Dragon Strike - What exists beyond human senses

[ASG: World's end]

Lumen watched in awe as Touma's hand touched the sphere. There was a rumble in the space as she felt the forces interact with one another.

His hand, the Imagine Breaker was trying to break up the orb. The orb though broke him just as much. It's crushing force and the antimatter that made it up were-

Touma's hand was blown away as if by a bomb. The torn off arm was sent flying back towards Gunvolt who looked just as terrified as Lumen felt.

Ah, that was a new feeling. She, Joule and Lumen both, drew comfort from GV. He wouldn't let them down. But that expression-

Misaka's face filled with fear. She understood too then.

He had tried his best. In that moment, their last hope had...

Wait, what was going on?

[ACSRS: Weakest VS Strongest]

Blackness gathered around Touma's stump. It was a darkness that glowed red. The same red as the blood that was starting to spill out of one of Touma's eye and across his sclera.

The darkness came together and something unthinkable burst forth. The white shape was long and it made a loud sound. Lumen couldn't understand what she was seeing until it came into focus.

The long thing was a dragon and it was attacking the sphere. It let forth a stream of some kind of power but the sphere resisted even as it tried to bite into it.

Touma grunted and more dragons appeared- A black dragon with no eyes, a blue dragon with spit that fell to the ground, a green dragon with four eyes!

Four more burst out after that. The eight dragons surged forth to attack the sphere. They ripped and tore at it, pulling the darkness away as if it were flesh and they starving beasts.

Misaka's instincts made her summon up defenses without thinking. Grasping hands from the sphere to pull the dragons away from it. Those too were eaten by the dragons and torn apart.

One dragon with angel wings went straight through the bottom of the sphere, turning the path it traced into salt.

As more and more was eaten, the sphere began to fade. It grew smaller and smaller, small amounts of it dripping to the ground and vanishing.

Finally though, enough was enough. The sphere detonated, the remaining energy directed skywards. The beam struck through clouds and into the heavens above.

Lumen wondered how far it would go as the world around her began to shatter. The dragons still moved around outside, now they seemed to be focusing on Misaka though.

The world shattered though, Lumen escaped back up into the network as Misaka's cage broke open.

[ACSRT: Little by Little]

Joule finally stopped singing and fell to the ground. Her voice was dead, she'd need a lot of honey after all of that. Slowly she made her way over to the side of the building she saw the dragons soar high into the sky before fading back into nothingness.

Two of them got further than the rest though. The one with angel wings was starting to fly south while the one with four eyes just flew up higher until fading as it turned to look back down.

Down on the ground, Touma was speaking to Misaka, they deserved a little time after all of this.

She just wanted to rest, it had been too long.

"Lumen?" She asked mentally "What's next?"

Her friend took a moment to respond.

"Hmm? Ah." She was in butterfly form but she sounded tired too "The network is almost done fixing itself. They'll be fine in an hour."

Good.

Joule staggered slightly, her eyes tried to close but she stopped them.

"There's more to do though. Where's Misaki?"

"Below you, actually." Lumen remarked "She can't go up the stairs to reach the roof."

"She's okay then." Joule sighed "Anything else?"

"We'd need to ask for that." The fairy sighed "I'll be honest, I don't want to open up another telepathy link with her while we're tired."

Joule sighed and made her way back toward the stairs. She called down from the top, as she lacked a good way to climb down.

"Everything sorted?"

"Almost." Misaki called back "One more thing but I can do that alone."

Joule had pushed in before but now, now she would...

"Do you want me to come too?" She'd offer, instead of forcing her.

Misaki shook her head with a smile "No, I want to do it by myself too. But-"

She offered a smile. One that was both imperious and kind. A true smile, without anything forced.

"Thank you for your help Joule."

"You're welcome?"

Hours passed.

Joule had met up with GV and they'd swapped information but now Joule had to deal with her emotions again.

"I betrayed her."

GV was silent, he was letting her think about it on her own.

Her emotions were roiling inside of her. Thoughts looped again and again.

Lumen was quiet too, but that was because Joule had asked her to be. Right now, she didn't need kind words, those just hurt more.

GV looked out the window. The sky was turning red in the evening sky.

At that moment, there was a ring from her phone as a text arrived.

Joule didn't care enough at that moment to check it but GV did.

"Hey Joule." He read off "We're going to watch tonight's fireworks from the roof of the judgement office, want to come?"

"Why?" Joule muttered "I hurt Misaka, why would they-"

"Joule." GV stopped her "While I won't touch on Misaka for a moment, these are the friends that agreed to help you during that mess."

"Shirai didn't." Joule said "Shirai hates me at least."

GV gave a sigh.

"It isn't Shirai inviting you." he noted "but if you're that worried, I can come with you."

Joule refused that instantly. This wasn't a matter that could be fixed by having GV beat up her problems.

Finally, Lumen spoke up.

"Joule, your friends, the ones who agreed to help you help Misaka. Do you want to keep that friendship- no, a better question. Do you want to lose that friendship?"

She paused before continuing "If you stay here and reject them, then that friendship will be lost to you. That bond that drew you out into the world will close off. They're telling you that they'll still want to be around you. Go, if you care about them at all."

Joule wiped her eyes but tears continued to flow, no. They had just started flowing at that moment. Before this-

"It's self-pity, isn't it?"

She was trying to make the choice for them. She was trying to say "No, you should hate me. And because you should hate me, you should reject me."

And yet they invited her anyway.

Joule stood, wiping her eyes for a second time. This time it did it's job.

"Okay."

She took the phone back from GV.

End of chapter.

And now we're getting to the end of the Daihase festival and I can try and finish off Joule's wallowing in self-pity.

There will be consequences for her choice, but they might not be as bad as she thinks.