Chapter 38: Now I Am Become Death, Destroyer Of Worlds
Makoto and Shigeru stumbled down the dark halls of Central Dogma. The corridor, lit only by red emergency lights, seemed to lurch back and forth like a living thing as it was buffeted by shockwaves from the battles raging above and below
"Alright, if we cut back through the command center, we can reach the maintenance elevator. That's sure to still have power; because otherwise, how would they be able to reach the power generators when they broke?"
The floor lurched beneath their feet, sending them both sprawling, and an ominous rumble echoed up from the depths of the facility.
"God damn it!" Shigeru said, pulling himself back to his feet. "If we survive this, I am going to kill you."
"How was I supposed to know the main elevator would stop working when the power went out?" Makoto said.
"The hundred or so signs saying, In case of emergency, use stairs weren't enough of a hint for you?" Shigeru asked.
"Well, if we were going to take the stairs, we wouldn't have to worry about the attack at all, because we'd die of old age before reaching the surface anyway." Makoto said. "And may I add that we would have made it to the elevators before the power failed like everyone else if you hadn't insisted on going back for your guitar!"
"This thing's vintage, man!" Shigeru said defensively. "Genuine pre-Second Impact. Do you know how few of these are left? How valuable this baby is? It's pretty much my retirement plan now, since I think our pensions just went up in smoke."
There was a distant explosion, a deep rumbling noise, and then a much closer explosion.
"Yeah, well, at this rate it looks like we'll be going up in smoke too." Makoto said.
"Maybe if you had half the pathfinding ability of the average lab rat..." Shigeru began.
"And yet you keep following me." Makoto cut in. "What does that say about your sense of direction?"
Shigeru began preparing a witty retort, one so sharp and piercing that it was certain to leave Makoto utterly speechless, and would surely have thought one up in the next moment or two if Makoto hasn't spoken again.
"There!" Makoto said. "Entrance to the command center. Pass through there, and we'll find the maintenance elevator on the other side."
Makoto and Shigeru entered the Command Center. The room, usually impeccably maintained, had become a disaster area. The large tactical display screens mounted on the walls had cracked and shattered. The three MAGI supercomputers had been reduced to twisted heaps of burnt metal, and there was a strong odor of burning flesh in the air. Most alarming, however, was the body crumpled on walkway in front of them, apparently pitched over the railing of one of the higher platforms. It took a moment for Shigeru to recognize the figure.
"It's old man Fuyutsuki." Shigeru said.
"Is he... alive?" Makoto asked.
Shigeru walked over to the Vice-Commander's crumpled form and checked his vitals.
"He's still breathing." Shigeru said. "But man, he's messed up. Look at his legs — bones were not meant to bend like that."
"We'll have to carry him." Makoto said.
"What?" Shigeru asked.
"Well, he's obviously not walking out of here, and we can't just leave him to die." Makoto said.
"Damn it." Shigeru sighed. "Since when did you get all moral?"
"Well, since the Commander and the Council are all bastards. I figured someone should be the voice of basic human decency." Makoto said.
"It's because Maya took a stand and helped Dr. Akagi when the Commander decided to turn the thumbscrews on her, isn't it?" Shigeru said. "Seeing her take the moral high ground made you think of all the times you followed ethically questionable orders without protest. Now you're trying to redeem yourself through random good deeds. Next thing you know, you'll be donating money to charity and giving away food to orphans."
"Oh, heaven forfend anyone should show charity towards orphans." Makoto said. "You don't receive many compliments about your unbridled compassion and humanitarian spirit, do you?"
"Don't talk to me about humanitarian spirit." Shigeru said. "What I saw of humanity after the Second Impact didn't exactly leave me with a positive opinion of human nature. As far as I'm concerned, the mere fact that I chose to work at NERV and tried to help save the world regardless qualifies me as a saint."
"Good for you." Makoto said. "But unless you want to become the first saint martyred by means of being force-fed his own guitar, you're going to help me save the Vice-Commander now."
"Fine." Shigeru said. "But just so it's clear, this satisfies my quota for good deeds for the next three years."
Another distressing tremor emanated from somewhere deep beneath their feet.
"Well, if you're planning on living for another three years, I suggest you get on with it." Makoto said,
The two bridge bunnies lifted up Fuyutsuki and began carrying his limp body with them towards the exit.
Clyde's prison cell was dark and cramped. The only light came from a bare bulb on the ceiling; the only furnishings were a toilet and a cot. Clyde lay on the cot, feeling the vibrations emanating from somewhere deep below and running through the foundations of NERV. Third Impact was in progress, then. The only question was how it would go down. Who would unite the Progenitors and claim the power of Adonai: Precia or SEELE? It was a lose-lose situation, to be honest. Neither Precia Testarossa nor Lorenz Keel would be a benevolent overlord if they gained the powers of a god. He wished he could have done more to oppose them; but in the end, he was just one man fighting against a conspiracy that had been scheming and preparing for thousands of years. Empires had risen and fallen while SEELE endured. All he could really hope was that he'd been a good father to the Magical Girls placed under his custody. Hayate, Signum, Shamal, and Vita... even if they had no chance of winning the coming war against whichever god-tyrant would be conquering the world as Adonai, he was at least confident that they would fight on the side of justice. They were all good people, despite what SEELE had tried to turn them into.
The tremors shaking the base had become more violent now. Something cataclysmically destructive was occurring far below Clyde's feet, and the effects were drawing ever closer. The door to his cell was trembling in its frame, and a terrible banging noise coming from directly outside; it seemed like his cell's collapse was imminent. Clyde closed his eyes and waited for the end.
"Idiot!" A voice shouted. "Are you planning on sleeping all day?"
Clyde opened his eyes. His cell door had been flung open, its lock broken, and Major Lindy Harlaown stood silhouetted in the doorway. For the first time in his life, Clyde was speechless.
"Well?" Lindy demanded. "You planning on coming with me? Because I could've been clear by now if I hadn't come back for your dumb ass, and I'm not going to wait around for the ceiling to fall on my head."
Somewhat sheepishly, Clyde got off the cot and walked to the cell door. Lindy was already climbing back into the driver's seat of her car, which she had somehow driven down the detention block corridor. It was such a tight fit that there was no room to open the doors; Lindy had to enter through the car's sunroof. After take a moment to regain his composure, Clyde followed.
"I'm surprised you managed to fit a car in here." Clyde said. "I wouldn't have thought the door was large enough."
"It wasn't." Lindy said. "I made a new one."
"Damn." Clyde said appreciatively. "All this work, just to save little old me?"
"Of course I came back for you, dummy." Lindy said. "You're my fiancé, aren't you?"
"Right." Clyde said. "Obviously what I meant to say was, I never doubted you for a moment."
"And that you'd do the same for me." Lindy prodded.
"Actually, I prefer to think that I would have planned ahead well enough not to cut things quite so close." Clyde said.
"You're welcome, jerk." Lindy said. "But since you mention it, I'd buckle up; it's going to be a bit of a rough ride."
As they buckled their seatbelts, a deep roaring sound arose from Terminal Dogma, growing in intensity with each passing second until the vibration was strong enough to rattle their teeth. It sounded as though hell itself was rising to claim them.
"Time to get gone, I think." Clyde said.
"I concur." Lindy said.
She shifted her car into reverse and then slammed the gas pedal all the way to the floor, causing her vehicle to leap backwards with a screaming protest and the smell of burnt rubber. The car hurtled down NERV's too-narrow hallways, acquiring an entirely new set of dents and scratches overlaying the ones it had acquired on the way in. By the time Lindy backed the car out of the hall — whose entryway had indeed been considerably expanded, apparently through the use of mining explosives used to excavate new rooms in the GeoFront — the floor was fairly bucking beneath their feet from whatever apocalyptic turmoil was rising up from Terminal Dogma.
"Next stop: the surface." Lindy said.
She brought the car around with such violence that one of the damaged rear doors flew off, then shifted into drive and mashed the accelerator as far down as it would go. The car took off screaming up the sloping road that led to the open interior of the GeoFront as the facility began to collapse around them. Lindy drove like a madwoman, manhandling the steering wheel like it was her mortal enemy and wrenching the car into maneuvers that Clyde once would have sworn were physically impossible in order to avoid the cracks that were opening in the floor below them and the chunks of debris that were falling from above. Finally, just as Clyde was becoming certain that they would be entombed in rubble, the shine of daylight appeared in front of them. The beleaguered car emerged from the underground tunnel and lurched to a stop in sight of the black pyramid of Central Dogma.
A moment later, the pyramid exploded. The ground beneath it heaved and broke apart as a titanic figure rose up from the depths of the Earth: Lilith, the Black Mother. For a moment, the enormous figure seemed to tower over the cratered GeoFront like a divine being. Then Her body broke apart into bloody chunks, torn asunder by the brilliant magic of Commander Precia Testarossa. She floated high in the air, above the blood and gore of Lilith's crumbling body, wreathed in godly power. Looking both majestic and terrible, she lifted from the ruined remains of the Progenitor's body Her core, the embryo-like seed from which She could eventually regenerate; and made to swallow it whole.
The Council was in an uproar.
"That woman is consuming the Black Mother!" SEELE 06 bellowed.
"She would steal what we have worked for thousands of years to obtain!" SEELE 05 said.
"We must not let her take what is rightfully ours!" SEELE 02 said.
"Silence, all of you." Keel commanded in a tone that brooked no dissent. "I am receiving updates on the status of the Arc-En-Ciel."
The Chairman had linked the cybernetic implants in his body to the satellite feed to the MAGI computed on Weapons Platform Asura. At first, there had only been disturbing silence. But now, data was starting to trickle in as the damaged systems rebooted.
"...The Arc-En-Ciel is back online at 10% capacity." Keel finally reported.
"Then delay not!" SEELE 03 shouted. "Rain hellfire and damnation upon the head of the usurper!"
"Firing sequence has been initiated." Keel said. "Our will be done."
"Our will be done." the other Council members echoed.
Precia clutched the embryonic form of Lilith tightly in her left hand, slowly raising the helpless seed of the Black Mother towards her open mouth. Just when it looked like she was about to bite down, however, she paused. The sky above her had come alive with multicolored lights, concentric auroras spreading out like ripples in a pond.
"Arc-En-Ciel." Precia said in a matter-of-fact tone. "So Shamal and Vita were unreliable after all."
Keeping a tight grip on Lilith's embryo, Precia lowered her left hand and raised her right hand above her head. Pinpoints of brilliant white light flared in the depths of her pupils, and purple lightning fathered in her outstretched palm. A moment later, the sky split apart as the beam of magical energy fired from the Arc-En-Ciel feel like a blazing spear from the heavens. The pillar of destroying light struck her hand and scattered like a stream of water against a stone surface. Precia floated immobile in the air, not budging an inch beneath the continuing onslaught of power, holding back enough destructive energy to level a city with only a single hand.
"Futile!" Precia shouted at the sky. "No mere Angel has magic capable of opposing the White Mother — not even your precious Arc-En-Ciel!"
Damaged by Vita's earlier attack, the Arc-En-Ciel was unable sustain continuous fire for long. Even though it was being fired at only 10% of its full capacity, the few systems that remained online were still unable to handle the load for long. The over-stressed weapons platform began to overheat, and was forced to once more shut down or else risk total destruction. However, despite its short duration and inability to penetrate Precia's defenses, the shot was not entirely in vain. As Precia hung motionlessly in the air, all of her attention concentrated on the weapon's fading beam, a shout rang out from one of the Magical Girls around her:
"Blitz Rush!"
With speed too great to be followed by the human eye, Fate snatched the embryonic Lilith from Precia's lowered hand. Precia waited a few moments, until the last vestiges of the Arc-En-Ciel's assault had faded away, then turned to face her daughter.
"You would defy me, Fate?" Precia asked coldly.
"...Yes, Mother." Fate said, her eyes downcast. "I would. And I do."
"You are not my daughter." Precia said. "Disappear, wretched doll!"
A bolt of purple plasma burst from her extended hand and hurtled towards Fate, Fate barely managed to raise a defensive barrier in time, and the force of the blast still sent her somersaulting backwards through the air.
In response, the other Magical Girls began preparing attacks of their own. Hayate spread her hands over the book of Reinforce, the pages of which began flipping on their own as a magic sigil inscribed itself under her wheelchair.
"Diabolic..." she began.
"Silence, stupid girl." Precia said.
She flung a spell at Hayate that appeared to consist of a web composed of lightning. Confined as she was to her wheelchair, there was no hope of dodging; and she was already much too far into the incantation of Diabolic Emission to be able to cancel it and raise a barrier instead. Her only choice was to take the attack head-on. The web of purple energy enveloped Hayate and her wheelchair, but it didn't burn. Instead, the bands of purple magic tightened around her. Her eyes and mouth were covered, and her hands were bound in place. There was no way for her to make use of her Device and cast spells.
"Divine Shooter!" Nanoha called.
A volley of pink energy balls hurtled towards the Commander. With a contemptuous look, Precia made a sweeping arm gesture, and all of the projectiles exploded mid-air.
"Swallow Flier!" Vita shouted.
A swing of Graf Eisen sent a sphere of crackling orange offensive magic blasting towards Precia. Precia extended her left hand, wreathed in an aura of crackling plasma, and caught the ball. She then slowly tightened her hand into a fist, her purple magic steadily overwhelming the orange until finally the attack shattered into a cloud of hazy sparks.
"Futile." Precia said. "The power of your Devices is nothing against the White Mother. Your resistance is nought but the tantrum of insolent children before a disciplining parent."
"Suck vacuum, jerk!" Shamal retorted.
Klarer Wind flashed brightly on her finger; but after a moment, the portal she was attempting to open between Precia's throat and outer space curled in on itself and vanished.
"I said futile!" Precia roared. "Why do you think no Angels teleported directly to Terminal Dogma, bypassing NERV's defenses? The aura of light cast by theWhite Mother is a sacred space into which no one may intrude! It seems you have not been paying attention — and disrespectful children must be properly chastised!"
Precia clenched her right hand, and her Device materialized. It was a long whip, composed of purple lightning. She swung it fiercely; and although Shamal raised a shield, it tore effortlessly through both her magic defense and her Barrier Jacket to carve a diagonal gash across her chest. Shamal's flight spell faltered, and she fell from the sky.
"Take this, bitch!" Vita screamed. "Rocket Hammer!"
Graf Eisen propelled her towards Precia, a drill of whirling offensive magic at its front and a blazing rocket engine at its back. Precia sneered and swung around her whip. The end wrapped around one of Vita's ankles, interrupting her charge; Precia then swung the whip about, swinging Vita around in a wide circle at high velocity before releasing her. Tumbling out of control, she plowed into the ground amidst a cloud of dust and debris.
"Photon Lancer — Phalanx Shift!" Fate cried.
Precia raised her left hand, and purple lightning leapt from her fingers to intercept and annihilate the incoming bullets of yellow magic.
"So you still yearn for the taste of the lash!" Precia spat.
She swung her whip around, sending it flying at Fate. Encumbered by carrying the Black Mother, Fate didn't have the maneuverability to dodge, and the crackling whip would rip through any defensive barrier she raised as easily as tissue paper.
"Barrel Shot!" Nanoha called.
A pink magic circle appeared around the tip of the whip and tightened, fixing it immobile in the air.
"Never again, Mother." Fate said. "I won't allow you to have that power over me any more. Zanbar Form — Riot Blade!"
The brilliant yellow blade slashed through Precia's whip with ease. The length of purple lightning split apart and crumbled into motes of light.
"Worthless!" Precia spat. "You are nothing but a worthless piece of trash, a fake, an imposter, an imitation, scum, garbage, refuse, nothing, nothing, NOTHING!"
Releasing her damaged Device, she flung out her hands and spewed a cloud of luminous purple plasma at Fate. Fate raised a spherical shield around herself as the burning energy engulfed her.
"Hey!" Vita shouted. "You haven't forgotten about me, have you? Comet Flier!"
Standing in the crater caused by her impact with the ground, Vita swung Graf Eisen and struck a ball of flaming orange energy the size of a double-decker bus towards Precia. The Commander was forced to break off her assault on Fate in order to raise a shield. The massive orange sphere slammed against the barrier and ground to a halt, unable to breach it.
"Futi—" Precia began to shout, but was cut off.
"Divine Buster!" Nanoha called.
The beam of brilliant pink energy plowed into Vita's ball of offensive magic, causing both spells to detonate. Precia was engulfed in a massive conflagration. A moment later, however, a shockwave of magic pulsed from her body and blew apart the raging firestorm.
"Futile, futile, futile!" Precia raved. "How long will it take to penetrate your thick skulls There is nothing —"
"Strum Falche!"
An arrow of deep crimson magic slammed into Precia's chest and exploded with even greater force than the previous attacks. Precia was once again enveloped in a fiery maelstrom of magical power; and this time, she hadn't had time to raise a barrier. When the smoke and flame cleared, her Barrier Jacket was scratched and torn.
"How?" she demanded. "How could you possibly...?"
On the ground far below her, Signum stood defiant, the bow form of Laevatein clenched in her hands. Shamal stood directly behind her, hands against her back, pouring magical energy into her body. Since her own techniques were worthless against Precia, she was transferring all her energy to Signum, giving the nearly-exhausted warrior enough strength to participate in the fight.
"Perish!" Precia roared.
Lightning leapt down from her hands, battering the two Magical Girls. However, she wasn't able to sustain the attack for long before once more being forced onto the defensive.
"Divine Buster!"
Precia raised one hand, intercepting Nanoha's pink beam with the dense purple energy gathered in her palm.
"Thunder Smasher!"
Precia extended her other hand to block the yellow beam fired by Fate.
"Deadly Punishment!"
Precia hadn't seen Vita flying up behind her; by the time she shouted her attack, it was too late for the Commander to dodge. Vita swung down Graf Eisen, striking a solid blow against the back of the Commander's head. Precia's eyes crossed, and her magic flickered unstably for a moment as her concentration wavered. It was only for a moment, but it was enough to disrupt the spell she'd cast on Hayate. The ensnaring web of purple bindings melted away, and Hayate immediately launched into an incantation.
"Atem des Eises!" Hayate shouted.
Vita quickly retreated to a safe distance as cubes of blue magic began exploding into freezing clouds around Precia. Although they filled the air around her, none of the icy blasts actually struck Precia. The Commander sneered in contempt at Hayate's aim. It was only when she saw that the sky was once again alive with scintillating auroras that she realized that Hayate had not been trying to hit her, but to get her to stand still long enough for Weapons Platform Asura to get a lock on her; and by then it was too late. The blinding rainbow-colored beam of the Arc-En-Ciel fell upon her like a divine judgement. The damaged weapon was only able to sustain the beam for a couple seconds before it once more malfunctioned and the pillar of light faded; however, that was enough time to send Precia hurtling downwards into the very pit she'd made when breaking upwards from Terminal Dogma with Lilith. A moment later, a great explosion roared back up the shaft.
"Did that do it?" Nanoha asked.
Shamal shook her head.
"I still can't open a portal." she said. "She's still alive down there, and she's probably coming back up. Get ready."
Preica rose from the flaming pit like a vengeful demon from the fiery maw of hell. Her Barrier Jacket was shredded and burnt, and her expression has lost all trace of composure. Now her face was a warped display of naked fury. As soon as she came into view, the Magical Girls released the attacks they'd been charging.
"Starlight Breaker!" called Nanoha.
"Trident Smasher!" called Fate.
"Hraesvelgr!" called Hayate.
"Sturm Falche!" called Signum.
"Comet Flier!" called Vita.
A veritable tsunami of magical energy roared towards Precia. The Commander flung our both of her arms in front of her, raising a thick barrier that somehow managed to bear the combined force of all of the attacks.
"My! Power! Is! Greater!" Precia screamed.
White lights blazed like stars in her eyes as she mustered her strength. The aura of purple magic surrounding her pulsed and thickened. Then, slowly, impossibly, her power began to push back the numerous attacks battering her. Nanoha's rainbow-colored beam, Fate's three yellow beams, Hayate's three white beams, Signum's red arrow, Vita's orange sphere; all were repelled by the enormous expanding sphere of purple magic surrounding Precia.
At the center of the sphere, Precia's body was clearly being put under immense strain by her efforts. Precia's veins pulsed with white light, making them stand out like a web of lightning bolts beneath her skin. Adam burned within her chest, glowing with such intensity that Her magical light could be seen through the Commander's flesh and ribs.
"She's pushing herself too hard." Hayate said. "She's going to awaken Adam."
"What?" Nanoha said.
"The power coming off of her... it's like when Reinforce was waking up." Hayate said. "She's losing control."
Adam's brilliance continued to grow, until Precia was visible only as a shining white figure at the center of the immense ball of purple plasma she'd generated around herself. Angels had to be lobotomized when they were converted into Intelligent Devices in order for the Magical Girl who bonded with them to control them. Precia had forced Dr. Akagi to perform this process on Adam, damaging the White Mother's Core so that Precia would be able to control Her unrivaled magical power. However, Adam was no mere Angel; She was a Progenitor, a being of a higher order. Adam did not need another Angel to help Her repair Her Core, as Iruel had done to Bardiel; She was capable of regenerating the damage on Her own.
In an instant, the color of the plasma changed from royal purple to crimson red. It crystallized around the Commander, trapping her like an insect in amber. Adam's Core. The crystal sphere began to throb with power like a beating heart, and an aura of magic far greater than anything Precia had ever been capable of summoning began to surround it. The magic energy burned such a brilliant white that it was too painful to look at directly. Only through the corners of their eyes could the Magical Girls see the magic energy taking on a vaguely humanoid shape. A giant of light, towering kilometers high over them like a living mountain. Four wings, spreading out towards the four corners of the world, as if to envelop the sky. A pair of gigantic green eyes, staring down at them as though they were mere ants before a superior being — a not entirely incorrect assessment. For all their might, they were in the end but Lilim wielding the power of enslaved Angels. Whereas She was something on an altogether different level. A higher existence. A God.
The White Progenitor.
Mother of all Angels.
Adam.