Look to the Eastern Sky
Book One of the Clockwork Devils
Written by Achariyth
Inside her shrine, lit only by a ring of candlelight, Reimu-holding-Yukari winced as another of the Demon God's salvos hit the Hakurei Barrier, sending it quivering and ringing like a tocsin. With Yukari's senses added to her own, each impact sent a jolt like lightning across her skin. If the boundary youkai had not inhabited the same space, Reimu-holding-Yukari doubted she would have heard Yukari shouting in her face.
'Not good,' Yukari-in-Reimu said, sending her host an image of the barrier ripping as though it were a thick book torn by the hands of a strongman.
It had taken precious moments for Yukari and Reimu to work out a common visual language to describe the barrier. Yukari had imagined the barrier as a plywood shield, a brick wall, and even panes of stained glass, to Reimu's frustration. Eventually, they had settled on thick layers of woven cloth. To Yukari's amusement, each layer of cloth looked like Reimu's red-ribboned white sleeves.
The actinic fire burning through the cloth like coals through paper amused neither. Normally, Reimu would do the equivalent of weaving a new layer over the damage, an act that would take hours, but with Yukari's mastery of boundaries and edges, the two acting in concert could suture or even completely reweave the holes in the barrier. With the sheer number of holes burned into the barrier, Reimu-holding-Yukari could now make repairs that once took minutes in mere seconds.
But even the shared skills of Gensokyo's most powerful youkai and human could not catch up to the sheer amount of damage. To Reimu-holding-Yukari's horror, layer upon layer of the barrier tore like old rags.
'I can't fix this,' Reimu-holding-Yukari said. Rivulets of sweat dripped from her brow as she attempted to stitch the torn edges of a barrier layer together. However, the repeated pounding from the Demon God burned through the cords trying to hold the tear together. As the various barrier layers fell away like tissues folding, Reimu-holding-Yukari's insides turned to water. 'Any ideas?'
As Reimu-holding-Yukari spoke, layers billowed, hurtling toward the shrine.
'This,' Yukari-in-Reimu said. Taking over Reimu's body, Yukari-holding-Reimu opened a white portal, missing the usual eyes and ribbons.
'What are you doing?' Reimu-held-by-Yukari screamed, powerless in her own body.
'Surviving,' Yukari-holding-Reimu said. As the last layers of barrier fell away, Yukari-holding-Reimu threw them both into the white portal. 'Reimu, I'm sorry.'
As the portal closed, the ring of candles flared, then extinguished in a cloud of dust.
Chapter 5 - What Disasters May Come
And in this moment, I will not run
It is my place to stand
We few shall carry hope
Within our bloodied hands
"Winterborn (This Sacrifice)," by the Cruxshadows.
The Hakurei barrier, once golden, glowed brilliant blue as a raging torrent of silver taller than the shrine itself washed over it. The bubble-like wall bowed inwards under the pressure, holding for a minute before rupturing under the strain. The barrier shattered into myriad fragments as the magics unwound, hurtling splinters of raw magical energy at the central focus of what used to be Gensokyo's boundary; the Hakurei shrine.
As the cascade of highly charged energy swept across the shrine, it imploded in a flash of lightning, kicking out clouds of dust across the field.
Scarlet filled Ran's vision. The fox girl threw her head back and keened, "YUKARI!"
Seventy kilograms of enraged fox tackled a quarter ton of construct, slamming metal and composites into the mud. She sat back on the terror's stomach, rearing an open fist, then smashing it into the Djinn's throat. Claws raked synthetic skin. She howled at the lack of blood.
The Djinn swung its arm, driving the sharpened butt of the mace towards Ran's chest. The vixen caught the mace's head and ripped it from the construct's grasp. The weapon flew away into nearby brush.
Ran fell forward, bucked by a knee shoved into her hip. Rolling to her feet, she spun around, barely catching the Djinn as it rushed her. Leaning backwards, she lifted the automaton into the air and drove it into the ground.
Marisa whistled. "Did you see that?" Alice shook her head as she circled the Djinn, her dolls forming a circle around the fight.
"Ran!" Suwako shouted. "Get out of there."
As both fighters rolled to their feet, Marisa's Divine Spark staggered the Djinn. The vixen seized the back of her enemy's neck, pulling its head into a rapidly rising knee. As the construct recoiled from the blow, she caught an arm, spun the Djinn away, and slammed her hand into its shoulder.
A clawed foot kicked into the back the nearest knee, felling the Djinn. Ran rolled into a straight-arm bar. Servos strained and crackled as she leaned back and cranked down the tension. The arm began to bend in ways the joints could not bear.
"Initiating self-repair," the creature said in monotone. Ran shrieked as the constructed raised her into the air and slammed her into the ground three times.
"Suwako! Get the mace and run," Alice shrieked, hurling twin straw dolls at the fallen fighters. She might be improvising like crazy, but if the weapon was valuable enough to the Djinn, they could still lure the monster away.
Suwako nodded, diving into the earth. A straw hat flew across the field towards the discarded mace.
The dolls landed next where the Djinn battered Ran against the ground. The vixen's eyes widened and she released the Djinn's arm, kicking away from the foe.
Smoke puffed into clouds, lingering over the field where the Djinn and straw dolls once were. Metal and rock rained onto the soil in muffled thumps.
Reisen stood and stared as the shrine fell, her mouth agape. Trembling, she turned to the small group that had drawn near to her, each seeking what comfort that could be drawn from the others. Each face matched the pale fur of her ears. Silently, they watched the dust of the shrine drift away, the occupants' fates unknown.
Eirin's crisis training asserted itself. Eyes closed, Reisen took four slow, deep breaths. When she opened the eyes, her shakes all but stopped. Looking around at her charges, Reisen's eyes settled on her assistant. While the wolf medic would be a better choice, she would insist on staying by her squadmates. A plan little more than a gamble formed in the moon hare's mind. "Yukimi, take Nitori and go to the shrine. Find Reimu and Yukari, but stay safe."
"Yes, Ma'am," the white rabbit said, a twin of Tewi in a black dress. She slung her medical kit over her shoulder, her face a rigid mask.
"But-," Nitori stammered, eyeing the brilliant flash of Marisa's newest Spark spell.
Reisen met her eyes, holding the kappa's gaze. "Please. Yukimi is not a fighter. "
Nitori nodded silently, picking up her shotgun from the ground. Racking a shell with a pump of her hands, she turned to the waiting rabbit medic and nodded. "Stay close," the inventor said. Both the rabbit and kappa slipped away from the impromptu camp, towards the shrine.
The lunar hare whispered a prayer as they departed. "Be safe. Please, Reimu, be safe." She looked around. "Where's Mokou?"
Suwako burst from the ground, grabbing the ornate mace as she flew past. The mace burned with cold, like the time she had played with dry ice intended for shipping fish across country. A quick application of divine will stopped the chill, but it steadily drained her resources.
The native goddess dove back into the earth. Roots and stone sped past as she burrowed. Occasionally, she erupted from the soil like a dolphin breaching the ocean waters, dirt streaming behind her.
On one such leap, an unseen force seized her, jerking her backwards. Suwako poured divine power into fleeing with the mace, but the mace slowly but steadily dragged her centimeter-by-centimeter closer to Gensokyo. Back to the Blue Djinn.
Back to the fight.
"If that's how you want it," Suwako said. Flourishing her rings, she grinned ferally. "Running's no fun anyway." She yielded to the pull, and mace and goddess rocketed back to Gensokyo.
A sulfurous stench drifted across the field, stinging Alice's eyes. Next to her, two Hourai dolls carried a sealed book. Blinking away tears, she squinted into the white smoke floating where the straw dolls landed. "Do you see them?"
Ran crawled out of the smoke, coughing. Soot covered her clothes and tail. She wiped her eyes, and bellowed, "Where is he?"
"A little more fire and a lot less smoke next time," Marisa said, flying around the cloud. "Nitori makes smokeless powders."
A silhouette appeared in the smoke. Marisa fired a Master Spark, while Ran just launched herself. The figure sidestepped the light beam, caught the vixen, and hurled her into Marisa. Fox and witch collided with muffled grunts, crumpling off Marisa's broom.
The doll master held out her hand, pulsing red laser light through the smoke. Through the holes burned into the white cloud, she could see the armored construct standing, one arm outstretched.
"Get off! You're heavy," Marisa said, pushing against the well-muscled fox crushing her. She grunted as a clawed foot pushed into her stomach. Ran snarled again as she regained her footing, her face a rictus of rage. Foxfire glowed from her hands, burning the last of the smoke cloud away as it passed through it.
The Djinn twisted, falling away from the foxfire's path. A silver disk flew out, skimming the ground. Ran bounded over it, driving both feet into what would have been its solar plexus. The vixen stomped up and down, raking hind claws against mail.
Her foe drove his elbow into her knee, pitching Ran forward. Rolling to his feet, he shoved his armored boot into the vixen's back. As Ran lay pinned beneath him, once again he held his hand out.
A Doppler-distorted shout echoed across the field. To Alice's amazement, Suwako keened a warcry as she hurtled towards the Djinn, rings splayed in her hand like the feathers of a bird. She let go of the mace carrying her, diving at the Djinn. Metal shrieked against metal as rings scored armor and sliced cloth. Ran rolled away from the machine as the goddess dove through the ground.
The Djinn rocked back on his heels. Without a thought, Alice and her dolls threw incandescent magic at the blue armored construct. The rainbow-hued fire missed as two child-like hands erupted out of the dirt, seized the automaton's ankles, and pulled the Djinn into the earth until it was buried up to its waist.
The Moreya goddess popped into the air behind her foe, her arms and legging flailing as she floated upwards. Multiple kicks pummeled the back of the white-haired foe's head.
Suwako flew away, pushed by the heat coming from the glowing red man. A scarlet aura surrounded him, coalescing into white and red flames.
The earth holding the Blue Djinn erupted.
Mokou appeared in the smoke, standing before the burning man. A hard right rocked his jaw. The next punch, however, was caught in a flame-engulfed hand. The burning abomination squeezed the girl's hand, forcing her to her knees. His free hand snapped up, raising the heavy mace high.
A shield-bearing Orleans doll flew in front of Mokou, its oversized kite shield reflecting red in the firelight. The mace crashed against the shield, spreading flame that licked against the doll. As the heat inside the doll rose, the gunpowder within exploded. Shield-metal shrapnel sliced into brigandine armor.
White smoke billowed across the battlefield. London dolls flew through the clouds and dragged Ran and Mokou away, while human, youkai, and divine magic shredded the fog. But as magic tore through the air, the sky above glowed brilliantly. Actinic fire drops rained upon the land that was once Gensokyo's border.
Nitori ran towards the shrine's ruins while Yukimi stayed by her side. She kept a careful eye on the path to the shrine. No one wanted to trip while carrying a loaded firearm.
The shrine's destruction had caught everyone off guard. Most were still processing the social implications of the barrier's fall, if they even had a moment to consider such matters. Nitori was more concerned with the physical realities of how the barrier fell. Where some people see a disaster, others see an engineering puzzle.
Nitori stopped running and pushed the rabbit next to her to the ground. Sliding three spell cards into a clip on the side of the shotgun's barrel, she whispered, "Stay here."
She crouched at the crest of the hill, poked her head over the ridge, and then rolled over the hilltop and onto her feet. Sprinting headlong down the short hill, Nitori aimed for the cover of the ruined trees. Squatting behind a splintered trunk, she panted, catching her breath. Sneaking a glance around the wood, her breath caught in her lungs.
The Hakurei grounds had been swept bare. Not a trace of the shrine or shrine keeper's hut remained standing. No timber remained at all, either standing or in debris piles. Only the foundations remained, polished by the flow of cascading barrier energies until the rocks shone in the fading sunlight. One thing was certain; Reimu and Yukari were no longer here.
An incandescent cloud bright enough to be a second sun hovered over the ground, spewing plasma onto the earth below. In the span of a few heartbeats, the cloud vanished, replaced by a thick smoke lingering over the ground.
Nitori squinted, and a shadow fell over the true sun. She looked up, grabbed Yukimi's arm, pulled the rabbit girl behind her, and tapped a now glowing spell card on her weapon. The card flashed pale blue, and Nitori and Yukimi together vanished in the background.
Alice draped a handkerchief over her nose and mouth, gulping down air by the lungful. The last minute had been filled with frantic dodging as superheated projectiles rained down, although she would later describe it as dodging lightning as thick as rain.
She waved a hand through the acrid smoke. The massive but mercifully brief attack had decimated her dolls, flooding the area with white gunpowder smoke. The doll master crouched low, squinting through the haze that shrouded everything from view. Her heartbeat rang in her ears. The monster that ruined her dolls was still out there.
A silhouette appeared through the smoke. Alice relaxed slightly, although she continued to eye her surroundings. She recognized the pointy and large brimmed hat.
"Marisa!" she called out in a stage whisper. The figure stopped, and then walked towards her.
"Hey, Alice," Marisa said, walking out of the thickest portion of the smoke, coughing. "Love the bandit queen look."
"Where is he?" Alice said. That question was rapidly becoming the most popular question of the day.
Marisa pointed to the sky. "He took a pot shot at me when I tried to fly. I lost my broom." She ground her teeth at the last statement.
Alice sighed. Marisa was a witch through and through. While she did not necessarily need a pointy hat and a broom for magic or flight, she was of the school of thought that the entire point of being a witch was that people knew you were a witch. Otherwise, you were just another weird magician in a land overflowing with weird magicians. Losing the broom was an affront to her pride.
"Have you seen the others?" Alice said, as the winds thinned the smoke a bit.
Marisa shook her head. "I lost track of them in that firestorm." Dodging that had focused her attention on what was immediately necessary, such as not sharing space with searing plasma.
"There!" The witch swore and pulled Alice into a thicker patch of smoke. She turned Alice's head towards another dark silhouette. Flashes of blue could be seen through the hazy wisps.
The earth rumbled. Two shadowy hands reached out of the ground towards the Djinn, clapping together with a loud crash where he once stood. Metal clanged against metal in a drum-like roll, while light beams flashed through the smoke.
Alice and Marisa clung to each other as a strong gust of wind cleared the fields of smoke. Marisa made sure to hold onto her hat.
The Djinn stood, blocking repeated blows from the mongoose quick native goddess. Iron rings flashed out, seeking joint and chinks in the brigandine armor, only to be deflected by bracers on powerful arms. Suwako flittered around the humanoid monstrosity like a hummingbird, with about the same effectiveness. The monster's heavy mace lashed out repeatedly, smashing nothing but air. Suwako's extreme mobility kept her out of the heavy club's path.
"Can you see anyone else?" Marisa asked, spraying danmaku at the automaton. Suwako glared as she grazed the tight pattern.
"There," Alice said, pointing to a crumpled pile of red and white.
"Hurry," Marisa said, scrambling to where Mokou lay motionless, sprawled out in indignity like a limp rag doll. Alice followed, the remnant of her dolls trailing behind her.
She knelt down next to the duchess, noticing that Mokou's skin matched her pale ashen hair. Alice's fingers sought the girl's carotid artery. The doll master shook her head. "Nothing."
"Was she hit?" Marisa said, watching as Suwako dodged a jab that shattered the earthen hands she had summoned earlier.
"No, it's like something just turned her off," Alice said, her fingers still resting on the pale girl's neck.
"She'll come around," Marisa said, showering magic particles through the space immediately vacated by the Djinn.
Suwako sputtered dirt, curse, and caustic acid at the Djinn, The globules hit metal, rolling off the Djinn's armor like raindrops.
A faint twitch quivered beneath Alice's fingers, growing into a stronger and steady pulse. Alice stepped back as a pale sheen of phoenix fire enveloped Mokou.
"Sooner than you think," Alice said, taking her bound grimoire from a soot-covered doll.
"Not a moment too soon," Marisa said, wincing. She walked laser beams towards the Djinn. She swore as what should have been a certain hit bent around the monstrosity. Her jaw dropped. "How did he do that?"
Suwako shrieked as a gust of wind sent her sailing across the field. Her arms and legs flailed frantically as she wove through the thick wall of needle-like light bolts rushing at her.
The Djinn turned towards Marisa and point the tip of his mace at the witch. Another wall of flame and needle-shaped light leapt across the field.
Marisa smiled an infectious grin as she bounced into the air. Fire and light zipped past as she spun, flipped, and twisted through the air. Danmaku sparked from her with each rotation. She landed, flourishing her arms above her head in a gymnast's salute.
"Try harder," she jeered. Her arms snapped out in front of her; the trigrams on her palmed elemental furnace glowing in a divination of impending fury. A Divine Spark tore through the air. "Tag. You're it!"
The Divine Spark enveloped the ancient Djinn; the only sign of the automaton was a faint shadow in the tempests of holy and arcane energies. The fire died, and the war machine staggered blindly, a shallow trench marking when the Divine Spark had pushed backwards.
Alice took her book, long suppressed desires pouring through her as she ran a finger across the leather binding. The Witch of Death's steel eyes flashed, drawing in the situation. Steel focused on metal, and she spoke a single word last heard long before the Moreya ancestors first drew breath. The wide ribbon fell off the grimoire.
A gasping breath brought the doll maker out of her reverie. Mokou hacked her way through a series of racking coughs as she sat up behind Alice. "Gimme that," Mokou said, grabbing the thick ribbon as she stood. She spun the infernal cord with her hand and took off in a run.
Alice nodded and threw a brilliant spell card at the Djinn's feet. Light flared, and three meters of blonde haired ceramics stood, unlimbering twin swords that could double as heavy cleavers. Blue fabric rippled in the wind as the giant moved.
Goliath had come to drive her master's enemies before her and no stripling shepherd boy or ancient evil would stop her.
The ancient devil regained his footing, only to catch one cleaver against the shaft of his mace. The other sword slid snake-like across what would have been his ribs. If he were a mortal man.
Alice's breath hissed between clenched teeth as the doll's following strike sought the creature's neck. It rebounded off the synthetic skin. If skill could not end this, Alice would use the Goliath to bludgeon an end to the battle.
She sent commands via the mental magical link between doll and master. The Goliath doll traded feints, strikes, and parries with the ancient foe. Silver disks formed in the air while they fought, fading into nothing as Marisa pitched danmaku into the forming plasma.
Both constructs sought joints with their weapons, hoping to use the massive clubs to smash away the other's mobility. But mace clashed against sword, and cleaver rebounded off bracer.
Red ribbon wrapped around the massive demon knight's arm. Mokou grunted as she pulled hard, dropping to the ground to increase her leverage. The demon's arm flew back, and Goliath's heavy sword smashed against the Djinn's elbow joint. The arm hung unnaturally, cleanly broken, before twisting back into place.
Nine tails flickered from hiding as the enraged fox leapt. Ran wrapped her legs around the Djinn's shoulders. Her arms snaked under the foeman's neck. She leaned back, muscles straining as she used her weight to try to pull the Djinn's head off its neck.
Feedback screeched across the mental connection to the giant doll. Alice's eyes snapped wide. "She's going to blow!"
Ran howled, releasing the automaton's head. As she flew away, she kicked the Djinn into the waiting embrace of the Goliath doll. Mokou's eyes widened and she tugged the chain away before diving into a nearby crater. Ran rolled next to her. Both girls covered their ears as they huddled against the lip of the crater.
The explosion could be seen from the Moreya shrine on the top of Youkai Mountain.
The spinning seemed to go on forever. The Djinn's windblast had thrown Suwako into the air. Somehow, in the frantic twisting and turning needed to escape the laser and plasma chasers, she had tumbled out of control.
Remarkably, her straw hat had stayed with her during the flight. Alas, the contents of her stomach had not. Sanae was a good cook, but not good enough to make a meal taste good on the way back up. Fortunately, she had heaved her stomach dry within the first few seconds of the spin. Unfortunately, it kept heaving long after.
Relief would soon be at hand as the ground rushed up to catch her, even though she would be trading one set of pains for another. Suwako cursed her incarnate body seconds before the ground slammed the air out of her lungs.
Some days, it just didn't pay to leave the lily pad.
The child-like figure gulped down air as she rolled upright. Nothing required immediate healing, but she'd be sleeping the effects of this adventure off for days.
Smoke billowed on the horizon, and Suwako took to the air once more, this time under her own power. The infernal machine had given as good as it got, but as Suwako flew, she resolved to end the fight once and all.
In the distance, a thick column of light rolled over the ground . Suwako swore an ancient oath; the Djinn had hurled her further away than she realized. Flying onwards, she bore down on the sounds of metal against metal. Figures appeared in the fields below her, including one enormous doll swinging massive swords.
Another explosion buffeted the native goddess. She regained control, and looked down. The Djinn lay sprawled on the earth. An idea flashed through her mind, and Suwako rocketed upwards until the Djinn and her friends were little more than specks on the ground. She turned over, falling and drawing on huge reservoirs of faith and divine energy to speed her dive.
As the ground rushed towards her, Suwako reached out to her enemy, one last thought flashing through her mind.
If she misjudged this at all, this was going to hurt. A lot.
As she collided with the Djinn, one last divine connection opened. Momentum and magic drove both goddess and Demon God deep into the bowels of the earth.
The shadow grew, blotting out the sun. Nitori crouched low, keeping Yukimi close to the ground and within the mottled light of her Optical Camouflage. Setting the front sight on the dark blur, the inventor waited, whispering soothing works she did not believe to the frightened rabbit.
Yukimi shuddered against Nitori's back as the shadow fell like an eagle diving. Hatate Himekaidou dove head first from the sky, flipping over at the last moment to land in a low crouch. "Nitori," she hissed.
The mottled light shimmered away into the ether. Nitori stood up, lowering the barrel of her shotgun. "Don't do that," the kappa complained, wilting as the tension drained from her.
"Reisen said to tell you that the wolf soldier is okay," Hatate said, turning towards the shivering Yukimi. With a practiced turn of the wrist, the crow reporter flipped open her phone's camera, revealing a picture. In it, Reisen and Kaede fervently worked over a pallid, unconscious wolf.
Color returned to the rabbit's cheeks, and a babel of medical terms assaulted Hatate's ears. Even someone more familiar with medicine as Nitori struggled to keep up.
"Whoa," Hatate said, backing away from the revived rabbit nurse. "I said that she's fine. Ask Reisen for the details when we get back."
"Not yet," Nitori said. "We have to find Reimu and Yukari."
Hatate's arm swept over the razed and desolate shrine grounds. "I doubt that we will. A mouse couldn't hide here."
"We are not leaving," Nitori snapped.
"As bad as it looks from the ground, I assure you it's even worse from the air," Hatate said. Noting the firm set of Nitori's jaw, she sighed. "Ah, forget it. Maybe I'll get a good story out of it."
The medical maelstrom subsided as Yukimi stepped out of Nitori's shadow. She tilted her head to one side and pursed her lips. "What is that?" she asked, pointing.
Out on the rocky foundation flensed of wood or mortar, a small flicker of gold hovered over what used to be the hearthstone. Nitori squinted, and turned her head. The ember still burned over the shrine grounds and not as an afterimage.
"You think that's something new from Yukari?" Hatate said, snapping pictures with her phone.
The kappa shrugged. "You can stay here if you want; I'm going to find out." The inventor sprinted down the hillside in a controlled fall; the rabbit and the crow slid down the slope behind her. Tripping over the smoothed stone, the trio hovered in reverent curiosity over the glowing ember.
"You think Reimu knows about this?" Hatate asked.
"I'm not even sure what it is," Nitori said, pacing around the flame. Occasionally, she paused, peered at the ember, and resumed walking. "Give me a couple hours on that, though." Hatate and Yukimi stared at the inventor. "After we find Reimu, though."
The earth roiled beneath the girls' feet. The trio clung to each other until the shaking stopped, then spun around, back-to-back-to-back.
As magic and flame flew past each other over the field, Alice looked up at a rare sight. Suwako fell from the heavens like lightning. The goddess tackled the Djinn in mid-fall before driving the two of them through the ground and into the bowels of the earth. Soil sprayed upward and outward like the water. Danmaku magic sliced through the air where the infernal construct once stood, only falling off when the defending girls perceived the lack of return fire.
The ground shook beneath Alice's feet, forcing her to dance about to reclaim her balance. As she wobbled, the doll maker scooped up the last of her intact Shanghai dolls before the vibrations tore it apart. A minute passed, and the earth stood still. "What next?" the doll-maker wondered out loud.
Ran hovered next to her, her hands clamped together inside oversized sleeves. Tears ran down the fox familiar's cheeks. "She's alive. She has to be."
Alice thought of a shrine maiden, and closed her eyes. The doll in her arms turned into rainbow light, as did her shattered sisters. The light coalesced into spell cards in the doll maker's hands. "We'll find them."
"If this is over. I won't feel comfortable until I see a body. " Mokou said, stepping out of a plume of smoke. The phoenix girl looked around warily and thought to her constant and deadly feud with Kaguya Houraisan. "Maybe not even then."
Marisa rummaged around the cratered field, hurrying from hole to hole. The witch shouted as she waved her broom overhead. "Found it!"
"Marisa!" Alice shouted in exasperation. The spell cards in her hand faded, replaced by a thick black book. "Show some respect. Reimu and Yukari are gone, and Suwako's who-knows-where."
"Impressive," Marisa said, flying over to the others. She peered into the gouged earth. "For a pipsqueak."
"She's still-" Mokou began.
Ran's growl cut her off. The ear-tuffs on Ran's hat flickered, and the kitsune slammed a glowing spell card on the ground next to her feet. A sinkhole opened underneath her hand, and the spell card dropped inside. Ran scurried away from the growing hole's lip.
"Watch it!" Suwako bellowed, panting as she pulled herself out of the ground, dust billowing behind her. She groaned as she rolled over, staring at the sky.
"Did you get him?" Alice and Marisa asked together.
"Maybe," the Highest of the Native Gods croaked. "I left him fused in the bedrock."
Alice staggered as the ground bucked beneath her feet. Her eyes snapped wide, but instead of reaching for another spell card, she held her black book tight to her body. "Can you see where he is?" Alice asked, searching the horizon.
"We'll need to split up," Ran said, shaking her head. "Make sure you signal if you find him."
"If you see the signal, Mokou, get help first," Suwako added. The phoenix girl nodded.
The girls scattered. Ran flew away from the shrine, Mokou into Gensokyo, Suwako into Japan, and the magicians toward the shrine.
The stones convulsed again. Yukimi climbed up Nitori's shoulders, whimpering. The inventor winced as the rabbit's foot dug into her kidney.
"Hatate!"
"Yes," the reporter said, shivering.
"Your spirit photography, can it see what's going on?" Nitori asked.
Rocks clattered in the distance, as though falling down a hill. Hatate pulled out a spell card, bobbling it in her hands. Yukimi squealed once more, covering Nitori's eyes.
"Stop that!" Nitori said, stumbling around and into the magical ember. Warmth flooded the kappa's body, and a golden glow infused her being. Yukimi yelped, launching herself at Hatate, bowling the reporter over. Rabbit and crow rolled across the polished stone.
Nitori stood motionless as the ember flared into a column of light, transfixed by the images flooding her mind's eye. Straight lines of silver etched themselves into Nitori's mind, radiating outward from the shrine's foundation. She had a sense of the lines networking something together, as if they might be roads.
Warm fire turned to ecstatic tingles across her skin. Bruises and cuts dotting Nitori's legs melted away. She waved her arm, scattering golden light over Yukimi and Hatate, and their wounds vanished. From within a pillar of light dancing like a tongue of fire, Nitori felt her companions' surprise, every feature painted in her mind's eye as sure as though she was looking directly at her friends.
A blue flash illuminated her mind. She turned, and a hilltop burst apart. The Blue Djinn stood in the center of the fading dust cloud; his stern visage chilling the kappa to the core. Ecstasy turned into the searing shock of needles playing on skin. The inventor fell to her hands and knees, grinding her teeth as the energies convulsed throughout her body.
"Get help," she gasped. Yukimi shrieked, bounding away and over one of the many hills surrounding the shrine.
Hatate shook her head, palming her camera phone towards her foe. A flash of light slammed into the ancient armored enemy. Smoke rose from the construct as armor ablated. The crow tengu smirked; she could actually hurt him now.
The Djinn staggered forward against the strobing barrage of light. Each movement was punctuated by sudden jerks, as the gears and servos within the machine slipped and caught. Armor and fused rock continued to ablate away into vapor under Hatate's continued assault. A silver disk flickered; its fire extinguished. A second disk formed completely, and actinic fire streaked towards Hatate's exposed position.
Nitori screamed as the magic forces continued to overload her nerves. Even the brush of wind against her skin flooded her with pain. She watched as the Djinn bracketed the speedy crow within great fountains of plasma and earth. With the last of her strength, the kappa flicked a card out and collapsed. It fluttered in the wind before settling on the stone foundation, no more than a few centimeters away from the prone inventor.
A curtain of water burst from the card into the air, catching the Djinn's fire. Plasma splashed into the wall of water, fizzling into diffuse steam. As the standing wave shielded the shrine from the Djinn's attacks, something barreled into Nitori at high speed, pushing her away from the ember's glow. The images and the pain vanished, leaving Nitori spent.
"Don't let him-" she began, slurring her words.
"Stay with me," Hatate said, clinging to the inventor as she flew. "Reisen!"
"No. Don't-" the kappa replied, slumping into unconsciousness.
Lightning flashed though the hills surrounding the shrine.
"Do you think that's him?" Marisa asked, banking towards the shrine. Water geysered high into the air in a sustained torrent, the wind draping the spray over the land.
"Definitely," Alice said, pausing in flight. She held a hand straight into the air, and another at the flooding shrine. Thick red columns of light pierced the sky, magical beacons to where the Blue Djinn had resumed his fight.
"Let's go!" Marisa shouted, smiling as her broom flew a twisting looping spiral around the streams of light.
"Not yet," Alice barked, gritting her teeth. It took energy and concentration to maintain such showy magic, but her signal would be worthless if it didn't last long enough for people to see.
"You'll be no help if you wear yourself out," Marisa said. She looped behind her fellow magician, grabbed her arms, and gently guided them to her side. The signal lights faded when the magical connection was broken. "We still have a fight to win."
"I know," Alice muttered, staring at the water fountaining over the Hakurei shrine.
Marisa spun Alice about, and stared into her eyes. "You have any tricks left, Alice?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" the magician snapped. With most of her dolls shattered, she had no more usable spell cards left.
"I know you. When's the last time you went all out in a fight?"
"When's the last time I've had to?" Alice blustered. Marisa's words hit her hard. She never fought at full strength; if she lost, she could at least find small consolation in that.
"Today," Marisa said.
"Skill and strategy beats power," Alice snapped.
"Why not use both? We'll do a thunder run," Marisa said, referring to a lighting fast and heavily armed dash through enemy territory. She pointed to a hill. "Let's start from there."
"Alright, we'll go in fast," Alice said.
"Like when we broke into Eternity Manor?" A smile crossed the witch's face.
"Faster," Alice replied. Magic surged in her body, and she rolled into a large looping dive, accelerating rapidly as she fell.
Marisa grinned and grabbed hold of her hat. She coaxed her broom into a tighter twisting dive, turning well inside of Alice. "Try to keep up," she said, waving as she pulled ahead of her fellow witch.
The girls rocketed across the hills, Marisa's shoes grazing the grasses zipping beneath her. They crested the hill as the mammoth waterspout collapsed, danmaku spraying across the shrine grounds like devilish rain.
The Djinn jerked and staggered his way across the foundation stones; a faint glow reflecting off his pockmarked and stone-encrusted armor. Clusters of shot ripped across him, tearing and fusing the ringmail he wore. The witches zipped past the Djinn, buzzed past the hearthstone's ember, and skidded into a running landing at the edge of the foundation.
Alice slid to a stop and turned around. Red lasers tore at the construct's joints, but the infernal machine staggered on, reaching towards the fire dancing above the foundation. Marisa bathed the polished stonework in dense magical grapeshot.
"What does it take to stop him?" Marisa said, watching as her danmaku showered sparks off the machine's metal. The Djinn ignored the fire and continued his arrhythmic stagger to the ember's flame.
"At least we can hurt him now," Alice said. Previously, the infernal device just shrugged off all attacks.
"Remind me to thank Suwako for that," Marisa said, firing a Master Spark. It slammed into the Djinn's shoulder, staggering the construct. As he stumbled, he threw out a hand to steady himself, raking the ember with his fingers. Golden energy clung to his fingers as they passed through the fire. The glow faded, as did the scars on his arm's vambraces.
Alice's heart fell in her chest. They were so close to beating him. Out of the corner of an eye, she watched as Marisa winced as she tossed her elemental furnace from one hand to the other. The ordinary witch blew on the fingers of her free hand. "Don't stop!" Another Master Spark joined Alice's red lasers.
The construct deflected the energy with his newly restored bracer and stepped into the flame. Beams of coherent destructive magic flew past, and a golden aura surrounded and infused the machine. Once fused into its coat of a thousand nails, rocks dropped away, clattering against the stone at his feet. Score marks, sere marks, and missing gaps melted away, leaving the Blue Djinn looking as pristine as when it was first built.
Alice's heart fell further, and she crept slowly away from the healing Djinn. "What do we do now?"
A ring of silver scales flashed into being around the Djinn. Each rippled like the surface of a pond.
"Run," Marisa said, sitting sidesaddle on her broom before flying a wide, fast circle around the shrine. She swept her arms out as she flew, showering wide arcs of dense danmaku into the shrine's stone foundation.
Alice dashed away, randomly changing directions at the slightest whim as she made her way up and over the nearest hill. Whenever possible, she added laser fire and danmaku clusters to Marisa's barrage.
The Djinn's ring of disks did not vanish into a wave of actinic plasma. Instead, a glowing line lanced out from each disk, cutting through the air and into the ground as each sought the nearest target. Marisa slipped sideways and spun about, passing underneath and around a constricting net of directed plasma. Alice rolled and grazed passed her own pursuing laser fire and Marisa's stray danmaku. She winced at the nearby heat as she sprinted up the last of the slope. Rolling over the crest, she dropped out of the way as silver light and heat shaved a thin slice of the hilltop away. Alice rolled to a stop, panting.
She collected her wits and peeked over the hilltop. Marisa danced her way through a dozen lasers. A bright smile lit up the witch's face as she guided her broom through a drunken random walk.
Loud whistling cut through the clamor of danmaku blasts and shattering earth. A purple bolt shot down from the heavens, crashing into the glowing Djinn with a loud metallic ring.
As the echoes faded, the Djinn held an arm straight out away from him. Suwako Moriya hung upside down by her ankle from his hand. She lashed out wildly with her rings, reaching for the Djinn's body with each swing. Danmaku and laser fire streaked past as the infernal machine raised his mace high into the air.
Blue foxfire raced up the construct's arms. The Djinn dropped Suwako, slapping out the fire. Ran descended serenely before him. Silver laser light raked through her body, but the vixen just smiled and waved. In the flash of dying foxfire, the kitsune vanished.
A hand fell on Alice's shoulder. She spun about, danmaku flaring in her hands. Ran frowned at her as she swatted the witch's hands away.
"What was that?" Alice asked, the lights dying out in her hands.
"Illusion magic. Fox magic."
"Is anyone else coming?" Alice said, turning away and readying her next pattern of shot.
"If Mokou can fly to the village fast enough."
A voice like a polyharmonic choir of angels shouted, echoing throughout the field in a terrible, bone-chilling cry. Ran and Alice looked over the hill and froze, each shaking in the powerful hold of dread. In the center of the shrine, Suwako Moriya stood no longer as a child, but as the Highest Native Goddess revealed in all her splendor and terror: two meters tall, agelessly feminine, and terrible in her divine wrath. On the other side of the shrine, almost unnoticed in the revelation of divinity, the radiance of power coursing from Suwako knocked Marisa from her broom.
Once again, goddess and demon squared off. Mace met ring, danmaku flew past plasma in torrents , as both foes met and countered each other's blows with precise and practiced ease. As the two fought for what seemed like an eternity, thunder roared and the earth shook. But the Djinn stood in the center of what was effectively a magical battery, while Suwako's faith ebbed with each attack.
Without warning, the Highest of the Native Gods shrank to her childish form as she consumed the last vestiges of her hidden stockpiles of faith. Alice slumped to the ground as the fearsome terror melted away. Suwako fell to her knees, the Djinn's ring of lasers burning an ever-shrinking circle around her.
Brilliant white light bathed the countryside. Marisa's final Divine Spark tore through the shrine's lands. The ring of silver scales melted under the deluge of magic, but the magic broke over the armored figure like water against rock.
"I don't know how he got stronger," Ran growled, throwing fire as shadows passed overhead.
Hatate dropped from the sky next to the magician and the fox, startling both. "We found something in the shrine. It healed Nitori and amplified her Water Curtain card. Well, before it overwhelmed her."
"Where?" Marisa asked, as she slid off her broom, landing next to Alice.
Hatate cringed. "Right about where he is."
"So as long as he's where he stands now, he's unbeatable?" Alice asked. Her hands drummed against her grimoire.
"Keep him busy," Marisa said. She slipped a straw bracelet out of her pocket and over her hand. Alice thought she recognized the jewelry, but could not place it.
"Where's Suwako?" Alice asked, cradling her grimoire against her chest. The power inside called to her, and she found her fingers running longingly down the pages' edges.
"We'll find her after this, I know it," Ran said, staring appraisingly at Marisa. "Hold still."
Marisa climbed on her broom and motioned at Ran to begin. The kitsune held her hand out, bathing the witch in a corona of foxfire. As Alice watched, Marisa vanished into the background, although if the magician turned her head, she could just manage to see Marisa's faint outline out of the corner of her eye.
"Give him hell," Marisa said, as she took to the skies.
Alice stared at the beckoning grimoire, and shook her head. It would be so easy to give into its power, but if she did and she lost… In a flash, the grimoire vanished into its hiding spot.
"Just keep firing until Marisa does whatever craziness she's planning," she said to her companions, holding up three fingers. One by one, the fingers dropped until only a fist remained. Alice, Hatate, and Ran popped up over the hillcrest, spreading out as they unleashed thick walls of danmaku, tight laser spreads, and strobing flashes of magic at the Djinn.
Twin rings of silver disks appeared, spinning around the Djinn as silver lasers lashed out, burning away the hill the girls used as cover wherever the lasers touched it. Alice cried out, ducking down as laser light swept over her head. When it passed, she stood up and resumed her fight.
Marisa floated behind the infernal foe, her foxfire melting away. Holding her furnace out until it almost touched the Djinn's back, she fired the strongest Master Spark she could manage. The construct rocked on its feet, and spun around, swinging its mace. The witch flew back, growling. The mace head pointed towards the witch and glowed, spitting laser bolts at Marisa.
To Alice's surprise, Marisa slipped the broom sideways around the mace, tackling the Djinn's torso in what looked like a giant bear hug. She locked her hands around her wrists, tugging at the Endless Knot looped around her arm. Great coils of rope entangled the Djinn and herself. Spurring her broom into flight, Marisa slowly dragged the Djinn away from the ember.
The twin disk rings spun inward. Alice shouted wordlessly, tracing her laser fire across the ring of disks. Wherever scarlet met silver, that disk flickered away.
Marisa flared her broom to its top speed, but the Djinn swung its mace, knocking the broom askew. The flying knot of rope, witch, and metal spiraled around the hearthstone's ember. With each circle, Marisa bore the brunt of electric shock and battering blow as the Djinn fought to free itself. On the third spiral, Marisa tugged at the bracelet once more, and the rope fell away. She pushed off the Djinn, falling off her broom and free of her foe.
"Marisa!" Alice shouted, bounding over the hill. But before her feet could touch the ground, both the construct and the witch vanished in a flash of sky blue light.
Alice sprinted to the hearthstone shouting her friend's name.