"We still got a long ways to go, ladies and gentlemen." Spike tightened his grip on his gun control. "So keep your eyes peeled."
Long ways is right. Marie's fingers had gone sore of holding the trigger for so long. Haruto had lost count just how many Hunters he sliced down. Forget about being damaged; now it's the matter of loss of focus, stress, and the stamina, and more importantly, runes. By his count… they've been fighting for 30 minutes. But that's 30 minutes of hell that felt like 30 hours, fending off an endless stream of tireless machines that gets worse with each wave both in intensity and quantity. If one gets through, they're dead. If they stop the train for even a second for a breather, they're dead. A single lax in weathering this flood of overwhelming numbers, and they're dead. The train crew had it easier. They had more men. When one hit the limit, the other replaces them. The problem is, the two pilots out there had no one else. And like any human, supersoldier or not… they'll get tired eventually.
But after a few more minutes that seem to last centuries, the seemingly endless wave of enemies finally… stopped. Just like before in the previous module. They've literally destroyed every enemy in this sector. Spike immediately called. "You two! Get in! Take a break."
"Roger… that…" Marie was able to answer between pants.
"…" Haruto was strangely silent. Marie immediately had a dreadful premonition.
Nonetheless, both units returned back into the train. The Kagerou dug back into cover and the Valvrave also flew back into the rear car's hangar. As soon as the Kagerou landed, Marie jumped out of the cockpit and run across the train, with Alice can barely keep up behind her. Her unit was stored in the front most car, whilst the Valvrave is stored at the rearmost car. It took her a while as she ran across the train, giving her some chance to observe the survivors from front to back. Everyone's weary, everyone's afraid. A sight she knew all too well.
In any rate, when she finally get to the rear car storage, the Valvrave had landed there, cooling down nicely after such a fierce fight… but the pilot had yet to pop out, much to the confusion and concern of everyone present. When Marie arrived with Alice in tow, Spike immediately asked. "Ah! Good timing, lassie!"
"What's going on?"
"We've been calling him again and again, but he won't respond… he won't come out no matter what! Maybe you can… say something?"
"Oh." Marie had a pretty good guess why. "Right… this is gonna be tricky."
"Eh?"
A quick preparation: Spike, and three of his toughest linemen must immediately bulrush Haruto as soon as Marie forcibly opened the door. After that, the kicker must immediately… kick Haruto's head.
"…uh… lassie… isn't that a little extreme?"
"If my guess is right… I don't think even that would be enough." Marie shrugged. "Get ready. Remember what I said. I'm opening the hatch now in 3… 2… 1… open hatch!"
As soon as the cockpit hatch was opened, as expected, the first that jump out of the cockpit… was a berserk Haruto with red markings on his face. Spike and his four massive linemen charged in and tackled the crazed pilot's four limbs. Spike get only his right arm, but it felt like he's being charged down by an entire offensive line and he was almost thrown off sky high. 'W… What!?' The other linemen were no different in their struggle. And to think, the boy was just a little over half their size.
"KICK HIS HEAD! KICK!" The Kicker was having second thoughts upon seeing Haruto's foaming mouth snapping viciously with his fangs protruding. "Oh MAN!" Plucking up what courage he had, he rushed and swing his kick straight to Haruto's roaring head. He felt like he just kicked a weighted ball. "OUCHH!"
But it did the job. As the poor kicker is hopping up and down screaming something about his toes, the markings on Haruto's face disappeared as sanity returned to his eyes. Haruto's struggle ended and he calmed down immediately, though the four linemen had yet to relax their grip.
Marie knelt down in front of his face. "Yo. Haruto? You're back?"
"…M… Marie?" The markings disappeared… for now.
"You can let go now." Marie nodded once she confirmed her best friend is back.
"You're sure, lassie?" Spike still had his doubts.
"Dead sure." Thus, they finally let Haruto go.
"It sure feels nostalgic. It's been a while since I last see you like that." Marie sighed. The poor guy's face was so pale.
"It doesn't feel nostalgic." Haruto groaned. He got up, but his body was wracked with this… feeling of fragility. Like he'll fell apart in one fell swoop. Haruto had this feeling before. He's starving… for runes.
"Uhh… what happened just now?" Spike gulped. He looks so weak right now but earlier he looked like he can push the entire offensive line all the way to goal post single handedly.
"You need to feed." Marie surmised. "You've used a ton of runes throughout this whole ordeal… protecting us during that crash land… healing Alice's injury… and then all that fighting."
"Uh… what? Feed?" Spike paled.
"Uhh… sorry we forgot to tell you. We're practically vampires." Marie explained shortly, and Haruto weakly nodded.
"Vampires as in the blood sucking vampires?"
"Human Alien hybrid Space Vampires Super Soldier. But yes. Vampires."
"So when you said he needs to feed means by definition he needs to… (gulp) drink someone's blood?"
"Memories, to be precise. Memories and knowledge of someone – that's what we fed on." Marie added: "But in the nutshell, yes. We need blood."
Everyone paled. The five people who had contributed in restraining and stabilizing the ravenous vampire suddenly realized they just escaped by the skin of their teeth. Everyone immediately took three steps back, giving the vampires a wide berth. Everyone except Spike. Spike's brows knitted but he remained calm and composed. "Haruto, my man?"
"Yes?"
"…I think it's past time I asked this question. Why are you REALLY here? I think I've just realized that you're not here just for us, right?" He knew from experience that Haruto was not the reckless type. He seems to be quite aware of the danger he pose to everyone around him. That being said, it seems highly unlikely he would come here just for a joyride.
Haruto looked at Spike. It's not that his eyes were devoid of the fear he saw in others, but he was the first to regain his bearings and keep it cool. Haruto nodded. "I'm here… to look for my father."
"Your Father?"
"Tokishima Shoichi. My father, and the man largely responsible for turning me… turning US all into… this."
Spike's eyes widened ever so slightly.
"As you already know, we're bioengineered super soldier, half human, half alien. Designed to fight the alien, Magius. My father was the head of the project. The one most responsible for making it all a reality." Haruto continued. "We had a reasonable intel that ARUS may have taken him here."
"Why here?"
"This entire Dyson sphere was… constructed to facilitate our creation." Haruto explained. "We've taken most of the most important facility with us when we ripped module 77 off the Sphere. But there are still plenty of other facilities dotted across the sphere used to support the operation. With it, they can potentially restart the project allover again. Repeating this… nightmare… all. Over. Again."
Spike's expression was a grim flatness as his attention was undivided. At the background, his teammates still looked at each other with confusion. Bryan, on the other hand, looked disturbingly interested.
"That's why they came." Spike concluded. "The Dorssians. And then Arus. And then this. They came … looking for you. All of you."
"Yes." Haruto nodded.
Spike's forehead wrinkled in deep thought. Haruto had no doubt, he's considering the merit of either keeping them here… or kick them out. "If… when… you found your father… what then? What do you intend to do with him?"
"End this." Haruto growled. "He did… something to us. To our body. The side effect of which you just saw: he made us into a weapon. A weapon of destruction and death without reason or control. I'm going to find him, and when I do, I'm going to make him undo what he did to us. And then I'm gonna make sure he'll never be able to do to this to anyone else… ever again. No matter what it takes. Even if I had to put a bullet in his head. YES. My own father."
"You're not gonna destroy our Dyson sphere in the process will you?"
"Why do you think we had so much difficulty fighting in here!?" Haruto incredulously stated. "We were born here. This is as much as your home as it is ours!"
"I'll hold you to that, my man." Spike's wrinkled brows vanished, but his glare remained firmly planted on Haruto. "Let me make you a deal. I'll feed you."
"E…Eh!?" Spike's teammates gawked. "Spike… you can't seriously be…"
"Look at the facts. We can't survive five minutes without their help. What's more, thanks to them, we now know a better way to actually end this shit, and a chance to actually accomplish that." Spike added with a smile. "You'll feed only on me. You're not gonna feed on anybody else." Despite the apprehension of his teammates, Spike had already unfurled his sleeve and shoved his well built arm to Haruto.
"…" Haruto blinked. "You alone won't be able to provide enough for… the three of us." He gestured to Marie and Alice.
"I'm opposed to this too." Suddenly Spike's teammate stepped up. "Spike, you're a big guy, but feeding three people is beyond you. We'll contribute our… blood, rune… whatever you call it. We'll help you keep them fed. But in return… you Vampires help us win this, all the way, to the end."
"…and we'll also help you find your dad." Spike quickly added.
Haruto had stomached worse deal before. That Spike would willingly do this when he had better options simply increases Haruto's respect for the guy, as do his fondness. "Consider the consequences: if we harvest on you too many times, it's your memory that will start to disappear. You'll forget things. At first it'll be small insignificant things… but then… more important things will began to disappear as well. Your friends, your life… even your loved ones… eventually you'll even forget yourself."
"Well then. We'll just have to win the war before that happens." Spike shoved his arm to Haruto even closer now. The boy can hear fresh blood gushing through the veins. He can't hold it anymore and grabbed said arm before he take a bite.
Spike, as do everyone, winced as they saw Haruto's teeth sank into said arm, even heard the unmistakable gulping sound of Spike's blood being drained. One of Spike's teammates also awkwardly offered his arm to Marie. She fidgeted at first… but as she took said arm, everything just came naturally: her fangs grew; her fingers sensed the best veins to plant said fangs, and in the teeth went. As soon as the blood start flowing down her throat, Marie was surprised… at how good it tasted. No. It's not the taste… it's the feeling she felt when the blood hit the tongue. It's like her every nervous system that deals with pleasure signaled her brain that it felt good as soon as the first drop reached her tongue. It felt so good, she want it to continue-
"MARIE!"
Upon hearing her name called, she snapped back to her senses, and in an instant, she parted away from her donor. Haruto's firm hand had also grabbed her shoulder. Marie blinked several times, not sure what happened. But then she looked at Haruto's horrified gaze, and she realized she did something wrong.
Haruto was somewhat horrified when he saw Marie's eyes glow red, perfectly identical with the way his eyes would glow red when he went berserk. She even had the same red crisscrossing markings on her face – less severe, but evident all the same. Only those who had boarded an original Valvrave, specifically Pino's Valvrave, would have such markings.
"Haruto?" Marie looked at herself, then her victim. She can feel droplets of blood glistening down her lips. The euphoric feeling was gone, only disgust. But there's also fresh new strength coursing through her veins. But more importantly, she looked at her victim. The poor guy was as pale as a sheet. "Oh no. Did I overfed!?" She immediately let the man go.
"No. Jimmy here just panicked and scared halfway to death." Spike immediately reassured his terrified friend with a few pat on his back. "You'll be okay. He'll be okay, right?"
"Yeah." Haruto nodded. In reality, Marie had only fed on Jimmy for 5 minutes. Mathematically, she shouldn't have drained too much. It's the manner in which she fed that scared the poor man out of his wits.
"She looked like she hadn't eaten anything for months!" Jimmy bawled nervously.
"Actually, I think it's years." Haruto wasn't joking. "Get that wound looked at."
"Yeah. Go, Jimmy boy! I'll take it over from here." And poor colorless Jimmy was all too happy to leave. Spike looked at his own wound in turn. Unlike his poor friend, Haruto bit him more sensibly, with only two small holes to mark where he had fed. "Come to think of it… you're a vampire… and you just bit me-"
"That bit has been scientifically proven to be untrue." Haruto immediately rebuked the notion of the infamous fate of Vampire victims. "It doesn't work like that. Not in the real life. In order to turn into us, you have to be bioengineered from birth to survive the process. And then you have to allow yourself to be bitten by that." Haruto jerked at his Valvrave. "Which reminds me. Spike, you better tell everyone to stay away from the Valvraves. Normal people who tried died instantly. An Arus pilot tried that to his bloody mess."
"Nobody have funny ideas with the giant vampire robot and give it a wide berth. Got it." Spike gave a look to all his men, and they all immediately nodded in agreement. But then Spike noticed the fidgeting Alice. "Uhh… your… little lassie… won't she be needing-"
"No." Haruto immediately raised a hand. "I'll take full responsibility over her feeding. She's still too young. I don't think she can control the… impulses." He looked at Marie. "If I had time I'll teach you how to control this too."
"Please do." The last thing she wants is to accidentally killing their allies just because she couldn't control her feeding frenzy.
"You know what? I think we're stopping now anyways." Spike suddenly declared.
"What?"
"I think we're allowed that. We have to fix some of the accumulated damage anyways." Spike grinned. "I mean, you two were great… but not that great that we managed to get this far without a scratch. We'll put the grav train on power down mode. Doing this usually prevent detection."
"You know, I just realized something…" Haruto raised a hand. "Spike, you never told me where exactly are we going?"
Spike stood stunted for a minute, and slapped himself silly. "Right. I'm an idiot. Somebody give me a map!" The Map displayed the flattened look of the Dyson Sphere. It's filled with interconnected hexagons, each representing the Module on this Dyson Sphere. "We're here, and we're trying to get to… here. Module 217. We know that module is one of the many water treatment plants that provide drinkable water to the whole sphere. Back when we were still holed up in that stadium, our radio sometimes caught snippets of the situation on other fronts. From what we can tell, that place is a safe zone. The resistance managed to hold their ground for quite a while."
"He's right." Delphi chimed in. "According to the intel from X-Eins, module 217 is still designated a Blue Territory. It's still firmly under the resistance control."
Haruto nodded, remembering the division between red, yellow and blue regions of the Sphere. "And that's where we headed."
"Correct. But… it is quite a distance. It literally means travelling a quarterway across the planet, so… it's gonna take a while. We have to take breaks every now and then, fixing the damage, recharging, etc, etc. Between the supplies and the repairs… we originally estimate it'll take a month!" Spike smiled. "But hey, thanks to you two, our trip just got a HELL lot faster! We just covered in 30 minutes a distance we thought will take 3 weeks!"
"They will notice something like that." Haruto frowned. "They'll send in bigger guns, more droids… probably hunter seeker types. They're gonna be looking for us now after all that ruckus. We won't have long!"
"I know. I'd say we got… 15 minutes."
Haruto knew exactly what Spike was doing. This thing about stopping is not just for the two Magius or for mere repairs, but it will also allow the occupants of the train to redress other issues, chiefly, giving them time to take a breather to calm their nerves after such chaotic situation. And once they're calm and cool, then maybe they can take in the news about the predicament of having three voracious vampires for company a lot easier. Maybe.
"Alright." Haruto nodded in gratitude and Spike gave him a big grin before leaving. Haruto took a seat on the floor, and Marie also sat right in front of him. "15 minutes. I need to cram a few weeks worth of experience gained from blowing up my limbs hundreds of times in that short of a time. So… I suggest we get started."
"Preferably without limbs blowing up please." Marie gave Haruto her undivided attention.
Chapter 16:
The Valvrave of Cinders and Ash
Meanwhile, in stark contrast with the rapid but hazardously explosive progress of this Grav train, the other Grav Train's progress is, quite in fact, quieter and less conspicuous.
The Grav Train was significantly bigger and longer at twelve cars. And yet, despite its size, the thousands of drones swarming the mechanical line gave the train a wide berth, completely ignoring it as it should.
"Slowly. Slowly now. Easy does the trick."
And indeed, unlike the other Grav train, this one moves significantly slower, and with greater care. End result, they managed to get through virtually unscathed, much to the occupants' relief. It even managed to sneak past the sensor drone without raising any alarm, not even when the whole train was scanned with the rune scanner.
"I can't believe we managed to get through that." Yusuke sighed.
"Of course we do. Do you doubt Col. Cain's plan?" X-Eins twitched slightly.
"We're just too used to have all hell breaks loose in our faces." Raizo also sighed.
Cain's idea was simple but elegant. Yes, all Kagerous that had landed were dissected limb by limb, and they were stored in multiple separate compartment spread across each car, one kagerou per car, thereby greatly diminishing their energy signature. But to further conceal themselves, the Behemoth's components were split evenly across all twelve cars, wherein they will be partially activated. The Yellow Valvrave does have a unique arsenal, a localized EMP wave aura. With their body parts split to pieces, its strength was greatly weakened, not enough to knock out machines… but more than enough to complete disrupt enemy sensors that get too close. But on the down side, it also affects their Grav pads and main engine, distinctly slowing them down. Arguably, with this, they can make slow but surely safe progress across the line towards their destination.
Nevertheless, despite the apparent success of his plans, Cain looked somewhat restless as he took the time to review Behemorh's latest opponent. The Hellsing. He's been watching and rewatching the video where the Hellsing so easily pummeled the Behemoth to the ground. He came to the same conclusion that Yusuke arrived in: even if the Behemoth was in tip top condition, it would still be a one sided butchery.
'The customization… the choice of weapon… its combat maneuver… all of it showed nothing short of expertise that would shame even Karstein military curriculum… but… this violent, inelegant, but efficient combat style… where on earth have I…?' Instinctively, the colonel's hand had been motioning towards his signature eyepatch… "… anyone there?"
"Sir." It just so happens, A-Drei was there.
"That… pilot… we captured. The one who piloted the Goldilocks. We brought her with us, did we not?"
"Yes. She's currently in the medical ward. She's stable, but she had yet to regain consciousness."
"Monitor her progress and report to me immediately as soon as she wakes up. I may… have a few questions for her."
"Yes sir." A-Drei wondered for a minute. "My best man is already on it."
As luck would have it, in the medical ward, Alia is still looking after her still comatose sister. She's still clad in her cybernetic suit. However they grafted this thing onto the poor lady, they made sure it can't be easily removed. The heartbeat monitor is still a flat line with only occasional small spike to denote the smallest fraction of life still linger in her unconscious body.
"What's her name?" Alia blinked as she looked up and saw a concerned Raizo looked back with a mortified look.
"…Eliza." Alia shrugged.
"…I'm so-"
"Don't. You were a soldier, and so was she. The both of you were fighting with your very lives on the line. There's no way you could've known who she was in the middle of all that."
"…is she alright?"
"…I just… don't know… with all the shit they put into her… and took out of her… whatever they done to her, they really don't want it undone." Her sister now sport more life support than the hospital had patients, and yet they didn't remove that awful skintight cyber suit over her sister's skin. What medic they have can't seem to differentiate which is the suit and which is her skin. She had a nagging suspicion they, the assholes who turned Eliza into this, might've already gone and replace one with the other. Alia grunted in anger. "Raizo Yamada, there's something I need to know."
"?"
"Why is this happening to us? I mean… why did Arus came here in the first place? I thought they were looking for you, but judging by the manner they picked a fight with you lot… and judging by how you respond, they did something beyond just pissing you off." Alia looked at Raizo with a furious look. "They did this… to my home, my family, to ME… WHY!?"
"…" Raizo sighed. They had the right to know. "Okay… Sit down. It's a long story. And it's a long trip. You ought to know what we're looking for."
00000000000000
And whilst the intruder are making their way around in their own pace, the Hellsing simply fly around in peace, its pilot completely ignoring the red blinking light of his communicators, his angry superiors doubtlessly waiting on the other side of the channel. After that rarely exciting battle with the Frankenstein Behemoth, watching the blinky red light imagining their angry faces seem like a good idea to pass the time. That is… until his Hellsing registered a Lock On warning.
"And here we go…"
A massive laser pillar suddenly fell from the sky, barely missing the Hellsing, but cutting right in front of his path, forcing the gunship to turn into its humanoid form to dodge it. "Nice shot."
The laser came from something massive stationed in the outer space. Whatever that something is, it managed to escape the New Jior fleet's attention. "They pay the bills. You really should pick up the phone."
"Sigh." The Hellsing's pilot lazily turned on the com. "Yes?"
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?" An angry voice roared from the speaker.
"You paid me to fight super robots inside super robot. And I fight. But suicide is not part of the deal."
"What?"
"Check the damage on that module. How many debris hit the module shell?"
"…15 impacts, 12 breaches."
"You've ever known debris falling from a destroyed ship with such velocity in that exact number?"
"So… you're saying the enemy has infiltrated the module? And even brought their own mechanized units?"
"And quite possibly more of those… alien things. You guys did notice their fleet now include some honest to god Alien warships right?"
"That doesn't seem possible. Why would the Magius help them? The Novus Magius were made to destroy them!"
"Whatever the reason, it doesn't change the fact that the situation at the time is not exactly conducive on attempting to secure a precious cargo. I was outnumbered and quite possibly outmatched. If I had to carry that humongous thing right on my back, forget securing the precious cargo, they might even manage to capture my unit as well. And our losses would've been worse."
"But without eyes on target, we knew next to nothing on where they'll go."
"I don't think that's an issue. I noticed a couple of resistance forces among them. I've taken out the conventional route to leave the module, now, their options are limited."
"The mechanical line."
"The narrow and mind bogglingly dangerous mechanical line but make them virtually undetectable until they resurface. Now you're getting it." The Hellsing pilot grinned. "Besides… I had a feeling… why would they come here in the first place? Did you… take something from them when you came and invade the first time, perchance? Something other than all these stolen techs you used to create these copies?"
"That's a need to know-"
"And I don't need to know. I know. That doesn't change the fact that they're coming here for a reason well beyond stolen property. And that reason compels them not to act rashly. They won't be able to exert as much destructive power here inside the confines of the sphere as they did in space. So I'd say there's no need to worry about the damage either. Point in fact, based on what I've seen, we seem to be doing more damage than them."
"Unit 03 is the one who self destruct and wiped out the entire surface of that module-"
"But before that, the moron in Goldilocks had destroyed pretty much everything, leaving little to be wiped out." 'Red' scoffed. "Look, you paid me and my team to do this job, so let me do it okay? No more of this… guinea pig hijinks and experiment on the field shit."
"And yet you're lazing away-"
"We got something they want – even if you don't want to tell me what it is. No need to look for them, they'll resurface and come looking for us before long. That's why I'm just… waiting here, lazing away my time until we detect their location. Get it?"
"That's not the point! Your attitude is just unacce… what is it?... WHAT!? Is that true?" Suddenly the voice from the other side was interrupted.
'Red' raised an eyebrow. He can hear some raised voices in the background.
"Alright. Alright. Red, we have a developing situation. Turns out there are two collision points. It's part of that initial wave. One of them… actually two of them, went completely off course and break ranks. Our Bremen shot them, but they strayed really far off their trajectory. We detected the collision to be a module several blocks away. Module 325 to be exact."
"325… ah shit, nobody's on standby in that location."
"No. but we do hit the jackpot. It's him."
"Huh." 'Red' shrugged. "So?"
"So!? He's the exact reason we paid you in the first place!"
"And what do you expect me to do? If he's smart, he'll already dig down the mechanical line long before I can get there!" 'Red' shrugged. "But… module 325 you say… there aren't many places they can go from there… besides… I put one my girls down there. She shouldbe able to keep them busy… if not more. If those pieces of junk you call an army had made contact, do they have any video feed?"
"Sigh… it's uploaded to the network. You can review it… if you wish."
00000000000000
BANG!
Marie still couldn't believe her eyes.
BANG!
In her mind, she was never could be synonymized with those Superhero characters in the comics with the super strength and super speed and all that…
BANG!
And yet here she is… using a steel plate as a punching bag.
BANG!
And every punch she sent dented the plate with yet another imprint of her tiny, rune armored, fist.
"This is amazing." Haruto looked on in disbelief on the side, with Alice purring as she slept with her head on his lap. "It took me weeks to finally figure out how manipulating runes worked… and you understand it in minutes?"
"That's not all." Marie looked at her hands with confusion. "These… skills… and… how to expertly pilot a Valvrave… I don't… remember anything about having learned any of these… and yet… when you explain it all to me… it's like… it's like my body remember. And my mind just knows how to do all these things…"
"Considering the hassle Haruto went through during the training, I find it highly unlikely that Marie Nobi mastery over this feat as mere talent. This skill is not the kind that can be honed in just one or two days. It requires years of training." Delphi flatly deduced.
"And yet… when exactly did I get this training? Why didn't I remember any of this? I got so many questions!" Marie focused all her frustration on her last punch… completely smashing the iron slab off the ground. It flew across the room until it sank deep into the wall, right next to Spike who just entered the room.
Spike paled upon seeing the destruction. He better learn to get used to it quick. "…I so pity the guy who forced her into prom sex."
"Spike?"
"We've finished repairs. We're about to move out again soon." Spike meaningfully offered his arm. "Might you need some more for the road?"
"…" Haruto did a count and shook his head. "Save it for later."
"Alright then." Spike gave them a nod.
Marie looked at her fist. She can still feel the slight pang of blood on her lips. She was ashamed that she lost control like that. "…Haruto… back then… why didn't you just let me feed off you? Not that I think that's a good idea…"
"…you've heard what my dad did to me… to us… right?" Haruto looked at his own hand. "This thing is like a virus. It infects everyone via Rune Exchange." Haruto looked at Vavrave and Marie. "Your growth is not yet accelerated. If… if my guess is right… you're probably the only uninfected Novus Magius in our school. I'd like to keep it that way. I had feeling we're going to need it for the future."
"…"
"If at all possible, from henceforth, we mustn't feed from the same person. We need to reduce the risk of infection in anyway."
"Got it."
The two pilots climbed aboard their respective units. But as they do, they also began to notice… the stares. '…they're starting to have second thoughts over the merits of having vampires to fight with them.' Both Marie and Haruto can easily guess as much.
The Valvrave and the Kagerou sprang out the train and watch as the Grav Train powered up before momentarily resume their trip. But something's different now. Even though their power signature is rising, they hardly suffer any resistance as before. Point in fact, they didn't even see a single droid after 10 minutes into the journey.
"O~okay… anybody else besides me who think this is strange?" Marie narrowed her eyes, thinking she might miss something…
Haruto frowned. "…Delphi?"
"…I'm not detecting any energy signature." Delphi continued. "But I'm detecting chatters. Communications. Most of them are in short wave radios."
"Chatters in short wave radios…?" Haruto immediately concluded. "Spike, I think we're nearing our destination."
"Hahah! I guess that is to be expected, we've been blitzing at full speed like there's no tomorrow!"
Haruto pressed his hand against the com on his helmet to listen to every detail that came out of the chatter. He twitched in horror once he figured it out. "…Uhh… Spike? You better listen to this. Delphi, broadcast it to the train's intercoms!"
And the intercoms of the Grav Train began playing the chatter… and what they hear really sent chill down everyone spine.
"AAAH! MY ARM! GOD! IT GOT MY FREAKIN ARM!" "MEDIC! MEDIIIC!" "OH GOD NOOO!" "GET AWAY FROM ME!" "PUSH THEM BACK! PUSH THEM BACK!" "FIRE! FIRE! FI-ZzTtt!" "AAAAHHH! IT BURNS! IT BUURNNNS!" "FUCK THIS! THIS IS HELL!'
"…dude… what the f…!?" Spike gritted his teeth tightly.
Haruto knew right away what's waiting for them. "It's not a safe zone… it's a warzone."
"I thought Delphi said this place is a confirmed safe zone!" Marie asked.
"The intel gained from X-Eins was from some time ago. Given the amount of time that had passed since the acquisition of this outdated intel, a change in the situation is only logical."
"…now what?" Marie asked. "We push forward or we turn back?"
Haruto shrugged. He turned to the one who made the final decision: "Spike. It's your people… it's your call."
Spike bit his lips in deep thought as all eyes turned to him. After a moment he finally decided: "…push forward."
"Spike, we have refugees with us. The sick, the injured, we'll be tossing them straight into danger!"
"From what I hear, there must be people over there that are still putting up a fight as well." Spike frowned. "This train still got plenty of rooms. We can offer to carry the refugees to escape. Besides, we got super robots with us. We might be able to do more than that. We can do more than that." Spike looked back at his team. "But then again, that's me. Anybody else had a different idea, I'm all ears."
But the others had more or less agreed with Spike. "Heck, even if we say different, you'll still gonna go anyway, even if you had to proceed on foot." The other teammates also moved on to their battle station without a word of protest.
Haruto watched all this with a smile. "…"
It was then, Delphi decided to chime in. "If pushing forward is to be your choice… then I'm programmed to voice a theory."
"…say it?"
"As we understand it, we are heading towards an active warzone. By intel from Spike Springfield, the module was a safe zone. Which would infer that this zone was a well defended zone, with a sizable force of resistance to repel attackers. Quite possibly, strong enough… that frontal assault had been a failure up to this point."
Marie and Spike still didn't get it, but Haruto can, to an extent. "What are you saying? That… if frontal assault won't work… they'll attempt a flanking maneuver… like an attack from the rear from the mechanical line… which means there should be a sizable force of droids on the w-… oh."
"The amount of droids you've annihilated on your way has the right amount of number needed for a proper surprise assault."
"Wahaha… what the hell!? That means we've helped those guys in some way already!" Spike laughed.
"Yes that… and something else…" Haruto frowned. "…I don't think the droids are smart enough to plan something like this… and even if they do… if these droids we've destroyed on our way here were supposed to be their surprise attack party… shouldn't they at least noticed when they're gone?"
"Which also means there should be a thunderous response to it…" Marie nodded out.
"High energy signature detected. It's heading our way, straight up from the front. At very high speed."
"How many boogies?"
"One. And it's really fast, faster than even Carmilla. 10 clicks to visual contact…"
Haruto immediately knew things won't be that simple: "Marie, switch! Guard the rear! I'll handle this!"
"5 clicks to visual contact…"
The Kagerou Hito immediately retreated whilst her bigger stronger brother took to the fore. "Spike, can we slow down? When something with a high energy signature came in alone, you know they mean business."
"Right you are, my man. Hey! You heard him! Slow down!"
"A… Alright! I'm slowing down now!"
But before they can do that…
"Contact!"
While Delphi did say contact, all that Haruto was able to catch was nothing but a single blur of neon purple light streaking past him faster than he can blink. And before he knew it…
BTOOOM!
An explosion ripped one side of the grav train's front car, rocking the whole vehicle and its occupants. "What the…!?" Spike gasped. To make it worse, the tremor rocked the driver and knocked him unconscious, but not before he accidentally pushed the speed throttle to max. The occupants were thrown back by the sudden acceleration. The speeding and burning train almost rammed the Valvrave and even Kagerou Hito nearly fell off her perch.
"Whoa!" Spike immediately roared to the com. "OI! I SAID SLOW DOWN! WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH YOU!?"
The co driver immediately responded in lieu of the unconscious main. "Sorry about that! It's the shock! The Driver's unconscious! I'll… slow…!" The Co-Driver tried to pull back the throttle… only to find he can't. "What the…?" He tried again and again, even using his feet as a pivot to pull the damn throttle back to no avail. "Uhh…? Houston? We got a problem! The Speed throttle is jammed! We can't slow down!"
"Hit the brakes!"
They tried that as well… and to find… "The brake… it's shot to hell. We can't stop."
"What?"
The now runaway Grav train is speeding at hazardously dangerous speed and the Valvrave had to push its thrusters to keep up before he finally managed to land on the middle carriage. "Oh no… at that speed in this winding tunnel, this train will crash into something in five minutes!"
"Tokishima Haruto, let me hijack that train's control system."
The Valvrave unleashed the Yashagarasu and it landed over the front car. Its talons immediately connected the Familiar to the train's computer system, immediately taking charge of its controls.
"Can you stop it?"
"No. The brakes have been completely destroyed. It's not responding to my commands, and neither its velocity regulator. I cannot stop this train… but my cybernetic capability should allow me to maneuver this train across these narrow pathways in ways that human cannot accomplish at this speed. That should significantly decrease the chance of an accident."
"Do it! Spike you're okay in there!?"
"I'm fine! I'm checking the rest of the cars too. I'll do what we can from here! What happened out there!?"
"We're under attack! Tell your boys to bunker down-"
"Incoming missiles."
Again, Haruto saw a single streak of neon purple light, streaking past him, but he also see a pair of missiles coming towards the train. "Oh no, you don't!" The Valvrave fired his CIWS and shot the missiles down midair.
Whirr… whirr…
Haruto immediately look around to his surroundings, searching for the target. His ears caught sign of the enemy first. "What is that… sound?"
Whirr… whirr…
The whirring sound is reminiscent to wheels grinding. "huh?" And it gets louder and louder, coming from his back! When the Valvrave turned around, there's nobody there… because that something just jump right over his head. A pair of feet whirring with giant sized rollerblades on each sole just missed his sense nerve crown by an inch. The wheels were made of neon purple Clear Fossils. When the skater bot landed with a bang on top the train, that's when Haruto realized the enemy had revealed itself. He turned around again, but only managed to catch a glimpse of purple flash. "What?" And all the sudden the whirring sound is behind him, again.
Haruto furiously looked at every nook and cranny, trying his damndest to catch a sight of this elusive target, but that thing keep jumping allover the place at incredible speed – and to note, the runaway train did not slow down, at all. And that thing is running circles around them. Even Haruto's super senses are taxed to maximum just to keep up. Slowly, he began to adapt to the speed and was able to finally start following the speedy enemy to an extent. And just in time too. As Haruto was about to caught sight of the enemy in the clear, he lost sight of him, but his ears and instinct sensed an attack coming from behind. When the Valvrave turned around, it came face to face with a whirring rollerblades swinging in a wide arc towards his head. The Valvrave bent his head backwards just in time and the whirring blades only managed to nick its cheek.
Completely missing the attack, the assailant flew past the Valvrave and landed on the car's roof, spinning in place to suppress its overcharged momentum, finally stopping, allowing Haruto to finally get a good look at the enemy.
At first glance, aside from its primarily teal camouflage coloration, it's like a blocky replica of Carmilla. And like all Faux Valvrave, they've been modified. Extensively. The forelegs were armored heavily with what appears to be bulky blast armor, drastically increasing its size, and on its soles, they've installed a pair of oversized rollerblades, increasing the overall mech's height. The same rollerblades are also attached to its knee armor. The side waist armor is large and long enough to go past the unit's knees. The rear waist armor no longer support the multi-leg propulsion, but mount a single heavy duty manipulator holding aloft an enormous wide and flat backpack, its sleek arrow shaped tip protruded out behind its head. The peculiar backpack support a pair of large fins on the sides, and more peculiarly, is this extremely long tail like protrusion extending down the backpack's lower end – giving it a manta ray like appearance. The tail alone is even longer than the whole unit! But the surface of this tail was lined from top to bottom with these… scales and at the end of the tail is this giant tail fin made out of chain saw that was shaped like an Axe. The tail slither and coil fluidly, the Valvrave seem unencumbered by something so long and massive swaying from its back. What is interesting is the arsenal on her fingers. In place of the Spindle Knuckle are these long thick gloves. It resemble a mechanized baseball glove with gigantic claws added for fingers – there's something strange with those fingers – what's with all these tubes lining each finger.
All in all, it was obvious it is a bootleg of Carmilla but because of all the changes and modifications… it produced something completely different.
Boy… …if Saki saw this… she'll be pissed.
00000000000000
In Moonbase…
C… CRASH! TINKLE!
In the hospital, Rion and the other doctors jumped ten steps backward when Saki suddenly crushed the glass of milk in her hand when her grip on it inexplicably tightens… owing to a sudden explosion of a murderous urge.
"Awawawa… S… Saki-san… a-a-a-are you okay?"
"Aaah… I'm sorry… it's just… I suddenly had this inexplicable urge to crush something…"
Needless to say, no doctors dared to get close to the inexplicably angry mother for the remainder of that really scary day…
00000000000000
"Well, well… there I was… wondering what the hell happened to that reinforcement of mine, and the answer turn out to be an unexpected query."
Haruto's eyebrows were raised in bewilderment. He certainly didn't expect a distinctly female voice would come from the opposing robot. "Wait… is that an AI… or a person in there?"
"It possessed a distinct emotional tint to its voice not possible on an AI. The only logical conclusion, it is piloted."
"Hellooo? That is rude. Anybody there? I know I'm talking on open channel."
"I can hear you, miss." Haruto frowned. "Umm… Miss…"
"Aww… aren't you polite? It's 'Mrs.' Blue. Just call me Blue." The woman replied. "…and you are Tokishima Haruto."
"Well I suppose I'm not exactly inconspicuous."
"You had a celebrity for a wife and a super robot for a ride. What do you expect?"
"Mrs. Blue, why are you here? What do you want with this place?"
"Nothing personal to it really." The Blue Faux Carmilla stood up and relaxed its stance. "If I'm to go technical… because we're being paid to do so."
"What… paid?"
"We're PMCs. Mercenarys. Soldier for Hire. Take your pick. And they've paid us a fortune – they even let us keep this kickass robots as a bonus. A girl's gotta earn her keep, boy."
Haruto frowned. "Look… With all due respect: you need to step aside. This train is filled with refugees. Civilians. The injured and even the dying. People who are too wounded or too scared to ever be a threat to you, or anyone. Let them go. It's me you want. You wanna piece of me, come and get me, but leave them alone."
"Awww… You're kinda cute for a Bioengineered Super Soldier."Mrs. Blue chortled. "But I was ordered to stop this train. And to capture you. I'm not happy of the situation but orders are orders."
"That's your excuse!?"
To Haruto's surprise, the enemy pilot laughed. "We're soldiers boy. We don't get to choose our orders. They told us to jump, we ask how high. They told us to kill… we ask how many."
"I won't let you."
"It's simple, really."Blue sighed. "As far as you're concerned, my job is to report your presence whenever I spotted you… that, I can't do it in here. But… I'm also ordered to attempt capture. I can't let you walk out here with that super robot. I'm also ordered to neutralize all resistance. While you say this train is filled with civilians, it had done a marvelous job of decimating half of my droid army. From a military standpoint… that's quite something." Mrs. Blue's tone grew solemn. "So this is how it's going to be. I'm going to do everything in my power to stop this train… even destroying it if I have to… and you're gonna do the same to stop me from doing so."
"Get out of our way, Mrs. Blue. I'll fight you for something else."
"Find another way." The Blue Faux Valvrave raised one of her peculiar hands. "The only way forward for you and your friends is through my Ariels."
In response, the Valvrave pulled out his twin katana, but the Ariel already turned into a blur of neon purple flash and start skating at blinding speed along the mechanical lines. Before he knew it, the Ariel already gone and went ahead of the train.
"…Delphi… the situation?"
"At this velocity we will reach – no – crash into our destination in less than… 10 minutes." A time counter appeared on the screen to notify him of the time limit. "Incoming!"
The Ariels slowed down her speed to show her back in front of the runaway train. The pod like fins of her backpack rotates and opened up, launching an onslaught of missiles just as she sped forward again. The missiles were halfway towards the train before the Valvrave unleashed a shower of micro lasers from his claws, completely taking out every last one.
Mrs. Blue gawked seeing her attack was destroyed in such a way. But in a show of professionalism she calmed down almost immediately and took stock of the situation. "Not gonna make it that easy are you?"
"Spike!? You hear me?"
"I hear you, my man!"
"Have all the refugees at the front and rearmost cars moved to the center car and secure them there. This place is about to turn into a Valvrave vs Valvrave battleground. We're talking about a localized Armageddon."
"I got you, my man! Don't you worry about us. Just kick that bitch out of our way!"
"Switching verniers to semi automatic mode… and here we go…" The Valvrave also flew ahead of the train now. Pushing the boosters on his wings to the max, he can almost catch the sight of the Ariels skating ahead of the runaway train. She's literally skating on the ground. And to Haruto's awe, none of her boosters are online. And to note: he himself is flying with all his boosters throttled to the max and yet he can't seem to close the distance between them. It was obvious now that the Ariels ground speed is just as fast as the Valvrave's flight speed. That is to say, unless he can squeeze more speed from his already overtaxed boosters, Haruto won't be able to close the distance much less overtakes her.
But it's not like Miss Blue didn't feel this persistent and not to mention deadly enemy breathing down her neck. The distance between them aren't closing at the moment, but how long will that last? Spinning the controllers, the Ariels turned around to meet the enemy face to face but maintain her speed via her many verniers as she skate backwards. "To get to the train, I have to get to him first… alright then." Unbeknownst to the Valvrave, the Ariels's fingers flexed several times, before a red colored pearl like sphere popped out of a hole in her palm. It looked like a giant pearl, with a ring of beeping light on the midsection.
Once again, she turned on her boosters and speed ahead of the Train and disappeared into nothing more than a neon purple glow in the distance. Soon, a second salvo of missiles came in. "Did you seriously think that will work again?" The Valvrave once again fired, wiping out the missiles whole sale… but in the milliseconds it took to take down the missiles, Haruto glimpsed something strange in this new batch of missiles. His superhuman sight just caught sight of this strange red object plastered on one of the missile's warhead. But it was too late to stop what has been done, and the microlasers sliced through them all before he can inquire further.
The resulting explosion creates a mass of smoke that momentarily obstructed his field of vision. When that happens, he knew what's coming before it even happened. As expected, lifted by her roaring array of boosters, the Ariels burst through the smoke, straight towards the Valvrave. And as expected, her whirring foot came in first. The Valvrave tried to dodge… then he realized his bodily reaction is a step slower. Haruto has no time to address the sudden slowdown, the wheels are already right in front of his nose. Thankfully, he's not slow enough to lift his sword in time to defend himself. Upon collision, even his super strength arm went numb for a second. Electricity jumped accompanying the sparks when two High Frequency bladed weapons collided.
In a fight between two HF processed weapons, it boils down back to the quality of the original weapons. One side: a wheel of blades made with materials the best Arus fund can buy. On the other side: a supersized but traditionally made honest to god Japanese katana made by an honest to God demon swordsmith (who happens to be the alien queen) of legend. Maybe that's why Mrs. Blue noticed it was her wheels that are being grinded. She angled her wheels and instead used the blade as a stepping ground for her to jump over the Valvrave. She landed on the front of the train briefly before she jumped back towards the Valvrave, but instead of merely swinging her legs horizontally, the momentum caused the Ariels whole body to also spin horizontally; the giant mech became a giant buzzsaw, and more: her tail whipped out from the spinning buzzsaw and swipe her chainsaw axe at the Valvrave in a massive horizontal roundhouse slash at incredible speed. The Valvrave pulled back, barely missing the axe as it scratched its chest. Before the Valvrave can recover, the Ariel suddenly pushed in again with another barrage of leg swipes. It took everything Haruto got to block each and every attack. It was incredible: she's using all those unused verniers earlier to keep herself aloft midair as well as keeping pace with both the Valvrave AND the train, whilst she's actually maneuvering a cross between taekwondo and break dancing kicks midair. The flurry of roundhouse kicks and slashes is just overwhelming, until suddenly… "CATCH THIS!"One last spin and the Ariels suddenly throw in a couple more of those red pearl spheres.
Haruto was caught completely off guard. "!" The shock brought a sudden pause, and the spheres struck the Valvrave in full. Upon impact, the spheres exploded and the Valvrave was once again engulfed by a pinkish red fog. "What is this…!?" The effect was immediate. That slight sluggish feeling the Valvrave was suffering a while ago grew even worse now. That was when Haruto finally noticed: the red fog laced the surface of the Valvrave with some sticky adhesive substance… some kind of chemical glue that hardens very, very quickly. Not enough to stop him on his tracks, but more than enough to slow him down significantly. "Oh… shit…!"
"An opening!"The Ariels spin vertically this time and brought down the axe in a mighty chop that was aimed to bisect the glued Valvrave in half.
None of Haruto's arms can stop it… except his two wing-mounted power claws. The axe was inches away from the Valvrave's head when the two wing mounted sub arms bearing the two power claws performed a perfect blade catch that stopped the axe on its tracks, much to Miss Blue's gawking shock. But then the Ariels many thrusters lit up, and the tail curled downward – effectively swinging the entire mech itself towards the Valvrave from below, her skater blades whirring in a thrust kick. But reacting quickly, the Valvrave blocked the kick, even slashed them away, throwing the Ariels' off balance. Before she can recover, the Valvrave opened fire with his ciws, straight towards the Ariel's face. The potshots didn't damage anything, but it jacked up the Ariels' sensors, causing her screen to flicker. In panic, she breaks away and pulled back until her feet grinds the ground again. Using that chance, the Valvrave roared its engine and shattered the hardened glue coating parts of his body as he closed the distance with the Ariels. When she regained her sight, the Valvrave is already right in front of her nose.
He swings his katana in a powerful horizontal arc. The Ariel only had time to raise one of her arms to block the slash to her head. She blocked the attack, but to her shock, the sheer brute force of the slash knocked her feet off the ground and sent her spinning in place. For one brief moment, the Ariel's speed turned to zero while the Valvrave, and the train, is still moving at full speed. For one brief moment, the Ariels turned into an obstruction, and the Valvrave just ran straight into it. The sudden collision created a weight that pushed the Valvrave back a step and lower his speed by a grade… and the relentless runaway grav train struck them both from behind. The occupants of the said train jerked forward when they felt their vehicle just hit something.
Spike looked to the trembling ceiling and knew they barely started. "Come on Haruto, my man! Don't let me down!"
Both pilots were rocked violently in their cockpits upon collision. Haruto got the worst of it when the glass on his helmet cracked on impact. His HUD display was broken and the cracks are obstructing his line of sight. Again, he was blind for a second. Grunting, Haruto yanked his helmet and finally took it off – now he's fighting without a helmet. The two Primate Engines tried to unplaster themselves from the two humanoid shaped craters where they had landed. The Valvrave managed to stand up first, and Mrs. Blue had just regained her motion when she saw the Valvrave murderously crawl towards her. She was looking a way out when she noticed the Valvrave is still soaked in her red glue fog.
Typing in her keyboard as fast as she could, the command was immediately sent to the Ariels' gauntlet. Inside the gauntlet, within microseconds, an empty pearl popped out, two syringes injected two substance that produce purple liquid, another superheated it before freezing it while another syringe injected another substance, producing a final product of a yellow colored sphere. One last manipulator placed a beeping detonator before the yellow pearl popped out of her palm. She immediately tossed the sphere towards the approaching Valvrave. The Valvrave blocked the sphere, but the pearl shattered just the same, spraying the yellow liquid allover the mech. Upon contact with the air, the liquid instantly vaporized into gas that covered the Valvrave. The yellow particulants was instantly absorbed by the crimson residues from before, yellow merging with red into fiery orange…
…and the resulting chemical reaction that followed was explosive. In the extreme.
Using the force of the explosion, the Ariels finally unplastered herself from the front of the speeding train before she jumped back to the road and propel herself forward at full speed, this time maintaining her distance as far away as possible from the speeding train. Still, she had a mind to look back at the smoking crater where that incredibly dangerous Valvrave is still covered in the flames of the explosion. As expected, once the smoke cleared, the Valvrave crawled out, nary a scratch on his armor. There's this red glow coating its surface. The rune skin armor.
"Okay… Okay… that is definitely an original honest to god alien super weapon." She looked at her cybernetically enhanced arm, to her disbelief, it's still shaking from the experience. When that slash landed on her arm, what she felt was the most powerful thing she had ever experienced. Her controller hit her unprepared hand like a freight train! The gauntlet she used to block that attack was bent uselessly out of shape – chemical substances leaking out of it. "Well, lesson learned. No more defending attack from that insanely devastating CQC specialist bot."
Miss Blue is not the only one who learnt a lesson. Getting struck by the runaway train brought some much needed epiphany for Haruto. This is no ordinary robot fight… This is a demon lovechild between a dogfight and a race: a road combat. Speed is everything. To beat the enemy – no, to first survive one must first maintain their speed at a minimal value – that is to say his speed must never fall beneath a point – Specifically the speed of the train is the minimum value. He must continue to move forward at that speed; stop or slow down for even a second, he'll be left far behind, and in this case, the runaway train's sheer weight and speed will crush him.
The Valvarve got up and immediately reactivated his boosters, quickly picking up speed and setting his semi automatic vernier to constantly maintain speed at a set value. The Valvrave struggled to get up. Damage from the impact notwithstanding, there is some leftovers of the gluey substance still affecting him. And there's that… sphere, just now. Haruto looked at the Ariels' gauntlet. He noted the substances leaking out of the damaged one… and he understand. Those gauntlets are essentially a compact chemical factory. It contains multiple substances which then she mixed and matched in an instant chemical experiment to create… whatever substances she requires: red fog that turns into glue, or mix it with some yellow substance to create an orange instant bomb. "Uh… Delphi… can you do a chem Analysis on whatever she'll throw at me?"
"I cannot. Those substances mixed are… original formulas… very unlike anything that Jior, Arus , or even Dorssia had ever come up with. One second they come up something like a mix of concrete and acrylite, and then the next second they're like liquid TNT. All I can tell you is that they're made of over the counter substances… which means they're untraceable. I can't help you much with this."
Original formulas that confound even a super genius super computer. Wow. That's something that requires more, WAY more, than just an A on your Chemistry test. He's fighting a walking encyclopedia of chemistry.
The Ariels ignited all her verniers and the Vaux Valvrave once again turned into neon purple light blur that sped far forward, leaving the Valvrave and the train behind. For a moment, the Valvrave lost sight of her… and then it came.
Another smoke erupted from the front and engulfed them all. This time… it's deep blue. "Uhh… what?" Haruto tried to use his supersight… only to see all these particulants covering his vision like flying grains of blue sand. It's like staring at a static television point blank.
"Whatever these smoke are composed off, its primary property seem to block off IR radiation."
"…so we're moving blind? Delphi, will you be alright?"
"I've mapped the area ahead before the smoke came. I should be able to navigate this train safely across. Though it won't do much good if we can't slow down. ETA 8 minutes."
"…kay-" Suddenly, the fog burst out and the Ariels jumped in, foot first… But Haruto was more worried of her hands. The Valvrave swing his blade straight at her. The blade and the leg were about to clash, but the Ariels suddenly pulled the leg back, making it a feint. And just when Haruto was wondering what will come…
A conical shaped object was shoved to his chest. The Valvrave barely managed to use his sword to parry it. It was a lance. A large oversized lance, easily longer than even the wielder. The Lance spear tip is relatively small sized, in that's it's only slightly shorter than Haruto's Katana and it's conical in shape, but it has three streams of whirring blades spiraling on its surface. One note: the pole of the lance is easily three times longer than either of his katanas – so she definitely outranged him.
The Ariels thrust her whirring lance towards the Valvrave, propelled by the thrust from all her verniers, which, apart from the rocket flame bursting, also emit more of this blue smoke from its vents to further add to this smokescreen. As soon as she charged past, the smoke immediately covered the Valvarve's optics and she immediately disappeared. Before the Valvrave can recover, another thrust suddenly poked in from his right flank. He swing there, and she's gone. Another lance suddenly poked in from the left, and then from the rear, and suddenly from the front again. She's moving circles around the Valvrave in this smoke at blazing speed while launching a flurry of stabs that easily outranged the Valvrave. Pretty remarkable…
No… not remarkable… it's abnormal! Why? Because of the circumstances that just been described about their playing field: they're in the middle of a chase where they have to constantly move forward to outpace the runaway train! To be able to maneuver so flexibly in this kind of situation and STILL keeping up their forward speed is a sign that the Ariels' maneuvering verniers and lateral thrusters are nothing to laugh at! As a comparison, the Valvrave had to use half of his existing thrusters JUST to keep up with the runaway train behind him. His remaining verniers are only good to move and sway left or right, but definitely not moving allover the place like what the Ariels just did.
"Guess that is to be expected of a faux Valvrave copied from Carmilla…"
Haruto immediately intensified the runes coursing through his nervous systems, boosting its throughput. He's not trying to see past the fog, he just don't want to miss anything. Everything, even the train and the whirring scenery suddenly became slow motion. 'Granted, I had about 10 seconds of this super sense before the runes burned my nerve endings.'
In a super slow motion, 10 seconds felt like 10 hours… 9… 8… 7… 'Come out, come out, wherever you…' 3… 2…
The blue fog whirred away as the Ariels jumped in again for another lunge. She came with blazing speed, but to Haruto, everything is in slow motion. With super human speed, Haruto moved his controllers, and his Alien Super mech responded just as fast. Miss Blue was shocked to find the Valvrave was ready for her. With ease, the vastly stronger Valvrave knocked away the attack with Futtouchi and immediately slashed in with Gouketsu. But then, something sprang up and blocked the slash. And Haruto saw it: The one large tail had sprayed out into four smaller tentacles, each with a chain blade at its tip. One of them whirred as it grinded against the Valvrave's blade, the other three are lashing out wildly against the Valvrave. The red machine responded by knocking away the first two attacks and immediately parried the incoming onslaught of stabs at blurring speed.
To Mrs. Blue's horror, the Valvrave visibly began to adapt to her rapid attacks. So much so that she began to get pushed back. The Valvrave's movements are getting faster and faster by the second! But she remained calm and simply waited as the Valvrave finally overwhelm even the speed of her spears and tentacles. When the Valvrave finally knocked the blades and the lances away, the neon green sense nerve crown is staring at her right in the eye. The Ariels made a quick move: her reverse thrusters went on full throttle and at the same time, the defense system unleashed a small package… which quickly blew up into a bubbly balloon decoy of the Ariels. The Valvrave angrily sliced through the seemingly feeble defense, the balloon popped to pieces…
…and it's red colored inner layer immediately absorbed a huge chunk of the blue smoke around them, turning into what appears to be multitudes of purple rubber balls… which Delphi immediately identified as:
"Thermobaric Charges detected."
Moments later, the chemical reaction ignited upon contact with the air and the sphere combust in a massive conflagration. The firestorm engulfed the Valvrave in an instant and the flames remained for long periods even after the explosion. When it was forced to land on the runaway train, the primate engine was still intact and in one piece, but he was literally ablaze, its red paint job even melted. To Ariels, he looked like sitting ducks.
"If I read it right… these things are vulnerable to heat…"
The Ariels is not wrong… the Valvrave heat gauge rose sharply from 23 to 56 in an instant.
The Valvrave movement becomes somewhat sluggish… and the Ariels took that as an opening. Bursting through the remaining blue smoke, she charged in, spear whirring… the lance was just a centimeter away from piercing his chest…
…in a flash of after images, the Valvrave is already right behind her.
"Wha…!?"
The completely caught off guard Ariels came face to face with the runaway train. The collision shook the mech down to her core, momentarily stunning her. But in a single heartbeat, the Valvrave chop off Ariel's right arm with Gouketsu. He was about to do the same thing to the other arm, but then the Ariels' tail lashed out wildly, the Valvrave managed to block two of the four desperate attacks, the other two flayed a bit of its armor. Registering damage, the Valvrave tilted to the side. With that opening, the Ariels hurled herself out.
The Ariels immediately skated away just as Haruto tried to send in another attack. The Ariels rollerblades whirred, sending sparks before she jumped away, immediately creating a vast distance between her and Valvrave. Even her four tails swished one last time at the Valvrave. But this time, the Valvrave was able to block them all. Just before all her boosters went full throttle, and the Ariels was leading again and she disappeared into the fog.
'What leaping power… as expected of Carmilla's copy I guess… hey… Wait a minute…' Haruto immediately replayed that little skirmish in his head. The tail in particular caught his attention. There's something different about her tail compared to when they first met – apart from the fact they're now split in four smaller tentacles. Before, the massive tail was covered in scales. Just now, the scales are gone. '…scales?'
Around that time, the blue fog finally began to clear, and her form in full view, the Ariels is still skating ahead of him at speed. And lo, her tails had all of her scales, and once again, there's only one big tail in place of the previous four. 'The scales… and the tails… she'll lose her scales and split her tails only when the fog is around? Why…?'
Haruto tried to think, but alas, the Ariels won't let him. Point in fact, she took a new approach now. Miss Blue is still trying to calm her heart after that near death beatdown. And that was just from one encounter. '…what… what was that just now…? One second he looked like he'll be moving at a snail's pace and then the next…' Mrs. Blue began suppressing a terrible thought. As the Ariels speed away, she looked back and noticed the Valvrave had climbed out of the crater with all the flames put out. At first glance, he looked terrible. Quite a bit of his paint job had melted away, revealing the raw white grey steel beneath… yet it has this unique dark rainbow sheen. 'Hm? What is that… steel? Doesn't look like any metal I've seen…'
The Valvrave stood up and immediately jumped again, activating his boosters, resuming the chase… but something's off. Mrs. Blue noticed it when she checked her sensors: The gap between the Valvrave and the Ariels had shrunk. Considerably. And there was nothing wrong with her boosters. '…he's definitely faster than when we began… why? How? Could it be because he was holding back? Goodness me… what a troublesome boy… not so cute at all… like this… the initial strategy of poking him with mid range weapon and rely on hit and run speed won't be effective anymore…' Still… while the gap had shrunk, she's still in the lead, and she's still had the advantage. First, she had to fix this damage. The Ariels signaled for help, and the help was sent. Hunters and several Dvergrs entered the tunnels to join the battle. They immediately reinforce their crippled mistress and swarmed allover the Valvrave.
But to the Valvrave that's like lambs delivered to slaughterhouse, it was but a simple matter for him to cut them all down to size – something the enemy was well aware. It didn't even widen the shrunk gap by a minute, but it did manage to buy some time for the enemy.
The Ariels yanked one Dvergr midflight with her one arm. And then, crunching it in her grip, the Dvergr disintegrated at molecular level. The Ariels' Second Wind nanomachines are consuming the droid, and using the material, it began reconstructing the arm she lost. But the difference is, this time, she made a slight modification. Instead of the Chem Gloves, she replaced it with what looked like a… three barreled handheld cannon?
"Uwah, it looked less and less like Carmilla now."
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Shoko had been informed of Saki's less than sterling mood and tried to placate that anger by offering her some of her favorite food: her personally made (toxic green colored) squid ink pasta. Luckily, Shoko's dishes have been proven to be more than meets the eye and their taste matched. Saki was still enjoying her meal… when suddenly…
CRAACK!
"KYAA!" Shoko gasped when Saki pressed her fork to her plate so hard, it shattered. "S… S… Saki-chan…? What's wrong? Does the pasta taste bad…?" Instead of calming down, everyone can actually feel Saki's bloodlust just rise up.
"Sorry… it's not the pasta… but I had this urge to… tear something apart limb by limb…?"
Cold sweat flooded the floor of the hospital, coupled with an awful stench of something from everyone's soiled underpants.
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"That being said, she made the right tactical decision. She will not risk another CQC with the Valvrave in the long run."
Lifting her giant hand held cannon with one hand, she had to use both hands to aim it properly. At first glance, it looked like a high tech super sized pump action three barreled shotgun for giant robots. But there's one point of interest: there's a five finger slot on the forend of the cannon barrel, and the Ariels had inserted the fingers from her remaining Chem Glove into it. And then she cocked it like a shotgun? Wait, it is a shotgun…
The Ariels turned around and opened fire as soon as the Valvrave slashed the last Hunter to twain. The triple barreled shotgun shot a shower of multi colored spherical pellets that sprayed over a large section of the area in front of her. The pellets were a myriad color of neon green. Upon impact, they exploded, unleashing a noxious green cloud. The mass of green gas engulfed the Valvrave and the remaining Drones… and the effect was immediate. The drones literally rusted and melted. In contrast, the Valvrave was starkly unscathed – though some bits of his body did rusted and melted away. His original paintjob, some decorative bits, even his mouthguard were now peeled off completely, revealing the original material that composed the Valvrave… the material that are literally out of this world.
Mrs. Blue, the so called walking chemistry encyclopedia, was utterly baffled. '…w…what is that?'
Of all the Valvraves, the Hito was constructed from Pino's mostly intact Valvrave 0, the first original Valvrave. Thusly, a majority of its construction was comprised of alien material not native to Earth. And when the paint job was flayed away, the Naked Valvrave's appearance clearly reflects that. When even the black paint of the black part of the Valvrave was peeled off, the color of the original construction of the material itself is also black… But this was no ordinary black. The blackest substance on earth is called Vantablack… and even this was even blacker than that. Like all spectrum of sunlight was consumed into it like it was a solidified dark hole. In stark contrast, the part that was originally colored red revealed shining pale white steel underneath, but it shines like a flaming rainbow hue on its surface. And right now, the multicolored spectrums joined together to create a burning red rainbow shimmer. And the heat haze that emanate the heated steel made everything around shine with red glow… it's like the steel itself had this red aura seeping out of its surface.
'So… beautiful…' Fortunately, her common sense reminded her that this beautiful thing is trying to kill her. So her desire to take it apart and study the alien substance had to take second priority. 'Acid doesn't work… so… I have to get back to the original strategy… burn him up! Make him collapse on his own temperature!' She cocked her shotgun again before firing another barrage of Chemical Pellets… this time, they're a mixture of glue red, ignition yellow, and thermobaric purple. They landed on the Valvrave as a wall of blazing fire that swallowed him up.
The rune skin armor hold out, for now, but the now naked primate engine can't move from his spot as his temperature skyrocketed yet again. Amidst this flaming barrage, the Ariels side skirt opened up, and from the gap dozens of sphere like missiles flew out and hurled straight towards the Valvrave in a haphazard pattern. The Vaklvrave opened fire with his Variable Vulcan as well as a light shower of lasers. Most of the missiles were taken out but one. One actually managed to pierce the barrage and the Valvrave blast it a little too close to the face…
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After a long while of anxiety, Cain can't stand it anymore and made his way to the medical ward, where Raizo and Alia had just finished conversing about why they want to find Haruto's father so damn bad.
"…?" Cain looked inquisitively at Raizo and Alia. And then he easily deduced it. "I take it you've explained everything to her? Including why we come here?"
"…yes. She deserves to know."
"Fine. Fine. Well, Miss Alia. Now you understand our plight?"
"Very much so." Alia growled angrily. "So my planet… my home… was… burnt to the ground… my sister… mutilated… for a god damn lab experiment. I trust you understand how pissed I am?"
"Quite." Cain sighed and took a seat in front of the two.
Alia nevertheless also sighed. "…if… when you guys secure this mad scientist… will Arus leave?"
"It's a strong possibility. Yes." Cain nodded. "The facilities and equipment, they can always rebuild somewhere else… but Tokishima Shoichi is… indispensable."
"Which means to get to him… you may have to fight through everything they'll throw at you." Alia glared even sharper at Cain. "And I'd like to add the situation is even direr for you guys because of that poison he put inside you."
Cain gave a long exasperated sigh of disappointment. The search and capture of Tokishima Shoichi is a main objective of this mission. More than anything, more important than their target is the reason why they hunt him like a bloodhound. The less people knew of this fact, the better their chances. If this was a Dorssian operation, one of HIS operation… they would just sneak it, sneak out, get the priority target out of the perimeter while using this war as cover. Sure. They'll offer help just enough to make sure the defenders don't get wiped out too easily or when they need distraction or some bodies to be thrown into the grinder to push through. Once the primary objective is secure, they'll leave the place, leave everything to their fates and never look back. And that is all.
But then a big monkey wrench was thrown into the gear by revealing a little bit too much of the critical information out of misplaced sense of morality.
But Cain must now admit he's too naïve. There's a reason these children seem to be too much to control for someone even of his intelligence. He was thinking a firm hand would beat some dorssian style discipline into these children… but L-Elf tested that for him, look where he ended up. Well, lesson learned. If he can't tame them, he'll just have to adapt to their… moral code.
"Well… now you know everything, young lady. Right now… we are… literally… at your mercy. We need your help just as much as you need ours."
"I need to report this to my superiors. They'll decide." She looked at Cain with distrust, but mellowed when she looked at Raizo. "But you also saved my men… so if there's anything I can do to help…?"
"Your sister." Cain motioned at the figure still laying in bed. "Is there no way we can wake her up?"
"Trust me, I would love nothing more. If I could, I would've done that first thing."
"I see… May I?" Cain excused himself as he approached the woman in the bed. He took her hand, examined it for a bit, pressing his fingers against her steel hard body. "Well… well… this is bad. They've… completely replaced over 95% of her organs with artificial machines. The blood in her veins had been replaced with this white nano machine equivalent… The only thing left of her that are organic are just… brain, nervous system, and her heart. Even all that are partially deconstructed and rewired into the machine and life support." Cain frowned. "The way they designed her… if she step even a single foot out of the Goldilocks' cockpit, she'll die. The current life support kept her alive, but only just. You can liken her to a preserved organs in test-tube at this point."
"Let me guess what you're gonna say next: killing her would be an act mercy?" After everything that her sister had gone through, after everything she had went through, Alia's way of thinking had grown bleak as well.
"Personally… I think she's already as good as dead… except the fact that she may have the intel I need on her brain. Against all odds… I need her alive." Cain unfurled his gloves. "Miss Alia… I'm… going to need some Runes from you."
"Runes?" Alia asked questioningly at Raizo. The boy teen instantly erupted in rage: "Absolutely not!"
"You can't expect to fight this war without feeding on anyone?"
"Feeding!?"
"If you're hungry, don't take it out from her, take it from me!"
"This has nothing to do with sustenance!"
"HEY!" Alia snapped, stopping the two bickering magius before it progress further with her still in confusion. "What the hell is rune and what does this has to do with my sister?"
Cain sighed. "To do what I'm about to do to her… it is best that I use the runes from the next of kin."
Alia raised an eyebrow. "And… what exactly are you going to do to my sister?"
Cain spoke calmly as his eye glowed green. "…I'm going to bring her back from the dead."
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Mrs. Blue had thought, when one missile managed to get through and the explosion erupted, that he had at least managed to get one good solid hit in, but she start thinking it can't be THAT easy… and she was right.
She saw a brief red gleam amidst the black smoke of explosion before a rain of red beam lasers stabbed out of the smoke, nearly hitting the Ariels. She barely avoided them all, but following suit, bursting out of the smoke is the roaring machine that is the Valvrave. The explosion had torn off a piece of its face, dislodging a piece of the mech's sense nerve crown that covered its left eye, revealing a coiling eyeball like optics beneath the visor, its mechanical pupil glaring angrily at the perpetrator. The Impact hopper on its feet erupted, propelling the Valvrave in a burst of speed, allowing him to catch up with the Carmilla knockoff. The wing swept towards her, and its power talon swing violently, barely missing the Ariels' feet. This time, he's magnitudes faster than before.
The Valvrave blazed past her, easily overtaking her unit, but also left his back wide open. For a brief moment, Mrs. Blue even entertained the idea of firing her Shotgun at his exposed back, but then… "What's going on here…? I thought the hotter he gets the more sluggish he'll became… but he's… he's clearly getting faster… and stronger!" As soon as that quip escapes her lips, the Valvrave's sub-arm mounted power talon twisted 180 degree, its fingers lighting up again."Oh shit!"Another barrage of that heavy duty lasers nearly threw her off balance. The sheer gravitational pull of the high heat laser also rocked her down, threatening to pull her off the sky. "What the hell… this kind of output can only be found on capital class battleships!" But Miss Blue immediately realized, she really shouldn't be surprised at this point. The unit she's using are knockoffs. She's facing the original one, with the proper output to boot. And more. Once the talons had finished firing, the Valvrave twisted his body and face her. 'Wha…' before she can finish her train of thought the Valvrave kicked the air, generating a circular red energy pads which he used to propel himself towards her at blinding speed. Between the fact she was speeding forward and totally did not see this coming… but a slight tilt of her controller turns to be a dumb luck that saved her, albeit at a cost.
The Valvrave's reverse charge missed her by the millimeters, but the sweeping talons from his wing tore through her chem shotgun cannon and knocked her off balance. 'Whoa!' As this happened, the Valvrave looked like it was about to collide head first with the train, but it turned his body around again, and stretched out his legs. The Impact Hopper generated another energy pad, providing a platform for the Valvrave to literally stand on midair. And with the hardlight pad as a stepping stone, the Valvrave immediately kicked the platform and charged towards the Ariels again. When Miss Blue came to, the first thing she saw was the up close look upon the glaring eye of an angry green crowned demon.
Fortunately, this time Miss Blue is ready. With a quick powerful thrust, the Faux Valvrave boosted up, completely avoiding a wide arced swing that was aimed at her waist. But then, he twisted his leg yet again and kicked the air, once again drastically changing his heading and charged back at the Ariels. "What!?" And this time, the Valvrave specifically target… her tail. But the tail swished, and the axe fin swing around, clashing with the katana, grinding against one another. It was at that point, the scales on Ariels' tails suddenly unleashed a massive fog of blue particulants. Caught off guard by the sudden change, the chain axe twisted and managed to knock the Valvrave away. The Valvrave flew past the disoriented Ariels and almost hit the charging train head first. But Haruto's reaction was thankfully quick enough for the Valvrave to react at the last second. The Valvrave twisted yet again, straining the machine's joints to a dangerous limit. Haruto can even hear his skeleton frame grinding. But more importantly, he noticed the heat.
Between the pressure he put on his unit, the enemy's judicious use of high heat weapons, his temperature is at a very high 75.
Translation, he doesn't have much time. "Okay… okay… but at least I managed to send the message loud and clear." The Valvrave then back away – to be precise, he slowed down to the minimum speed, leaving a very horrified Mrs. Blue and her barely survived Ariels hidden inside her blue fog.
The message was received loud and clear, alright. "He knew." Mrs. Blue chuckled nervously. "He knew the trick I used in this fight… or is it just a bluff?" But the Valvrave obviously went after her tail… the crucial component to maintain her maneuvering speed. And now, he's readying his swords again, the power claws on his wings are raring… and he's running out of time. He's going at her again, and this time, she might not be able to stop him. "No… …you're serious aren't you… Damn… I'm just a sucker for these honest types." Indeed… against her better judgment, seeing the Valvrave obviously preparing for another CQC, she actually made ready to fight him on his own grounds as well. "Alright… let's see how far can you go!" She pulled her grinder Lance once again. The only weapon that enjoyed some success in this battle.
The Valvrave readied itself, and as expected, the Ariels catapult herself towards him, her one tail once again sprayed to four tails. She plunged the lance in a whirring drilling stab, and all her thrusters are in full throttle. The Valvrave welcomes her attack with a slash… but unlike before, the Valvrave have no intention to clash. The blade was there to parry the attack, but at the same time, the other hand forgoes the blade and instead reached out and grabbed the Ariels's arm. "Caught you!"
But Mrs. Blue fully expected this to happen. "Eh. So you did." At the same time, the Ariels' four tentacles also lashed forward over the Valvrave's head and stabbed the opposing machine by the back multiple times, severely damaging the wings. Haruto's screen screamed warnings as the damage pile up. Instead, the pilot ignored it all and actually pushed the throttle for his boosters to the max with a roar. "NUOOOOOHHHH!"
To Mrs. Blue's shock, the Valvrave didn't back away much less let go. Instead, it charged forward and closed their distance, its one arm stretched out over the Ariels' waist and hugged it. In the process, the Valvrave also smashed his blade into her back. The blade pierced deep, and even almost reached the cockpit. But before she can recover from her shock, the Valvrave's frame roared as he activated all of his boosters and pushed the Ariels back in an incredible burst of speed. "Whaa….!"
The Valvrave pushed the Ariels all the way back into the blue fog until finally…
CLANKK!
They collided unto something. CLANK! And they bounced to another thing! CLINK! CLONK! CLONK! And another, and another… and another… CLONK! One last impact and the collision finally separated the entangled units. The Ariels landed safely, and the Valvrave rolled around for a bit before he too landed on the thing… things they collided with.
At first glance, it looked like an impossible scene straight out of the dream: two giant human shaped mechs standing, literally standing tall and upright, atop a cloud of blue smoke trailing by the gust of wind, and the background of the mechanical line blurred behind them – a sign that the two Valvraves did not stop… they're still moving – though no longer by their own merit. Upon closer observation, one would notice that the two mechs are actually standing on something: a set of platforms moving by the power of its smoke producing grav thrusters. Said platform looked like a small spade. It is the missing scales of the Ariels tail. It's only about 1.5 times bigger than the soles of the Valvrave's foot, but it's more than enough for the primate engine to place his foot on. There are dozens of them flying around the narrow tunnel, each possessed multiple grav thrusters that allowed them to nimbly fly to every direction without lowering its speed. Two of them have been commandeered by the Valvrave to accommodate his two feet.
"This is how you do it." Haruto hailed on open channel. "This is how you managed that impossible maneuver… this why you needed the smoke."
"Yes. My scales." Likewise, the Ariels are also standing on two of the scale platforms. But whilst ones sporting the Valvrave are trying to get away and had to be wrestled to obedience, the Ariels are using a slight different method to stand: instead of using her wheel skated feet, she's using her four split tails. That four tails are holding her aloft as they stretch out and connected to four separate platforms.
As mentioned before, in a dogfight like this, maintaining your speed is crucial. It is imperative that one must keep their speed at a minimal value. Slow down for even a bit below the required parameter and you'll be left behind and crushed. But the drawback is… in this kind of fight, the faster you go, the less maneuverable you become. That's because the higher your speed, even a slight change of movements will demand a small decrease in speed. You can say it is incremental or minute or whatever, but in a high level dogfight, even a single lapse can be fatal. And this is how the Ariels tricked it: the scales are platform that are constantly moving at that minimal speed. When the blue fog engulfed the Valvrave earlier, more than blinding him, it also served to camouflage the scales. Now that Haruto noticed it, the Scale Platforms are of the same color with the blue fog.
When she attacked, she's using these scales as a platform to jump from one place to another without sacrificing too much speed. Furthermore, her four sprayed tails extended out and functioned as both shock absorbers for when she landed on these platform scales, at which it became towing cables – right now, she may look immobile, but in reality she's being pulled by these scale platforms. Using these cables, she can quickly changed her attacks from one direction to the next without losing speed.
"Well… you gotta admit this was pretty awesome stuff."
"Awesome? …this… forget Saki for the moment, if Pino saw this she might cry."
This complicated platform scale system and that four spraying tentacles are just a pathetic attempt to copy the Carmilla's patented multileg propulsion system with its characteristic hardlight platform. Carmilla would have no need of preplaced scale platforms when she can create new platforms whenever wherever she needs. Obviously there are some technologies in the designs that are just beyond Arus scientists' scope of understanding so they make compromises… but this… this is just… blasphemous. "So let me get this straight: you guys infiltrated our city, incited unrest that killed hundreds of civilians just to steal our Valvraves' technology, and yet even with that you idiots couldn't even read the plans right, and did a piss poor job of putting it together!?"
To Haruto… to everyone, the Moonbase riot incident is a sore spot and, apart from Haruto, probably formed the other half of the reason of the New Jior's merciless hostility to Arus. But seeing their Valvraves being perverted like this is like adding insult to injury. Haruto can't even begin to imagine how Saki would react if she saw what they did to her most beloved mechanical partner.
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"…you guys are joking right?"
"W… Well… for SOME reason we really feel like we need to do at least this much."
So Rion said… inside a virtually indestructible, industrial grade, power armor usually used for lifting heavy load like mining equipment…
…and to think all she wanted to do was to use a stethoscope to check on Saki's heartbeat!
"Come on! Just because I said I feel like it, it's not like I'm gonna actually bite someone's head off!" And Saki had to be tied to her chair. With chains. Lots and lots of chains.
But with her room filled to the brim with her literally visible bloodlust, and that bloodthirsty fangs protruding out, everyone would be forgiven if they remain unconvinced.
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If the idea of using the same technology was meant to intimidate the New Jior's Valvrave pilots, they've spectacularly failed.
"You know… when you put it that way…" Mrs. Blue moaned. "You're right… Maybe we ought to fire those incompetents. But to be fair, if you think this looks bad… you should've seen it before we had it customized."
As she said this, the Ariels lifted a finger, and all the sudden, the Valvrave lose balance. The two Scale Platforms he appropriated rebelled and shook him off. Fortunately, the Valrave immediately reactivated his thrusters and immediately picked up speed and stabilized himself enough to see what's happening. All the Scale Platforms converged upon their master. The whole swarm gathered together around the Ariels, a pack peeled off the fleet to form a large platform big enough for the Ariels to stand on. Haruto noted how the scale platforms can still maneuver very nimbly even whilst they're moving forward at speed – that would require both some bleeding edge stabilizing software and some ridiculously advanced thruster system. So maybe those scientists aren't really that incompetent after all. "I've added a lot of my personal touch into the Ariels, the Chem Glove, the Bio Hazard Shotgun, the Grinder Lance… but these Super Magnetized roller blades are my personal favorite." The Ariels, stepping gingerly into the platform of scales, showcasing the roller blades on her shoes and knees.
Around that time, the Valvrave's damaged sense nerve wings began to flicker on and off. At the same time, his speed and mobility began to decrease remarkably. "…this is…" Haruto immediately realized the problem and had no choice but to land the now ground bound Valvrave on the train. The wings folded in just as the last glimmer of the sense nerve died out. All those tentacles stabbing into the Valvrave's armor had damaged his flight system.
"I see… there goes your wings, eh?" Ariels approached step by step. The scale platforms moved nimbly in the air to create a path for the teal green faux Valvrave to walk. "That makes the both of us." The Ariels showcased her boosters who just coughed its last. Valvrave's blade had also pierced deep: barely missing her rune reactor but completely ruptured her main thruster's fuel cell tank. The teal colorization of the Ariels was slightly marred by the green fuel leaking from the stab wound.
Yet another point of difference between the Original and the Fakes. The Original used Runes for everything: their weapons, their thrusters, even their armor and OS. Naturally, of these systems, the thrusters are the biggest glutton of them all – especially in current circumstances. The original possess a vastly more efficient energy processing system that allows a very efficient energy to power ratio, and more importantly, they have their Magius pilots to constantly feed the Rave Engine. The fakes on the other hand, as mentioned by Haruto, the designer can't seem to read the plans right, and what's more, they only have normal pilots. The Arus designer could, like the original, had the runes fuel everything, but like this, they'll run out of runes in a very short time. So they compromise: the runes power only their weapons and other crucial systems like the Second Wind protocol and the Ariels' smart Scale Platform fleet. Thrusters on the other hand are still powered by good old fashioned jet fuel cells. And they also still compromised with some honest to goodness conventional solid firearms like stakes ammunition, fragmentation bombs, and grinder lance instead of the usual energy consumptive beam weaponry. Besides, the former has been proven to be more effective than the latter to deal with Valvraves.
Despite their condition, both pilots hardly lose their will to fight. The Valvrave pulled out both swords, and the Ariels used her Second Wind Nanomachine to transform her weapon as well. She had somehow merged her Bio Hazard Shotgun with her lance.
The Valvrave took a few steps back and moved to a more level ground atop the runaway train. Against his wishes, it looks like the battle will, whether he likes it or not, ends up in the one place he don't want to be. "…Spike…"
"Haruto?"
"…hold on to something. It's about to get REALLY bumpy."
"What could be bumpier than this!?"
"…you're about to find out."
The Ariels started charging, skating forward. At the same time, the Scale Platform fleet also moved in tandem, creating a path as fast as the skater thread them midair. One last stride and the Ariels kicked the platform and hurled herself towards the Valvrave. The collision sent a shockwave that rattle the whole train, sending the occupants hurling allover the place.
As soon as the Valvrave and the Ariels break off, he found his footing again while she's already right in front of him with her chainsaw lance whirring to the cockpit. But the Valvrave managed to slash it away at the last moment. At the same time, he also sent a slash that was aimed at Ariels' chest, only to find he slashed to the empty air. 'What!?' The Ariels had jumped and skated upside down on a Scale Platform road formed over his head.
"Sure, this scale platform system may seem quaint compared to the original's… but I like it just the same. After all…"The Ariels began demonstrating the true use of the scale platforms: it create roads midair that allowed her to move with her skater… at incredible speed that even the Valvrave, even in his current powered up state could barely keep up. "Your Valvrave is faster in the sky… but Ariels is even faster on ground!"
And she wasn't bluffing. At full throttle, even without her boosters, she moved so fast, she left behind her afterimages allover the place. She even swings her lance multiple times from impossible angles, piercing past his guard time and again. The Valvrave could barely block her attacks and managed to swing back, but only managed to slice the Scale road. The Ariel had already jumped to another newly formed path and skated to another way. That's when the Valvrave realized he had been surrounded by the Ariels' scale platforms, swarming allover his field of vision, constructing and deconstructing roads and tracks for the enemy to thread wherever she wished. And even worse, they began secreting that blue fog again, blinding his vision. And using these pathways, the Ariels was jumping circles all around the Valvrave, skating around in the fog covered sky poking the Valvrave from a safe distance with her lance AND her tentacles. And they're stabbing at him with speed equivalent to a bullet, easily punching holes through the train's supposedly impervious armor.
It took everything the Valvrave had just to prevent the spear poking new holes in him. And then all the sudden, the Ariels added something new to the mix: there's more of her. More than one. Now, the Valvrave is being surrounded by no less than 8 Ariels, all of them stabbing him from every direction. It was clear now that the fleet of drones can be used as more than just distraction or creating roads in the sky. And then amidst the massed attacks of 8 Faux Valvrave, he saw her… saw them all opened fire with their shotgun. In an instant, the Valvrave was rained by bullets.
Not all of them are real bullets though. Only 1/8th of it is real… but they're all incendiary slugs. The Valvrave was once again engulfed in flames…
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Red had seen a lot of battles all his life… seen things that will scare the shit out of everyone. Things that made the 'Fear of God' shoved right down your ass. But what he just seen literally redefine the meaning of the word.
"…what do I get the feeling I'm being underpaid!?"
"We need the best. You're it."
"Bram Stoker's a prick. What the fuck is this!?" In comparison to what he just seen, that horror story seems like a bedtime story now. Bram Stoker's Dracula don't have access to military grade weapon of mass destruction. Bram Stoker's Dracula don't have top class military training wired into their brain. The worst part is… he had a feeling Bram Stoker's Dracula was nowhere near as pissed or as determined as these guys. And then… there's… that. "What the hell didn't you tell us!?"
"That's a need to know-"
"Fuck you and shut up." Red closed down the transmission knowing he need to do more if he wants to get answers. "I'm rescuing my girl first – then you better have a hell of an explanation." The Hellsing transformed back to his gunship mode before boosting away.
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"So… tell me again, exactly… what are you going to do to her?" Yusuke asked, both out of curiosity and on behalf of a fuming Raizo, who had to hold himself back as he watched Cain biting Aila's hand, absorbing her runes.
When he finally let go, Aila was slightly pale, and Raizo immediately came to her aid when she swayed down weakly. Cain spent a moment to wipe the few drops of blood from his lips before answering flatly: "To put it simply… I will give her cancer."
And with that short – arguably poorly chosen word, Aila immediately regained her healthy complexion courtesy of her fury erupting in an instant: "WHAT!?"
"Allow me to explain." Cain endured the angry glare of the sister. "I'm about to use the special ability that is the privilege of the Arachabus Magius, the secondary trait of our kind. We call it… Genesis."
"Genesis?"
"If you think about it… the special abilities of every Magius strain actually correspond to the special nature of Rune itself. Rune is many things: they are energy, they are knowledge, they are fuel, they are data, they are power, they are durable as they are malleable… and more importantly, they are life. Arachabus strain emphasize on that aspect of the Rune. All of my kind possesses vastly more powerful regenerative properties than any other Magius Strain." Cain showed his hand, now glowing with green and gold runes. A green glowing spider web like markings appeared from beneath his eyepatch. "We can recover from any kind of injury, no matter how severe. But most importantly, we can give that healing factor to anyone we so chooses."
"What does that have to do with cancer?" Yusuke asked.
"What is cancer?" Cain asked back. "Cancer is the name you humans give when an abnormal cellular growth occurred in your body. But from another angle…. That's actually your cells expanding, dividing, new cells being created, forming biomass. You call it tumor. But… in reality that's just your cell doing what every cell do at daily basis: reproducing itself. Constantly renewing, constantly dividing, creating new biomasses. That's not a bad thing, isn't it? But IT IS bad… when it's uncontrollable. When the cells constantly making more and more of themselves without knowing when to stop. The cellular generation was uncontrollable, and the new 'organs' created is more malevolent than benign to human bodies. But… what if you can control that cancer? What if you can tell those cells to create a tumor that had a purpose?" Cain generated a bulbous ball of energy that is pulsating, not unlike a living human cell made entirely out of rune energy. And before anyone can say anything, he shoved it into Eliza's chest. The cybernetic woman immediately gasped and jerked as green energy pulsated across her mechanical body.
Aila rushed to her sister's side, her body jerking several times. "What did you do to her!?" Aila shot Cain a murderous look.
"What I had to do. The Arus had removed many of her vital organs, replacing them all with machines. My runes are right now destroying all that was left of her old useless organs, and recreated new ones… from scratch."
The body went rigid and even convulsed several times, twisting and bulging, forcibly distorting the suit from the inside. Her insides had been stuffed full with machines, and suddenly new organs are bursting through what little space she had left. Perhaps that is why she starts screaming… and choking.
Cain grunted. "Blast those tasteless Arusian techs. How much machines they put inside her!?" He pushed Alia aside and placed his hand on Eliza's forehead. His hand briefly glowed… before they literally sank into her insides. His hand rummaged the inside of her chest cavity, and the woman's screams intensified.
Alia was about to jump into it again when a firm hand belonging to Raizo held her back. She looked back at him but he only shook his head. Whatever's happening must run its course.
Cain frowned as he suddenly plunged his arm so deep all the way to his elbows and the poor lady scream reached its peak. "Come here you little… THERE!" When Cain yanked his arm out, and the woman also shrieked one last time, Cain was holding in his hand a disgustingly black substance, and the woman's eyes finally open and awake.
"W… W… Wh…"
"Sis…?" Aila couldn't believe her eyes. She rushed to her sister's side. "Sis?"
The woman looked confused but awake. She shifted slowly to Aila and blinked in recognition. "…Aila? Is that you? What have I…?"
Aila didn't respond. Her voices get stuck in her throat with the tears blinding her eyes. She can't do anything but to bury her head on her sister's chest and cry. It'll took a while before she could stop.
Thankfully, Cain seems to understand that. "I'll give you guys a few minutes." Eliza looked up and saw and knew the man who had saved her life. "I have a few questions for you. You better be ready. Don't take too long, it's rather urgent."
Eliza didn't know what to say. She wanted to say thank you but she had a feeling things were not that simple. Military discipline took over, and the former soldier responded with a flat: "Sir, yes, sir."
Cain left the room, and while Raizo and Aila remained calm and was rather happy besides themselves, Yusuke was the only one who looked as unconvinced as he is concerned.
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If by this point the Ariels is still trying to triumph by overheating her enemy… then she haven't been paying attention.
Now, the Valvrave's temperature rises to 87… and the Valvrave's 'roared' as his power level increase yet again. Parts of the edges of the Valvrave's body that was colored in bottomless darkness began to smolder brightly. Its surface cracks and bursting with spiking flame like energy. Even the joints are burning! And the same thing also happened to its weapons: the two katanas' edges suddenly burst in flames like it was fresh out of the forge. The finger tips of the wing mounted powerclaws burned brightly white. The three ardor grip vents on his back and shoulders are glowing red hot. The other parts also reflect this increase in temperature and strength as the pale white shimmering steel turned darker, its red aura turned more material and solidified into ephemeral red smoke with bright burning fire bursting of its edges and cinders flying about its figure. In stark contrast, a pall of shadows and darkness also fell upon the machine. The Valvrave seemingly returned to its original undamaged state, but now he looked hauntingly less… machine… more… Gaunt and menacing like the creature of the horror stories it inspires.
The wing mounted sub arms sprang out, all its power claw fingers raging wildly and instantly amassed uncontainable power at their tips. With a roar of its engines, the Valvrave unleashed a barrage of 10 jagged lasers to all direction, instantly wiping out every holographic clones, even burned off the smoke down to the last particles.
As soon as the last bit of smoke was burned out, the Platform Scales suddenly flocked together into a single mass. Before he realized what's happening, the mass rammed him hard and pinned him to the ground. The Valvrave was still immobile when the second wave of the Scales formed another road and the Ariels are riding it towards him, lance first.
Mrs. Blue forget one thing though: the reason she need the fog to cover the platform is because the scales are rather… fragile.
Haruto's eyes briefly glowed red as runes flowed from him, resonated with the Rave Engine, and then coursing through the entire endoskeleton of the roaring Valvrave. With a brief shift of his body, the Scale Platforms locking him in place were knocked off. He managed to raise a blade and parried the lance aimed at his chest. The deflected lance sank deep through the floor just next to the Valvrave's head instead.
Inside the train, Spike was just running to do something when the lance pierced right next to him, its grinding blades barely missing him by the inches. "What the what?"
At the same time, the Valvrave ripped off the last remaining scales locking him in place and lifted his leg before kicking the Ariels by the chest, pushing her back and yanked the lance out of the floor. At the same time, the power claws on his wings erupted out and immediately fired a shower of lasers to every direction, slicing and dicing every scale platform within reach. When the Ariels landed in a crash, the train shook once again, the momentum even managed to push the train down, causing it to grind the floor, flaying off some of its grav pads.
Just this alone and Spike realized the battle above are going rather badly up there. "Not if I had anything to say about it!" And he began a climb.
The Valvrave shook off all remaining scales and charged forward. The Ariels sent her scales at the Valvrave, but the red mech literally slice his way through; destroying each and every scale sent his way and closed the distance really quickly. But the Ariels are ready and welcomed him with a twisting stab. The Valvrave parried the stab to his side… but then, just as he's in the middle of the next move, the lance suddenly changed form and function. Segments extended out of the lance' pole, its rigid form suddenly became lithe and flexible. The weapon suddenly switched from a spear into a whip. "What the…" Completely caught off guard, the lance turned whip slithered and slapped the Valvrave to the side. The Ariels swing her spear whip multiple times, landing several telling blows that the Valvrave can barely block, even ripping some shards off his armor plates. And in the process, she also launched a barrage of stabs with her four tentacles. It was an onslaught the Valvrave can barely survive.
The only reason he hasn't turned into a sliced Swiss cheese yet, is simply because the Valvrave's moves are growing increasingly faster and faster yet again. Something the Ariels quickly noticed. Mrs. Blue immediately sent new orders to the scales. They quickly swarmed around and tried to charge the Valvrave's back. But the Power claws on his back charged up and fired a wave of lasers that immediately turned the last of the incoming scales to molten slags. Mrs. Blue was so caught off guard at the destruction of her scales, the Valvrave took the initiative in their fight. In a flash, the Valvrave had severed two of Ariels' tentacles. And when Mrs. Blue regained her wits, the Valvrave just sliced off her last tentacle and was about to stab her. On instinct, she raised her hand to guard, forgetting how badly it went the last time she did so. Gouketsu pierced through the gauntlet and the hand, and the Valvrave twisted his blade to further wreck the pierced limb. The Ariels pulled back, and her entire forearm was yanked off by the elbow. The Ariels tried to send one feeble stab, but the Valvrave parried the lance to the ground before he sliced it off. The Valvrave immediately send another horizontal slash, but the Ariels lithely ducked the blade barely missing her crown. And at the same time, she yanked the pole off the spearhead and swiped it as a whip at his feet. The whip coiled around one of the Valvrave's legs before she yanked the Valvrave's feet from right under him.
"WHOAA!" The off balanced Valvrave was lifted a few inches off the floor before the Ariels pulled him on spin.
"Au revoir!" Ariels hurled the Valvrave off across the train. Between that, and the speed the train went by, the Valvrave helplessly bounced several times across the train's roof before one last hit and he was knocked clean off the edge. Haruto can only watched helplessly from the distance as the Ariels was about to grew so small he will never be able to catch up. His blades flailing helplessly…
…until Marie's Kagerou stretched out her arm and caught the Valvrave by the blade. Sparks lit up as the Kagerou's damaged hand are pressing itself against the serrated blade. "Haruto!"
"M… Marie!"
"Ughh…!" Marie's Kagerou's arm is screaming as her joints are being pulled out of its sockets, and her fingers are close to being sliced off. "COME ON!" Before her one arm gave up, she stretched out her other arm. The Valvrave sheathed his other sword and immediately stretched out his arm as well. He managed to grab her arm just as her other arm's fingers were sliced off completely. With Kagerou's help, the Valvrave struggled to get back on top of the train. But before Haruto can relax, he saw the Ariels are skating towards them at speed. Her spear's whirring and the distance is already far too close for him to do anything, not even to warn Marie.
"FOREEE!"
One of the few remaining cranes on the construction train suddenly activated and swing in a quick roundhouse arc. The Ariels was completely caught unaware, and even if she wasn't she was moving too fast to stop, the crane just suddenly came into her view. It hit her squarely on her face. The Ariels was completely knocked off balance and stumbled around the train roof in an uncontrollable rolling right towards the ready and raring Valvrave.
The sub arm holding the sheath of his blade placed it on his waist, and the Valvrave grasped the handle of his katana with his main right arm before he charged towards the target in a low charging battoujutsu stance. The Ariels had just finished rolling when the Valvrave is right in front of her. She quickly recovers and retaliates with a stab of her spear, but the Valvrave reacted just as swift. When the blade was barely out of its sheath, the Valvrave used it to parry the stab to his side. At the same time, he closed his distance with Ariels at incredible speed, grinding his blade across the pole of the spear before it had the chance to turn into a whip.
A crimson glowing arc of fire briefly erupted as the Valvrave completed his roundhouse slash.
The two halves of the Ariels stumbled off the edge of the train, and it rapidly shrunk as the runaway train immediately left the bisected stowaway behind. A downpour of blue and green energy particles poured out of the stump, and to Haruto's surprise, they homed in towards the victor. Runes. Faux Valvrave is still a Valvrave. Surely they also had stockpiles of runes beating in their heart. The Rave Engine of the Valvarve hummed, greedily drained every last drop of the spoils of victory. The Rune Absorber system that Pino installed the other day had seen some improvements. Instead of one big absorber being installed on one part of the body, smaller but more numerous receptors are now applied across the whole frame, allowing a more efficient absorption. Though the feature is not finished yet, it's functional, and it was designed for a fight against Magius… though he didn't expect it to find use here - since no one expected that they'll fight Valvraves in here. Haruto found not only his temperature dropped, many of his damaged systems returned to full function, including his wings. Once that was done, as if sensing the hostility was over, the Valvrave's gaunt form vanished into hissing smoke, leaving the normal Valvrave in its wake – and as an added bonus, a part of his armor somehow regenerated. A part. Not all. Alien tech. Go figure.
The triumphant Haruto watched the darkness the runaway train is leaving behind, panting in his cockpit. "Owing a debt to you is fast becoming habit, Spike."
"Wahahahaha! Wait until you see the interest rates!" Sure enough, Spike laughed inside the crane controller.
"Enough with the bro-mance." Delphi barged in. "We're 60 seconds away from collision!"
"Oh no." Spike gulped. "Now how are we supposed to stop a 5,000 ton deadweight speeding… as fast as we are in less than 60 seconds!?"
"Right." Haruto knew what he had to do. The Valvrave unfurled his repaired wings as he took to the sky. "Tell everyone to brace themselves!"
Mari balked. "Haruto, let me help!"
"NO! You're not strong enough for this yet!"
That's when Spike finally realized Haruto's bright idea. "Ummm… Haruto wait… don't tell me you're going to…" Upon seeing the Valvrave boosted far ahead of the runaway train, Spike had his answer. "EVERYBODY! HOLD ON TO SOMETHING!"
The Valvrave charged far, far ahead of the train and then he landed on the ground. He can already feel the ground trembling, the train will be here any moment now. He remembered that feeling: it's possible. Ashra taught him to use Runes as lasers for offense, and then using the runes as a way to strengthen his physical body… that same principle, he had managed to apply to his Valvrave, strengthening it even further, making it faster, stronger than even what the spec sheet says… More and more he began to understand: the Valvrave is more than just a weapon… it is an extension of himself, a medium in which he can channel the power of runes to its maximum potential.
The question is… is there a limit?
"Let's find out." Haruto concentrated, sensing the power within himself, connect and resonate it with the reservoir within the Valvarve's Rave Engine… he can feel its pulse, like a second heartbeat. Amazingly, it's vastly easier than he imagined. The exhaust vents of the Valvrave began to trickle with more and more of runes… but they're no longer the usual neon green of normal runes and they permeate allover the Valvarve's seemingly skeletal body… forming what passes for muscles and body parts made of pure energy. The Valvrave began to levitate, surrounded by an aura of red and black runes – the color of Haruto's runes.
And finally, the train arrived.
Haruto closed his eyes and winced.
When the collision occurred, every occupant inside the train was already holding to their dear life to the sturdiest object they can hold on to, but to some, it was not enough. Many of them were hurled several meters from where they were. And unbelievably enough, the vastly larger train had slowed down, significantly. The Valvrave used all his boosters until every vents are burning red. The train had lost more than half of its speed, but it's still dangerously fast.
Haruto's arm is stretched to the limit just to keep the controllers from knocking him back to his seat. His rune reserves are burning at an insane rate, he can't even begin to imagine how high the heat gauge had risen at this point. But he knew it was not enough. "The ground… I had to… push it… to the… ground!"
The Valvrave grabbed the pulverized front of the train even tighter and with a roar, the Valvarve tilted its boosters downward and he pushed the train down until the lower half of the train was forced to touch and then grind the ground, completely destroying all the grav pads of the lower area, denying it lift power. And the speed began to decrease again, but still it's not enough. "Oh that's it!" Finally the Valvrave planted his feet to the ground, tearing the floor apart, damaging his Impact Hopper spider shoes beyond repair but the train finally slowed down even more… now it's just the question if it's enough.
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Cain had just finished washing his hands on the sink when he can feel Yusuke's inquisitive gaze. "Can I help you. Mr. Otamaya?"
"What exactly did you do?" Yusuke asked. "Pino once said Arachabbus's abilities are actually creating those so called Harvesters. But… I can't see its relation to what you just did."
"An inquisitive mind. Very good." Cain smiled as he explained whilst whipping his hand with a blanket. "Just what I would expect from the heir of Fran of the Volfrans Magius. To be fair, Yusuke Otamaya, the power of regeneration is not exactly something special. Humans have it even without a Magius inside them, yes? The difference between human and Magius is simply within the speed and quality of the regeneration process itself. When a Magius entered a human, sure, we altered the human's physiology quite a bit. Practical immortality, slowed aging process, boost in physical strength and mental acuity, and a massively empowered regenerative factor. All this came as a standard with any Magius. What differentiate Arachabbus with the rest, is that our ability to enhance the healing factor of our host are considered unnatural even by Magius' standards. Members of my species are known to be incredibly long lived and frighteningly resilient. You've seen an example of this… when you executed one of my Familiar, Mirko."
Yusuke winced in unease, remembering an unpleasant sight. The execution of Amadeus W. Dorssia AKA Mirko was not something for the faint hearted. In public, what was shown was the end: Pino draining the last bit of his runes and L-Elf plant a single shot to the head and that was the end.
But here's what they would never reveal to the public: the brutal process required to get to that point. Mirko was an incredibly old and powerful Magius who had stored vast quantities of Runes that would've allowed him to live on for hundreds if not thousands of years to come. And Pino was no longer as strong as she was then in the olden days where she can easily punish even an Aspect Magius. For her to safely absorb his runes, they have to weaken him first. They've emptied a whole garrison's worth of ammunition at him, chop him off to bits with a meat grinder, toss him into the incinerator… only to watch him regenerate his lost limbs and keep getting back up no matter how horrendous his wound get. It was a race to destroy the Magius body faster than the Magius can regenerate them. The first few days, the Magius kept gloating, and the executioners committed to their task with a rage fueled relish. But at the latter stages, when it was obvious that Mirko's reserves of Runes are close to the end, even the most hardened man butcher became nauseated at his genuine screams of pain and horror. They have an unnerving suspicion that it was not Mirko that was suffering at the end, but Amadeus himself – unfortunately kept alive by what's left of Mirko that remained within him to suffer to the end of his long and slow death, the regenerative power was no longer a boon but a cruelty of a sick joke. When Pino finally landed the coup de grace, the subject was utterly vegetable and if he could feel anything at its end, it's probably gratitude.
"At some point, older, more powerful Magius… in this instance, an Aspect Magius like me and Pino, gained an ability to divide our essences into smaller pieces. This allowed us to hijack another being… except that we need only to transfer just that small fragment of our essence into them. That's how we were able to jack people without losing consciousness. However… in Arachabus strain, there's… a slight complication." Cain shrugged. "You see, if our true body is our essence, then, just like the physical bodies of human, Magius essence also possess the innate ability to heal themselves if they are… injured. For the sake of illustration, let's say, you're a human, and we severed your arm… will it grow back? No. But in the case of a Magius, we severed an arm, and like a fingernail, it'll just grow back in a heartbeat. But in the case of an Arachabbus magius… we severed an arm, our arm will grow back… and that severed arm, left alone, will grew into a whole new body, all by itself."
Yusuke's eyes widened in shock.
"The Magius learned a long time ago… that whenever we hijacked a human, our… powerful healing factor was added as well. This doesn't change even when we, Aspect Magius, learned to insert only a small fragment of ourselves into the host body. This is particularly troublesome for an Arachabbus. Even a severed fraction of an Arachabbus essence still holds within it a vast lifeforce and all the benefits and problems that came with it. Physically, this result in highly enhanced healing factor for the hijacked, but at times, the healing factor enhanced their cellular mitosis beyond control, with less than… pleasant results. Of course, older, more powerful Magius such as myself had learned to control it. Allowing me to fine tune my abilities in ways that… well… I've given you a firsthand demonstration have I not?"
Yusuke nodded. So that's how it works: Cain merely inserted a piece of himself into the poor lady to stimulate her regenerative power to super human level, enough that she can regenerate her lost and damaged organs… but not too much that it'll turn into malevolent tumors.
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Meanwhile… in module 217…
The situation was… not exactly as bad as described in what little can be heard from the chatter.
…it's way worse.
The whole module has been utterly transformed from its original purpose of a recreation district – with its beach area and resorts… into a veritable no man's land warzone. Human soldiers dug in trenches fighting a desperate war to keep the army of machines from going further. Paying no small price in life and blood, they managed to hold on, not allowing the machines to gain even an inch… but they're losing.
And yet losing is not an option here because of what they're protecting is not the hotels or the beaches… it's what lies deep down on the mechanical line: the central water processing facility that provide the last source of drinkable water in this region. If this facility falls, what little resistance remained in this area will thirst to death.
Therefore, as soon as the attack intensified, the bulk of the resistance's forces, including the central command HQ has been moved underground into the outskirts of the mechanical line right inside the central water treatment plant. Aside from its importance, it is also the most defensible location in the module. That being said… they've lined every defenses they could, every sensor they have to monitor any way in and out… including the Mechanical line at their rear flank. Though with their limited equipment, unless the incoming army is ridiculously noisy, they won't see them coming.
…and as far as one can tell, if the Valvrave's fight with the Ariels is not ridiculously noisy, then the radar officer is either deaf or utterly incompetent if they didn't see it coming from miles away.
"This… thing… whatever it is, it's coming our way at dangerously high speed but now it slows down."
"How fast was this train going?"
"Fast enough that we initially thought it was an enemy attempt to ram us with it. But now… it's slowing down… so much so that it should be impossible for it to slow down this much in such a short period."
"Holographic confirms… it is a grav train… but if that's a Grav Train carrying an army of killer droids then I'm the Emperor of China."
The Holographic image did show the poor state of the train grinding on the ground, flayed apart piece by piece. But then… it also showed the thing that was trying to stop it.
Upon recognizing it shape, everyone was shocked beyond belief… and they understood.
"Send our men down there. NOW!"
The militia rushed down into the tunnel fully armed. Dozens gathered and their rifles pointed at the great abyss of the tunnel, wondering what will come. They can already feel the ground shakes and all these noises coming from the darkness… and they know something's coming. Something's BIG is coming.
Sweat had rained down their brows as the noise gets louder and louder…
"What is… that…?"
And then it emerged.
The first they can easily see was the giant shape of this ransacked train on fire and one breath away from collapsing to pieces, moving towards them at a rather worrying pace… and then they noticed this human shape, a 22 meter tall giant but easily dwarfed by the train it's currently holding. The Militia immediately turned tail and run as the train came charging in at speed… that is decelerating rapidly.
When it finally stopped, it was already halfway through the compound, leaving a trail of superheated steel and flayed pieces behind its wreckage.
The Militia still watched from the sidelines, not daring to close their distance, fearing the heavily damaged train will explode. But it didn't explode. It just sits there, all its damage hissing smoke.
But their attention was immediately drawn towards the thing that is moving at the front of the train.
Every inch of its body are hissing hot, its vents are burning red and looked like it was close to melting. Its joints are making horrible creaking sound when it steps away from the wreckage. The Impact Hopper boots at its feet has been completely obliterated, snapping to pieces at the slightest movement of its wearer. The Valvrave, electricity coruscating across its ravaged and cracked smoking armor, walked a few steps away from the train before it fell on its knees and then on all fours. The Militia dare not come closer, the steel floor beneath the machine was burning red and even dented as it reached its melting point, signifying just how hot the Valvrave currently is.
The Militia watched this with mixed emotion. Should they open fire or should they call the medic?
"Attention, unidentified mechanized unit! If there's a pilot in there, step out!" A ranking officer immediately took the lead. The Militia regained their wits and aimed their weapons at the wrecked Valvrave.
Haruto would love to oblige… if he's conscious. But between the scorching heat, the exhaustion, and then the collision force… superhuman or not, he's overdone it this time…
Outside, the officer grew impatient. "…we'll give you the count of 5 before we blast you to smithereens!" To emphasize this, several militia came bearing bazookas. "5! 4! 3!" No response, the safety's off. "2!" Still no response, the officer lifts his arm preparing to give the signal… "1! FI-"
"WAAAIT!" Spike's yell managed to pierce the half opened lid of the wrecked train. Everyone's attention turned to the train and then they heard banging. After several more bangings, the lid finally snapped open, and Spike showed his face.
The militia was so tense they were THIS close to pull the trigger by accident.
"DON'T SHOOT! DON'T SHOOT! WE'RE HUMANS!" Spike yelled.
The Militia was still confused until another sound echoed, not from their leader, but from the intercom. "DON'T SHOOT! HOLD YOUR FIRE! HOLD YOUR FIRE!" A female voice losing her composure screamed through the intercom.
"Wait… is that…" Spike paled.
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"So… you can boost a human body's regenerative powers, allowing you to make new organs from scratch… or… is that really it? Is there a limit? Saki-chan can go so far as to create a clone of herself!"
"Well… of course she could. A single human cell had 46 chromosomes –that's more than enough genetic information for a human to theoretically create a full human body from a single cell with enough power and time. A Novus Sapien, if I read Pino's blueprint just right, had 7 times the number of chromosomes of normal human. Creating a clone was the easy part. Tokishima Saki literally did it in her sleep!" Cain continued: "But you're missing the point. The difficulty is not in creating a physical body of the clone but in making the resulting clone do what you want. Putting a… purpose into your creation. A body without an essence inside is but a doll made of flesh and bone. For example, when I put a fragment of myself into that woman, I… let's just say, I put a very specific, very precise instructions in that fragment. The purpose of that fragment is merely to shape the resulting biomass into new organs to replace the ones she lost – no more, no less."
"So what you're saying is that… that thing you did with the lady… it's something all Elder Magius can do? Even I can do it, with some training?"
"Well, yes. But there's a limit. Severing a piece of our essence is much like this cup." To demonstrate this, Cain took a small cup. "Imagine our primary essence, our soul, as a lake. And the severed piece of soul… is this cup. I used the analogy on purpose, because that's what we consider our soul is: a vessel to hold information. To hold runes. A lake cannot be poured into a cup this small. Likewise, a small piece of a Magius essence can only hold so much information. But… this is where an Arachabbus's essence is unique among all other subspecies of the Magius. As mentioned before, Arachabbus Magius possess a frighteningly powerful lifeforce and abnormal regenerative capability. Even a fraction of our essence is no exception. Left alone, a small fraction of our essence can grow. Our cup can continue to grow, allowing larger and larger amounts of information to be placed inside… until even a lake can be swallowed whole."
"So an Arachabbus Magius can theoretically put in as much information they want into the clone?"
"My apologies. I used the term too loosely. No, it's not exactly limitless of course. While I did say the cup can continue to grow, there are of course limits. To grow, to multiply, even an Arachabbus fragment requires energy. A clone will need to consume rune – first from the rune allotted to that fragment… then he'll take it from its host, and then, when it is necessary - no, when ordered to, it will attempt to 'harvest' from other sources to fulfill its needs – all of this of course… is only when the instruction allotted to that fragment allowed it to do so. That's why it is called 'Harvester'."
"So… it's like a program which you put into a disk with… a rather flexible space…" Yusuke nodded. "How… complex is the program that can be inserted in that fragment?"
"Arguably, the instructions, or programs, as you eloquently put, can be very elaborate and specific indeed. But biological limitations aside, you're forgetting one point: the nature of Runes itself. To us, Runes are energy, essence, information, memories, life, each interchangeable, each mutable, they're all the same to us. Even more, because Pure Magius are essentially lifeforms composed entirely out of Runes. One small clone of an Arachabbus essence can be ordered to continuously expand to carry virtually limitless amount of genetic information…" Cain rolled his eye. "…though, in all honesty, any one of my kin who was idiotic enough to attempt such a thing ended up dead, even if Pino did not put a ban on such practices on the pain of death. Pouring information AKA runes into a vessel is tantamount to pouring my very own lifeforce into a… new shell. I would be better off to just hijack a new body myself…"
But all this talk about the Arachabbus special secondary trait, Yusuke began to understand the strength and limits of an Arachabbus Magius… that being said… "I'm sorry if I'm a bit… unconvinced… just… I feel like I need to ask you in the eye."
Cain blinked before he spluttered a chuckle and then a laugh as he get the jest. "AHahahahahaha! Ah… I see… so this is why you were so skeptic." Cain smiled as he rubbed his eye-patch. "Ah… yes… this. Well… I don't blame you." The one smear to Cain's otherwise unscathed face. "Cain and I had a 99,8% compatibility. Our personality was so much alike, when we merged, it was as seamless as it is smooth. But… this one scar remains the only point of contention between Cain… and me." Attlach sighed. "Though… I respect this man enough… to tolerate his fancy."
"What contention?"
"I want it healed. He wants to keep it. I don't blame him. He did have his reasons. Albeit sentimental." Cain pointed at his eye. "It is part of the reason I need to save that woman's life. It… may have some correlation with our mission, as you'll soon see."
"…?"
Knock-knock…
"Come in." Cain answered, and X-eins walked in. He was surprised when he saw Yusuke was also there. He suppressed his unease and made his report. "She's ready for you, Colonel."
"I do like perfect timing. Come."
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Meanwhile… back on a certain spot on the mechanical line…
The Ariels somehow managed to drag her remaining upper half up to a considerable distance using only her one remaining arm. The second wind nano machines had expended themselves just to fix her up to this point, whilst her lower half had been ransacked beyond even their capability to repair. But she did not go to where the Grav Train had gone, no. She had gone to the opposite direction instead.
But not to run.
Definitely not to run.
"Just… you wait…" Mrs. Blue panted inside her messed up cockpit. She's been using the only controller left in that mess that can still function, if barely. "I'm not… licked… yet!" She paused for a minute just to get a breather, before she continued her steady gait. Until finally, she managed to get to a certain point, and she stopped. But not idly so.
The broken purple sense nerve of the Vaux Valvrave began to glimmer on and off, sending out a signal for help. Granted, in this tunnel, the signal won't get very far, but as demonstrated before, they can still reach some of the drone fleet stationed within this tunnel section. She needs to bounce the signal from one drone to the next, and it'll take a while before it can reach the surface. This is something she can never do during that wild speedy fight to the death with an alien super weapon.
It took quite a while… but eventually…
A blue light erupted from one of the holes…
"Hell yes…"
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The militia had gathered to watch with awe and wonder as people, actual living people, even a great number of them, actually managed to walk out of a contoured and twisted wreck they hardly recognized as a decent mode of transport, not by any standards. It's a miracle they managed to get this far.
But even more shocking to them, was when this giant 22 meter tall humanoid robot actually walked out of the rear of the train. The robot was almost identical to the piping hot red one, still kneeling on all fours in a puddle of molten bent iron.
"Stay back!" Spike immediately warned some of the overly curious militia as soon as he climbed down the train. "Stay the far back!" Then again, everyone was already giving the red hot Valvrave a very wide berth to begin with. They were nowhere near within 20 feet away from the burning edges of the burnt steel plate beneath that thing, and they can stll feel the air burning around it! It was THAT hot.
It was easy for everyone to understand what happened, it's just… it defied so many common sense, their sanity is still having a hard time believing it. In all that confusion, Spike took the lead. "Hey! Hey! You got water? The water hose?"
"Y… yeah?"
"We need to cool the Valvrave down! QUICKLY!"
Several militia dumbly do as they're told, four groups came, each bearing a water hose with ice cold water dripping. In unison, they fired jets of water towards the Valvrave… and their view immediately was covered by clouds of steam. But what is even more unbelievable, is the fact the water never even reached the alien robot. It travelled to a certain distance, but moments before it touches the burning red hot unit, the water had vaporized, unable to withstand the radiating heat from the blazing temperature of the Valvrave's surface that produce so much vapor it repelled the water blast (AN: Leidenfrost effect – look it up). "My… god…" The Team Leader looked at this incredulous scene with shock and horror. If it was that hot on the surface, no one could've survived inside it.
The sprinkler team stopped. The sheer volume of the steam is getting dangerous and is choking them! Though the still panicked Spike protested: "Hey! Why do you stop!? Keep sprinkling! My friend is in there! We have to get him out!"
"We can't! That thing is too hot! It has to cool down on its own first! And your friend is most likely been burnt to a crisp in there!"
"Trust me when I say this: The pilot of a Valvrave is nothing like you or me."
But while the militia and Spike is still thinking on what to do to pull Haruto out of there…
"What is that… sound…?" Marie commented. The Kagerou looked back to the tunnel where they've come from. They heard a loud rumbling sound… not dissimilar with the humming of a Grav Train…
Warning! Warning! Warning! Perimeter breach! Warning! Warning!
"What is it?"
"Oh my god… what is that… thing!?" The radar officer looked at his holographic monitor depicting an object whose shape… completely beggars belief.
Spike stopped arguing with the militia officer for once to look back at where they came… and he saw it first. "Wha…"
Marie zoomed her cameras and rolled her eyes in disbelief. "Oh come on!" Without further ado, she lifted her Vurutoga and opened fire. The refugees screeched at the sudden noise of bullets firing. When they saw what the Kagerou was firing at, they too panicked and run as fast as their legs can take them; as far away as possible from the incoming monstrosity.
Far in the distance, the Ariels are coming towards them again, but her shape has changed. DRASTICALLY. Her entire lower half has been replaced by this new component, a massive waist twice bigger than the previous, and in lieu of legs, it sported an incredibly thick serpentine tail of prodigious length with layered armor. It was long and thick enough that it could've coiled around the Grav Train at least half a dozen times. The Faux Valvrave's rear now also carry two of her original manta ray shaped Backpacks. The tail was lined with dozens of grav pads across the length of this tail, with multitudes of fin shaped pods and really massive tail fins.
Energy bullets from the Kagerou bounced against the Ariels new thicker armor, and she's making her way towards them at very rapid pace. Arguably, she was not as fast as she was when she's still using her skater shoes, but for something of her current size, she's still VERY fast.
"CLOSE THE GATE! CLOSE THE GATE!" The gate quickly closed, but unfortunately, before it can close completely, the Ariels was already right in front of it. With a loud crash, she smashed through the door and headed straight towards the still shooting Kagerou.
"Alice, BRACE!"
"Wowie! That's the mermaid!"
The Ariels smashed against the Kagerou who used her Vurutoga as a shield. The collision bent the rifle completely out of shape. The Kagerou survived the impact and even managed to hold on to Ariel's upper half even as the serpentine faux Valvrave slither into the room and raised her body high up to the sky, towering over the gawking miltia and even the Kagerou dangling on her waist.
"Why can't that bitch JUST DIE ALREADY!?" Spike roared in frustration. "EVACUATE THE CIVILIANS!"
Thankfully, Mrs. Blue is not one to harm civilians if she can help herself. She actually had the courtesy to wait out a bit, giving the civilians the chance to run. She alo had a chance to analyze her surroundings; she had arrived at what is clearly the command center of the militia. Regrettably… or perhaps fortunately, she no longer had an army at her back… but this will do. "No hard feelings, everyone." She pulled out her shotgun and aimed it at the command center, to the horror of its occupants. Her finger squeezed on the trigger…
…before a katana whirled across the sky before it embedded itself on the said shotgun, knocking it off her hand. "!?" As soon as the Ariels looked at the culprit…
"PICK SOMEBODY YOUR OWN SIZE!" The Valvrave roared as he came flying in and hurled himself against the Ariels' torso. The momentum pushed the Ariels all the way back until her head was slammed against the wall. The shock threw the Kagerou off her waist, but she immediately get back up before she rushed the Ariels's serpentine body and pin it down with her weight. "Spike! GET THE REST OF THE CIVILIANS OUT OF HERE! GO! GO! GO!" Haruto howled over the speaker.
Spike nodded. "You heard the man! GET THEM OUT OF HERE!" He roared and the militia braved themselves and directed the screaming and squealing civilians and refugees to safety. The militia also retreated, realizing this battle is one that is way out of their league.
The Ariels immediately regained her bearings and saw the Valvrave just pulled out his second sword and is now preparing to ram it down her chest with both hands.
But before the blade came down, a pincer suddenly came and grabbed the Valvrave's arms firmly, preventing it from moving down an inch. "What?" Haruto looked up in horror. It's a massive pincer, connected by a serpentine articulated arm connected to additional equipment attached on the Ariel's spaulders. Now in addition to her actual arm, still bearing that handheld grinder lance, she also had these massive shoulder guards, each sporting a long mechanical tentacle mounting a giant pincer on its tip. One is holding tightly on his arms, the other is snipping menacingly on his face.
"What have you done?"
"This is the original state of the Ariels. A monstrosity with massive brute force and strength… powered by five mirror rave engines." Mrs. Blue groaned. "I don't like this form, to be honest. You forced me to do this. I'll give you points for that."
"Well… that does it. You've totally removed the last trace of Carmilla from this mech. So this is definitely NOT a Carmilla knockoff, just another mech. Very good. Now I'll have no more qualms of destroying it to smithereens."
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Shoko and Rion waited calmly outside a room labeled: Blast Shelter. It's a room they usually use to take shelter from a nuclear bomb, so it's very sturdy.
"…how long has she been in there?"
"30 minutes."
"Is it enough?"
"I left an unused decommissioned Waffe in there. Just enough to-"
KNOCK-KNOCK…
They quickly opened the door… and Saki walked out of the smoking room. The two other girls gulped. "Have you calmed down yet?"
"Yeah… yeah…" Saki sighed as she wiped the sweat off her brows. "Tell the boys to get in there… wear a rad suit and bring a big mop." And Saki placed a… doohickey the size of a matchbox in Shoko's hand. "What's this?"
"The only thing left of that Waffe that I didn't smash down." And she walked away, her steps 2 feet off the ground.
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The Ariels extended out her second pincer and grappled the Valvrave's waist before she yanked him off her. One pincer holding his arms are pulling him in one direction, another holding his waist is pulling him to the opposite direction. She's pulling the Valvrave with enough strength, any normal machine should've been torn into two already…
But these creaking sounds seem to come from the articulated joints of her mechanical tendril rather than the Valvrave's stretched body. "Seriously, what the hell are you made off!?" Mrs. Blue groaned as she strained her controllers to the limit.
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"Col. Cain… what else?" Yusuke asked as he walked briskly next to Cain.
"Pardon?"
"You've explained the abilities of the Arachabbus strain very clearly, and I knew mine… but as I understand it, there are supposedly… seven of the Magius subspecies?"
"Hm. Indeed. Which one would you like to know?"
"…Haruto's. What is he?"
"Hm. Tokishima Haruto is the direct spawn of her majesty, the Raven king, Pino, yes? Which means, he's most definitely a Valvire Magius." Cain was more than happy; it seems, to indulge Yusuke's curiosity at the moment. "But… may I ask… why the sudden curiosity?"
"I don't mean to be nosy… it's just…" Yusuke stopped for a moment, looking a bit uncertain about himself. One side, there's that scientist part of him who genuinely wants to know more. And on the other… "When you told me about the special ability of your kind… when I first used the ability of the Volfrans magius… I think it finally start to sink on me just how powerful of a being we are… but… exactly how powerful are we? And then there's Haruto who…"
"Ah… I see. Now I see…" Cain easily deduced Yusuke's line of thought. "You saw how Haruto's Valvrave was shot down right out of the sky… for every reason, you rightfully assumed the worst… but now… now you began to realize the strength… the power that a Magius command at their fingertips… the power that defy human reasoning… you're beginning to wonder… you're beginning to entertain the thought of hope. Hope… that perhaps… Haruto might still be alive because of… whatever power he command?"
"It's a slim chance but-"
"It's a very good chance." Cain firmly held Yusuke's shoulder. "Allow me to allay your fears. And apologize. I may have been needlessly rude when I told you to ignore Tokishima Haruto's survival, but… it's beyond a shadow of doubt that he survived. Because if you think Haruto's secondary trait as a Valvire Magius may have a chance to save him… then yes. You are correct. I think that is precisely what will save him."
"What… is it?" Yusuke's eyes glowed with more hope.
"Well, to be very precise, the circumstances around the Secondary Nature of the Valvire Magius in general are what will save him. But not directly no." Cain stood next to Yusuke as he began explaining. X-Eins watched quietly from the background. "The Valvrave as I understand it… was built from the remnants of Pino's Valvrave, was it not? If I did not misread the blueprint… over 60% of its construction is still close to the original, yes?"
"Not anymore." Yusuke retorted, and Cain raised an eyebrow in surprise. "We've… no… Pino had it rebuilt inside out… There's a reason why upgrading and maintaining the Valvrave was a hassle beyond belief. I don't… know… I mean… I've seen… it. That armor, that appearance we all saw? Just a layer of armor slapped on the surface for cosmetic sake to make it look like the rest. The constructions too. It's modular, like the rest… but… its insides… you said 60… but now, 80% of its construction… it's made of an alloy I've never seen on this earth."
"We had many names for it." Cain nodded. "As did you humans: Orichalcon, Mythril, Hi'hiirokane… Unobtainium."
"So. Alien alloy. I was right?"
"Umm… yes and no. The material is alien. The basic material we used to construct the very first Valvraves before we had to replace and complement them with local materials. But… the method of its forging… is from Earth."
"…it was made on Earth?"
"It was a very late invention she made during her later days on earth when she was posing as Muramasa, learning from Masamune on Japanese swordsmithing. She was so impressed by her studies, that later on, she implemented her techniques on the forging of an original composite element which she then implemented to the entirety of her Valvrave's construction."
"That alloy was unlike anything I've ever seen." Yusuke remembered his experience well in maintaining their combat mechs. Out of all Valvraves, Haruto's Hito Valvrave had one special treatment. It's the only Valvrave that requires Pino's direct supervision. The other Valvraves, Yusuke can handle on his own, but the Hito utterly confounds him. And it all boils down to the primary composition of the Valvrave – which is beyond the scope of human logic. "It's extremely reactive to rune, incredible malleable, versatile, but also incredibly tough. Above all it's also… self renewable. We once studied it under the microscope on a molecular level, its atom is a rigid solid structure you will find on normal pig iron, but it's… pulsing like it's alive! And it's capable of mitosis, for cryin out loud! Feed it enough runes and it can double its mass in a week!"
"We have a name for it. In your language, it roughly translates as… Dead Heat Alloy."
"Corny name."
"It's your language, not mine. In our tongue, that name was a noble name, worthy of a metal made by our King. You're very welcome to find your own terminology for it." Cain chuckled. "Still… I believe that naming is apt, considering its special properties."
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The Ariels is still struggling to rip the Valvrave in half, but the stretched machine also began to curl in, resisting her attempt. Though Haruto is doing so with great difficulty.
Meanwhile, Marie was still trying to find a way to break this stalemate.
"Hee… Auntie… that's the mermaid right?"
"Mermaid!?"
"You know…? From the little mermaid! Mama showed it to me! Why is the little mermaid hurting papa?"
"Oh no. No. No. No. That's… that's not the little mermaid, that's the big mermaid. And she's bad, bad, really bad!"
"Big Bad Mermaid! Stop hurting papa!"
Meanwhile, Marie found the answer in the remnants of the shattered Furutoga. Some of its armament includes a giant kusarigama! "Familiar! Get it!" The Kagerou launched one of her Impact Booster. The raven droid flew and fetched the kusarigama before she brought it back to Kagerou's welcoming hand. "Let's go fishing!" "Yaaay!" The Kagerou spin the sickle several times before she hurled it towards one of the Ariels' elongated limb. The chain linked sickle planted itself on the pincer's wrist, and the Kagerou start pulling the rope down.
The sudden yank snapped the pincers off the Valvrave's arms. The Valvrave quickly used his new found freedom and start stabbing into the Ariels' heavily armored tendrils. Meanwhile, the Ariels angrily lashed out against the interloper. She swings her flexible appendage towards the Kagerou, who managed to avoid the whipping, but now her kusarigama is even more entangled with the said appendage. And the Kagerou was no match for the original one as far as brute strength goes. She was helplessly dragged off her feet, though she stubbornly holding on to the line.
With two Valvraves dangling on her elongated arms, the Ariels' start lashing her whip like appendages allover the place, bashing the two Primate Enginers from one place to another, surreptitiously turning them into a pair of impromptu flails which she also used to trash the place down, inflicting massive destruction on the surrounding areas. The Valvrave was slammed into the wall head first. The Kagerou was smothered into the floor. The Valvrave's upper half was forced to grind the ceiling. The Kagerou's head hit one steel beam after another in rapid succession. Fortunately, both mechs were made of pretty sturdy stuff, so the damage is nothing significant. Unfortunately, their surroundings are not as sturdy. Thankfully most of the human personnel in the vicinity had managed to evacuate in time. But then the Ariels get a little too carried away as she slammed the Kagerou one last time unto the floor… right next to her discarded Shotgun… which still has Haruto's katana, the Futtouchi, embedded on it. Mari had a good mind to grab the katana before the Ariels yanked her off again.
The next time she lashed them around again, Marie waited and endured a good trashing before she saw a chance came as the Ariels slam her to the ground again. As soon as she touches the ground, the Kagerou run towards the still flippant pincer and jumped up. When she landed, she made sure she landed sword first. The combination of Kagerou's weight and momentum managed to drove the blade deep, piercing through the pincers and effectively nailing it to the ground. The next time the Ariels tried to lash out again, she was shocked to find she was yanking an unresponsive limb. She glared angrily as the Kagerou stepped on her limping tentacle to make sure that thing isn't going anywhere. "Not bad you little wench!" The Ariels slithered towards the Kagerou, attempting to stab her, but suddenly, she was yanked to another direction. "!"
Her other tentacles had just been yanked by her other victim, the Valvrave… who looked like he just took a one way trip to the furnace! He had reverted back to that ghastly nightmarish form, with even more smoldering components. But what made her choke is the sight of her pincer being torn to pieces by the Valvrave's bare hands like it was made of tinfoil.
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"The Deadheat Alloy is a Pino original artificial mineral which she invented here on Earth with one purpose in mind: to maximize the full potential of a war machine that utilize Rune as a source of energy. As you already know, Rune is an energy that produces extreme excess heat residue. The alloy was created with that characteristic in mind: it is a temperature sensitive as well as Rune sensitive material. At room temperature, it's but a normal metal just a slight bit tougher than your average tempered steel. But… it was designed to react under two VERY specific conditions: high temperature caused by high rune saturation."
Yusuke took a second to absorb that explanation. "High temperature… and high rune saturation… it will only react to heat produced by Rune?"
"When the metal is superheated to a point by, let's say, a blowtorch, the molecular bond within the metal itself shrank as the particles multiply. Outwardly, nothing happened, but the metal grew more jampacked with more and more particles at the molecular level, increasing its density and mass, which also increasing its potential energy. The hotter it gets, the more particles will be produced, and the denser and tougher, it gets. However, this state is only momentary. The new molecule created by the superheating process is highly unstable and can only survive on a very iron clad stable temperature. But… Heat produced by anything else other than Rune dissipates very quickly, and these particles are very receptive of that. They'll disintegrate as soon as the metal starts changing back to normal temperature by even a single degree. After which, the deadheat metal will just revert back to its original state in no time flat"
"But this was not the case when the heat came from Runes?"
"Runes left behind their residual heat a bit longer than even a thermobaric bomb. But more importantly, that residual heat is more stable. As a result, the Dead heat particles can last a little longer for the properties of Rune to unleash its true power. When induced with rune particles, a reaction similar to a nuclear fission occurred. When the Rune particle collided with the dense Deadheat particles, the resulting reaction break apart the particles, releasing energy, and start off a chain reaction that continued from one particle to the next… that release abominable amount of energy."
"Wait, Dead Heat alloy is… a radioactive isotope? Haruto's Valvrave is clad in a radioactive material!?"
"I admit, when excited, it has all the characteristics similar to a Radioactive Material like Plutonium and Uranium. All the power… but none of the fallout and the radiation issue that came with it. Except maybe the heat. The excited particle splitting produced the energy, but a part of that energy dissipated into heat. Extreme heat."
Yusuke frowned in deep thought. "So… if I'm to understand your explanation… the Valvrave… Haruto's Valvrave… the hotter he goes… the stronger he gets? But… isn't heat a Valvarve's weakness? I mean… I've seen examples of the Valvrave get sluggish and its performance went downhill when the heat gets to him. Overheating it on purpose to gain a boost in power… isn't that a bit… counterproductive?"
"Well… the Valvrave you spoke off only had 60% of it construction composed of the Dead Heat alloy. Delicate Human components placed into it, and I'd imagine Pino was forced to make compromises – drastically reducing its original potential to… just pathetic." Cain chuckled. "But… the original Valvrave is 100% made entirely out of Dead Heat alloy. Granted, even then, it is not something that can be done too often. But on the occasion that it does… when it reached a deadheat zone… the critical point between overheating and critical shutdown… Barely containable energy unleashed in a vessel clearly strained to the limits to contain it, erupting from its skin like leaping prominence. In that state the Valvrave was truly the stuff of nightmares. Our people had a name for it…"
Yusuke paled.
"…the Valvrave of Cinders and Ash."
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That thing is back… and it's even worse than before. All its Ardor Grip exhaust vents are spewing roaring flames. The components that can't withstand this temperature, namely the uninsulated human made parts like its cosmetic armor and plating, melted and sloughed off its blazing endoskeleton, replaced by a flaming scorching dark red hard light approximation of the melted armor, producing a truly haunting appearance of a fiery demon. Cinders floated about alongside this billowing scorching black smoke that engulfed the Valvrave's entire blazing being. Inside the Valvrave, even Haruto felt the heat as his temperature is showing the number 95-96. The gauge used is seemingly the same as the other Original valvarves, but in reality, it measures using a metric beyond the issue of temperature – point in fact, at this temperature, a normal human would've already burned to a crisp.
Having learned the technique needed to minimize the damage to his Valvrave, Haruto had wasted no effort in applying that to his current combat tactics. Every time he was stabbed, slashed, slammed, roasted, and now even bashed allover the place, he had been using the Rune skin to absorb a portion of the damage. Not to mention the occasional lasers and reinforcement on his blades. But… all this rune intensive combat tactics meant the Valvrave had been gathering an enormous amount of heat… caused more by rune saturation rather than the Ariels' attempts to roast him alive. High heat caused by high level of runes… Dead Heat alloy that made up 80% of his construction are unleashing its true potential quite close to the Original's legendary proportion.
But Haruto completely ignored all that, so focused he was at the situation at hand. Back then, this is the point where he would've been more concerned of returning to base and cool down… but now… There's no base to come back to. From the moment he volunteered to go down there on those drop pods, he knew this to be a one way trip, he win or he dies. He already made that resolution long after he kissed his wife goodbye. And so, Haruto chose to ignore this blazing heat that made even his sweat to vaporize the moment it was secreted out of his pores. He may not even realize what his Valvrave had become, what matter is that it remains functional and moving. His super human constitution also aided to this ignorance.
"Attention, New JIOR pilots!" Just when everyone was still stunned at this out-of-this-world phenomenon, one voice pierced the din of battle. "If you can hear me, I'll make this quick, get this battle out of here. You're causing too much damage to our infrastructure!"
The female authoritative voice didn't specify how, but Haruto noticed some turbo rail elevators all around, and one of them is blinking meaningfully. That elevator is right behind the Ariels just a little to her flanks.
In the face of this infernal nightmare incandescent, the Ariels responded with more brute force. She swiped her serpentine lower half, first towards the Kagerou, forcing her to jump, but the tail swiped her lower half, hurling her across the hall. The massive tail swipe then continued to the Valvrave. But if the Kagerou get swiped, the Valvrave stand his ground and welcomed the tail, though it managed to push the machine a few hundred meters back. But even the Valvrave in its current super boosted strength struggled to hold the massive tail at bay. Haruto grunted, thinking of a way to drag the Ariels to that spot.
The Kagerou recovered and saw the Valvrave holding on to that massive tail. Futtouchi is still nailing one of Ariel's pincers, and the Gouketsu just happen to be lying around nearby. She ran and grabbed it before she stormed the Ariels' main body.
Mrs. Blue roared and pushed her controllers to the limit. The nailed pincers struggled until finally, the tentacle holding the pincer ripped itself off from the nailed appendage. Just as the Kagerou flew towards her, the severed tentacle swiped in and knocked her away.
The first wave barely ended, then for the second time that day, another object came flying in and smacked the Ariels in the face.
At first she thought it was another crane… but no… "Seriously, how many of you are there!?"She's being attacked by a giant bird shaped Valvrave. The Yashagarasu didn't peck her, but it's firing a pair of assault rifles whilst slashing his talons at her face. "Get out of the way!" The Ariels swiped her spear that knocked the three legged Raven off her. Then again, Delphi wasn't trying to damage her. He's just trying to distract her.
Because the third wave of attack came in form of the Valvrave stepping on her tail and charged towards her, straight behind the Yashagarasu's form, seemingly spiraling out of control towards him.
But then, the Valvrave exclusive Familiar split apart midair, forming the power claw on the Valvarve's left arm and a gauntlet with two subarms on his right. Thus armored, said right arm immediately pulled out the Valvrave's biggest and strongest weapon, the two pronged nodachi Black Rose.
The Valvrave rammed the completely unprepared Ariels, by first slicing her lance clean off before his full weight smashed her down. Mrs. Blue was knocked to bare consciousness by the sudden shock. For a moment, the Ariels was unresponsive. The Valvrave used the chance to quickly grab and drag the serpentine mech towards the designated turbo elevator. When Mrs. Blue came to, the Ariels had been strapped unto the elevator, and the Valvrave planted his foot on her chest to make sure she's not going anywhere. "NOW!"
"LAUNCH ELEVATOR NO 37!"
In a trail of electricity, the turbo elevator shot upward, carrying its overweight cargo upward. Within seconds, the two mechs had climbed dozens of floors all the way to the surface.
Mari looked up to the hatch with suspicion over the… water dripping off its seams. "…ummm… lady, from the speaker? Where does that elevator lead?"
"…to the exhaust chute on the bottom of the Artificial Ocean."
"…underwater. You just sent them underwater?" Marie VERY rarely lost her patience. But the day had been rough: trapped in a crate, crash land through several buildings, nearly get dissected by a bloodthirsty killer robot, being fired upon with missiles, bullets and whatnot, and the latest: being used as a flail and get trashed around the joint… Marie slapped her face VERY hard- "Alice, cover your ears." -and the frustration fueled litany begins. "You FU-(Alice covered her ears) PEEP! PEEEP! PEEEPPP! (Alice is still covering her ears) PEEP! PEEP! PEEEEEEPP! (Alice curiously opened one ear) -RETARD OF A FUCKING BLOCKHEAD OF A…!" Mari saw Alice opened one ear and stopped immediately. She took a deep breath and yelled one last time to the confused lady behind the speaker: "The enemy… is a BLOODY MERMAID!"
"A BIG BAD MERMAID!" Alice added.
And after that tirade of insults, the lady-in-the-speaker finally understands why she deserved all that verbal abuse and only replied with a genuinely imbecilic: "Oops."
Unfortunately, the Valvrave did not realize this yet… only that they're going up very, very fast.
Gauge: 98
The shutters above him opened a few floors before he reached them and closed behind him after he left them a few floors away. Until finally, one last door opened and to Haruto's shock, he was welcomed by a downpour of water. Tons of it. "WHAT-!"
Gauge: 67
The water turned to an explosion of vapor as soon as they touched the blazing Valvrave of Cinders. The steam pressure threw him back, freeing the Ariels. The relatively small elevator was soon flooded with water (and bubbles of steam) and in the midst of the whirl of bubbles and foams, the Ariels suddenly disappeared from view, and the Valvrave was spun around in the resulting turbulence, and Haruto lost sight of everything for a moment.
The Valvrave were violently hurled out of the chute, initially inside a bubble filled with steam from vaporized water that came in contact with his superheated surface. But then, his temperature rapidly cooled, combined with the water pressure, and the bubble finally ruptured as the water poured in with such pressure, the Valvrave was disoriented by the crashing current.
Gauge: 45
With his temperature dropping rapidly, so too his nightmarish transformation disappeared yet again. It took a while for him to regain his balance. But before he had a chance…
"Payback time!"
The Ariels came charging… in a speed that is completely disproportionate to her massive size. She rammed the Valvrave once before she quickly slither away VERY fast before the Valvrave even had a chance to swing his sword. "Wha…" The Ariels had been reduced to a blur in this world of water. All anyone can see was this slithering object, encased by a mass of bubbles, moving at supersonic speed underwater, leaving a trail of serpentine cavitations and streams of bubbles behind her.
"Is she using the Supercavitation system!?"
"The Ariels in her original configuration…"Indeed, she was even faster now than when she was on the ground. "…Is designed to be the underwater superiority fighter!" As she whirled across the ocean, hatches opened across the length of her tail before an onslaught of SuperCavitation torpedo was launched towards the Valvrave.
The Valvrave unleashed a wave of lasers that took down all the torpedoes. But the explosion barely ended, the Ariels is already right behind him. She swung her lance just as the Valvarve swipe his main power claw to block it. The two weapons clashed away, but the Ariels swing her whole body and swipe her tail at him. Haruto was still recovering from the shock of the impact and had to receive the tail swipe in full.
Gauge: 55
The tail swipe tossed the Valvrave straight towards the cloud from the exploded torpedoes. He spiraled uncontrollably past it, but he immediately felt he just flew through something. When he recovered, the Vavrave found himself being covered by this… bluish green gluey substance… "Oh come on, not this again!" The Valvrave roared as he struggled to break free…
Gauge: 60
The Valvrave quickly used his nodachi, the Black Rose. Charging it with runes, and the sword very quickly turned smoldering red and then white hot. The water around the blade boiled ferociously, desperately trying to lower the sword's scorching temperature to no avail. The Blackrose, the alien blade forged into its current shape, easily slice through whatever substance tying its wielder.
Gauge: 75
"Thankfully, without Shouko around, Beast mode can't be used. Not that I see Shouko would ever authorize it when we're in here." If anything else, this is a boon. This way, even if Haruto was tempted to utilize the black Hole generator, he can't use it. That's the whole point of the shared authorization system. That being said, as far as swords concerned, no blade on earth can match Black Rose. But still… Haruto looked up his gauge… his temperature is… rising again… is it just him… or do they rise unnaturally fast?
Gauge: 80
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"So… all original Valvrave had a portion made of this… deadheat metal?"
"Well… it was a late invention of her majesty. It was founded during the Magius very last days on earth… she did not have the time to make more for the rest of us… nor did she have the time to teach any of our techsmiths on how to make more of this metal. At the very least, she had reforged the Rave Engine of the Covenant Valvraves with that material." And thus answered how the Rave Engine can survive even a gigaton nuclear explosion. "However, only the Valvrave, the King's Valvrave who had the luxury to be made entirely out of this rare material."
"I guess I should say as expected of the machine built for a King of an Empire." Yusuke of course was referring to Pino's ownership of the original Valvrave. "But… I still don't understand a few things… Why go the trouble of creating such a special metal to begin with? Or, no… more like… why go the trouble of using such material on an entire Valvrave of all things?"
"Very observant." Cain continued. "What I've explained to you so far is merely the technology that shaped the Valvrave. Now, allow me to explain the biology that is the reason of the metal's existence."
"B… Biology?"
"As I mentioned… among the many characteristic of Rune, one of its most prevalent feature… is heat. By the basic, Rune produces energy and heat. Heat. The secondary trait of a Valvire Magius accentuates that particular trait just like how the Arachabbus accentuate the Rune's ability to perpetuate life."
Yusuke became somewhat confused and curious. "I… don't follow. I thought Pino's powers were to create blackholes."
"Oh my dear child, you have so much to learn. That is the power of the blade, Rosa Nero. Those, and the special capabilities of the Hito Valvrave, are two separate things. And so is the biological capability of a Valvire Magius. The secondary trait of a Valvire Magius' is something simple: their Runes are so hot it burns. As simple characteristic as nature can give. They burn everything they touch like fire. Out of all runes from all subspecies of the Magius, by its base stats, the Runes from a Valvire Magius possess the highest temperature even at inert state, as well yielding 10 times more energy than any runes from any other Magius subspecies when processed, discounting the energy amplification effects of a Volfrans' Quickening."
Yusuke's eyes glowed with clarity.
"Now you see? It's becoming clear to you. Why the Valvrave was build with such unique material. Pino was the first of all Valvire Magius. Understandably, as the oldest and strongest of her kind, of us all… her runes are also the hottest. Before Pino invented that metal she had trouble keeping her Valvrave intact. Every time she was forced to fight personally – and seriously, the sheer heat of her runes literally burn any Valvrave she used to molten oblivion. She had searched galaxies to find materials that can withstand her might until she came to Earth and made it herself."
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Gauge: 85
Bubbles of steams began to erupt from the Valvrave's armor again. The temperature of the water began to rise again. Despite the water's attempt to cool this ridiculously hot object fighting underwater, the heat was just too much. With the heat steadily rising, it once again produce the Leidenfrost effect, as a bubble shell filed with vapor appeared around the Valvrave, repelling water around him.
By now, even Mrs. Blue began to realize capturing the Valvrave by overheating it is indeed the stupidest idea imaginable. 'I had no choice… that thing is too dangerous, I have to destroy it.'
The Valvrave stretched his wings, and the sense nerve feathers lit up. Encased in bubbles of steam, the Valvrave charged towards the Ariels with his speed significantly increased. The Leidenfrost affect caused by its scorching body temperature create a bubble coat that allowed the Valvarve to somewhat mimic the Ariels supercavitation feature.
The burst of speed allowed the Valvrave to close the distance and swing his sword. But the difference is, the Ariels is designed specifically for this kind of battle. As fast as the Valvrave now, he can never reach the same speed as the Ariels. What's more, she knew well enough not to fight the Valvrave head on now, much less on close range. She easily evaded the slash and moved away at incredible speed. She was made to be THAT fast. The Valvrave tried to chase her, but to no avail. No matter how much Haruto tried to push his engine, or how much rune he poured, the Valvrave just cannot produce the speed he needed to catch that mermaid.
As Mrs. Blue ascertains that the Ariels had the upper hand so long as distance and speed concerned, she unleashed her most devastating weapon: her mouthguard flipped open. There was this… blaster mounted on her mouth… but something about it is… strange. She also unleashed her scale platforms, just a dozen of hundreds, but they circle around her body, forming a halo on her back, which then closed the distance to form a smaller halo right in front of her face.
"What is she…"
And suddenly, the Ariels'… screamed. The water shook, and the shockwave reverberated and resonated with the halo of scales, and the amplified shockwaves struck the Valvrave like a hammer, knocking him back to the rock. Thankfully, the shockwave stopped after some distance before more shockwave can rain. But then, the Valvrave staggered from his spot and barely managed to fly away.
Gauge: 90
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"So… rune produce heat, and deadheat metal was designed specifically to react to heat produced by runes… You've already told me what happened when the metal was superheated… but… what happened when the metal had accumulated the heat and rune… but then it somehow got… say… supercooled? Like being dipped in ice-cold water or something?"
"The heat is gone… but not the runes, surely. The Valvrave is in essence storage for Runes. The heat is just the accompanying side effect. Even if the heat is gone, the runes are still there, constantly giving off heat." Cain chuckled. "You humans copied our technology so poorly. Pino's Valvrave had a gauge, and they thought it was there to measure temperature. And they just copied it blind not understanding why she put it there in the first place."
"We use the heat to measure the amount runes we used. We also put a killswitch in the Valvrave to prevent the pilot from overusing the runes… but…" Yusuke frowned. "What IS the purpose of those gauges?"
"It serves as a way to measure the amount of rune saturation on a Valvrave. The amount of Runes you have used. But not for a killswitch." Cain sighed. "It serves to warn Pino… when the Rune saturating her Valvrave had reached critical mass… at which point her runes had produced so much heat it began to burn itself out."
"The rune… burns itself?"
"Well, yes. The Rune can only withstand so much heat. And that's where the problem starts."
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The Valvrave of Cinders and Ash tried to retaliate off course. If he can't fight against the Ariels' main body, he'll just have to tear her apart piecemeal. He charged not towards her body, but her tail. As fast as it was, that thing is still HUGE. And he was right. He managed to catch up and tried to slice it off, but then, ports opened up across the length of the tail, the same sound cannon on her face also dotted her tail. With a chorus of supersonic shrieks, the Valvrave was blasted off, completely off balance, completely vulnerable to further attacks. Between the chemical torpedo, the tail swipe, and the lance, the most devastating are the Scale Platforms. She now had double the number, and their speed in water is also greater than in the air. She no longer used them as platform, but as a remote controlled ballistic weapon! The disoriented Valvrave was immediately barraged by an onslaught of solid projectiles that stab and slice him through every direction. Haruto tried to fight them off, but apart from the numbers, they also moved too fast for his sword to land. Haruto fired lasers to every direction as he fight his way out of that buzzard.
The Cat and mouse game is steadily heading in the Ariels' favor, with the Valvrave suddenly became the mouse. She launched an onslaught of torpedoes, jabbed her lance, and even occasionally swiped her tail at the Valvrave as she coiled around the ocean. The enemy was no longer trying to overheat him or capture him, every attack was launched with the intent to kill. All this, the Valvrave repelled, but at a cost. With every laser he fired, every hit struck him, every stab and every projectile meaning to gut him, he parried… but the Soundwave cannon is just unblockable. The amount of Runes Haruto had to expend on his overburdened thrusters alone just to avoid that attack was staggering. And even more had to be expended just to keep his mech together on the occasion when wave after wave of destructive sound threaten to pulverize him to dust. Haruto is swiftly running out of options.
Gauge: 98
Until finally, the Ariels unleashed her most devastating attack yet: first, she fired her chemical torpedoes. The Valvrave shot them all far from the distance, but the resulting explosion unleashed a giant blot of darkness that covered his screen. Before Haruto can do anything, a whole fleet of the Ariels' Scales was launched at supersonic speed, a literal underwater ballistic projectiles fired at mach 4. Haruto knew he can't defend against all that, but he tried anyway. He blocked some, sliced away some, avoid some… but the rest hit him from every direction in full.
But the worst is yet to come. Literally hacking and shooting his way past the onslaught of attacks, the Valvrave finally managed to punch his way through to caught sight of the Ariels, coiling her body in a circle, facing him in such a way, all her sound cannons, positioned in a ring, with the primary one on her head at the center of the circle, are all pointing at one direction: his. And to make matters worse: all the scale platforms had assembled before her to create an array of layers after layers of amplifier halos. A sound amplifying cannon construct.
When the soundwave came, its size easily dwarfed the Valvrave to the extent that no matter where he tried to run, the attack will hit him anyway.
Assuming the Valvrave was fast enough to dodge it in the first place, which he wasn't.
The Valvrave was slammed unto the ocean floor, which cratered as the pressure crushed everything flat. Haruto's usage of the skin armor that prevented the Valvrave from sharing that fate was finally stretched to the limits…
Gauge: 100 – Critical mass reached.
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"You humans had an interesting take to it. In your vampire legends, you often depict Vampires to burn in the glare of sunlight. Well… as far as creativity goes, I'll give you humans points for inventing something so hilarious, but as usual, you all got it completely wrong."
Gauge: 120
"Pino put the gauge in her Valvrave not to measure the temperature of her Valvrave, but to measure Rune Saturation. The number 100 does not denote the current temperature of her Valvrave but more like a warning for her that her Runes had finally reached the point of no return."
Gauge: 245
"When enough of the Valvire Magius' Runes have gathered to a critical mass, the accumulated heat was such, the rune burns and thus the process, and the countdown, begins. When rune start to burn, just like how fire pulls in oxygen from the air, the ignited runes also pulled in other runes, which added fuel to the air, creating a self sustaining cycle that kept the fire going and grew stronger and stronger, as do the gravitational pull. The rune particles will continue to gather at a single point, pulled by this localized gravitational pull, creating a concentration of so many rune particles in one point, it almost creates a solid core. After which, a fusion reaction began. The next countdown from beyond 100 is the countdown towards the completion of that reaction."
Gauge: 315
"Wait a second…" Yusuke immediately recognized that process. "Y…You're talking about… how STARS are created, how our own SUN was born! T… THAT'S the secondary Nature of Valvire Magius!? To create SUNS!?"
Gauge: 324
"We once told you at our zenith we can create our own star systems, don't we? Now Imagine the power of the sun… beating at your chest, empowering your heart… filling every inch of your being… with boundless, endless energy."
Gauge: 416
Yusuke gulped, even X-Eins who had been listening all the while also paled. "Can a human body…" Yusuke shook his cold sweat. "No… can Haruto's body withstand such power?"
Cain chuckled. "Oh, Yusuke Otamaya… I haven't even gotten to the real problem, yet. The reason Pino placed limiters and monitoring gauges on her Valvrave is not because she was concerned over what her powers would do to her own body. She's a Valvire Magius, she was born with affinity to heat and light. Her primary concerns, was the effect her powers would have… on her surroundings."
"W…what?"
Gauge: 547
"Think about it. What have I been telling you repeatedly over and over throughout our conversation? Valvire's Runes possessed the hottest temperature of all Runes hailing from other Magius - which is another way of saying that their rune has a very high ignition point. And yet, at critical mass, even such Rune burns. Unleashing unimaginable power… with radiance of a miniature sun. And if even the most heat tolerant Runes can burn out… what do you think such cosmic temperature would do to lesser runes from other Magius?"
Gauge: 579
"When your Vampire fables told stories about vampires being burned to ash by sunlight… it was in fact referring to Magius who had earned the ire of our King. Fortunately, our King was known for her merciful nature, so her preferred sentence is execution via exile into blackhole from her Black Rose as a form of mercy. But when the sin committed was beyond forgiveness, beyond even her capacity for mercy, in her wrath she will ignite her Runes, and its overwhelming brilliance will burn brightly like a sun… all who dare to stand before the wrath of the King will be burnt to nothingness."
Gauge: 601
"The Prominence."Cain smiled. "We named this ability as such, after the raging flare of the sun. At its zenith it's a power that can either make a world or scorch it to cinders and ashes. A name worthy for a power that befits the King, don't you think?"
Gauge: 666
Scan complete. Eldar Valvire Magius detected… releasing limiter.
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Seconds before the Valvrave reached critical mass, Mrs. Blue was still blissfully unaware of the situation when her comms lit up, and a screen showing the visage of Mr. Red appeared. "Blue? Are you there?"
"Hi, honey!"
"Blue, where are you?"
"I'm a little bit busy at the moment!"
"The logs told me you just ordered the Ariels to be reconfigured to its original setting!" Red easily guessed: "Tell me you're not currently engaged with the Alpha Target!?"
"Well, I am."Mrs. Blue snickered. "And believe it or not, honey, I'm winning!"
Red was visibly horrified at the prospect. "No… No. You don't understand! Pull out, Honey! Don't try to catch him!"
"I'm not trying to catch him, love. I'm trying to destroy him. I know it means our bonus goes with it, but he's dangerous! Too dangerous! Just… too much! I can't… I won't let him off!"
"No. You don't understand! That thing… you can't destroy it that way! You have to-Tzzrztzz"
"Honey? What's wrong? Hello?" That was when Mrs. Blue noticed this surge of energy that just ignited from the Valvrave down below.
As soon as his gauge reached the critical number 666, a pulse emanated from the still downtrodden Valvrave. The pulse shook the water and sent a ripple, just a ripple across the ocean. But that ripple was powerful enough to knock back the sound wave all the way to the sender, sending the massive leviathanoid Valvrave back a step. "What?"
Slowly, the Valvrave stood back up… changes occurred yet again. It used his giant sword to help him up. When he stabbed the sword to the ground, the blade instantly flared burning red and black. The rose like hamon across the length of the long katana lit up brightly like fiery flowers, leaving a trail of rose petals made of pure flame. The ground turned red from sheer heat, even catching fire as the Vlavrave stood up, engulfed in flames. Flames… right at the bottom of the ocean. The neon green sense nerve components throughout the Valvrave's body turned flaring gold, its solid shape turned ephemeral flame and the black colored parts of his body shed away, becoming brilliant gold. Energy particles blew out of every vents, flaring around like fire… an inextinguishable fire bursting in the middle of the ocean. This brilliance… this radiance… this heat… this is already leaps and bounds beyond the previous flaming apparition… this is…
"Is this… the sun!?"
As she said this, the Valvrave suddenly sent out another pulse. His chest bulged as if something huge inside was trying to jump out. But then, more and more golden flaming energy erupted from that spot, leaking out, spreading to every direction. Gold and red energy burst out from every vents and exhaust ports. Inside his chest, the Valvrave's Rave Engine is roaring, it brought out so much energy, the whole thing was shining brightly… like a sun had just been born in its chest cavity. And this sun's prominences are what are currently leaping in and out of every nook and cranny of the flaring Valvrave.
Haruto remembered this phenomenon. "It's been a while since I've done this." He brought up his only remaining weapon, the Blackrose. Without Shouko's approval, it's just another sword. Another tool which he can use to utilize his signature technique. The Valvrave hold the great katana with both hands before he positioned it on his belly, with its edge pointing towards him, ready to stab. The shining silhouette of his Rave Engine turned miniature sun can even be seen outside his Valvrave. And the Valvrave was about to stab it.
"Holy what the what… when they say Harakiri blade, they meant it literally-?"
And with a stroke, the Valvrave stabbed himself with the giant sword.
And in that moment… the power that has been amassed throughout this procession was ignited in full. A giant shockwave rippled as the Valvrave unleashed an explosion of energy and heat so great, it pushed the whole ocean away from him. On the surface, the turbulent artificial ocean was first torn apart by a gigantic mushroom cloud explosion of steam, before they too were immediately swallowed by an emerging maelstrom, and at its epicenter, was this giant made of gold and crimson light. The Valvrave's mechanical shape disappeared completely in a wave of fiery energy. The energy of a newly born star that are bursting out of his every inch of his being had enough force and heat that it instantly vaporized a portion of the ocean, and the resulting force of the ignition pushed the ocean apart, creating this whirlpool with the radiant sun like Valvrave at its center. Gold and red runes particles flared all around him like leaping flames, his six feathered wings were engulfed by the energy, the resulting 6 pinions of pure power extended to lengths and magnitude many times its original physical form, creating an angelic, albeit terrifying, visage.
Just by merely basking in the blazing radiance of the sun-like Valvrave, the Ariels had already began to smolder and eventually melt rapidly as molten parts exploded off her. Her armor plating flaked away pieces by pieces. The rune reserves flowing in her mechanical body were exposed to the fury of the cosmic sun, before they immediately combusted, scorching the faux valvrave inside out and set the serpentine Valvrave ablaze. With the ocean water pushed away from her body by the force of the Valvarve's very existence, it left the now virtually helpless serpentine Valvrave to burn with nothing to douse the flame. Though truth be told… all the water in universe would not be enough to extinguish this flame. It's an eternal flame that will burn forever until there's nothing left but ash.
Through it all, Mrs. Blue bear witness as she was stunned in silence of both horror and shattered sanity even as her cockpit burst into flames all around her. For the first time, she finally comprehends… just what exactly she's been facing. The sheer stupidity and arrogance of Icarus who pretend to be an eagle and then challenged the sun God by flying too close to the sun, and for his impudence, the Sun melted his fake wings of wax. Right now… she's right in his shoes. "…God preserve us… What was I thinking…?"
Haruto finally pulled out the Black Rose from his undamaged chest, and behold the unworldly nodachi, encased from top to hilt with leaping black and crimson flames. Its original physical shape is all but lost, becoming nothing but a construct made of pure burning red and black energy, in stark contrast with its current wielder, which is now a giant of red and gold light. He's holding the blade with both arms, lest he'll lose what little control he had over this explosive force waiting to burst. Sweat flooded from his brows, signifying just how hard it was… without Pino controlling it. Back then, before the Valvrave received all this upgrades, what the Valvrave did was merely inserting an amount of runes, channeled through his sword, and then shoved into the Rave engine where Pino resides – where she would then imbue her power and ignite the blade – that's why the hara-kiri movement was essential. The most important thing, was that back then, Pino remained firmly in control of that ability to make sure the collateral damage are suppressed to the minimum. But now… with Pino removed from the Rave Engine, it's all up to Haruto, who had inherited Pino's power, to control it properly all by himself.
Haruto had to summon every ounce of lesson he had accumulated with Jeay, Rasa and Ashra and put it to use… and to the test. The Valvrave hold the flaring sword at an upright position over his head in a mighty raised stance. Haruto hissed the name of the attack out loud. "Hara-kiri…" Not for the sheer coolness or anything, but to help him solidify his will upon this rampant rioting energy, willing it to follow his image. The Valvrave even landed on the dried ocean floor to stand on a basic and proper kendo stance. "…BLAAAA~ADE!"And the Valvrave completed his simple downward swing.
When he did, the first that engulfed the target was an explosion of vapor in a straight line. The unleashed heat had instantly vaporized that part of the ocean, splitting the abyss in two. Then came the shockwave, and it shattered the half melting Ariels to pieces… and finally, the actual burning wave of rune's gold and crimson light came next… scorching everything to nothing, leaving only trails of cinders and ashes that flake about like burning ashen feathers.
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Yusuke swallowed a gulp. "Can Haruto control it? In the event he actually had to…"
"I suspect… if he had lost control of it, we would know."
"How would we know?"
"We're still alive."
Yusuke and X-Eins don't know whether they should be relieved or terrified.
"Now… I've answered all these questions… now it's my turn to ask." Cain smirked. X-Eins gulped and Yusuke was somewhat indifferent…
"Did I just dodge a bullet to my head?" Cain suddenly chuckled. "Or have you more bullets to fire, Yusuke Otamaya?"
"Eh?" X-Eins blinked. He looked first at Cain… and then to Yusuke, and he gawked.
Yusuke's eyes were nothing like it was before. Back then, his desire to question Cain seems like genuinely based on true curiosity, but now… If that stiffness is any indication, there's this imperious aura, a murderous but very controlled fury compressed within that frame.
"You have been asking me a lot of questions about Magius's nature – particularly to their physiology and secondary trait… you were testing me. Testing just how far I knew about the… biology of other Magius subspecies. You have been suspicious of my abilities ever since I showed you how I was able to recreate new organs from scratch… Now… did I pass the test?"
"I have one more bullet." Yusuke's words were no longer a question… "And this one a straight shot. Theoretically speaking… You mentioned earlier that you put a very specific and limited instruction into your fraction to stimulate a limited biomass growth… but if your vessel can grow and became bigger… you can put more information… more runes into it…" Yusuke pondered slowly, and a delighted Cain encouraged him with a look… "But if that is true… if an Arrachabus Harvester's fragment can be inserted with genetic information to tell the cells to do what you want… does that mean an Arachabbus Magius would be capable of stimulating even more drastic changes? Like…" Yusuke's look hardened. "…like… …hypothetically…"
Cain sensed a premonition of something ground breaking…
"…let's say you have the runes… and you have the knowledge on how to do so…" Yusuke held his breath. "…is it possible for you to turn normal human into… more like us?"
Cain's eye only tilted ever so slightly, but Yusuke's suddenly firm glare didn't catch it. "Very good, Yusuke Otamaya. You're starting to understand the nature of Arachabbus. But I think you should begin to realize by now… A lot more than Runes went into your creation. Some of the substances used in altering your genes are not the kind that naturally exists in your body. And that's the point. The limitation of an Arachabbus abilities. You said earlier: that we can tell the cells what to do. That's not exactly accurate. We're not ordering the body to do what we want, we simply guides them. Arrachabus can exact changes by stimulating hormonal glands in human body, secreting enzymes and chemical compounds which we then guide the body to synthesize into substances normally human wouldn't produce… but… we cannot create something from nothing. We're limited by the substances available to us… in this instance, only the substances that exist within a human body."
Yusuke frowned in understanding. So the changes done to the Novus Sapien was THAT drastic. More and more he began to understand the genius of the one who had created them.
"As I mentioned before, the more complex the transformation, the more genetic information – which means more Rune is needed to commit the change. I know… because I once tested that theory. Yes. Yusuke Otamaya, I confess." Yusuke's raised an eyebrow as Cain raised both hands. "I confess that once, a long time ago, I tried to do it. I even had help, and I still can't do it. The amount of runes needed to change even a single human nearly killed me. ME! The Aspect Magius of the Arrachabbus who stood at the pinnacle of my kind can't do it. So I gave up."
Yusuke blinked just once. Cain can't determine whether the boy believed him or not.
"That is the point of your questions, yes?" Cain smirked. "The primary point of Tokishima Haruto's crusade was to stop the creation of more Novus Sapien. But you just saw how I'm literally a walking instant bioengineering tool. You were wondering if I, even without Tokishima Shoichi's aid, can somehow replicate his work. If I could, then that would beat the very purpose of this whole campaign, yes? Well, put down your torches and pitchforks, for all the knowledge I've accumulated over the millennia of my existence, what has been done to your body is… Tokishima's Shoichi's ability is… to my eternal awe… beyond the scope of my understanding."
"It's hard for me to accept that. But I guess I'll just have to take your word for it. For now." His tone changed drastically from the usual inquisitive and curious tone of Yusuke. Even his look was something that, in his past life, would be impossible: a mixture between steadfastness and determination with a little silent bloodlust on the side. Cain recognized that look. It's a face that Jeay would make whenever he sensed a threat to his master. "And what has been done to us was monstrous. I even heard from Shoko-chan and Saki-chan about the things they did to Haruto, messing up his brains like that. Really makes me sick to the stomach."
Yusuke turned around, showing his back as his intention to end this questioning, but this imperious aura that arose from that bare back made even Cain having second thoughts.
"I'll just say this for posterity: my loyalty is with Haruto. This madness has to stop. When I was confused and frustrated, it was Haruto who lead me forth. So I'll always be on his side. I don't know why did you surrender to us in the first place, but if I ever, for an instant, suspect that you're leading him to a trap or getting in his way…"
Even Cain was somewhat unnerved when he saw a pair of burning golden eyes looked back at him from the corner.
"I will kill you."
Normally, at this juncture, Cain would make a joke or say something witty if he senses idle or empty threats. The fact he was stunned into silence proved that he consider this anything but idle or empty. "I understand. I expect nothing less from the successor of my friend Fran."
Yusuke sighed as his bloodlust settle. "…let's go see that woman shall we?"
"Yes. Let's." Cain also nodded, whilst X-Eins breathes again.
Finally, the trio arrived at the ward, where the former pilot of the Goldilocks had regained enough of her strength, she welcomed them seated on a chair, with her sister on the opposite side. When the three entered the room, the woman made a move to get up to greet her saviors, but Cain signaled him to stay seated. "Are you alright, milady?"
"Much better now, thank you."
"Very good." Cain nodded. "Now, Milady. I'm sure you understand… we brought you back for a reason."
"My sister told me about it." Eliza grunted. "They took me in, told me they can make… the voices… stopped… and they did this… to me." Eliza balled her now mechanical fist. "…if you're gonna burn them to ashes, I'll help you however I can."
"Yes. About 'they'." Cain gestured and took a seat in front of Eliza. "My question is actually… about they. About the enemy. Milady, I understand the experience may not be pleasant, but I need to know more… about 'them'."
Eliza was a former soldier. She easily understands the core points of what Cain asked of her. "Arus' army is composed of two components: men and machine. The machines you've seen it. And as you've guessed: they're remote controlled from a 'control tower' that broadcast the signal that controls all the robots in the planetoid."
Yusuke frowned. And as they have learned, the signals were sent through all the mechanized units via the WIRED network. "How do you know all this?"
"I was in their system. When they embedded me inside that… THING… I managed to learn a lot of things. Their network. This, Goldilocks as you called them, is one of these Control Towers. One of three. You've destroyed it already, yes?"
"Yeah. But… what about that one who beat us to a punch? That's a control tower too?"
"You mean Hellsing? That's not a control tower." Eliza shook her head. "Look at its size. There were so many of them. Droids. Millions. A robot that size can't carry the server needed to control so many. No. The Hellsing… and the other copy Valvraves are… relay stations. The control towers are huge and must possess the capacity to control millions of droids… but the range can only get so far. So they created these… Faux Valvraves units you called it - as a relay point to expand the control range of the Towers, like a heavily armed and mobile satellite relay units and also to, theoretically defend the control towers. But… the Goldilocks was an experiment. A sick one, I might add. They tried to create a heavily armed and mobile control tower – one can defend itself, by simply slapping together all sorts of Valvarve tech into it. Not very successfully."
"I concur. To call it a Valvrave is an insult." Cain grunted.
Eliza's explanation gave the New Jior' forces a better clearer picture of their mission objectives and how to win this war. But Cain still looks skeptic. "As for the human element, milady. As I understand it, these relay stations, they are also a proper copy of Valvraves… and most importantly, they are piloted?"
"Yes, sir. There are… 6 that I know of, excluding the Goldilocks which you have destroyed." Eliza nodded. "However… I am aware that there are some other units that were outside the network I was linked with… so there could be more of them."
"But I'm more curious about these… pilots of the Faux Valvrave… the Relay Valvrave. 6 of them, you say? What are the… components of the human element of the Arus army?"
"It's comprised of two elements: remnants of Arus army, which comprised of the elites of Arus military still loyal to President Anderson."
"The President is here?"
"I'm sorry. I don't know. Even when I'm connected to their network, I didn't get to see much of him… which is rather strange. But these elite military of Arus had their own network, completely closed off from the rest of the mechanized army. So even I don't know where they're located, I'm sorry."
"What about the other element of the human army?" Cain asked.
"Mercenaries. PMCs. Best in business. But you're asking for the ones piloting the Relay Valvrave, yes?" Eliza looked at Cain, this time with recognition. "Yes. You should be VERY interested in this, Cain Dressel."
"You knew me?"
"Who wouldn't? I was with Arus, 10 years ago. I never get to meet you in person back there, but we did share a battlefield in Arizona."
Cain's one eye widened in shock. "…Arizona…" His hand instinctively rose to his eyepatch.
"Col. Cain… could it be…" X-Eins also shared Cain's horror, as do all Dorssian soldiers present.
"The PMC… given control of the Relay Valvraves… was it… the 'Regnant International'?"
Eliza gave one nod, and everyone can hear a gasped breath in the room.
"The Regnant International?" Raizo asked.
"It is a PMC – Private Military Company. A mercenary group, one of… if not THE best in the business. They have a rather… unique composition. They're all composed entirely of women. But make no mistake… they're the best."
X-Eins immediately continued: "It happened in Arizona. A large scale campaign that happened during our first engagements with Arus forces on Earth. Then a Major, Commander Cain took part in that operation." X-Eins remembered all he learned during the military academy. "At first we were winning. We had the numerical advantage and superior military technology… a million troops and all the accompanying heavy weapons and mechanized divisions while the enemy commanders are mostly incompetent… but then… one small outpost hired the Regnants… back then there were only the size of a company, a small one, barely 80 at the most… and this happened within 15 minutes."
X-Eins showed an Arus E-paper clipping to the non Dorssian officers. The title says it all:
DORSSIA HUMILIATED IN ARIZONA. 50,000 DEAD. THE MOST DISASTROUS DEFEAT IN HISTORY.
"We won the war, but the battle of Arizona remained the only blemish in that victory. The Regnants had expanded their membership ever since, they're bigger, stronger than they were back then… Three things that have never changed: their fee is absolutely exorbitant, but they never broke a contract; their membership is made entirely of women; and… their commander, their leader… is the only male in the group… and he…" Cain face wrinkled. "…took this from me." He pointed his eyepatch. "You've met him before. He's the one piloting the Hellsing."
Yusuke and Raizo paled.
"Gentleman… we're in a fight for our lives… and we might actually lose."
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When the light died out, the Valvrave stood triumphant on the charred wasteland of the seabed. The ocean was still parted, the heat produced is still enough to push them away, but they are slowly, steadily closing in. But that's enough time for the Valvrave to observe the result of his actions.
There's this… straight line of charred ground right in front of him. A little bit jagged on the edges but the Prominence Harakiri slash was successfully concentrated unto one single line. No branches, no errant energy spikes. All focused into an energy beam slash only 30 centimeters wide. Relatively speaking, its small size meant it won't hit too many things… but anything hit by it won't survive the experience.
Dragging the smoking Blackrose behind as it scraped the glassed seabed, the Valvrave walked towards a certain spot.
This is the second time he saw the Ariels bisected in half. Only this time… Haruto was pretty certain, given all these melted parts… that she won't be coming back up again. Only her upper half still left, and even that has been bisected diagonally from shoulder to spine. Metals burnt and melted, twisted beyond recognition, a portion of her body clearly disappeared and no pieces remained… most likely vaporized down to her last atoms – testament of the overwhelming power she just faced.
Haruto wasn't sure if he felt pity or relief that it's over.
But then, as he thought of taking another step forward…
A sizable flying object just came out of nowhere and rammed the Valvrave's back. None of his sensors catch it. "Wh…?" And then another one came, and another, and another… there were 13 of them of varying sizes. They encircle the Valvrave several times before they flew in to one direction and assembled themselves together into one giant figure. A Valvrave. A hulking Faux Valvrave of Behemoth's.
As it turns out, Haruto came to realize there's more than one. Another one descended from the sky, seemingly appeared right out of thin air with none of his sensors picked her up. This one sport this massive shoulder mounted equipment composed of a spherical shield made of circular curving segments that gave off the feeling of a pumpkin shaped Clear fossil shield. A faux of the Amon Ra.
Curiously, both of them stood behind the fallen Ariels. The heat haze from the hissing remains of the Ariels and the smokes arising from the charred wasteland made their details a bit hard to make out except their silhouette and the glaring light from their neon purple sense nerve crowns.
Haruto silently watched from the screens, and before he decides his next course of action, he heard a roaring sound hailing from behind. It came awfully close from right on top of him. Haruto reacted quickly and the Valvrave jumped away just in time.
The crimson gunship zoomed down immediately towards the spot where the Valvrave had stood, he missed landing on top of him – then again the newcomer only meant to force the Valvrave to distance himself from the Ariels. It transformed into a humanoid shape as it landed, showing him his back. But the newcomer didn't seem to care, because he had bigger concerns.
Completely ignoring the Valvrave, the newcomer rushed towards the wreckage of Ariels and start rummaging her remains. A moment later, his hand managed to grasp something… a capsule, half melted and charred… but solid enough to rest in his hand without crumbling to ash like the rest of the Ariels' body. Then and only then, did he turn around and faced him.
And then Haruto knew without fail… this is the one unit that will give him more trouble than what he had endured today. His counterpart. The symbol of a stylized RI was embedded on his shoulder armor.
The Hellsing glared angrily at his Original counterpart. Likewise, the Valvrave's form stiffened.
Haruto looked warily at the other two Faux Valvrave… "…is it three on one now?" The Valvrave held his nodachi in both hands.
The Faux Behemoth seems inclined to answer the challenge as she took one step forward, but the Hellsing raised his hand, putting a stop to it all. "…that's enough for one day, I think."
The two Faux Valvraves began to back away, preparing to leave the blasted wastes. As if to emphasize this, the ocean around them finally began to close in. The parted waters are crashing in with the temperature had dropped sufficiently enough for the laws of physics and nature to return back to normal. The ground were once again filled with water, albeit still boiling and steaming.
The Faux Amon Ra took to the air and vanished out of sight whilst the Faux Behemoth was a bit reluctant… but then she split once again into 13 pieces before she flew off as well. Only the Hellsing and the Valvrave remained, still eying each other, measuring each other, but the Valvrave had lowered his sword, knowing the enemy had no wish to fight.
"You need to stop." Haruto pleaded. "If you care enough of her that you would come here just to retrieve her, you're a far better person than the one paying your bills. Give us what we want and this bloodshed will stop. Or there won't be anything left by the time we're all done."
The Hellsing tilted his head. "The world doesn't work like that boy."
"Then how should it work? Just don't think and follow your orders?"
The Hellsing's pilot jerked up at the reply. He didn't answer, but he merely snorted before he jumped to the air before transforming into his gunship mode and flew away at incredible speed, leaving the Vampire far behind. For now.
The ocean began to crash around the Valvrave, his time is also up. Unfurling his wings, he too took to the sky. By the time he flew out the sea and floated up in the sky, the parted oceans had closed the gap completely, leaving only a turbulent surface as remainder of the fierce battle that had just erupted underneath it. The water levels had significantly dropped, denoting just how much of the water mass that had been vaporized. The Hellsing and his entourage were nowhere to be seen of course.
Haruto looked around the oceanic module… he looked to one side… and he saw this… fleet of ships, bearing Arus symbols… and then he looked to the other side… a white beach, but blackened and glassed, trees burning, filled with trenches and weapon emplacement to resist the invaders. Each was fighting one another… until a moment ago.
At the moment, the two sides had one thing in common:
There was almost nothing left of either side but cinders and ash.
The Valvrave of Cinders and Ash took stock to the situation and knew immediately who's responsible.
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Well, I think this is a rather obvious results… imagine you have a sun suddenly rising in your backyard, literally in your backyard. Even a miniature sun. The word that came to mind is… city wide barbecue.
When I set that poll between space or Earth, I've also prepared a set of reward and consequences to go with it. The reward is that by coming to this place faster, some lives had been saved. But the consequences being, the lack of experience and preparation which will bring about disastrous impact… and who knows what else.
I made plenty reference to Leidenfrost effect in this chapter, might as well explain it.
Leidenfrost Effect refers to the temperature where water would instantly vaporize upon contact with an object that has risen to that temperature. The best example of this is when you heat up a frying pan and then you splash water on top of it. If the water spread thin and vanish, that means the temperature is not high enough. But when the water gathered together into droplets that hover around the pan, that's it. That's Leidenfrost effect.
What happened is that a layer of water was instantly vaporized by the temperature of the pan upon contact, and thus the water droplet was actually being held aloft by the resulting vapor, and so they last longer.
Now, this phenomenon has seen use in real life: they've created supercavitation torpedoes. When a superheated object was dropped unto a mass of water, the resulting Leidenfrost effect creates a bubble (or cavitation) that enclosed the object. In this state, water resistance is zero. This allows object moving with the cavitation bubble to move faster than object that was not in cavitation. This effect was even more prevalent when this occurred in warm waters. I'm no physics engineer, but that is the main principle behind the Supercavitation torpedo, naval ballistic that can reach supersonic speed underwater.
There has been concept of Supercavitation submarine… but insofar as I know, there was no example of a successful application – yet. But if in the far future somehow they finally managed to get around the problem, we'll be seeing supersonic submarines going allover the place.
In this story, the heat produced by the Valvrave was such… the heat radiates to absurd distances, and the temperature was such, even the whole ocean was pushed aside by the resulting explosion of vapor, and they just can't get past that wall of radiating heat. It's a large scale Leidenfrost effect beyond any logical human common sense. It's an alien war machine, remember?
The progression of Valvrave's transformation in this chapter as reference:
stage one: just overheating - nothing fancy
Stage two: imagine dark souls 3 bosses on steroids
Stage three: what happened when Ghost Rider takes the helm of a Valvrave
Stage four: Evangelion third impact ring any bell?
Till the next chapter!
