The inside of the emergency stairwell was clear, Pellas and Liara made sure of that before the Magical Girl stepped inside. She wanted to learn from her past mistakes as well as prevent new ones, so she checked every corner of the flight of stairs as she ascended, shield raised, and spear tip forward.
It was a natural combination, of spear and shield, like a hoplite of ancient wars, and though she had never wielded either of them before, it felt natural to handle them such. Pellas noticed this too and whispered in her mind.
[I think it has to do with your class, though it does not appear on your stats. Many classes have an affinity toward weapon types and bestow ingrained experience with them. Perhaps the Queen chose to make you a Dragoon since you had a spear.]
If that was the reason why, then the Queen was just as pragmatic as the system she ruled over, but Liara felt there was another reason. She did not know much about the Dragoon class, Pellas did not either, but what it induced in her was not unfamiliar. Rather, she felt like herself amplified, still the same shy girl who would get bullied, but now she had an outlet for the feelings inside her.
Rage and dissatisfaction. She was too impotent to change the circumstances around her and too cowardly to try. Even with all the tools granted to her as a Magical Girl, it still felt like she was being dragged along like a log in a river, railroaded on some story whose end she did not know, but at least she could vent her frustrations into the flesh of the Yabanchi and protect those that she could in the process.
Liara's precaution paid off since she peeked around the stairwell corner to the third floor and saw a Yabanchi sitting there. It was facing away from them and staring at an open door to the third floor. It was the entrance to Madam Anatova’s office area, but the Gargoyle was not going through it. Liara was not sure what it was doing, but she considered her options.
She could always rush up behind the Gargoyle and jam it in the back, but blasting it with a pulse of mana seemed satisfying too, especially with the Destroyer core upgrade she added to the spear. With the core she went back and harvested from the downed cyborg, Pellas had increased the damage output that a blast inflicted. Of course, it increased the cost from 15 to 25 mana, but Liara thought the price increase was worth it for the nearly double damage to the enemy it afforded.
Her mind was settled and she aimed the tip of the spear at the unaware Yabanchi. With the press of a small stud, a pulse of pressurized air screamed through the air. Liara almost dropped her weapons it was so loud and deafening in the close confines of the echo chamber stairwell. The Gargoyle jumped too when it heard the noise, but too late. The thin membranes of its back wings ripped apart and its lungs were crushed by the impact of the mana blast. It would have been blown through the open doorway and into the president’s office area, but as its body was propelled forward, it hit an invisible wall and stopped.
Liara's ears rang from the percussion of her poorly planned attack, but she was still able to hear. A howl rose from the bottom floor and another joined it. In seconds the stairwell was no longer ringing with the sound of her attack but was replaced by Yabanchi roaring in anticipation. The horde of monsters on the first floor heard her and they were coming. She darted forward, over the Gargoyle, and tried going through the doorway too, but it was as impassable for her as it was the Yabanchi corpse, like a solid presence she could not see.
The tip of her spear did not manage much better than the pounding of her fists, so Liara turned back toward the yawning mouth of the stairwell and the sounds of incoming Yabanchi.
“Pellas, I could really use ideas now!”
For his part, her golem floated to the empty space and went right through with no problem. Liara gave him a shocked glance, but Pellas did not make any quips this time.
“I think I know what’s happening, Liara, just hold on, I’ll be right back!” The golem took off before she could protest and went deeper into the office area, out of sight.
Liara was left alone in the stairwell. Mostly alone.
A Yabanchi came from higher up the stairwell first, rather than below her. It was a diminutive Lurker that slinked around the corner and jumped at her from its higher vantage point. The foolish beast had no chance as Liara let it skewer its tiny body on the end of her spear. It was still squirming when she brushed it off her spear with her shield and let it tumble down the stairsteps. She took up her guard stance again and waited for the next, though she kept backing up against the invisible barrier, hoping it would fall.
The first Yabanchi from the bottom floor bounded around the corner, a dumb Screamer, and it did not hesitate to heft its mass up the stairwell to lunge with its muscular bulk. Its effort was met with the tip of a spear point into one of its globular red eyes. The spear did not get stuck, but effortlessly slid out and let the dead Yabanchi fall back to whence it came. The tumbling corpses of the Lurker and the Screamer made the Yabanchi filling up behind it pause for a moment to stare up at Liara.
There was no malice in those gazes. Mylocks, Gargoyles, and Screamers alike were filling in the stairwell beneath her, and waiting. It was like looking into the eyes of hungry animals, driven by instinct to feed, not hate. Liara did not understand these beasts, for hate came naturally to humanity as breathing, so she screamed a challenge to the paused horrors.
“Well, what are you waiting for?”
A hiss answered her question, along with the thud of feet coming down the stairs from where the Lurker had jumped at her. The owner of those footsteps came around the corner and Liara's breath caught at the sight of this new horror.
If the tall, white torso was not missing a head, the Yabanchi would have had to bend down in the ten-foot height of the corridor. A man’s naked torso met long trunks of legs and instead of two arms, the creature had two tentacles slithering from its shoulders. A multitude of pale eyes opened on its chest and settled on Liara with eerie calm.
Before she could react, one of those tentacles whipped out and struck Liara’s shoulder. The mana pool dipped immediately into the danger zone while alarms blared in her ears. The Yabanchi below howled, their champion having entered the scene, and they scrambled over the dead toward Liara in a pincer attack that would crush her between attacks from above and below.
[Liara! Get in!]
It was Liara’s panic, rather than any quick thinking on her part that had her back into the office area, the barrier now gone. She went in so quickly that she stumbled and fell on her rear end. A Screamer that was at the front of the pack came over the lip of the final stair and went through the doorway, but its lunge was cut off midway. The barrier had come back and the Yabanchi was stuck in mid-air so that it could only scratch at her direction in futility.
Liara stood up, shield and spear raised, and checked behind the Screamer. The rest of the Yabanchi had come up behind it and were pounding on the invisible barrier with no effect other than hurting the Screamer stuck in it. The claws and teeth of the other frustrated Yabanchi tore into the back of the stuck Screamer and it started howling in pain. She hated the beast for what they were and what they’d done, but pity guided Liara's spear into the dying monster's throat, ending its misery. With it dead, the other Yabanchi kept clawing at its corpse and the barrier in singleminded pursuit, all except one. The tall, whip-armed Yabanchi stared at Liara for another moment and then shifted its gaze to the wall next to the doorway. It began to strike that section of the wall and break splinters of concrete with each blow, the other Yabanchi saw this and edged away from their efforts to wait. Liara did not know how long the wall would withstand the brutal strikes of the creature, but she hoped it would be long enough.
Pellas floated from the interior of the offices and joined her. He glanced at the Yabanchi whipping at the wall and shook his head.
“A Lurch?! I’m so glad you’re not seriously hurt.”
The way that Pellas spoke sounded rushed and distracted, not his usual flair, so Liara asked, “I assume you got the barrier to drop? I know that’s not the standard barrier system the school uses. What’s happening?”
“It is not. Madam Anatova is erecting that particular barrier.”
“She’s alive? That’s great news!” Liara started heading toward the president’s office, but Pellas’ glum response stopped her in her tracks.
“It’s not.”
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A person or place can be built up inside someone's mind to a level of inflation that is far beyond reality. By historians, there are kings called great and their empires are considered vast, largely because the scope of mundane in between was never seen or recorded, only the bits worth remembering. Liara had built Madam Anatova up in her mind as some great pinnacle of Magical Girl exceptionalism, having only seen her afar off in speeches or battle recordings. When she saw her up close for the first time in her office, she was surprised that the same woman could look so tired.
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Anatova was not regally sitting in her chair, expecting a beseeching audience, but slumped on the floor, dark black hair framed purple eyes that had bags hanging off of them. When Liara approached her, the powerful woman did not even lift her head to look her in the eyes. Perhaps the biggest reason for Anatova’s current state was the man and the Yabanchi in front of her, frozen in stasis. The man was Mr. Penn, the third paladin instructor, and the Yabanchi was a type she had never seen before. It was a bulbous, cybernetic blob that had to be carried by four large spider legs underneath it. There were no eyes, arms, or weapons that Liara could see on the creature, it looked defenseless, especially as it was stuck in place with Paladin Penn's sword being driven through the center of its pink mass.
“It’s a Suicide Bomber,” Anatova mumbled, “It doesn’t have a nervous system, so it waltzed right past the standard shelter barrier system and into my office. Penn here didn’t recognize it and stabbed it before I could stop him.”
“I don’t understand,” Liara looked back and forth between the paladin and the Yabanchi bomber. “If Mr. Penn was killing it, why did you freeze him too?”
“Because if I didn’t, then half this building would have been demolished by the Bomber’s blast. I was so surprised by the thing that the hasty barrier I erected around it caught Penn too. If I released him, then I’d release the Bomber…”
“And the blast would kill you both.” Pellas finished Madam Anatova’s thought, to which the president silently nodded.
“Madam Anatova, I’m sorry to hear that,” Liara began, “but the barrier systems at the other shelters are not working. We don’t know if it’s a problem with the school generators or what, but we need your help, you’re the barrier shield class specialist that Ms. Stark said could help us, plus with your strength we could probably fight the Yabanchi together.”
“Karen is alive,” that thought seemed to bring a small smile to the president’s face, but that was quickly cut off by her golem’s voice.
“I told you it would have systemic ramifications. You insisted it wouldn’t, but I told you.”
Anatova glared at a tripod golem that was stalking out from underneath her desk. It was a silly-looking thing by its spherical body being supported by three legs, but that silliness was undercut by the furious look in its eye.
“No. I will not speak to you telepathically. Use your words so the girl and her golem can know the truth too.”
“Ah, Vendeer, uh, is there something we should know?” Pellas asked, obviously familiar with his fellow golem. Anatova’s golem looked at his mistress and the high-ranked Magical Girl looked like she was about to cry on top of the fatigue that was bringing her down.
“What did you do?” Pellas picked up on the tension and his eye flashed red.
“It was an accident,” Anatova said, her words choked a little in her throat, but she kept speaking, “I didn’t have enough mana to continuously contain the Yabanchi’s blast on my own, so I tapped into the shelter’s generator network with Vendeer’s help.”
It clicked for Liara, the lack of power to the school shelter system, Dana saying that something was dragging against her barrier, and Madam Anatova’s admittance. It was broken here, by the one person who was supposed to protect the school.
"But why?" Liara had found a chair, a lavish and well-upholstered piece that went with the gaudy office, she needed it lest her feet come out from under her. "People died without the shelter system, so why?"
“I didn’t know,” Anatova said again, the tears flowed freely now, so Vandeer stepped beside her. Despite how angry he had seemed with her, the golem still laid a comforting arm on his Magical Girl partner of many decades.
“The barrier fields Ana erects are so powerful that I can’t get accurate readings on the shelter network, so when we realized that this building’s shelter was offline, it was too late for us to do anything.”
“I heard them. They were screaming for me.” Anatova whispered.
“And you let them die? You actually knew people were dying in this very building and you kept draining the system.” Liara’s hand felt hot, but she did not strike the woman in front of her.
“So why do you not just leave the building and drop the barrier around the Bomber? Will that restore the system?” Pellas asked Vandeer, but Anatova shouted the answer.
“No! I can’t, I can’t just leave him here!”
Despite the numbing outrage that Liara was barely keeping from lashing out, a part of her winced and empathized with Anatova’s dilemma. Mr. Penn was the president’s paladin and though they were not officially married, it was no big secret that she was always on his arm whenever the school had its graduation ball every year. If Anatova dropped the barrier, in either escaping or trying to restore the school shelter system, then her paladin paramour would surely die in the ensuing explosion.
“He’s dead, Ana. I can’t think of any consumable or ability that would be quick or powerful enough to stop that explosion from instantly obliterating him.”
“Surely command can send help.”
“No, Pellas, they can’t. Even with my advanced communication suite, getting messages in or out was difficult, but one message was able to make it. They’re stretched hitting targets in the capitol and informed us that several students had become Magical Girls. They think that’s enough given the low threat level in the local area, but all my attempts to reach back haven’t made it through. We’re on our own.”
“You have to get the other students out of here, Liara.” Madam Anatova stopped her crying and fixed Liara with a focused gaze. She had not even known that the president was aware of her name, but now the roles were reversed and the older Magical Girl was looking to her like she was some kind of salvation. “Get them off campus while you can.”
"What does that even mean?" Liara's patience was being thinned with the number of authority figures failing her in one day. These people were supposed to be protecting and serving the students, but now the students were supposed to be serving them?
Vandeer answered, “Command’s satellite sensors can’t reach underground as well as my upgraded ones can. You probably felt that shaking earlier too, but it was no earthquake. It was a Kort.”
“Oh ME-GO.” Pellas blurted, “Are you sure?”
“Positive. It’s heading straight here. If it does, everyone on campus will die, barrier system or not.”
Madam Anatova started blabbering, "See, it's not my fault, it was coming anyway and we'd all die anyway, so it's not my fault, so don't be mad at me, I'm just doing what I can, it's not my fault, so-“
“Shut up,” Liara stood up from the chair and loomed over Anatova, “It’s absolutely your fault, so shut up right now or I’ll make you shut up.”
[Uh, I feel mad too, Liara, but I think knocking the president out would lower the barrier stopping the explosion that would kill us all.]
She was not actually about to slug the president, but she certainly wanted to. Instead, Liara sought the place she went to whenever she had these same feelings of rage and helplessness and put it on like a mask. With only her red eye balefully glaring down at the pathetic president, Liara told the others, “We’re leaving. You can come with us if you want, but I’d just as soon as leave you here for what you’ve done.”
“Liara! That is not Magical Girl behavior!” Pellas jumped in the air and hovered by her.
“Neither is sacrificing the entire student body just so you can keep your boyfriend alive a little longer,” Liara replied.
“Go on without me.” Anatova went back to looking at the floor, “I’ve already made my choice.”
“I’m kind of stuck here too,” Vandeer said and clambered onto a desk. “Unfortunately, I don’t see how you two will get out though.”
“We’ll go the way we came.”
"That place is crawling with Yabanchi, girl, and even with all that low-tier equipment on you, I think you'd have a hard time with them."
“I can get you out of here,” Madam Anatova stood up, a fire had been lit in her eyes that had not been there before. She smiled like she had heard the funniest joke in the world and pointed toward her window, “Just jump through there and I’ll cushion your landing.”
Vandeer scuttled onto her shoulder and she stared at him, obviously listening to his telepathic words. She replied out loud, “I appreciate your concern, but I think I can handle it.”
“Hold on,” Pellas growled, “You gave me a hard time when I asked you to drop the barrier earlier. You said you can not be sure if you have the strength to make a new one if you did. Now you can all of a sudden?”
“Yes.”
Liara grabbed a bust of a Magical Girl from off of Anatova’s desk and cast it at the window. The tinted glass shattered and an opening was made for their escape. While Pellas was protesting that it was a bad idea to go jumping out of windows, Liara turned and looked one last time at the academy president.
“You know this does not make up for what you did.”
Anatova smiled, the look on her face was like she was in another world now, the sins crawling on her back forgotten in the glint of insanity. “What would you do for love, Liara?”
Without another word, Liara jumped from the third floor of the admin building and plummeted toward the ground below. As the soil came up to meet her, it felt like the velocity of her fall slowed considerably, so much so that when she made impact it felt like she had only rolled off her bed. Pellas had floated down and joined her, the way he stared made his disapproval of her callousness especially evident, but Liara did not care about her golem’s opinion at the moment and only wanted to get back to her friends and save whoever she could. Her sprint back to the academy student barracks was interrupted by only one thing.
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When the girl jumped, Anatova had to drop the barrier to the stairwell temporarily to gain the strength to slow her fall as promised. When she did that, the Yabanchi waiting outside of the barrier poured inside her outer office area and made a straight line toward her. Anatova held up a hand and tried to make another barrier between her and them, but her efforts were met with the draining uselessness of having pushed her body and mana pool too far and too thin. She was not able to recreate another one.
The first Yabanchi to reach her was a Gargoyle. It tackled her to the ground and started savaging at her shoulder with its razor-thin teeth, then a Screamer came and viciously yanked tufts of hair while looking for her neck, and yet more Yabanchi streamed in and tried to find an exposed piece of the president to gnaw, tear, and rip. Still, despite the red waves of pain from her body being eaten alive, Anatova’s high constitution stat kept her alive and conscious, despite the multitude of wounds.
The Yabanchi stopped their cruel efforts and made a wide space when the tentacle-armed Lurch approached her. It looked down on her, impassive, and raised a trunk-like foot over her face. Anatova was not looking at the Lurch or paying any mind to the pain singing in her body, she stared at the face of the man she loved and wept that they could not have spent more time together. He had proposed to her so many times in the span of their decades. First at the academy when she was still a student, then after their first mission together under the shining stars of a wild world, and over and over again in an attempt to what he thought was to gain her heart. She never married him for appearance's sake, a noble marrying a commoner such as him was a step too far, but she wanted to tell him one more time like she did after every proposal.
“My heart is already yours.” The Lurch’s foot came down.
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The explosion from the admin building was far enough that Liara did not catch any dangerous fragments or shockwaves, but it was close enough to make her jump in surprise and dive for cover. When she and Pellas looked back, there was not much to see. Only a burned-out hole where Madam Anatova’s office used to be and the place where Liara had hoped to find the students' salvation remained. Both were gone, president and hope, up in the smoke of fiery dissolution, and Liara was again on her own to find a way out of the doom that human hands had created.