Chapter 2: Awakening
-Planeptune Capital, 2007-
Histoire was observing the share crystal as it glowed. It has been a year since the sky changed color, having a constant nighttime sky despite being broad daylight. Lines occasionally appeared between stars, as if revealing pieces of constellations, and Histoire had placed much effort in mapping out every one. One such constellation she pieced together resembled a seven-pointed star. Thinking back on what she found, the constellations seemed to tell a story of an all powerful civilization.
"Hey, Histoire! You find anything new from all the cool looking stars?" Neptune asked.
"Well, I've gained more information on their culture," Histore responded.
"Oh, oh! Is there anything about pudding?"
"For the hundredth time, there's nothing about pudding!"
"Aww, I blame the author for this."
Ray, could you send someone to please shut her up?
Sorry SciFi, but that goes against several rules in the Safe Haven Protocol, and getting on the Precursor Council's bad side is something I'm never risking my life for. Remember what happened to... well, it's best not to say for now. Besides, we've got to follow the plot.
(Sigh)... Carry on.
"Anyways, what are you still doing here, Neptune? You're supposed to be holding off ASIC with the others."
"Yeah, about that..."
"What?"
"A majority of ASIC got their butts kicked all the way back to the Graveyard by... um... how do I put it?"
"An unknown force?"
"Ah, yeah. Strangely though, they look a lot like CPU's. There was, like, a whole army of them. Nep Jr. even got a picture of one with her trusty camera."
"I knew there was a strange presence that seemed extremely powerful, but I couldn't determine what it was, because they were blocking my access. Anyways, do you mind showing me?"
Histoire took the picture from Neptune and examined the figure shown. The figure was a girl appearing around the same age as Noire, with power symbols in her eyes and wearing what appeared to be a Processor Suit. But unlike the goddesses, this Processor consisted of full body armor appearing bio-mechanical in nature, minus the head, and there were armor plates for each section of the body, such as the arm, with a shoulder section, bicep section, elbow section, forearm section, and so on, which applied to the rest of the body as well. The armor had a mix of neon blue and golden orange lighting, and the person herself gave off a faint bluish aura that made her seem relaxed. There was a seven pointed star on the shoulder pad, which brought Histoire's attention to the star she found in the constellations.
'They're exactly the same...' Histoire thought.
"Neptune, I'll need to think to myself about this. This should take me only three hours."
"Okay! Let me know if they like pudding!"
"Neptune! Stop asking about that!" But Neptune was already gone by then.
Histoire then focused back on the photo and then focused on researching on just who these being were and how they're possibly related to the all-powerful civilization told in the constellations.
-Gamindustri Graveyard Entrance-
Rays of Crimson Star (or simply Ray) observed this abomination of a land the human population was calling the Gamindustri Graveyard. While it was nothing in comparison to the distortions that Corrupted Matter would cause, it was still slightly disturbing in appearance, as it looked like what Earthlings would call "hell on earth." But, by his standards, this totally-not-ominous-and-evil place seemed discreet enough to bring in Light without causing any collateral damage, if you counted out all the monsters that would be instantly liquefied in the immediate vicinity. Ray set up the necessary sacred geometry symbols to bring back Light's material form, while several Royal Guard Unit variants guarded his presence. But how would Light turn out due to his fatal wounds? You don't know until you try. Ray then activated the symbol and waited as time went on.
"Hmm?" Ray turned around to find a large, bulky robot, black in color with neon blue lighting. It seemed to be severely agitated, especially after Ray watched him swing his ax into a pile of junk.
"GAAAH! Bored, bored, BORED! Give me something to destroy, damn you!" The robot said.
"That guy has some serious anger management issues," a Unit commented.
"Who said that?!" the robot yelled, looking nowhere near where Ray and his Royal Guard Units were.
"And a high lack of attention span," another Unit commented.
"Okay, now I'm pissed! Show yourself!"
Ray then brought out his wings and flew. His two wings have a more realistic appearance compared to most Recursors. The wings had a solid part that acted as the "main bone" of the wing, and had multiple rhombuses of varying size organized to look like feathers, similar in number to that of a bald eagle. Each rhombus had a matching circuit board style of bright green lighting, mirrored for the opposite wing. Currently, his wings were silver white with said green lighting, matching his standard silver white Recursor Ceremonial Armor, which had circuit board style stripes of royal colors with additional green lighting.
The Ceremonial Armor was a stark contrast to the Battle Armor, being curved, silver white with bright royal colors and pleasing to the eye, while the latter was angular and stealthy, jet black sometimes with darker and more serious shades of royal colors, and was highly intimidating to the average soldier in the Precursor Kingdom. And the average soldier back then was far more powerful than the current soldiers of Gamindustri. Imagine what effect it would have now.
I should have noted before: A Recursor is around twice as large as a Precursor-era Human (6 to 7 feet), making them around 12 to 14 feet tall. But even taking a human disguise would put them at 8 to 9 feet, but as long as they have some concept to use in adjustment, they can resize themselves to be only around 5.5 to 6 feet. You wouldn't want to stick out like a sore thumb, would you?
Hold up, Scifi, you actually forgot to mention that in Chapter 1? Also, the true form of a Recursor rivals some of the largest mountains.
Enough meta behavior and focus on the story.
"If you weren't so rude, I would have introduced myself properly," Ray said as he landed on top of a large pile, sending dirt flying from the impact. The robot showed genuine surprise at Ray's appearance, before returning to an angered state.
"So you're the one badmouthing me?!"
"It's more of the truth really. Some of your own subordinates had commented on that." 'Hold up, is someone trying to watch me? Ah, let her watch.'
"Is that so? I'm gonna have to teach them a lesson when I'm done with you. I am CFW Judge, and for you, IT'S JUDGEMENT TIME!"
The robot called CFW Judge then charged at Ray, swinging his ax in an attempt to slice Ray in half. The blade of the ax collided with a hovering shoulder plate located just off the left shoulder covering the deltoid and bicep sections, sending up a blast of dust and particulate upon impact.
"I have to ask..." Ray started, "Is that the absolute best you can do?" Ray already knew it was a "yes."
"What?!"
When the dust settled, Ray was there, now donning his Battle Armor, jet black with the lighting taking a sickly green appearance, the royal colors turned a darker shade. The wings also turned jet black, with the same sickly green lighting. The hovering plating over the shoulders, forearms and hips also matched the appearance. And the left hovering shoulder plate where Judge struck? His ax didn't even scratch the paint. Judge was shaking from the shock and fear of the realization he had come across.
"Impossible! Impossible! IMPOSSIBLE!"
"Yeah, I get that a lot." Ray then poked Judge's ax, which then started cracking and eventually broke.
"You... that was my favorite ax, you little- HIII!" Judge was yelling angrily at Ray up until the point when Ray seemingly teleported right in front of him, which caused him to freak out and return to a state of fear.
"You know, your predecessors had much more respect." Ray then simply backhand slapped Judge sky high, comically vanishing in a twinkle as Judge screamed the whole way.
"Bye, have a great time!" Ray said in a certain accent from a certain Earthling meme.
"Well, with that out of the way, now I can-" Ray's arm moved at light speed to catch a scythe with only two fingers.
"Could you at least introduce yourself before trying to kill me? Keyword: trying."
"Tch, you're definitely not one of those damn CPU's, so what the hell are you?" the female voice asked.
"Someone who is... well, you could say, a deeply disappointed ancestor of the so called 'goddess' you worship." Using the point where he grabbed the scythe, Ray flung the attacker in question through a pile of junk. She immediately got back up. Looking at her appearance, she was wearing what appeared to be a bikini with straps at the sides, with armored gauntlets and boots on her hands and feet, respectively. She also had mechanical wings with blades at the end of the base, similar to a Recursor. It's supposed to be armor, but honestly, how does one call that "armor?" If this were Ray's time, she would be violating several hundred intergalactic laws regarding public appearance alone.
"Don't you dare talk about my goddess that way!"
"Well, aren't you a fangirl, CFW Magic?" Magic showed surprise at how Ray knew her name, even though they just met.
"That's right, I know you better than you could ever hope to know yourself, and I know everything about this world. I did help a friend create it after all."
"Is that supposed to intimidate me?"
"Not in the slightest. If I were you, I would just forget about this and walk away for the sake of self-preservation. But if you want, try and hit me." Ray then got into a fighting stance without using any weapons.
"No weapons? It's your funeral," Magic said as she charged at Ray. She swung her scythe down in an attempt to stab him through either the head or chest, but ended up slicing through thin air instead.
'What?!' She thought. 'Where did he-' Her thoughts were interrupted when she felt her chest being crushed as if she was hit by a metallic meteor fired from a railgun in orbit. It was then that she realized that Ray had moved out of the way and had roundhouse kicked her, all within that instant moment. She went flying, arcing over the Graveyard until she collided with the top of the giant tower in the middle of the land.
"And it's good!" a Unit yelled while throwing his arms into the air. The other Units joined in, high fiving each other and yelling into the air.
Now knowing there were no other threats nearby, Ray reverted back into his Ceremonial Armor and looked back towards the sacred geometry symbol, slowly but surely connecting with the constellations in the sky.
"Hey, can you hear me, Light?" Ray communicated.
-Back at Histoire's Location-
When Histoire finally managed to access her way through whatever barrier was blocking her (Ray actually let her in), she was nearly overwhelmed by the amount of energy emitting from the otherworldly being that was exploring the Graveyard. She was gripping tightly to her tome book, trying to process the nature of the being that had recently arrived. Quickly recovering, she only went into overwhelming shock as she watched the being in question take on a more hostile appearance while fighting CFW Judge and literally sent him into space and back while taking absolutely no damage whatsoever, and then dispatched CFW Magic by kicking her into the central tower of the Graveyard while his CPU-like subordinates yelled out scores as if he was playing the Earthling game of football.
And just those three minutes revealed that he was only fooling around with a ten-millionth of his actual power. Seriously, if he tried, he could wipe out an entire section of galaxies with that kind of power (though he would be drained afterwards). Forget the Deity of Sin's wish to destroy the world. Needless to say, Histoire now genuinely believed that this was the all-powerful civilization told in the constellations. Well, that's just one out of 77 to the (insert ridiculously long exponent here) Recursors that populate the universe.
But probably worst of all, after diving a little further, she may be strong-armed by Neptune to reveal the nightmarishly endless amount of flavored puddings they made for their designated populations, among other endless recipes.
'Are they really this powerful?' Histoire thought to herself. 'How far back do they go?' She continued looking through all the mapped constellations. Eventually, she found her answer. Somewhat. With what could be determined of their earliest appearance, was the creation of all life and testing to see what races of life would be able to harness a power called The Helix, which was quite literally shaped as a DNA helix. And surprisingly for Histoire, she found that humanity was among the most successful races as a potential candidate and were selected to receive it, and the date determined showed that humanity existed long before the world of Gamindustri and the CPU's have. Put simply, Histoire had discovered the Precursor-era human race.
"I have to tell the others..."
-4 Hours Later-
"So you're telling us..." Noire said, "that humans have been around before even Gamindustri existed?
"I thought they were here around the same time as CPU's were..." Blanc said.
"And this twirly thingamajig makes them ultra super powerful?" Neptune added.
"Yes, they have existed before even me, and it's called The Helix, Neptune," Histoire said.
"And these Precursors that you speak of... what happened to them?" Noire said.
"I'm still not sure myself. I'm still piecing together the story as it comes, which may take another three weeks. Best I can tell for now is that they disappeared from history around 110,000 years before Gamindustri came to existence.
"A hundred and-" Noire freaked out.
"Ancient humanity went on without leadership for that long..." Blanc said.
"I'm still wondering how far back they all existed..." Vert said. The four goddesses looked towards Histoire for an answer. The look on her face said it all, and what she said only confirmed their suspicions, "... Even I gave up counting."
"EEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHH?!" Everyone else screamed.
"Bu-bu-but you're supposed to know everything, right?" Neptune said.
"This is new for me, Neptune. From what I've determined, the Precursors have been around for an infinite amount of time."
"That doesn't make this any less confusing..." Vert said.
"Also, it's possible that these Precursors have been to Gamindustri before, but I'm still trying to figure out their reason for doing so," Histoire said.
"Perhaps I can look through the history records in my library?" Blanc said.
"I will handle that myself. Thankfully, they tend to be neutral unless you have hostile intentions towards them. But we have other pressing concerns. ASIC had a chance encounter with what seems to be a Precursor candidate, and of course, they decided to attack him, only to be launched sky high. Literally. Now they're rapidly accelerating their efforts to bring back the Deity of Sin."
"Wait, shouldn't they be in a weaker state if they just had their butts handed to them?" Neptune asked.
"That is correct, but with the way they're approaching things now, they'll recover quickly. We have a narrow window for attack here."
"Alrighty then! Let's go take down ASIC and have some pudding!" Neptune got into a pose reminiscent of a conqueror. Everyone got up and left to prepare for the oncoming battle. Finally, the room was silent.
"Well, at least Neptune didn't ask about the Precursors having pudding..." Histoire said.
-Gamindustri Graveyard, 3 days later-
"Lord Ray, are you alright?" A soldier asked.
"I've tried to continue working amidst all this noise, but now I'm slowly getting irritated, especially since something like this requires godlike levels of focus," Ray said. "Could you please arrange for several squads to investigate? And if it's those monsters again, do the same as always."
"Of course, my Lord." The soldier left, taking a platoon to investigate the noise. Several Units went along as well.
"As for the symbol, it's about time to set it up in the sky."
Ray went over to the symbol gathering energy and lifted it up into the sky, where it slowly expanded to reveal the golden orange lining of the Flower of Life.
"Okay, now to find an open area..."
Ray began his walk, his Royal Guardian Units watching from a distance. He eventually found a nice large area to continue the process, the only problem being the large amount of monsters. Dogoos, Pixelvaders, Fenrirs, Killachines, even what appeared to be the ghost characters from the Earthlings' arcade game called Pacman. But the platoon of troops he had should have no problem at all, equipped with Type-15 Military Combat Suits equipped with anti-gravity jetpacks (well, they actually look more like wings with the engines built within), battle rifles using technology and energy derived from Recursor weapons, and had experience in fighting infestations of Corrupted Lifeforms.
The soldiers readied their rifles and fired, the bolts of high energy particles shredding through the Dogoos and Pixelvaders like cannon fodder. The Fenrirs and Killachines were harder targets, Fenrirs requiring plenty of well-placed shots, and the Killachines requiring a combination of high-explosive and plasma anti-tank launchers, using HE to soften the armor, and the plasma which would chew right through and detonate within. Of course, more kept coming. At that point, the Units got involved and wiped everything out within seconds using the arsenal of weapons they carried.
"Now then, since those monsters are out of the way, I can continue... hopefully," Ray said.
But nothing ever goes his way, does it?
-CPU's Current Location-
"That's all?" Magic said mockingly.
"Take this!" White Heart (Blanc) shouted.
White Heart and Green Heart (Vert) charged at Magic at the same time, but Magic blocked both of their attacks, quickly knocking out Green Heart in the process. White Heart came around for another strike, but Magic grabbed White Heart using ropes made of darkness, then pulled her in and kicked her in the stomach, leaving her to clutch herself on the ground.
"You four are nothing like them," Magic said.
"The Precursors?" Purple Heart (Neptune) said.
"Heh, fighting them would be an honor. You five are just exercise."
"Let's see you take this!" Black Heart (Noire) shouted.
Purple Heart and Black Heart charged at Magic, unleashing one attack after another without giving any space to make a counter. Magic then darted a short distance and knocked the two remaining goddesses back, giving her room to recover her posture. Black Heart and Purple Heart both raised their swords over their head and combined their most powerful ranged attacks, throwing them at Magic. But Magic put up a shield, blocking the attack with little effort. Magic then charged at Black Heart, knocking her aside, then grabbed Purple Heart by the neck and held her in the air.
"Is that really the best you got?"
Magic then blasted Purple Heart across the area, unknowingly hitting a few bystanders that would trigger the trope of Awakening the Sleeping Giant.
'No way,' Purple Sister (Nepgear) thought, 'She defeated all four goddesses at the same time?! I won't stand a chance! At this rate, Gamindustri will be doomed...'
Magic slowly approached Purple Sister, readying her scythe to deliver a killing blow.
"Please, don't do this..." Purple Sister tried to plead, only to reach deaf ears. She waited for the blade to strike her...
"Hostile, two o clock!" A voice said.
Magic was suddenly bombarded with energy projectiles, barely managing to block them all by spinning her scythe like a propeller. Then she was knocked into a nearby pile of junk by a plasma missile. Units also joined, using endless barrages of attacks from their weapon arsenals. Suddenly, the soldiers were knocked back, though the Units held their ground surprisingly better than the CPU's did from Nepgear's point of view.
"That's quite enough," a voice said.
Ray appeared from the opposite side which Magic reacted in surprise and fear, much to Nepgear's confusion. This time, Ray not only had his Battle Armor, but he was also carrying a kite-shaped shield with a built in gauss rifle, and a long dual glaive that had electricity that gave the blades a bright yellow edge.
"You..." Magic said.
"I will handle her myself, give enough time for the process to complete."
"What about us, my lord?" a Unit asked.
"Well, you can handle that big guy over there, to start." Ray pointed out to Judge, who had just arrived to the commotion. The Units immediately engaged.
"Back for round two already? I would find it best to end this peacefully," Ray said to Magic.
"I have no interest in peace. Everyone will worship my goddess, whether they like it or not!" Magic said. Meanwhile, the goddesses were slowly recovering to see the Recursor in action.
"Force it is, then."
A helmet constructed itself around Ray's head, with a face plate coming down over his face. He emitted a hostile red aura, much like the Units surrounding him. Then he seemed to blink out of existence bashing her once with the end of his shield, which sent her flying across the area until she collided with a structure on the opposite end of the area.
"He did that much damage in one hit?" Purple Heart said.
"And he was only using his shield..." Black Heart said.
Magic recovered and flew at blurring speeds to attack Ray with her scythe, but he knocked her scythe out of the way like it was nothing more than a stick, then used the momentum to spin his dual glaive and strike Magic into the ground, throwing up dust and making a large crater where she made impact. Ray was practically throwing her around. Then again, Magic is facing against someone over twice her size. Magic immediately got up and jumped back, only having to quickly dodge to avoid being blown apart at the molecular level by Ray's gauss rifle.
"Come on, this is supposed to be my VERY easy form, but you can't land a hit on me? Well, at least you're of some use to give me a nice entertainment break."
"Did he just say this was an 'entertainment break' for him?" White Heart said.
"He must have quite the experience in battle to say that to her," Green Heart said.
Several blade-like rhombuses that made up his wings detached from the rest, and launched into the air before coming back down at speeds where they caught fire from air friction, all focused on Magic, who proceeded to dodge each one, having to use extreme focus and being lucky enough to only get nicked by each blade that hit the ground with a deafening bang. She looked around for Ray, who disappeared from his original spot, and looked up just in time for her to use her scythe to block him from impaling her from above with his dual glaive, which she redirected away from her. With the glaive stuck in the ground, she prepared to make her strike, only to barely dodge when she saw Ray let go of his glaive and punch the ground where she was just standing before, leaving cracks that spread through half the area everyone was in. Magic then managed to knock Ray back and land a hit on his face plate.
"Why do I have this feeling that she just angered him in the worst possible way?" Purple Heart said.
Ray slowly regained his posture, his aura going from hostile to the intent to kill. He turned around to face Magic, a small crack visible on his face plate's right side. Then his attack. Ray punched Magic in the stomach before she could even blink, a visible shockwave emitting from the punch. He detached the shield from the gravity binding on his left arm, and did a left hook across Magic's face, and Nepgear could swear she heard bones snapping from where she was. However, these attacks weren't enough to stop Magic. She punched back with all her might, only to end up almost breaking her hand against the several plates that covered Ray's torso. She punched again, with Ray blocking the attack, then using the other fist to end up with the same result, and the two beings pushed against each other, with Magic showing an intense amount of strain to push back. Ray then overpowered her, punched her across the face, and kicked her with enough force that she went through several mountains of junk. Ray flew over to where Magic landed, and dropped down in front of her. She hand her hand placed on the ground, most likely doing something to the environment.
"You have some nerve, damaging my favorite helmet like that," Ray said.
"I believe you had something else to focus on," Magic said. She removed her hand from the ground and looked at the symbol. She then quickly flew back to the area where they had fought, looking for a position to attack the symbol in the air.
"Tch, seems I'm out of time to mess around, anyways." Ray's helmet disassembled after removing the face plate to repair later. "And attacking that symbol is pointless now."
-Back in the Combat Area-
"What..." a Unit said.
"I've seen enough situations to know where this is going." another Unit said.
"That is just wrong in so many ways." a third Unit said.
"Don't just stand there! Get them out of there, now!" a Royal Guard Unit said.
Magic had tied the goddesses in what appeared to be power cables and suspended them in the air between two walls. Both the troops and Units were trying to remove the cables in any way they could think of.
"What the hell are these things made of, bulletproof thread?" said a trooper who was using his particle rifle to shoot at the cables.
"Hold on, let me try this," a Unit said while pulling out a futuristic longsword. He then successfully sliced through the cables tied around Black Hearts hands, but got electrocuted and launched away in the process. Black Heart, with her hands free, leaned forward and looked for a way to untie Green Heart.
"Ow... at least it worked though," the Unit said while getting up from the ground.
"Maybe we can try out every safe method of removing them?" another Unit asked. The Royal Guard Unit started thinking.
"No, that would take us at least three years to go through," the Royal Guard unit answered.
"We got company!" a trooper said. Several stronger monsters had appeared to attack the forces present in the area. The troopers engaged while the Units continued to find a way to cut away the cables. One of the Units looked up, the goddesses trying to see what was wrong, despite being gradually weakened.
"You see something?" a Unit asked.
"I know for a fact those cables weren't there before," the other Unit answered.
Suddenly multiple cables sprung out from the ground and walls, and proceeded to attack the Units. The Units sliced and diced through the cables with ease, unlike the specialized ones used on the goddesses.
"Damn, they just keep coming!" the Unit said. The Royal Guard Unit then put out his hand, and all the attacking cables were instantly disassembled, held in the air for one second, then all the parts exploded into nothing.
"Keep working on it," he said. The Units flew back up and continued to cut away the cables.
Ray returned to find the current situation... a bit chaotic, to say the least. Monsters poured in only to turned into Swiss cheese, The goddesses were tied and suspended in the air by cables, and Units each got their turn in being electrocuted while cutting away said cables. And Ray could tell something very bad could happen if he decided to just vaporize the cables imprisoning the goddesses. The current method would have to do for now.
Ray turned his attention back to the symbol which glowed brightly, then released a wave of energy that knocked down everyone still standing, except for Ray. the symbol started to open via shapes moving away and stacking on each other, lowering a hexagonal pyramid that opened like a flower, revealing someone in what appeared to be mesh padding covering the entire body, minus the head. The being had a white colored face with silver hair that had a blue tinge. He got up from his curled kneeling position, standing at 14 feet tall. The being stretched out his arms, and pieces of armor formed out of thin air and assembled across his body, having a simplistic appearance of the muscular system which left no gaps, colored jet black with neon blue lighting, as well as golden orange and purple secondary lighting to add on, all with a circuit-style appearance across the plating. Additional floating plating was positioned over the deltoids and extending to the middle of the biceps, over the forearms ending at the wrist, at the sides of the hips extending down to the side of the knee, behind the ankles and three plates above each shoulder, the above plate smaller and placed further out than the last. Six wings each made of ten independent floating blades appeared behind him, in a way that seemed almost natural, but the blades appeared fractured, yet not completely broken. They folded back in so they didn't take up space, aligning and stacking on top of each other. He then looked around the environment.
"So fades the era of darkness," he said with a dual voice. He waved his hand across, And the Units in the area, only having blue circuit-style lighting, gained additional golden orange lighting as well. The Units, troopers, and even the monsters that were previously hostile all kneeled towards the new being; only Ray remained standing.
"They're kneeling to him?" Black Heart said in surprise. The being then looked towards his right.
"Even these beasts recognized what you were oblivious to, human. Your greed for power blinds you, as ever."
A pile of junk on the far side of the area suddenly disintegrated, revealing Magic behind it. She immediately got up and prepared to throw her scythe, but the being stretched out his hand and Magic was suddenly held in the air in a crucified position, her scythe forcefully pulled out of her hands. She was then pulled in to close proximity to the being, unable to do anything.
"Arfoire left little to chance, didn't she? Turning my own creations... my own world... against me. But what hubris to believe that she could keep up such an act forever. If you all haven't mastered even these primitives, then Humanity is not yet ready to attain The Helix. Such a process does require great effort. Time was your ally, human, but now it has abandoned you. The Precursors... have returned." A helmet similar to Ray's then constructed over his head.
"This grave... is now yours." The being then flicked his wrist, and Magic was sent flying towards the central tower, where she collided with it and fell to the ground. The tower started breaking apart, and the top half snapped off and fell directly on top of where Magic had landed. She most definitely had a grave of her own now... temporarily. She was already trying to break her way out, but it would take her weeks. More than enough time to release the goddesses. He spread out his wings and flew off into the distance.
Ray then jumped up to look at the personal symbol that is often found on the middle of the hexagon. It was similar to Light's symbol... no, it was Light's symbol. But it had changed. the symbol was more complex and grand, glowing in it's respective blue, orange, and now purple colors, but it was also damaged, with a thin slash of black light running diagonally across, and fissures of white light spreading from it. A black slash with white fissures was an add-on to one's personal symbol to show that the Recursor bearing that symbol as sustained a permanent, fatal injury that has reduced them to a shadow of their former self, but was still capable of attaining greater powers, although it would be a struggle. And it was obvious that Light had been fatally injured on that day, but was still able to go as far as to achieve Crown-level abilities. All-in-all, it meant that Light had a new name.
"Shadow of Stellar Light..." Ray said, unknowingly letting the goddesses hear as the final cables were severed. They were too tired to listen in anymore. Before Nepgear (as Purple Sister) closed her eyes, she saw a trooper with what appeared to be IF and Compa arriving just in time...
And that's all for today! 5,672 words? I need a break. With two chapters as a good start off for each of my Hyperdimension stories, I will be continuing on my To Aru stories, which have been on hiatus since college began for me.
If you're wondering what the particle/plasma rifle that the troopers use look like, it is a modular weapon that generally uses a focus rail system (making the gun appear split where the barrel would be), a firing module that can be switched out for different weapon assemblies, located in front of the trigger grip, a power core (the circular device behind the rail) and a discharge device (a cylinder located between the core and rail). The weapon has unlimited ammo, but needs to cool down after firing a certain number of shots, in which the mechanism involves the weapon partially disassembling itself, holding the parts in the air while the discharge device and rail system vent away heat. The weapon is also switch between all three modes of fire, depending on the type of rifle used (certain shotgun and sniper modules would only have semi auto).
This picture from Artstation is about the closest I can find to the description. Copy the text below and add to the main site URL (add a bit of sleek forerunner look to it to get an idea)
/artwork/DRxOy
Well, until the next time, everyone!
Unit: Everybody!
Everyone:
SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS
SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS
SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS
Unit: Every-
Ray: QUIET!
Unit: Okay...