Author's Note: Okay So everyone made it through Fiona okay, I don't think anyone in my town had any casualties from the hurricane, a few down power lines but nothing else, and now it's way behind us. Read, Review, Favourite and Enjoy!
Chapter 79: End of a Invasion
On one side, a massive funeral pit where hundreds of bodies belonging to butchered and stitched together corpses of machines, people and animals was burning. On the other side a group of four heroes were sitting in a circle using their Soul Eater weapons to dispose of some garbage.
"I think I can hear them begging." Katarina stated as she none the less used her spear to nab another soul fragment.
"Block it out." Tanya replied as she shot another soul fragment that was trying to escape. "These things are a plague, and they need to be wiped out."
A small part of Tanya pointed out to her that many of these people were probably not that different from her: random people snatched out of their happy day to day lives by some random monster and shoved into a situation they never asked for and forced to do things they never would've done other wise. All the ones that she could see looked fairly young too. The rest of her were rational, insanely rational. Rational enough to look at what she was seeing and only think of human shaped monsters. Rational enough to have concluded that it was either them or her and had already chosen the latter every single time. She wondered some days if she had lost her mind, other times she simply concluded that it was never quite all there. Maple hadn't been put on the task of rounding up and disposing of the Soul Fragments. They could see the new capital from here and she was given the task of watching it for any sign of Makina's next act of madness. This turned out to be a wise decision.
"Tanya. I think I see something." Maple stated and Tanya let out a sigh in response. Flying up to Maple's head and turned her bow into a scoped rifle to get a better look at what she was talking about.
"Why is there an ice berg moving towards us?" Tanya found herself legitimately wondering as a fortress made of ice had not only suddenly sprung up out of no where but was also slowly moving towards them as well. Then a hammer flew through the air and slammed into Maple's face.
"OW!" Maple rubbed her snout that was red from the welt the hammer left behind. "That really hurt!"
"'That. Hurt?'" Tanya stated putting emphasis on both words, and then another hammer came flying at them.
This time Maple had been ready and smacked the hammer away with her hand, and then followed up by deploying her guns and obliterating the ice berg before someone could throw another offending hammer at her. And then another hammer came out and slammed into her head so hard she fell over.
"Okay. I'm going to try something else now." Saying that Maple discontinued the use of savagery and resumed her human form, however she resumed her human form inside of her mech suit, which then fired off its guns as she flew away, tearing through the woods as she made her way to the enemy camp.
""Does she think I wouldn't notice her approach?"" Shildina asked and yet at the same time didn't, someone else's voice talking over hers. Instead the Whale Woman lifted up her hand and threw the hammer after her. Immediately Maple stopped, turned around to face the incoming projectile, and swapped out one of the guns for a familiar turtle shield. The hammer slammed into the shield and the counter effect activate, a green ball emerged from the shield and flew after the source of the attack that just struck it while Maple pushed the hammer away from herself and took off again firing all barrels. In the meantime the ball of green found Shildina, and entered her body sucking out the magical energy inside of it.
""GGGAAAHHH!"" And maybe sucking on something else too in the process, like a certain parasite that had burrowed it's way inside of her and took root. ""What accursed technique has those brats come up with now?"" With the body snatcher preoccupied Maple was able to fly unencumbered to the iceberg and resumed her savage form to attack it and pound it into shaved ice.
The hammer struck her in the chin again so Maple settled for just getting into the ice berg via Machine god and blasting whatever she found inside. She immediately vetoed that plan when she saw the person who kept throwing the vassal hammer at her was Shildina.
"Shildina?" This time Maple shot the hammer with her gun before it could smash into her face, which then reappeared in Shildina's hand. "Since when are you a hero?"
""Wrong again little brat!"" If a old woman's voice speaking over a young woman's voice inside of a body that she knew belonged with the later wasn't a big fat red flag the Maple would eat her shield.
"You're not Shildina." Maple stated letting out a sigh.
"Are you Makina or one of the reincarnated that she butchered to make those things we fought before?" Maple asked as she gave the parasitic creature before her a sidelong glance.
""I'm a step above those weaklings!"" The thing that had taken over Shildina's body snapped by way of reply.
"Takt thought the same thing. We turned him into fuel for our skills." Maple wasn't impressed by blustering. She's met literal gods, actual honest to goodness demon lords, stood before queens and stood against nations. This person on the other hand? "So if you're not reincarnated what are you then? A body hijacking parasite? Is Makina even your real name or just the name of your last victim?" The old goat ground stolen teeth at the sound of Maple's accusations while a dark aura started to envelop her body.
""Oh you're asking for it now you little brat aren't you?"" The hammer started to change form, a familiar corruption over taking and changing it.
"I know what that is." Maple stated as the hammer assumed the form of a twisted chimera of seven animals. "Are you sure that you should be messing around with that? You have no idea what that thing could be taking as compensation." As far as Maple was concerned the hammer could eat Makina or whoever she was whole, but if Shildina got caught up in whatever that weapon does...
""Oh don't worry, little Shildina will happily bear all the burdens for me!"" Makina stated letting out a crooked smile. ""If you want to save her so badly, then I'm afraid that the only way to do that is to leave!""
"No that won't be necessary." Maple stated letting out a sigh as the stupid woman managed to seal her own fate. "You're going to obediently drop that hammer now."
When Maple decided on a new strategy, it wasn't just to fly over and blast from afar using her Mech armour. She informed Sadeena of her suspicion that Shildina was somewhere aboard this ice berg fortress and told her that she would be acting as a decoy. Together with Raphtalia's invisibility Sadeena sneaked into the iceberg and observed what was going on. She drew similar conclusions to Maple for similar reasons and so came prepared appropriately. Everyone universally agreed that there was one Noble Phantasm that they all needed in their repertoire of transformations no matter what modifications Kuro had to make to it. For some like Maple it was difficult to turn a dagger into a shield, for Katarina and Sadeena on the other hand it was as easy as turning it's handle into the shaft for a harpoon. And so still invisible Sadeena turned her Harpoon into the 'Rule Breaker II' and chucked the deformed crescent shaped blade straight at her sister's side and it went deep.
""YYYEEEOOOUUUCCCHHH!"" Shildina/Makina screeched as she looked down at her side with a vassal weapon sticking out of it.
"She'll be okay right?" Raphtalia asked as she and Sadeena de-cloaked themselves.
"The injury will be fatal if it's not treated." Sadeena replied bluntly. "Nothing that little Maple can't fix, or that reincarnated if she wants my sister's body so badly. Hey Mr. Ghost, what will happen to that body snatcher if my sister dies with that thing in control of her?" Bason appeared next to Raphtalia, looking at both his oracle and the spirit she allowed to take over her.
"First, naturally, the girl will die, which might be inconvenient for you but it will deliver the creature possessing her directly to the after life." Bason explained as he watched the combination of Makina and Shildina struggling for control over the hammer.
"Alright then, we just need to expel her from Shildina's body." Sadeena stated while she cracked her knuckles, her 'Arst Strike Throw' should be wearing off any moment now, she might have to chuck it again to break those two up. It could be that after Kuro used the Rule Breaker II Makina had to come up with a even stronger way of forcibly binding the weapons creating this result, it could also be that after modifying it the Rule Breaker lost some of it's power over treachery.
""Why won't you...!"" Whether the end result was instant or not though was ultimately irrelevant, as Makina lost this fight. The hammer flew out of Shildina's hands and over to Raphtalia's who was now in an awkward position as a sword user considering she was chosen by the hammer.
"I understand that this is a major achievement for you but I will continue on with what I was saying. That creature over there has already put her soul into such dire straits that she is no longer able to occupy a body just by herself anymore. The method she would've had to have used would be to bore a hole through the girl's soul and then occupy that, leaving us in a situation that you can't simply rip her out with one of the Soul Eater weapons you people are so fond of."
So a reincarnated's special abilities come from abusing their souls? That's good to know, they already suspected but it would be good for Tanya and Katarina to receive proper confirmation about what they've been doing to themselves all this time.
"Is there another way of getting rid of her?" Sadeena asked as her harpoon flew back into her hand.
"Of course but alas I've not the luxury to talk about it at the moment." Bason moved out of the way as a screeching Shildina/Makina slammed head long into Raphtalia and ran her over the edge of the iceberg.
""That doesn't belong to you!"" The possessed oracle growled as she attempted to reestablish her will over the hammer.
"You are the last person anyone wants to hear that from!" Raphtalia stated as she disappeared like one of her illusions dispersing. "And you should look behind you more often!" In place of the Raphtalia below Makina there was now above her instead, wielding the hammer and preparing to smack Makina down out of the sky.
Naturally the possessed whale woman turned around and prepared to fire off magic, and was rewarded by the invisible Raphtalia she had been grappling with paying her back for repeatedly tossing the hammer at Maple's face.
In the mean time Katarina was leading a second unit towards the iceberg.
"I don't think these are gonna work for me guys." Wyndia said indicating the necklaces she was wearing around her neck and wrists. "I'm not strong enough yet to carry around all these hammers. Nor am I skilled enough to manipulate over a half dozen different weapons."
"Rafu!" The group was greeted by the sight of Raphtalia's familiar who was indicating Wyndia.
"Raph-chan?" Katarina asked looking at the small furry animal in confusion. "What are you doing here?"
"Never mind that. Hey do you want these?" Wyndia asked after taking off the 'helping hands' accessories and holding them up to Raph-Chan.
"Rafu!" The little Tanuki nodded in the affirmative as she happily took the accessories before moving onto more important topics. "Rafu!" Raph-chan cast a illusion in front of Midori, a large dark red sign with the word 'Stop' Written in large white letters, naturally being the good boy that he was Midori complied.
"Um. Why is this sign here?" Midori asked the relevant question on everyone's mind. And then the wrestling pair of Raphtalia and Makina in Shildina's body slammed into the spot directly in front of them still wrestling over the hammer. "Don't get me wrong I'm grateful for the sign but I still don't know why it's here."
"Rafu!" Raph-chan assumed Raphtalia's form, wearing all three of the accessories. At the same time six hammers flew out of the carriage's storage compartment with Raph-chan picking up two more, and then using one to smash in Makina's face.
""You've... multiplied now?"" Raph-Chan in Raphtalia form helped original Raphtalia to her feet.
"I don't see any reason to explain to you what's going on. For one thing we're still having a fight here." Raphtalia stated as true to Makina's fears they multiplied, stepping into multiple directions at the same time each one of the Raphtalia's armed with two of the Seven Star Hammer weapons. Makina calmed down and stayed rational as she thought this situation through. Shildina's report mentioned that the Rebel Empress had a body double, it's a simple enough task of picking up some raccoon whore off of the streets and using a knife and healing magic to alter her looks, and this brat has an expert in healing supporting her. She needed to stay on focus, Shildina still had her deck of cards and with it a potentially massive arsenal of weapons at her disposal to work with.
""You are not the only one with cheap tricks Whore Empress!"" Shildina's foot stomped down on the ground with more spikes of ice running out from them to skewer Raphtalia, which was then followed up by arc's of lightning spreading outwards as jets of flame appeared and were fired off to skewer Raphtalia, which might've connected if it weren't for the large blunt instrument Raphtalia just got her hands on intercepting the fire blast.
As for the lightning several of the Raphtalia's intercepted them, the lightning hitting her hammers and dispersing before she then followed by charging after Makina. One Raphtalia came from her left and swung her hammer directly into a newly raised stone wall causing it to let out a loud crack as it was struck by the weapon, a second Raphtalia attempted the exact same thing only from the right and was met with the same fate, a loud crack indicating that the person on the other side of the barrier was also real. Thus Makina had little reason to worry about another Raphtalia jumping through the air to slam her weapon on her head. If she wanted to land a hit on her then she shouldn't have revealed her trump card.
""I, the Empress of Q'Ten Lo-GAH!"" Makina was promptly interrupted by the feeling of a large war hammer slamming down on top of the head that she had stolen. ""How are you-!?"" Another Raphtalia slammed her hammer into Shildina's back.
"You aren't very creative." By now Makina had just got it beaten into her that she needs to dodge all the attacks, because either Raphtalia has a method to make her illusions real or she has a ungodly number of body doubles. So naturally that is what she was doing, of course while she was dealing with the hammers that she could see, she ran straight into the striking range of the hammer that she couldn't see.
""What are you!"" Makina tied to block the next blow and surprise after surprise it passed through her, albeit not without leaving behind the tell tale sting of Ki breaking her guard, and then she got hit by a real hammer. Like that Makina couldn't fight back any more. When she dodged she ran into invisible hammers. When she blocked she was worn down by illusions and then hit by hammers. When she used magic she was interrupted as Dragon Pulse magic either neutralised her spells or the hammers smashed through her attempts to attack or defend. ""Who do you think you are!?"" The possessed Shildina snapped glowering with rage. ""I have run this country for longer than you have been alive child!""
Raphtalia could have come up with a witty retort such as 'you have run this country into the ground' or 'The Empress of Q'Ten Lo' but some times a sharp weapon does not leave the most damaging wounds. One cannot argue after all that a sharpened knife can do more damage to a person than getting hit by a train at full force.
"I am someone with no interest in talking to you." And on that note Raphtalia landed a final blow on Shildina's body, striking not with the hammer that she had been using up until now, but rather a spirit hammer that Bason had provided. The force of the hammer hit Shildina so had that she was sent flying over to a nearby tree and rendered unconscious.
"She's still alive?" Sadeena didn't look so sure as she leaned down to Shildina's side. "Right?"
"There are ways around that." Bason called over Maple who tied Shildina up with her rope shield and started applying healing magic. "The card containing the piece of her soul that the bitch had removed should be in the deck." Bason intoned helpfully.
"Which one?" Sadeena asked looking at the thick bundle of cards that were kept in a holster on Shildina's hip.
"It should look like a Yin symbol." Bason replied helpfully and Maple quickly picked out the correct one. "By putting that on the girl the bitch's soul will be forcibly expelled while the soul puts itself back into place, be ready for even as a fragment of herself she is still dangerous enough to take at least one of our souls down with her." Bason stated making his opinion known, and like wise one round of reflect shield later and Shildina was tied up with the Soul Eater Shield.
"Okay, here we go!" Saying that Maple slapped the card she took out of Shildina's holster onto her chest causing her entire body to light up. Shildina screamed as some black and mist like was expelled from her body, from the fog the creature that they knew as Makina screamed and wailed like a banshee, before being sucked down into Maple's shield and refilled Maple's SP bar. "Well..." Kaede didn't know what to say to something like that.
"House cleaning?" Sadeena asked as Maple finished up with Shildina's medical treatment.
"Best idea I've heard all night."
Ruftmelia had been taken back to the palace by Katarina and her group. Taken to the giant gaping hole that was made when Shildina's ice magic tore through the palace. The group quickly found a old Hakuko woman lying prone on the floor not moving.
"Makina!" Ruftmelia shouted as he ran over to the old woman's side and took her hand. "You're gonna be okay! We brought a healer and-" The old woman's hand reached up and rubbed Ruftmelia's cheek and for a few moments a smile could be seen on that old face, like someone who was fondly looking at her grandson. And then her hand hit the floor.
Katarina was trained in basic first aid back in her first life, read she knew how to check a pulse to confirm signs of life, and found them wanting after picking up the old woman's hand. Remembering how to perform CPR Katarina reached over and under the old woman's robe as she attempted to jump start her heart, and received nothing of value for her efforts. Recalling Maple's explanation about her first interaction between herself and the old lady Katarina took out a bottle of Yggdrasil and fed some of the miracle liquid to the old woman's mouth, to wasted effect. Finally Katarina put the bottle away, closed the old woman's eyes, assumed a seiza position and gave a bow with her whole body. And then Ruftmelia broke down crying. From what Katarina heard about the old hag she could only conclude that she had a personality that was very similar to Malty's, except that there was no possible way that Malty could raise someone to be this loyal to her. No there was much simpler explanation: Bason had explained that that parasite was no longer in a state where it could make use of a body just by itself no, it had to bore a hole into the body's existing soul and take that over instead. How much of the person remains after that process is over? Shildina could apparently still function relatively well, did that parasite just swap out control over the body whenever faced with something inconvenient or that she was bad at?
"What do we do with her?" Kyurie asked looking down at the old woman's corpse.
"I've seen what these people do with corpses." Katarina replied coldly, thinking of but one way to give the old woman a funeral that was not only respectful but also lasting. "We burn it."
While Katarina was gathering fire wood Raphtalia was also arriving at the palace and kicked open the front door. The Jiang-Shi corps were standing at attention, on their knees in front of them were the various people who had been running the empire alongside Makina for the past decade. Wordlessly Raphtalia tossed a notepad and pen to the undead leader who in turn wrote something out and threw the notepad back.
"Madam empress, we implore you..."
"Caught running away." Raphtalia stated as she walked forward, slammed the hammer down directly on the hand of the man who had spoken up, and leaned on it as she looked down at him. "Well I don't blame you. We don't have a good track record when it comes to countries." Zeltoble was thrown into a civil war, Faubrey's king was dead and his countless possible heirs butchered each other trying to fill the void. Now Q'Ten Lo has been added to the hit list. "Give me one good reason why you should be spared."
"We are advisers, servants to the Previous emperor your cousin, and your grandfather before that. We..."
"Adviser eh?" Raphtalia spoke, and thus the man in question had been given his cue to shut up and listen. "An adviser has one job and one job only: giving advice. Was it your 'advice' that my cousin make that ridiculous law of 'all life is sacred?'" That was all her cousin's idea make no mistake about it, and he would have to live with that all his life. But he was also a child, and it was the responsibility of his care takers to stop him from doing such foolish things. "Was it your 'advice' that bitch Makina be allowed to rampage as much as she pleases?" Raphtalia lifted the hammer up and slammed it down again and once more the adviser made a twisted face of pain. "Was it your 'advice' that the people you assigned to spy on me and my family all my life leave us and our village to die when the wave opened up above our heads and dumped a three headed dog onto my father!?" The Adviser made a brave face through the pain as he played his last trump card.
"If we ever spoke up against the emperor or Makina, she would have us killed." Raphtalia lifted the hammer and placed it on her shoulder as the groveling old man finally said something worth sparing his life.
"You finally say something worth all the trouble you have caused." Raphtalia walked over to the throne where her cousin has been seated, where her grandfather was seated, where Makina stood next to for all these years. "Fear not. I do not have people killed for disagreeing with me." The adviser let out a sigh. "I will have you killed however should I find that the extent of your crimes exceeds my tolerance for them, both those of the past and of the future."
"We have been blessed by a wise and tolerant empress." The Adviser stated as he gave a proper and willing bow to Raphtalia.
"I'm not done yet." Raphtalia brought the hammer down, destroying the throne and all the corruption it represents in the process. "You have been a willing and key participant in all of Makina's crimes up until this point in time, and for that my people will demand blood." Raphtalia turned to face the leader of the Jiang-shi. "Take them into the city and give each of them twenty lashes. Then take them to the nearest settlement and do the same thing. Repeat this process as many times as needed until every village in Q'Ten Lo has been visited. Strip one third of the survivors of their posts and then find whatever member of their faction that isn't corrupt to their core for their replacement." Raphtalia ordered, some remained silent, some protested loudly. "Give everyone who just spoke up now ten more lashes on each stop." And thus a bunch of old men were taken before the people of Q'Ten Lo and horse whipped, some didn't make it through the process.
Review Section:
Captain Imaginat: Don't worry, the body hijacking parasite known as Makina is officially dead, and even after getting stabbed and throttled Shildina's gonna be okay too. You haven't seen Trash attend to his 'nightly duties.'
Saif Omar: Who said that it was a guy she was setting her up with? For one thing Rat is fully aware of the processes for turning stem cells into sperm to fertilise eggs with, Tanya's bloodline isn't in danger.
RonaldM40196867: True. Probably, the Jiang-Shi are kind of a mixed bag really. The new characters are a mixed package too.
Nightshadegirl: Hijacking her body, if it wasn't obvious. Makina's opinion isn't different than any other reincarnated, I don't know why you're only commenting on it now. No problem.
Illya Emiya: Agreed.