Roar! Nidhogg - the Fangs of Life

[Insert: Alive - TRiDENT]

"Gungnir, Ichaival and the Shénshòujìng have all engaged the enemy!"

The group at H.Q. were all thoroughly analyzing the situation, all the while, Genjuro declaring commands as they tried to make heads or tails of what was on the screen. Even if they could see what was going on, the concept of what they were viewing still had so many questions that needed answers. Elfnein couldn't help but mutter under her breath, "A Symphogear, but also, a Faust Robe... where on Earth could this girl get a Relic like that?"

Hibiki's gaze was directed at Leia, her fists clenched as Leia's eyes fell upon her, unimpressed. She had heard of the Gungnir, the spear that had the power of deicide, but when she looked over her form, there was not a spear in sight. Instead, the girl wore a set of white and yellow gauntlets, ones that gave her a "brawler" feel to her rather than a knight. Even if it still had the power to overthrow God, the form itself didn't bring about any sort of excitement in her, like it was below her expectations.

"Surprised you haven't run yet."

Leia didn't want to say anything about it, but in truth, it gave her a perfect opportunity to test the limits of her Faust Robe. Even though the condescending voice knew her every thought, she opted to deny its insinuations. "I was getting to that." The wings on her back opened, her body lifting from the ground as she began to fly. The wings didn't flap or beat, remaining completely stationary as she levitated and got ready to leave. However, the trio wasn't going to let that happen.

"Oh, no, you don't," Chris called out, aiming her Armed Gear to fire a shot at Leia. The shot rang out, a trail of red following the bullet before finally getting in range. She didn't even attempt to move out of the way, but once it reached it, it was deflected, blocked by a translucent hexagon of yellow light.

"Alchemy...?"

As Hibiki muttered that, Leia waved her hand, a green alchemic circle appearing below her adversaries. With a collection of wind, a massive tornado engulfed the group, sending them flying out of the alley. This didn't make sense to Hibiki, nor to the other two of the group. This girl just sang and transformed, so how could she be using alchemy?

When they landed out in the open, they noticed the scene was now completely empty, most likely due to the massive surges of energy that caused them to evacuate. After all, no one would want to be around if they saw multiple pillars of light and felt the ground shaking. This made it perfect for them, since they didn't need to worry about casualties. "Hibiki-kun!" Hibiki heard a male voice in her headphones, the same with the other two girls. She automatically knew who it was based off the gruffness and the tone.

"Master?"

Genjuro didn't waste any time providing information about the situation, "Listen up, that girl isn't using a Symphogear, it's a Faust Robe!" While that explanation gave the group a reasoning behind the alchemy, it only raised more questions. After all, they knew that Faust Robes were activated via transmutation rather than song, so what was the singing for? Chris clicked her tongue, aiming her Armed Gear at the alchemist, though Leia remained unperturbed.

"Tch. That explains that then..."

Hibiki stood up before responding, "We've dealt with alchemists before, I'm sure we can-" Elfnein cut her off, her voice having a slight bit of worry to it. Her mind was on one thing, hoping that her hypothesis wasn't the case. "It's not that simple. If she was able to use phonic gain, then..."

"Watch out!"

Miku brought her hand up, a mirror plate from the Shénshòujìng flying to block a spiral of flames that was aimed at Hibiki. As the mirror blocked the attack, Chris fired a couple more shots, rebounding off thin air to attack their enemy from every angle.

(HORNET PISTOLS)

However, the shots were once again blocked, each one being stopped by an individual silver shield. "Come on, go my way, reveal your true nature," Leia sang, the chorus of her song increasing the intensity of her alchemy. Even though she was using phonic gain, it was a result of transmutation through alchemy, which only served to increase her own attack power. It was a continuous cycle: alchemy into phonic gain, which then amplified her alchemy again.

"Keep living, keep living, there's no way you'll keep us down."

She pointed her finger up, then brought it down. This time, a torrent of water descended from high in the air, flooding the area as the trio desperately managed to evade the incoming waterfall. With another swipe of her finger, the water that had come down and was on the ground now transformed into solid crystals, coming after the group that had fled in all directions. "With the proof of our existence here, the meaning of our lives is the "now"."

Hibiki was the first to stop backing up, standing firm as her Armed Gear transformed, creating a massive gauntlet tail-ended with rocket boosters on her right arm. She propelled herself forward, the gauntlet on her arm shattering the crystals that came after her. Miku aimed her mirrors towards the oncoming crystals, blasting them apart as she went to close the distance. Chris took note of the other two, the holster around her waist opening and revealing several missiles. The missiles launched, destroying her portion of the crystals as she continued to fire shots at Leia, though they were continuously blocked.

(Purgatory)

(MEGA DETH PARTY)

"Screaming out, struggle now, fight as yourself for once in your life."

Leia waved her hand again, the fragments of the crystals the Gears destroyed now lighting up. Everything was going according to her plan. Even if her opponents were able to counteract her moves, she anticipated that. The deconstruction and reconstruction of everything is the very basis of alchemy, which she had completely down pat. She had used this aspect to replay this fight in her head hundreds, no, thousands of times in her head, so she knew exactly what the next moves would be, even if one of them so much as stepped left instead of right.

"Even with such simple things to live your life with..."

The crystals' brilliance radiated, all the smaller fragments combusting after being transmuted into explosions of fire. The trio were engulfed in explosions, not even realizing that they had fallen right into Leia's trap, though it wasn't like she didn't have a backup plan for that as well. "Those were my medals for life without realizing it." Leia looked down upon the smoke, the self-destructing crystals leaving paths of debris in their wake. She couldn't see the three in the aftermath, but it wasn't something she was too keen on looking for.

"You're having a bit too much fun with this."

Her mood was brought down ever-so-slightly when she heard Nidhogg speak. She didn't want to admit it, but she was getting enjoyment from using the Faust Robe like this. No wonder her sister was so happy to hear that she didn't need to be limited during their first encounter with the Gears, it felt so... liberating. Leia rolled her eyes, not wanting to indulge in Nidhogg's taunts. Even if it could read her mind, she wasn't going to give it the satisfaction of a direct answer.

"I don't remember asking for your opinion. Plus... it gives me a chance," she replied, her cape fluttering in the wind. Nidhogg wondered what this "chance" was, but it was very easy to read her mind and see what she was referring to.

"Horaaaaaaaa!"

Leia didn't even need to bring her hand up, the shield of silver appearing to block the attack from the Godslayer. Hibiki was frozen in place, her attack not connecting with the girl in the slightest. Leia could tell this was going to happen, even calculating for the following flashes of light that attacked from another section of the smoke.

She diverted the shield holding Hibiki, the rays of light now having a new target. Hibiki, upon this realization, immediately dove down, allowing the light to hit Leia's shield. However, once she reached the ground, she was blindsided by a tornado of wind that came from an alchemic circle formed beside her.

"Khh-!"

As Hibiki was forced into the side of a building, Leia pulled down her shield, the smoke below her clearing as Miku stood tall, the mirrors around her spinning in a circle.

"The Shénshòujìng... They have a Faust Robe too."

"Did you expect them not to?"

Leia let out a sigh, recalling the notes in her mind. Her knowledge of the Shénshòujìng was limited, but it wasn't completely foreign to her. The mirror that banishes evil, one that a twisted villain transfigured into a Gear. She was knowledgeable about its influence in the Frontier Incident, but seeing the way it was now, she could tell that this wasn't the way a Symphogear was constructed.

Her arm raised as her wings finally extended outward to the fullest capacity. The segments on her wings began to collect energy, two separate alchemic circles appearing on the farthest end of each wing. As Hibiki was just starting to collect herself from the previous attack, she noticed the wind and fire elements on her enemy's person, before Leia spoke once again.

"Of course not. That was anticipated as well."

"Two Octaves...?"

Elfnein couldn't help but stare in shock. There was only one person who was able to use more than one Octave of Aristotle at once, since doing that required a massive amount of energy. Elfnein couldn't confirm her suspicions just yet, but something about this felt completely off. She could only watch as the elements summoned were directed at the group in currents.

A ring of fire engulfed the battlefield, the heat flicking against the Gears and their surroundings. However, once Leia applied wind into the mix, the flames grew exponentially, the video feed switching to a different view as if the camera was trying to evade the attack. Their faces were in shock as they noted the way this pillar of flame and wind looked, its shape and height eclipsing the sky itself.

They had only seen something of this magnitude a couple of times, being when Hibiki used the S2CA, but to have this being in front of them so blatantly...

When the flames died down, Leia stopped to take a breath. She knew her alchemy would be increased in scale with a Faust Robe, but this was by an unprecedented amount. It made it look trivial how much time she spent perfecting her skills when she could have just done this. "Funny. I thought that the Godslayer might have actually been an issue," she remarked, but the dragon gave its own analysis.

"To be fair, all you've used is alchemy."

The power of Gungnir was known to the entirety of the Bavarian Illuminati's remnants at this point, seeing as how their previous Controlling Director made sure that the Godslayer was number one on their list of threats to the Divine Power. However, without any "divine" aspects, Leia realized that the Gungnir was nothing more than a fancy boxing glove.

"Damn..."

Chris got to her knees, standing up as Hibiki made her way over to her friends, worried after the last attack. She seemed to take the least damage out of the group, though it wasn't by much. The three of them needed a plan for this person, since raw strength wasn't going to cut it here. "How is she so strong," Miku questioned, bringing her hand up to call the mirrors that were scattered back to her. "I dunno, but we need to figure out something fast," Hibiki answered, though it was easier said than done.

Despite this, this was the trio that was the best at putting things together on the fly, so one look into each other's eyes told them everything they needed to do. "She hasn't moved an inch, so she's obviously not taking us seriously," Chris called out, the Armed Gear on her hands transforming into a set of gatling guns.

"In that case... let's give her a reason to!"

[Insert: FOR THE FUTURE - Yuka Iguchi]

Hibiki leapt up, the boosters on her back putting in work to lift her up into the air to attack Leia. On another end, Chris opened fire from another end, forcing Leia to put up a shield to block the shots on one end and Hibiki's punch on the other.

"Just punching won't work, I hope you realized thi-"

Leia's observation of the situation was cut off, but not by Hibiki or Chris. Instead, it was a song being sung by Miku, whose mirrors began to shine brighter than ever. "To the me who waged war and said, "We can't understand each other," I'll never lose to you!" The multiple lights flashed, firing at a much faster speed compared to her attacks last time. Leia couldn't use the same tactic before, since she knew Hibiki wouldn't have left herself this open without a plan. As such, she chose the safest option, simply conjuring more shields of silver alchemy to defend.

"That won't work either."

The light was blocked, Leia's defense seemingly ironclad. However, something she noticed was that she raised her hand to block that attack. "If I shine, then you too can go forth, beyond this small patch of sunlight." Leia smacked her lips, pointing a finger at Miku to cause a vortex of flames to go after her, but before she could, Nidhogg spoke out to her, "Seems they got one over on you."

Annoyed by the constant "backseating" of the Relic, she scoffed, her attention now on its mocking tone. It was one thing to mess with her, but to do it during a fight was a move that could only tilt her. "What are you-" It was at that point that a golden flower petal appeared before her. Not just one, but multiple petals all rising in the air out of nowhere. It was weird, since that wasn't something that the Godslayer or the Shénshòujìng could do, at least, to her knowledge. However, she realized something. The firing at her right side had stopped completely.

She turned her head to see Chris, now brandishing a massive golden bow, an arrow aimed directly at her. "To where our future surely lies...!"

As Miku belted out the final line of the chorus, Chris fired her attack, her arrow coming straight for the alchemist.

(Double For All De Le Metallica)

Without any other option, she wondered how to stop this attack. She could have redirected her shields to the arrow, but she could see something in front of it, being one of Ichaival's reflectors. Back then, Ichaival's reflectors were able to divert an attack from the Kadinger on the moon, so to imagine its potential after surpassing their Controlling Director with multiple upgrades... it wasn't possible for a singular barrier to block this. It seemed like this attack was destined to hit her, but...

"Nidhogg."

Calling out the name of the dragon, the diamond on her left arm leaked out a black haze, similar to when Laya fought Tsubasa. Without a moment's notice, a surge of energy appeared, taking the form of a black dragon head as Hibiki looked on in surprise. The dragon cycled around Leia, intercepting the arrow and catching it in its maw, despite some of the energy being pushed back by the reflector. The moment the arrow was swallowed, Leia brought down her left hand, flinging Hibiki away as a maelstrom of black energy spun around her. The energy was the exact same as the black dragon's, but rather than attacking any of them after their valiant effort, the storm dispersed, revealing... absolutely nothing.

"She... vanished?"

Hibiki and Miku were dumbfounded, but Chris had clenched her fist. They had practically won the fight, but for their opponent to completely disappear like that, it left the group feeling like they had just fought for nothing. Especially after realizing that this trick could have been done at any point in the fight. Chris was the most livid about this, the end of her bow hitting the ground as she used it to prop herself up. "Just when I thought we got the jump on her!"

Laya rushed into the lab, hearing a commotion from downstairs. Usually, she never heard a noise from downstairs, since she was the chaotic one. If anyone was going to cause a ruckus, it would have been her. However, when she got downstairs, she saw a figure on their hands and knees as their Faust Robe deformed into a black cloud. After the cloud dispersed, she could get a good look at her, though she opted not to ask any questions about what she was just wearing or why she was on the floor like this. However, a part of her mind couldn't help but be worried about her sister. "Sis, you..."

When the light of the computer reflected off the floor into her eyes, Leia's lips curled into a smile. Her mind was on one thing, her eyes locked on the Spellcaster on her wrist as she began to register the information she witnessed. While she was able to fashion Nidhogg as an armament, she didn't fully realize the abilities it had, though it should have been blatantly obvious after their first encounter with it. She had just unlocked an eye-opening revelation, one that would change everything.

"So that's it, huh...?"

As she said that, a drop of blood hit the floor, a taste of iron lingering in the alchemist's mouth.

Fight, fight, fight, fight, fight-

Man, Leia should really be nicer, shouldn't she? As for her song, while they both do share the same VA of ASAKA from TRiDENT, unlike the choice of KICKASS that Laya got, Leia got something completely different. KICKASS is more of a triumphant song, where the chorus focuses on pushing forward and rebelling in the face of adversity, and while Alive is a song that follows that same concept, it falls less on the side of being a triumphant rebellion and more of a melancholic survival after recalling how one got to where they were rather than hopeless ideals like being a "hero". Explanation on the songs aside, this was just a TRiDENT shill, listen to their songs and I'll see you next week-

(Also, there's a new little visual on the AO3 version of this chapter, so have fun with that-)