-x-
Legendary Witches 3: Cross World Battle
Chapter 35: Usque ad Finem
Chapter Quote: "To the Very End."
-April 28th, 1953-
The battle heated up at every point. Each group was pulling out all the stops to put away as many Neuroi as they could. Of the sixty thousand Neuroi, a collective estimate was that the Witch Forces had destroyed roughly eight thousand in the first half hour.
At that half hour mark, Doran and Michelle made a judgment call. Believing that enough Neuroi were taken down so that the various groups could stand their ground more easily, they called the four infiltrators to the southern tip.
"Shouldn't we wait for Shadow to come and get us in stealthily?" Aya asked.
"We can't," Doran said. "She's neck deep in Neuroi right now. If we call anyone else away, the Neuroi will gain a foothold that we don't want them to gain."
"It's fine anyway," Michelle added. "The five of us can get you in."
"Five?" Toshiro asked. "There's only you and Michelle."
Doran pointed toward the hive, where several bolts of lightning were clearly visible underneath. "Danielle, Elizabeth, and Michael are still fighting. Michelle and I have a plan where the five of us will clear a path for you to fly in."
"What about teleporting?" Aya asked. "Yoshika and Kye can use their rainbow magic to do that."
Yoshika nodded, "It's possible."
"Not a good idea," Michelle said. "You could teleport into an ambush. If you fly in, you can at least see where you're going beforehand."
"I say we just go with their idea," Toshiro said. "There's no point in speculating now. Tearing through the Neuroi always worked before."
"Right," Doran said. "Let's get going."
Before they could, Kye flew up to Doran and kissed him. "Thank you for helping in this simulation. Without you and the others, we would never have gotten this far." She was quickly overcome with intense pain for a few moments after she stopped speaking.
Doran smiled. "Of course. I couldn't just let two worlds get destroyed, now could I?"
"Couldn't you and Michelle have just beat Mavet before all this?" Toshiro asked.
"Our knowledge of what would happen either way was withheld. We took a gamble on which future would be better, and we lost. That's part of why we're here helping like this. Anyway, let's go." Doran flared up his blue flames and took off toward the action, followed closely by Michelle and the infiltrators.
They passed by the 511th Fuso group on their way in. As Doran and the others closed in, Danielle, Elizabeth, and Michael were already prepared to clear them a path.
"Dragon Soul!" Elizabeth called out just before she, Michael, and Danielle activated their own powerful auras. Her aura was dark blue and with sparking lightning. "By my power as the Dragon Goddess Raiza, I call forth the Lightning of the Dragon Gods!" The lightning sparking around inside her aura became more intense she prepared her attack.
"Dragonwrath!" She held out her right hand with only her index and middle fingers extended, and from those fingers launched the most powerful bolt of lightning that Yoshika, Toshiro, and Aya had ever seen. Every Neuroi within one hundred meters of the ten kilometer long bolt of dark blue colored lightning was razed.
Using the free path, Danielle and Michael led Doran, Michelle, and the infiltration team through as far as they could. Once they reached the end of the ten kilometer long path, Michael prepared to open up a further path. His aura was light green with chunks of rock floating inside.
"By my power as the Dragon God Gaijus, I call forth the Earth of the Dragon Gods!" he shouted as he prepared his attack. He held both hands forward, and as he concentrated his power, the chunks of rock floating inside his aura flew forward and coalesced into a mass that quickly grew in size, forming a large boulder glowing in the same light green energy as Michael's aura. When he finished building up the boulder, which ended up being roughly fifty meters in diameter, he flew up to it and slammed it when his right palm, launching it forward at an incredible speed.
"Dragonstar!" The boulder flew ten kilometers forward into the Neuroi masses before it finally fell apart. It cleared the same ten kilometer long, one hundred meter wide area that Elizabeth's Dragonwrath had.
Michael waved at the group as Danielle lead them further in toward the center of the massive hive.
"Anyone have a measure on how big this hive is?" Toshiro asked. "It's gotta be a few hundred kilometers wide."
"It's about four hundred kilometers in diameter," Michelle answered. "The orb looking thing in the center is about one hundred kilometers wide, so that leaves about one fifty on either side of it to the edge. We managed to clear about twenty kilometers in with the 511th Fuso team before we called you here, and Elizabeth and Michael both got us another twenty kilometers in, so we're sitting at about one-ten to go."
"I'll get you another ten at least," Danielle added. Her aura was light blue with thin streams of water floating around inside.
"The closer we can get, the better," Aya said.
"Just be prepared to stop and take out any colossal Neuroi that get in our way. So far, we've been lucky. Most of them have been distracted by the rest of our forces, but there's gonna be one or two between here and the center."
"Roger that, Dani," Michelle said.
"Alright, I'm going to prepare my attack now," Danielle said as they approached the end of the cleared line. "By my power as the Dragon Goddess Valeria, I call forth the Water of the Dragon Gods!" The streams of water inside her aura floated outside, but still glowed with her power. They grew in size and number until there were five steams, each two kilometers in length. Once they were out of cleared path, Danielle initiated her attack.
"Dragonfrost!" She waved her right hand forward, sending her five streams of water forward. The streams formed a line of water ten kilometers long. She brought her left hand forward and acted as if she held a ball between her hands. She pulled her hands apart, causing the ten kilometer long stream of water to spread outward to roughly one hundred meters wide. She then threw both hands forward, as if throwing an invisible ball, causing the water to instantly freeze. She then pulled her hands apart and broke up the mass of ice. Any Neuroi caught inside was frozen and shattered. "Go!"
Wasting no time, Doran and Michelle lead the infiltration group forward.
"So what sort of dragon technique are you two going to use?" Toshiro asked.
"We're not," Doran said.
"Then how are we getting further?" Aya asked.
"Doran and I are basically going to turn the six of us into a giant fireball," Michelle answered. "I guess I should get ready."
"You're usually more proactive than this," Doran said.
"I still have that post-sex high from this morning," Michelle said. "Anyway, since you're already using Dragon Soul..." before finishing her sentence, a white aura of power with winds blowing inside formed around her body.
"By your power as the Dragon Goddess... something..." Toshiro said with a mocking tone.
"Oh, mine is Dragon Goddess Jalara," Michelle said.
"And mine is Dragon God Daelron," Doran added. "But we're not using our Dragon Soul attacks." As the group neared the end of the path cleared by Danielle, Doran threw his arms outward and formed a large barrier of blue flames around the group, effectively turning them into a flaming shooting star. "We're just burning through the rest."
"We needed the others to get us this far, because we can't keep this up for very long with our power limited to this world's standards," Michelle explained as she threw her arms outward, blowing an intense wind into the fire and strengthening it. "Doran ignites the fire, and I fan the fire."
"We have about thirty seconds of this, so we have to fly as fast as possible to reach the center," Doran continued. "We can only fly about Mach 10 while maintaining this fireball, but that's plenty of time."
"Let's kick it up a notch then," Toshiro said as he and the others sped up.
As they approached the center of the hive's underside, the group spotted a colossal Neuroi ahead. Toshiro glanced to Aya, who returned a nod. The two formed a ball of celestial energy and threw them at the giant Neuroi. Yoshika and Kye followed up with the same attack, but with rainbow energy. The four balls hit the Neuroi simultaneously in different areas and completely vaporized the monster in the resulting explosions just in time for the group to safely pass through where it had been.
The group soon reached the center of the hive's underside, which had a giant upside down armored dome.
"Alright, you're on your own from here," Doran said. "You shouldn't have any problems breaking in from here. Good luck."
"What about you two?" Yoshika asked.
"Doran and I can teleport out," Michelle said.
"How many types of magic do you guys have?"
"Remember, we're not a witch and wizard from your world," Michelle pointed out. "In our world, one can learn many types of magic. Disregarding our Elder God powers, we mastered teleportation as mortals. We can clear about one hundred kilometers per teleport with the limitation in this world."
"I see. Well, thanks for getting us in," Yoshika said. "We'll take care of things from here."
Kye suddenly launched a rainbow colored Reppuzan at the armored dome, opening a hole large enough to fly through.
"That's our cue," Toshiro said. "Later, guys."
Doran and Michelle held hands and vanished, leaving the four infiltrators to begin their mission.
As soon as they entered, Kye and Yoshika both activated their Seinarugan eyes, while Toshiro and Aya activated their Celestial eyes. With their eyes, they could see the energy emitted by every Neuroi core, especially the giant hive core.
The inside of the hive looked much like a three dimensional labyrinth, though the four were able to see it as if viewing a cut-out. Kye quickly plotted a course and started leading the group through.
As they rounded the first corner, a swarm of humanoid Neuroi were waiting for them. Aya took the initiative and launched a massive, monochromatic Reppuzan at them. Many of them were vaporized by the attack with the others not taking a direct hit being left heavily damaged. Aya quickly finished them off with simple melee strikes, and the group continued forward.
Their next few turns were empty. After several more turns - some right, some left, some up, some down - and several Neuroi in between, the group found themselves in a large empty spherical room with black walls.
In the center of the room waited a human girl, appearing roughly twenty years old. Similar to Maeve, she wore simple clothing consisting of a long sleeved black shirt, black jeans, and black shoes. Her jet black waist length hair was tied up in twin tails with dark red ribbons. A few stray bangs hung down in her face, but none covered her dark red eyes.
"I take it you are Maia," Toshiro said.
"That's right," the girl said. "I am the champion of my father, Lord Mavet."
"Then I will be your opponent."
Another woman suddenly appeared next to Maia, one Toshiro and Kye recognized as Maeve.
"Hello, Mother," Maia greeted her.
"Lord Mavet recommends that you battle two of them and send the other two on to him," Maeve said.
"If that is what Father wants. With the difference in our power, two on one should be fair."
Maeve acknowledged Maia's acceptance of the order and turned to Kye. "It is good to see you again, Lady Kye. I look forward to another battle, though unfortunately I will be wielded by Lord Mavet this time."
"Enough small talk," Toshiro shouted. "Let's get on with this."
"So be it, Champion," Maeve said. "Two of you will stay here and fight while the other two will seek out Lord Mavet. We will be waiting." Maeve vanished.
"Please pick your second, Toshiro," Maia said. "I'm not fond of being here in the first place, so I would like to get this over with."
"I will fight," Aya said without a second thought.
"Good. Good luck to both of you. While I do not support this pointless war simulation or the reason behind the conflict, I will obey my father's wishes and fight for him. I apologize, but I cannot go easy on you. Please give it your all."
"I'm so used to fighting the Neuroi in my world..." Toshiro said. "It's a weird change to fight enemies that have honor. I'm not sure what to think about that. Either way, it's time to fight. Yoshika, Kye, go on!"
The two nodded at him and flew past Maia, through the exit on the other side of the enormous room.
"Awaken!" Toshiro and Aya said simultaneously. They flared their auras up to full power.
Maia summoned her blade, a simple dark red and black longsword. Hebrew markings representing the word "Cataclysm" were engraved on the blade close to the guard.
"Awaken," she said before firing up her own aura of chaotic power and activating her own Celestial Eye. Her eye was slightly different from Toshiro and Aya's, where their eye had white stars and their pupils glowed white, Maia's stars and pupil glow was dark red.
After leaving Toshiro and Aya to their fight with Maia, the two remaining infiltrators carried on. Yoshika and Kye moved faster than before, quickly destroying any Neuroi swarms they came across.
At the final leg of the labyrinth, the two encountered an unusually strong humanoid Neuroi.
"You have done well to come this far, Champions," the Neuroi said. "However, I cannot allow you to continue. By the order of Lord Mavet, I will eliminate you."
Kye materialized Jouten's sheath, placed it at her left hip, and sheathed the sword.
"Your actions make no sense, Champion."
"Senkou Suto." Kye jumped forward, drew Jouten, and slashed the Neuroi in two, all in a split second. The Neuroi shattered, its core destroyed.
Behind the Neuroi stood a large set of black double doors, the same color as the rest of the hive's insides. Yoshika and Kye exchanged glances and each pushed open one of the doors. They found the enormous hive core chamber on the other side. It was spherical in shape and easily stretched fifty kilometers in diameter. The core itself was no smaller than half the size of the chamber it lied. A circular platform hugged the core roughly one quarter of the way up from its bottom and was connected to the door by a wide walkway.
Yoshika and Kye spotted a human man standing near the core and teleported toward him. The two reappeared a short distance from him. The man wore a hooded cloak and black clothing underneath.
"Welcome, Lady Kye and Champion Yoshika," the man greeted without turning around. He held his right hand up as if grasping for the giant core. "It's beautiful, isn't it? This object is a true embodiment of evil and a strong representation of chaos. Tell me, what do you think I am? Good? Evil? A bastard, perhaps?"
"I'm going to go with evil," Yoshika said without hesitation.
"Your perspective deems me evil," he echoed. "That's not surprising, really. To the inhabitants of your and Toshiro's worlds, that statement is true." He turned around and removed his hood, revealing his face, appearing no more than a twenty year old young man. His short spiky black hair reached just above his shoulders. "I must ask, though, despite the rhetoricalness of the question. Would you still label me as evil if you lived in one of the universes I have created? They are paradises. I am the embodiment of chaos in the Omniverse, yet my worlds live in peace and harmony. It's quite the contradiction. Here I am, willing to destroy the trillions of lives that inhabit your two universes, yet I grant peaceful lives to so many more in my own worlds."
"That only worsens my opinion of you. I would add psychotic to that evil."
"I suppose you would. What about you, Lady Kye? If you'll allow it, I will numb your pain if you speak."
"I see you as nothing more than an enemy threatening the existence of three worlds."
"Oh yes, there is that third world with the blue human-esque people. You know it's quite humorous. They believe humans to be ugly, yet humans believe them to be beautiful, at least the humans that have crossed paths with them. I'm afraid my own opinion of them is neutral. If there is one thing I take pride in, that would be the appearance of my consort."
Maeve appeared next to him, and he wrapped his right arm around her shoulders.
"And she knows it very well, my spoiled love. She even pleased me when our daughter was born. Maia turned out just as beautiful as her mother, and truth be told I would have trouble telling them apart by looks alone if not for their choice in hairstyle. I am blessed in many ways, one could say, but there is still one thing that escapes my grasp."
Maeve transformed into her weapon form, the greatsword Armageddon.
Mavet continued, "Adam will answer to me." He held Armageddon toward Yoshika and Kye and gestured at them. "During this battle, I will be restricted to mortal levels of your world's standards. Although, even at that, my power is still far greater than that which the two of you possess. You had a fifty percent chance of victory, yet even if the two of you, Toshiro, and Aya were to fight me simultaneously, you would lose. You chose the wrong method to confront me. However, I know that despite my words, you will still try, so go ahead. Let's begin."
Yoshika turned to Kye and whispered in her ear, "Get the core," before jumping toward Mavet. "Awaken!" She poured magic into her blade and quickly discharged it at her opponent, speaking the full name of her technique, "True Zen Reppuzan!" Empowered by the full name, the rainbow colored Reppuzan launched from Yoshika's blade with immense pressure.
Despite its power, Mavet had no trouble with redirecting the super powered Reppuzan. He responded with a similar attack, though his was black and riddled with what appeared to be dark red colored stars inside.
Sensing how powerful the blast was, Yoshika teleported out of the way. As she did, Kye launched a series of Reppuzans at the hive core, dealing a moderate amount of damage, though she was caught and kicked away by Mavet before she could do any real damage.
"Not a bad idea, but destroying this core is something I don't want you to do," Mavet said. "I'm afraid you'll have to focus your efforts on me."
As he spoke, Yoshika launched several Sacred Arrows at the core from a different angle, but that only proved to annoy Mavet.
"Okay, fine, if you want this thing out of the way, then I'll remedy the issue," Mavet said. "In fact, why don't we just go ahead and clear the entire battlefield, inside and out."
He generated a powerful barrier to block Yoshika's attacks before teleporting back to his original spot near the core. He walked up to the core, placed his hand on it, and the core vanished, surprising both of his opponents. The hive soon disappeared, allowing them to receive radio transmissions from the other forces. Every Neuroi in the area stopped moving, though they did not shatter.
"What happened, did you win?" Yami asked while attempting to silence the cheers form everyone else.
"Not quite," Yoshika replied.
"Soon, we will have the entire sky to ourselves," Mavet said. "Well, we will have to share it with Toshiro, Aya, and Maia, but I can live with that."
Every Neuroi simultaneously shattered, and their white fragments gathered toward Mavet. He absorbed all of the nearly fifty thousand remaining Neuroi.
"What the hell...?" Minna asked as she and the other Strike Witches began flying toward where Kye, Yoshika, and Mavet were floating.
"Much better," Mavet said before teleporting up to a suborbital altitude. He held his free hand downward and discharged a Neuroi beam far beyond what any of the battle participants could have imagined. The beam reached over one thousand kilometers in diameter and launched downward at a tremendous speed.
Most of the Witch Forces could not even react to Mavet's overwhelming attack. Some managed to erect shields, though most of them proved futile against the immense beam. Some were able to act quickly enough to combine their power and project a shield strong enough to protect them, though at the expense of all their remaining magic power.
The beam killed most of the Witch Forces and dug a one thousand kilometer wide, several kilometer deep hole in the ground.
After the beam dissipated, the survivors looked around to see who all had survived. Yami, Yuko, and Hiro managed to survive by pooling their power into a powerful shield. Zen, Ren, Kenji, Aero, and Aira managed to survive by the same method. Liliana and Shadow survived due to Shadow shrouding the two in her shadow magic to completely avoid the massive beam.
Yoshika had teleported to where Yusu, Kaylie, and Layla were and generated a powerful shield with their help to protect them. Toshiro chose to protect Xala, who had approached him just before Mavet fired the beam. Aya was already near Toshiro, and Kye teleported to them. Together the four pooled their power to erect a shield powerful enough to protect them.
In the split second that Mavet fired the beam, the Maya group teleported around to gather the already approaching Strike Witches, including Kamiko. They teleported them to the center of the battlefield and erected a powerful shield of elemental energy known as the Helix Barrier.
Yami, Yuko, Hiro, Zen, Ren, Kenji, Aero, Aira, and the Maya group were all but completely drained after shielding themselves from the massive beam. Those protected by shields generated by Yoshika, Kye, Toshiro, and Aya retained a fair portion of their power. Liliana and Shadow retained nearly all of their power, having avoided the beam to begin with.
Maia, although being hit by the beam, was not harmed by it thanks to Mavet's control of the attack.
The survivors grouped up toward the center and began to discuss what had just happened. Before they could make any meaningful statements, Mavet and Maia approached with the intention to destroy. Seeing this, Shadow enveloped the entire group of thirty five survivors in a shroud of shadow magic, preventing their enemies from touching them.
"Please, talk quickly," Shadow said. "I do not believe I can hold a shroud this large for more than five minutes."
"Five minutes is plenty of time," Yami said. "What just happened?"
"Mavet absorbed every Neuroi out here," Minna said. "The number of hostiles I could sense went from just shy of fifty thousand to two in a matter of seconds."
"That's probably the reason why he was able to fire such an enormous beam," Yami concluded. "I'd be willing to bet that he won't be able to do that again, but despite that... his power is still incredible."
"Aya and I were fighting his champion, Maia," Toshiro added. "The fight was pretty even. I got a glimpse of Mavet's power just before he absorbed all the Neuroi, though. His power is a lot higher than Maia's, easily double or better."
"This isn't looking good," Mio said. "Judging by how much magic power we have left, I'd say we might have enough to beat him, if we could somehow pool it all to one person. But individually, he would take us out too quickly for us to have any sort of chance."
"Pooling our power isn't a bad idea, but one person can't handle all of that power," Zen said. "The Strike Witches have a powerful combination technique, though, right? What if the rest of us give our remaining energy to the lot of you? Would you be able to win?"
"Possibly," Minna said. "We'll have to take all we can get, though, and we'll have to be careful to distribute the power as evenly as possible. The power of the Sturmkraft Brecher is determined by the weakest. The rest of us can only put in as much as the weakest, even if some of us were to be twice as powerful."
"We can do it," Yoshika said as she looked to Kye. "With our True Zen, we can take the energy of our friends and evenly distribute it between all of us."
"I hate to ask this, but Aya and I will need a little boost as well," Toshiro said. "We used up a lot of power to protect ourselves just then, but Maia didn't have to do anything. We won't be able to stand against her without some of our power restored."
"We can handle it," Kye said. "It seems that my power has diminished enough now that I can speak without pain. With that, let's go with this plan. Everyone aside Toshiro, Aya, and the thirteen members of the Strike Witches will give their power to us. Yoshika and I will distribute that power appropriately, making sure to give enough to Toshiro and Aya, and distributing the rest between the thirteen Strike Witches. Once that is done, I will teleport the rest of you away from here. Accounting for that, I will take slightly more power than the rest of us."
"You need all the power you can get!" Yami argued.
"The amount of energy I require to teleport the lot of you is miniscule. It will make no difference in the battle," Kye said adamantly. "You would burn more power flying away than I would teleporting you. Take my word for it. We need to do this now, before Shadow runs out of time."
"I trust you," Yami said.
"Everyone receiving power, join hands. Everyone giving power, stay still," Kye ordered. As everyone followed her direction, she and Yoshika flared up their True Zen beyond their own bodies, and enveloped everyone. They took all the power they could from those able to give it and distributed it between those meant to receive it.
"We're not back to full power, but this is good enough," Minna said. "We can execute the Sturmkraft Brecher and defeat Mavet."
"We need to move fast then," Yoshika said. "I only have three minutes left on my Awakened State."
"Only thirty seconds for us," Toshiro said, speaking for Aya and himself. "But Maia is almost out of Awakened State time, too."
"Get moving," Kye ordered. "Time your attacks right and you can hit her with Awakened State level attacks that land right after her Awakened State wears off."
"Good idea," Toshiro said as he and Aya left Shadow's shroud.
"The rest of you," Kye continued. "Thank you." She waved her hand and teleported all of them away, including Shadow. With Shadow no longer present, the shroud dissipated. "Show no mercy. Use your full power! Awaken!"
"Awaken!" Rei echoed.
"Divine Power!" everyone else shouted.
Mavet saw the group coming, activated the chaos version of the Celestial Eye, and responded in kind, "Awaken."
"Usque ad finem!" Kye shouted. "To the very end!"