Disclaimer: I don't own Neptunia, it belongs to Idea Factory, Compile Heart and Sega.
Enter True Magic.
Chapter 28: NEXT Stage
"I'm going to crush all of you!" Leader declared as she swapped her sword for a giant mace in an instant and swung it after the CPUs like a crazed demon.
"Well we can't all be winners, so just deal with it! Blast Edge!" Purple Heart answered as she barely dodged most of the attacks and retaliated with a wind attack.
"Critical Edge!" Purple Heart charged at her and unleashed a number of powerful slashes, but each attack was easily blocked by Leader.
"Is that really all you can do?" She responded as she called forth several blades and fired them at her.
"Dream Smash Fist!" Orange Heart charged ahead at full speed and punched all the swords into bits.
"Don't think you're powerful enough to beat me, to me you're just a bunch of worthless trash piled before my master's goal!" Leader declared before flying towards her.
"Advanced Magic Blast!" MAGES. yelled out as she fired a large purple laser beam out of her staff, blasting Leader through the building.
"Don't get overconfident, you're facing more than one CPU here!" Black Sister and Black Heart teamed up, the former unleashed a massive energy blast from her gun, hitting Leader at full front.
"Tornado Sword!" Black Heart's sword changed to a colorful form before she struck at full force.
"Pathetic!" Leader knocked Black Heart away and fired several purple spears at her.
"Metzelei Schlag!" White Heart charged in with full power, but Leader dodged last minute.
"You may have the advantage in numbers, but I have an advantage in skill and power!" Leader said as she instantly equipped a shield and blocked White Heart's attack.
"Sylhet Spear!" Green Heart spawned a giant spear, aiming at Leader and hitting her.
"The likes of you aren't powerful enough to deal with what I can do, but there are too many of you here for my taste. Let's fix that." Leader placed her hand up before large barriers started forming and binding together.
"Bounded Field!" Leader trapped Purple Heart, Green Heart and White Heart into a small locked field out of energy before mercilessly charging at Green Heart and slamming her against the field.
"What the hell is this? A barrier?" Black Heart and MAGES. tried breaking the field with their magic, but it proved durable enough to remain undamaged from each hit.
"I will deal with all of you, one by one." Leader declared while she afflicted paralysis on Green Heart, so that she'd stop interfering.
"Grh, I can't move!" She tried to resist it, but the status effect remained in full effect.
"If you're this confident in your abillities, then how about dealing with the two of us?" Purple Heart responded before she and White Heart teamed up and charged at Leader.
"You think that teaming up gives you the chance to win?" Leader raised her sword and charged her weapon with thunder and ice magic before striking.
"This is it. Heartless Strikes!" Leader jumped up and delivered slashes, each with a different element against them.
"Everyone, go on the defensive!" Purple Heart yelled as she blocked or resisted any of the attacks.
"It won't be that simple, I've got another charge just for you!" Leader declared as she materialized several blades right in front of her and sent them right against Purple Heart, reducing her HP considerably.
"She's so strong..." Purple Heart stood up, but her HP had been lowered by so much now. White Heart still had energy to fight, enduring the assault from her enemy.
"How are we supposed to win if we can't even break this dumb barrier? Uzume doesn't like this at all!" Orange Heart continously punched against the barrier without avail.
"Stand back." MAGES. told her as she was charging up a spell for this. Orange Heart stepped back.
"This is one of the greatest and most powerful of spells that I have developed, I firmly believe it's power will be enough to make us victorious. Now then..." MAGES. yelled out as immense energy flowed into her staff and magical circles appeared across the room and underneath the field, her eyes glowing brightly as the atmosphere darkened.
"Watch as I unleash the ultimate magic, the world bows to the might that can break all laws and rules! Let this mighty unbreakable magic be the deciding factor!" MAGES. started chanting.
"What is this?" Leader noticed the immense magic in the atmosphere.
"Ultimate Maximized Advanced Boundless Magic: Unexplainable Phenomenon!" MAGES. chanted her spell before pointing at the barrier. A massive purple explosion emerged from a magic circle that slowly broke the field, cracking and breaking under pressure.
"Impossible!" Leader yelled out before she received a quick stab in the arm from Black Heart.
"I hope you'll like this as payback for keeping us out!"
"This is our chance!" All of the CPU came together and used their sharicites, covering them in a bright light as they transformed, reaching a level far more powerful than their simple HDD forms.
Each of them transforming and growing more powerful as their appearance and form became stronger and more armored. As the light vanished, they had each reached their NEXT Forms, all of them fully clad in their powerful and extraordinary forms that gave them a significant boost in power.
"Tsk, another transformation won't make any difference. " Leader commanded a large amount of blades and fired them at them.
"No interruptions are welcome here. Magic Gunfire!" MAGES. unleashed a well-aimed arcane barrage alongside Black Sister rapid fire, blocking every blade and stopping them in it's flight.
"Go all out! Show no hesitation!" NEXT Purple declared to everyone before they started their attack.
NEXT Green and NEXT Black started their attack, relentlessly striking from all sides and angles with unprecedented speed and strength. Leader was able to use her blade and endured some attacks, but she couldn't comprehend that power.
"Their power has improved by a notable amount, but this won't get them anywhere. You think these worthless forms can make you this powerful?!" She thought to herself before she was attacked by NEXT White at full force from above, breaking parts of her body.
"You're thinking pretty highly of yourself, so how about I break your spirit first!? Fall Slash!" NEXT Black flew up and unleashed a devastating sword beam towards the ground, Leader narrowly avoids it.
"Neptune, you're next! I'll keep us safe from what's to come. Maximized Advanced Magic Shield!" MAGES. formed a protective barrier around all of them except NEXT Purple.
"Dimensional Slice!" NEXT Purple pulled her blade into a stance as her body and energy started growing to incomprehensible amount, the sheer amount of her strength causing shockwaves across the building
"Don't start thinking that I will surrender just from your pathetic attacks!" Leader charged forward.
"It's over." NEXT Purple charged through, a powerful slash that could have torn the entire Basilicom in half struck, slashing Leader in two with a swift slash and letting her halves fall to the ground before the rest of the Basilicom was slashed in two and falling apart.
"This should wrap it up," She transformed back to normal alongside the others. "too bad the sharicites couldn't take us using so much power in one go." The special sharicites they had slowly fell apart into dust and flew away.
"I can't believe I've lost, I was hoping to take another, but I'm fine with how far I've gotten." Leader laughed despite having been reduced into two halves.
"What do you mean by that?" Noire asked him and stomped on what remained of her, but she only laughed in a creepy way.
"It won't matter, she's only be a burden if we keep her alive any longer. I'll end it."
"And I think we will meet again." Leader said as her grin widened.
"Advanced Magic: Flame Burst!" MAGES. unleashed a massive arcane flame from her staff and burned down what was left of Leader and of the research lab, when the spell ended, everything was left in ashes.
"It's done, now we can look for Chika and end this pathetic war." MAGES. told them as the foul stench started to fade.
"Don't worry about that, I've dealt with it already." They all turned around and saw IF with Chika in a very exhausted state.
"What happened to her? Just a moment ago, she was outside and willing to wage war." Vert asked with curiosity.
"I'm not sure, but by the looks of it, it seems that Leader and Kurome had been using her for some reason." IF figured as she shook Chika awake.
"Do you mind if you could help us end the war before anything else?" She asked Chika.
"Uh...fine. Yes, I can help you. Just give a minute." Chika answered, still a little drowsy.
"There's a lot of explaining that will need to be done now, but let's liberate Leanbox first." Noire recommended.
"Hopefully Nepgear is doing fine."
On the other side...
"You won't last a second against me now." Magic declared as she radiated immense power from her body. "You may refer to me as...True Magic."
"What a waste of time. If you think that this power boost can help, then you're damn mistaken." Big Nepgear asked with a terryfying stare while Nepgear stood next to her, playing the defense. "You are nothing more, but a wasteful fanatic that's scrambling for power."
"If you're so confident and prideful, then how about you show me?!" Magic charged at her and tried to strike her down, but Big Nepgear dodged it and responded by countering with a powerful punch to the face before Nepgear delivered a strike of her sword right after.
"Making yourself out to be someone unstoppable, only to be a weak heretic that cites itself as a god." She declared. "You will end just like your precious Deity." She charged ahead and traded powerful blows with the darkened fanatic, but her attacks seemed to be even less useful than before.
"Your pitiful arrogance won't get you anywhere, Nepgear! Chaos Stream!" CFW Magic targeted her and started firing streams of energy from her hand at them.
"This wasn't the best time to keep mocking her, you know!" Nepgear told her as the two of them started to go on the defensive with both of them working side by side to each other, outright reflecting both of her blasts with their sabers.
"I did that to make her an even easier target than before. In her blind rage, she won't try being defensive of herself and will prioritize our deaths." Big Nepgear explained and continued to reflect Magic's attacks.
"All we need is to deliver enough blows to wrap this all up, that's all it'll take." She declared and thrusted her Gehaburn into the ground, causing the entire ground to be torn apart by a purple shockwave as she lifted her blade.
Magic charged ahead and ripped through their defense by using her transformed claws, which had enough power to push their blades away and get direct access.
"Stay away!" Nepgear dodged her attack and retaliated by stabbing Magic in her stomach.
"Useless! In this form, your attacks are nothing more than a sting!" Magic broke her Beam-Saber with raw power and jumped onto her like a beast, she held her enhanced scythe close to her neck.
"Keep your hands off, mad fanatics like you deserve death!" Big Nepgear jumped ahead and jumpkicked Magic in the face, knocking her against the shattered ground. Nepgear stood back up and cast Hyper Heal on herself, but unfortunetly it wouldn't fix her now broken weapon.
"My Beam-Saber's broken, without a weapon I'll become more of a burden to you in battle." Nepgear figured.
"Don't throw the battle just yet. There are plenty of ways you can keep fighting. That damn Anti-Crystal field is such a problem, preventing usage of our HDD without being completely drained. Magic can't stand forever." Big Nepgear responded before noticing Magic preparing another attack, immediately stepping forward.
"Keep some distance!" She dashed ahead and clashed with her Gehaburn against Magic's oversized scythe, trying to push her back for as much as she can.
"Chaos Awakening!" Magic charged energy into her scythe, enlarging and hardening it. She dashed forward and easily overwhelmed Big Nepgear, making the Gehaburn fly right out of her hands before delivering a powerful attack that easily broke her defense.
The Gehaburn landed on the ground, it's sound ringing across the battlefield while Big Nepgear was left defenseless.
"Oh, how I have waited for this moment! I will make no mistake and cherish it for as long as I can before I tear your annoying face off!" Magic pinned her down by her arms and continued to slash and strike at her for her own pleasure, despite that she endured every single hit.
"Leave her alone!" Nepgear demanded and threw her broken Beam-Saber at Magic, who created a large barrier and blocked it.
"To think that someone as worthless as you managed to not only defeat powerful beings, but my great Deity too? How weak." Magic told her as Nepgear was getting closer.
"The two of you are the same, but you have both followed different outcomes and paths before you gained the power to slay Arfoire. But in the end, the two of you are still weak."
"You're both pathetic CPU that depend on others." Magic created red chains and bound Nepgear against the ground to stop her from interfering anymore.
"You're talking a lot of crap for someone who draws his power from his long dead Deity that rots in hell!" Big Nepgear responded to mock her and kicked her off, she stood up and ran to retrieve her Gehaburn.
"Just...a little closer, I can't afford any more damage..."
"You have your power from people other than yourself! I draw my power from myself, I, who was born as fragment of our Deity's resolve!" Magic charged ahead with crazed eyes and aimed her scythe at Big Nepgear before striking.
"No, stop it!" Nepgear yelled out, but she couldn't break the chains binding her.
"Tsk, I can't get a single moment of trying to fix my situation by retrieving my blade. Then I'll just beat you out of my way before." Big Nepgear glared at her with mad eyes as the scythe was cutting into her, cutting a notable wound. She summoned her normal Beam-Saber, hitting Magic midway through her charge and causing her to crash into the ground next to her.
"You talk a lot of crap for someone who is weakened, I can tell your health is low and if I get a single hit on you, then you're as good as done for." Magic started hitting her.
"If you'd really wanted to defeat me, then you should tap into your HDD Form, but you can't do that, can you? Without shares, there is no way you'd be able to transform anyway. You are using a different method normally, aren't you?" Magic kept asking as the two traded blows extremely close.
"Something shady? Is it simply a share crystal? Or maybe something immoral?"
"How about you just keep your mouth shut?" Big Nepgear continued to strike her with a powerful blow to the side, but Magic easily countered with the same, knocking her over.
"You're no match for me anymore, no match for the likes of me." Magic broke her Saber with a powerful strike of her scythe and pushed her down to the ground. She tried to stomp on her, but she blocked her foot with the remains of her saber.
"You want to kill me, you want to be able to have pure freedom as to what you can and can't do. However as long as you follow the wishes of these worthless people and citizen, then you'll be bound like a worthless whelp chained to her fate." Magic continued her attempt at torturing her while she maintained a disgusted look at her face.
"This is terrible, but I can't get there while these chains are confining me!" Nepgear tried to break out, but the chains Magic created were too sturdy, preventing her from getting off the ground.
Suddenly she felt the chains disappear and landed, as somebody had cut them open.
"Wait a minute, but that's..." Nepgear thought to herself as she saw the Gehaburn floating in front of her like some sort of pet waiting for it's master to say something.
"...no matter. I need to save someone and I won't hesitate any longer." Nepgear thought to herself, she was hesitant at first. However she overcame that uncertainty and selflimit and grabbed the Gehaburn.
"Your willingness to wield Gehaburn without worrying about your fate is quite admirable." Nepgear heard a strange distorted voice before she was properly able to wield it like a known weapon.
"This blade is giving me a strange...feeling, but I still have proper control over my emotions. The sword is fine as of now, so there won't be any issues." Nepgear thought to herself as she was able to transform into her HDD form, instantly equipped with her Mk2 Processor and enough energy and determination to give it her all. Her eyes glowing with determination.
"No more hesitation."
"Come, scream for me!" Magic laughed in a ever repeating manner as Big Nepgear continued to resist her.
"(This fucking hurts, I'd rather be fighting back, but I don't even have a chance of escaping without receiving even more damage. And frankly I wouldn't recommend that to myself when I have injured arms and a pretty sizeable wound.)" Big Nepgear thought to herself as she was still trying to avoid dying.
"An ally is coming to your aid, take a chance and wait for her." She heard a omnimous distorted voice.
"I see, I was hoping it wouldn't happen. But it can't be prevented at this point." Big Nepgear thought to herself as she lowered her defense.
"What can't be prevented?"
"This!" Big Nepgear bashed her broken Beam-Saber into Magic's leg, giving her enough time to slide away and escape Magic's grasp.
"What a pathetic desperate attempt to survive, too bad for you that I will not let you off that easily." Magic told her as she pulled the broken Saber out and fired a full power slash from her scythe at her.
"No more messing around." Purple Sister charged forward and blocked the attack with a single swing of Gehaburn and proceeded to stab her in the stomach before retreating.
"I can't believe it..." Big Nepgear looked at her wielding the blade, but quickly ignored it and focused on their survival by healing some of her injuries.
"So the wielder of a cursed sword has switched? So what's the difference?" Magic continued to tell them and pulled her scythe to the side, ready to strike without mercy and yet she felt a burning pain on her. "You're both annoying cratures to me!"
"Mirage Dance!" Purple Sister charged in and unleashed a series of incredibly fast attacks, which normally wouldn't cause enough damage, but with a stronger weapon her attacks were powerful enough to cause major damage.
"What is this? Where did you obtain such power?" Magic declared as she was weakened by her powerful attacks and took notable damage, she felt considerably weaker after taking damage for some reason.
"This is the power that slew your Deity, a power that I assembled to kill her. So you should fall victim to this blade aswell." Big Nepgear declared before she summoned a different saber to assist her other self.
"I will not fall before pathetic CPUs like you! I have defeated you worthless beings before and I will succeed once again!" Magic screamed out and dashed forward.
"Not this time! Share Barrier!" Big Nepgear created a barrier that reduced the impact of her attack severely before she delivered a powerful slash at Magic right after.
"Panzer Blade!" Nepgear charged ahead and delivered a series of powerful attacks without mercy, forcing Magic to go on the defensive.
"You are an enemy to our future! You can't stay alive for the nations and the world to be safe!" Nepgear yelled out, her eyes glowing with fierceness and energy as she continued to strike against her without any hesitation or mercy.
"You're too weak to pose any threat to us anymore." Big Nepgear charged ahead and kicked Magic before pinning her against the ground.
"Don't make me laugh! Someone as worthless and weak as you has no chance to rescue this rotten world from the direction it's going!" Magic yelled out, trying to hit and attack them with any way possible before she suddenly felt the ground and air freeze around her due to Big Nepgear's Ice Coffin skill.
"It's over." Nepgear slowly plunged the Gehaburn deep into Magic, letting the blade stay before pulling it out and letting Magic fall to the ground from the stab wound, her soul slowly extinguishing from that and her transformation slowly undoing herself.
"No..." Magic was scrambling her words as she was left on the verge of death. "Ha...ha...You think you've won? I may have failed, but you will too and I know that you are doomed already..."
"Doomed? What are you even on about? With your fall the Deity of Sin will be vanquished and the rebellion is as good as over. Your vision is fake and worthless." Big Nepgear told her.
"I think you misunderstood...I merely said that a Deity would be the one to destroy the world, but I was refering to two beings that would have been that deity. One was my very own deity, the other...is you."
"You don't know what you're talking about." Big Nepgear sternly replied, her eyes giving off a intense gaze.
"It doesn't matter to me, Arfoire's dream will be fulfilled and you CPUs will fall just like it has always been for this world." Magic was slowly fading and vanishing into nothingness like dust as the forest returned to normal and ASIC's influence was slowly extinguished.
"I'll be looking forward to this world's future."
Those were Magic's last words before her presence evaporated into purple smoke.
"That was a harsh battle, I still feel weak after all this." Big Nepgear thought to herself as she cast various healing spells on herself to recover from this long-fought battle.
"I didn't expect you to use my Gehaburn, then again I've never dared to let in anyone's hands." Big Nepgear remarked as she saw Nepgear use it and looked at her.
"The others sacrificed themselves for the well-being of Gamindustri, so it's obvious that you wouldn't want to lose what they left you with." Nepgear comforted her. "But that sword..., it's very strange. I heard a voice talk to me, it sounded a lot like other CPUs that I met and it even sounded like you, in fact I kinda felt someone direct me. I was fully in control, but I felt someone advise and direct me during my attacks, show me what to do."
"It's a very ominous sword, I know. Actually there's a lot of things I haven't told you or the others about and I need to come clean about some things too, I think it's about time we deal with that first." She answered with a pained face, but quickly changed to one with joy.
"I wouldn't be so sure about that, my dear." Both Nepgears were able to tell whos voice it was and immediately turned around.
"This was quite an unexpected development, but the loss of Magic and Leader's temporary elimination is nothing detrimental to my plan." Kurome thought as she was standing behind them, giving off an intimidating presence as she collected the energy left by Magic.
"Kurome!? So it really is you, I should have known that you're the only one who could be behind this." Nepgear expressed as she saw her again with her own eyes.
The person that turned the CPU against their own sisters and nearly destroyed Gamindustri in her fit of revenge, she simply stood there with an array of monsters standing with her as if everything was fine.
"At this point all of my plan has worked in my favor." She told them and grinned with a bewitching smile.
"Now then, it's time that you'll join me and aid me in return for the help I offered you in the past? Don't you remember?" Kurome asked in reference of previous events, ones that Big Nepgear was well aware of.
"Big Me, what is the meaning of this? Don't tell me you knew her already?" Nepgear asked her other self, uncertain of what was happening.
"You've waited until now to do this, didn't you? What even were Magic and Chika in your plan in the first place?" Big Nepgear questioned her. "You were organizing this from the start and causing this entire rebellion, weren't you?!" She yelled out as she backed away towards Nepgear.
"Who knows? Now then...make your choice." Kurome told her as she trapped them both here, preventing them from escaping.
With the previous battle having weakened both of them, she found herself having no other choice.
"Fine, I will go with you. But don't hurt anyone and leave Gamindustri as it is now." Big Nepgear proposed un exchange for leaving.
"You can't be serious?! She's evil, the most evil individual I know! You don't know what she could do, I've seen her manipulate the people that I love and deceive the entire world! She is not to be trusted! I won't let you!" Nepgear pulled Big Nepgear away against her will.
"You're acting like you ever had a choice." Kurome snapped her fingers, releasing a energy field generated from the Anti-Crystals.
"What is this...?! What...?" Nepgear said as she was feeling weaker before she collapsed on the ground.
"Damn it, what kind of cheap trick is this?" Big Nepgear said as she was starting to feel weak and fell to her knees, barely having the strength to stay up.
"Anti-Crystals are very useful if you change them properly, it's really a shame they come in such limited numbers." Kurome replied as Big Nepgear was slowly growing exhausted by the field aswell.
"Tsk. If that's the case, I'll just use the..." She suddenly realized something was missing.
"Missing your Gehaburn? I'm afraid, I can't let you use it. But I think you'd be easier to carry if you stop moving for now." Kurome responded as she held the Gehaburn.
"NO! GIVE IT BACK!" Big Nepgear charged at her, completely disregarding her own well-being.
"Silence." Kurome swung the Gehaburn and silence immediately followed.
She fell on the ground.
"I think this silent and quiet demeanour suits you quite a bit better, now to take you away." Kurome told her as she swiped off the blood from the Gehaburn and looked down at both.
Monsters walked ahead towards her and Nepgear, picking both up. In their weakened state taking them would be no issue, Kurome snapped her fingers to remove the temporary barrier around them and reopened a portal.
"Not so fast!" The monster carrying Nepgear was suddenly shot in the back before being cut apart, dissolving it into nothingness.
"I won't let you kidnap those two!" Big Neptune arrived on the scene and continued by kicking another one of the monsters in the face, killing it in an instant.
"Tsk, unnecessary interferences. I knew someone was waiting outside of this area." Kurome summoned more and monsters out of nowhere and had them stall her while she had Big Nepgear pulled to her with a giant shadowy hand. The monsters continued to gang up on Big Neptune, blocking her every path and cutting her off from helping the others while she escaped.
"You've lost." Kurome declared as she took the weakened Big Nepgear with her, clinging to her well-being until they left and the gate closed.
"See you soon."
"Grr, damn it!" Big Neptune yelled out with anger as she punched down a tree.
"Ah...Neptune..." Nepgear was slowly recovering from the Anti-Share Field and grabbed onto Big Neptune, but she was still angry over letting Big Nepgear get taken away.
"Hey, calm ya self. It's niche to see you so distraught for once, but you should proabbly meet up with the others and prepare a final rescue plan." Croire told her with a serious tone for once.
"She's right, we need to be careful. Not to mention, we should check the situation." Nepgear stood up and took out her N-Gear, but it looked different and the design was much more sturdy.
"Wait, but that's hers...! She must have given it to me at one point." Nepgear figured as she looked at it. "She might have left a message for us or maybe we can use it to find a way to save her."
"Then let's go. We need to inform the others, the issues with the nations have been dealt with for the most apart. So let's meet up with the others." Big Neptune figured before the two of them made their way.
Welp, that can't be good.
Also Big Neptune couldn't arrive earlier because of Kurome's barrier.
I'm trying to do at least one chapter per week, but I'm not good at keeping promises.