto the ground. In the air above her, a summoning circle appeared. A big one, at least 50 meters across, and shining so brightly Nanoha and Vita could barely look directly at it.
And then another appeared.
And another, and another, until eight of the gigantic silver stars filled the sky.
"Summoning: Yamata-no-Orochi."
Each of the stars went black, then, and from each one a serpent's head emerged. They were greenish-brown, and armored in thick scales; more in appearance like an adder or a desert viper, rather than the sleek water snakes Tsukuyomi usually summoned.
And Nanoha was not a great judge, but she suspected that each head was roughly the size of the main dining area in Midoriya.
The summoning circles slid backwards, revealing the long, thick bodies of each serpent, but then rather than disappearing, they just kept flowing backwards for what was probably only a few hundred meters, but to Nanoha felt kind of like a billion, trillion miles. Just more and more and more snake. Finally, the stars merged, bursting into brilliance, and leaving it revealed that all eight heads were, in fact, attached to a single giant central body.
And all eight of them were starting directly at her and Vita, the two girls reflected in sixteen eyes that were bigger than they themselves were. The creature opened its mouths and let out a low growl that made the earth shake. Thick, noxious smoke curled up from the corners of their mouths, and something foul-smelling that hissed when it hit the rocks dripped from their fangs.
"Poisonous. What the Hell does that thing need with poison, it has eight mouths and its teeth are bigger than my bed. It eat blue whales or something?" Vita muttered, apparently just to keep herself from freaking out.
"Eep," Nanoha said.
"My strongest summon. The pinnacle of my collection. This creature was the apex predator to end all apex predators, a beast so strong it devastated its entire planet's ecosystem whenever it awoke from its century-long cycles of hibernation. Devouring and destroying everything in its path without pause or remorse. My brother was the one who eventually defeated it, and knowing my... propensity for serpents, kept it alive for me to bind to a contract," Tsukuyomi said, smiling slightly. "It wasn't a water-dwelling breed, so it didn't quite fit the theme, but I could hardly say 'no.' By far the best birthday present I ever got.
"Now, my pet. Teach them a goddess is not to be crossed lightly."
Far away, Susanoo slammed his axe into Signum's guard, sending the Wolkenritter tumbling back. He was unable to take any advantage of this, however, as within milliseconds of the impact, a golden flash intercepted his follow-up strike, Fate intervening with her usual speed. Green and blue chains flashed into existence in the air around him, lashing out to ensnare his limbs, prevent him from launching his own counter-attack to stun or immobilize her, and by the time he'd broken free, she was gone and Signum's sword was at the ready.
Again.
He sighed in annoyance. "This is... the most aggravating fight I think I have ever been in."
Yuuno didn't smile, but he did at least nod in satisfaction. All right, guys! I think we're pushing him! Just keep up the pressure and...
Nobody asked you to be a cheerleader, ferret-boy, Chrono snapped mentally. Fate, Signum. Keep him flanked. I don't like where this is going.
Eeeeeeeeeeh?! Yuuno growled. Cheerleader?! And how can you not like where this is going, we're winning! He hasn't managed to to much more than scratch Miss Signum, and she can shrug off more damage than the rest of us combined! We have his movements totally locked down!
No, we don't, Signum, Fate, and Chrono replied in unison.
… I'm confused.
The fact he has barely moved is indicative of his lack of effort, not our skill in restricting him. Signum thought. Four against one, and he is repelling all our attacks through main strength, with barely any sort of maneuvering at all. He hasn't bothered to dodge or re-direct a single attack. He just crushes them.
Exactly, Chrono agreed. We might be restraining him for the moment, but we're not winning by any means. He's testing the waters, and when he's done...
"Oh, wow," Susanoo said, turning his head from the battle to gaze at the pillar of light that pierced the sky all those miles away, at the site of his sister's battle. "Would you look at that? Tsukuyomi seems to have already called up something rather horrible. I confess, I didn't see that coming... she doesn't usually rely on that summon unless she's sorely pressed. Things must have gone rougher than she expected."
He brushed a lock of hair out of his eyes, and sighed in annoyance. "Well, I guess that means I spent too long on the warm-up, anyway. I am sorry for this, all of you. I really am. But it seems it's time to take things to the next level."
He held his weapon up to the skies, and immediately the storm he had created above them began to roil as wind stirred the clouds wildly. Lightning crackled back and forth between clouds and struck down to collide with the axe, each bolt more intense than that last, cloaking Susanoo in an aura of raw power so intense it seemed the planet trembled from the thunder. Like an executioner pronouncing final sentence, he intoned, "Go mad, Raijin."
"Storm King's Halberd, break limit."
Black clouds blot out the stars.
The storm begins...
Author's Note: I have... no idea how this chapter went. Trying to convey GODLIKE POWER without making a God-Mode Sue is harder than Hell. But I am hoping I didn't do a terribly bad job of it.
Now I just need to do it several more times.
Whoo-hoo.
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