Ungore trudged down the passage with a half-limp, smothering the intense heat which radiated from the palm of its living hand. That last spell against the pink-haired mage had used up most of its remaining reserves of magic, and so the alien was having to manipulate the remaining body energies from its lower body. Having one arm was something Ungore had gotten to used to over the years. The leg? The alien was already feeling the strain, but hopefully it would be just temporary.
Still, there was an adequate supply of energy caged inside the discoloured arm hanging limply from its other shoulder. Ungore pressed two fingers against a rigid portion of its dead flesh where once muscles had existed, but now lay torn and wretched, held together now only by a mass of artificial matter. Slowly, the alien felt the strength return to its leg, drawn out through the dead arm via the pads of its fingers, and finally began to relax. Now, all that remained was to catch up with Srethis and make it through the portal -
From behind it, a slow scraping sound could be heard. It sounded like pebbles rubbing against one another abrasively.
Ungore would have liked to ignore the sound and put it down to the simple physics of a few rocks coming loose from the ceiling. Unfortunately, it couldn't, especially not when the sound began to grow louder and louder and transformed into the rush of metal clearing the wind across its back -
The alien prepared to block the incoming blow with its dead arm. It could block anything with that arm. The blend of materials infused within that arm combined to create a compound unlike anything that humanity had ever known. Nothing had ever dented it, and the creature was quite sure that nothing ever would.
A female hand grabbed the dead arm from behind and twisted it aside, before plunging Laveatein deep into Ungore's unresponsive leg. The alien went down with a howl, whipping its other arm up almost in reflex as Signum's blade became alight with flames. The Velka Knight gritted her teeth in pain from the earlier attack, the side of her face streaked faintly with blood. Her eyes caught the rising glow of magic in Ungore's palm, alerting her to the presence of another destructive spell coming her way. Unceremoniously, she jerked Laevatein out of the creature's body before leaping back a few steps, a defence spell already forming in her other hand in readiness.
Ungore was on one knee, cursing as it rested its dead arm against its wounded leg. Already the creature was regenerating at an astonishing speed – the Velka Knight wondered exactly what was housed in that gruesome arm. Was there an endless supply of mana in there or something, keeping the alien going even when it should be dead?
"So I didn't put you down, Guardian Knight," Ungore hissed, managing to rise to its feet, the spell dying in its hand. The cost of rapidly healing itself seemed to have depleted the rest of the creature's energy.
Signum shrugged. "I thought I'd try getting serious."
"Really?" Ungore grinned. "Then so will I." It started to reach up towards its dead arm, mouth twisting in pain, the hooks of its hand scratching across white bone, a faint glow beginning to rise up to its shoulder.
"Hold it!" the Velka Knight said quickly. "If you're going to fight me properly, there are some courtesies that need to be established here."
The alien laughed, not understanding. "Courtesies? Like what? Honour and all of that nonsense?"
"It's closer to etiquette," Signum replied. "What I mean is...I would feel a lot better if you didn't pull your arm off right now."
For a moment the two fighters just stared at each other. Ungore looked completely baffled at both Signum's words and her earnest expression.
"Why?" Ungore cried. "You don't want me to use my weapon? You're scared I'll turn the tide of the battle? What does this have to do with etiquette?"
"I'd just rather you didn't," the tall pink-haired mage said seriously. "It's not...aesthetically pleasing, and as a knight of my calibre I find it to be diminishing in status."
The alien snorted. "Say again?"
"I mean it looks really disgusting. There's bits of bone and dead flesh flying everywhere everytime you do it. Is there no possibility that you could just fight me without - "
With a savage grin, Ungore wrenched the arm clean off its shoulder, twisting it around at the same time so that part of the bone joining into the shoulder snapped off visibly. The light caught across it, bringing into vision the unpleasant dosage of greyish-green hues dotting the surface of the disfigured limb. It didn't even end in a hand anymore: it resembled something closer to a stump.
Signum winced. She had not wanted to see that again.
"Did you have to do that?" she asked with a pained expression. "Was that really necessary?"
"Yes," the alien said triumphantly. "Yes, it was."
"I think I'm going to be sick from seeing that."
Ungore rammed the arm down onto the ground hard. A faint glow sparked from its base as it made contact. "Be sick! Be ill! I don't have any more time to waste on beating you, Guardian Knight. Up to now, I have just been using the standard spells which reside within the blood of my species. But now!" The glow grew brighter, encompassing the whole body of the alien. "Vasturien, sceptre of my people! Set...Up!"
Signum's eyes widened as the solitary arm that Ungore held on the ground began to squirm and writhe like a living thing. For a moment, she thought it really had come to life on its own. But then purple and green light shone across its entire length to encircle the arm in a tight ring of mana. Two curved hooks extended out of one end so that the arm now resembled a double-pronged spear.
As the glow spread across Ungore's body, the alien too began to undergo a transformation. A fine coating of silver spread out across its multi-coloured robes, and the hooks at the ends of its hands and feet grew sharper and more pronounced. A dark-plated helm closed over Ungore's head, so that all but its eyes were covered, adding extra protection to its skull. The scarf around its neck changed to thick black shoulder pads which clasped on tight on either side of Ungore's neck.
The Velka Knight just gaped at her opponent for a moment. "You mean your arm was a mage's device the whole time?"
"Of course!" Ungore retorted, spinning the two-pronged spear round in its one hand. "Magic is common within the roots of my race. My device Vasturien is almost a part of me!"
"You can say that again." Signum took a step back, preparing herself. "Now if you're quite finished - "
There was a blur of silver as the alien – now covered by its new set of armour – swerved across to the right and sprang up towards her. Signum dodged past, flipping Laevatein backwards between her thumb and finger to crack the hilt into the flesh underneath her opponent's chin. The spear cut through the air inches from her hip, and she could have sworn she felt an invisible force push around the weapon towards her. She shoved back, whirling her elbow down hard onto Ungore's skull and feeling it make contact with the plated helm. The alien shuddered despite the tough armour and power began to race down the length of the spear.
"Purple Lightning Flash!"
Flames covered Laevatein's blade as she swung towards the stump of Ungore's other shoulder, where the alien would be unable to block her. Ungore fell back, just narrowly parrying the attack with its armoured robes, but the cut had still made its mark. Swiftly it stabbed forward with the spear, Vasturien.
"Dynamic Impulse," the alien uttered, and energy rippled from the hooked fingers grasping the weapon as well as the end of the spear itself, bathing the spear in a luminous glow. A blaze of thunder shot forth and jolted into the Velka Knight's midriff. Stunned, Signum stumbled back, looking down to see that an area of her Barrier Jacket had been burned all the way through and that her flesh underneath was searing.
Electric-type weapon? She should be able to dodge that if she used long-range attacks.
"Snake Form!" She retreated back to give herself a bit more room, unwilling to get electrocuted for much longer as Laevatein split up into multiple segments, forming a chain-whip pattern across the room. "Schlangebeiβen!"
Her device whipped around Ungore's spear, tightening around it and binding its wielder's movement. Disarming the alien would be the first step in -
"Triplicated Lightning," Ungore rasped.
The electric current raced down the alien's device and was conducted through Laevatein's Snake Form. Signum cried out as the shock jolted through her body, burning her up from inside fiercely. Her hands were unable to release her smoking device as if glued to the handle, and she was just dimly aware of her enemy stalking towards her. Quickly, she shook off the effects as best as she could, thankful for the protection that her Barrier Jacket had afforded her, and glanced down to see Vasturien's deadly spear-tip fly towards her.
"Panzerschild!"
She got the shield up just in time; electricity spread out in all directions across the barrier as Ungore struck. Breathing fast, Signum started to press her next attack home, well aware that she was starting to run out of options. If she didn't find a better way to deal with that lightning-based attack...
"Mode change," Ungore chanted, and the shaft of the spear changed into a broader shape so that a series of four panels opened up on top. "Projectile mode: Grenade Launcher: Quadruple Fire."
It was like being fired on by miniature cannons. Four small black objects came zooming out of each of the holes and blew up as they neared the Velka Knight's location. She used Panzerschild to protect herself from the first two explosions, but then the other two knocked her back again. Being electrocuted or blown to pieces, which was the least painful option?
"Panzergeist!" she called, draining up most of her reserves of mana as the defensive aura spread out all over her body. Ungore was still firing at her, moving rapidly so that she was unable to track him through all the explosions. She felt her shield shudder and begin to crumble – it wasn't designed for such high-level bombardments.
Seconds later, Signum felt her shield shatter completely, unable to be maintained any longer. She started to call Laevatein back into Sword Form, anticipating another attack...and then realised that the explosions had stopped. She swept angrily at the smoke filling the room, trying to disperse it to see where her enemy had gone.
When the air was clear enough to see again, there was no sign of Ungore. The creature had disappeared down the passageway under cover of the attack, back where Srethis and Vita had gone.
Damn it. I was supposed to beat Ungore and go after Vita, not the other way round. Now when I catch up with her, I might have to fight Ungore and Srethis, and whoever else might be waiting.
No time to waste. What she had to do now was go after Ungore and stop the alien from getting any further. If Subaru or anyone else in their group had managed to reach Vita somehow, then Signum should be helping them out, which included stopping Ungore from making things any more difficult, such as turning this into a battle that they couldn't win.
Signum felt like she had lost the fight with the strange alien, since she had been almost defenceless once the grenades had come out. It was a disparaging feeling to her, born of humility in battle, and not one that she enjoyed getting accustomed to. Ungore's movements weren't very fluid or professional, but they were very unpredictable and often hard to dodge. That arm of theirs was annoying: how was she supposed to deal with that? In any case, Signum consoled herself by reasoning that it had been an even fight. It didn't bring her any closer to actually beating Ungore, however...
She brought Laevatein back into Sword Form for easy access and ran down the corridor to where, hopefully, Vita might be waiting for her.
Vita wasn't waiting for anyone anymore. She had now run out of time, and there had been no sign of Nanoha, Fate, or anyone else coming to her aid. Signum had been her only sign of hope, and even that had been taken away from her. For a moment, Vita had thought that the medicine which Srethis had injected into her might have given her a chance, but as they neared their destination she did not feel any stronger. The medicine had had no effect on her – it had been yet another hopeless endeavour.
She thought of Hayate and wondered if the young mage might suddenly come out of nowhere to save her. Maybe appearing out of the crystal walls around her, flying underground to rescue her Guardian Knight. It was pretty unlikely, but Vita couldn't think of anyone else besides Signum who she wanted to see more right now. What she would give to see Hayate burst in and nuke the whole place, breaking her out of her prison and restoring her once more...it brought an ache to her heart which Vita stubbornly quelled. Well, as long as she nuked the place without bringing the walls down, anyway...
And then...the corridor ended.
Gone were the sparkle of crystal walls and the monotonous feeling of running forever in an endless loop of rocky pathways which went apparently nowhere. Gone was the tiny vestige of hope that Signum or someone else would catch up before she was brought to the portal. For Vita, it felt like she really had reached the end of the line.
Water. The scent and sounds of it reached her, a tranquil blanket of soft thorns over her senses. Vita edged closer to peer through the ice as Srethis took her into an open room, free from the constraints of the narrow cave pathways. The room seemed relatively ordinary except for two things: the drip-drip of natural water cascading down from above, and the roar of something equally magical and yet completely different – a time portal.
In two corners of the room, streams of water poured down through two tiny openings in the upper wall, creating a mini-waterfall as they flowed down into a muddied pool flowing around the room in a mild arc. It was a contrast to everything else that Vita had encountered here underground – where did the water come from, anyway? Wasn't this a dead world?
Between the two waterfalls, a dark-haired girl stood with eyes that blazed with passion even under semi-closed eyelids as she concentrated, chanting nearly non-stop under her breath. Before her stood the portal itself – a huge doorway which expanded in mid-air, a rush of colours pushing at its edges as it began to strengthen and develop.
Vita stared at the portal with a sense of dread. The first portal that she had been sucked into, which had led to her inevitable capture, was nothing compared to what stood before her now. This was at least four times larger, with hard pillars of magic supporting it from either side, crackling and spitting sparks as the dark-haired girl continued to chant.
"Exoria," Srethis greeted her as they approached, bowing its head. "Srethis has - "
"I know what you have, fool," the girl snapped, pausing in mid-chant. "I don't know what the superior was thinking, ordering me to construct a gate to the Metaworld Sector of all places! Even if we have no choice, it is unstable and I had to find optimal conditions – forcing artificial water through was only part of it - "
So the girl was Exoria. Vita made a mental note of this, since it sounded pretty important. She didn't look very happy to be here.
"Well, what are you doing just standing there?" Exoria said irritably at the lizard. Her eyes barely glossed over the captive Velka Knight held in the prison. "Get through the portal! I still need to finish strengthening it, but if you walk gently through the gate then you should be able to get to the Metaworld safely. The superior program is waiting on the other side. Get going!"
Obediently, Srethis lumbered towards the ominous-looking portal. Vita swallowed as she looked up at the gateway, feeling a bad taste in her mouth. It wasn't just her predicament – it was the sight of the portal itself which gave her an unpleasant feeling.
She felt almost certain that if she went through that portal now, she was not going to be coming back, not ever. Nanoha and the others would not be finding her. No one would be able to find her. There was a terrible sense of finality about the stream of mana pouring off the sides of the gate.
Vita felt a compelling, desperate need to get as far away from that portal as she could.
"Srethis," she whispered urgently, knowing that she might not have any effect on the creature, but also that she didn't have anything else to lose right now. If no one really was coming to save her..."Srethis, don't take me through there. I can't go through that thing."
"Srethis has no choice, Vita-chan," came the predictable response. "Srethis must do this."
"You don't have to free me! Put me down or throw me out of the way before you go in, if you really have to go through!" Vita was clutching at straws now. Time really had run out – for good. "If I enter that portal, something bad's going to happen! I don't know why, but I can feel it!"
"Vita-chan," Srethis said heavily in a voice that suggested that it really did want to do as Vita asked, "Srethis has no choice but to - "
A sudden rumbling hit the room, causing the ground to shake disturbingly beneath their feet. Exoria and Srethis stopped dead in their tracks at the sound, which was slowly spreading out from the left wall in thick unsightly vibrations as rocks and dust began to plummet from the ceiling. Gradually, the noise grew louder and louder, turning the pools of water at the back of the room into a frothing frenzy from the constant shaking, splashing around wildly onto the dampened ground as more and more rocks fell into them. The ground wasn't shaking as much, but the rest of the room certainly was.
"What's going on?" Vita asked apprehensively, the quake bouncing her about from one side of the ice crystal to the other. It sounded like a bulldozer was literally about to come through the wall. What could be causing such an earthquake?
Exoria glared at Srethis. "I can not have my concentration disturbed for any longer. Get her through the portal, now!"
Then the leftmost wall erupted in a sea of crumbling stone, blown apart in the wake of a concentrated magic spell, and a blue-haired girl shot through the opening with dust clinging to her metal fist. She swung round with her roller blades flashing in mid-air and almost hit the portal.
"I'm come to save you, Vita!" Subaru cried. "Hyaaaah!"
Unfortunately she misjudged her angle of descent towards the ground, and landed in one of the pools with an almighty splash.
A moment later, however, she was back on her feet again, climbing out with a matt of soggy hair and dripping wet over her shoulders. "Oof! I'm here again." She crouched down low, revving Mach Calibre up to greater speeds. "Vita! I'm going to get you of there!"
"Srethis!" Exoria shouted. "Forget her! Get through the portal!"
"Srethis, no!" Vita yelled in one last plea.
The lizard stared at all three of them for a second, torn between what it should really do as its eyes shot here and there wildly. Then it hissed, made its decision, and leaped at full speed straight into the great portal.
Vita felt herself flying sideways at a great speed. Through air, through cold wind and water, through mediums mostly devoid of magic, and not through a mass of dark time energy which had the potential to practically tear her to pieces. The world went past in a blur through the segments of the ice crystal, and Vita felt the impact throw her over to one side as she landed comfortably in the lap of what could be either friend or foe.
"What are you doing!?" Exoria screamed at the empty portal. The lizard had already disappeared through, and shards of energy criss-crossed the gateway, flickering as the energy began to die. Swiftly, the portal began to shrink and disappear. "I said to walk gently through it, you ignorant reptilian egregian! I didn't say run through it so fast that the whole thing collapses! Do you think I like making idiotic portals of this magnitude? Do you?!"
Vita laid back and opened her eyes. What had just happened? Srethis had gone through the gateway, and yet she had not. She could hear Exoria ranting, and although she was still stuck in a cage of ice, she was now lying...between a girl's legs.
"Hey, Vita-chan," Subaru said with a smile, picking her up with some effort. "I finally found you."
Vita blinked, trying to process all of this. "What just happened?"
"Srethis threw you at my head and ran through the portal." The blue-haired mage gestured at the tiny orange triangle of energy next to where Exoria was stamping her foot in indignation. It was all that was left of the portal – everything else had shattered and dissolved completely. "Can you transform?"
"Don't you think I would have tried that already? Of course not."
So Srethis had changed their mind at the last minute, rebelling against Red Scorpion's orders, yet did not possess the courage to back out of the organisation completely. Would it cost the lizard anything? Vita wondered if she'd ever find out. If Srethis was on the other side, the two of them may never see each other again.
Despite all this, she still felt a great sense of relief that the portal wasn't there anymore. Nevertheless, they still needed to get out of there. Maybe Nanoha might have been keen on bringing the members of Red Scorpion to justice, but Vita knew her main priority was getting to safety - and more importantly, breaking out of this cage of ice. She didn't want to have to rely on Subaru as protection by herself; it wouldn't be fair at all, nor would it be especially clever.
Maybe they could slip away whilst Exoria was lost in her own rage. That girl looked like she'd lost it a long time ago.
"Subaru, thanks for the rescue," Vita started to say, "but we've got to concentrate on - "
She stopped in dumbfounded amazement, because Subaru had placed Vita down on a nearby rock, gotten to her feet and marched haughtily towards where Exoria was still arguing with the remains of her portal. Her hands were balled into fists as she walked over haughtily to the Time Mage, determination and pride shining in her eyes.
"Exoria!" the blue-haired girl said imperiously and slightly over-dramatically. "You are under arrest by the Time-Space Administration Bureau for crimes against the planet of Mid-childa, including kidnapping, infiltration of TSAB grounds, attempted murder, the theft of a Lost Logia - "
"Subaru, this isn't the time for all that!" Vita yelled, jumping around in the ice crystal uselessly. She appreciated the mage's keenness to apprehend Red Scorpion and uphold all of her own values in the Bureau, but there was a time and place for everything. "You can fight her later! We need to get out of here!"
Too late. Exoria had whirled around at the sound of Subaru's voice, already in a bad mood from the destruction of the portal. From the looks of it, the sight of the close-combat mage standing before her was not going to suddenly put her in a better mood anytime soon. Her eyes darkened with anger as her jaw tightened, and streaks of black energy curled up across her fingers dangerously.
"Time Destruction, Bureau fiends of Hayate!"
Vita couldn't see where Subaru fell, but there was no need to worry. The young forward was already up again, although she now at least looked a little more wary around the girl she'd accidentally provoked into fighting. Vita found herself baffled by Exoria's words, however...why did the Time Mage use Hayate's name as if it were something dirty wiped off the back of her shoes? It was if Exoria really hated Hayate for some reason.
"Die!"
Vita pushed the ice crystal along the ground a little to come forward a little further. Her eyes widened: Exoria was holding Subaru up by the throat, long black fingernails cutting into the other girl's neck painfully. Subaru struggled to prise her fingers away, but the Time Mage seemed almost possessed with madness. After a few seconds, Subaru gave up on this and settled with punching the other girl in the head. Exoria fell over on her back with a cry, clutching her nose and cursing.
"I'm still going to kill your Hayate!" she yelled, crawling back between the two waterfalls in a wretched state. "You tell her that, agent of evil! She's not going to keep Yagami-sama from me for much longer!"
Who? Vita thought in bewilderment. What is she going on about? Why does she want to kill Hayate when the two of them have virtually never met before? Why is she calling us evil?
Exoria raised her hands in the air, bleeding from her lip. "And you're not going to get away with this either! Do you know how long it took me to open that portal? AGES! Now I'm going to have to do it all over again! Well, I have enough power to open a smaller version! And your friend is going back in through there to the Metaworld, you just try and stop me!"
Vita's blood ran cold at the thought. If the portal actually re-opened here...
"Chronological Time-Switch!"
The familiar roaring returned as a standard portal opened up next to Exoria, just the size of a normal person. It was nowhere near to the scale and size of the portal which had preceded it, but Vita felt the same bad feeling when she looked at it. No, the portal wasn't what frightened her...it was the destination, what lay in wait beyond waiting to claim her. Vita did not want to go to this Metaworld Sector, whatever it was. The thought brought awash an uncomfortable emotion which others may have called fear, but Vita did not often feel fear.
"Subaru," she advised, just wanting to get out of here before anything else happened, "just get rid of her so we can go home."
"You got it," the blue-haired forward nodded, raising her metal fist for a spell from Mach Calibre.
And then something came out of the new portal that Exoria had just created.
Vita only caught the sign of metal limbs similar to Subaru's, the figure of a tall and powerful humanoid, and a magical field of a truly impressive magnitude. She didn't recognise the face of the person, or understand the significance of the mechanical and computerised movements, or the clenched determination which motivated them.
She did see Subaru go white at the arrival of the newcomer. The blue-haired forward had taken several steps back, looking as if she was ready to run at the first opportunity. Vita didn't see why should she be scared; after all, it was only -
"What are you doing here, Legion?" Exoria said with great irritation to the creature who had just emerged unexpectantly from the gateway. "You have ruined my portal." As if to emphasise her point, the portal which the Legion had just come out of closed up permanently, shutting out everything else within. "Oh. Great. Great! Now I have to do it again. Again!"
The Legion had locked eyes with Subaru as if the two of them were the only people in the room. Frantically, Vita pushed forward in her small prison so that she rested a little closer to her Bureau student. This was why she had wanted Subaru and her to escape whilst they still could – and now another opponent had turned up.
"It appears that at our last encounter, Grylmark transported me through a portal connected to Exoria's magic," the Legion stated, examining their surroundings with interest. The cyborg's eyes eyes fell upon Vita, who stared back fearlessly, pupils shining like soulless rubies. "And since the prisoner has somehow escaped from Srethis, this is a convenient location for me to be in. Now I can restore the usual plan."
"Aren't you forgetting something?" Exoria demanded hotly. "You broke my portal. It will take ages to rebuild it! I have barely enough energy to get it halfway open!"
But the Legion's glare was fixated on Vita now, and it slowly moved forward heavily with barely a glance towards Subaru. For a moment Subaru looked as if she was hesitating between attacking the Legion quickly and continuing to keep herself away from it, but then she quickly got out of the creature's way.
The Legion picked up Vita with one hand and continued to stare, millions of streams of data being exchanged between those static eyes. Vita looked back at the cyborg rather uncomfortably, wondering where all this was going. Was the Legion going to smash her to bits? Well, at least that would get her out of the cage at last -
"How did you do it, Guardian Knight?" the cyborg asked quietly.
She wasn't expecting the question, nor did she understand what it meant. Instead, Vita continued to be as dumbfounded and confused as everyone else around her. What were these people playing at, exactly?
"What?" she asked impatiently. "How did I do what?"
"Cured yourself, of course," the Legion said. "My medical trace reveals that your body is now free of Srethis' fatal disease. In other words, you are no longer in any danger of dying. How could the disease have left your body, Guardian Knight? There is no cure. Srethis and Ungore have always known this. How could you possibly have cured it on your own?"
Vita gave up trying to understand all this and decided to assume that they were all mad. Unless...unless it had been the medicine which Srethis had given her? Had it done something after all? But surely not, not if Srethis had been taking the same medicine every day without being any closer to a cure...
"This is great news," she said uncaringly. "It turns out I'm not going to die from a disease that I probably didn't have anyway. Now put me down."
The Legion stared at her for another moment, as if still trying to work out why she didn't have this disease they kept going on about. But that was good, wasn't it? Vita had never felt any ill-effects; if anything, she felt much better. And if she didn't have this disease, then maybe Red Scorpion didn't need to keep her with them anymore. At least, that was what she hoped.
Her head banged hard against the back of the ice crystal, and her entire prison rocked backwards, carrying her with it. It was then that she realised that the Legion had simply tossed her aside. Maybe they didn't care her anymore. If so, she just had to wait for Signum or one of the others to come find her -
"Exoria, you will rebuild the portal," the Legion said in a tone that brooked no refusal. "I will eliminate Subaru Nakajima so that you will be free to concentrate fully. We will then go through to the Metaworld, taking the prisoner back with us, and the Bureau will not be able to follow."
Uh-oh. They're still after me, Vita thought. Having my "disease" cured didn't do much to change their minds about taking me hostage.
"Very well," Exoria spat in answer. "But I must warn you that I must not have my concentration interrupted. I only have enough power to do this portal one more time, and I can only do it partway for gentle access! I didn't even want to do this in the first place! If any of you idiots interrupt me, I'm not staying in Red Scorpion any more! I'll be going back to Yagami-sama! Keep those minions of Hayate away from my precious portal, Legion!"
"You are deluded, Exoria," the Legion replied instantly, the strain of its voice indicating that Exoria's reaction had not been a surprise to the cyborg. "Red Scorpion is the only place for you. You cannot leave when no other place in the universe will take you. And, Exoria, you should forget about your "Yagami-sama". You cannot hope to impress her just because she asked you to kill the Hayate in the other world."
The dark-haired girl reacted as if the Legion had stabbed her in the heart. Yet she still managed to maintain some self-control, seething. "H...how did you know...?"
"The superior program and I were created by Yagami-sama's hand," the Legion said. "Though she is a genius of her own generation, she has passed down her intellect to us. I evaluated your previous behaviour, Exoria, during the several occasion in which you were unable to keep your emotions to yourself. You should give up this pointless revenge of yours, and devote your energies to our organisation as a whole."
The Time Mage had shrunk into silence, though it looked like it was costing her to keep everything bottled up Vita, the Legion's words didn't make any sense for the most part. Just what were they talking about? Who was this Yagami-sama supposed to be? There wasn't someone else behind all this, was there?
"Rebuild the portal now," the Legion ordered. "It is vital that we go back to the Metaworld Sector as soon as possible. The superior program's life is in grave danger."
"You think I care about that load of junk?" Exoria growled, closing her eyes to tediously begin her spell for the third time now.
Vita struggled to push the crystal back upright, and looked over to where Subaru was virtually cowering in the corner. The Legion was approaching with grim and and uncompromising steps. Why was Subaru so afraid? Was she lacking faith in her own skills? Quickly, Vita called out to her student, hoping to urge her back into combat. Subaru didn't usually run away from a fight – what was so bad about this one?
"Subaru, what are you doing? You need to fight!"
"I – I don't know if I can, Vita-chan!" the blue-haired mage stammered. "The Legion beat me pretty badly before...maybe it's too strong for me..."
"Subaru, you need to or they're going to take me through that portal again! I need you here!"
The forward's voice was a strangled cry. "It almost killed me last time! I don't want to back down, but I don't want to die either, Vita-chan!"
The Legion's arm swung upwards, and the click of weapons moving into position signified the beginning of its attack. A shining glow appeared at the end of its other arm, so that a mixture of magic and physical force would be coming towards the close-combat mage, who still showed no signs of conquering her own fear.
"Subaru!" Vita yelled, her alarm rising when she saw the Legion's spell increase to a blinding intensity. There was the crash of someone hitting the floor hard outside the room, and then silence.
The Manticore was still following her.
Tiana had learned early on in her career at the Bureau that survival consisted of three things: stamina and endurance, the right combination of tools and raw materials, and luck. So far, she had run dry on every single one of these. The sharpshooter had been running for longer than she usually trained for, hiding in crevices and craters as her foe kept her alert and on her toes, and if not for Nanoha's past training then she would have run out of steam a long time ago. Her transformation was still broken and unusable, and there was no way of restoring her lost mana except through the passing of time. As for luck...
A cloud of frost settled onto a cluster of ruined buildings a few metres behind her as the Manticore continued its onslaught. Plaster and concrete froze solid before being crushed underfoot and forced underground by a giant metal hoof. The Manticore threw its three heads back to utter another series of ear-splitting roars into the night-sky, and then began to zero in on Tiana's location once more. The lightning field crackled around it threateningly, zapping anything which got too close.
I'm tiring. I can't keep this up for much longer.
Even if she was able to transform right now, Tiana didn't know if she had enough energy left to take on the beast. Grylmark had drained her magic, and the constant sprinting had now taken the strength from her own body. The contrast of flames and ice that the Manticore breathed towards her worsened the situation by making it harder to breathe, so that Tiana had to stop every now and then to struggle to suck in cleaner air from ahead. If she stopped in the middle of that whilst the Manticore was too close, she could end up with a lungful of the wrong temperature of air altogether.
Where am I going? I'm just running. That's all I can do to stay alive. This is Grylmark's best effort to kill me, and every second that I'm still alive and on my feet is another second that I'm thwarting his scheme, whatever that's supposed to be.
She dropped to the ground, almost retching as she pushed at her body's limits. To make things worse, she now had a stitch. No, Tiana thought as she forced herself up, she couldn't afford to take a break. The moment she weakened, that monster would burn her and freeze her alive, if she didn't get electrocuted first...
But where was she going? She was struggling to get lucky, but Tiana's mad dash across the landscape of this world had yielded nothing. Maybe a prosperous civilisation had once lived on this planet, but now all she saw were ruins and collapsed buildings. There weren't even any skeletons left to show the people who had used to live here. This was a dead planet. She wasn't going to get any help from the previous settlers of this world.
I need to find a way to strike back or at least get the Manticore off my back! If this keeps up, I'm going to die of exhaustion if that thing doesn't get me first!
For the second time it occurred to her to discard Cross Mirage, to throw the Manticore off her trail. It would save her life, but also leave her completely defenceless. It might be her only option left.
Grimly, Tiana held the device in her hand tightly, panting hard as she wondered if she dared resort to this last desperate act. Cross Mirage and her had been partners for as long as she could remember. Her first and only device given to her in the Bureau...if she cast it aside, Mariel would not be able to repair it. The Manticore would see to that. But if it would save her life...
As she was deciding to do just that with her lifelong partner, Tiana heard a plea for help enter her mind.
It wasn't a voice in her ear, but a weak distress beacon which almost passed her by completely in her fatigue. Perhaps it had been sent out unconsciously – but it was nonetheless a call for aid, and it belonged to a mage. A mage who was in a life-or-death situation, just like she was.
Tiana tried to pinpoint the distress call, and was shocked to find that the magical field reverberating away from her was very familiar, and belonged to a very high degree of power One that could only be possessed by Nanoha or Fate. One of them, or both, was in trouble.
She turned towards the direction of the call and pulled herself achingly up the next steep, mindful of the Manticore's presence as a stream of fire cast over her head in a vicious whirlwind. No, if someone was in trouble...even though she probably was no better-off than they were...
Tiana scrambled over the edge of another incline, and her eyes were caught by a bright shining light in the sky, far above her. Was it a star, perhaps? The appearance of a sun? She didn't know what it was, but it was at least a landmark, and it was where the distress call was coming from.
I can barely save myself right now and I'm rushing to the aid of another? Should I even be trying to do this?
She just managed to get to her feet as the lightning field lashed out again, nearly connecting with the backs of her legs. Gasping for breath, Tiana plunged forward with all her might towards where the light was coming from. The Manticore was still going to follow her. It would track her to the end of hell if needs be.
And as Tiana forced herself onwards, she could see that the light almost seemed like a person standing at the top of an impossibly tall tower, reaching up to the heavens. She shook her head stubbornly, thinking it to be just a trick of the light caused by her exhaustion, and continued running over dead rocks in a hunched crawl, recklessly betting her survival on this.
A/N: Next chapter will have Nanoha and her encounter at the top of the tower, with some explanations.