I really like taking my sweet ass time nowadays, huh? And I'll totally ignore the fact we only got three reveiws on last chapter...
Enjoy!
BOOM!
Simon flew through what appeared to be a store from the blast and rolled into a fresh street, startling the crowd and making them scatter in a panic. Quickly rolling out of the way, Simon barely made it out of said way before Lennix came crashing down right where he'd been, his Impact magic creating a huge crater. Quickly standing to his feet, Simon requipped into his Soaring Armor. At this point, the speed approach was his best bet. Flying forward, Simon went in for a jab with his rapier.
Lennix grabbed his arm.
"I already told you." Lennix hissed. "This battle has gone on to long, I know what you plan to do." Simon growled as he tried to free himself, but to no avail. The grip Lennix has on him was like iron. Lennix let go temporarily, but that was only so he could wrap his hand around Simon's rapier.
The blade shattered, a piece flying up and cutting Simon's face.
After that, Lennix reached forward and touched the chest plate of the armor, destroying it as well. Simon backed up in surprise as the remnants of the armor dropped around him.
"How...?" he mumbled. Most of the armor was no adamantine, but at the very least it should've survived that blast. Requipping into his Lightning Emperor armor and putting the broken armor away, Simon planted his staff in the ground and a blast of lightning came out of the top, which forced Lennix to dodge it. Once again, the man got up close and got a hand on Simon's equipment, destroying the staff as if it was nothing.
"In case your wondering," Lennix said as Simon backed up again, staff disappearing. "I'm using Impact to spread out the damage across the whole of your equipment, effectively causing a small explosion that destroys it."
If that's the case, not even my Adamantine armor will hold up.
Simon's disadvantage was glaring, and he didn't know what to do. Lennix was a bad match up for him. A man so calculating he could determine Simon's attack pattern as he did it. It was a lot like Drake's sound magic, but as the S-Class trials had shown him, Simon was susceptible to that was well. There wasn't anything Simon could do, while Apocalypse was on his way to secure the cannon.
"I'm a little surprised he hasn't fired yet." Lennix spoke, startling Simon. "I wonder how difficult it is."
"What?" Simon asked.
"The Olympians projected time frame was forty-five minutes, and we've passed that." Simon's stomach did a somersault at these words. So, they were done? That was the gist of what Lennix was saying. The cannon would fire at any moment, and they'd lose.
Standing among the shattered remains of his armor and weapons, Simon realized they had lost.
"That's it..." Simon requipped into his Purgatory armor, an armor so terrifying most people fled at the sight. Lennix barely blinked. "I'm done playing with you. This ends now!" Flying forward, Simon brought up the giant spiked club and brought it down on Lennix.
Crack!
Simon flew back at his club snapped in two. Lennix grabbed him during this, almost tearing Simon's arm off, and the Purgatory armor met the same fate. Lying amidst the rubble of his armor, Simon couldn't find the drive to move, his body wouldn't respond.
"Stand up." Lennix kicked Simon in the stomach, and he flew backwards from the impact. "I'm not done with you yet." Simon slowly stood to his feet, waiting for Lennix to come after him. At this point, Sion had to rely on his Heavenly Body magic, but he doubted he could muster up enough strength for anything, let alone Grand Chariot.
It's over, I can't beat him alone...
"What the hell is that?" Simon looked up at Lennix's words, and noticed what the man was referring to. The pieces of Simon's Purgatory armor had begun to glow with white light. It wasn't blinding, but Simon was wholly confused. "What is that, Simon?"
"I don't..." Both men watched as the armor floated into the air, and towards Simon. Looking down, Simon watched in awe as his Purgatory armor reformed around his injured body, and the club reformed next to him, standing up on it's own. The light faded, and Simon's Purgatory armor looked fresh from the blacksmith.
"How...?"
"we don't have time to play around, Simon." Both Lennix and Simon looked in the direction of the voice Standing in an alley, looking a little beaten both otherwise okay, Ultear stood with her hands on her hips.
"Ul?" Simon asked.
"I see," Lennix said. "Ramin was defeated, then?"
"Nope." Ultear replied as she stepped out from the alley. "I got some information out o him and he ran away." Ultear looked over at Simon, blue eyes regarding him carefully. "Need some help?"
"More than you know." Simon replied.
"Well then, looks like I get too take two of you down then." Lennix said with a grin. "Let's see how you stack up, girl!" Ultear nodded and looked back at Simon.
"Sit tight, I got this."
"Are you sure?" Simon asked cautiously, and Ultear nodded, "Alright, he's all yours." Simon took a step back, and watched as Lennix and Ultear faced off.
"Ice Make: Spear!" The spear formed in Ultear's right hand, and she reared back as she threw it. It soared towards Lennix, but the man held out his hand and with a white glow, the spear cracked and blew up.
"Nice try girl." he said. "But a forward attack won't...!" Lennix was interrupted from something hitting him in the back, causing him to fly forward.
Ultear's spear flew back to her after it hit Lennix and she grinned.
"What was that?" She asked innocently.
"You..." Lennix hissed.
"How did you do that Ul?" Simon asked.
"Like I said, I got this." Ultear replied, not looking at Simon. Lennix slowly stood and watched Ultear with new found caution. The spear turned into water which snaked up Ultear's arm and into her open palm. It grew it size before she launched it at Lennix, who dodged to the side.
The spout of water appeared in the direction he'd dodged to and he flew into the wall, destroying it from the impact.
"Your attacks don't make any sense!" Lennix shouted as he recovered. "What is that combination?!"
"It's quite simple, really" Ultear said, an icicle forming in her hands. "All I'm doing is altering the time of my attacks." Simon's eyes widened at these words.
"Wha...?" Simon asked.
"For example, when you destroyed my spear, I simply altered it's timeline to one where I attacked from behind. I altered the water spouts to the side you dodged to." Ultear threw the icicle up into the air. Simon watched as Ultear spread out her hands, white and black magic circles appearing in her palms.
"What are you...?" Lennix began.
"Parallel Worlds!" At these words, the icicle started to float.
The surprising part was how many there was.
Simon watched as icicles appeared out of nowhere, one after the other, and stayed floating above their heads. There was at least a couple hundred in total, all of them aimed at Lennix.
"Ultear, what the hell is that?" Simon asked in a low voice. It was a moment before Ultear looked over her shoulder, a mischievous look in her eye.
"Arc of Time."
"I can't believe this!" Taro watched weakly as Mami shouted in rage. "Why the hell would Nashi go after Apocalypse alone?! Is she insane?!"
"Calm down Mami..." Akio said weakly.
"No! She's going to get herself killed! Ugh, I don't get it." Mami stopped screeching and started rubbing her head. "This has just been the worst day."
"No doubt she wanted to help." Taro said, leaning against the rail on the deck. "I mean, maybe she didn't think it through very well, but at least she's trying."
"No, that isn't okay." Mami replied. "There's no way she's going to be able to get past Apocalypse. There's just not..."
"What the hell is going on?" Everyone jumped and looked over at the new voice. Elise was leaning against the wall leading from the infirmary, watching the three of them weakly.
"Elise?" Ken asked. "What are you doing?"
"Answer me." The Iron Dragon hissed. "What the hell is happening?" Silence fell upon the bridge as the four Blue Pegasus mages exchanged glances, unsure as to who should be the one to say something. After what seemed like forever, Mami sighed.
"If you want it straight, I'll give it to you." Elise nodded, and Mami swallowed nervously. "We're currently in Silverridge, an experimental town founded by the council to house dangerous weapons. We've tracked Phantom Dove here, because Apocalypse is..." Mami stopped suddenly, and Elise glowered at her.
"Continue." She said. Mami nodded.
"There's an Etherion Cannon below the city." Mami spoke, silence falling over the bridge at these words. "Everyone else is out there trying to stop them." Elise seemed to be reeling from the news, as she stood there in silence. After a moment, she nodded.
"Alright, I'll see you guys later then." She said. Taro choked as the injured Dragon Slayer head towards the door, and everyone scrambled to stop her.
"Woah woah woah." Mami said, getting in Elise's way. "Where do you think you're going?"
"To help." Elise replied. "There's no way in hell I'm letting them get away with this." Mami exchanged a look with Taro and Akio, both whom nodded.
"No you can't." Mami said. Elise tensed, and Taro sensed the irritation from the girl. This would turn into a brawl if someone said the wrong thing.
"And why the hell wold that be?" Elise demanded. Mami scratched the side of her face for a moment until she sighed.
"You're far more hurt than you seem." Mami replied. "There's a reason you were in the infirmary."
"I'm fine."
"I don't care." Mami replied. "I promised I'd keep you here, and unless you want to expend your already limited energy trying to defeat me to get me to move, you'll be staying here." Taro knew that promise was total BS, it was just something she said to gain some ground on Elise. The Iron Dragon didn't move for a bit before her shoulders hunched, and she sighed.
"Alright, fine." She said, rubbing her head. "I'll stay here. I do feel sort of dizzy anyway."
"Thank you." Mami said, breathing a sigh of relief. Just as that situation was defused, Ken reacted at the console where is Archive was.
"Ken?" Taro asked. "What is it?" Ken didn't react for a moment, but he slowly turned to look at them, fear in his eyes.
"Nashi found the launch lacrima."
Nashi crept along the passageway slowly, making sure she made less sound than a mouse. Peeking around the next corner, she slowly approached the light at the end of the tunnel. Normally she tried to not go towards the light, but it was okay in this case. Once she got to the end of the tunnel, she slowly peeked around that corner and looked around.
The area that greeted her was far more advanced than the tunnel. The floor was metal, there was weird lacrima machines left right and center, and one was currently on in the center of the room.
It also appeared to be vacant.
Approaching slowly, Nashi came up to the lacrima and stared down at the screen. It was showing her diagnostics of some kind, but none of it made any sense to her. She reached up and placed two fingers on her temple.
"Ken, I think I found the launch info."She said, hearing her friend react in her head.
"Really?! What does it say?!"
"I have no idea, it's all gibberish." Nashi waited for a moment, hearing Ken mutter to himself.
"Okay, uh, you should see an I in the corner of the screen. Press it." Nashi did as she was told, a bunch of numbers and symbols coming up in front of her.
"Now what?" She asked.
"You should see a set of numbers."
"Be more specific, Ken."
"Uh, it should be the coordinates for the launch. I'm doing my best Nashi." Nashi ran her eyes across the system, and she eventually found a set of numbers that Ken must've been referring to.
"Alright, I think I found them." Nashi replied.
"Tell me what they are." Nashi rambled off the numbers to Ken, who repeated them to himself a few times. "Alright, I got them. Now, do you see anything that'll let you halt the launch?"
"Um..." Nashi dug around the systems lacrima for a few seconds. "Not that I can tell...Wait! I found it!"
"You're amazing, Nashi!" Ken said, sounding amazed. "If you can halt it, this is all over!" Nashi smiled as she reached forward to stop the cannon's readying sequence, when she noticed something.
A green magic circle was on her arm.
She screamed out in pain as the circle activated, sending pain coursing through her system.
Nashi? Nashi! What happened?!"
Nashi couldn't find the strength to reply, she was doing all she could to stay conscious. She faded in and out a few times, hearing footsteps approach.
"As if you thought that was it." The voice said. "Do you honestly think I'd leave that unattended?"
"Nashi! What's going on?! Did you stop the launch sequence?!"
"I'm surprised you're able to move, honestly." The voice said as Nashi regained stability. "Shows how much you've grown since then." Nashi struggled to her hands and knees, but she looked as she did.
"Apocalypse." She hissed. The man smiled.
"Nashi." he replied.
"What the hell are you planning?" She asked weakly. "Why are you doing this?"
"I was told by a higher power." he replied honestly. "And you?"
"To stop you." Nashi struggled to her feet, a feat she didn't think possible. "Which I intent to do." Apocalypse smiled wryly.
"Alright then." He said. "How about we make this interesting then?"
"What does that mean?" Apocalypse snapped his fingers, and a green magic circle appeared over the systems lacrima's screen. Nashi's felt a chill go down her back. "What are you..."
"You have five minutes." Apocalypse replied. "Before I destroy the system lacrima, making the launch unstoppable."
And the stakes have been raised! Can we at least try for five reviews today guys? I feel stupid asking for en when we didn't even get half that last chapter. So, I hope you enjoyed, leave a review!