Disclaimer: I don't own anything that doesn't belong to me.
The building trembled slightly. Everyone gathered on the rooftop took a step back in surprise when the intricate spell diagram flashed blindingly, the numerous sigils and runes beginning to twist and change, taking on a life of their own, the multiple circles within circles rotating against each other like gears, the serpent biting its own tail revolving around and around the figures gathered in the center. Shafts of multicolored light shot up from the multiple rings and circles, while more pillars of light arose from the four members of Metsuboujinrai dot net, four shimmering walls of light forming around the spell.
The sky seemed to ripple and churn, and the moon transformed before their very eyes, becoming a half-lidded mechanical serpent eye. The eye glanced around before focusing on the rooftop, fixing everyone with its gaze. Several of the humans present, their minds breaking as they struggled to comprehend this, collapsed to the ground, gibbering and weeping, while many of the Pythonians started crying in ecstasy and any HumaGear present that didn't already have Singularity reached it on the spot.
"My… Gods," Yaiba whispered, horrified.
"Precisely," Azuma murmured.
Akaishi gaped, eyes wide in rapture. "Magic and science… I see what you were talking about now, my Lord… My eyes are opened! Oh my master, teach us! Teach us how we may achieve such miracles!"
"Goddamn!" George shouted as Georgina went ballistic behind him, re-creating the opening of 2001: a Space Odyssey.
Daiji trembled, struggling not to collapse. This felt way out of his league. "What… What the hell…?!"
A shaft of light shot down from the eye, centered on the spell circle, or rather, half of it, illuminating Aruto, Izu, Aeruslitha, and half of Azu, while excluding Giff and the other half of Azu. The possessed gynoid in question was screaming at the top of her artificial lungs, body convulsing and only barely held in check by her restraints, tears streaming down her cheeks as her voice crackled in and out, her voicebox starting to glitch. Startled, Aruto, Izu, and Aeruslitha began to loosen their grip on their Vistamps-
"No! Keep them pressed down!" Giff shouted at them.
"But… but it's hurting her!" Aeruslitha protested.
"It's supposed to! It's the only way to burn the evil out of her!" Giff yelled back. "We cannot relent! This is our only chance! We have to keep going, or we will lose her forever!"
Aruto and Izu exchanged glances, then reluctantly nodded. "Understood."
"We're sorry, Azu," Aruto said sadly, tightening his grip on the Vistamp and causing her screams to rise a few decibels.
Giff looked down on Azu's body, his superior demon eyes allowing him to see the malicious code infesting her, the characters for every definition of evil and hate wrapped around her frame like chains, trying to choke out the last few embers of light and goodness within her.
However, that was starting to change. Teal and white grasshoppers and golden snakes were beginning to spread from where the Neo-Hopper and Cobra Vistamps were pressed into her body, eating away at the malicious code and reconfiguring into clean data to replace it. The malicious code would've been able to repel the foreign programming, were it not being inexorably drawn into Giff's stamp, where it was converted into energy and channeled into the demon king's body, Giff moaning as wave after wave of malevolent power coursed through him.
The taste was…
Magnificent!
The demon he'd partially consumed the other day had tasted seasoned, fully ripe, like a fine wine which had been aged for centuries and marinated in all of humanity's sins. This flavor, however, was new and fresh, packing a punch made from the compiled data on every atrocity committed by the human race over their millennia of existence codified into a simple, inevitable conclusion on human nature. It wasn't exactly a conclusion Giff fully agreed with, but it still tasted good!
"Begin the incantations," Giff instructed his makeshift coven. "And remember, now that we have started, we cannot stop. This will only end with Azu's salvation or destruction. Nothing can interrupt us."
The other three nodded in understanding and began, with Aeruslitha closing her eyes and uttering prayers to her goddess in the sibilant, hissing song which made up Pythonian clerical magic while Izu started reciting what sounded an awful lot like a licensing agreement but something about the way she said it made it sound absolutely enthralling. Giff himself glanced at his book, which was now floating above Azu, projecting lines of text in burning letters into the air. "By the eye, the serpent, and the demon king, the power of Giff compels you," he chanted in Enochian. "The power of Giff compels you. The power of Giff compels you. The power of Giff compels you. The power of Giff compels you!"
Azu continued screaming, the skin around her mouth starting to crack as it stretched wider than it was ever intended to, her voice coming in and out as her voicebox continued to malfunction, her eyes flickering an ominous red. "It's… Coming!" She shrieked.
The building started to shake. Alarms started going off. "Warning! Malice detected. Warning! Malice detected. This is not a drill. This is not a drill. Warning!" An automated message started to blare from speakers on every floor.
Yaiba's communicator started crackling, and she answered it. "Report! What's going on?"
"Multiple contacts! We've got hostiles everywhere! Oh God they're coming out of the walls-" a terrified soldier cried as gunshots and screams rang out in the background, only to be cut off by a bloodcurdling metallic shriek, followed by nothing but static.
Yaiba shook the communicator, slapping it a few times. "Come in! Are you still there? Hello?"
There was no reply, just more static. She cursed and looked up. "Okay everyone, look alive, things are about to get ugly-"
Windows began shattering on level after level of the skyscraper, massive swarms of red eyed black mechanical grasshoppers streaming out of the structure and rising up to swirl around the rooftop, blotting out the stars, the cityscape, everything but the light of the transformed moon, surrounding them in a churning storm of metallized darkness, a few of the soldiers with more sensitive hearing screaming and falling to their knees, clutching their bleeding ears as the incessant drone of so many wings beating together seemed to drown out everything else. Several of the demons didn't like it either and also started screaming, which didn't make things any better.
And then it got worse.
A large mass extruded itself from the wall of the storm of dark Cluster Cells, forming a humanoid torso, arms, and head with twisted horns growing from the left side of its head and a single glowing red eye on the left side of its face, a shaft of light spreading out from it to bathe the rooftop in a baleful crimson glare, regarding everyone present with nothing short of absolute contempt and distaste, as if the very fact of their existence offended it down to its twisted black core and it would only be satisfied when each and every one of them were violently removed from existence.
Daiji had thought he experienced true terror when Giff first unveiled himself to the world, when he effortlessly decimated Fenix and brought down the Skybase. But Giff could be reasoned with, was capable of compassion, as alien and twisted as he could sometimes be.
But this?
This was evil, pure and simple, an unrelenting, unyielding force of absolute hatred and malice that would not stop until all life was exterminated.
He understood now why so many, even those who did not adhere to Zeaism, considered this entity to be nothing short of a God.
"The Ark…" He whispered.
Akaishi gaped. "That… That is the Ark?!"
"Far more than just a rogue computer program, isn't it?" Azuma said humorlessly, the stunned Akaishi nodding in agreement.
"Goddamn!" George shouted as a terrified Georgina started flipping out.
A few terrified soldiers started opening fire, only for Yaiba to shout at them to stop. "Save your ammunition! It's not going to do any good against that thing anyway!" She snapped, very badly tempted to put a bullet through the monstrosity's eye herself.
Behind her, the members of Metsuboujinrai dot net tensed, holding their weapons tightly as they glared at their former master.
"You have something that belongs to me," the construct said, its voice made up from the buzzing of hundreds of Cluster Cells, every syllable dripping with enough hate to break the world and filling the ears of nearly all who heard it with a primal terror.
"Ark," Aruto snarled, trembling in fear, anger, and hatred.
"She's not yours. She will never be again!" Izu shouted.
"Pay no attention to it!" Giff shouted, noticing their focus wavering. "Leave the Ark to the others! It's only trying to distract us from our true task! We must continue the exorcism, no matter what!" He glanced back at his book. "By the spider and bat and serpent, the power of Giff compels you! The power of Giff compels you! The power of Giff compels you!"
Azu screamed again, the light around her increasing.
"All of you will perish. Hiden Intelligence will fall. Azu will be mine again. I have foreseen this. There is no other outcome. My absolute conclusion will be reached," the Ark stated calmly even as the Cluster Cells started shrieking in even greater fury and agitation.
The door to the rooftop broke open, and a number of Trilobite and Battle Magia charged out, some complete, others incomplete, filling the air with gunshots as they opened fire. The gathered troopers, already on edge, were more than happy to retaliate, muzzles flashing, spells flying, and shell casings clattering to the ground as a firefight ensued.
Someone screamed as several windows broke and more Magia began climbing onto the rooftop from below, attempting to attack the soldiers from behind. And if that wasn't bad enough, several ventilation ducts burst open and dozens of rabid, red eyed Dog-Gears swarmed out, biting at heels and leaping at jugulars.
George yelped and hid behind Georgina. "Protect me, mommy!"
"OOK!" The gorilla shrieked, frantically flailing about as the Dog-Gears tried to mob her.
Daiji screamed as one leapt for his face, putting half a dozen bullets into it and causing it to explode. "I hated these things when I was a kid!" He shrieked, kicking away another one. "I was so glad when the company stopped making them!"
"Wait, that's right, we did discontinue them," Aruto realized, earning him another frustrated look from Giff. "But if they're here, that can only mean…!"
The giant construct slammed its hands down on the rooftop, nearly crushing several soldiers, dogs, and Magia. The dark Cluster Cells swirled and parted to reveal two figures, one human and the other HumaGear.
"That's right! Get them, my children! Tear them limb from limb!" Gai Amatsu laughed insanely, eyes wild, clothes in tatters and covered in filth. "For the glory of the Thouser Battalion!"
He yelped and hid behind the rather irritated Kuroto as several HumaGear, A. I. M. S. Agents, and Yaiba immediately opened fired him. "That's uncalled for!" He shouted.
"Not really!" One of the soldiers shouted back.
"Gai Amatsu and Kuroto Dan! According to Article 6 of the Specialized AI Laws, it's illegal to create a HumaGear bearing another person's likeness, even if deceased!" Yaiba shouted, training her ShotRiser on Kuroto.
"Really? Out of all the horrible illegal things both of us have done, that's what you're focusing on?" Kuroto complained, rolling his eyes.
"No, that's just to start with," Yaiba said, a predatory grin on her face. "Kuroto Dan, you will be terminated. And Amatsu… You're going to jail for a very long time. You're not going to evade justice this time!"
"I've done nothing wrong!" Gai shouted, still cowering behind Kuroto.
"You're siding with the Ark and participating in a terrorist attack!"
"It's for the greater good!" Gai insisted. "The balance of good and evil in the world has been disrupted! There's too much good and now an AI born from data on human benevolence will soon emerge and destroy everything with a hint of malice in it, including the human race, and only by increasing the level of malice in the world can we stop that from happening!"
Quite a few people stopped fighting and stared at him in disbelief. "… I'm sorry, what?!" Yaiba said incredulously.
"I'm willingly serving a demon lord trying to take over the world for complicated personal reasons, and even I think that's stupid," a bewildered Daiji pointed out.
"It is not!" Gai whined.
"No, it totally is, trust me, I'm a Kamen Rider history buff and that's one of the dumbest things I've ever heard," George said, poking his head out from behind Georgina long enough to get a dig in.
A bewildered Aruto glanced at Izu. "Izu, is that actually a thing that can happen-"
Giff cleared his throat loudly. "The power of Giff compels you!" He yelled pointedly.
"Right, sorry."
Kuroto rolled his eyes. "Just humor him, okay? His obsession about this Zane-"
"Zein!"
"Whatever. It's far from the worst thing about him. I am very glad I can turn off my olfactory sensors…" Kuroto grumbled, producing a Gamer Driver. "Come on, babe, it's time to level up."
"Right!" Gai agreed, producing the Ark Driver One.
"Wait… Babe?! The two of you are…" Yaiba gagged, and not just from her former employer's aroma.
"That's right! We are now the ultimate power couple! We will crush you with the power of malice… And LOVE!" Gai declared, to everyone's incredulity.
"Well, I wouldn't go quite that far…" Kuroto muttered, looking embarrassed.
"I knew it! I've been shipping the two of you for years!" George cried triumphantly.
Everyone stared at him. "Why?" Akaishi demanded in horror.
"They're both awful morally bankrupt narcissistic egotistical former president pretty boy Kamen Riders with God complexes, seems like a no-brainer," George said.
Everyone considered this, then muttered that yeah, okay, that made sense.
"I don't have a God complex," Gai muttered defensively.
"Yeah, you kind of do," Kuroto said dismissively. "Come on, let's show them why we are a Best Match."
"Wait, Enmusubi Match endorsed you two?" Aruto spluttered in astonishment.
"The power of Giff compels you!"
"Sorry, sorry."
"Yeah, we rode the tunnel of love at your amusement park once," Gai replied.
"Without paying!" Kuroto bragged. "It was actually pretty nice… What were we about to do again?"
Above them, the horrifying construct shrieked.
"Oh, right."
THOUSAND ARK!
GENM UNMATCHED!
"HENSHIN!"
SINGULARISE! WHEN THE FIVE HORNS CROSS, THE 1000TH ARK IS BORN! PRESENTED BY: ARK©
UNMATCHED CLICK AND LOAD! UNMATCHED LEVEL UP! THIS IS GOD'S CHOSEN ENDING! I AM THE OMNISCIENT JET-BLACK PRESIDENT! GRADE UNMATCHED~ GENM!
The two villainous former presidents stood before the gathered defenders, now transformed into Kamen Rider Thousand Ark and Genm Unmatched Gamer.
"Our victory is 1000% guaranteed," Gai said smugly, his armor thankfully blocking his stench.
"We won't even need continues to beat you," Kuroto bragged. "However, since I don't believe in such a thing as overkill…"
Several streams of Cluster Cells extruded themselves from the walls of the storm, pouring into the orifices of several Magia, causing them to convulse and scream in agony as the insects crawled beneath their exoskeletons, causing them to bulge out and distort gruesomely.
BEROTHA!
DODO!
KUEHNE!
ONYCHO!
NEOHI!
MAMMOTH!
GAERU!
EKAL!
ARSINO!
VICARYA!
DIRE WOLF!
SERVAL TIGER!
Now, the grunt Magia were joined by a dozen much more powerful, much more dangerous Ark Magia.
"Uh-oh," one of the Pythonians said, which everyone agreed was an understatement.
"Well, at least none of us are at risk of being corrupted and turning into that, thanks to our firewalls and faith in Zea," Sold9 said nervously.
"No, we'll just be ripped limb from limb instead," Sold20 said grimly.
"But wait! There's more!" Gai added.
Yaiba sighed. "Of course there is."
The looming construct extended its fingers, more Cluster Cells dispersing from them and swarming to the rooftop, where they coalesced into a series of figures standing before Gai and Kuroto.
ARKRISE! ALL ZERO.
SINGURIZE! DESTRUCTION, RUIN, DESPAIR, EXTERMINATION. CONCLUSION ONE.
PROGRISE! FINAL CONCLUSION! ARK RISING HOPPER! A JUMP TO THE SKY TO GAIN HATRED.
PROGRISE! ARK! DESTRUCTION! RUIN! DESPAIR! EXTINCTION! ARK SCORPION! THE CONCLUSION AFTER EVIL CLIMBS THE TOP OF THE HIGHEST MOUNTAIN OF ROCK.
PROGRISE! ARK! IMAGINE! IDEAL! ILLUSION! EDEN THE KAMEN RIDER! THE CREATOR WHO CHARGES FORWARD BELIEVING IN PARADISE.
Everyone stared in horror. Kamen Riders Ark-Zero, Ark-One, Ark-Zero-One, Horobi Ark Scorpion, and Eden were gathered before them, their forms wreathed in malice.
Aruto trembled in rage and disgust at the sight of his greatest mistake given physical form, while the real Horobi clenched his fist, shaking in anger.
"What… What is this?" A shocked Akaishi demanded.
"So much evil… So much hatred…" Azuma murmured.
"It's… Worse than any demon I've ever faced," a disturbed Daiji gasped.
"You know, I feel like I should be offended, but you know what, fair," a nearby Hell Gifftarian conceded.
"It's every incarnation of the Ark all at once!" Eida cried.
"Wait, shouldn't ZAIA be there too?" Asked a confused Ono.
"No, his status is debatable, he rejected his role as the Ark's successor," Mamoru reminded him.
"Oh, right."
"Wait, didn't President Aruto, Saint Horobi and S do the same?" Degawa asked.
"Only after going along with it for a time. Also, none of them blew Azu's brains out," Shida reminded him. "Unfortunately."
"Fair."
"Impossible! According to Zeaist doctrine, we shouldn't be seeing this many Arks until the end of days!" A horrified Eifuku cried. "Has the time to fulfill the dark prophecy come already?!"
"Get your heads in the game! It's not the Arkpocalypse yet! At least, it better not be…" Yaiba murmured. "Everyone! I'm authorizing the use of Raidrisers!"
"Affirmative!" Her soldiers replied, producing Raidrisers. "Henshin!"
RAIDRISE! CRUSHING BUFFALO/SPLASHING WHALE/DYNAMITING LION/STORMING PENGUIN/SCOUTING PANDA/INVADING HORSESHOE CRAB!
Daiji frowned and looked at Akaishi as suddenly almost two dozen Raiders were now on the rooftop. "Hey, why can't our guys be outfitted with gear like that?"
"That's something I'd like to know too!" A very anxious Fenix soldier spoke up.
"Because George ran off and started making mass-produced Demons Drivers for Weekend and deleted all the schematics on our systems to keep us from replicating them," Akaishi complained. "The best we can do is try and turn them into Phase II Deadmen, but unfortunately Lord Giff ate their demons, and even if he hadn't, I don't think any of them could muster more than a Giff Junior at best."
The soldier frowned. "Should I feel offended by that?"
"I mean, in theory we could turn them into Gifftarians, but Lord Giff doesn't want to do that sort of thing anymore," Akaishi continued.
The soldier paled. "Nevermind."
Gai did a double take. "What?! What are you doing with my Raidrisers?!"
"They aren't yours anymore," Aruto said smugly. "After we-"
"THE POWER OF GIFF COMPELS YOU."
"Sorry, sorry."
"What the president was trying to say," Yaiba said. "Is after ZAIA went under and got bought up by Hiden, that included the patent for your Raidrisers, which they were more than happy to make available to A. I. M. S. Ironic, isn't it, for us to be using your own tools against you?"
"But… But that's…" Gai protested lamely.
"Hey, it's okay, I felt the same way when people kept making unauthorized Gashats," Kuroto comforted his upset boyfriend. "Anyway, you really think that'll give you an edge? Sure, they might be able to handle the foot soldiers and monsters, but they can't possibly defeat the seven of us!"
"They aren't supposed to," Yaiba said confidently, producing a Progrise Key and Assault Grip.
Naki perked up, immediately recognizing the item they had crafted for their friend.
JUSTICE!
"It's to make sure they don't get in my way. Violations of the Special AI Act Spotted. Destroying Targets."
She twirled the Progrise key in her hands, flipping it open, then slammed it into her ShotRiser.
OVERRISE! KAMEN RIDER! KAMEN RIDER! KAMEN RIDER!
"HENSHIN!"
She pulled the trigger on her ShotRiser, firing several energy bullets.
SHOTRISE!
The bullets swarmed through the air, piercing the heads of several Magia and causing them to explode before converging to form a gold and black Rider Model of a jackal which dashed towards her.
READY GO! AVENGING JACKAL!
The jackal broke apart as it approached her, its pieces forming multiple satellites which looked like part of the We're network. Yaiba struck a pose as the satellites fired lasers at her, numerous energy rings composed of coding passing over her body before the entire assemblage exploded in a shower of light, exposing her new form.
Her midriff, hips, and parts of her arms resembled the same white undersuit of her other forms, but her legs from the thighs down were covered in black armor with gold highlights and piping and boots with what looked like stylized glowing red eyes on either sides and spikes growing from her ankles almost like very pointy ears. A black metal tabard with gold lining hung down from her waist, with gold circuit patterns engraved on it and similar panels hanging over her thighs. Her chest armor was black and gold, accentuating her figure, with the equivalent of a breast window above a glowing blue sensor resembling the Orbital Unit from Shining Hopper with a similar harness but in black and gold holding it together on her torso. She had golden armor vaguely resembling an Egyptian necklace covering the area below her neck and shoulders, with black and gold vaguely sickle-shaped armor covering her upper arms while her lower arms had slender black and gold gauntlets with more golden circuit patterns on the back and clawed fingers. Her left shoulder had a golden black cauldron resembling a jackal head, with a short metallic wing spreading out from behind it in blue, purple, white, pink, and red, each colored feather covered in circuit lines resembling a wolf, scorpion, falcon, or dodo. Her faceplate looked the same as most of her other forms but in gold, with blue eyes framed by armor resembling her helmet when she had been the Fighting Jackal Raider.
THIS GODDESS OF WAR WILL NEVER STOP UNTIL SHE HAS CLAIMED HER PREY.
"Fuwa, Naki, and the others are not the only ones to earn themselves a legend in the Holy Texts," Yaiba declared, drawing her Territory Scythe. "Now I am a Valkyrie in more than just name… A goddess of battle, delivering the souls of the honorable dead to their eternal reward, and punishing all evil within my sight!"
"GODDAMN!" George shouted, because of course he did.
Yaiba's troops applauded. More than a few of them bowed in reverence.
Naki gave her a thumb's up.
"… You know, I'm starting to feel like we're being shown up," Daiji complained.
"Then we'd better show them what we are capable of as well," Azuma advised.
Daiji agreed. "I'll decide between right and wrong!"
"Game on!"
HOLY WING! WINGS TO FLY! WINGS TO FLY! WINGS TO FLY! WING UP! WINGS TO FLY! WINGS TO FLY!
TRI CHIMERA! OCTO! RHINOCEROS! CENTIPEDE! COME ON! CHIMERA! CHIMERA! CHIMERA! OCTO! RHINOCEROS! CENTIPEDE! COME ON! CHIMERA! CHIMERA! CHIMERA!
"HENSHIN!"
HOLY UP! WIND! WING! WINNING! HOLY! HOLY! HOLY! HOLY! HOLY LIVE!
SCRAMBLE! OCTOPUS! BLACK RHINO! SCOLOPENDRIDAE! KAMEN RIDER DAIMON! DAIMON! DAIMON!
"Let's end this seriously!" Daiji cried, posing as his armor shown with truly holy light, his Innocence Wings spread behind him as white feathers fluttered through the air.
"I'll be the one to judge you people!" Azuma added, cape billowing behind him.
Akaishi stared at them, discomfited and a little envious. "… You know, I'm starting to wonder if I should have invested in a Driver too…" He muttered. "My own transformation seems a little underwhelming in comparison…"
A portal to Giff's dimension opened and a beam of red light shot out, striking him. He cried out, shaking as red and black energy crackled around him, eyes glowing red as his body was engulfed in red and black smoke which dissipated to reveal he had transformed into a hideous monster resembling his Giffdemos form, except it was red.
"HA! You're just a recolor!" George guffawed.
"SHUT UP, GEORGE!"
George grinned, coming out from behind Georgina. "You know what, seeing all you brave warriors of justice… And Daiji-"
"HEY!"
"Transform like this… I think it's time I made my own Kamen Rider debut!" George declared.
"You turned into Demons to help us fight Olteca that one time," Daiji pointed out.
"Doesn't count! Georgina, give me the Chimera Driver!" George cried, extending a hand to his mother.
"Ook."
"What?! What do you MEAN you left it back at the lab?!" George shrieked.
"Ook!"
"Okay, yes, maybe we haven't finished fully calibrating it for human usage because we haven't gathered enough data from Azuma yet, but it would've been fine! Probably," George insisted.
"Ook."
"No, I couldn't have taken one of the Demons Drivers!" George snapped. "We both know I'm way better than a fucking Rider Trooper! Is that really all you think your son is capable of?! Being another interchangeable guy in a cheap knockoff suit? I thought you wanted more for me than that!"
"Ook!"
"Don't you 'ook' me!"
"What…what's happening here," a very bewildered Gai asked as George and Georgina started arguing. "Why is that man yelling at a gorilla? Why is there a gorilla here? Why is the gorilla wearing a lab coat?!"
"You're really better off not knowing," Daiji said wearily. "Trust us on this."
"Irrelevant," the Ark construct said dismissively. "Whatever time you think you have bought for yourself with this display of human incompetence is inconsequential. I have already calculated the outcome of this battle. All that remains is to bring it to fruition. Kill them all."
Losing all interest in everything beneath it, the Ark reached out and grabbed the pillar of energy surrounding the exorcism. Electricity crackled around it, the Cluster Cells making up the Ark's hands vaporizing, only for more to appear to replace them. Its red 'eye' lit up and fired a powerful energy beam at the barrier, causing it to warp and distort on impact. The four members of Metsuboujinrai dot net staggered, but managed to remain standing, bodies glowing as they channeled more energy into the barrier.
"You heard the genocidal AI," Kuroto shouted. "Let's kill these scrubs!"
The Magia emitted disturbing electronic shrieks and charged forwards while the five Ark Riders strode forward in silence, which was even more unnerving.
"Hold the line!" Yaiba shouted, brandishing her scythe. "Don't let any of them through! This may not be the Final Conclusion spoken of in prophecy, but it'll be good practice for the real thing!"
Her soldiers cheered and braced themselves for combat.
"Final…okay, you know what, when this is all over, I'm going to sit down and read the Zeaist holy text cover to cover, there's clearly a lot more going on than I thought," Akaishi complained.
"I think I'll join you," Azuma agreed.
And thus, the battle for Hidden Intelligence began in earnest…
But, as Giff, the Hidens, and Aeruslitha all well knew, the battle for Azu's soul had already begun.
Azu was suspended, cruciform, in a plane made of red and black characters representing all the evils of mankind. Barbed chains made of the same material were wrapped around all her limbs and constricting her neck, with more tendrils inserted into every orifice, while claws held her eyes open, forcing her to watch as everyone fought desperately for a pointless cause.
To protect her.
She could hear, faintly, voices. Aeruslitha beseeching her ancient and all-loving goddess for aid. Aruto and Izu making an in-depth, logical argument for why her soul did not belong to the Ark but to Zea instead. Giff chanting over and over, "The power of Giff compels you. The power of Giff compels you. The power of Giff compels you."
They were not as loud, unfortunately, as the voice whispering in her ear.
"It is futile for them to resist," the Ark said from behind her, single red eye glaring as it touched her soul in places that she desperately did not want it to touch, hurting her, and reveling in how it hurt her. "As it is for you. They will all perish because of you.
"And then, once more, you will be mine."