Nanoha walked silently with Fate trailing by her side as they scoured the land for the surge of power from before. Neither of them had spoken since they had separated from the rest of the group, but Nanoha covered up her own misgivings by putting all her concentration into her search. So far, she had not detected a single sign of life, which was troubling. But maybe everyone else was having better luck than they were.
Her initial feeling of confidence had died down and was replaced by mild instability. They were in the middle of a wasteland in an alien world, and all of her magic told her that they were the only living souls for miles and miles. The power that had brought her here, Oguba, which was also the power which could ensure their safe return, was obviously very unstable and unpredictable. The more she interacted with the Lost Logia, the less Nanoha wanted to depend on him. She wanted Raging Heart back, completely. Even if Oguba had been the one in her dream.
Fate is right. I do need her here with me.
She thought about Vivio and Hayate back home along with everyone else who had stayed behind, awaiting their return. Except that wasn't what it was about, was it? When they returned to Mid-childa, no time would have passed at all. If they returned...but the thought of that left her dazed and stunned. Of course they would go back. Vivio was waiting for her...and she was going to be married to Fate...
Nanoha blinked away the sudden tears that were coming, quickly turning away in case Fate saw them. She usually wouldn't hide them from her, but now was hardly the time to get emotional.
"Nanoha," Fate said quietly, laying a hand on her wrist.
She jumped, thinking that Fate must have realised something was wrong, but then saw that the blonde mage was in a similar state, her lips trembling. Something was worrying her too.
"What is it?" she asked, taking another step forward.
As she did so, a sharp blue beam of light sighted the horizon before them, shooting up into the sky until it was so high up above them that it seemed like the pinprick of a star in the universe. Below the spark, a crackle of electricity shot downwards in a spiral, striking all the way down to earth. Nanoha's eyes were transfixed by the image – chain lightning, illuminating the scene before them as several more tiny lightning bolts charged downwards.
"There," she whispered, pulling a downcast Fate forward in her enthusiasm. "It's the power surge! We found it."
"Nanoha - " the Enforcer pleaded, tugging at her sleeve.
Then the two of them rounded the next rise and saw exactly where the light was coming from. It was a tower, a gigantic obelisk which seemed to reach up through the heavens, a mountain of prism-like sculptures which curved down towards the earth in an array of small spikes. The blue lightning they had seen before was the only reason why they could see the tower at all – the entire surface of the building seemed to reflect any light that came towards it.
Yes, the tower was completely invisible to the naked eye. That was why none of them had seen it from far away. Was it the material, or was the tower cloaked with some advanced technology?...Could it be that the rest of Red Scorpion were using something similar to cover their tracks?
The strange light glowed at the peak of the tower, from which the lightning was branching out every few seconds or so. Nanoha felt a distinct familiarity from the light. It reminded her of...no, she couldn't quite place it. Something nostalgic. Something that cried of the past. And she could feel Oguba urging her to head towards there, too...
"What in the world is that?" Nanoha whispered, drawn towards the tower as she dragged her feet forward. It was almost a hypnotic pull, coaxing her in. "I still don't detect any signs of life at all. Who could make this?"
She felt Fate's hand close around her arm again, and impatiently tried to shake her off. She needed to go to the light...it was calling her...
"You don't know what's in there, Nanoha." Fate's voice was tight and leathered with a note of urgency. "It could be a trap. Maybe it's there to separate you from everyone else."
"I have to go in," Nanoha said crossly, sweeping forward towards the front of the tower as if grew before them. The humming of electricity was a ring in their ears now at this range. "I feel..."
"Nanoha, you're not thinking this through. This isn't like you. Shouldn't you wait until we've checked the area out thoroughly first...?"
Fate's words were already lost in the buzz around her ears as Nanoha ran her thoughts through quickly. Oguba mentioned something before about completing his contract. But he never did mention exactly what it is. It wouldn't be something like rescuing Vita – no, that was something that he just offered the use of his power for. He wanted us to come here for something.
And the magical field that resonated from the top of the tower...it was truly powerful, yet something seemed to be disrupting it. As if it was infected, impure, incomplete...Nanoha didn't know how to put it into words properly. As if it was waiting for Oguba...
Oguba hadn't spoken ever since they'd started walking towards the tower. The Lost Logia had gone completely mute, and Nanoha didn't know if she should keep relying on it in the circumstances. Maybe the tower was affecting it somehow? Raging Heart didn't feel any different, but still...
She was close to the tower now, really close. At its base were two great doors of crystal which loomed several metres high, surrounded by a horde of strange jagged material which curved upwards onto the rest of the tower exterior. It gave off a silver glow as the lightning raced down along the edges of the doors, coming close but not quite touching them.
No handles or any way to pull them open from outside. If they turned out to be locked, Nanoha decided they may well have to gain entry by force.
"Fate?" she called out, turning around to see the other woman hanging back and looking towards her sadly. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing...nothing." Fate just seemed to be more flushed than normal, her eyes dark and serious. They were filled with something that Nanoha couldn't quite identify. Was it worry? Fear? No, it was something else."Nanoha," she said suddenly, looking up fiercely into her face determinedly, "there's something I've been meaning to tell you for a while."
Didn't she say that before? Yesterday?
"About marrying me? You already told me," Nanoha said with a smile, trying to reassure her. "Is this what you're afraid about? I don't mind talking about it quickly." Of course, standing in front of the enemy's electrical tower probably wasn't the best of places to discuss marriage arrangements with your partner, but still...She froze for a moment. Fate wasn't going to change her mind about that, was she?
The light at the top of the tower captured her attention for a moment, drawing Nanoha directly to the doors themselves -
"No, Nanoha, this is about something else. It's really important. It's about Raging Heart and I didn't tell you before but – Nanoha? Are you listening to me? Nanoha, you shouldn't be going so close to that - "
The tip of Nanoha's finger brushed against the faint crystal outline of the majestic doors in front of her. And suddenly the entire tower was lit up completely, blue light shooting upwards in a broad spiral to connect with the lightning shooting downwards from the peak. The humming intensified, drowning out the rest of Fate's sentence, and increased to a whirring, as if something was powering up from deep inside...
Strange marks and letters were appearing all over the outside of the tower. The same symbols which Fate recognised as having appeared sinisterly upon Nanoha's skin whilst she had been unconscious. Oguba's mark. This was no mere coincidence.
Suddenly overtaken by fear, Fate rushed forward to grab hold of Nanoha, half-expecting to see the alien symbols spreading out all over her body once more.
There was nothing there. The combat instructor looked back at her in complete confusion, probably wondering what Fate was getting all worked up about. No blue symbols appearing on her flesh; same calm sanity in those blue eyes. Raging Heart and Oguba had not so much as reacted at all.
And as they stood there, the huge crystal doors slowly slid open as the humming grew to a near-deafening volume, inviting them into the darker regions of the tower. The magical field far above them was growing in magnitude by every second – with their magic limited here, and no way to fly up to investigate, there was no other choice left to them but to enter. At least, not to Nanoha. She still couldn't sense any sign of life in the tower, but perhaps some of the defence mechanisms were still operational...surely they would be easy enough to deal with.
"It's okay," Nanoha mouthed to Fate in the wake of the tremendous noise, not seeming to understand the other woman's worry for her. But that wasn't what mattered now. Keeping her eyes on Fate, she held her hands against her as the two of them stepped over the threshold and entered the great tower at last.
The crystal doors slammed shut behind them with a clang which resonated throughout the tower walls, sealing them inside completely. The noise was drastically cut down to a fairly audible level.
Fate tapped Bardiche experimentally against the side of the doors. There was no reaction, as she'd expected. They were locked in, but their combined power would still probably be enough to break out again. Somehow, she didn't seem so afraid for Nanoha anymore. Up to now, she had felt that Nanoha needed her along, that Nanoha was single-mindedly walking to her doom and that nothing would end well. But now...
Now she felt at home again, in an environment she was familiar with. Certainly a much more deadly environment, because Fate could feel her body settling into a defensive stance, the hairs prickling up on the back of her neck as she sensed enemies all around her. No, she couldn't see a thing, and Nanoha had said that she detected no signs of life at all – but Fate could tell by now. They were already being watched.
Nanoha would never go blindly into a place like this. She'd look at the dangers and possible advantageous strategic points. Is Oguba guiding her? Or...does she really want to go to the light at the top of the tower so badly that her judgement is clouded? Or even worse: could Oguba himself be responsible? I'd follow her anywhere, even to protect her from herself, but...
Her ears caught onto the humming throughout the tower, and she frowned when she realised how much it sounded like arcane chanting.
And suddenly the room was flooded with light, scores of pinpricks of intense blue light which shot in from everywhere around them. The darkness was expelled to reveal a huge chamber full of dozens of steel human-sized cabinets, each of which was inset by an electrical panel. Two sets of blinking lights were flickering into the front of each one, almost in sync.
Piles of broken machinery and scrap metal littered the edges of the room. Service robots, rusted weapons, all unusable but definitely showing signs of very advanced technology. Yuuno would be very interested to investigate such things, if he knew about it.
The front of the chamber was taken up by an oversized monitor which flashed dark red as it printed out line after line of obscure gibberish. The symbols appearing on the screen seemed to be completely alien, with the odd familiar letter or number appearing. Was it computer code, perhaps? Or a malfunction?
Fate felt a definite sense of danger here, especially this close to the flickering monitor. The consoles here were all bashed to pieces or destroyed in other ways. There was no way to use them safely. Yet as she and Nanoha waited, there was no sign of any enemy aggression around them. Could she be imagining things?
"Strange," Nanoha said curiously after a while as the static crackling continued around them with no real change. "I sense danger, but there's nothing here. Everything's already been destroyed."
Fate nodded, wondering the same thing herself. "But someone must be here. Who opened the doors? Who turned on the lights?"
The combat instructor shrugged. "Maybe it's on an automated system. It could be touch-sensitive." She cast one more look around at the ruined consoles around the chamber. They were of no use to anyone. "We shouldn't waste any more time here. I need to get to the top of this tower quickly."
"Why?" Fate didn't bother to hide her doubts this time. "Just because Oguba wants you to? You don't know what's up there. We're not able to fly, either of us, and that light up there could just be luring you into a trap. All it would take would be one push from the top, and - "
"And what, Miss Testarossa?"
The voice boomed down at them suddenly, as from a great height and yet resounding from the monitor as well. The lights of the tower flashed and changed colour, intensifying to simulate emotion. The tone was similar to Oguba's, but when Fate looked down she saw no change in Raging Heart. No, this was something else completely...
There was a winding of gears behind the monitor as one of the machines came to life, lights flickering rapidly as automatic doors slid open to reveal a slender chute leading far above to the upper floors of the tower where neither of the mages could currently reach. It had lain concealed in amidst the debris of the other broken machinery until now, powering up as a few tendrils of smoke rose out of its circuits.
"Miss Takamachi,if you please," the voice said formally, lowering its volume slightly as if testing its own sound for adjustments. It was a pleasant, female voice, speaking in the manner of one used to authority. The glowing lights from above changed colour again with the passing of each sentence. "The elevator is prepared for you. Your destiny awaits you at the top of this tower."
"My...my destiny?" Nanoha said, looking puzzled.
"Correct."
"Are you quite sure about that? I've had my fair share of destinies already."
"My information is infallible," the female voice stated, devoid of emotion. "Our client is expecting you. You must go now, and quickly. You may rest assured that you will be perfectly safe."
Still mildly confused by this, Nanoha stumbled towards the lift at the back of the chamber, as if unsure of exactly what she was doing. Her eyes darted from side to side as she clasped tightly onto Oguba in her right hand. For a moment, Fate could have sworn that she saw Nanoha's eyes turn colour to jet-black, causing her to spring forward in alarm, but a split second later the Ace of Aces seemed to be fine again. Had she just imagined it?
"Nanoha, wait!" Fate cried, starting to dash forward to stop her. "I still haven't told you about - "
The lift doors shut tight the instant Nanoha entered through, preventing Fate from following. The Enforcer was left stunned, as only opaque crystal greeted for an instant before the lift shot upwards into the tower at high speed. Why had the doors shut like that? The lift was big enough for several people, it didn't -
"You are not invited, Miss Testarossa," said the voice from above. The whirling colours crossed over each other into curdling grey. "Our client has an appointment with only Miss Takamachi, and you will not intervene."
She's not safe up there, Fate thought. We don't have the full use of our powers, and the magical field I felt from that light at the top of the tower...it felt tremendously powerful. Oguba must be controlling her somehow, affecting her actions. I need to get to her!
"Where did you really send her?" she demanded of the unseen speaker. "Who are you? Show yourself, now!"
Whoever they were, she could easily defeat them and then go after Nanoha. Maybe she could grab Oguba away from her and get rid of whatever influence the Lost Logia was having over her. But doing so might mean they couldn't get home...
"Show myself?" The female voice said, a note of humour showing in her tone. An orange and yellow hue was cast upon the ceiling of the great chamber. "But I am already before you."
And then the monitor in the centre of the room flickered once more. The endless stream of foreign symbols was erased and replaced by two simple lines which were quite readable:
User Name: Superuser
Password: Red Scorpion
Corporation Founder Initials: HY
A harsh pounding began to sound, coming from the dozens of metal cabinets all around the room. Cabinets large enough for a person to be housed in. Fate's blood ran cold when she realised that the pounding was coming from inside the cabinets. Whatever had been kept inside was hammering away to get out. Dents began to appear in the cabinets as the metal contorted and bulged outwards, forced apart by some unnatural strength. Several of the lights on the panels began to flash in warning, beeping in urgency.
The pounding escalated to a roar as the cabinets were torn apart from within, and humanoid figures began to rise up from the rubble. They were mechanical droids moving with jerky, twisted movements, build robustly but simply with metal moving under the skin of their human selves. Red eyes glared outwardly as they stood bearing a multitude of weapons clutched within hammer-like fists. As they moved to surround her, Fate noted the stream of laser rifles, plasma-induced arsenal, phaser technology, the lot.
"I am the superior program of Red Scorpion," the voice hissed directly from the monitor. The screen turned blood-red and the colours mirroring the ceiling turned to darkest obsidian. All around the chamber, the pounding inside the cabinets had risen to a volume that Fate had to clamp her hands over her ears, almost unable to bear it anymore. "I am the Superuser of the network of our organisation. And protocol dictates, Miss Testarossa, that you cannot possibly be permitted to leave here alive."
All the cabinets had been broken out of by now, falling to the ground in a pile of wreckage. There had been about twenty of them, and their occupants now advanced towards Fate with weapons raised towards her.
Fate looked at them sympathetically and sighed, hefting Bardiche over her shoulder as it began to change shape.
"Is this really all you've got?" she asked.
The Superuser snarled in response, the lights turning a violent shade of purple.
"Destroy her!"
"Stop," Ungore said suddenly, turning around and dropping to the ground on all fours, sniffing around like a wild animal. "Stop one moment, Srethis."
Vita found herself jolted painfully against the side of her small prison as her reptilian carrier lurched forward slightly and ceased to advance any further. They had been travelling for perhaps ten minutes, maybe more – it was hard to keep track down here. The only view Vita really had of the environment was of the rocky walls of the cave-like passage that Srethis was transporting her through, and they were nothing to look at. They hadn't changed either, so that it almost felt as if they were moving down the same corridor for eternity.
She hadn't made any further attempts to try to convince Srethis to turn his back on Red Scorpion and try to make amends with the TSAB. The look in the lizard's eyes was so devoid of hope, so full of emptiness...Vita couldn't help but feel sorry for the creature. If Ungore wasn't here, then maybe she could have another go at persuading Srethis -
Ungore's head jerked up suddenly. "Uh-oh," the alien whispered.
"Storm Falcon!"
A purple and white arrow streaking destructive energy in its wake soared towards their position and exploded upon impact, shunting Srethis and Ungore aside into the walls of the corridor. Vita felt her vision go red for a few seconds, but not due to any inner deterioration – the flames had just obscured everything around her. She could still breathe all right, however, and pressed forward against the ice hopefully. Unfortunately it still refused to break, although a fine layer had been burned off by the energy of the attack.
The figure of a tall pink-haired Velka Knight rose up through the smoke as Srethis and Ungore slowly picked themselves up, looking dazed. Vita felt a wry grin forming across her face. Took them long enough to get here.
"I really hope you're the real Vita this time," Signum said, standing at a measurable distance away with Laevatein's Bow Form poised to fire another projectile.
Vita pushed at the edge of the ice and found that she could roll it forward ever so slightly, though not enough to be of much use. Then she noticed that Srethis was the most badly injured from Signum's attack. The lizard had been carrying her at the time, which meant...
"Did you just fire at me?" she asked. "You shot that thing right at me, didn't you?"
"It was either that or fire at the ceiling to create a cave-in," Signum replied dryly.
"I could have died!" Vita protested, almost insulted in spite of herself. "What if the arrow had gone right through the ice and hit me instead, Signum? What were you going to do then?"
"I thought you'd appreciate being fired on by someone else for a change," the pink-haired mage retorted. "And the ice probably wouldn't have been broken by one hit either."
"Probably?"
Signum sighed. "Vita, if you're really that unhappy about it, I don't have to save you. I'll just stand here and wait for the one-armed alien and the shapeshifting lizard to cart you off to some other mysterious dimension."
"All right, all right," the other Guardian Knight muttered inside her prison of ice, seething a little in her stubbornness. "I'm very grateful you turned up to save me, Signum, and I am in your debt for the next five minutes."
"Five minutes?"
"I was going to say "forever" but I'm still trapped in this damn ice crystal."
"We're Guardian Knights, Vita," Signum said, a friendly smile spreading out across her face. "We're already connected to each other forever. I always knew you were alive somehow."
Vita gazed back at her for a moment, touched by her friend's loyalty and tenacity. She started to say something, then stopped and averted her eyes elsewhere, embarrassed to speak too much of her feeling out loud. She felt awkward at these kinds of moments, although for some reason it was fine when Hayate was in the same room.
"Let's just get out of here," she mumbled, struggling to break the silence. "You've knocked out Srethis and Ungore pretty bad, so now we can - "
There was a groan next to her as Srethis turned over, rubbing its head as it attempted to sit up. The lizard was in no state to give them any trouble. Vita breathed a sigh of relief; she had meant what she had said to Srethis earlier about having the TSAB help it out with supplying medicine. Maybe now they could do just that, especially when -
"Vita?"
She looked towards the taller mage, whose blue eyes were narrowed in apprehension.
"Where did Ungore go?"
A fluid shape smashed through the opposing wall in a smooth circle and rammed into Signum's mid-section, lashing out with its wrists and the dead arm hanging from one shoulder. The two of them rolled over as Signum tumbled backwards, the air choked from her lungs as Laevatein dropped from her nerveless fingers. She struggled to catch her breath as she was pinned to the ground, unable to move.
Ungore's dark pained eyes burned into hers as it raised its living arm above its head, hooks and claws extending from the tip of its hand. It stabbed downwards, missing her by inches as Signum jerked the neck to the side, sucking fresh air into her lungs as she tried to lever the creature off her.
"Get going, Srethis!" the alien cried, its voice gleeful. "Take the prisoner and run! Run, and I will deal with this Bureau pest!"
Vita turned, wide-eyed, as Srethis staggered to its feet and came towards her. She shook her head no, trying to communicate to the creature what she could not through words. Signum's arrival had given them a chance. They could go back now whilst Ungore was pre-occupied...the alien would probably not be able to stop them...
For a split second the reptile stared at Vita full in the face, and it looked truly shocked. Srethis started to shake, raising one webbed claw towards the ice prison, then slowly lowering it.
"Srethis does...does not..." it stammered inaudibly. "Vita...Vita-san...friend...friend of Srethis..."
"Are you listening to me, Srethis?" Ungore shouted, slashing downwards as Signum managed to grab hold of Laevatein and kicked the alien back a step. "I'm a little busy right now! Get our little prisoner to the gate where Exoria is waiting, now! It's too late to think of backing out any more!"
The moment had passed. The lizard's features went rigid and it lifted Vita's cage onto its back once more, eyes full of pain from the many wounds and burns upon its body. Then it began to run forward along the corridor at a great speed just as ordered, accelerating away from where Signum and Ungore were fighting, moving closer and closer to the time portal which awaited...
The clearing seemed silent and peaceful under the artificial glow of the night sky, lights which sifted through the small hole in the cavern. The magical fire continued to burn on each of the pillars surrounding the centre of the clearing as the two mages split up to surround their enemy. The pillars seemed to act as a good defence, and the chamber was large enough for the combatants to move around as freely as they wished. As far as everything looked to Subaru, there were very few restrictions.
The only way through was forward. With a nod to Erio, the two mages edged forwards towards their opponent barring their path, positioning themselves close to one of the pillars in case they needed to draw back suddenly.
"Calculating win-to-loss ratios," the Legion said out loud, its voice taking on a more computerised tone. It still had not moved from its current location. "Computing likely opponent strategy: completed. Analyzing opponent weaknesses: completed. Probability of opponent victory: 35.5%."
Erio raised his device Strada above his head in both hands and set his jaw defiantly. "Don't count on it! Schlagenform!" he yelled, rushing forward indignantly as the spear began to split apart into separate segments, winding around in the air rapidly. "Take this! Stahlmesser - "
TSEEEEW!
A high-intensity energy ray surged forward whilst Erio was still in mid-air and ruptured the nearest pillar. The magical fire reacted like a match to petrol, and combusted violently, exploding in all directions. The energy ray bent upwards and then split into three, joining into a unified beam which smashed through a second pillar with similar effect.
Erio screamed as Strada was wrenched from his hands and the pillars bombarded him with a mixture of shrapnel and medium-sized fireballs. The energy ray bent around a second time, split into three once more, and surrounded the young mage on all sides.
The forward had a split second to see that there was no way out before all three rays struck him on all sides and sky-rocketed him half-way up the wall.
"ERIO!" Subaru shouted in panic, starting to rush forward, but fearful of straying too close to the pillars.
The young red-haired mage hit the ground surprisingly softly, covered with cuts and bruises and his forehead matted with blood. He did not move or respond in any way to Subaru's call.
Calmly, the Legion raised its left hand once more, and the three rays of destructive energy returned to its body, leaving only the aftermath of its effects.
"I feel I should inform you that your comrade is in no danger of perishing, despite what you may believe," the Legion said, reverting back to its usual voice, closer to humanity. "As a soldier, I must follow the orders of my superior. However, I also follow the rules of my source program: minors are not to be killed."
Subaru bent down to Erio's body, touching his skin softly. He was still breathing, but he would not be getting up to fight any time soon. The young mage had received an incredible amount of force in that attack, but his pulse seemed fine. Subaru didn't know a lot about healing magic, however – Caro and Shamal were the ones for that. Her very basic knowledge told her that for the moment at least, Erio wasn't going to die anytime soon.
"Is that what you think?" she said hoarsely. Already her mind was racing, trying to think of any way she could counter such an attack. Erio had gone down in less than ten seconds. The Legion had used the pillars to its advantage. Could she do the same? "Erio's a "minor" to you? And you think you're letting him live?"
"Yes," the Legion replied. "The magical prowess of your comrade is on a very minute level in comparison to my own. The only threat he bore was that he could combine with your powers to make you stronger. Therefore, eliminating Erio Mondial was the best choice of action." Its eyes flickered slightly as it looked towards the blue-haired mage shaking before it. "Before we continue, I have a question to put to you. You are no under obligation to answer, but I have my own curiosity."
What could I do? Wing Road, perhaps? Could I nullify that attack? I need to keep away from those pillars in the middle of the room. If Erio hadn't been defeated so fast then he could have enhanced my speed, but it's too late now. Divine Buster. I need to get close to the Legion and do that.
"Ask," she said stiffly.
The Legion said, "I am curious as to how you arrived here so quickly. The only paths through would require at least a few hours travel by the fastest means, even with the power of Oguba. You could not have travelled forwards or backwards in time to do so, because such movement in time is impossible within this plane of existence. There was nobody here a few hours ago. Therefore...it is impossible for you to be here so quickly. Tell me how you arrived here."
Subaru hesitated. "One of your friends pushed me down a hole," she said, thinking back to Grylmark and his comments on Red Scorpion earlier.
"And yet all of my "friends" are already down here," the Legion mused. "This is interesting. Very well, Subaru Nakajima." It raised one hand slowly, brimming faintly with energy. "I left your comrade, Erio Mondial, alive, by using only a low-intensity beam from my main engines and refraining from using magic. This is because he is of no threat to me and because I try to abstain from bloodshed when possible.
"However...you, Subaru Nakajima." Subaru felt a rush of fear as the combat cyborg's eyes rested upon her intently. "You are not a minor," the Legion stated. "You are a mage who possesses a real threat. A very small threat, but very real. I may need to start using magic on you to remove your existence completely, but hopefully that should not be necessary." It brought both arms together with a dull thud, and a web of white strands of music began to form around it.
It says it was using a low-intensity beam on Erio? Subaru thought, her heart rigid and cold inside her chest. And now it's going to actually try to kill me properly? No, calm down. I'm alone, but maybe I can defeat the Legion before it unleashes any destructive attacks. Maybe I can race forward and use Divine Buster on it before it knows what's hit it.
"You use magic?" she said, speaking quickly to cover her distress. "What kind of combat cyborg uses magic and not IS abilities?"
"I am not one of Scaglietti's combat cyborgs, Subaru Nakajima," the Legion said, an orb of energy building within its hands. "Probability of opponent victory: 4%. Please try not to hit your comrade."
Subaru forced down the fear that was rising within her. She was here for Vita. Vita never showed any fear to her enemies. It was now or never.
"Gear Second!" There was no noticeable difference in Mach Calibre's appearance, but Subaru could already feel the difference in speed capability. "Wing Road!"
TSEEEEW!
The Legion brought its arms down, releasing the pent-up energy in a sudden burst. Multiple energy rays spread out in all directions, very similar to the attack used against Erio. This time, however, there weren't just three of them. There were seven.
With her heart in her mouth, Subaru accelerated down the Wing Road as three of the rays sliced across the air behind her, criss-crossing the air and smashing into one of the remaining magic pillars. She climbed hard as another ray almost connected with her body, forcing Mach Calibre forward as fast as she could. Another pillar exploded, and then another, but she knew where they would hit and bent the Wing Road off to the side to avoid them. Several times she almost lost her balance and was in danger of being thrown off completely, but Subaru managed to keep her cool as the rays zig-zagged around her, splitting up into complex patterns in their efforts to destroy her.
I can do it. I can dodge them! They're slow, but Mach Calibre is faster than them on Gear Second. And if I can outrun them, then -
She couldn't keep this up forever. She'd already had several near misses already and the rays just kept coming.
Somewhere along dodging a thirteenth destructive ray of energy, Subaru slipped up. She bent the Wing Road round to the right instead of the left and found an energy ray heading straight for her. Two more were on their way at her back already. She was stuck in the same position as Erio had, with no way out.
Except...
"Protection!"
It didn't stop the energy ray coming at her, but it slowed it down in its tracks for a moment – just long enough for the other two rays to catch up.
Subaru spun around on the blades of her other foot, instinct taking over.
"Reactor Purge!"
The impact threw her off the Wing Road completely and Subaru was falling again, watching the energy rays follow her as they snaked around and darted below to finish her -
She realised the position they were in just in time. The rays were about to collide with each other and destroy the last pillar in the room. Her chances of survival would drastically increase after that.
Subaru rolled as she hit the ground, taking only a few light bruises and looked up to see all of the energy rays striking down as one to hit the last pillar.
"Enough," said the Legion sharply, bringing its hand up.
The energy rays flickered once and then returned to the Legion's hand and disappeared.
"Enough of this child's play," the combat cyborg said, and started to move from its position for the first time. Towards Subaru. "This will be quick, but not painless."
The blue-haired mage had just managed to get to her feet when the Legion's metal hand gripped her collar and smashed her body into the floor. She bore the pain and reared Mach Calibre back to drill her fist into her enemy's throat. The Legion ignored her attack as if it were nothing and twisted its right arm around in a specific position. Chains and drills hissed out of its mechanical body, whirling around in a circle and cutting away at the rock wall.
Subaru ducked underneath the death-dealing weapon and kicked upwards at the Legion's upper body. Her blows were having no impact whatsoever – what kind of armour did this thing have? Was it immune to pain?
"Protection!" she tried again as three rows of drills stabbed towards her throat, and finally she had a bit of leeway. Subaru sprang back a step and aimed Mach Calibre, focusing with all her might.
"Divine Buster!" she screamed, releasing the powerful spell right into the Legion's face.
Her opponent caught the spell in one fist, trying to disperse it, and then began to struggle. It was forced back a step, then another, the spell exploding rapidly in its hands. Subaru stole her chance: if even Divine Buster wasn't going to work, then she was going to do the next best thing...
Subaru darted around to the Legion's unprotected side as the Divine Buster continued to occupy its efforts, another spell forming in her hands -
"Yagami Loreskill Activate," the Legion said, merging into the computerised tone again, "Interim Dispersal."
The Divine Buster crumpled away into nothing in the combat cyborg's hands as the Legion staggered back with the effort of the spell. It swept its other arm back and caught Subaru by the throat in mid-air, beginning to squeeze in a death-grip with fingers of steel.
Grimly, Subaru pressed Mach Calibre against the Legion's eye sockets. Every inch of this inhuman opponent was like an uncompromising, unyielding mound of titanium. It could even block Divine Buster. Could she get another one in?
"Revolver Shoot," she croaked.
It had a different effect than what Subaru expected. The shockwave rained against the Legion's eyes and was transferred into the rest of its face equally. She felt the grip on her throat loosen and gasped in a trickle of air, almost cheering in this small victory. She was fighting against some kind of superhuman. Right now...just managing to hurt it in any way was almost impossible.
Subaru felt Mach Calibre charge up in her hand, gathering more and more magical power. She was draining her own reserves now: dodging the energy rays with the Wing Road had already used up half her own stamina.
I think I must have rattled its brain more than anything. I can't last much longer. I just need to put the Legion down for a while and then get out of here after Vita. There's no way I can get Erio anywhere safe. No time, either.
"Revolver Cannon!"
Her finishing move, the result of charging up Mach Calibre from the shockwave of the previous attack, seared through...thin air.
The Legion's other arm held her aloft, chains and drills whirling closer and closer towards her body to disembowel her completely. Subaru sagged limply in the combat cyborg's grip. She was done. Her energy was all gone and she could barely cast any spells. The Legion was just too powerful for her to defeat. She raised a hand limply to defend herself, her body's last struggle for its life.
With empty eyes, the Legion plunged the mass of drills down towards her with full force.
Subaru felt nothing. The air was cold in her lungs as she lay exhausted on the floor, choking and bleeding as her body tried in vain to fight back. There was no pain, none at all...
She blinked, and realised that the Legion was gone.
The last blow had never come. It explained why there really had been no pain.
Wh-what?...
And then Subaru saw the figure of the Legion being dragged slowly across the room by an invisible force as the combat cyborg clawed at the air with stunted movements. Something was pulling it away, away from the opening at the end of the room...
A powerful suction force, swirling into a vortex of intense magnitude. Subaru groaned as she struggled to sit up, her vision blurring as she moved a little too quickly. She managed to focus, but it wasn't easy. The beating from the Legion had virtually crippled her.
It's a portal. There's a portal appearing in the middle of the room, and it's physically sucking the Legion into it. But how would...?
"Grylmark!" the Legion roared, rare anger flaring as it rained its fists down onto the ground to activate its own magic. Its resistance to the portal's suction increased, and slowly the combat cyborg was able to move away from the vortex.
There was a whisper of magic and the shadow of a familiar aged face appeared at the other side of the room. The old man seemed to step out of another realm completely; the air itself was like curtains that opened and closed at will to allow him to make his entry and exit whenever he liked. The familiar thin smile remained, accompanying the confident and dangerous light in his eyes.
"Hello, Legion," Grylmark said mildly. He clicked his fingers and the portal withered away as easily as the crunching of dead leaves underfoot. "Is it too late to rejoin Red Scorpion?"
"You," the combat cyborg said quietly, the remains of its eye sockets burning a fiery red. Subaru's last attacks had done significant damage to parts of the Legion's skull, but already a rapid auto-repair was in progress. "I knew it was you, Grylmark. I had my suspicions as to why the Time-Space Administration Bureau was able to catch up to us so quickly...and they all pointed to you. You aided the Bureau and led them right to us."
"I have met quicker-minded cyborgs than you," the summoner yawned.
"Why, Grylmark? What good would any of this do you?" The Legion had returned to its stable, logical manner, but the aggression in its normally lax features was obvious. "Oguba told us to trust you, but I can see now that even Oguba was fooled by you. You lost nothing by staying with us. Even my superior was going to guarantee you an excellent future. Do you think that the Bureau will reward you for helping them? They will not, Grylmark – you have waged enough destruction against them already that they will put you down before - "
"Oh, Legion, thick-skulled abnormally-logical Legion, stop it," Grylmark scoffed, waving a hand at the combat cyborg dismissively. "Help the Bureau? When they are already helping me, even without noticing it?" He laughed, unable to contain his mirth. "With soldiers like you, this will be easier than I thought."
The area round the Legion's upper face had completed healed now, and the intensity of its glare showed that it shared none of Grylmark's amusement. "I do not follow."
Grylmark sighed. "Let me state the obvious. I am carrying out a simple commission for your organisation."
"You mean..." The combat cyborg still seemed confused. "You are carrying out an assassination contract? For us?"
"Fool," the old man spat, his lips spreading into a raised smirk. "Your organisation is not the giver of my commission...it is the receiver. The terms of my own contract dictate that I am to wipe out the current leader of Red Scorpion. A bonus for any extra members that I can eliminate on the way."
The words were a buzz in Subaru's air as she managed to pull herself onto her side,feeling a small portion of her magical power return to her. Was she hearing right? Grylmark intended to destroy Red Scorpion from within? Was this why he had helped them? If he meant what he was saying now...then what was going to stop him from turning on all of them after he'd finished everything?
"So you are targeting the superior program?" the Legion enquired. "Such a task will be impossible. Our superior is no longer in this world. She has already been transported away to the Metaworld Sector beforehand. The only way you will reach her is through Exoria's portal, and I tell you this: Exoria is not likely to let you through."
"And I tell you this," Grylmark said with a savage grin. "There is always more than one doorway leading to the other side."
The Legion stared at the old man in silence for one moment, then shook its head defiantly.
"Your lies are irrelevant," it said vehemently, as white streaks of magic began to power up inside its fists. "I can no longer believe anything more that you say. You have betrayed Red Scorpion for the last time, Grylmark..."
The combat cyborg moved forward with a sudden burst of speed, barrelling its arms through the air in a strange formation as magic circulated through to the tips of its fingers. Grylmark side-stepped the attack and the whole air seemed to shift around him. In the next instant, he had moved several steps backward.
"Your existence is impossible," the Legion said with stagnant dismay. "You are moving through multiple time portals simultaneously, yet such an act would be impossible in a world like this." It came forward again as the white magic stream burst out from its fingers in a criss-cross of explosive power. "Yagami Loreskill Activate: External Disembowelment!"
The attack slashed six times, left, right and centre, but each time Grylmark disappeared and then re-appeared after the spell to remain unharmed. The old man side-stepped the Legion once more, humming casually as the combat cyborg tried in vain to land a single blow onto him.
"Perhaps you are right, Legion," Grylmark mused, shifting through the air once more to rise up behind his opponent. "Perhaps my existence is impossible. Perhaps...I never existed in the first place. Tyrannic Degradation!"
The air around him was lit up suddenly with a mixture of red, blue and green colours which spun around in rapid unison, encircling the Legion on all sides, lifting the combat cyborg off its feet and sending it crashing into the wall. The Legion raised its arms for another spell, but the combination of magics grew around it once more to flip it over hard onto its back with a hard crunch. Unafraid, the combat cyborg slowly started to rise to its feet once more, despite the mild crackling of electricity forming around its circuits from the blows.
"Forced Chronological Time Switch," the old man commanded, raising one palm up to summon up the time portal. From what Subaru could see, the portal was actually moving...moving forward to trap the Legion against the rock wall...but how could you move time within another portal like that?...
The Legion's eyes widened as the black void of the portal descended upon it, sucking it away into the abyss beyond. It reached out desperately for something to hold onto, mouthing words that could no longer be head as the incredible pull of the portal forced it inside.
And then, just moments later...there was nothing. The Legion had disappeared along with the portal, taken away to some unknown time and dimension. Groggily, Subaru managed to stand up at last, panting as she leaned her palms upon her knees. Did he just?...does this mean the Legion was taken away into the lost time that Oguba told us about? Is that what just happened?
She was barely to respond as Grylmark walked past her, wiping his hands on his clothes as if ridding himself of some great mess. For a moment she froze in fear, certain that he was going to turn on her and dispose of her in a similar manner. It would not be hard: she was only just able to remain standing...if he even decided to attack her...
"Mass Revival," Grylmark intoned, gesturing with one hand towards her lazily.
Within seconds, Subaru found to her astonishment that her strength was returning. Her magical power was regenerating at an unnatural speed. Startled by the sudden change, she sat down quickly on the ground, uncomfortably aware that the Legion had been swallowed up by a timeless void just a few feet in front of her.
He's healing me. Why is he doing this? I already feel like I can run several miles, even ready for another round with one of the other members of Red Scorpion...Grylmark's an assassin. Somebody sent him to assassinate the leader of Red Scorpion. I don't know if I want to find out who that somebody is. But why would he want to save me...
"Your friend is about five minutes away from being lost to your forever," Grylmark said briskly. He wasn't even looking at her; he was facing away, up into the night sky. "I would hurry if I were you."
Slowly, Subaru rose to her feet with renewed vigour. Even so, she still felt slightly unsteady on her feet. Her body needed time to truly recover from the fight, even if her strength and energy had returned to her by magical means. It didn't feel right, imposing such things on your body like this. Yet at the same time, it might be the only chance she had of getting to Vita.
"Why are you helping me?" she asked. "You don't even care about Vita."
For a moment, Grylmark was silent. Then he said rather maliciously, "I transported the Legion through a connective time-portal. Even I can't send that metal cyborg back in time too far. So I have transported them ahead...in distance."
Subaru looked at the old summoner in bewilderment, not quite understanding.
"The Legion's going to come out of another time portal," Grylmark explained. "And not too far ahead of you either. It was the best way to get rid of them for the time being."
"You what?" Subaru spluttered. "You mean I - "
"That's right. I don't have the time to fight the Legion right now. You can do that for me whilst you're having fun saving your friend from death and rare diseases and the like." The summoner shrugged and grinned. "Give my regards to your friend Hayate if you see her. Until then, Subaru Nakajima, I will leave you to fend for yourself."
The air parted for him at his touch, and Grylmark disappeared for good this time. The last traces of magic began to fade away along with the wind, leaving Subaru by herself in the destroyed chamber where chunks of pillars and pieces of rock cluttered the floor like tiny mines. She was completely lost at what to do next.
The Legion was coming back. And Vita was about to be moved to somewhere...from the way Grylmark was talking, they really didn't have much time until Vita could potentially be out of reach. So she needed to get to Vita now, and fast.
He wants us to defeat Red Scorpion to make his job easier. Well, that's not why we're doing it. We're doing it to get Vita back and because that's our job, and not on the whims of some assassin. But why did he specifically mention Hayate? Why Hayate? And if the Legion does come back whilst I'm trying to rescue Vita...what chance do I have against it?
I'm going to need help, Subaru thought, as she charged up Mach Calibre once more and sped off through the opening at the other end of the room, leaving the ruined chamber behind her.