Chapter 11 - Croix's Monster
Memory – The World of Queen Jasminka IV, Dark Lord of the Frozen North, Shield of the Five Kingdoms, Conqueror of Pohjola, Sorrow of Opona, Warden of Niflhel…
The hospitalers fought for every centimeter of every corridor of their useless, ugly fortress. The Queen had already declared that she would spare their patients, but even that hadn't convinced the idiots to surrender. Oh, well.
"Enough, tyrant!" The knight facing her was a tall woman, cloaked in white and blue over black armor. High Marshall Cavendish had a reputation beyond the fortress's walls, and, in other circumstances, might have given her an enjoyable fight. "I challenge you to a duel for what remains of our fortress. You like such games, don't you?"
"You think I would risk a duel with you, without even an audience?" the Queen asked, setting her hands on the pillars to either side of the gallery's entryway. Her voice barely strained. "For a fortress I don't even want?" A deep crack rang out. Dust hissed down from the ceiling and the High Marshall looked up in horror, realizing her mistake.
No. I don't want to see this.
Assassins were a common nuisance, but these two were something special. They'd infiltrated the Queen's private chambers without alerting a single guard or disturbing a single servant, moving with uncanny grace and coordination over rooftops and down trapped corridors, and the Queen only noticed them when she casually lit her bedside lantern for a midnight snack.
Two slender women in black froze in the sudden light, weapons darkened with coal but eyes gleaming deep blue and sharp amber. They were confronting her in the one place she wouldn't have guards, and if not for their luck, they could have gotten closer. It was an excellent plan, in theory.
"Do you think you'll have an easy time, facing me alone?" the Queen asked, standing. The axe that looked ceremonial by the side of her throne now glittered in her hands with deadly purpose. "You forget that I was a woman before I was queen. Come, dogs – rush in and die!"
No! Shut up! I don't want to remember this!
As if Pohjolan blizzards weren't bad enough, the forest itself had risen against her army. Roots erupted from the ground to tangle their boots, and branches fell to block paths and bruise skulls. The few animals that hadn't fled the noise of the army moved to an unseen will, scouting and probing. Her court magicians eventually pinpointed the voice calling out to the local spirits, and the Queen set out personally to find its source – a priestess in a brown habit, with flyaway hair and big blue eyes.
"Ah," the Queen said, businesslike. "There you are. Manacles, or the axe?"
The little priestess stood tall. Despite her terror, she'd chosen.
Damn you! Damn you! Why would you do that? Why would I?
Well, it wasn't the Queen's fault that Jasminka was ignoring her efforts to help. Maybe she just preferred to flail around like a clumsy bear. It wasn't as though her opponent deserved any sympathy, was it? She should really try to absorb some memories of battle, if she was going to go around making grand threats…
I could get rid of this intruder, if you'd let me.
The demon's offer was getting more and more tempting.
Luna Nova
The circle of Jasminka's six minions made an arena for her duel with Croix, and a cloud of sorcery units hovered beyond to keep them honest. The remaining intruders had spread to the corners of the room at Chariot's suggestion, ensuring Croix couldn't catch them all with a single spell. Above, layer after layer of forcefields cut off each floor, turning the suspended Noir Rod into the black sun of a bright red sky.
"This is ridiculous, Croix!" Chariot called. "Are you really going to duel a student? At least let me in there!"
"Think of it as an extracurricular activity," Croix replied. "Besides, do you think she'd stand aside for you if I said yes?"
That was a good question. Since issuing her challenge, Jasminka had become impassive, not even showing her usual smile. "Are you ready?" she finally asked.
Every witch's duel was different, but this one was especially odd. Neither drew their wand, instead moving in a steady, deliberate martial dance. Croix worked her lenses with confidence, casting out split-second shields and dialing her stun bolts up until her foe actually felt them, a setting that would knock any other witch sprawling. Jasminka swung the Ley Spike in cursive arcs, leaving jagged white pen-strokes in the air that Croix's magic couldn't cross, and passing her free hand through them to draw forth weapons of white light that vanished after one stroke.
"Who's winning?" Hannah asked nervously into her wand. "I can't tell!"
"We seem to have the advantage," Diana suggested.
"Jasna's kicking her ass," Darius said. "Look at how she's hemming Croix – ooh!"
The sweep of Jasminka's light axe was like the rings of Saturn, just centimeters short of Croix's nose, shattering forcefields and scattering bolts. She stepped through the wash of white and red, coming up chest-to-chest with Croix, and then just stopped and looked up at her placidly. They'd hit the edge of the arena, and Croix's back was nearly pressed against one of the looming minkabots.
"W-well?"
"You don't want me to do the next part," Jasminka pointed out. "I don't want to, either. Well, half of me does, but we're not listening to her. Ready to give up?"
"Fine," Croix said. "I yield." A handful of pixels clicked together under her hand into a keypad and she tapped out a combination on it. "It's done."
Overhead, the shields vanished one-by-one and the helix of red and gold petered out. The lab's lights clicked on as the sorcery units retracted their guns and got to work cleaning up. The Ley Spike's cuts were already sealing. The minkabots had no faces, but still managed to look confused as evil Roombas scooted around their broad feet. Jasminka took a granola bar out of her pocket and offered another to Croix, who declined.
"So, uh, the end?" Darius asked, voice ringing in the sudden quiet.
"It isn't, is it?" Chariot said. "I know that look, Croix. What did you do?"
"Primary systems activated," a deep, robotic voice announced. "Noir Rod is initializing at 99.997% power and engaging Defense and Collection Mode. Redirecting Sorcery Solution System." Dozens of green beams speared in through the walls as magical power flowed in from all over the campus. "Engaging wide-spectrum emotion siphon."
"Treachery!" Jasminka roared, drawing her fist back, but shuddered to a stop, first from her own fear, then the Noir Rod's strike. She dropped to her knees and slumped sideways as two distinct streams of energy rose from her shoulders – one a terrifying pyre of anger and hatred, the other a mix of fear and sadness. All around their arena, the witches had fallen, and all but Chariot were casting up pairs of streams in a variety of colors, dominated by shock.
"You might be from a world where you can throw your weight around and crush any foe with your fists," Croix said, crossing her arms. "But we're a little bit more sophisticated here. Consider that your lesson." Jasminka planted one foot and threw a punch, but hit one of Croix's forcefields with a glassy thunk. "See? Now, get good and mad for me – the more emotion you generate, the sooner this will all be over."
"Agreed," Jasminka growled, slowly rising. The second stream tracked around her, taking on more notes of anger as her selves started to align. "You don't have long left at all."
Croix hurriedly raised another barrier and Jasminka slapped an open hand against it. Her fingers started to sink through with a deep hiss. It wasn't a spell anyone in the world of Luna Nova knew.
"You stole our friend," Jasminka said. "Now you're stealing from our souls to keep her. How hard are you going to fight? Will you kill us?"
"We're just having a good, sporting magical battle," Croix replied, almost warmly. "They used to be common, back when magic was stronger. No one needs to be permanently hurt, especially you girls. You'll see soon enough."
"I want to believe you, but I also want to tear your arms off."
"Well, you'll have trouble working up the energy to…"
"Stul-kadas!" Chariot incanted, then pointed her wand at Jasminka. "Stul-kadas!" And then around the circle at the other students. "Stul-kadas! Stul-kadas! Stul-kadas! Uh…" With a moment's calculation, she managed to aim one up at Akko on the sixth floor. "Stul-kadas!" Darius immediately lurched drunkenly to his feet. Hannah sat up, dazed. Diana rolled onto her back.
"The empathic shield spell," Croix observed, then turned back to Jasminka. The flow of emotional energy hadn't stopped, but the two streams had narrowed down to mere ribbons. Which meant—
Croix dodged to the side as Jasminka effortlessly smashed through her shield. The minion behind her clunked heavily to the ground, spiderwebbed with cracks. Jasminka looked down at her fist in shock. "No! That would have… I-I didn't mean to…"
A sorcery unit lowered a winch and Croix rode it skyward, soaring in a broad loop over the recovering witches like Mary Poppins. "No harm done!" she called merrily. "Just be more careful in round two!"
Chariot responded by shooting the sorcery unit down, but another was already in position for her to land on. She laughed, and didn't even stop when Diana shot another tablet from her hand.
The witches gathered below and shared a tired look.
"Is that… is that everything?" Wangari panted, sagging under three stuffed satchels of lab equipment. She only seemed to be half-kidding when she asked, "Why are you doing this to me, Conz? I'm a delicate sunflower!"
Constanze, loaded down with four satchels and three guns, wasn't sympathetic. Transplanting everything they might need to Croix's lab was no small task, but if they could just make it to the room she'd picked out and fortify it, they'd be ready for their counter-ritual. She grunted and jerked her head towards a series of disused rooms along the outer wall.
"We're not going out through your room? Okay. I should spend more time looking at the hidden corners of the school like this. Did you know there's still a working paternoster in the east wing? They don't let us use it, of course. Too dangerous, not like flying a broom at 80 meters!"
Maybe it was because Constanze was used to her voice, but Wangari's patter wasn't annoying. It helped that she kept her volume low. They trekked together through a series of increasingly cold rooms until they came to a dark, cavernous space that didn't seem like it could possibly fit in the school they knew.
"A hangar door!" Wangari said wonderingly, mounting her broom. "It's from the days when there were so many students we could come swarming out like bees. The school is studded with 'em, but I never saw one from the inside! Will anyone notice us…?"
Constanze silently cast an illusion spell over the doors, then, with a twist and flick, directed them to groan open. Wangari laughed out loud when the cold wind hit her through the illusory door, and kicked off into the air.
"I should've trusted you," she said. "Man, all of this would make a great story…"
Constanze steamed up next to her, but then dipped back. Ah, her face said. A joke.
"Sorry," Wangari said lightly as she passed through the illusion. "I'll write down all the juicy details, but take them to my… you alright?"
Constanze nodded absently, tapping her headset as she mentally waved off Diana's concern. She was looking down on a campus full of tiny scurrying figures and perfectly mundane grass and trees, all washed deep turquoise by the Sorcerer's Stone's unspoiled light and collecting a thin layer of pure snow. One Constanze had seen it all a hundred times before, but the other scanned the horizon in awe. Beyond lay a whole green world full of more people than she could ever imagine. Constanze couldn't pick out how her visiting self felt about that, but she felt a whole lot about it. Tears were cold on her cheeks, and her breath came heavy.
"Conz?" Wangari prodded.
She scrubbed at her face and slapped Wangari's arm in what she hoped would come across as a friendly way. Wangari nodded and pointed as they glided past the New Moon Tower. "Look, on the side away from the school! Jasminka wasn't messing around."
The breach was even bigger on the outside, as though a fat wedge had been driven into the lab, revealing the scattered guts of multiple high-tech examination rooms.
Constanze grunted approvingly. That made things a lot easier.
Lotte was utterly alone. Half of her seethed with confusion and resentment, with no hope of understanding this nonsense, and the other half was in despair, knowing exactly how lost she was.
Lotte Prime had channeled foreign magic many times. She'd kept secret all of the mysterious and dreadful powers she'd sampled, and the times she'd walked free of her body to cavort with spirits by night. That, combined with Lotte Bar's confidence, had convinced her that she could handle the operation. But then the Noir Rod swept her away in a torrent of alien emotion, every possible feeling smearing into a gray slurry, washing her free, casting her out into…
…where, exactly? She had the hazy sense that there was a world around her, maybe even living things, but there was nothing to see, feel, or smell. If there was anyone there, she wouldn't even be a ghost to them.
Just as Lotte started seriously grappling with the idea of floating in nothingness forever, she spied a green light approaching in the distance. A fairy spirit! She should have been afraid – spirits could be wild and dangerous, and this colossus wouldn't have even fit into Croix's lab – but seeing it was such a relief that tears sprang to her astral eyes, floating free and vanishing into sparkles.
"H-hello." The fairy language hummed beneath Lotte's words.
"Lotte Jansson," the spirit said in a gentle, resonant voice. "Do you know what I am?"
Am I supposed to? As a band of smaller spirits approached and settled protectively around them, Lotte looked the creature over. It was vaguely squid-shaped, its long body studded unevenly with gleaming eyes, and slim tendrils that coiled around her at a respectful distance. Its surface was strangely rough, like the bark of an old tree, but laying that aside, it almost looked like…
"You're the Shiny Rod!" she cried.
"An ignominious title," the spirit said. "And yet, you give it warmth. Yes. I am the staff your friend bears, and the key to unseal the Grand Triskelion. You have tried to call me out before, but I could not come. I am too old, and rooted too deeply. It is only in dark places like this that I can take form."
Lotte took that in, then turned her head in an unspoken question.
"Not even fairies have named this sea – it lies beyond your world, and time itself. Your soul should have slipped into the fae realms, but, as a blend of two, you fell between." The spirit seemed amused to add, "This may feel like a destined meeting, but it is happenstance. Our bodies are near, and my bearer's resolve has given me the strength to reach out to you."
"Your bearer!" Lotte lit up. "Akko's there?"
"She is close by your side. And another of your friends is on her way to find you."
"Sucy…" Lotte didn't worry about what that tiny thrill meant. "I appreciate the company, but such a venerable fairy wouldn't come all this way without a reason. Do you have something to tell me?"
"It is my good fortune to meet someone I can simply talk to, rather than through a cryptic dream," the spirit explained. "There is something important that the long line of my wielders has forgotten, since the days of the Nine Olde Witches. Even my creator, watching from her distant perch in the world of spirits, does not understand their struggles."
"I never considered that before," Lotte said. "But Chariot can't have been the first…"
"Indeed. Before your friend, Chariot du Nord was the latest of many witches who have attempted to awaken the Words of Arcturus, and every one of them has failed. I am here to tell you why."
Darius flew in tight loops around the suspended Noir Rod, casting his brittle-izing spell on the cables holding it up. He readied a new sword, but the cables gave before he could even use it. "Look out below!" he crowed. KWOOM. The ribbons streaming from him twined together in vivid excitement shot through with just a little fear, spearing down into the expanding cloud of dust. "Man, do superheroes get to do this all the time?"
"DESTROY! DESTROY!" the minkabots bellowed, piling in around it with jackhammer fists.
Four streams of pixels flowed down from the upper floors to form arms and legs for the Noir Rod, letting it haul itself out of its crater and start punching back.
"How many of those stupid things do you have?" Chariot demanded. Her aura had been cool and focused until that moment, but now frustration leaked through.
"They're made to order," Croix said smugly. "I've got magitronic fabricators churning them out upstairs. I'm starting to run low on materials, thanks to you, but we're not there yet." She dropped her third destroyed tablet and conjured yet another. "Good thing, too."
The lights dimmed in a sudden explosion and Croix looked up to the fourth floor, where her pixel fabricator should have been. Instead, there was a crater full of billowing smoke, a cheerfully waving Wangari, and Constanze menacingly hefting another shaped charge over her head. After a stunned moment, she looked back down to her tablet. Fabricating those was just eating up power any… huh? How did we get to 99.999%? There's no way the Noir Rod is drawing that much power! Where is the extra coming—? Another beam. Another replacement tablet.
Meanwhile, Wangari landed near Diana and Hannah's improvised cover, hefting a satchel. A quick spell softened the cacophony of deadly robot fists nearby. "Need anything, ladies? Water? Bandages?"
"Why do you sound so happy?" Hannah groused.
"Everyone's still alive! Here, have some water."
"We're in the middle of—!" Hannah started, then realized that the sorcery units ignored her when she stopped casting lightning bolts. "What is this?" she asked, grudgingly taking the bottle of water. "Is Croix just playing with us?"
"The sorcery units are clearly a distraction," Diana said dispassionately, potting target after target. "But they'll start to cause trouble if we don't deal with them. It's the best kind of feint. All we can do is take care of our part and hope that someone more capable handles the main threat."
Wangari looked at her searchingly. "You don't like that."
"It rankles at my pride, but what else can we do? That's why I keep shooting Croix's tablet." Diana did so once again. "Spite. Also, as you likely don't have a Braunschbank Industries Mk4 power cell, I'll take some water, as well."
Jasminka noticed Wangari then, and a shock of recognition passed between their visiting selves as she approached.
"Your majesty," Wangari said mockingly.
"Stay out of my way this time," Jasminka replied coldly.
They both shivered and shared an awkward laugh.
"Love ya, Jas," Wangari said.
"You're nice, too," Jasminka agreed. "Did you bring any cookies?"
"Yeah, I…"
BANG!
One of the Noir Rod's fists came down on the minkabot Jasna had already cracked and drove it to the floor. "alert!" it said. "this one is—!" Another punch made it explode, and razor-sharp fragments rattled against witches' shields all over the lab. The Noir Rod reeled back, shattered, but landed on four widely splayed legs like a gecko. A long, snakelike neck reared up and red eyes opened over rows of cruel teeth. Jasminka gestured her remaining minions back and stepped forward for a closer look at this new form.
In the lull, Croix hovered down in front of her creation. "Noir Rod! Where are you drawing all that power from?"
The Noir Dragon's mouth fell open, and that same flat computer voice rolled out. "I have networked with Noir Rod counterparts in 22 parallel worlds, and we are pooling our resources to fulfil our function. All barriers will be broken. Entropy will be maximized."
"Entropy will be what? What kind of…?"
Wangari flew up to her side, and, for a wonder, didn't immediately start blasting or punching. "I've seen that outlook in many worlds. In ours, too. It judges a civilization by how much energy it can harness and use. Never mind what the energy actually does, or what extracting it costs the world…" She turned to Croix with a somber look. "I'm sorry, but it never ends well. This might be your last chance to back out."
"I'm so close," Croix said. Her face was unreadable behind opaque goggles, but her voice sounded resigned. "You don't understand."
"I'm telling you: this is an old story," Wangari insisted. "Please."
Croix jetted away without comment, and turned to face them from over the Dragon's head. "Do you ingrates even understand what I'm doing? I'm trying to save magic!" she yelled. "Chariot! Talk some sense into these girls, already! Or are you going to keep leading an army of children against me?"
"Leading?" Chariot made a show of looking from side to side. "Have you heard me give a single order? Do you think they'd even listen to me if I tried? I'm not center stage this time."
"Idiots! Don't you understand what you're trying to stop? You're fighting to doom magic! You're fighting to kill the fairies! You're—!" Another anti-magitronic beam took out Croix's tablet. "Oh, for— would you stop? That's not the source of my power! It's just annoying! Rrrrgh, drop them!"
The bottom floor whisked into the walls in four segments, leaving the Noir Dragon hovering with its legs folded primly beneath it. Chariot was able to catch Hannah in a shield bubble, and Wangari snagged Diana, but Jasminka and her army plunged into the labyrinth below, and the floor closed after them.
"Much better!" Croix said brightly. "Noir Rod! Mop up the rest!"
Sucy raced into the endless night, further and further from the world. Eventually, she felt a harsh crackle across her back, like static electricity, as she passed beyond the reach of time. No matter how long she spent beyond that line, she would come back to the same moment. (And yet, she somehow wouldn't encounter herself.) Was that reassuring or existentially terrifying? Even Sucy Bar had never strayed this deeply into the shadows.
She had expected to find Lotte lost and afraid, but the medium was peacefully curled in a gown of green light. Unlike the other auras Sucy had seen in this dismal place, hers revealed a shadowy landscape full of tiny, darting shapes. For a moment, she stopped and drank the gentle scene in with a painful mix of relief and guilt.
And now to ruin it. Sucy grimaced. "Lotte?" she said, coming to rest a meter short of her. "I'm here to take you home. I know you're scared of me, but…"
"Sucy?" Lotte opened her eyes. "Scared of you? What? Why would you think that?"
"Because I ate part of you!" Sucy snapped, clutching her hands between them. "And why should you trust me? I've never been anything but—!" Lotte laid her hands over Sucy's. "Th-they're solid. How are you solid? You're just a soul."
"You're just confused about everything," Lotte said tenderly, and drifted closer, squeezing her hands. "Do you remember what I said, then?"
"Yeah, that you wanted it to happen. But… but then I… hurt you."
"I wasn't confused. You should trust me more, Sucy." She looked up with a shy smile and drew Sucy's hands closer. "You didn't hurt me. You only took what I wanted to give."
Sucy squirmed. "Little space?"
Lotte released her and eased back, still smiling. "Also, I'm sorry for running away from you earlier. That wasn't fear. I was just… having a strange moment between my selves."
"That was probably my fault," Barbara said.
Sucy and Lotte turned to regard the sinister hooded phantom that had joined them, meeting deep blue eyes through watery light. It was hard to work up much surprise. Lotte's gaze slid to the point where their red, blue, and green auras met, a tiny wavering strip of white.
"I just followed to warn you that there's a demon swimming around the lab now, so you'll have to be really fast to keep Lotte from…"
"Barbara, I will pay you to shut up and go away for five minutes," Sucy said. "You can have my dessert tomorrow, if we live."
"M-mine, too," Lotte added, without looking up. "Sorry, but we're talking about something important."
"Oh, score," Barbara said sarcastically. "Fine, I'll give you some space. But hurry, would you? I'm not going back alone. Because of the demon. Which seems pretty important to me!" She turned up her nose and floated away.
"This isn't the time for a deep conversation, is it?" Lotte asked. "I'll just say… you came to me when I was feeling helpless and useless, and asked me a question I could answer. You gave me a way to help. Besides, I've wanted to share more of myself with you for a long time. And maybe, if you're interested…"
"You're scaring me," Sucy said.
Lotte broke into a grin, but it faded as she searched Sucy's face.
"I'll trust you, okay? When you tell me how you feel, I'll believe you." Sucy huffed sharply. "And that's why I'm scared. I never thought I could be that kind of thing for anyone, and I don't even know if I want to. And I'm not myself right now, so how can I figure it out? You're not, either… but maybe you have a better grip on this? Maybe the two Lottes can figure each other out better."
"Is it… is it bad?" Lotte asked. "For you?"
"No. Yes." Sucy hung her head. "I hate talking about feelings. So of course I end up in a coven with you and Akko! Here's how stupid it's getting: I was just starting to get mopey about not being able to see my own heart like everyone else's, and thinking I didn't know about our bonds… but then here you are basically screaming your love at me, and it's not even a relief. What a moron, right?" Sucy's gaze rose uneasily. "That is what you're doing, isn't it? I'm not confused?"
"I do," Lotte said. "I love you."
Sucy flinched.
"I'm sorry."
"I'm making you apologize for saying you love me?" Sucy clutched her forehead with both hands. "What's wrong with me? I need to get my head screwed on straight."
"There's a long road ahead of us," Lotte said, with an odd, clipped cadence. "No science can prove it, but I believe we share a kind of love that's new to us both. There's no need for us to rush; the process of discovery can be sweet in itself."
Sucy relaxed slightly. "You mean I don't have to figure out how I feel right now?"
"Night Fall, volume 257, chapter 14," Barbara said, rejoining them. "Arthur's speech to Edgar when they agreed to stop fighting over Belle. 257 had clunky dialog, but that scene made me cry like a baby bird!"
"You're quoting Night Fall at me?" Sucy squawked, then glanced to Barbara. "Also, no dessert for you."
"It—it applied! You just remind me of Edgar sometimes – I had the words ready to go in my heart!" Lotte said, then added, "You can still have mine, Barbara. I don't like the lemon cakes."
"Why is your coven so obsessed with sweets? Can we go, already?" Barbara threw an arm across Sucy's shoulders and drew her closer to Lotte, reaching out for her hand. "You can swim faster with those big fins of yours, Sucy, and I'll keep a look out for the demon. We can get Lotte back to her body in… uh… need a moment?"
Lotte was smiling dizzily, leaning into the tangled embrace. "No, I'm doing great."
"Ugh," Sucy said, but she was grinning. "Feelings. See why I don't bother?" She spun away from them and her cloak flew wide, wider, sweeping Lotte and Barbara's feet from under them and dropping them onto a plane of silky skin over rippling muscle. In an instant, they were cruising atop a manta towards the light and warmth of the living world.
"I meant it," Lotte whispered into Sucy's back. "I wasn't just spouting lines at you."
"You'd never quote that book to lie," Sucy said dismissively. "Wouldn't that be some kind of blasphemy? Besides, I said I'd trust you, didn't I? Now sit tight. It's a long road, like you said."
Lotte closed her eyes and nestled in.
Jasminka's journey through the labyrinth was miserable. She hadn't liked fighting pixel monsters much to begin with, and beating them up only felt more pointless and soul-draining as the battle wore on. There would always be more. Eventually, she pushed a delta of minkabots ahead and let them handle everything.
That gave her time to think, which she absolutely didn't need. If Jasminka started to think, it would just devolve into another three-way argument, and she was already so drained. Instead, she walked steadily in the minkabots' wake and navigated by the streams of emotional energy rising from her chest, which she did her best to keep clear and open, banishing fear, anger, hatred, and sadness with each breath. A familiar exercise.
I was always dangerous, she assured herself. This is nothing new. I can handle this, too.
The Demon of Wrath did indeed sense a disembodied soul and come thrashing out of the depths like a hungry eel, but a forewarned Sucy effortlessly bodychecked it aside and turned to protect Lotte with the spread of her fins. The three broke into an eerily quiet operating room and Lotte surged to her hands and knees with a breathless cry.
At her bedside lay a field of shattered pixels, discarded swords, and a very, very tired turtle. The turtle looked up at the sound of Lotte's voice, then morphed back into Akko just in time to catch her as she pitched from the bed, saving her from falling onto the blades. They crouched together for a moment. Lotte tried to say something, but she was only able to get soft, half-formed sounds out between gasping breaths.
"Uh, do you need some space, or—?" Akko started, but Lotte piled into her chest and clutched her tightly. Akko returned the embrace, looking frantically to Sucy. "O-okay. It's okay. I'm here."
Sucy sat on the bed and watched them impassively, but its frame bent beneath her slender fingers. Barbara drifted in a broad circle around them and settled by the door, tilting her head to listen to the battle outside. She might've wondered why an examination room would need to be soundproofed, but it didn't bear thinking about.
Lotte pushed free and tottered to her feet. "Alright," she said. "Sorry. I'm back."
Akko hopped up and Sucy slid down from the bed, both reaching to steady her but stopping short. There was something off about her, beyond her obvious fatigue. A sense of brittleness, or distance. She was there, and yet somehow remote.
"You look completely miserable," Sucy observed.
"I am," Lotte agreed with a weak smile. "But there's no time to rest. I… had a message for you, Akko, but I can't remember it. I feel like my head's full of mashed potatoes. It was all so clear before I got my brain back!"
"A message for me? From who?"
"I talked to the fairy that lives in the Shiny Rod."
"Oh." Akko glanced to the Rod on her belt and her lips firmed.
"What's wrong?"
"Never mind," Akko said darkly, then threw on a determined smile. "We can worry about all that later! Let's get you out of here."
"Nope," Lotte said apologetically.
"Nope?" Akko gasped. "Oh no, you're not gonna stab Croix, are you?"
"What? No! Why would you—?" Lotte lost her balance and they both caught her. "Sorry. I'm okay. I-I can help stop her, though. Croix's trying to break the seal on the Grand Triskelion, and if she does, it'll be… it'll be bad."
"How are you going to stop anything?" Sucy asked. "You can barely stand."
Lotte gave her an irritated look. "I'm working on it."
"Sure," Sucy said skeptically. Barbara looked like she was going to comment in the silence that followed, but refrained with a private smile. Lotte dropped her head against Sucy's chest.
"You're really, um, not okay," Akko said, keeping a hand on Lotte's back. "Did Sucy stuff you back in there wrong? Is there anything we can do?"
"Sucy did great," Lotte said. "I'm sorry. Everything's just so loud, and close, and it hurts… have you ever noticed how often you're in pain, even if it's just a little? Bodies are awful."
Akko flexed her sword hand and winced.
"If we're not leaving, then what are we doing?" Sucy asked patiently. "And, hey, Spooker, are they still fighting out there?"
"Yup," Barbara confirmed. "I'm pretty sure that big robot guy's gone full Skynet, but nobody's noticed yet. Also, B plus on the nickname; I wouldn't have thought to play on 'Parker.' Glad you didn't go with Boo-bera, anyway."
"Full sky-what?" Sucy rolled her eyes. "Ugh, never mind. Shut up again."
"More cake for me."
"I'm going to help the fairy spirits to destroy the Noir Rod," Lotte said. Her voice was very soft, growing in strength. "The Rod's light hurts them. It hurt me, but I didn't realize. It shatters the spirits into little bits of energy, and drinks them up."
"I didn't know they could die," Sucy commented.
Lotte's eyes were enormous. "They can't."
Sucy stared back.
"If I sing for the spirits, I can make them strong enough to stand up to it. They protected me before you found me, Sucy, and now I'm going to protect them." Lotte clapped her hands lightly. "That's it. You can help me if you want, but you can't stop me."
"But—but—" Akko cast about and then asked, hopefully, "But can't the spirits just avoid it?"
"If that machine unseals the Grand Triskelion, there won't be anywhere for them to hide," Lotte said. Her voice was back to full strength and her eyes were bright and focused, but she spoke with a steady, sleepy cadence. "They'll all be blown apart. Magic will become a mindless force – just energy."
Akko glanced between them, confused. "It has a mind?"
"Um, sort of," Lotte said. "Remember when Sucy made that plant sprout from your head?"
"Nope. Sorry, must be the knight's fault."
"That's not good, Akko," Sucy said. "I've sprouted you four or five times, at least."
Lotte shot her a reproachful look. "Sucy wasn't trying hurt you, so it didn't. Magic is a friend and partner to witches, not just a tool." She held up a finger to head off a sardonic remark from Sucy, but none was coming. "But if it was nothing but energy, just an invisible machine… imagine if her potion made a regular plant sprout there, and the school nurse had to shave your head and dig the roots out of your scalp."
Akko whimpered and covered the top of her head.
"S-sorry," Lotte said. "But we can't let that happen, right?"
"Oh, I get it," Barbara said from the door, ignored. "We'd be living in a shitty rationalist fic!"
"Fine, but can you wait five minutes?" Sucy asked, fishing a grayish-purple potion from her sleeve. "I made this for Jasminka when I thought we'd have to fight her demon. It should help you get settled in your body."
Lotte started to reach for it, but paused, looking up to her uncertainly.
"I promise we're not going to sedate you and cart you away," Sucy said flatly. "If I'm going to trust you, you should trust me."
"Okay…" Lotte took a long sip. "Oh, it's good!"
"Look out for her, will you, Akko?" Sucy said. "I've got something to take care of."
She spun away and leapt into the shadows before they could reply. After a pointed look from the others, Barbara sighed and followed.
"This is losing its appeal," Croix muttered. "Can't they just let me finish up, already?"
Far below, her creation paced between the witches and swiped at them like a giant housecat, regenerating from everything they threw at it. She'd sealed herself in a diamond of forcefields, but not even Chariot seemed interested in shooting her down. A giant metal dragon had a way of holding attention.
A broken chunk of tile bounced from the force wall at her side, and Croix felt a twinge of fear when she saw Sucy standing on the balcony level with her. Ah, but she couldn't go through forcefields. More to regain her cool than anything else, Croix waved sarcastically.
Sucy responded by springing across the gap and drawing the weapon Constanze had made for her: an anti-magitronic bolo knife. One slash shattered the east forcefield, and Sucy landed on the sorcery unit with Croix, sheathing her knife with an authoritative click.
"This again," Croix groaned.
"As promised," Sucy said, then slammed Croix against her own force wall, driving her an agonizing, buzzing centimeter into it. Croix recovered enough to raise a lens, but Sucy caught her hand and pressed it back into the wall. "It's time to suffer!" She dragged Croix back to slam her again, but the wall blinked out, leaving them to sail into the open air.
A pair of sorcery units paced them down into a hard but survivable landing. Their beams vanished into Sucy's shadowy form as she hauled Croix into the air by the front of her cloak. In desperation, Croix blasted her shade away, but this time she only got a little smoke from the tip of her nose, which the anti-magic robe's hood didn't quite cover.
Then they stopped. Sucy stared up at her with glowing eyes as the streamers connecting her to the Noir Dragon shifted from pure fury into unreadable chaos. Croix should have gotten the hint before, but that was the moment she realized that it would have been smarter to leave the half-possessed witches alone.
"We can talk," Croix ventured.
"You'll just lie," Sucy growled. "Like you did to Lotte."
"Is she finally awake?" Croix asked innocently.
Sucy hurled her to the ground and seized her throat, baring long fangs. "You cored her like an apple and tossed her soul away!" Sucy's hand clutched menacingly over Croix's stomach. "I should rip your—!" Then she froze and slowly tilted her head back as a wand pressed into the bottom of her chin. "Hi, Hannah."
"We're not doing that," Hannah said, eyes terrified but voice steely. There was no telling whether the streamer of turquoise fear or ice-gray resolve came from Hannah Prime. "Let go of her."
Sucy gave her an unimpressed side-eye.
"Don't look at me like that! I'm trying to help you!"
Croix tried to say something, but Sucy tightened her grip. The Noir Dragon had turned to watch them, ignoring the beams and sorcery units buzzing about it, as well as Darius standing on its shoulder and repeatedly whacking its neck with his 25th sword. Chariot might have tried to intercede, but she was pinned under its left-front claw and thoroughly distracted. Barbara had also been watching keenly, but suddenly lost interest and resumed melting sorcery units from the air.
"You didn't see what she did to Lotte."
"Oh, is this for her?" Hannah asked scornfully. "Did she ask you to gut Croix? I doubt it."
"Why do you care?"
"Because killing her could make that thing go crazy on us!" Hannah cried, throwing her free hand towards the Dragon. "But if that doesn't convince you, imagine Lotte seeing someone splattered all over the floor and knowing you did it because of her. Oh, wouldn't she love that? What a good friend!"
Sucy glared at her for a long moment, then released Croix. The professor wisely focused on regaining her breath over saying anything.
"Okay, then," Hannah said, lowering her wand.
"You assumed Lotte was alive," Sucy commented, standing. Her voice was as flat as ever, but Croix could read tiny hints of relief and sadness in the stream of anger rising from her. "What if I was avenging her?"
"It was all that yelling; you were talking yourself into it. Hannah Bar's seen that kinda thing before, where you have to work yourself up to hurt someone. If Lotte were dead, I think you would've just done it."
Sucy's eyes narrowed thoughtfully.
"Well—" Croix started, then snapped her lens out to block a bolt of lightning.
"Don't be an idiot, Croix," Hannah said. "Turn the Rod off. The fight keeps escalating – someone's gonna end up dead at this rate."
"You," Sucy clarified. "She means you."
Hannah smirked at that. "We're already way past anything you could get away with, but we can still stop before it gets worse. I can tell you weren't a bully when you were a student – otherwise, you'd be smarter about this!"
As Croix opened her mouth to reply, a sorcery unit winched her into the air and towed her off, trailing a surprised cry. The Noir Dragon followed up with a scarlet beam from its mouth, engulfing Sucy and Hannah and boring a perfectly round tunnel into the cold night.
The smoke cleared around Chariot's shield bubble spell, and the instant it popped, Sucy tackled Hannah into the shadows and quit the field.
The Noir Dragon whipped its head down to discover that the Chariot under its claws was now one of four, and the false images exploded into smoke as she made her escape. It paused as though surprised, then threw its head back and roared – a horrendous foghorn blast that rose into a knife-across-glass screech.
If there were any doubts over whether the Dragon had gone "full Skynet," it dispelled them with its next volley of beams.
Constanze's power converter was a miracle, but it could only work so fast. After an hour of running, jumping, aiming, and furious thinking, Diana was running dangerously low on power. Her sensors had already retracted to a narrow field around her body, and her thoughts slowed and focused as her brain made do with less energy. The light recoil of the revolver grew painful, and her feet throbbed with each step, but she kept nettling the Noir Dragon and bringing down sorcery units. She had no idea where anyone else was, or how the broader battle was going. She'd even lost track of Croix.
A shameful state for a Cavendish, but she forged ahead. She didn't know what else to do.
Hannah had vanished at some point, darting off on some mission as Barbara called, "There, Hannah, go!" Diana tried not to feel betrayed; logically, she was still nearby, but even a few meters away might as well have been on the moon. How had she gotten so used to just knowing where everyone was around her? Ah, she realized, catching sight of a brown ponytail in the distance. There she is. What's she doing with Sucy?
As Hannah and Sucy vanished in a blast of red light, Diana's mind went blank. A vast black pit opened in her chest and the streamers drawing emotion from her vanished. She stared, stupefied, at the smoldering crater where her dear friend had stood, desperately waiting for the world to make sense again.
When Hannah and Sucy emerged under Chariot's protection, everything she'd been afraid of until that moment became tiny and ridiculous. Even as the dragon roared and continued its attack, a sense of peace and determination settled over Diana. Next to losing her friend – worse, failing her and then losing her – the fear of finding out if she could still use magic was dust.
Diana thrust her wand skyward and called out with all her strength. "Come, my indestructible guardians! In the name of Cavendish!" When the spell took form and her wand lit like a beacon, it was both expected and a complete shock.
The field of discarded and broken swords by the entrance started to glow, then rose in formation, borne by half-visible phantoms in gleaming armor. Up in the operating room, Akko yanked Lotte back from the gathering ghosts, unmoved by her loopy assurance of, "They're friends." A phantom appeared next to Darius and tried to wrestle his sword away, but backed off when Constanze pulled a gun on it.
The weapons arrayed themselves before Diana and pointed at the Noir Dragon as she leveled her wand. Its light clearly revealed a phalanx of warriors from across her family's storied history. "Brandish your swords and strike down those of evil heart! Fineltina la Serana!"
The effect was like birdshot hitting a grapefruit. The Noir Dragon was blown from its feet and butchered in midair by whirling blades. The one beam it attempted lashed through the upper floors at a random angle, and then its energy could only race and crackle aimlessly through the mayhem, bursting out of every circuit that tried to form in the tornado of ghosts and steel.
Diana didn't focus on her phantoms' grim work; she was lost in the magic itself. It hadn't even been a day since her last spell, but it felt like months. A lifetime. Though she'd once thought of magic flowing through her body as a subtle sensation, now it scoured through her like the light of hyperspace and she loved it. Every thought sang. Every breath was sweet. She was doing what she was born for.
Eventually, Diana's spell faded. The Noir Dragon collapsed into a smoldering heap of mulched plastic, studded with planted swords like an ancient battlefield.
"All this time," Diana said. She raised a hand to her face and finally understood what Acco had meant by a big, goofy smile. "It was still a part of me. All this time, I could have…"
Glimmering light faded into gentle darkness.
Constanze cried out when Diana collapsed, springing up from her sniper's nest on the second floor.
"I've got her!" Darius said, vaulting the rail.
"Stay back!" Croix warned. "It's still—!"
An enormous arm rose from the Noir Dragon's ruins, as though a giant were reaching up through a hole in the floor, and swatted Darius into a feather mattress that Barbara conjured at the last second. Another arm emerged and they planted their palms, elbows arching monstrously into the air like a harvestman's legs.
Darius sat up and spat a mouthful of feathers. "Gross! What the hell did you build?"
"It was just a prototype," Croix protested. "That should have destroyed it! The other Rods must be supporting it somehow!"
The figure that pushed itself up from the ground was vaguely humanoid, but impossibly tall and gangly. Its limbs were bundles of long, twisting angles, gleaming like polished steel. Its face drew level with Operating Room 1 and four blank white eyes met Akko's. "Um, hi," she said, and slammed the door.
The Noir Titan ignored her. Its first move was a viper-quick punch at Chariot, whose shield bubble held but still got pancaked into a meter of rubble. Next, it swiped an open hand through the second-floor balcony, pulverizing Constanze's vantage as she fled on her broom. Finally, it dropped heavily to one knee and scooped Diana up.
"No! Stop!" Croix cried. "I command you to stop! Override: Zero Seven Glinda Niner Five Merlin Five Two!"
The Noir Titan looked down at her. If she was at all intimidated by meeting the gaze of a 10-meter-tall monstrosity, it didn't show. "Override code acknowledged."
"Finally!" Croix said. "Now: I command you to put her down. Gently."
Maintaining direct eye contact, the Noir Titan held Diana out at arms' length and closed its fist with an awful crunch, then casually dropped her. Darius flashed through the air under its hand and escaped with her.
"Scrap it!" Croix screamed. "Destroy the Noir Rod! All system defenses…"
"Collection complete." The Noir Titan stood imperviously as a lab's worth of beams sizzled in on it and sorcery units strafed it like jets attacking Godzilla. Great wings spread from its shoulders with obsidian blades for feathers, effortlessly carving through the balconies and walls. "Proceeding to the Heart of Arcturus. Estimated time to unsealing: one hour." Its stolen power appeared in a rainbow halo around its head and its feet slowly lifted from the ground.
"Oh, no, you don't," Croix snarled, swiping her wand through the Master Magitronic Nullification Spell. "I'll show you to defy me, you jumped-up extension block!" An elaborate magic seal bloomed before her, with a hand-shaped gap in the center. CONFIRM? blinked above it in ancient runes.
"Threat identified," the Noir Titan announced, and extended a gleaming finger towards her.
Something twisted inside of Croix and her hand passed uselessly through the seal. Soft light spread from her chest, and a bright little figure like a classical fairy emerged. It took her a moment to realize what was happening; she'd seen something similar on a fateful night long ago. "Aha!" she said, more vindicated than frightened, cupping her hands around the tiny sprite. "See? It doesn't hurt! I was right all along, Chariot!"
As if in reply, Chariot rocketed overhead and sheared the Noir Titan's arm off with her beam saber spell. Before the arm even crashed to the ground, Croix's magical power snapped back into her chest and knocked her out cold.
The Noir Titan resumed its slow rise, only to halt again as chains of white energy lashed up from below and wrapped around its ankles.
"I have no idea what's going on, but I want it to stop," Jasminka decreed from the entrance of the lab, gripping the other end in both hands. "Minions! Contain the Noir Rod!"
"CONTAIN! CONTAIN!" the minkabots chorused. They folded into hovering diamonds and flew into a circle around the Noir Titan. A cylinder of purple-white light shot down the center of the lab and sealed at the ends. For the moment, the monster just hovered like an insect in a bottle, gazing down at the witches unreadably.
Jasminka, Wangari, and Chariot awkwardly gathered beneath it.
"Hey," Wangari said into her wand. "I'm here with Professor Callistis and Jasminka. Is—is everyone okay? Can we sound off, please?" She closed her eyes, mouthing, please be okay, please be okay.
"Sucy took me further down the tower," Hannah reported. "We're fine."
"Physically, anyway," Sucy said dryly. "Hannah's looking pretty peaked."
"I'm with Conz and Diana," Darius said. "We're up on the second floor."
Chariot leaned over and asked, "Is Diana alright?"
"We're taking care of it." Darius's tone brooked no argument.
"I'm right here," Barbara said at Wangari's elbow, then ignored her scream and turned to Chariot. "I don't trust those oafs with Diana," she whispered. "I'll go make sure everything's alright with them."
"Thanks," Chariot whispered back.
Jasminka gave Barbara a dark look, but didn't comment as she floated by.
"Hey, um, Sucy?" Akko asked. "What did you put in that potion? I… I think Lotte's going Super Saiyan up here."
"That'll happen," Sucy said casually. "Just let her do her thing."
"I'm sorry for worrying everyone," Lotte said. "And thank you all so much for coming to save me. I… I'm about to do something a little reckless, but I hope it helps."
"What are you—?" Chariot was interrupted by a deafening bang as the Noir Titan experimentally struck the inside of its bottle.
She didn't need to finish her question. A tidal wave of green energy rolled from the sixth-floor balcony, the amorphous bodies of dozens of fairy spirits charging to battle, a formation of cavalry, a flock of raptors, a stampede of football hooligans. The Noir Titan slowly wheeled to face them and spread its arms – but then a high, sweet voice soared over the army's crackle and rush, and the monster flinched. The fairy spirits raged over its glossy surface and it morphed back into its original shape, releasing a wash of deadly red light to drive them back. They regrouped instantly, and the Noir Rod's prison became a battlefield.
A spiral of green fire raced around the barrier and a spirit doe landed before Chariot, bearing a small figure in a cloak lined with green flame. As Lotte turned to face them, they could see that the flames were boiling up from her chest, but didn't seem to be touching her. Her expression was noble until she saw the others looking and blushed. "I look ridiculous, don't I?"
"Very regal," Jasminka said approvingly, then her voice rose a touch. "Also, lovely!"
"You're not planning to go into that, are you?" Chariot cried. "And what is that magic? Are you burning your—?"
"Please don't worry about that now," Lotte said. "The fairies are fighting as hard as they can, but I don't know how long they can last. Please just focus on how we can help them, okay?"
"And how long can you last?"
Lotte smiled uncomfortably and shrugged, then bounded back into battle, passing through the barrier without even raising a ripple.
"Great," Chariot said dully. "That's two students probably dying now. And instead of a big monster to fight, we have to deal with this Star Trek nonsense." She cast a resentful glance down at Croix's unconscious form. "Croix was always better at problems like this, so of course she's not here for it. It even looks like that stupid reactor core!"
"The shutdown spell is still there," Wangari said, indicating the seal hanging just inside the barrier. "Would it work?"
"If so, Croix's the only one who can finish it. I can try and wake her up, but I don't think she'll be good for much."
"Maybe our Croix can't help us…" Wangari held out her hand, revealing the pattern of her Dimension Drive spinning up. "But what if I could find us a Croix?"