"Showtime."
The grey-haired boy said as he walked closer to Alph, suddenly leaping into the air, his body twisting to his left, and launching his right leg towards Alph's face. Seeing him about to strike, Alph quickly fought back and launched her right fist forward, colliding with the sole of his boot as it struck her fist, sending a shockwave throughout the roof. Alph winced as she lept back, the boy running after her. Expecting another kick, Alph quickly guarded her upper body with her arms. Instead, the boy aimed for her legs and began executing a series of low-powered kicks towards them, every single one of them hitting their mark and throwing the familiar off balance. Using that split-second of vulnerability, the by leapt into the air and dealt a fierce blow to Alph's exposed stomach, sending her hurtling towards another rooftop. Alph groaned in pain before growling in frustration as she stood up again.
"Come on. Your friends are out there taking down Nevermores like they're nothing and you can't show me a good time?" The boy smirked.
"So you DO know what those things are." Alph spat, tasting coppery blood on her tongue and lips. She was sweating, and could feel adrenaline thundering through her veins.
"Everybody knows what they are." The boy replied, his irritating sneer not leaving his face. "The ones that don't are the ones that get killed." Alph grunted, and her fur stood on end. She felt an anger burning up inside her at this boy's smugness. Well, she would see just how much he would be smiling once he was in a TSAB prison block.
Retaliating, Alph fired her own variation of Photon Lancer at the boy, attempting to try and throw him off balance this time. Bolts of pure magical energy surrounded her and launched towards him, but to her frustration the boy seemed well prepared for that, doing multiple backflips that allowed him to evade every shot thrown at him. Right as he reached the edge of the rooftop, he landed on his hands, and fired what appeared to be bolts of energy of his own from the soles of his boots.
Alph dodged them effortlessly, but looked back in shock to find that the boy had suddenly surrounded himself with a whirlwind of some kind and was...breakdancing? Indeed the boy was on his hands, spinning himself around and around with his feet in the air, continuing to shoot those energy bolts. The bolts of energy surrounded him and materialized into a large projectiles that spun around him like a cyclone. They then started to launch themselves towards Alph as they spun, who quickly went on the defensive.
"Round shield!" She cried as she summoned a magic circle in front of her and expected the torrent of energy to strike it. But they never came. At least, they didn't strike the shield. Rather they all struck the ground close to her and shrouded the rooftop in a cloud of white dust, forcing Alph to quickly close her eyes. When she opened them, the dust had cleared and her opponent was nowhere to be found in front of her. Almost immediately she heard the sound of movement behind her, but by then it was two late. The boy had already grabbed her left arm and threw her to his side, whereupon he threw two incredibly fast kicks to Alph's legs and one powerful kick to her back. Letting out a cry of pain at the last blow, Alph fell towards the edge of the rooftop, nearly falling off.
"You know, the least you could do is make this interesting." The boy spoke condescendingly. "As much as I love a quick and easy job, this would be loads more fun if it actually seemed like you had a chance. Kind of insulting, really." He added with another smirk.
"Shut up!" Alph yelled as she quickly stood back up again.
"Or maybe you're not going all out because that magic of yours is directly tied to blondie up there." The boy replied, looking up at Fate, who was still launching attack after attack against those...Nevermores as the boy called them. "I wonder what would happen to her if I actually pissed you off enough?" He turned his attention back towards Alph, with a carefree smile on his face like he wasn't talking about anything serious.
"You…" Alph grit her teeth in anger at the thought of this jerk hurting her master. Through herself. That did it. She was going to break those legs of his! But the worst part was that he was right. A familiar's magic is empathetically tied to that of their master's. If she did go out against this guy, who knows how much longer Fate would be able to last against those things? If Fate got hurt because of her...she didn't know what she'd do. She clenched her fist in frustration.
"Uh oh, better watch out!" The boy snidely remarked, pointing in her direction. Alph steeled herself. Yeah right. She wasn't going to fall for what was an obvious distraction tactic!
"Alph! Look out!" She heard Fate's voice cry out in her head from afar as she turned around. Her eyes widened as she saw one of the Nevermores charging towards them. She leapt into the air, jumping over it as the boy did the same. The Nevermore then crashed into the taller building behind him, and tumbled towards the ground, before fading into black dust. Fate must have wounded it before making it past her, Alph thought.
That being said though, what just happened? Why did one of those birds, who had previously ignored her until now, suddenly make it past Nanoha and Fate and charge towards her? They couldn't have been targeting this guy, could they? Why would they target the one who was clearly at least involved in bringing them here?
"Okay, guess I enjoyed myself a bit too much back there. Either that or your friends are losing their touch. Let's take this somewhere else." The boy said, dusting off his pants before suddenly jumping off of the rooftop. Surprised, Alph ran over to the edge and saw him using those boots of his as a sort of propulsion mechanism multiple times to break his fall, allowing him to propel himself through the air and land on the ground with ease in the middle of an intersection.
"Get back here!" Alph said as she leapt down after him, noting the fact that this boy apparently couldn't fly in the back of her mind.
"Well faunus, this was fun, but it's time to get serious." He said, taking that fighting stance he took before their fight started, before that irritating smile showed up on his face again. "But remember! Not too serious in your case."
"What did you just call me?!" Alph roared in frustration. If everything he did on the roof was him not being serious, just how many levels above her combat-wise was he? As much as this guy was joking around, he clearly meant business and needed to be taken down as quickly as possible. "I need to get him with a binding spell." Alph thought. "But this guy isn't letting his guard down for even a second. Damn it! Why am I so useless by myself here?!" She mentally cursed her own weakness. But she knew she couldn't let that get the best of her in the middle of this fight. Immediately her brain started racking up possible strategies.
If he couldn't fly, that at least gave her an aerial advantage, she thought. But then the only means of combat she'd have would be pure ranged, and this guy seemed more than prepared to deal with that. Plus she couldn't allow herself to go hog wild with her magic. The link between her and Fate was primarily the reason why she focused on melee combat without magic, and being in more of a support role in other battles. Then again, all this guy would be able to do if she was in the air would be shooting those boot-guns of his or use that little whirlwind technique...wait a minute!
An idea suddenly popped in her head. It was a longshot, but it just might work to give her the opening she needed! Alph charged forward towards the boy before leaping up into the air, firing another Photon Lancer at him. As expected, he dodged them with ease, before retaliating by continuously firing his guns. Alph continued to dodge the flurries of energy bolts in the air, expecting him to do that breakdance trick he did before.
Instead, he stood on one foot and began firing them in a circle, spinning around as he kept shooting. He wasn't even aiming at her, he was just shooting wildly in a circle. Alph easily saw the bolts coming towards her and effortlessly dodged them, but realized as she looked up that this time the whirlwind of blows wasn't surrounding him, it was surrounding them. For above the both of them was a maelstrom of the large white energy bolts, circling around them, trapping them in the eye of the storm.
Seeing her distracted, the boy quickly shot himself up towards Alph with his boots, delivering a swift somersault kick on her back, shooting her towards the ground. The flurry of bolts then followed suit, shooting towards her. Knowing what was about to happen, Alph quickly got up and dashed towards the boy as he fell, each of the energy bolts slamming the ground and once again covering the area around the both of them in dust. With the boy caught in the explosion, he had no choice but to flinch, not expecting her to get up that quickly.
"Gotcha!" Alph shouted as she used that split second to launch herself towards him, throwing the most powerful punch she could muster towards that boy's face. It burned her eyes as the dust hadn't cleared yet, but she didn't let him out of her sight. In that one moment, she smirked. Her plan had worked! The boy would not be able to escape this, and once her punch connected and sent him flying, she'd quickly cast Ring Bind to finish this.
"Nice try."
As she expected, her punch connected with his face. But he wasn't sent flying. All he did was recoil a little from the blow. The last thing Alph saw was him quickly smirking and delivering an incredibly strong kick right back at her before she was sent flying instead of him. Alph's eyes widened in shock as the dust around them cleared and she landed on her back. What happened? The amount of force she put into that punch would have sent any normal human tumbling through the air with a slightly injured skull! But this boy had reacted as if she merely slapped him! Who was this guy?!
"Damn it! Damn it damn it damn it!" Alph clenched her fists. She hated to admit it, but she couldn't take this guy down on her own. Her only option now was to play defense. She needed to stall for time until Yuuno got here. She only hoped he was having an easier time than her. "Yuuno! How are things on your end? This guy's not going down without a fight!" She telepathically called him, but received no answer. "Yuuno?"
"Having some trouble, Mercury?" A female voice suddenly came from behind her. Alph turned her head and gasped. A young woman, with dark skin and mint-green hair was walking towards her. In her right hand she was twirling a firearm of some kind. What shocked Alph however, was what was in her left hand. There was another weapon of some kind that Alph couldn't make out in its current form. Whatever it was, its base was attached to a long chain. The end of which was attached to an unconscious Yuuno Scrya, neatly tied up in it. It was at the boy's next words when Alph truly knew that she was in trouble was as the boy - Mercury as he was called, smirked alongside this girl.
"Nah, just warming up."
Sayaka watched as the situation grew more and more erratic. She clenched her fists in frustration. She should be out there as well, backing up Hayate and the others. It was the least she could do for her for taking her in like that. She was a part of the Law of Cycles that sat by Madoka's side! Yet here she was, rendered to be nothing more than an innocent bystander that could only stay on the sidelines.
They had taken her to what they said was a branch office of the TSAB, since they apparently didn't have access to their spaceship yet. It looked like an ordinary office, and to any normal person the scene inside would have looked like a bunch of businessmen trying to meet a deadline. If the room wasn't filled with holographic monitors that showed footage of young girls duking it out with monster animals, that is.
She felt safe there, but ever since those monsters started attacking she had this terrible feeling that something awful was about to happen. The air had some kind of negativity to it that she couldn't really describe. She tried to keep it in the back of her mind though as the professionals in the room did their job.
"Chrono! We might have identified the suspects in this case!" She heard Yuuno shout towards the Enforcer, who was in the TSAB branch office along with Lindy, Amy, and Sayaka, as well as the other Arthra comandeers, who were hard at work monitoring the situation around those portals. "I'm heading in the direction of one of them now, and Alph has already engaged the other one!"
"Understood. It shouldn't be much longer on our end until we figure out how to close those portals." Chrono replied, speaking to him through a monitor. He then turned towards another monitor that displayed Hayate and the Wolkenritter, who were currently in combat in the mountains. "Hayate, what about you?"
"We're holding steady!" Hayate replied, the footage showing her thrusting her arm forward as a magic circle appeared in front of her. "Claiomh Solais!" She shouted, firing a beam of white light towards the ground, hitting a pack of several werewolf-like monsters. Sayaka became even more impressed by her little caretaker the more she saw her. Out of everything she'd seen so far in this world, she definitely wasn't expecting to see Hayate doing a cool fusion technique with that pixie of hers like in that one anime she saw. Looking to the other monitors, she saw the Wolkenritter dealing with similar creatures in other areas around the mountain. They seemed to be having a much easier time than Nanoha and Fate were, with all of the monsters they were fighting not being able to fly.
"Master Hayate seems to be what these creatures are targeting! None of these monsters are stopping to fight us!" Signum yelled as she slashed Laevatein through one of the werewolf monsters.
"They've been heading towards her this whole time! Damn you!" Vita shouted as she swung Graf Eisen in circles, pummeling through a pack of the boar monsters. Chrono and the others watched the scene carefully as they thought about this.
"We're lucky these creatures seem to only be land-based." Shamal stated. "Otherwise we'd be in a lot of trouble!"
"If you can, try and capture one of the weaker ones." Chrono ordered. "We need to find out what they are and determine what world they hail from!"
"Chrono! Nanoha's with me, all the bird monsters have been taken out! She's saying that no more are coming from that portal!" Yuuno's voice suddenly rang out, causing Chrono to raise an eyebrow in confusion as he looked at him on the other monitor. What was he talking about? Nanoha wasn't anywhere near him, and yet he was looking to his side as if he was. "We'll move over to where Alph is and-!" Static. The connection on both monitors suddenly faltered, showing nothing but white noise on every screen in the room.
"What just happened?" Lindy asked.
"We've lost contact with both barriers!" One of the staff members said, rushing to try and get the footage back online.
"The magical composition just changed! We're...we're not under control of the barriers anymore!"
"How is that possible? Find the key and get the footage back online!" Lindy ordered.
"We're trying but...what...what kind of magic is this?" More monitors appeared throughout the office, showing various letters, numbers, and other symbols that Sayaka didn't really understand. At least until different symbols showed up on one of the monitors. Then another one. And another one, until the room was filled with them. Those symbols she recognized. Her eyes widened in horror.
"Those...runes." She said, as Lindy, Amy, and Chrono suddenly turned towards her. "I've...seen those before." She muttered, completely forgetting that she was supposed to keep up the amnesia act. No, that didn't matter now. Sayaka's body immediately began trembling. They were in danger. All of them were in danger.
"Saaya-san? Are you all right?" Lindy asked, feeling worried for the frightened child.
"It's...It's her! She's here!" Sayaka screamed. The three of them looked at each other worryingly before Lindy spoke again.
"What do you mean? Who's here?"
"Chrono-kun? Chrono-kun?" Hayate cried out as she tried to restore contact with the enforcer, but received no response. She grit her teeth as she continued to cast spell after spell from above against the horde of monsters coming from the portal. But they just wouldn't stop their onslaught. She was lucky she had an aerial advantage, or else she might have actually been in serious trouble herself. Nevertheless, if enough of those things reached the edge of the barrier, it was possible some of them might be able to break through and attack the innocent people in the city. No, she couldn't let even one of them get past her. If only the assault of these things could slow down just a little! She looked towards that portal in the sky, near the top of the mountain. If she could get up there and use bombardment magic, she might be able to do that. Or at least reduce their numbers by a significant amount.
"Everyone! Fall back towards me!" Hayate telepathically commanded. "Try and hold the line here while me and Rein try and bottleneck that portal!" But none of them responded. The only response Hayate got was one of the werewolf creatures leaping up to try and strike her, to which she dodged. "Signum! Vita! Anyone! Can you hear me?!"
Nothing. Complete and utter silence was her answer. As hard as she tried to keep her cool in this situation, she was starting to get worried. What just happened? Her knights would never go silent on her like this. Were they in danger? She had to find them! She descended closer to the ground, looking for them above the trees. They had been fighting at the base of the mountain, which contained a small forest, which made it difficult to locate anybody without the use of magic.
"Shamal! Zafira? Where are you?" Hayate cried out, wanting to know where they were immediately. How was this possible? Could someone possibly be jamming communication from within their own barrier? That had to be the answer for why she lost contact with the TSAB and her knights, but who could have done that?
"Hayate!" Rein yelled from within her. "Something...Something really bad is coming!"
"Huh?" Hayate looked around, wondering what Rein could mean, until she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her back, and yelped. A sharp pain suddenly shot through her back. She looked behind her, and found what looked to be a black arrow of some kind sticking out of it. It looked like it was made of some kind of glass. "W-Where did that come from?" She wondered before horror filled her eyes as she saw an orange glow appear from the arrow's tip before-
A fierce explosion suddenly erupted from the tip of the arrow, filling the air with a terrible scream as Hayate was sent tumbling towards the ground below. The color of her hair changed from beige to brown, meaning she had lost her Unison form. Rein must have spent all her energy to defend her from that blast, Hayate realized. Just barely finding the energy to stand, Hayate quickly got back on her feet. She winced as she found the various monsters encroaching towards her. Now she was in trouble. Without Rein, she was pretty much useless in close combat. Her only means of such in this form would be high-level spells that, as she is now, would be extremely dangerous to cast. Bearing the pain on her back from the explosion, Hayate turned a page from the Tome of the Night Sky, and prepared to consume it to defend herself.
But to her surprise, before she could do so, the monsters in front of her suddenly began to fall and turn into black dust. Not only that, some of them even began to run away from her and deeper into the woods! Yet even they were hit with those same arrows that hit her, and they burned them to ash one by one with their explosions. Soon they were all gone, and their assailant was revealed.
In front of Hayate, a small distance away, stood a young woman. She had ashen-black hair and bright amber eyes. She wore a dark red dress with yellow designs across the sleeves that Hayate didn't understand. Her right eye flashed with a flaring orange aura, and she looked at Hayate with a cruel smile. Looking to her hands, Hayate noticed a faint trail of embers that emanated from her left hand, as well as a bow that was in her right. No doubt about it, this person was the one who shot her.
"So. You're the one who possesses what we need." She stated. Her voice was cold, and dripping with hostility. "How...disgraceful."
"Who are you?!" Hayate demanded. The girl responded by thrusting her right arm forward, firing a small ball of fire towards her. Bracing herself, Hayate quickly cast Panzerschild from the Tome, forming a triangular shield in front of her. The fireballs struck it, creating a cloud of smoke and sparks that filled the air. Once it cleared, Hayate found her opponent no longer standing in front of her, but rather in the air with two black swords in her hands, falling towards her head first. Wasting no time, Hayate threw up another shield.
The woman's swords landed on top of it, applying a huge amount of pressure on Hayate as she struggled to hold against it. The woman smirked, and suddenly jumped back. Her two swords suddenly morphed into a bow and arrow, and she fired three of them towards the ground around Hayate. Hayate gasped as they began to glow again and jumped back, the resulting explosions creating a shockwave that erupted throughout the forest. Despite being able to avoid another direct hit, the shockwave still knocked Hayate backwards a few feet, and sending her to the ground once again.
Hayate grunted in frustration and from the pain that still lingered throughout her body from the explosion from earlier. It was bad enough she was caught off-guard, but one-on-one combat with another mage wasn't one of her strengths even with Rein! She could only hope that her Knights heard her scream from earlier and were on their way to help her out. Whoever this woman was, she wasn't showing any mercy. She needed to keep as much distance between her and this person as possible! Hayate's mind raced as she thought of her available options. With Sleipnir still active, she could still fly relatively well. But even so, if she took to the sky again, she'd be an easy target for one of those exploding arrows. With Rein knocked out, if she was hit with another one of those again, she'd be toast! Even trying to cast any kind of offensive spell without her would have left her a sitting duck just preparing it and endangering her knights in the area if she successfully pulled one of them off.
She was trapped.
"Understood, I have her right where you want her. I'm ending this now." The woman muttered. Hayate gasped as she saw her right eye flash with that orange aura again, and the ground beneath her glowed with that same firey-orange light that had appeared before. No...it wasn't just beneath her this time, she was surrounded by those terrible lights! Before she could react, before she could dodge again, the world around her was consumed in a torrent of flames. The ground beneath her feet had become a bomb that had sent the young mage flying with another scream. She was knocked into a nearby tree, her barrier jacket fading completely, reverting her back to her normal clothing.
"H-How…" Hayate uttered, blood trickling down her head, and her body covered in agonizing burns. She could create those little explosions even without her arrows? Who was this woman? What kind of magic was this?! Her mind began racing, as she desperately tried to remain conscious. There were no magic circles, no incantations, and she didn't even have a device! Just what was she? She crawled on the ground, trying to find the energy to stand and failing. No way to contact her allies. No way to effectively fight back. She was trapped, and defeated. She weakly looked up at the woman was slowly walking towards her, who looked at her with contempt.
"Absolutely pathetic. You possess a power capable of changing this world, and yet here you are, failing miserably against me, someone who doesn't even possess half of the kind of power you do, in battle with it. You're not worthy of such power." The woman spoke condescendingly as she continued taking step after step. Her eyes widened with sadistic glee as a cruel smile crept towards her lips once again, and she put her face right in front of Hayate's. "But I am."
"Who...who are you..." Hayate asked again.
"Who we are is none of your concern, Hayate Yagami." Said another voice. Hayate looked up to see where it came from, and gasped. She found herself unable to breath. Her eyes stared blankly at the sight above her in abject horror.
This person looked human. This person seemed human. But this person didn't feel human. No, nothing about what Hayate currently felt emanating from this person could in any way be described as human. She quickly descended from the sky, her black wings enveloping her opening up to reveal her features. She wore a pitch-black, feathery dress, and despite her height and overall physique being somewhat less imposing than the other girl, Hayate could tell that this girl was someone to be feared. For it was her face that truly told her everything she needed to know. Her expression was blank. Her eyes were cold and dead. Her voice was monotone, and lacked any kind of emotion. But what terrified her the most, was that her guardian knights were floating behind her, each of them clad in black chains, and unconscious.
"What is of your concern, is whether or not you're willing to cooperate."
150 YEARS, 5 MONTHS, 1 WEEK, 3 DAYS, 4 HOURS, 40 MINUTES UNTIL THE CONVERGENCE.
NEXT CHAPTER: TAKEN