BM - Chapter 22 - Look On My Works, Ye Mighty, and Despair!
"Holy shit…" Kiara mumbled, looking around at the world she hadn't really expected to ever see again. "We did it… We did it!" she suddenly cheered, throwing her arms into the air.
"Here, let me see that now," Amelia asked, grabbing Kiara's arm. She tried to find a timeline where it hadn't been cut off, but still struggled to. She shook her head after a couple seconds of trying.
"Still no luck?" Kiara asked back. Amelia sighed.
"Sorry, they hit you really good in every timeline it seems," Amelia said softly, "The best injury you can have is missing an arm." Kiara nodded and looked at her arm. It was regenerating, but a whole limb would take a decent amount of time to fully regenerate.
"She'll be fine, Amelia," Calliope stood up and brushed herself off. Kiara gave Amelia a large smile to show that Calliope was right. Amelia nodded and smiled back before walking over to where Ina was treating Gura.
"She doing ok?" she asked Ina. Ina glanced up at her and nodded.
"If there is one thing she's good at, it's taking a beating and getting back up. Most of these are just flesh wounds, but a couple could become serious if she doesn't get better medical attention soon," Ina responded. Gura sat up on her elbows, looking at Amelia with one eye nearly swollen shut.
"I'll be fine, but I think that a hospital would be nice," she said, collapsing back onto the ground with a huff.
"Don't move so much," Ina chastised. Gura stuck her tongue out in response.
"I'm just angry my trident is broken now!" she whined on the ground. Amelia couldn't help but chuckle.
"Out of everything we just went through, you're most upset at your trident being broken?" Amelia asked rhetorically. Gura gave her massive amounts of side eye.
"Yeah! We beat them and we're all alive, so of course I would be upset over something that didn't survive!"
"I wouldn't be too sure that they are beaten just yet, you guys," Calliope said, staring at the writhing mass of the Ancient Ones.
'We doubt they'll just recede back into their pocket dimension. They're going to want a fight,' AO-chan said in big glowing letters above Ina. They all couldn't help but agree with them. The Ancient Ones were not the type to go quietly.
"If they want a fight, we'll give 'em one!" Kiara accepted the challenge, lighting her sword ablaze once more.
"Wouldn't it be smarter to retreat and heal up first? Surely the Council must be on their way by now," Ina said. Calliope shook her head.
"I already tried calling for help again. Still can't get through. The Council is probably busy with any other versions of them that did spread. And besides, we can't just leave them with the Crystal alone. We got to make sure they die before we can leave here," Calliope said, sounding incredibly fired up. Kiara shot her a smirk.
"Ina, when you're done can you get Amelia's shoes unstuck from my top?" she asked nicely to the Priestess. Ina looked up and saw the shoes that were indeed still attached to her.
"Sure," she sighed, standing up and walking over to Kiara, "How in the world did this idea even work?" she mumbled under her breath. Kiara giggled.
"If its stupid but it works…"
"It ain't stupid," Gura finished the saying from the ground. She shakily got to her own feet, but stumbled slightly. Amelia quickly moved to her side to steady her. Kiara and Ina gave each other a knowing look and cheeky smile.
"Ame, can you help Gura a little?" Ina asked, prying off Amelia's shoes and throwing them to her.
"Sure, you guys should make sure the Ancient Ones don't do anything in the meantime," Amelia responded. Kiara and Ina nodded before walking over to Calliope's side. The three of them stood and observed the complete mess that the Ancient Ones had been reduced to. No longer were they calm and calculating, but instead a whirlpool of chaos.
"I can't believe we actually won…" Gura said, the last effects of adrenaline finally wearing off. The pain of her dozens of wounds began to settle into her. She felt wobbly on her feet and Amelia helped her back to the ground.
"I didn't see much of you, but it was damn impressive," Amelia praised her. Gura couldn't help but blush and smile. Amelia inspected Gura's various wounds, making sure not to touch them too much.
"Thanks… I bet you looked awesome riding on Kiara's back," Gura returned the sentiment. Amelia paused to let herself laugh a little.
"I probably looked ridiculous, but it felt badass while I was doing it." Gura laughed slightly, too, but the pain from it made her stop quickly. "Alright, let's see what I can do with these," Amelia said after finishing looking Gura over.
Amelia put her hand on one of Gura's wounds, pressing against it as lightly as she could while still making contact. Gura tensed underneath her touch. Amelia searched around for any other possibilities where Gura had sustained less injuries.
"Do you think you could get my trident back, too?" Gura asked quietly. She was really starting to get the hang of it. Amelia lightly shook her head.
"No, it was blasted out of the timeline entirely. It doesn't exist anywhere now." Gura frowned hearing this. She had been getting quite used to using that trident. It was almost beginning to feel natural, despite it being so large for her.
"Is that what happened to you?" she asked, hesitating slightly. Amelia paused for a moment before taking a deep breath.
"Yeah, I was thrown out of my timeline just like that. Thankfully, it seems like the Crystal didn't really care about throwing you out, just getting you away." Amelia's voice had a slight shake in it while she spoke. It was not lost on Gura how scared Amelia had been for her.
"Thanks for saving me, Ame. I would do the same for you," she said, trying to put her friend at ease.
"I know…" They both stayed quiet for a moment, the sounds of the Ancient Ones struggling in the distance filling the gap. Eventually, Amelia removed her hand from Gura and stood up. "I couldn't find much, but some of your wounds are a little better now. I think you can move around without falling back down."
Gura attempted to stand and noticed that it was much easier than before. She was able to stand and move with relative ease now. It still hurt, but at least now she was mobile.
"It feels better, thanks," Gura said quietly. Even the sounds of the Ancient Ones' struggles began to fade away for them. It was just them.
Just them…
Amelia felt her chest tighten slightly. She had almost lost Gura just now. What kind of regrets would she be left with if she never got to tell her how she felt? Her chest seized more and she had to take some deep breaths to calm herself.
But she hadn't lost Gura. She was still standing in front of her, so she didn't need to think about those kinds of things. What she did need to think about was what she was going to say next. Gura was staring at her, waiting for her to say something.
'I like you, Gura.'
"Let's go see what's going on with the Ancient Ones." Gura nodded and the two of them began to walk over to where the other three girls were standing.
Amelia kicked herself real bad for that one. She still couldn't just say it. Even with everything they had been through, how close they were to accomplishing their goal here, she was still scared of confessing. She steeled her mind against her negativity. Sure, she still hadn't confessed, but she would.
When they were done with all this, she would definitely-
An overwhelming pressure developed above her. Amelia didn't even have time to look up, but she knew what was coming her way. Whatever form it was taking, there was an attack threatening to crush her and Gura.
As fast as she could, Amelia grabbed Gura by the arm and dragged her down to the ground. At the same time she threw her other arm into the air to catch whatever was trying to hit them. As long as she made contact first, she could render the attack harmless-
"Amelia, what are you doing?!" Gura yelled at her in confusion. The whole time, Amelia's eyes had been transfixed on Gura, never looking above her. The pressure above her vanished as quickly as it had developed.
"Bu- What-" She was at a complete loss for words. Finally looking at where she had felt the attack coming from, there was nothing there.
"What was that about?! It hurt!" Gura grunted, trying to get back up from the ground. She felt liquid running down her legs, and sure enough when she looked down she was bleeding again. She also wiped away a small amount of blood from her forehead.
"S-Sorry, there was something…" Amelia began to question her own judgment slightly, "Did you feel anything above us just now?" she asked a question instead of trying to explain herself. Gura looked at her confused for another moment before shaking her head.
"Did you feel something above us?" Gura asked the question right back. Amelia nodded, but also began to think about what had just happened. She had sensed something before Gura had. Something like that had only happened once before, when she had felt the temporal barrier's presence before anyone else.
That attack hadn't been from this timeline… It had been from another, but it was brought into this one…
It was at that moment that Amelia began to pay attention to how the air around her felt. It had always been charged with magic since they were in the Phoenix Hatchery, but now she noticed something else happening.
The air was boiling over with energy that only she could feel.
Oh no…
No, no, no, no, no…
Not again…
"Ame, are you ok? What's going on?" Gura grabbed her arm and tried to get her attention. Amelia looked over at Gura, eyes wide in terror and breathing incredibly quickly. She was on the verge of a panic attack, but she needed to tell Gura what was going on.
"The timeline is destabilizing…"
Before Gura could begin to process what that meant, a loud crash resonated from just in front of them. They both looked up and saw a purple tentacle phase in and out of existence before disappearing. Just underneath, Gura and Amelia see Ina's barrier fade away. They both begin to run over, but Gura couldn't get more than a few steps in before stumbling.
Kiara's flames ignited, as the Phoenix flew straight at the writhing Ancient Ones. She cut into them, but with most of her magic already spent in the previous fight it wasn't that deep. However, the attack seemed to wake them up from their pain-filled nightmare.
A tentacle flew out from their body, carrying Kiara and her sword along with it. The Phoenix quickly detached herself from the tentacle, but several more sprouted up and began to attack her. She flew around them and eventually was able to return to the ground. Calliope helped cut down the remaining few that were chasing her.
Kiara then felt a sharp burning sensation followed by a thick liquid running down her cheek. She could only move her eyes fast enough to catch a glimpse of a tentacle fading away. By the time she had her body turned to fight it, the tentacle was gone.
"Damn…" she mumbled to herself, wiping the blood off of her face, "I thought we got them all…"
"Something's wrong," Ina said, still breathing heavily from the attack she barely managed to block earlier.
"Ina keep that barrier up!" Amelia screamed from behind them. Ina turned and saw both Amelia and Gura hurriedly running towards her. She did as told when they got within her range.
"What's going on?" she asked them, feeling that they had some idea about what was going on. Amelia's panicked expression let her know that she was correct.
"When the Ancient Ones brought down that dimension, they destabilized the timeline. An attack can come from anywhere and go through any attempt to block it." This made Ina, Calliope, and Kiara feel a sudden chill. They had gotten pretty lucky that Ina's barrier had defended them before if what Amelia was saying was true. The next time, they might not be so lucky…
"Is there anything that we can do to stop it?" Calliope asked, as cold as ever. Her mind immediately began searching for possible solutions, but this was far outside her area of expertise. Only Amelia had ever had experience with this kind of thing before.
"Try and completely avoid attacks if possible. You still might get injured, but it might be less than trying to block. As for stopping the destabilization, we need to start giving the Crystal energy so that it can fix the timeline." Amelia thought back to her plan in her previous timeline to charge her Droplet with electricity. Theoretically, it should work in this situation, too.
"How are we supposed to get anywhere near it?!" Gura asked. It had taken everything from her and more to even hit the Crystal with a single attack. Getting close enough and feeding it energy seemed completely impossible.
"We have to try," Amelia said simply, trying not to let her panic affect her judgment. They were going to find a way out of this. "Ina, can you do any kind of emergency healing on Gura and Kiara? Calli, can you destroy anything that gets too close to the barrier?" Amelia began to give commands in the form of questions.
"Roger." Calliope vanished into a shadow and appeared on the outside of the barrier. She scouted for any possible attacks that might be coming their way.
"I might be able to, but it is going to hurt. Wouldn't it be better for them to remain functional like they are right now?" Ina explained her concerns. She could rapidly close Gura and Kiara's wounds by morphing their skin back together, however this would be highly uncomfortable. For normal people, they could even die from the procedure.
"Gura and Kiara aren't normal. They can take it," Amelia answered. Both Kiara and Gura nodded, supporting Amelia's claim. Ina sighed and placed a hand on Gura's exposed skin.
The next few seconds of Gura's life were the most painful she had ever experienced. Even all the times she had been cut and sliced couldn't begin to compare to what Ina was doing to her right now. It felt like her skin and muscles were being melted and manipulated into a vague shape of what they should be.
"Sorry…" Ina quietly apologized, "This is actually a method of torture that can technically also heal. It'll be over in a bit, but you'll still feel sick for a while." Gura could only manage a slight nod through her pain.
"You know what, I think I'm good. I can still move fine as I am now," Kiara said, backing out of being healed.
"Then go and help Calli outside," Amelia told her, "She is the key to stopping the destabilization." Kiara nodded before walking over to the barrier. It opened when she got near and she moved to the other side, letting it close behind her.
"There we go, all done Gura," Ina said, standing from Gura's twitching form. She felt horrible for doing this to her friend, but if it meant that she could get back into the fight, it would be worth it.
"I-I'll m-manag-ge…" Gura coughed out. Ina now looked at Amelia.
"What do you mean that Calli is the key?" she asked her friend. Amelia blinked a few times, keeping herself as calm as possible.
"Calli has the unique ability to avoid being affected by the destabilization. She is the only one who can pull off enough attacks with absolute certainty to get to the Crystal. Then you, Gura, and Kiara can quickly feed the Crystal with as much energy as it needs," Amelia explained her first draft of her plan. Unfortunately, the sounds of battle happening just outside of the barrier meant that she wouldn't have the chance to make any revisions. "I can also help you make barriers and spells that can avoid the destabilization."
"Wh-why c-can't we j-just hit it again…?" Gura asked. Amelia shook her head.
"In the pocket dimension, the Crystal just tried to get you away from it when you hit it. It wasn't really trying to launch you out of the dimension. That is the only reason I was able to pull you back in." Amelia remembered the bright light that had transported her to this timeline. "If we hit it now, it would completely remove whoever hit it out of the timeline…"
"W-well that w-won't work…" Gura said, putting her head back onto the ground. She took a few short breaths before trying to pick herself up off of the ground. With a little help from Amelia and Ina, she was able to get to her feet.
"You think you'll be able to fight at all?" Ina asked her. Gura gave a weak thumbs up.
"Give me a couple minutes and I'll be fighting right alongside you," she responded, feigning confidence.
"Alright, let's help them out in whatever way we can. Theoretically, we have a decent amount of time until the destabilization becomes too bad, but I don't want to wait too long." Gura and Ina both nodded to Amelia's declaration. Ina lowered the barrier around them and prepared to support her friends in whatever battle they were fighting outside.
What none of them expected to see was Kiara getting speared through her stomach by a tentacle.
Calliope reformed outside the barrier from a nearby shadow. A tentacle immediately tried to attack her, but she sliced through it with ease.
It still didn't seem like the Ancient Ones were attacking them specifically. None of their attacks were aimed at Ina's barrier, instead just going after random objects within their range. However, they seemed to prefer moving things to attack. Calliope fit this bill perfectly.
Many more tentacles came her way. She could still cut her way through them, but the size and strength of the tentacles was steadily growing with each attack. She needed someone else to help her out soon.
The main problem for her was that there was no one who could help her effectively. Kiara was injured and running on embers at this point, Gura was nearly dead, and Ina needed to prioritize her barrier above attacking. More, much larger, tentacles forced her to jump backwards. The ground in front of her was torn up, throwing rocks and dirt into the air. This gave the Ancient Ones a few more targets, allowing Calliope a moment to collect herself.
She disappeared into a shadow and reappeared closer to the barrier. It didn't matter to her who helped, but she needed someone to take some of the burden off of her.
Her wishes were answered when Kiara stepped out of the barrier. Her sword ignited in her hand, as wings of fire sprouted from her back.
"They are attacking anything that moves, so get away from the barrier if you can!" Calliope told her. Kiara nodded and flew high up above the ground. Multiple tentacles rose up to try and intercept her, but her flaming sword burnt them all to ash.
She tries to dash in towards the Ancient Ones' main body, but more tentacles catch up to her. Once again, she tries to burn them all away, but her fire is much weaker this time. One of the tentacles glances off her side, forcing her to abandon her approach.
Her magic was currently being split across trying to heal, flying, and her sword. Along with how much magic she had lost using her true Phoenix form earlier, there was no way that she could keep fighting at the level she had been. She quickly fell back and landed next to Calliope.
"I told you not to burn your magic unnecessarily," she chastised her friend. Kiara frowned and slashed a nearby tentacle.
"Sorry…" she apologized. Calliope glanced at her before sighing.
"Well it doesn't matter now. Let's just focus on beating them."
"Amelia said that we have to feed the Crystal energy to stop the destabilization and to avoid attacks when possible," Kiara relayed what she had been told in the barrier. Calliope took a moment to process the information.
"It'll take all of us to get to the center of that monster. When are the rest of them coming out?" she asked.
"Ina is trying to heal Gura, but it looked really painful. I hope it will only be a couple more minutes, but Gura will still probably be out for a little more." Calliope eyed the main body of the Ancient Ones. They were still screaming and attacking randomly.
"Let's pave a path forward for them," she said, steeling her resolve to help as much as she could. "I'll use my rapid Shadow Walk and cut as many tentacles as possible. You try to deal with anything that I don't get." Kiara nodded and followed Calliope when she began her attack.
Calliope's magic reserves were basically limitless, however she could only use so much at once. Rapidly teleporting around in shadows was near her limit. Once she cut through a tentacle, she would quickly turn to shadow and teleport to the next one. The main problem was that she needed a moment to reform herself and scythe when she teleported.
"That attack will not work twice."
The shadow underneath Calliope suddenly vanished, as the tentacle she had just sliced in two was yanked away from her. At the same moment, a tentacle shot out from the ground and flew straight up at the Reaper who was nearly stationary in the air.
Half of her body and scythe were still shadows and the tentacle was too fast. There was no time for her to reform her scythe and cut through the tentacle.
Kiara was on the ground just behind Calliope and saw the tentacle racing up towards her. It was obviously trying to hit her soul and knock her out of this fight. She tried to slice straight through the tentacle.
But the tentacle merely bent around her blade. With her fire being so weak now, she couldn't burn through the dirt coating and the tentacle fast enough to stop it.
The Ancient Ones screaming had been replaced with their maniacal laughter. They felt their tentacle plunge into flesh and knew that the Reaper had been taken care of…
Wait, flesh? Wasn't a Reaper made out of shadow?
Kiara didn't even know how she had gotten there. One moment she was standing on the ground, the next she was being impaled by the tentacle in Calliope's place. She had used every last ounce of speed in her to rush up to Calliope and take the hit for her.
The tentacle tried to throw Kiara away, but Calliope was able to cut through it. Several blasts from Ina destroyed any more incoming tentacles. Both girls came crashing back to the ground.
"I-I c-can't let y-y-you d-die… You a-are… th-the k-k-keyy…" Kiara wheezed out, despite the hole in her stomach. Calliope held her body just off of the ground, feeling it becoming weaker and weaker.
"Idiot… you should have just told me that…" she whispered. Kiara smiled weakly.
"Y-you g-go… get th-that b-body… a-and g-g-grab m-me t-to…"
Takanashi Kiara died for a second time in the Hatchery.
Her body turned to ash in Calliope's grasp.
"It is a shame that I killed her instead of the Reaper. Still, a dead enemy is a dead enemy."
Calliope's blood would be boiling if she had any. She turned and stared at the Ancient Ones. Every ounce of her body wanted to charge at them and try to kill them right now, but that would be stupid. She couldn't let Kiara's sacrifice go to waste.
"You're awake?!" Amelia yelled, confused at how the Ancient Ones were talking. They laughed at her question.
"We were simply pretending to be out of control until we could strike at you," they revealed.
"Help us stop the destabilization at least!" Ina pleaded with them, "If we don't stop it, then all of us will die! We can fight after, but right now all of us-" Her words were cut short by more laughter from the Ancient Ones.
"What makes you think that we care if we die here? There are bound to be copies of us already in other dimensions that can finish what we started. And besides, destroying this timeline will stop you from undoing any of what we have done!"
Amelia felt the air around her shift. The energy that only she could feel began to grow in intensity. Tentacles, both real and destabilized, appear in front of them and begin attacking them all. Ina blasts as many away as she can and Calliope cuts through many others. Some of Ina's blasts go straight through a few tentacles, glitching out as they do.
"Ina, put barriers around everyone like you did in Atlantis!" Amelia yelled, thinking on her feet. Ina does what she was asked and puts personal barriers around everyone. Because they aren't underwater this time, she only surrounds Calliope's body with a barrier and not her scythe. Amelia then runs over to Ina and wraps her arms around her in a hug. Their barriers fuse together and she makes contact with Ina's body.
"What's your plan?" Ina asked quickly. Amelia focused on Ina's magic and applied her own Destabilization to it. This effectively amped up Ina's own Destabilization.
"I'm making your barriers resistant to destabilized attacks," she responded. One of the tentacles that Ina couldn't destroy hits Calliope's barrier. However, it doesn't go through like it should. "I realized that you guys should've been crushed by that first attack, but your barrier somehow stopped it. Since you're Destabilized like me from time travel, your barriers can block some attacks. I'm turning that chance up as high as it can go," Amelia explained.
"You really are something…" Ina said, amazed that Amelia figured all of that out in such a short amount of time.
"It's imperfect, though. I don't know how long I can keep this up and there is still a chance that an attack will get through."
"It at least gives us a fighting chance," Ina responded. Amelia looked at Calliope fighting alone against dozens of tentacles. Already, she had seen several attacks get through the barrier surrounding her. The only reason she was still fighting was because her regeneration was so strong. If one of the attacks hit her soul, though, she was done for. It was only a matter of time. Her panic from earlier was beginning to resurge. She wasn't sure if they could win this the way things were right now.
If only they could go back in time and not wake up the Ancient Ones.
If only…
Amelia pulled out her time watch from her pocket and stared at it. She quietly turned to Ina who was also staring at the time watch.
"Can you corrupt the Droplet?" she asked her. Ina's eyes went wide when she realized what Amelia was asking her to do.
"B-But won't that make things worse?!" she asked, completely confused as to why Amelia would want her to do that.
"We're not going to win like this," Amelia said, accepting the current reality. Calliope crashed into the ground nearby and quickly got back up. She gave her friends a quick glance before continuing to fight. "The only thing we can do is go back in time and redo this from the start."
"How far back?" Ina asked, taking the time watch from Amelia and opening it up. The pure blue Droplet glowed brightly in her hand.
"Just before Kiara attacked the Ancient Ones and woke them up. Any sooner and it is already too late, but any further and we might not have time to undo the damage this will cause," Amelia told her. Ina nodded and began to inspect the Droplet with her magic. She had already been around a corrupted Droplet, so she had some knowledge about what made it different compared to a normal one. However, she was still uncertain that she could properly corrupt one without rendering it useless.
"A-Amelia?" Gura limped over to where Ina and Amelia were standing. She had a very scared expression on her face. "Wh-What's going on?" Amelia turned and looked Gura in the eyes.
"I have to go back." Gura's eyes widened just like Ina's had when she'd said this.
"Wh-What?! Wh-Why?!" she asked, terrified and in denial. Amelia shook her head sadly.
"We can't win. The only way we get out of this alive is if I go back and stop Kiara from waking up the Ancient Ones." Gura opened her mouth to continue to argue against Amelia going back in time, but she was interrupted by the Ancient Ones' booming voice.
"We will not allow that!" they screamed across the battlefield. One of their attacks had just hit Calliope especially hard and she was struggling to get up from the ground. A magic circle appeared just to the right of Amelia. She had no time to move.
However, Gura did. Asking the most of her body in that moment, she channeled the last remnants of Primal and closed the distance between herself and Amelia. She just barely made it in time, pushing her friend just barely out of the way of the beam of magic.
She couldn't feel the left side of her body anymore, though.
The last thing she thought before she died was that at least Amelia was safe now.
Gawr Gura died.
Amelia stared down at Gura's destroyed body and felt her entire body seize up. She collapsed to her knees and began to breathe erratically.
This was the second time that she had watched her crush die in front of her. This time she had even saved her life.
But this time, she knew what she had to do to fix it. She slowly stood and walked over to Ina. She stared blankly at the work Ina was doing on the Droplet. Calliope got back to her feet and began to defend them all again.
Ina noticed her out of the corner of her eye and glanced over. She did a double take when she saw how much blood was on Amelia's barrier.
"A-Amelia, what's-!" she began to yell, but Amelia cut her off.
"It's not mine…" she said blankly. Ina looked over Amelia's shoulder and saw Gura's mangled body. She gasped and almost dropped the Droplet. "Keep going. If this works then she won't stay dead." Amelia almost sounded like Calliope with how cold her tone of voice was. It was the only way she could cope with the current situation.
Calliope flew into the ground yet again, but this time she didn't get up in time. Several attacks hit her barrier at once. One of them got through and pierced her body. With a scream of complete agony, her soul was damaged. In response, she was automatically pulled into the Underworld to save her.
Calliope Mori was knocked out of the fight, leaving only Ina and Amelia.
"I-I'm not sure that I can-" Ina said, panicking over her lack of progress corrupting the Droplet. She was interrupted when AO-chan spoke to her.
'Start running! We'll take things from here!' they said. Ina reacted by grabbing Amelia with a tentacle and pulling herself along the ground with another. Several attacks bounced off their barriers, but none got in just yet. They could still feel the impacts, though.
"Please… Please…" Ina thought out loud, as they ran away from the Ancient Ones. An attack from above slammed her into the ground. She attempted to get up, but more attacks beat her harder and harder. She felt her consciousness beginning to fade when the attacks suddenly stopped.
"You should have taken our offer, Priestess," the Ancient Ones told her.
'Buy us a few more seconds, Ina.' Ina flipped onto her back and used every last ounce of her magic to make a barrier around herself and Amelia. The Ancient Ones began to beat on it with more attacks, but they couldn't get through in time. 'Give it to Amelia!'
"H-here…" Ina said, completely out of breath. She pulled Amelia over to her and gave her the time watch.
One of the Ancient Ones' tentacles finally broke through the barrier and crushed Ina.
Ninomae Ina'nis' blood splattered onto Amelia's face.
Amelia looked up and saw that barrier above her fade and a large tentacle coming down to crush her.
With tears beginning to roll down her face, she pressed the button on the time watch and saw the world around her turn to a purple blur.
"Oh my god are you ok?!" Gura screamed at Amelia's sudden change in appearance. One moment, she had been getting dragged to the ground for some reason and the next she was staring up at a bloody Amelia.
Amelia stared at Gura, completely transfixed on her rapidly moving eyes.
She was alive…
It had worked…
Well, not quite yet. She still had to stop Kiara from attacking the Ancient Ones.
She quickly got off of Gura and ran as fast as she could towards Kiara, Ina, and Calliope. She saw a tentacle form above them and begin moving towards them. Ina barely got a barrier between them and the tentacle, as it slammed into the ground. Once it vanished, Kiara ignited her sword and began to fly at the Ancient Ones.
"STOP!" Amelia yelled with all her strength. Kiara stopped and turned towards where Amelia had screamed from. Calliope and Ina also turned to Amelia. Amelia stopped running and put her hand on her knees. Gura ran over, almost falling over in pain, and put her hand on Amelia's back. She could feel how hard and fast she was breathing.
"Why would I-? Oh my god is that your blood?!" Kiara interrupted herself and flew over to Amelia.
"D-Don't wake th-them *hic* up…" Amelia told the Phoenix between breaths. Ina and Calliope also ran over to Amelia to make sure she was ok.
"Judging by the fact that you ran over here, screamed, and are still on your feet, that isn't your blood," Calliope surmised. "But if it isn't yours, then who's is it?" she then asked the next relevant question.
"You-you all *hic* died… I-I *hic* c-came back…" Amelia held the time watch for everyone to see.
"H-How did…" Gura began to ask, but she answered her own question in her head. It seemed like everyone else answered this question for themselves, too, since no one else asked it.
"I-Ina… barrier *hic*..." she said to the Priestess, grabbing her arm at the same time. Ina put a barrier around them. A few seconds later an attack hit the barrier, making a loud thud.
"So what happened that made you come back?" Ina asked carefully. Amelia stood back upright, but had to use both Ina and Gura to keep herself that way. She took a few deeper breaths to calm herself before answering.
"If Kiara had attacked the Ancient Ones just now, they would have woken up and killed us all," she answered in an all to monotone voice. Everyone gasped except for Calliope.
"What about those attacks? If the Ancient Ones have yet to awaken, then where are we being attacked from?" Calliope asked.
"The timeline is destabilizing just like my previous one. Those attacks are coming from timelines that the Ancient Ones are already awake in and just passing through this one. Ina's barriers can stop them, but I don't know for how long."
"How can we fix it?" Calliope got cut straight to the chase. She could tell that time was of the essence here. All of them needed to act quickly to stop the timeline from falling apart. The sounds of attacks hitting the barrier were becoming more frequent.
"I can help Ina keep this shield up as we walk over to the Ancient Ones. Once we are next to them, Calli. Kiara, and Gura will start to dig into their flesh. Calli will do the most damage since her attacks are absolute, but Gura and Kiara can help, too. Just try and be sure of your actions," Amelia began to explain.
"So we're going after the Crystal again?" Kiara interjected with a question. Amelia nodded.
"Yeah, but this time I'm going to hit it."
"Why you? Any of us can do it," Gura asked. Amelia wasn't so quick to answer this time. It took her a few moments to get the next few words out of her mouth.
"I'm going to eject myself and the Ancient Ones from the timeline by breaking the Crystal."
Everyone remained silent for a moment before all bursting in various forms of disbelief.
"What?!"
"Why is that necessary?"
"There has to be another way!"
"W-Why?!"
"Destabilization is an exponential phenomenon," Amelia silenced them all by starting her explanation, "The Ancient Ones sped up the rate of it before I got here and my arrival just made it even worse. By the time we get to the Crystal, it will be our only option. The Ancient Ones and I have already caused damage to the timeline, so it will throw us out to fix itself. I can't let any of you do it since you would also get thrown out with me and them…" No one said a word after Amelia had finished. Ina lightly cleaned the blood off of her face, not making much progress.
"W-why…" Gura reiterated her question from earlier, "Why do you have to leave so soon…?" It had only been a short few months since Amelia had shown up in her life. In that time, so much had changed. Gura was finally on the path to accepting herself thanks to Amelia. And now she was just going to-
Gura's negative thoughts were interrupted when she was suddenly enveloped by something soft yet firm. She opened her eyes and saw that what she felt was Amelia hugging her. Her tears added to the blood stains on Amelia's clothes.
"I'm so sorry, Gura…" Amelia whispered into her ear. Gura both felt slightly better and cried harder from those words.
Life was truly unfair to her.
The only thought that was running through Amelia's head right now was, 'Why?' There was no reason for her to be doing this right now. There was no reason for her to even be considering saying these things. Right now, she needed to explain her plan to stop the Ancient Ones once and for all.
'Let's start moving towards the Ancient Ones.'
"I like you, Gura…"
All three other girls stood with varying degrees of smiles on their faces. Ina and Calliope were more reserved, but Kiara's smile was threatening to split her face in half.
"Wha… wh-what are…" Gura tried to vocalize something, anything from the whirlpool of thoughts swirling in her head. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, she wasn't able to gather any words before Amelia began talking again.
"Just let me be selfish," she said louder than her previous two sentences.
"Y-you're not being selfish, Ame…" Gura whispered a coherent sentence back. Amelia hesitated before her next move. She nervously bit at her lip, while continuing to think of all the reasons to not do this. But she couldn't stop herself.
These were her last, precious moments here.
She wouldn't get any more chances.
In one swift motion, fast enough that Gura didn't know what was happening until it was, Amelia pulled away from Gura just enough to look her in the eyes.
And then she leaned in and kissed her.
It was rough, fleeting, too soft, too hard, unpolished, bad, terrible, and a million other negative adjectives. But there was one thing that made none of that matter.
It was her first kiss with Gura.
And her last.
It was both too long and too short. Amelia had no idea how much time had passed when she finally pulled away from it and opened her eyes.
Gura's eyes were also closed, but she slowly opened them, as well. Her cheeks were completely red all the way to her ears. Amelia couldn't see her own blush, but she guessed it probably looked the same.
No one made a single sound. Even the booming sounds of attacks hitting the ground and barrier faded away. A warm, coppery liquid ran down her lip and onto her chin.
"Gura bit Ame during the kiss!" Kiara cackled from behind Amelia. All the sounds of the world came flooding back to Amelia and Gura. Amelia ran her finger over her lips and confirmed it was indeed her blood.
"I-I-I-" Gura's mind was still completely fried, letting no words come to the surface. Amelia's whole body shuddered for a moment. It happened a few more times before everyone realized that she was laughing. Ina and Gura's laughter slowly joined their friends'.
Calliope watched contently at the scene in front of her, a small smile still plastered on her face. She had to hold it there, though, as it wasn't natural. If she let her true expression show, it would be a cold stare.
Most of the time she was thankful for her logical mind. It let her think through so many tough situations in the past. However, at times like this, when she should be able to block out the reality of the situation and just focus on the happiness in front of her, she could only think about what would happen next.
Calliope was the only one who let herself think about Amelia's inevitable departure at this moment.
It was true that Amelia was being selfish, like she had confessed to earlier. She doubted that any of the other girls understood what she'd meant by that. Only herself and Amelia could truly understand.
By confessing now, Gura was going to have a lot of complicated emotions once Amelia left.
Amelia was ridding herself of any lingering regret she might have about not confessing. In exchange, Gura would have many regrets.
At least Gura would live to deal with them.
"You think I'm selfish now?" Amelia taunted, breaking Calliope out of her train of thought. Gura made some vague noises that might have been answers in her head, but were completely incomprehensible when made out loud.
"Sh-Shut up!" she finally managed to cobble together a few words. Kiara, Amelia, and Ina continued to laugh, but it quickly petered out. Eventually, everyone grew silent once again. The reality of the situation finally reached them, too.
"I'm sorry guys…" Amelia said with pained breaths, "I want to stay here for as long as I can, but you guys have so much left to do here. I'm going to make sure that you all have a reality to continue to fight for your dreams in."
Even though every girl standing next to her wanted to argue, tell her that she didn't have to sacrifice herself for them, no one could muster the courage to stand against Amelia Watson's resolve.
"Let's go," Calliope simply commanded them all. With a few nods around, the five girls of Hololive Myth began their final fight as one.
The barrier they stood in slowly began to move towards the Ancient Ones. Attacks continued to rain down from above, but they were too infrequent and aimless to pose any real threat. Once they arrived next to the Ancient Ones' main body, Kiara and Calliope prepared to blast their way in.
"Thank you, Amelia, for everything you've shown me," Calliope told Amelia, giving one last look back. Kiara also spun around but did more than just glance back. She instead ran over and picked Amelia up in a hug. It was painful, but Amelia could bear it.
"I'll always remember you, Ame!" Kiara cried for her. Amelia smiled back.
"So will I."
"You ready, Kusotori?" Calliope got her friend's attention. Kiara put Amelia down and walked back over to the Reaper's side.
"Aren't you going to help, Gura?" Amelia asked the Atlantean next to her. Gura looked up at Amelia, confused as to why she would ask that.
"I-I'm still hurt, so I can't-" Amelia interrupted Gura's excuse with a swift chop to her forehead.
"You dummy, I healed you up when we were hugging earlier," Amelia explained. Because Ina had done her extremely aggressive 'healing' in the previous timeline, Amelia could use the aftermath of that to bring Gura back into fighting shape.
"Huh… I guess I do feel better…" Gura mumbled, only now noticing how much better she was feeling. Amelia chuckled and shook her head, grabbing one of Gura's hands and pulling her close.
She put a soft kiss on to where she had just hit Gura.
"I'm sorry that I can't tell you myself, but let me be a little more selfish before I go," she whispered one last sentence to Gura, "Ask them about what really happened to me in my timeline when this is all over, ok?"
"Ok." Amelia and Gura pulled away from each other, neither truly wanting to, for the final time. Gura joined Kiara and Calliope at the front. The last remnants of Primal flowed out of her heart and enveloped her.
When the first cut by Gura's claws was made into the Ancient Ones' flesh, they immediately woke up. Dozens of tentacles tried to force the group back, but they held strong.
Ina wrapped everyone's bodies in individual barriers by Amelia's request. Soon, Gura, Kiara, and Calliope were tearing a hole straight to where the Crystal lay in the center of the Ancient Ones.
"No! Stop this!" they screamed, trying in vain to knock them back. Calliope slashed through multiple tentacles in a single strike with her scythe.
"This is the end, Ancient Ones," she said, feeling her burning rage from another timeline creep into this one. Kiara blasted a spell that was trying to develop nearby.
"No more tricks!" she yelled. Gura drove her claws into the Ancient Ones' flesh one last time, revealing the Crystal of Time beneath.
"Here it is, Ame!" she called out. Ina nodded to Amelia.
"This is it," she said just loud enough for Amelia to hear her, "Thanks for letting me see my past, Ame." Amelia nodded before walking up to the Crystal and standing in front of it. She placed her hand against it, feeling the massive pool of energy within.
She brought out her time watch and pulled her corrupted Droplet from within. Everything around her felt lighter now, as if a veil had finally been lifted from her vision. Time appeared to slow down around her, letting her enjoy her last few moments here.
Ninomae Ina'nis stood next to her, looking directly at her with a sad smile.
Gawr Gura fought off a nearby tentacle, tears flying off of her deep crimson eyes.
Takanashi Kiara deflected a beam attack with her sword, dim flames dancing off of her hair.
Calliope Mori diced up several tentacles at once, fighting as hard as she could for her friends.
Amelia Watson pulled her arm back and stared at her reflection in the Crystal.
Tears had begun to form along the edges of her own eyes now.
"I'm so glad I met you all."
She slammed the Droplet into Crystal, cracking both of them.
Her reflection broke into a million scattered fragments.
The cracks began to glow a bright white that enveloped everything around. Only Amelia and the Ancient Ones felt the full blast that followed.
Both were launched from the timeline and sent flying into the void beyond.
Author's Note: This has been a long time coming. Ever since I began thinking about an ending to this series, I knew that Amelia was going to sacrifice herself for her friends. It was the only way her character arc could truly end. I hope that I did it justice here. Everyone got to say their goodbyes, Amelia finally confessed and kissed Gura, and they all saved the day one last time.
However, this is not the end to the series. And no, I'm not saying that because there is one last chapter in this part, I'm saying it because their are two more parts that are still coming. I'll have more details on the next one, including its name, in the notes of the next chapter. There will also be many more thoughts on the series as a whole up until this point and going forwards, as well.
I'm kind of worn out after finishing this chapter, so this note is a bit shorter than expected. I'll try and make it up in the next one. The next chapter I want to get out around Christmas or at the very latest before New Years. I'll try my best!
Next Chapter: What remains...
Any feedback/criticism is appreciated!