Chapter 12 - Legendary Encounter Pt.1
Far East Sector, Somewhere near Fenrir - God Eater World - 2 minutes after the end of the previous chapter
(General P.O.V)
"Man, you'd think the director would give me a better job than this…" Erik Soders, an Old-type God Eater says, the man has been assigned to scouting duties by Director Johannes today as this particular part of the Far East tends to be a popular hunting ground for Aragami all around…
However, with the death of the Ouroboros by one Scáthach, there has only really been pack after pack of Ogretails and the occasional Vajra to keep watch for, something that has made this scouting mission particularly dull for a man like Erik who craves some excitement…
"Is it so hard to ask for something exciting to show up, the sorceress is practically the only thing making this deployment to the far east sector exciting at this rate…" Erik says as he sighs and takes a swig of his flask of beer that he secretly has on him at all times, the man feels the buzz and burn of the alcohol as it goes down his throat before he pulls out his binoculars again to watch the pack of Ogretails fight another pack of Ogretails…
As Erik sighs, he goes to take another swig of his flask when he feels a massive ominous chill run down his spine, making him go ramrod straight as he spots a shadowy rift being forced open right in between the brawling Ogretails, both packs stopping as if sensing the harrowing threat that is coming through the shadowy rift…
It's then that a pair of glowing red eyes shine out through the shadowy rift, instilling a sense of dread like no other into both Aragami and Erik himself, the God Eater can only watch as without warning a glowing blue blast flies out of the shadowy rift that disintegrates both packs of Ogretail Aragami in one attack…
Erik drops the Binoculars as he knows he has to immediately get into contact with Fenrir ASAP as he watches with dread as a large, bulky monster with huge black wings and walking on a total of six legs exits out of the Shadowy rift…
"Fenrir Far East Branch, this is Erik Soders on a Scouting mission in Sector 47, I have visual confirmation of….some sort of massive draconic creature walking on six legs…..I cannot confirm if it is Aragami in origin, I repeat I cannot confirm—" Erik Soders says before he freezes as he sees the large, terrifying creature turn its gaze to look squarely at him as if it can see him from such a large distance…
However, much to the man's terror at that, he can see it open its mouth as the creature charges up a vibrant red beam. Erik wants to say something, anything…perhaps beg for his life or plead for help on the still open comm, but there is an intense pressure being forced upon the man's very soul that denies him even the chance to do anything of the sort.
And as the almighty draconic creature fires the beam directly at him, all Erik can think is that he won't have to worry about his heart condition any longer….
BOOOOOM!
As the Beam slams into where Erik was once standing, there is an explosion of red and orange that sends a shockwave out across the entire Far East Sector. As the dust settles, not even ashes remain of the Old-Type God Eater Erik Soders…
With the immediate problems dealt with, the creature begins to lumber toward the closest source of humans it can sense, the draconic entity not desiring to return to captivity ever again and still high on its post-freedom adrenaline, decides to eradicate the large bastion of humans itself…
And as it begins to draw in the shadows of the world, its eyes glow a piercing red and the creature lets out a ferocious cry…
BISHAAAAAAAN!
Fenrir Far East Branch - Almost a minute later
(Scáthach's P.O.V)
It's utter chaos as I and Alisa both walk at a fast pace together as God Eaters, mechanics, and operators scramble to figure out what's going on. I had only minutes ago been training my dear apprentice on her new weapon for a while before I had gotten a particularly harrowing message from my fellow contractor Xigbar…
[Xigbar: you got trouble coming your way kiddo, tried to stop it but I wasn't able to prevent it from leaving, still dealing with the bastards who let it out into your world, stay safe if you can]
Absolutely no matter how much I try to get a response from Xigbar afterward, I'd never get even a hint of it. Because of the message I decided to head out of the pocket dimension with Alisa in tow, only to be greeted with alarms blaring and the sound of constant shuffling feet as everyone is scrambling for answers…
"Oracle cell sensors are going haywire!" "We've lost connection to Fenrir HQ!" These are but some of the panicked cries that both I and Alisa hear from the operators responsible for keeping tabs on both sensors and maintaining communications.
Beyond that, though there is a sense of Mystical dread that I think only me and Alisa can feel due to our magecraft, and it feels like a being of the void has made its presence known in this world.
It is a constant…pressure that feels like a weight that never fades from our very being, something that doesn't seem to be affecting those without magecraft. But whatever it is, there is no doubt it is not at all an Aragami.
However, whatever it is, it is almost certainly killing Aragami at such a rate that it's flooding the atmosphere with their Oracle cells and causing all manner of sensory failures due to the rapid spike that the sensors were never designed to handle.
This has led to a knock-on effect that has disrupted long-distance communications that have left technicians scrambling to fix. However, it's not working due to the sensor system overload.
Thus the entire branch has been forced to rely on short-range communications, one of which from one Erik Soders before he dropped contact, placed the immense disturbance at sector 47 which from what I can gather, is a ruined pre-aragami industrial sector that has long since been overrun with hundreds of aragami that seems to use the place as a nesting ground and often is the site of many territorial disputes between aragami species.
"Shut the main sensor systems off and activate back-up sensor systems…..No, I don't care if they're outdated tech, anything is better than overloaded sensors that are causing the entire base to lose long-range communications among other things!" Director Johannes says sternly into a phone line connected to the engineering department of the branch.
As the blonde man listens to the response from the other end of the line, he grits his teeth while losing composure briefly and says…"I don't care how you get that old system back up and running, we need it up so we can turn the communications system back on as well!"
After that, he ends the call and takes a moment to compose himself as he soon spots me and Alisa walking up to him in the den alongside many technicians, operators, and God-eaters all scrambling to get their act together…
"Scáthach, I'm glad to see you're here with your new apprentice, we got a massive spike in oracle cells that indicates that aragami are being slaughtered at a pace that our system can't keep up with right now…" Director Johannes says as he looks rather stressed out by the sudden turn of events today.
As I go to say something, it's right then that the backup sensor systems finally come online and while they lack the accuracy of Oracle cell count that essentially overloaded the main sensors, they do detect something big making its way toward the Far East Branch.
What's really interesting, however, is the total lack of Oracle Cells coming from that same large entity. This means that whatever is coming our way is not an aragami, verifying the report that came from Erik Soders with no more doubts remaining…
"Director, I request that I and my apprentice are deployed to deal with this threat as it may require our own abilities to counteract what's coming toward the base!" I say with urgency, Director Johannes briefly notices that Alisa has a spear of her own and takes but a single moment to consider the offer before nodding his head.
"Very well then, Scáthach I want you and your apprentice on the first team hunting this thing, we cannot afford to allow it to achieve its aim no matter the co—" Director Johannes says before there is a loud explosion elsewhere at the base which causes the room to shake violently as it's deadly silent for a moment.
Followed by immediate close-range communications from God Eaters that were stationed on the walls of the base that declare that the entire wall has been hit with a large shadowy ball that detonated and left a massive hole in the Anti-Aragami barrier.
Almost immediately after that declaration, I start rushing out of the Fenrir Base with Alisa following close behind me. With how thick that wall was when I first arrived here, there is no doubt in my mind that something extremely powerful is here and I can't help but worry it's something that may be more than I can handle right now…
As I make it out of the building, I can see dozens of aragami start to pour in, slaughtering civilians while seemingly running from something incredibly powerful. I grit my teeth and pull out my twin spears in each hand before finally deciding to cut loose more of my abilities….and multiple copies of my spears begin to manifest rapidly above me…
The aragami notice me amassing a large collection of my spears and begin to rush toward me but it's way too late as I unleash all 32 of them at once, any more risking hitting civilians in the carnage as they quite literally lance through aragami after aragami, killing several of them in seconds with more badly wounded.
Before I decide to get involved further however, many of the rank-and-file God Eaters finally show up with their God Arcs ready and begin to rush forward to exterminate the intruding Aragami, with the ranged Old-types getting on a higher position to provide covering fire for many of the God Eaters.
Alisa just looks at the sheer coordination and teamwork occurring with the old types before chuckling as she realizes that her prior arrogance was very short-sighted indeed. "Come Alisa, we must find whatever is causing this chaos and deal with it as fast as we can.." I say to my currently bemused apprentice who nods and we both start rushing through the gap in the Wall of the base, slaying aragami on our way out…
Far East Sector, not far from Fenrir - 2 minutes later
(Scáthach's P.O.V)
As we rush out to where the Shadowy ball attack came from, there seems to be nothing out here. While at first, I think we had somehow passed it by, the feeling of pressure is strongest on us both in this spot…
Out of the corner of my eye though, I spot a faint disturbance in the spot behind Alisa and just before it violently opens up I manage to push Alisa out of the way as shadowy talons rip at the spot Alisa was just at.
"You alright Alisa..?" I ask my dear apprentice, who just nods before we both get back up and turn to the entity that attacked us…before I freeze in shock, surprise, and a sense of terror. The entity's black wings flex outward as its golden headpiece, red eyes, and bulky, six-legged form is present before our very eyes.
A silver leathery hide covers most of the body with a black reptilian stripe going from its neck down to its belly as while it has a small tail, it is very much a dragon, what's worse is that I know what it is…
This creature, this mythical being is….
BISHAAAAAAAN!
[Giratina Altered Form - The Legendary Distortion Pokemon]
"Giratina…" I say with a slight undertone of terror, the massive dragon-type pokemon roaring as it charges up a shadow ball attack aimed right at our position. "ALISA, SPLIT!" I yell as the two of us immediately bolt from where we're standing right as the shadow ball is fired and a massive shadowy explosion occurs.
As I and Alisa quickly surround Giratina, Alisa quickly uses her Gae Bolg Spear as a catalyst to fire off an Ainuz rune and blast the distortion pokemon with fire magecraft. However, unlike with the aragami here, the fire blast does very little if any damage, prompting Giratina to charge up a blue fiery sphere that I know to be an Aura Sphere attack and fire it at Alisa.
Before the sphere lands, Alisa apportates toward my location and allows the sphere to strike at the location she was prior before we split up to corner it again, not wanting it to continue it's move towards the Fenrir base.
As Giratina roars in anger, its red eyes glow as without warning burning blue meteors appear in the sky and begin to buffet the entire area with their impact. It's close, extremely close as I am forced to jump from the ground to the sky, bounding off falling meteors to get a position high above Giratina once the draco meteor attack ends, I immediately gatling fire several gae bolg alternative spears at Giratina.
While none of the spears pierce the Legendary Pokemon's hide much, It is forced to cover itself with its wings, giving me a chance to make another move as from the tiny shadow I create on the ground, Giratina is suddenly pounced on by the Darksteel Vajra hidden in my shadow.
While I know the Darksteel Vajra appearing out of nowhere will likely be heavily questioned, with any luck it will be able to continue hiding in my shadow later on. The Darksteel Vajra roars as in swipes and bites at the wings of Giratina, making the legendary distortion pokemon roar in pain and throw the augmented aragami off of it before firing a shadow ball at it.
The Shadow Ball slams into the Darksteel Vajra, heavily injuring it but as it gets back up, it begins to form a Dark Blue Shadowy ball in its mouth as if trying to use its unique abilities to replicate the Shadow Ball attack of Giratina.
It eventually fires its replicated Shadow Ball right at Giratina, managing to deal a large amount of damage out of nowhere and making the pokemon cry out in agony. As I land on the back of my Darksteel Vajra, Giratina suddenly disappears into a shadowy portal out of nowhere.
At first, I believe it may have left but I quickly realize what this is and quickly tell the Darksteel Vajra through the link between us to jump away fast. Seconds later I feel the disturbance behind the Darksteel Vajra and the augmented shadowy aragami jumps up into the air right as Giratina comes out with its wings having been poised to tear into the hide of the Darksteel Vajra.
The Darksteel Vajra quickly forms another replica shadow ball and fires it at Giratina, damaging it again as I can see Alisa setting up some fire rune land-mine traps nearby, immediately understanding what she's going for both because of the link between our minds as well as the fact I did something similar earlier in my time in this world.
However, a bright red beam, a Hyper Beam at that, slams into the Darksteel Vajra's abdomen and causing immense damage to the Darksteel Vajra as both it and I land hard onto the ground although my shroud of power quickly forms and takes the brunt of the damage, leaving my back bruised but no broken bones thankfully.
I turn to my left and see the Darksteel Vajra heavily wounded and there is a large number of third-degree burns on its abdomen, forcing me to call it back into my shadow to recover. As Giratina moves to resume making it's way to the Fenrir base, it quickly is met with a blast of fire magecraft from behind by Alisa, forcing its attention upon her.
"Come on monster, come get some…" Alisa says as it begins to lumber towards her with a roar and fires off another shadow ball. Alisa quickly counters by firing another blast of fire magecraft in order to get the shadow ball to detonate early and away from the traps she set.
As she begins to run away, Giratina is quick to follow. However as it gets to where Alisa was just prior, it is suddenly surrounded by a vast array of fire runes that she had set up while the Darksteel Vajra and I had fought it.
"Let's see if you can tank this many traps.." Alisa says while doing a thumbs down motion with her left hand right as a massive fiery explosion occurs. We both hear Giratina cry out in pain and slump over as it looks badly wounded.
While just one fire rune magecraft wouldn't do much to Giratina on its own, when many of them blast Giratina at the same time, however, even a dragon-type pokemon who has resistance to any fire attacks will eventually find itself very much feeling the burn so to speak.
It looks like the fight is finally over, making both myself and Alisa relax as now all that is left is to let Xigbar know that Giratina is taken care of…
But just as I am about to call Xigbar, Battle Precognition kicks in and I quickly turn to Giratina as it suddenly begins to stand up and roar, shadows suddenly coiling around its body as I can feel Giratina's power spike dramatically as if it is….oh no…
As an explosion of power ripples out of it, Giratina's six legs have disappeared as the Legendary Pokemon floats in the air as if gliding through it while the wings have turned into six shadowy tendrils along it's back. As I struggle to comprehend what I am seeing, there is no doubt however what has just occurred despite how terrifying it is to comprehend…
[Giratina, Origin Form]
As Giratina's wounds rapidly restore themselves before our very eyes, our hard work undone in seconds, Giratina charges up a Hyper Beam and fires…
The beam soars past us and before long it goes right through the gap that was created in the barrier of the Far East Fenrir Base…and a massive explosion occurs, much to the horror of me and Alisa.
As the release of power dies down to a more stable level, Giratina turns to us once more and roars as it prepares to battle the two of us once more. While I can't help but worry about everyone on the base, I must focus on the battle at hand…
It's only right after all, for those who have been lost and for those we can yet save by defeating Giratina here and now!
And so I and Alisa prepare to fight the Legendary pokemon for round two, ready to ensure it goes down for good this time. I only hope that both me and Alisa survive to see the next world ahead, no matter what happens from here…
Meanwhile - Company Crossroad of Worlds
(General P.O.V)
Xigbar sighs as he puts his eyepatch on, resealing his vampiric abilities, and looks over the blood-drained bodies of the smugglers. He is exhausted and not at all ready to tangle with a legendary pokemon like Giratina….but he knows someone that does who owes him a favor…
It doesn't take him long to text the man in question to come to the Crossroad in question as within minutes a man with a black overcoat, black fedora, and a tense but stern demeanor comes through a dark corridor of his own as he walks over to Xigbar…
"Hmm…looks like you fucked around with idiots again, it's not like you to mess up something so easy…" The man says as he gazes at the dead bodies of the monster smugglers, sucked dry of blood.
"I just had the bad luck to be working with a fucking leeroy jenkins sort of contractor, asshole died and left me cleaning up his mess.." Xigbar says with a small amount of contempt in his tone, the dead contractor having left him feeling bitter regarding how things went down.
The man in the black fedora nods as he soon says… "So, you want me to help out one of your prized rookies under your watch then…?" making Xigbar nod, hoping that the man across from him will agree.
The Fedora-wearing man sighs before he snaps his fingers and opens a portal to Scáthach's world and begins to walk into it, but before he does he turns around and says… "I do this, and I no longer owe you that favor, capisce…?"
Xigbar nods and the man sighs as he nods before he heads through the portal fully. But if one were to take a closer look at the man's overcoat, there is a very faded letter on one of his pockets…a single red R…
Author's notes
Hey everyone, hope you're all doing well!
I do apologize for the long wait, getting back into regular scheduling still so don't worry, I'm not gonna be doing that month-long wait again if I can help it.
Now then, let's get over the plot points for this chapter.
Giratina's arrival
You can probably tell I was trying hard to keep the exact nature of what I unleashed on this world secret for as long as possible, although some of my readers have already correctly guessed from the previous chapter alone.
Also, I slipped in a reference to another game series I know here, so I'll be eager to hear which series you may think it is in comments and reviews depending on where you're reading from!
The Breaking of the Barrier
As far as I recall, this particular feature of the Far East Branch base was designed with Aragami in mind, it was never supposed to tackle something like a legendary pokemon firing a mystical blast with deadly force.
This of course led to many civilian and God Eater rank-and-file deaths and more of the former following the incursion of fleeing aragami that were also hunting down defenseless civilians.
It was also a chance to show that despite the fact the later games focused on the new types, it doesn't mean that the Old-types have yet to get the irrelevance they got later on, plus basic military tactics as befitting a military base on display.
Giratina Fight Part 1
Hoo boy, here we go...
The fight was always intended to go into two parts, one in Altered form and one in origin form (been playing a lot of Legends Arceus so if you're wondering, yes I did essentially repurpose THAT fight for here).
Plus while both Scáthach and Alisa both could theoretically kill it with their noble phantasms, the problem is that Giratina's Shadow Force can be used at any time and make their attempts useless.
While Gae Bolg Alternative would be unable to properly land the first blow due to the speed and power of Giratina, Gae Bolg itself in Alisa's hands would probably be able to kill it….if it were currently at full power.
Problem is that nowhere near enough time has passed to allow Alisa to get a chance to fully release the seals placed on Gae Bolg for the intended effect to be active. Thankfully it doesn't impact her runecraft from the template at least!
Of course, when Giratina transformed into its Origin form, it definitely did one hell of a "Fuck you" move with that Hyper Beam, using the excess energy of the transformation itself to fire off the Hyper Beam.
As for how bad the damage is, we'll get to that in the next chapter but I think it's obvious the casualties have just skyrocketed in number…
So, Next time in Wrapped In Shadows: Situation at Fenrir Base, Giratina fight Part 2 and quite literally wrapping up the battle.
See you all on the 10th of April (Don't think I can make a new chapter THAT quickly for tomorrow), take care!