Chapter 17

One moment she was standing on the upper flight deck, the next she was gone, a massive crater in the ground where she was standing. Lancelot's entire body tensed, then he turned a hundred eighty degrees to fire at the space above and behind him. The gun whirred to life, hungering to kill anything in it's line of fire.

*zz-BADONNNNN*

Berserker appeared where Lancelot had predicted she would be, but the bullets were unable to penetrate the sheer overwhelming power that she exuded from her new weapon, raring to in her hands as it ground each bullet to dust.

*Znng-Znggg-ZNNGGGGG*

A throaty growl issued from the chainsaw held in her hands, each individual teeth composed of crimson magical energy, lightning crackling around the black casing of the chainsaw as it spun with speeds exceeding that of a bullet train. The very air itself was being sucked in by the chainsaw and moved into a rotating air blade along the teeth of the chainsaw, the extreme speed and dense mana pouring from it disturbing the air to such an extent that it became able to cut bullets, further increasing the range of the chainsaw.

Berserker obliterated the bullets and reached Lancelot like a comet, with Illya losing track of her before she reappeared in front of Lancelot. The chainsaw swung down, bisecting the entire minigun in half, along with Lancelot's hand. The lower flight deck was completely caved in from the impact of her landing, such was her momentum that the entire ship trembled. Her speed was almost quadrupled from before, with everything extraneous in her armor ditched to lower her weight as much as possible, including her shame. Despite the high exposure rate of the outfit, she was able to move faster than ever, with bursts of crimson magical energy propelling her from her exposed skin, turning her entire body into what looked like a rocket engine.

Illya was now peeking at the fight from the main entrance to the bridge, her entire body shaking with the ship. Lancelot's family, on the other hand, had already reached the escape pods and were waiting there for Lancelot's signal.

With his minigun destroyed, Lancelot was now significantly weaker. Berserker swung her chainsaw again, the belt and teeth spinning even faster, eager to rend his metal armour and body into scraps.

At the very last second right before he got hit, he managed to manifest his sword Arondight in the path of the chainsaw, the teeth grinding away at the fae metal, chipping away at it and yet failing to penetrate like it did with the minigun. A burst of crimson energy exploded at the point of contact, pushing him away as he slid across the floor, carving two lines across the ruined floor. The environment was now completely trashed, the lower rooms under the flight deck visible through the numerous cracks and craters with the flight deck caved in, the control panels, wires and pipes exposed as sparks, gas and liquids leaked from them. Several small fires burned around them, and it was a miracle that the half the lights were still functioning more or less. The entire room stank of metal and melted plastic, smoke and gas from the pipes choking the room.

With Arondight in his hands, Knight of Owner and For Someone's Glory were deactivated, the mist receding back into the cracks of his armour as his physical parameters increased even further with his most familiar weapon in hand.

"AAARTTHHHHUURRRRR!"

Roaring savagely, he jumped up, scattering metal and debris everywhere, charging at Berserker wantonly like a boar. Berserker narrowed her eyes, charging energy into her legs as she met his charge with her own. Electricity streaked out from her legs, the mana shooting from her skin melting the floor behind her as she rocketed at Lancelot, the chainsaw aimed straight at him. The mana melded into a massive jetstream behind her, a massive cone of energy blowing open the rest of the ship behind her, a beam of light lancing through the ship. Berserker turned into a streak of red light, shooting through the air to meet the blackened blur racing at her.

A moment of silence occurred when the two of them collided.

Then a massive shockwave exploded from the point of contact, the air rippling as it tore through the room, nearly blasting open the entire flight deck as the entire ship shook violently, the entire superstructure creaking and groaning ominously. Cracks appeared on the hull, and the lights all failed immediately. Illya's ears were blasted until she was deaf, her body thrown away from the main entrance like a ragdoll as several large pieces of metal were thrown past her through the doorway.

In the pitch black darkness that was left, the only thing left to illuminate it was a crimson glowing chainsaw that was still running, with half of it sunken into the armor and coming out the other side. The teeth crackled with energy, the armor surrounding the wound melted and deformed as steam hissed out of the opening. Gradually, the spinning of the belt slowed down, the light fading until it became a dull glow as the chainsaw came to a complete stop. Lancelot slumped over Berserker, the chainsaw pierced through all the way in his torso. His armor was shattered into pieces, the torso armor completely blown away, while only tattered remnants of his leg and arm armor remained, the most complete part being his helmet, which was only missing half a side, exposing his right eye, nose and part of his mouth. His sole visible eye was shut, blood dribbling down from his chin while he showed no sign of waking up.

"It's over."

Berserker closed her eyes, letting the jets of mana still flowing from her back peter out, her body slowly returning back to normal.

Until she felt Lancelot's arms suddenly tighten around her, wrapping her in an inescapable embrace.

"aaarrrRRTHHHURRR!"

Impossible, how was he still moving? The immense force of the blow had been transmitted throughout his entire body, not to mention the electronic magical energy that should have electrocuted him, rendering him unable to move for a few hours. So why was he able to do this?

Deep down in Lancelot's heart, in a part unreached by the madness that clouded his mind even now, a fervent desire shone through brilliantly.

"I will protect the ones I love."

"AAAARRTTHHHUURRRRR!"

Putting everything he had into this last ditch effort, he trapped Berserker in his arms firmly as he started walking towards the metal panels that were formerly the windows, slowly picking up speed as he broke into a run, his entire body screaming in agony as the ruptured muscles and blood vessels were wracked with pain. Yet, he still continued, even with blood flowing out from his eyes, nose, mouth and dozens of other cuts around his body, as well as the massive wound on his torso that was leaking blood like a tap. His internal organs were almost pulverized, his senses almost gone except for his sight, which was also half-hidden by the blood pouring from his forehead, but his footsteps didn't falter.

Berserker desperately writhed and struggled in his embrace, bringing out as much mana as she could muster to melt his arms with the mana bursts she had used earlier, but his arms held fast even against the heat that had started melting his armour, making it fuse to the flesh on his arms. She could see it in his eyes, a suicidal determination that burned fiercely, a willingness to sacrifice his body to take her down. She tried to melt his arms all the way, but it was too late. With one last cry, he reached the metal panels and smashed through them with his body, the metal walls buckling against his impact, creaking, before finally giving way into the void beyond.

*WHSHHHHH*

All the remaining air and gases in the room were sucked out by the vacuum, stray metal parts and debris ejecting out the breach into space, flying off with the momentum. A bulkhead within the ship sealed the flight deck from the rest of the ship as the emergency backup systems reactivated, restoring some semblance of functionality to the heavily damaged ship.

Lancelot abruptly released Berserker once in space, one of his half melted arms breaking off with Berserker as it flash-froze in space, floating along with her away from the ship.

Berserker activated her mana jets as thrusters, propelling her towards the ship and Lancelot as she held her breath. On the other hand, Lancelot allowed half a dozen black metal cables with iron tips to shoot from his back and land on the ship behind him, anchoring him in place. Slowly, he placed a hand on the chainsaw stuck in his body and pulled, the blood and gore ripped free from the wound freezing into solid chunks in space while floating around. No sound could be made in the vacuum, all that could be seen was the wordless cry of agony on his lips as the teeth ripped through his flesh while he struggled to pull it out.

Eventually, he managed to get it free, finally pulling it out with one final tug as black mist consumed the weapon, corrupting it into his Noble Phantasm. At that point, Berserker had already reached him, her skin slightly swelling from the lack of pressure around her.

Even half-dead, with almost all of his energy gone and stuck in space with no gravity, he still retained the skills and experience engraved onto his body. Taking advantage of the anchors, he twisted his body and made several slashes in quick succession, forcing Berserker to dodge as each one came swiftly with the lack of gravity chaining down Lancelot. Unable to immediately control her mana jets with precision, she was forced to dodge clumsily, actually flying out of away from the ship due to her lack of control and out of his range.

It only took her several moments to right herself after spinning head over heels, her jets now reduced to a more manageable level to allow for greater control. Swiveling back around to face Lancelot, she used her telekinesis to redirect several metallic debris towards Lancelot, using her jets to get her closer at the same time. Lancelot deflected each projectile easily, the black saw teeth of the chainsaw chewing them up with no problem.

Then red lightning arced through the metal debris, bouncing from one to the other to strike Lancelot directly. Berserker had used them as stepping stones for her lightning to conduct through, allowing her to strike Lancelot from outside of his range. In the condition he was in, he was completely unable to avoid it. The lightning ran through his body, further damaging his nerves and muscles as more charred patches of skin appeared on his body.

His hand loosened, the chainsaw slipping out of his grasp to drift lazily through space until Berserker extended a palm in its direction and pulled it towards her. After regaining control of Necrocalibur (chainsaw), she turned back to Lancelot to finish it once and for all. Revving up the chainsaw until it was running at maximum output, she slowly approached him cautiously, wary of him playing dead again.

Just as she was about to close in on him, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed something licking at the edges of the ship. Turning her attention to it, she saw it.

The entire ship was slowly being engulfed in black mist, red lines streaked through what remained of the engines, the hull, the viewports, communication array and the weapon emplacements. Even as she watched, the flight deck in front of her rapidly became black, completing Lancelot's takeover of the entire ship. He had been buying time all along, letting the anchors not only keep him in place, but also corrupt the ship. While it took longer than the instant he needed for handheld weaponry, he still managed to do it with the last of his reserves. However, with his current level of remaining strength, he wouldn't be able to maintain control of it for more than a minute.

Slowly, the remaining engine sprang back to life, the sublight drives powering up for one last trip. The turrets and missiles installed on the ship that still functioned all turned in Berserker's direction, each and every single one of them locking on to her form. Far behind the ship, out of Berserker's field of vision, a single escape pod ejected, hurtling far enough until it activated it's Alternium hyperdrive, vanishing into hyperspace.

In an instant, laser bolts and missiles from at least half a dozen turbolasers, missile launchers and laser cannons flew through space towards Berserker, some of the missiles and laser bolts wider than her entire body. Her entire body lit up once again as the Altreactor burned, calories immediately turning straight to magical energy as her body noticeably slimmed, even the excess fat and protein stored away in her body being burned until nothing was left.

Left, right, up, down, the chainsaw swung in every direction as she flew in space, the harsh conditions of the vacuum all but forgotten as she dodged death with millimeters to spare, while other that she couldn't dodge were blocked by the now ridiculously large chainsaw super-charged with so much magical energy that it was on the verge of breaking. Each bolt dodge, each missiles sliced in half was a superhuman feat that could only be performed by Berserker as she was, in space with only the mana jets propelling her, all while holding her breath and ignoring the effects the environment was having on her body. The massive amount of mana circulating throughout her body was somewhat negating its effects, besides the lack of oxygen, but once she stopped maintaining this form, she was done for. In fact, she could feel her limit rapidly approaching, estimating the end to be about two minutes and a half at most.

Even as she dodged the lasers and missiles, the ship slowly approached her with the sole engine struggling to push the wreck towards her. Slowly, the engine started to overload from the Alternium reactor as numerous systems shut down, ranging from life support to cooling. In essence, Lancelot was turning the entire ship into one giant suicide bomb.

The turrets and missile launchers shut down one by one, either running out of energy, malfunctioning or simply blowing up from overheating. But Berserker realized that she wouldn't be able to get out of the blast radius with how close it was now, not even with maximum output of her mana jets which would likely kill her after thirty seconds, with her Altreactor running on fumes. Killing Lancelot wouldn't fix anything as well, since a chain reaction had already been triggered in the ship's core. There was only one more option available to her, and she would have to hope that her compatriots from the Dark Rounds arrived fast enough to prevent her from dying in space.

"Face the power of the Alter side."

Her chainsaw's spinning sped up again, the teeth turning into a red blur that solidified into one continuous belt of light circling the edge of the chainsaw. Energy gathered around her, lightning shooting out from her body as she prepared to release it.

"Altreactor, critical limits exceeded."

Even with no air in space, she still mouthed the words, their meaning resounding in her mind, unlocking the restrictions placed on her trump card. Mana no longer shot from her back like jets, instead gathering around her entire body like flames, a miniature red sun that staved off the infinite darkness of space. Her hair waved wildly along with them, the chainsaw gaining cracks as it was overloaded with the amount of energy stuffed into it.

"Through my darkness's brilliance, be returned to elementary particles…"

Ordinarily, a series of high-speed slashes would be performed here, but now she was compressing all that energy into the final slash, enhancing it to maximum destructiveness. The chainsaw became Broken, the energy begging to be released as it shook wildly in her hands, her body now just a bare outline against the mana forming around, too bright to even look at.

Opposite her, Lancelot howled silently, his eye glaring at her in defiance, undaunted by the raw display of power. They were only less than a hundred meters away from each other, each side intensely focused on the other. The Alternium reactor started glowing, started from a dull red light visible on the outside hull, then rapidly escalating until it reached a brilliant white that shone like a newborn star.

Lancelot thrust one clawed hand towards Berserker, as if to reach out and crush her, while Berserker chanted the final line, the name of the crystallization of her legend that had defeated countless mighty foes in the past from both the dark and light side. She opened her mouth and cried it out from the depths of her heart, a silent scream that tore open space itself.

"CRROSSUUU-KAALLIBBAAAAAAAAA!"