Chapter 29 – Lance's Hidden Strength, Fate's Winning Gamble

Lee and Chrono, along with Andy who had joined the robotics club despite calling it primitive and dull, were already at the school gate waiting for the girls to finish up archery practice. Andy, "Good, now all we need to do is wait-," he was cut off by Sarah who appeared out of nowhere, literally, as she teleported behind the post. Andy cleared his throat, "Okay, as I was saying, now that we are all here, we can go." He told them to grab on to his shoulder, which they all did and so in a flash, he teleported all of them into a clearing in a thicket in the park that they all immediately recognized as the place that Lance and Nanoha had first camped out. Andy, "I will admit, I am impressed with the wards and protections Lance and Nanoha set up in this area, especially given that they are still active even after months of disuse. It makes this place the perfect safe teleportation target near the new base entrance at any rate."

They quickly walked out of the woods and through the park to a house across the street. It was a plain, regular, if not somewhat larger white house, clearly a newer construction of no significance and unassuming in every way. This impression was mostly cemented when they entered, where it was normal in all respects, except that Andy had used his device as a key to unlock the door by waving it across the handle while mentioning that it would accept their devices as well. "This is now the new Earth Headquarters. Well, one of the entrances and cover addresses at least. After a second General was confirmed from this backwater planet, the TSAB decided that they had at least enough jurisdiction here to do that much, though it's still a bit of a grey area, which is why you all are still being deferred to as the de-facto heads of magic related incidents for this planet, though why they are going through such formalities is beyond me." Chrono, "I don't know, maybe because from what we heard, those formalities are the law. Honestly, for how stuck up about the rules you are, I'm surprised that it bothers you so much." Andy, "Of course it does, such laws were created to give jurisdiction to the relevant responsible parties. I can hardly imagine the laws creators ever imagined that it would be a bunch of entitled children that would qualify after all." Sakura, "You do realize that you are basically the same age as most of us, right?" Andy, "Yes, but unlike you all, I'm not here as a product of nepotism and privilege." Lee was about to counter Andy, but thought better of it, though was reminded once again why Andy annoyed him so much, even if his reasoning had some merit to it. In any case, Andy didn't give him a chance to respond as he quickly showed them into the basement. That said, why he did confused them, given that the basement had absolutely nothing in it, for it was stark bare. Andy though marched over to the far wall where, to everyone's surprise, a screen came out of nowhere before they heard a voice come from it, "Authentication." Andy in response simply put his hand on the screen, to which the screen shone green for a moment and responded affirmatively before the screen vanished, and along with it part of the wall to reveal a mechanical door that turned out to be some kind of an elevator.

Now that the secret entrance had revealed itself, the group followed Andy in after which he pressed one of the many buttons to signify their destination. What they were unprepared for though was speed of the elevator, with it descending much faster than any of them were expecting. Not only that, but the depth that it was going had to be extreme, for even at the speed they felt themselves falling, it took a good few minutes. They could only estimate that they had gone down more than a hundred meters before the elevator slowed to a halt and its doors opened to a large hallway with a large window on one side that looked out right above the ARTEMIS. Andy, "This elevator can also go to the ground floor. Right now, we are in the observation deck. This is the true headquarters, obviously." Andy lead them quickly to a room at the end of the hallway, a meeting room of sorts, and asked them to sit down, and no sooner had they done so when, John walked in along with Lance, "Good, you're all here."

John and Lance also sat down before John started the meeting, "So long story short, the reason I asked you all here was that, as you know, we've been monitoring the entire world for signs of the Saren Stones, and earlier today we think we have finally found one. The thing is, unlike the previous stones, this one seems to be located in a country other than Japan." They all looked confused, wondering why a stone would be so far away, but Lance clarified it for them, "It isn't that shocking really. I was already surprised that we didn't have to leave this country to find some of them. I can only assume that this means that we're probably done gathering most the ones that were naturally close to us." John, "Unfortunately, we don't have the resources yet to perfectly pinpoint it from here given its inactive status, and can only peg it down to roughly the area of a single city. But considering a city in proportion to the entire planet, I can say that it definitely narrows the search field down a hell of a lot, and so we've decided to send in a small team for this operation consisting of Andy, who will use his specialty to locate the seed, Lance to cover the area, Lee because I left him out of the last mission and because we need at least one mage for sealing, and finally Sakura because besides her being the only one here who can fluently understand English without a universal translator except for Sarah, the only way I got her parents to let me pick her up was to tell them she was sleeping over with Sarah, but at the same time, that means that I need Sarah here in case they come calling to help with a cover story. That said, the rest of you are merely on standby, so you can either use the training room on the Artemis or go back to your houses, just as long as we can get in contact with you. If you want to see the live mission feed, I'll make sure that we will send the video data to your devices as we get it so just ask your devices to pull it up if you're interested."

With that out of the way, those who were not elected to go on this operation split off, with Sarah and Nanoha leaving for the training room to practice some new defensive spell that Nanoha said she would teach Sarah, and Chrono following them to use the other training room. John, after the briefing, had agreed to help Chrono with some pointers for his kendo training, where Norman wanted him to learn a specific kenjutsu technique. The rest of them stuck around for what John referred to as a mission briefing. John, "Okay, now that we know who's doing what and where, let's get down to it." He pressed a button on the table and a screen appeared in front of them all, with a large globe in the middle. "So we have tracked the location of this inert Saren Stone to the U.S.A." The screen in front of them followed along with everything John explained, "With our best tracking methods, we have pinpointed it down to a single city. A place called 'Chi-kago' or something like that. Now given that you aren't actual TSAB agents, there are some rules I want you to remember while out on this assignment. The first is, specifically for you all while over there, do your best to not to interact directly with anyone since explaining how you travelled to the USA outside official transportation channels, especially when it would be pretty easy to find out you were here in Japan just a few hours previous, isn't something you want to have to do. If you are in a situation where you are pressured into engaging someone, I find that speaking something in rapid Japanese generally works for getting people to walk away quickly in foreign countries. If that fails though and you feel that the other party's lives are in danger or are interfering directly in the mission, you have my express permission to render the person unconscious in any way you can think of, and we'll handle the repercussions afterwards. Now as for transport we'll teleport you there using the ARTEMIS's teleportation room, but you're responsible for the return teleport trip. Besides that, the mission is quite simple. Find and seal the stone, and I give you authority to enter combat against anyone that gets in your way after you present them with a surrender ultimatum."

He sent them out immediately, not wanting to waste any more time. They went to the teleport room aboard the Artemis where John's staff had already set it for their destination, and without further delay the group vanished. When they next opened their eyes, they were on the top of a very tall skyscraper in the middle of a city, and looking around they couldn't recognize any of the buildings or signs. Anything that looked like writing they couldn't really ready that well as they recognized that it was written in English, though only Sakura could initially read them. After all, she was the only one in their current group that ever understood English enough to actually use it given that Sarah wasn't currently with them. That said, this was only true for a few seconds as after that, the others felt something weird happen to them. It wasn't like the signs and words actually changed, but for some reason after getting a weird sensation in their minds, they could all understand them immediately. Andy though noticed the confusion of some of their group, and remembering that they were new to most things magic realized what it must be, "That's just your devices universal translator kicking in. It does take a bit to get used to, but the odd feeling should subside in a minute or so."

Needing to get a start on their current assignment, they went in the door to their right and down the elevator inside to appear on the ground level of the building, which ended up being a department store. Of course, Sakura upon seeing all the clothing stores and brands she had never seen before almost got sucked into shopping, but the rest of them quickly pulled her out much to her dismay. Sakura, "But how often am I going to be in America. I need to buy SOMETHING." Lee, "Sakura, you have to be reasonable. Besides the fact that we're here on assignment, I don't think these stores would accept foreign currency and you can't well use your credit card without having to explain to your parents how you bought something in person a continent away on a school night." Sakura wanted to come up with a counter argument, but realized she couldn't and so while sad, she agreed and followed the rest of them as they went to the destination John listed as the center of their search area so they could get to work, some sort of tall building with an observation deck that would be perfect for surveying the city.

They headed for the observation tower, even though given the late hour due to the time zone it was inf act closed for the day. Lucky for them though, John had thought ahead and had the mage the TSAB had assigned on watch in this city to get a temp job in the building and so could discretely unlock the door for them, as well as make sure that they were undisturbed. Taking yet another elevator, this time up, they came to the roof of the building. Once there, Andy looked around real quick to make sure there were no prying eyes. After all, according to John, they hadn't immediately teleported to this building initially due to the higher chance of some civilian seeing their re-entrance, thus the precaution. But upon seeing no one, Andy decided it was time to get to work, "Okay, I need some room so if you could step back. Watch a search specialist at work." The rest of the group obliged and backed up to watch Andy activate his device, a first for those present. Andy now donned a white and black militarized blazer with all sorts of pockets along with matching pants. In addition, he had a spade emblem on the left pocket of the blazer. To pair it off, he also had pitch-black fingerless gloves and a pair of weird futuristic looking sunglasses. Upon completing his devices activation and transforming into his barrier jacket, another white spade symbol on his left hand's glove lit up and his device spoke, "OKUNINUSHI, ready to go."

Chrono looked for a second, thinking something was missing despite Andy being done activating his device, "Where's your staff." Andy though just looked at him condescendingly, "Clearly your inexperience is showing. Not every device needs a basic staff form. In its regular form, this is my staff, these gloves and the sunglasses. Of course, I have more combat oriented modes for such occasions, but I mainly specialize in computational magic. In fact, my talents for search magic in particular are said to rank among the highest in the entire TSAB." A light blue magic circle appeared under him, "OMNICIENT DOMINION!"

Even Lance had to admit that he had never seen or heard of search magic like this before. Out of those from their normal group present, he was the most familiar with how search magic and magic in general functioned, and so he could tell that Andy's spell was vastly different than any he had encountered, with the amount of information it was clearly processing and returning to Andy vastly more than Lance was used to seeing with this type of magic. That said, the form of it was also weird, with Lance having no idea of its composition or logic, and assumed that it was something that only Andy, the spell's user, could properly comprehend. Andy, "For what I lack in power, I make up for with some of the most potent search magic in the entire T.S.A.B. If I'm being honest, even I don't know everything about how it works, but effectively I'm able to combine the information from my search magic in a unique fashion, and so process infinitely more of it than a normal mage. Among other things, it allows me to see and process everything in a target area from virtually any perspective, even microscopically or from the vantage point of more mundane instances like from the perspective of piece of grass or a cloud or even just some air, as well as to compile all of that information from every perspective and analyze it. It is much more powerful and versatile than normal search magic, so much so that it can even search different worlds and dimensions if I have enough time to focus the power to do so, though I admit that doing so is especially taxing. I know it might not seem as impressive as some epic overpowered battle magic, but I can tell you it is something you can rely on." They all looked at him in amazement, realizing for the first time why John had most likely requested his assistance for them. Lee himself remembered that he had once tried to use a basic search magic Lance showed him simply called AREA SEARCH, and while he could brute force it with his vast magic to cover a larger area, he found that trying to make sense of most of the information from the spell was outside his current abilities, so at best he could only search for something very general. Thus, he rarely used it since at his skill level, it usually wasn't worthwhile.

Andy started his search, donning a glowing greyish blue aura as he searched through the city for any signs of the stone. His advanced search abilities were not to be underestimated, and so he was able to quickly hone in on the fact that the stone was not located anywhere on the surface, and so he focused his search underground. He started to search the complicated network of subways below the city, and while doing so, alerted them all to one more piece of crucial information, "By the way, just a warning, when I do find it, it could very likely automatically activate as a self-defense mechanism. One of the downsides to this particular version of my powerful search magic is that it isn't all that subtle. My guess is that it will easily sense the search magic's presence." This sudden, incredibly important news dropped on the rest of the group caused them all to look at Andy incredulously. Lance immediately began weaving his own spells, charging his magic as so to activate it as soon as he needed to, "Don't you think that was important to tell us BEFORE you started?" The others also suddenly became alert, ready to activate their devices at any moment. Sakura, "And you call yourself an elite?!" Andy at least had the good graces to look a good bit embarrassed, "Ok, I admit this time, this mistake is of my own making. That said, I'm only human so as this planets expression goes, shoot me." Lee, "I just might take you up on that offer." Andy, "Well save that for later, I'm narrowing down the location I believe the stone is in. About half a kilometer south south-west of here below the surface, most likely in one of those rail tunnels I noticed." Lee and Sakura started out towards where Andy had said the stone was about roughly, literally running down the building and out the door on foot given the relatively short distance it was away, with Lance staying behind to guard Andy as he searched for the stone.

Andy, "Almost, I've tracked it down to one route." Lee and Sakura, on Andy's updated location, immediately ran down the stairs to the city's public subway system. Andy, "Okay, I'm tracking it on the eastbound side between you two and the next station" Making sure no one was looking, Lee and Sakura were about to hop a gate towards the maintenance tunnel running along the tracks before without either of their interactions or suggestions, Lee's device Haruno suddenly started blinking, causing them to pause, "DISABLING RUDIMENTARY SECURITY MEASURES." Before Lee could even ask his device what was going on, he head a distinctive humming sound, followed by a few popping sounds. Looking towards the source, Lee and Sakura found that something resembling a security camera was clearly broken based on the smoking, and there were at least two other cameras that had met the same fate. What was more, with another mechanical whirring sound, the locked gate in front of them popped open. Haruno, "RUDIMENTARY SECURITY DISABLED." Lee admitted himself surprised. He hadn't even thought about something like a security system when he had merely thought about forcing the maintenance door open using his magic, but his device clearly had. Somehow, even without his instruction, it had been one step ahead of them. What was more, Lee didn't even know his device could even do something like this, "Wow, thanks Haruno." Haruno, "YOU ARE WELCOME MASTER." With that, Lee and Sakura proceeded down the tunnel. That said, both of them were a bit curious at what Haruno had done. Even Lance who was in telepathic communication with them was frankly a bit surprised. Sure, there were devices that were specialized for hacking, but that hadn't been what Lee's device had done. It was almost like it had acted pre-emptively, even if that should have been impossible, but it would have to be a mystery to solve another time.

Just as Lee and Sakura had gotten about halfway down the tunnel, Andy finally locked on to his target, "I'VE GOT IT! Everyone, get ready!" Lance was already on it, raising his barrier and displacement spells immediately, and given the time he was able to charge his spell for, was easily able to cover the entire city, and just in time. Suddenly, a black pillar of magic appeared out of the tunnel's floor not 5 meters ahead of where Lee and Sakura were, with the two of them immediately teleporting topside to avoid the expected cave-in. Looking down from the air where they reappeared, it was clear that the stone had come from deep underground, much deeper than the subway tunnel judging by the depth of the hole that made itself known to the surface. Lee and Sakura wasted no time, immediately activating their devices and changing into their barrier jackets upon seeing the Saren Stone floating out of the newly created pit, preparing to fight whatever manifestation was about to emerge from it as they had done so many times before.

That said, to their surprise, it didn't do anything like what they expected, but instead simply surrounded itself in a sort of translucent light grey barrier, one that wasn't particularly strong looking if Lee were to be honest. Once it had set itself up though, it started to fire off blasts of magic at both Lee and Sakura, clearly trying to fight them off. But what confused both Sakura and Lee were that these blasts as well were almost pitifully weak to them now. Sure, when they had first discovered their magic and had barely even scratched the true depth of their powers, this level of magic might have given them trouble, but as they were now, it was nothing, and thus the two of them were able to easily defend themselves against the now low-level onslaught. What was more, they found that the barrier surrounding the stone was about as weak as they had assumed, for Lee, deciding to go on the offensive, fired off shot a quick SHINING BUSTER at the Saren Stone and it's barrier shattered like glass, leaving the Saren Stone simply floating in the air, doing absolutely nothing as if simply waiting to be sealed at this point.

Lee, "Okay, this is strange. Is it just me or does anyone else think that this is too easy?" Andy telepathically, "I understand what you are getting at after reading the reports of your previous encounters, but you have to understand that this is very much different from those events. Given the nature of how we effectively forced it to activate prematurely through my search magic, I believe that its quite likely that it may have not fully activated yet and so it may not be in its more final, dangerous stages of awakening. Honestly I think you all should just count yourself lucky and seal it already." Lee decided that he might as well. If nothing else, if they finished early, they could hang around for a while like Sakura wanted. Lee prepared to seal the Saren Stone, though to his surprise, before he even commanded it, his staff was already changing into its sealing mode, his staff grew four large golden wings from the base of the head. Lee had to hand it to his device and partner, Haruno was definitely getting better at predicting his needs. In any case, Lee pointed his trusty staff at the Saren Stone. Haruno, "SEALING!"

A small gold beam of magic energy shot out of the staff at the Saren Stone straight on, but that's where things stopped being so simple. To everyone's surprise, Lee's sealing spell, instead of having the intended effect, simply went right through its target instead. There was a hole in the center of the Saren Stone, but it clearly wasn't sealed. Lee, "What the! That's never happened before." Lance telepathically, "That's because none of us have. I can tell there was nothing wrong with your sealing spell, so this has to be something else. Stay on your guard." No sooner had Lance given them that ominous warning when they noticed that the Saren Stone in question started to both glow, as well as emit pulses of light like it was almost blinking. It was such odd behavior unlike anything any of them had seen from a Saren Stone that they were initially unsure of what to do, but luckily Andy was on it, his own curiosity making him take a closer look at it via his search magic.

That said, everyone was able to feel what Andy discovered even before Andy could tell them, as they could all suddenly feel the ground start to shake and winds started to pick up. In any case, Andy's expression suddenly went pale, "It's magic Level is rising dramatically and is all focusing in on itself. My device already measures it as exceeding S range, no make that S+ range, and it's not slowing down…" Suddenly, the ground started to crater and fissure under the stone as its power jumped even higher, but strangely it wasn't causing any additional damage than that, which was unusual given the amount of power it was gathering. It was like it was holding it all in, concentrating it all in on itself, but to what end they didn't know. That said, Andy was growing a cold sweat as he saw its power level rising even farther, "It's broke into the SSS range and still rising rapidly. No wait, its already SSS+." Suddenly, all of them were getting a sense of foreboding as the power was still increasing, a feeling made even more eerie as they could feel even the magic that it had been exuding being sucked into it. Andy though couldn't believe what he was sensing though, for the power was far beyond anything he had ever felt. He almost wanted to doubt his own device for if it was reading the magic level correctly, then this seemingly innocuous Saren Stone was fast approaching the legendary last limit of magic. Andy, "It's approaching Z? What does it all mean? What's going to happen?" He could only stare on with the rest as they saw it pulling all of that power and concentrating it on itself, the stone emitting pulses of light much faster now, as if building up to some sort of climax, and with that realization, it all clicked. Andy realized what was about to do, and he suddenly went into a panic, "EVERYONE, GET OUTSIDE THE BARRIER NOW! IT'S GOING TO BLOW." He shouted it loud enough so that everyone could hear it, doing the same through telepathy, "NOT EVEN YOU GUYS COULD SURVIVE A BLAST THIS BIG. HURRY IF YOU WANT TO LIVE!" They didn't waste time. Andy had already contacted John back on the ship with the emergency that he felt was about to occur, and they were already analyzing it. Based on the ship's estimate, on the ground they had a minute at most before the stone went off. That said, they had to do something to mitigate it. A blast this strong wouldn't merely destroy the city, at this level it could have drastic consequences for the planet. In any case, right now priority one was for the group on the ground to get outside the barrier and reinforce it big time to at least attempt to mitigate as much of the damage as possible.

They all exited the barrier quickly through a gap Lance made and moved into position. First, Sakura made a second barrier. It wasn't what you would call particularly strong, as Sakura, despite being a SSS+ ranked mage, was nowhere near as good with barriers as Lance, especially with ones as large as this, but for the level of this threat ever little bit helped. Besides, comparing herself to Lance in terms of defensive magic was always going to be a losing battle, for Lance's expertise as such was, as John had put it, of a an equal or possibly higher level than even people of the same ability as a TSAB General, which was saying quite a bit on its own. But Sakura's barrier was still immensely useful to Lance for another reason. Once again, those present were awestruck at Lance's spell work in action, for it far exceeded what they could do in terms of its complexity. Lance's mind clearly worked on a different level than theirs, for he was already preparing several spells, one of which according to Andy was an emergency dislocation spell for all the people he suspended out of the normal space to make sure that they couldn't be caught up in the blast should their defenses failed, moving them to a space a few miles outside the city limits where Andy already had a TSAB containment team on standby. The mass teleportation spell alone was already so overly complicated and impressive that Andy didn't know how Lance had managed it, knowing that such a feat was normally something taken on by large specialized squads containing dozens of teleportation-specialized mages, but Lance had barely gotten started. Lance knew that this wouldn't be enough, he needed to go farther, stronger, create something that would not, could not fall, or else they would all be destroyed.

Lance turned to Sakura, "I need you to hold up your barrier for a few moments without support, I need all my concentration for my next spell, so my barrier is going to disappear." Sakura, "I'll do my best." And with that, Lance's barrier suddenly went down as he focused inwards. Immediately, Sakura felt a huge amount of force hit her barrier, causing it to crack, but she poured all the magic she could into it and was barely able to hold it together, but she knew not for long so she hoped Lance would hurry up. Lance for his part though was already casting his spell, but what spell it was they had no clue, for the way he was casting it was unlike anything any of them had ever witnessed. The tips of Lance's fingers were glowing and he was literally writing out a magic circle below him, chanting as he did so, "Worlds united and Universes apart…" Suddenly, on the outer rim of Sakura's barrier, a large whitish-lime green spell ribbon traced itself on the ground, clearly defining the area that Lance was going to encompass, "I invoke the great severance of mortals and gods to isolate my opposition…" Lance suddenly was glowing brightly with his magic, as well as something more, for his magic seemed to have small flecked of whitish rainbow light emanating from it. Lance finished drawing out his weird magic circle, unlike any they had ever seen before, the designs and characters comprising it clearly from another language, one that not even the universal translators on their devices could even begin to comprehend. "The Great Chasm that separates the world from the last ethereal edge…" The area inside the boundary that was marking Lance's spell suddenly started to appear very hazy, and for some reason all their senses were going haywire while looking at it, like the space was off somehow, but that was nothing compared to what happened next. Lance focused all of his magic into his spell, holding his hands up as if pushing against an invisible wall, " BEYOND THE FINAL CROSSING, HEAVENS DIVIDE!"

Out of the traced boundary that he had placed on the ground, a weird barrier shot up, encompassing the entire area in a solid and thick looking whitish-green barrier, but it was unlike any barrier that they had ever seen Lance make before. In a way, looking at it, they could almost call it fuzzy in the sense that it didn't have a defined edge or surface to it. That said, the moment it went up, they were given a jolt as the massive power they had been feeling from the Saren Stone vanished completely. It was an immensely odd feeling to them, since it wasn't like the feeling of the power was suppressed or weakened, but still barely there, or at least the vestiges of such power that they unconsciously felt when near strong magic, even after it had been enacted. No in this case, it was like in a single moment, that all that power, everything within that barrier simply ceased to exist, at least to their senses. So much so that even Sakura felt her own barrier disappear, and could feel her spell cancel out. But the powerful magic they had been feeling had been replaced by another, for the level of magic that Lance's barrier was exuding was in itself massive. The level of magic was easily the equivalent of a SSS ranked spell, if not higher. Magic was literally pulsing from it, cracking the ground around the outside of the barrier. That said, clearly this spell was difficult, for Lance, who always seemed to be able to handle any spell with ease, was clearly straining immensely to keep this one active. That said, before they could ask, he reassured them, "This is my most powerful defensive spell, and one that has never failed me before, though at this size I can only hold it up for under a minute, though I haven't really tested it out that much. I have only had cause to use it twice before, but I guarantee you that this spell won't fail us, and neither will I…"

Back at the ship, John and his crew were monitoring the entire event that was unfolding, unsure of what to make of it. At this point, the magic that was being emanated from Lance's barrier in America was strong enough for John, Chrono, Sarah and Nanoha to feel, thousands of miles away in Japan. They all went rushing to the command center currently located on the ARTEMIS's bridge to see what was happening. One of John's subordinates gave him a summary when they walked in, "Right sir. So far, we have seen two separate magic signature readings, but they are both off the scale. The first was from a source that we believe is now within the barrier Lance Scrya has put up, though when he put the barrier up we lost the reading entirely, and we can't get any more info on it at this time, just that from our last reading we measured its magic levels at an impossible 2.85 billion and rising! The second reading though, the one we can still measure is shockingly from Lance Scrya himself and his unidentified barrier spell. We have no idea or reading on exactly what kind of barrier spell he is using, but we can tell that it is immense. Just on our analysis's estimated defense rating, we believe that it is above a SSS+ ranked defense. That said, we don't have any more information on it at this time, for its composition and formula are unlike anything we've ever seen and isn't listed in any of our databases either and so we can't seem to analyze it further. All we can determine at this time is that it seems to be some kind of spatial displacement barrier, but I'm not sure that's adequate. From attempting to get readings from inside it, our systems are only able to do so using the same scanners and equipment we normally use for dimensional level scanning. It's almost like the isolated space has become an entirely different dimension altogether, even though such a thing should be impossible, but we currently don't have any other explanation for the readings…"

John looked taken aback. Even he had never heard of such a spell, not even anything close of the sort. It was a fundamental rule of physical law that, even with magic, it wasn't supposed to be possible to create space, and thus by extension dimensions. Sure it be expand and contract, moved and displace was hard but possible, but not simply be created from nothing. Just the thought of it was mind-boggling. But in any case, John instructed his people to keep an eye on the barrier and to keep doing every type of scan they could to analyze it. John meanwhile turned over to Nanoha, "I know you two have known each other since you were kids so maybe you could enlighten me to what the hell that thing Lance made is?" Nanoha, "I couldn't tell you where it exactly comes from myself, but I know that the spell is something that was found on one of Lance's father expeditions and that only Lance was ever able to figure out how to use it. That said, in truth I've only ever seen him use it once when, 5 years ago, he cast it to not only save my life, but most likely the lives of over a hundred billion people during the Beatha Reactor Incident. If he hadn't used that barrier to contain the raw power that was a result of my attack colliding with the monster's own, the dimensional shift that would have no doubt ended countless worlds and destroyed more than a few dimensions would likely have occurred in full. Even to this day I'm not sure how, but that barrier stopped it. That said, the reason Lance hasn't used it since is because he said the spell was incredibly dangerous, though that was obvious given the state he was in after he used it. Lance didn't wake up for a while after that even, and later he told me that using it almost destroyed his linker core, which wass why he promised me he wouldn't ever use it again." John didn't know what to say, none of them did so instead, they just kept watching the monitor for a new development.

"Whoa, this is weird," Andy was trying to search inside the barrier, but even with his prodigious search magic abilities it was immensely difficult. Lee, "Are you having trouble searching through the barrier?" Andy, "No, I can see inside well enough, but I admit that its very odd. The only way I was able to peer inside was to use dimensional level search magic, the type that lets me use my magic to search alternate dimensions, and honestly that kind of search magic always makes me feel off, and whatever the space Lance created with his spell is, its magnifying that feeling immensely. It's kind of a creepy feeling actually. I've never felt like this before, never." Lee looked at Lance who was still holding up the barrier, though it was clear that the strain of it was taking a heavy toll. Lance's arms where he was channeling the power for this spell were convulsing, and his hands here bleeding a bit from the sheer strain, which was to say nothing of the raw amount of magic that the spell clearly took from Lance, more than any of them ever assumed he had. That said, Lee knew that the spell was far too complicated and advanced for any of them to help out with, and so could only watch on and trust in Lance. Andy meanwhile could tell that the time had come to really test the quality of this barrier, "Brace yourself Lance. It looks like it is about to release all its power in five, four, three, two, one…"

Lance was unsure what to expect from the explosion given the nature of his spell, and so braced himself. Even from within the isolated space in the dome though, not just Lance, but the rest of them could feel the explosion, and it was immense. For a few moments, weird white cracks started to form on the outside of Lance's barrier, but they were odd. It wasn't like the barrier itself was cracking, which given its non-solid form would have been strange on its own, but instead it was like the space in the air around it was cracking. That said, Lance concentrated in, and the cracks started to stop. That said, from them, they could feel just a fraction of the raw power that must have been released within the barrier, and it was immense. Lee remembered a power like that once before, and he had created it. It was around the same level as his SHOOTING STAR, RAGNAROK BREAKER, the first combination attack he had ever used, or even as powerful as Nanoha's full power STARLIGHT BREAKER. In fact, Lee could tell, even just feeling a fraction of it, that this level of magic was even higher that that. That said, even in the face of that, Lance and his barrier did not falter, though it took everything he had to keep it up. Despite the barrier isolating the space, Lance could feel that the raw explosive force within was somehow pushing against his best defensive spell from the inside, trying to break out, leaking through the dimensional wall itself. Lance's vision was getting hazy. He was starting to lose his hearing too and felt like he was going under. He could barely feel his hands start to spurt out blood from the strain he was so out of it, but persist he did.

It felt like an eternity, but the whole even barely lasted about 15 seconds before the big blast subsided. Andy no sooner confirmed that the power had died down enough to release the barrier than Lance released his spell, his consciousness disappearing along with his barrier, wherein he could no longer keep himself afloat in the air and started to fall. Luckily, Andy was able to use some kind of support spell to create three magic circles right where Lance was about to land which seemed to act like a soft spring which slowed Lance down so much that when he finally touched the ground, the force had been reduced to nothing, landing him unconscious but otherwise safe. Lee, "Nice save." Andy, "Simple impact reduction spell. Learned it a few weeks ago actually, so I guess it was good timing. That said, after all the advanced search magic I've been using, I admit that I'm almost entirely spent, so I'll have to leave the rest to you guys. I'll go look after Lance though." Lee and Sakura nodded in understanding, they too having to split up. Without Lance, Sakura had to put up a barrier over the city to contain any fallout and conceal them. It was still difficult for her, but after seeing the state Lance put himself in, she felt that she could at least do this much. As for Lee, he knew he had to go and finish this, to find the stone and seal it up for real this time.

That said, all of them were still shocked when they looked over at the area that had been concealed by Lance's barrier. There was absolutely nothing left, it was all completely annihilated. It wasn't just damage at this point, it was simple erasure, like the several blocks of the city that had been there had never existed at all. All that was left was a barren wasteland within a crater that literally was equal in size to the barrier Lance had put up. Along it one could see several pipes and water mains and wires and even subway tunnels that should have been crossing the space where the crater was, and they all simply ended where the crater began. Even the hole near the center where the fake stone had first appeared was the same. That said, that hole was Lee's only starting point, and so he flew off to where the fake stone had come from. According to Andy, the real one had to have been close to supply the power, and sure enough he was right. When Lee got to the center of the crater, he saw it immediately. The stone was floating right above the hole, as if simply waiting to be sealed, something that Lee would most definitely oblige, already activating Haruno in sealing mode, "SEALING."

For the second time that day, Lee shot his thin gold beam of a sealing spell at the Saren Stone, and for the second time that day it didn't go the way he thought it should when a blast of yellow electric magic blasted Lee's attempt into oblivion. Lee though recognized that distinct yellow electrified magic immediately, and so wasn't surprised when he looked up to see Fate Tesstorosa. She had her staff out and pointed at Lee. She didn't say anything, but her face and her body language said enough, and so Lee understood her quite clearly. It was written across her face, especially in her sad blue eyes, "This one is mine. Fight or move aside." Lee though simply answered her in a similar fashion by changing his staff into shooting mode and pointing it back at Fate.

She made the first charge and turned her staff into a giant magical energy scythe to take a good swing at Lee, though her target just dropped quickly to the ground to avoid it before returning the favor, "BLITZ SHOT!" Lee proceeded to fire off off blasts of very fast gold magic like a machine gun, moving his aim to follow Fate who was doing some fancy flying in the air before she too dropped to the ground as well and came rushing at him. Her scythe started to shine, "SPARKING SLASH!" She swung at Lee, who met her with an impact spell of his own, "BREAK IMPACT!" Fate though merely jumped back and shot her PLASMA SMASHER, to which Lee countered with his BLITZ SHOT V2, though with Lee's spell being much faster and thus having more momentum, when the two collided his spell ripped straight through Fate's and landed the first real hit of their fight. Unfortunately though it was a short lived victory, as Fate had already planned a step ahead and made two of her PHOTON LANCER spells appear behind Lee before firing them at his back, landing a sizable hit as well.

Fate as the first to get hit was also the first to regain her balance, and with it she proceeded to take the offensive, "THUNDER RAGE: BUSTER EXTENSION!" Lee vaguely recognized the spell as one she had used against him before, but it was clearly more compressed, as well as being able to be fired horizontally unlike the original as she fired it straight at him. That said, Lee was more than ready to counter her with his own favorite spell, "SHINING BUSTER!" Lee fired his own wave at the incoming attack, with the two massive torrents of magic hitting each other in mid-air and creating a huge explosion from the colliding force. That said, this time Lee was the one a step ahead as while Fate was still reeling from the confrontation of their buster attacks, Lee teleported up high into the sky and summoned hundreds of gold spheres, "FLASH SHIFT!" Lee almost literally rained his magic bullets down on where Fate was. Unfortunately, she proved that she too had no problem teleporting on the fly, vanishing out of the way, reappearing behind Lee where she shot a PLASMA SMASHER at Lee that made a nice hit, blowing him back several feet through the air before he could even attempt to regain his balance. Lee tried to retaliate but Fate gave him no quarter, immediately following up by charging at him with her staff in ZANBER MODE, her device a giant sword about twice as big as she was with her magic as the blade, and proceeded to try and cut him down. Lee in response could only bring out his own sword to try and counter. That said, he was more than capable of going blow for blow with Fate in what quickly grew into a high-speed close quarters fight. That said, Lee felt something odd when they clashed. Fate's strikes, they were fast, they were hard and they were strong, that wasn't something Lee could deny as it took his all to keep up, but beyond that, beyond their power and swiftness, they felt hollow. That said, what they may have lacked in any kind of motivational weight, they more than made up for in their ferocity, for each time Lee repelled her, Fate came back even more vicious as before, even going so far as to start making risky moves just to try and edge Lee out of their furious struggle, one where it was obvious that Lee was holding the advantage in.

It was such action that prompted Lee to try and once again talk her down, unable to fathom why she was so desperate, "I know you said you're trying to help an important person to you, but don't you think this is going a bit too far. I am sure they wouldn't want you risking your life for this." Fate responded mentally while they were still locked in combat, "To see their smile, I will risk my life." "JET ZANBER!" Suddenly, her already huge sword grew three times as big as she flew backwards from their last exchange, from which she charged once again, swinging the massive sword down with so much speed that it was all Lee could do to block. This ended up being the worst possible thing for him to have done, for when the giant blade made contact it pounded Lee with a huge, powerful shockwave that sent him rocketing into the ground. Her sword began to glow brightly and she started swinging the now giant sword, sending flying shockwaves of magic at Lee that sliced the ground. Lee though was able to counter them all with similar flying slashed of his own. Fate though quickly changed tracks as she changed her staff back into Device form. Lee, anticipating her next move changed his staff into normal form as well, Haruno's best mode when it came to focusing on defense. He guessed right as Fate charged up a more powerful THUNDER RAGE spell, shooting her pillar of compressed yellow electric magic straight at Lee. Lee though was ready, focusing everything into his shield spell, "ROUND SHIELD: EXTENDED!" Lee didn't mean to say the last word but it sorts of came out, or more accurately, his device had sent the spell name to him mentally at just the right moment for him to almost unconsciously use it right then and there. Suddenly, two gold magic circles appeared, one above him and one below him, connected by a thick, transparent veil of gold that stretched between the two so Lee is surrounded on all sides, and it was strong. It completely protected him from Fate's attack, leaving him ready for a counter attack.

Fate was clearly surprised that one of her strongest attacks had once again done nothing, a brief moment that gave Lee an opening to finally go back on the offensive, "SHINING BUSTER!" He shot an exceptionally powerful buster at Fate who was exhausted from her last attack, though she was far from out, "THUNDER SMASHER!" She shot an equally powerful blast of magic that collided into Lee's oncoming wave, leaving the two attacks once again stalemated, each one vying for supremacy, but from the current status quo it was an even match. Lee though would not let up, "Haruno, let's do it!" His device lit up brightly, "Let us do it master!" Suddenly, Lee's buster vastly increased in both size and power as Lee poured even more magic into his favorite spell. Fate was unprepared for such a vast and swift increase of force, which allowed Lee's buster wave to rip through Fates attack, but like Lee, she was able to put up a shield in defense, staving off the attack.

Fate though decided to try and take a different approach, gathering a huge amount of magic for a new spell, one that she was sure he was unprepared for, "HAWKEN SABER!" Fate shot her energy scythes blade like a boomerang. Lee shot a GLOWING SHOOTER at it to once again intercept, but to his surprise, it sliced his attack in half and continued. Lee didn't know what to do. He shot a bunch of different attacks to no avail, and dodging did him no good. Lee tried to fly out of the attacks bath, but it was clear that it was either seeking him automatically or Fate was excellent at controlling it, for no matter how many times he dodged it, it kept chasing him. Lee needed some way to destroy the incoming attack, but it was clear that his normal spells would just get cut through.

Lee was suddenly struck by inspiration. He started to focus quickly. He started to charge up his BREAK IMPACT. Then he focused as much as he could on Chrono, and with that, he felt a different spell entirely fill up inside his staff along with his own. Fate though immediately felt that Lee was charging up magic, and so tried to hurry her own attack up, deciding to try and finish it in one big move, "BLITZ RUSH, POWER CHARGE EXTENSION." Fate fired a shockwave towards her own attack, which on contact made her electrified flying boomerang of a spell grow in speed and power. Lee could immediately feel the dramatic increase in power even before he noticed that the sure-hit spell was upon him. That said, Lee was ready for it this time, "BREAK IMPACT and GRAVITON STRIKE COMBINATION ATTACK, ZERO POINT, FINAL IMPACT!" He felt his staff power up and prepared to strike, swinging his staff down at the giant flying blade. The result of such an impact upon as massive an amount of magic Fate pushed into her attack resulted in the inevitable as both Lee and Fate were caught up in the resulting explosion, the shockwave that blew both Lee and Fate back. That said, to Fate's surprise, Lee appeared to be fine, even though he had been at ground zero of that most recent detonation, simply readjusted himself in the air before he flew back to confront Fate again.

Fate didn't know what to do. She was fighting as hard as she could, taking greater and greater risks, but even when she momentarily gained an edge, her opponent would not stop. No matter what strategy she tried, what kind of spell she used, Lee was slowly but surely besting her in all categories. Even with her primary talents, which were specifically geared towards speed and direct confrontation, he was outpacing her. She was also a fairly good at the mid-range as well but the problem was that it was clearly one of his expertise's as well. What was more, her opponent's long range and accuracy were also amazing. She couldn't use her normally surefire solution of an AMF either, for Lee could best her at that too if the last time she attempted it was anything to go by. He was just a universally strong mage, where even his endurance, binds and teleportation, not to mention wide area attack magic were top notch too. Fate was getting more frustrated the more she thought about it, as most mages were not this universally good. And beyond that, the power gap that had originally been between them when they first met, it was all but gone. And beyond that, the more they fought, the more it was clear that he was improving, even in the heat of battle. He had to have one weakness, she knew that since no one was truly invincible, but Fate couldn't see it. This was especially true after she had just learned that he had a borderline unfair bonus ability that allowed him to use Combination spells, which were far more power than normal spells and in being so actually tilted the power scale fully in Lee's favor. Fate had only seen him use it the once in their fight thus far, but she had no doubt given their immense power that they were probably his best finishers as well. She had no doubt if he brought his all to bear, she would not be able to win head on even if she poured all her power into a final attack. That said, at that thought, something clicked within her, what she needed to do, the one area that she could possibly beat him at.

Fate, "It's time to end this!" She changed her staff into its large sword ZANBER mode, as she suddenly started to charge up a hell of a lot of magical power into the blade. It was growing in power rapidly, causing an electrified gust to flow off of Fate charging the air around them with static. It was clear to Lee that she was preparing some kind of massive spell, but even to him he admitted that the power she was giving off was intimidating. He was still newer to magic, but he knew his own power, and by comparing it to what he felt off of her, it was clear that Fate was like him, her power was well over even the immensely high SSS+ level. As it stood, even Lee knew that he probably couldn't match her with any attack spell, of his own. Lee knew his only chance against that kind of immense power would be a combination attack, and given the power of his opponent, it would have to be the strongest that he had ever done.

Lee still felt his connection to Chrono from his last combination spell, and it was still easy for him to call upon. His bond with his first best friend was strong, and he could think of no other to try and make his strongest combination spell with, and so Lee focused on him as hard as he could, knowing exactly what spell he wanted to combine with. At the same time, he charged his own PURE LIGHT BREAKER, this time leaving nothing back. He knew that in order to face the massive power Fate was gathering, he would have to pull out everything he had, and so he was going all out. He paused for a single moment, focusing as hard as he could, trying to tap into the depth of his power, trying to drag it all out. He thought hard about why he was doing this, why he was fighting, his motivation, his resolve, and suddenly he felt it, that overarching power he had deep inside, it was begging for release, and release it he did. He shot up in an absolutely MASSIVE surge of raw power, the likes of which none of them had ever felt from him before, not his friends both there and afar, and most certainly not Fate who was having second thoughts about facing the absolutely massive force that was staring her down. But if that wasn't enough, suddenly a blue orb from what was clearly one of Chrono's attacks appeared next to his own, the raw form of Chrono's strongest attack. Lee though just channeled all the power he was pulling out to charge both spells up to the max. The entire ground inside the barrier was shaking violently just from the power Lee and his spells were giving off, for it was that terrifyingly powerful.

Back to where Sakura was, she had flown down while still supporting her barrier to see how Lance was. Andy had done a quick field check, and to Sakura's relief while Andy said Lance was going to be out cold for a while, he should otherwise be fine physically, though he honestly didn't know how he was going to be magically. That said, upon feeling the raw power that was Lee suddenly wash over them as he was charging up his spell, Andy quickly adverted his attentions to figure out what the hell was happening over with Lee and his fight against the new enemy that had appeared, "Oh, holy crap, what does Lee think he is doing!" Sakura, "What's going on?" Andy looked at her like she was crazy, "Are you dead and blind, how can you not feel that." Sakura had been so preoccupied with Lance's condition that she had tuned everything else out, and so diverted her focus back to her surroundings, needing but a second before suddenly felt a jolt of power from where Lee was, like literal electricity flowing through her body. This was the big one, it was clear that Lee was planning to finish this now with one final blow, and a big blow at that.

Back in a hanger in Japan, everyone was at the bridge of the ship. John and the rest had felt Lee's power spike from where they were thousands of miles away, "I want a reading NOW!" One of the mages got on it and reported back a few seconds later, "Sir, it broke 2 billion, 2.1, 2.3, now at 2.4 billion." Then the reading suddenly stopped going up. "Sir, it has peaked at… Wait, this can't be right, our scanners are saying Lee Cross's power has spiked at 2.8 billion. I've never seen a reading this high from just one mage. There's no way that the nearby barrier is anywhere near strong enough to contain it. It will rip through it like wet tissue." John knew his son was strong, but even he looked shocked at the power he felt, for it was more powerful than the one he did at FRETICA and that one was already strong enough to cause dimensional level damage. That said, John was still experienced enough to have thought ahead, which was why he had already sent a few specialized teams to wait on the outskirts of the city once Fate had entered the picture, and it was to them that he addressed his next orders, "I want the highest Level Dimensional Barrier around there NOW. I want that city severed from normal space and a double thick AMF layer inside that. We need to make it so anything that hits it dissolves or else we're all screwed." Suddenly a second reading popped up, one that made his analyst break out in even more of a cold sweat, "Sir, I'm picking up a second reading. This ones at almost 2.7 sir, but still rising very slowly." John looked, if possible, even more shocked. A second reading almost at Z rank. If John was being honest with himself, even at his best he might barely reach those levels, and that required going full out, and so the fact that two kids literally decades younger than him were doing so was almost mind-shattering. "Sir, the defensive squad has finished erecting both of your requested barriers, and they said they feel confident that they can handle just about anything." John could only hope his subordinate was right.

Back to where Sakura was, she had felt her barrier disappear and was replaced by a double layer of an AMF. Andy though at the sight of it suddenly looked quite dour, "I guess this is inevitable after the General noticed a surge of magic like this. It's protocol in this kind of situation to separate such a force from normal space completely and put up a magic cancelation barrier to contain negative fallout to the rest of an inhabited planet." Sakura, "Well isn't that a good thing? It wouldn't do for Lee to harm the planet." Andy, "Yeah, it's a good thing, for those outside the barrier, but that leaves us stuck in here when those powers clash, and I don't know about you, but there's no way I can survive something like that. There will be no getting outside this barrier without being able to rip through dimensions so were pretty much done for." Sakura though quickly had an idea, and so while Andy was still looking down at the ground in resignation, Sakura focused in as a magic circle appeared vertically in front of her. Andy though simply looked on at Sakura in complete shock and amazement as she created what was one of the rarest forms of teleportation magic in existence as the magical gate to outside the barrier appeared. Sakura, "Well, would a portal work?" Andy sighed in relief, "You are about to save all our skins!" They made haste, Andy levitating Lance's unconscious body, and quickly walked through Sakura's portal and out of harms way. Once they were outside the barrier, Sakura hastily closed her portal behind them. Andy though just sighed, "Good, now it's all up to Lee." Andy suddenly cast some kind of spell, and along with it made a screen appear in front of them that showed the inside of the barrier, focusing on Lee and the other mage charging up, "I can display my search magic as well, so now all we can do is wait and see what happens."

Lee was done fusing the two orbs into a single, all powerful attack, a bright golden orb shining brightly with blue flames as an aura, like some kind of mythical comet. Fate was done with her spell to, though she wasn't truly sure if she was ready to face the sheer power that Lee was putting out, for it was completely terrifying in its sheer enormity. That said, it was now or never as Lee was done charging up his attack, and what awesome power it held, "The brave warriors final attack, let the resolve of the last race come forth to help guide this soul. Call upon the strength of legend as the holy dragon endows its final ultimate power. PURE LIGHT BREAKER and DRAGON CRASH FINAL COMBINATION ATTACK, HEAVENS DRAGON BLAST!" Lee fired his attack, but what was launched even surprised him. It wasn't a blast that shot out of his massive charged spell but a giant, golden dragon with flaming blue eyes, wings and fangs, charging at Fate with a massive, audible roar as it did. It was a truly sight to behold. Its roar and ferocity seemed to rip through life itself as it charged at Lee's opponent.

This was what Fate had been waiting for, but she never expected it to be this powerful. She wasn't sure if her plan was going to work, but it was too late to back out now. "DEFENCER PLUS: EXTENDED FIELD." A powerful looking barrier placed itself around Fate, but that was nowhere near enough, and so she started chanting, "Arcus Cultus Aegeas, gods of thunder, be my shield and my line to life. Arcus Cultus Aegeas shield me from the hands of Destiny. THUNDER GOD DEFENCER!" A second barrier appeared around Fate, this one was much stronger. It was glowing brightly and felt almost as powerful as the one Lance had made, even if it was of an infinitely smaller size. That said, it also had a bunch of unrecognizable characters and lines around it, though to anyone who could see it was of an entirely different script than Lance's spell. Fate though with her best defensive magic in place could now only brace herself as the dragon collided into the double barrier with Fate inside. The dragon hit her defenses hard, but didn't stop there as even as it rammed her, the dragon continued forward and hit the barrier.

Back at the base, John was watching a live feed of the battle, though now it was obscured by the barriers, but his analyst was giving them updates, "All barriers holding, Point of contact with the AMF layer in 3, 2, 1-!" Everyone felt a giant shockwave all of a sudden through their magic senses, despite them all being thousands of miles away, enough to almost knock them over like if they had just smelt pure amonia. John, "What the devil?" John's analyst was suddenly sounding much more panicked, "Sir, this is impossible, the attack hit the AMF but it isn't dissolving. The defense team say's that somehow, the attack is attempting to rip through it! This in insane, I never heard of this happening before!" John's eyes grew wide. He too had never heard of any attack able to survive contact with an AMF, "Have the backup barrier squad put up another two layers of barrier outside the first for concealment. We clearly can't contain the fallout so we're at least going to hide it." "SIR!" The barrier squad put up two very large barriers, so tall that they would at least hide the oncoming spell from any prying eyes, and not a moment too soon. At that exact moment that the new barriers were up, the barrier team, and by extension John and the rest who were getting a live feed, they all heard a thunderous, reverberating roar the likes of which they had never heard before. then looked back at the screen to see what the hell was going on when to his, and everyone else's shock, they saw a Golden Dragon ripping through the barriers, "My God!"

The dragon that was Lee's most powerful combination spell pierced the AMF layer and the first barrier completed, after which Andy and Sakura saw it fly over their heads. They were in awe as the spell passed over them, only able to watch on as they mythical looking beast of magic ripped through the other two barriers like wet tissue and proceeded onwards out towards space. It was only when the attack had traveled out far enough to collapse in on itself and explode that it pushed up against the dimensional barrier that John's people had put up that, though the raw force of it, even from on high, was enough to cause tremors on the ground and send shockwaves through space. The explosion was enormous, like watching a huge atomic explosion in space, lighting up the sky as everyone simply watched on. John and the rest of the group quickly went outside the base to look at it, for even as far away as Japan, the light of Lee's attack lit up the sky with brilliant hues of gold and blue, even from a third the way across the planet. It was like a giant aurora, but infinitely more terrifying and awe inspiring.

Back at ground zero, Lee was breathing incredibly heavily, clearly exhausted to the brink after pouring all his power into that one immense spell. He was barely holding consciousness, having used up the very last dregs of his strength. That said his attention now was focused on the spot that Fate was before the attack, trying to figure out what had become of his opponent, hoping that he hadn't taken this fight too far, though given the power that she had brought to bear he knew he didn't really have any other options. That said, right now all he saw was a large cloud of smoke from where his attack had collided into its target. That said, his eyes widened when he noticed a shine come through the smoke and debris as the wind came and swept the smoke away. He couldn't contain his shock as he saw what was revealed. Where Fate had been, there was a cracked yellow barrier, very damaged, the first layer gone but the second layer still barely intact in the important places, clearly having succeeded at its job despite its condition. Lee didn't know what to do now, for he was most certainly out of magic, on the verge of unconsciousness as it was, and his opponent, Fate had survived!? Suddenly, the barrier shattered and Fate appeared, clearly damaged heavily, but fine nonetheless much to Lee's dismay.

Fate was hurting from that last attack, but she clearly had the strength to continue, "Wondering how I survived?" Lee could see, Fate, despite her current condition, looked pleased with herself as she continued on, "I'll tell you. I've been studying you and have seen your recent fights, and after seeing your ability to use combination spells, it was easy to guess that you would use one again for your final spell despite the immense amount of magic that they must require, and as strong as I am, I knew you couldn't afford to hold anything back and would spend yourself up. But I'll admit that your spell was way more than I expected, but the point here is that I was expecting it. Thus to counter, I stored up a vast amount of magic quickly to make a stronger defense. I knew that to take me down, you would hold nothing back and become severely weakened when you finished, drained of magic and about to collapse. I knew if I could survive that one attack, it would be easy sailings, and it's clear that I've won my bet, though I'll admit that I didn't come out completely unscathed. Your blast did penetrate the barrier. If I hadn't defended with a third defense quickly, you would have most likely won. Your attack was that strong, to even be able to pierce my strongest defensive spells, and that power is what will be your downfall."

Lee knew she was right. He didn't even know why he was still standing, possibly only his stubbornness keeping him still conscious. Fate though simply held out a very damaged Baradiche. She then started to charge up a final attack. "TRIDENT SMASHER!" Suddenly, 3 large magic circles appear, one on top, two below so it looked like a triangle. Then, a large sphere of yellow, electrified magic appeared in the center if each one. "FIRE!" All three fired at the same time, shooting three powerful blasts of magic at Lee. Lee though knew that this was it, no matter what he did now he couldn't block them. Hell he wasn't just all out of magic, his body itself was so exhausted that he couldn't even move, simply stuck like a deer in headlights as Fate's attack came at him. That said, just before Fate's attack hit him, Lee felt something fly out of his hand. The blasts hit and resulted in a large explosion, obscuring Lee from view.

When the smoke and debris settled, both Lee and Fate were shocked, unable to comprehend what had just happened. Lee was unharmed, he didn't know how, but he wasn't damaged at all, not even a scratch. Fate though just looked straight towards him, completely wide-eyed. Lee looked in front of him for a cause and saw what could only be described as impossible, a piece of fiction, a miracle. A staff, his staff, was floating in front of him without anyone holding it. Somehow, beyond all logic and reason, his device, his beloved partner Haruno had jumped in between Lee and the attack and put up a barrier, though whose and from where he had no clue. He had never felt magic like the one his staff was producing before, and it most definitely wasn't his, even if it did somehow feel familiar. The light blue shield it had produced was cracked through, but had successfully blocked the attack. Just as suddenly as it had defended him though, Lee's staff suddenly fell to pieces and the blue marble that was Haruno fell to the ground, now cracked in two.

Lee dropped to his knees and picked up both parts of the blue marble amongst the rubble. Lee was in so much shock that he didn't really register it when Fate sealed the real stone, number 10, and then number 14 flew out of the two broken pieces of Haruno and flew into the also damaged Baradiche per their agreement. Fate looked down quickly at Lee and his broken staff, still in shock at what had occurred, but knowing that she had used almost all her own power at that point and, unsure of what other impossibilities Lee could manage, vanished a split second later into thin air, stones and all. With Fate gone and the battle over, all the tension that was keeping Lee awake left him all at once, losing consciousness on the spot. He fell to the ground, exhausted, battered, beaten, and holding a broken Haruno in his hands.

Author's Note:

Hello. First, I want to apologize for the long delay between the last upload and this one, though I mentioned in the previous note that this was always a planned break, though it lasted a little longer than intended, but just to reassure everyone, I will state it again. This story will not, nor ever will be abandoned. There's no need, since the story itself is already completed, and I'm merely re-editing the chapters to put back up, and so I reiterate that if I ever did tire of that, I will simply dump the entire raw story up all at once. Also, in case anyone noticed, I changed the chapter titles to abbreviate the word chapter for extra character length. But onto my feelings about what occurred this chapter.

This chapter. I have words about this chapter (12,800 of them exactly if you cared). To start with, yes, Lee is strong, and up to this point, he's basically been a Chad in terms of strength and powerups, but to be clear, Fate was mostly always able to match him. She was always strong, and frankly when it comes to magic combat experience, she is Lee's superior in most departments besides power. Thus, in order for the story to not feel hollow, Lee needed to lose. As much as I like overpowered Chads, they don't make for particularly good characters in the long run, and this story is quite lengthy. That said, I feel confident in how the battle played out, and I feel it is a good way to deliver someone like Lee a loss while still showing how much he's grown and how powerful he really is, while still asserting Fate's own might.

On another note, the other highlight of this chapter goes out to my boy Lance. He is honestly one of my favorite characters (well they all are, but you get the point), but I feel his support role, even after being highlighted in previous chapters never feels like it gets enough credit, especially since he had effectively trained with someone as powerful as Nanoha for years, and has been stated as doing so on near equal footing. That said, I think that shows this chapter at the forefront as he quite literally saved the day from a blast that, even as powerful as Lee was, would have most definitely annihilated them all.

That said, above the other focuses of this chapter, one of my more long planned plots is coming to a head, and that is Lee's device, Haruno. I made incredibly subtle hints to it before, but as we got closer to this chapter, I've slowly ramped it up, but if it wasn't obvious before, it isn't just Lee that was special, it was his device. Even compared to other devices I've shown, it should be clear that despite not having some overt special abilities, it was clearly different than any other device shown, showing a level of autonomy and assistance that hasn't been seen with any other device, culminating in the last scene of this chapter where it sacrifices itself to save Lee, at the cost of its own destruction. As to what this means, that would be spoilers so you'll have to keep wondering until I reveal it. That said, all I'll give you is that there was a reason that I call this story the Haruno chronicles.

And finally, a question I've been asked before, which was as to why I chose the American city of Chicago as the setting for this chapter, the answer is quite interesting. I wanted a city in North America that would sound funny in "Japanese Engrish" and split up, "Chi" and "Kago" (phonic spelling of cago) are both Japanese words. What's more, according to a friend who actually is trying to learn the language, they can mean "Energy" and "Cage" respectively, which seemed to fit the theme of barriers that was prevalent throughout the chapter with Lance's that saved them initially from the stone, Fate's that let her win victory over Lee and finally Haruno's which miraculously saved Lee at the end, so it only felt right to choose that city once I knew that (Fun fact, before I wanted it to sound funny in Japanese engrish, I had chosen San Francisco).