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Automatic Notice, Deus Nobiscum
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The red spears of crystal vanished an instant before they hit Dragan's face -- and he used the shower of blue sparks that Gemini Shotgun created in the process as a smokescreen.
Gemini World.
Dragan had already fought in massive starstations and starships since developing Gemini World. Even though it was foolish to think those vehicles were remaining stationary when he recorded himself into Aether, the fact remained that his Aether cloud remained affixed relative to their position. That was why he didn't go flying off into the void of space when he used Gemini World on the Slipstream, for example.
For a smaller vehicle like this train, though, that wasn't the case.
Gemini World.
He was recorded for less than a fraction of a second before he reappeared -- suddenly right behind Giovanni, low to the ground, his eyes blazing blue. His Aether cloud had remained in place while the train had moved, allowing Dragan to cross an impressive distance in much less time than usual.
He still had the two spears stored up. Two bladed weapons, sculpted and perfected to stab his enemy through the back.
But before he had the chance to use them, two words passed Giovanni's unseen lips.
"Second Verse."
The sphere of red crystal appeared around his adversary's body in less than a second, but the defense wasn't the worrying part about it. Gemini World would be left behind by the train, but the same was true of Giovanni's crystal shield. Dragan… hadn't considered that.
It struck him like a truck.
All the air was pushed out of Dragon's lungs as his limbs were splayed out, pressed right against the shield's surface as it forced him onwards. The insides of the train were scraped away by the crystal as it rushed past, the locomotive leaving them behind as it zoomed through the tracks.
One compartment, then another, then another. They passed like the flashes of a camera.
Dragan couldn't escape this using Gemini World: if he tried, he'd just end up being forced off the train anyway. Besides, Gemini World couldn't pass through solid objects -- the Aether cloud would just be forced along by the shield too.
There'd be just one chance. One chance to stay on the train. Right when the shield smashed through the end of the very back compartment, he could enter Gemini World, slip upwards, and grab onto the edge of the carriage. It was a long shot, but those seemed to be the only kind he was getting right now.
Through the semi-transparent surface of the shield, Dragan could see Giovanni's detached gaze fixed onto his own eyes. Anger boiled in his veins.
Don't give me that look, asshole, he thought. You haven't won.
Another compartment. And another. Just two left. Sparks showered from decapitated machinery as the two of them continued their journey.
All of Dragan's Aether was focused into his back, to protect his spine from everything he was smashing through. Right now, he was the very tip of this battering ram. If he let up his concentration for even a moment, he'd be crushed into paste.
Another compartment. A stray piece of machinery struck Dragan in the side of his head, and blood ran down over one eye. He ignored it.
Through the shield, past Giovanni, he could see the flare of distorted light off in the distance, back where this ramshackle journey had started. It seemed a fire had started throughout the train: Dragan suspected the vehicle wasn't going much further regardless of what happened here.
The final compartment.
Dragan smashed through the back window, shards of glass flying through the air and slashing at his back and shoulders. He tasted cold air for just a moment, just a split-second, before…
Gemini World.
…he moved.
He was recorded for just an instant, and in that moment he slipped across and above the crystal shield. When he reappeared, he was hanging off the edge of the warped train carriage, the air pressure causing his body to flap like a piece of fabric behind him.
Right. Okay. He'd managed to keep hold.
He had to get back up onto the train itself quickly. Giovanni would no doubt pursue: if Dragan didn't have solid footing by that time, he was dead. Those red spears of his were deadly: Dragan would need to stay on guard with Shotgun to keep himself from being skewered.
With a grunt, he pulled himself up onto the train further, up to his chest. He looked up.
Giovanni looked back down at him.
Huh?
Dragan had just seen that shield fly off into the abyss. He was absolutely certain that Giovanni had still been inside the sphere at that time, but… oh. Oh, that was clever.
"Seventh Verse," Giovanni said impassively. "It allows me to teleport myself or objects between two designated points. I set one point on the roof of the train while I was boarding, and then another behind me while I was flying off. Your limited abilities were simply insufficient to counter my moves."
Dragan narrowed his eyes. "Not exactly fair for one guy to have so many abilities, you know…"
Giovanni raised an eyebrow. "I suppose the ant would become bitter at the size of the boot. Nevertheless… it's over. First Verse."
Four spears appeared floating over the Apexbishop's shoulders -- and with a snap of his fingers, they flew down towards Dragan, one aimed at each of his limbs. If he'd given up, then and there, that would have been the end of him.
But the only one who decided what happened to him was him.
Gemini World!
Dragan recorded his own body -- save for his left hand, which was left disembodied hanging on for dear life. Three crystal spears sailed off uselessly into the darkness below. Dragan's left hand pulled itself onto the train and -- with the speed granted by its reduced size -- scuttled between Giovanni's legs on its fingers like some kind of demented spider.
Giovanni stamped down -- but the target was too small, and too agile, quickly springing out of the way.
Gemini World.
Dragan reappeared from the hand upwards, crouching low -- and now he was holding one of the recorded spears in his other hand. With a snarl he stabbed it down, driving it through Giovanni's foot and the roof of the train, pinning him in place there.
Giovanni gritted his teeth in pain, but he did not scream. Instead, he raised his arm and summoned another two spears, their tips pointing at Dragan's face.
"First Verse," the Apexbishop spat.
At this distance, Gemini Shotgun wasn't reliable. Dragan jumped backwards onto the next carriage, one hand gripping a ring on the roof to stop himself from flying off the train -- and the spears thundered through the spot he'd just been standing, leaving sizable holes in the metal.
He'd pinned Giovanni to the train carriage. That was the first step.
Gemini Shotgun.
Two recorded spears, fired in different directions -- one at the connector between Dragan's carriage and Giovanni's, and another at the cord connecting Giovanni's carriage to the rails. Both hit their marks, metal screeching as the connections snapped, and Giovanni's carriage was cut apart from the rest of the train.
Giovanni, stuck to the roof, could only glare at Dragan as he and the carriage went plummeting into the abyss, vanishing from sight after just a moment.
Dragan let out a deep breath, stepping off to the side of the train. He glanced left and right, knowing that Giovanni would reappear sooner rather than later. He wasn't foolish enough to think that maneuver killed him.
Giovanni had said he'd set his teleport points when he was getting on the train, but he hadn't actually gone to the roof at that time. That suggested that ability worked based on line-of-sight, so there was nothing stopping him from just doing the same trick again. If not, he had that red ring that allowed him to fly -- Dragan hadn't had a chance to observe that ability's maximum speed, but he should assume that catching up with the train was possible for it.
So. Giovanni would either use his teleport to get back onto the train directly, or chase after it with his flight. If Dragan kept both directions in his view, he could respond to whatever strategy Giovanni went with.
In the end, Giovanni chose neither.
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The train ruptured inwards as something heavy and fast slammed into it from below, demolishing the carriages and disconnecting the wreckage from the rails. For a moment, as the carriage began to plummet, Dragan seized hold of it for dear life -- before realizing just how pointless that was.
Gemini World.
Dragan disappeared from the hail of debris, then reappeared a second later free of it -- his legs still recorded, however, allowing him flight. He floated in the darkness for a moment, looking up at the warped remains of the rails far above. Sparks rained weakly down, illuminating the abyss for brief insants.
Sweat ran down Dragan's forehead.
Giovanni did not give him time to catch his breath, however. Before he could so much as get his bearings, Dragan was forced to dodge off to the side to avoid a lightning-fast smear of red, so quick that he could only detect its movements from the air pressure. Even with all the speed he could muster, the weapon brushed past his face, scraping at his skin.
"Interesting," Giovanni said mildly. "I intended to take your head off with that."
Dragan breathed shakily as he regained his balance, glaring at the new arrival.
As he'd expected, Giovanni was using the red ring floating over his back to fly. He'd ditched the spears, however, and was using a weapon Dragan hadn't seen before. A long chain formed of that same red crystal was held in his hands, and at the end of that long chain was the sphere he'd used earlier, the links wrapped tight around it.
In short, a makeshift flail, ridiculously oversized and ridiculously fast.
"Eighth Verse," Giovanni said, noticing Dragan's gaze. "A holy chain that can seize hold of anything I wish. I can also use it with my shields to create a weapon like this one. Since you can just redirect ranged attacks, I supposed this to be a better approach."
He began to wind the chain around and around, the flail whipping through the air as he got ready for another attack.
Dragan narrowed his eyes. Why was Giovanni so insistent on explaining his abilities as he used them? Was it a condition for his power, was there some kind of trick in the explanation itself, or…?
He didn't have time to consider the dilemma.
Giovanni swung the flail horizontally, intending to smash him into paste, and Dragan flew further down to avoid it. Even knowing the attack was coming, however, it was simply too fast to dodge completely. Dragan felt the bones in his arm snap as the weapon brushed against the limb.
Gemini World.
Dragan recorded the damaged bones into his Aether before he could so much as feel the pain. So long as the limb itself was intact, he could continue to use it with his Aether filling the role of the missing bones. If Giovanni wanted to take him out of the game, he would have to completely destroy his brain.
Not to say that he wasn't trying to do that, though.
Another swing, this one vertical, coming down like the hammer of god. Dragan vanished into Gemini World completely as the weapon swung past, appearing again a second later perched atop the shield itself.
Giovanni needed to wind up for these brutal attacks: so long as Dragan could stop him from doing that, he was safe.
"Gemini Shotgun!" Dragan cried, firing the two spears he had left right at Giovanni's face.
"Useless!" Giovanni roared back. "First Verse!"
Two identical spears manifested over his own shoulders, firing at Dragan's projectiles. The four spears collided in mid-air, each destroyed by the impact -- but as the shards of crystal rained down, Dragan absorbed them as well. He fired them out like a true shotgun blast, the shards flying back at Giovanni like pieces of broken glass.
The slightest twitch in Giovanni's expression. This was not something he'd anticipated. That alone told Dragan that this was not a hopeless fight.
"Eighth Verse!" Giovanni yelled -- and another red chain burst out from his back, attaching to a distant wall and pulling him out of the way of Dragan's attack. The speed that the chain reeled him in was far superior to his ordinary flight -- Dragan could barely follow him with his eyes as he was pulled off into the distance.
Giovanni landed on the far wall, his gaze still locked onto Dragan.
"First Verse," he growled.
More spears than Dragan had seen before blinked into existence one by one, until he was staring at the points of thirty or so crystal blades, each directly aimed at the spot between his eyes. But…
… this didn't ring true.
Giovanni had just said it himself, hadn't he? Ranged attacks were worse than useless against Dragan -- all they did was give him more and better ammunition. He knew that, so why would he be going for such a pointless move?
The obvious answer was that this attack had another purpose. A smokescreen, maybe? Either way, all Dragan had to do was hide until Giovanni's opportunity passed.
The spears fired.
Gemini World.
Dragan vanished as the projectiles sailed past, waited a few more seconds to let any secondary attacks go past too, then reappeared. His eyes darted around as he remained wary, expecting an attack from the flail to come any moment. He glanced back at Giovanni's position --
Giovanni was gone.
"No," said the Apexbishop from below him. "I'm still here."
Shit! He'd only just recently become able to fly, so he'd neglected to think of this fight as being in three dimensions. How the hell had Giovanni crossed this distance so fast, though?!
The answer presented itself as Dragan saw the red chain dissipating from below him, too. Giovanni had attached his chain to one of the spears and flew along with it, moving to Dragan's position while he was in Gemini World. That was how he'd moved with such incredible speed.
Dragan went to pull his legs up, but too late. He felt Giovanni's hand seize hold of his ankle.
"Fifth Verse…" he hissed, quiet as death.
The effect was immediate. Sweat began to pour down Dragan's skin. His limbs began to tremble. His lungs began to burn. His vision began to waver. In the span of a few seconds, his body began to betray him.
He had to get away.
Gemini… World…
He disappeared from Giovanni's grip, and then appeared maybe half-a-second later floating the shortest distance away. He hadn't stayed so close for any tactical reason -- it was just that he had no confidence he'd be able to keep up a full-body Gemini World for any extended period of time.
He panted, floating shakily as he kept watch over Giovanni.
"Fifth Verse…" Giovanni grinned darkly, looking up at him. "I wasn't sure if it could be used like this, but it seems my experiment is a success. Fifth Verse is an ability that allows me to heal others, you see. It supercharges a body's regenerative abilities to recover from grave injuries."
Dragan furrowed his brow. "What? Then how…"
"How did I use it as an attack?" Giovanni cut him off. "It's simple. It's only possible because I'm fighting you. I saw it last time. You record your injuries into your Aether, correct? As a result, your body is confused as to whether or not it's injured."
He was doing it again. Why so insistent on explaining as he went?
"As such," Giovanni continued. "When I try to heal you, your body basically wastes massive amounts of energy trying to heal injuries that don't exist. I touched you for around three seconds -- you should be feeling like you just finished a marathon right about now. Well, how about it? Uncomfortable?"
Dragan spat down into the pit. "Hardly. I can handle a little jog. Is that a problem for you?"
Giovanni did not respond to the bait. He just stared, his eyes dead and passionless. Long seconds stretched on, the only sound in the abyss being Dragan's ragged breathing.
"Shall we end this?" he asked, voice flat.
He rushed forward.
For anyone watching from the outside, the rest of the fight would have been an incomprehensible blur. Even to those fighting, it was a matter of instinct and response, attack and defense flowing into each other like the currents of the ocean. To describe it fully would be to imply a structure that simply does not exist.
To put it briefly, though:
Dragan weaved through barrages of the First Verse sixty-three times.
Dragan was pulled across the room by the Eighth Verse fifteen times.
Dragan avoided the flail of the Second Verse seven times.
Dragan felt the direct touch of the Fifth Verse four times.
And, the end of the fight commenced…
…with one punch.
It slammed into Dragan's face from his blind spot, striking him in the head with utmost force. Dragan poured his Aether into his skull to defend his brain, but that was not Giovanni's true target. Instead, with the lowest chuckle -- the Apexbishop drove his thumb into Dragan's eye socket.
There was not the pain that Dragan would have expected. Just a wet crunch, and the feeling of pressure giving way… as his left eyeball was utterly crushed. His vision blinked out like a broken camera.
G-Gemini… Wor…
But no.
Giovanni was using his Fifth Verse along with the punch, and with it the last of Dragan's stamina was drained away. It felt as if his bones had suddenly been turned hollow, like the slightest breeze would shatter him into nothing.
What Giovanni gave him was not the slightest breeze.
The Apexbishop seized hold of Dragan's arms, planted his foot right on Dragan's chest -- and, using that monstrous leverage, tore the limbs free from his body. Blood rained down from the stumps. Giovanni tossed the arms off into the darkness.
This time, Dragan felt the pain that he'd expected. And Dragan screamed.
Giovanni slammed his other foot down onto Dragan's chest as well, driving the two of them down further and further into the abyss, past flickering lights and esoteric machinery… until they finally reached the bottom.
Dragan struck the floor first, breaking Giovanni's fall. It was only thanks to what remained of Dragan's Aether that he wasn't pulped by the impact alone, but just surviving was all he could manage. He felt his ribs break in his chest, and his legs crumple and snap.
It hurt when he breathed. Had something punctured his lung? It felt like his brain was swimming through a viscous liquid. Everything was… heavy…
Giovanni stepped off of Dragan's chest, brushing dust off his robes. "And so you see," he said calmly. "This is how it ends. You took on a task you were insufficient for, and so you perished. Well… are you dead?"
Dragan was incapable of answering, but his eyes weakly followed Giovanni's movements.
"Surely this isn't all you can do, though…" Giovanni muttered -- and he sounded genuinely, desperately distraught. "Surely you can do more. Get up. Do something. You wanted to beat me, right? Beat me. Come on."
Dragan mumbled something incoherent in both thought and word. Giovanni squatted down next to him, staring intently.
"If I tell you what I intend, perhaps you'll find some last bit of strength," he whispered, almost beseechingly. "The Deus Nobiscum is one of the few starships capable of executing an FTL jump without the aid of a lightpoint. I'm going to perform such a jump through the Menagerie and the ELIZA, utterly destroying them. I've sent away the Superbian leadership, but the other sects will be decapitated. I'm going to kill so many people, Dragan. Will that fact make you get up?"
Dragan said nothing. He couldn't.
The hope died from Giovanni's eyes, and he stood up. "I won't finish you off," he said sadly. "There's no point. If there's no more fight in you, then stay here and disappear. If you somehow survive, however…"
The red ring appeared behind Giovanni's back, and he floated up into the air.
"...then please do your best to kill me next time."
With those last words, he flew off into the darkness leaving Dragan alone at the bottom of the world. Blue Aether crackled weakly around his soon-to-be cadaver, illuminating the space for brief moments but slowly…
…slowly…
…beginning to die.