Chapter 13
Major Ryunosuke Kanata looked over at his people, what remained of them. They were beaten, hungry thirsty and just almost vaporized, but they were alive. He'd never tell anyone how close they were to death from that last one.
The evacuation had gone almost perfectly, they'd seen the monster and the corpses turning into dust with their very eyes. The route had been clear except for the roads that were covered in pileups or cut off by something. They'd even found a bridge still in conditions to hold his whole convoy and not crumble under their weight.
As soon as they'd come out of the tunnels running below the mountains, they had sent up the flares as they'd planned with the Operative. And then stuff returned to the weirdness that had plagued this whole week of combat.
The most demented disco ball had taken to use the city as its stage, cutting though the mountains and vaporizing the top of the one they'd been closest to. Then a few minutes later, something had crashed into that same mountain.
Someone had read the fairytales and decided to pull out all the stops, as the projectile revealed itself as an enormous red western dragon, wing stubs on its back still smoking, just like the holes on its head and chest. The thing had looked at the collection of haggard soldiers and then looked back at the city as if hearing something, then it had broken into a run and left them alone.
Kanata didn't want to feel insulted at being dismissed by a superpowered lizard, but the last bits of his pride had left with it. He just wanted to get to his barracks and forget this whole shitshow.
Even then, he didn't know if he pitied or was proud of those who'd chosen to stay behind. From the sound of things, they'd picked the biggest stick to beat whoever had planned all of this.
In an abnormal moment, he clapped his hands and prayed. To anyone out there, watch over those crazy bastards and the spook mad enough to lead them.
The thunder echoed across the mountain range, if it was answering him or something else, no one would truly know.
The site must've looked strange to anyone watching from afar, a woman barely in her twenties, a humongous sword in her right hand, her left arm ending in a dragon's head, wings thrice her height coming out of her back, a snarl fixed in her place as she spammed beams of plasma at those around her.
'Those' being armored figures, running around the woman like some demented circus motorbike show. Paths of semi-transparent light appearing just before they ran, all while firing their oversized weaponry at the woman in the middle of the dome, beams clipping her armor or being deflected just before making contact. Her own counters being defected by semitransparent octagons popping just for long enough to divert or absorb the beams coming out of her wings. Rage would have become her concept instead of Thunder just by the color of her face.
Then thing turned even more crazy, as the bulkier, steel colored soldiers suddenly activated thrusters on various parts of their bodies, the white and pink one gained angelic pink wings, and the blue and silver one gained insectoid red ones. As fast as they moved, they also rained upon their near apoplectic foe a combination of flash forged depleted uranium, explosives and plasma that created a sound like that of the thunderstorm currently raging around them.
One of the bulky, silver warrior currently zipping around the Herrscher of Thunder with a recovered Shotgun, instead of the fear one would expect of the particulars of the battle, was whooping in joy like no other.
Private Hideaki Tyler didn't regret picking up that shotgun that had hit the Lt on the head. Sure, she got a power up from it, but he'd gotten a shotgun! It was quite small, and the ergonomics were a bit wonky, but the power totally made up for it, even if Tango Hotel still managed to deflect his shots. Setting the shotgun to high ex helped as the projectiles detonated as they came closer to her. The bullet hell coming from Watchpoint exploited the most basic tenet of gaming: Circling while shooting. The amount of heat coming from all directions proved to be quite the pain for the Herrscher.
(BGM: Undertale - Megalovania)
Until she let the little bits that made up her wings take off on their own, which they did as they came together to form at least six dragon skulls. The drones aimed at various Raiders and opened their mouths to fire, some of them receiving some plasma before they finished charging, courtesy of the Lt. and her flying around like a woman-sized fighter jet. Yinsen also flew around with his own wings firing his oversized revolver, one shot blowing up one of the Skull drones. Unfortunately, they respawned back at Tango Hotel's side just after they exploded.
But more and more beams and bullets began hitting her, the holes become leaks for whatever this thing used as blood, it sizzled and evaporated into noxious-looking fumes. She called back her drones and used them to initiate a 360 attack that the barriers in front of each Raider managed to catch.
Yinsen's voice came out the comms. "Her shield is almost spent! Keep the suppressive fire!"
Hideaki Tyler gladly obliged.
The Activation couldn't have come at a better time since now I had full access to functions that once on another time allowed humanity to defy its would be end bringers. They got shafted by their own people but that was another story. No longer would I have to depend on how many beasts I could find and kill. Now I made the rules. But one thing that did surprise me was that little function that read:
[AT Field Shared Distribution Network: Online]
From what we could piece together, it used the Risers as relays for my At Field and then subordinated a fraction of its power for their own use. Now I was technically granting my fellows a power boost that shouldn't have ever been combined with Rider powers. Now I could fly and so could Aikawa, the others instead began sliding on air like that white armored guy from Japanese Gears of War (Vanquish was it?). the speed they achieved thanks to the Network boosting their power levels and giving them control over At fields meant that we turned the Herrscher of Thunder into the focus of one hell of concentrated fire.
Aikawa and I flew around, shooting at the things the Herrscher turned her wings into. They reminded me of the skeleton some streamers always celebrated finally beating. Only that instead of kinda human, these looked like dragon skulls, otherwise they still opened their mouth Predator style. They took a few second to charge and they for some reason stayed still while doing so. We exploited that and blew them up before they could fire, but they respawned next to the Herrscher with a full shot charged. Those beams were no joke, they drained the AT field quickly and the heat still managed to somewhat get through. Only the speed everyone was moving at prevented us from turning into slag.
She pulled off an AOE move by keeping her Dragobits flying around her, firing their beams and the making them spin around her. I noticed that the drones began moving slower after that attack, as their charging time taking a few more seconds than before. ""Her shield is almost spent! Keep the suppressive fire!" I shouted as I noticed more beams scorching the Herrscher's limbs.
She was gaining quite a pitiful appearance, her dragon arm was riddled with holes, her sword chipped, her legs crisscrossed with burns and her chest had various marks where she's prioritized her regeneration. Her dress, once holding a dark allure, was now almost evaporating at the edges back into Honkai cubes.
We kept moving and firing, she swung her sword that now could fire off beams where she slashed, her dragon arm used as a beam cannon while the Dragobits now stayed by her side and began intercepting out shots. Would be fatal projectiles were now being swatted aside without regard to the Dragobits' continued existence. But even they couldn't keep up with our volume of fire.
So, I guess she finally decided to make a last gambit. Interestingly, she didn't speak her usual likes of 'die, mongrels', instead, she focused her Dragobits on herself, letting them become bone white armor. She still looked beaten to all hell and now looked more like one of the ninjas from the game, deathly pallor included. But her eyes, once filled with confidence and arrogance, now were filled with something I often felt my whole life: Fear.
She broke through our enclosure, making us fly all around as we tried to stop and find her. I flew higher and diverted as much power as I could to my sensor suit, I saw Aikawa coming closer but still sweeping her Shotriser across the sky. Only fortune avoided me maffling to the oldest trick in the book: rise to the sky and drop with everything you had. My AT Field reinforced Calibur met an accelerated plasma blade and lost. She had improvised a Progressive Knife out of her powers… huh, color me impressed.
The Attache Calibur's sacrifice was not in vain, as my Thousand Jacker appeared on my other hand and this time, held against the Herrscher's weapon. I managed to parry her blade and land a kick on her, just below her dragon arm. I felt something crumble and I ate some plasma for my achievement.
But now, she just kept falling. "Everyone, finish her, NOW!" Hands reached for belt buttons.
And then the sky lit up. On our terms this time.
A city, now dead, laid there, dead and defiled by energies from beyond humans' reach. But there, brave soldiers had bled and refused to let it die, futilely fighting to keep what remained from the claws of the eldritch. Lines of melted concrete crisscrossed its streets, fires around them still burning. Pileups high as houses and some including military vehicles where failed evacuations once took place.
In the last hour, more scars marred the once bustling metropolis, beams added more unplanned water channels, missed shots added to the collections of craters and contributed to the ongoing unplanned demolitions.
But, had anyone remained in that city, they would have heard the calls that would avenge it.
"ROCKING THE END!"
"FLYING BLAST! FEVER!"
"INVADING BOLIDE!"
Six kicks covered in red energy hit the Queen of Thunder, from different angles, popping her shields for the final time, a pink angel descended with a kick that broke her back. And a blue warrior ascended and looked at her eyes as his hand went through her chest, grasping a shining crystal stuck to a glowing cube. His world once again became white.
[BGM: Undertale - His Theme (Orchestral Cover)]
"She is silent, at last…" The girls in front of us in this whitespace was ordinary. While she shared some characteristics with the Herrscher of Thunder, this one looked… normal. No more a copypaste from a universe far from this one. Just… a girl, like any other. "Thank you…"
"So this is the one who finally bested me?" the Queen of Thunder appeared next to the girl. She looked at Zea and Ark next to me and her sneer turned a little less plastic. "A Failure and two little kids… hah, truly, you would have made a powerful ally." The two merged and her battered form once more stood again. "As is, you have taken everything from me, my power, my body, my servants…" she stood right in front of me. "But this you won't take from me."
In her hands, a red gem glowed, like the sky did with distant lightning. She took my hand and put the gem on it. I felt the roar of thunder echo on the distance and something trying to reach for my thoughts… only to be rejected and rendered silent. The Queen looked at me expectantly, and then smiled. "Truly, such a failure, that not even that with two cores can her divine voice reach you? Perhaps…" She looked at me from head to toe and her smile widened a little. "You will be the end of this world. One way or another."
"Perhaps indeed, but I will ensure that many survive that end, no matter what" My words would have sounded like empty bravado, but… this time…
"Indeed, there shall your trials lie, Herrscher of Soul." She spun in place, as if dancing. "My Core, my curse, I give to you, but not without payment."
"…What kind of payment?" Really? You could have done that from the beginning! No need to kill everyone!
"Do not fret. I've already received it. And accepted it." What? "I take from you… My name. I'm no longer She Who Rules Over Judgement, I am Raiden Tohka. I am myself again." Another spin, and like a dream, she faded away.
I woke up again, lying on the rubble our improvised arena had fallen. Sunlight came from behind the clouds and for the first time in days, the city saw it once again. Watchpoint kept their distance but I sense no animosity from them, just a quite awe and disbelief. Aikawa had taken upon herself to give me a lap pillow that despite the rider armor, was surprisingly comfortable. "We did it…" Her voice was hoarse, but the amazement could be felt in every fiber of her being. "We actually did it…"
That moment was broken as our radios cracked to life, thousands of voices echoed in our helmets before receding, only an artificial voice remained. "To all Personnel of the Nagazora Prefecture, Tactical Nuclear Strike has been authorized, evacuate immediately. I Repeat. To all Personnel..."
The awe shifted into horror, it was on thing to theorize the plan, but to be on the receiving end… Aikawa's hand reached for her helmet in panic. "This Lieutenant Himeko Aikawa of the Northern Army's Second Division! There are still people here! Delay! Delay!"
Wait, what?
"This Major Ryunosuke Kanata of the Second Logistics Support Regiment. We have massive casualties and damaged transports! We won't get out in time! Delay bombardment!"
Oh no.
We are out of time.
Ark, Zea, you have uplinks to anything right now?
[ZEA Notification: Twenty Satellites in range. Connecting.]
[ARK Notification: Three Satellites with necessary hardware found. Connecting.]
An image appeared in my HUD, more like a video feed. 96 trails rapidly crossed from the westernmost point of the island; at their speeds they would hit us in no time.
Oh fuck. Ark, can we hack them?
[ARK Notification: No receiver hardware detected.]
Fuck, they must have switched everything they could on those missiles back to analog to shield them from the EMP, but…
All of us had stood up and were scanning the skies, looking for anything that might get us out of here. Our fight had burned through what remained of the towers and I doubted anything here would let us survive 96 consecutive nuclear explosions, even the Rider technology could only take so much damage.
But…
These seven. They had followed me from the beginning, me, a kid that knew nothing of war and was hanging by the seat of his pants, coming up with plans that could mean the fate of the world based on phone gaming and internet discussions… someone like me now held the power to change everything. Me! The one bum my family gladly had ridden themselves of once my parents died! The one that everyone told would never achieve anything of worth!
But these guys… I don't know if they will get the second chance I had. But I wouldn't risk it.
I can't.
If Aikawa... If Himeko is the one how I now suspect she is… she would have survived, somehow. Her squad? Kanata? I doubt it.
But I can change it.
I can change the world.
I will destroy it… this world that demands giving up everything you love to survive, that demands blood for you continued existence… for nothing more than a few moments it will gladly wait to kill you after driving you to despair.
The jewel in my hand glowed, and I held it to my chest, it vanished into motes of light and I felt something join my core. Nothing invasive, just… like it was always meant to be there…
"Himeko, I will overload your suits power systems, use your finishers to run as fast as you can. Link up with Kanata, get out of here."
"…What about you? Aren't you coming?" I could hear… something in her voice…
"Someone has to delay those nukes."
"What can you do to stop them? Let's go!"
"What can eight people do against a sentient thunderstorm?"
She lowered her head and her fists clenched, I think I saw her exhale something that glowed for moment. "…Don't you fucking dare to die."
"Heh, don't worry, I will find you, all of you. Once this is all over."
"You damn better. You owe me a beer for this." Himeko took off her helmet, ripped mine off, and planted a deep kiss on my lips.
Ah… this is so damn cliché. For a good reason.
I gave her a memory drive with all my logs and what I knew about the Honkai. Hopefully, this would give Fire Moth a head start for dealing against the eldritch. She, with a final look into my eyes, ordered Watchpoint to follow her.
I had no time to lose.
[Flight Module: Online]
One for the team, huh…
[BGM: Evangelion 2.0 OST: Tsubasa wa Kudasai (Give me Wings)]
Anyone who hadn't survived Nagazora would reject the notion of humans flying without assistance, those coming out of its ruins, now knew of the oncoming war. Where humanity would stand against thing far beyond their normal preconceptions. Far above anything they had faced. Well maybe except for those who'd survived the two previous eruptions. Which weren't that many.
So many wouldn't have believed as a man shot up into the skies, red wings propelling him into the air and towards the weapons that would level the whole island if left alone. Semi-transparent octagons propelled him to speed that would have turned a human into paste, but his speed was necessary to reach the missiles.
Coming close to them was not difficult, what he had to do, would be. AT Fields enveloped the weapons of mass destruction and gently began altering their course, their fail safes detecting the alteration to their course and trying to compensate and return to their target. But the fields were strong enough to still alter their course. The Fields propped up the missiles where they would have begun their descent, keeping them in the air instead. Their speed meant that a single moment of mistiming was enough to avoid the city altogether. In a few moments more, the man ad weapons were now flying across the ocean, far away from the island, a hard turn was needed and now he was flying across the northern pacific. Kamchatka was still visible from his point of view.
A few moments later, the last of Russia disappeared under the horizon, and the man used the AT Field to gather the missiles into a neat bundle. Another application and the warheads were severed from the projectiles, and then the man encased the explosives into more AT fields and with the rockets behind him shoved the bundle of nuclear payload into the water.
Not a moment later the 10 and something megaton explosion left the behind the classic mushroom cloud, water raised, and, in a few hours, a small tsunami would hit Russia and Japan.
And then, there was silence.
Arc 1 End
The Day Hope crashed through the sky
.
.
.
A voice, not, really, but something made its thought known about the recent addition to the game. "Pointless. but Interesting..." Yellow eyes glowed, something close to emotion, flashed on them for a brief instant.
Eternity returned to stillness, once more.