ALT-FLAG 11: Wings of the Legend

(Suggested BGM: the namesake anthem from JAM Project)

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There are warriors who have wings made out of steel...

They are just about to take off for the last battle that determines the fate of the world...

These warriors will never give up, because they have tenacious and strong hearts that are filled with great love...

They are ready to sacrifice their own lives to blaze a new trail for the future, for new hopes... and dreams...

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"We have to divert that thing's attention from this building."

"How are we gonna do that?"

"I pilfered the rest of the grenade cans I used for the booby traps. All in all, I got 3 smokes, 2 flashbangs, a tear gas, and half a dozen unused high explosives."

"You used quite a lot there. Those PSD units really screwed up their op, that's for sure. How about rifle ammo?"

Suzaku dug through the contents of his right side pocket. "Already used up all my mags, save for this bullet."

"It'll have to do," replied Sylvia who took the lone bullet while in the process of integrating half of her Hagoromo into Suzaku's M14 rifle, converting the same into a powerful Anti-Weiss weapon. "I just hope your aim is spot-on this time..."

"You're so mean, Sylvia..."

Upon exiting the school building, they gazed upon the approaching colossal Weiss that was slowly making its way. Sylvia propped up her scythe like a witch's broom for the two of them to use. Suzaku meanwhile brought out the smoke grenades and flashbangs and gave one each to Sylvia.

"Let's try the smokes first on the eyes. If that doesn't work, we stun it."

They then took to the skies and circled the colossal Weiss, which as of this point noticed them approaching. As they planned, they each threw a smoke grenade at the behemoth, but it did not react much. In response, they decided to do another "strafing run".

"Now let's see how it deals with flashbangs on its face..."

When they both threw their respective blinders towards the Weiss, Sylvia managed to get its attention when hers exploded right in its left eye. This made the Weiss very angry at them, which was apparently what they expected it to be.

"Let's lure it out of the Academy first, Sylvia," he motioned to his Demon buddy. But surprisingly, she refused and instead landed back on the building's rooftop.

"Hey, what gives?"

"Sorry Suza-kun, but I'll have to leave you out of this until the Columna Lucia is fully charged," she said.

"What do you mean by that?"

"I managed to add a few upgrades to the rifle so it won't pose a threat to your safety, but at the expense of a longer charging time. I cannot let you take too much of a risk like the last time."

"But I thought it was still safe as it was when I last-"

"THERE ISN'T MUCH TIME!"

Both of them went silent. This was apparently the very first time in their Maijima mission that he has seen his demon buddy very concerned.

The tension of silence continued until Sylvia decided to regain her composure. But it was apparent that her facial expression still had traces of worry.

"Look... notwithstanding the collars on our necks, I... I just don't..."

Suzaku immediately placed his left pointer finger on Sylvia's lips, as if he wants her to stop talking. He then sighed as he withdrew the same.

"Okay, Sylvia. I understand what you meant... Just one thing though..."

He held her by the wrist, then to her surprise, pulled her for a kiss. By the time he stopped, there was a very noticeable redness in his demon buddy's cheeks. She even turned away when she noticed that he was looking at her with a light smile on his face.

He quickly changed the topic by bringing out his stash of High Explosive grenades. "Here, try to weaken that thing while you're at it. Good luck..."

Upon taking the bag of grenades from her human buddy, Sylvia flew back towards the giant Weiss and began drawing its attention away from the academy. In the meantime, Suzaku began with the Anti-Weiss rifle's long charging sequence...

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(Flashback: Suzaku's POV)

It was roughly two years ago when everything in my supposedly ordinary life was changed forever...

I was still a college student in Kyoto back then. All I was aiming for was to graduate and reel in a decent job as a teacher. I never did care about other circumstances that came my way as long as I was able to remain on track. Heck, even romance-related topics were thrown out of the window because it was not necessary.

That is until I got Dokurou Skull's e-mail.

At first, I thought of it as probably a wrong-sent mail. But even before I opened the same, I could sense something unique about it that prevented me from deleting it for about a whole week. When I finally decided to take the bite and respond to the e-mail, it was then that the person who would become my companion for the next two years came knocking at my doorstep.

Dark green hair, a light-blue shawl which she called a Hagoromo, a worn-out scythe, and a stature that would not be out of place at a fashion show. Those were the main descriptions that popped out of my head when I first met Sylvia. Naturally, I was not paying attention that much, because of my romance-less background.

Apparently, I got to see little by little her true self with passage of time: an occasional snarker, a neat freak, a person who tends to be all too attached to her role as a member of the RSS. While I was able to tolerate the first two, I was bothered by the third very much.

Then came our first encounter with a level-4 Weiss. At first, I thought that notwithstanding the size of the runaway spirit, capturing it would be relatively easy, as I was with a high-ranking RSS member. I even thought I would not be putting my life at risk.

I was wrong.

The Weiss put up a far tougher fight than she expected. She nearly exhausted all her Neo-Hellian spells and her supply of containment jars, until she was eventually beaten very hard to the ground.

I knew I had to act on this because we'll both lose our heads literally if we even fail.

Out of impulse, I picked up her scythe and confronted the beast. I did not even bother to ask myself why I would confront something a hundred times my size. As expected, in one fell swoop, the Weiss swung his hand towards me, sending me flying like a damn rock.

I had no complete recollection over what happened next, but I did briefly see her silhouette engulfed in a very bright aura. Most of all, I chanced upon her face and saw tears running down her cheeks. Definitely what they call tears of rage.

After that, I lost consciousness.

Luckily, I recovered from my wounds and bruises after a week's worth of rest. During that period, it was her who constantly nursed me back; although she could not do anything about my hair, which turned from pure black to the pepper gray hue it has right now. It was better than being bald, I suppose.

Still, truth be told, it was the very first time I experienced the manifestation of someone else's... love.

Furthermore, I observed that she has slowly become more open to my efforts in our subsequent captures, even going so far as to teaching me on certain Neo-Hellian spells and tactics. It was also at that moment that we began conceptualizing a brand new Anti-Weiss weapon capable of being wielded even by human beings: The Columna Lucia Impaler Rifle.

At first, I thought melding Neo-Hellian tech with human machines was close to impossible. But after a month of trial and error, we got one working. But there was a problem: while it was effective at dealing damage, we found out that it put too much strain on the body, in exchange for a decent charging time. Which posed a problem when we faced our third level-4.

Nonetheless, we kept it for future use since it was very effective in its purpose: a deterrent against fully-grown Weiss. But most of all, it served as testament that human and Neo-Hellian tech can be compatible with a fair amount of effort and faith.

It was, apparently, our proverbial "love child." One which I would be confident enough to cherish, even if our contract would eventually end...

(End of Flashback)

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About half an hour has passed and Sylvia was still keeping the colossal Weiss occupied. She was apparently down to her last grenade, and running out of options. All she could hope at this moment was that the Anti-Weiss weapon would be ready by now.

But it was still to early to call it, as Suzaku was still monitoring the charging phase.

"Damn, I still need about 10% of power, and now it's decided to charge even slower..."

Seeing as the weapon was not yet ready, Sylvia had no choice but to get close to the target. With her wakizashi on her right hand and the last grenade on her left, she went for a head-on charge towards the Weiss.

"So much for conservative tactics..."

She immediately threw the grenade at the Weiss's face then jumped from her scythe. By the time the Weiss could recover from the blast, Sylvia was well overhead, taking aim at its exposed back.

"Here goes..."

As she was about to land on the Weiss's back, she thrust her blade on its nape. Due to the blade being of the same material as her scythe, it effortlessly penetrated the Weiss's rough skin, thereby causing a good amount of pain.

And with good timing too, as for the weapon in Suzaku's possession...

[Impaler Rifle now at maximum power.]

"About time," Suzaku uttered as he approached the edge of the building. Seeing as the edge was fenced with plexiglass, he knew he has to find a way to get to the Weiss. Thus, he called out Sylvia and gave her the OK signal.

"Alright, time to get real serious."

Sylvia broke hold of her wakizashi (which was still stuck on the giant's nape), brought out five containment runes while in mid-air, and called back her scythe to ride on it. She then threw four of them around the Weiss in a square pattern, then threw the remaining one above it while whispering the activation spell.

In a few seconds, a powerful pyramid barrier covered the colossal Weiss, effectively immobilizing the same. The behemoth struggled with all its strength but could not break loose. Still, knowing that the barrier would not hold for long, Sylvia made a quick dash back to the academy, where Suzaku was already waiting at the grounds.

"Ready to end this, Suza-kun?" she asked as she reached out for her human buddy's hand.

"I'm ready when you are," he replied. "Let's do this!"

In one fluid motion, Sylvia grabbed Suzaku by the hand, allowing him to use the momentum to swing himself up and aboard her scythe.

"We need to do this quick; the barrier's not gonna hold out for much longer."

"I know," he replied. "Take us up; I'll make this one shot count."

As they were nearing the containment barrier, Sylvia continued to fly higher while Suzaku brought out the rifle. As they were about 3000 feet, he ordered her to stop, and balanced himself on the scythe.

"I sure hope this works..."

With that he jumped and took aim at the Weiss, which as of this moment was starting to break through the barrier. But 700 feet in, and he still has not fired yet.

"Come on..." thought Sylvia, who was watching her buddy still take aim.

1600 feet remained and there was still no sign of a blast from the weapon. Feeling worried and impatient, Sylvia went ahead and screamed.

"TAKE THE SHOT, SUZAKU!"

And sure enough, at 1000 feet, he finally locked on to the colossal Weiss, which at this point has just finished breaking through the barrier."

"Targeted... and FIRING!"

As he opened fire, the blast from the Anti-Weiss weapon completely engulfed the target in a pillar of light, continuously disintegrating its body structure within seconds; it also kept Suzaku afloat due to the recoil. The light then vanished along with the Weiss after a few seconds, leaving him with nothing to keep him airborne.

Luckily, his demon buddy quickly responded by throwing to him one end of her remaining Hagoromo. He grabbed on to it then climbed back on her scythe.

"We did it, Suzaku..."

"Yeah... Fourth kill..."

(End BGM)

But their relief was a bit cut short when they chanced upon a couple other colossal Weiss destroying the Akanemaru.

"More of them?" she uttered. "You have got to be kidding me."

"No, wait. Look closely."

True enough, they spotted all the six Jupiter Sisters in possession of their hosts' bodies curb stomping the behemoths with less effort. Both finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Seems they really are back to full strength," remarked Sylvia.

"Yeah. We better go back, 'Juno' must be waking up right now..."

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END OF MAIN STORY...

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