Disclaimer: Black Clover is owned by Yūki Tabata, Studio Pierrot, and Shonen Jump.
Saga 53: Attack of the Dead Men Finale
Clover/Diamond Kingdom Borderlands, Incursion Zone, Night
Out of the pile of shattered clay and rubble, a furious yell followed up by said pile of the aforementioned two materials exploding, revealing Aion, both of her twintails coming undone of their binds, and her left arm now bending the opposite of its intended way.
"Godfuckingsonofa-BITCH!" she roared out as she used her own [Severing Magic] to cut her hair short to reduce the overall drag. She then looks at her purpled-left arm, for she then immediately forces the arm back to its proper articulation with a sickening crunch followed up by another pained yell from the swordswoman. "Sephira pray to be, at times like these..." she heaved out as the claymen came crawling out of their earthen payload, merging back their bodies with solid ground and reconstituting themselves back into liquid form, "... I really wish I had Sukehiro-sensei's physical resilience."
From what sounds that the liquid claymen made, sounds akin to puddle splashes came echoing closer towards her.
"... But when was life easy to begin with!?" Aion remarked as she swung her broken blade towards the ground before her, the force of the impact causing her to fly off of her feet to evade the claymen's grasps, "I WAS BORN FUCKING BLIND AND WITH A BODY LIGHT AS A FEATHER AND BONES MADE OF GLASS! I WAS DESTINED FOR A MESSY DEATH BUT I LEARNED SOMETHING ELSE IN RETURN!"
As she recalled all of those days when she snuck out of her own home to train with the fabled Grey Deer-later Black Bull Magic Knight, all of the blisters and calluses pressed against her sword's handle as she tightened her grip like iron shackles, a thousand practices swings and ki-training, awakening her ability to perceive her surroundings with her hearing alone, Aion learned what it meant to live, blind or otherwise.
"I LIKE TO LIVE BECAUSE IT IS HARD!" Aion declared as she felt the wind bluster against her face as she descended back to the earth, "AND I'M NOT GOING TO LOSE TO A BUNCH OF LIFELESS HUSKS OF SOIL AND ROCK WHO ARE EVEN MORE LIFELESS AS RAGDOLLS, EVEN AS I'M OUTMATCHED IN BOTH NUMBER AND PROWESS!"
"That's what I like to hear, sister!" Aion's ears heard Puli's voice, "I'll be the wind on your back to push ya forth! [Wing Magic: Angel Flapping]!"
Puli's wings then begin flapping with a greater force, allowing Aion to ride upon the provided tailwind to add more force for her upcoming attack.
"I am forever grateful!" Aion declared as she raised her broken blade over her head, the gathered mana now forming a differently-shaped blade, "normally, I need two hands to use this technique I've been working on prior..." she pointed out as she then begins to dodge the volley of clay shots coming from the claymen from below, "... but who says I needed two hands in the first place to exert the combined force of a two-handed swing!?"
As soon as her nose picked up a faint scent of dust and dandruff rolling on the dirt, the tip of her nose touching ever-so-slightly against the earth upon her descent, Aion, at that exact moment, took this chance to swing down her blade with all of her might, every single cartilage and fiber in her right arm's muscles ripping and tearing itself apart from the sheer amount of force that was being exerted from her swing.
"[Severing Magic: Kabutowari]/[Skullbreaker]!"
The vertical slash breaks through the earth as the arid wasteland itself was split in two, jutting up a pair of giant slabs of earth that enclosed themselves, both coming down upon the claymen in two separate directions. Upon the impact of her blade hitting the ground, Aion found herself flung into the air again, only this time, her face bearing a triumphant grin.
"Now I'll know where you bastards will go," Aion boasted right before her body crashed back unto the earth below from her second ascent, dropping her broken sword mid-impact as the rest of her body took a severe beating, rolling across the arid and rugged terrain, her back and ribs being crushed by each other during the tumble, "... up ... down ... left ... right ... forwards or backwards..." she remarked before she coughed out a wad of blood, "... the walls themselves will tell me where you are... by which way the wind blows-"
"I see em!" a youthful male's voice cried out below Aion's head, "[Painting Magic: Phantom Dragon Vouivre's Shout]!"
"[Earth] as base, [Fire] as property, and [Wind] as conversion," another voice said from above Aion's head, "[Anima Magic: Ashen Blast]."
The earth above her then explodes into a wave of hot ash, but Aion rolls her pained body out of the way before she could be smothered to death by it. Her ears were then assaulted by the sounds of a horrid screech and a volcanic eruption almost taking our her right eardrum.
"... I take it back," Aion groaned as the sound of the combined blast subsided, leaving her eardrums ringing hard enough to give her a severe migraine, "... somebody please kill me."
Next to Aion's head, Brigid looks down at the tattered Blue Rose Knight with two unusable arms and a vacant expression on her face.
"... Is she one of yours?" she asked to Sol, the latter running up towards her before picking her up, "I'll take that as a yes."
"Finally! Reinforcements, at last!" Juniper sighed out. Upon spotting Captain Charlotte, she then runs towards her before giving her the salute, "it's good to see your here, Captain!"
"Report," she replied as she looked around the scene of the carnage, "... aside from the obvious."
"We already missing a few, and another two have been rendered incapacitated," Juniper reported, "in short, not doing well as expected."
"Form up a perimeter," Charlotte ordered, "gather all able-bodied Magic Knights available, and prepare to engage-WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!?" pointed out the Captain towards Brigid, "AND HOW THE HELL DID YOU GET HERE BEFORE ALL OF US!?"
"I cheated," the Ulsterian sorceress nonchalantly replied, "but we have much more concerning things to worry about."
The remaining claymen then began eating pieces of pumice, forming carapaces of the foamy stone over their skins, and their circular vents now faintly glowing red with heat.
"... Now that they're part-pumice, I can't exactly make them into 100% anymore," Brigid remarked, "I'll come up with something, so try not to get caught, kay?"
"I don't need you telling me that, Ulsterian!" Charlotte rebuffed as she then drew out her whip from her [Thorn Magic].
The claymen then began their assault, the first coming in a group of five acting as the vanguard while the other group of fifteen acted as support fire. The five vanguards' pumice plates now glowing red-hot from the built-up heat from within as they continued to charge recklessly towards the Magic Knights even as they tried to slow it down with their magic, only for the covering fire from the opposition to dampen the delaying tactic.
"Got it!" Rill declared as he flicked his brush from his palette in tandem with his grimoire, "[Painting Magic: Spring of Restriction]!"
The ground then turns into a mural of an oasis, causing the claymen's feet to be entrapped in it, but then they just simply sink deeper into the painting until they were completely submerged, freeing themselves from his ground mural of an oasis's pool.
"Darn it!" Rill cursed as he ducked under fire as Sol creates an earthen barricade around their perimeter, "where did they go-"
"EVERYONE, CLEAR OUT NOW!" Brigid cried out as the earth that the Blue Rose Knights and the Aqua Deer were standing upon suddenly erected out five stone pillars, the tips now glowing and bulging brightly, "[Fire] as base and [Earth] as deterrent!" the sorceress declared as her hands frantically formed an array of signs as her orb orbited around her during Brigid's hasty incantation, "[Anima Magic: Dust Mine]!"
The tips of each spire then explode into a cloud of warm ash that rain down upon the Magic Knights's heads.
"... I think I figured out how they work now," Brigid explained as she ducked under fire, "you there, cloud-hair," she referred to Rill, the aforementioned pointing to himself at his nickname 'cloud-hair', "you tried to detect the claymen that went under but couldn't see shite, right?"
"Uh, yeah," Rill answered as the firefight ensued, "as soon as they were out of my sight, it's like if their mana signatures disappeared."
"It didn't," Brigid pointed out, "their so-called mana-signatures are that surrounding mana in the area."
"... Um, can you dumb it down for me?" Rill requested, "I'm bit slow when it comes to smart people talking for long periods of time."
"... To put it simply, the land we're on right now itself is trying to kill us," Brigid explained the simplest way possible, "what shapes the form of offense however, are the Demonic Mana that are acting semi-autonomously. Think of it as glue holding a broken vase together, only said glue will shape the earth back to its prior form after said vase gets shattered again."
"Ah! That makes sense!" Rill remarked, "so all we have to do is separate surrounding mana from the Demonic Mana and the claymen will disappear, right?"
"My [Anima Magic] affects the composition of mana itself," Brigid remarked, "buy me some time. I need to feel out the [Earth] mana around here to distinguish the Demonic Mana. Buy me some time!"
"Don't get hit!" Rill replied as Brigid began meditating with her legs crossed and her palms faced upwards, "now then," he remarked as he looked out towards the front, seeing the endless volley of clay shots that sticking onto the walls like splotches of thrown glue, "... maybe if they can't stick on us like hot rubber... how about something less dangerous?"
He then flicks the brush off of his palette, now painting a floating hoop in front of the earthen wall.
The claymen shot their adhesive shots towards it, but as soon as the flung clay went through the hoop, out the other end came out bubbles in their place, much to everyone's bewilderment.
"Surprised?" Rill remarked, "I would've normally used [God's Game] to redirect ranged attacks, but even I know adding clay to more clay won't do anything!" he explained, the hazy image depicted inside the hoop being that of a serene and sunny field of flowers with a rainbow in the sky, "so how about take the good ol' saying of 'making lemons out of lemonade'? [Painting Magic: Mural of Eternal Peace]!"
He then vaults over the earthen barricade, and begins pushing the floating mural itself.
"I'll create an opening!" Rill cried out, "everyone, follow me!"
"Sol, maintain the bulwark," Juniper remarked as the others steadily advanced under fire being converted into bubbles, "I'm going to try something," the Hage girl said right before she vaulted over the cover and placed her hands onto the ground, which she then notices some of the claymen sinking back into the ground as a way to get around Rill's [Mural of Eternal Peace], "[Grass Curse Magic: Wastrel Weeds]!"
The ground beneath her then began growing grass atop of the wasteland soil. Upon the grass being sprouted out of the earth, the claymen that tried to go under immediately ejecting themselves out of the dirt, their bodily mass becoming less coherent.
"The more mana it absorbs from the surrounding area, the taller the grass will become!" Juniper declared as she planted her feet and hands onto the ground, the claymen's humanoid liquid forms becoming more runny and flaccid akin to a muddled water rather than silky clay, "normally, I only use this magic as a way to gauge the surrounding area's mana, but I heard something about those clay creeps being part of this land's mana, so I might as well just help myself to what they're having!"
The Homunculus claymen, now realizing that their earthen vessels were on the verge of being compromised, as indicated by their innards of black Demonic Mana being revealed under their unstable facade, all remaining 35 Homunculus [Mass-Production Types] revert back into solid forms to preserve their functions and risk into close-range engagements, their arms morphing into broadsword-like protrusions, their bodies sporting armor-like plates over their once-smooth exteriors, and their feet now scraping against solid ground rather than merged with it in a gel-like cohesion.
"... Their insides," Aion whispered out as she was laid down next to Cole, "... I can faintly hear them. They can be physically harmed now!"
Charlotte then binds one of them with her whip before hoisting it up into the air and sending it crashing back down to the ground headfirst, shattering into a hundred pieces like a dropped vase, spilling out the dark particles from its body, the latter which it then tried to piece back together with the former giving aid akin to a child putting pieces of a puzzle together.
"Found one," Brigid remarked as she meditated, "[Wind] as base, [Water] as property, [Fire] as conversion, and [Earth] as structure," the sorceress chanted as all four elemental orbs floated around her own Relic, [Anbhair], "[Anima Magic: Fiberglass]."
The dark particles around the shattered shell of the Homunculus was then encased into a translucent orb of glass, the Demonic Mana inside trying to escape, but to no avail, even as the orb stretched and convulsed outwards from its struggle.
"Don't fret, Miss Roselei," Brigid stated, "[Fiberglass] can only be broken at a certain PSI threshold. Both malleable and durable in its construction, the ideal carrying case for foreign substances," she went on explaining, "do not fret, it's now safe to handle."
"I'm grateful for the assistance," Charlotte remarked as she collected the orb containing the struggling Demonic Mana before handing it to Brigid, "how many are there left?"
"34 remaining," Brigid pointed out as she then leaves the entrapped Demonic Mana suspended midair like her own, "watch yourselves. They won't go down until they're throughly broken."
"You heard her!" Charlotte barked out, "no mercy!"
The remaining Magic Knights that were able to freely move then charged towards the hardened Homunculi.
From a distance, the head of the operation, the [Long-Range Reconnaissance Type] observed the confrontation taking place after escaping the trap-laden forest and sensing the mana around the area that composed of its bodily structure to sense a disturbance.
Shit, they figured us out, the voice in the commander unit's head sounded out, let them tire themselves out. For now, get out of the range where the grass is siphoning the surrounding mana and reconvene into a sniping position!
It then retreats back where it came out of, readying its arm into an elongated barrel, setting itself up for an execution for another surprise attack.
Ruined Hage Village, Clover Kingdom, Forsaken Realm, Night
"... Back home," Astaroth sighed out as he looked around the destroyed and abandoned village, "... I remember it being less swordy."
"To be fair, no expects their normal world to be a literal forest of swords," replied Claudius as he rummaged through the wrecked houses for anything useful, mainly seeking out raw materials to create tools or old grimoires for his old method of [Anti-Magic Tags].
"I've been thinking," said Astaroth, "... should I call you Claudius or Lucifer?" the Prince asked, "because half of the time, other Demons and you yourself that one time called you 'Lucifer', and yet you and the other Fallen Angels refer to you as 'Claudius'. It's getting confusing, and I'm pretty sure that I'm already using most of my focus to keep my body together as long as possible."
"I consider myself both the Archangel Lucifer the Almighty, and Claudius Nero Bael, the Demon of Ars Goetia," the Demon of [Pride] answered bluntly, "I will accept my new life as a Demon, but I will never deny of my past as an Archangel. My own [Pride] forces me to accept who I am and oppose whoever opposes me. Just because I was proven wrong once doesn't mean I am truly wrong. A world without magic is what is right, and the sooner I put a stop to this madness where people can control the elements as they can easily breathe while there are those who are left powerless in this world? The better."
"... Point taken, although only because now I know for sure that there are others like me, but aren't as fortunate to find people who used to love me as a person," Astaroth remarked, "... but I wonder, is the world without magic going to be any better when there are going to be people who are still going to hurt other people for the hell of it?"
"Damages caused by the individual scale are manageable, at the very least," the Demon of [Pride] justified his statement, "I'm only against individuals causing capital damage in short bursts each. I'm not completely against free will, no, rather, I use that as a check on the individual's life and self-preservation," he explained, "in a microcosm, people will suffer just as much in my ideal world, but macrocosm, the damages ensued from the fallout will at the minimum, won't spiral out of control since there will be enough time to mitigate it should they choose to. If not, I bring in the strain of pestilence, wipe them out, and another pocket of life tries again, or they choose to fix the issue out of their own self-preservation. Either way, my job wasn't to coddle people like Sephira's doing with his misguided attempts of creating a utopia. My job was make sense of the cacophonic nature of this world and its foundations."
"... You have a really weird way of thinking about how life should work. Doubly so when your so-called 'damage control' didn't amount to anything long-term," Astaroth remarked as he walked into the ruined church building that he remembers being raised in.
"The Origin wasn't kidding when it created life in its own image, regardless of my intervention or otherwise, but I still had to do something," the Demon of [Pride] pointed out, "my given job was supposed to be trying to make sense of things and make sure that water doesn't set things on fire and fire doesn't freeze anything that it comes into contact with. The Origin is unfathomably powerful, but not even we Archangels can even come close to understanding it," he stated before his voice sinks into boiling rage, "which is why it is more frustrating to think that Sephira thought that it would've been a good idea to take my place! LIKE IF SHE KNOWS ANY BETTER OF THE WORLD BUILT ON THE NATURAL ORDER OF DISORDER! THE PROOF OF HER FAILURE IS HER PLAYING THE ROLE AS THE NEW ORIGIN BY INTRODUCING MAGIC TO EVERYONE! I KNEW MY PLACE! SHE CREATED HER OWN AT THE EXPENSE OF THE ORIGIN BY TAKING ITS ROLE AS HER OWN! THE AUDACITY! THE ARROGANCE OF THAT FUCKING UPSTART BIIIITCCHHH!"
The Demon of [Pride] then punches the earth, causing the whole village of Hage to be leveled to the ground from the resonating impact.
"... Claudius," said Astaroth, "are you sure your sin isn't [Wrath] rather than [Pride]?" he pointed out as the dust cloud settled around them, "because I feel like you have serious anger management issues whenever you bring up Sephira."
Another yell of rage from the Demon of [Pride] followed up by a titanic geyser of kicked-up dirt that buried the trees in the surrounding areas all the way up to their trunks's medians could be seen from a fair distance away from where Hage once stood, the latter now being nothing more than a smoldering crater left in the Fallen Angels's wake.
"... You done?" Astaroth deadpanned.
"... I am," answered the Demon of [Pride].
The two then slink towards the direction of the Demon King's skull without another word spoken.
Clover/Diamond Kingdom Borderlands, Incursion Zone, Midnight
"How many more are left!?" Charlotte remarked as she kicked away another Homunculus before whipping it down.
"Another 27 to go," Brigid answered as she then collected another orb of [Fiberglass] containing particles of Demonic Mana, "weren't for the fact that now they're carrying traces of pumice inside of their bodies, I would've easily turned all of them into pumice and let their structural integrity be compromised on their own."
"Why didn't you do that sooner!?" Charlotte pointed out as she ducked under a swing of an earthen blade before garroting the clayman's waist, snapping the whole body into two like an extremely durable stale biscuit man.
"In my defense," Brigid remarked as she collected another batch of Demonic Mana with her [Anima Magic], bringing the remaining number down to 26, "even in Ulster, in spite every living creature that walks there having countless different ways to end a person's life, at least they stuck to their environment," she pointed out in a frustrated tone as she instinctively collected another batch of Demonic Mana, "the Chimeras that shites out of Libratium's arsehole every day is a bloody affront to nature!" the sorceress began ranting in her native dialect in an enraged tone all the while not missing a beat collecting two more orbs of Demonic Mana, bringing the total remaining number down to 24, "all those wastes of space are good for are fucking up the grasslands and driving already-endangered Wilderbeast populations even further towards extinction! Conservation efforts, me fucking behind!"
Another [Fiberglass] orb containing the Demonic Mana then begins orbiting around her. In the gap of her own focus, she then shoots a spire of magma that melts another Homunculus's legs into the ground before it was then summarily disposed of its shell by Frgail's [Snow Magic] and Puli's [Wing Magic] that created a cutting blizzard that was then shortly followed up by the exposed Demonic Mana being encased in the elastic translucent bubble that which then entered into Brigid's orbit.
"22 MORE TO FUCKING GO!" Brigid barked out mid-mediation, "WHITTLE EM BASTARDS DOWN!"
At the center of the conflict, the Blue Rose Knights and the Aqua Deer were in a united front against the dwindling Homunculus army, the latter opposition engaging in a desperate melee against the former.
Even as they were proven to be vulnerable, there were still many of them, and the window of time provided was short before the other Homunculi came in to their own aid.
"Whoa!" Rill exclaimed as he ducked down over a Homunculus's swing before the latter then thrust its other arm-blade towards the Aqua Deer, only for him to block it with is mural, the thrust blade turning into doves on Rill's end.
Upon seeing its left arm compromised into a blunt stub, it tried to reformulate, but its body was then stripped from itself by Rill simply enveloping the Homunculus's whole earthen body into the frame, turning the humanoid shell into butterflies while leaving behind black particles of the Demonic Mana in its place.
"Huh, never tried that on a person before," Rill remarked before the Demonic Mana then tried to take him as a potential vessel instead, but not before it was then sealed inside [Fiberglass] orb that then traveled towards Brigid's orbit.
"Only 21 more to go," Brigid stated, "I suggest pumping those legs if you want to keep them."
"You know, I gotta wonder," Rill remarked as he retreated back behind the barricade and painted another [Phantom Dragon Vouivre] to provide covering fire for the other Magic Knights, "your magic is like mine, being able to control multiple elements at will, right?"
"On the surface, yes," Brigid replied, "but mine are bound to the laws of reality, but in exchange my reach with my magic are just as vast as the wilderness around me," the sorceress pointed out, "yours on the other hand, is just nonsensical as that so-called 'imagination' are nothing more than electrons and dopamine running around your head at an exasperated rates. A chaotic mess where you dare to mock such gallant beings such as Dragons to bear human faces that makes the Chimera look normal in comparison."
"Isn't wilderness already chaotic as it is?" Rill pointed out, "I mean, why bother with understanding chaos when you can have fun with it?"
"The day when fire freezes water is the day when Hell becomes a place where Angels would live in willingly," Brigid remarked as she collected another orb containing Demonic Mana, "what you perceive as 'chaos' is simply order playing at a rhythm one simply cannot comprehend at a first glance. Your art is that of a child's fever dream, something Ogmios would laugh off as amateurish."
"Aw come on, lady!" Rill remarked as he painted a [Lady Harpy] to life before he got onto her back to act as a vertical support for the Magic Knights currently in active engagement, "in the Clover Kingdom, magic is everything! The sky's the limit when it comes to expression!"
"You are playing with fire, mister," Brigid remarked as she then called down a rain of icicles that exploded into boiling steam upon impact, causing the Homunculus to flinch, widening the window of opportunity to strike down more of the earthen humanoids, "but then again, I am a hypocrite for creating ice that explodes into steam, but I assure you, the four elements are my tools of research to understand that raw primal nature of magic itself," the sorceress admitted as she collected another set of orbs containing Demonic Mana, bringing the opposition number down to 18, "I am a little different from my Ulsterian peers. I accept nature as it comes, but I wish to know why I accept to understand it, and right now, these things, should they be let loose onto the world at large, will destroy everything in sight, in which something, and like every other rational and decent living being that walks on this world, is something, that I CANNOT ALLOW! DUCK YOUR HEAD!"
She then whips out her right hand across the air as soon as Rill hit the ground, sending out a blade of supersonic wind that slashes apart six Homunculi at once and Sol's earthen barricade with it, exposing their Demonic Mana as it spilled out innards from a vivisected body. The Homunculus tried to cover them back up, but Charlotte immobilizes them with her [Thorn Magic], allowing Brigid to collect them, bringing the opposition numbers down to 12.
"HEY JACKASS!" Sol cried out as she re-erected her barrier, "THAT WAS MY BARRICADE THAT YOU HIT!"
"You're an [Earth Magic] user, aren't you?" Brigid pointed out, "there's plenty of [Earth] mana around here to work with, don't you?"
"THE FUCK ARE YOU ON ABOUT!?" Sol barked back as she then grappled with another Homunculus that snuck past her barricade, the latter's blades coming dangerously close to her throat as Sol was being pinned down with the flat of one blade pressed against her chest.
"Try to take control of that clayman that's about to kill you before it does so for real," advised Brigid as she collected another orb of Demonic Mana, "fair warning, it does contain Demonic Mana which might accidentally kill you in prolonged exposures."
"HOW!?" asked Sol as the blade that was clasped between her hands slowly dug its tip into her neck. Normally, she would've summoned [Raging Mother Earth] to knock this thing off of herself, but not when the blade was this close to cutting her neck open, and possibly nulling her spell with the rest of her life.
Then, at a single moment of hysterical clarity, she then began to feel familiar with the Homunculus on top of her.
That's odd, Sol thought as she then began feeling the clayman's mana signatures being similar to her own [Raging Mother Earth] spell, somehow, that thing feels similar to my [Raging Mother Earth]... she thought as she then begins adding her own mana into the clayman as a connection point between her and the foreign entity, ... wonder if she's right about me taking control like my own [Earth Magic]. Better attempting that then getting my throat cut open!
She then exerts her control over the Homunculus, gradually forcing, at the very least, to plant the blade that was about to go into her throat next to her head instead before kicking it off of her to gain some distance between it and her.
"Good," Brigid remarked, "you now have some of your own mana into it. Now try exerting control over it."
Sol then triggers her planted mana inside of the creature of [Earth], causing it to freeze up before it can charge at her.
"Alright, now just hold still-ARGH!"
Suddenly, a sickening feeling overwhelms her senses, something pungent and disgusting, just that time a week prior where her very soul was overcome with a tidal wave of pure hatred.
"Dammit all, that quickly!?" Brigid remarked before she hastily implemented her [Anima Magic] to sever the connection between the Homunculus and Sol, followed that up with turning the Homunculus into pure obsidian to immobilize it before freezing the trapped air between the transmutated shell, causing it to explode into shrapnel and exposing the Demonic Mana within.
The Demonic Mana then tries to take Sol, but Brigid immediately catches it inside of her [Fiberglass] orb before it reached Sol.
"... It has been a while sense my focus has been pushed this far," Brigid remarked as Sol got back up, "only 11 left to go."
"WHY DIDN'T HELP ME IF YOU KNEW THAT I WOULD'VE BEEN ABLE TO HANDLE DEMONIC MANA!?" Sol asked.
"Admittedly, I was curious about your own threshold," the Ulsterian sorceress confessed, "... time and place for everything, and I am admittedly sort of getting less rational by the minute from the mounting pressure to keep myself focused long enough to keep an eye on everyone on the field."
"... Okay, you know what?" Sol remarked as she then summoned [Raging Mother Earth] before she mounted onto the construct's back, "I'll press the offensive quick enough to end all of this crap in one go. Sound good?"
"It would be ideal," Brigid replied, "just hurry before meteors start raining from the sky as soon as I snap and hit everyone indiscriminately," she said with an increasingly-shaky voice while sweating profusely, the Demonic Mana orbiting around her starting to falter.
Sol then charges out towards the fray, her [Raging Mother Earth] now stomping out to the warzone to engage the remaining Homunculi, who, in spite of their dwindling numbers, kept attacking relentlessly even as Juniper's grass stripped them of their external mana supply and the two Captains pushing them back bit by bit with their magic.
[BREAK THROUGH, BREAK THROUGH.] the Homunculus being pushed back together by a Blue Rose Knight and an Aqua Deer, [LOST SIGNAL TO COMMAND; ATTEMPTING TO RECONNECT WITH NEAREST COMMAND-
"Like you're gonna!" Cesc rebuffed as he unleashed his spell unto the clayman, "[Copper Magic: Chase Jackals]!" he declared as a trio of copper-made jackals sicced themselves onto the Homunculus.
"Just break already!" Wainsley cried out as she readied her own spell, forming a handheld crossbow made of ice in her hands, "[Ice Creation Magic: Icicle Stake]!"
The frigid arrow then lands its mark, and out the other end of the frozen arrowhead was a clump of black particles that it was latched onto before it was collected by Brigid's [Fiberglass].
"... Just..." the Ulsterian sorceress grunted out in pain as she heaved heavily while trying to maintain a certain level of concentration to be ready to pounce onto another exposed Demonic Mana and collect it before said substance reconstitutes the claymen back into one piece, "... just 10 more left."
[SITUATION COMPROMISED.] one of the last ten Homunculi remarked as it brushed off Captain Charlotte's web of [Thorn Magic] with its blade-arms, [PLAN B; SIEGE MODE CONFIGURATION: APPROVED.]
The remaining ten Homunculi then all split up into different parts as they all flew away into smaller pieces that all recombined into a giant armored golem like creature that towered over the Magic Knights. The end result was a giant version of the claymen that the Magic Knights fought prior, but now on a bigger scale, its size casting a massive shadow that completely eclipsed the night skies, all there of being light now being that of a singular green monoeye that stared coldly down towards at them.
"It was capable of doing such thing in the first place!?" Charlotte pointed out as the earthen titan loomed over them.
[SIEGE MODE - CYDONIA: ENGAGING.] the titanic golem-creature declared with its booming monotone voice as it raised its hand up into the air, the raised hand suddenly transforming into a massive rectangular bladed slab of earth with a flat-edged tip that glowed with violet runes emitting the darkest of magics possible, [SUPER COMPOUND CREATION MAGIC: ACALA SMITE.]
"GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Rill cried out as the rune-engraved blade fell towards them, "MY [MURAL OF ETERNAL PEACE] CAN'T FIT SOMETHING THAT HUGE!"
"BRIGID!" Sol cried out as she grabbed her out of the way as her [Raging Mother Earth] took the downed Cole and Aion over its broad shoulders before it joined in on the Magic Knight's retreat.
But upon Brigid losing her focus, the contained Demonic Mana of the disposed 25 Homunculus [Mass-Production Types] being inadvertently released back out from their [Fiberglass] orbs, all of which, upon being released, all began to orbit around the Cydonia as its massive blade quaked the earth upon impact.
"WHAT IS WITH WITH THIS WEEK AND GIANT-ASS SWORDS!?" Juniper cried out as she ran along with the other Magic Knights, leaving behind her [Wastrel Weeds] as they were then uprooted by the Cydonia, slowly regaining its powers of deriving its mana from the surrounding area once more.
The freed Demonic Mana then all allocate themselves to the blade's runes, empowering the monstrosity even more as it then dug its weapon across the earth, flicking out a cascade of boulders that rained down towards the fleeing Magic Knights, and said boulders exploding like bombs with random elemental combustions upon impact.
"Oh bloody brillant," Brigid deadpanned as she was being carried by Sol's back, "daft bastard stole me idea..."
"DAMMIT ALL! WE DIDN'T PLAN FOR THIS SHIT TO HAPPEN!" Juniper bemoaned, "WHAT NOW!?"
"Attack it when it stops moving," Fragil remarked as she skipped over an explosion of adhesive clay, "although given its bulk and desperation, I suggest another plan."
"... Let me go," Brigid remarked.
"Excuse me?" Sol replied in a confused tone before the sorceress that she was carrying on her back kicked herself off of the Magic Knight's back.
Brigid then slumps back up to her feet, the fatigue mounting onto her body as she wobbled up to her feet upon her overexposure to Demonic Mana emanating from the giant's blade.
"Brigid!" Charlotte cried out before the Ulsterian sorceress raised her hand before the Magic Knight, signaling her to not intervene.
"... This shite's all me fault for letting go of the Demonic Mana because I was too shitefaced," Brigid remarked, "if I die, I die. If I live, I live," the sorceress pointed out, "point being?"
[SUPER COMPOUND MAGIC: AHIMSA PURGE.]
The Cydonia then fires a glaring beam from its eye, to which Brigid then raises her hand before it, the beam splitting itself across the hand like an axe splitting down firewood. The split beam then sets the ground around the Magic Knights ablaze in a massive ring of fire, cutting off their escape.
"... Now then," Brigid remarked as she creaked her neck side-to-side as she called upon her Relic, [Anbhair], "I can fight like an Ulsterian without killing anyone in the crossfire."
[DESTROY. DESTROY.] the Cydonia spoke in its booming monotone voice as Brigid flew out of her way of its punch, landing on its arm and flashing a light in its sole eye, blinding it for a moment before she reappeared onto the other arm. But this time, the Demonic Mana that enveloped the [Acala Smite] began attacking her automatically.
"Tempting, but no," Brigid remarked as she combined her [Fire] and [Water] to fire a jet of scalding water that scrubbed off the runes written on the blade's flat, causing the Demonic Mana that were about to attack her to suddenly cease upon the very effigies that tethered them was being interrupted, "I now figured out how your Demonic Mana works," she stated as she then floated down to the golem's chest and plants another magic circle onto its chest and getting out before the left hand swatted its chest to get Brigid, "mana are often described as a 'lifeblood' for all magic, the source, the air that we need in order to breathe," the sorceress explained as she then got between the Cydonia's legs, planting another magic circle in the right thigh before moving back, "however, Demonic Mana isn't that coherent. It's less about 'substance' and more about 'impulse'."
"Impulse?" Sol remarked as she remembered those times where she was exposed by the overwhelming feelings of her own mind taking over her own self.
"Demonic Mana are naturally sporadic, almost feral in its behavior," Brigid explained as she continued dodging Cydonia's attempts to kill her, the former regaining her stride upon reaching her 'study high', "if regular mana is to be expended in order to use magic, Demonic Mana are more semi-sentient magic of their own being," she continued on while she gave a hard kick across the golem's head, causing it to veer over slightly before regaining its footing, "however, mana and Demonic Mana are incompatible with each other mainly because living beings are like Demonic Mana in behavioral patters, causing the two's similar natures to begin competing over each of who runs the body, causing instances of the walking dead and so on," the Ulsterian sorceress remarked as she then dodged another swing from the Cydonia's [Acala Smite], "in other words, the way to overcome Demonic Mana, is to plant regular mana to whoever's using it, and cause enough of an imbalance to completely compromise the structure."
She then snaps her fingers, causing the planted magic circles to start glowing and turning the earthen shell of the Cydonia to start whitening, turning from dark beige to dull chalk in a matter of minutes.
"[Earth] as base, [Fire] as property, and [Water] as conversion," Brigid declared as the paling Cydonia's whole body became more rigid in its movement, "[Anima Magic: Saltpeter]. Oh, and dear Magic Knights?" she remarked to the crowd behind her before she lit a small ember in her fingertip, "... I suggest making cover, NOW."
As Sol and Wainsley formed a compact barrier of hardened earth and ice, Brigid blew the ember off of her fingertip, and upon the ember landing on the chalk-colored surface, the entirety of the Cydonia explodes into an incandescent fireball that engulf the whole area into a white-hot blaze, with Sol and Wainsley frantically reinforcing the barricade to prevent them from being swallowed up into the flames.
"... In theory, mind you," Brigid declared as she floated back down to the ground, leaving the Cydonia in a flaming heap of rubble behind her as it collapsed into a pile, "at first, I wasn't certain that my theory would hold water after collecting the Demonic Mana as a sample, but all's well that ends well, I suppose-"
Suddenly, her head explodes into a burst of fragmented pieces of blood and bones, splattering across the Magic Knights standing before her.
"SNIPER!" Charlotte cried out as Brigid's headless corpse fell to the ground as more shots came from random directions, the projectiles zipping across the Magic Knights as they fell into disarray upon seeing some of their limbs being blown off by the random fire, "HEADS DOWN! HEADS DOWN!"
From a fair distance away, while the Cydonia was keeping the Magic Knights and the sorceress busy, the [Long-Range Reconnaissance Type] Homunculus kept itself busy by surrounding the general perimeter with sniper turret barrels. After all, simply sniping from one direction would result it being found instantly, but by taking advantage of its sensory arrays on its shoulders, it was possible to control multiple barrels along with its own. Either way, it had them pinned down, and its orders were the following.
Keep the fires at random, the voice ordered as the Homunculus shot down a toad-like woman's wings off of her back to ground her, take out the high-profile mages at your discretion. For everyone else, keep them alive long enough so we can have fresh biosamples to collect.
Upon those orders being repeated, the elite Homunculus then continues its sniper fire in the dark, only illuminating the epicenter of fire that its shots were making.
"DAMMIT! THERE WERE MORE!?" Charlotte cursed to herself as she and the others ducked down and crawled on their bellies to avoiding having their heads shot off like Brigid's, then thinking back to the one who sniped off the Aqua Deer Magic Knight, Eric's head off prior, "... of course it brought friends," she hissed to herself as another volley of shots grazed off of her cape, ripping it in two, "then again, we were in a time crunch, not mentioned, over a half of the remainging Magic Knights were spread too far and thin..."
"Captain..." Charlotte then heard Aion's voice, the latter who was laying down across from her, both her arms severely injured and her voice hoarse from her wounds and fatigue, "... I can't hear shit," she heaved out, "... but from my fingers..." she went on, tapping her fingers to try and feel the earth's vibrations around her, "... the shots... there's only one of them-"
Aion then explodes into a cloud of giblets by the next shot before Charlotte can hear what she has to say.
"There's only one of them", she said, Charlotte thought at Aion's last words, now looking around the surrounding darkness to see where each shot came from, ... does that mean that the random directional shots are being controlled remotely!?
"EVERYONE!" the Captain of the Blue Rose Knights cried out all of the sudden, not caring if she sounds raving mad, "THERE'S ONLY ONE SNIPER! THE REST OF THE RANDOM SHOTS ARE BEING CONTROLLED REMOTELY!"
"I DUNNO WHAT YOU'RE ON ABOUT, BIT I'LL GIVE IT A SHOT-" Rill remarked before in his attempt to redraw [Lady Harpy] back to life, only for the shot to destroy his palette and paintbrush along with his fingers, causing him to scream and roll in pain, "DAMMIT!" the young Captain cried out, "NOT MY PALETTE! I NEED THAT TO PAINT WITH!"
But fortunately for Charlotte, she saw where the shots came from; straight ahead, where the forest that they crashed in were at.
"Just straight ahead..." Charlotte heaved out, recalling Brigid's words before paraphrasing them to her own morals, "... if I die, everyone else dies. If I live, we'll all live!"
She then bolts off of her ground as she then takes off running, nimbly dodging the coming shots aimed for her legs and arms, even ditching her cape and even her helmet as decoys for the shots aimed at her spine and head respectively, reducing drag and weight to allow herself to run faster towards the forest. As the shots came for her, she knew that being flow up midair would leave her as a sitting duck, so instead of dodging vertically, she took to dodging horizontally, side-stepping out of the way at the last moment before the shot connected.
DAMMIT! DAMMIT! DAMMIT! the voice screeched out in panic as the operator saw all of the shots being made towards her as near misses, and the other shots controlled remotely being preoccupied on keeping the other Magic Knights pinned down, HURRY UP AND FUCKING KILL THAT BITCH-ARGHAHHGHAHAHAHAAH *poof*
... Is this the reason why he was making excess noise? a monotone voice remarked in place of its operator, then cover ground with buckshot.
The Homunculus then loads in its [Stone Scattershot] round into its barrel before aiming down its sights and firing the payload. As soon as the shot hit the ground, a cloud of dust that was kicked up upon the impact stretched across as its eye can see.
Target lost,the monotone voice that replaced the prior operator remarked, pull back-
But suddenly, the Homunculus couldn't hear the voice anymore. It felt as if something crushed its head unit to render it no longer functioning.
It looked as far back as its monoeye strip could turn, spotting briars digging into its head unit as its camera slowly turned into a blurry static.
"Surprised?" a tired yet absolutely enraged female's voice remarked, "... me too."
Charlotte, with her [Thorn Magic]-created gauntlet dug into the Homunculus's head as the blue roses on its vines turned black as it absorbed Demonic Mana in her place, her bandages around her face falling off with the wind, revealing an unmarred face of pure, tranquil rage contrasting with her beaten and dirtied body, rips off the Homunculus's head from its body, causing the whole structure to be compromised without any Demonic Mana keeping it together as it crumbled back to a parched pile of dirt.
Gradually, Charlotte made her way back to where the others were, some crying out tears of relief that the nightmare is over, while some tried to remain collected in the fallout as they try and tend to the injured and the dead.
"Status report," Charlotte heaved out as she picked up her dented helmet, "... how many did we lose in total?"
"... Rguh..." Rill hissed out in pain as his mutilated hand was being bandaged, his index and thumb on his right hand being nowhere to be seen, "... if I remember correctly-ow! ... I think I lost about five Magic Knights on my end."
"... Mine lost seven," Charlotte heaved out before she collapsed to the ground in both physical and mental exhaustion, "... someone get me a comms device," she heaved out, "... we need medevac, fast."
"... Here," a male's voice weakly remarked, revealing it to be Cole, who took out an orb from his cloak, "kept an old model to myself just in case..." he coughed out as he weakly nudged around the ground, "... couldn't do shit... took an attack to the back... tell Sol we're now even."
Fragil then comes in with her [Snow Magic] to heal the remaining Magic Knights who were injured. As for the ones who were fallen, their bodies were either completely missing, or the only one intact being nothing more than a pair of waddling legs without an upper torso before it was then burned to ashes as a final act of mercy.
"... You know what?" Charlotte heaved out as she looked around, "... compared to what happened last week, this is an improvement."
She and the others now had the taste of the new, unforgiving world that they found themselves in after the Rain of Steel.
As she managed to connect back to HQ and requested for medevac, they response was the following; have them head towards the ruins of a nearby village to get some shelter and that'll be their rendezvous point.
It was better than simply walking the entire way back to the capital, that's for sure. Regardless, as soon as everyone was well enough to walk, everyone marched as the bonfire burning the dead was left behind.
"Oi, turned up the heat ere'?"
... Only for said bonfire to collapse and reveal Brigid's charred and headless body walking out of the inferno.
"Phew, that's what the doctor ordered," the headless body remarked as it stood up on its own while its neck was still spurting blood out of its neck hole, "my head hasn't been this clear for like what, the last 80 years?"
Everyone present to witness such oddity let out a horrified scream upon the sight of Brigid's headless body vocalizing on its own.
"Oh come now," the headless body remarked offendedly, "you know that Ulsterians aren't like you folks from Clover Kingdom, correct?"
"... Brigid," Charlotte croaked out, "... what are you, really?"
"I wasn't lying when I said I'm quarter-human, quarter-elf, quarter-dwarf, and quarter-Jotun," Brigid pointed out as everyone else looked at her in utter shock at the sight of a human's head slowly growing back out of its neck along with the rest of the charred silhouette of her body growing back its skin, "technically, I'm an amalgamation of a human's [Fire Magic], an elf's [Water Magic], and dwarf's [Earth Magic] and a Jotun's [Wind Magic] as an artificial magical spirit that my four creators labeled me as the [Magnum Opus], the Fifth Elemental. But that's all a story for another time."
"... How old are you?" Cole asked in a slightly terrified tone while being carried by Sol in a piggyback.
"I am over 500 years old," Brigid answered as she continued reforming her body back to normal, causing everyone to freak out even more at her long-lived nature, "and before you ask..."
Brigid's body then reverts to that of a shirtless male's body with tight purple leather pants and flowing raven-black hair.
"I don't go by a set gender, for this is my 'Animus Form'," the male sorcerer remarked before snapping his finger to revert back into the female form that they know as 'Brigid', the purple leather pants being changed out for a pair of thigh-exposing shorts and a shirt with a massive undercut that revealed her bottom cleavage, "while the form you've all familiarized yourself as 'Brigid' is merely my 'Anima Form'. But for convenience's sake, just call me Brigid."
"... I'm too tired to think or complain about the countless things I want to vent out at her," Charlotte groaned out, "... can you at least watch our general perimeter?"
"Aye aye," Brigid replied back, "no journey is without its difficulties, after all," she remarked as she floated around the battered Magic Knights in a carefree manner, "if you think this is brutal, then Ulster will eat ye arses alive!"
"Ugh..." Cole half-yawned out, "... please shuddup."
To Be Continued...
Author's Notes: I think my bi-weekly schedule might affect my writing quality, but I'm trying dammit. I'm trying to be more productive after I deleted my Fire Emblem Heroes app after the Arknights update (and I wasn't going anywhere significant with the former, so bite me), so might as well take advantage of the time given.
So massive chapter after a long while, and again, I'm killing off characters that are little of consequence (Borja and Eric from the Blue Rose Knights and Aqua Deer respectively being literal one-shots in canon before they were curbstomped, them being killed off by Homunculus and the sniper fire respectively as a meta-gag to their insignificance), and I was thinking of killing off Cole this chapter, but I rebuffed last-minute since it would mean I would have more to write and I'm already writing this chapter by the seat of my pants, mostly.
As for Claudius's philosophy of [Pride] revolves around his aversion to the idea of the "Humans are Special"-trope. His control freak tendencies only make him view humans as animals, but not in a derogatory manner, but as another living being equal to the rest of the life on earth. It's that his [Pride] in his work to make sense of the chaos of creation that won't allow him to admit that he's wrong, since if he admits that he's ultimately wrong, then what was the point of his purpose from the beginning? Simply put, his sympathy depends on how much one would stake in personal pride, at least for me.
And as for Brigid being a nigh-immortal amalgam elemental spirit... well I had to reference Merlin's own immortality from Seven Deadly Sins somehow. Just had to avoid directly involving Demons and Angels just to keep some semblance of originality.
References:
- "... natural order of disorder" is loosely based off the Red Lotus's motto "The natural order, is disorder" from Legend of Korra.
- Rill's [Lady Harpy] is named after the Yu-Gi-Oh monster Harpie Lady.
- [Homunculus Mass-Production Type]'s combined form [Siege Mode - Cydonia] is named after Muse's song "Knights of Cydonia", and its scale is that of the regular GINN of around 21 meters tall and over 78.5 metric tons.
- [Acala Smite] spell is named after the Buddhist Acala, or in Japanese, Fudo Myo'O/The Immovable, bringer of Buddha's wrath; the blade's design was based off an executioner's sword.
- [Ahimsa Purge] spell is named after the Buddhist principle of Ahimsa, meaning non-violence; it's meant to be ironic, as in enforce "non-violence" with extreme prejudice.
- Charlotte ripping the [Long-Range Reconnaissance Type] Homunculus's head off is a reference to Jujitsu Kaisen, when Gojo rips Jogo's head off from behind.
- Brigid's "Animus Form" appearance (name pending; Hypothetical VO will be named afterwards) is based off of Kiryu Setsuna's own from Kengan Ashura.
- Brigid's new outfit is loosely based off Lilim's attire from Shin Megami Tensei NINE.
- Brigid's title as the [Magnum Opus] means "the Great Work" that the alchemists describe as the "perfect being" that is the perfect unison of a man and a woman.
- Anima and Animus are reference to Carl Jung's psychology, the "Animus" meaning "man within" and "Anima" meaning "woman within"; and yes, Brigid's [Anima Magic] would be called [Animus Magic] when in a male form.
So, what do you guys think of this Saga?
Please leave a comment or a review, for I'd like to know what my audience are thinking!