Chaos Stars: Chronicles of the Ascension

by Soulweb Knight

What happens when a battle tested wizard born out of a bleak magical war runs into the magical cadre of Nanoha and company? Nightmares out of time and space bend and warp space as past, present and future conspire to push heroes into the darkest pits. Against this darkness the TSAB stands to oppose its herald, a true master of death, but the ambitions of the vain are fickle indeed.

14. Cathedral of Ice VI

They didn't stop!

"Hold positions! Shields to full! Shields up!"

Shields flared to life as the Princess's vanguard smashed into fleet. The superstructure of the Whitefire barely felt the dimensional shocks as metal smashed into the metal of my ships who failed to heed my orders. Hundreds were dying already on both sides. I watched the live feed as several support vessels of the Lasse battlegroup imploded as the vanguard's payload exploded inside the ship.

"All fighters destroy with the vanguard! Hold the line!" I commanded the fleet. It was a risky to move all the fighters to the front lines, but the battleships would be needed. Losing them against the vanguard would be problematic when the main fleet arrived.

"This is the Hyperion! We've taken heavy damage, all systems are offline. Life support is failing! Please assist!"

"AGHHH! MY LEG! PLEASE! PLEASE HELP!"

"- I repeat shields are off line. OH GODDESS! HERE THEY COME AGAIN! NOOOO! I WANT TO LI-"

I heard the panicked cries from a thousand different voices and did nothing. I let them die, their screams of pain, panicked screams, agonizing pleas for salvation they will never see. The luck ones would die in the explosions of their ships as the atmosphere burst into flame as the structure exploded. They would at least have ashes.

For those who fell into the dimensional sea they would die a slower death. Time did not flow the same in ever area of the dimensional sea. They would fall into other dimensions in a slow death that would gradually creep over them. Some bodies would find their way out of the sea and into one of the infinite dimension of existence. Others would face the cold, slow death over the next year or more as they lived of their suits life support. That was the fate of many of my fighter pilots as I watched the causalities mount.

"Pull all fighters back! Weapons free! All ships my fire at will!" The vanguard was disorganized. Their crews were still in shock if the erratic movements and disjointed weapons fire was anything tt go by. Perhaps if I obliterated the vanguard with overwhelming fire power then the main fleet might pay us more heed. It would reveal my strength, but it was a gamble.

More ships arrived from the vanguard; light frigates and scouts ships used for skirmish warfare. They were met by a salvo of plasma cannons and dual core missiles. Their arcane shields weak, most of their interior was fitted with engines and light weapons. Dual core missiles were designed along the lines of phase type missiles, to slip through heavy armor; these were meant to give magic based shields the slip as they delivered their payload. Two mana generators allowed the self propelled warhead to slip through a single layer shield and they worked as I had expected. The vanguard died in droves, but kept coming. Ever second brought more and they were starting to get some resemblance to order. More of them were firing in sync at the last of the fighters who refused to fall back

"Save me my Lady! I don't want to die!"

The whooshing sound told me that pilot had been sucked form cockpit. The pilot suit would keep him alive, but if his fighter was damaged enough to automatically trigger the ejection failsafe then his suit wouldn't last. Briefly I wondered how many of mine would die from that failsafe alone. I t wasn't meant for space battles, but there had been no time for engineering to rip it out and replace it with a deep space or dimensional sea failsafe.

The screams and cries, sheiks and curses echoed over the open channel. The dying words were broadcast throughout every ship. Just as I would drive my enemy into a corner, I would drive my own men into a corner. By forcing them to hear the screams of their dying friends I hoped to control them and make them fight harder.

"Move the Jarpaun up to support the Lasse group girl," Eliza ordered, suddenly appearing on a holoscreeen.

I shock my head. "No, I will not. Weapons are free, but do not abandon your position. This is an order from her Holiness, our Lady the White Devil. Those who perish today do so in glory unmatched." I say my one time mentor's face twitch and turned off my fleet wide channel. They would still here the death cries, agonizing screams and wishes though. "What?" I demanded as I studied the tactical screen then switched a munitions report from the Lasse battlegroup.

"Are you insane or just a vengeful brat? What the hell are you playing at? Your entire plan seems contrived to me!"

That hurt, but I suppose it hurt to have your plan to die called out by a former mentor. "I am the executor of my Lady's will. Her will is for us to take Death's Princess's main world. This fleet will endanger that operation therefore stopping them here is a part of her will and out mission," I stated simply. My logic was a fine example of the extrapolation that the Inquisition was prone to using. We had to. If we didn't then most of what we did would have no legal basis.

"You've lost it." Eliza shook her head sadly. "You have finally gone of the deep end. You want to die. This has nothing to do with the Princess or our Lady; you just want a way out."

"Main fleet arriving in ten seconds! They've slowed down!" Lieutenant Calsuburn shouted.

"Now is not the time! Now the real fight starts!" I growled at Eliza. She was undaunted, her face was steadfast disapproval.

"Girl, you've backed us into a corner and you want to jump into death's arms. I will not allow the rest of the fleet to be taken by your suicide wish, Inquisition be damned. Do you understand?" Her expression softened as we locked eyes.

She still cared for me, she wanted me to live. She saw value in a monster like me who sent men by the millions to die for no reason other than to die herself. How? Love? Hope? Those were foreign emotions. I didn't know them too well. Perhaps it was faith, she had faith in me…for what reason? For what hope was I to her? The bond of student and mentor? Fellow generals? Friends?

The last struck a cord. Where we really friends? I never really had a friend in the traditional sense of the word that I remember. Perhaps at the start of my life I did, but my Lady dominated those early days. The Lady was my idol, goddess and light in multiverse filled with lies and heretics who thought they knew truth. I had friends of convenience, but many I had to betray as they betrayed my Lady.

The Princess's fleet arrived. They appeared a good distance form the vanguard and wasted no time. There was no more time for thought. They intended to pause to swat us, me, aside like a bug. The Lasse battlegroup was a shooting gallery now. They wouldn't fall into the semicircle.

"Anastasia! Listen to me!" Eliza barked.

"I have a battle to win…though…are we…friends?" I asked slowly. "All ship form up in attack pattern D six omega!" The battlegroups began to move. I felt the Whitefire's engines kick in as Eliza answered.

"Aye, we're friends," she affirmed.

Warmth blossomed in my chest, not the kind I got when I thought of my Lady taking me, but genuine warmth. It was hard to explain, but…I liked it. "Good, because I want to have a friend as my second in command. All ships launch electronic attacks."

"Commander!" an officer cried out. "The enemy is trying to hack out systems! They're going for the Magi cores!"

"Stop them! What are those guys in electronics doing?" I snapped. I saw Eliza crack a smile and her screen vanish. She had looked pleased, but it didn't change anything. We still had a Warlord to deal with and the Kaiser Wind, her flagship would be a challenge alone.

The lead electronics warfare officer appeared on a screen. He looked frazzled and didn't look up as his fingers flew across a holo keyboard "We're working on a back hack! Just give us some time!"

We don't have time! I need them out of my ship an hour ago!" It was wrong to direct my anger against him, he hadn't done anything other than his job which was very good at, but it was the heat of the moment. My blood snag for more destruction and for the thrill of victory, yet shame and guilt cowed that trill back. My Lady would never love me; that was a fact. She was disappointed in my actions and this was my atonement. I had no problem with that.

"The enemy has launched their fighters and bombers. They are targeting the Lasse battlegroup," another officer informed me calmly.

"At least someone is calm…" I muttered as I studied the tactical layout. The Princess was keeping most of her fleet together, the remnants of the vanguard had rallied, and the stage was set. "Fire the main cannon on the ships in front of the flagship. All dreadnoughts are to smash a hole, I want a clear shot at her fortress ship. All other ships advance at full speed, get among the enemy and destroy them! Fighters are to cover the dreadnoughts and keep them alive," I stressed the last words.

To fight this fleet in a straight up battle with nice lines was out of the question. We would be torn to bits by their superior numbers. If the frigates could get inside the Princess's fleet then we might just have a chance to do some damage. It was a combined fleet and the Wolf Knight's were famed for their skill at boarding actions. The Dark Angel's ships would rip us apart at a distance, but their crews were soft targets.

"Fire a missile barrage! All laser batteries are to open fire! Hold back the plasma cannons until we've closed in," I commanded.

"Aye, Lady Inquisitor. Engines to full," the helmsman said with a sharp salute.

Victory, if it came, would rest on destroying the Kaiser Wind. Bringing down one of the massive fortress ships was a task few fleets could attempt and even fewer had succeeded. While the fortress ship was smaller than the Whitefire, it was almost pure armor. The ungainly ship was a walking tank meant to take punishment from entire fleets and keep moving.

The fleet was moving into the enemy and they were reacting. The Princess was drawing her ships closer to together, no doubt having already perceived my plan to attack form within their ranks. "Annihilate the vanguard! Leave none alive!" I ordered coldly. It would be costly to my ships, but the light cruisers could be used to occupy space within that my ships would need.

In the void the Kaiser Wind loomed, waiting for me, calling for me to attack it. If the Princess fought in this battle then we would die. If she didn't then the fleet would destroy me and the Whitefire. Either way I would die today. Dragging the rest of the fleet to die with me…I suppose I am afraid to die alone.

The irony was inescapable; an immortal who feared to die alone. Am immortal who walked a lonely path with precious few other travelers that feared to die alone… …why did I have all these revelations as I rushed to my death?

---

"Father…"

Jail turned to his clone. "Yes? Does the suit fit?"

Uno nodded as she plucked at the taut fabric of the purple bodysuit. "There is no problem with the suit. Your LRMSD system has reported in. It has detected several dozen unique magical signatures in this region of the planet."

The scientist waved his hand, dismissing her concerns. "I know. They are not our concern at the moment. Our visitors to this lovely place will be of some use to me. I've dispatched two…" Jail paused, "I suppose they would be your half-sisters Uno. Anyway, I inserted Ginga and Subaru into one of the local village were I predict the TSAB crew will seek refuge."

"Oh…" Uno turned back to her work. Her fingers flew over the holo keyboard as she separated and reorganized his many files.

Jail studied her work for a moment. She was performing extremely well as his new assistant. As much it hurt to admit it, he needed an assistant. The volume of work his 'masters', he used the terms loosely, had given to him would have overwhelmed most human scientists. It had become annoying though; his controllers thought they could dump more and more work on him with no repercussions. They would learn their place in time. He would make them pay for ruining his own scientific inquires. "Uno, hid all files on Project SkyHawk behind a hydra protocol layered with a oscillation encryption."

"Yes, father," she answered.

He watched her out of the corner of his eye. It seemed her obedience programming was in working order. She didn't question why. They would call soon. His controllers, his self styled masters, would call soon to see Uno. He wouldn't put it past them to attempt to hack his database as they spoke. "The foolish brains…too bad they don't have faces for me to enjoy their last moments," he murmured vindictively.

"Done, I have also taken the liberty of placed all of the files under a twelve key infinity protocol."

"Ah, good job!" he praised her. Interestingly enough he saw a hint of red on her face before she turned away from to work on her console. It seemed that his clone had more of the human characteristics than he had first anticipated. Over the years his one time colleagues at dozens of scientific organizations has claimed that a clone would lose out on the subtle human expressions like blushing, but Uno's reaction proved them all wrong. "I'd love to shove this in Dr. Zimmy's face. Too bad he died in the HYDRA accident."

"Jail."

The synthesized voice of his creators was unmistakable. He turned to face the three holo screens with their normal black screens. "Ah, the High Council comes to me. Have you come to check up on your son? I'm honor," he grinned insolently.

"Enough, Jail. You know why we are here, transfer the files at once," one of the members demanded.

He had never bothered to give them any sort of title to differentiate each of the three members. It simple wasn't worth the effort and they were all but one entity anyway. "Of course," he said graciously. He tapped a prepared file and sent it. "As you will see I have moved ahead with Project Valkyrie. The generation zero cyborgs are moving into location to be picked up by your people as we speak."

"Good, and the cloning process? Does it work?"

Jail knew the underlying question. Was the project worth the money the High Council had put into it or not? That was the answer they really wanted. These fools wanted to one day escape ever the confines of their brains, to abandon their brains like they had their bodies to live again into the forever after. Old bastards your time is over! It is MY time to rule! "As you can see Uno has come out perfectly. There were…small alterations in the original programming that resulted in minor errors, but nothing that wasn't beyond my skill to fix. The people of Al-Hazard were good though, but I'm better," he said knowing it would seem rather arrogant.

"Watch your tongue boy!"

Jail briefly glared at the High Council in general for snapping at him. Paranoid fools that jump at shadows! What, do they honestly think Al-Hazard agents will jump out of the shadows when I claim to better than them? His angry thoughts were carefully concealed behind a mask of neutrality. "As I was saying, the rest of the generation one models are nearing completion. With a few more alterations to the integrated systems and a bit of fiddling with the RNA they will be ready."

"When can you activate them? What of the cloning process? When will it be online?"

Jail placed one hand on his chin and tapped his nose, pretending to be deep in thought. "Hmmm…generation one could realistically be fully awakened in two months. It will take another year for adjustments to their equipment."

"Unacceptable! You WILL have generation one ready for combat ready in six months. There is no time for you to play your games. You WILL complete generation one within that time frame or else."

The unspoken threat of termination hung over the room. Jail saw Uno slow down her typing as that threat was issued. "May I ask why my schedule has been…accelerated?' he hissed in anger. To rush his glorious work was a mistake. Time made all things perfect, his cyborgs were no exception.

"Events are moving beyond our control. The Return has issued a declaration of war."

"Well, well, well" Jail rubbed his hands together in anticipation. "A real test of the Valkyries then. A chance to prove the superiority of my creations over the common mage against a truly non human enemy. Though…I thought you people had sealed them up. Was your work sloppy? Perhaps you had to rush," he spat the words venomously, "before you had time to check it."

"The situation does not matter. Take pleasure in the fact that we deigned to let you know that the message exists. You will proceed with Project Valkyrie as we have laid out today. A full battalion of cyborgs and more will be needed in the war to come."

"And the Kaiser Project? Am I to pursue that course of action yet," Jail asked sullenly. They wanted to rush his work and force a battalion of untrained cyborgs, with who knew how many flaws, into the fires of war and hope for the best. They wanted expendable soldiers to be sent into the meat grinder to save their sorry asses until a proper countermeasure to the Return could be dreamed up.

"Not yet, the Church leaders still stand against the removal of their 'sacred' cloth even in the face of veiled threats," the Council said, their disdain for the Church evident. "Useful tools, but they have forgotten their proper place."

"I see. Perhaps I will have to take other means to secure the cloth. Would that me acceptable? I do represent an outside force so far as they can see. I could remake my image into a group of terrorists, hire some brainless, moronic mercenaries and have them attack the Church. That would make the threat," Jail giggled at the thought of experimenting with the mercenary's corpses, "readily apparent."

"Hmm, your plan has some merit. We will discuss it, until then do nothing outside of Project Valkyrie. This is to be your prime directive until we say so. Are we understood?'

Jail smartly bowed his head. "Of course. I live to serve your whims. You are the ones who created me after all, what kind of son defies his parents?"

"Hmphf! We will contact you in time."

Only after he heard the click of a closing screen did he look up. "Those fools make me walk small around them, but not for long! I may be a small god now but they will soon face the divine fury of a god crafted by man, born from the darkest wishes of men! A god of science and technology so far beyond their comprehension…yes that is the goal! That wonderfully terrifying goal hidden it the hearts of every man; the hidden goal of every scientist even if they suppressed the desire to rise above the mere, unenlightened mortal, to be a metaphorical god of science!" He let out a mad cackle, it felt good to cackle sometimes. Personally he saw it as a therapy of sorts

"Father, I have a…question, I believe that is the word," Uno asked, cutting Jail off from his mad cackling session. "According to the information I have it is illogical for a…dedicated scientist to believe in or want to become a…higher power, a god. This does not…fit with you're stated intentions."

Jail laughed and shook his head ruefully. "I wondered when you were going to ask that. The lack of understanding was expected as certain information packs were removed from the uploading process in order to lesser the burden. One such pact is the arbitrary values packs. Allow me to explain, this will make a good test of the performance of your information processors and logic processors.

Normally you would be correct. Across the multiverse a vast majority of scientific types on sufficiently advanced worlds will not believe in the existence of a higher power. In general the belief of a higher power falls proportionally to the level of civilization. Since I was created by Mid-Childa, note the artificial origin, a race that routinely travels dimensions, and stands on the pinnacle of civilization, or so they would like to think, it stands to reason I would dismiss the backwards notion of a higher power, but that is not the case. Questions?" He took a breath. It was important Uno learn these things now. If she was to be his full time assistant she would need to know how other scientist he might be forced to colloberate with would think and act.

"Going on," Jail continued after a moment of non reaction from his cloned cybrog, "you have…unique specimens of the scientific world such as I. You see I have seen things, fought things, and been touched by things far beyond the few petty dimensions we exist in. These things…they walk and galaxies die, they sneeze and quad-billions die in an instant. Reality itself rewrites itself as they pass. Those who deny gods have never seen those horrors and cannot truly comprehend those beings. I cannot comprehend them so by process of elimination no natural born scientist could stand the sight. These are the true gods, beings that all the myths of gods and goddesses of old are based on, yet distorted in ways that man can understand.

To stand as a god, to walk were they walk…I have done it…" Jail paused, the dark memories of Lafur rose up, "and it broke me. They a simply do not care. This clashed with the prime directive that was hardwired into my body from the moment of my creation, to protect humanity by serving the TSAB High Council. You see," he motioned to the room around them, "all of this was meant for one purpose; to locate, recover and utilized Al-Hazard and Belkan technology in the name of the TSAB which in turn protects. Though simple extrapolation I have reached the conclusion that I am to protect and having touched those nameless horrors I seek to become like them, not physically mind you, but in thought, speech and power. A god in other words is the end result of my directive, the program written into every atom of my body demands that I become a god to fulfill the program gifted to me by the sons of man. For that reason I will cull humanity at need be, starting with the High Council and any heretics or traitor who defies me. After all, I am their self created god, so it's really like betraying themselves by turning to heresy and betrayal. My programming does not allow for me accept such self harming behavior in those who created me.

And the angels of my will, the agents of humanity's god, will be you, Uno." He knelt in front of her. Placing both hands on her shoulders he touched her forehead with his. "My dearest daughter, firstborn of my flesh, heiress of a god, you and your sisters will have the same fate as me. There is no choice for me or you. We will be the ultimate protectors through power. In the end we will be humanity's gods, their constant eternal protectors, their judges and jury till ever single one of them is scoured from every dimension, a nigh impossible task might I aid. Do you understand? It's okay if you do not; this is a little heavy after all," he told her concerned for her processing cores.

He noted that her face was flushed and her breathing cycles were off. It seemed she was on the verge of hyperventilation. It was a heavy topic that few were ready to have due to the numerous implications. "Come," he placed an arm under her, "lets get you to your room." Lifting gently he carried his daughter in what the human's called a 'princess carry'.

As he approached her room she began to make small noises that he found rather cute coming from the normally stoic façade. Looking at her blank face making those small noises made him smile for some reason he couldn't understand. Was this what is meant to be a father? Was he missing information packets about the nature of human relationships between fathers and daughters? To want point and purpose?

"What kind of games are you bastards playing at? With me, no less!" he growled in anger. They were daring to play with a god! He had planned to kill them slowly, but this…if it was true then they would suffer more. Endless agony would be their reward for their sins against their god. With thoughts of endless torture, and watching them regenerate in solid metal as they were ripped apart made a savage smile appear on his face, he placed Uno in her bed then left.

---

"There's a metal-" Harry was intrupepdted by another of the Nightmare's arms lashing out at him. He side stepped the blow and as the fist swung wide he brought Arzeil down. The ice limb fell to the floor an shattered. "-core in the center of its body!"

The Nightmare was far slower now, its movements were sloppy and weak. Signum had done a good amount of damage to the statue, but it's icy nature gave it toughness that even he his spells were finding hard to break. The icy flames danced around the body, trying to heal damage, but the brunt area were Laevatein had laid embedded wouldn't heal thankfully.

"Got it!" Vita answered from the other side of the statue as she delivered a massive blow.

Harry saw the Nightmare rock from the force and saw his opening. "Blaz form!" The scythe vanished and he drove Azreil deep into the brunt ice seeking the core. Singum had come close to the core, he could felt Azreil collide with the metal core and send waves through his sword arm. "Havoc Reaper!"

~At once, Master of Death!~

He pumped mana into Azreil, driving her transformation to new temperatures. At the end of the day mana was another form of energy and energy would heat up. The ice fizzled as he felt the lance expand and push against the core. The metal core wouldn't give even as the ice melted around it. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw the dancing flames coming for him. It wanted to trap his Device! "Vita! Hit it!" he screamed.

~Structural integrity is at eighty percent and falling!~

"Damn it!" He gritted his teeth shoved with all his might. Overhead his barrier flared to life as icy fists crashed into it. Then he heard it, the faint creaking of metal. He could felt Azriel take that small space that had been given, trying to complete to the transformation before her structure shattered.

~Integrity is at sixty three percent!~

"Do it now Vita!" Harry screamed. The attacks against him were becoming fiercer. His passive defenses would not last forever against the current onslaught. The Nightmare had rallied and was focusing on him. A distraction couldn't come soon enough.

"Raketenhammer!"

He saw a bit of red and felt the impact as the small Knight crashed into the Nightmare. The lance began to move with the statue fell back. Harry let himself go with the statue and push the almost formed Havoc Reaper in with his body weight. He heard crack of metal and the glow around the lance stopped.

His shoulder hit the ground and he nearly lost his grip on Arzeil. Groaing, he grabbed the lance, only to see the icy fist too late. Harry didn't even have time to blink. The fist collided with his right arm and he lost his grip. He watched in horror as the lance hilt appeared further and further away. The arm was broken, he knew that much from experience, and the adrenalin coursing through his veins would only hold out for so long then the pain would start.

"Steel Yoke!"

Another fist shattered as a white spike severed the limb seeking to crush his skull. Spikes speared the Nightmare from every direction, severing limbs and containing the monster to the floor. It raged and lashed out, fists and faces screaming. Fists with human faces collided with the spikes and shattered, only to try again and again.

"Finish it," the blue wolf commanded.

Harry nodded as he struggled to his feet, his right arm hung uselessly at his side. He saw Vita smashing the Nightmare on the other side and called out to her over the incessant tinkling overhead where the flying statues waited. "Deal with the flying ones! I'll finish this thing!"

"Got it!" the small Knight replied.

When she was clear of the Nightmare he lunged for the lance hilt. Zafria's spikes checked the fists that sought to ruin another part of his body. He cursed when he saw the ice that was starting to creep up Azreil's hilt. "Go to hell! That's my Device! Get your own!" he growled as he made the lunge.

An errant fist swept him off his feet just as he touched the hilt. He felt his left arm come out of the socket. Through gritted teeth and a indomitable will he held his tentative grip as he let his mana surge into the lance. "Nova Blaster!" He didn't care about control, just raw power. Nothing else mattered. Sparks heralded the arrival of the spell. He watched with some satisfaction as the screaming faces became those of aghast horror when that jade beam obliterated the metal core. He was sent flying when the beam crashed into the floor and exploded.

The landing hurt just as much. He felt the skidding across the floor and then the jarring impact into the wall. This is why I hate to fight constructed beasties. They don't understand the concept of pain! Ice shards fell around him as chunks of the Nightmare, still covered in icy flames and aghast faces, fell near him. Son of a bitch, my arm hurts! Scratch that, both of them hurt. ~Azreil where are you?~ He was sure he had some pieces of ice in his back as his Jacket had failed sometime during thefight. Even magic had been unable to spare him all the injuries he had taken.

~Nearby~

Harry turned his head weakly. Several feet away Azreil lay still embedded in a chunk of the Nightmare. A weak smile came over his face as the adrenalin started to fade. There was still the flying statues to deal with, he couldn't let himself me disarmed in this place. They would come for him next if they were smart.

~Master of Death, mana reserves are at twenty four percent,~ Azreil informed him suddenly. ~I would suggest a tactical withdrawal given your injuries.

With grimace he was forced to agree with her. The flying statues were attacked Vita and Zafria, yet refused to attack anything beyond those who attacked first for some unfathomable reason. He had finished off minotaur and the Nightmare making him easy prey in his exhaustion. Once the conversion was complete issues like mana depletion wouldn't be a problem anymore. ~This flux state sucks! How much longer?~ he asked Azreil. "I need a medic," he called out, hoping for the pretty blonde to come along with her healing magic.

~Several more days at least. At most I would estimate two weeks given recent battles and the stress put on your body.~

Harry braced himself against the wall and tried to stand. In a short of half stand he forced his shoulder against the wall and bite his lip. "This is going to hurt so much," he muttered. With a great effort, he bent his arm and began to force the arm away from his body. He hissed in pain, blood trickled down his lip, but fought through the pain. Slowly, but surely he pushed on. "Damnit!" Suddenly he felt blessed relief; the pain from that arm was gone for the moment. It would be sore and hurt for several days; he had felt it several times over the war and knew it all too well.

The rest of his body hurt as he slowly walked to Azreil and pulled the lance from the ice. Without the lance the chunk of ice fell apart in a great tinkle. "Blaz form," he commanded softly, as he looked up. A sword could be used with one hand, but at the cost of power behind the stroke; a scythe was useless to him with only one good arm. Carefully he picked his way though the ruined hall, towards the door. Out in the hallway he saw Hayate molesting the swordswoman and smiled.

"Exactly what I wanted to see when I get out of a fight," he remarked sardonically, "some girl on girl action."

~That is rather perverted, Master of Death. You certainly have some…interesting tastes.~

~Shove it. I'm not in the mood. Through I want you to record this,~ he commanded. Signum was making a rather tantalizing face, somewhere between pleasure and embarrassment. It fits her rather well though, that face is just too good to watch when she's being pleasured. Makes me wonder about her in the sack…NO! Bad Harry! Focus on the battle! Not the busty swordswoman being molested by another girl! Argh! Not working! Focus damn you! Er…damn me…

"Mr. Potter!"

The concerned cry of the blonde nurse made his heart race. Healing was coming to him at last! Soon blessed warmth would replace the pain he felt with every step. The world began to spin as his vision blurred a bit. He struggled to right his footfalls, he could make out Shamal's green dress and tried to walk towards it, but the stupid dress kept moving from one side of the room to the other.

"Hold on!"

He heard her cry and suddenly that concerned face was in front of him. It was still moving back and forth, but he had to admit those lips… Damn, I've lost a lot of blood. Ugh! Why can't the world stop spinning? It's annoying!

"You've lost a lot of blood. Please hold still. Klarer Wind, if you please…"

"Don't worrie…I'ma noot goinngg anywhe…" his slurred speech trialed off as the healing began to take place. The first jolts of agony came from bones being forcibly reset and then he let the temporary darkness take him. His body needed his mind to disconnect before he suffered any more permanent damage.

---

"Woah! What happened here?" Nanoha asked impressed by the scale of destruction.

Signum sighed as she led them into the room. She and the wizard had made a mess of the room, but at the very least the constant sound of tinkles was gone. The flying statues had suddenly lost their life and fell to the ground shortly after Shamal began to heal the wizard. Vita and Zafria watched the dragon statue warily at the other end of the room. It alone had not lost is life and the floating crystal still glowed eerily. The white light of the cyrtsal had taken on a reddish tint. "We encountered what you might call boss monsters and they…" Signum frowned as she sought out the right word, "put a fight." Simple wording was the best, she decided.

"You guys wrecked this place," Nanoha said as she side stepped a chunk of the floor.

"Though the middle levels aren't in much better shape. As it turns out the walls are not designed to resist Divine Buster," Fate stated. "The Asura's crew has begun evacuations of the wounded and we need to get out of here. The stability of this building is failing and Captain Lindy wants us to leave as soon as possible."

"Aru," Nanoha pouted, "I already said I'm sorry."

Fate looked at her best friend and shook her head, "It was still a reckless thing to do."

The swordswoman gave the blonde a nod as they reached Harry and Shamal. The wizard was wide awake as Shamal tended to the last of his injuries. Nearby Hayate kept the watch for any statues that might lurk in the corner. Signum knelt near the wizard as she spoke, "You watched my…" She felt the slight blush and tried unsuccessfully to crush it, "my…shame," she finished with a threatening edge.

He gave her an insolent grin. "Yeah, I did. I didn't know much about you, but know I now something new, something personal."

Signum resisted the urge to drive Laevatein through his head here and now. It was a good turn of fortune that Fate and Nanoha were chatting with Hayate. Only Shamal would overhear this conversation and she trusted the Knight of the Lake to keep her silence. "I should kill you, compensation for such a show," she allowed a hint of her fury to seep in. To think that of all the people in the world to see her in such a comprising situation it had to be this wizard named Harry Potter.

"But, you won't. You can't because you are a knight" he retorted, dragging the last word out as if mocking it.

"Correct, for that reason and the fact that Hayate likes you I allow you to live." She drove Laevatein between his spread legs and a fresh paleness took over his face. The blade was dangerous close to his crotch and she knew that he was getting the message. "You will never, NEVER" she was sure to enunciate that word, "tell anyone about what you saw. You WILL delete the record I know you took of it. Am I clear?" She knew she wore that twisted face that promised pain beyond even death through blank eyes wholly committed to their purpose, no matter what may come of that purpose.

Much to her ire the wizard smirked. "How knew you had this in you. I guess your more like a regular girl that I'd thought."

For some reason that compliment brought a warm feeling to her chest; she felt her heart race a bit at the compliment. She opened her mouth to speak, but the wizard cut her off.

"I'll dispose of the recording, but the first part…why I lose out on such good blackmail material willingly?" he asked rhetorically.

Signum had to give him a point for his actions. It was good blackmail material and she couldn't control it through threats, even if they involved castration. She knew that he knew she couldn't do anything about the record. The fact that he was willing to dispose of it was a gesture of good faith. It almost like he was daring her to fight him in a blackmail battle. She looked into his defiant eyes and saw the challenge. He saw her as an equal, an opponent worthy enough to do battle with. They had clashed with swords and she had proved the better. His spellcraft exceeded hers, some of the spells he tossed around were noting short of extraordinary in design, power and control. That had led them to this point, a third battle that would be a test of intelligence and espionage. He wanted to fight a spy battle with her and she was ready to accept it.

A thrill ran down her spine, a tingle of anticipation. Any challenge was a worthy of accepting no matter who it was; the young would learn that experience trumped youthful vigor. The elders would settle who was dominate force, or as Hayate had put it one day as she had explained a few of the Belkan knightly customs, who wore the pants in the relationship. Looking back, her fragmented experiences told her that often when the conflict was between a male and female Belkan knight it was often over who was on top that night, but she couldn't place the source of that memory. She might have found the conclusions well after she had joined the Wolkenritter for all she knew.

"All right then, you are ready to go Mr. Potter," Shamal informed the wizard.

"Ah! Good! It seems that I owe you one, oh beautiful one," he said, eliciting a slight blush from Shamal with his cheesy line. "I'd use more lines like that, but we," he glance at Signum and gave her a slight nod, "must settle certain affairs here." He must have seen the look in her eyes, the eager look she knew had appeared in them.

"Then excuse me," Shamal said hastily. "I don't want to be in the way."

"There's not a problem…" Singum quickly insisted only to have the blonde turn her back on them and join Hayate. "What are you playing at? Are you trying to drive a wedge between the Wolkenritter?'

"Oh course not," he replied with a faux wave. "I would never dream of breaking up such a lovely set of ladies and their wolf." He was laying it on thick and heavy now, but for what end she didn't know. "Let the game begin then, Dame Signum," he smoothly said as he rose to his feet, pointedly ignoring the sword between his legs. "At this moment, let this place be forever remembered as the place you and I, the lovely flame and death incarnate, declared the start of our war!" he declared softly, making sure only she could hear his words.

"So be it," Signum replied, trying to keep excitement from entering her voice. She took Laevatein and pulled it free. "I look forward to it." With those words spoken she turned away and started to walk towards Hayate. Thrills of the new battle cascade down her spine; she suppressed the urge to grin at the feeling. It made her feel fully alive again. Harry Potter had hit upon her other weakness, the thrill of the challenge born from some event she had forgotten.

Suddenly the building shook violently. She saw pats of the ceiling and wall crumble to the floor. Only by quickly jabbing Laevatein into the floor was she able to keep upright. At least Zafria had tackled Hayate when the shaking started.

"We have to leave. The structural integrity of the building is failing! We need to make you the exit now," Fate yelled over the few crashes as the aftershocks settled down.

"Agreed," the wizard said as he pulled himself to back to his feet. He was walking unsteadily, but otherwise seemed fine beyond the bloody lip he had refused to have healed.

"Two questions though, what about the dragon statue and the floating crystal? Are they Lost Logia?" Nanoha asked.

"No on the first and maybe on the second, but I'm not staying to find out," Vita shouted back. '"The crystal thing is really starting to creep me out. It's getting redder ever second."

Signum glanced at the crystal and saw it really was slowly becoming redder. Whatever it was it couldn't be good sign. Across the ages she had lived and gathered experiences red was always the danger color to humans, be them Belkan, Mid-Childan, Terrans, or otherwise. Red was the color of danger and the vibes this thing gave off, the slight mana flow in the center of the crystal felt hostile.

"Hey! Look at that!" the wizard cried out, pointing to the crystal. "There's a fracture." The look on his face turned to dreadful realization. "Get away from it! It's overloading and plans to explode!"

Singum saw the fracture and the red glow issuing forth from it. The wizard was right. This device, trap, crystal was trying to take them with it! The cores of the statues of the minotaur and nightmare had to have been controls and when those controls were gone…it was a deadman's switch. "Run! Get out of the room!"

She saw Hayate start to run, the other two young girls at her side. Shamal followed closely behind. Vita and Zafira were running, but the wizard held his ground. Do you intend to hold the explosion back she wondered, and then looked again at his face. He knew something and wasn't telling, but was there time to find out? To run or stand? That was her choice in the moment. ~What is it?~ she asked as she grabbed the wizard's arm and began to forcibly pull him towards the door. Hayate liked Harry Potter and she wanted Hayate to be happy so the wizard would not die this day. Running was the logical course of action, a knight might stay to act as the rearguard, but her first duty was to the safety and happiness of her mistress. Nothing came before that.

~Beautiful…~ he replied dreamily as they stumbled towards the doorway. ~So bright…beautiful…~

There was a distinct cracking noised and roar of raw mana colliding with the saturated mana of Riv Prime. The resulting explosions sent her tumbling across the floor. She felt something hit her chest, easily bypassing her Armor. The sharp pain of a jagged fragment of something hit her chest. She saw blood spurt from the wound as she lay on the floor.

The room was bathed in red light that she assumed came from the crystal, but it hurt too much to move. Even the slightest movement led to more blood escaping around the fragment embedded in her abdomen. Signum held no illusions; the wound was lethal. It had penetrated several organs; those organs would be filling with blood and would fail soon. Death was no stranger to her. She would die and the Book would take her back. Hayate would recall her back to life, but she would lose something too important.

Memories would be lost, memories she had made with Shamal, Vita, Zafria and Hayate. Those clam days of playing house with the girl who saved them from eternal darkness would be lost. The laughter at Shamal's expense when her food came out looking more alive than when it went into the oven…she didn't want to lose those memories! Time spent in the thrill of battle with Testarossa, dueling the wizard and his living fire, the challenge she would never be able to meet him in…regrets…

Blood began to seep from her lips. Her painful breath forced blood out. The metallic taste of her own blood filled her mouth. She looked forward with half lidded eyes. It was getting hard to see, blurry spots were spreading. The sound of pained cries reached her, curses spat in pain, and the all too familiar pained cry of her mistress. Hayate! She was in pain! Damnit, I can't lay here. I have to…she gasped in pain as she tried to move. With a great effort she managed to get her head up despite the pain.

Looking down she saw her wound and grimaced. A piece of the crystal nearly a foot long and covered in jagged edges was all that held her guts from exiting her body. There was no way to remove such a thing with her hands, to do that would hasten her death. Slowly, working her muscles through the pain and the many gasps of agonizing pain she mobbed her head trying to get a grasp of what had happened to Hayate. Hayate was that mattered, her duty as a Knight meant she had to save her mistress no matter the cost

She saw Shamal laying face on the floor with her arms around someone. A larger chunk of crystal had speared Shamal's back. The healer had tried to take the blow for whoever she held, but from the size and depth of the wound Signum figured it was pointless. The crystal shard would have taken both of them. Near Shamal lay Testarossa crying in pain as she lay against a chunk of rubble. The blonde's leg was mangled by a slab of ice and impaled by one of the seemingly endless shards of crystal that she saw covering the ground. Signum saw a bit of Nanoha's Barrier Jacket and leg, but the rest of the young mage was hidden by rubble. Only the slight movement in that one leg told her that the girl was still alive…for the moment.

They all needed medical attention and soon. Signum felt her life slipping away. Subtle motions seemed to take forever. The only the TSAB could help them now. It would take serious medical help to save them, but she knew, realistically, that some including herself would be gone by the time the TSAB arrived. The cavalry would come too late to save everyone like in the movies Hayate loved to watch. The jarring reality was that not everyone could be saved, like Shamal…Signum suddenly realized the truth. The person in Shamal's arms had to be Hayate!

Why didn't I see it sooner…the question comes what can I do about it? There wasn't much she could do. Beyond moving her head, she was immobilized. To move would risk opening her wounds more and a swift death. She almost growled in frustration at her helplessness. In the end she couldn't even save her mistress this time around. Every time it was like this, she failed to protect the ones she had sworn to serve. Emmy would have been ashamed of her…Emmy? Who is that? Why did I think of that name? She tried to recall any person named Emmy, but failed her thoughts were hazy. A face did come to mind though, a blonde haired woman with a scar across her left eye. Was that this Emmy she had suddenly remembered?

A sound of a thought echoed through her memories. Words of wisdom from this Emmy woman came back to her. Wisdom knows when to retreat and when to call for aid even when honor and glory refuse such actions. Those words…how could she have forgotten them? The siege of some world, fighting alongside the woman, a desperate battle and a last stand filtered through her hazy mind. Mentor…friend…those words…adjectives she had used when talking about Emmy. If I survive I'll find out about you Emmy Signum vowed as she acted in the only way she could.

~Need aid. Lowest level. Many injuries. Hurry.~ She sent her desperate message as wide as she could managed before she let the darkness claim her. Wisdom is calling for aid…

---

"Fate!" Nanoha cried out, suddenly shooting upright. The thick furs fell off her body and pooled around her lap. Wildly she looked around. The small room had another bed were she saw the golden locks of her friend sprawled out in a pile of furs.

Fate moaned and squirmed under the furs. Slowly Nanoha let out a long sigh of relief. With a hand over her heart she smiled. Her Fate was safe. She had seen the crystal shard impaled Fate's leg before a slab of crystal had impaled her…heart. Why didn't she feel any bandages? The heart she had seen pumping her precious blood out much to her horror and amazed her over the lack of control she had over her own body. The same heart that had made her black out from blood loss and it…was gone? Was she dead already? Did those who die with injuries keep them in the afterlife?

"Oh god…I'm dead!" she cried hysterically. It was too much for her. "I had my entire life before me! And…and it all gone! Mom…dad…Miyuki…Kyoya…" tears began to flow as her families faces flashed before her, faces she would never see again. The warmth of her family, the simple joy of being around them that she would never feel again, the idle days tending to the bakery…she would never see it again. "It's not fair!" she cried drawing her knees to her chest and rocking back and forth. "I…I just wanted to have a good t-time! D-didn't want to die…" she trialed off into sobs and muffled cries as she wept into her arms. "A-a-at l-least I ha-have Fate h-here…"

"Nanoha? Why are you crying?"

She turned her head to look at Fate, who was rubbing sleep out of her eyes as she sat up "Waah! Fate-chan!" she cried, throwing herself at the blonde. The short distance was a simple matter to cross and she held fast to her friend, nuzzling the blonde with her head affectionately. "We're dead! We have to be! And we can't start over…I-I miss my family!"

She continued to cry into Fate's chest, savoring the warmth of another human being. A hand began to stroke her head, as Fate tried to sooth her with gentle words of encouragement. She knew that crying like was irrationally, but it hurt so much; the pain of never being able to see the ones she loved…that gnawing pit wanted to consume her and drag her into it nightmarish pits forever. It seemed that in death some god or goddess had seen fit to give her Fate's company, a measure of comfort, but it wasn't the same.

"Nanoha…Nanoha…listen to me," Fate repeated over and over, finally she pushed Nanoha away and seized her by the shoulders.

Crying out from the sudden lose of contact, Nanoha wiped her checks in vain. Tears still flowed. "Fate?" she croaked out. Her throat was dry from crying. Did the dead need to drink too?

"Listen to me, we are not dead! We're not dead."

"What? What about the s-shards? I felt my…my heart…b-break when…when I got h-hi-hit. I f-felt the bl-bl-blood spurt out," she replied more confused. Was she dead or alive? Why would Fate lie to her? Would Fate lie to her? Was this wasn't the real Fate? What if it was a construct of her imagination in this afterlife of hers?

"We are not dead,' Fate insistently repeated. "I know you're confused, but we're not hurt. We never were."

"What?" she broke in, before grabbing a cup of something from a small wooden table sandwiched between the two beds. It didn't matter what it w, she just drank and welcomed the blessed coolness of water on her throat. She could clearly recall those dying moments, the pain and the agony. It all seemed real, vividly real. Phantom pain from remembering those moments of agony raced through her. Watching helplessly as Fate and the rest bled, unable to do anything to help them or herself…it all too vivid to be a illusion.

"We. Are. Not. Dead. I don't know how or why. I remember the injuries the pain and the sounds, but I blacked out before I saw who rescued us. It's doesn't change the fact we are alive. You'll get to see your family again," Fate finsiehd with a hitn of sadness in her voice.

Nanoha gasped at her selfishness. She had been inconsiderate of Fate to cry about losing her family. Fate didn't have anyone anymore. Her mother had thrown her away and died. Her sister had been taken with her mother and, as far Nanoha knew, Fate's father was dead, missing or didn't know he had a daughter. Fate's pain was all too real and she had jumped to her assumption as to her status as dead. She lowered her head in embarrassment, blushing in shame. "Sorry Fate, I didn't mean to bring up your family. Forgive me," she begged.

The Fate gave her a rueful smile. "There is nothing to forgive." There was still sadness in her eyes, but the girl gave her bright smile. "We're alive and that is what matters, right?"

Nanoha wiped her cheeks with her sleeve. "Yeah," she said through a sniffle, "but where are we? Where's everybody else?" She saw Fate open her mouth when the sound a door opening drew her attention away and an old woman grumbling about something as she entered the room.

"You're on Riv Prime, in the village of Skeual," the old woman informed her from the depths of the furs she wore. She pulled the outermost fur and hung it on a crude hook set in the wall. "Your friends are in the other houses around the village. You TSAB fools are lucky we camped here this winter. Normally we move a few more miles towards the coast."

"You saved us?" Fate shyly asked.

Nanoha knew her friend wasn't fully confident in talking with adults, women in particular. The abuse had left its scars that she vowed to heal one way or another. Fate had brought her meaning to life, even if it was indirectly, and she had to repay that debt.

"Yes, your commander, the boy with blue hair, found us and told us of the avalanche. We set out for the valley several hours after he arrived and found you and your friends in that cursed cathedral. Come into the other room, keep those clothes on though. The hide of the Liss is warm enough to wear around the house," the woman said as she stripped the last fur off her body leaving her in a grayish dress that Nanoha know realized and Fate were wearing.

"Your sitting on my leg," Fate informed Nanoha suddenly.

"Sorry!" she said as she jumped up. "Where's our Devices?" she asked the old woman as she walked out the door.

"On the mantle," the old woman replied from the small kitchen were she busied herself.

The main room was a kitchen and living room in one. It was by no means big, but it was warm. Fur rugs covered the floor, a small table carved from the same rough wood as the beds and pair of small benches was among the meager furnishings. The walls here covered in some sort of hide, with holes cut off were small panes of glass let light in. The mantle was the largest piece, craved from some rough wood. True to her word, Raging Heart and Bardiche waited for them on the mantle. A fire blazed merrily from within its stone hearth. Here and there a set of horns, a few spears and other items gave the homely house a lived in feeling.

In the corner, on a small stool, a teenaged girl with straight brown hair watched them with wide eyed fascination. A leather-bound book lay in her lap, unattended since Nanoha had walked into the room. Nanoha turned back to the floor, uncomfortable with the girl's s constant stare, to look for Fate. Seconds later Fate steeped into the room and the girl in the stool stared slack jawed. Apparently, Nanoha thought, blonde hair is not normal among these people.

"Sit, sit," the old woman commanded as she brought a tray into the room. "The benches are free, so is the floor, but the chair is mine."

She's use to being obeyed. Not one to deny authority figures Nanoha sat on one of the benches, somewhat glad the teenager's stare was being directed at Fate. Fate joined her a moment later, having reclaimed Bardiche from the mantle. The old woman handed them cups of some steaming, aromatic drink then gave one to the girl on the stool.

"You'd be surprised by the number of your types, mages that is, who stop by this place. The traders come by every now and then, but we are content to live in what the rest of you would call a hell world. Anyway, allow me to introduce myself. I am Ilyasaviel Von Ske'ual, chief...shaman of this village. Over there,' she pointed to the girl on the stool, "is my granddaughter, Antonina. There's no pointing talking to her though, she lost her speech when her parents were killed by a rampaging Helfgar. Useless hunters couldn't do a thing about the beast though…" Ilyasaviel grumbled.

"Thank you for taking us in like this," Nanoha said courteously.

"Hmphf! We have ties to the TSAB through necessity rather than choice. They did bring the first supplies when the colonies were on the edge of starvation. Our starships had already been scrapped for shelter and fire by then or so the stories say. The people of Mid-Childa have a certain fondness of some of our few exported goods. Liss fur is a pain to gather, but Mid-Childa is more than willing to give us just about anything for it," she took a sip of her drink, her watchful gray eyes on Nanoha and Fate.

"Ah, Liss fur! I remember now!" Fate declared then looked down at her feet sadly. "My…I knew a woman who had a coat of Liss fur. It's one of the softest things I've ever touched. Warm too."

Nanoha was honestly surprised that Fate would suddenly mention her mother like that. The slight tremble in Fate's voice and her sad look told Nnaoha volumes about the woman who sued and abused the love Fate held for her. Fate had loved her mother with ever fiber of her being. The fact that she was talking about the woman in this conversation might be a sign she was starting to move past those dark days.

'Bad blood?' Ilyasaviel mouthed.

Nanoha nodded and the old woman sighed mournfully. Silence fell over the room as they drank deep of their tea. The fire crackled away as the minutes passed by. Nanoha found her thoughts wandering back to the exploding crystal. She opened her mouth to ask after the health of the rest of her friends, but the old woman cut her off with a sharp look that told her not to speak.

"I've lived a long time," the old woman began suddenly. Fate looked up at the woman then looked into the fire, trying to avoid looking those old eyes filled with worldly weariness and wisdom gained through tribulation. "I've seen many things in my life. Kings have risen up and fallen. Warlords have conquered and been conquered. I've seen love bloom and die. The exile travel into the waste and return the harden hunter wearing the thick skin of a Rimfost, slain with a spear and dagger, thrown about the shoulders. The scandals, heartache, hate, hot blooded fury, ice cold rage…all of it. Many of them I've felt personally. My daughter was born out of my second marriage; you must understand that to not conceive a child to ones first husband is seen as the woman being a failure in all things amongst my people."

Ilyasaviel sighed and took a long sip of her drink. "I'll get to the point though. I know what your feeling girl," she pointed to Fate, who gave the woman a wide eyed look, "I've been there, where you are. Betrayal hurts, it hurts more than when it someone you care deeply about. For me it was my death of my family nearly fifty cycles ago."

Nanoha saw the old woman's eyes mist over. She was reliving those memories with all the pain and sorrow, joy and laughter. Nanoha gently placed her know empty cup on the tray. It was a good drink, strong though with many hints of various spices she didn't even know how to describe. A warm fire settled in her belly and she felt content. They were safe here; no snow storm would kill them off this night, statues try to murder them in their sleep or any of the other terrors that wander the frozen peaks, though this Helfgar seemed to rather dangerous and aggressive. She put that thought aside, it wouldn't do to scare herself with something she next to nothing about.

"It was back during the warmer cycles. During those cycles we gather on the shores of the Iceshaw, our people come and gather there until the snows come again. It was then that I, my father, my two brothers and three sisters set off to return to this place. We crossed the same mountains your ship crashed in, but in one of the few treacherous passes that exist near the Canopy of Ice disaster struck with tragedy in her wake.

We had made camp against a shear rock wall, somewhat protected from the wind that night. I remember my father had lit a small fire and was roasting some Haw nuts for dinner. My brother kept watch just beyond the fire light, his spears and shield close at hand. The fur of his Rimfost cloak bellowed in the wind that night; for he was a mighty hunter known throughout the lands as the Slayer of Girmmaw who was the largest, oldest and most dangerous of all the Rimfost. A true manhunter, that beast was. My sisters were cuddled up in their skins, already exhausted from the days march." A solitary tear rolled down the old cheek, worn and weathered by time, shaped by a hard life.

"During the night I left our campsite to take a piss. The triple moons were nearing their peak, and under the light of the full moons I saw them, men. I saw them creep along the rock wall and look down on my family. I saw them spread out, nearly a hundred of them, all with spears and bows drawn. I could only watch in silent horror as I sat in my own shit as they slaughtered my family. Hidden behind a snow bank I could only watch in horror as my father was slain in an instant, my brother take up his shield only to be pinned to the ground by a thrown spear through his cloak. Old Grimmaw struck back that night," she said with a dark laugh. "He shielded my sisters for the initial attack. I almost called out to him, but I must have made a sound. He looked to me, or at least were I was hidden, scared shitless and his eyes…those eyes told me to stay hidden. Why I obey my little brother's words that night is still beyond me, but the result was the same." She paused for a moment, then refilled her cup from the pot. "Would you like more?" she asked Nanoha suddenly.

Startled, Nanoha pulled her wits together. The story had enthralled her; this old woman's words had the power of a born storyteller. "Yes please, it is very good." She glanced at Fate who stared at the old woman, enraptured taken by the story.

"Hmmm…" Ilyasaviel sat down again. "My brother took twenty men with him that night, wounded scores more. A lesser man would have been downed by a single arrow, but he took dozens before he fell. They stabbed him over and over until his corpse was cold. I suppose they were superstitious though as they followed the old rites when dealing with powerful warriors. They cut his head off and placed in on a spear that then broke in half. At the time I didn't notice it though, after all only one tribe on this world still practiced that sort of barbaric act at the time. No, my attention was on my sisters and the horror watching those Helfgar spawn pleasure themselves with those bodies even after they were dead," she trialed off, anger on her face. Wrinkled hands clenched and unclenched as if strangling the men in her story.

"As I was saying," she started talking again. All traces of her anger were gone now, pushed away or controlled through a lifetime of experience. "After the killers were gone, I ran. Gods! I ran faster than I ever had. Two days I ran until I reached this village. I ran straight to my mother and my youngest sister. At the time they both lived. I told her of the attack, but she didn't believe me. She called me a lair, an agent of the Empire."

"Empire? What empire? Belkan?" Nanoha asked, confused. The only emprie she knew of that spanned the multiverse was the Belkan Empire. She frowned, she didn't really know a lot about the TSAB or its past or much of anything aobut the history of the rest of the space the TSAB controlled. Yunno would know. I'll talk to him when we get to Mid-Childa.

"No, not the Belkan. Though we're supposable descended from Belkan settlers, it was the Mid-Childan Empire that conquered this planet. They brought their war to us, fortified this planet with great fortresses, oppressed my people for no reason other than we were suppose be of Belkan descent, and killed us in droves. It was they how destroyed the Rivian nations and condemned us to wander as nomads. Calligarch, Theograch, Ivsale, Hellsfell…all fell before the might of the superior technology of the Mid-Childan armies. We fought and died. Even after the Mid-Childan collapsed and was absorbed into the TSAB there were remnants of their empires on this planet, mainly traitors amongst my people who sought to rule this would once the Mid-Childan was gone. To be called an agent of them is the greatest offense you could give to one of my people. To make such a claim is to invite a death challenge."

"Oh." That was all Nanoha could think of to say. She had never heard of this empire before. It only served to tell her how little she actually knew about the background of the TSAB, where it had come from and how it had been born. "Things must be better with the TSAB. Your people must be happy to have them as friends instead of being subjected."

The old woman gave her a thin smile. "You would think," she said sadly, "but the truth is often buried behind lies and false truths." She took a long sip, but declined to explain her statement.

"Huh?" Nanoha was left wondering if there was an implied message in those words. She turned them over in her mind, but couldn't see any meaning to them.

"You'll understand in time, both of you," she said sagely. "In time you will learn, chains of iron and chains of cloth, but you are children. You should enjoy your time as children. Don't let the TSAB take away what makes you children. Gods know we need more child soldiers like that blue haired boy," she exclaimed with a roll of her eyes. "Now where was I…" She suddenly changed the subject. "All through that winter I and my mother butted heads over and over again. I ended up leaving her house after a particularly nasty argument over where my father, brother and sisters were. The rest of the winter cycles were spent in dead silence between us. Then came spring and I married." A nostalgic smile came over Ilyasaviel's face. "Those were there the days, but it soon became apparent that the rest of my family was not coming back to my mother in the meanwhile the entire village had turned against me. My mother fell into what I thought was madness born from despair, but I was wrong.

Several weeks after I gave birth to my first child my mother asked to speak with me. I, against my husband's wishes, went to see her and forever regretted it. When I entered her house the walls were covered in blood. I heard the screams and ran to seek the ogrins because I knew that scream. I found my last sister laying on the ground, her body coved in stabs and cuts. My mother stood over her, knife and spear rasied high to finish her evil task. I tried to jump her, to push her away, but I was too slow. As I lay on the floor she drove that damned spear, it was dull too into my sister's head. The screams…were horrible. They haunt me to this day.

It was a moment later that the truth was made known to me. Three men entered the house. One grabbed me, forcing me to the floor. The other two knelt before my mother who commanded them in the language of the Dipor, used by the barbarian tribes that sell their services to the highest bidders. The other two men defiled my sister's body the same way they had my sister's corpses in the mountains. The betrayal was complete when she revealed that she, my mother that is, had sent these Dipor tribesmen to kill my family. She told me it was nothing personal, but our bloodline, my father's blood was that of a one of some logn dead highlord of Riv that the she wanted dead. She had always been a loyaislt to the Empire, a true agent that infiltrated my people, for she wasn't really one of us, and I could take no more. I snapped. I drank deeply from the cup of tragedy that day. It was…horrible…that bitter hate, the endless pain of betrayal…and so much more. I see the same pain in your eyes," she pointed to Fate. "I can't offer you a magic cure all, but I can offer this bit of wisdom. You will grow from the pain, but never forget it. Accpe it and move on with your life, strive to be better than what happened and you might end up like me. Now then, enough of this old woman boring you young people. Somehow I don't think you care for my story a lot," she finished jovially with a thin smile.

"Oh no! It was a good…er…" Nanoha instantly regretted opening her mouth. There was nothing good about her story; it was a tragic tale of Ilyasaviel's life that to take lightly was the peak of disrespect. "I walked into that one didn't I?" she said sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head.

"You did," Fate replied distractedly.

Her friend had barely moved through the story. Fate's red eyes had been fixated on the old woman, her mind supplying all the parallels to her own life that she needed to bring the story to life. Unshed tears shone in those eyes, her tea cup lay empty in her lap. My Fate…You've gone through hell and I'm going to make sure you never suffer like that woman made you. I'll protect you from anyone who tries to hurt to you again. There was only one thing to left her her to do, the one thing Fate needed right know more than anything, a hug.

Nanoha pulled the girl into a one armed hug as gentle sobs began to wrack her small body. The scent of her, the smell of Fate she thought ironically, was a welcome smell to her nose even though it was mixed with sweat and blood. Shifting her seat, she slipped the tea cup from Fate's hand and brought the blonde's head to her shoulder. Her Fate was venerable, emotionally venerable a trait Nanoha vowed to cover until Fate was better. She would get better, one way or another; it took a hundreds therapy sessions or another Starlight Breaker to the face then she would be there for her friend all the time no matter what would come.

---

"Massive energy build up detected within the Kaiser Wind!"

I swore as another volley rocked the Whitefire. We were in the heart of the Princess's fleet. The Kaiser Wind was near enough that their few guns had targeted us. Missiles and blasts from mana cannons poured in from all sides and we answered in turn. Plasma and robs brought swift dead in deadly dofights between smaller craft. My smaller fleet had lost all semblance of organization. I'd been forced to give them the order to cause as much damage, all parts of my plan scrapped for the sake of doing the most damage possible before we all died.

A real time display gave a me something of an idea how my fleet was faring. Losses were mounting. The Lasse ships were all but gone. The heavy weapons of the Dark Angel had ripped them to shreds. My fighters were all but gone. The other battlegroups were nearly at fifty percent casualties, most from suicide runs by the smaller ships the Princess had. Light frigates, and barges could do just as much damage to my ships as any plasma blast or the like. Lafur autocannons with their ship killer munitions rang out on both sides, rending fighter and frigate to shreds. Many escape pods, jettisoned from dying ships fell victim to the automatic firing system of those cannons even if they were of the same side. Lossing the entire crew was bad, but losing an entire ship was worse. It would take more time to rebuild a ship than refit one with a crew.

Death and madness ruled this day.

Another time I might have cared. I might have recalled my ships, fallen back, reorganized, but I didn't care. It didn't matter. Let death come to us all this day. That would be a blessing to us. This endless war would be over for us, we would rest forever in death. The light of our Lady would let us sleep, safe from the nightmare of life, secure from the phantasms of the night. Yes, death would be infinitely better, to sleep without care, shame or worry.

"Status report," I barked.

"Compiling," an officer informed me. Another screen appeared over the real time map. Data began to pour in and shift itself into the precise bins. The Magi cores were apparently back online and supporting all systems again, if the separation of data was anything to go by. Ships lost, crew lost and still alive poured in as the fleet wide network called all the data to it.

"The Lasse battlegroup is down to ten percent strength and falling. Remembrance and Jargar have lost all their fighters. They are reporting fifty percent causalities amongst their ships. Acting commander of the Jarqar George La'Shid has issued an order to fall back to his ships. They are trying to escape the enemy fleet, but failing based upon this data. The last two groups are above sixty percent strength, but the enemy grows by the moment."

"What? Explain!" Why didn't they tell me about these reinforcements? A new window from the electronic warfare officer opened. The man was hunched over his screen, a sheen fo sweat on his brow.

"The Magi cores were occupied with repelling the electronic assault. The sector scanners were deemed non vital and shut off. The electronic attacks have faltered and they were turned back on. We've been able to hack several enemy ships and overload their cores, but the enemy has a skilled electronic warfare officer on their flagship. They've been scrambling their signals at random, masking the new ships, not to mention they've linked all their cores through the flagship's Magi cores. We can't get in there no matter what we do," the electronic warfare officer spoke up, once again not meeting my eyes.

"Get in. Do something productive!" I growled. "What are you being paid for? Your job is to get inside the enemy, so what are you waiting for?"

The man swallowed hard, but said nothing. For a moment he looked like he wanted to yell at me, but only for a moment. Stress had to be getting to me. This man, one of billions amongst the stars that knew he was nothing special in the schemes of beings of true power, seemed to know that. He nodded and with a silent salute the screen closed.

"Boarding party detected!" We've bene boarded…" the officer in charge of interal montoiring said quietly.

"What?" I thought I had misheard him. Did he really we had been boarded? One of the greatest ships of the White Devil and we had been boarded? Boarded? There were hundreds of thousands of point defense systems, anti-pod systems dedicated to repelling boarder before they got on and we'd been boarded?

"Aye, we've been boarded…" he fell silent then the light of realization went off behind his eyes. "WE"VE BEEN BOARDED! OH GODESS! WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!"

The loud fool went on screaming about how we would all die, not in ship to ship, but in prisoner of war camps were we would be tortured and worse for information. While it was true, we might be captured from a boarding action and in general a boarding action meant the death of the invaded ship, which was not going to be the case today. His screaming was getting on my nerves though, flayed as they already were. I stood, "Lieutenant Calsuburn, your pistol."

Wordlessly, the girl handed me her side arm; a standard issue Shin Corp. naval handgun. There was fear in her eyes. She was scared…of me? Or what the man was ranting about? Perhaps it was the fact that I had asked her pistol when I had my own custom one attached to my leg. Either way it didn't matter. It was time to anoint her pistol with blood.

I turned in heel, leveled the pistol at the near hysterical man, still ranting about death and our doom depending how who we were, and the cruel fate the boarders would inflict on us before killing those with no value…like himself, I thought with a dark grin. I pulled the trigger once and the man fell, a hole where his heart had once been. It seemed that the bolts, Shin Corp. weapons used bolts instead of the traditional bullets, worked as they had said. The rod bolt had left a bloody hole in his chest and crumple once it hit the hit a bone. The shock of the impact ruptured more organs, filling the bridge with the stench of blood, and body fluids.

I handed the pistol back to the lieutenant, how took it with a trembling hand. She had obviously never seen such a brutal action inflicted by her commanding officer towards someone on their own side. She looked at me with scared doe eyes that wanted me to pity them, to have some small measure of mercy, but I had none. "Welcome to the true war," I told her coldly.

As I linked the primary data terminal on the commander's station to my personal holoscreen, I gave my orders. "Get the next available officer up here and clean up that pile of worthless slug we once called Lieutenant Gegor. I'll be off repelling the boarding parties then. Tell internal security to link up with me ASAP. Vice commander Kozo," I pointed to the man who had stayed in the background till now, "you have command. Slaughter the Princess." My last order was simple for even the most simple minded crew man; kill, kill, kill and then kill again.

The older man scratched his graying beard as he took my place in the commanders chair. "As you command my lady. May our Lady bring you victory in your actions," he intoned gravely.

He was the no nonsense type of person. The bridge crew was sucffeinctly cowed by my casual willingness to execute on of our own crew members, even though we'd been together for all these years, but it would never hurt to give Kozo a little extra power. "I hereby authorize the Whip Protocol under the authority of bequeathed to me by the White Devil, our Lady in the holy year of 6879."

Kozo's black eyes went wide and he bowed stiffly. His back wasn't in the greatest of shape. Being in the orbital drop forces before they were disband had left it mark on his spine, even with the heavy armor and immense g-force gone. "Thank you, my lady Inquisitor. I live to serve you and our Lady."

I gave him a short nod and a grim smile. He could do whatever was necessary to keep the bridge crew in line, even executing one of them like I did. ~Do not touch Lieutenant Calsuburn. When I leave wait ten minutes and send her away on some task. Have her link up with my retainers.~ It was odd that try to save this bright girl, but I had to give it a try. There was only a chance of her survival and that chance lay with my followers. If anyone would survive the end of this ship it would be them.

~Understood. Go with the Lady's blessings.~

There was no need for anymore words between us. This was the end. He knew it and accepted it. Death came to all men and he would not run, even in the face of defeat. He would fight on, commanding by hand at need until he was dead and obliterated. ~May the Lady's light guide us into the next life.~

---

Wolf Knights…those damned overgrown puppies were here. On my ship no less! I walked through the hallways of the White filled with bodies of crewmen and woman. Here and there a female crew man lay against the lay, their clothes ripped and the signs of rape were apparent. With the death of their Warlord the Wolf Knights had lost all decency. They had sunk from the most righteous and hononrable knightly orders to one of the worst, dishonorable knightly sake their lusts as they fought...those were the actions of beasts, not knights.

It had been a pleasure to fight them in those days past, when they were honorable combatants. I had only fought them a few times, their homeworld had burned shortly after I joined the war effort, but those few fights stood out above all others. The ones I know hunted through the depths of the Whitefire were not the same. They were two different stocks of Wolf Knights and soon these barbarian ones would join the honorable ones in extinction as it was proper.

Alone, I tracked them. They left a trial of bodies and war marks in their wake. The walls were coated in the brunt remains that told of blaster style weapons, bullet casings from the heavy weapons they used with one hand littered the floor, and the walls were stained with the telltale burn marks of laser rifles and more. Gouges in the wall told me of their axes and swords that hacked down my crew. I could hear them in the distance. The faint sound of combat echoed through the hallways, but hearing them was the not the same as finding them. Sounds could be distorted with ease, weapons existed that were meant to that very thing, but such things were rare. These mercenaries wouldn't have such relics of the Golden Age with them.

With my sword and Incinerator in hand I hunted as my followers did. Those that I didn't have with the Lieutenant were paralleling me, that I knew thanks to a real time map of the ship and the trackers they wore. Due to certain political elements in my Lady's court the tracker chips in the crews of every ship had been removed just a year before. If they were still in I might have been able to triangulate the enemy's location and cut them off.

Several squads of internal security were securing the uppers levels as I stalked towards the next lift. It seemed that my current floor was empty. The Knights were gone. The door to the lift had been hewed off and the walls showed signs of blunt force damage where fists and abroad feet had punched in the metal to make hand and footholds. Using the path they had formed I dropped into the lift shaft and through the hole they had cut.

The sound of battle grew louder. A check of my map confirmed that I was on the mechanic shop level. Here my engineers fixed, replaced and kept the Whitefire in working order. Under battle conditions they were would be close to a thousand and half people working this entire level. A target rich environment and a vital one needed to maintain the ship. Without these engineers the Whitefire would breakdown in a matter of days.

CLANG!

I froze as I turned the corner leading from the lift shaft. They were close. The Knights still wore the full bulky armor the knights of old had worn. The walls born the scratches were too many of these pups had tried to get by at once. The heavy footfalls, the clangs of metal on metal told me they were near. The nearby clangs overshadowed any more distance clangs that might tell be how many there might be. I called up my map and looked ahead. The next few rooms were machine shops, vast open areas filled with the heavy equipment needed for repair work. Pits of slag sat in open pools in the middle of reach of the large rooms.

I saw the glimpse of a gray blue shoulder as I peered around the corner. After the fall of their homeworld the Wolf Knights had broken up and each had painted their armor in a different way. The ones with blue gray had to be the Hounds of Winter, one of the more populous groups of Wolf Knights. They numbered at least ten thousand, nearly triple that of their fellow orders, and it was safe to assume a good number of them were already aboard my ship. For a ship the size of the Whitefire at least two thousands highly trained soldiers would be needed, but that was if we had no idea they had come. Reasonably they would need twice that number to take the ship deck by deck or as I assumed these Knights were doing, seeking the engine or Magi core rooms to disable the ship.

The spells to search a wide area were beyond me. Such powerful detection art was a lost magic that required skills not taught in the present days. I knew my Lady could cast that powerful spell, but beyond her and her kind I knew of none that could. There was nothing for me to do,, but attack. I could hear screams and battle cries of engineers as they fought back and were slaughtered. A bunch of men and women with industrial equipment might do something to the Knights, but in the end they would fall. I sent my coordinates to the security teams and my followers then charged around the corner.

I saw the blue gray armored shoulders and the helmeted head and struck. My sword clove through arcane metal and bone with ease. The Knight fell as I ripped the blade away from its feast. A trial of blood and gore followed me as I threw myself behind a pile of crates. Several Knights turned to look at the one had slain and advanced on my position. The rest renewed their assault on the engineers with flame and fury that had holed themselves up behind a makeshift barricade between the wall and a slag pit. As the four Knights drew near I took a head count of my enemies. It seemed that there was somewhere around twenty five of them, several had fallen to my crew and more might be taking cover. The Knights were close to the body when I acted. My Incinerator came to life, its deadly flames consuming one of them at a close range. The limited range was the downfall of my weapon.

I was already moving when the stack of crates was filled with bullets. Summoning my magic I forced it into a body enchantment spell. With mana born speed and strength I ran and jumped onto one of the massive metal beams that ran the length of the room. They fired after me, but it was a simple measure to avoid them. One made an unheard call and more Knights looked up. I ran, dropping the ever burning fire without regard to the ship. The ship would be destroyed anyway, why did it matter if it was my doing or the Princess's doing?

The barricade of the engineers broke, flames from boarding flamethrowers, that normal flames, consumed the men, metal and wood barrier. The Knights broke through, half focused on me, and charged into the slaughter. There was no mercy in this fight. They hated us with a passion surpassing all things. They would not hear even the slightest plea and my crew had no chance to cry out, except in pain and death. Each fought bravely against the armored monsters, wolves in human flesh that torn out throats and removed limbs with ancient hate. but they were doomed.

I dropped behind the barricade, my sword nearly severing another Knight in two as I dropped. Ripping my blade free I blocked the heavy blow from a sword. That wicked blade and the hate filled beast pushed against me. Had I been at my best with all my nanomachines this fight would have already been over already, of that I was sure. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a Knight take a bit out a screaming woman's throat, the Knight's body nearly all wolf. My Incinerator spat again and the man burst into flames. The flames consumed him, but he never gave up his grip. He dragged that woamn to a firey death.

I let my blade go and threw my self under between his legs. My sword went flying behind me. The might of his own blow carried him forward as the flames reached his head. Even wolves knew when to give up and for this wolf that was when his brain was in danger. Now swordless, I leveled the Incientror at the hole from which the Knight's were charging though. Several pulls saw that that route would cost them dearly to use. Several did cross in spite of the flames and died with my flames working from their legs up til they couldn't stand. The engineers finished them off with hastily made weapons, chunks of metal that happened to be sharp and industrial tools.

As much as I wanted to, I couldn't use my magic here. The power of the elemental mages was derived from mana itself and space was lacking in this key ingredient. On the other hand a vast majority of my spells would rip the ship apart too soon, such was their destructive power. "Where's my sword?" I asked as the last Knight fell to vengeful engineers.

"Oh goddess! Why?" a woman cried near the back.

I looked her way and stuck in the body of engineer I saw my sword. It had pierced the man's chest and drank deeply. A rather ugly woman cradled the body. I strode towards them to reclaim my sword when the woman turned on me.

"YOU!" she screeched. "YOU KILLED HIM! What kind of monster are you?"

"I am the Inquisition. To question me is question our Lady. To question our Lady is to be a traitor. The Inquisition deals with traitors, therefore you are a traitor." I didn't give her a chance to respond. My sword left the dead man's bodies and severed her neck cleanly. That head rolled, surprised eyes blinked once before it lay still. The body fell beside the man as my blade sucked the last of the blood and gore from its blade. It was nice to have a self-cleaning blade, I didn't have to clean it nearly as much as a regular blade. "If anyone else had an objection to my actions, then please speak up. Otherwise get ready to fight because those puppies are coming back."

As I spoke those words of prophesy it came true. Another segment of the burning barricade fell as a slab of metal, normally used as a source of smaller sheets, became an improvised bridge over the ever burning flames. Knights charged across their bridge and I had to give them credit for their ingenuity. The flames would seek out the easiest material to burn and that wasn't their metal slab.

Wasting no time, I met them head on. Under a hail of bullets, my blade clashed with the heavy axe. I twisted like a snake; the Knight lost his balance and I delivered a blow to his neck, as I fired on the next Knight. The female Knight caught on fire as another Knight, a woman who had lost her helmet, rushed me. Bullets sang past me, cutting down the engineers as they sought what meager cover they could find. My foot lashed out at the knee charging Knight as I side stepped her downward swipe. I heard something snap and woman fell snarling. Her body contoured; becoming more like a wolf than woman. That wolf face snarled at me, her teeth were a pale, unhealthy yellow. Her clawed hands lashed out, I felt them draw blood as they ripped along my leg. Never one to let such a minor injury stop me I lit her up. Flesh and fur burned, but she wasn't done yet. A desperate kicked impacted my hand. I saw my Incinerator fly out of my hand, but didn't see where it landed.

The sound of bullets was getting closer to my position. The heavy guns spat death and they seemed to me taking an interest in me now. I grabbed a patched of the snarling, burning woman's fur and hauled her to her feet. She didn't resist. My own flames licked at my gloved hands, but I ignored them and the pain they brought. With the living shield in hand, I ran towards the nearest gun toting Knight. The heavy weapons were crossing the bridge, having abounded their shooting gallery from the other side of the burning barricade.

The female Knight screamed in pain as she took bullets for me and burnt at the same time. I grinned as I threw the soon to be dead puppy into the nearest heavy weapon Knight. I became death in that moment. On that slab of metal I cut down, twisted around and severed the heads of fools that had gathered in this chokepoint. Within moments it was over, these Knights couldn't fire on me without hitting their allies and their own strength would, and did, push their friends into the flames that consumed them.

As quick as it had begun this small part of the boarding party was dead. None had tried to flee. As I finished the last one off, he was nearly full wolf and those beast eyes carried nothing but hate for me. A glance over my shoulder reaveld the cost. Most of my engineers were dead. The handful that were still alive shook like leaves, a few were throwing up as they gazed at the bodies of dead friends and family.

The Whitefire was doomed. My ship had taken tons of damage from the battle outside and would take more. If there was ever a time when I would have needed the engineering corps at their full strength it was now. These Knights had done more damage than any missile or weapon the Princess might throw at us. The lifeblood of the Whitefire lay slain before me, some bleeding and pleading for salvation and more dead. Were they satisfied now? In death did they realize they had gotten the ultimate revenge on us, their ancient enemy who burned their homeworld after slaying their Warlord? One of the greatest ships of the White Devil was going to die due to these deadly nips.

Even little nips delivered in the veins would kill a man. No pup would now such a trick. Perhaps these were more than pups, certainly not wolves, but more than pups. I had to stop myself from going any further. For a Devil to give a Wolf a compliment even if it was in their own head…

~Commander~ Kozo calm voice broke through the cries and roans of pain.

~Yes?~ I asked

~We've detected a massive buildup of subspace particles around the Kaiser Wind. Our sensor are also detecting increased levels of an unknown energy field originating from the Kasier Wind.~

~Fall back! Everyone has to fall back! Now!~ His words bounced around in my skull. There were secrets that even loyal men like Kozo were never told for their own good. I knew of only one type of weapon that acted like he had said. An unknown energy field was the telltale, yet secret sign of the greatest weapons that ever existed. Only the Warlords had such weapons and running was…~Belay that order! We have nowhere to run. Prepare to activate the Zimmerman Disruptor. Tell the fleet to prepare for a sudden drop into real space.~

~As you command. Transferring command of the Zimmerman to you…now.~

~Well done~ I responded as I shut down the telepathic link. No words were needed, nor would they do any good. It was time to act. If the Princess was committed to doing what I thought she about to fire then all I could do was minimize the damage to the rest of my Lady's ships in dimensional space. This battle was over the moment she decided to use that weapon.

Amongst those of us with the intimate knowledge of the Warlords knew they defied logic. It stood to reason that their weapons defied reason and conventional standards. Few weapons could attack the soul, yet they existed and where used by non-Warlords. The tier above those fearsome weapons sat the feared and secret weapons called simply CONCEPT.

I hit the command and the Zimmerman system came alive in the bowels of the ship. The world began to streak and blur. It was then that I saw the fate of my Incinerator, amongst the streaks and blurs I saw the grip slowly melt into the pool of slag. Dust to dust, ash to ash, slag to slag, it had returned to its home for the last time. An old friend was gone, it had left me forever… Why did it hurt? Why did my chest...no my heart hurt?

---

A/N: That's a wrap! The last chapter of Chronicle of Ascension is over. It clocks in at over 16,000 words. All that's left is an epilogue to wrap up a few things and set a few others in motion. Season one is nearly over. Questions abound that will be answered in the epilogue such as the fate our lady Inquisitor, did Signum live or die, what the hell was going on with that crystal?

The spellcraft Signum mentioned is simple making a new spell from nothing. A normal mage of the TSAB copy their spells from the tempale of those they know liek how Subaru created her own version of the Divine Buster from the Divine Buster template. In this manner a mage spell is a legacy that coudl be very, very old, but that doesn't eman it will always look the same through the ages. Harry had no such template to use and had to create his own template. By this reasoning character such as Teana and Naoha would be ranked C in spellcraft, with the average mage being around a D. Harry is about a B rank spellcrafter.

This chapter has not been beta read. My beta is taking some time away from personal reasons and will get around to the rest of these chapters when the chance comes.

The Ascension has begun. The end of times is drawing near as past, present and future meld. I hope you will join me as we pull back the veil on the birth, life and death of the Warlords we know and love, even though it is a vastly different Nanoha, Fate, and friends than we're all familiar with.