Chapter 77
"Agh! It's getting worse!" I've been lying here for what feels like an eternity in agony. Being able to reconfigure somebody's augmentations to accepting a different tissue type is just unfair on so many levels.
I'm blind, partially deaf, and now my body is rejecting the things that make me into the badass that I am online. It really is my fault though, I'm the one who let him put them in me. Well we didn't know it was him but still.
"Just a little longer… a little longer before your body can't handle anymore torture!" The Deity keeps taunting me while I can't do anything in return. All the while the Goddesses are on the other side of a barrier that I have no idea when it'll be broken through, having to watch all of this happen.
"Dammit! Just go down already! *Crash!*" Blanc hits the barrier with her axe, causing noticeable damage to the physical aspect of the barrier, but it ultimately holds up to her God level strength.
"Just a few more… there!" Nepgear shouts with excitement as she finishes hacking through part of the barrier that relied of technology.
"Just about… Done!" Rom and Ram get done with their portion shortly afterwards, letting the barrier fall down into nothingness. Instantly, Noire flies forward and grabs Martins mangled body before flying back to where she originally was. Nepgear does the same for me, except she has a harder time getting me back since I'm having a lot of involuntary movements.
The rest of the Goddesses present fly out and take formation.
Neptune positions herself in front of the Deity and Blanc takes his right side. Vert takes the left and Rom and Ram position themselves opposite of each other in the corners of the area for support. Uni isn't among them, she's playing a different role today.
"So… the Goddesses have come to play huh?"
"Yes, and we'll end this sick game of yours. Prepare to die by my sword fiend." Neptune responds back to the Deity with resolve.
Before Neptune or the Deity can act, Blanc jumps into the air axe raised high for the first strike. The Deity steps to the side and grabs the handle with great strength on her way down. With her still holding onto it, he throws it in the direction of Vert who's caught off guard by this.
Blanc does her best to steady herself midair, and Vert readies her spear in a way that Blanc can jump off of it. Neptune rushes forward and strikes quickly. The Deity kicks up one of his swords and blocks immediately, before returning his attention back to Blanc who's swiftly flying towards him.
The Deity reaches past Neptune's arms and grabs her by the throat with lightning quick speed, she didn't even have time to react. Then Neptune was swung around to intercept Blanc, sending them both flying away from each other.
Vert flies up in the air and conjures three spears of pure energy. They start to rain down towards the Deity. He readies his legs and starts to run to the side to avoid the spears, picking up his other sword along the way, while dodging more spears as Vert produces them.
*Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!* Spears hit the floor as he continues to run side to side, avoiding them with ease.
"You forget about us Dummy!" Ram holds out her staff and produces an ice whip, which wraps around one of his arms. Rom does the same shortly afterwards, restricting both of his arms.
Not having much time before the next spears hit, he further increases the tension around his arms and starts to spin them around.
The overwhelming strength of the Deity is too much for Rom and Ram, who can't hold on anymore. He swings them around on their own ice whips and intercepts the spears made by Vert. The twins are knocked into the floor, producing small craters from the impact.
Neptune and Blanc recover from their collision while Vert helps Rom and Ram out of their respective craters. Rom provides light healing for the party, trying to ease their wounds.
"Damn, he's nearly invincible… I hope they're having a better time over there.
"Martin… Martin… I'm sorry… this is my fault. Martin's avatar remains motionless, not giving any sign of response. Noire holds it closer to her, hoping this will in some way make everything alright.
"If only had the strength to beat him… if only I wasn't so scared… why am I trembling?" Noire couldn't stop shaking. The Bound Deity she had fought in the past had utterly destroyed her, only letting her live out of pity.
She didn't want to admit it to anyone, especially to Martin, but she was terrified. She was scared of this man more than anything else in the world. Noire didn't care who it was, she never had any problems dealing with them, until this man came and usurped her country.
And even though this wasn't the real Martin's body, but it was an artificial person all the same, she felt bad because deep down, it was her fault for all of this happening.
She started to cry, a being of the heavens let her tears fall to the earth. Her divinity status had always made her feel so powerful, like she had the power to protect everyone. But at this moment, she felt more mortal than she'd ever felt before.
More tears fell from above, reaching Martin's lifeless avatar. She started to give up, Noire looked to her friends battling before her, and all she saw was counter attack after counter attack. If this kept up they'd be slaughtered.
"All is lost then…" Noire let out one final tear before lowering the avatar of her boyfriend to the floor.
As she closed her eyes, she could hear the sounds of faint breathing coming from below her. "Haa… haa… haa… No… you… can't give… up…"
My body is going out of control, every part of me is rejecting the foreign system, causing my body to shut down forcefully. It fucking hurts let me tell you.
"How can I stop this?" Nepgear asks herself, not knowing how to handle the situation presented before her. This kind of thing just doesn't happen very often.
"Hmhmhm… foolish girl, you really think you can save him on your own?" I hear my voice ring out from somewhere. Blake must be having fun being a spectator.
Nepgear opens up the same holographic screen and keyboard she used to disable the barrier a little while ago. "The only way to do this is to manually reset his augmentations… But will I have enough time for that?" Nepgear connects her holographic console to my augmentations programming and begins to skim through its code.
"You'll never find what you're looking for in time… just give up." I hear Blake's voice again. If I die he dies, so he shouldn't be so calm.
I'm surprised I can hear him over the immense amount of pain I'm feeling. I'm also surprised that Nepgear isn't fainting from seeing me twitching and flailing like a fish out of water.
"There's so much code here… which one will trigger the restart?" Nepgear frantically searches for the one piece of code she needs to fix the system to not kill me. I really hope she finds it soon because I'm about to die over here.
"But then again, I could help you if I wanted to…" If he can help her save me then why isn't he doing it? It's his life at stake too.
My body starts to involuntarily twitch more, it keeps getting worse by the minute. I hate to say it, but I may die soon because of this, the pains just too much. My real body isn't feeling better either, this shit is spread all over me.
In the background I can hear the Goddesses putting up a fight while the Deities strength and agility proves overwhelming for them. The battle isn't looking good, and if something doesn't change soon, then we all lose.
"Please… just be here soon…" Nepgear pleas to anyone that will answer, it's clear that she can't find what she's looking for easily, and the stress of the situation isn't helping her either. I wish I could help her, but I'm incapacitated at the moment and can't do anything.
Nepgear frantically types and searches but to no avail, it doesn't look like she'll be able to save me, which sucks because it'll hurt like a bitch when my avatar dies. I don't want to feel like that ever again.
"Fine… since you look so pathetic, I'll help you out this once. But just remember… he was mine first…" Blake's voice vanishes and I can't feel his presence any longer. Just what does he have planned?
"Wait… What's this? Why is it being highlighted?" Nepgear yells out in surprise after seeing a piece of the code being lit up from the rest. "What's happening? For something like this to occur, there'd need to be outside interference."
"If it's one thing I'm good at, it's finding malicious things, and that code was the most malicious in that string. You can thank me later, especially Nepgear." I hear Blake whisper next to me, he must've exhausted a lot of his strength to pull that off, convoluted as it may be.
"Don't forgot what I've done for you, you should remember this the next time you try and curse me." And with that, I feel Blake leave for good this time.
"I have no choice but to believe in these mysterious circumstances and hope that it works." Nepgear says with determination in her voice, at this point she doesn't care where help comes from.
Nepgear excludes the highlighted section of code and erases it. When it's finally gone, the pain stops, and I'm greeted by a screen telling me that my augments are being restored to what they were before.
I'm greeted by the same flashing screen I saw when I first got these augments. My name and basic character info start typing out before me and I'm able to see exactly what the augments are fixing in my body. Then, a complete screen is shown, before light beams before me, allowing my senses to return.
I open my eyes, and the first thing I'm greeted to is Nepgear's tear stained face. "Nep…gear…" I say slowly, still not fully recovered from what I just went through.
"Jack!" Nepgear yells out and gives me a hug on the battlefield. "I'm so glad you're alright! But who helped me by outlining that code?" Nepgear asks out of curiosity.
With her help I'm able to stand up and regain my composure. "I'll explain later, but first, we need to end this fight. How's everyone doing?"
Just as I say that Blanc goes flying past me from being thrown by the Deity. She stands up immediately and looks at me. "You're alive? Well what are you waiting for? Help us kick his ass!"
Blanc rushes forward and tries to strike him again, with Vert cutting off his backside with a spear barrage. She manages to land one axe hit on him, but it's only strong enough to knock him back a few feet.
I let go of Nepgear's shoulder and she hands me my sword with her other hand. She fires off a blast from her gunblade to distract him while I rush past and attempt to get a hit in.
The Deity takes the blast of Nepgear to his arms like it's nothing, and jumps back instantly when he sees me approaching. He clearly didn't expect me to be back on my feet. Luckily this distracts him long enough for Neptune to get in close.
"Never take your eyes off your opponent!" With lightning speed, Neptune swings her sword into his side with tremendous power. It would've gone deeper if he hadn't stopped it by holding the blade.
Even though it cut through his hand with relative ease, he grips it tighter and pulls the sword right out of Neptune's hands, staggering her back a little bit.
"Damn… Will this guy ever die?" Blanc asks while she's exhausted. It's like he has unlimited stamina and pain resistance. It's going to be a challenge just to get him to slow down. And worst of all is now he has Neptune's sword.
"Don't… give… haa… haa… up…" Martin says between deep breaths, he's barely living right now.
"Martin, you're alive?" Noire asks with excitement in her voice. She's happy to see that even though he's mangled and broken, that he's not dead yet.
"Noire… haa… you can… do… it…" With a weak voice to support his words, it's still conveyed to Noire as though he was boisterous and loud.
"But Martin, he's single-handedly defeated me in combat. There's no way I can take him down." Noire puts herself down again, she can't build up the courage to face him once more.
"Since when… haa… were you… haa… fighting him alone…?" Noire looks up and sees her comrades facing an enemy that she couldn't even look at without a second thought. They're getting their asses kicked, but they're fighting to defend Lastation in her stead.
"I'm not strong enough though… there's no way I could help them…" Noire puts herself down once again. This isn't the Noire I know at all. "Huh?!" Noire feels a hand grab onto hers.
She looks down and sees Martin exerting what little strength he has left to sit up and hold onto Noire. "Then… I'll give you… strength…" With Martin's free arm, the one that was crushed in the Deities grip, he waves it around to create a rune in the air with what little magic power he has left to offer.
Once it's complete, it goes into Noire, filling her with the strength of the one she loves. Shortly afterwards, Martin's grip gets loose, and his avatar falls back down unconscious. "You gave what little you had to aid me… Now it's my turn to repay you!"
Noire, no longer kneeling stands up and witnesses the battle going on before her. Her friends, her allies, all fighting for the sake of liberating this land, it was the best she could as for, and it was enough to spark something inside of her.
Just as Vert had done in her fight, Noire would convey the feelings of the people of her land, and the strength that Martin gave to her to ascend to something else beyond a normal CPU.
A brilliant light enveloped Noire, so brilliant that it made every participant on the battlefield pause just to gaze at it.
"Next Program Activate!"
A sharicite crystal appeared in front of her, and she slammed it into a panel with the Lastation logo on the front of it. Afterwards, even more light began to emanate from Noire.
When the light vanished, her appearance had changed drastically. Her hair was tied into twin tails like it was in her human form, but her outfit consisted of a skintight blue over her midriff and black everywhere else.
Digital seals appeared on her arms and she slammed them together revealing heavy looking gauntlets. She jumped into the air as two more seals formed on the ground shooting more armor at her as she caught them on her legs, being of the same design as her gauntlets.
Once she landed back on the ground, mechanical wings began to form on her back allowing her to float where she was. Noire then waved her head back and a headset appeared with what looked to be a scanner of some kind over her right eye.
Noire reached into the air, and from nothing pulled out a sword that matched her black color scheme. With one last flash of light, the Lastation logo appeared over her chest, signifying the transformation is done.
"Next form, awakening complete!" Noire says calmly to everyone watching.
"Pfft, hahahahaha! You really think a new transformation is enough to sto.." The Deity is interrupted when Noire suddenly appears right behind him with incredible speed. It was so fast that I didn't even have time to follow her.
"You talk too much!" Noire swings her sword a few times rapidly and sends the Deity flying back. The rest of us are at such disbelief that the only thing we can do is watch in awe.
"Tch, you just got lucky is all!" The Deity throws the sword he stole from Neptune at Noire, who dodges the blade but catches the hilt magnificently.
She tosses Neptune her sword back before returning her attention back to the Deity. "Surrender your life already, or else I'll use my full power to obliterate you." Noire says with a more stern voice than usual.
"Like hell I'd ever listen to you! I'll kill you all, just try and hit me!" The Deity rushes forward but Noire uses her speed to instantly appear behind him. Once he notices, she delivers a kick to his chest which would kill any other guy.
He's sent flying in the direction of Blanc, who treats him like a baseball and swings at him with the broadside of her axe. Once again, he's sent flying, but catches himself on the ground and grabs onto it so he doesn't fall off the building.
He stands up tall and plants his feet into the ground, delivering a roar to the heavens. This guy won't die will he? I'm amazed he's managed to go on for so long.
"You leave me no choice but to eliminate you with my ultimate technique." Noire says to him while putting energy into her sword for an attack.
"Ha! Just try and hit me this time, I'll be ready for you!"
"But you weren't ready for this, now Uni!" The Deity looks around trying to find what she's talking about. Little did he know, that around a kilometer away is a sniper capable of floating in the air.
*BANG!*
Like a flash of lightning, one of Uni's bullets tears through the scene, striking the Bound Deity and sending him into the air. While he can't do anything, it's Noire's chance to strike.
"Diagonal Blade Dance!" Noire screamed out her new attacks name. It must be an EX Drive if it's capable of finishing him off before he heals.
Noire's wings act like thrusters as she flies around the edge of the building while the Deity is midair. "Target search, lock!" She flies back to the rooftop with her sword drawn and crashes in right into the Deity.
Noire then flies away and back in for consecutive diagonal slashes that keep the Deity airborne, without him having the chance to recover even once as she continues to back out and attack.
*Slash* *Slash* *Slash*
With even more speed, she backs away from him and from a seal behind her, appear four more blades each with a different ethereal color to them. Before the Deity can reach the ground she flies back in to keep up her assault.
She maintains the same position in the air while the other four swords repeatedly bounce him between each other and her own blade. There are too many strikes to keep up with at once that I can't even follow what's happening to him right now.
With the last strike from the five swords it sends him flying over the edge. He would've fallen to the ground from this high up had it not been for Rom and Ram catching him with a barrier of ice, suspending him there.
Noire flies up in the air one last time, but catches herself on one her seals that she uses to summon her armor and weapons. With her four ethereal blades positioning themselves in the cardinal directions, she launches herself downwards to strike the Deity who's suspended in air.
Once her strike makes contact with him, all of the energy she held in is released and contained in a blue sphere that surround the Deity. As she flies away to avoid the impact of her own attack, the ice he's on shatters, sending him plummeting to the ground as he's surrounding by radiant energy of a Goddess.
Noire lands near us after her flight, and shortly afterwards reverts back to her base Goddess form in this world. Her feet stumble, and she grabs onto my shoulder for support. "Easy there, I've got you." I help her balance a little.
"Is he… gone now?" Rom asks us after we've calmed down and can breathe normally. That's what I'd like to know too, if we put his soul to rest.
Uni flies down to us and joins the group. Good idea to have her hold a snipers position for just the right time I might add. "I was able to look at him falling through my scope."
"What did you see? Is he gone?" Vert asks the candidate a question.
"He disintegrated while he was falling, his body never reached the ground." Uni sounds almost horrified from seeing a man turn into nothing. I can agree with her sentiment there.
"So… we won?" Nepgear asks the group.
"Hell yeah we did! Thanks to Noire we kicked his ass!" Blanc looks really cheerful right now.
"It was through everyone's efforts that this victory was obtained. Thank you everyone, we've accomplished a great feat today." Neptune is the next to speak and congratulate us. Noire did a lot of the work at the end, but we did pave the way for that.
"Alright guys, grab Martin's avatar and let's get him out of here. We can fully heal it when we get to safety." I say to the rest of them, he's alive but unconscious, nothing a few healing potions won't fix.
Though it was a hard fought battle we won. I'm glad that this is over now, we've liberated half of their world now.
I know we've still got a long way to go, but as long as we work together, we can beat any foe. Especially if all of the Goddesses can use that next form thing.
A/N: Well, here we are. Two Deities down, two to go. This chapter is longer than most, but once I started typing I just couldn't stop myself. I'm really happy with that conclusion and how badass Noire is at the end.
But enough about me, let's talk about you. How are you guys doing? Have anything you'd like to say? My doors always open for questions comments and concerns. There really isn't much left to say here, just hope you all are enjoying the story even at this point.
I'll continue writing, which is why I'll see you in the next update.