"Is she gone?" Yagami asked testily, reclining back in her wheelchair impatiently. "Is she finally gone?"
The tension within the mansion had lifted upon Kagura's dramatic departure, so that only the impact of her visit remained: countless wounded soldiers lying unconscious on the ground floor, whose injuries Dr Kaizen was already seeing to, and considerable structural damage to the house itself. It was always easy to track down the Labinnac assassin, since she tended to leave a trail of random destruction wherever she went, but it was for that same reason why she was so costly to maintain. If not for her position as a Sister of the Labinnac Family, Yagami would have had her contracts terminated a long time ago.
But for Kagura to appear now? Yagami didn't have time to deal with the likes of her with all that was going on. Nobody in the Family did. It had been immensely satisfying to put the woman in her place for once, seeing her struck dumb once she realised that the consequences of her actions had been, but Yagami wouldn't be content with just that. As far as the mistress was concerned, she didn't want Kagura to set foot in the House of Yagami ever again. Fortunately, from the way their last conversation had gone, the chances of that were already extremely likely.
"The majority of our surveillance cameras have been put out of action by Kagura's activities," Suzuka said in response, reading off a screen of figures in front of her. "The North Keeper must have been killed as a result."
This particular revelation was only slightly troubling: the northern gates were vulnerable to attack, not that anyone else was going to bother attacking the House of Yagami with the war going on. Nevertheless, the steward made a mental note to let Arisa know, safe in the knowledge that the head of security would be able to deal with it.
She scrolled round to the other cameras at the southern and western gates, noticing that they had been virtually untouched. "With our remaining information, my lady, " the purple-haired steward said, "I am able to ascertain that Kagura has left the premises."
The mistress in the wheelchair heaved a great sigh of relief. "Good," she breathed. "Very good. I don't want to see that woman's face ever again, do you understand me? She is costing me far too much! Even though Arisa is in charge of overlooking our finances, I can still tell when someone is taking us into the red. Kagura has been doing fewer and fewer jobs for me these past few years, the disadvantages of keeping her around have outweighed her usefulness." She slammed one fist onto the arm of her wheelchair. "She loves to fight, she says? Let the rebellion consume her, if that's what she wants! She can burn along with the rest of Uminari City!"
"Yagami-sama," Lideri said swiftly, standing next to her, "in view of our previous conversation, there is no reason why Kagura should be able to bother us anymore. Soon we will be initiating the time switch and leaving this universe for good. Without any extra Yagami Bracelets available, there is no way for her to follow us."
"Is that so?"
The librarian's brow furrowed in concentration as a thought occurred to her. "Theoretically, the only way for Kagura to escape would be if she requested assistant from the likes of Grylmark or Oguba. That obviously isn't going to happen, however – Grylmark is too obsessed with his own ambitions to extend help to someone like her, and Kagura doesn't even believe in time travel in the first place. When the catastrophe occurs in three hours, she will be trapped here and perish along with the rest of Mid-childa. We needn't worry about seeing her again, my lady."
"I like your choice of words." Yagami motioned towards the purple-haired steward at her other side. "Suzuka, call Arisa in right away. I want a full report of the casualties inflicted within the household, and how many full-bodied survivors remain."
Lideri frowned upon hearing that. "Survivors?" the old lady repeated in surprise, as Suzuka moved over to the intercom. "Yagami-sama, we will not need guards where we are going – "
The mistress silenced her with a single deadly glare. "Do not question me, Lideri," she snapped. "Regardless of the situation, this is still a Family of Mid-childa. We must all adhere to protocol until the very end, and that is why I require a head count." The side of her face twitched slightly, an indication of her patience wearing very thin indeed. "Why are you answering back to me, Lideri? I didn't ask you for your opinion. I wasn't even talking to you."
"My apologies, Yagami-sama - "
Yagami threw her arms up. "Talking. Still talking!" She spun her wheelchair around angrily, letting her breath out in a hiss between her teeth. "If I'm not saying something to you, then just shut up!"
She kept herself deliberately turned away from everybody else for a few minutes longer, rubbing at her temples and digging her nails down into the roots of her hair. The background noise felt as if it had been amplified many times within her mind, rebounding constantly from one end to the other until Yagami simply craved no more than utmost silence. She could remember when it used to be like this almost all of the time for her, but refused to allow herself to get used to it. Eventually, the echoes would soon fade away and allow her body to relax once more.
Why does the world insist on talking all the time? How much more silent would everyone in the world be if I were to cut out their tongues entirely? Well, no matter. In a few hours, they will talk no more.
Suzuka's calming touch against her shoulder brought a greater sense of stability to her senses again, and the mistress turned around to see that Arisa had arrived. Technically, it was important for all of the staff members of the Family to be present for the time switch, but Yagami didn't want that: she didn't relish the thought of sharing the same room with seven other people at the same time. It didn't matter whether they were complete strangers or long-standing Family members like Arisa and Suzuka – it was a question of numbers. Yagami could just about tolerate being in the same living space as two or three others, but any more than that would start to drive her slightly mad. There was enough madness in her head already.
The mistress had never understood how large gatherings of crowds could possibly function in any coherent manner. How could anyone stand being in such a setting without losing their mind? It's because they're Sinners, Yagami told herself again and again, in a bid to calm the storm inside her. That's why. If they are not servants of the Family, they are only Sinners, and I will have nothing to do with them. The catastrophe will soon consume them all anyway.
Words and syllables ran over her head, and she realised that Arisa was talking. The head of security was giving her report as ordered, rattling off figures and evaluative damage statements as if reading out the dictionary. Yagami wasn't really listening to most of it, despite what she'd just said to Lideri; her own mind was too preoccupied with their conversation from earlier. Right now, the Family needed to focus on the time switch, not unnecessary administrative reports which would probably end up being archived and long-forgotten in due course. Besides, the majority of the data accumulated would be identical to the statement from Kagura's last visit.
"All right, Arisa, there's no need to read out the rest," she interrupted, before the head of security could read through another sheaf of paperwork. "I called you here for a much more important reason. The Family of Yagami is going to officially begin the global relocation process."
Surprise flickered in Arisa's eyes. "Relocation?" she repeated. "You mean..."
"Yes. The time switch." Yagami's eyes narrowed darkly. "I take it that Lideri deigned to explain the finer details to you before bothering me about it. We do not have time to explain it again."
"She did tell me, Yagami-sama," Arisa responded, still looking a little taken aback. "The nature of the catastrophe affecting this world, and the necessity of time travel to avoid it. I understood all of that part. However...at no point was I told that we were going to do it so soon." Her gaze shifted towards the aged face of the librarian. "Do you mean to say that we will be moving now? As in right now, this instant?"
Lideri shrugged. "We can begin the time switch whenever we like," she said. "The catastrophe is three hours away by my calculations. Unfortunately, we don't have Oguba's power and will have to make do with the tools at our disposal. The overall process on our end will take a lot more time to carry out, but there's no helping that; I researched the procedure thoroughly overnight and found this to be our best choice of action."
The head of security raised an eyebrow, suspicion registering across her features. "I don't mean any offence by this, Lideri," she said boldly, "but I find that some of your claims are a little difficult to believe. Until this morning, you never had anything to say to the Family about time travel or Oguba. Not a single word. Do you really hope to convince me of all this? Within just a few hours, you were able to devise a foolproof method for travelling through time?"
"Arisa," Yagami cut in sharply. "As much as I trust your judgement, we don't have the time for accusations like these."
"Of course not, Yagami-sama," the blonde swordswoman replied, bowing her head towards the mistress respectfully. "I'm not doubting the existence of time travel. I saw Hayate and Vita pass through our household with my own eyes. I'm only asking our resident librarian why it is that she suddenly woke up this morning with expert knowledge on how to build a time portal. Did she see it in a dream or something equally ridiculous?"
"Arisa, it is not a time portal," Lideri retorted irritably, folding her arms imperiously. "I'll have you know that it is impossible to build a time portal without any element of Oguba's magic! What I'm saying is that I found another way – or more accurately, Wyvern did. Let me explain it to you." She raised her right hand, displaying the bracelet around her wrist worn by every member of the Family. "You see this?"
"That's your Yagami Bracelet," Arisa said impassively. "I have been meaning to talk to Wyvern about them myself, actually. Now that the Harlaown Program is down, we don't need - "
"Let me finish, you idiot. We do need these, and I'll tell you why." The librarian was beginning to get very annoyed now, talking in fast breaths until she was almost out of puff. "Wyvern has been altering the programming of the Yagami Bracelets to correspond to the flow of time magic, rather than the data of the Harlaown Program. He thought up the idea when Exoria was here, using her own unique blend of Oguba's magic, and implemented the same idea.
"We can't magically summon a time portal out of thin air. Even if we could, it would be extremely unstable with so many people using it. Instead, this is how we will make our own artificial time switch – we can all use the modified Yagami Bracelets to escape before the catastrophe occurs." Lideri paused for breath for a few moments, seeing now that Arisa was starting to take her seriously. "Wyvern also ensured that the changes only affect the higher-ranking members of staff, such as Suzuka and yourself," she said. "We don't want vast numbers of unnecessary people to weigh us down, and besides, we don't have the time."
Arisa frowned and looked at her own Yagami Bracelet – or rather, the two bracelets that she retained on each wrist. As head of security, she had taken to wearing double the usual number in order to boost her power. It was part of the reason why Arisa had kept her position for so long, and she wasn't about to go back on it now.
From her own point of view, the head of security was still quite sceptical about the whole idea. Her Yagami Bracelets didn't look any different in appearance at all, and she was very sure that nobody had tampered with the devices in any way. But from working with Wyvern previously, Arisa knew that outward appearance meant nothing for the boy's mechanical creations. The magic of the bracelets was controlled by a technological array than ran throughout the entire mansion itself; Wyvern could have easily made any number of alterations to everybody's bracelets. Grudgingly, Arisa was forced to admit that some aspects of Lideri's explanation did make a surprising amount of sense.
"So how do we start the time switch?" she asked. "I assume that we activate the bracelets in some way."
"Yes. You will need a small amount of magical power on your end," the librarian explained. "The spell involved is Chronological Time Switch. I'm aware that you aren't a magic-user, Arisa, and that many members of our Family are also lacking in any magical abilities at all – but I am, and so is Suzuka. We've agreed to help out in keeping the time switch moving along each and every one of you until the end."
Arisa frowned in bewilderment. She needed to cast a spell to make the time switch work? No, that wasn't going to be possible at all...because when it came to any kind of magic at all, Arisa had always known that she of all people would not be capable of -
"That's enough," Lideri declared, before the other woman could open her mouth to ask. "I think that's enough questions to be getting on with!" The old woman clapped her hands and folded down her clothes briskly. "As I keep trying to tell everyone, we are running out of time. If we do not start the relocation process soon, then some of us will be in danger of being left behind permanently!"
"Lideri," Suzuka said kindly, combing down her mistress' hair dutifully, "the catastrophe is a full three hours away, just as you told us. Surely the Family has plenty of time to get prepared."
The librarian sighed. "No. No. This is the part that I am trying to explain to you all. The artificial process that we're carrying out here is only a measure of energy flowing through the Yagami Bracelets. We can't use all of the bracelets at the same time, or the impact on the time-space continuum would be devastating! Everything must proceed with extreme caution."
"I'm sorry?" Yagami said suddenly, her attention hooked "What are you saying, Lideri? I thought that we were all leaving together. The Family must always stay together, or risk falling to the woes of Sinners."
"We cannot stay together, Yagami-sama," Lideri said, tight-lipped. "It is true that we should end up that way, eventually. But it is best that we not tempt fate, and leave only one at a time. The Yagami Bracelets also require a cool-down period of approximately twenty minutes with each time switch, so with all that in mind - "
"What?" Arisa said in disbelief. "What's this about a cool-down period? You never mentioned this before."
"That is because you keep challenging my judgement, Arisa," the librarian said pointedly. She let out her breath in a huff. "As I was saying, the cool-down period for the Yagami Bracelets collectively is approximately twenty minutes - "
"You can't be serious about this!" the swordswoman protested. "First we have to leave one at a time, which will be slow enough already. And now you say we have to leave a gap of twenty minutes each time we do it?"
"I assure you that all this is entirely necessary," the librarian replied. "This is the price that comes with tinkering with technology not made for human hands. If it is any consolation, we will all be transported to the same location in space and time no matter what happens. The Yagami Bracelets have been programmed as thus." She turned solemnly towards the mistress of the house. "Believe me, Yagami-sama, when I say that I tried everything I could to find a way around this. Sadly, there is no other way – the energy instability is just too great. We'll just have to work with it."
The short-haired woman in the wheelchair looked at with a hard, unfriendly expression and exhaled through her teeth in a narrow hiss. The glare in the mistress' eyes indicated that she was far from pleased by what she had heard so far, but she was at least devoid of the single-minded hatred from minutes ago. Nevertheless, the aged librarian met her stare without a trace of fear, as if she had expected as such.
"Lideri," Yagami said thickly. "This is...unacceptable. What you are proposing is that there is only enough time for a Family member to escape from this universe...at a rate of once every twenty minutes."
"We may not make it out in time," the head of security muttered.
"No. Everyone in this room will," Lideri said, smiling falsely. "There is also just enough time for all of the high-ranking Family members to escape. Three hours. One hundred and eighty minutes. Twenty minutes each. One hundred and eighty divided by twenty equals to eight persons. Basic arithmetic."
The three women looked towards her with a mixture of disgruntled agreement and appalled lack of hope for the future – a rapidly declining future. There was no doubting Lideri's careful logic and reasoning up to now, but when she put it like that so directly...
"Nine," Suzuka said helpfully.
Yagami shot the steward an uncomprehending glance. "What did you say, Suzuka?"
"Not eight, Yagami-sama. Nine. There is enough time for nine people to escape this universe." The purple-haired steward smiled at Lideri. "One hundred and eighty divided by twenty makes nine. Basic arithmetic."
"I know that," the librarian grumbled. "I was also going to say that we should allow for unavoidable delays. Nine would be cutting it fine, down to the very last second. That is why I would prefer to go for eight." She paused for a moment, as if noticing for the first time that she had everybody's attention in the palm of her hand. "And that's it," she said quietly. "That's everything about the time switch. It's all up to you now, Yagami-sama. Now that I've spent so long explaining all of it, there probably really is only room for eight..."
"All right, all right," Yagami cursed, leaning back in her wheelchair. "It all makes a lot more sense now. There's time for eight of us...eight...How many of us are there? Somebody count this for me." She glared at every other person in the room. "Well? I pay all of you enough that the least you can do is learn to count."
"Well, there's you, Yagami-sama," Suzuka said cheerily. "That makes one. And then there's Arisa and me, and Lideri, too, making four..."
"Noriko and Wyvern," the librarian joined in. "That makes six. We will need Wyvern to come with us and overlook the bracelets, and I assume you will want somebody to do the cleaning..."
"Dr Kaizen makes seven," Arisa counted. "So there's only seven of us after all."
Suzuka cleared her throat. "No, Arisa," she said quietly. "There's eight."
The head of security looked at her in confusion for her moment. Then she realised who the steward was referring to, and her face went deathly pale.
"Felicity," she murmured.
"I was just beginning to enjoy forgetting about her," Yagami said in disgust. With a grunt, she turned her wheelchair around to face the sealed-up windows of the antechamber. "There's no way that we can leave the mistress of the Labinnac Family behind. Despite her high maintenance, abandoning her is out of the question. I wouldn't be surprised if Felicity survived the catastrophe, flew up into outer space, mastered time travel, and then came after us to haunt us." She sighed heavily. "It cannot be helped. She goes with us."
Deep down, Arisa wished that Suzuka hadn't spoken out like that. She would have been a lot happier if Felicity had been left here to fend for herself, given the scale of the woman's ruthlessness and power. The Labinnac Sisters had always been very different from the other Houses of Mid-childa, but their mistress was on a completely different level from anyone on the planet. Felicity hadn't bowed down to Yagami's power and influence: she had let herself be stationed here in the basement as a military symbol of her own, perhaps even on a whim of her own.
It hadn't escaped Arisa's notice that Yagami had made no mention of Scrya. The head of security wasn't really surprised at that: the mistress probably didn't even know he existed. It was just as well for the boy, really, but also a shame that he would have to be parted from the Family after such a short time of getting to know everyone. Within the privacy of her own thoughts, Arisa hoped that Scrya never found out about the current situation within the House of Yagami. He would be much happier staying ignorant for the rest of his very short life.
"That's everyone, then," Yagami finished, turning her wheelchair back around. She flung a distasteful look towards the librarian, which the aged woman ignored. "One at a time, Lideri. One at a time. This is ridiculously long-winded, but it is also, as you said, quite possible." She propped up an elbow on arm of her wheelchair, cupping her chin as she spoke. "We won't be able to take a single soldier, maid or unimportant member of staff...but no matter. The House of Yagami flourishes wherever it goes, and we will soon be able to recruit fresh blood in the next universe. What matters is that the Family itself remains eternal." She looked towards the librarian directly. "I take it, Lideri, that you have some idea about what order we should do this in."
"Yes, Yagami-sama," the old lady replied earnestly. "Whichever way we do it, I should be the last to leave. After all, I will need to assist the other staff members with activating the bracelets. My honest opinion is that we should start with the youngest ones. Wyvern was overly-confident that this process would work, so it would be good to put it to the test."
Arisa hid her smile. " "Put it to the test"? There's no time to back out now, Lideri. It's do or die."
Yagami sighed. "Very well," she said, waving a hand towards the head of security. "In that case, bring out Wyvern immediately to begin the first time switch. Not here!" she added quickly, as Arisa turned to leave. "Males are not permitted in my chambers, no matter what the situation. You should go as well, Lideri. Take him to the library, both of you, and we will all observe to see what happens next..."
Up on the roof of the House of Testarossa, Fate was holding Arf's motionless body in her arms as she fought to save her, one hand gently combing through her hair. She barely glanced up at the dark figure of Alicia hovering above the mansion, almost too preoccupied to want to care. The familiar's face had become cold and unresponsive against her skin, life-blood spilling out onto the roof like an inevitable stream of time, but the Enforcer refused to give up now. For the first time in a long while, escape was no longer the principle thought in her mind. She could still feel a pulse...
Arf, wake up! Please wake up!
"Look at all of this mess!" her sister said crossly, sweeping out one arm in a wide expanse of the entire area. "What is the meaning of this, Fate? I didn't expect this of you at all. There are so many people in the world who would gladly throw away their heart and soul to be a part of the House of Testarossa. But you, Fate...I had such wonders planned out for us together! Why did you choose to fight so hard against your destiny?"
The Cult of the Neopocalypticon had come to a sticky end following the battle with Fate and Arf, right here on the mansion roof. There was almost nothing left of their robed leader, considering that his body had been blown to bits by the earlier explosion, and any surviving cultists had long since fled from the scene. Within a matter of minutes, the mysterious organisation had completely disbanded and the crazed ritual had died along with it.
Fate had covered Arf with a protective layer of her own magic, trying to do her best to relax the familiar's body and help her recover. She was no adept healer, and there was only so much she could do in this kind of situation. Even so, something else about Arf's current state disturbed the Enforcer greatly, something bizarre that she wasn't able to explain...
When she had first checked the wolf-girl for vital signs, Fate had discovered with a shock that nothing appeared to be wrong with Arf internally. Heartbeat, pulse, breathing patterns, an active magic of her own...all of these seemed to be showing as strong and lively within her system. From a medical perspective, everything about the familiar's biological signs showed that she was somehow in perfect health, despite all evidence to the contrary. By all rights, she should actually be fully conscious, even walking and talking like normal. It didn't make any sense at all.
What's going on here? Arf doesn't look like that at all from the outside! She's gone so cold and rigid, as if she's already dead from within...No. I don't understand what's happening. I can hear her breathing just fine, but she was struggling to talk at all a minute ago. Is this an induced coma of some kind?
"I made a mistake," Alicia was saying frantically, wringing her hands in the air. "That's all this was, a great big mistake. Everyone makes mistakes, even angels. Just because the ritual has failed doesn't mean we still can't turn this around. In fact..." She snapped her fingers in the air, her whole face lighting up. "That's it! All of this must have been a test, not only for me, but also for you. Why else would the Cult of Neopocalypticon be defeated so quickly? Fate, this proves that you're the right one!
"You acted just like a real member of the House of Testarossa in your actions here. Ambition, dedication, a hidden darkness and the desire to honour the Testarossa name. No wonder the Cult of Neopocalypticon couldn't cage you. Maybe the ritual has already taken place in another medium, without you even realising it!" The blonde woman's crystal-blue eyes shone with excitement. "Could it be true, Fate? Are you really my long-lost sister as you are now – in heart, mind and soul? Please, tell me it's true! I've waited my whole life for something like this!"
The Enforcer turned Arf's face towards her, still frantically trying to work out what had happened to the girl. How could she be alive from the inside and dying on the outside? The orange-haired wolf-girl had gone completely limp in her arms, despite all of the contradictory signs of a strong heartbeat. On top of that, Fate knew almost nothing about the Arf in this world – what if the familiar was something different entirely? Alicia and Linith had changed so drastically that it was terrifying, but Arf...
"Fate, will you please answer me?" her twin sister said impatiently, lowering herself down to the surface of the roof. "I don't like it when you ignore me, Fate. It's a terrible thing to be ignored by the one person you love the most. For so many years, I endured total silence from the dead, even from the ex-members of my Family...and I would really like that silence to end now..."
She suddenly stopped short when she saw what Fate was doing, a puzzled expression coming over her face. The two electrical devices attached to her cheeks continued to hum away, though with a slightly different frequency than before.
"Fate, why are you wasting your magic on Arf?" she asked. "You know she isn't going to wake up, don't you?"
The Bureau mage clenched her hands angrily in response, already on edge from trying to save the dying familiar. There was no malice or intimidation in Alicia's face as she spoke, only a frightening degree of calmness – as if she had been simply stating the obvious...
"What would you know?" Fate said with painfully-controlled aggression, rising to her feet shakily. "Arf helped protect me! She threw her life away so that I would have a chance to get away – from you, Alicia! Don't try to tell me that it was all for nothing!"
Her sister shook her head sympathetically. "That isn't what I meant. Arf has been dead for years, Fate. That's her corpse you're holding." She sighed and touched one of the electrical devices against her cheeks. "Do you want to let go of her, or would you prefer to keep pretending that she's still alive?"
What...what is she talking about? How could Arf be already dead? Arf's been right here, helping me fight! Has Alicia completely lost it?
"You're just talking nonsense," the Enforcer said tensely, watching her sister very closely. "I don't know what kind of crazy idea you've got in your head this time, Alicia, but Arf has been beside me the whole time. She's been living and talking to me before you - "
"The Fate in this world died when she was just a child," Alicia cut her off. "My real sister, that is...Arf was the familiar created to be her lifelong companion, to serve her. When Fate's life ended so suddenly, her familiar was stranded with no purpose of their own, no reason to go on. As a result, Arf died soon after you did." She took a step forward confidently towards her, showing no sympathy for the Bureau mage's emotions. "The same thing is also true of Linith, as the faithful familiar of Precia Testarossa. You see, Fate, when you and Mother died and left me alone in the Family, there was no guarantee that either of your familiars would live on without you..."
The Enforcer stared at her open-mouthed in a complete loss for words. Not only had Arf been gone for several years, but Linith as well? Unable to live without a mistress of their own in the world, was Alicia really saying that they had gone and – No, that made even less sense! Even though a familiar was created by magic, they didn't need to depend on anyone or anything to support them or keep them living in the world! They weren't summons, or robots, or machines or anything like that...
Besides, I saw Linith when I first arrived here! I had a real-life conversation with her! How can Alicia possibly believe any of what she's saying? Arf and Linith can't be dead. If they were, then...that would mean that Alicia would be the only living member of the House of Testarossa. The whole thing would be a complete farce that revolved only around her.
Slowly, Fate lowered Arf's body to the floor of the roof. The familiar still made no response at all, but her heartbeat and pulse remained as stable as ever. In fact, her vital signs did not change even when her body rolled over onto the tiles of the house...and something should have changed...
Someone's lying to me here. There's something terribly wrong with Arf, something which goes beyond her physical wounds. She isn't dead, but on the other hand...I'm not so sure that she's alive either...What if familiars' bodies work slightly differently in this world? What if Alicia's right and they do need a human to rely on to keep them alive? If there's the slightest chance of that...
"Tell me one thing, Alicia," she said fiercely, bringing up Bardiche defensively in her other hand. "If Arf's been dead the whole time, then how was I able to talk to her just five minutes ago? How was she able to fight with me against real, living human beings?" She refused to back down any more, refused to let any more of her friends else suffer for her sake. "Why can I still hear her breathing right now?"
"That's not her breathing," her sister answered coldly. "That's not even her body, but a realistic shell powered by a blend of my own magic. Everything you can see of that "Arf" is an imitation, no more." Alicia touched one of the electrical devices attached to her cheek, just for a moment, and a visible shudder immediately ran through Arf's wounded body. "Her voice and memories were quite genuine, but that was about it. I guess you could say that she was just a clone that wanted to keep on living, Fate, just like it was between you and me..."
She gazed towards Fate, seeing the confusion and fear lingering in the mage's eyes still. "You still don't believe me, Fate, do you?" she said. "I told you that I was left all alone in the House of Testarossa. I was the only one left. Me. I didn't have any friends, associates, colleagues, guardians, no one to help me all. My former connections were severed in the blink of an eye, because nobody wanted to be associated with the affairs of the Testarossa name. They thought that doing so would tarnish their own reputations! Selfish, self-absorbed...Sinners, as Yagami likes to call them." Alicia smiled easily and turned away, as if embarrassed from using the word out loud. "I shouldn't really use Yagami's little words, though. I might start becoming unhealthy, just like her.
"Anyway. If I couldn't get help from outside, then I had to get help from inside. Sadly, all I had to keep me company were the dead, and I was left with no other choice. It wasn't like I was doing anything that hadn't been done before – mages of all sorts used to clone magical creatures many centuries ago, and nothing bad had ever happened. Just because the practice fell out of use within society, and nobody does it any more...
"Besides, it's a purely scientific process, with very little aptitude in magic required at all. All I really needed were the essences of Arf's and Linith's memories, and those had been preserved in the archives of the House of Testarossa. Once I got my hands on those, everything else was easy – cloning a familiar is well within anybody's boundaries since they're created from pure magic. I became a lot better at doing it over the years, too. At that stage of my life, I had all the time in the world..."
Turning back towards Fate again, Alicia tapped the two electrical devices attached to her cheeks. "Did you wonder what these were, Fate?" she said. "Did your curiosity take you that far? I wasn't going to explain them to you until after the ritual, but it's clear now that we've scrapped that little plan."
She squeezed hold of one of the devices, and Arf's body began to jerk spasmodically as if a violent electric current was running through her. Quickly, Fate rushed back to the familiar's side in alarm, desperately trying to help her friend. It was no use, however – whatever was happening to Arf was happening inside her.
"Stop it, Alicia!" the blonde mage cried. "You're hurting her!"
I can still feel her pulse. There's...there's no change at all from before! Her breathing rate is still the same, too, and that should be impossible with her body moving uncontrollably like this! A cold shiver ran down Fate's neck as she alighted on an uncomfortable thought. None of these vital signs correspond to the Arf that I'm seeing. What if...what if Alicia's right? What if this Arf really is just a shell, nothing more?
Her sister released her hold on the device, and the familiar's body went completely still again. She frowned and tapped the alien mechanism a few times, looking quite disappointed.
"The shell's been drained of all magic," she said. "Arf must have expended too much energy fighting for you, Fate. Physical wounds to the host body take their toll in other ways, too, and it was only a matter of time." Alicia sighed. "If I really wanted to, I guess I could clone the original body and revive her again...but to be honest, I don't see the point. Too many skeletons in the closet, literally speaking, too many ghosts of the past to disturb..."
As Fate watched in wide-eyed horror, her sister suddenly pulled the first electrical device off her cheek, taking a chunk of her own skin off with it in the process. A patch of grey sun-starved flesh was revealed underneath, still connected by several underlying electrodes which brimmed with energy. Alicia gave no sign that she had even noticed the pain.
Instead, the woman began to focus on removing each of the electrodes one by one, ignoring the clash of violent sparks that flew each time. As she disconnected each of the wires, the intense field of magic surrounding Alicia gradually shrank in response; clearly, the device had been responsible for enhancing her own scope of magic. Now that it was being shut down, however, its host was weakening as a result. As Alicia pulled the last of the wires free, the device went dead and powered down completely.
She dropped the inactive tool at Fate's feet without a word. It made brief contact with Arf as it hit the surface of the roof – and then the familiar's body crumbled into dust.
NO!
Desperately, the Enforcer rushed over to the spot where Arf had lain, falling to her knees as she tried to salvage anything that was left of her. There was nothing left to find, however; without a source of power to keep the familiar's body going, Arf had disintegrated into the fragments of a life long passed away. She had already been claimed by time from many years ago...
No! This can't be happening!
"Whew. That's a huge weight off my shoulders," Alicia said with quiet relief, seemingly talking to herself. "Nearly a third of my power was being sucked up through that device, just to keep Arf in one piece for so many years...now I can devote that same amount of energy towards Linith, and spend more time with Fate now that she's come home at last..." Almost dreamily, she started to turn back towards the Bureau mage and snapped her fingers. "About that, Fate, we've really got a lot of catching up to do over dinner - "
She froze to the spot, her mouth opening in astonishment as the Enforcer rushed forward in a full frontal attack against her. Bardiche's golden blade caught the tip of the sunlight for a split second, shining brightly at the apex of its charge, and then plunged down from above to cut Alicia in two.
"Fate?" Alicia stammered, seeming genuinely frightened. "What...what are you doing? Why are you trying to hurt - "
She made no move to get out of the way, and the sword sliced through her body without any resistance. Even so, it only cut harmlessly through thin air as Alicia reverted to an incorporeal state, striking though nothing as the woman solidified seconds later.
You killed Arf, Fate whispered in the depths of her mind, breathing hard. Maybe she wasn't alive to begin with, but you ruined any chance she had of coming back. You kidnapped me and took me away from Nanoha, after I tried so hard to find her again. You tried to put me through that terrible ritual, all the while gloating over my suffering. She twisted around on the heel of one foot, powering up a spell as she prepared to unleash a whirling slash attack. I'm not taking this anymore, Alicia! This is where it all ends!
"What did I do to you?" her sister demanded, her face darkening. "I'm just trying to help you, Fate! Are you mad at me about Arf? Is that why? She was already gone, long before you came here with your stupid Bureau friends from another life! All I did was tell you the truth!"
Fate's sword swung across the tip of her sister's shoulderblade, driving past it and curving down into the edge of the mansion roof. The foundation of the building shuddered from the impact of the blow, shaking back and forth unsteadily. There had been too many battles fought at this site today, and the roof had already taken massive damage from the previous fight with the cultists; if any more explosive magic was used, then the House of Testarossa was danger of collapsing completely. Fate wasn't care about that, however. She was sick with keeping everything inside her all the time, sick of everything going wrong all the time -
"Didn't I help you?" Alicia hissed, stepping aside expertly to avoid her next attack. "The first time you came into this world, Fate! Linith and I found you lying unconscious, right on the steps of the House of Testarossa! If I meant you any harm, don't you think I would have done so long before now? I gave you food and comfort, a bed to sleep in...are you just going to throw all that back in my face, Fate? If I hadn't helped you back then, the executors would have taken you away within minutes!"
She ducked under Bardiche's next swing and seized hold of Fate's wrist tightly. The edge of Alicia's magical field came into contact with the Enforcer's golden aura, and power shot out through the woman's hand in a sudden, darting movement. All of a sudden, Fate found herself immobilised to the spot. She couldn't move!
"I'm not going to let this happen," her sister murmured, squeezing her wrist harder as the paralysis set in. "You keep running away, Fate. You keep trying to fight me. It's either you, or one of those Bureau fiends, or...I don't want this to happen! Don't you understand! Everyone is always against me!" With a start, Fate saw that tears had formed in the corners of Alicia's eyes; tears of frustration and near-hysteria. "I just wanted you to stay with me, Fate, and accept me for what I am! Just once, you'd think someone would just do that! Just to stay with me...forever..."
The Enforcer tried to move her other arm, straining against the effect of the paralysing magic. She managed only about an inch before the opposing forces overcame her. On her own like this, she wasn't going to be able to get away at all. She was never going to see Nanoha again. Arf's passing had been in vain...
"Frigid Dagger!" Rein cried, appearing out of the sky behind Alicia's shoulder.
A series of sharp icy projectiles surrounded the blonde woman on all sides, plunging inwards at a single command to pierce her heart. In the blink of an eye, however, Alicia's clothes shimmered and became incorporeal again so that the frozen daggers passed through her body harmlessly. By doing so, however, she was no longer holding onto Fate's wrist. The flow of paralysis magic ceased.
Without any hesitation, the Enforcer sprang clear of her and threw up Round Shield between herself and her sister. It wouldn't last, but it would slow Alicia down and stop her getting close for a few more seconds at least. That was all the time she needed to cast an additional spell on her real target...
"Leave her to us, Fate!" Agito yelled, flying in from the other side with fire magic powering up across her arms. "You've got to get out of here!"
Rein? Agito?
Fate felt a warm feeling spread out from her chest as hope returned to her heart, washing away her previous despair within seconds. Somebody had come for her at last! After so much time spent fighting by herself, the Enforcer had thought that nobody was going to find her here. She'd just been about to abandon all hope...
I wasn't alone after all. Even without Arf, I was never really alone. The Bureau are still going strong, fighting for all of us even through everything that's happened, everything that we've endured up to now! A smile came across Fate's face at the thought. This isn't the time to give up yet! I can't lose to this!
Even so, she couldn't help but wonder – what were Rein and Agito doing here, exactly? Neither of the two unison devices had come through the portal. What had happened to Nanoha and the rest of the TSAB?
"What is the meaning of this?" Alicia thundered, rising through the air before them in a blaze of intense light. "Stay away from my Fate, or you will soon regret it."
Rein drew herself up, her hackles rising at such words. "She's not yours!" she said hotly. "Fate's got a life of her own at the Time-Space Administration Bureau with all of us! Who do you think you are? She's not even anything to do with you! She's going to be married with Nanoha, and it's going to be fantastic!"
Fate's heart skipped a beat. Nanoha? Is she okay?
"That's right!" Agito joined in. "You can't go around doing things like that to Fate! You've already made me angry, and Nanoha's already worried sick about her!"
"We heard you talking, Alicia," the blue-haired unison device declared, shaking out her blue hair across her shoulders. "You don't act like any sister that Fate would have had. You're not even from the same universe as she is! Don't start trying to excuse your own actions!"
The colour rose in Alicia's cheeks, and she began to gather power in her two hands at an alarming rate. A hiss of anger escaped between her teeth, turning into an extensively-twisted incantation of foreign syllables...
"Rein," Fate whispered with emotion, blinking away tears. "Agito. I...I can't tell you how good it is to see you two again. I thought no one would ever find me here..."
"Ha!" Agito scoffed proudly. "Nanoha told us to rescue you. It wasn't easy to trace you, Fate, but we got here in the end! You think any of us were going to give up on you?" A fierce smile flashed across the unison device's features. "She's still waiting for you, Fate! Everyone's waiting for your return!"
Everyone? The Enforcer's eyes widened in astonishment, and another wave of happiness swept across her. Everyone's here with Nanoha? And they're all waiting for me to come back? Then there's no delaying this any more!
There was no question of what she needed to do now. Whatever happened, Fate knew that she had to see Nanoha again. Her heart pounded at the thought of being held in her lover's arms again, to kiss and embrace her and share everything they had with each other. Even if they might not be able to get back home again, she felt as if she would still be the happiest woman in the world...
The Ace of Aces couldn't be too far away, but the real problem was getting away from Alicia. With the Cult of Neopocalypticon defeated, her twin sister was the only person stopping them from leaving the House of Testarossa for good. Fighting Alicia by herself would be extremely time-consuming and exhausting, both physically and mentally, and who knew if it were even possible? How much power did she wield, really?
Fighting her head-on isn't the solution, the Enforcer realised, noting the weakening structure of the mansion below them. We'll do this another way instead. Alicia mentioned before that she had to leave to "re-charge" herself after using too much power to get me here. Maybe we can trick her into the same situation? No, that might take too much time. I don't want to spend another minute in this place if possible.
"Agito, I need you to distract Alicia in some way," she said. "It doesn't matter whether it damages her or not, as long as it draws away her attention. I'll handle the rest." Fate clenched one hand against her sword determinedly, remembering Arf's sacrifice. "I don't intend to lose any more friends today. Not a single one!"
"You got that right," Agito replied, whipping her arms forward as Alicia flew towards them with gathering speed. "Take this! Brennenkugel!"
Burning missiles flew from her hands to explode against Alicia's face and hands. As before, the woman's clothes shifted to avoid the effects of the first blast, but she made the mistake of reverting to normal soon afterwards. The rest of the fireballs slammed into her head-on, and pain registered in Alicia's features with a mix of surprise and annoyance.
For a moment, Fate gazed downwards at her sister to see similar pain reflected in her own eyes. But there was no time for sympathy: she had to get back to Nanoha whilst the opportunity still remained. Already, Alicia's hands were curling around to release another spell of unspeakable power, whilst more of Agito's fireballs rained down to pin her to the surface of the roof ...
She's in position! Quickly, before she hits back!
"Sprite Zanber!" the Enforcer cried.
She brought Bardiche down in a two-handed cleave of magical energy – not at Alicia, but towards the House of Testarossa itself. The golden arc rising from the tip of her weapon grew to a concentrated blaze of power as big as three times the length of her blade, and sliced straight through the middle of the roof. The entire mansion trembled with the force of the blow, reeling from the shockwaves that passed through it. Gradually, the tiles of the roof began to crumble and give way, causing Alicia's body to plunge down into the inside of the mansion...
"Fate," her sister said quietly as she fell through the air without resistance. "You're doing the wrong thing..."
With the building's supports virtually decimated by the Enforcer's attack, there was very little keeping the rest of the roof up. As a backlash of energy ripped through the mansion, this last piece of resistance crumbled. Within seconds, the remainder of the roof had caved in on itself. Countless shards of slate and brick came raining down towards the ground and the interior of the mansion, followed by huge heavy slabs of concrete which broke off in mid-air to smash on impact. As the devastation continued, all of the the other walls of the House of Testarossa collapsed in a similar fashion, plunging those last few metres to the ground in a billowing cloud of smoke and dust...
Fate and the unison devices watched, appalled, as the entire mansion was soon buried beneath tons and tons of rock. Even the great garden around the perimeter had been covered with a thick lining of ash and smoke, with a few trees felled by the piles of falling concrete. As a final sign, the statue of Alicia Testarossa had fallen from its pedestal and lay smashed and broken on the grass, split into dozens of stone pieces.
Throughout all of the wreckage, there had been no sign of Alicia emerging alive. The mistress of the Family of Testarossa had shown no sign of using magic or any techniques of her own as she fell to her doom, nor of putting up any resistance at all. She had to be buried under all of that rock and concrete.
But Fate wasn't falling for this. She'd watched Alicia fight before, seen with her own eyes how her sister was unaffected by any normal attacks; even Nanoha hadn't been able to defeat her during their brief encounter with each other. Looking down at the rubble right now, the Enforcer doubted that the fall of the mansion had really put a stop to Alicia. Who knew what other tricks she had up her sleeve? That had been a little too easy...
Maybe she's still alive down there, maybe she's not. In any case, I've managed to slow her down enough for us to make our escape from here. She's not going to be chasing after me again any time soon.
Even so, a part of Fate felt like she wanted to go searching through the wreckage, just to check if Alicia was all right. Her sister could be suffering badly under there...or she could be feeling no pain at all, laughing at her concern. A pang went through the Enforcer's heart at the thought of causing such harm to someone who claimed to love her so much; despite all of her delusions and crazed schemes, Alicia was still her sister. She wasn't any sister that Fate would ever have wanted, but still...she hadn't even tried to defend herself. Alicia had showed no mercy for anyone else she came into contact with, not for Nanoha or Arf or the people of Uminari City. And yet she had just let Fate put her down like that...
Alicia belongs to this universe, not mine. Maybe this is all for the best. Right now, Nanoha and the rest of the Bureau are waiting for me...and I can't stay here. This isn't where I belong. If we don't get out of here right now...
"Let's go," Fate said, forcing herself to turn away.
Rein and Agito flew up at either side of her, watching the wreckage of the House of Testarossa for a few seconds more. Neither of the unison devices knew why the blonde mage seemed so uneasy at beating Alicia, but the situation seemed to have resolved itself. They were free to leave.
Without looking back, the three of them headed off back towards the central districts of Uminari City, back to where the rest of the Bureau was awaiting their return. Back to Nanoha...
The situation at the hospital facility had escalated to the point of being beyond anyone's control. Hordes of Grylmark's mutants crawled across the ground at virtually every visible point within the vicinity of the complex, roaring and hissing as they flooded out into the streets of Uminari City and lay waste to everything they saw. Some of the creatures were heading in the direction of the rebellion, fighting executors and rebels alike, whilst others were picking their targets more randomly; in each instance, their presence served only to further fuel the tides of war. With every passing minute, more and more of the creatures were rushing out of the facility itself until there seemed no end to this nightmarish army. Soon hundreds of the beasts were out in the open and on the loose, tearing up everything that got in their way...
The hole made in the top of the hospital by Srethis' and Ungore's fall had been sealed up, and the surrounding force field had been re-activated and reinforced with greater power across its entire expanse. Grylmark's work, of course: he clearly had no intention of just letting the Bureau walk in and take Vita back, not without making their life difficult first.
Signum and Shamal hovered above the entrance of the facility, keeping their backs to one other and defending themselves against any enemy that got too close. Most of the monsters were unable to reach them at this height, but some of the aerial types had no problem engaging the two mages in combat. Several dragon-like creatures did just that, charging up across the sky at Signum and Shamal with a blood-curdling howl, all the while spitting blue fire from their mouths and nostrils. The glistening hue of summon magic shone deep within their eyes and gleamed across their tough scales and hide as they attacked.
"Purple Lightning Flash!"
With the aid of her Velka magic, it took only minutes for Signum to dispatch the enemies and repel them downwards again. Red and green blood spattered across her armour from the creatures' wounds, which she wiped off distastefully as Shamal worked her healing magic to assist her. Up here in the air, they could do very little to stop the invasion. Was it really an invasion? It certainly felt like it, but what did Grylmark intend to do with this army of mutants? Was he going to use them to take over the city?
You have three hours, Guardian Knights.
No, Signum knew the truth. He was doing everything in his power to stop them from entering the hospital and getting Vita back. It wasn't just Vita, either – the summoner was probably using the great facility as his main base of operations. If the Bureau took control here, then he would have nowhere else to go in this world...
"This is ridiculous," the swordswoman muttered, looking down at the hundreds of enemies causing chaos on the ground. Going down there to fight would be pure suicide, but how else were they supposed to get inside the facility? "If we had the entire Bureau at our backs, we still wouldn't be able to break through that mutant army."
"It's hopeless," Shamal said in quiet dismay. "We've got no choice, Signum. We have to retreat."
The pink-haired Guardian Knight clenched one fist tightly, knowing that the medical mage was only voicing the most rational choice of action. Either retreat, or face annihilation at the hands of countless enemies which outnumbered them about five hundred to one. Signum didn't want to resort to something like that, not after making a promise to herself that she was not going to abandon Vita again...
Think. The number of mutants seems infinite and never-ending, but that can't be true. Even Grylmark's power has limits. True, he probably gets an annoying boost of strength from Oguba's magic, but this isn't time magic that we're seeing here. These are basic summons that Grylmark used his own magic for...which means that there's an end to them.
Signum could see it now. Now she had tried focusing beyond the endless fighting at the edge of the city, she could see it all too clearly. A small fraction of of the mutants were actually keeping themselves in check very close to the hospital, and not charging out madly into the city like all the rest. If Grylmark was still monitoring their movements, then he would making sure that some of the creatures were defending the facility.
The Bureau didn't need to defeat every last enemy on the battlefield. They only had to beat the ones around the entrance, just long enough for them to gain entry. Once Grylmark's magic ran out, the rest of the creatures wouldn't be able to keep their forms for much longer...but the Velka Knight suspected that his magic was probably powerful enough to sustain the mutants for many hours. They just had to find a way to disrupt that flow, somehow...
What about the new wave of monsters coming out of the hospital? Can we put a stop to that?
Another winged mutant came screaming at her from the left, and Signum easily blasted it away with Laevatein's magic without a second glance. The extra enemies were emerging from four specific passageways in the hospital, as far as she could see...one entrance on each border of the complex. If she were to designate those entrances as north, south, east, west, thinking of the whole facility as the layout of a compass...
"Shamal," she said suddenly, rising forward. "I need you to do something for me." The beginnings of a plan were taking place in her mind, and her eyes were bright with excitement as she brought the medical mage close to her. "I need you to go back to Nanoha right now and tell her what's going on. Tell her that there are four entrances in the facility on each side, and that the new waves of mutants are coming out of each one. Tell her," she said, squeezing her friend's hands tightly, "that I'm going on ahead to the northernmost entrance. She needs to know where to send backup."
"What?" Shamal said in surprise, holding on to her. "You're going on ahead? Signum, you can't do that! There's too many of those enemies for you to handle – we have to go back and think of a plan - "
"I've already got a plan," the pink-haired swordswoman replied. "Kind of, anyway. If this works, Shamal, we'll finally be able to gain access to that damn hospital and get Vita out of there!Even so, I can't do it without the rest of the Bureau helping me. You have to go back to Nanoha and tell her everything that I just told you, especially the part about the mutants. She'll understand what I'm talking about."
Shamal was reluctant to release her grip. "Signum," she said in a low voice. "I don't really understand what you're talking about. But I know you want to stay close to Vita, and if anything happens to you out here because I left you alone - "
"I'll be fine," the taller woman said with slight irritation, turning her face away instinctively. "You don't need to worry about me, Shamal. I can take care of myself."
"It didn't seem that way when I first got here. Srethis and Ungore hurt you pretty badly - "
With an effort, Signum shook the medical mage's hands away from her. "That was different," she countered, forcing a gentler tone into her voice. "They caught me off-guard, right when I wasn't expecting a giant two-headed purple monster to drop out of the sky onto my head. I didn't know what I was up against back again. But this time I do." She exhaled briefly. "I'm just going to maintain my position up north and wait for you to come back, Shamal. That's all. I can't get into the hospital without everyone's help anyway."
The medical mage folded her arms and gave her a long look filled with worry and unease. Perhaps she had already guessed part of what Signum intended to do.
"All right," Shamal said reluctantly, giving up. "I don't like doing this, but I'll trust that you've got some kind of working idea. I'll go back and tell Nanoha about this plan of yours." She turned around to fly back southwards, clearly unhappy about this decision. "But don't go picking any more fights you can't win, Signum! If you're not still in one piece when I see you again - "
"I said I'll be fine."
The blonde mage sighed, pausing in mid-air before her. "Just...just be careful, okay?" she said anxiously. "Vita wouldn't want you to sacrifice yourself for her sake, Signum. We still need to count on one another."
"I understand," Signum replied. "I'll be waiting here for all of you to help me. I promise."
With one last look to each other, the two Guardian Knights set off in opposite directions towards their chosen destinations. To the north, mutants roamed the grounds of the facility and turned the area into sheer and utter chaos. The the south, Nanoha and the rest of the Bureau awaited news of Fate's return. Soon enough, everything would be coming together in ways than no one could ever have expected...