(A/N: So this is the longest I've gone since this fic started between chapters and quite frankly that is not due to burnout, just irl stuff. I did have to spend an entire evening on outlining this chapter—for the first time in my writer history since I got "good", this is the first story I've written where the outline is extremely minimal. Like, I haven't blocked out the entire outline beyond "this needs to happen in this order". All the supports you've seen up to this point—barring a few—have all been improvised of who getting to have interactions with who plus the topic of conversation. Again, there are exceptions, but saying which is which would give the game away :D. Honestly though, it's kind fitting though, isn't it? Casual FE players don't really have to worry about how they get support convos for the first time or in what order. They just…happen based on how the maps play out.
…Anyway, I am basically stalling—I write these beginning notes before I begin the chapter—this chapter was probably the toughest to get done yet. I hope the effort comes across in the content. Strap in, folks. This is going to be a hectic ride).
13th Day of the Verdant Rain Moon
2017 atb
Zero and the Flame Emperor's magic attacks slammed into each other, created an explosion of purple and reddish orange particle effects that created a magic smokescreen. When it cleared, Zero was swinging through the trees via the same "whip" technique he'd used in his battle at the Holy Mausoleum. He knew better than to get close to the Flame Emperor at this stage. With the Death Knight looming over them, he knew the brute would move in to protect his master at all costs. Instead, he just harassed the Flame Emperor with miasma bolts as he swung by.
The Flame Emperor, in retaliation, imbued their axe with fiery energy and used it to chop a few trees in half at once, causing a fiery explosion that forced Zero to retreat away from them, else he would catch fire. The Flame Emperor charged forward as came to a sideways skidding slide in front of them, his back to the huge hole in the ground.
Rising to his feet quickly, Zero used his energy sword to counter the Flame Emperor's axe swing.
He's quite sturdy on his feet, Edelgard thought. No matter…
Raising her shield, the Flame Emperor had a little surprise for Zero. Two small turret cannons emerged from the front of the shield, forcing Zero to immediately use his sticky whip to connect to a tree on the other side of the hole. But Edelgard did not relent and made more turret cannons appear on the shield, using them to rain powerful artillery fire, all without having to move from their spot, scattering the enemy and forcing them into confrontation with her army as it closed in on their small force.
Zero quickly realized he was outmatched and outgunned here. Nothing for it. I figured with the Death Knight nearby this would already be an uphill battle, but even as things stand, we could quickly get overwhelmed.
Using the HL properties of his HLKMF, he made a smoke pellet and threw it at the ground, detonating it with enough force to cover the entire shrine grounds in a thick smoke.
"Wha…where'd he go?" Tamaki shouted.
He's not staying to fight? Edelgard thought. Granted, she knew Zero was completely outmatched, but she thought he would stay in the conflict for a bit longer before attempting a retreat. This seemed far too premature. Ah! Perhaps…!
Zero's real objective must have been something found inside the giant hole. Nobody just dug up a shrine for no reason. Perhaps this wasn't the construction of a hideout, but rather a raid. If that was the case, he would attempt to go back to the Neverland as soon as possible.
"Entei-sama," Katase said to her. "Cornelia's forces will be here soon."
"Understood," The Flame Emperor responded. "These are my new orders. I want Zero's disciples brought in alive and stripped of valuables. Tohdoh, the Four Holy Swords, Empress Sumeragi, and her allies, will all pursue Zero. The rest of us will take the fight straight to Cornelia."
"Hai, Entei-sama," Katase responded.
"In terms of Cornelia, kill her if necessary, but I can work with her alive," The Flame Emperor commanded.
"Understood," Katase stated. He then gave a similar order to all men under his command in pure Japanese.
The Flame Emperor looked at a larger map of the area that tracked HLKMF usage, tracking Zero's movements on it. "Tohdoh, take your unit and speed ahead of Zero's location. Cut him off from his resources. Empress Sumeragi's unit will lock in the pincer attack from behind."
"Understood," Tohdoh responded. "Four Holy Swords, move out!"
The Flame Emperor then turned her attention to Cornelia's approaching forces. Princess Cornelia…let's see who truly commands the battlefield better: Adrestia or Britannia.
At breakneck speed on foot, Zero's forces were in retreat to the Neverland. Thanks to years of treadmill running under Jeralt, Zero was far from out of shape, but without the Zero Matrix active, he wouldn't have been able to keep up his current sprint for as long or as quickly as he was. On the inside of the helmet, he was tracking enemy movement. By tapping the fingers of his right hand to his thumb in a certain order, he zoomed out the map and noticed a small unit blazing ahead of his own on a parallel course. More enemies were approaching from behind, but at a slower rate.
This Flame Emperor is no amateur, Zero thought. A less skilled tactician would have had their faster unit catch up with me first, closing the pincer attack off unsuspectingly. However… he trailed off, waving out his arm silently to his allies to coordinate that they all stop, A true master of the battlefield knows that it's crucial to cut off your opponent from their resources as soon as possible.
"What now?" Yuri asked.
"The Flame Emperor is attempting to cut us off. Five bogeys approaching from 3 o' clock, intent on circling counterclockwise. We'll be cut off before we reach the Neverland," Zero pointed out.
"So we're being pincered," Yukiya commented.
"Oh, joy. What do we do now?" Ryo asked sarcastically.
"Surrender and hope for the best?" Hapi asked, jokingly.
"Uh, surrender ain't an option, pal!" Balthus responded, taking Hapi's joke seriously.
"We needn't falsely or even truly surrender," Zero stated and opened an app inside the matrix to put in a manual communication frequency number to make a communication in the local area. 147.17. This would work. "I have an idea."
While Byleth Eisner was used to waking up in the middle of the night or even the wee hours before dawn to prepare for battle, she still was never a big fan of it. Having your whole day or evening ruined due to unexpected developments was not good for ally morale right out of the gate. Still, the Violet Tigers seemed to be in good spirits regardless. The Glinda Knights were all present—Oldrin, Marrybell, Sokkia, Tink, Leonhardt and Marika—and Byleth had asked Shez, Shirley, Milly and Euphemia to accompany her on this mission. Euphemia needed live battle experience, even as just a medica and Shez, Shirley and Milly were no brainers to round out her force. She then looked over to Suzaku, whom she was taking up on his offer to aid her whenever she needed it. Neither Rhea nor Catherine had put up a fuss, so here he was with the Lancelot Shogun ready to be activated at a metaphorical snap of Byleth's fingers.
"When I said I would aid your class any way you wanted, I didn't think you'd invite me to live combat," Suzaku said with a snicker.
"Hey, come on, we're not bad company, are we?" Sokkia asked, sounding mildly disheartened.
"No, far from it," Suzaku answered, laughing a bit hardier. "You guys are all very professional." He gazed at the military bunker behind the Tigers that housed Cornelia, her Gloucester units—not to be confused with House Gloucester in the Leicester Alliance—her most elite troops, and supplies and additional resources for the battle ahead.
The Violet Tigers, and Suzaku, continued to march in front of the mobile military bunker, when there was a static communication heard only by the Glinda Knights, followed by a voice coming through on the other end of the line.
"This is Zero. Am I speaking with the Glinda Knights?"
Oldrin gasped, stopping her march. "Zero?!"
Byleth, who wasn't hearing the communication, looked towards Oldrin in surprise, while other members of the Violet Tigers and Cornelia's forces scanned the horizon. A focused, brow furrowed expression came over Byleth's face.
Hearing this communication, Marrybell texted Cornelia to tap into the Glinda Knights' frequency and switch all current troops to it, but to not alert anyone that she was doing this. Cornelia, upon seeing the message and the details relating to it, obeyed her sister's suggestion.
Zero was now, from Marrybell's perspective, unknowingly talking to the entire enemy force.
But, unbeknownst to Marrybell, this was exactly what Zero wanted.
"This is Princess Marrybell of the Glinda Knights speaking," Marrybell stated. "You have a lot of nerve tapping into our communications, Zero. How did you even get this frequency?"
"I have my ways," Zero answered mysteriously. "But that's not important. I am currently engaged in battle with one of Rome's greatest enemies: Kyoshiro Tohdoh. I do not consider myself an enemy of the people, only of corruption. I figured Rome would not wish to pass up having Kyoshiro Tohdoh served up to them on a silver platter."
Marrybell had to admit, knowing Tohdoh's exact location on the battlefield was a boon. It seemed, to her, that there was truly no honor among thieves.
"I make a request to all of the Glinda Knights, in exchange for my ability to retreat from the battlefield uncaptured, I will aid in the capture of Kyoshiro Tohdoh," Zero communicated calmly.
"I do not negotiate with terrorists!" Marrybell exclaimed. She would have added "and neither does my sister" but she wanted to keep up the illusion that Cornelia wasn't listening in.
"Terrorist, hmm? Yes, I suppose to you I would seem as such, but I am no terrorist, but a man of the people, interested only in the liberation of the oppressed! Princess Marrybell, your shortsightedness of what is good and evil will one day be the cause of your own downfall."
"You scum sucking—"
Marrybell was cut off by Oldrin putting an arm in front of her liege. Oldrin then began speaking. "Zero, this is Oldrin Zevon on the Glinda Knights. We have heard your proposal and your request for asylum is denied. We will be taking you in and Kyoshiro Tohdoh. So you better not think about escaping."
"You'll have to catch me first," Zero commented and then ended communication.
"Oh yeah, this totally isn't a trap at all," Leonhardt immediately said.
"If it's a trap, the Glinda Knights will face it together," Marrybell said. "You got all that, right sister?"
Cornelia communicated back to Marrybell, "I heard the whole thing. Aptly coordinated, Marrybell." She then got on the loudspeaker from her bunker. "This is an order to all troops! Crush the JLF's forces. The Glinda Knights are hereby ordered to seek and destroy Kyoshiro Tohdoh and the masked vigilante Zero. All others are to stand with the Glaston Knights and prepare for larger scale warfare. All units standing with me, do not engage HLKMFs until an HLKMF is spotted on the battlefield. Conserve energy."
"Yes, your highness!" The Glaston Knights radioed.
On radar, Zero noticed the Glinda Knights speeding his way just as Kyoshiro Tohdoh and the Four Holy Swords were about to close in on him.
"Oh great, now we have two incomings," Balthus commented sarcastically.
Yuri's eyes widened. "No. This was the best choice possible. In all the chaos and confusion, both groups will be forced to fight two enemies. Alone, we'd be outnumbered, but like this…"
"Exaclty," Zero concluded, "We'll be able to get a few of our own forces to sneak behind Cornelia's forces and attack, and get to the Neverland."
"I thought we were just trying to run away back to the Neverland," Hapi stated. "Why attack Cornelia?"
"Cornelia is a far bigger threat than the Flame Emperor," Zero pointed out. "In fact, you could call her a mutual enemy. If we capture Cornelia alive, it will prove our might to the world, and it will show to the Flame Emperor that she should have accepted my offer to join forces. We stand on the very precipice of our dawning! And when the sun breaks the horizon, we shall shine! All units, retreat away from the Glinda Knights approach. C.C., on my signal, unleash tactical ordinance." That was code for use Agnea's Arrow.
"Understood," C.C. stated.
While Zero coordinated his troops and forced the Green Pheasants to pursue him now at a diagonal direction instead of dead ahead, the Glinda Knights were on the move, all HLKMFs activated.
The Green Pheasants were also clad in their own HLKMFs, prepared to shoot Zero and his forces as soon as they were in range. However, as the Glinda Knights, the Green Pheasants, and the JLF approached Zero's location, Tamaki, Marrybell and Chiba all found themselves asking the same question: "What's that light?"
Oldrin, seeing the spike on her Lancelot Paladin, instantly recognized the shimmering, descending bright light for what it was. "INCOMING!" she shouted to the Glinda Knights. The unit peeled away and avoided the incoming blast that detonated around the entire landscape, scorching it and making a crater. The JLF and the Green Pheasants, while much closer to the blast, managed to avoid getting caught in the epicenter. Of course, the shockwave sent Ohgi and Tamaki tumbling away and ultimately losing power to their HLKMFs.
"Aw man, you gotta be kidding me!" Tamaki exclaimed.
An HLKMF stood before him. It was pure white with red lightning bolt shaped metallic objects around its wrists and behind its back. This was Kaguya Sumeragi's HLKMF: The Raiden Miko.
"Retreat and aid in taking out ground troops alongside the Flame Emperor's forces," Kaguya told him and Ohgi.
"Yes, your majesty," Ohgi told her, raising a rifle. "Let's go, Tamaki!"
Tamaki growled, but followed his buddy, Ohgi, clearly completely unhappy with not being able to show off how cool and awesome his HLKMF was.
As he and Ohgi ran off, Zero was ecstatic. Phase one and two of his plan had completely worked and now he could engage in phase three. "Yuri. Constance. Ayano. Make for the Neverland and get it online."
"I don't see how I could possibly contribute meaningfully, but I will obey your orders," Constance told him.
"Yeah, yeah, just don't faint on the way there," Yuri told her. "Come on, ladies. We have a ship to lord over our enemies."
"Kronya. C.C, we're going to circle around behind the Green Pheasant unit and make for Cornelia's forces."
"Ahaha! I get the fun job!" Kronya exclaimed mirthfully.
"What? You don't think the Glinda Knights are tough enough opponents?" Balthus asked.
"Oh, they're plenty tough, but Zero won't let me kill any of them. I can kill Cornelia's forces, right Zero?"
"However many would satisfy your lust for blood," Zero told her.
Kronya laughed like a kid that had just gotten off a roller coaster. "And that, you overgrown oaf," she said to Balthus. "Is why I'm more than happy to ditch this battlefield. If you all survive though, we'll get pizza later. As for me," she said and turned on The Gleaming Blade. "I got Britannians to carve up!" she sped off with C.C. in pursuit.
Zero took a look at his allies.
"What are you hesitating for?" Yukiya asked him. "Get going. We can take care of ourselves."
"Nobody's dying today," Hapi told him. "We'll be back in Abyss before dinner."
Zero nodded and then chased after Kronya and C.C.
By now, the rest of the Ashen Wolves were now getting surrounded on three sides. The Glinda Knights pulled up on the outlaw forces, ready for a fight. As for the JLF, they were now at the bigger disadvantage. Because the Flame Emperor had not anticipated Zero would invite a third party into the mix of their battle, they now had their forces cut off from each other, halving troop effectiveness against the similarly sized Glinda Knights and Ashen Wolves. Sure, the JLF overall had the numbers advantage, but half was smaller than the combined might of both enemies.
I'll give Zero this, he's craftily unpredictable, Tohdoh thought.
"Orders, sir?" Chiba asked him.
"You could surrender," Marrybell requested from the Saintly Witch.
"No self-respecting Japanese would do something as dishonorable as surrender!" Chiba retorted loudly.
"In that case, you leave us no choice," Oldrin declared. "Glinda Knights, engage the enemy! Eliminate all hostiles!"
"RIGHT!" her allies shouted.
Oldrin's Lancelot Paladin wasted no time making a beeline for, Kyoshiro Tohdoh's HLKMF. His frame was jet black with a plume like a ponytail extending down and from the back of it. The frame had a narrow waist, bulky shoulders and sturdy limbs. It had a single Factsphere "eye" in the rather pointy forehead and carried twin Master Vibrations Swords (MVS) in the shape and style of katanas. This was the pinnacle of Japanese research and development co-opted by the JLF from their Neo-Japanese counterparts. As the greatest fighter among the JLF, Tohdoh had their strongest weapon, known only as The Zangetsu.
Oldrin's twin swords clashed with Tohdoh's twin katanas. Sparks flew.
"Oldrin Zevon of the Zevon family, said to be the strongest swordswoman in all the Empire of Britannia," Tohdoh commented, recognizing the red painted Lancelot Paladin on sight.
"Kyoshiro Tohdoh of Miracles, the only Japanese commander to net a win against Roman forces during the war," Oldrin stated. She pressed her blades harder against Tohdoh's to try and slice through them, but just generated more sparks. "What does a man of your caliber gain from throwing away his pride for terrorism?"
"Terrorism?" Tohdoh asked as the Zangetsu took a step forward, pushing Oldrin onto the defensive. "Rome took away my people's freedom!" His right hand blade pushed harder against the left-handed blade Oldrin was holding. "The Japanese are not free! And Rome refuses to allow us to be so!"
"You would be under Britannia rule if not for Rome's intervention!" Oldrin shouted, pushing back against Tohdoh with both of her blades, trying to push him back. "Where is your loyalty? Your gratitude!"
With righteous indignation, Tohdoh tilted his right hand katana, pulled back and swung at Oldrin horizontally at her waist in a single, smooth motion. Oldrin had to fly backwards to avoid Tohdoh's attack.
"Loyalty? Gratitude?! To our conquerors?!" Tohdoh shouted. He began swinging wildly at Oldrin. She was forced to parry every shot. Tohdoh wasn't getting through, but he wasn't allowing Oldrin a moment to counterattack. "It would have been enough if Rome had simply prevented Britannia's invasion, but they sent war machines, they subjugated Japanese pride to make them just another leg of their perceived religious superiority! Their occupation was an excuse to massacre and butcher Japanese citizenry in the name of their so-called Goddess!" Tohdoh leapt back from his offensive as his MVSs glowed brightly like the light of a full moon. "No Goddess that would permit her followers to butcher innocent people is a Goddess I can follow! I will never bow my head to my country's invaders, to my people's killers! If you ally yourselves to such people, you had best be prepared to face the consequences!" Tohdoh swung both his blades down and away from the center of his frame in an intersecting X-pattern. "Getsuga Jujisho!"
Twin energy beams in an X-pattern blazed towards Oldrin's HLKMF. Oldrin had no choice but to activate her Crest of Ernest and used its boosting power to her fighting spirit to cut through the attack with her swords. A green glow accented the red and gold paint job on the Lancelot Paladin.
"I see your pain, Former General Tohdoh," Oldrin said. "But there are other ways. Two wars do not make a right. And, as a Knight of Britannia, I will accept no bloodshed spilt in times of peace. I was not a knight seven years ago. I could barely hold a gun or a sword. But today, I stand proudly with my kin and I do not believe the Japanese are right. Like Mary said, we will not negotiate with terrorists!"
Oldrin blazed forward and began to engage in sword to sword combat Lancelot to Zangetsu. Four swords swings on the offensive were met by parries by Tohdoh. The last parry forced Oldrin to use her Paladin's wings to ascend into the air, flipping completely upside down as she then brought both of her blades down towards the ground in a mighty shockwave that erupted all around her and forced Tohdoh to block with his swords to mitigate the damage, but he couldn't completely stop it.
Oldrin rose to her feet just in time to block an incoming strike from the Zangetsu. Tohdoh had recovered from the attack quicker than she had from expelling the energy her attack generated. The two then began to fight on mostly even ground. Neither one could truly gain an advantage as the MVSs of both frame wielders slipped off each other like dancers on a stage playing with scimitars.
As Oldrin was tripped up by a tricky maneuver by Tohdoh, she was countered by a knee to the center of her frame, knocking her back as he prepared to impale her with his blades. However, with flight controls, Oldrin was able to fly backwards. She hovered in front of Tohdoh. The two sized each other up, catching their breath, before re-engaging in warfare.
As the battle raged between them, Marrybell turned her attention towards what she didn't know to be former Violet Tiger Kallen Kozuki. Kallen used a completely different mecha at Garreg Mach than she did as a member of the Japanese resistance. And her Gekka 900 had nothing on her true HLKMF: The Guren Mk. 2. Unlike the Gekka 900, which was pure red, the Guren had an orange chest and brown knees. Additionally, the Gekka 900 had two claws. The Guren was far less symmetrical, having one much bigger arm than the other. This allowed Kallen's free arm to use a smaller side arm, but she hardly needed it.
After all, the Guren packed a weapon so devastating that Kallen rarely needed it.
"Radian Wave Surge!" Kallen shouted, causing a bunch of radio waves like cooking meat in a blender inside a microwave to flood out from her open silver palm.
Marrybell immediately had a multitude of critical alerts radioing from the Saintly Witch. Several non-critical systems even popped or failed. Kallen then charged in, but Marrybell was more than prepared for such an obvious direction of attack. She grasped ahold of the Saintly Witch's Unicorn Spear and attempted to impale the Guren with it. Kallen leapt over it and prepared to unleash another Radiant Wave Surge. However, she was up against Marrybell mel Britannia, an intellectual equal to Lelouch. She would not be caught off-guard by the same trick twice.
By projecting an umbrella shaped energy shield in front of the Saintly Witch, the shield took the bulk of the damage from the Radiant Wave Surge, allowing the residual energy to harmlessly glance off Marrybell's frame. Marrybell then had the opportunity to release several orbital drills from her ordinance. Like in the sparring match with her own class, the drills began to fire lasers at Kallen, each with different trajectories. Even with the impressive speed of the Guren, Marrybell's ability to anticipate Kallen's movements allowed her to score glancing laser shots against the Guren's shoulders and the sides of its legs as Kallen tried to maneuver around her.
The kid gloves were off today. This was not a spar with her classmates, nor a training session with her knights. This was live battle with her Saintly Witch. No one deemed an enemy would survive today.
Despite this, Kallen wasn't going to yield. The Saintly Witch was bulky, heavily armed, and made up for low maneuverability with surprisingly quick agility. However, it had a couple critical weaknesses that Kallen felt that she could exploit. First, most of the armaments of the Saintly Witch were frontloaded. If Kallen could get behind Marrybell, she'd be open. Secondly, the Saintly Witch was so loaded out that its battery, relatively speaking, drained quickly. The Guren did not have this problem. It was like the Zero Matrix and the Lancelot models. Its energy efficiency was quite high. Of course, these two things also occurred to Marrybell. And she wasn't going to allow Kallen to exploit those weaknesses.
Unlike Oldrin and Tohdoh, no words needed to be exchanged between the Saintly Witch and the Guren. Marrybell hated all terrorists indiscriminately. Kallen hated Rome with a burning passion. Combined, they would never reach an understanding. They were simply too different.
A barrage of laser blasts combined into a singular, focused blast as it clashed against the Radiant Wave Surge from Kallen's right hand palm. The two blasts were dead even.
Leonhardt watched this and made a small declaration to himself. Yeah, dibs on staying the hell out of Marrybell and Oz's way, he thought. He kept his focus on the member of the Holy Swords that had squared up against him. With the rifle shots of the Venerable Lion, he played keep away against the sword wielding frame he found himself pitted against. It had surprisingly high agility, making it a tricky target to land a blow against. It was turquoise in color and had wrist mounted slash harkens the way a Knightmare Frame had shoulder mounted ones. However, these wrist mounted shooters were much faster to deploy and retract than any frame Leonhardt had ever encountered. Worse, due to Leonhardt's frame functioning as a DPS more than a frontline tank, it made it difficult to deal with a frame that could fight from a distance, but wanted to get in close. The single "eye" on the small "head" of the frame, plus the sharp shape design overall of the speedy frame helped cap off the design of the HLKMF of Kotetsu Urabe. Codename: Fujin Hebi.
Of course, the JLF was not the only opponent of the Glinda Knights today. Tink Lockhart's Tin Giant squared straight up with Balthus's Rolling Thunder. Both frames were perfectly poised for punching problematic peons predicated towards puncturing their enemies. Put simply: Punch hard. Punch good. Deal damage.
Of course, despite the Rolling Thunder and the Tin Giant matching each other in design, the scope and specs of their frames were quite different. Tink's Giant was designed with defense in mind, sacrificing raw power for the sake of a sturdy frame. Balthus was the opposite. In his mind: why take damage when you could overwhelm the opponent with pure, raw force.
Balthus's right fist clenched with Tink's left, causing shockwaves to ripple. If there was ever a battle more desperate to prove if the best defense was a good offense, or if the opposite was true, it was this punch up between the bulkiest members of the Ashen Wolves and the Glinda Knights.
"Keep it up, Tink!" Marika exclaimed as she flew overhead against in the Vampire Valkyrie with a mostly bright yellow and slightly white accented HLKMF hot on her tail. By pivoting 90 degrees and rocketing into the air, she met up with her pursuer. While the Vampire Valkyrie took advantage of the fact that its weapons were fused into its arms—the wing-like protrusions were extremely sharp along the outer edges and at the front, allowing for a wide range of slicing and stabbing strikes—the pursuing frame opted for a single naginata and it was quite adept with it.
Marika flew towards the offending frame to stab forward with her right arm, but the enemy frame evaded and thrust forward to impale Marika in the chest. Marika was forced to change her altitude on a dime, ascending higher into the air, but her used the Naginata like a pole vault pole to propel herself into the air and kick Marika in the chin. Off balance she took a sideswipe with the Naginata and managed to land another strike on Marika's frame. The previous one had been before she flew over Tink's head.
As Marika flew back to a comfortable distance, she noted her energy reserves to only be at 80%. She gazed at her foe who floated on the air with a single jet propulsion system fused to the back. Nothing was added to the frame to give it drag or embellish its design. It was simple, yet effective. This was the HLKMF of the sole woman of Tohdoh's Four Holy Swords: Nagisa Chiba. Codename: Gozen.
A beat of sweat trailed down Marika's face from her forehead. She panted a little. She was way outmatched here. She felt a little outmatched here.
Chiba didn't give Marika a chance to muster her thoughts as she zoomed towards her, taking Naginata swing after Naginata swing at the young soldier. Marika had little time to weave and avoid Nagisa's attacks. She was a teenage girl, going against one of Japan's best and brightest soldiers. This woman had been piling up bodies while Marika was still learning how to read. Servitude to Sir Bradley or no, the Vampire of Britannia didn't match the scope and reputation as Tohdoh of Miracles.
Marika pulled up sharply, pivoted her body, and then brought her leg downward, catching Chiba off-guard slamming the appendage into Chiba's arm rather than the pole of her weapon. A strong gaze crossed the woman's gaze. I can do this, she told herself. I am more than a Valkyrie. The throaty roar of a tiger echoed in Marika's soul. "I am a Violet Tiger!"
"You bet you are!" Sokkia exclaimed. She was on the ground, but Marika forgot to turn comms off. She was doing her usual shtick of weaving away from the foe while firing the entire time. With the Scarecrow King's top level attribute being its maneuverability, this was her best default tactic. However, her shoulder mounted guns were having difficulty injuring her opponent.
Although the Samurai code believed that shields were for cowards, armor was a different story. And Ryoga Senba had to be the most heavily armored believer of the Samurai's Code among the Four Holy Swords. His HLKMF was built with spiked pauldrons and a sturdy armored core resembling an actual Samurai's armor. However, he appeared to bear no weapons. But that was not the most striking feature about his frame. No, the most striking feature was its brown and green color scheme and the fact that the entire center of the body seemed to resemble a toad. Codename: Gama Sen'nin.
She's a quick one, Senba thought, gazing all around his personal space through multiple camera feeds. But her weapon is no match for my armor! Controlling the interface through taps of the fingertips, multiple spikes from the pauldrons were launched out of the Gaman Sen'nin and straight towards Sokkia.
Ohshit! Sokkia exclaimed to herself quickly, eyes going wide with panic. She pushed the Scarecrow King's speed up a notch or two. However, there were way, way too many spikes flying at her all at once. But, this did not slow down the thought process of the most reckless member of the Glinda Knights. With a deep breath, Sokkia calmed herself down, way down. Her chipper smile then turned into an arrogant smirk. Let's break something, she thought.
In the next instant, Sokkia began moving even faster than before. Her eyes were moving all around the battlefield, making math calculations in her head just as quickly as Marrybell or even Lelouch could process. The spikes were all not moving at the same speed or even the same trajectory. And Sokkia used that to her advantage.
She was now making her way onto the offensive. Instead of swerving to and fro around the attacks, she was now closing the distance between herself and Senba. She also was precisely timing the emission of small, controlled energy shields in front of spikes that did get too close for comfort.
Senba wasn't worried though. As Sokkia drew near, he raised his right arm as two protrusions ejected from the arm, resembling the limbs of a Yumi Bow. Then, bringing his hands together, he began to charge an arrow, using the edges of the limbs to gather the energy towards his hands like conductors. He fired the big arrow at the Scarecrow King, only for Sokkia to leap over it and fire her machine guns straight at the limbs of this mechanical bow that Senba had produced.
However, Senba turned his body to deflect the bullets by using the thick armor of the side of the frame of the Gama Sen'nin.
And yet despite the spikes, Sokkia charged. She charged straight into the frame.
"Is she nuts?" Senba shouted, alarmed.
"I guess someone's learning today why they call her Crasher Sokkia," Tink said over comms.
"That's our Sokkia!" Leonhardt praised.
"Guys, focus on your own battles!" Oldrin chastised.
As for Sokkia she was now gaining ground, pushing Senba back until she leapt into the air and then brought the heel of her leg down right onto the head of the Gama Sen'nin. She then began to repeatedly punch it in the face. However, during her onslaught, Senba reached out and grabbed one of her arms. The "face" of the Gama Sen'nin then extended open like a yawning mouth and began to charge a big laser.
Without even thinking about the consequences, Sokkia tore her body free by sacrificing the caught left arm of her frame and retreated backwards before swerving out of the way of the green as it barreled across the horizon. Her real, left arm was now exposed as the Scarecrow King stood lopsided.
"You appear a little off-balance young lady," Senba taunted.
"Gimme a sec," Sokkia said and willed her arm to regrow itself, sacrificing a lot of energy reserves in the process. "Okay, let's go!" She exclaimed, bashing her knuckles together. She raised her arms into a fighting stance, knuckles pointed at the sky. "Round two!"
"You can't be serious," Senba stated. "Regrowing a limb takes a lot of energy out of a frame's network. You probably have forty or sixty percent left from that action alone. You face Ryoga Senba of the Four Holy Swords! Your own recklessness will be your downfall."
"Oh! Are we exchanging names? I'm Sokkia! Sokkia Sherpa! And lemme tell you something Mr. Senba, when it comes to battles that have me acting serious, I'm kinda crazy." She grinned, flashing only one side of teeth. "And you don't underestimate crazy."
As Sokkia flung herself back into the fray, Ryo and his Howling Timberwolf was struggling a bit with his current foe. The frame he was facing was a quadrupedal model like Hapi's Demonic Hellkat. This one was mostly jet black, but the tail and claws were golden.
"Dammit! I can't get a clear shot! Hold still!"
While the legs of Hapi's Demonic Hellcat were meant for stampede across an even landscape, the legs of this mechanical beast were meant for jumping as it used the terrain to its advantage, jumping too and from overturned rubble or onto the trunks of trees. The rotating gatling gun on its back and at the hinges of its hind legs were lacking in firepower compared to Hapi's singular howitzer, but they made up for it with numbers.
The mechanical monstrosity bore a resemblance to a sharp-eared fox as moved quickly about the battlefield, able to shoot down Ryo's shots just as fast as Ryo could produce them. As it leapt on top of a building that had collapsed diagonally and back during the war, the high risen sun gleamed against the black body of the beast. This was the HLKMF of Kent Sugiyama. Codename: Kuro Kitsune.
"Tough bastard, ain't you?" Ryo muttered. "No matter. I'll get you eventually. You can't keep dodging forever!" He then unleashed more missiles.
As the missiles rained down from above, Yukiya sighed. "There he goes again, losing his cool."
"Shouldn't you be more worried about yourself?"
Yukiya avoided yet again, an energy web shot through the air fired from the frame below the Cosmic Gyro's hovering altitude.
"I'm doing just fine," Yukiya said, launching bolts of lightning from the tendrils of his frame. His opponent, with its eight-legged frame trampled across the ground to avoid the shots, firing from the guns atop its eight legs to try and bring Yukiya down. However, personal energy shielding protected the genius hacker of the Ashen Wolves.
Speaking of hacking, that was precisely what he was trying to do with the spider-like frame he was up against. In fact, both the pilot of the spider frame and Yukiya were trying to hack each other.
"You really think I'm going to let you rival my genius?" Yukiya asked calmly.
"Kid, you're up against the best intelligence officer to survive the war with Rome," the final member of the Holy Swords, Shogo Asahina, told him, adjusting his glasses.
"Eh, military grade doesn't mean much to me," Yukiya said. "I hacked the Diet Building on a dare once."
"I did that in the second grade," Asahina said, trying to flex. "And speaking of second grade…" He formed a howitzer on the back of his frame and fired it at Yukiya. The armaments and maneuverability of his frame were the tricks of the trade of Asahina's personal HLKMF. Codename: Mizukumo.
However, the shots were deflected by a spherical energy shield projected around the main body of the Cosmic Gyro. "Honestly, what a joke," Yukiya responded. "If that's your best shot, I'll have your frame under my control in a matter of minutes."
"We'll see about that!" Asahina shouted and fired more gunshots at Yukiya.
And he wasn't the only one firing gunshots. Inoue's HLKMF came with a massive battle rifle she carried with her across the battlefield, playing hide and seek with Akito's Wyvern Revenant. She missed a shot and then went into hiding, trying to find cover in this suburban jungle where the trees and the civilized region began to meet.
A direct shot from that thing and I won't be moving around for much longer, Akito thought. She could probably kill me, he thought. The rims of his irises flashed orange. But I've never felt more alive.
He began to tear through buildings trying to locate Inoue as she ducked, rolled and tumbled around his powerful frame, eventually heading up a staircase to get to higher ground, taking potshots at the Wyvern Revenant through glassless windows.
He's quick! Gotta get so much distance that he won't see me coming or find a remote spot where I can stay hidden for a bit and hope something hits him before he finds me.
However, as she emerged on the roof of the current building, Akito was already waiting for and closed the gap quickly. Inoue was forced to jump off the building, taking shots at Akito, who leapt after her. She tagged his shoulder with one of the few shots she fired as he went blasting backward into the building and hit the ground after the impact.
Inoue landed on her back, but quickly pivoted and rose to her feet from a prone position. "Don't move!" she demanded of Akito, threatening to shoot him again. "I have orders to take you in alive."
Akito shambled the Wyvern Revenant to its feet, the shoulder Inoue shot sparking from the damage. "Sorry," he said, "But I'm not calling it quits today. My friends and I…today we win!"
He charged forward at Inoue who ran around a building for cover. Akito pursued, but he lost sight of her. He then ran around the building and fired at what he thought was Inoue's frame slumped over for the woman to catch her breath, only to nearly get his head blown off by a sniper shot. He gazed up at the top of the building to witness Inoue retracting some kind of light into the "eyes" of her mecha. She was also reloading her rifle. She took a few more shots at Akito. She had him right where she wanted him. Then, with the "eyes" of her mech, she projected another copy of her frame, which somehow had the power to fire upon Akito. Not willing to play chicken with a blast the caliber of Inoue's gun, he dodged out of the way, only to watch the shot pass through the tree behind him harmlessly.
It's fake? He wondered. It then dawned on him. Oh! I get it!
But now he was too far away from Inoue to have an advantage. And as she lined up her next shot, she began to fire shot after shot after shot after shot at him with her long-range rifle. Between the ability to project a decoy from her Factsphere and her preferential position as a sniper, this was the reason Inoue's HLKMF had the codename: Kikai no Yurei, the Ghost of the Machine.
And then, in this section of Saitama, the remaining two combatants, Hapi and Kaguya were duking it out: Cat vs Priestess.
Kaguya's red lightning bolts fired towards Hapi who leapt from one side to the other to dodge the blasts, firing back with her Howitzer to keep the distance between herself and Empress. Like the rest of the Green Pheasants, Kaguya used a completely different model on official Garreg Mach paperwork, so nobody was likely to know this was her. Additionally, the frames of the Ashen Wolves had evolved long past the point of Seteth's original documentation of them and he was the only one related to the Officer's Academy that would have been able to identify any of them.
This allowed the fierce battle to continue and rage without any worry of any of these revolutionaries to end up having to worry about divine retribution upon return to Rome. The only thing Hapi was most concerned about right now, was not getting her head blown off.
She grumbled. "Those bolts she's firing a real pain. If I get tagged with one, it'll probably smart."
"If you come quietly, we have orders to bring you in alive," Kaguya commented, floating before Hapi.
"Heh, sorry, lady, but me and my buddies had a bit team building session the other day and I ain't spitting on it," Hapi quipped. She gripped the hard light controls she used to focus the movements of the Demonic Hellcat. Then she shouted, "Death before dishonor!" And leapt at Kaguya.
Kaguya, a traditionally raised Japanese teenager, was caught slightly off-guard by her opponent, a clearly non-Japanese, shouting such a phrase with such gusto. As a result, she almost failed to evade Hapi's incoming pounce. The energy claws on the front of the Demonic Hellcat, slashed her wrist, and the jaws of the beast nicked her shoulder. Hapi then sped past her, turned around, hind legs skidding back and fired multiple shots from her Howitzer.
Kaguya, inexperienced in live combat, had to project a shield to protect herself. If she were a pro, she probably could have shot the blasts out of the air with the bolts of her frame.
No more hiding! No more running! Hapi thought. The Ashen Wolves are my home! My friends! My family! Shouting louder, Hapi's fighting spirit, caused the Demonic Hellcat to roar as it began firing at a faster rate. The shots broke through Kaguya's shield and then the next shot tagged her shoulder. Kaguya projected a new shield as she tended to her damaged frame. Her skin seethed in the damaged spot. It was possible her actual shoulder had gotten burned from the heat of the projectile blazing past her frame's shoulder.
She slowly made a retreat, trying to comprehend what was going on. These people…not the Glinda Knights, but Zero's forces, they have such passion backing them. She gazed around at the battlefield, getting a sense of the two different foes her forces faced. The Glinda Knights were Rome's lapdogs. They couldn't be reasoned with, but Zero's forces…
Inoue's Kikai no Yurei floated on jet propulsion as it weaved between trees, Akito chasing after her, dodging shots fired.
Yukiya and Asahina fired lightning and an energy web respectively at each other, using their other hand to hack and counter hack each other.
…they were fighting for something that wasn't country or pride. Each other perhaps? No, some kind of revolution of their own? But…the Japanese were the oppressed people. If they had Japanese beliefs, they should have already been on their side. Who were these people? How did they know Japanese beliefs and why did they use them as if they believed in them hard enough to push them to fight with all of their soul?
Kaguya had no choice but to fight back. Hapi was about to break through her shield again. She only now began to fire lightning blasts to counter the Howitzer shots and this put Hapi on the defensive. She turned and allowed Kaguya to force her to retreat. However, rather than pursuing the fleeing Hapi, Kaguya held her position, not just to contemplate what was happening, but also to let Hapi come back to her.
Who are we fighting? She wondered. Her interface beeped, cluing her in to Hapi's approach. What are they fighting FOR?
Hapi emerged from atop a building and pounced downward toward Kaguya with ferocity and speed. Kaguya countered by throwing several lightning bolt projectiles.
Hapi projected protective shielding around her mecha and tucked into a roll, slamming into the Raiden Miko's midsection with the full weight of her body. She attempted to pin Kaguya down with her claw, but now she had Kaguya on the run. She began flying backwards, firing bolt after bolt at Hapi, but now Hapi was too passionate and too focused to be sent fleeing.
Zero…you truly inspire… she smiled. Truly remarkable loyalty if people are willing to fight for you this hard.
As the three-way battle continued to rage, Katase, Kusakabe, The Flame Emperor and the Death Knight continued to march on Cornelia's forces, bowling over the rank and file like a tire through a puddle.
"Run, cowards!" Kusakabe declared. "Flee before the might of we Japanese!"
Kusakabe was then immediately accosted by a thrown lance, badly damaging his bull-like HLKMF, Dokugozu.
From a distance, surrounded by a phalanx of his men with riot shields and holding jousting lances in both Gloucester units and Gloucester resembling HLKMFs, was a lone HLKMF in a very dark purple HLKMF. He stood with a red lance in one hand, gazing out over his troops. "Halt, knave. You stand before Gilbert G.P. Guilford, personal knight to her highness, Cornelia li Britannia. Surrender now!"
Kusakabe laughed. "Surrender he says. You don't know anything about the Japanese, do you boy?" He charged forward, the energy axe equipped to his HLKMF firmly in hand. "We don't surrender!"
He was immediately rebuffed by a bolt of lightning raining down right in front of him, halting his advance. At the front of the enemy formation stood a man carrying a large, round shield in black and purple Gloucester-based HLKMF with blue shoulders and a cape. In his hand he held an energy hammer that glowed blue. This was the customized HLKMF of Andreas Darlton. Codename: Donar.
"Then you can die like men!" Darlton thundered. "All forces attack!"
The Glaston Knights rushed forward in a tight formation, shields and weapons raised.
"Formidable opponents," Katase said. "I'll take Darlton myself, Entei-sama."
"Indeed. Kusakabe. Death Knight. With me. We shall charge to the back of the formation and cut down Sir Guilford."
"Understood! My unit with me!" Kusakabe shouted.
A fearsome battle broke out as mages directed by the Flame Emperor clashed with the Glaston Knights, outnumbering them in large numbers. More KMFs came out from the burned forest Edelgard had set fire to her behind her. Clad in black, it looked like demons coming out of hell.
"Their forces are many your highness," Guilford reported calmly.
"Who cares about their number?" Cornelia questioned with a smirk. "We have the Ashen Demon on our side. Professor, all yours."
Byleth nodded. She then raised a steady hand above her head and bid her remaining allies forward. Shez, Shirley, Milly and Suzaku all charged into battle behind Byleth who began making chunk salsa and scrap metal of the forces around her.
Shirley joined in the fray. With red energy surging around the Blue Marine's right foot, she leapt in the air and slammed her foot into the shoulder of a KMF, coming out the other side, causing it to explode. Shirley was amazed. She only meant to take out the shoulder, but she'd ended up destroying the entire mech. Shirley marveled at her accomplishment.
"I didn't even know I could do that," Shirley commented, only to yelp when she nearly got blasted with magic. Fortunately, Shez covered her lack of focus by batting the magic away with her sword.
"Don't go napping on us, Shirley. You're on this battlefield for a reason," Shez told her. "Come on, let's throw some hands and er…feet and we can tell Lelouch all about your accomplishments later. He's sure to be impressed."
Shirley's morale skyrocketed. The energy levels in her HLKMF went off the charts as she began zipping around the battlefield tearing through the enemy ranks like garrot wire through a block of cheese.
"Me-OW!" Milly exclaimed, walking up to Shez. "She's really going at it."
"Yeah," Shez agreed. "Hey, if the knight thing doesn't work out, I'd take her under my wing and start my own mercenary corp. with her."
Milly laughed. "You're such a good big sis to all of us, Shez. Can I ask you to spoil me later?"
Shez laughed, before tilting her head back in a cackle. "Pffffft! Ahahahaha! Oh, Milly. You crack me up. Anyway," she got her head on straight and took out her twin swords. "Time to show the JLF here a new technique I've been cooking up." In the next instant, Shez disappeared from view and reappeared…completely behind enemy lines.
"Our flank's being attacked by an unknown—gaaaaaah!" One of the mages under the Flame Emperor's command.
"Oh! Oh crap! It's just one HLKMF! How can it—eeeeyaaaaaagh!"
"That's impossible, the Ashen Demon is in front of us," The Flame Emperor commented.
"We have an additional problem," The Death Knight commented.
The Flame Emperor looked at the battle map. Zero was headed towards Cornelia's bunker.
How did he slip past my pincer move? She questioned, and then noticed that the Glinda Knights had been pulled to Zero's location. Crafty son of a bitch, I'll give him that.
"Deal with the enemy behind us," The Flame Emperor said and held a purple crystal in their hand. "Zero is mine."
"Understood. I will go."
Shez continued to tear up the battlefield until she noticed the Death Knight racing through the flames with hostile intent.
"Whuh oh!" Shez exclaimed. She performed a magnificently timed backflip to dodge the Death Knight's initial assault and then struck at his helmet only to get repelled by personal shielding.
"It is you again," The Death Knight commented. "I relished our last battle. FIGHT ME AGAIN!"
"We shouldn't waste time on the Death Knight when there are other enemies to deal with. We've drawn him away from the frontlines. That should be efficient for now," Arval instructed.
Agreed, Shez thought. "Well, Mr. Death Knight, if you wanna fight me, you gotta get to me first!" She activated her new power again, which she called Shadow Slip and returned to the back of her own ally formation.
"The enemy has fled," The Death Knight communicated in a bored tone and echoey voice to the Flame Emperor.
"Yes, I just saw them teleport. I do not know how, of course. Teleportation crystals are Agarthan technology, not even the church knows about them," The Flame Emperor responded.
"They did not use a crystal. I watched their movements with my own eyes," The Death Knight stated.
"Most intriguing. Thank you for your report. As a reward, I order you to fight the Ashen Demon. You're the only one who can," the Flame Emperor instructed.
"It will be done," The Death Knight communicated and raced back to the front of the JLF's combined formation to locate Byleth.
Darlton noticed the lone HLKMF break past his troops formation, the sheer force and power of the Death Knight tossing knights aside like a charging bull bursting a locked gate wide open and off its hinges.
"So that's the infamous Death Knight," he commented. "Professor!" He radioed to Byleth. "Attack the Death Knight! You're the only one with the power to do so!"
"Understood," Byleth stated and zoomed to intercept the charging Death Knight looking precisely for her.
The Death Knight stopped when he sensed danger approach and brought up the Scythe of Sariel to, much to his delight, block a swing from the Sword of the Creator.
"Excellent! You are here! Let us savor this moment! DO NOT HOLD BACK!"
"I have no intention to," Byleth said and immediately activated their crest. This caused the Sword of the Creator to immediately glow red.
"Excellent," The Death Knight exhaled. "Then I shall do the same." He activated his crest of Lamine. "You are much stronger than our last encounter. GIVE ME THE PLEASURE OF BATTLE THAT I CRAVE!"
With sparks flying between the Sword of the Creator and the Scythe of Sariel, Byleth had the pressing advantage. Turning her hands, and her blade, she then thrust her hands forward, smacking the hands of the Fallen Angel into the Death Knight's face…to no effect.
The Death Knight grabbed Byleth's face with his whole hand, only to find Byleth vanish from sight. In the next instant, Byleth was several paces back and swinging the Sword of the Creator out like a whip sword, the red energy emitting off of it smashing into the Death Knight's HLKMF. However, thanks to the Crest of Lamine, he shrugged off the pain.
"YES! MOOORE! This is what I've been searching for!"
A blast of Death Gamma nearly took Byleth by surprise, but she managed to evade, sliding to the side onto one knee.
"My, my," Sothis commented. "What a brute? Does he know naught but the pleasure of battle? How boorish."
Byleth silently agreed before presuming herself into a dance of weapons with the Death Knight. Six blows were exchanged as the two clashed weapons, before sliding past each other. However, Byleth had a little present for the Death Knight. Shooting the Sword of the Creator over her shoulder and predicting where he would be, she grappled the neck of the HLKMF and began to tighten the snaking weapon around the Death Knight like garrot wire. Noises rose up from the trapped knight as if he were one part suffocating, one part enjoying it.
Eventually, however, a flash gave off from his chest and the Sword of the Creator was repaired, returning to Byleth's side in its non-whip state.
The Death Knight turned, a necklace of some kind appeared to be glowing faintly from inside the HLKMF, emitting the Crest of Lamine with a faint, red glow.
"That light? Is that a hero's relic?" Sothis questioned.
It's a necklace? Byleth wondered.
"No matter. It appears cheap tricks will not work. Stay on your guard. A defensive hero's relic could have any manner of tricky applications," she warned.
Byleth nodded and she and the Death Knight began to circle around each other before flying straight towards each other again.
As they clashed, Felix and Ashe witnessed it on the horizon, sitting tall in standard KMFs, Japanese Burai models to be precise.
"This is…so chaotic," Ashe commented, engaged in a private chat to talk to Felix.
"The enemy of the Japanese is the might of Rome," Felix said. "Clashing with Britannia, a leg of it, was inevitable," Felix said.
Ashe sighed, frowning.
"Do you regret coming here?" Felix asked, projecting his face onto Ashe's UI.
"I'm only concerned about the lives of these people just being…thrown away," Ashe said. "There's so much bloodshed here."
"What do you think Knighthood is, Ashe? It's not like you read in a fairy tale or watch on TV. A knight kills people, same as mercenaries and terrorists. It doesn't matter who you're fighting, just that you're fighting for a worthy cause," He chided. He then added much more wittily, "Lucky for me, I don't have a conscience."
Ashe sighed sadly and then took a deep breath. "The people of Japan…they didn't ask for this. They just want to live their lives in peace. And when peace is not an option—"
"You make war," Felix finished.
Ashe gripped the controls of his Burai. "Let's go, Felix! Let's protect as many Japanese as we can!"
"Right behind you."
The two young men sped off into battle, cutting through foot soldiers of Cornelia's unit, only for Ashe to get attacked from behind.
Felix was about to chastise him for getting careless, only to get rocked by a projectile himself. The attacks were coming from multiple directions, but the assailant was a single enemy sliding around the battlefield like an ice skater.
"Is that…The Blue Marine?" Ashe questioned.
Felix groaned. "It appears so. Let's try not to kill a fellow student. The last thing this world needs is more fathers with dead children."
"All right. Let's at least try to disable the Blue Marine then," Ashe commented.
"I'll engage it up close, fire slash harkens and bullets when you think you've got an opening," Felix told his classmate.
"Right!" Ashe exclaimed.
As Felix proceeded to try and strike the much smaller Blue Marine, Shirley proved that she was quite capable at evading attacks as much as she was dishing them out. She sped around Felix looking for an opening, but finding few. Her rifle shot from her HLKMF was deflected by Felix's KMF's MVS. While Shirley was sliding backwards she then had to backflip over a slash harken speeding towards her head.
"Whoa, that was close," she commented. She then sped backwards, face to face with these two Burai units. "These two…they're above average pilots, no question." She radioed to Shez. "Shez, I think I've caught myself against some enemies about my level."
"Take 'em out and don't get sloppy," Shez radioed back. "We want you coming back in one piece, Shirley!" She leapt swung and cut through Flame Emperor allied HLKMFs and infantry like stalks of bamboo. "Milly, how are you holding up?"
"I've go three bogeys on my tail," Milly commented. She was unknowingly surrounded by three members of Ohgi's resistance unit too old to attend Garreg Mach: Toru Yoshida, Yoshitaka Minami and Akahiko Nagata, each in non-customized Burai-model HLKMFs. "Not sure how useful I'm going to be to the overall war effort."
"Taking out strong enemies is just as important as mowing down hordes of the rank and file," Cornelia commented over comms. "Do whatever you can to contribute. Not everyone is the hero of a battlefield."
Shez chuckled. "Too true, Princess Cornelia. Too true."
"What do we know about this unknown force that seems to be aiding the JLF?" Suzaku asked over comms.
"The HLKMF of the strange one commanding the Death Knight read Flame Emperor on my UI," Darlton communicated.
"Flame Emperor?" Guilford radioed now locked in combat with Kusakabe himself. "I thought the Death Knight and Zero were on the same side."
"Perhaps not. These same black robed mages were at the battle at the Holy Mausoleum according to reports." Suzaku commented. "I thought at the time that Zero was their leader, but given he's on the run and the JLF are fighting him…"
"Perhaps it's more accurate to say that the Flame Emperor is the true leader and Zero was temporarily allied with them," Shez commented.
"Internal strife?" Cornelia questioned. "How pathetic."
"Perhaps it could be even more complicated, such as another party being behind Zero and the Flame Emperor," Darlton theorized. "And Zero is attempting to break away from the organization."
"We can't know that for certain," Shez stated.
"Then let's make a concentrated effort to capture Zero and this Flame Emperor alive. Kill the Japanese as you please," Cornelia instructed.
"What about Zero's followers?" Suzaku asked.
"Same as the JLF. If they die they die. We can mop up the battlefield after it's over."
"YES. YOUR. HIGHNESS," A unified response came over comms.
Following this, the Flame Emperor finally came back into confrontation with Zero with Kronya and C.C. at his side and Shez quickly approaching to represent Cornelia's forces.
"You're a slippery one," The Flame Emperor said of Zero with a shake of their head.
"I never remain in check for long," Zero commented.
Chess metaphors? Who'd this guy get his quips from, Lelouch? Shez thought.
"…" Arval eyed Zero with silent suspicion.
"So I see," The Flame Emperor responded.
"I'm after Cornelia," he said. "You can either join me or you can get in my way."
"The only one taking Cornelia's head today will be me," the Flame Emperor stated.
"That's a shame. I need her alive, however temporary," Zero stated. He raised his arm to the sky. "Kronya, fetch."
With the Gleaming Blade active, Kronya blazed past the Flame Emperor and began slicing up members of Cornelia's rear guard.
Shez turned, but Arval encouraged her not to pursue. "The rear guard is headed up by some of General Darlton's best and brightest. Let's consider our enemies here for the moment."
Shez accepted this advice.
"Am I supposed to be impressed that you have Kronya on a leash?" The Flame Emperor asked with contempt.
"No, that's not supposed to impress you," Zero said. "This is." With the next snap of his fingers, C.C. floated into the air and unleashed another Agnea's Arrow, much to Shez and Edelgard's horror.
While Shez was able to simply teleport out of the way with her new Shadow Slip ability, Edelgard had to bear the brunt of it given the Flame Emperor frame's low mobility.
And then, as the dust cleared, something else was in the sky: The Neverland.
"YOUR HIGHNESS!" Guilford screamed over comms.
Checkmate, Zero thought.
The Neverland opened fire, smashing heated slugs into Cornelia's bunker, causing it to explode and setting it ablaze.
"The bunker! Our central communications!" Darlton shouted.
"Zero got us good!" Oldrin shouted, seeing the flames. She used the Glinda Knights's exclusive frequency. "Mary!"
"I know!" Marrybell exclaimed. She began fiddling with the controls of her HLKMF while still trying to keep Kallen at bay. It took some doing, but she eventually got it working. "This is Princess Marrybell mel Britannia with an emergency broadcast! All Roman forces change frequencies to the signal you're receiving now!"
"How fortunate we brought backup communication systems," Arval thought. "For a moment there I thought—"
Forget the communication systems! What about Princess Cornelia? Shez jumped up onto the burning bunker. The smoke and flames were thick, too thick to make out any living entities inside.
"I thought you said you wanted her alive!" The Flame Emperor shouted.
The only one on the battlefield not panicking, even a little, was Princess Euphemia. An explosion like that? That was a minor setback to her stalwart big sis at the worst.
Zero knew Cornelia would strike back, but from where and how? "Neverland, stand by and prepare for—"
Suddenly, a red lance-shaped blast of energy sailed through the air and tunneled into the nose cone of the Neverland, causing the whole front to explode. Zero was shocked at the sheer cataclysmic damage as the Neverland crashed to the ground nose first, also suddenly catching fire, an engine bursting due to the impact of the crash.
From out of the flames of her bunker, Cornelia stood on the edge of the metallic wreckage with her own HLKMF. It was the most compact HLKMF Zero had ever seen. Cornelia rarely if ever needed to deploy her HLKMF. Britannia intelligence kept its true nature a secret for that very reason. She was far more comfortable piloting her custom Gloucester. Zero wasn't sure what he was dealing with, but he had to be prepared for anything.
Cornelia's HLKMF seemed to hug to her body. A big blue cape draped around her frame, if one could even call it that. It looked more like a bodysuit, like Milly's. However, it was plated, suggesting vastly superior defenses to the Yellow Panther. As if to harken back to her days at the academy, the helmet had two horizontal eye slits with the Crest of Seiros plastered over the helmet. The color scheme was a shade of dark magenta, but the thin energy lance held in Cornelia's royal fingers was as red as blood, as were her gloves and boots. Equipped with a Paladin and High Paladin certification, it bore a name befitting its status as it came up on Edelgard and Lelouch's respective UIs. Codename: Scathach.
Moving faster than most UIs could pick up, Cornelia landed on the ground. "I'll give credit where credit is due, Zero," she said unnervingly calmly for a woman that just had airship fire blasted at her with lethal intent. "You nearly had me there for a second. But…" She pointed the tip of her lance down at the ground. "It'll take a lot more than wit to kill the Goddess of the Battlefield. You even lost your ticket out of here. Face it, Zero," she said, aiming the lance with two hands at him and the Flame Emperor. "You're grounded and nobody is walking away except me and my forces, except in chains."
"Ordinarily, I would be panicking, Cornelia," Zero said, not even offering her the dignity of Princess, "However, machines can be rebuilt. Men and women," he said, snapping his fingers as the Magnificent Peacock and the Violent Swan rose out from the wreckage of the Neverland. "Cannot be."
Zero was floored when, in a flash of an instant, Cornelia tore through the air, impaling the Magnificent Peacock and hurling it down and away off her lance. She then engaged the Violent Swan in midair. Yuri swung at Cornelia's tight plated frame with an energy sword, but the weapon seemed to bounce off the armor like it was nothing. Cornelia then impaled the Violent Swan in the throat, fortunately missing Yuri's actual throat and then electrocuted the entire frame by flowing thunder magic through her lance.
She then front flipped in midair and hurled the Violent Swan at the ground. Two of Zero's best allies taken to task in one fell swoop. This was the woman once called the rival of Thunder Catherine and it showed.
Yuri and Constance proceeded to try and retreat, but Cornelia attempted to pursue. This was stopped by Zero who got directly in her way. He swung at her armor, only to be blocked by the shaft of her energy lance.
I can't see her eyes, even at this distance. But even if I could use the Geass right now, I don't have the time to interrogate her. I need to do something about the Flame Emperor.
Using his free hand, he radioed, "Ayano, is it ready?"
"Been waiting for your signal," she responded.
"Do it."
Suddenly, from out of the wreckage of the Neverland, a much smaller ship rocketed into the air with a similar paint job. It was shaped like a stealth bomber had a baby with a transport ship. What it gave up in size and higher grade armaments, it made up for in pure speed as it began darting all over the battlefield, raising laser fire down upon the battlefield, courtesy of a Sakuradite installed engine.
"A Sakuradite powered airship?!" Cornelia, no, no one in Britannia thought such a thing was possible, especially for the weapons to be firing what appeared to be concentrated Sakuradite beams.
This was the experimental attack aircraft built by the Ashen Wolves using nothing but scrap metal, prayers and a little black market voodoo from Yukiya: The Akane.
Ayano swept through the skies circling around the battlefield, taking passing shots at the Scathach and harassing it, forcing Cornelia to dodge left, right, forward and back to avoid taking a laser blast to the chest.
"Ayano, stay above the battlefield and watch your six. Do not, I repeat, do not land," Zero told her.
"Copy that, Zero."
Shez leapt into the air to try and attack the Akane, but was nearly blasted out of the air by a Thoron blast from C.C. More Thoron blasts persisted, forcing Shez back and away from Cornelia, Zero and the Flame Emperor.
"I can't even get an opportunity to attack," Shez complained.
"I agree. Even with the Leviathan of Destiny, you may not be able to defeat her on your own," Arval commented.
"The Ashen Demon made it look so easy," Shez complained, weaving through the air hoping to have the opportunity to strike.
"The Fallen Angel is indeed still above your own frame, but I wonder…if perhaps that one has improved her skills since our last encounter," Arval commented. "Or perhaps…"
Suddenly, C.C. had company in the form of the Lancelot Shogun trying to strike her shoulder. She quickly self-warped out of the way, evading the sword strike.
"Suzaku! Boy am I glad to see you!" Shez exclaimed.
"I saw you struggling and thought I could pitch in. the Professor and the others have the ground troops covered," Suzaku said.
"What about the other HLKMF user? The Gleaming Blade?" Shez asked.
"Darlton's men have her surrounded," Suzaku told her. "This takes priority. This mage was trouble in the battle at the Holy Mausoleum too according to reports. The Gleaming Blade was less of an issue."
Shez nodded. "All right! Let's take her on!"
With C.C. occupied by Shez and Suzaku and the Akane preventing Cornelia from maintaining battlefield presence anywhere near Zero, he and the Flame Emperor were now isolated under the afternoon summer sun.
"So, it's come back to us," The Flame Emperor commented mockingly. "Almost as if it were fate."
"Just admit you're outmatched and we can go from there," Zero joked.
"Please," The Flame Emperor scoffed. "Your force is small and you've lost your one and only flagship. Do you really think your remaining frames and a single airship is going to win you the day?"
Zero drew out his energy sword. "Face me then, and find out."
"Hmph. Then you leave me no choice."
With that, The Flame Emperor charged at Zero. Their weapons locked against each other, sparks flying. The flames of the Neverland and Cornelia's bunker crackled and burned, accenting the chaos around the two revolutionaries.
Zero's attacks came out like lightning, the leader of the Ashen Wolves striking rapidly, taking advantage of his opponent's slower mobility.
"Remember. Armored units are slow, but defensive. If you lack the strength, you'll have to wear them down with persistence over strength." Words Byleth had taught Lelouch at the academy during his tenure came back to aid him in this moment.
"Remember. When you're armored, you lack the mobility to deal with quicker foes. Take your time. Your moment will come." Jeritza's teachings also aided Edelgard in this moment.
Sword met axe and shield as Edelgard parried or blocked Lelouch's strikes.
"Your revolution will end before it has even begun," the Flame Emperor told Zero.
"I could say the same of you!" Zero exclaimed, clanging weapons against his foe as sparks flew.
"Tell me, how do you plan to escape this battlefield with your only means of evacuation a smoldering scrap heap?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Zero responded.
The two warriors leapt away from each other, standing a comfortable distance to take a moment to catch their breath.
He's good. He's not my equal in direct combat, but those movements are not the skills of an amateur at all, The Flame Emperor commented.
They're good. Definitely my superior in strength. I won't be able to win with brute force. Strategy is the key to victory.
No problem, they both thought at the same time and resumed hostilities by charging forward.
Of course, the Flame Emperor and Zero's clash was not the only important one upon the Saitama Region that day. The Glinda Knights were also out in full force against their foes as well.
Shots rang out from the Venerable Lion against the Fujin Hebi, Leonhardt attempting to rout Urabe, but landing blows was still tricky on his speedy opponent. And then, as Leonhardt moved back to get distance, Urabe sped forward and fired a slash harken right into his shoulder.
"Gotta be kidding me," Leonhardt grunted. He aimed his weapons out and forward and fired, only for Urabe to leap into the air, weapon poised to strike. Leon, defenseless from the blowback of the strike, was completely discombobulated by the attack from the member of the holy sword. The Venerable Lion ran completely out of power.
At the same time, the question between the unstoppable Balthus and the immovable Tink was finally getting its answer. With faster swings and more heft behind them, Balthus finally landed three decisive blows into the weary Tink's frame and knocked him over, disabling the Tin Giant.
Rather than pursue the fleeing Leonhardt, Urabe turned his attention to the Zero-allied Balthus. Balthus evaded the slash harken by entering the Rolling Thunder's sphere form.
"Hey, pal, you don't gotta make it like this. We can call it even, get some bear, throw some dice. I took out a Glinda Knight. You took out a Glinda Knight. We're already kinda friends," Balthus said jovially, but he wasn't being completely serious.
"Sorry, nothing personal, guy, but I got my orders," Urabe said.
"Well," Balthus said, putting on a serious expression. "Suit yourself. You're gonna wish you'd never traded blows with the Tireless King of…eh screw it! You're going down, pal!"
As Balthus engaged with Urabe, Leonhardt and Tink were making for where Cornelia's bunker was up in flames. Opening comms, Tink hailed Marrybell. "Princess Marrybell, Cornelia's bunker has been completely trashed. What's our evac?"
"Wyvern Number three," Marrybell told him. "We came down in it, remember?"
"Jeez, Leon, sometimes you pay less attention than Sokkia," Tink said with a smile.
"Shut up, Tink," Leonhardt remarked.
Marika resisted the urge to facepalm. Her fiancé could be so dense sometimes.
Unfortunately for the Glinda Knights, Zero was hacked into their communication line. Taking out Cornelia's bunker had served more than just making a statement, but it forced the combined forces onto the Glinda Knights's comm frequency. It was a frequency Lelouch knew all too well due to Geassing Sokkia one day for the information.
Wyvern number three…of course! Zero exclaimed. As he used one hand to tap into comms, he used the other to fend off the Flame Emperor.
The nerve of him radioing at a time like this! Edelgard exclaimed, put off, feeling Zero wasn't taking her seriously.
The Flame Emperor isn't making this easy. I need distance, Zero thought. He then hatched on the idea to drop another smoke pellet to buy him time. With the two smoldering wreckages nearby, it would take time to disperse.
Of all the lowbrow tricks, Edelgard thought, feeling slighted, frowning. She shook her head. No…no reason to belittle another commander's tactics. If he's dropping smoke, he's hiding for a reason. He was using comms earlier…is he buying time to call for back up? It dawned on her. I had him on the backfoot!
Edelgard used comms herself. "This is the Flame Emperor. Can anyone get me a visual on the smokescreen near my location?"
No answer.
Of course not, she thought.
Knowing the smoke would be thicker towards the wreckages, she ran away from them towards the back of Cornelia's forces. Emerging from the smoke, she then circled the perimeter to try and find Zero hiding at the edge of it.
However, by now, Zero was already dialed into an off-battlefield call and when Edelgard took a swing at him, he blocked with his energy sword with both hands.
Damn! I missed my opportunity!
Muting communications through his helmet, Zero's voice was heard only by the person on the other end of the line…or would be if they would answer their damn phone.
Come on! Pick up! Pick up!
Using two hands on his energy sword, Zero had an easier time playing defense on the Flame Emperor's mighty swings.
However, after a few seconds, he got through and then used a sticky whip to propel himself around the back tail fin of the mostly intact, but burning Neverland, forcing the Flame Emperor to pursue as he rolled behind the wreckage. He crouched down in the thick black smoke.
"This is Shamir speaking."
"If you don't ask too many questions, I have a job for you," Zero told her.
"Who is this?"
"That constitutes a question," Zero told her, making a handgun with his free hand in case the Flame Emperor showed up through the smoke. He was using the other to stay tapped in to his call.
"You said too many," Shamir responded, sounding annoyed.
Zero didn't answer her directly, just letting out a mildly irritated growl.
"I'll demand wired payment up front," Shamir stated.
Using his hand that was used to push to talk, Zero tapped his fingers through the interface to wire transfer Shamir 56,000 Roman credits. He had long since acquired the data courtesy of Yukiya.
There was a momentary pause before Shamir asked, "All right…
…What's the job?"
(A/N: So I was right. Writing this chapter SUCKED. I had a 3k word outline that bloated into a 27k behemoth. But this is only 13k words, so where's the rest of it, you're probably wondering. Yeah, that's why I have chapter 19 already completed. Figured it wasn't fair to hold out on you guys. You guys enjoy that, I'll dip out and meet you there. [Doesn't do usual outro. Refuses to explain further. Doesn't die].)