He had crushed Motoyasu's throat. Jessica could see the imprints left by Takt's fingers. The poor boy's heart had been pierced and torn out. The bastard had slashed his lung out. Most internal organs were ruptured or bruised.
None of these would have stopped her from trying to heal him.
Heroes were different from mundane people. Their weapons added a flavour that was easy to detect. She suspected it was because the weapon acted as a conduit to draw the world's power. It was something normal to her. Something she saw every day.
Her soul magic saw nothing.
Motoyasu was nothing more than a pile of flesh and scattered blood in the middle of a ruined city.
Her ruined city.
"Imposter!" declared Motoyasu's murderer, "You will pay for what you did to Malty!"
Jessica struggled to ignore him. She turned to him but kept her focus on the living Hero who was matching the Dragon. Her magic reinforced him. His stats grew, wounds healed and magics gained power.
Itsuki was still scared.
He fought regardless.
She was proud.
"Who are you?" asked Jessica, grimacing at the thousands trapped by the debris. The tens of thousands dead. She hadn't realized, but she knew exactly how many people her city had. Her mana sensory range extended past her city limits. She didn't know her people individually, but she knew the collective.
Thousands of mana signatures were gone.
It hurt to see her city like this. A ravaged husk. Most of it was fine. That should have brought her some solace, but it amplified her pain when she saw the scar cutting through it. The plants she'd raised had done their job as well as they could.
It was her fault for not making them better. Or making more of them.
She had underestimated their enemies.
"I am the True Hero," he said. The words sent a spark of fury through her. The ground shook before she calmed the vines extending beneath her city. "And you are going to remember this day-"
It surprised her when he continued without noticing anything odd. She didn't glance towards the breach in the wall or the sky beyond her city. Raphtalia, Gaelion and the 10 people she'd brought back from the border were there. All boosted by her and determined to win.
Jessica smiled icily once her castle was ready. It was right behind her and she was glad, yet horrified that battle had come near the centre of her city.
It was the ideal place for her to fight.
It only cost her thousands of lives and might cost many more.
Takt caught that emotion. "Wha-"
Motoyasu's body dropped into the ground. Her plants would take care of him until it was time. The castle's barriers vanished. Vines erupted from the ground. Jessica darted up.
Takt raised Motoyasu's spear.
He didn't get a chance to do anything else.
She combined a torrent of lightning, air and fire.
The plasma that formed was hotter than the surface of the sun. Then, she multiplied, amplified and flooded it with SP.
A large sphere formed above them. Getting larger with each passing second.
She felt the heat despite her buffed stats and skills. The sphere resisted her control. The compression she imposed on it. It wanted to explode. To expand, but she had forged it out of her mana.
It obeyed.
"Die," she commanded.
The thin beams of plasma seemed harmless.
But they didn't miss. She kept creating more of them.
Takt screamed as they burned through his clothing.
The Dragon roared. It was in fury.
Jessica was generous.
She spared some plasma for the dragon and proved that Dragon Emperors were not immune to heat.
The next roar from the dragon held pain.
Itsuki didn't hesitate. His arrows tore the beast apart. They pierced her flesh and froze, electrified and roasted her internal organs.
He didn't stop. Itsuki built distance and struck at every vulnerability that they had created.
"How dare you?" said Takt. Jessica frowned.
Why was the Dragon so much weaker than him? Their souls were very different and held no hints. The Dragon was drawing on the Emperor Soul Fragment.
Takt was a chimaera held together by something alien.
He was intact with nothing more than superficial wounds. Jessica cast an illusion of herself landing while she flew to her castle. Invisibility and the way her mana flooded the entire area after the plasma rain promised that her movements were unnoticed.
She used the winds to whisper in his ears. "Takt, you're a poor fool who's soul has been chained and leashed. You are the slave of Goddess who seeks to ravage the worlds," she said, "Death will be a kindness."
"Don't lie!" he said, screaming the words at her illusion who smiled with pity, "She told me everything. You're a monster. You took Malty away!"
"First strike javelin," he said and flung Motoyasu's spear at the plasma sphere.
Jessica absorbed and leashed the mana she had infused within the castle. It wasn't her mana anymore. Not after so many days, but it still responded better than most foreign mana sources.
It would serve her well.
The plasma sphere floating above the battlefield detonated. Air that she had heated and amplified erupted.
She redirected the explosion to the largest target on the battlefield. Currents powered by her castle defences and her willpower dragged the plasma where she wanted it to go.
Her target was easy to track. The souls of both her enemies were different from normal humans. Even normal Heroes for that matter.
A wind-whispered command had Itsuki run from his foe.
The Dragon died.
It's head, torso and forelimbs ceased to exist immediately. The heat of compressed plasma shot at incredible speeds and manipulated to stop once it reached the Dragon was enough. Only the Dragon Emperor Core survived intact.
It was a struggle to disperse the attack, but she forced it underground. Better the sewer system was ruined than lives. A large cloud of steam blanketed the battlefield as the dragon's blood was vaporized and mixed with the water in the soil and the sewers.
A wind-based arrow from Itsuki dispersed it.
Takt's screamed like a wounded animal.
Jessica smiled.
Her tainted joy didn't last long.
His soul changed again. Not a huge change, but something about it was different. Takt was a terrifying amalgam. Something was crushing his Soul. The Weapons signatures stood out. They were human, yet not.
Those aspects didn't worry her.
The glue holding him together did. Jessica knew what it was likely to be.
He wasn't human.
Neither was she or any other Hero, but he sickened her.
Medea was holding him together through Soul Magic. The entity used his battered soul to bind the weapons to itself.
Relief should have filled her. Medea's touch was easy to see. She'd never encountered anything like this with her Soul Sight. That should have been reassuring. It meant that she wasn't one of Medea's. That she'd never met someone who was bound to the Entity.
All she had was rage.
His pain did nothing to stop it. Takt's screams only made her angrier. Fury at herself for not planning well. At this bastard for killing her friend. At this fucked up world for being what it was.
She charged another attack. Shaped the winds to coordinate with Itsuki.
It was time to end this.
"First Charge. Second Charge. Rush!" said Takt, his body blurred forward. Too fast to track.
He slammed into nothing.
Her illusion scattered. He had torn apart the mana used to hold it together.
Takt glared at her after his eyes began to glow. Jessica frowned and threw her illusion aside. Invisibility was only a mana drain if he could see through it.
Jessica grimaced at the speed. "Itsuki," she said with the air, "back off. He's angry and powerful up close. Bombardment. I'll limit collateral."
The Hero said nothing but moved away after one last look at the Dragon.
Takt ignored him and met her eyes despite the distance between them. She was high above the hill, floating above her castle. He stood near the bottom on the ground he had ravaged.
He darted up the small hill to the castle with startling ease. His body glowed and moved unnaturally. Takt's speed increased with each passing moment.
Jessica regretted draining some of the castle's defences. She scrambled to restore them.
What was his level? This was insane. The plasma had annihilated the dragon emperor, yet he was moving. The most basic skills of the gauntlets, despite the weak connection, had been enough to reduce him to a blur.
His arrogance and anger were her advantages.
Every second that passed was one that steeped the battle towards her.
Gaelion and Raphtalia would shift this in her favour.
They'd destroy the airships soon.
She hoped that she survived long enough to see it.
Takt charged like a mad-man. His entire body glowed with pale blue light as he burst through the barriers she used to block him. The same barriers that had stopped Gaelion in his tracks.
The barriers did their duty and negated his momentum for an instant, but that was all they did.
It was enough.
Vines rose from the earth and tried to hold him. Poison clouds, shaped by the air attempted to suffocate. Itsuki's attacks staggered him. The Bow Hero was floating under her power nearly a kilometre from here. Far enough to run if given warning.
But Takt didn't stop.
Jessica cast another set of illusions with a small surprise hidden inside. She rushed to restructure the castle's defences. Her illusionary form descended to meet him.
He ignored it and punched the sphere of fire that she had concealed within in it.
As expected.
The explosion was intense. The ground around him vaporized.
He walked out of it with his clothes intact. The gauntlet's defences surpassed that of the Spear.
Vines tore the ground out from beneath him. Unstable footing stopped his charges as the ground gave away.
He jumped from one hard surface to another. Completely ignored the poison clouds that surrounded him. Dismissed the elemental explosions that froze, electrified, burned and cut him.
Takt kept moving. Every second reduced the distance between them. She stayed above the castle. The vines infused within her home tossed the maids, servants, lords and children deep underground. Malty had whispered the why to them. They remained terrified.
It was the right move, but it hurt to wreck her castle.
The strange being who called himself Takt was changing. His connection to the weapons was growing. Medea's touch on him was deepening. He'd said she had talked to him. In canon, she'd killed him when he talked too much. It had somehow let him steal weapons.
What if she could do more?
The temptation to get Itsuki to teleport them away was strong. Everything she had could be rebuilt as long as she had a Hero. A glance at her ruined city made her falter.
Takt had killed too many of her people. He had to die.
He couldn't fly, but he simulated it well. The Gauntlet could Rush forward at speeds she couldn't track. He used it to move vertically. Punched a wind blast and used the recoil to dart towards his target.
It was clumsy, but it worked...as long as she didn't tear the control of the air from his grasp.
She only did so after he was near her. Close to the centre of her empty castle.
Jessica was ready. Her mana was trickling down to nothing.
The barriers flared up.
Jessica flew off.
Takt followed with narrowed eyes. Darting towards her faster than before. No words. Only a roar of fury.
Jessica created her Mirrors. A technique she seldom had cause to use.
They surrounded him and he was about to shatter them.
The entire castle detonated.
No, that didn't do it justice. It shattered as the mana within the walls, bound by her will to the artefacts and vines within them erupted. Each a source of a small fraction of the energy she was guiding.
She used every single iota of mana to create hundreds of lightning stream pointed towards her enemy.
The lightning was blinding in more ways than one. Her eyes failed and her mana senses were the same. Soul Sight didn't fail her and she smiled.
Takt was scared.
His soul changed again and he moved.
The mirrors bounced the attacks back to him after amplifying it. He screamed and started to fall as they hit. The smell of charred flesh filled her world.
Jessica scrambled to run.
She was in range and Takt was still alive.
Takt rushed into the mirrors. His body was spasming. His face was a rictus of agony, but he didn't stop.
Jessica redirected her attack. It hit.
He ignored it again and slammed into the mirrors like a demented pinball. All of them were crushed.
He was moving too fast to hit. Faster with every passing moment.
She'd failed.
No time to think.
Takt was using the Spear.
He flung it. Jessica moved. A white barrier stopped it.
Or tried to.
The attack pierced the barrier and glanced her shoulder. She hissed at the pain.
A thought had her darting away from him. The air pushed her to the side. She oriented herself towards the line of destruction. No more would die on her watch. A burst of air pushed at Takt.
He ignored it even as it slashed his flesh. The spear was gone. He was falling.
Gauntlets manifested.
He Rushed. His speed multiplied and he headed right for her.
Jessica created barrier after barrier. Blasts of wind and fire hit him from the side. Mirrors redirected the attacks back to him. They stopped her stray attacks for wrecking the city. Her mana began to fade.
It was the first time she struggled to call on her power. Flight was a struggle.
The castle below them was crumbling. The air and fire strikes overreaching and destroying it further.
Takt rammed through them all.
His flesh burned. He was screaming incoherently. Blood spilt into the air.
But he didn't stop.
Supernatural steel of his Gauntlets met her armour.
The strike folded her. It cracked the steel she wore.
Pain.
Her chest was heavy. Coppery liquid filled her mouth. The armour stopped the strike from crushing her body.
It was all it did.
His hand grasped her throat, but the liquid fire that poured through her veins was worse than the lack of air. His muscles spasmed. Lightning taking its toll, but that only made it worse.
They were falling.
Jessica tried to scream, but he stole the air. The cold steel of the gauntlets hurt.
She erupted in lightning that burned his hair off and burst one of his eyeballs, but all he did was press tighter.
He was smiling. She could feel the spirit of the Cane boil within her.
Takt wasn't the one hurting her.
The Cane was keeping her aware, awake.
It was being stolen.
Jessica didn't think. She lashed out with her Soul magic.
Her vision was blurring, but his erratic soul was easy to sense. She infused him with her magic, felt the Cane support her and tore him to shreds.
No plan. No idea what she was doing.
Jessica just wanted him to let go.
The steel claws around her neck vanished. Disintegrated as if they'd never existed.
Takt screamed.
They crashed into the ground after an indeterminate amount of time. The debris sent spikes of pain through her back. The dust was suffocating. Jessica didn't dare pull on the winds. Neither fighter was able to focus on flight.
Everything hurt.
A hundred arrows landed on Takt and pulverized the area. Takt didn't react.
It threw Jessica back. The blast would have made her scream if she had been able to speak.
The landing was worse. Like a giant dancing on her chest.
Jessica couldn't see, her throat hurt, but she could feel Takt's mana.
He was alive and screaming. Raw painful screams that were bereft of dignity or any silly thoughts.
Takt was screaming because she had hurt him. What had she done?
She struggled to move. Her ribs hurt and breathing was painful. The ground was hard. It took her a moment to realize that she was inside her castle.
Itsuki lifted her.
When had he gotten there?
"Malty! Heal yourself," he said as each movement of his made her whimper.
The words had her scramble. Itsuki almost dropped her. He scolded her, but she didn't care.
The Cane was still in her hands. In her Soul.
Its spirit was happy.
Right, healing.
Her wounds started to vanish. and Itsuki let her stand. He'd dragged her to the devastated area as suggested.
"Thanks," she muttered, wincing as her voice came out as a rasp. Her eyes and senses on where Takt was. Something was off. "Here."
Itsuki nodded as his wounds began to vanish. The dregs of her magic and her eager partner helping to put him together. The lucky guy had only suffered some bruises and cuts.
Her wounds, the throat especially, was still sore and would be until she rested.
Swallowing the mana potion was painful, but it was a good pain.
"Is he down?" asked Itsuki.
The screaming had stopped.
Jessica shook her head. She had disrupted a soul that was already twisted.
"Blast it," she said, "Now."
Itsuki nodded. Drew his string back, "Combination?" he asked.
"Yes," she said while lifting them off the ground. She'd keep her distance this time. Whatever was happening to Takt's soul wouldn't be an issue if she killed him.
Jessica recreated her plasma burst. Mirrors appeared next to the attack to contain it. Itsuki drew an arrow back and charged it with as much mana as he could.
"Now!" she yelled.
Plasma fused with his arrow. One of the few things other than that Soul Magic attack that had hurt him.
The arrow reached him within an instant.
The explosion was immense. The remains of her castle that had survived the battle, her abuse of the structure and worse began to melt.
Takt was at the centre of the destruction.
His soul was still intact.
"Again," she commanded. Itsuki followed her orders without hesitation.
Gaelion and Raphtalia would be here soon. She'd ask the Dragon to help once did.
Their attack struck again.
Laughter rang out. It spread throughout the battlefield. It hurt to listen to. She struggled to focus her flagging mana as her vision wavered for an instant.
The Cane glowed and the pain vanished.
What the hell was that?
Takt walked out of the molten crater that had replaced the castle.
It took her a moment to process the impossibility.
He wasn't laughing. He couldn't with his entire body ruined. The attacks had charred his body to a crisp. Takt's face was a fused mass of flesh. His eyes were hollow sockets and his teeth had melted away.
His staggered forward. Each step looked painful, but his physical state was irrelevant.
Finally, it seemed to stop. The walking corpse stared at nothing.
Itsuki gagged at the sight.
His Soul was nearly gone. The weapons were there. There was only the thing holding it together.
This is a surprise. I must thank you, my dear shell. You have served me well.
It wasn't speaking. That thing imposed the message in their minds. It was like meaning was being thrown straight into their heads. All their minds. The entire city was silent.
The experience was uncomfortable for her. Itsuki winced as it spoke.
Her subjects weren't as fortunate.
People collapsed. She could feel them dying. Their mana diminishing as those who were below level 10 began to perish. Their fear was like slow poison.
Jessica had done this. Somehow she'd given this Entity access to the world.
Takt's body was crumbling. Breaking apart with each passing moment. His flesh was giving away and turning to dust.
He failed. He should have strengthened himself further.
Jessica glared at Itsuki who nocked an arrow.
They blasted the entity. She unleashed everything. Her mirrors, amplifiers and every trace of her mana she could dump into the spell without it failing.
The ground the Entity stood on was disintegrated. The Heat was intense enough that she could see it melt everything.
Except for their target.
Worthless, my shell. You should know better.
Nothing happened. The entity didn't do anything. No skill was activated, no technique was involved.
The entire attack fell apart. Like it hadn't even touched her.
Then, Takt's body broker further.
Shell, obey and live. Defy me and die.
Her Cane and Itsuki's Bow began to glow. Jessica's senses noticed the flare near the Church that held the Hourglass. She didn't dare look away from this thing.
Jessica shuddered as it raked its eyes and spread its power across the city. The Entity's mana caressed her and only her Cane shielded her.
It knew her. She shuddered at it's collapsed body.
Takt's skin had been ruined. Blood poured off him without end. Too much for a human body to contain.
The Hourglass erupted and a bright light erupted. Her Cane and Itsuki's Bow flared up as well. The Dragon Emperor core responded. Another bright light, inside the glowing crater that used to be her castle, joined them.
The Gods of this world will not return you home, Outsider.
I will.
A whip appeared in its hands. The entity vanished before the light reached it.
The entity's mana vanished with the touch of the light. The entire city was silent for an instant longer. Jessica's head was aching.
Her level and the weapon had spared her any other effects.
The people of the city were not as fortunate.
The Entity had killed thousands. Their level too low to survive its method of communication and intimidation.
It had killed more people than the rest of the invasion combined.
"What was that?" asked Itsuki. His eyes were wide and he was clenching his bow. He looked like the young child he was.
The Princess only shook her head, "I-I don't know," she said with a wince. Her voice was raspy. Her body was shaking. Jessica rubbed her throat and coughed. She lowered them to the ground and almost collapsed as her legs struggled to support her.
The entity was active. Alive.
It had retreated because of the Hourglass, their weapons, the thing inside the crater and the Dragon Core. What did they do-
No, not the time. She'd investigate this later.
The timer for the Wave was almost at zero. They were supposed to have a week.
Jessica dismissed the high-level thoughts. No point thinking about the system that had stopped the entity. Not right now.
"Malty," said Itsuki while catching his breath, "The Wave Timer-"
The Princess tried to speak. Choked. Pain surged that her healing struggled to erase.
She used the wind to speak, "Deal with the invasion. Now. That thing saw fit to leave them here." she said, before turning to her city, feeling the void that stood in place of the thousands who'd died. "I'll help with this."
Itsuki stared at the streak of blood, flesh and bone that the entity had left behind. Every step it had taken had torn Takt to pieces. He nodded.
"Oh," she said, "And Itsuki, capture as many commanders as you can. I want to know who dared slaughter so many of ours."
Itsuki lit up. No joy, but his exhaustion with a cold determination.
A moment before leaving he paused.
"You need to rest." he said, "Princess, I don't think you should be alone right now-"
She scoffed.
Jessica wanted to sit. To rest for a moment.
Her thoughts didn't let her.
Could that thing take her home?
No, no point in thinking about that. She couldn't trust it. That entity, Medea or something else, had killed thousands for nothing. It had led an invasion and had drawn her to the border. What it's plan was she didn't know or care. It had killed Motoyasu-.
The thought had her pause.
Itsuki wasn't dead. Despite being right in front of the entity it hadn't tried to kill him. It had also used the Whip to leave.
Jessica hoped that it meant that the entity couldn't use its' power right now.
"I'll go to the healers soon," she promised, thinking about the glowing light from the crater. "I have a couple of things to take care off. I promise."
He nodded. Adopted a blank look and looked away. "What about-" he said before running off.
Jessica didn't stop him.
She trekked her way to the ruined castle. It was slow going and painful. Guilt and fury assaulted her with every pained step.
Her stats hadn't failed her. Gaelion and Raphtalia's work boosted her levels. She made it up in five minutes that felt like an eternity.
The gleaming Gauntlet that had choked her looked out of place in the molten remains of her home.
************************
How was the climax?
