Prologue
On the dying days of 1969, from the cupola of an M551 Sheridan light tank, Colonel Omega watched the snow swept fields of Yekaterinburg burn. The Colonel, along with ten other Sheridan tanks in her convoy swept into the chaotic battlefield at full speed. Armed with their high caliber guns, heavy machine guns and powerful engines, Omega's light tanks punched through the enemy's weak flank. That afternoon was going to be their finest hour - a daring offensive behind the enemy lines.
Behind the convoy, Omega saw the brunt of the Horrors crash into the main lines of the joint Soviet-American defenders just outside of Yekaterinburg proper like a tidal wave of sheer darkness. Explosions and automatic gunfire rang through the air, blurring the frantic chatter that filled the radio communications in Omega's earpiece.
Before the Colonel, meanwhile, the elite forces of their foes - the Type D Horrors mounted on their skeletal horses - rode to meet them on the trampled, tainted fields.
Sparrowhawk in her AC-130 gunship and the multitude of US Air Force Cobra attack helicopters flew overhead too on behalf of the defenders, but all of those aircraft paled in comparison to the ominous figure hovering over the stratosphere. There, the galactic orca tore through the cloudy heavens and cast its deadly shadow all over the battlefield.
Omega brought out her binoculars and tried to make sense of the foes ahead of them.
She counted dozens if not hundreds of Type D Horrors charging towards them. Through her binoculars, Omega could see their iconic black scythes - but also the new weapons that had been manifested for them.
The horsemen Horrors brandished spears, swords, crossbows and guns made from the same black grime that they seemed to spawn from. Moreover, they wore winter cloaks akin to those of the Cossacks of the Russian steppe - even though Horrors physically did not feel the chill of frost.
This was an emulation of human culture - a proof of concept borne from an eldritch creature that had developed an ego and a personality of its own.
The great trickster Clover Gosling herself.
Once again, Clover was wearing the garb of a student from the Occidental College for Young Ladies. This time, she sported the black cloak of the winter uniform, a fur winter hat and riding boots. And yet, she still stood out in the formation of the tainted Cossacks she rode with.
Clover's fascination with human tactics, culture and sensibilities made her the most dangerous of the Horror's in Omega's eyes. Of course, Clover knew this and taunted the Colonel.
"I think you're underestimating me a bit here!" Clover shouted out. Her voice echoed through the field, like an actress projecting her voice to the back rows of a large theater, "You've got a fancy eagle on your shoulders now and this is all you've got to fight me with!?" She let go of the reins of her skeletal horse and spread out her arms, "Show me a good time, madam Colonel!"
Omega furrowed her brow.
"With pleasure." She spat. She pressed on her earpiece and barked, "Attention all Armored Cav units, this is Eagle-11! Focus fire on Clover Gosling - over and out!"
At her command, the large-caliber guns of the Sheridan tanks fired on the move. Powerful 152mm tank shells, rounds larger than most American naval artillery, flew through the air one after another.
Clover gripped the reins of her horse and weaved a path around the shots. The rest of her horsemen tried to do the same, but they did not have the same agility as the schoolgirl. Direct hits vaporized the Horrors and their boney mounts into grimey goop splattered on the tainted snow. Near-misses struck the ground and blew Horrors off their horses, claiming many of the Cossacks at once.
The Cossack Horrors who remained wielded their rifles and retaliated with a vengeance. Magic-charged grime shot from their guns and peppered the Sheridan tanks. Many of the shots missed. Some of them hit the tanks at odd angles and were deflected, leaving little more than a grimy scratch or a shallow hole.
However, some shots did pierce through the light armor of the Sheridans.
A handful of shots tore through the tank treads, immobilizing two tanks and nearly flipping a third one over. Another shot caught the commander of another, decapitating him, dismembering him from the belly up and spilling his innards all over the snow.
One last shot pierced through a fifth Sheridan and found its way to its ammunition storage. The high caliber explosive shells inside were set off. In the blink of an eye, the Sheridan tank exploded and burned everyone inside alive. Omega had to shield herself from the inferno - and cover her ears to drown out the screams of the dying tank crew burning alive.
The Sheridan tanks left standing regrouped and fired their second volley. Their commanders manned the heavy machine guns too and shot at the Cossacks. Omega herself tried to gun down Clover Gosling directly, but the Cossacks kept shielding her from incoming fire.
Omega's tank blasted a Cossack with a direct hit, vaporizing it into black, grimy mist. However, Clover rode past her disintegrated ally and reached out her hand. The black mist reconstituted into a Cossack rifle and Clover pointed it at Omega.
"You're backing the wrong horse here, madam Colonel!" Clover cried, "The Manipulator has already marked this world for its demise! There's nothing you can do to stop it!"
Clover shot at Omega with her black rifle. The Colonel ducked back into her tank's turret. When she poked her head back up, her heavy machine gun had been torn off the hinge.
Omega clicked her tongue and pressed on her earpiece once more.
"Attention! Armored Cav units! Execute Maneuver S-5. I repeat - execute Maneuver S-5. Over and out!" Omega looked down the hatch into her own tank and yelled, "Gunner! Smoke - six hundred!"
In short order, Omega's tank fired a smoke shell into the snow ahead of them. The smoke grenade launchers of the operational Sheridans all went off too, blanketing Omega's entire force behind a thick smokescreen.
Clover Gosling and her entire posse of Cossack Horrors charged through the smoke, eager to mow down the struggling Sheridan convoy. They cleared the smokescreen before long and found the Sheridan tanks they were looking for. However, that wasn't the only thing waiting for them there.
The massive figure of the Guardian Spirit Nemu charged directly at Clover Gosling. On her broad, green-furred back, Fauna Ceres and Sana Tsukumo rode. The Keeper of Nature held Nemu's reins and wielded plate armor, oval cavalry shield and a lance - all of which were made of petrified wood. The Speaker of Space, meanwhile, borrowed a petrified wood shield and clung onto Fauna while she cast the little magic of Space that she still commanded.
Clover Gosling's eyes shone.
"And so we cross paths again, Sana Tsukumo! Fauna Ceres!" Clover cheered. She cocked her Cossack rifle and pointed it at her foes, "You can only run away from fate for so long - until it finally catches up with you!"
Clover and the Cossack Horrors shot at the pair with their rifles and crossbows. Sana and Fauna raised their shields while Nemu arched her back to avoid the barrage.
"Oh, but we're not running away from destiny!" Sana shouted back defiantly, "We're charging towards it full speed!"
"Is that so?" Clover hummed, "You'll come to regret that, Speaker of Space!"
"Will I now?" Sana barked back.
Golden wisps of magic coalesced around Sana and she unleashed her spell. The ground beneath the horse hooves of Clover's vanguard was gripped with intense gravity. A multitude of skeletal horses and their riders were brought down to their knees. Clover, too, was thrown off her horse!
Fauna rode Nemu towards the downed Clover and trained the tip of her petrified wood lance at her.
"This is revenge - for all the pain you've caused me and Sana!" Fauna roared.
She thrust her lance through Clover's chest and tore straight through. The powerful impact tore Clover in half above her waist, spilling black grime all over the snowy fields. Fauna dissolved her lance and charged at the other Cossacks with new weapons of petrified wood.
Nemu galloped away from the gravity well, unaffected by the spell. As soon as they were clear, the other Sheridan tanks fired their third volley and bombarded the immobilized Horrors still in the gravity well.
Despite all of that punishment, once Sana's spell wore off, Clover Gosling still emerged from the smoldering crater. Slowly but surely, she reconstituted herself using the grime of her fallen allies. Before she could complete the process, however, Omega's Sheridan tank slammed into her and separated her from the pool of grime.
The incomplete Clover Gosling, now akin to a melted plastic action figure, looked up to the cupola of the Sheridan tank that ran her over.
Omega looked down upon Clover and stretched her mechanical arm. She pulled back a knob on her arm and slotted a belt of .50 caliber ammo into it. The arm transformed before Clover Gosling's eyes, deploying the rugged barrel of an M2 Browning heavy machine gun. The transformation from arm to gun was complete in moments.
"Cover Corp tech. As expected." Clover scoffed.
"You wanted me to entertain you." Omega glared at her struggling foe, "Are you not entertained?"
Clover flipped Omega her stub of a middle finger.
"Fuck yo-"
Before Clover could finish her sentence, Omega gunned her down with her heavy machine gun arm until she was torn from limb to limb. The pile of goop stopped reconstituting, but Omega felt like they hadn't seen the last of the trickster.
Not while the galactic orca that loomed over the battlefield remained.
Omega reconfigured her heavy machine gun back into her arm and looked up to that orca with a frown.
"The rest is up to you, Diva." She closed her weary eyes and preyed, "You can do this, right?"
Eleven
Nameless Sadness
Seventy-Ninth Scene - The Nameless Nephilim
In the heart of Yekaterinburg, on the roof of Ipatiev House, Irys and Bae helped President Nixon and General Secretary Brezhnev onto American UH-1 Huey helicopters. Members of the American and Soviet delegates were evacuated en masse as well. All of them would be flown to a safe room in the nearby Koltsovo Aerodrome that had been prepared for them.
Irys and Bae watched the last of the helicopters take off from Ipatiev House. They heaved a sigh of relief, but they did not get to rest easily for long. Bursts of gunfire and explosions erupted from nearby. Fighting on the streets of Yekaterinburg was starting.
A radio set on the rooftop crackled and broadcast Sparrowhawk's voice.
" Attention Red Rat and Diva, this is Spirit-In-The-Sky. Horrors are manifesting in Yekaterinburg proper. Standby at your location. Reinforcements are en route to escort you to GKTV-5 to activate the SSS. Over and out. "
"I guess we're stuck here for now." Irys lamented, "Another day, another battle."
"That's the curse of this world, Irys. Horrors are gonna keep on coming after us until we're all gone." Bae shook her head and folded her arms. She turned her eyes to the TV tower three city blocks away and grinned, "But we're breaking that curse today, aren't we? The SSS might finally end the Horrors once and for all!"
"You really think so, Bae?" Irys frowned, "Will my song - my voice - really be able to destroy Despair?"
Bae frowned.
"Are you talking about that deja vu thing you told me about on the train? Or - about that feeling of your voice not being your own?"
A small smile broke on Irys' lips.
"You know me very well, Bae."
The rat-girl blushed and turned away. She twirled a lock of her hair between her fingers, "I'm just a good listener, that's all." Bae stole glances of Irys nonetheless, "Is there something you want to get off your chest?"
"Just a little something I've been thinking about for a long while now." Irys reminisced, sitting down on the rooftop ledge, "I've been complaining about my voice not really being my own, right?"
"Uh-huh."
"But the thing is, I've never really had much of an identity." Irys recounted, tucking locks of maroon hair behind her pointy ears, "When I came to this world, I didn't have a name. Aside from rising up the ranks in the Grim Reaper world, I didn't really have a goal." She looked at her own reflection in Bae's eyes, "Hell - I didn't even look like this until very recently."
"You didn't?" Bae gasped.
A sly smirk formed on Irys' face, "You curious about what I used to look like?"
Bae pouted
"Not particularly." She lied.
Irys' two-colored eyes twinkled, but she fought the temptation to tease the flustered rat-girl. Instead, she joined her hands and continued her tale.
"I was in the business of impersonating people back in the day. I disguised myself as a Cover Corp manager and acted like one for my mission - a strong enemy that gave me and the Grim Reapers I served with a lot of trouble. A strong woman that I wanted to be like." Irys sighed, "But one day, I chatted with my Calli-senpai in the Underworld. You know what she told me?" She chuckled and tried to copy the gruff tone of her superior, " Stop impersonating that girl from Cover Corp! Make your own story, damn it! "
"Whoa, really!?"
"Yeah. I was surprised when I heard it. Calli-senpai's words stuck with me." A complex smile formed on Irys' lips, "It really made me think - who the hell am I ? How can I pour myself into song - be myself and all that - when I still don't really know who I am?" Her eyes looked up to the cloudy sky and the galactic orca looming overhead, "Will someone like me really be able to defeat that much despair?"
"Irys…" Bae opened her mouth, but she didn't have much to say.
"That's why Cover Corp appearing in this world all of a sudden made me think about those old times again." Irys admitted, "A lot of time has passed. A lot of things have happened. And yet, I feel like I can't meet Calli-senpai face to face and say that I've made my own story. Not yet."
While Irys spoke, explosions rocked the outskirts of Yekaterinburg. The fighting within the city also intensified, bringing Irys and Bae back to the present.
"Well, we've still got a hell of a battle ahead of us, Irys." Bae sat beside Irys on the ledge, "When we get through this one - and when you finally find your way back home - I hope you'll have an answer for that senpai of yours." The rat-girl wore a toothy grin, "That, or you'll have a hell of a story to tell her!"
"I sure hope so!" Irys agreed.
Before Bae could chime in and say anything else, the roof deck door of Ipatiev House swung open. Mumei and Kronii emerged, flanked by a handful of US Secret Service agents and officers of the KGB Ninth Directorate left behind by the US-Soviet delegation.
"Sorry we're late!" Kronii apologized. She swung her two swords through the air and whisked off the black grime that stained them, "The situation in Yekaterinburg is devolving faster than we anticipated. We had to fight our way into here.." She looked over the ledge and sighed, "And it looks like we're gonna have to fight our way out."
Mumei, on the other hand, reloaded her M14 rifle and furrowed her brow. She turned to Irys and Bae to ask,
"Are President Nixon and General Secretary Brezhnev airborne?" Mumei asked curtly.
"Yep. You just missed them." Bae replied. She pointed to the TV tower behind her and asked, "I'm guessing you're here to escort us there?"
"That's right." Mumei agreed gamely, "We're going to help bring Irys to GKTV-5. Then, she'll broadcast her song from there and stop this Horror invasion dead in its tracks!"
"We're really going through with SSS, huh?" Irys hummed.
She looked like she didn't know what to think about that.
"We are - and we don't have any other choice." Mumei promptly added, "Colonel Omega acted on her own, so we had to scramble to prepare the TV station. They should be ready for us when we get there." She shook her head, "The Colonel is also fighting Clover Gosling as we speak. Sana and Fauna are with her, but they won't hold back the tide forever."
Mumei's eyes turned up to the galactic orca and added, "Not with that thing spawning more and more Horrors."
"We've got to hurry, then." Kronii determined, "The sooner we can get SSS going, the sooner we can put this battle behind us."
Irys and Bae turned to each other. Then they nodded to Kronii.
"Alright Mumei, Kronii." Irys agreed, "We'll be in your care."
Eightieth Scene - Rivers of Grime
With that, the four ladies made their way out of Ipatiev House and marched briskly towards the GKTV-5 television station. On their way there, Horrors swarmed them. The remnants of the Secret Service and the KGB's Ninth Directorate pitched in and cleared a path for them as best as they could. But as the four ladies went further and further away from Ipatiev House, the holes in their defense became massive.
Two blocks away from Ipatiev, bodies of American and Soviet soldiers, civilians and anyone else who couldn't make it out of Yekaterinburg in time were sprawled out on the streets.
Type A Horrors lumbered through the carnage, mindlessly searching for signs of life. Type B Horrors crawled behind them and devoured the carcasses with its many mouths, growing larger with each body they gorged. Type C Horrors manifested differently here, mimicking Russian folklore instead of Vietnamese mythological beasts. They took on the shape of the Byzantine two-headed eagles amalgamated into Ural Mountain bears.
These creatures were mindless beasts that seemed to act purely on instinct. However, Irys felt like they were being guided - led to crowd the street to GKTV-5 and block Irys from setting foot there.
That, or the Horrors were drawn to something sinister within the city itself.
It didn't matter.
Irys and her companions prepared for battle. Just like they did in the caves of Sector Hotel-11 in Vietnam, Irys, Bae, Kronii and Mumei fought. That time around, though, Irys was no longer the only mythical being in their midst.
Bae's warhammer crushed Horrors with powerful swings. The magic of Chaos granted the rat-girl incredible strength that shattered even the toughest calcified shell of a Type B Horror with just one or two swings. That strength also let her use large objects - from entire lampposts to automobiles as weapons, or heavy wooden doors as shields.
Kronii, meanwhile, honed her already formidable skills in battle and slashed through her foes with her two swords. The magic of Time let her grant herself and her allies bursts of speed that the Type C chimeras couldn't keep up with. Her newly-learned Caesura spell also helped them move past the worst of the roadblocks completely unscathed with sixty seconds of impunity - as long as they all stayed in close contact.
Compared to them, Irys still wielded the same powers that she did back then for the most part. Her crystal microphone was the only new addition to her arsenal, but that didn't even come from her. Her crystal fairy wings were only useful for gliding short distances.
The only other one who hadn't changed much was Captain Mumei Nanashi. Her rank was much higher, but she still used the same weapon and pushed the limits of what a regular soldier could do - but she was still just a soldier.
Glancing at Mumei while they fought through Yekaterinburg, Irys could sense frustration welling in Mumei's heart. The fire that burned in Mumei's eyes seemed to burn differently because of it.
The worst part of it was that Irys sympathized with her.
She, too, was frustrated.
She, too, was afraid.
But there was one thing that Irys couldn't sympathize with from Mumei. The owl-girl didn't say a word about it, but she looked like she was in pain. It was almost as if there was something that threatened to break her.
"Irys, you're singing too softly!" Bae reminded, crushing a Type B Horror with a swing of her warhammer, "Don't get distracted!"
"R-right." Irys apologized and got back to singing.
Her voice crystallized her foes once more and the group of four carried on down the street.
Kronii used another Caesura spell and they buzzed past yet another roadblock. Sixty seconds of peace passed in the time-frozen space and Kronii's Caesura fizzled out.
Once they re-emerged from the Caesura, they ran into a pair of Type D Horrors. These large beasts were mounted on skeletal horses and spotted the four ladies immediately. They brandished their heavy black scythes and rode towards Irys. All of the other Horrors scattered about the streets shambled towards them, heeding the call of the horsemen.
"Looks like we've found the field commanders." Kronii scoffed, placing herself in front of Mumei. She whirled her two swords and watched the first horseman's scythe.
"Take them out like we always do." Bae commanded. She stood in front of Irys now and gripped her warhammer tightly. She glared at the second horseman and roared, "Here they come!"
Kronii and Bae clashed with the two horsemen. Mumei, on the other hand, cocked her M14 rifle and peppered the Horrors with hot lead.
Irys took a deep breath and held her crystal microphone firmly. She sang a medley of her songs, singing from the depths of her heart and soul. Even in the midst of the midst of clashing steel and the rattle of automatic gunfire, Irys poured herself into singing.
In the middle of her performance, her two-colored eyes wandered. She watched how maroon wisps of magical energy showered their foes and crystallized them. So many Horrors were caged in the fragile cages of Nephilium Phosphophyllite. Bae, Kronii and Mumei smashed the crystallized Horrors like clockwork, but many more still took their place.
"Kronii! Caesura!" Mumei demanded.
"I can't!" Kronii warned. The clock-like headdress floating behind her was spinning wildly, "I need some more time to recharge the spell!"
"It doesn't matter - we'll smash every single one of these buggers!" Bae cried, swinging her warhammer left and right, "Just keep singing, Irys! We'll get through this!"
Irys nodded, but a sinking fear started to take root in her heart. It was the same odd feeling that she felt while she sang on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater - a subtle doubt that, perhaps, the voice singing her song wasn't completely her own.
Just as Irys was starting to lose hope, the Horrors started panicking. Scores of Horrors were torn apart in flurries of steel and magic. The Type D Horrors saw this and pulled back, searching for more reinforcements. The moment they tried to check the damage, they came face to face with two scythes that weren't their own.
"Scythes? Seriously?" A deep, confident voice scoffed. "What a sick joke."
It was a voice that Irys had heard before - a voice that she hadn't heard in a long time.
Moments later, the two new scythes fell upon the mounted Horrors. The both of them, along with their skeletal mounts were torn cleanly in two and dissolved into pools of black grime.
In their place, Irys and her companions came face to face with the Horror-slayers. Irys rubbed her eyes, wondering if her mind was playing tricks on her because of the chill of the Siberian winds getting to her. However, the two scythe-wielders remained where they stood. They were figures that Irys had seen before.
Jacqueline Chadwick and Calliope Mori.
The senpais that Irys had longed to meet once more.
Eighty-First Scene - Tasteless Reunion
"Calli-senpai? Miss Chadwick?" Irys asked, her voice racked with utter disbelief, "What are you guys doing here?"
At the mention of their names, Bae and Kronii froze. Even in the midst of the Siberian winds, the streets of Yekaterinburg seemed to grow colder. Neither of them knew what to say. Mumei, on the other hand, frowned bitterly.
"That'd be a hell of a long story, my dear." Miss Chadwick answered, resting her super-heavy scythe on her shoulder without breaking a sweat, "What matters is that we're here."
"J-chad's right. I'm sorry that we couldn't have come for you sooner, but things have been really crazy." Calli chimed in. She stepped forward with her scythe in tow, "I'm sure that you've got a lot of questions on your mind right now - but we need to ask you a favor." She set down the base of her scythe on the snow and urged, "We need to meet up with Sana Tsukumo."
"H-hold on a second, senpai." Irys interrupted, "What do you mean by 'we'?" She turned to Calli and asked. Desperation started to seep into her voice, "Did Death-sensei send you? Did you guys come here to rescue me - to make me a Grim Reaper again?"
Calli and J-chad turned to each other. Then, Calli faced Irys again and explained.
"Listen. We're here with the Cover Corporation, kiddo. We parted ways with Death-sensei long ago." She scratched the back of her head and frowned, "As for you becoming a Grim Reaper again… that's not why we're here. We'll take you back - but not to make you a Grim Reaper again."
Calli's words seemed like a slap in the face to Irys. Tremors shook the former reaper to the core. All of the hopes and dreams that carried Irys through her toughest battles became like poison in her heart and mind. Everything that Irys had strove for and built up in her past life lost its meaning. The entire world that she wanted to return to was turned upside down!
Irys felt as if her heart had been hollowed out like a Russian doll, carved by the words of the reaper she respected the most.
"No… that can't be." Irys stumbled back. A dizzy spell threatened to rob her of her balance, but Bae caught her.
"Oy! Irys!" Bae propped up the Nephilim.
Calli, too, looked incredibly concerned. However, she didn't know how deep her words cut Irys. That - and Bae pointed her warhammer at Calli.
"Irys has been trying her hardest to get back home and reunite with you bastards - and this is how you treat her!?" Bae shouted, "You come here to this world - and you don't give a damn about her!?"
"Bae…" Irys croaked.
"That's not what I mean." Calli tried to backtrack, but she didn't have much else to say. She turned to Irys and tried to argue, "You went missing after the Ritual of Death and Destiny. A lot of things have changed since then!" She furrowed her brow and glared at Bae, "And who the hell are you anyways, rat-girl?"
"Who, me?" Bae bit her lip and pointed at Calli, "I'm the one who supported her when she needed you the most, Calliope Mori!" She bared her teeth and roared, "She talks about you all the time! Calli-senpai this - Calli-senpai that! And yet you treat her like some afterthought! Some senpai you are!"
Calli couldn't talk back. Her pink eyes turned away from Bae's.
"You Cover Corp lackeys are opportunists." Mumei suddenly chimed in. She stepped forward with her M14 rifle and pointed it at Calli, "You bastards use people like Irys like pawns. The moment you don't need her anymore, you throw them away like trash!" Her honey brown eyes started glowing gold, "That sounds like something The Manipulator would do - you murderers!"
"Murderers!?" Calli recoiled, "What are you talking about? We're not here to kill anyone."
"Wait a second!" Bae tried to intervene, "I want them to apologize to Irys, not accuse them of murde-"
Bae's protests, however, fell on deaf ears. Instead, Mumei fanned the flames of her fury.
"What's your purpose here, then?" Mumei demanded, "Why did the Cover Corporation send you here?"
J-chad snorted.
"We came here to recruit the heroes of this world to fight against the Ancient Ones." J-chad spoke calmly, meeting Mumei's accusing gaze without fear. She pointed towards Kronii and Bae and revealed, "Two of the people on our list are here: Kronii Ouro and Baelz Hakos."
"What about me?" Irys banged her chest. Her face twisted with anguish, "You didn't come here for me ?"
"Or me?" Mumei stepped forward, holding her M14 rifle firmly, "That list of yours didn't mention me at all? Not as a friend or foe?"
"No mention of you at all, little missy." J-chad answered plainly.
Irys was crestfallen. Mumei, on the other hand, wore a twisted grin.
"Good. That makes things a lot easier for me." Mumei growled. She pointed her rifle at the Grim Reapers, "You're collaborators of the Cover Corporation - the ringleaders of the Myths that killed Lady Knowledge." Her honey brown eyes started glowing gold, "And now, you have the gall to come to this world and say that you want to take Kronii away from me too!?"
Mumei's shadow grew darker.
"Your existence tortures me. You're gonna take and take and take until I have nothing left!" Mumei declared with frigid fury, "But I am a soldier with duties and responsibilities. I will give you a chance to surrender."
"And if we refuse?" Calli asked.
"Then I will end you." Mumei warned, "All of you!"
"You don't want to do this." Calli frowned.
"Trust me, Calliope Mori." Mumei cried, "I do!"
Epilogue
A moment of silence passed. Neither Calli nor J-chad said a word. Instead. The two Grim Reapers watched the shifting shadow of Mumei Nanashi.
At this point, Calli pointed her scythe at Mumei and accused.
"That aura... Are you a Priestess of the Ancient Ones, Mumei Nanashi?" Her pink eyes turned towards Irys next, "And you - when did you become her thrall?" She growled, "This SSS you're talking about - is it part of some sinister plan!?"
The beginnings of tears formed at the sides of Irys' eyes.
Mumei turned towards Irys and hummed, "You're not going to let her insult you like that, will you, Irys?"
Level-headed, diplomatic words formed at the tip of Irys' tongue. However, she couldn't seem to bring herself to say them. Disembodied voices whispered in Irys' ears, tearing open old wounds that Irys thought had sealed long ago.
Beneath Irys' feet, her shadow mingled with Mumei's. The sympathy she felt for the owl-girl's agony was forged into an unseen bond.
The figurative olive branch Irys wanted to offer was set ablaze. Instead, she laughed maniacally.
"Irys…!" Bae was shocked, "Hey, are you alright?"
"Never been better, Bae." Irys grinned, hiding her pain behind a practiced smile, "After all - I know my purpose now. I know what needs to be done. It's crystal clear!"
Spurred by her frustrations and misfortunes, Irys shook her head. Shadows formed over her unfocused, two-colored eyes.
"Why do you hurt me so, Calli-senpai?" Irys asked with a cracked, strained voice, "After everything I've done to get you to notice me, you treat me like this. You won't let me have my moment in the sun - even in this world!."
She wiped her tears and they slid down towards her crystal microphone. Moments later, the microphone shimmered with maroon magic. In the blink of an eye, her microphone had turned into a crystal scythe.
The reaper's scythe that Irys never got to wield.
Irys held the crystal scythe and raised it up against Calli and J-chad.
"My name is Irys, senpai. Remember it. I'm about to write my own story in this world. I'm going to become their Hope! I'm going to be something more than a footnote in your books, and I'm not gonna let you stop me!"
To Be Continued
