A/N: While it took a while, I'm happy to announce that the drawing for CPU Aqua Heart I requested a while back has been finished. I'll be adding the link to my profile when this chapter is uploaded. Before you go and check it out, let me say that the artist who created the picture is TolkienGirl052 here on this site. So if you guys like the picture, go and give her a big thumbs up or something :). Also, the concepts for the vehicles I've given mention to were created by an amazing artist on DeviantArt called Duskie-06, who gave me permission to use his vehicles in my fanfiction here. If you want to see the designs in all their splendor, go check his page on DeviantArt.
Hyperdimension Standard Time: [21:00] April 21st 22XX
Location: [Invictus Forest - Alchemist Settlement]
After a few hours passed of inspecting the ranks of the people living in this village, Karen saw Leonard and Filia off as they warped through the Astronema Gate along with everyone else from her reinforcements, explaining that she decided to stay with this group for a time, her 'official' reason being that she wants to ensure they keep their promise of providing aid to their cause, though her real cause was that she had spent the better part of the last two years trapped in a futuristic city and a part of her wants to have some time roughing it in a more rustic environment, having a chance to live away from the endless noise of the city.
When Karen took note of how the others quickly began falling asleep in the shared residential building for everyone here, with no hint of unease among them which shows the strong bond they all share, she quietly left since she had said that she didn't need sleep and finds herself outside the building, inspecting the basic wood buildings that dot the clearing this settlement occupies.
"Such simple living. I sort of envy them." Karen quietly notes as she calmly walks about the area though she is quickly stopped by the Saerav fox: Uya as he silently dashed in front of her, stopping her from moving forward.
"Where do you think you're going Console Patron Unit?"
"I'm not going anywhere in particular...Uya right?" Karen had a degree of surprise seeing Uya suddenly ambush her, especially since she thought she saw him asleep as she crept out of the building, but the subtle nod he gave seemed to have been a 'yes' to Karen's question "I've told you guys that I don't truly need food, water, or sleep. I don't want to bother you all so I decided to take the chance to see sights that I can't get in my capital."
"You are so deprived of stimulus that you would bring yourself to a land far beyond your own? For mere sights?"
"How crude. Experience brings forth perspective and what better way to learn experience than to live amongst people you know nothing about? Spending the entirety of your days in ignorance can lead to stagnation or worse: ruin. I embrace the concept of diverse cultures as it is a major stepping stone to ensuring we all return to our homes. None of us are getting home alone. If we all work together, we'll be able to do it. I know it. Miyo knows it. Division would lead to failure. Unity is what allows us to succeed."
"Your stance is interesting Console Patron Unit. But when you word it in that way, much merit is made clear."
"Please Uya. I need you to get back to sleep. We have a big battle tomorrow and I want you guys rested for it. I'm not going to do anything malicious, I just want to partake in some sights. That's all."
"Very well." Uya simply nodded in response to the logic Karen presented regarding the subject of stamina in accordance to the battle they will be involved in tomorrow and walks past Karen to return to the others to sleep for tomorrow.
With Uya gone, Karen walked toward the center of the village and leans against what appears to be a watchtower as she cranes her head upward toward the midnight sky and full moon, which has a white and blue tint much like the one from her own world, but she is soon pulled out of her thoughts as a familiar voice rings out from the dark
"Partaking in the sights Aqua Heart?" Karen looks to her right as an armored figure approaches, quickly recognizing that it's Uzume, even more so when the individual removes the helmet, collapsing into a much smaller size and attaches it to her belt, showing her sanguine hair and red-orange eyes though Karen always found the bulkiness of her armor a little funny since she has a rather slim figure.
"Uzume? I'd ask how you got here, but that's obvious to me, so let me ask this: Why are you here?"
"I need a reason to visit my sister's host? Rude. But to answer: I felt a great amount of share energy being diverted from this nation's Sharicite. After sensing it, I came to investigate since Garrus told me you were investigating something and requested some of my people. I snuck away not long after he departed to find out what was causing such severe depletion of share energy, and clearly the magic keeping you alive from severe injury was the cause."
"My nation's Sharicite? I have a Sharicite?"
"Y-Are you serious?! You didn't know that from the instruction books Histoire gave you? The Sharicite is what allows CPUs to store their share energy! The source of their power! How do you not know these things Karen?!"
"Well forgive me for not knowing everything about this whole goddess thing when I've only been one for less than two years and have been busy handing politics, my waitress job, and trying to keep things orderly with these gangs tearing my nation apart. Studying has been a rather low priority compared to keeping my nation afloat."
"Okay, fair enough point, I'll back off. But I must admit: the sights here are extraordinary. It's been centuries since I've had a chance to simply glance at the night sky without a care in the world. While I'm usually not the type to admit it, it's quite beautiful. Such translucent crystal clear darkness with the bright stars of the galaxy illuminating such an empty field. So many people take it for granted. The lights of urban life block such sights, it slightly angers me." Uzume walked up toward Karen and leaned against the watchtower next to her, staring up at the sky as she speaks.
"Wow. I never took you as a romantic Uzume. I'm not sure if I'd be able to so casually say something like that."
"Just wait about a hundred years and you'll learn all you need to speak like this."
"Am I really going to be cursed with that actually Uzume? As much as I want this to ensure I don't age too much and return to my friends; I don't want to be trapped in immortality's grasp when I do this." Karen interjected with a hint of somberness as she asked a question she has had on her mind for a while but she never found the time to bring it up to anyone.
"Tough to say. We CPUs are born immortal so we aren't capable of dying via old age. I wasn't around when that one CPU merged her life with a human, so I don't know what would happen in your case either. I'd contact one of my associates and see if he could offer any assistance, but we dropped out of contact when I entered Gamindustri two years ago. He helped me achieve my objective so we parted ways. He has his own mission and I wasn't in any position to aid him after I used my magic to bring that XANA thing to your dimension. Being stranded in the dimensional void for a timeless eternity does create a certain 'willingness' to do anything for company. Besides, it seems harmless enough: I just had to move one machine from one world to another. Clean and simple."
"Uzume; I can remember a tiny part of this kind of conversation happening back in Leanbox, even though my memory marks it as one-sided. Why is this individual so involved in this? What's his stake in influencing history?"
"I can't tell you that Karen. The fact that he kept a lot from me is a major one, though he had his right to keep secrets. But mostly, beings like me tend to be a little solitary since age becomes incredibly distorted, so I decided not to ask. Who's to tell if ten years passed or ten thousand years. The moment you are thrown outside the dimensional void, if you survive, time becomes difficult to perceive. Even when I returned to Gamindustri, things were still blurry. Even after two years, I have trouble adjusting to the change." Uzume explains rather clearly though the quiet voice made it clear she was rather unhappy explaining this.
"Ouch. Sorry to make you speak of this Uzume. I can tell this bothers you."
"Don't start thinking this way. It doesn't suit you." Uzume cracked out a small impish grin after saying this, clearly amused by Karen's apology.
"Oh screw you. I try to be nice and you tell me off like this?"
"Ahahaha. Sorry, but I'm serious though Karen. From what I've seen of ya, you're usually more serious and non-forgiving. It's refreshing seeing a gentle side from you. I don't know whether it's because you're in your goddess form or if you're naturally like this. It must being irritated being forced to borrow Caelus' form though."
"Huh? Borrowing Caelus' form? What do you mean Uzume? Isn't this my own goddess form?"
"Oh right. Your knowledge of these things are rather minimal. See, CPU Memories allow those with the right qualifications to transform into a goddess. I'm not all that sure what allows those individuals to transform, but I suspect that it requires a very specific set of genetic conditions given at birth, one I can't exactly ascertain. As you can expect, this special item resonates best with those with high CPU synergy, but CPUs who lost their power in some way are nearly guaranteed to regain their power through it. See, Caelus lost most of her power saving you after the Graveyard and during the extensive time she spent as a disc to prolong her life, so when you were exposed to a CPU Memory, Caelus was able to 'cheat' the system when she merged her life with yours and forcibly allow it to grant you access to Hard Drive Divinity and thus her old form was restored. However, since she is residing in your soul, it was your body that was given access to CPU Aqua Heart when you were reincarnated, for lack of a better term, and not Caelus. This may be a bit blunt, but you are technically just a thief. But don't get too freaked out. If you somehow manage to acquire another one, you'd be given your very own CPU form since you're both goddesses now."
Karen went silent with the new information given to her by Uzume and it took her a minute to process it all, though the sights of the clear darkness in the sky helped speed things up as it helped melt away some of her anxiety "Erm, this is a new discovery to me. All this time, I thought this CPU was my own unique form or whatever, even though I faintly remember Caelus speaking of her being Aqua Heart. I just presumed I was her successor."
"In a way, you are, Karen. I recall what Caelus looked like as Aqua Heart and it's drastically different from how you modeled this form. Your robe is simpler in design but the elegance is certainly recognizable. Caelus had a very simple wing design with a mechanical aura, but yours are far more...how do I put it? It's more...angelic. Speaking of the subject, why isn't Caelus talking?"
"Er right. Problem is: Caelus and I have been having arguments in the last few weeks. We did manage to pull off one conversation earlier today, but we've been in a situation where she's been rather pissed off toward me and been ignoring all of my attempts at talking. I won't go into details, but we're on less than amicable terms at the current moment. But I want to shelf this. If you don't mind my inquiring, where did you find Cybercon and the others?"
"Good question actually. After the victory against ASIC, I was forced back into the dimensional void in my human form as what happened destroyed my Hard Drive Divinity. However, I was able to phase myself back into Gamindustri within a week and I remembered you planned on forming your own nation, so I began searching for 'heroes' to ally with your nation and help protect it. I wandered the world, searching every remote corner and in one case: time, and I found my first few candidates: Cyberconnect2, MarvelousAQL, Tekken, MAGES, Falcom, and Broccoli. I was content with six at the time so I brought them to Arcadia and they began fighting the criminals in your name as I stayed in the background. However, I quickly realized six wouldn't be enough to take down the gangs, so I began looking about for more people, though some came to us. Ein Al, Lee-Fi, and Moru were inspired by our strength and joined up without even needing to be asked, though I had to convince Blossom, Resta, Lid, and Generia to join us. I've also scheduled meetings with some corporate bigwigs to fund our own cause and indirectly yours once I formally fold my forces into your own; they've all been a huge help. It's for the best really. I don't want to be put in the position where people would be forced to choose between you and me to worship. It can get dicey when more than one CPU of different association exist in a single nation. No real proof on that though, it's just a gut feeling I have."
"But you said you lost your Hard Drive Divinity powers though Uzume. Why would you be concerned about this? We're full-fledged allies after all."
Uzume flashed a brief smile and let a small laugh escape her lips "You're such a naive child Karen. But it's heartwarming nonetheless. Either way, I come bearing a small gift of sorts." Uzume took a moment to pause as she pulls a metal rod from her helmet, showing a large number of computer screens embedded on it "I'm ashamed to say, but I have gotten myself a tad obsessed over this one game from the mainland and I play it in secret when I have free time. When I gave this armor to Generia a while back for upgrades, she installed this wireless signal booster in this 'rod' and a portable computer with a similar design to Garrus' omnitool in my right gauntlet. She made it to have a relatively small immediate range though it holds a long-range node which is synchronized with some computers in my hideout. Since we have some free time, how about we play this popular game? We need to let ourselves unwind before we throw ourselves into the fray."
"Er, how? We're in the middle of nowhere. Especially since I don't have anything like a proper computer way out here."
"Next-gen virtual reality mixed in with real-time augmentation providing enhanced reaction. The engineers in this country have become very advanced with experimental tech in such a short time; it's remarkable. It's not quite available for the general public yet as it's being still being tested, but-" Uzume stopped in her tracks as a mild blush began to appear on her cheeks "I actually er, used my connection to you as a stepping stone to elevate my position to acquire a spot among the ten candidates to test the technology. Selfish, I admit, but I was doing it for both a noble cause and a mildly selfish one. Best of all, it can synchronize with any computer, even your gauntlet arm. C'mon; I need to indulge my need for Four Goddesses Online. Do any of these buildings have any chairs? It'd be ideal to be in sitting positions."
"Serawi gave me a tour of the place; that building over there is their workshop so there are plenty of tables and chairs to use. Everyone's, well nearly everyone, asleep right now so we should be able to play it there. Question though: Do we have to worry about volume?"
"All internal with our own auditory systems. Falcom and Resta caught me playing it once and they presumed I was meditating; so privacy isn't much of an issue."
The pair enter the building and after getting the synchronization set up with their computers, but when they got comfortable on the chairs, Karen paused for a moment and twisted her head toward Uzume "I have another question. If we're going to be stay put on these chairs, we're going to need something to help with that."
"Got that covered. I have a spell from ages past that can neutralize movement and provide a gel-like barrier to keep the body from growing numb. It can be used to be selectively freeze parts of the body if you need to get work done. It can be dispelled in two ways: Wait for the spell to wear off in eight hours, or have someone apply enough movement to cancel the effects. Eris, Corrine, and I worked together to have the spell made. It was a proud moment for us all. Well, here we go."
After Uzume casted the spell over herself and Karen, they start up the game though since Karen had never played it before, she starts in the character creator, quickly noting the extremely large number of customization options available but she knows she doesn't want to spend forever trying to model a character, and while she originally decided to recreate her first VRMMO character she has ever made: Solaris, she decided to stay in the realm of reality so she use decided to apply short fawn brown hair, with curls on both sides of her face, with her eyes sharing the same color as her hair, and the avatar itself is wearing a very simple, casual white dress.
When she finished creating her avatar's appearance, she found that in addition to the well-detailed character creator, there was a huge plethora of classes filed under three branches: warrior, rogue, and mage, with many other supplemental classes branching out (to her surprise, she discovered she did not have to go through the effort of choosing the base class and could immediately start with her desired sub-class) and ten races: Human, Elf, Dwarf, Gnome, Goblin, Orc (Karen found that the Goblins and Orcs were male only races when she inspected it), Centaur, Lizardfolk, Fairy, and Merfolk (Like the Orc and Goblin races, the Fae and Merfolk were discovered to be female only races upon analysis). With a deep sigh, she looked among the warrior classes and found a perfect fit considering her history and playstyle: Marshal, especially considering the flavor text it has before she made her confirmation, though she was very much interested in the Valkyrie class: Aylakias, and decided to keep it as a back-up if she creates an alt account and named this Elven Marshal character: Ashikaga Faelin since it required a first and last name in the character creator.
"Stand your ground men, and don't let them take an inch! Follow me, and this day will be ours!"
'Most martial characters wade into the thick of battle, crushing their enemies with their weapons or shoot at enemies from afar with ranged weapons of one type or another. The marshal however knows the truth of synergy, that the whole is far greater than simply the sum of its parts; together with his group, he allows them to be far more than they could ever be.'
Karen couldn't help but silently laugh after she finished reading the text for this class "It'd be criminal if I didn't pick this class. I've been a leader for quite some time and being in a support class would be ideal."
After picking the Marshal class, she then had to choose which of the four servers to 'swear allegiance to' and had the choice of Planeptune, Lastation, Lowee, and Leanbox; and she couldn't help but wonder if all the goddesses and the candidates play this game as well. She suspects that they would actually treat any interactions in the game as serious declarations in the real world, so she figures she should play this carefully.
"Hmm, my relationship with Noire is rather bad, especially with the recent diplomatic meetings we've had souring things even though she promised to help shut down the black market smuggling weapons into my nation as a gesture of goodwill to try salvaging some remnants of friendly intent. Uni's friendly enough toward me though atleast, she makes visits there somewhat tolerable. So I don't know if Lastation's server would be ideal. Vert's nice and all, but she's an extreme gamer and I've heard bad things about it from Bae'lin and a few others. I don't know if I'd want her as an ally or enemy or what. I have a good friendship with Blanc and I do my utmost to avoid ticking her off. She even likes coming by Arcadia about once a month to hear stories from my citizens who come from other worlds and comes by my Basilicom to offer unique Lowee brand teas. She loves hearing the unique stories only we can give. Then there's Planeptune: Neptune and Nepgear. I...barely know Neptune and I already know she's someone I could never stand. It pains me that Histoire herself told me she had been contemplating asking me to try tutoring Neptune on how to be a Goddess considering Arcadia's success since its creation two years ago, when in all fairness, she should be the one teaching me since I've only been one for less than two years while she's been one for a very long time. And then Nepgear: She thinks of me as her older sister, she's almost obsessed about it. But despite it all, those two have been very close to me."
Spending a moment to decide, she was indecisive between the Planeptune server or Lowee server and perhaps against her better judgement, she decided to join Planeptune even though part of her truly wanted to join Lowee. With the decision being made a bright tattoo with Planeptune's logo appeared on her avatar's right hand, which she guesses marks her as a Planeptune server player. She quickly finds herself in the game, and when the blackness fades, the environment quickly becoming that of what appears to be village ruins with a few embers still burning amongst the burnt grass around her and the attention to detail is extremely well done as it looks like every strand of grass and wood plank is fully rendered in very high definition in the player's FOV.
"What the hell happened here?" Karen quietly asked herself as she walks about inspecting the ruins but is quickly interrupted by a voice ring out in her ears and since she can't see anyone around, she presumes it's some sort of voice call within the game.
"Er Karen, I know you're crazy, but this is extreme, even by YOUR standards. I'd get the hell out ASAP."
"Uzume? Where am I? Don't MMOs start you in a low-level town or something so you can build up your strength?"
"Erm-Yeah. This is probably my fault. I'm rather high-level and I was here a while back. The game probably sent ya here because you're sharing my computer's IP. I'm rushing to get ya out. Stay put and hide until I find you." Moments later, a loud roar rings out around Karen's end of the call "What the hell was that?!"
Karen rapidly looks about the area and quickly finds the source of the sound, it being a massive fifteen yard dragon flying in the immediate area "D-D-DRAGON!"
"Oh shit! Karen, screw what I said before; get the hell out of there! You need experienced raid teams to fight dragons in this game! Run south and rendezvous with me. My mount hopefully can outrun it and get us to a safe zone."
Without a moment's hesitation, Karen sprinted into a run southward which alerted the dragon as it flapped its wings very powerfully; creating a gust of wind which sent her flying a short distance and knocked her to the ground albeit for a brief moment and she hears the creature land behind her and she manages to turn herself around enough to see the dragon staring her down.
"No-No-No-No-No! Am I seriously going to die in the first five minutes of playing an MMO?!"
Thankfully, moments after the dragon began building up some type of elemental breath, a burst of magic erupted from the distance causing the beast to turn its head in pain and she sees a group of seventy five players all wearing differing sets of full armor.
"Team Six, get that newcomer back over here, then join Team One, Three, and Five. Team Two, Four, and Seven; concentrate on keeping that dragon off Team One, Three, Five, and Six. Focus your efforts on your ranged and magic abilities. Take that dragon down and neutralize its ability to retaliate."
"Understood Lady Orchid!"
With the order given out by this heavily armored 'Lady Orchid', ten of the players rush toward Karen and carry her toward the rest of the group and as soon as she was secure, the rest of the people began mobilizing into battle to take down the dragon with a remarkably rehearsed strategy, as if they have done something of this sort many times now though what appears to be the people in the team's rear line, comprising of two people, operating as a command center, are staying out of the fight, watching them fight.
"Why did you come all this way? You're level one yet you came far enough north to dragon territory? You're lucky we were hunting this one down." Orchid, wearing full armor blocking her appearance, spoke to Karen rather seriously but the voice, while muffled, sounded rather familiar to her.
"Huh? Purple Heart?" Karen was rather surprised seeing that apparently it was Neptune who played the role of knight in shining armor this time around. The personality and voice must mean that she's in her goddess form since the personality she's showing clashes with her human form.
"You know me? Wait, Aqua Heart, you play this game too?"
"Karen?!" The girl at Neptune's side yelped in surprise, showing herself as Nepgear, and suddenly tackles her into a hug.
"Nepgear, I'm sure you know that you're my sister, not hers. You're betraying our blood bond here." To some surprise from Karen, Neptune was rather stern toward her younger sister but was met with a frown from Nepgear's avatar as she turned her head toward her, yet still keeping herself in the hug with Karen somehow.
"Is it so unexpected that I want a responsible sister? Compare her record to yours: She became a CPU only two years ago and she's already running a successful nation, has control of nearly forty five percent of the world's shares, and she's already preparing for the event she experienced: The monsters evolving and becoming far more lethal. And in contrast, you've been around for a very long time and Planeptune has always been something of a mild laughing stock. None of us have even begun considering such a thing and Karen's already beginning to implement a full, permanent combat force. Isn't that right sister?"
"Karen, I don't approve of you corrupting my sister like this."
"Urk...Nepgear, you're choking the life out of me, and this is a digital avatar. And Neptune; this is not even my fault. She's like this herself." Karen let out a weak grunt as Nepgear was suffocating her and to her surprise, Karen felt like it was actually happening to her and is thankfully met with Nepgear letting go of the hug "Was this what Uzume meant by 'enhanced reaction' before? Damn thing could be considered worse than the NerveGear! Before I join the others in battle, I am going to this developer and have them scale down the realism atleast a little! Thank the goddess that this thing is still being tested and only ten people have access to this tech right now. Although I want to prevent such things from happening to the best of my ability, I'd rather lose ten than a thousand. However, I decided early on that I would protect everyone who finds themselves stranded in this world and make sure they stay alive so they can return home."
Almost immediately, the sound of rapid stomping is heard to the south and when they turn to see the source, they see a drake with blue colored skin, a dull brown saddle borne upon the top of the beast, and an orange tinted stomach rapidly approaches the trio though the image of the rider quickly comes into view: A human woman with blue hair flowing down to her waist, currently being blown to her back as the wind is flowing strong from the fast speed of the drake, and black eyes, wearing dark red chainmail with a scarlet red and onyx black cape drawn from the hem of the shoulders and hornless dragon helmet that does little to hide the appearance underneath. When the player got close, she jumped forward from the saddle and landed in front of them very gracefully, a massive trident in front of her person.
"Trifecta, what are you doing here? I thought you were going to the Dragon Catacombs to get your drake there to evolve into a dragon." Based on the familiar tone Neptune used when speaking to the player, she must be rather close to her.
"Planned to, but my friend here is starting out and because of my own stupidity, she got into danger. I needed to bail her out but clearly I wasn't needed since your raid team was in the area. So you have my thanks for saving my new friend there." Trifecta's voice was rather muffled since her mouth was covered with a silk cloth but Karen easily recognized it as Uzume.
"So how do you two know Trifecta?" Karen couldn't help but inquire since Neptune and Nepgear seem to know Uzume rather well.
"She's famous. She's one of the few people in this game that has been able to tame a dragon, and that ability distinguished her among the thousands in this game. It's because of how the individual needs a certain 'gift', for lack of a better term, at birth. It's one of this game's many adaptive features lying hidden underneath the concrete. Most of the players never awaken to that 'gift', even the elites who commit most of their lives to this game. Speaking of the subject, are you still treating Tulvir well Trifecta?" Nepgear started out by explaining Uzume's apparent fame within 4 Goddesses Online before turning rather affectionate when speaking of Uzume's dragon, almost as if she had a hand in naming the dragon.
"Of course I have! Tulvir here is my baby. Naturally, I'm going to make sure she's at her best at all times. She compensates for my rather lackluster offensive power and I act as a tank for the both of us since I chose the sentinel class. She smites my foes and I keep her from harm; it's give and take. I've always been something of a booster of sorts; I strengthen my allies in the background while they tear my enemies to itty bitty pieces."
"Just like her involvement in the effort to secure Arcadia. She rarely shows herself to the public, preferring to leave the fighting to her fighters and make alliances to support them. She's a hell of a diplomat considering everything she's done." Karen mused rather calmly as she recalls all of Uzume's actions to support her from the shadows and the allies she had been able to gather by the might of her own influence. She silently laughed at the fact that Uzume could be a major threat to her rule if she truly wished to be. She already built up a strong network of fighters and support staff to organize a tiny army under her command yet she has said several times that she plans on folding her forces into Karen's own pre-military organization once the crisis with the gangs end. While very few are aware of the upcoming danger with the monster threat, Karen has been doing her utmost to prepare for that day by assembling experienced warriors to help train a proper military to defend this nation she created since she detests the image that the people are dependent on their CPU to defend themselves; they need to be able to defend themselves since not even CPUs can be everywhere at once.
"Alright Neptune, Nepgear, I need to get my friend here somewhere safer. But I want to ask you something big. Once you get that dragon killed, I want you to get Vert, Noire, and Blanc to the Temple of Sacred Light. We have something major we need to talk about regarding the future of this world. This shouldn't take you more than ten minutes right?" Uzume stopped maintaining the illusion at this point and began addressing the Planeptune CPUs by their names and took Karen by the hand toward Tulvir.
"You insult both myself and all my raid members. We'll meet you in thirty minutes Trifecta." Neptune took the remark rather calmly yet retorted with an insulted look on her face as both she and Nepgear ran into the village to help fight the dragon with their team.
When Uzume remounted her dragon, she motioned Karen to sit behind her on the saddle Tulvir's wearing, they quickly began dashing toward the east as the sensation of the wind blows in their direction as the dragon is going as fast as a car from Earth which is surprisingly realistic to her, despite the fact they are riding a fantasy drake, even more so than Aincrad was one of the most realistic VRMMOs that existed in Earth's recent history and not even that game created such incredible backgrounds.
"Wow, these backgrounds are so incredible and well-detailed! Who made these?" Although she's in goddess form, she was utterly surprised seeing such incredible graphics which rivaled and even beat Sword Art Online in some aspects and her voice showed it. While the engine appeared to be similar to SAO's Cardinal, it appears to be stronger as the level of quality can be seen from much far farther away since Cardinal was designed to pixelate the environment to reduce the file size but this engine seems to be strong enough to handle it.
"An artist named Aufisa made many of these backdrops by herself; she became something of a popular icon in the artist community when she made her debut in the world nearly thirty years ago, though the programmers of this game are praise-worthy as well, since they found a way to compress the file size of her drawings significantly without sacrificing a single pixel of quality and consistently use to maintain such extreme levels of quality in their environments. She's an enigma of sorts but she's an extremely gifted artist, even though she started with nothing since she was stranded in a foreign world. Based on what I hear, she keeps a few assistants in her employ since she apparently gets so into her artistic pursuits that she forgets to care for her own body, so they tend to her needs."
"Foreign world? Uzume, are you suggesting that-?"
"She's not from Gamindustri? Exactly. She's a member of a race called the Illarians, who originate on the desert planet of Sonhadra. Bizarrely, she seems incapable of aging in this world, which might be a symptom of her biology synchronizing with Gamindustri's unique status with the subject of spacetime but that's just conjecture. She was in Noire's employ for a time as a sketch artist for her cosplay but she was hired by the company who runs 4 Goddesses Online 2 to design the art pieces for them when they started years ago. For Arcadia's future, I would suggest seeking her out and hiring her. She has exceptional artistic skill and it'd likely help in designing many schematics for your nation, civilian and military. Miyo Hanari has a gift for building tech, but having a talented artist supporting her with designing schematics will be helpful. Instead of aimlessly building whatever's on her mind, she'd have crystal clear picture and be able to greatly enhance them."
"Uzume, you said that you only entered Gamindustri three years ago, how do you know about events from decades ago?"
"I lived in the dimensional void Karen; like I told you, time is awkward for beings like me. But I became aware of many events since I could see time in a different light. That, and I have had occasions when I've talked with her. She created the design for this armor in fact and I used my magic to bring it to life. It's amazing she made the drawing in only an hour. If you wish, I can go locate her and inquire as to what conditions she has for her to relocate here to Arcadia and secure her services to become one of your chief engineers."
"Okay listen, all of these generous offers are, while appreciated, strongly making me think that you're up to ill intent. Being overly helpful can make one suspicious." Although Karen was genuinely honored to get so much help from Uzume, it was making her worry that she would attempt to take advantage of the kindness later on.
"I see where you're coming from Karen, but you're overthinking this. Remember that we're all CPUs here, we're sworn to aid each other when we're in dire straits, even though Neptune's generation are slightly less committed to such a thing. Bunch of idiots, all of 'em; they'd all be dead if they were born in the time we lived in." Uzume started her speech rather calmly but turned rather vicious near the end when she outright insulted Neptune despite the friendly tone she used when she was speaking with the sisters.
"Uzume, do you- Do you hate Neptune and them all?"
"Erm, well. I don't hate them per say, I just think of them as incompetent. Out of all of them, I only find Noire and Blanc being somewhat capable and even that's a stretch. I just don't think they can handle this threat unlike you. They've let themselves be consumed by complacency, but you're different. You know what's going to happen and you're a CPU not burdened by a legacy. You're new, you are capable of becoming a paragon of change for all Gamindustri. A sorely needed one at that since the world at large is unprepared for the idea of war. You're aiming to establish a full military which will quickly supercede the strength of the Leanbox SMD, which was considered Gamindustri's strongest military force of all time, well the one that's known at least. But you're gathering a diverse force to train your future soldiers and such diverse teachings will make your nation a force to be reckoned with. Although we need to proceed onward with brand new technology, the only way to truly proceed to the future is to let the past repeat itself and let the bloody slaughter make a foothold in people's minds; it'd remind them that life is precious and not something to take advantage of. Safety should never be a given; it must be earned."
"Stop it Uzume!" Karen shouted angrily when Uzume began speaking of how safety should be forsaken for her citizens when that is her utmost desire and the shout apparently spooked Tulvir as she stopped in tracks immediately, as if the dragon actually possessed advanced programming to outside stimuli "THAT is not what I want here! The Arcadia I built is one where safety is extended to anyone who desires it! I refuse to revoke it when that is why my people flock here. Especially those who have been coming here from lands that haven't enjoyed the blessings of the CPUs. I talk to a lot of those people as Haruhi, and a lot of them lived rather poor lives; struggling to get by day to day. Their lives have become prosperous since they arrived here and they're eagerly seeking to enhance their skill sets with all the advanced skillsets already being made here, particularly technology since Miyo's been hosting special 'tech expos' to demonstrate what we have available and teaching anyone who wants to learn how to make and use such things. Even with the gangs attacking many parts of the city. Some say they prefer a threat they know than a threat they do not. For every gang member causing chaos, fifty are living honest lives and are going out of their way to enrich this land."
"Geez, Karen, take a chill pill; I was kidding. I'd be the worst CPU ever if I told you to forsake safety for your citizens."
"Uzume, you have the worst sense of humor. You were basically suggesting that I abandon my citizens when my mission is protecting them!"
"Okay, I deserve this for acting rather venomous; I acted out of turn. I apologize immensely. If you want to shout at me for this, please do so when we log out; we need to appear civilized when we speak with the CPUs, our future relies upon it."
"Fine."
Hyperdimension Standard Time: [22:00] April 21st 22XX
Location: [Velsias - Temple of Sacred Light]
After twenty minutes of riding Telvir, Uzume and Karen arrive at what appears to be a mountain shrine made out of pure gold and moments later, four large griffons fly over the surroundings and land on several eyries built on outcroppings built within the mountain, and while they all have the same brown and white fur, each rider is holding a flag with the logo of the four nations, showing who the riders are since the region is very remote and since Uzume asked Neptune to call them there: Neptune, Noire, Blanc, and Vert.
"Not surprised. The griffon is the fastest animal a regular player can tame; while the dragon is faster, only a rare few can even begin taming these girls." Uzume had a look of discontent, as if not truly caring about the mounts as she gently patted Telvir's head, proud of how she has a dragon at her beck and call.
When the pair made it to the staircase, Telvir stopped immediately and Uzume jumped off and turned her gaze toward Karen
"End of the road Karen; we'll have to walk from here on. Telvir's programming isn't the best with these kinds of environments." After seeing Karen follow Uzume's suit, Telvir ran toward a nearby alcove and lied down in a half-circle "But before we go in, you need to wear some proper diplomat attire since you're representing your nation of Arcadia here. I'm gonna be honest in saying that I've been planning on dragging you into this game nearly a year ago and I hired someone to make a custom set of armor with Arcadian colors: blue and gold. I've even been gathering a bunch of top-tier equipment belonging to all three main branches so you wouldn't have to worry too much about handling this game's extreme learning curve." Uzume explains very methodically as she presses a few buttons in the area and a menu appears in front of Karen's face, showing a very fancy female diplomat suit colored blue and gold like Uzume said, and when she accepted, she quickly equipped it since she was beginning to see Uzume tap her feet waiting for her to hurry "Perfecto. I knew this would look good on you, but enough talk; we got CPUs to meet." Uzume had a big smile and gave a thumbs up as she inspected Karen's new uniform, seeing it as a representation of Arcadia's strength in the world "Wait a sec, your necktie is a bit off. We can't exactly afford to give the impression that Arcadia is going to be pushed around; you need to secure your place and sloppy attire is awful at doing such a thing." Uzume said this rather maternally as she walked forward and began adjusting Karen's tie "There we go. Time to face the music."
Walking up the massive staircase toward the temple, Karen and Uzume push open the door and find four individuals wearing similar armor sets after they passed through a small entrance chamber, albeit colored differently since they're from the different servers, sitting around a large round table. Karen inspected each individual's armor and notices the color schemes being purple and black, black and white, white and blue, and green and white, and recognized them as Neptune, Noire, Blanc, and Vert respectively, especially when they remove their helmets, revealing that their avatars' faces almost perfectly mirror their real life forms, Neptune being the only one in their goddess form.
"Good to see you again Blanc. I had a chance to read that documentary you wrote about some of my citizens two weeks ago and I'm honestly impressed. One of your recent works, the one about Celina Netzen is particularly good; though I was kinda forced to read it since she forced it in my face."
"I didn't really do all that much. Your citizens were the ones who provided all the details, I merely took their words and gave them a visual form. Besides, it's rare that I get to meet people with this sort of individuality. It's one of the few stories people claim I've written well."
"Okay ladies, we need to focus on an important subject: The monsters' evolution and the threat they represent." Uzume clapped her hands once to get attention back to her and to convey the seriousness of the situation and with attention back to her, she and Karen walked up to the table and sat down "If you don't know, two years ago, a monster was able to bypass your own innate protection and utilize your fast-travel network to enter any dungeon on your continents. Dozens of people were attacked by the beast during then and infected with a virus that killed some of them. Were it not for the temporary alliance ASIC made with a select few CPU followers, they would've all died and your powers would've suffered greatly. If enough time passed with the beast being free, it might have been possible for you four to have died as well since faith in you would've perished. According to one of my associates, this dangerous precedent will be repeating itself within ten years' time and if you are not prepared, your nations will be in unparalleled danger and will ultimately fall. The only way to withstand this storm is to rapidly develop your military armaments and numbers like Arcadia is doing right this moment. A half dozen enforcers per nation wouldn't be able to secure your lands, not even the two dozen members of the Leanbox SMD would be sufficient, despite their training."
"Trifecta, how do you know about all this?" Noire said this very bluntly since she was curious about how Uzume knew the events regarding the ASIC war.
"Call me a historian of sorts. I scoured the continent gathering first-hand records from the Mascot Characters and a few other civilians who had spoken with your group not long after that war ended. Your enforcers told me a great deal as well. It is very important that any and all terrible events are recorded, as much as good events. It's to help ensure our past mistakes are never repeated. But lately, I've been focusing my record keeping on Arcadia because of its extremely unorthodox development. It intrigues me. But look, this is not the time nor the place to speak of national favoritism; we're here to discuss national safety."
"And how exactly can you help in such a way?" This time Vert was the one inquiring on how Uzume was able to help in this situation.
"While I am working as a historian, I also happen to be a good diplomat and military advisor. I assembled a small force of fighters operating as my inner circle and they've been helping me secure order in Arcadia to prepare them for battle in both Arcadia and the mainland. A random whim of mine likes to call it Ayora, even though it truly has no name. She was one of my closest advisors and a dear friend during my early life. No one was able to surpass her in terms of likeability and administration for me after she died. Bless her soul. She was one of my only non-CPU friends."
"Non-CPU friends? How is that possible Trifecta? None of us know you outside this game. Well, maybe except for you Karen. Do you know her outside this game?" Noire took charge in asking this question as the four CPUs began showing expressions of confusion at Uzume's choice of words in the previous statement.
"A little bit, but this is neither the time nor the place for idle banter. Like Trifecta said, we need to focus on the matter of securing safety for our nations from the monsters and the only way to do this is through expanding our military might. Noire, if you four agree to shut down the black market smuggling weapons into my nation, I'll loan some of my troops to help lay down a foundation for your nations when I secure order and I'll even provide whatever weapons I can scrounge up of the remains during the final battle. They're not Arcadian armaments after all and I want it cleansed from my country."
"So you're going to simply toss us destroyed weapons and tell us to make due with your refuse?" Noire became rather irritated at Karen's choice of words regarding how Karen would provide armaments after she launches the final battle against the crime gangs in Arcadia.
"Now now, Noire. While her choice of words is a bit questionable, her subtext is obvious. Active weaponry can be challenging to distribute and mass-produce when given by a foreign nation but if the weapons are demilitarized, they can be more easily modified with the country's own technological expertise in mind. Karen, this might be an odd time to say it, but I think you should get going; leave this to the five of us. I'll represent Arcadia in your stead in this situation; I am one of your citizens and a skilled diplomat if I may toot my own horn. This requires a gentler touch, which you haven't exactly learned yet. Besides, I can feel something tugging at my leg in the real world, could you check it out for me?"
"Sure." Karen gently nodded in response to Uzume's request and looked toward the four goddesses "Look, I know things are really kind of tense between us all because of how Arcadia is being seen as something close to ASIC, but trust me when I'm not trying to foster that kind of reputation. You may see this as something akin to bribery, but let me make it up to you guys somehow...what can I use? Oh yeah. While I do need to be careful regarding military development, I don't need to be so frantic regarding casual matters. As soon as I can get things orderly, I'll arrange for fifteen petabyte supercomputers to be delivered to your nations' Basilicoms. I can get it set up with help from Ganache, Chian, and Miyo. Business or personal use, I don't care too much about their purpose after delivery."
This offer that Karen had made to them all caught them as they grew stiff from shock "Y-You're really offering such things to us Karen? Wait, more importantly, how are you able to achieve such a size?! My best engineers here in Lastation have only managed to achieve a six hundred and fifty terabyte sized mainframe. How were you able to work in fifteen petabytes, let alone one?!"
"I have one of the best engineers in the world helping me full-time Noire, and with the shipments she got from Filia's team in the field, she was able to achieve projects she normally couldn't because of how she often faced complications securing resources. While it was her choice to avoid formally becoming affiliated with your nations, I'm going out of my way to keep her supplied and within my nation's ranks. Well, up until the end when we find a way to return to our own worlds and part ways for good."
"Karen, get out there. I am seriously going to kick soon." Uzume scowled rather strongly at how she was unintentionally stalling for time.
"Right. Sorry. Erm, how?"
"Vocalize the exit command. The phrase is one any MMO player should know. Just get out there, or it's going to be you I kick. And it. Will. Hurt."
"Goddess, you are terrifying today Trifecta. Okay okay, just give me a second."
With a mild shiver running down her spine from the threat Uzume gave, Karen let the words 'log out' escape her lips and quickly finds herself back in the real world, seeing both Suina and Sharty cautiously inspecting both of their inert bodies but lightly jumped back when they see Karen move her body, suspecting that the pair must have applied enough force to break the spell since she's able to move.
"What in the world?! I thought you were dead or something!" Sharty was genuinely shocked seeing her stirring right in front of her but Karen caught a glimpse of her poking at Uzume's face before she adjusted to the real world.
"I don't understand why you weren't responding to us when we tried calling out to you."
"I was in virtual reality Suina." As she saw Suina's confused expression, she figured that she would have to explain what she had just talked about to the pair with simpler terms "Erm, it's kinda hard to explain to someone who doesn't know the technology, even on a surface level. Let's just say that my mind was in mechanically induced limbo so I could dive into an artificially created world. But more importantly, I told Uya this, but you guys ought to be sleeping."
"I'm a water spirit. Because of my ethereal state, as long as I can maintain contact with pure water, I have no need of anything like sleep. It rejuvenates my essence."
"And the Crusaders of Light helped me figure out a different way I can gather energy. It's a private subject as you can imagine."
With very little conversation following suite, to her surprise since they seemingly went out of their way to find her, and after sending the two girls away, Karen shifted her attention toward the seemingly sleeping Uzume, even though she clearly knew that she was in virtual reality talking with the CPUs negotiating with them as Arcadia's diplomat.
Hyperdimension Standard Time: [8:30] April 22nd 22XX
Location: [Arcadia City - Uzume's Hideout]
After what felt like a complete eternity of fighting the gangs and after successfully recruiting Wilfred Dion's experienced combatants to help in the final assault, though the sight of the parting gave Karen some unease as she saw them give their farewells, emotions fueling her as she feels like they're trying to indirectly prepare themselves for permanent departure from their departing members though this leads her to steel herself and do whatever it took to protect her newfound allies since she did not want to have any possibility of this family getting broken apart, to any extent.
With this in mind, Karen's enlarged group returned to Uzume's sanctuary with all of her assembled warriors, numbering nearly two hundred, (though Karen kept to her internal promise and found the developers of the prototype augmented reality technology and politely requested that they scale down the realism because of what she experienced earlier) and in the room serving as the main war room, the near entirety of Karen's inner circle and select members of Uzume's own circle have gathered to discuss the battle plan in earnest with intel gathered by Uzume's main intel gatherer: Lid who was deployed to find the location of the final gang coalition's HQ and their potential defenses.
"Okay everyone, this has been a dap-day coming for a long time but I've been able to gather a great amount of information for this last assault. Unfortunately, the enemy has fortified their position severely and there's only one conventional entrance, which they have guarded with automated turrets and nearly two doven-dozen X-34s. In any other case, I would consider this fortress of theirs impenetrable, but I've taken our current roster in mind and formulated a battle plan. Late last night, Ein Al, Moru, Marvy, and Mamoru ambushed one of their patrol units before they sent out a distress signal, and the unit was recovered for our side. We had Generia and Miyo analyze the technology and they have been able to convert the old anti-personnel runes into armor-piercing ammunition. It's now meant to be used against the X-34s exclusively." Lid spoke very methodically but made a few obvious mistakes like usual. To show her intel properly, the group is utilizing a special holographic table showing the building that will be assaulted in the attack.
"It was a challenge, but we owe our success to our mages. We never would've been able to alter the runes without them, at least, not in a timely matter. But your expertise is remarkable Miyo."
"You're flattering me Generia. You're the skilled roboticist here. I'm just a engineer with mix-mashed skill in different fields. But if I may Lid, I'd like to take over here since we're reaching the part of our formations."
"Go ahead."
"Thanks. In this situation, we have two issues that must be resolved before we can mobilize our full might in this battle: Keeping the X-34s' attention away from our ground troops and disabling the automated defenses scattered about. With the information Lid has gathered, we've been able to build a map of the place this coalition is using." After making this clear, Miyo dug through her pockets and inserted a flash drive into the table everyone has assembled around, showing a 3-D image of the fortress the enemy is hiding in "They seem unaware of it, but there is an access point through the vents that a small team can sneak through and infiltrate the compound's main control room here. While there are wall-mounted cameras along the exterior, we've discovered a small window where they don't overlap; that'll be our means to enter the vent. This attack will be utilizing three teams: Phantom, Spanner, and Hammer. We only have one X-34 that can be used for this team and if something goes awry, we need whoever is in Phantom to be able to hold his or her own in any situation."
The moment Miyo finished speaking this part of her speech, all eyes immediately turned toward Karen, since although Filia and Wrex are stronger than her, she is still a goddess and able to withstand things no regular human could, and when she took a moment to look around the room, she let out a small breath of irritation "I hate all of you. Fine."
"Karen, I know we're asking you to willingly enter the maw of all this danger, but you're our most durable member who can also use this kind of mech. While Wrex is definitely stronger in terms of physique, we can't stuff him into an X-34, and we need that smokescreen. You've survived things none of us could ever handle. Very few, if none, of us could've lived through what you've been through ever since you entered this world. You edged the line of death several times and returned to reality. None of us could shrug off things like that." Miyo obviously was a little apprehensive about forcibly volunteering Karen in this, but the battle required people in the right positions and because of how durable Karen can become when she draws upon Share energy, it's ideal for her to be in this position "Moving on to Spanner; we can't afford to move an entire army through these vents, one being the small size of the vents and how it'd take hours to move a large force through them, so a small team of three will be sent to disable the defenses. This team is all but predetermined already because of what will be needed. Lid is needed to guide the team through, I'm needed to access the command console, and we need someone who can protect us if we're caught. We need someone on the small side and is strong, yet not our absolute strongest. We need those people in Hammer. For this situation, I'm drafting Katsuo. Lastly, considering that Hammer will be engaging the vast majority of enemy forces, we need to ensure this coalition is kept off-guard, so they will be divided into six different teams. Once Spanner shuts down the defenses, Mamoru, Garrus, Wrex, Filia, Yuela, and MarvelousAQL will be striking the compound in six different directions with their teams as they attempt to make their way to the main fire zones. The walls are rather strong so we're distributing new state of the art rocket launchers I created: the LPAC Drifter to your teams so you can take down the walls with ease once Spanner disables the defenses. When I made the designs, I couldn't find a way to balance accuracy with the power needed to take down a building of this scope so you need to have your strongest people firing them as the recoil is very strong. Strong enough that the people who fire it will likely have to sit the battle out, even with the healers Izumi are bringing to help us. The timing has to be spot on or else we'll end up facing even graver complications."
"Actually, If I may interject, there is something I need to say. During my patrols around the city, when I was taking a break from helping Filia's team in the field, I have encountered a group that call themselves the Scattered Bones. Viperia, I trust you remember the gang that wiped out your team a while back?" Garrus interrupted Miyo's battle plan rather quickly as something came to his mind around the time Katsuo had to be hospitalized when his team was killed.
"Don't. Remind. Me." Katsuo snarled very angrily at the mention of his deceased team since he does not like that his own stupidity led the people who fought alongside him from day one to their deaths.
"At the time, Generia wasn't able to capture anyone from that small alliance since they all escaped, though the mechs were disabled at least. But while I was hunting them down, I encountered a group of cloaked fighters take them all down. They drew one of their swords against me but they said they recognized me helping you all. They let me go after letting me hear this quote 'May these weary bones find peaceful rest.' They said my actions proved honorable and it allowed me to live. It may just be me, but I feel like this city is playing host to an assassin's guild. An organized and very efficient one."
"You must be joking." Karen muttered this out of extreme irritation but the grave expression Garrus gave her only proved he was being honest about the situation, not that she expected any less based on what Garrus had told her 'Among my people, lying about your actions or words is the worst sin an individual can do. Furthermore, we are taught from very young ages to put aside personal gain in order to serve the group as a whole because of our commitment to public order and service' "First criminal gangs are causing chaos throughout my city and now I find we have assassins? Why are these people so content to tear my nation apart?"
"Your views are misguided and foolish." After this muffled female voice was said, a group of sixteen, wearing dark brown hooded cloaks and metallic dual layered headpieces blocking most of their faces save their eyes, appeared from out of nowhere, a faint gust of green tinted wind surrounding them for a brief moment, and quickly had blades on everyone in the room preventing them from even making a breath without the risk of being killed "We've heard that you have the knowledge of how to return people to their original homes when they found themselves in this strange city. We're here to request you return us back to Glenwood."
Karen was barely able to turn her head as she had dual knives at her neck but she was able to see everyone being held up by these mysterious individuals, seeing Filia and Wrex snarling very loudly at how they're being kept at death's row. She can easily picture them being outright pissed off at how they can't fight back. They're warriors to the core and this sort of paralysis, being forced to stay passive at risk of death, must be the worst kind of insult ever, though Karen is surprised Wrex is passive since he is taller than the assassin keeping a knife at him as he's over seven feet tall, with similar surprise from Filia staying passive though she does recall that Filia said she's not overly reckless and doesn't throw herself into situations where her chances of getting killed are high; though her choice of fighting Gaptahl single-handed, in both numbers and using her off-hand certainly betrayed the idea somewhat. Perhaps it's the fact she knows she, and everyone else in the room, is standing outside death's door that is keeping her passive, it's likely that when she is unaware of the danger, she's willing to fight anything but when she knows of the risk, she's more conscious of herself, like when she fought off Gaptahl, but hesitated when confronting the evolved Guardragon.
"I don't know what Glenwood is. But you must know that trying to threaten us is suicidal. Besides, Garrus told me you are opposed to these gangs. By targeting us, you are helping them. Drop your weapons, and we can talk this out. And do you think you have the right to request such a thing when you have us swords at our necks?"
"Forgive me for not being a complete idiot. Like we're going to do that right here." The girl had a rather feminine, yet steadfast tone, albeit muffled because of the mask she is wearing, as she spoke toward Karen, keeping her dual knives at her neck.
"You do know that you're not going to win by playing the aggressor here. If you don't know, there are nearly two hundred people not too far away from us. All I need to do is send out one single message and you're going to be overwhelmed."
"And it would only take me one second to silence you. So we're in a stalemate in this one."
"Rose, this is starting to stray too far from our original plan. We were supposed to take the individual people call Aqua Heart and have her return us to Glenwood, then let her free once that is done. Now we're being forced into this combat hold-up? This is a bit much."
"We couldn't help it Eguille. We had no idea when this woman would be on her own. Trust me, I originally planned on approaching her on my own outside this involvement, but her movements were too erratic. I was all but forced to gather you all and play hard ball on this. Besides, don't you remember? That organization: the Guild posted a bounty on these gangs because of their evil acts throughout this city. They've been attacking a lot of innocent shopkeepers and inflicting chaos everywhere, and we don't let criminals go around doing what they wish. The only areas they've left be, oddly enough, are those medical treatment places. Okay listen Aqua Heart, how about we make a deal?"
"I'm listening. Just drop your blasted weapons. Wrex, Filia, you two are dismissed, I don't trust you two not to try killing these guys. Leonard, Adelphos, Eldin, Hamil, Reiner, Yuela, go with them to ensure they don't try anything. And don't inform our guys about this...yet. Let's see if parleying can happen in this situation...even though they've given us the impression that they'd kill us without a moment's hesitation."
With a surprising nod of confirmation from the assassins keeping them at knife point, they allowed the specified individuals to leave and Karen could see the one at her back looking toward Lid and Garrus "Our meetings seem to always start and end with chaos." The girl who had kept her dual daggers toward Karen lowered her hood and took off her mask, revealing her shoulder length dark red hair and blue eyes "You fed us info when we had lost our way and found ourselves stranded in a foreign land Lid. Your have our thanks for that one, and you. You're someone I couldn't bring myself to believe exists, same with a lot of people we've encountered here. Talfryn and Felice have encountered a lot of them in that large circular building and a girl who looked like a cat without fur working at a rather fancy inn."
"They must be speaking of the convention center where all our new 'extradimensionals' enter this world into after we agreed to create a spell that brings them to one point instead of scattered all over the world, and Celina. She's one of the few cat people I've met in this world. Moru is the only other one of note. Celina's a sweet girl to be honest; she's one of the only reasons working at Celestia has been tolerable because of how slow business tends to be. It's a fresh change of pace being treated like a normal girl for once. It's always been CPU this, Goddess that. It's nice being treated as someone not burdened with those labels. While Chian does know about my situation, she keeps it secret from the other employees, to my immense relief. All five of em: Celina, Lorelei, Alenia, Nasir, and Adresin; it was a little interesting that Nasir and and Adresin are male, but it did work as diversity among the staff. In fact, we spent more of our work time merely talking amongst each other than actually working. They're all good people, admittedly."
"So you really are bitter about all this. Why bother hiding your disdain about this when you clearly despise being a CPU?"
"Oh can it you witch. Considering the fact you forced this fate on me, I could've been far more downcast! You may have saved my life-"
"More than once."
"More than once." Karen couldn't help but angrily snarl at how Caelus was emphasizing that one moment above any other but played along regardless "But I am not the type to be ungrateful. If you would only quit the conceited attitude and keep things more casual, I would be far diplomatic in our talks."
"I will not subject myself to such a level. I am your elder many times over. I am not going to engage in such trivialities."
"Oh my god. If I knew I would be putting up with this and if I didn't care for my friends as much as I do, I might have found death a little more preferable. You were civil when we first met, but lately, you've been an utter bitch. Is this your time of the month or something?"
"You did not just say that! Go die in a hole!" Caelus shouted angrily at the remark and Karen was quickly snapped back to reality when she heard the girl behind speaking toward her directly
"-you think Aqua Heart? Do you find our terms amicable for us helping you?"
"Erm, uh; I was trapped in another bout of intensive meditation. I couldn't make out what you had said."
"Well, okay then. I'll repeat myself. How would you consider having us assist you in this final skirmish? We were going to fight them by ourselves as a means of both securing funds and eliminating criminals, but if you're going after them too, we wouldn't mind lending our strength to bolster yours to ensure this succeeds. We'd rather lose some profit than our lives. Besides, if we can boost our reputation with what I presume is this city's councilor, more advantages for us."
"Garrus, what are your thoughts on this? You're one of my more experienced military advisors here. I'll trust your judgement."
"While I would normally detest the idea of keeping assassins around since they're usually the type to spread chaos, which I have an aversion to because of my time with C-Sec, I would not wish to squander resources we could use in this battle and afterward. This group was able to take down a large gang singlehanded, it's not something we should casually ignore. They'll be most helpful in Phantom once Hammer launches their attack. They'll be able to guard your flank Aqua Heart."
"So you want them acting as my personal guard in the mission? Odd decision, but I see the appeal of having trained assassins supporting me in the background. Very well then." Karen mused the decision in her mind before turning around to face her assailant "I won't exactly forgive you for keeping a sword at my neck, but I'm willing to look past it if you keep your word and help us." Karen extended her hand after she finished speaking toward the girl.
"We may be assassins, but we have our honor. We never once intended to take your lives even though I felt forced to take this harsh route to meet with you. You have my apologies for this one." After saying this, she took Karen's hand rather firmly "Name's Rose. You can trust us all to guard your back once the battle begins. Scattered Bones, let's go." After this friendly exchange, they all ran toward the entrance and just as unexpected as they appeared, they vanished with the same green-tinted wind.
"Well, that was...interesting to say the least. Anyway, we have our mission parameters: Phantom will be taking the X-34 to the enemy fortress with the Scattered Bones covering Karen from a distance, Spanner will be proceeding through the ventilation system to disable the automated defenses which will allow Hammer to strike with all their might. Mamoru, Garrus, Marvy, go link up with Wrex, Filia, and Yuela and begin assembling your teams. Phantom and Spanner will leave immediately. Let's go Lid, Katsuo. And Karen. Best of luck. One last thing before the three of us leave, when we captured the X-34, we also caught the pilot and discovered they have built-in audio recording software and had a few recorded fragments in it. It took very little effort to bounce back the transmission and turn it into a voice playback system. Using it should allow you to sound like the pilot; a crucial part of our plan."
After the battle plan was relayed, Karen quickly went down to the main chamber and entered the captured X-34, hearing the boisterous cheers of her comrades as she walked among them and also noticed the six chosen leaders: Mamoru, Garrus, Wrex, Yuela, Filia, and Marvy choosing among the people fighting for them to fight. As soon as she climbed up to the stone gray mini-mecha and piloted it out of the sanctuary, via a different route than the one being used by Spanner as she didn't want to risk either of them getting detected with this side route taking over an hour to reach the fortress' perimeter. When she got very close to the target, she encountered a single member of the Scattered Bones hiding out of sight of the gang HQ, Karen quickly noticing it being Rose since she has her hood down, she walked in front of Karen and looked up toward her.
"Glad you made it Aqua Heart. We've been watching this building for a little while now, ever since we began hunting these guys down. Eguille, Rosh, Talfyren, Felice, and the others are all hiding in a large container waiting for our cue. However, I hope you know we're no match for those strange things like the one you're using. None of our blades can cut through such strong metal."
"Good to know Rose. And don't worry about it, I'll handle the machines, you just fight the guys fighting on foot."
Rose quickly began pacing about the X-34 Karen is piloting and stops in front of it after looking it over "Say, is there room in there? I want to stick around more directly."
After this was said, Rose abruptly vanished with a green wind blowing around where she stood and a second later, Karen felt a great amount of stress across her back as she is forced forward, barely able to turn her head as she sees the cloaked Rose behind her "W-What the hell?! Y-Y-You're...suffocating me here...Rose. There's...no...room...for us both...in here."
"I don't agree with you on this one. I've been in tighter jams before." From what Karen was able to see of Rose, she was carrying a cat like smile as she spoke and readjusted her head to look at Karen, surprisingly freeing a tiny bit of room for them both "You know, I actually don't know what your name is. I've heard people call you Aqua Heart, but is that your real name?"
"Well, no. Aqua Heart is my divine name. My real name is Karen; Karen Koizumi. A lot more people know me as Haruhi Kaibara though. Do you have a surname yourself?" After Karen was able to let this out, she slowly was able to move the X-34 forward in the direction of the target.
"Huh. Talfyren told us about a woman with that name: Haruhi Kaibara. He had a bit of a thing for her. Found her cute he said. Going to have to rein him in if he learns that's you. But don't worry about that. I'll do my best to keep this secret. And to answer your question, nope; my folks got themselves caught in a major battle when I was very little and I got taken in by the Wind Riders. As far as I care, they're my family. Name's just Rose."
"Oh great, a secret admirer. I have too many as it is. If you can keep him off me, I'd truly appreciate it Rose. Anyway, we need to keep quiet. We're here, and we need to keep silent, in case they can hear us." Before she turned the last corner to enter the fortress, she pressed a few buttons on her gauntlet arm and moved it in front of her face "This is Phantom. Scattered Bones are hidden in the complex and we're cue to arrive in fifteen seconds. What is your location Spanner, Hammer?"
"Spanner has reached the vent entrance. Squad leader has entered the vent, I am holding position until a prearranged distance has been made and escort will be following through last. We will likely have access to the system within thirty minutes."
"This is Vakarian, we just broke into our six squads and are rendezvousing to our arranged strike zones. Give the word and we'll unleash our full might against this enemy."
"You all know our parameters in this mission. No one marches on the base until Miyo gives the word, which is when she has either disabled the automated defenses or, if they have them, changed their IFF codes. And I mean you Wrex and Filia." Karen spoke this very solemnly, deliberately calling the pair out since she knows how they are "From now on, Phantom is executing low level audio silence. Maintain radio contact with Spanner so you know when to march. Phantom. Out." After making this clear, Karen shuts down her gauntlet's comm systems and looked toward Rose as she moved her mech forward "We're on our own for now Rose."
"Not a problem, you guard me from these things and I'll take down anyone foolish enough to fight us."
"Deal, now hush up." Karen did carry a gentle smile for a moment but turned serious since they were right outside the base, seeing the heavily reinforced and secured blast doors that protected the only obvious entrance to this fortress "Holy. These guys are not joking around when it comes to security." After inspecting the documents that were kept in this machine's computer systems, she learned that she was piloting Unit 027, which was being used by a pilot called Suketsune and pulled out an internal radio speaker, toggled the voice changer and moved it close to her "This is unit 27, I was delayed evading enemy ambushes across the board. I've sustained damage and am unable to exit this X-34."
"Were you followed Suketsune?" Karen was unable to ascertain the gender of the person speaking to her as it held obvious computerized encryption.
"No sir. I took sixteen detours through minimal population centers though I was pursued a great deal by this one tiny girl wielding a massive hammer, but I was able to escape her."
"Very well, get inside quickly; we need to ensure our security."
Hyperdimension Standard Time: [11:00] April 22nd 22XX
Location: [Arcadia City - Enemy Base]
When the blast doors opened, Karen slowly entered the building seeing a massive room, with many cargo containers scattered around the room which would give defenders a major advantage, with dozens of warriors training with various forms of weapons against either fellow warriors or against moving targets kept on rails through the room, but primarily swords or rifles, in this space. But amidst the many gang members training, there is one single heavily armored individual wearing a dull violet armor with a great number of gold trims along the entirety of the upper half, oversized pauldrons, small cosmetic spikes along the right armguard, a special helmet hiding the entirety of the person's face which makes her think of a villain protagonist from a small game series she's played who's goal, in the entry game of the series, was to kill seven corrupted former heroes, though the size of the person catches Karen off-guard since the person is taller than the seven foot mech she's piloting though whether it's because of the armor or the person's natural height is unknown to her, inspecting the ranks of the people around him. She also took note of the massive kiteshield on the left side and the equally massive zweihander being kept in a single hand.
"That dude is huge and clearly heavily armored. I'm not sure how much good we'll be against that guy." Rose whispered this in Karen's ear as she was able to catch a glimpse of the armored individual.
"Trust me Rose, we have options. If neither of us can take this guy, we can leave this to Wrex, Filia, or Garrus. Wrex has said he's been in battle for a thousand years, Filia's arguably the strongest warrior in all Gamindustri, and Garrus is very experienced with a sniper rifle. His AP rounds should be enough if the first two options fail."
After Karen parked her X-34 in a corner along with the rest of the units, she had little option but to stand by and wait for Hammer to unleash heaven and hell on the base and launch her attack alongside the Scattered Bones.
With phase one of the plan completed: it involving Phantom making their way into the compound in preparation for the final assault; things proceeded for Spanner as they crawled through the vents very slowly as they followed Lid's lead to reach the command center.
"Miyo, this freaking sucks." Katsuo scowled under his breath as he followed the pair in front of him, all three barely keeping a foot distance between each other as they crawled through the tight ventilation system.
"Shut it! We can't afford to let them hear us! We're attracting too much attention as it is with our crawling here. If they decide to have an X-34 fire rounds up here, we're as good as dead! Lid, how far are we from the target?"
"We're here. Follow my lead." Lid spoke this very quietly as she stopped in front of a ladder for the maintenance tunnel, descends down it and the sound of muffled grunts and rapid punches are heard by Katsuo and Miyo. When the pair climb down the ladder, they find four unconscious bodies in a small pile out of sight of the sole door "Mission. Accomplished." Lid quickly worked on restraining the four to a nearby wall, materializing four sets of handcuffs, moves them to the back of the room, and restrains them to a wall out of sight, also deciding to take an extra measure of placing four rebreather masks on them to keep them silent yet not also place them into a situation where
"Wow, that's incredible Lid. Miyo, go do your thing. I'll cover you."
Miyo took a moment to nod in acknowledgement as she dashed toward a nearby console, dug out a pair of her new flex sensor gloves and a thin visor of sorts out of a bag she kept at her waist, put them all on, pressed a button on the visor which made it glow a faint yellow and plugged in a USB plug on her right glove as she kept her attention focused on the console in front of her "This'll be a cakewalk considering my expertise with machines and computers." After confidently making this heard, a holographic keyboard appears above the actual one as she is rapidly pressing buttons and after pressing one button very strongly, the sole entrance quickly is seen being closed with a reinforced blast door "There we go. Now we got time to do what we need to do." Miyo proudly smiled as she unplugged her glove's USB plug and pulled her visor up to show her eyes as she walked toward the main command console "Now we reach the tough part. Gaining control of the system." Miyo stopped speaking after this point as she lowered her visor again, scowling moments later "Shit, I kind of knew something like this would happen. All of the systems are locked with administrator firewalls. I can't break through it conv-. Wait, that gives me an idea." Miyo perked up considerably as she rapidly entered command after command on her holographic keyboard "I can't access any sort of system conventionally, but I found a backdoor I can manipulate. I should be able to modify my account to an administrator level and then gain full control. It'll just take more time to pull off." Miyo was irritated that she couldn't take a more generic route, but is glad regardless that she has an option regardless and gently tapped the earpiece she has on her right ear "This is Spanner, we've encountered complications, but we've found a different approach. Hammer teams, hold your positions until I give the all-clear."
"This is Hammer 4, your order is acknowledged Spanner. We're setting up the LPAC Drifters as we speak. Izumi's healers from the clinic are standing by, ready to transport the firing squads after launch. When you give the word, this final criminal gang will fall to our combined might." Garrus spoke with crystal clarity as he relayed his team's status.
"Hammer 2, you had better hurry, I am dying to fight such a glorious battle; it almost reminds me of the battle we had with Cerberus on Sur'Kesh, even though I was stuck in a shuttle the whole time."
"Hammer 1, we're in position waiting for the signal to strike. We have Ragsmuena ready to phase through the walls when the battle commences and our group is ready to fulfill our contract with Aqua Heart to aid her in this battle."
"Hammer 6, we've mobilized our collective might and are eager to bring the might of the finest troops from the Leanbox SMD that ever graced Gamindustri's existence onto these good for nothing criminals. My blade is eager to fight."
"Hammer 3 reporting in, we're raring to go, especially since your two teams are in great danger while we're waiting here. Moru and Estelle are particularly feisty and waiting for us to begin, Cybercon and I are keeping them in line thankfully."
"Hammer 5, I share sentiments with Hammer 3. We want this to end fast to get you guys out of danger."
After hearing the responses from Hammer, Miyo quickly got to work to hack into the system, engaging the voice suppression software so nothing she says escapes her lips since she wouldn't want to creep out Lid and Katsuo, and also to maintain as much secrecy as possible, utilizing her new tech to give herself an unique perspective as the prototype VR systems allowed her to materialize a mental avatar within the mainframe's network and explore an endless field with black and blue lines everywhere though the heavy emphasis on blocks introduced a jarring and surreal experience for Miyo, quickly noticing via a reflection on a nearby wall that she is wearing what appears to be a full body dark blue latex suit; while she was able to maintain focus and sanity right now, she feared she wouldn't be able to keep that focus if she stayed in this place for too long as it was already introducing a mild buzz in her mind as she slowly walked about and inspected the landscapes, surprisingly noticing what appears to be a mechanical flower colored the same as the landscape amidst it all.
"This place is very interesting. So this is what code looks like in a physical manner. It's...overwhelming. All of this buzzing is attacking my mind though. If I'm not careful or fast enough, I could lose a lot of my mental capabilities from shock and trauma." After muttering this as she stared in awe, having only seen code as characters prior to this moment, she closed her eyes as she sent mental commands to her implants to compress her memories save two specific events: the mission on hand and the knowledge of how to undo this process, with the condition being if her mental state begins to decline.
Miyo quickly quelled her desire to examine the surroundings as she walked forward, following the instinctive lines that are appearing in her field of vision as they are leading her to the source of the administrator code so she can modify it to give herself access, but encounters a mechanically enhanced voice ring out all around her.
"My oh my. Color me pink as blossoms. I thought I was the only hacker of this caliber. I had no idea anyone else was capable of full-dive hacking operations."
"What the?!" Miyo shouted in her mind as she rapidly turned herself in every direction possible, trying to find the person speaking to her "W-Who are you?!"
"I suppose you can call me a master of all things cyber. My name is Anonydeath. But please, call me Anny, young Miyo Hanari."
"I've heard rumors of there being a hacker of unrivaled magnitude with that name hidden somewhere in the Gamindustri Underground back when I was working with ASIC, but I never really cared to give a damn at the time. But clearly I do need to commit some resources if you're getting in my way."
"You misunderstand. I am not here to oppose you, in fact, I'm interested in supporting you in this little plan of yours. I only want one thing in return."
"What's your aim in this plan Anonydeath? Where are you operating from?"
"You're not going to trick me so easily, you'd have the other goddesses hunt me down, though I wouldn't mind having Noire barging in. Putting that aside, I'll offer my assistance in exchange for me keeping copies of the data these guys possess in their databanks."
"Why are you interested in the data in this mainframe? What is in it?"
"I'd love to tell you, I really do. But if I did, you'd never agree to my help. Let me simply say it would support the plan all of Gamindustri needs to build within the next few years. I may be a hacker, but I'm not petty enough that I'd endanger the world for my own desires. Although I am uneasy seeing Gamindustri being forced to undergo such sudden and drastic militarization, I know it is necessary for us to survive. In fact, talking with you has given me an idea."
"What do you have in mind Anonydeath?"
"Thing is, I feel like things are becoming too dangerous for me in the mainland. Give me sanctuary in your goddess' country and protection from the law and I'll provide all of my services free of charge."
"You'd be asking me to go behind my goddess' back Anonydeath. She's opposed to criminal activity, and you qualify."
"So I presume your answer is no then."
"Wrong. I accept your offer."
"You surprise me. You're willing to backstab your goddess' wishes by granting a criminal refuge?"
"Aqua Heart is an idealistic fool; a kind ruler and a good friend yes, but foolishly idealistic nonetheless. I do wonder sometimes that if perhaps we had met when I was younger, I wouldn't be as...cynical. What she fails to understand however is that dirty jobs have to be done sometimes, she would condemn it all because of her ideals, but I'm very practical. While she does have plenty of battle experience, she's too...soft to soak her hands in blood when the demands calls for it, mine are already plenty soaked with it all. I'm not innocent, I lost that sense of purity years ago. If I let her have her way, this nation will fall apart, and I will not allow it. But let me be clear Anonydeath, I'll grant you refuge here in Arcadia only if you commit every single one of your resources to Arcadia's development, particularly in the subject of cyber-warfare. Particularly when I've already had to fend off a few attempts from Lastation and Leanbox trying to hack into our servers. Government approved or not, I am not happy about this. Particularly when my implants have been...on the fritz for some reason, it is interfacing with the nation's networks rather strongly and it has put my own memories at risk. With it being so erratic, hackers could infiltrate my own memories unless I do something. I have a suspicion on what's causing it, and if it is what I fear, I'll have to work fast to ensure I'll still be around to help develop the dimensional warp tech."
"Yikes, you're far more feisty than I thought! But I'll accept your terms as long as you follow your promise to protect me. Now, I'll lead the way to the main command console-" Anonydeath was interrupted from speaking as the crystal blue environments rapidly warped into a dark crimson red color and alarms ran blazing everywhere, making Miyo grip her head in pain since the loud volume was disrupting her ability to focus to a degree "Oh my, I was so focused on our talks that I forgot to keep the firewall systems disabled. The security will now be attempting to expel us from the system, but the thing is; since our minds are within the very system they are trying to expel us from..."
"At best we'll be expunged from the system, at worst we'll be killed. Shit. Anonydeath, get me some sort of weapon I can defend myself with. I have no damn intention of dying here!"
"Got it." Moments later, a large flamberge which carries what appears to be a mythril blade and a curved cross-guard making it easy for her to keep it stable, appears in Miyo's hand and is met with the security systems which are taking the form of blue human silhouettes already numbering in the dozens in front of her "I would recommend not wasting too much time fighting these enemies and make haste to the command console; this is a situation of an endless horde you would find in heavy combat MMORPGS."
"Easier said than done you good for nothing bastard!" Miyo shouted this very angrily as she gripped her sword with both of her hands, dashed forward toward the silhouettes and slammed her sword down toward the ground, which created a very powerful shockwave which instantly destroyed all of the enemies in front of her, and to her surprise, a large well of fire began to erupt around her and flow outwards toward all of the enemies around her, extinguishing them all as they explode into colorful bubbles, giving her a little breathing room. Miyo took note of both the well of fire created with her sword and the fact they were destroyed with ease, indicating the extremely low durability of them all "What the?! Was that magic?! But how- Wait, this is a digital world; anything's figuratively possible." Her relief was short-lived as those very same bubbles are quickly seen dividing and reconstituting into their original forms almost instantaneously "Oh shit. The more of these things I kill, the more I'll have to fight!"
After seeing that indulging in battle would only make her mission more impossible, she dashes in the direction of the green lines Anonydeath has been providing to reach the command center though the rush had her ignoring the enemies around her and came dangerously close to being attacked by those very enemies, making her attack them with her sword to defend herself and repeat the dangerous process of their replication, the enemy silhouettes skillfully using their katanas to strike against her though Miyo has trained enough with her sword to deflect many of their strikes though some broke through and felt the digital metal graze her skin, heavy sweat following as her anxiety grew exponentially as each hit could potentially kill her though the adrenaline quickly got to work and seemingly began to slow down time, giving her time to process what moves to make against an endless horde of enemies that regenerate within seconds.
Because of that regeneration and spawn rate, this danger has prevented her from advancing, as they are quickly massing all around her making her stop in her tracks, strongly gripping her flamberge and re-envisioned it as fully automated autocannons since she needed to fight the enemies around her but she could no longer let herself stay passive using a sword because of the massive horde all around her. But because of how she is surrounded, she kept still while the weapon conversion was ongoing, with cannons hovering in each direction of her body soon after she began the process and automatically began firing rapid bursts of lasers at each enemy around her, disintegrating them with each hit, quickly clearing a path for her to proceed.
With the new weapons defending her, Miyo continued along her way, running along the green lines and quickly encounters what appears to be a fortified bunker under heavy assault from the enemies, though they are quickly destroyed with her automated autocannon barrage, creating a brief moment of peace
"Anonydeath, are you in there?" Miyo asked this as she stopped right in front of the bunker doors, figuring that if the security programs were working rather intently on breaking in, an intruder must be in there, and Anonydeath's the only other person in this network.
"That I am. I had to seal the door to keep that blasted security out. Is it safe out there?" Unlike before when Anonydeath's voice rang out all around her, his voice was very clear on the other side of the blast door in front of her.
"For now. Let me the hell in before that changes!" Miyo shouted this rather irritably, seeing the door open a short amount and stopping there, before coming to the realization that she won't get anything more than half a foot of height to get through the door, so she dispels her autocannons and falls to her stomach as she crawls into the bunker, being met with the sight of Anonydeath extending his right arm toward Miyo as she quickly grabs it with her left hand as they work together to pull her up and after doing so, they rush toward two different consoles to get to work quickly when they quickly finished resealing the blast door "We need to get this security system offline fast!"
"Old news girlfriend. What do you think I've been doing ever since we broke comms?"
Miyo ignored the comment since she would've lashed out in irritation against Anonydeath but she knew she had to focus all of her attention on getting the security system offline, which doesn't take as much time as she'd thought, though she knew having two talented computer experts was a great help in that regard, making Miyo give a deep sigh of relief when the dark crimson red quickly reverted to a passive cerulean blue that didn't introduce danger, but that of calm tranquility, something Miyo obviously preferred aside from the buzzing attacking her mind.
"Okay, crisis averted, thankfully. Now, mind telling me just why you're going to such lengths Anonydeath?"
"Certainly, come over here and-Woah." While the armor he was wearing kept facial expressions, his voice was certainly cheerful but immediately stopped in his tracks as something clearly caught him off-guard in the data he was searching through.
When Miyo obliged and walked over to his console, she was quickly met with the image of several files, each one having a different name: Behemoth R, Gargantua, Ravager, Silhouette, Firestorm, Monolith, Plasmyr, Trexus, Catapult, Behemoth P, Salvation, one with initials of ACAS, and several other files hidden with high-level encryptions that would likely take Miyo months of dedicated time to crack. When she inspected the file for the Monolith, she was quickly met with an image of schematics for a massive vehicle with the designation of M192A6 Monolith, losing any sense of calm serenity as the length of the vehicle is said to be well over a thousand meters and is equipped with enough firepower to completely dominate an entire country single-handed even though the specifications label it as a heavily armored mobile command center. She is left completely and utterly agape at this discovery and can only wonder how powerful these other vehicles are if a mere command center is this heavily armed. In fact, she was further left awed when she inspected the ACAS schematics, seeing the name being labeled as A-216 Advanced Capital Assault Supercarrier, the imagery possibly suggesting that despite the length being called at an orbital spacecraft with twenty four thousand meter length, it could be modified to handle non-orbital flights and operate as a perfect mobile command with enough tech to ward off any potential attackers but the resources needed to produce even half of the ship would bankrupt Arcadia in its current state. However, she knows that to produce any of these vehicles, Arcadia would need to perfect transmutation tech just to secure enough resources and then trying to fund it; she fears the funding alone would exponentially bankrupt the country.
"What. The. How...How do these guys have such powerful weapons...?! I'm supposed to be one of Gamindustri's greatest engineers, and something like this; I'd never be able to make something like this in my entire life!" Miyo was utterly dumbstruck at the advanced designs of the vehicles as she closes the Monolith file and examines the others, and displays expressions of pure horror and awe at the designs though something caught her eye when she inspected them further "Wait a minute. Something's not right about this."
"How so?"
"Look at the time-stamps. These weren't kept in the databanks for a long period of time for possible recreation; it was just added ten minutes ago. And I hacked into this mainframe...unless this is a huge coincidence, someone wanted me to find these files. Wait, there's a message embedded in this group of files." Miyo opened the message and noticed it was a text only file
'Agent Ten, I am getting fed up with your requests. I have provided you a way to return to continue your mission, helped provide a honor guard to prepare the Arcadians and the rest of the Gamindustrians for the upcoming monster evolution and you have the gall to ask for more reinforcements when I am providing you the most powerful vehicles ever created! Nothing I am doing seems beneficial to my mission in the slightest Ten. If you cannot give me a single damn reason otherwise, I am going to cut you dry; you will not receive any more assistance from me!'
'Lord Tybalt, I know I've been asking for a lot, but haven't you heard of planting the seeds of hope and victory in newly rejuvenated soil? Certainly, I know none of my requests have any immediate effect in your mission, but trust me, I have your interests in mind while also indulging in my own. Scratch my back, and I'll return the favor with a heavily advanced civilization that might be able to rival the Isnians, one who have not condemned the concept of widespread virtual reality. It's what you wanted right?'
'You're on thin ice Ten. But fine. I'll play along and get you more reinforcements. You'll have to wait to get them however, I cannot simply pull skilled warriors out of thin air; they must be extracted somewhere in time or space and ensure the respective time-stream suffers minimal to no impact. But until then, I find it necessary to have you monitored to make sure you are true to your word in your endeavors actually helping my goal. To do so, I am sending two of my followers: Kanbede and Dia to watch your progress and send me frequent reports.'
'You have my gratitude. Trust me when I say that you won't be disappointed. If they're as strong as I expect of someone with your eye for talent, I'll be directing these new reinforcements to form around Lady Aqua Heart. A personal guard if I may.'
'Do with them as you wish. Where do you wish me to transmit this data for the war machines? The Arcadian Basilicom mainframe?'
'Mmm. Bad idea to be honest. There's only one engineer I know skilled enough to make any degree of sense of the designs at best, and she was sent to hack into some criminals' computer systems. She's one of the Isnians you made contact with a long time ago: Miyo Hanari. Move the files to the computer systems at these coordinates. There's no way she wouldn't happen across them. Embed it behind the security system and as soon as it is disabled, it should reveal itself to her.'
"Wait, this Tybalt knows my people? How? We had no idea of other worlds existing at all. Well, other dimensions I guess I should say. Wait, 'Condemned the concept of widespread virtual reality?' I remember reading something like that in the many records in my implants, when I was wandering aimlessly before I met Izumi; about four centuries before I was born. A few activists wanted to explore the idea of expanding the breadth of VR and the experiment nearly wiped out the Syclorian species and a small precinct of my home station. After the fact, the decision was repealed and kept under strict government oversight, just like it always has been." "I was right. These two people: Agent Ten and Tybalt deliberately planted these vehicle files here for me to find. Anonydeath, was this what you were talking about when you wanted a copy?"
"No way. These criminals stole software data for my suit's next upgrade. I was hacking into this system to get it back and I presumed you were after it as well; I would rather let you have a copy than have us fighting over it. But these vehicles, their designs far surpass anything that has been made by the nations protected by the goddesses. And before you ask, there's no way I'm going to fight you on this one. I was afraid enough over you wanting to steal data I made for my suit, no way am I even going to consider nabbing such powerful weapons from you, not worth it. They're all yours."
"Glad to hear of your submission over the procurement of this tech." Miyo smugly grinned as she proceeded to take the files and add the archived files to her glove's built-in USB flash drives, wanting to keep them secure until she has a chance to properly add them to a secure mainframe where she could spend as much time as needed fully analyzing the data that these two people sent her, especially when she heard that since Karen has hired Kei as her new Oracle and was quickly going to the effort of hiring skilled government employees; knowing that when that's done, she, Izumi, Linda, and Pirachu would likely be laid off to allow proper skilled employees to do what is necessary to allow the nation to prosper; and it would allow her to focus on her R&D work full-time, and Izumi doing the same with her doctor job at the clinic if she so wished "Okay, now we have to work on the automated defenses."
"Already taken care of girlfriend. Completely deactivated."
"What? How?! We only just now shut down the security systems!" Miyo was caught off-guard at the speed Anonydeath was able to disable the defenses since the security firewalls were only disabled a minute or two ago.
"You forget that I'm a master of all things cyber. Hacking my way into a network is simple when given the time and resources necessary, and anything further is child's play."
"I see. Well, my job is done and I have new data I'll need to research when I get the chance. Unless there's anything else, it's time for war."
"I've kept enough of your time here, and as long as you promise me protection in exchange for my services, I'll be proceeding to Arcadia first thing tomorrow."
"Your safety is guaranteed for your help here. Just operate in the dark for the time being."
"That's how I work best. Farewell for now Miyo Hanari."
With this final exchange of conversation, the pair rise their heads as they become enveloped with a bright light, Miyo quickly found herself back in the command center, her sight still blocked by her visor as she sluggishly takes it off and unplugs the USB flash drive on her glove when she made sure all of the data she took was on it.
"You okay Miyo? You look real faint." Lid was at Miyo's side as she began to gently sway from exhaustion from the experience she had in the augmented reality of the mainframe's server as Lid moved her to the side, out of sight from the blast door.
"I-I'm okay. Just a bit disoriented from that experiment of my new AR tech. I need to adjust it a bit to give myself some shielding though if I do this again." Miyo sheepishly smiled as she spoke, but swiftly activated her gauntlet's comm system with a proud grin of victory "Hammer teams, the defenses are offline. Launch the attack!"
"Understood!" All six team leaders shouted this in unison when they got the all-clear signal from Miyo.
Hyperdimension Standard Time: [11:30] April 22nd 22XX
Location: [Arcadia City - Enemy Base]
"Launch the attack!"
While Karen was waiting for the signal from Miyo, doing her best to relax within the captured X-34 with Rose at her back, she heard that message from Spanner and couldn't help but smile knowing that Miyo has laid down the foundation for the final battle and the troops would be attacking any second.
"Okay Rose, I really need the space if I'm going to be fighting the enemy."
"Got it, I'm gonna rejoin my team. Best of luck."
With a smile, Rose disappears yet again with the same green-tinted wind, freeing up much needed room within the X-34 when several huge explosions rocked the entire building, sending many of the people in the main room spiraling to the ground, even two of the mechs, quickly pulling themselves up when the shockwaves subsided and members from another room dashed toward the heavily armored knight moments afterward
"This is Hammer 2; the firing team for the LPAC Drifter was killed from the recoil!"
"Hammer 4, the same happened over here!"
The other teams responded in kind and the messages did little to boost Karen's morale hearing that people are dying already but did her best to suppress it for the time being since she needs to fight.
"Lord Evart! We're under attack!"
"Do you take me for a damn idiot? If you find yourself under attack, destroy the one doing it!" The knight responded rather violently, violently driving his fist to the distressed member's stomach, sending him to the ground in pain as he clutches his stomach "I am providing you with magic that boosts your strength exponentially and you still possess such foolish weakness?! Fight them off or I will kill you all one by one!"
"Shit, this guy is ruthless. Perhaps...perhaps if I can kill this one, the others might submit. It seems like he is corralling them through his violence." With this in mind, Karen walked over toward the mystery knight while his attention was on the gang members but when she reached him, he rapidly turned around, sword drawn and slashed it through her mech's right arm, quickly severing it from the main chassis, falling to the ground with a loud rattle as it fell to the ground and the slash even destroyed part of her robotic arm; making Karen cry out in surprise as she was forced back in horror, eyes looking down to see everything below her elbow of her robotic arm was destroyed by the slash "H-How did his sword destroy part of this mech and my arm?!"
"We have a traitor in our ranks!" Evart snarled as he dealt three more slashes against her X-34, completely annihilating the entire frame, the shock disrupting her focus and her HDD dissipating, as she falls to the ground, crying out yet again from the shock, especially when the X-34s and the gang members begin to surround her.
"Oh shit…" Karen inaudibly whimpered seeing the odds being stacked against her and with her arm damaged, she can't contact her team; so until the Scattered Bones and the six Hammer teams arrive, she's on her own.
Feeling like she has no choice, she summons her sword and quickly casts a wind spell that Leonard was fond of and uses it to force the enemies around her to fall back though the armored knight was far from fazed by the spell as his sword was extended in front of him, blocking the wind's effects.
"How cute, you thought such a weak, pathetic spell could affect a warrior of my caliber. I would have thought you'd be tough; either the Grand Master overestimated you or you are an utter weakling. Allow me to show you real power; the power of the Parthenian Knights!"
Within a single second, the knight moved his sword above his head, pointing the blade toward Karen, made a short dash toward her and slammed it down; Karen doing her utmost to block it with her own though she is fighting a losing battle as she slowly falls to her knees from the impact, the force creating a small crater around her, and the differing strength between the two warriors is shown almost immediately as a horrifying sound rings out to her as she sees and hears Benten's blade shatter from the force the knight was applying, sending half of the blade flying a short distance leaving only the grip and a small part of the fuller remaining of the sword.
"W-What…? The sword...broke?" What little confidence Karen had left was immediately destroyed as she sees what little remained of her sword.
"Karen, this beast is inhuman! No human being should be able to shatter Celeste! Or rather, Benten! You NEED to get out of here! If he's able to destroy a CPU's holy relic, I imagine he can easily do the same to actual CPUs!"
"But I...I feel paralyzed; I can't move!"
With the threat of the warrior hovering over her, the adrenaline coursing through her veins made time seem to proceed very slowly yet the fear coursing through her veins kept her from moving, but was surprised to see the knight slightly fall a small bit, what appears to be a series of small dull green colored assassin daggers embedded in the armor and a member of the gang's group, wearing a dark blue cloak with dark crimson red cloth armguards and flame symbols along the coif, the only parts of skin being visible are the upper arms, a small part of her legs and stomach, and minimal face exposure, only showing a part of the person's red hair and blue eyes, rush toward Karen, rapidly punching enough pressure points to temporarily knock her out, put her over their shoulder and dashed out of the building at the same moment a sniper rifle round is heard being fired, a small but very distinctive bullet hole in the glass frame of one of the X-34s.
"You will pay for this betrayal Netzen!"
"Filia, someone grabbed our leader! Get her back!" Garrus shouted out as he quickly reloaded his sniper rifle and fired upon another X-34, and the near entirety of the allied army marching out from the various doorways as they begin fighting.
"Got it!"
While Karen was being carried away by the mystery gang member, she comes to in what appears to be a run-down shack with dull silver and bronze colored walls and the cloaked assassin standing about, nervously pacing about the sole room of the building
"Y-You saved me? Why?" Karen felt rather disoriented as she tried to pull herself up, only to be stopped by the mysterious person as Karen is gently pushed to rest on a makeshift bed.
"Haruhi, you need to take it slow. I had to put quite some force to knock you out back there; your body needs some time to recover from it."
"Wait...that voice. Celina? W-Why are you with the gangs?!"
In response, Celina took off her hood and lowered the cloth mouth covering, fully revealing her curly red hair, her cat ears on the top of her head, and blue eyes "Technically, I doubt they'd gladly welcome me back among them considering I backstabbed Evart the way I did. But to answer your question Haruhi, I joined them for the heck of it all."
"But...why? You had a high class and well-paying job at Celestia! You shouldn't need to sink this low to secure your place."
"Money?" Celina couldn't help but laugh at the remark as she crouched down to Karen's level "You honestly thought I joined these guys for money? These bastards are poor as dirt. No, I fight for them because I was among my kin. I'm a pure-bred criminal, through and through."
"Celina, do you have any semblance of regret over this?! What about the people you've been working with?! Lorelei, Alenia, Nasir, Adresin, and I!"
"Do you honestly think of me as heartless? I'm a criminal, not a sociopath. I don't kill people unless I'm forced to, although I do outright love being put into such dangerous situations, it's so exhilarating. Danger at every step, death being all so possible. I particularly love it when I get captured and locked in dungeons; the torturers are always so rough and cruel. So exquisite~. A-Anyway, my parents, grandparents, great grandparents, so on and so forth, we're all criminals. Lorelei and the others, they are extremely good people, I won't lie about that. I legitimately did enjoy being around them and living as a 'normal' girl, but in the end, I can't exactly fight against my own nature. But why are you getting involved in this Haruhi? These guys don't joke around."
"Okaaaay, that seems like an utter antithesis to her claim. No sane person would consider death and torture so 'exquisite'. While I may not consider her a sociopath in the literal sense, she is most certainly a pure-bred masochist. It's kinda terrifying." Karen couldn't help but visibly cringe in distaste at Celina's apparent hidden quirks as they would've unhinged weaker minds at least somewhat and did her best to hide it as she masked her disgust and looked toward Celina solemnly "Okay, just to get this point across, that's not my name. It's a fake alias Chian helped me make to hide my identity. My real name is Karen Koizumi, but more people recognize me with this one title." Karen stopped when she spoke of the title most people call her by as she activates her HDD to change back into her goddess form, the changed appearance utterly shocking Celina as she rapidly backed against the wall, an expression of pure horror on her face.
"Oh crap! T-T-The Silver Demon?! Y-You...You're the…!"
"Console Patron Unit Aqua Heart, leader and founder of Arcadia. Infamously known to the gangs as the 'Silver Demon' because of the silver armor my chief engineer made me."
"Ugh, I hate this. You should be my mortal enemy but you gave me a roof over my head, a job to work and all the works. It's tough to-"
Celina was interrupted mid-sentence as the sound of a broken window rings out behind Karen and the sound of a sword being drawn from the sheath and she sees Celina draw her dual knives in response.
"You clearly must have a deathwish, criminal scum. Abducting our goddess like this. Well, I am more than willing to oblige such a thing." Karen quickly recognized the agitated voice coming from Filia, and unlike anything before, she could tell Filia was genuinely pissed off at Celina's act of pulling her away from the battlefield and will likely fight to have Celina killed if she doesn't act quickly and does so by standing in front of Celina, arms extended to stop Filia from attacking.
"Filia, as your goddess, I am ordering you to stand down. Celina is my friend and you are not going to fight her!"
"You must be joking! This girl's our ENEMY!"
"Filia, remember you swore your loyalty to me. It is common practice that doing so requires the individual to obey his or her master's orders no matter what. While I have little qualms with reinterpreting orders when a better approach is possible from what I initially demand, I am not afraid to put my foot down. Besides, our goals in this whole campaign was crystal clear from day one. No deaths whatsoever."
Filia couldn't help but angrily snarl at Karen's words, refusing to sheathe her sword and keeping it trained on both Karen and Celina, and glared at the individual in front of her "You're really starting to piss me off Karen. While I never exactly saw much in the way of battle back then, the Leanbox SMD never restricted my activities period. I don't do orders. I don't give them, and I sure as hell don't get them. Even though we had missions, they never damn ordered me around. They tell me of missions happening in the region and nothing else. They make it clear from the get-go that my participation is at my own prerogative. Same with my team. They tell me of events happening and nothing more. So where do you get off having the gall to order me around?!" With this said, Filia quickly attempted to strike against Celina but was repulsed when the intended sword strike made its cut through the remains of Karen's robotic arm as she moved to block her, shocking Filia as the sounds of damaged machinery rings out.
"Dammit Filia, you're forcing me into a situation where I can't trust you anymore! I truly didn't want to have to do this, but your refusal to obey and attempted murder of those I am sworn to defend has made me commit to this extreme act. You will obey. I'm sorry." Karen closed her eyes despondently as she extended her left arm, muttered an incantation under her breath, and swiftly reopened them as a beam of light burst from her hand and rapidly kept Filia in restraint, seeing her attempt to break free but to no avail.
"What the hell?! What are you doing?!"
"I told you. Your refusal to obey my mandate has forced me to commit to magic I would normally consider illegal in most societies that have such things. Brainwashing. It's something I've learned how to do from ancient CPU tomes. While you'll still have your free will, to an extent, you'll be obedient to my own and will obey my orders. You're too much of a loose cannon for me to trust anymore, not without this level of reinforcement."
"YOU'RE INSANE!" Filia screamed in utter anger but was swiftly silenced as the scleras in her brown eyes began to glow a bright blue and the anger in her expression faded instantaneously, sheathing her sword after withdrawing it from her arm "I apologize Lady Aqua Heart. I'll act with more tact from now on."
"Good. Now hurry back to the enemy hideout, we need to ensure our mission succeeds. No killing anyone, knock them out."
A nod from Filia followed the order and left the building though Celina quickly began to grimace at Filia's unnaturally calm change of voice and temperament as she walked away
"Erm...Karen, are you going to...do that to me too? As much as the idea of having my mind toyed with in such a way excites me to the core, I want myself to stay pure. But then again, having such a dominant force have their way with my head seems extremely exhilarating, even more so than being kept in prison and tortured. Kyaaaa~, this is becoming oh so divine~!"
"C-Celina...these masochistic tendencies of yours are really starting to terrify me. Keep them in check will ya?"
"I can't help it. These kinds of things just hit me really strongly, and I'm at a rather extreme stage of it. I don't know whether it's from my feline blood in my world, but my range of emotion is very unbridled at the moment, uh...I don't feel all that comfortable discussing the specifics of my species' biological quirks, despite my own personality. But in truth, mine has really been delayed for whatever reason. Among my people, my age is equivalent to that of a fully grown adult, thirty or so years, but this development was normally supposed to begin in my adolescence, not...this late."
"So are these tendencies of yours only stemming from you basically being in heat?" Karen couldn't help but hope that this is just a phase of hers, though she had a sinking feeling that is not the case, especially with what she said next confirming it.
"Nope; that is pure bred naturale and damn proud of it~. Come on though, we need to get you back to the battle and your guys. Considering that Evart, if that's his name anyway, is extremely overpowered, he's likely going to swat them like flies. And considering that he destroyed your sword, you'll need a replacement. Let me take a little looksy at my stockpile here. I know I had a sword somewhere here." After this has been stated by Celina, she walked over to a small wooden chest and opens it as she digs through it, tossing out a whole lot of random items "I was running a heist with my family and several members of our group before I entered this world. Blasted corrupt royal deserved having his riches stolen; he profited off the misfortune of thousands for over twenty five years! Hopefully such a successful raid would bring investigation and possibly even armed conflict from outside royals when they hear an enemy has been weakened and we may get a more benign ruler. One that wouldn't tax his people beyond starvation and oppress his people. If it's not the case, we'll simply strike back again with the support of the populace. Although they know it could endanger their lives, they hide us while we stay in the shadows and strike against corrupt nobles. Oh come on! Where the hell is the thing?! I know we took it before we left! Damn Infinita chest!" Celina was obviously growing irritated as she spoke of this whole half of the conversation, not looking at Karen as she dove further into the chest and continued throwing stuff from the chest about the room, Karen dodging a full set of black tinted armor as it hits a nearby wall.
"So you're noble thieves? That's a bit unexpected; but I thought you said you were a criminal."
"I am, in the eyes of the corrupted nobility. The vast public see us as heroes of sorts, though some do turn their backs on us. If necessary, I consistently prepare myself to offer myself as a scapegoat. Anything to help my comrades escape possible captivity; particularly since I do love it and it's easy for me to escape with enough time and preparation. But despite my love of incarceration and all, no one has been able to keep me in longer than I wish. Anyway, found it!" Celina continued to speak of her life in her own world as she pulled out a sword with an extremely shiny mythril blade with a gold hilt and presented it and a sheath to Karen "Here ya go. The corrupt king's five years worth of wasted tax 'investment' of a sword: Echo's Lament. If anything...it's not something I'd recommend using against Evart, it's purely ornamental. The bastard exploited near endless amounts of tax money crafting a damn sword. But enough talk, like I said before, Evart is going to kill your guys. He's that good."
With a nod of acknowledgement from Karen as she took her new sword, gave it a few test swings to test the weight, finding it to be very light and seemingly more decorative than practical like Celina had said, but figured that a weak sword is better than none in this situation, knowing that she'll have to avoid direct confrontation if she's to stand a chance against the clearly superior warrior when she saw her best sword: Benten easily shatter to the force of the foreign warrior's strength.
Afterwards, the pair rush back to the warehouse, finding Filia waiting out of sight of the inner lobby by the main entrance and the armored knight fighting off member after member of Karen's unified coalition and based on what she hears from her officers, they're all being pushed to the wall particularly the sight of dozens of unconscious fighters sprawl about the room, ally and enemy, and the number only continuing to grow as they throw themselves against Evart and get tossed aside by sword slashes
"Damn! That guy seems utterly unkillable. It feels worse than Sovereign! All troops, divert your focus on the other gang members until we can find a way to take that guy down!" Garrus swiftly attempted to fire a round of his sniper rifle at Evart but he swiftly did a side-jump, dodging the bullet and rapidly retaliated with a burst of magic striking against the balcony and breaking the segment Garrus was situated at, making him fall down a floor and land on his back, the impact knocking him unconscious.
"GARRUS!" Karen felt utterly horrified seeing one of her most experienced war-experienced allies get injured to such an extent, especially when the attacks quickly maneuver to her other friends and knock many of them out too.
While she wanted to immediately strike back to get revenge against Evart, Filia put a single hand on her shoulder and shook her head in disapproval.
"No milady, it's too dangerous right now. He's far too strong."
Filia swiftly dashed toward Evart as he is seen taking down three members of the Scattered Bones, including Rose, as she struck with a jump and downward slash though the knight blocked the strike but for once carried the stance that he has met an appropriate match, though his retaliation strike had her leap back into several back flips and reached the ground with her feet slightly sliding backwards as she secured her position
"So there is a competent warrior among all these weaklings. It's almost a shame I have to fight you. It's a waste having to kill such a talented warrior."
"All the compliments in the world won't get me to go easy on you. You've been knocking my comrades around like rag dolls and I'm not letting that slide." Despite her words, Filia instinctively carried a gentle smile at Evart's compliment but she still held her sword true to her chest, prepared to fight off any potential attack.
"Oh, I very much agree, and my words are not to make you lower your guard. This is the first time I have found a worthy opponent not amongst my brothers and sisters. My declaration is sincere at the very least; even if I am compelled to kill you."
"Thank you so very much then. If you were too chivalrous, I would have actually had some trouble fighting you, but your commitment to try killing me is enough to keep me sane. You may be trained, but so am I. I learned from my father, a mighty warrior who established the Leanbox SMD, Gamindustri's strongest military force, who learned much of diverse battle styles from Warlord Thraaklon, a man I consider the ultimate warrior. An immortal beast who became a master of both battle and development. He could not only fight off anyone in his way, he could easily create weapons to help him fight those opponents."
"Strongest force in Gamindustri; you make me laugh. But Thraaklon. That is a very old name among our Order. If you speak of the same person, we have even more in common young warrior. If the circumstances were different, I can easily imagine you being a powerful warrior among our ranks, but that is unfortunately not to be. But enough talk. Time to die!"
The two warriors recommenced their battle as their swords and bodies seemingly dance amongst the battlefield, neither side giving an inch though it was crystal clear that Evart specialized in power while Filia was keeping her advantage on evasion since that was Driin's battle style: wielding heavy melee weapons and fighting as though you are locked in elegant dance, though obviously her favor of lighter weapons had her modify the style to account for it and despite the powerful strikes from Evart's own sword and when one would've struck her, she was able to block the sword with her own, blade in a downward style, the hilt near her head though the sounds of metals clash rung out to everyone around them though she is in a position where she can easily escape with no injuries to her person at the moment.
"Even more impressive young warrior. The fact you've survived this long only further proves your strength. The more we fight, the more I am regretting that my code requires terminal fatality."
"Your words are only starting to irritate me now. While I'm all for chivalry, excessive types like you only pisses me off." Filia swiftly spiral jumped out of her bind and did the same movement to launch an air from the air but she was caught off-guard when Evart grabbed her arm when she attempted this skyward slash and strongly threw her against a nearby cargo container, the force creating a huge dent all throughout the material as she slides down and hits the ground "Ugh. That certainly did a number on me. Hate to say it, but you guys are on your own." Filia muttered this rather weakly as she did her best to keep her head up but it dropped after the speech as she lost consciousness.
Seeing Filia taken out of the fight made the allied force lose morale since she was one of their absolute best fighters, and the anger coursing through Karen's veins at her loss made her dash forward, though her mind is obviously clouded by that very anger since her own defeat at Evart's hand is missing from her memory, coupled with the fact that her current sword was ornamental when her last was meant for battle. Moments after reaching Evart, she feels a foreign presence begin to manifest, seemingly losing consciousness and finds herself in the dark void of her mind yet again "Seriously…? Again? Urg...Caelus? Is this your doing?"
"No...something or someone else is forcing their presence in your mind. They're using some sort of backdoor to do this, I can't figure out how and stop it."
"Do you honestly think your meager strength can stand against such a mighty adversary? Perhaps with my help, it'll be possible. Stand aside and let a proper warrior fight a battle." This mystery voice seemed to come from out of nowhere, though Karen saw a faint green aura of light nearby and moments after noticing it enter her body, she felt herself be forced aside as her control over her own body seemed to be utterly taken from her "Interesting. Very interesting. This 'Hard Drive Divinity' has a strange similarity to Armatization. I'll take care of this so just stand aside." Karen saw the newcomer moving her hands in front of her body as if curious about what lies in front of him.
"Wha-" Karen's ability to speak suddenly stopped as she felt seals being created on her own consciousness and felt like she was being ejected from control as she witnessed her body moving by itself, swiftly dodging two slashes from the Parthenian Knight.
"Lukeim Yurlin!" As the new person spoke up with Karen's own voice, her body is enveloped with a thin circle of light as the appearance begins to evolve into a mixture of her own appearance in Next Form, primarily the armor designs but the major differences are the colors as it is taking up a lime green, gold, and white scheme, and the wing patterns which resemble small pillars, seven being on both sides and when the light fades, the newly transformed Karen hovered slightly in place and when the enemy knight attempted to fight with his sword, the wings on her back instantly moved to block the sword strikes on their own with no sign of damage, her body refusing to make a single movement forward or backward as the newcomer that took over seems content to stay put.
"What in the world?! How are you so strong?!"
"You've seen nothing yet." With this being said by the newcomer, the fourteen wings around Karen flew about and created a circle around both her and the Knight as magic begins to manifest around them, a special field envelops the pair as they find themselves in a dark violet space with just the pair around.
"How are you doing this? What sort of magic is this?" In contrast to the strength Evart had shown when swatting aside many of Karen's troops and the forceful personality he exhibited toward his underlings, he felt very much out of place and terrified in this foreign place, especially when he felt the magic coursing through his veins immediately stop working.
"You honestly think this work of art is mere magic? No. This is high level seraphic artes. But you won't need to worry about it, since your death is assured. This is your end!" Karen quickly began flying up to the sky after this speech was finished "Come divine wings! Swarm the skies! Sylphystia!" This incantation led to a portal opening above Karen as dozens of swords made of crystallized wind crash toward the ground all around Evart and when the final sword made its impact, a triangular glyph appeared underneath him and the swords rapidly impaled the knight in all directions, quickly fading after they hit their mark, and with the blood-curdling screams that followed suite alongside the vast amount of dark crimson red blood pouring out all of exposed wounds, the sounds of his breathing quickly ceased as he fell to his knees and ultimately on his stomach "This warrior is dead now. It's honestly a disappointment he fell so easily, but against the power of high level seraphic artes, he clearly was inferior."
"Y-You killed him."
"And you consider that surprising? He would've killed you had I not taken this act. Do you think such a fragile sword could inflict any damage to him when a real sword failed? It's kill or be killed in this world; any world in fact. Now that he's dead, I'm going back; certain factors must be considered and I must remain in constant contact with an individual that is pure, devoid of darkness. But let me convey one lesson for you simpleton. If you find yourself in battle, you cannot afford to act this freaking stupid! Aside from spars among friends or comrades-in-arms, every battle you fight could be your last! Let that realization sink into your dense skull and the chances of you living will skyrocket."
Karen quickly felt control being returned to her when this newcomer finished speaking and was snapped to her senses when MarvelousAQL, Yuela, and Wrex, the only leaders still conscious from the attacks noticed Evart's death and quickly rallied the coalition members behind them, but the smell of Evart's blood made Karen doubletake in disgust since 'she' has killed yet again and collapsed to her knees in horror, as battles ring out though her green eyes lost all color and her ears became deafened from shock which tuned out most of what had been happening around her.
"The leader is dead! Reorganize your formations and take these gang members down! Rally behind me!" Yuela shouted with confidence as she and her comrades from Yuidora began taking down the gang members with renewed vigor.
With Evart dead, the three remaining leaders and their members quickly neutralized the gang members as their increased strength vanished, hinting that it was his own influence or perhaps ability that gave them so much strength, Karen theorizing that perhaps Evart had enforced some sort of geas on this gang where, in exchange for loyalty, their strength would be raised incalculably since she was seeing the gang tearing her team apart before he was killed though her limited senses was given some restoration as she feels herself being picked up and put in a remote corner of the building
"Come on Haruhi, you need to snap out of it. You may be putting me through hell since you're supposed to be my enemy, but you did help me out when I was in a bind...I'm going to be sent to prison like the rest of them right?" Celina tried to keep herself optimistic as she tried consoling Karen but fell into a mild downward emotional spiral as she acknowledges that despite her brief time among the gangs, she would likely be judged just as harshly for it.
Despite the shock she is suffering, Karen was able to look toward Celina as she asked her question "No exceptions. But...I'll try to pull strings to get you sent to the minimal security ward. It would allow you to still work."
Back in the first few months when the nation was newly created through the magic used by Leonard, Izumi, Bae'lin, and Karen, the group had scoured the city inspecting many of the buildings and assigning usage rights which was kept in a cabinet in the Basilicom's main lobby in numerical order, them all discovering that there were over four hundred thousand buildings and aside from the Basilicom and the newly established Arcadian Central Hospital, one of the most prominent of the whole city is the designated Arcadian Panopticon which Bae'lin's family paid particular attention to when they used magic to distort the size of the interior to make the normal five wards much larger to account for the possibility of there being hundreds or possibly even thousands of prisoners at any one time, and with the need to maintain order in such a facility, Bae'lin's family also has been creating familiars to act as prison guards with plans for wardens to eventually take command.
Moments after Celina moved Karen to a quiet corner, ten of the allied soldiers, led by the three leaders, rapidly charged toward them weapons drawn
"Drop your weapons and surrender!"
"H-Hey, I already surrendered to Aqua Heart here! She promised me a light sentence!" Despite the plea, Celina drew both of her daggers, put them in front of the fighters in front of her, put both of her arms up and crouched down.
"She is right. Yuela, Wrex, Marvy, get everyone patched up and keep an eye on the gang members here. When everyone's back at peak condition, bring them to the panopticon. I'll escort this one myself." Karen somberly pulled herself up and led Celina out of the building, keeping her ornamental sword at Celina's back to maintain the illusion long enough to get a fair distance away from the area, ideally to get back to Celestia and explain the situation to both Chian and their fellow employees.
During the trek back to the restaurant, Karen quickly recalled the fact she used very unorthodox mind-control magic on Filia and knows that if Leonard and the others learn of how she used magic to dominate Filia's will, they would most certainly rebel out of anger at the act "The fact I used this magic on Filia alone does mean that if lady luck hates my guts, I will have to do this at least five more times. Leonard, Hamil, Reiner, Adelphos, Eldin. If even one of them learns I 'enslaved' Filia the way I did, I will have to do the same to them all. I cannot risk them turning rogue. This is a nightmare. I guess it's true. Careless spur-of-the-moment acts will usually always have long-lasting and severe consequences. I needed to keep Filia under control and my choice of doing it is one of the worst I could have done. I hate this...If I'm not careful, this will be what corrupts me into an evil tyrant, it's too much of a damn slippery slope and I could turn into something I utterly hate if I'm not careful. Caelus, are you still willing to talk with me? I need to ask something."
"What's on your mind Karen?"
"If I find myself edging toward tyranny with my methods, please stop me. I don't want these powers corrupting me, particularly when I'm not exactly a pure-bred CPU, I'm a human being and it could possibly become a bit of a corruptive nature, especially when Uzume said that this HDD form: Aqua Heart, was never supposed to be mine to begin with. This is your form and I shouldn't have been given access to it. Whether I'm compatible with HDD or not, power should shaped to match the individual in question, and this is not tailored to me."
"You DO know I'm something akin to a spiritual advisor right? I'm not exactly in a position where I can stop you directly, but I'll keep an eye on your condition nonetheless. If you start to change, I'll let you know. The rest is all on you."
Hyperdimension Standard Time: [18:00] April 22nd 22XX
Location: [Arcadia City - Enemy Base]
After insuring that all of the injured members of the allied coalition were rushed to nearby clinics and the dead were being brought to morgues, what remained of the coalition, save the leaders and inner circles, proceeded to the panopticon, as the latter gathered together, primarily to lick their wounds that the battle had dealt them.
"That was some battle. I've been complaining that I haven't had a battle worth fighting in over ten years, but not anymore. This is a day I am not going to forget any time soon. Particularly that one fighter leading this enemy, I want to know who he belongs to and challenge them."
"Hold your enthusiasm Wrex. Remember that if Lady Aqua Heart hadn't killed him when she did, however she did that, we likely would've been on that end of it. But the fact is, he is something inhuman. Before he was finished, he was somehow able to rally this gang to be even stronger than any of us. We were getting destroyed. Think about it, over half of the Scattered Bones, Filia, the SMD here, and even half of our own people were swatted like flies fighting this group, but their strength collapsed the moment Evart was killed. I actually need to survey the losses on our side." Garrus took a few moments looking around the main lobby and frowned "Out of around three hundred and fifty fighters on our side, we have at least a hundred and fifteen wounded, and eighty five deaths. Everyone else is physically fatigued. I'm surprised they have the strength to bring the prisoners to the Panopticon."
"You're right on this Garrus. I don't know whether to call it magic, a geas, or some sort of biological stimuli, but Evart was able to strengthen these members beyond normal limits and like you said, if Karen hadn't killed him, we likely would've been the ones getting killed because of their enhanced strength. But he mentioned an order called the Parthenian Knights during the battle right? Er...now that I think about it, if there's an order, there'd be others like him right? If we had this much trouble fighting one off, what chance do we have against a whole lot of them?" Miyo couldn't help but wonder about the circumstances at hand before realizing what Evart said regarding the subject and the chances of this order wanting to seek violence after they managed to kill one of their people seems high to her.
"We have only one option if they plan on coming after us: We prepare, simple as that. He is not indomitable. Karen proved that. We just need to find a way to achieve it."
"Thanks for the motivational speech about empty promises when we could've got killed by a man possessing the strength of three warrior gods combined Katsuo! Gah, look, we seriously need to deliberate this matter in case these guys want to try wiping us out, but that's for another day. Know that I'm not going to put this off long however. I have something I want to share with you all." Miyo was understandably irritated at Katsuo's rather casual remark of their situation regarding this newly uncovered organization known as the Parthenian Knights but shelved it when she began digging through her inventory and presented a sheet of paper and showed it to everyone "I had been on the waiting list for six months, but tonight, I want to bring you guys to Celestia. No restaurant in Arcadia is fancier and high-class."
"Not going, I'm banned from that restaurant, Chian knows me from Lastation and she hates me after I destroyed one of her best machines when I showed her how strong my rifle was. Though of course, she did ask for me to show how strong it was."
"Oh yeah, that was so long ago, but I remember. I can't believe she still holds a grudge after all these years. Normally I'd say I can't pick either side to support in this situation. Her hatred was certainly well-deserved at the time, but after all this time, I find myself supporting you, as hard as it is for me to admit. Anyway, like Wrex, I don't plan on going either. I need to meet with Kei since I want to enlist in this new police force she plans on forming as an officer. Although I detested them because of how they are consistently blocked behind red tape, C-Sec were still good at their jobs and did a good job training their people, myself included. Particularly that new turian newcomer in the ranks, Maetoria Isarel, I believe her name was. Although she was new to the organization, when she joined a month prior to the whole Reaper invasion, she's already proving to be a model officer. I'm honestly just surprised she wanted to join C-Sec when she was a Centurion among the Blue Suns. I actually want to see her, after all of the time I've spent in this world. But I'm rambling here, It is time I go. Farewell." With this said, Garrus walked away with his favorite (even if it was a replica made in this new world since he only had a N7 Valiant when he suddenly appeared in Gamindustri since he, Wrex, Liara, Javik, and a whole expedition team were investigating Prothean ruins on Chasca; Garrus and Wrex were asked to investigate an unusual signal detected by their radars, which turned out to be the portal that brought them both to Gamindustri) rifle: the Phaeston in front of his person as he walked away from the complex and moments later, Wrex left as well.
"I'll pass actually. I've been to Celestia and it's not exactly my cup of tea. The atmosphere is too dead and lifeless to me, while there is a chef or two working in the back, food delivery is done automatically, there are no real waiters working there; I hate it, I really prefer standard-style. Besides, my younger sister is visiting Arcadia and I haven't seen her in five years; I want to catch up with her and see if she has developed any new magic."
"Okay so Garrus, Wrex, and Filia don't want to go, how about the rest of you?"
"I wouldn't mind going, but do you think I could bring some of the others from my group Miyo? I imagine they'd all want to go, well nearly all of them. Emelita and Phinilly deserve it the most."
"Erm, this isn't a good time for it. It'd take too long to bring your people here Wil and this reservation expires tonight. I don't want this thing going to waste. Not after how I had to wait six months to get this chance. Next time, I promise. I'll try to schedule a time that fits you guys."
"That's fair. But if it's high-class, do we have to worry about any sort of dress code?"
"Not needed; they have rental outfits available. Now come on! We need to get over there before the day ends!"
With this said, Miyo had to hold back the urge to shout at them all to get going and with them gone, she began to further analyze the vehicle files she recorded in her implant but quickly felt feeling uneasy as she covered her mouth, quickly uncovering it as she quickly began to vomit, a small stream of blue landing on the ground in front of her
"Oh god...I was right. Now I know why my implant was on the fritz. That biologically-induced safeguard when the Isnians made the Scylorians is taking effect...my body is beginning to degrade from all of the memories I hold. It's too much for my body to take. Dammit, I can't die now! They need me to get this whole dimensional travel system finished! While I can imagine Ophelia can pull it off with enough time, it wouldn't be within a single lifetime! I don't have much time. I had been hoping I'd never need to even consider it, but looks like I'll need to start Thraaklon's Project Slipstream. And here I thought nanotechnology was controversial and difficult, this is going to be on a whole other level. It'd even discredit myself as an individual to an extent, but it has to be done. I'm just thankful he's done most of the work already, I just need to assemble the device, program it and then start designing. Looks like I was right before, I'm not going to be able to see my family again. It's best I keep this quiet, try to avoid upsetting the others."
Hyperdimension Standard Time: [20:00] April 22nd 22XX
Location: [Arcadia City - Celestia]
After the group made their preparations for visiting such a fancy restaurant, the group that decided to go to this restaurant is rather large as Katsuo, Kazuto, Mamoru, Haruka, Ophelia, Miyo, Izumi, Wil, Yuela, Emelita, Aht, Suina, Melodiana, Elizasleyn, Leguna, Lyphia, Roka, Brocolli, Cybercon, Tekken, MAGES., Marvy, Falcom, and Rose, twenty four people in total, wanting to go; Uya, Kohakuren, Leguna's golem, and Ragsmuena declining the offer and wishing to return to the others to relay their victory they won for themselves and their new host: the country of Arcadia. After they entered the restaurant proper and changed their clothes in a special secluded sub-wing in the waiting room, all (save Aht and Suina, as the former was given unique clothing that had formal attributes by her friends, and Suina always carries an air of formality, even more so with her appearance) wearing standard black tuxedos and white dresses, they entered the main part of the room and was greeted by a waitress with dark orange hair though the most recognizable part of the girl's appearance was the shattered fragments of a mechanical arm on her right side.
"Welcome to Celestia, finest restaurant in Arcadia."
"Eh? That voice. Karen, why are you dressed that way?" Katsuo couldn't help but inquire as he sees his close friend dressed in a maid dress in this restaurant.
The girl immediately grew stiff and shakingly rose her head as she faced the entire group and felt her eyes shrink to tiny pupils and her face began to glow a bright scarlet red as Karen saw them all assembled in this place, when she was going out of her way to hide her employment at this restaurant from her friends "Y-Y-You...W-W-Why are you...h-here…?!"
"We should be asking you the same Karen, you said you were going to escort that one prisoner to the panopticon personally. Why are you here?" Katsuo retorted rather quickly, crossing his arms solemnly as he faced Karen since he has never liked people lying to him, unless it's something so serious it'd be better to keep it from everyone.
"I uh...I'm volunteering?" Karen was surprised to hear her voice reach such a high pitch since it sounded like she had just swallowed a tank full of helium and she unfortunately knew this gave away the fact she was lying from the very first word.
"Quit lying. The truth. NOW."
"I...I...look, do you have any sort of ticket or anything? We need to talk in private."
"Yeah, here." Katsuo took the voucher from Miyo and presented it to Karen, whom sighs in relief a tiny bit seeing it's an exclusive access pass to the 2nd floor VIP section of the restaurant.
"Oh good...VIP access with no possibility of anyone overhearing. Come with me...M-Master; Mistress." Karen squeeked out of extreme unease and fright since one of her self-proclaimed darkest secrets has been discovered by just about all of her friends in this world, and she silently led the group to the upstairs half, head hung low since she wished to avoid disgracing herself even further because of what had just happened, though a certain event had her stop for a moment.
"Hey Haruhi, are you going to be able to-" Celina attempted to talk with Karen regarding a subject but was interrupted when Katsuo stomped forward, recalling the girl's build as the one who spirited Karen away during the battle with the gang.
"YOU!" Katsuo snarled as he swiftly stomped forward and pulled Celina up into the air with his robotic arm, surprising Celina, and everyone else, by the display of power and aggression.
"Nyaaaa!" Celina unsurprisingly had a face of pure terror facing Katsuo's unbridled rage, but as if a switch suddenly flipped in her mind, she swiftly drew a thin rod from the cloth of her uniform covering her right arm and it swiftly transformed into a vicious looking obsidian dagger and aimed it toward Katsuo's neck "Ya really want to try this crap with me punk? I've faced scarier enemies when I was a little girl. In fact, I even used this little magic trick to take em on. By the way, this puppy was specifically enchanted to bypass defense so your mechanical implants there won't stop me. So either let me go or you're getting a pretty little scar in the non-robotic half of your face." Celina's voice was soft and quiet, yet full of venom, as she wanted to keep the chaos in the restaurant to an absolute minimal since she works there; and the threat worked when Katsuo let Celina go and the knife in her hand swiftly returned to its rod form and she sticks it back under the cloth and she readjusts her clothes though he shows he is not willing to drop the issue at hand.
"You should be in prison."
"Trust me, I will be. From tomorrow onward, I'll be serving my sentence in the Panopticon while also working my job here. I'm being assigned to the low-security ward since I was only working with these criminals for a few weeks, and of course, Lady Aqua Heart here lowered my sentence to six months. It's shocking, but she told me that I could've ending up spending five to ten years in a rather high level security ward if she had half a mind. Now, I would recommend going upstairs and enjoy your meal. While I'm still merciful."
After arriving on the second floor, it being a large open space with plenty of heavily decorated silver tables scattered about and a guard-rail one would find in VIP clubs, the group began to disperse while all facing Karen as she sits at a small table in front of them
"Okay look, I...I took this job over a year ago. The reason I vanished so often...it was to come here working as a waitress. I needed this to help pay for food and the like for Miyo and Izumi who were breaking their backs working to keep this nation afloat. So I went exploring early on for a relatively easy job and happened across Chian who mentioned she had moved her factory from Lastation to here, and was contemplating opening a restaurant to earn extra money, and I mentioned I was a good friend of yours Miyo, showed her my HDD, and explained the situation; Chian offered a place helping at her restaurant and when she said I could have access to a flexible schedule with minimal work required since she had been automating most of the necessary jobs here. I needed an easy job with an adjustable schedule because of my work as a CPU, and things only got easier when Lorelei, Alenia, Nasir, and Adresin joined; they were all able to work full-time on a regular basis and kept this place running. They've all been good socialites and friendly toward me. As embarrassing as this job is, I hid it with the alias I had been using for this job: Haruhi Kaibara."
"Wow, we had both been keeping secrets of sorts Karen. I myself had been doing what I could to make money for the three of us and I find you were doing the same. What a shock."
"Wait, you were getting money too Miyo?! Erg...If I knew that, I wouldn't have been so insistent on getting this job! Dammittttt…" Karen couldn't help but begin to whine out of irritation before wiping her face with her arm and took a few deep breaths in and out to calm herself down "Let's get this over with. I'll get you menus with our available cuisine. Because of your special VIP access, you don't have to pay this one time. Enjoy."
"Actually Karen, regarding the fact you destroyed your arm again, you're going to need a new one. Considering your favor of destroying my valuable technology, I've taken the habit of making sure I have replacements when it comes to stuff I have to get you." After Miyo had finished speaking this, she pulled out a new robotic arm out of her inventory which was a perfect replica of Karen's old one as she walked over and deactivated the restraints that kept the arm from falling out, briefly revealing the stub that was what was left of Karen's natural arm before it was replaced with the sight of the same robotic arm that she had used prior "I haven't had the chance to make any sort of upgrades to it, but I did manage to connect it to the network your old one had before the battle so you still have everything you had before it...well, except your sword. While I'm not directly at fault, I'm sorry you lost it there. I know enough about reforging weapon to know that the damage to Benten is irrepairable, especially with the unique magic the sword had. While I can't exactly make one better than something a CPU personally made, I'll do whatever I can to make a sword you can use in battle."
"Thanks Miyo, I appreciate it." Hearing that Miyo was going to do what she could to make Karen a new weapon to replace the destroyed Benten did give Karen some solace from the chaos of the battle earlier, even though she knew it wouldn't be able to live to Benten's legacy.
After Karen walked downstairs to get the menus for the restaurant's available cuisine and despite her obvious disdain for her friends discovering this dark secret (to her) of hers, the crowning victors of the final battle enjoyed their deserved reward for a long difficult campaign of fighting which comprised of some of the best food they have had since arriving in Gamindustri and a relaxing soak in the gender-separated onsen in the back, and when they had finished their dinner and soak, the group left very content with the experience, and knew that from tomorrow onward, several of them would begin assisting the new police force that will be operating in the country to maintain order, while others would be assisting in the efforts to eventually return all of the stranded peoples in Gamindustri to their original worlds.