The Ether Conflict
Chapter 29: Operational Status: Green
One month after the Battle of Tokyo
28th of June, 2 Y.A.
A few kilometers away from Blackout's Main Base
Ether Force's Main Base
Training Grounds
*Boom*
*Crash*
*Clang*
"Hey, Moe?"
*Ding, Ding, Boom*
*Shing*
"Yes Ryuu?"
*Thump, Clang, Fwoosh*
One month has passed since the battle of Tokyo ended, where forces from Blackout clashed against the forces of the Institute in the remains of the city of Tokyo in a decisive battle that would judge who would control the lands of the former country of the rising sun. The battle was long and bloody, but in the end, Blackout was victorious, in part thanks to the acquisition of the Odin weapons platform. With the successful defeat of the Institute, Blackout has now become the most powerful military force in all of Japan, since the JSDF was obliterated by the Institute.
As the Director had promised to Miho, an independent branch of Blackout was found, named Ether Force. The base took only a month to be built, thanks to Mannheim's ability to create things by manipulating Ether. The main base was actually a three story building that had rooms for the personnel of the base, a mess hall, an office for the Directors of this new branch and a research lab. Also, the grounds behind the tall building had been designated as training grounds for all combat personnel, with a rather well-made shooting range and a section of the land a few hundred meters away from it marked as training grounds for people who could use Ether. Right now, three people are using the training grounds, sparring with each other while a dozen more watch them.
"Can you remind me why we are here?" Ryuu asks as he calmly observes a fight that could have literally been pulled out of a fantasy novel, with fire and ice being flown everywhere.
"Sure I can. It's because when we captured the enemy's HQ, your stupid curiosity got the better of you and you thought that looking at classified files and records was a great idea," Moe grumbles without looking at Ryuu, who is standing next to her, giving as much attention as she can to the fight that unfolds a few meters away from them.
"Hey, how could I have known that Blackout would have participated in something as shady as the Starfall project?"
"Yeah, and you are lucky they only transfered us in this new branch and didn't put a bullet in our heads, so shut the fuck up and let me enjoy the battle."
"Some times, I really wonder why I married you..." Ryuu quietly sighs, giving his wife a brief glance, before turning his attention to the fight.
"Who knows~" she says with a flirtatious smile, turning to look at him. "Maybe you can find out when our shift ends~."
"And then I wonder why I can't get mad at you," he shakes his head slowly with a grin plastered over his face. "So, who do you think will win?" he asks Moe, who is still looking at him.
"Hmm," she makes a pondering expression as she turns back to looking at the fight. "I'll say the girl with the long black hair and icy blue eyes. Her skills are really good and her power is really interesting; she can create a bow and arrows made of ice out of thin air."
"Really?" Ryuu says in a surprised voice. "I thought you would bet on the girl with the brown hair and fiery red eyes. I mean, just look at her power! She can create hand axes made of fire and throw them everywhere! Not to mention the other abilities she can use."
While Ryuu and Moe observe the fight between the girls and a black wolf with red eyes from one side of the marked area, Miho, her team and even the Rabbit team are observing it from the other side, with the girls going "Ah" and "Woah" at the spectacular explosions of fire and ice, except for Miho who is reading some documents about the new girls and their powers.
The first girl is named Kōrino Yumika, only one year younger than her, but almost as tall as Hana. Really long, black hair that reach all the way down on the back of her knees and are tied in a ponytail, her eyes an icy blue that could freeze even the sun, but from the time she has spent talking and getting to know her, she is a rather warm and kind person, albeit a little timid at times. Her power consists of ice manipulation and from what she can see right now, she uses it to make a bow and arrows out of ice, not to mention the use of enchanted arrows that Miho have taught her.
The other girl is named Kasai Ono, same age as Kōrino and probably best friends, since they are always together. A centimeter or two shorter than Mako, she has short brown hair that are longer in the left side and fiery red eyes that will completely incinerate anything that dares to stand in her way. As for personality goes, she is the complete opposite of Kōrino. Short-tempered and confrontational, but surprisingly calm under stressful situations.
Everything seems to be normal with them, as normal as the sight of girls using what is essentially magic can be, though there are a few things that have piqued her interest in the documents.
First of all, the Serums used on the girls. The documents classify them as second generation Serums, meaning that the girls were injected with a different kind of liquid than the one that was used on her, or at the very least, a liquid that is based on her own. Physical alterations are somewhat the same with her own; although only the color of the eyes has changed in the girls, the documents state that this change is permanent. There is also a line that says "P.B.A.P: None" which Miho is really curious about, so she makes a mental note to ask Mannheim about it and the second generation Serums the next time she sees him.
Glancing at the sparring girls, she observes that their fighting has improved quite a lot since the first time they started training. At first they were barely able to fight Kuro, usually losing in the first five minutes of the fight. They were schoolgirls after all; you can't expect them to fight like seasoned warriors from a fantasy world, and while a month of training has done a lot to improve them, they still have ways to go.
Since Ether is really just a type of energy that can do almost anything you wish for it to do, given enough time and practice, the only thing that could limit one's power is their own imagination. Even Miho has created a few new tricks within this month of reprieve they had.
"Woah! Commander, look at that!" Miho hears Karina yelling excitedly, although she can already see the massive 20-meter tall vortex of fire raging at the center of the training grounds, the heat being enough for even her to feel it slightly, despite being at least two hundred meters away from its center, maybe even more.
Now that's new, she thinks as she slowly scans the vortex, analyzing its structure. Seems like the girls have been training on their own too.
"That should be game over for her!" Kasai grins as she has finally managed to hit Kuro with a powerful attack. Wielding her two fiery hand axes, she starts twirling them as she waits for the vortex of flames to die down.
"You shouldn't let your guard down," Kōrino advises her friend, still holding her ice bow with an arrow in it ready to be fired, though it is pointed towards the ground.
"Come on, you can't expect for Kuro to survive from something like that," she says and turns to look up at Kōrino, since she is a lot shorter than her.
"Woof!"
"See? Even she agrees with me!" Kasai smugly replies to Kōnori, before she realizes that something's not right. "Wait a minute..." she trails off and both girls turn to look behind them, only to find the female wolf sitting on its hind legs, gazing at them silently.
"If she is here, then that means..." Kōrino trails off and looks at the dissipating pillar of fire to confirm her suspicion, and indeed as she suspected, there is nothing but charred ground at where the pillar once stood.
"Woof!" Kuro barks once more, her tail waggling from side to side. The girls immediately attack, Kasai throwing a hand axe and Kōrino launching an arrow, but the wolf merely disappears from view in a cloud of black smoke which quickly dissipates, causing both the hand axe and arrow to strike the ground.
"Where did she go!?" Kasai yells as she looks all around her for a sign of the black wolf, with Kōrino doing the exact same thing, keeping her guard up and her bow ready to fire another arrow. It's not the first time they she Kuro pull this trick, though they still can't get used to it.
Kuro materializes behind Kōrino at the level of her head and grabs her by the base of her long ponytail. Using her weight, she drags Kōrino with her to the ground, which causes the girl to yelp in surprise and release her grip on her bow and arrow on reflex, which clatter on the ground but despite being made of ice refuse to melt.
Hearing Kōrino's yelp, Kasai spins around and throws one of her hand axes with inhuman speed, but Kuro vanishes again, this time appearing in front of Kasai and headbutting her. Although Kasai only flinches in response to the hit, she does let of her weapons and clasps her hands over her forehead.
The wolf howls in response and three balls of ruby red energy appear over her, before getting launched at Kasai at point blank range.
"Oh come on, you can use Ether too!?" she shouts in disbelief as she ducks and rolls on her left on instinct and successfully avoids the balls of energy, summoning another pair of hand axes on her hands. By now, Kōrino has recovered and starts dumping high-speed arrows at Kuro's direction, who chooses to disappear once more and try to knock out Kōrino.
As Miho observes the close fight between the girls and her...pet? Familiar? Servant? Even Miho isn't sure what Kuro is, but as she keeps watching them, she feels a rather familiar signature slowly approaching her from behind and soon enough, Mannheim stops besides her, watching the fight too.
"I assume you are here for a reason, Mannheim," Miho says in a neutral tone, not turning to look at the scientist. Upon hearing the name, both the Rabbit team and her friends turn to look at her and Mannheim with worried expressions.
"Quite perceptive, Subject 23," he says with a smirk on his face. "Though I believe you have questions of your own to ask me, don't you?" he asks as he glances at the documents Miho is holding.
"What's the difference between my Serum and the second generation ones? And what does the "P.B.A.P: None" line means in the documents," Miho asks and waves the documents a little for added emphasis, but then adds one more thing.
"And is there any specific reason why you call me "Subject 23"?"
"Hmm?" Mannheim turns and gives her a confused expression for a second, before realizing why she is asking something like this. "Ah, I'm really sorry Miss Nishizumi, it's just force of habit. As for the rest, we can talk at the R&D labs; I believe you hadn't had any time to check them yet and I also need to show you something."
"I suppose it wouldn't hurt checking them out," she says then turns at Kasai and Kōrino. "Girls, that's enough training for now! You can go take a bath if you want, but if you feel like practicing more your powers, make sure to rest up a little first!" she shouts at them.
Both Kōrino and Kasai plop to the ground immediately, panting hard and dripping sweat from everywhere. Kuro teleports next to Miho and sits on the ground next to her, growling a little at Mannheim.
"It's OK, Kuro, he won't do anything bad," Miho says to the wolf, slightly patting her head.
"But Master, how can you trust him so easily? How do you know he isn't planning anything?" Kuro's voice echoes in Miho's mind. Thanks to her power increasing, Kuro and Miho are now able to speak to each other telepathically, without the need for Miho to be on her mindscape.
"Sometimes, you just have to place your trust in certain people and hope for the best. Plus, we made a deal, so I believe he will honor it," Miho says somewhat slowly, not fully trusting Mannheim to be their ally, even after beating him at his own game.
"I'll have you know that I always honor the end of my agreements, Miss Nishizumi," Mannheim says in a slightly miffed voice. "You can ask Miss Kadotani for that."
"That reminds me, did Anzu come to speak with you? She told me she wanted to ask you about her sister."
"Ah yes, she did come and-"
"Hey girls!" Odysseus' loud voice echoes from behind Miho and Mannheim, and both turn to see the blonde commander quickly approaching them, with Annabelle, Reiji and Tyler a few steps behind her.
"Did you finish exploring the base?" Miho asks Odysseus, as both Reiji and Tyler greet her, then go to greet the rest of the girls.
"Yep! It is a lot smaller than what I expected, though really large for the current number of people the base has," Odysseus says, then notices Kasai and Kōrino, who are still training with their powers. "Are the girls training?"
"They were fighting against Kuro for the past half hour," Miho points at Kuro, who has gone to play with the girls of Rabbit team. Right now, Saki is patting her head, though she barely notices Kuro is licking her left cheek, looking at the horizon to either a butterfly or thinking about things the brain of a normal human being cannot comprehend.
"Oh...Did they win?"
"It was a draw."
"I see," Odysseus responds, then develops an expression full of excitement.
"Hey, how about a duel between you and me?" she asks Miho excitedly.
"Huh? Why?" Miho asks Odysseus, completely baffled as to why she would ask something like that out of the blue.
"Well, I was having a conversation with Annabelle and the boys about our powers and how really deadly they can be on the battlefield, then it somehow shifted to which of us is more powerful and we ended up arguing about it, so I made a bet with Annabelle!"
"A bet?"
"Yes," Annabelle nods in response. "If Odysseus manages to win in a duel against you, I'll do whatever she wants for a day and vice-versa if she loses. I made the bet just for fun; didn't think she would actually go straight to you and ask you for a fight."
"Once again, I have completely surpassed your expectations!" Odysseus says with a smug face, puffing her chest proudly at Annabelle.
"Of course you have, cause I never expected for an idiot like you to survive the apocalypse," Annabelle deadpans and causes Odysseus to deflate like a balloon.
"Fuck you," Odysseus grumbles and turns away from the redhead.
"I love you too."
"But this is an excellent chance to gauge how powerful both of you are," Mannheim comments. "Especially after that power up you two got."
"This is too risky," Miho immediately tells him. "If you want to measure our power, you'll most likely want for us to go all out and if we do that we'll most likely destroy the whole area."
"I can always put a barrier around the training grounds to keep damage to a minimum."
"Then we can fight, right!?" Odysseus says in excitement once more.
"Aren't you a little too happy?" Annabelle asks Odysseus with a concerned expression.
"Why are you saying that, Annabelle?" Odysseus grins a little at her, a maddening glimpse filling her eyes.
"I wonder why, Odysseus. It's not like you are slowly descending into madness because of the prospect of fighting without holding back."
"Oh, you'll make me blush with such compliments!"
"I still don't think it is a good idea. What if one of us gets injured really bad?" Miho says in concern, still apprehensive about the idea of fighting Odysseus.
"Oh come on, don't be a party pooper like Annabelle," Odysseus whines a little, then grabs Miho by her left wrist and drags her to the training grounds. "Hey, girls, get out of the marked area! Me and Miho are going to spar!" she yells at Kōrino and Kasai, who look at them with surprised expressions but do move out of the marked area. Naturally, this attracts the attention of everyone that had been watching the previous spar, and they all look at Miho and Odysseus who make their way slowly at the center of the marked area. A barrier made of apple green energy gets erected around the training grounds, shining brightly once before becoming invisible.
"Miporin, what's going on?" Saori asks in alarm as she sees her stopping at the center of the marked area, Odysseus being about twenty meters away from her.
"They are going to fight," Reiji says casually.
"I bet twenty bucks that Miho is gonna wipe the floor with Odysseus," Tyler bets against his commander and Reiji smirks at him.
"Total?" he asks Tyler.
"Twenty thousand yen."
"Twenty thousand yen!?" Saori almost yells at Tyler. "Tyler, you shouldn't gamble your money! This could become a really bad habit, you know!" she reprimands her boyfriend, but Tyler just awaits for Reiji's response.
"Forty thousand and that she is going to defeat Odysseus at the first fifteen minutes," Reiji responds and raises his hand for a handshake.
"You too, Reiji!?" Saori gawks at him in disbelief.
"Deal," Tyler takes his hand and shakes it firmly.
"Hey, don't leave me out of this!" Annabelle shouts, popping out of nowhere next to Reiji. "How much is the bet?"
"Forty k," Reiji says and Annabelle immediately retrieves forty thousand yen from her pocket.
"I'm saying that Odysseus is going to win this one."
"Not you too..." Saori groans and shakes her head a little.
"What lively people, wouldn't you agree?" Hana says to Yukari with a smile while looking at Odysseus' teammates.
"I don't think betting money is something good though," Yukari answers back slowly.
"But they seem to have a good time, don't they?" Hana smiles at Yukari, noting how the members of the Antelope team are all laughing, probably at the expense of Odysseus.
"Maybe we should bet too. Then we can buy a lot of cakes and sweets with the extra money," Mako says with a serious expression, the prospect of one hundred and twenty thousand yen worth of cake being really tempting. In fact, it is so tempting that Mako starts drooling from the corners of her mouth, which she subconsciously wipes with her uniform's right sleeve.
Meanwhile the Rabbit team looks with interest at both Miho and Odysseus, who seem to be putting a few rules in place for their sparring match.
"The match will have a duration of thirty minutes and within this time limit we have to either knock our opponent out or force her to surrender. We are not allowed to exit the marked area or use our powers outside of it. And if one or both of us gets severely injured the match will be stopped," Miho lays down some rules so that things won't get out of hand, as unlikely as it might be. "and no lethal hits."
"I'm fine with the rules," Odysseus nods in response. "Should we only use our first forms or immediately use the second ones?"
"Since we are testing the limits of our powers, we should use our second forms; I just hope Mannheim's barrier will be able to withstand our hits," Miho says, then starts covering her whole body in ruby red energy.
"Nice!" Odysseus pumps her fist in the air for a moment, before lowering it besides her. Light blue energy starts covering her body slowly and she smirks at Miho.
"I hope you are ready to face a madman, Miho!" she grins at the brunette commander, making a gun with her hand and pointing her middle and index fingers at the right side of her head. "Cause this girl has gone off her rocker!" she laughs loudly as both of them start changing into their second forms. Odysseus' hands and chest start shining brightly, before elbow-length white metallic gauntlets cover her arms and a white metallic breastplate appears over her uniform, covering perfectly her chest. Her left and right eye change color to bright blue and bright magenta respectively, and her pupils become slit like a cat's. Her hair on the left side of her head change color to snowy white and a pair of blue energy wings form in her back, being at least two meters long.
Miho's transformation is somewhat similar as her arms get covered in elbow-length black metallic gauntlets and her chest in a black metallic breastplate. Her hair gradually change color from brown to black and blinking once her eyes change color to red, with her pupils becoming slit. A pair of wings made from some kind of a ruby red crystal form behind her back, floating a few centimeters away from her shoulder blades. Her expression slowly changes to a severe one, her eyes a tad cold and apathetic. Two daggers appear in her hands, but instead of their normal red energy construct, they are solid and made of a black metal. Several black spears start forming around her, ready to be launched at their master's will.
Odysseus just laughs, an expression of pure insanity covering her face. Materializing her scythe and twirling it a few times, she points it at Miho. "Are you ready to dance, little lamb?" she snickers loudly as her wings start splitting into individual tendrils, numbering eight in total.
"Bring it on," Miho declares, twirling her daggers and holding them in a reverse grip.
"Last chance to raise the bet, boy and girls!" Tyler says with a grin, seeing that a clash of epic proportions is about to happen.
"Raise it to fifty k!" Annabelle immediately says and fishes out yet another bill of ten thousand yen.
"Fine by me," Reiji says casually.
"Tyler, why are you betting even more money!?" Saori berates him, pinching his right cheek slightly. "Do you even have that much money? What if you need them later? And gambling is bad, you shouldn't do that-"
"Think of it this way, Saori," Tyler quickly says and puts a finger over her lips to stop her from talking. "If I do win the bet, I'll have enough extra money to buy you a piece of jewelry, like a necklace or a ring," he says and Saori falls silent as her cheeks slowly start burning.
"A-A...ring?" Saori whispers softly, cupping her cheeks and looking at the ground. "B-but I'm not ready for something like this. We are still too young...and what our parents would say..." Saori keeps mumbling more to herself than Tyler, who is giving her a funny look.
"You know, I'm not buying you a wedding ring if that's what you are thinking," he says, but his words fail to reach Saori, who has already departed for her own dreamland of sunshines and rainbows.
Suddenly snapping out of her own delirium, she turns her head to look at Miho so fast, that Tyler is afraid she might snap her neck.
"Wipe the floor with her, Miporin!" she yells at her commander, her eyes burning with fiery determination.
After a few long seconds that seem to last an eternity, both Odysseus and Miho shoot forward towards each other so fast, that the girls looking at them think they have teleported. Only Kōrino and Kasai are able to see their blurred figures for a split second, before they meet at the center of the training grounds.
Stopping in front of each other, Odysseus swings her scythe downwards diagonally from right to left in an effort to hit Miho at her left shoulder, but Miho sees this, takes a step forwards and raises her left dagger so that its blade hits the pole of Odysseus' scythe near its curved blade and block the strike. As the weapons collide, a powerful shockwave erupts and hits Mannheim's barrier, which pops into view, shining brightly with an apple green color.
While the barrier does stop the shockwave from throwing the girls everywhere, it does little to stop the extremely loud thunderclap that nearly deafens them.
"What was that!?" Yukari shouts in surprise, covering her ears in response.
"So much power from a single strike..." Hana gasps in awe, as several of the girls from Rabbit team have done.
"Not bad, not bad," Odysseus smirks at Miho, adding more and more pressure in her weapon in order to push Miho back.
"I could say the same to you," Miho responds, trying to withstand Odysseus' increasing pressure with only one hand. "but you seem to have forgotten I have a second weapon." Twirling her second dagger that sits on her right hand so that the blade is now facing forwards, Miho goes for a stabbing motion at Odysseus' left side, just below her kidney.
Odysseus sees this and parries the strike with the pole of her scythe, causing Miho's dagger to slightly nick her uniform. "Ah, look what you did to my uniform! Now I have to mend it!" Odysseus fakes a whine and with a grunt pushes Miho away, then lightly taps the pole of the scythe against the ground. A shockwave of concentrated Ether erupts at the impact point and throws Miho backwards, causing her to roll a few times on the ground, before using the momentum to stand back on her feet and grind to a halt. Dashing after her, Odysseus uses her tendrils to strike Miho on her chest and head to stun her.
Miho jumps in the air to avoid the tendrils, levels herself so that she is parallel to the ground and spins clockwise once, using her daggers to slice what is essentially Odysseus' wings to pieces. But that's fine with Odysseus, since she now has more then enough time to get close to Miho and beat the crap out of her. Reaching her the moment she lands, Odysseus swings her scythe's pole and hits Miho's legs, causing her to fall on her back. Twirling her scythe one final time, Odysseus brings its giant curved blade down to Miho like an executioner's axe with the intent of splitting her head in two. Miho uses her crystal wings to block the lethal strike just in time, the curved blade stopping millimeters away from her face.
"I thought...we agreed to not have...lethal hits," Miho groans as she tries to hold Odysseus' weapon with her wings from cleaving her head in half.
"But where's the fun in that!?" Odysseus snickers at Miho, putting more and more pressure at her weapon.
"Then don't blame me if you get hurt," Miho groans, then grins at her enemy.
"What are you planning?" Odysseus asks, her senses telling her to back off.
"Why don't you look in front of you?"
Without giving it a second thought, Odysseus dashes backwards as fast as she can and looks in front of her, spotting half a dozen black spears heading towards her at an alarming speed.
"You fucking bitch, I had completely forgotten about those things!" she yells in mild amusement. Having put enough distance between her and Miho, she creates a barrier out of her energy, as well as reforms her wings and uses them to cover herself. But the moment the spears touch her barrier, they explode into harmless smoke that obscures her field of vision.
"Of course you wouldn't go for the kill..." Odysseus says slowly as she flaps her energy wings to clear the smoke. Once it has dissipated enough to be able to see again she looks at Miho, who is looking back at her, now standing at the same spot where Odysseus had tripped her on the ground.
"[Overclock]," Miho mutters and as Odysseus can clearly she, her enemy vanishes onto thin air before her very eyes.
"Where did she-" Odysseus starts saying, before feeling the right side of her head getting bashed by Miho's airborne side kick, causing the blonde girl to get hurled sideways and painfully grind against the ground, her scythe flying a few meters away from her. Coming to a stop Odysseus painfully tries to stand up but Miho, who has dashed after her, simply kicks her on her ribs, so that Odysseus lands on her back, pins her down with her right foot and throws the daggers she has been holding with so much force, that they end up getting lodged in the ground that is next to Odysseus' head.
Odysseus grabs Miho's ankle and lets a minute amount of Ether to latch on her boot, before the energy starts slowly ascending the back side of Miho.
"You missed," she grins at Miho, slowly changing her wings to tendrils. Miho spots it and conjures two more daggers, this time made completely out of energy and throws them at Odysseus' wings.
"You think so?" Miho responds and snaps her right hand's fingers, causing the two black daggers that are next to Odysseus' head to start vibrating. "[Echo of Screams]."
A second later the air gets filled with a sound that can only be described as the shrill screams of terrified children, nearly deafening everyone who is watching the fight.
"What is this sound!?" Yukari yells in both surprise and pain, her ears ringing so loudly that she can barely hear her own voice. Mako is hiding behind her, crouching and trembling in fear, while both Hana and Saori look at the origin of this terrifying sound.
"Did Miho just do that?" Saori blurts out, looking at Miho who is still pinning Odysseus on the ground.
"Yep," Tyler responds immediately, trying his best to ignore the ringing in his ears. "and it seems to have been really effective," he points at Odysseus who has her hands tightly pressed over her ears and is cringing from the pain.
"I'd say that's a checkmate," Reiji says and looks at his watch on his left hand. "Only six minutes have passed."
"Which means you win...again," Tyler frowns slightly and reaches in his pocket to take fifty thousand yen and hand it to Reiji, but Annabelle stops him.
"Not yet," she says, pointing at Odysseus. "Look at her expression. You know this smirk well, don't you?"
"She's planning something, isn't she?" Reiji says slowly and Annabelle nods.
"But she has been cornered," Hana says. "Can she even get herself out of such a precarious position?"
"Odysseus can be pretty deceptive if she wants to. Create a false image that she has been beaten," Annabelle says to Hana. "And while Miho isn't stupid enough to lower her guard, will she be able to tell that Odysseus has already set her plan in motion?"
"What do you mean?" Yukari asks and Reiji points at Miho's back. A small circle that is composed of greek letters made of cyan energy spins clockwise, inside it spinning counterclockwise a gear that has a triangle in its center.
"Wait, what is that thing on Miho's back?" Saori asks as she squints her eyes to get a better look at the strange circle.
"A mark," Annabelle says with an amused smile.
"So that's the [Reaper's Mark] she has been talking about?" Tyler asks Annabelle.
"Probably," she says with a shrug, then points behind her at a tall hooded figure that hovers in the air. "You can always ask Scythe."
"Since when has it been there?" Tyler asks as he watches the tall Reaper raising its right bony arm to greet the boys and girls. While most of them have been somewhat gotten used to seeing this terrifying symbol of death, courtesy of Odysseus using it to prank almost everyone, it still creates some uneasiness to them, especially Mako who is now hiding behind Saori.
"Mako, it isn't going to hurt you, it is friendly," Saori groans and tries to remove Mako from her back.
"I-I-It sc-scares me," Mako stutters while peeking at Scythe from Saori's right side.
Seeing this, the Reaper slowly hovers over to Saori, its two wisps of red light that act as eyes gazing intently at Mako.
Needless to say, Mako has now frozen in time from her fear.
"She is backed in a corner, yet she has time to mess with everyone," Reiji sighs as she spots Odysseus looking at them with a toothy grin.
"Why are you grinning?" Miho asks Odysseus, slightly perplexed at her Cheshire cat grin.
"Many reasons," Odysseus answers, the gleam in her eyes suggesting that she is planning something. Miho snaps her fingers and the black daggers start vibrating once more.
"Do you surrender?" Miho asks as she summons three black kunai knives, holding them between her right hand's fingers, all of them crackling with electricity. "Or should I make you?"
"Surrender? Pffft...ahahahaha!" Odysseus laughs loudly. "You must be joking! Things are far from over Miho!" Odysseus' pierced wings start glowing dimly, getting brighter and brighter as if they are charging. "Let's see how it is to be the hunted, little wolf!"
Before Miho can react, Odysseus' wings break into tendrils and shatter the vibrating blades, their pieces flying everywhere. Unable to activate her [Echo of Screams] as the skill requires a vessel, such as an enchanted dagger, Miho jumps away and avoids a few of the tendrils that swing at her while throwing the black kunai knives all around Odysseus.
"[Reaper's Mark]," Odysseus grins like a psychopath at Miho as the kunai knives crackle with red electricity briefly. Three pillars of red energy shoot in the air from the ground, completely engulfing Odysseus' figure.
"This should be a KO," Miho mutters as she looks at the three pillars, spawning several energy spears around her just in case Odysseus has somehow survived this devastating attack. Though as she watches the pillars slowly getting smaller and smaller, she notices that Odysseus is nowhere to be found. Feeling that something is not right, she immediately turns around and raises her daggers just in time to block yet another strike from Odysseus that is aimed at her neck.
"Don't even think about launching those spears or I'll turn you into Swiss cheese," Odysseus threatens Miho, her tendrils hovering over her shoulders ready to strike.
Finding themselves into a stalemate, both girls glare at each other, weapons ready to strike at the slightest hint of movement. It's truly like a mexican standoff, where the first one to draw wins, though instead of guns there are swords and magic.
"Soooo...what do we do now?" Odysseus says with her usual slasher smile, eyeing each and every energy spear that floats around Miho.
"We can always call it a draw," Miho suggests calmly, eyeing Odysseus' tendrils that sway left and right as if in water, though they remind her of snakes ready to strike. Her spears start solidifying, the red, translucent energy transforming into black metal starting from the middle and slowly expanding towards the edges.
"Nah, that would be too boring."
"Then what shall we do?"
"How about giving ourselves some breathing space first and then try to strike each other again?"
"So you can teleport behind me and attack me?"
"Oooooh, you are a smart one!"
"Please stop mocking me, it has no effect whatsoever."
Having finished enchanting her spears, Miho turns some of them to face the ground, an intricate pattern of red waves, like the ones you see when representing sound waves, adorning their surface. Odysseus sees this, yet she refrains from taking any action, growing curious about what Miho is planning.
"I guess you have a plan in mind?" she asks with a sly smile, pointing with her left hand at the spears.
"How perceptive of you," Miho mocks Odysseus the same way she did, but Odysseus just keeps grinning.
"Oh my, that's not proper conduct for a Nishizumi! What would your sister say about this if she was here?" Odysseus pops a really nasty smirk towards Miho that everyone can see. "Miss I'm-insecure-and-run-away-from-my-problems."
Miho gives a loud sigh in response to the insult and looks Odysseus straight in the eyes. "If you'd called me this two years ago I would've agreed with you, but not anymore." Feeling that they have chatted enough for now, Miho taps her foot once and the black spears that face the ground get lodged in it and start vibrating. Odysseus whips her tendrils at Miho, but she blocks them with her wings, chips of red crystal flying everywhere.
Odysseus dashes a meter back, draws her scythe back and swings it again at Miho who blocks the strike with her daggers.
"[Resonance]!" Miho bellows and the vibrating spears start pulsing with red energy, creating a low rumbling sound. A few seconds later, everything in a two hundred meters radius start vibrating violently, like there is an earthquake. The weird thing is that the ground doesn't develop any cracks or fissures despite the shaking, which strikes the spectators as weird and even somewhat nauseating as even the air is vibrating, creating a turbulent image for everyone to watch.
"Aaarrgghhhh!" Odysseus drops her scythe and grabs her head with both hands. "I feel like my damn brain is becoming jelly!" she cries out. Falling to her knees, she tries her best to fight this agonizing pain that is so strong, Odysseus is seriously contemplating to just start bashing it on the ground. On the other hand Miho looks unaffected by the vibrations, slowly walking to Odysseus. Reaching her, she raises her right hand over her shoulder and forms a fist. Thrusting it forwards to punch Odysseus in the face, a blue tendril shoots out of the ground next to Miho and wraps itself around her right wrist, followed by seven more tendrils that mimic the first one and wrap themselves around various body parts, restraining her on the spot.
"Eh?!" Miho gasps in surprise, not expecting Odysseus to be able to still fight.
"You didn't think I was done for, did you?" Odysseus forces a sly grin over her painful grimace. Her tendrils that protrude from her back have lodged themselves on the ground behind her, having dug through the earth until they were under Miho. Rising to her feet, albeit with great difficulty, and still grasping one side of her head tightly with her left hand, she uses her tendrils to smash Miho against the vibrating spears, thus ending [Resonance] and allowing her to stop shaking like a damn shaker. Feeling a lot better and being able to think more clearly now, Odysseus throws Miho at the edge of Mannheim's barrier with enough force that the barrier not only lits up in a bright apple green color but also develops some cracks, that are quickly repaired.
Miho tries to use the remainder of her black spears to recast [Resonance], but Odysseus breaks them apart using her tendrils.
"Ouch," Miho groans slightly in pain, feeling like she was just hit by a train and was thrown into a wall by it. Though it is nowhere near as painful or brutal as Mannheim's punch that literally crushed some of her internal organs.
Shuddering subconsciously at that grim reminder, Miho stands up and dusts herself of any dirt that might have gotten stuck at her uniform. She feels her legs a little wobbly, but the feeling disappears fairly quickly.
"Well then, since you showed us one of your new tricks, let me show you one of mine," Odysseus says mischievously.
"[Split Personality]."
Blue Ether starts gatheting next to Odysseus, starting from a tiny orb the size of a ping-pong ball all the way to the size of a basketball ball. Miho simply conjures some black kunai knives that have a red chain tattooed on their surface, snaking around it. Having made four of them, she throws them a few meters in front of her and then she conjures two energy daggers.
"Oooohhh, are you planning a trap?" Odysseus says as the orb of energy stops growing. Taking the form of a figure, the energy starts solidifying until a a certain someone appears.
"Woah, this is so weird."
"I know right? This is gonna mess our memories so much."
"What..." Miho can only look with eyes widen in surprise as she can see an exact copy of Odysseus sitting next to her. Rubbing her eyes to make sure she isn't just imagining things, she keeps scanning the clone, trying to understand what's going on. The rest of the girls have a look of confusion and surprise etched on their faces too, having seen Odysseus basically cloning herself.
"My God, Odysseus is multiplying! Someone call the military quickly!" Tyler fakes a terrified voice, raising his hands next to his head and shaking them left and right.
"Quickly Reiji, grab some gasoline! We need to kill it with fire!" Annabelle laughs out loudly and Reiji joins the chorus as he starts chuckling.
"You guys, why would you make fun of your own commander?" Saori berates the trio, though she mostly addresses the question to Tyler. Even the rest of the Anglerfish team are giving them weird looks.
"You obviously haven't spent a lot of time around us," Annabelle answers Saori. "You should see the insults we throw at each other, especially the ones Odysseus says. Mocking each other is one way for us to have fun and kill some time."
Now that's something the girls can't wrap their heads around. How is insulting someone "fun"?
Back on the battlegrounds, Odysseus is chatting with her clone, while Miho is making more of the black kunai knives with the chain tattoo and throwing them all around the battlefield.
"This is so weird. If I am you, how can I be a separate entity?" the clone asks, quite interested in knowing how the hell she is the same Odysseus as the original, yet at the same time, a different one.
"Hell if I know!" Odysseus throws her hands up in the air, this being the fifth time the clone asks her the same thing. "Look, just think of it as being one of our three personalities taking temporary control of the copy, OK? If you want to learn more about it, just ask Mannheim about it, I'm sure he has a bullshit theory about it," she points at Mannheim who is looking at her with a lot of curiosity." Can we please get on with the battle now? Miho is filling the area with kunai knives that I have no idea what they do and it might be a problem for us if she keeps doing that."
"Ok," the clone responds and follows up with a question. "Why did you "summon" me?"
"To fight her," Odysseus points at Miho.
"I see," the clone says and looks at Miho. "I'm not interested. Good luck with it."
"Huh!?" Odysseus yells at the clone who is slowly walking away. "The fuck you mean you aren't interested!? I brought you here to do a job, not to go and hang out with Annabelle!"
"Well, too bad for you! Adios amigos!" the clone shouts back and waves her hand. Most of the spectators just have a look of disbelief at this spectacle, having no idea what's going on anymore.
Odysseus just glares at the clone, though her expression slowly transforms into a mischievous grin. The clone slowly comes to a halt and turns to look at her, an expression of pure terror covering her beautiful face.
Y-Y-You...you wouldn't dare..." the clone whispers in a quivering voice, raising a shaking hand and pointing at Odysseus. "You would never..."
"Oh but I would!" Odysseus says smugly, a dark aura materializing around her.
"Y-You fiend, do you not know the sacrifices we had to make to acquire them!?"
"Exactly! So unless you want for our little collection to become nothing more than a pile of ashes, I suggest you start behaving yourself."
Having no other choice, the clone starts walking towards Miho, summoning her scythe and giving it a few swings.
"I'm really sorry Miho, but I have no other choice," the clone says with a sad voice. The air around her starts pulsing and blue energy starts covering her entire body. Crouching slightly, her eyes lock on Miho. "But I have to protect my magazine collection at all costs!" she roars with fiery determination, like the fate of the whole world rests upon her shoulders. Odysseus just smirks victoriously as her wings start glowing.
"Then show me your worth!" Miho calls, taking a defensive stance, holding her daggers in a reverse grip.
The clone shoots forward like a bullet, reaching Miho in under a second. Swinging her scythe horizontally, she finds herself losing all of her momentum, thus causing the curved blade to scratch Miho's breastplate. Faceplanting on the ground, the clone quickly looks behind her back and finds a red chain that connects to the ground wrapped around her left leg. "So that's what that weird kunai knives were," she mutters as she turns to lie on her back and raises her scythe to block a strike from Miho. Odysseus teleports behind her, so Miho spins around to parry a vertical strike and counterattack, giving the clone a chance to break the chain with her tendrils and ambush Miho, who blocks her strikes with her crystal wings.
"I have to ask, but what did the clone mean she has to protect her magazine collection?" Saori asks curiously, looking at Miho, Odysseus and her clone trading blows, alternating into attacking and defending.
"Ah yes, her famous magazine collection. As she said, she did have to make a lot of sacrifices to acquire them, especially those limited editions," Tyler snickers. "Wouldn't you agree Reiji?"
"Absolutely. Such national treasures, it would be wrong not to safeguard them with your own life," Reiji starts snickering too.
"Uhm, excuse me for intruding in your conversation but...what are these magazines that are so valuable to her?" Hana asks with a curious tone. Yukari, and even Mako (since Scythe has gone to sit next to Kuro, she can move again) turn to hear on what the Antelope team will answer.
"They are basically porn magazines," Annabelle answers bluntly and an eerie silence rises, only the sound of clashing weapons filling the air. Hana covers her mouth slightly as her cheeks start blushing slightly, while Yukari and Mako look away in slight disgust. Saori's head has instantly become as red as hot iron.
"W-W-W-W-What!?" Saori stutters hard. "Th-They are this k-kind of magazines!?"
"Yep. Just for future reference, Odysseus might as well be the biggest pervert in the whole base right now," Annabelle informs the girls with a neutral face, like what she's saying is nothing out of the ordinary. "Plus her libido seems to be endless," she says with a hint of bitterness, remembering how much toilet paper her restless roommate has been wasting lately.
"Your commander is...quite the 'unique' individual," Hana comments with an awkward smile.
"Hey girls!" a voice calls from behind them and they all turn to find Yuki along with the most of the Ooarai teams, only the Duck Team and Turtle Team missing.
"Hey Yuki!" Saori is the first one to greet her and the others follow suit, greeting the rest of the girls too.
"Uhm, where is the Turtle Team and the Duck Team?" Yukari asks, noticing they are missing.
"The girls from Duck Team are playing volleyball at the courtyard, screaming "guts!" every second spike and Miss Anzu said she wanted some time alone. Miss Yuzu and Miss Momo stayed behind with her," Yuki answers then notices the three figures fighting in the marked area. "So that's why I was picking such strong signatures from this direction. Is Miho fighting someone?"
"She is having a sparring match with Odysseus," Mako says in her usual sleepy voice.
"With that idiot? I guess the match will be over in no time."
"They have been fighting for ten minutes now."
"Oh..."
"Hey you three, it's against the rules to be fighting!", Sodoko shouts at the three figures fighting, walking towards the marked area.
"Sodoko, you'll fall on the barrier," Mako warns her.
"My name is not Sodoko, is Sono Midoriko, Reizei!" Sodoko grumbles. "And about what barrier are you talki-Ouch!" she cries out as she collides with Mannheim's barrier face first.
"Sodoko are you okay!?" both Pazomi and Gomoyo cry out and run to their leader to see if and how badly she's hurt.
Meanwhile, the battle between Miho and Odysseus has been steadily becoming more and more brutal, with both sides performing more and more risky strikes.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaagh!" Odysseus roars as she swings her scythe vertically. Miho parries the strike, diverting it with her dagger to the left and the scythe's blade gets lodged in the ground with enough force to form cracks around the impact point. Miho thrusts her right dagger forward to strike Odysseus square on her chest, but Odysseus barely manages to sidestep the thrust, the dagger's blade scraping against her breastplate.
"That was close!" she remarks as she pulls her scythe out of the ground and uses it to block another strike from Miho. The clone appears a few meters behind Miho and jumps into the air, her scythe raised behind her right shoulder, ready to swing it. Several red chains shoot out of the ground and wrap around her waist and arms, immobilizing her immediately and causing her to fall to the ground. Seeing that one enemy is down for now, Miho uses her wings as a makeshift weapon and hits Odysseus square in the gut, forcing the air out of her lungs. As Odysseus falls to her knees and starts gasping for air, Miho materializes four black spears and throws them in front of Odysseus, all of them getting lodged in the ground. A second later a huge explosion rocks the battlefield that throws a smoking Odysseus backwards to messily roll into a stop. Miho turns around to knock out the clone, who is still struggling to break free from her bondage. Since the chains have wrapped around her tendrils too, she cannot use them to break free, and as much force as she may exert, the chains simply refuse to budge.
"Guess this is the end, huh?" the clone smiles sheepishly at Miho. "Well, it was a nice fight." Her expression instantly flips to one of madness though, which is enough to alarm Miho. "Too bad you lost it."
Right in front of Miho, the clone transforms into a ball of energy that shoots up into the sky, and upon reaching a height of one hundred meters, stops. Dark clouds start forming all around it, slowly rotating counterclockwise. Miho can feel energy amassing at the center of the rotating clouds, but other than that, she has no idea what is about to happen. Turning around, she finds Odysseus standing about fifty meters away from her. Her uniform is in tatters and the front of her body is covered mostly in black soot and bleeding lightly from grazes in her hands and cheeks.
"I have to admit, you almost got me with that explosion!" she shouts at Miho. Raising her right hand over her head, she tightly clenches her hand and forms a fist. Immediately the clouds over Miho start spinning faster and faster and a weird blue light starts glowing through the center of rotation. "But this is as far as you go!"
Miho can feel the energy above her growing exponentially. Whatever Odysseus is planning, is going to be really draining for her. So, if she can survive or evade the hit, she will be the victor in this battle.
"[Destruction Catalyst]!" Odysseus roars and whips her arm downwards.
"[Overclock]!" Miho shouts and immediately dives to her right. Everything comes to a halt for her thanks to this strange skill of hers that lets her move and perceive everything around her several times faster than normal. Even then, she barely avoids a pillar of blue energy that descends from the formed clouds and strikes the place where she was standing mere moments ago. After a few seconds (in Miho's time) the energy pillar becomes smaller gradually, then completely dissappears, leaving behind only a circle of blue colored ground. Seeing as the attack has missed her, Miho is about to deactivate [Overclock], since prolonged use of it can lead to some bizarre side-effects, such as screwing with her perception of time. But as she does that and time slowly returns to normal, she hears a buzzing sound, like a motor that's revving up. Looking at her left, she finds the blue circle glowing brightly.
Widening her eyes in revelation, Miho uses her crystal wings to cover herself. As time finally returns to normal, a huge explosion erupts next to her, the fireball of it completely engulfing her. Chunks of ground, dirt and dust fly everywhere, going as far as to strike against Mannheim's barrier. The shockwave from the explosion lits up the barrier like a Christmas tree, even cracking it at certain points. As the smoke clears, everyone can clearly see Miho lying on the ground next to a small crater. Like Odysseus, her clothes are in tatters, but since her breastplate and gauntlets are black, the soot on them is barely noticeable. Her crystal wings have completely shattered and she is lightly bleeding from her legs, since the wings couldn't cover lower than the upper parts of her thighs. Coughing violently a few times, she uses as much strength as she has on her hands and slowly rises from the ground. Sitting up on it, she takes a few breaths and lets her body heal some of her injuries, before attempting to stand up. Odysseus on the other hand in on her knees, panting hard and sweating profusely. Albeit really destructive, this attack has used most of her energy and this is reflected by her wings that seem to be flickering in and out of existence.
Capitalizing on the fact that her enemy is currently powerless, Miho raises her right arm so that her open palm faces Odysseus and then closes it, causing several black chains to shoot out of the ground around the blonde girl and restrain her.
Odysseus doesn't even have the strength to resist, so she patiently waits to see what Miho will do. Miho, seeing that there is no immediate threat, slowly materializes eight black spears that crackle with red electricity. The spears slowly rise behind her and form a circle, before starting to rotate clockwise, until they form a blurry image of a cylinder. In the center of it an orb of red Ether energy starts forming, with red lightnings jumping out of it and striking either the rotating spears or the ground below it.
"I'll ask you one final time," Miho pants slightly, her voice showing the exhaustion and fatigue she has accumulated during the fight. "Do you surrender?"
"Pfft, why would I do that?" Odysseus says haughtily, despite her current situation. "You'll have to make me surrender!"
"Then I'll do just that."
The blurry cylinder's diameter starts growing and so does the orb contained within it. The lightnings that strike the ground are much bigger now and even scorch it somewhat. Miho is definitely looking to end the match with this attack.
"Come on Miho, is that all the power you can muster? Pathetic! What would your sister think if she could see how weak and frail you are, huh!?" Odysseus taunts Miho, who is showing no signs of biting the bait.
"Does she have a death wish?" Tyler asks in a nonchalant attitude.
"I think she might have a plan," Annabelle says and points at Miho. "[Reaper's Mark] should still be in effect, so I think she is intentionally taunting Miho to make her attack with as much power as she can muster."
"But why do something like that?" Yukari questions Annabelle's idea. "She is clearly in a disadvantageous position and it's not like Miss Nishizumi would be taunted that easily."
"This were you are wrong, Miss Akiyama," Mannheim of all people says, speaking for the first time since the match started and everyone turns to look at him.
"Wrong?" Yukari asks quite puzzled.
"Why would you say something like that?" Yuki questions the scientist with curiosity.
"What you fail to understand about the powers your friends wield, is that they change their personalities."
"Change their personalities!?" Saori gasps in alarm. "Is Miporin someone else now!?"
"No, she is still the same person you knew before," Mannheim answers quickly. "It's just that her behavior has changed. For example, their commander," he points at Annabelle and the rest of the Antelope Team, "has become even more unstable mentally, as she clearly shows signs of insanity." He pauses for a second as he starts contemplating hard on something. "Though now that I think about it, she seems to have several personalities, so she could be a special case. Anyway, your commander," he now points at Saori, "becomes a lot more aggressive and apathetic towards everything."
"That's..." Yukari immediately wants to deny the fact that a sweet and kind person like Miho could behave like that, but then remembers the day when they stormed that underground lab near Tokyo. After Miho had successfully stopped one of Odin's munitions by literally punching it out of the air and got thrown backwards, Yukari had run to help her stand up, but when Miho said to her she was fine, the tone of her voice was that of slight annoyance.
Then again she might be overthinking the whole situation and Miho is the same gentle and kind girl when using her powers as when she isn't using them.
"But don't fret too much about it. Given enough time and practice she can negate the effects of this behavioral change. Of course, if her power increases more she'll need more practice and time to adjust," Mannheim reassures the girls who all have concerned expressions.
Despite not trusting him fully, the girls do relax somewhat. He is the one that made the Serums, so he must know something more than them, right?
"So, since you are the creator of the Serums and have the power of one of these god-like beings you call 'Ether Lords', who do you think will win the fight?" Yuki asks Mannheim, curious about his opinion.
"Hmm...that's a rather difficult question to answer," Mannheim answers, making a thoughtful expression.
"How so?"
"Because in terms of raw power and destructiveness, the blonde girl far outclasses Subject 23. On the other hand, though, Miss Nishizumi far surpasses her in strength and Ether capacity. So in a short battle, Miss...uhm...Odysseus has the advantage, but in a prolonged battle, Miss Nishizumi has the advantage."
"What about this battle?" Annabelle asks.
"As things stand, Miss Nishizumi will be the victor. Unless of course Miss Odysseus has another underhanded trick up her sleeve." Despite what Mannheim has said just now, he feels quite unsure as to how the battle will end. Since he can sense Ether signatures, he can say with certainty that the girls have been holding back quite a lot. Miho's signature, for example, is weaker than the time he fought her and she was holding back even then. So, what would happen if they truly went all-out?
"I believe she does have one more skill she has been practicing lately," Annabelle says and turns to look at her commander. "And she is about to use it."
"I hope you are ready, cause this is going to hurt," Miho warns as she raises her right hand so that it faces Odysseus.
"Oh don't worry Miho, I'm sure it will hurt..." Odysseus closes her eyes and smiles coldly.
"[Railgun]," Miho says and the orb of energy gets fired.
"...both of us. [Connect]," Odysseus whispers at the same time as Miho fires her attack and a fine thread of light blue energy shoots out of the base of her neck and flies to the mark that still glows on Miho's back.
Miho can feel a jolt of electricity running through her spine as the thread touches the energy circle, causing the revolving gear to lock in place and the triangle inside it to disappear, followed by the mark that starts fading.
"Wha-?" Miho starts saying, but when her attack finally hits, her whole body explodes with unimaginable pain so great that she can't even scream. Collapsing on the ground, she can only twitch and gasp for air, trying her hardest to keep herself from fainting.
Odysseus is now a few more meters away from Miho, courtesy of the huge explosion the orb has caused upon collision with her body. Her breastplate as well as her left gauntlet have completely shattered and her uniform has even been singed in certain places.
"Aw fuck, that hurt a lot more then I expected," she groans as she rolls on her belly and tries to stand up. Her whole body aches and throbs, but thanks to her training in the Reaper Program she had received she can push through this much. It certainly isn't as painful as getting showered with thousand pieces of hot shrapnel that cut through you like a hot knife through butter. Finally standing up on her shaking legs, she takes a few deep breaths and waits for her power to heal her body a little before doing anything else. She can feel a lot of concerned and worried gazes falling upon her, but she has no time to think about it as she can see Miho already standing up from the ground. She's honestly impressed Miho can even remain conscious when she has felt the pain she felt twofold.
"What was...that [Connect] skill...you used?" Miho asks, still panting and even sweating slightly from the pain she's currently feeling.
"It lets me connect with a marked target and make them feel the pain I feel two times stronger," Odysseus answers. A blue aura starts covering her body, blue energy swirling around her right gauntlet. "I think it's time to end this." For the first time in the whole fight, Odysseus makes a serious expression, though her eyes still remain like that of a lunatic. "Wouldn't you agree?"
Miho says nothing in response, but a red aura starts covering her own body, red energy swirling on her left gauntlet. Her expression remains the same as it was at the start, but her eyes now burn with determination.
"It seems the fight is about to end," Tyler says, noticing the visible auras that cover the girls. "Hey, Reiji, how much time has passed?"
"Fifteen minutes and forty-two seconds," Reiji looks at his watch and answers. He then retrieves fifty thousand yen from one of his pockets and hands it to Tyler. "Seems like I have lost. Now it's between you and Annabelle."
"Whether Odysseus wins or loses, I'll get something out of it, so I don't care that much," Annabelle says, then notices that Yuki, who is standing in front of her, is trembling. "Kid, are you cold?"
This naturally draws the attention of the girls and Saori scoots next to her to see what's wrong.
"Yuki, are you okay?" she asks, seeing that the girl is visibly trembling and her face is somewhat pale.
"Their s-s-signatures...the p-power they are emitting...can't you feel it?" she whispers in a terrified voice. She's so scared in fact that she subconsciously summons her black sword, which greatly alarms the girls.
"Yuki, what are you doing!?" Saori gasps in surprise.
"You can't feel it because you don't have powers like her, but your two friends over there have the signature of an Ether Lord if you add them together," Mannheim speaks up.
"Wait what!? That's crazy!" Yukari shouts loud enough for the nearby people, such as the girls from the rest of the Ooarai teams to hear her. Kasai and Kōrino have already retreated back to the dormitory, having sensed the immense amount of Ether that Miho and Odysseus have gathered. Even Kuro and Scythe are nowhere to be found, having decided that a tactical retreat is the best choice.
"Then what will happen if they clash?" Hana urgently asks Mannheim, having a really bad feeling.
"What happened at Tokyo on a smaller scale," Mannheim answers, then raises his right hand. "But that's why I'm here. To make sure that they don't blow everything to oblivion...yet." The once invisible barrier reveals itself glowing in an apple green color. Four more barriers are erected around the training grounds, as wells as individual barriers surround the groups of people, just in case.
"Miss Saori, what's going on!?" Azusa asks in worry, seeing that she and her team have been suddenly encased inside an apple green dome.
"Don't worry Azusa, this is just to be safe!" Saori answers immediately to make sure none of the girls from the Rabbit Team start panicking.
*Boom*
Hearing a sound that can only be described as something breaking the sound barrier, Saori turns just in time to see Miho's and Odysseus' punches connect with each other. A brilliant flash blinds everyone moments before a massive shockwave instantly shatters all four of Mannheim's barriers and even cracks the individual ones, but thankfully doesn't destroy them, or the girls might have gone for a short flight through the air.
Huge fissures form in the ground, some having the width of a small truck. Columns of red and blue Ether energy erupt all around Miho and Odysseus, their height easily reaching several hundred meters. The ground starts shaking violently and violent winds pick up, reaching speeds of at least a hundred kilometers per hour.
"It's like the end of the world is happening!" Tyler yells over the winds, hugging Saori and trying to keep her from falling.
"You don't say, Captain Obvious!" Annabelle shouts back at him.
As the shaking and the winds die down, the columns of Ether disappear. A huge cloud of dust looms over the training grounds and the surrounding area, blocking vision of Miho and Odysseus.
"Wow, so much dust," Yukari comments. "You can't see more than a meter away. It's practically like there was a sandstorm in the area."
"At least the barrier keeps the dust out," Saori sighs in relief, being quite comfortable sitting in Tyler's embrace.
"The cloud is dissipating," Mako says as she notices the cloud rolling away and soon enough, the full extent of the damage caused is revealed.
A huge crater has replaced the training grounds, with two figures in it, one standing and one lying.
"Odysseus, are you alright?" Miho asks Odysseus as she stands next to her. Her powers have been deactivated as whatever little energy she had was used to heal all of the wounds her body had.
"Better then ever," Odysseus answers as she looks up to Miho from the ground. Like her, Odysseus' power have deactivated, having spent the last scraps of her energy to heal her body. "I admit defeat," she says and starts clapping. "Congratulations Miho, you have won the duel."
"Thanks," Miho says tiredly as she helps Odysseus up, albeit with some difficulty.
"You sound a bit tired," Odysseus pops a tired grin.
"It was a rather exhausting duel, even if we held back for most of it," Miho sighs tiredly.
"You could tell I was holding back?" Odysseus asks in surprise. "And sorry for the things I said to you in the battle. I didn't mean any of them, I was just trying to provoke you...ehehehe," Odysseus laughs sheepishly, rubbing the back of her neck with her right hand.
"Don't worry, I knew you didn't mean any of them," Miho smiles at her, then looks all around her and sighs. "So much for keeping the damages to a minimum."
"Commander!" Miho hears multiple voices and instantly gets surrounded from Azusa and her friends.
"Are you okay, Commander?" Aya asks quickly as she adjusts her glasses, whose left lens is broken.
"I'm fine Aya, don't worry," Miho answers the blonde girl.
"Are you sure you don't require any first aid?" Azusa asks in concern.
"Yes, Azusa. I just need a little bit of rest and I'll be fine," Miho answers with a tired smile.
"Commander, what you did was awesome!" Karina says excitedly and raises both of her hands in the air. "It was like it came straight out of an anime!"
"Miporin!" Saori shouts as she, Hana, Mako, Yukari and Yuki quickly approach her, jumping over some of the small fissures that adorn the inside of the crater. "Are you okay? Did you got hurt anywhere? And look at your uniform, it has cuts and tears everywhere!"
"I'm okay Saori, you don't need to worry."
"Miss Nishizumi, your fighting was so cool!" Yukari squeals in delight, her eyes sparkling with amazement. "First the flying spears, then the thing where you teleported behind Odysseus and then this bright flash!"
"How was my fighting?" Odysseus asks her, interested in her opinion.
"Fine, I guess," Yukari answers, barely putting any effort to show any interest.
"I shot fucking lasers from the sky and pulled off actual teleportation, and your answer is just 'fine'!?" Odysseus says in disbelief. "I was way better than Miho, not to mention-" she abruptly stops speaking when she feels a hand squeezing her left shoulder. Her face instantly drains of any blood it has and she starts sweating profusely. "Oh shit," she murmurs then puts on her best smile, which comes out as a really awkward one, and slowly turns her head to the left.
"Hey Annabelle, long time no see," she says in her most cheerful voice. "What a great day today is, wouldn't you agree?"
"Indeed it is Odysseus," Annabelle responds with a bright smile of her own. "I believe we had placed a bet and you lost, no?"
"Well, you see...uhm...about the bet, I didn't mean it seriously, it was all just a joke...ehehehe," Odysseus tries to pass off the bet as a joke, but trying to fool Annabelle is like trying to turn lead into gold.
"There is no escape, Elpida~," Annabelle says in a rather sweet voice and squeezes her shoulder, causing her to squeal in fear. "I have a rather nice costume for you." She might as well have said she was putting her before a firing squad with the face of hopeless despair Odysseus makes at this.
"Now suffer the consequences of your choices."
"No, Annabelle, anything but that!" Odysseus screams as she literally gets dragged back to the dormitory to be subjected into what can only be described as cruel and inhumane torture.
At least that's her opinion.
"Reiji, Tyler, please help me!" she desperately calls out to her last lifeline...
"Sorry, I have a job to do."
"Your screams of despair are music to my ears."
...only for her hopes and dreams to crumble before her eyes.
While Odysseus is getting dragged towards her doom, the girls from Hippo Team and Anteater Team stand at the edge of the huge, but surprisingly shallow, crater inspecting the damage that has been done.
"This...is unbelievable," Erwin says slowly, trying to find words to describe the destruction in front of her. "So much power and destruction... This is what the Allies must have felt when they first discovered the existence of the Tiger tank."
"Or the enemy troops upon facing the might of the Roman legions," Caesar suggests.
"Or the Japanese people when the first atomic bomb fell in Hiroshima," Saemonza proposes and everyone nods in response, still in awe over the destruction Miho's power has created.
"This was so cool, just like in the games we have played!" Momoga says in excitement.
"The fight was like those boss levels you find in RPG games," Nekota says as she looks at the fissures the crater has.
"The ones with a fantasy setting, right?" Piyotan asks and Nekota nods.
A bit further from the girls stands Mannheim with his hands inside the pockets of his lab coat, gazing at Miho with a serious expression. The moment Odysseus and Miho clashed and produced this blinding flash, he spotted something very alarming; each girl had a halo of their respective energy over their heads. Even if it was for only a moment, it means that their forms can be further evolved, grant them more power. But if their current power potential is close to that of an Ether Lord's, a god-like being that holds unimaginable power...then what would these girl become if they surpassed them? Could they become actual goddesses and achieve true immortality and the power to alter reality as they see fit? If what he thinks is true, then they might be able to bring back his family, however impossible it might sound. Shaking his head slightly in disbelief, he starts heading back to the base's lab. Even if they can change reality, they cannot bring the dead back to life. Not even the Ether Lords could do it, at least the one that tried to save his family.
But he is getting sidetracked. First things first, he needs to analyze the recorded data from the fight and see if it can help anywhere with his research. And of course, make a cup of coffee to drink.
A/N: I hope you liked this chapter as much as i liked writing it. Really wanted to pit my OC against Miho and see who would be the winner. Anyway, next chapter will be answering a lot of questions this one may have created, may give some insight on Anzu's thoughts after learning what really happened to her sister as well as try to not take a whole month writing it. But no promises. Anyway, as always, suggestions, questions, corrections, reviews or PMs are greatly appreciated. Also, English isn't my native tongue, so expect some grammatical errors here and there. If you found the story interesting and had a great time, favorite and follow. Have a nice day/night and until the next chapter, stay safe!