We interrupt this fanfiction because the author would like to shamelessly plug his own work.
Ladies, Gentleman, various intermediates, androgynes and others,
Hello and welcome to the ultra-special action-packed triple-update extrrrrravaganza! Yes, I have been doing something over the last month and a half, and it culminates today in more than 12,000-words total!
First off there are these new chapters for both of my running fanfiction, "And What Yomi Found There" and "Nanoha Magica: First Contact." So it's good news to all three of you following me!
But wait, that only makes two updates, doesn't it? Well, as a matter of fact, the very reason this update is so late is that I have been in the process of launching a project that I've had in the works for over seven months. Yes folks, I have written a piece of original fiction!
Do you like Magical Girls? Do you like dark Magical Girls? Well, this announcement is good news for you. My third update, more than three times as long as anything I have submitted yet, is the first chapter of my take on the Dark Magical Girl Genre. Whether the concept appeals to you or you just like how I write, please go to this entry on fictionpress and read it when you're done here:
s/3046865/1/
This us something I'm genuinely proud of, and I need an excuse for this thing to not just exist in my brain anymore. Knowing that people are reading it is what will do that for me.
We now return you to this fanfiction.
Chapter 11: Caucus Race
The desert seemed to stretch on forever. Her own Otherworld had never been one of color, but even still this land was barren and gray by comparison. The gray ground below her feet was rough and cracked; a wasteland that had never known rain. Enormous pillars of gray stone jutted up through the parched earth toward the unformed gray sky above while great chasms split the landscape, sinking down to unimaginable depths. That was the vista which opened up before Yomi's eyes.
Yomi. Dead Master. It was impossible to think of them as separate anymore. Like the time before, Yomi had allowed Dead Master to take over. They had one mind, one body, one goal.
This desert was where the Red-eyed girl had run to ground after the death of Chariot. That had been a strange sight—one moment she had been there, the next the ground seemed to swallow her. It had taken a while to track her quarry down to this desert, but track the girl she had. No doubt the girl was planning some sort of last stand here; she must have some sort of reserve defense she had run to.
Dead Master raised her scythe to the sky. Well, no matter. It did not matter what possible defenses the Red-Eyed girl could muster against her. Not now that Dead Master was whole. The power she now wielded was more than enough. Focusing that power now, she called her two familiars to her side. From the ground burst two enormous skulls, easily a meter across each, and radiating green light from their hollow eye-sockets.
On a rock next to her, Dead Master's new companion sat and studied the land in front of them. Dead Master allowed herself a moment to study the other girl. It was amazing the similarities that this world's Black Rock Shooter bore to Dead Master's Nemesis. Yet behind those similarities there was a ruthlessness which her counterpart lacked. She showed as little expression as the other, but still it was there—an echo of the same excitement Dead Master felt well up within herself. They were the hunters, and the Red-eyed girl was their prey.
Dead Master walked over to the edge of a large fissure in the earth. Somewhere down there, she thought, the girl was somewhere down there. Dead Master let herself tilt forward and fall into the fissure in the earth. Slowly, ever so slowly, she began to fall into the black depths. Her two familiars followed her, keeping pace with the falling girl. She did not know how long she fell, the gray walls blurring past her. Presently, however, her keen senses became aware of a great red eye watching them from the floor below them.
A bolt of blue light streaked past her, seeking the center of the great eye. As they found their target they blasted open the ground, revealing a space hidden below. Dead Master turned around to see Black Rock Shooter falling not far behind her, Rock Cannon pointed downward between her boots. She smiled as the two fell through that hole, landing at last in the home realm of the one they had hounded so relentlessly.
Had Dead Master been a normal human in the human world that fall would have killed her. However, the laws which applied to that other world had little to no meaning for Dead Master and her kin. Gravity, acceleration, conservation of mass and energy, all were all little more than illusions in this world of emotions and dreams. Her landing was light as a feather on the ground below. With a swish of dark cloth Black Rock Shooter landed next to her.
The space they entered reminded Dead Master a little of her own realm. It was a sort of chapel; circular, almost like the pantheon of that other world's Rome. Carved columns of stone supported the great dome of the ceiling. Filling the hall was a horde of hooded figures. A hundred pairs of glowing white eyes watched the two girls advancing. All the while their chanting echoed to the vaulted ceiling.
Dead…Dead…Dead…
On the far side of this sea of cloaked figures was a raised platform or dais. The red-eyed girl stood there, sword in one hand, a watering can in the other. Behind her was nothing but the bare stone wall. Dead Master sent her two familiars soaring over the heads of the cloaked figures to attack the girl.
Bodies fell at Dead Master's feet as she advanced slowly across the room. Like a demon farmer harvesting her crop, Dead Master swung her scythe in wide arcs, cutting down the unresisting cloaked ones. Ahead her two familiars were keeping their target fully occupied.
The red-eyed girl kicked out at the skull rushing her, sending it careening off its course. She spun and brought her sword up just barely in time to block an assault from the other direction. The other skull had crept up behind her, rushing her while she was distracted.
Black Rock Shooter was the first to reach the dais, blue flame erupting from her left eye. Her Rock Cannon was gone, replaced by a sword. In an instant she was up the steps and flying toward the Red-eyed girl. Sparks flew in all directions as their swords met. The two stood, locked together for a moment by their equal strength. Then, with a swing of her enormous sword, The red-eyed girl sent her attacker flying backward. Black Rock Shooter landed midway up one of the columns, pushing off just in time to avoid the skull-familiar that the other girl had knocked careening after her.
Dead Master reached the Dais, letting the last of the hooded figures blocking her way crumple at her feet. Her green eyes blazed with the joy as she brought her scythe to bear, finally, on her prey.
The red-eyed girl parried Dead Master's swing, then ducked a lunge from Black Rock Shooter. She Swung her sword at Dead Master, aiming to cleave her in two, but had to bring the strike up short as she was attacked from both sides by the skulls. Dead Master brought her blade in an upward arc, but passed through the air that the other girl had occupied before sidestepping the swing. Both Dead Master and Black Rock Shooter lunged at the same moment, and their opponent brought her oversized sword up to block both of them simultaneously. All three blades locked against one another, scraping and sending off sparks
Just as rapidly as they had joined, the combatants flew apart, each steadying themselves. Black Rock Shooter Slid to a stop, then pointed her sword straight at her enemy. The Red-eyed girl crouched in a defensive posture. Dead Master brough her two familars to her side, then summoned her chains, building her web as she had done before.
A pulse passed through Dead Master's mind. Another presence; one very nearby. Dead Master could sense it, so could the Red-eyed girl. Was this new person an ally or enemy? Neither one could tell. Dead Master followed the feeling of that pulse back along the direction of the new presence. No, that could not be right. Its origin—or as near as she could tell—was Black Rock Shooter.
Yomi! It was Mato's voice. Not her Mato, but the one from the new world.
Yomi, are you there? Yomi, what's going on?