"Future Sight?"
Pandora nodded sagely, poking through her bookshelves filled with engineering books. "You can learn Future Sight, right?"
Lucient frowned. "It's certainly possible, yes, but what good will that do me?"
"You only know four moves, one of them being reserved to do chip damage if your constructs don't work out. You just need Psychic and Reflect to create your hard light constructs."
"Well, that is all I needed."
Pandora wagged her claw at him. "Enhanced Moves are designed to work in synergy with each other. Shadow Ball and Toxic don't offer much aid to enhance your main fighting style other than serving as an alternative attack option. Thus, I believe learning a fifth or even sixth move will greatly enhance your effectiveness in battle. We're going to push the limits of your hard light technique."
Lucient nodded slowly. "I see. And you bring up Future Sight because…?"
She smirked. "Tell me, what's the number one feature an evil lair should always come equipped with?"
He raised his brow. "I…would assume a throne?"
"Oh, most definitely, but I mean traps. Hidden traps to catch would-be assassins off guard or to make nefarious rebels think twice about overthrowing their beloved overlord. See Lucient, you mentioned how creating complex constructs in the heat of battle is too mentally taxing and divides your focus. I can't help you think faster, but we can teach you to divide your thinking in quicker bursts."
"I'm…not following."
"Future Sight grants the user the ability to see a couple minutes into the future, allowing them to set up nearly unavoidable attacks. Under normal circumstances, this is basically a time bomb to catch your target off guard, but we can take it one step further. Instead of setting up time bombs, you're going to be creating and storing time bombs."
"Creating? Storing?"
Pandora crossed her forelegs and explained, "I have a theory. You can make those simpler constructs without a second thought, right? And you struggle with creating more complex structures due to your frenetic thinking speed? So instead, why not send your creations into the future and construct them there before setting them up? If done right, you could dedicate a few seconds to constructing the device you want and setting it off at a later point rather than making it on the spot. You wouldn't have to divide your attention nearly as much, and you can focus more on defending or attacking until you summon your real ace."
"…" Lucient scratched his chin, giving her proposal a moment of consideration. "That sounds…quite ingenious. Creating and storing constructs in the nebulous future with my psychic energy, then releasing them at ample opportunities. It would allow me to be looser with a battle. I could dedicate more time to setting up a strategy."
Pandora smirked. "You're catching on, big guy."
"How did you come up with this?"
She shrugged. "It's basically how I look at blueprints I write up. I just create what I imagine, then store them for later until I find the right opportunity and supplies to build them. In your case, you create the actual thing and store it for later."
Lucient smiled. "Blueprints, huh? That sounds marvelous. Yes, I can already envision the move in action."
She snickered. "Now all you need is a name."
"A name?"
"What kind of enhanced move doesn't have its own customized name? Do you even have one for your hard light constructs?"
"Well, no. I…never really thought of giving them a name." He scratched his chin before smiling. "Though, if I had to give this one a name, I would dedicate it to my wonderful mentor."
She held her cheeks and snickered. "Aw shucks, little ol' me? What's it called, then? Overlord Armory? Evil Construct Army? Doompocalyse?!"
He shook his head. "No. I dedicate it to your mind."
Her eyes widened. "My mind?"
"You told me how you felt undervalued for your intelligence, but what I see is a brilliant inventor who could easily transcend our technology with her imaginative inventions."
"…" She turned away and giggled, hiding her blush. "Yeesh, aren't you a sweet talker? Don't pull anything, or I'll rat you out to Marianne." She smirked. "Alright smart guy, then what's the name of this technique?"
He smirked back. "Once I master this technique, I shall dub it—"
"Blueprint Creation!"
Hovering atop a hard light platform, Lucient opened up several psychic portals with spears jettisoning out into their plane of reality. They fired down on Junko, who was stunned by the sheer quantity of constructs flying her way. Acting fast, she raised a wall of ice and blocked the incoming spears, though staggered back as they hammered their way through the thick obstacle until they pierced through the other side.
"[Did his constructs just get stronger?!]" She hid herself within her localized snowstorm and avoided the onslaught raining down around her.
Lucient hopped off his platform and onto a nearby roof. He widened his eyes, flashing with teal light, and gazed into time further ahead. He saw the ghosts of Junko's future self flying through the air, readying a myriad of icicles. In response, he sent some of his psionic energy into that determined future, forming a tower shield.
My training with Pandora is paying off. By creating these simpler constructs ahead of time, I can spend more time crafting a stronger attack for later. Not only that, the additional power grants me a boon in offense. My constructs. Heavier weight. Greater speed. Denser psionic structure. You truly have a dangerously creative mind, Pandora. Speaking of…
He glared to his right, seeing the future of another construct he was building. With it stored away in the nebulous future, he spent a couple seconds adding onto his weapon. Once he finds the right time to activate it, he'll catch Junko off guard.
He turned his attention back onto the snowstorm as the Froslass burst out from the top. "[Structures of Envy!]" She formulated an array of giant icicles above herself and fired them down on the standstill Espeon.
Like clockwork, a psionic portal opened and conjured the ready-made tower shield. It withstood the brutal downpour of ice, keeping Lucient completely shielded from damage. Once the attacks ceased, he darted across the roof and jumped onto a hard light platform, skipping between them as he ascended the air.
"[Pride of the Blizzard!]" Junko unleashed a sharp blizzard from her body, spreading across the air space rapidly.
Lucient conjured a simple barrier and ducked behind it. The winds rushed around the barrier, causing it to freeze and eventually shatter. He leapt over the barrier before it did and hopped along barrier over the blizzard. "Shadow Ball!" Once he was over her, he fired down and blasted her in the back of the head.
"GAH!" Junko fell out of the air, but caught herself in some wind before she hit the street. She growled and raised her arms to the sky. "[Winter's Greed!]"
Blocks of ice formed and rained down above Lucient. He paid them no mind as another of his traps went off, summoning barriers that absorbed the impact of the ice blocks. He conjured two hard light spears and launched them at her. She faded into her storm to avoid them.
[What the hell is going on?] Junko thought. [How is he summoning all these constructs out of nowhere? Not only that, they're not appearing the same way as his previous constructs. It's like he's not giving any input to their activation. They appear exactly where they need to be.] She growled. [Whatever it is, it needs to stop!]
"[Presence of Gluttony!]" She formed the swirling ball of snow and threw it at Lucient.
A barrier blocked the attack's path and saved Lucient from its troublesome effects. Unsatisfied, Junko conjured dozens more and fired them down like cannonballs. Lucient conjured his own barriers and ran across a row of platforms, absorbing each attack with minimal effort.
If I let even a single one of those hit me again, I may not get the chance to undo the effects like last time. I need to keep up with her attacks. More importantly, if she catches on to what I'm doing, she might find a way to get around my future vision. He glared. I can only see into the future while I'm actively using Future Sight. I need to make every usage count.
"[Structures of Envy!]" Junko waved her arms around and molded the cold air to form spiked balls. With a flick of her wrist, they flew toward Lucient.
He summoned a barrier, but the spiked ice balls smashed through after a couple hits. With one careening for his face, he immediately dispelled his light platform and fell out of its path. He summoned a curved slope to break his fall and deposit him onto the frozen street.
"[Storm of Sloth!]" Junko exhaled a fierce cold wind across the street, encompassing more of the city in sheets of ice.
Lucient braced himself as the winds passed over him, freezing patches of his body and stinging at his eyes. Though he wanted to keep them shut, he forced them open to peek into the future again. He saw Junko racing at him as a ghastly wind, aiming to pass through and freeze him from the inside.
Perfect. Time to set off one of my countermeasures. His eyes flashed, and he placed one of his stored constructs in front of him.
"[Winter's Greed!]" Junko called down a hail of ice on top of Lucient.
"Psychic!" Fighting through the blistering cold, he let loose a powerful shot that carried the telekinetic blast, shattering the raining ice to dust around him.
However, this only served as a brief distraction for Junko to fly down and dart straight for his half-frozen body. "[Embrace of Lust!]" Her body transformed into a ghostly cold wind, freezing the air around her. "[You won't be able to dodge or stop this! I'll pass through whatever attack you throw at me!]"
Lucient, however, merely smirked. "[I do not plan on dodging.]"
Right as he finished speaking, a barrier of hard light formed in front of him and stopped Junko in her tracks. She tried to go around it, only to find more walls were spawning out from thin psychic portals, constructing around her until she was trapped inside a psychic box. "[A box? Really? You think this'll hold—]"
Her eyes widened upon looking at the ceiling. An additional attachment was made to the box: a giant, elaborate piston towering three times the size of the interior with four anchor rods digging into the ground to keep it stable. Psychically crafted gears and mechanisms started spinning and moving, bringing the piston to life.
Lucient clapped his paws together. "Blueprint Creation: Crushing Cage!"
"[What the—]" was all Junko could get out before the ceiling suddenly collapsed over her, smashing her amorphous form into the street. As the piston contraption picked up speed, the ceiling continuously rose and fell on top of the ice temptress, smashing her repeatedly against hard light and stone with her ghostly physique barely keeping her from sustaining critical damage. Each strike caused her gaseous and physical states to flicker while her body twisted and squashed into numerous shapes.
Lucient took the moment of levity to psychically shave the ice from his body before running. He winced, feeling a strong wave of fatigue hitting him. Crap…
There was one notable weakness he and Pandora discovered about his Blueprint Creation. Though the technique was designed to eliminate constructing elaborate devices in the moment, it still required an immense amount of psychic energy to prepare and store the objects before release. The more elaborate the construct, the more it exhausted his energy. He had to undergo endurance training to deal with the strain. Though he felt winded, it wasn't nearly as bad as when he first started out.
I need to take a breather. I can't make too many of those. He glared, sensing a few more constructs in the nebulous psychic future. Besides, I still have my secret weapon to worry about. I need to finalize the design before that one can be used. That one will take the most out of me for sure.
"AAAAAAAARGH!"
He stopped as an explosion of ice went off behind him, splitting through the hard light cage. Junko pulled herself out of the mist, reconfiguring her body as she trembled. In her semi-solid state, blood dripped from her lip. Her bloodshot eyes burned in a furious red.
"[You'll pay for that! Structures of Envy!]" She slammed her hands down and summoned a wave of sharp ice after the Espeon.
Lucient turned and bolted down the street with the ice chasing close behind. He shook his head, getting his bearings in order, and manifested a light platform ahead of him. He leapt and sprung off it, flipping over the ice as it completely engulfed the street. He landed on an awaiting platform and fired off a Shadow Ball in Junko's direction.
"[Essence of Wrath!]" She let loose a banshee-like shriek, the ghostly waves slamming into the Shadow Ball and setting it off.
Lucient staggered as the ghostly waves passed over him. It disrupted his focus, causing his platform to fizzle out and drop him. He landed onto the street with the sharp ice digging through the back of his uniform. He screamed out in pain, coughing up a bit of blood.
"[Winter's Greed!]" Junko waved her hand and called down giant blocks of ice.
Lucient forced his eyes open and peered briefly into the future, sensing the ice blocks would crush him before he could set off a new trap. Instead, focusing his mind, he summoned a dome-shaped barrier around himself and braced for the ice blocks as they crashed down on top of him.
Junko soared along the iced roads, conjuring frozen swords in each hand. "[I'll dice you to ribbons, you lowlife brat!]" She brought her swords down atop the barrier, sending cold energy across it. Little by little, she sliced into the barrier and froze the outer side.
Lucient picked himself up and noticed cracks forming the more ice covered the outside. The ice blocks continued to beat down on the top, deepening the damage. Any second, everything would come toppling down on him.
He didn't show fear at being crushed. He glared through the transparent walls as Junko continuously struck them. "Maintaining a barrier like this is child's play for me. All you're doing is giving me more time to think." He flicked his paw up. "And I already found my way out."
Though she couldn't understand a thing he was saying, Junko immediately sensed something was wrong as the air shifted behind her. Spinning around, she saw a psychic portal opening and producing a hard light construct in the shape of a giant, mechanical fist. The outer gears and piston rods revved up.
"Blueprint Creation: Blast Punch!"
The mechanical fist extended at high speed and hammered into the Froslass. Lucient ducked down as his own creation smashed through the barrier and the ice piled on top of it. Junko and the ice blocks went flying down the street, crashing over each other.
Lucient stepped out into the opponent and staggered forward after his latest creation disappeared. The fatigue hit him much stronger, but he maintained his balance and focus. He shook off the dizzying wave and glared down at the street as Junko pulled herself out of the ice.
"[AAAAAAGH! Pride of the Blizzard!]" She focused all the cold wind ahead of herself, engulfing the entire street with gale force winds so chilling that it froze the buildings surrounding them.
Lucient conjured and took shelter behind a barrier. A shiver shot through his skin, feeling the slightest touch of the wind grazing him as it parted around. Ice formed along his thighs and sides, some frost even coating his whiskers.
"[You think these little tricks will keep me down?!]" Junko shouted. "[Arrogant fool! I am the cold itself! You can't hurt me!]" She raised her hands to the sky. "[Pride of the Blizzard: Branch of Greed!]"
Lucient's eyes widened. Now what?!
A sharp cold wind blew down from the storm clouds, slamming down onto the surface with the force of a train. Lucient barely conjured a barrier over his head. He felt the mental backlash of the winds pressing down on it. Ice was rapidly forming over more ice, and cracks were splitting open across the buildings. Everything was becoming so cold that the land around Lucient became brittle. The very ground he stood on depressed under his weight, cracks forming by the dozens.
Acting fast, he made a pathway of ceiling constructs toward an alleyway and leapt toward it just before the street split open and fell into the underground catacombs. He ducked deep within the alley and hugged himself as the excess cold blew down his way.
"[These…are the facts of life,]" he heard Junko's voice as it flowed off the wind. "[Why do you go so far to protect this kingdom? With its crime and corruption? Its malice and backstabbing? Is there really anything worth protecting here? Under the glory of Great Gate, the inferior west will be without cowardice and embrace true power as it so needs. So why…are you cretins so determined to protect garbage?]"
Lucient grunted. She's not making this easy. He backed down the alley with a few hard light spears floating at his side. I'll need to retreat and get my strength back up before I can unleash anymore of those constructs—
"[Found. You~.]"
An overwhelming chill shot up his spine. He turned around just before a giant pillar of ice crashed into him and sent him flying back out onto the frozen street. He slammed into a building, the cold so biting that his skin and fur instantly clung to the side. He screamed from the burning chills coating his flesh. Frost slowly worked its way around his body, stiffening his limbs and struggling.
A wind swirled up to Lucient's level and took the form of Junko, laughing at her pinned prey. "[Maybe I should turn you into a statue.]" She grabbed his cheeks and leaned in close. "[A little memento for myself to remind everyone of why the west will always be inferior.]"
Lucient growled, fighting against her cold touch as more frost formed over his face. "[I-I'm not…o-out yet.]"
"[You put up an impressive fight, Espeon, but I'm just about done with your annoying pride.]" Cold mist seeped from her hands and started coating Lucient's body. Her form transformed into an icy, ghost-like mist. "[Embrace of Lust. I've decided to just shatter you.]"
"[Y-You…!]"
She snickered. "[Once I'm done with you, I think I'll track down those two pests and the gravedigger. Maybe I'll even present what's left of your head as a warning. Maybe I'll prolong their deaths and just torture them. Which do you prefer?]"
"…" Lucient's eyes darted to the street below for a brief second before glaring back at her. "[Why don't you ask him yourself?]"
Her eyes widened. "[Eh?]"
"Thorns of Salvation!"
Green missile-like needles arched through the air and exploded into the Froslass' unguarded back. It blew her gaseous form apart and shattered the ice off of Lucient with the blast wave. He formed a hard light slide and landed safely on the frozen street.
He picked himself up, dusting the frost off his face. "Your timing was impeccable, Zechariah."
Lumbering through the bitter cold, the Cacturne gravedigger supported his shovel over his shoulders and let out a long sigh. He had dried blood on his face and some tears in his jacket. He had some burns on the right side of his body, though they seemed mostly healed. Some frozen blood was painted across the head of his shovel.
"I figured that woman escaped once I saw the snowstorm," he grumbled. "First I wake up to the city being on fire, and now this. I had to clobber my way through a riot to get here." He scoffed. "Fire, ice. This has been a shit night so far."
Junko reformed herself back into a semi-solid state and growled. "[Not you again!]"
Zech struck his shovel down into the ice and asked, "You don't mind if I lend a hand, do you?
Lucient glared. "I'm much more comfortable supporting my allies, anyway. Be my guest. Think you can keep her busy while I set up some attacks?"
A tiny smirk stretched over Zech's face. "Heh. Yeah, I think I can do that." He lifted his shovel and spun it as he stepped toward the ice temptress. "Alright, Moros. Which will it be tonight? Life? Or death?"
Junko grinded her teeth together, cold mist hissing out. "[I am getting sick and tired of dealing with you bothersome westerns. I'm going to drown all of you in a never-ending blizzard! Storm of Sloth: Branch of Pride!]" She exhaled a fierce cold wind that rushed toward Zech at high speed.
"Spiky Shield." He struck his shovel into the ice and crossed his arms, producing the barrier of green needles. He shielded himself behind it as the ice coated the barrier.
"[Essence of Wrath: Branch of Lust!]" Junko's eyes flashed dark purple, and she unleashed ghostly specters of cold air from her body, each one darting toward the gravedigger.
"Thorns of Salvation." He dropped the barrier and fired a volley of missile-like needles from his arms, each one destroying an ice specter. He raised his brow, curiously watching the remnants of his attack turn to ice and crumble across the street. "Hmm…"
"[Structures of Envy: Branch of Sloth!]" She summoned pillars of ice from behind herself, though they moved fluidly through the air like snakes.
"Shield of Bramble." He manifested his needle-like shields through both arms and charged through the slithering ice pillars.
As he distracted Junko, Lucient took to a higher vantage point and observed the fighting from the rooftops. Peering ahead into the future, he saw giant ice structures splitting out from the earth and aiming to rend the gravedigger apart. Lucient sent a few shields into the future before running along until he was parallel with Junko's position below.
I can't expend my energy too recklessly. I'll stick to simpler attacks until I have an opening in mind. He examined the street carefully. I just need to move her into the right position, and everything will go according to plan.
"[Structures of Envy!]" Junko touched the ground and opened up a chasm of sharp ice from the street.
Zech jumped back as the earth split below him. He readied his guard for the serrated icicles rising up after him, but the timely intervention of a light barrier shielded him from the attack. He held onto the barrier as the icicles kept pushing against it, carrying him higher up into the air.
"Huh. Fascinating." He leapt off the barrier and slid down the ice, cutting his way through stray branches with his shovel.
Junko growled. "[Essence of—]" Before she could fire the attack, she sensed a disturbance in the air. "[This feeling again!]" She spun around and found multiple psychic portals opening up above her.
Lucient flicked his paw down. "Take this."
Spears flew out like gunfire, one after the other. Junko deconstructed herself into a slithering mist, weaving through the heavy spear fire. Through her gaseous state, she spotted Lucient parked atop the roof's edge and growled. "[Forget the gravedigger. You're the real pest!]" She shot up into the sky and reformed herself. "[Essence of Wrath!]" She let loose her ghostly wail.
Lucient dodged out the wail's path right as a portal opened. A chain and shackle fired out, clamping around the Froslass' neck. She tried to pass through it, but the psychic energy forced her neck to remain solid against her wishes.
"[Sorry about this.]" Lucient raised his paw, conjuring a simplistic, blocky hammer over Junko. "[This'll only hurt for a moment.]" He swung his paw and brought the hammer down on Junko, spiking her back into the icy streets.
She immediately burst out of the ice and roared, calling upon sharpened pillars to rise out from around her. Lucient leapt off the roof as the pillars pierced and ripped through the building. More fired up at him while he was airborne, but he kicked off a light platform and barely dodged them. One slashed him across the thigh, sending him spinning over the street before crashing into a frozen building.
"[Got you!]" Junko swung her arm and erected another pillar toward him.
"Shadow Ball!" Lucient whipped his head around in the nick of time and blasted the tip of the pillar apart. He braced himself for the rest as the destroyed, yet blunt pillar slammed him through the building and out the roof at an angle.
Junko raised her hand. "[Winter's—]"
"Don't forget—" She gasped and dodged a near hit from Zech's shovel. "I'm still here, too."
She growled. "[You and the Espeon are getting on my last nerve! Embrace of Lust: Branch of Envy!]" With her arm partially transparent, she summoned ice claws from her fingers and sliced into Zech.
He staggered back, feeling the chilling claw marks across his chest. He felt his insides getting colder like a blizzard passed through his stomach. "Hmm. That's troublesome."
"[Do you ever sound impressed?!]" Forming claws on her other hand, she rushed and swung at him.
Zech blocked with his shovel, or at least enough to keep her at bay, but her claws rapidly froze the shovel with each passing swing. It was cold to the touch, and he could barely muster the strength to hold it. "So, this is the unrelenting cold of the afterlife?"
"[Hold still—]" She staggered as Zech suddenly through his shovel at her, which passed through her face and briefly blinded her. "[What the?!]" Right as her vision came back, she stared down the Cacturne as he rushed her with a curved green blade blazing out from his right arm.
"Nails of Requiem: Scythe."
He slashed through the ice temptress, a blaze of energy shooting out from her gaseous body. Junko staggered and coughed blood while Zech received something of a healing boost from the attack. He spun back around and repeated the attack.
"[Presence of Gluttony!]" Junko ducked under the second swing and slammed her palm into the gravedigger's chest, infecting him with the cold curse.
Zech staggered back as a snow cloud appeared above him and conjured cold winds around his body. He looked at his arms as his technique began to freeze and shatter to pieces. He tried to summon it again, but it froze halfway and shattered once more. "Huh."
Junko picked herself up, grinning through her weary expression. "[Hah! No more of your nonsense, scarecrow! If you want to survive, you better have more than tricks to keep you alive! Pride of the Blizzard!]" She fired the cold winds at him.
Zech picked his shovel up and leapt out of the wind's path. "Thorns of Salvation." He once more tried to activate an attack, but it shattered like last. He glared. "This technique…prevents me from activating my moves. Huh."
"[Structures of Envy!]" Junko fired a wave of ice toward the gravedigger.
Undeterred, he charged toward the ice and sliced through with his sharpened shovel. A pathway revealed itself to him. He leapt over the ice surging under his feet and ran along the walls of structures, cutting through sharpened pillars that stood in his way. He kicked off and soared over the street before diving onto the Froslass' position, cutting her down the middle.
Junko reformed herself and slammed her palm into his chest. "[Structures of Envy: Branch of Pride!]" She released an ice pillar from her hand with far greater speed than her previous constructs, throwing the Cacturne back into the ice wall and burying him under layers of ice. She formed ice claws from her fingers again and aimed for his chest. "[I'm going to freeze you until your heart or whatever organs you have shutdown.]"
"Blueprint Creation—"
Her eyes widened, feeling the presence of a large structure hovering above. She gazed up and found herself staring at the tip of a hard light, mechanical drill. Gears and piston rods revved and whirred, bringing the drill to life.
"—Maximum Drill!"
The drill fired out from the mechanical base and drove down on top of the ice ghost, shredding her gaseous body apart. Her form twisted along the edges of the drill like yarn wrapping around a spool, her screams reverbing as her very molecules were being rearranged against her will.
Lucient, after pushing through a splitting headache, hopped down from the rooftops and fired a Shadow Ball into the frozen gravedigger. The ice exploded off of Zech, and he stumbled forward onto his knees to catch his breath. "You alright?" Lucient asked.
"I saw the reaper's scythe…for a moment there," he mumbled. "It…It was such a glorious sight."
"…" Lucient blinked twice. Riiiiight. Zephora's brother.
He looked back at his drill construct as it finished discombobulating Junko. Once it stopped spinning, it dismantled itself back into psychic energy, fading into the atmosphere. He looked around for any sign of the Froslass, worrying he may have overdone it with the trap. He figured traditionally lethal attacks wouldn't do anything to her, but perhaps he spread her body too thin.
"Zechariah, do you see her anywhere?" he asked.
The gravedigger picked himself up and glared. "No, but she's alive. Her curse is still afflicting me."
Lucient glared. "We need to retreat for now. If we cover enough distance, the technique should fade away on its own."
"A sound strategy."
However, right as they turned to leave, ice pillars erupted from the frozen buildings and barreled toward them. Zech grabbed Lucient by the hood and barely jumped out of the way. More pillars fired down on them, but Lucient manifested a barrier around them to stave off the attacks.
"She recovered already?" Zech asked.
Lucient looked around carefully. "No. Something's not right. Future Sight!" He widened his eyes and peered into the future, but came back with a startling vision. "What the?"
"What's wrong?"
"It's all white. The future. There's nothing but snow in the future—"
"Fu. Ture. Sight" Lucient's eyes widened as a voice called out to him…from below. He and Zech looked down and saw the eyes and grin of the Froslass staring up at them in the iced street's reflection. "[So, that's what you've been pulling.]"
Immediately sensing danger, Lucient dropped the barrier and yelled, "RUN!"
"Ice Age…of SIN!"
The duo barely managed to jump for cover before an explosion of slush and ice erupted out of the street. A fierce, cold wind rained down over the street and spread beyond the frozen terrain, reaching as far as where the flames were raging in the streets. The hot flames of Scarlet and Junko's ice collided, fighting for supremacy, and shrouding far beyond the area in a veil of dense fog.
Lucient recovered from the initial blast and glared through the raging snowstorm, barely able to make out what was ahead of him. "[Yukimura!]"
Ice rose and compacted together in a compacted together into a complex shape akin to the ice temptress' performances, only on a grander scale. Though he could barely see through the dense white surrounding him, Lucient could easily make out the shape of a specter cloaked in a dress of thin sheets of ice flowing in the wind. Piercing red eyes beamed from the specter's face with a haunting, fanged grin peering down at him.
It resembled a monstrous Froslass.
"[A little trick…that I taught myself from watching Ringmaster Itzal,]" Junko explained, her voice carrying an ice-crackling tone behind it. "[You said something about turning this city into one big trap, Espeon? Well, I've possessed the ice I created and turned this entire street into my body.]"
Lucient felt the ice shifting under his paws and saw fingers curling out around him. He quickly sprung away before the icy hand could close around him. Snake-like arms of ice jettisoned from the street and buildings, surging toward the Espeon with sharpened claws. He conjured a light blade and barely managed to cut through the swarm before leaping up on light platforms. The arms chased him down, smashing through platforms one by one to catch up with him.
I can't use any advanced constructs, and this storm is making it impossible to predict her movements. He gritted his teeth. Screw it. The logical course of action…is throwing random attacks until something works!
He summoned an armory of light spears over himself and rained them down on the ice arms. Though not nearly as strong as the advanced forms, they had just enough strength to pierce the relatively thin arms. His eyes flickered wildly, setting up Blueprint Creations at key points to guard his blind spots.
"[You're not escaping that easily, Espeon!]" Junko roared, calling down carriage-sized hail from the sky.
"Crap!" Lucient kicked off a platform and raced across the air, barely weaving through ice meteors. One nearly came down on his head, but he spun and sliced it apart with a timely light sword.
"[I see you, Espeon!]"
Lucient gasped as ice serpents with Junko's monstrous face formed out of the ice. They cackled around him before expelling bursts of cold air like dragon fire. He barely managed to dodge one, watching it flash-freeze his light platform in a cluster of ice. They repeated volleys of ice bursts at him as he fell out of the sky, using Psychic to angle his fall and dodge them. Each one blasting into the ground exploded into sharpened ice, completely encasing any debris they hit.
"Shadow Ball!" He fired at one of the serpents and blew its face apart, but it didn't stop the onslaught of ice bursts. He quickly formed a light platform and kicked off it before he hit the street, avoiding a chilling blast. He tumbled and rolled off his back, slamming into a frozen streetlamp.
"[I'm afraid that's the way of the world, westerner,]" Junko's voice crackled over the frozen terrain. "[Great Gate was born to rule! This power I wield is only a fraction of what the true elites are capable of!]"
Lucient picked himself up and growled at the gigantic ice specter. "[How can someone like you possibly be this strong?]"
She smirked. "[I may have worked at a brothel scamming lowlifes looking for a good time, but I wasn't just some lowly assassin. I'm part of the branch family of the Yukimura Clan. The prodigal son of the main family was the one who taught me to bring out the full might of my ice, and he is part of the emperor's elite guard.]"
Lucient grimaced. "The elite guard…"
"[Don't you get it? Even if you somehow defeat me, as painfully impossible that is, the Great Gate Empire will eventually overrun the west and take everything for themselves in the name of Emperor Orochi. And what do you think you puny thieves can do to stop the weight of the entire military might of Great Gate? Don't you get it?! In the eyes of the empire, you're just piles of ash to be crushed under their glorious flames! You're nothing compared to—]"
A flash of metal shined through the snowstorm and pinged off the ice specter's head. She growled and flashed her glare down at Zech, who caught his shovel on return. Propping it over his shoulder, he glared emotionlessly at her and said, "I don't know what you're saying, but shut the hell up. Your screeching is making my ears bleed."
"[EH?!]" she roared.
"I've got a pretty good idea of your M.O., so listen up." He raised and pointed his shovel at her hideous scowl. "If you're so strong, why aren't we dead yet? Answer: because you don't understand the west's indominable spirit." His glare deepened. "And nobody who treats life and death with such childish ignorance will ever understand what that means."
Junko growled. "[I've gotten sick and tired of your interference, Cacturne.]" She raised her fist, molding it into a hammer, and swung it down.
Zech leapt out of the way, shielding himself from the shockwave of frost splashing off on impact. He flew back into the ice wall, gasping on impact, and collapsed onto his face. Junko raised her ice hammer again, but was quickly disarmed by one of Lucient's advanced spear constructs. It severed the hammer from her wrist and sent it crashing onto the street.
Junko growled right as Lucient turned to run. She exhaled ice bursts, sending up explosive clusters of ice around the Espeon as he tried to avoid them. She slammed her hands into the buildings between her and called upon Froslass ice serpents to chase him down.
Little by little, Lucient littered traps across the street while avoiding the multiple ice bursts from the snake constructs. One blew past his face and sliced his left side from the resulting explosion. His uniform barely protected against the worst of it, though the icy burns across his skin were intense. In fact, the angrier Junko got, the more rapidly the temperature dropped.
I can't prolong this any longer.
"[Whether by flame or frost, I'll take this kingdom down and show the rest of your inferior-blooded mongrels who is the rightful ruler of this land!]" Junko yelled, calling down her icy serpent lookalikes.
Lucient's delayed traps went off and fired a myriad of spears into the descending serpents, ripping them to shreds in a volley of attacks. He dodged through the raining ice and charged toward the towering ice specter, forming a light hammer at his side. "[That future you envision will never come to pass!]"
Junko smirked. "[Who said it already hasn't?]"
His racing mind betrayed him, momentarily stuck on her warning. Wha—
The brief distraction was all she needed to sweep her hand across the street and batter the Espeon in one strike. His body skipped and slid off the slick street before crashing through a frozen carriage. It shattered apart under his weight, and he lay within the frozen wreckage.
Junko towered over the downed Espeon and hammered her fist down on him. With racing vigor, she unleashed a barrage of punches down on him, crushing him beneath the frozen street with every blow. Each impact caused clusters of ice to rise up from the street, burying Lucient deeper within.
"[This is the fate of all Virdis! Everything subjugated under the banner of Great Gate! In time, the inferior west will come to rise under our glorious empire, and you will see the error of your ways!]" Her grin stretched across her icy façade. "[Bow before Emperor Orochi, or die like the pitiful westerner you are!]"
"…"
"[Choose your fate, westerner!]"
"…I choose…THIS!"
From the cluster of ice, a light harpoon connected to a chain fired out from the ice and pierced through the ice specter's head. Reaching through the other side, it extended claws from the side and retracted itself, digging into the back of its skull.
Lucient pulled himself out of the ice, standing next to a cannon connected to the harpoon. His Reflect flickered weakly off his body, barely staving off the damage he received. He trembled on his paws with blood dripping down his face, but he remained standing as he glared up at the monster.
"Blueprint Creation: Harpoon Cannon!" He kicked the mechanized crank, commanding it to reel itself back in.
The harpoon forcibly pulled on the ice specter and brought her crashing down into the street. A wall of portals opened up behind Lucient and fired on her with a volley of high-speed spears, tearing the ice construct to shreds.
"[RAAAAAAH!]" Ice exploded out from behind Lucient and shaped into a newly formed ice specter glowering at the defiant Espeon. "[What did I just say? This entire frozen city is under my control!]" She brought her fist down over him.
A reinforced barrier summoned above Lucient's head and kept the colossal fist at bay. He glared up over his shoulder and said, "[My friends are counting on me to take you down. No matter the size of our enemy, I will not back down so long as I can draw a breath!]" He slammed his paws down and summoned up a giant light hammer that reached the height of the ice specter. "[You may have pride in your empire, but I have pride in the Foresters!]"
Straining the weight of his construct, Lucient telekinetically swung it across the monster's head with such force that it cracked the neck. Junko roared as her construct toppled over into the frozen buildings with a hard crash, breaking off sheets of ice from them.
All the pieces are in place. I just need to get her into position!
Lucient, fighting through immense mental strain, roared out and summoned a storm of light knives, firing them upon the collapsed ice specter. They drove into the surface of the construct, flying with such force that each impact left a sizable crack in her frozen armor. Junko pushed herself away from the building and shielded her face from the volley knives.
"[E…Enough!]" Junko released a bitter cold wind from her ice body, freezing and shattering the knives to pieces.
Lucient braced himself against the wind, staggering and grunting as his own saliva and surface of his eyes started to freeze. He forced his eyes shut and kept himself anchored with light chains, ignoring the ice coating his body.
"[RAAAAAAAH!]"
Lucient felt a stinging slap strike across the whole of his body, battering him across the iced street and crashing through clusters of ice. His back rammed into an ice wall, causing him to spit up blood. He forced his eyes open and barely noticed the titanic ice claws swinging toward him.
"Not…YET!" Lucient summoned up his psionic might and stopped the claws with a barrier. The mental backlash nearly knocked him unconscious, but he pressed on through gritted teeth. "I. Won't. Fall!" Unleashing his might, he expanded the barrier and pushed it back against the towering ice specter, knocking her off balance.
Junko flailed her arms until she clawed into the buildings, barely keeping herself up. She sucked in the cold air and fired down a massive cold burst. Lucient formed another barrier and absorbed the impact, bracing himself from the rush of cold wind flowing off.
"[Quit acting so stubborn!]" Junko roared, smashing her fist through the barrier and crushing Lucient under it. "[When will you learn?! You're NOTHING!]" Fueled with fury, she formed two more pairs of arms and rapidly punched down on the wounded Espeon. "[Accept your uselessness and freeze to death!]"
Lucient's Reflect and barriers did all they could to absorb the ice specter's relentless onslaught. Each crushing blow sunk him deeper and deeper into the street, each crippling impact rattling his body and risking the utter annihilation of his bones. He gritted his teeth, screaming through the pair, and poured all his mental might into holding off her attacks.
It only infuriated the ice specter as she pounded down on the street with greater ferocity. "[I don't get it! First those stupid brats, and now you! What is it about you insufferable thieves that has that old sack of mulch so worked up?! How can a bunch of puny whelps like you pose a threat?!]"
Clasping all six hands together, she delivered one final strike into the street, shattering the ice around her in an explosive tremor. Lucient's defenses were penetrated, and his limp body bounced off the ground with blood spraying out of his gaping mouth. His eyes glazed over, the pain overcoming him, before collapsing back into the crater.
Seeing the Espeon laying still, Junko's ice specter form hunched over and panted from exhaustion, trembling from overexertion. Her rage quelled slightly, but she kept her heated gaze fixed on the motionless fox. Icy frost jettisoned through the construct's gritted teeth.
"[All of this…for some worthless kingdom that's just going to fall apart at the seams in a few more months?]" she huffed. "[Do you even understand the depths of this kingdom's issues? All you're doing is protecting garbage. Wick is for the brutes. Echo Bell is full of spineless cowards. Senbo is paranoid of everyone. And Verde…their corruption is almost sickening.]"
Junko brought her hands together and formed a massive ice boulder, hovering it over the unmoving Espeon. She paused a moment to catch her breath again, then tightened her grip over the boulder.
"[All Emperor Orochi wants is to unite the people under his vision. Those who were denied the right to live can claw their way up to the top under his rule through strength and grit. Isn't that what you worthless thieves hope to accomplish? Well, you can die with the rest of your outdated morals, because this is reality—]"
Right as she aimed to bring the ice boulder down, something rushed through her midsection and sliced it apart. Junko gasped as her spectral construct toppled backwards and crashed down onto the iced streets. The boulder slipped from her fingers and crashed down behind her.
"[Wha…What?]" The construct craned her neck and saw the winded, tattered form of Zech trembling further back, his shovel outstretched from his arm and coated in frost. "[You?!]"
Zech panted heavily, his own frozen green blood chipping off his skin as he trembled. He shakily stood up and walked to a nearby building before collapsing with his back pressed to it. "[Life…or death?]"
Her eyes widened. "[Huh—]"
Roused with an anger unlike anything ever heard from the gravedigger, he puffed out his chest and shouted, "DO IT NOW, FAITHFUL SCHOLAR!"
An explosion of psychic energy ripped through the street around Junko's ice body. She gasped as a giant teal tunnel of hard light completely surrounded her in seconds, blocking off all manner of escape below, side, or under. She slammed her hands into the surrounding walls only to find they were much stronger than any barrier produced before.
"[What the?]" She glared over her shoulder and saw that it was indeed a tunnel, seeing the exit an entire city block away from her. "[What kind of trap is—]"
That's when she felt it. An immense pressure roared from the other end of the tunnel, filling it in an unnaturally bright teal light. She fearfully turned back around, and her eyes receded into the back of the construct's skull.
Lucient, shakily standing on all four legs, stood under his final creation. Towering above him, taking up nearly the entire width of the tunnel, was a giant cannon never before seen by the specter's eyes. A long barrel attached to a giant base revving with gears and pistons. Three gears wrapped around the barrel and gradually built up speed, generating psionic sparks between them that channeled into the nose of the barrel. A condensed ball of sparking psionic energy charged in front of the cannon, wildly releasing sparks that cracked through the very tunnel made to contain it. Ten hard light legs jabbed through the tunnel to keep it standing.
"[W…What kind of cannon…? H-Hey, isn't that a little overkill?]" Junko mumbled, her confidence plummeting.
Lucient lifted his gaze with his face soaked in frozen blood. "[Finally…finished constructing it. Once I realized…what you were capable of, I've been building this in the background.]"
Her eyes widened. "[Wait. You…You've been making that since—]"
"[Since you first shut down my moves.]"
"[Wh…What?]" No anger or shock in her voice. Only a meek, helpless whimper as she stared down the glowing barrel.
"[You said something about those denied the chance to live crawling to the top under your emperor's vision. Well, I've had to work my way to who I am now, and I'm not above playing dirty to get what I want.]" His glare deepened. "[The west and east are such wonderful places filled with people struggling through the same adversities. You want to know what makes the Foresters so defiant? Time for your final lesson.]"
Junko frantically touched the ground, trying to find any exposed ice entering from outside the tunnel. I can't get out of here! I'm trapped! Seeing her only chance, she turned and rushed on her six ice arms toward the end of the tunnel.
"[We aren't westerners or easterners. We're Virdis itself, fighting for the same future. A future without warlords like your emperor!]" Lucient lifted his paw and closed one eye, focusing down his fleeing target. "[A teacher's goal is to pass his wisdom onto his students. Let me impart my experiences onto you so that you may learn!]"
[Shit, shit, shit!] Junko's mind screamed as she reached halfway down the tunnel.
"My final attack! All of my energy! Blueprint Creation: Pandemonium EX Cannon!"
The condensed energy released a brief flash before expelling forth in a massive teal laser that exceeded the width of the tunnel and destroyed it, barreling toward the fleeing ice specter. Lucient stood his ground within the overpowering light, funneling his remaining energy into the cannon's power.
Junko became more frantic in her escape, pushing the limits of her ice arms to reach the exit. The pressure exuding toward her caused the construct's body to rumble and break. Arms chipped apart little by little, three of them crumbling to powdered snow and greatly slowing her speed.
[No, no, no!] Junko dared to look back and immediately regretted her choice as the all-encompassing light beam barreled faster and faster down the crumbling tunnel, mere seconds away. "[Mercy! MERCY—]"
The beam struck into her ice body and pushed it along the rest of the tunnel. The constructed folded against the concussive beam, crumbling apart by the immense force until all that remained was the Froslass herself. Her screams were drowned out under the intense roar of the beam, and she was unable to flee or slip away. It moved far too fast for her to get even the slightest bit of wiggle room.
The beam broke through the last of the tunnel and continued on ahead into the buildings. One by one, it blasted through with Junko at the head of the impacts, breaking through wall after wall and breaking through the frozen ruins brought on by her terror.
Though unable to tell, the beam blasted Junko through seven buildings before the energy finally petered out, finishing her off with a critical impact into the wall of a final building. The energy dispersed on impact, leaving behind the smoldering trail of tunnels through the previous obstacles.
Pressed deeply and unresponsive within the walls, Junko gawked in incoherent pain before letting her head hang, the last of her consciousness slipping away.
Back on the frozen battlefield, Lucient sensed the end of his attack and the outcome of its launch. He staggered back as his cannon crumbled away, draining the last of his vitality with it. He reached inside his uniform and pulled out his spectacles, shakily planting them on his face.
After adjusting them, he whispered, "Lesson…over." He groaned and toppled over onto his side, slipping away into unconsciousness. In spite of his injuries, however, he passed out with a relieved smile on his face.
Zech, still laying down nursing his own injuries, watched the slumbering Espeon with his usual stoic glare before looking out over the buildings. The snowstorm gradually faded, revealing the rain still pouring down over the capital and the fires breaking out (and, strangely, a sea of metal hovering across the sky).
He closed his eyes and allowed himself a moment of reprieve. "I sometimes questioned your decision to leave, Zephora, but…now I finally understand what you see in the Foresters. They are…the definition of defiant."