The dagger felt comfortable in her hand, like an old friend which had never really departed from her. It was the blade with which she had carved out her initiation into the House of Yagami many years ago, a gift from the mistress to her when she was only an assassin in training. She'd trained with it day after day, hour after hour, kept it at her side as she slept until the weapon had almost become a part of her. Though the blade had been dulled and sharpened in equal measure over time, it still retained the same gleam of purpose.
Exoria had wanted to give a name to the dagger for a long time now, but being a personal gift from Lady Yagami it had seemed inappropriate to do such a thing, at least whilst she was still a member of Yagami's household. Now, however, she suspected that she would never be let back into the Family again. Choosing a worthy name would not be too hard.
The purpose of such a weapon during her initiation had been crystal clear, however. The first weapon given to a new assassin of Yagami's household would be the weapon that would claim their first kill.
She drifted the blade down to where Hayate lay sleeping, completely unaware of the danger. Hayate. Her prey, specially prepared for her in so many ways. The girl was blind and virtually unable to defend herself. For all of her aggressiveness, Exoria had never properly slain another human being before, though she had maimed and wounded others often enough in combat. Back then, when everyone had been preparing her, Arisa had said to her that experience was not what mattered. It was the intent, fuelled by powerful emotions from within, born of hatred and rage.
Yes, she was more than capable of the deed. Exoria had practised enough times, after all, preparing herself for the real thing. And now that Hayate's sleeping face was lying on the bed in front of her, innocent, unprotected...
I can do it. I hate her, remember? Yagami-sama taught me how, for days on end. I can kill someone, anyone, if I hate them enough...
Exoria glanced towards the door where the Legion was stationed. The Guardian Knight, Vita, had already been removed to prevent any possible distractions. The cyborg had even kept the door closed behind them, giving the Time Mage the space she needed. It was a surprisingly human touch on the Legion's behalf, not something that Exoria would have thought them capable of doing, but she was glad to be alone with her own thoughts and the unsuspecting prey before her.
It's easy to kill someone. You just have to raise your arm and...and then...and then you let it drop. Right?
Her hand was shaking dangerously as she started to lower the dagger towards Hayate's chest. It wasn't the only part of her which was shaking. She had to clamp her other hand around her wrist to stop herself from dropping the weapon altogether. Something...was wrong. Something was very wrong indeed.
Exoria took a step back, clutching the blade tightly in both hands, taking deep breaths to clear her head. She stared at the brown-haired Bureau mage sleeping peacefully on the bed. Why didn't Hayate suddenly wake up in the nick of time and defend herself? That was what people like her were supposed to do, weren't they? Mages like her weren't killed in their beds.
She looks so beautiful, Exoria realised, her eyes wandering over her skin. It was a disturbing thought to have just before the fatal strike, but she didn't seem to be able to stop herself. Just like...just like Yagami-sama. The similarities are uncanny. I didn't see it before, but now that I've got a chance to see her in the flesh, it's like she's the identical twin of my mistress...But of course she's identical to Yagami-sama. They're the same person.
The Time Mage could see that that wasn't all, however. The scars and pains that Yagami wore upon herself, the cold fury that lay coiled up in her heart, ready to lash out almost at random if somebody accidentally upset her...None of that was present in Hayate. For Exoria, looking at the girl on the bed was like gazing at a Yagami devoid of her inner darkness. The result seemed pure, almost angelic to her...
Exoria blinked in surprise, aware that she had already started to relax just by looking at Hayate. No. That wasn't how this was supposed to go! She was supposed to kill her!
She's still the Mistress of the Night Sky, the dark-haired girl reminded herself, biting hard into her lower lip angrily. Her hand tightened around the hilt of the dagger once more, lifting it up with renewed resolve. It's fine. Everyone gets a bit nervous on their first time, having second thoughts and letting their mind stray...
Maybe she should try doing it from the side of the bed. Yes, that would be easier. Was Hayate ever going to wake up? Just look at her, slumbering away without a care in the world, not even knowing what was going on...
Exoria gritted her teeth together, the dagger raised high above her head as she became aware of two things. One was that she unconsciously wanted Hayate to wake up now and know what was happening to her. The second was that her hand holding the blade had started shaking uncontrollably again...
No. This isn't right! It isn't fair! If I kill her, I want her to know I'm the one who did it! I'm not going to stoop so low that I'm just going to stab a blind girl to death in her sleep, no matter what Dr Kaizen or the others say! I should...I should wake her up – Her thought processes leaped together and conflicted with one another violently. No, she can't wake up. Everything really will start to go wrong if Hayate wakes up. What's the point of getting the Guardian Knight out of the way in the first place if I'm just going to wake her up?
Hayate rolled over in her sleep, mumbling incoherently. The Time Mage almost had a heart attack at the small movement, her face pale as she forced the dagger close to the mage's skin. The brown-haired girl's chest moved up and down evenly, brushing up against the side of the blade.
I...I can't...
Exoria's grip around the weapon felt cold and sweaty. The little hatred she had been able to conjure up for her victim had already dispersed, adding only to the red haze of fear and terror that kept her heart in constant near-torturous turmoil. This wasn't what she wanted; this had never been what she wanted. Yes, Exoria knew that she would have been prepared to take a life to complete her proper initiation into the Family at long last, but this?
Why couldn't it have been a complete nobody that was chosen to be her target? A man, perhaps? Someone already approaching the end of their life, or suffering from a fatal illness? Not a girl who bore such a likeness to her own beloved mistress, who was young and youthful in appearance and gave out such a beautiful and innocent aura...
No, I don't want to do this! I can't do this at all! Not when she looks exactly like Yagami-sama – in fact, she looks better, and that makes it even worse! Why would my mistress want me to take the life of someone who looks exactly like her? Is she trying to torture me even further? Is that what she wants? Is it?!
Hayate was beginning to stir, her eyelids lifting as she rolled over again to the other side of the bed. If ever there was a time to strike, it was now. But as the tears started to come down her face, Exoria knew that she really didn't have it in her. She wouldn't have been able to do it if the world had frozen in time for the two of them and Hayate had slept for an eternity.
Yagami-sama, Arisa, Noriko...they all said that I had the right kind of stuff inside me. I had the potential to become a truly great assassin. And maybe they're all right about that. Maybe if my target was somebody else, anybody else, then maybe I would have been initiated into the Family properly a long time ago. But after working underneath Yagami-sama for so long...I can't do this. I can't kill someone with her exact likeness, no matter how much I try to force myself. I can barely keep hold of my weapon whilst I'm in her presence, let alone take her life...
With an anguished cry, the dark-haired Time Mage plunged the dagger down into the pillow in the middle of the bed, missing Hayate's head by inches. Even such an act caused her heart to twist miserably, and she stumbled back against the wall with a strangled sob. Her hands felt dirtied from holding the weapon and she started brushing her palms off on her clothes roughly, desperately trying to get the feeling away from her...
With a start, Hayate's eyes flicked open. A red and orange mist floated just behind her pupils, the results of her ordeal in Grylmark's hospital. The Bureau mage grabbed at the side of her bed, alarm bells going off in her head as she realised that, once again...she was completely blind. She rubbed at her eyes frantically, blinking several times and pulling at her hair, sure that there had to be another explanation. Dr Kaizen had cured her just hours ago...hadn't she?...What had happened since then?
She buried her face in the plump pillow, pushing her head down into the bed until the pressure created stars in her mind, and then pulled herself free again. Her vision was still pitch black.
I'm blind again, Hayate thought, feeling her heart plummet. I should have listened to Vita when she told me that we weren't out of the dark yet. Whatever Dr Kaizen did to help me, it couldn't have been permanent. What if...what if they actually made it worse with whatever medicine they used on me? I shouldn't have let them treat me, but I was desperate for my eyes to be healed...
She started to call out for Vita, knowing that she would be in dire need of the Guardian Knight's assistance once more. Without another person helping her, she would be hard-pressed to go anywhere without extreme difficulty...
Hayate turned her head, and then discovered something very strange indeed.
There was something that she could see after all. It was perhaps the only thing which hadn't been engulfed in total darkness. Though it was difficult for her to explain in words, there was a blurring of colours in her mind which wrapped around in a curious pattern to create the figure of a moving shape. It wasn't something that she was using her eyes to detect – instead, it seemed very similar to how she would use her magic to search for the presence of another person...
The Bureau mage didn't know how or why, but she could see the shadow of this one person as clearly as if there was nothing wrong with her eyes at all. She was still physically blind, but rather than left drifting in a sea of blackened oblivion like before, there was now a beacon to follow.
She crawled over to the edge of her bed, feeling her way across the covers, trying to move closer to this person. Hayate felt herself bump into a few stationary objects, reminded that she really couldn't see anything else. For some reason, this person was the only thing that she could see at all. Why was that, she wondered? Was it something to do with magic they possessed, magic that might cancel the effects of Grylmark's activities on her from before?...
With a shock, Hayate realised that the person in front of her was slumped up against the wall, crying softly. She stared at them uncomprehendingly, wondering what was going on. Without the use of her eyes, she wasn't able to make out any facial features or anything which might ring a few bells in her mind about their identity.
"Are you okay?" the short-haired mage said softly, concerned. "Is there anything I can help you with?"
The person's posture didn't change at all, but Hayate could tell that they were looking at her, and not necessarily in a friendly way. She could hear it in their voice; sound was something she had become much more sensitive to after the events of last night.
"You're supposed to be blind," Exoria said quietly, her cheeks wet. "You can't see me. They said you would be blind again. You can't see me."
Hayate shook her head. "You're the only thing that I can see." Something in the other girl's voice was familiar, and the magical aura that surrounded her...Wait. Oguba? Was that time magic she sensed radiating from the girl's body? She had only come into contact with it once before, but that time had been vivid enough in her memory for her to recall how distinct the feeling was...
"We've met before, haven't we?" she asked. "Haven't we, Exoria?"
The Time Mage gave a hollow laugh and turned away. She didn't want to look at the face of Yagami's double any more. It hurt too much. And now that Hayate knew that she'd come here just to try and kill her again, she wasn't going to show anything except just -
"Are you okay?" the Bureau mage said sympathetically. "You were crying when I woke up."
Exoria shot her a look filled with a mixture of suspicion and disbelief. This mage surely couldn't care less about someone who had almost murdered her in her sleep.
"I came back here to kill you, Hayate," she said in open hostility, not holding anything back. She was so sick of keeping everything in all the time. "Everything was set up. I had that Guardian Knight silenced so that she wouldn't be able to warn you. I was going to stab you in your sleep without you knowing." She faced the wall, feeling the tears beginning to come back. "But I didn't. I was weak. So don't you try to give me any fake sympathy, Hayate, not when you're just – you're only..."
The dark-haired girl clutched at her head, a sob rising up in her throat. "Just shut up, okay? You don't know – you don't know what's been happening to me, or what she does here, or anything...and you look exactly like her! I hate it!" She turned to look at the Bureau mage against her better judgement, on the verge of breaking down all over again. "I hate you, Hayate! You got that? And I hate her, too, for doing this to me! I wish everything would just go away!"
Hayate didn't say anything for a few seconds, her head dipping down as sadness entered her eyes. Though she seemed troubled at the Time Mage's words, the concern and sympathy remained. And when she spoke again, it was not anything that Exoria would ever have expected to hear, least of all from anyone who was the double of Yagami-sama...
"Do you want a hug?" Hayate asked, her expression serious. She moved further up the bed, edging closer to her.
Exoria stared at her in complete amazement. The mage had to be making fun of her, or tormenting her in some way just like Yagami-sama did. No one had ever offered her comfort before. No one.
"I tried to kill you," she managed, her voice breaking with emotion. "I tried to end you – and you – all you say to me is - "
"No," Hayate said simply. "It doesn't work like that. You've never really hurt me, or any of my friends up to now – at least not of your own accord, under your own conscience. And taking Vita away from me was wrong of you." She gazed at the shimmering field of colours in her mind which was her current perception of the Time Mage. "It's okay if you want to hate me. You say that you tried to kill me, but you don't act like the kind of person who would seriously want to do that – as if somebody's forcing you to do it. And you're in pain, Exoria. A lot of pain."
She swallowed, pushing herself forward until their faces were almost touching, hearing the other girl's sharp intake of breath. "Do you know what's the one thing I can't stand? I can't stand to see other people in pain. It breaks my heart, and it's part of the reason why I do what I do. So I'm asking you again, Exoria – do you want a hug? It doesn't matter what you did in the past. If you want a shoulder to cry on, just let it all out." Hayate tried a smile, letting the warmth spread out to her. "It'll be okay. I promise."
She didn't know whether saying any of this would achieve anything. Vita was gone, and Hayate had woken up blind all over again, leaving her virtually at the mercy of Yagami and her servants. Right now, however, she wasn't thinking of the future; she was thinking only of what she saw in front of her. Though Exoria was a key enemy of the Bureau, Hayate didn't enjoy seeing anyone in that much emotional pain, be they friend or foe. It just wasn't something that she could ignore and brush aside just because the girl had wronged her in the past. That wasn't what her power was for.
There was a tight moment of silence as the dark-haired girl stared at her tensely, and then Exoria caught her in a tight hug which almost drove the wind from her. Her chin rested on her shoulder as the Time Mage's body cried, letting out all of her bottled-up emotions at once. Hayate squeezed her back in return, comforting her as she lay vulnerable in her arms. For the first time, they were not confronting each other as friend or foe in an endless circle of fighting and despair. They were embracing each other as people, caught up in a single moment of time which could change both of their personal worlds...
When Signum woke up again that morning, the first thing she heard was the TV blaring loudly through her head. With a groan, she rolled over on the couch, propping up two cushions against her ears to blanket out the sound. Though she had spent a surprisingly restful night like this, the Guardian Knight wasn't too fond of rude awakenings. At least the TV wasn't showing any programs filled with the high-pitched shrieking of dramatic anime girls; it was just the hourly news update as usual.
Her eyes wandered over to the clock at the bottom of the monitor next to the TV, and she saw that the morning was almost over. Have I really slept so long? Signum wondered. She must have been dead to the world, exhausted after her ordeal with the executors from last night. As the pink-haired swordswoman stood up to stretch her muscles, however, she felt rejuvenated and ready to go. The only questions that remained were where she should be going, what she should be doing, and whether or not anybody else was actually going to be coming with her.
Irritably, Signum noticed that nobody was even watching the television at all. She had awoken all alone on the couch with only the voice of the cheery newscaster keeping her company, rattling off the latest stream of events like a chirping little grasshopper. Shamal and Zafira were nowhere to be seen, and Rein and Agito were probably chasing each other round in circles in some mysterious corner of the house. She really was left by herself.
Where is everybody? the Velka Knight wondered. Have they all gone and left me here? Have the rest of the Wolkenritter already gone out into the outside world to make contact with Nanoha, rescue Vita and plan our journey back to our own world?...
As she moved away from the noise of the television, Signum thought she could make out a strange thumping noise from far above her head, all the way up at ground level. Multiple series of vibrations, echoing down through the walls and driving a constant tremor through the floor. It was very faint unless you concentrated on it, but for such a noise to be able to permeate so far underground...
After a while, however, the thumping began to fade away until it disappeared completely. The Velka Knight stared up at the ceiling for a few moments, wondering what all that had been about. Was there something going on in Uminari City back on the surface? Should she be worried about it?
Shaking her head in confusion, Signum started to head for the lift which would take her back upstairs – and almost collided with a certain unison device flying at full speed in the other direction.
"Oof!"
With an effort, the Velka Knight unpeeled the red-headed form of her combat partner away from her face. It was not the most pleasant of sensations.
"Don't run into me like that, Signum!" Agito complained, flailing around in mid-air as the swordswoman held her up between her thumb and forefinger. "I could have hurt my nose!"
Signum eyed the unison device with disdain, dangling her higher above her. "You ran into me, Agito. What's all the hurry, anyway?" She glanced around the empty room unhappily as the TV continued to blare away behind her at high volume. "Where has everyone else gone?"
"Gone?" Agito said, looking puzzled. "What do you mean, gone? Rein went upstairs to check out the executor, but otherwise we should all be still here..."
She clamped one hand over her mouth quickly, frantically gesturing as the Velka Knight's eyes narrowed in suspicion.
"I'm not supposed to tell you that," the unison device said flatly. "Forget I said anything."
"There's an executor?" Signum said in mild alarm. She glanced up towards the ceiling warily, wondering if any of this this might be linked to the strange thumping sounds she had heard earlier. "Up there?"
"There is nothing wrong at all," Agito babbled quickly, becoming very flustered. "Everything is perfectly fine. It's not like there's an executor lying in wait for us upstairs, possibly watching our every move and seeking to wipe us all out. The world is safe and we are living the dream in a secret basement."
Her usually-fierce and confident manner quailed under Signum's silent glare, and she reluctantly gave in.
"All right, maybe there is an executor on the ground floor," the unison device admitted. "Shamal didn't want to worry you about it, she said you needed your sleep and that you'd been through enough after all that's happened - "
The Guardian Knight winced involuntarily upon hearing this. The fact that she had inadvertently caused someone else to worry about her to a large extent, even if they were another member of the Wolkenritter, was not something she was comfortable with. Had she really been in such a crippled state last night? As a medical mage, Shamal would put the well-being of her companions above almost all other priorities for their group. It was understandable why she would do that, but Signum still didn't like being kept in the dark - no matter how minor the issue.
"And where is Shamal?" she said testily, feeling a rush of annoyance. The medical mage had chosen to prioritise her physical health over the threat of an executor residing right over their heads, or at least that was the way Signum saw it right now...
If there really is an executor upstairs – just the one – then we could easily take him out. The problem is doing so without alerting all of his friends at the same time and leading them all here. This is the only safe refuge we have from the dangers of the world outside, and if the executors find us here...
Agito was still dangling comically in her tight grip, trying to break free. "Signum?" the red-haired unison device said in a half-squeal. "Shamal's over by the monitors. Do you...do you think you could let go of me?"
Wordlessly, the swordswoman released her and Agito dropped like a stone to hit the ground in a heap with a muffled cry. Ignoring the unison device for now, Signum pushed her way through to the first room where the computer systems of the dismantled TSAB of this world were located. Unlike before, many of the screens were now online and buzzing with activity. If she had been in a slightly better mood, Signum might have judged the sight to be one filled with hope and vigour. The scene was reminiscent of a fully-functioning Bureau which was still alive, keeping the fire burning as it refused to give up the fight.
Shamal was standing by the central computer, a deeply focused expression present on her face as lines of magic wrapped around her in a circle of celadon. She appeared to be concentrating on a series of readings flashing up on the screen, much like monitoring the heartbeat of a hospital patient. Bringing up one hand against the edge of the magical field emanating from her, the readouts began to alter by a small amount, reacting to the tiny disruption created by such a simple motion.
Signum watched her for a few moments, noticing that the same cool-green magic was circulating around each of the monitors and linking all of them together at once. Unless she was mistaken, it seemed that Shamal was using an advanced form of binding magic between each computer. At the same time, the pink-haired Velka Knight realised that she could sense another force flowing within each connection, which momentarily fazed her: it wasn't any kind of magic that anyone in the Wolkenritter would use. Could it be the remnants of the technology left behind by the TSAB of old? It probably wasn't too far off from the truth.
"Shamal?" she said.
The blonde mage turned her head slightly to give her a friendly little smile, barely taking her eyes off the terminal. "Oh, hello, Signum," she said pleasantly. "Did you have a nice sleep?"
Signum put one hand on her hip, still annoyed at her. If anyone was going to be expending such a high amount of magical power in one go like this, that person certainly shouldn't be Shamal. Whatever it was that the medical mage was trying to achieve, it would be a lot easier if the rest of the Wolkenritter were helping her with it. Had she pushed herself forward like this just to give Signum more of a break?
"Shamal," she said in a pained tone of voice, "what do you think you are doing?"
She also wanted to ask, Why are you using binding magic like this? This isn't how your abilities are meant to be used. You could have waited for me instead of taking it all on your shoulders.
"There's someone upstairs, Signum," the medical mage replied. "Someone who's been waiting for us to come out and reveal ourselves. I've been trying to link my own magic into the old Bureau computers to give us a picture of who they are and why they're really here." She sighed, already knowing what the taller woman was going to say. "And yes, I was going to tell you about this when you woke up, but you needed your strength, Signum. I felt that the rest of us could handle it by ourselves."
The pink-haired swordswoman hesitated, clearly still unhappy about being left out of the loop but also unwilling to press it further. After another second's thought, she decided to drop it; they had more important things to deal with right now. Even so, Signum would have preferred that Shamal was not so quick to exhaust herself on her behalf. They didn't need another casualty in their group.
"Agito told me that the person up there is an executor," she said.
"It's very likely, yes." Shamal took a step backwards, drawing her magic out of all of the screens at once so that the power began to shut down automatically. "Our unexpected visitor shows definite signs of magical power, and they've been occupying the upper level for the past few hours." An anxious look came into her eyes, coupled with the drain in her own strength from using her magic for so long. "Before you arrived, Signum, nobody had ever come into contact with us. I don't know who else could be up there except for an executor..."
Signum nodded slowly, understanding the seriousness of the situation now. Where there was one executor, others would soon follow. It was fortunate that the members of the Wolkenritter had everything in hand and that nobody was stressing out about anything; their relations with one another had deepened over the centuries and turned them into a force to be reckoned with. With Shamal here keeping track of the enemy from below, Rein already having gone on ahead to check up on the executor, Agito flying around doing virtually nothing on her own, and...Wait, wasn't somebody missing from this equation?
"Looks like you've been coping all right without me so far," she said. "Thank you for everything you've done, Shamal. Do you know where Zafira is?"
The medical mage looked at her in surprise. "Isn't he in the other room? He was standing guard last time I checked."
"No. I haven't seen him at all."
Doubt stirred in her breast as the pink-haired Velka Knight turned to rush back to the couch where the television was still blaring at high volume. Since Zafira was nearly as tall as her in his human form, she shouldn't have been able to miss him. Even so, Signum had walked throughout the entire basement without seeing the Guardian Beast at all, and that was what worried her...
"Come on," she called back over her shoulder as she marched forward determinedly. "Help me find him. You too, Agito."
"He was right there," the unison device grumbled, hovering above Signum's shoulder. "I swear he didn't move."
If any of them had been separated, here in the only safe haven that they had...She had vowed that she wouldn't lose a single one of her friends again. Losing Vita for a second time had already cost them so much. Finding the rest of the Bureau and escaping from this mad world seemed like far-away goals if they couldn't even keep track of one another properly -
The three of them half-ran into the furthermost room with a varying range of expressions split between them; Signum with moderate anxiety, Shamal with mild confusion and Agito with a mixture of boredom and indifference.
At first glance, the room appeared to be completely empty of the missing member of their party, but then they saw him. Zafira was lying full-length upon the couch, his arms spread wide casually as he looked up from the television at their sudden entry.
"What's all the rush?" he said. "Has Rein come back already?"
Signum let out a great sigh of relief on seeing him, thankful that he was still here after all. To one side, Agito shot her a look of over-exaggerated disgust and rolled her eyes at everyone in general whilst muttering something about people jumping to conclusions in melodramatic ways.
"You were here the whole time, Zafira?" the swordswoman said. "How come I didn't see you?"
The Guardian Beast shrugged. "I was underneath the couch. It was more comfortable over there whilst you were asleep. But never mind that." He brought a finger to his lips suddenly, beckoning them over towards the television screen. "Look at what's happening on the news right now. Don't speak, just watch. Something big is happening."
As the others gathered round to see, a stream of vivid images flashed up on the TV one after another. Crowds of people were panicking and rushing to get out as multiple explosions shook the palace around them, flames and smoke rising up from the building in great bursts of red and grey, vast numbers of soldiers either left for dead or greatly injured in the havoc and mayhem that had followed...
Even the person filming all of this pandemonium was desperate to escape, shouting in terror as the impact of another missile sent massive tremors through the ground around them. The picture was rapidly transformed into a distorted whirl of black and white as it was ripped from the cameraman's hands and violently stamped on by the rush of the frightened crowd. The headlines underneath read in an unending blaze of silver across the screen: "UNPROVOKED ATTACK ON CHRONO HARLAOWN BY OUTSIDE FORCES! IS THE HARLAOWN PROGRAM AT AN END?"
"Chaos reigns here in the Palace of Harlaown!" came the voice of the reporter overhead. The broadcast rapidly switched to a separate camera positioned on the far side of the scene, giving a much clearer view of the scene. Two more explosions had coincided with each other, blasting off most of the uppermost floors completely. "The entire citadel has been hit by a constant series of destructive attacks from an unknown source, putting the life of Chrono Harlaown in mortal danger as thousands of people rush to evacuate! As yet, the fate of the Commander is still uncertain but there is already a wave of suspicion sweeping through Mid-childa regarding the stability of the Harlaown Program. Many people have already voiced their concerns about the sudden rise in executors around detention facilities, leading to tensions between citizens and government officials as to whether the terms of Vivio Harlaown's Blood Oath will still be met."
The screen shuddered again as thick smoke billowed forward across the camera, and the reporter bravely fought to stand her ground. "So far, the Harlaown Program continues to survive, but for how much longer? There are no signs that Chrono Harlaown has been able to escape the carnage besieging the palace. Until his survival is confirmed, the fate of the Mid-childan Government lies on very rocky ground indeed. If the Program really does fall and feared civil rebellion is ignited at a single blow..."
Signum and the other gathered members of the Wolkenritter stared at the TV screen in abject horror, thunderstruck at the sudden wave of events that had transpired within only a few hours. How had this happened? Chrono's palace was under attack, the Harlaown Program was in danger of being disabled altogether, and the people of Mid-childa were already preparing themselves for internal rebellion? How had all of this happened so fast?
What a morning this is turning out to be, Signum thought to herself. If I'd overslept by much longer then I would have missed out on all of this. I hope Vita's still okay.
"They just mentioned that the attack has sparked an increase in the numbers of executors on the streets," Zafira said, his face apprehensive. "If this is true, then we'll never be able to leave the house now. It was bad enough just trying to show our faces before."
"How are we going to find Nanoha and the others in all of this mess?" Agito demanded. "It's going to get even harder to move around unnoticed!"
Signum suddenly raised one hand sharply to hush her partner, pointing to the screen shakily. Her eyes had been drawn by a single face that had appeared on camera, almost unrecognisable unless you knew what it was – or who they were. The face of a woman rising up through the ruined palace as missiles hurtled past her. The face of a high-ranking Bureau mage, tall in stature, hovering several metres off the ground wrapped in a Barrier Jacket in colours of white and blue...
At first, the Velka Knight thought she had to be seeing things. With her thoughts on the Ace of Aces, she was probably just starting to see her everywhere. Yet when Sigum glanced around at the others, the swordswoman saw that they all shared the same reaction as her. Right here, on camera, in the midst of such destruction and chaos...
"Why," Zafira said, not taking his eyes off the screen, "why is it that I can see Nanoha in that palace? It isn't just me, is it?"
"It isn't just you," Shamal said, leaning forward with her hands bunched against the top of the couch. "That's definitely Nanoha! What is she doing there? Why would she be in Chrono's palace?" She scratched her head as the camera began to move away from the Ace of Aces. "How did she even manage to enter? There's more executors there than in Uminari City!"
For some reason, Signum almost felt the desire to laugh out loud. Mid-childa as they knew it was on the brink of collapse, the Palace of Harlaown was under siege, the world was on the brink of being consumed by rebellion...and the person standing right in the middle of such pandemonium was none other than Nanoha. Even in an alternate universe she was at the centre of the action.
"Maybe she's the one who attacked the palace," Agito suggested. "The whole place is falling to pieces around her. Long-range attacks are her forte, right?"
Signum snorted. "You haven't seen Nanoha properly in action, Agito. If she wanted to destroy that palace, there wouldn't be a palace to look at anymore. It's not her doing."
"Yes, somebody else has to be behind this incident," Shamal agreed, her brow furrowing as she ran her mind through the various options. "Attacking Chrono, firing a long-range attack from inside the building and endangering the lives of thousands of innocent people? Whoever did this is no friend of ours."
On screen, Nanoha had risen higher and higher in the air until the smoke from the explosions had obscured her completely. The yells of the reporter had already prompted the camera to steer away from the scene and focus on the mass of people fighting to get through the doors. Dozens of combat cyborgs could be seen running past in the opposite direction to protect Chrono from any further attacks, but there were still a crippling number of people lying injured by the palace gates. Many of them had suffered in the mad rush of thousands desperate to escape, crushed against the walls or the floor, and were in need of medical treatment.
Though the explosions had not taken the lives of any innocent civilians – at least not according to the news bulletins so far – it appeared that only the lucky few had escaped completely unscathed. An attack like this impacted on everybody. If what the reporter had said before was anything to go by, the entire planet would be affected.
"Mid-childa's going to start changing," Shamal said, tight-lipped. She brushed her hands down her clothes, bringing herself up to her full height. "It's going to change for the worse, even more than it already has. We're going to have to move fast before the rush of executors immobilizes us completely."
Zafira turned away from the television screen to look at her. "And how are we supposed to do that?" he asked. "You've been saying the same thing ever since we were stuck here, Shamal. We've got no real destination and the streets are going to be crawling with even more executors now that Chrono's been attacked - "
"We do have a destination," Signum said, stepping forward. For the first time since she had entered this shade of a world, a new beacon of hope had shown them a possible path forward. In her mind, it was something worth fighting for. "We're going to where Nanoha is. As terrible as the assault on the palace was, it has also told us where we can find her."
The Guardian Beast hesitated, then rose from the couch at once as he understood what they were getting at. "Cranagan," he said as his eyes lit up in realisation. "So we're going to Cranagan."
The capital city of Mid-childa, where the government along with Chrono's palace were all situated. The news had broadcasted the whole event live, meaning that at this present moment Nanoha would be located in Cranagan. If any other members of the TSAB were with her, they would also be found in the same place.
It's a twist of fate that brought this information to us. If we hadn't seen Nanoha just now, in the midst of such chaos, all of this could have passed us by without us even knowing about it. We would have been kept in the dark, our only clue being the rapid rise in the number of executors outside and by that time it would be too late.
Signum had no idea who else might be with Nanoha or could be helping her. She only knew that their chances of being re-united with the rest of the Bureau had already dramatically increased. They were still missing a few others who had entered this world through Oguba's wormhole – Fate, Tiana, Subaru and Erio – but now that they had successfully located Nanoha, it no longer seemed like it would be impossible, or even difficult, to find them. At last, a real sign of hope had reached their party...
"You're not thinking this through carefully enough," Agito said critically. The unison device was hovering near the ceiling, her arms folded as she glared down on all of them. "You think you'll just be able to fly out of here, zoom off to Cranagan and find Nanoha again? You really think it'll go as smoothly as that?"
Shamal sighed and reached up towards her with one hand. "Agito, I think we all understand the risks, but - "
"But nothing. Rein and I scouted this world for ages before seeking refuge here. We saw the changed geography of this planet, and none of you have any idea what you're talking about. Mid-childa from above is nothing like you remember. It's as if somebody took all the continents of Earth and squeezed them all into the Mid-childa we know, slotting them into the gaps between the countries like a jigsaw puzzle gone wrong. That's how we can be in Uminari City and Mid-childa at the same time. It's a real mess."
The unison device flew out of the blonde mage's grasp and settled around the area of Signum's upper forearm, seeming to enjoy being in close proximity with her fighting partner. "Do you know how much time it takes to fly between Uminari City and Cranagan in this world? Do you? With hordes of executors hampering your movements, it could still take up to an hour at the most. You better hope that Nanoha is still hanging around Chrono's destroyed palace by then, waiting for you to turn up, when she doesn't even know you're coming." She turned her back on the rest of the mages in a huff. "Bottom line is, we could fly all the way there and find that she's already left."
The three Guardian Knights exchanged worried glances between each other. It was true that Nanoha was very accomplished in flight magic, certainly more so than anyone in their group. If the Ace of Aces decided to head for a new location entirely, then they may not be able to catch up to her...
Shamal took a deep breath. "I guess we can't help that," she said. "Maybe we could keep some kind of track on her if the circumstances were different, but that's obviously impossible right now. We're just going to have to be faster than her."
"We're not going to be able to go faster than her," Signum muttered. The only person she could think of who could overtake Nanoha was Fate, and that was still only a rough estimate. "So we're doing this, are we?" she said, looking around at the other members of the Wolkenritter. "We're just going to hope that Nanoha doesn't move away from Chrono's palace for an hour, or that she just flies very slowly?"
"I'd rather you didn't put it like that, Signum," the medical mage said, wincing. "But what else can we do? This is the only lead we have. The attack on the palace will probably keep her occupied for some time, however, and that is why we must leave now."
She began to walk briskly towards the lift leading back up to the ground floor, calling over her shoulder to the rest of them. "We probably won't be able to return here, so if you could all make sure that you haven't left anything important behind..."
Agito had already flown on ahead impatiently, whilst Zafira followed on after with barely a second glance at the rest of the basement. What was there to take, save for their own weapons and the clothes they were already wearing? There wasn't anything of any significance in here that they could keep hold of whilst flying across the skies of Mid-childa at high speed, anyway.
After checking that she did still have Laevatein on her – not that she was ever going to lose it – Signum joined the end of their small group. She had only arrived in this house last night, barely coherent from exhaustion with her energy drained, and now she was already leaving. It hadn't even been twelve hours yet, but no one had expected the attack on the palace to happen so suddenly.
It can't be a coincidence, the Velka Knight mused to herself. Nanoha and the rest of us entered this world, and by the next morning there's already been an attack on Chrono's life, fires spreading all over his palace, and the threat of a rebellion. It's as if our entry into Mid-childa somehow caused all of this to happen. But that can't be right. Unless...unless whoever attacked the palace was waiting for an opportunity like this, waiting for one of us to appear...
She shook such complicated thoughts away from her, deciding that she was probably looking too much into this. Thinking in roundabout ways like this only made her head hurt. Focusing instead on their current goal, Signum stepped into the makeshift lift that would allow them to ascend to the ground level. Agito and the rest of the Wolkenritter were already waiting for her.
"All right," Shamal said as the doors creaked shut behind Signum. "Now that we're all here...Let's go."
The medical mage pulled down a lever on the far wall, booting the machinery of the ancient contraption into action. A grinding of gears and pulleys sounded above them, and then the entire lift began to rise at a painstakingly slow pace to take their group up to the surface. Gritting her teeth silently, Signum decided that she never wanted to enter such a device ever again; she was surprised that it was still working at all. If there had been a way to simply fly back up to the ground level, she probably would have done that instead.
Come to think of it, shouldn't Rein be coming with them as well? Where was she again? As the lift continued to climb at a gradual pace, the pink-haired Velka Knight recalled that Agito had already told her. Yes, Rein had gone ahead to investigate why an executor had been stationed on the ground floor just above their heads -
"What," Signum said in a low voice, "are we going to do about the executor?"
The other mages looked at her in startled surprise as they realised that in all of the excitement, they had completely forgotten about the potential enemy upstairs. What with the attack on Chrono's palace, the prospect of rejoining Nanoha again, and the urgency to move at full speed whilst they still could -
"Oh," Zafira said, his face falling. "You mean the one who's already in this house."
"Yes."
"The one that this lift is taking us right towards, and not the countless numbers of executors who will be crowding the streets outside." The Guardian Beast shrugged, not seeming too worried. "Seeing as we're going to be coming out of hiding anyway, it doesn't really matter anymore. We can take out one executor easily."
The elevator suddenly came to a dead stop without warning, throwing everyone off-balance for a moment, accompanied by a worrying creaking of bent metal. As the doors slowly slid open once more, granting the Bureau mages entry to the main level of the deserted house in which they had taken refuge, all four of them made haste to jump away from the questionable contraption before it fell apart completely.
For several seconds, the members of the Wolkenritter remained very still as they stood on solid ground, using their senses solely to listen out for any suspicious movements at all. Even the presence of a single executor was reason enough for them to keep on their guard.
"Somebody's here," Shamal whispered. "But I recognise the kind of magic coming from them."
"It's probably Rein," Agito muttered. "Even I can tell it's her. Maybe the executor left."
"I'm not just talking about Rein. I'm sensing a condensed magical field, created when a unison device comes into close proximity with another mage of any significant power." The medical mage was clearly troubled, seeming afraid to actively go out there by herself. "Rein's definitely here...but so is the executor. The energy between them is disrupted, meaning that they must be quite close to each other, maybe even in the same room. Rein was only supposed to investigate from a distance. There's no reason why she would draw so close to an enemy...unless..."
Unless something's happened to her to force her into that state, Signum thought grimly. Rein could have been hurt, wounded, maybe even attacked by the executor...We shouldn't have let her investigate on her own, not when so much is at stake...
A swift gust of air whipped past her face as her red-haired partner kicked off from her shoulder, starting to fly down the corridor at high speed. With lightning-fast reflexes, the pink-haired Velka Knight reached up and snatched hold of Agito before they could get away completely.
The unison device's violet eyes were filled with a sense of urgency and desperation that Signum had not seen in her for a long time, not since they had first become fighting partners together.
"Let me go!" the unison device hissed, struggling in her grasp. "I have to go to her!"
"Agito, what are you doing?" Shamal said in astonishment, quickly dragging the fiery unison device away from the rest of the corridor. "You can't just go dashing off like that! We have to stay together!"
Agito twisted round in Signum's hand to glare at her. "Yeah, we're doing a really good job at that, aren't we, Shamal? Signum, let go of me this instant! Rein could be hurt! She needs me!"
The medical mage seemed equally furious in return. It wasn't a side of herself that she showed very often outside of the Wolkenritter. "If you rush in on your own like this you could meet the same fate! Please try to calm down, Agito. I understand that you're worried about Rein, but we're all going to help her together."
"You could all just be jumping to conclusions," Zafira remarked dryly, leaning against the wall and finding all of this a little tedious. "Maybe Rein decided to defeat the executor on her own, and then went in and froze them to death with her ice magic. She could be standing over their body whilst the rest of us are worrying over nothing."
One look at Agito's face made it clear that she wasn't really listening to anything they were saying. Giving up on everyone else, the unison device frantically shoved herself round to face the swordswoman who was keeping her captive. "Signum, listen to me! You have to let me go to Rein. If she's in trouble, I have to be there for her!"
For long seconds, the Velka Knight regarded her silently, weighing up all the available options and the possible consequences to each one. At such close distance, she was surprised to see that Agito was on the verge of tears. Had the two unison devices really become so close during their time away from the Bureau? Was it possible that...? In that moment, the pink-haired Guardian Knight made her decision, not that it was a very difficult one in the first place.
"All right," Signum said with a shrug, opening out her hand to release her. "If you want to be with her so badly, just go to her."
It was worth seeing the reaction on Agito's face; evidently she hadn't expected Signum to let her go so easily, and neither had anyone else. A fraction of a second later, the unison device had shot off down the hallway towards the vital signs of Rein's magic. The three Guardian Knights were left behind in the dust, each of them staring at Signum in stunned belief.
"Why did you do that?" Zafira said at last. "Why did you let her go, Signum?"
That's a good question, the pink-haired Velka Knight thought to herself ruefully. If she had to be truthful, she didn't really know how to answer it. She only knew that all of the reasons to stop Agito from going had not seemed good enough to her, not once she had seen how the unison device had really felt about it. Perhaps she had even let her go on a basic whim, but Signum doubted that.
Instead of saying any of this, the Velka Knight raised her head and listened closely to the silence blanketing the whole house. Then she commented, "Agito doesn't sound like she's having any trouble."
Shamal sighed heavily, clearly not pleased with what the swordswoman had done. "That's no excuse to let her go on ahead like that. I can sense now that the energy pattern is even more disturbed than before. I don't know what's happening, but it looks like we're going to have to find out for ourselves." She extended her hand out towards the taller woman. "After you, Signum."
"You want me to go first," the pink-haired mage said bleakly. "So when we run into the executor and he suddenly starts attacking us, I'm going to be the one who has to take all the damage."
"Oh, Signum, you know it's not like that. Well," the blonde medical mage admitted, "it is like that, but you know what I mean. I have to stay in the back to support everyone else. If I went in front and got put out of action, who's going to heal your wounds?"
Signum turned her face away, grumbling to herself. "You don't have to put it quite like that. Fine. I'll lead."
It took the three of them less than a minute to find out where Agito and Rein were. Circling around past where the lift was concealed, the members of the Wolkenritter took care to tread lightly as they kept their movements as quiet as possible. Even after Agito had left, there were no further sounds throughout the house that any of them could make out.
Eventually, they arrived at a plain room situated at the end of the hallway. It was a dusty little chamber which containing nothing except for a hard bed, a few empty bookshelves and the remains of broken cobwebs trailing from the ceiling. With a start, Signum realised that it was exactly the same room that she had woken up in after her narrow escape from the executors. Shamal had healed her whilst she slept on that same bed.
Rein and Agito were nestled up together beneath the single flickering light in the ceiling, chattering away in low whispers as Signum and the others came in. The two unison devices were completely unharmed and seemed to be lost in their own little world. Rein looked up with grateful relief in her eyes when she saw Signum up on her feet again, but Agito seemed content to deliberately ignore the rest of their group.
The mysterious executor was lying fast asleep on the bed in the middle of the room, oblivious to all the mages gathering tensely around him. He looked a little too young to be an executor, and certainly had a very different appearance to all the others without any armour on. Yes, he appeared to be a young boy with red hair with a magical device attached to his wrist. Dressed in the uniform of the Time-Space Administration Bureau, the insignia upon his clothes marking them out as a forward of Riot Force 6, the boy's features were familiar to everyone there...
"Erio?" Zafira said in disbelief, a spark lighting up in his red eyes as he stood next to Signum. "The executor we sensed was Erio?"
Shamal raised one hand tentatively. "When I linked my magic through the Bureau computers downstairs, I may have done so incorrectly," she explained with some embarassment. "Naturally the picture which came to me was that of an executor. I guess Agito was right when she said we were jumping to conclusions." She knelt down next to the sleeping boy, laying one hand on Erio's forehead with marked concern. "I hope there's nothing wrong with his health. If the executors did anything to him, or hurt him too badly, I don't know how far I would be able to help him...I've already endured a large drain on my magic today..."
There was doubt that the red-haired boy sleeping before them was Erio. He seemed worn out more than anything, just as Signum had been when Shamal had brought her here. For her part, the Velka Knight was very glad to see the forward again. Though the two of them shared no familiar connections with each other, and did not usually have the opportunity to work together, Signum could not deny that she had worried about what had happened to him.
She and the red-haired forward had been separated whilst the executors had chased them through Uminari City, and it made her heart lighter to see that he was back here safe and sound again. There were countless other things that could have happened to Erio – being captured by the executors would have been just the start – and he was still very young to have to endure the same kinds of trials as she did. Then again, that was part of the role played by a mage of the TSAB. He had done well to survive so far.
But what could have happened to him? Signum wondered. This house is the only real safe place for any of us, so where could he have spent the night instead? And how did he manage to find us so quickly? Out of all the places to fall asleep, he chose the one building where all of us are gathered...
"This is wonderful news," Zafira murmured, sitting down cross-legged on the floor. The discovery of another of their lost friends seemed to have raised his spirit considerably. "Yesterday we found you, Signum. It's not even midday yet and we've already found Erio. At this rate, we could have the whole Bureau back by Thursday."
Signum shook her head, keeping her tone serious. "I'm not prepared to wait that long. The more of us there are, the greater our chances of survival. Once we find Nanoha I don't think we'll have to worry anymore."
The Guardian Beast grunted non-committally. "Don't be so reliant on one person, Signum, even if that person is the Ace of Aces. We still have to rely on each other. Hayate would say the same."
Before either of them could say anything more, there was gradual movement from the bed as Erio began to stir, awakened by Shamal's gentle touch on his skin. The forward mumbled sleepily and blinked tiredly, not completely aware of what was going on around him quite yet. With a yawn, Erio reached out with one hand at the side of the bed as if looking for something. He frowned and then touched a strange bracelet that was wrapped around his wrist, his body seeming to relax as he did so.
"He seems in perfect health, as far as I can tell," Shamal whispered to the others, out of the boy's earshot. "He's a little tired, but I have eased most of his fatigue with a small application of my restorative magic. I'm also fairly sure of the reason why Erio came straight here – he must have been drawn by the magic from below the house, just like the rest of us were. It's what saved us from the same fate as the rest of the Bureau."
With alarming speed, Erio suddenly sat up straight in bed, his eyes wide as he found himself surrounded by almost the entire Wolkenritter. He grabbed hold of Strada on his wrist, tense and uneasy.
"What's going on?" he blurted out. "Where is this place? Signum? Is that you? You got away from the executors?" He squinted through bleary sleep-filled eyes and realised who else was there. "Rein? Shamal? Agito? You're all here too? How did you all get here?"
Shamal closed her eyes patiently for a moment. She didn't know whether it was something about kids in general, but Erio was asking a lot of questions that they might not have time to answer. He was probably still in need of a bit more sleep.
"Erio," she said, "I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to rush you here. We're all in a hurry to find Nanoha before she leaves Cranagan and there isn't enough time to bring you up to date on everything. Yes, it really is us. Yes, that is Signum over there. I apologise for being abrupt like this, but could you summarise anything important that's happened to you lately in just a sentence or two? We really have to go now, or we won't be able to catch up with Nanoha."
The red-haired boy blinked in confusion, trying to keep up. "Nanoha's here?"
"Wait, what's this about Nanoha?" Rein said from the sidelines, looking just as taken aback. "We're going to find Nanoha? You mean we know where she is? Did I miss something this morning?"
Signum slapped her hand to her forehead as she realised that Rein had been upstairs the whole time, and so had not witnessed the news footage of Chrono's palace being besieged. That made two members of their group who weren't completely in the know.
"I will be very brief about this," the Velka Knight said, annoyed that this was taking up even more of their precious time. Nanoha could be on the verge of leaving Cranagan by now. "Chrono's palace was attacked, and Nanoha was caught up in the middle of it. That means she's in Cranagan, and we have to go there as quickly as possible so that we don't miss her."
Unfortunately, she seemed to have made matters even more confusing for the red-haired forward. It just wasn't something you could explain in under a minute, or even under an hour.
"Chrono's here too?" Erio said in stunned disbelief. "The Chrono we know? Why does he have a palace?"
"It's not really him," Zafira said, trying to help. "It's a Chrono from another world. He was in charge of all the executors and – "
Shamal hurriedly interrupted him before they ended up stuck in an unending series of bizarre explanations. "It's complicated, Erio," she said. "We'll try and explain it on the way. Now, please – what happened to you last night? Did anything bad happen? I need you to use as few sentences as possible and be really quick about it."
The Bureau forward hesitated before taking a deep breath, trying to think of how he should phrase his next words. It didn't come out exactly as he visualised.
"I stayed in a shed with a bunch of kids and joined their gang," he said, trying not to sound too awkward. "And they gave me this." Erio raised the strange-looking bracelet that was curled loosely around the wrist of his other arm. "It's called a Yagami Bracelet. It keeps away the executors."
This time, it was the turn of the rest of their small group to look bewildered. All at once, everyone started asking questions from all sides.
"You slept in a shed?" Agito said dubiously.
"You joined a gang?" Signum said, very alarmed indeed. "Do you know how Fate's going to react to that?"
Zafira was eyeing the Yagami Bracelet with a degree of scepticism. "Are you sure that bracelet works? We're going to be encountering a lot of executors when we go outside. How many hundreds of executors is that device going to protect you from?"
"All right, enough with the questions already!" Shamal said, raising her voice slightly to be heard. "Erio, if you want to take that bracelet with you, I guess you might as well do so. The explanations can wait until until later, such as whilst we're flying towards Cranagan. We can't afford to waste any more time here."
"We're really going to be doing this?" Erio asked, looking rather worried. "We're going all the way to Cranagan? Has anyone forgotten that I can't actually fly? If we're going to be really high up and something happens - "
Rein flew over by his shoulder. "No one's going to drop you, Erio. Three Guardian Knights won't let you fall. Don't worry about it." She gave him a reassuring smile and then turned to Signum, looking puzzled. "I still don't understand why Nanoha is in Chrono's palace..."
"She won't be for much longer if we don't hurry up and get over there!" Signum said irritably, turning to march out towards the front door. "Come on. Let's get going to Cranagan – all of us!"
Fate had never seen anyone kneel before her before. She had never thought it to be something that would actually happen, no matter how Hayate might have joked that half of the girls in Riot Force 6 would willingly do so just for her. Maybe with other people it was supposed to evoke a feeling of superiority and dominance, or the pleasure of being looked up to or worshipped by another person. She didn't really know, but that wasn't how it made her feel.
So she was understandably confused, to say the least, whilst feeling nothing short of awkward, to have every executor in the detention facility of Uminari City do exactly that. One minute, she had been under attack on all sides and had responded in kind to wipe out the bulk of her enemies; the next thing she knew, every executor had gone rigid and deathly afraid once they saw her face, and had dropped to the ground in reverence.
The royal executor's behaviour in particular was incomprehensible to her. He was a man who had made no light of his intentions to kill her, no matter how much she had tried to reason with his motivations. Yet he was the one who seemed most terrified of her, murmuring in a cold frightened whisper under his breath like an unending prayer of protection.
He called me "Lady Testarossa", Fate thought, planting the point of Bardiche's blade against the ruined floor. When I fought him, he didn't seem afraid of my spells or techniques. He didn't react like that...until he saw my face. Something about my appearance set something off in him, in all of the executors...
A little disturbed, the Enforcer touched her own cheek experimentally. It didn't feel any different. She moved her hand around the rest of her face, feeling around the groove of her nose, the parting of her lips, and ran it down through her fine blonde hair which ran down her back. Nothing seemed out of place at all. It wasn't as if she were covered in blood or anything, since during the course of the recent scuffle Fate had minimised any injury to herself. The executors weren't really much of a threat to her, but they would probably be capable of overwhelming her through force of numbers.
She was tempted to ask the executors just who Lady Testarossa was, but that would be a pretty big clue to them that they had mistaken her for somebody else entirely, and could cause them to start attacking her again. Fate knew she could probably finish them all off anyway, but her enemies were currently on their knees before her and looked as if they would do absolutely anything she asked of them. She might as well make the most of the opportunity until they figured it out.
"Where is Nanoha?" she said again, a hard tone coming into her voice. She could virtually feel them shaking in their armour as the emotion ran through her. Whoever Lady Testarossa was, she must be a woman who was used to getting her own way for whatever reason. "Tell me where she is, and I will leave you in peace."
At first, none of the men dared to answer. They all seem too petrified to speak.
"I...I don't know, Lady Testarossa," the royal executor stammered after a heavy silence, keeping his face turned down to the ground. "I'm very sorry, but no one by that name is known here..."
There were hundreds of people passing through here earlier, even if I wasn't conscious enough to see them properly, Fate thought, her patience beginning to diminish. They're really telling me that Nanoha hasn't been here at all? If that's the case, I'll have to search outside of Uminari City, but I still don't have any real clues on where to find her -
She placed her hand against a wall that hadn't been completely destroyed yet, trying to think. Where could she go for more information? The Bureau was probably her best guess, but whilst she was still within Uminari City she wouldn't be able to -
With a start, Fate realised that the piece of wall under her fingers was shaking slightly. She quickly pulled her hand away as if burned, wondering if she had done something to the structure of the building. But then the Enforcer saw that the same tremor had spread out across the ground, gradually growing in magnitude until the entire detention facility was engulfed as one. It was something on the scale of a small earthquake, the noise fluctuating in uneven intervals.
The blonde mage grabbed onto the side of the wall for balance, afraid of what was happening. Was something going on outside? Around her, the executors had edged across to the other side of the room, gathering in a small group as they crouched closer to the ground. Somehow, they didn't seem too afraid of the growing noise, as if they knew what was going on.
This isn't an earthquake, Fate realised as the sound grew to almost deafening levels. Everything keeps getting louder and louder, but the ground isn't shaking much more than before and the facility is still intact. This isn't a natural quake. Something massive must be causing it outside, and it's getting closer...
She turned towards the royal executor, not understanding the sudden calm that had entered his eyes. "What's going on?" she demanded. "What's happening out there?"
Slowly, the royal executor lifted his head from the earth, barely able to make himself be heard over the rumbling. "It's started," he said passively. "Everything has come to an end. People like me will no longer be needed."
"What are you talking about?" Fate bent down to look him in the eye, trying to get more sense out of him. "What's started?"
His eyes seemed glazed and unfocused as he stared back into a place that only he could see. It was unsettling to see his face so empty of life, and even the man's voice seemed dead and hollow.
"Chrono Harlaown is no more," the royal executor said in a narrow hiss, tipping his chin back until he was almost staring up into the ceiling. "And Vivio Harlaown's Blood Oath has died with him. The Harlaown Program has collapsed, destroying the foundations of our society, and every executor in Mid-childa is feeling the same as I..." He ran one hand through his hair, the other hand falling limp at his side. "The rebellion of the people...has begun. They will march on us and take everything. We...we will march too, to protect Mid-childa from its people. It is all an executor has left..."
She stared at him in disbelief, then backed away to the middle of the room as another particularly savage quake ripped through the facility. Somehow, the Enforcer still managed to remain standing as she raised Bardiche in both hands and turned the weapon onto the flat of its blade.
"All of you, listen to me now!" Fate shouted above the rolling tremors which plagued the building. The executors looked up towards her, still locked in a kneeling position. "You all need to get out of here whilst you still can!"
"It's okay, Lady Testarossa," said one of the executors with a calm smile. "We know what's going on. The Program has terminated, but we are not afraid. Our numbers are many, and we will not perish whilst there is still life in our bodies - "
Fate didn't have time to listen to this. She felt her magic build up within Bardiche's hilt, concentrating into one single point. Mindful of the position of power she held over them, the Enforcer swept her gaze over the executors, her red eyes settling directly onto their features.
"Are you questioning me?" she said coolly. "I told you to get out of here. Now!"
The fear in their eyes was so sudden that it was alarming to her. The nearest executor gulped and scrambled to get to the exit doors as fast as he possibly could, not daring to disobey her any further. A split second later, the rest of them followed suit, until only Fate was left standing in the shaking facility.
Everyone's out of harm's way, Fate thought, relief settling over her. That's good. No matter how misled they are, they're still people, and I'm not about to hurt them just for the sake of it. She felt Bardiche extend in length as she whirled it around in a circle, escalating in power. Now I can get out of here without endangering anyone by my actions.
"Sprite Zanber!"
Purple lightning lanced across the impact of her blade as Fate struck directly through the concrete ceiling of the detention facility at close range, flying upwards and lending additional force to her attack as she did so. Coupled with the constant quakes running through the building, the ceiling cracked in multiple places and caved in all around her. Huge blocks of concrete rained down towards the floor below where the executors had just made their escape from, some as big as her head.
As she focused the spell further, Fate broke through the central point of the weakened ceiling and flew upwards into the open air. Down at ground level, the detention facility collapsed in on itself and began to break apart completely under the effect of the increasing tremors. The Enforcer paid it no further attention as she hovered high above Uminari City, her magical power dying down again.
That went better than I expected.
She reduced altitude slightly as the deafening quakes continued to roll across the city. Yes, it hadn't been just the detention facility which had been affected by the tremors. The scale of it was such that the ground was shaking on every point throughout Uminari City. It was happening everywhere – maybe even throughout the entire world...
At first, Fate didn't realise what was causing the massive tremors. Looking down at the city from above, it wasn't something that you would think to notice immediately. But once you started looking at the bigger picture, it began to make a scary amount of sense. The reason you hadn't seen it the first time was because it was virtually everywhere – the danger had risen to such colossal extremes that the whole of Uminari City had been consumed completely.
Because when the Enforcer looked down on the city, she saw nothing. She could see people's houses, schools, hospitals, shops, and what looked like everyday normal life as usual. The black dots which passed for people at such a distance were moving across Uminari City, walking across countless streets and roads towards the other side -
As she drew closer, Fate saw that the same black dots were all over the city. There were clusters of them on every single street corner, forming into giant groups which were travelling slowly into a massive horde. Hundreds of them in just one district...no, thousands. Tens of thousands, all in one city...
She came down out of the sky, level with where the roof of the detention facility used to be. She could see the black dots from close up now, and that many of them...were not ordinary people at all.
They were executors.
That's what's causing the ground to shake, Fate realised with a shock. Thousands of executors marching across Uminari City in their ranks, the sheer scale of their numbers rippling across the land. Some of them are coming from outside locations, drawn here to join their companions, even surrounding the city so that the people can't get in or out...
And yet, Fate could see other people too, people who weren't executors but who were armed and ready for combat. They were coming out of their homes in droves, rushing towards the centre of the city to group together in massive numbers just like the executors were doing. Thousands and thousands of them, too, row after row, growing in number until there was a sizeable army of them stationed across the middle of Uminari City. Yes, army was a definitive word for it.
Civil rebellion, Fate thought, watching as the entire surface of Uminari City was completely covered by thousands of executors and similarly armed civilians, each of who were viewing the other with open hostility. That's what the royal executor told me. The rebellion of the people has begun..
As panic flooded her mind, she dashed down towards the ground, still trying to think of something to stop all this from happening. Chrono was gone. The Harlaown Program had been stopped. And this...this was a direct consequence? Where were her friends? Were they on either side, or were they going to be caught up in the crossfire?
Nanoha!
Seconds later, before she could do anything, the fighting began.