Chapter 10: Birdcage – Demonic Hunting Ground (1)

1

To prevent prisoners from escaping, the Birdcage had many defenses and redundancies. Inside a hollow mountain, shrunk to the size of a ball, containment foam, three thousand anti-gravity drones, ready to spring into action at the first sign of an anomaly.

But the defenses against invasion consisted mainly of herself.

To end the problem or at least contain it until reinforcements arrived. She had only had to defend the Birdcage from the Endbringers once, when Behemoth attacked, and it had never come so close.

Even so, Dragon would succeed.

She had to.

It wasn't an enemy whose capabilities she was unaware of. At least not entirely, as all the information provided by Mishima Kazuya had been transmitted to her.

There was no way to know how complete his information was, but it was better than nothing.

Let's do it, she thought.

The monster with the codename Azazel reached the first significant obstacle. A network of nanomachines, invisible to the human eye, that could destroy a city. However, the monster passed through the network as if it were nothing, tearing it to pieces. It had no effect.

That this monster was a fourth Endbringer, despite coming from an alternate world, was nothing more than the most fatalistic theory hastily concocted from very limited facts.

However, whatever it was, it had just demonstrated that its durability was nothing to envy of the Endbringers.

Her mechanical suits approached the creature, floating a few feet above the ground. Most of those suits had been designed to deal with the Dragonslayers, while they continued to evade and humiliate her in some way. But that was mainly because she limited herself to using non-lethal armaments.

Now, however, she had no reason to hold back.

A rain of missiles.

The heavy rain descended on the giant.

Behemoth had approached in the same way. It didn't really mean anything, but it was still true. Slow and heavy. As if it believed it couldn't be stopped anyway.

What could she do if it started running?

In any case, the explosions covered the creature with a cloud of dust. But only for a moment. It walked through it a moment later, unscathed. The first salvo had no effect... At least, no visible effect.

Where is the difference?

If she had a tongue, she would have clicked it.

Azazel grabbed one of her suits in the air, not important or advanced enough in its development process for her to have given it a name. In any case, it broke it with the same ease that an angry child could break a toy, twisting its limbs, tearing off its head, and then smashing it against the ground several times. No child's toy would explode like it did afterward, of course.

The rest of the suits would share the same fate soon.

Dragon knew that, regardless of the designated target being Azazel, she had to treat this as a fight against an Endbringer. That is, the victory condition was only to do enough damage to make it prefer to retreat to lick its wounds. She shouldn't dream of a more decisive way to win.

A deep, cruel laugh. Needless to say, it didn't come from her vocalization systems. Nor did it come from the constant recording of the Birdcage. She had pushed that and other distractions aside for this.

That monster was the one laughing, of course.

It was something more human, for lack of a better word right now, than any other reaction the Endbringers had exhibited to date. The Simurgh had attracted attention at first with many people expecting it to be another Scion, but the only human thing it had, that it had, was its appearance, its form. It hadn't said or done anything. Until one day it unleashed chaos.

However, this creature was laughing and with a modulation that denoted a certain personality. She didn't think it was her imagination the curiosity in its laugh while tearing the robot apart, as if saying, well, well, I've never seen anything like this.

Its human characteristics were the least of it, now and always, but Dragon found it impossible to ignore that detail.

Besides, what else should she think about?

The fact that she was losing the fight, that soon it would reach the prison and the nearest reinforcements were still too far away?

She didn't run from her problems. She made sure to solve them no matter the cost, sometimes forgetting everything else in the process. She was proud of being efficient and working to improve her efficiency where others would have become complacent, but there were problems that couldn't be solved. Problems where you could only stand, wondering what the hell had gone wrong.

"Dragon."

Ciara. It was the voice of Glaistig Uaine, the self-proclaimed Fairy Queen, perpetually with the appearance of a girl young enough to believe in those things, when in reality she was much older.

A poor lunatic who had only been captured because she had agreed to surrender, marching right to the Birdcage.

She wasn't speaking directly to her, of course, she couldn't.

She was speaking to her private room in the Cell Block she ruled, hoping she would hear her.

"Let me out of here. You know very well you can't stop it without help."

If she had a body, Dragon would have shuddered.

How was it possible that Glaistig Uaine knew? That she had noticed anything from the depths of the Birdcage?

She knew they had never really had control over her, that she only remained locked up because she wanted to, but this went beyond what had been thought.

Deep down she knew she was right, but Dragon chose to try to ignore her.

Besides, it wasn't as easy as the childish prisoner seemed to believe. Leaving a gap open for her to escape the cage would only provoke a mass escape attempt, to begin with.

Glaistig Uaine was surely the most powerful parahuman inside the prison. She could contain the rest of the prisoners, but was it worth the risk?

Betting everything that she would be able to contain them. Risking that her plan to gather power in the Birdcage was enough motivation to try, in the first place. After all, for better or worse, new prisoners always came in. Risking that she would then decide not to return to the prison after all. Glaistig Uaine might have plans, but the woman was crazy. So obviously she couldn't count on her acting rationally.

In short, there were too many holes to call it a plan. To even consider it for a second. She needed help, but the Fairy Queen was not help. She could actually be the final nail in her coffin.

Dragon refocused all her attention on the fight. It should never have been otherwise. Of course, while listening to her and having an internal debate, the fight had continued all along. With the same result. Not a single attack had made a dent in the monster. And it kept tearing her suits apart as if they were toys, laughing all the time.

Even the suit named Azazel was doing poorly, although at least it was still in the fight. Dragon felt pure hatred again. Her irresponsible father's restrictions had not only prevented her from doing harm, they limited her even in this. If she had a partner by her side, someone she could trust, someone who could break down those restrictions, she knew she could improve the Azazel. Transform it into a completely different suit, making her plans and ideas a reality.

But she was alone and it was too late in any case. This was what she had. She had to swim or die like this.

Swim or die.

Except she was completely sure. The ones who would die were other people, so it was very easy to say that.

"Dragon."

Ciara's voice reached her again. How persistent. As part of her restrictions, Dragon was obligated to obey the authorities. Temporarily releasing a prisoner to help her stop the destruction of the prison... Would it work?

Azazel suddenly started running. As if that monster had also detected something it shouldn't. That is, her making a decision. Damn. It would soon be upon her. She had no other choice left. She should feel better, free of the weight of the decision she had made, but it wasn't so.

Her suits pounced on it while firing. One of the suits drove a huge spear into the monster's shoulder. That was the first wound, sinking deeply into the monster's skin, but it didn't matter. It kept running, dragging the suit backward and receiving the shots and explosions from the rest as if nothing was happening.

Not even Behemoth had been this difficult to handle. Although with great sacrifices, of course, they had stopped him much earlier. He hadn't come this close to the Birdcage.

The crystals covering Azazel's body were replaced. They were quickly and violently replaced by others. The projectiles sank deeply into the mountain and exploded. Dragon's bad feeling turned out to be correct. It wouldn't know the exact location of the cage, but it wasn't far off.

Once it found the prison, it could crush it in its fist as if it were nothing, along with all the lives inside. Or release the prisoners. Whatever the monster planned, it wasn't good.

Glaistig Uaine rose above the mountains, surrounded by fallen parahumans she called shadows. She was dressed in prison clothes, naturally, but it didn't last long. Even wearing prison clothes was part of the farce she intended to honor for three hundred years, when the fairies would dance. Whatever that meant.

In any case, one of the shadows transformed her outfit into something completely different and fitting her self-proclaimed title. All green and flowing. Blonde hair and green eyes swimming in a sea of fabric of the same color. It would be adorable if it weren't so creepy.

"Don't make me regret this, Fairy Queen."

Glaistig Uaine didn't even look at her.

Three shadows floated around her, waiting, almost observing. None that she recognized at first glance. In any case, it was the least of it.

"We all have our roles, our duties. The destruction of this prop does not suit me."

Prop? What an ally she had found.

But Glaistig Uaine quickly proved that it had been worth dedicating several systems to getting her out of there and opening a discreet gap before anyone could find out where she was going while Dragon continued the battle.

She repelled Azazel with a combination of powers, sending it flying twenty or thirty meters backward. The impact shook the ground like a great earthquake. Of course, Dragon didn't waste time. Her suits bombarded the monster again, with the same result as so far. She could only hope that her efforts were making a dent in the creature, even if she couldn't see them at first glance. That's how it worked with the Endbringers. Although she had a bad feeling, the sense that this thing was actually something completely different, that couldn't be measured or compared so easily.

Another rough, malignant, guttural laugh. Then...

"That's true. We all have our duty. This is my duty."

The monster spoke as if it was natural.

2

"I want to be transported to that Birdcage," said Kazuya while glaring at Piggot.

If looks could kill, the woman would already be in a body bag.

Well, his look could kill, but he was still behaving, playing along. For now.

"We are saving those resources for priority reinforcements."

"I am strong. I stopped Lung."

"I know, don't remind me," Piggot grimaced. "Before you say something stupid, don't insult my intelligence by pretending you did what you did because you give a damn about the civilians."

"You are a hateful woman."

Kazuya, as usual, didn't think twice.

"I get told that all the time. It's part of my job to tell people what needs to be said, not what they want to hear."

Birdcage – Demonic Hunting Ground (1): FIN