Commissar Schultz stood outside his cave and listened to his men cheer for the third time that day.
The first had been after the battle with the Eidolon, that horrific battle. If he was being honest with himself, they almost lost that encounter, even with all of the preparation and foresight on his part. Nearly everything they threw at the metal giant had been shrugged off as it marched through their lines and created an opening for the remaining Yabanchi horde to stream through. Missiles and gauss rounds had been stopped by the impregnable void shields and the Eidolon’s plating beneath was enough to make the autocannon rounds almost totally ineffective.
It had been the plasma mortars, too slow to activate the automatic void shields, that had won the day. Their cleansing heat had not so much as warmed up the reinforced metal of the Eidolon’s main body of ceramic plates and steely sinew, but the pulsating mass of flesh riding its back was not so resistant. Waves of fiery plasma cauterized the void spawned growth off of the Eidolon and when the last vestiges of the abomination had been burned away, the Eidolon had stopped its march and collapsed like a limp puppet. From there it was a relatively easy cleanup of annihilating the remaining Yabanchi ground forces with their weapon emplacements.
The second round of shouting had been much to Schultz’s surprise when the witches had returned. They were accompanied by hundreds of his stormtroopers who had joined them, but his heart was not in it when he greeted the returning Magical Girls.
The third and current round of shouting was by far the loudest. Schultz had to have his second in command point out what the men were cheering and when he saw, he was almost floored. Four men were exiting the tunnels of the Hemlock Mountain and slowly returning down his slope. They were no super soldier paladins or even well equipped stormtroopers, just four regular Vanguard troopers who had survived against all odds. Seeing them had awoken something in the hearts of every stormtrooper in the valley, meteorites of their own time spent in the Vanguard and so they all took up the sacred Imperial chant reserved only for decreed triumphs.
It was totally out of order and of course the snot nosed junior commissar next to Schultz expected him to order them to stop. He would have to be disappointed, because Schultz could not help himself and he took up the cry with his men, a tremendous shout that echoed the pain of trial and the joy of coming through it anyway. Schultz shouted and shouted, tears almost coming to his eyes at the revitalized memory of a long dead empire and he felt that in that moment those four men embodied his deepest held wish that he dared not share with anyone.
He would have to meet these men as soon as he could. Yes, soon indeed.
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The last Yabanchi was a Lurker trying to flee, but its retreat was cut short by a spear erupting from its chest and heaving it in the air. The tiny monster died instantly and was just as quickly cast back on the ground to join the rest of the now stilled Yabanchi. The only monster left standing kept looking around, red vision looking for more things to kill, but every enemy has been slain and there were none left to oppose it.
Liara’s senses came back to her and she fell to her knees amidst the carnage of her own making. No clawed hands reached forever or howls called for her blood, but she scuttled away from the bodies and hugged herself, shuddering and exhausted, she did not even have the strength left to stand.
[Liara, can you hear me?”] Pellas’ voice rang in her head and Liara looked around but did not see him.
“Pellas? Where are you?”
[I got dematerialized when that Kort overwhelmed you. I had thought it was the end, but my goodness, you killed them all!]
Liara had a hazy recollection of violent images, snarling faces, and blood, but she was blanking on the last twenty minutes of her life.
“How, how can I hear you if you’re dematerialized?”
There was a pause and Pellas replied. [I hope you do not mind, but I made an emergency purchase with all the points you were racking up. It cost five thousand points, but a two way telepathic upgrade is allowing us to talk right now.]
Liara used the upgrade for the first time with a psychic blast of surprise. [FIVE THOUSAND?!]
[Aaaaah, I am sorry, but you were worrying me with how you were behaving so violently. I had thought if I purchased the upgrade, then I could talk some sense to you, but you just kept killing and not answering.]
[I don’t remember you trying to talk to me.]
[I think it is that skill from your Dragoon class, bloodlust. Whatever is does, it massively boosted your stats, but the drawbacks are severe.]
[Can you show me my stats and notifications?]
[Of course, one moment. It may be more disorienting than usual.]
Liara had only a moment to wonder what that meant when her mind was blasted with dozens of kill and point notifications as well as her current stats. Pellas nervously laughed in her mind.
[Sorry, let me compile it for you.]
Liara (Dragoon)
Strength 12 (+3) Constitution 9 (-4) Reaction 13 (+3) Authority 11 Mana 0/830 (5 rpm)
Notifications
Gargoyles Slain (13) – 195 Points
Mylocks Slain (12) – 120 Points
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Screamers Slain (19) – 380 Points
Cadavers Slain (8) – 120 Points
Lurkers Slain (23) – 230 Points
Lurch Slain – 300 Points
Kort Slain – 5000 Points (Team Kill)
Super Heavy Yabanchi Quest (1/1) – 1000 Points
Weekly Kill Quest (102/100) – 1000 Points
The sheer number of points she had gotten from all the kills, let alone 5000 from the Kort, were astounding, but her stats were more than a little worrisome. From the pain ripping through her legs and arms, Liara could tell that she pushed her body past its normal limit, probably attributable to the temporary stat increase to strength and reaction, but the debuff to constitution was strange.
[What does the debuff to my constitution mean?]
[I was wondering that too, but I figured it out during your fighting. It went down by one every time you used up the equivalent of 200 mana through either your armor or attacks.]
So, that explained by Liara had been able to keep using mana abilities and remain shielded long after her pool had been drained. While pondering this, she tried walking back to the student barracks building, but her legs almost gave out from underneath her. A sweeping exhaustion had taken root in the deepest core of her muscles and now she paid the price for pushing herself unnaturally with her bloodlust ability.
[What happens if my constitution reaches zero?]
Pellas replied immediately and did not withhold the truth from her. [You would die.]
The smells reached her as she leaned on her spear like a support staff. Raw, blood and viscous gore from bellies torn open by her spear lent their butcher’s aroma to the air. She would have tried getting away from sickening scents, despite the pain and exhaustion racking her body, but her whole body was coated in blood. The very creases of her vambraces were already crusting with it and her boots squelched in something pulpy.
A Screamer’s face grinned at her, face frozen in a death rictus of pain and rage, and a brief flashback of her spear being driven through its belly burned in her mind. Liara looked away from it but saw a Gargoyle with its wings ripped off, a Lurker without legs, Cadavers shorn in two. Corpse among corpse, reminders of violent, vivid flashbacks of hate and a constant coppery taste running in her mouth.
”What have I become?” Neither Pellas nor anyone else answered her question, save for the dead around her who answered with words enough of their own.
Staggering back to her feet, Liara slowly made her way back to the Kort’s corpse, glad that at least this threat to the student body was dead. Yet said student body was gathered around the Kort, hundreds of the remaining students milled about or else stared at her. She stared back and they looked away, pretending not to notice her or just looking back at the fallen titan of faces and screams.
”Hey, hey, you!” Liara raised her voice at a Sophomore girl that had tried slowly edging away from her and made the student squeak in fear. “Where are the others?”Before she could get an answer, another girl screamed in terror and caught Liara’s attention.
The main bulk of the Kort trembled, though the now placid faces of the victims that covered its face were still slackened in visages of slumber. A single spot of the beasts body pulsated, in and out, like something was pushing on the other side, and with a sickening rip and ghastly tear, a mana sword burst from the inside-out and carved a hole for a blonde head to come pushing out. Belle Noblesse gasped for air and came the rest of the way out of the Kort’s body, followed soon after by Dr. Holzer.
”If I have to hear that golem croon about saving my life one more time, I’m going to scream,” Belle gagged, the smell of the dead Kort still overwhelmed her senses.
”Darling, please. I’m just happy that my quick deployment of the Iron Dome saved your life. Should I have let you die instead?” Cassandra came flowing out of the hole in the Kort and twirled so that specks of the gore stuck to her flew off.
Belle shook her head and replied, “If that’s the price for a moment of peace from your bragging, then so be it.”
“Belle.” Liara softly cried her school bully’s name, a person who just a few hours ago was the last person she would ever have wanted to see, but now the sight of her almost moved the white haired girl to tears.
Belle looked over the gathering students around her and stiffened when she saw Liara and the state she was in.
“Girl, tell me that isn’t your blood!”
“It isn’t, or at least most of it isn’t.” Liara blushed the same shade as the ichor covering her. “Besides, why are you worried about me? I’m not the one crawling out of a dead Yabanchi.”
”Dead being the key word. Belle slew the Kort just as planned.” Cassandra purred.
[What bunk! We helped slay that Kort too!]
Pushing past the other girls, Belle left Cassandra’s side and strode to Liara. She placed a hand on her arm and smiled, a real, genuine smile that measured the joy of someone who faced death and lived to appreciate life on the other side.
”Ignore the cat, because it wasn’t just me. Your plan worked, Liara! We couldn’t have done it without you!”
Other hands reached out and started patting Liara’s arm and back, though some hesitated due to the sticky blood covering her. A cheer went up, mostly they were shouting Belle’s name, but Liara’s was intermingled in there too. In the midst of everyone cheering her name, Liara felt like she was in another world, a crazy freak reality where people did not call her “Ghoul Girl” behind her back, but whispered hero when she passed by. Yet here it was, standing side by side with Belle Noblesse and being lauded by most of the school body. It was not a dream, she was really here.
There was just one person missing.
”Where’s Talia?”
Dr. Holzer’s smile froze on his face and his glance darted back toward the student barracks. Liara felt a chill jolt her spine and she forced her way past the other students so that she could get to the place she left Talia as soon as possible. When she got to the spot, there was only Dana Cole, still sleeping, but Talia was nowhere in sight.
”Talia!?”
Liara went in and out of the half destroyed building, but her stalwart friend did not answer. Dr. Holzer and Belle had run up, one looked guilty and the other confused.
“What’s wrong?”
“Talia should be right here, but I don’t see her!” A scratching feeling started trembling in Liara’s guts and tightening her chest. She had momentarily forgotten her exhaustion and kept looking for her friend.
Dr. Holzer looked down at the ground and mumbled something, but Belle gasped pointed at something behind Liara’s back. Liara followed her direction and felt a flood of relief and amazement simultaneously hit her.
Talia was exiting the ruins of the student barracks and walking right towards them.
Liara ran to Talia, heedless of the shouts behind her or in her aching muscles. With a bound she grabbed Talia and lifted her into a bear hug, though the girl felt heavier than usual, Liara was just so happy in that moment that she did not notice.
No, such was her joy in that moment that Liara did not notice a lot of things.
Talia was covered in blood, from head to toe, and she walked with a stiff and uneven gait. Her face was a blank mask that held no emotion to speak of and she did not reply when Liara asked if she had been chosen to be a Magical Girl too.
Instead, Talia wrapped her hands around Liara and began to strangle her former friend. The shock from this stunned Liara, from the force of the grip cutting off the air to her lungs and the fact that it was her best friend doing it. She did not resist the iron grip hands from squeezing tighter and let her exhausted leg muscles finally rest by collapsing to her knees.
Her vision started to fail her next and tunnel into darkness. Screams in the distance hollowed into shrill cries in the background and before unconsciousness took her, Liara finally noticed.
She looked into Talia’s eyes and saw that they were not their normal green. The darkness took her, but those eyes followed her and stared into her dreams.
Unblinking eyes of gray.