“You shouldn’t do this. The risk for you outweighs any possible benefit.” I said, following the girl through the corridors that were Skull Beach. “Even if you’re a civilian, I doubt High Command would have any issue throwing you into the desert.”
Faylin gave an almost boastful cheer. “Don’t forget I’m from the Tribe of Meridional Wanderers, the Chief’s very own daughter! A small trek across the desert is no problem at all for me!”
“…somehow I think the Commander would have even less mercy on a child like that.”
“Err…right.” I could see a small shiver run up her spine as she grabbed her shoulders. “I don’tknow how you or Miss Lia manageto talk to her…she’s as scaryas mama was the time I went scavenging on my own……”
Her words melded together again, and I couldn’t help but smile. Even in the worst possible situation she can be like this…or maybe she gets this way because it’s a worst case scenario.
“W-What? She really was scary!”
“Nothing.” I said, waving aside her concern as we approached the hangar. “But that brings up a good point: what did she want to talk to you about exactly?”
We stopped just outside one of the hangar doors. From here we saw Annika’s bro-bots littering the floor and ceiling as they went to and fro; transporting parts, welding metal, fitting equipment, and most especially making repairs to the damaged defense system. If I hadn’t known it to be courtesy from a certain Spirit of Fire I would have mistaken the scale of the repairs for an expansion to the Redoubt.
“You mean when Ifnielis attacked and she ordered you to go with the lady with long black hair?”
I nodded. “She said she had questions for you. Seeing as how you’re still here, your reasoning must’ve been enough to convince her.”
“I only told her what I’m telling you— the truth. That I came all this way, crossed an entire ocean, to help Skull Beach Redoubt.”she said, seeing Annika at her work station. “It’s taken three years…but I think I can finally help.”
“You said you’d deploy me but haven’t mentioned how.”
She turned to me, a face becoming more and more familiar. She had more freckles than Lia, but her hair was also a shade darker; a heavy shade of orange like an eventide sun.
“It would be simpler and not to mention quicker to show you. The chaos in the hangar gives us a little cover, but as we speak there are Resonators just like Miss Lia in trouble. Mister Anon……if I do this for you…can you— will you— help them?” Her tone was heavy laden; maybe it’s something ingrained in their culture that one should help others. Not just Lia, but this little girl embodies it too.
But I could tell— she wasn’t asking if I had the physical ability to help, though I had doubts about that of myself, but more so whether I had the resolution to do so.
An imposed, meaningful life; or a chosen, fruitless one.
For some reason I thought back to Hanna’s words when I first arrived here— to take what pride in this mantle that I can, especially when the other option is “or death”. But I’ve never been one to have pride in myself.
And considering what I just saw of Lia…it seemed even harder to do.
“Faylin…I’m not a hero. To be completely honest with you, I don’t think I ever could be in the first place…but,” I interjected when her forehead had started to become downtrodden, “I don’t think I need to be one to help.” I pondered for a minute before putting my hand on the top of her head. I tried for the most optimistic smile I could, and to my genuine surprise once more in this world forsaken by sense, I found that for one moment, I truly felt as I looked.
“But if I had to say, I think I’d make for a pretty cool side character— the kind some people like cause he butts in right when the hero needs it!”
Her freckles made the expressions of her face all the more animated, going from shock to joy before settling on trying her best to stifle a laugh.
“Ehi…ehihihi! I-I think I know why Miss Lia likes you so much now, Mister Anon!”
I took my hand off her bright rust-colored hair. “That’s what I was— wait, sorry?”
“Stick close to me until I give the signal! And don’t worry about Annika or Miss Lia, I’ll take good care of them until you and Miss Hanna come back.”
I wanted to ask about how she knew Hanna, and her previous comment, until noticing she didn’t add “Miss” in front of Annika’s name. The poor engineer really didn't get the respect she deserves.
Faylin hurriedly turned around, walking with strides much longer than her tiny legs would suggest. Following close behind, it wasn’t long until we approached a waist-high column I recognized as a launching pedestal; while Annika could deploy someone from her workstation, the rostrums placed in front of each of the launching platforms were also capable of deploying the Slayer on that respective platform.
Even stood silent yet grandiose before us, surrounded by three slate gray walls, waiting for them to come down so he could fulfill his purpose.
“M-Mister Anon, this is your Slayer…?”
“He doesn't stand out as much as some of the others, but he’s mine. His name is Even.”
“‘Even,’ as in ‘through trials and tribulations’? Even……what a steadfast name. But to be truthful Mister Anon he feels…”
“Faylin, sorry to interrupt but some of the MPs are eyeing us; whatever you’re going to do do it fast.”
“Y-Yes, ofcourse!” she put a hand over her heart, taking a deep breath before outstretching both palms over the console. In a moment’s notice the screen shifted from black to displaying code and signatures beyond what I could even hope to recognize. What's more…
“Faylin, your eyes…!”
Outlines in the shape of petals spread from the center of her pupils, growing and weaving together to form a flower-esque shape within her pink irises. With my improved vision I could see the lines surrounding her irises were made of thousands of fractionally tiny symbols, each tracing along the shape of the flower until reaching the pupil at which point they’d pop back out.
Like blood flowing through the center of a heart.
“Faylin…you have abilities?”
“A……tec-h…no..path!” she uttered, sweat beading down her forehead. “I lear.ned…fr-om sca-ve-n.ging!” As she spoke, my ears picked up the sound of an approaching figure, and turning around I saw Skull Beach and the ESDF's Head Engineer making a beeline toward us. If her timing wasn’t so horrid I could almost laugh at the fact she’s faster than the MPs when it comes to something going wrong within her hangar. Her domain.
“E-Excuse me Anon, young little girl!” I turned toward the familiar voice. “Something seems to be wrong with the launching pedestal so……W-WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?”
MPs immediately picked up on her shout, wasting no time in hurrying toward our direction.
“Annika! I know you’re under orders, but just put all the blame on m—!”
She grabbed Faylin by the shoulders, looking over her. “I’ve never seen a method like this of bypassing a security system!” she admired, almost drooling on the young girl’s arm. “At a glance it’s like…like you’re moving through a labyrinth of code but breaking through it at the same time, only to replace the labyrinth walls with a simpler route?! Did you learn this from scavenging old world relics?! Say, little girl, say!”
“Annika, just—!”
“D-Done! Mister Anon hurry!”
“HOLD IT!”
Men holding rifles quickly closed in until just a few feet away from us.
“No! Do NOT hurt this little girl!” screamed the lone and overworked technician as she shielded the girl that just breached Skull Beach’s security. “I’ve finally found someone to recruit into the engineering corp!”
“MisterAnon this system will rework itself into lockdownagain so go! I told you I’d deploy you, so show me MissLia didn’t make a mistake when shetold me you were a kind person!”
If I only had the power to stop time. Or, better yet, if only this were a dream.
But since my arrival I’ve not awoken, and that can only mean all this has really happened. If what Faylin said was true, then I have a lot of conversations to catch up on, especially with Lia. So I need to survive until then.
“Hesitation will mean death.” Chelsea told me during our brief training after Ifnielis’ attack. And seeing Annika bravely, or idiotically, shield a girl with barrels pointed straight at her, I was comforted by the thought she was far, far less expandable then myself. I was a cog, but she maintained the machine.
“I’m the one you should aim for!” I said, picking up some cold slag off the hangar floor and hurling it at one of the MPs. “You have orders from the Commander herself to stop me!”
“Halt—HALT!” he shouted before understanding it wasn’t going to work. “Tch, aim for his legs! Fire!”
I activated my Aegis, feeling the storm of bullets ricochet off the shield as I ran onto the platform that lifted me into my Slayer. The walls opened behind me as the familiar sound of pressurization filled my ears. Last time I went to the field I returned unconscious, broken, and near dead in a coma for three days. Last time I was in my Slayer I remember I thought that I could fight against a death deemed fate— that I had to. I remember the pain I felt when I collided against the Behemoth to help Chelsea…my attempt at becoming someone else in this new world. A better version of the me that already existed.
The me that didn’t pursue anything beyond what was thrust upon me. Or the me who pursued nothing at all.
Those two scenarios have always appeared in my life, and I know myself better than anyone…so if I could do it once, could I again? If the need arises, will I choose to kill myself for no purpose at all?
Chelsea’s words, when I saw her again after waking from my coma, came to mind. The fact that my intervention is what let her survive.
“…show me Miss Lia didn’t make a mistake when she told me you were a kind person!”
I almost laughed; I hated being selfless, because selflessness is inconvenient. It hurts. And yet, against the Behemoth, I chose to die. Maybe it was because I was under Chelsea’s influence at the time, but it was still a hypocritical choice of the adult me…but not of the child who wanted to be a space hero.
Now here I was, having been granted my prayer, surviving thus far, and feigning selflessness, all to tell a little girl that maybe, just maybe, the best version of myself I could offer was not that of a hero like I dreamed. But that of a side character who’s no better than a cog in the machine. A hero isn’t someone who arrives fashionably late, but who would sacrifice the only thing he has to offer for the greater, or in my case greatest, good. And sacrifice it with purpose.
So if I die, that’s worth something, isn’t it?
…even if I’m forgotten?
Maybe that kind of thinking was sophistry…but maybe it also meant my role wasn’t a suicidal one after all.
“Selflessness and suicide are a needle thin line apart, you know.” Hanna had told me. “What good is there in saving another person if you die as a result?”
“Anon.” spoke the Commander in my ear. “I assume you understand that your court martial will be a mere step beneath termination?”
“To be honest Commander………I think I am starting to understand.”
“Is that so?…” she said in a contemplative purr. A voice much like the one she used when she saw Ifnielis. “Then, may your rain bring life upon the flowers of the earth.”
I gave a wry smile; had Lia not told me this world’s adage about Resonators I wouldn’t have understood the meaning of her words. Understood that I’m expected to dissipate after the rain. Maybe that would be the case but I couldn’t allow it to happen, not yet. Because I had a final choice to make about this world— about myself.
Give up on a life thrust upon me, or accept it. Both will likely kill me…but only one would let me talk to those I’ve come to bond with in this world.
The coordinates were input into Even, and the now somewhat familiar sensation of flying overtook me as I soared into the horizon. Soared towards the one other person who had been on my mind while I sat in the Redoubt.
“Please wait for me.” I silently pleaded. “Don’t get carried away and kill yourself Hanna!”
----------------------------------------
The sword plunged into the blackened eye, but the blackness absorbed it; like tar given life it devoured the blade, nearly swallowing Senpai in the process as well. Fuzzy, jelly-like flesh crawled up his feet before he ripped himself free, leaping off the beast and plummeting backwards into a freefall. Air whistled past his mecha as his eyes showed him the future— the blade regurgitated from the Outsider’s pupil, flying toward him at twice the speed with which he stabbed it. With precise timing, he caught the handle of the blade in midair, but the momentum propelled him to the desert where he adjusted his fall to land on the most armored parts of his Slayer.
A small crater formed around his mecha as he rose, unharmed, but feeling a weight rest against his mechanical foot. A corpse— piles and parts of them, falling into the crater.
Corpses of both Outsiders, and of Slayers.
“It just…sent the sword back at him.” quivered an awestruck Brin. “It sent it back I…I don’t understand.”
“‘The King Mirror,’ he doesn’t have that title for nothing. Seems he can both imitate and reflect attacks.”
“Then why not do so with my spear or Chelsea’s blade?” enunciated the girl also observing the battle.
The two Colossus Slayers were barely holding their own against the Endbringer their size; Senpai’s mere minute on the battlefield already allotted them more time than the two of them together could have brought naturally. His otherworldly speed and precision making his way toward the eye had cut down the tendrils that had wrapped themselves around Heinrich’s Slayer, freeing up his joints and arms to try and contain the Endbringer once more. The other Slayers of both Skull Beach and Spire Garden were quickly disposing of the Outsiders on the ground, but Tezcacoatl still had a manifold of tendrils sprouting disgustingly from the limbs of the five remaining mirrors.
The discordance of voices echoed in each of the four Resonators’ radios; the only clear message or indication occurring when a caterwaul overpowered every other voice, letting them know someone had either been maimed or cried their last breath.
“…I don’t care what the reason is.” said a pink and blue mecha, marching towards the injured mirror absorbing what little flames were left. From a distance they saw other Resonators trying to close enough distance to finish severing it only to fall to the Clairvoyant and Prescient attacks. “The only way to know is by cutting down that mirror!”
“Don’t be reckless Hanna!”
“I know exactly what I’m doing!” she spat. “You, Rojin. If you can still fight then help me finish chopping that limb off.”
“And pray tell, how should we do so?”
“Senpai.” spoke Hanna into her radio. She’d created a separate channel consisting of herself, the three with her, as well as Jericho and the one called Pendulum. “Rojin and I are gonna finish severing that mirror, you and the others overwhelm it so we can get close.”
“A rather foolish plan.” strained the still unfamiliar, female voice. The Captain of Spire Garden. “Considering our forces and its Prescience we should aim directly for a kill instead of cutting off a mere mirror.”
“That mirror carries Rojin’s most powerful attack!” An enervated, male voice. Desert Oasis’ Captain. “And assuming the eye is a vital point there must be a reason Senpai’s attack didn’t work!”
“Enough! Brin, take Chelsea to Desert Oasis; Rojin, we’re going!”
“If what Jericho spoke of is true then I and the girl are needed here! Our weapons are the ones that can—”
“Resonance.” said a voice that had them each stop dead.
A frightening vibration, like an earthquake traveling via air, erupted from Tezcacoatl. The two Colossal Slayers each held within their grasp a mirror that had begun incinerating their armor. Flames traveled up their arms before a small, white Slayer carved deep wounds into the flesh from which the mirrors sprouted, allowing the Colossi to escape; severely damaged but free once more.
“Senpai…what do you mean?”
“Your sword. The spear. They are imbued with Resonance deeper than my own weapon. I feel it. Surely, the girl must have too.”
The vibration continued as Senpai climbed up one of the limbs holding a mirror, narrowly maneuvered through a labyrinth of flesh and tendrils using his Flight system as support for his ascension. They watched as the pupil followed him, screeching in vibrations before he jumped into the air, a silver light glistening like a star in the pale rays of the barely rising sun.
“Bear witness.”
A flash of silver, an attack so quick that not even Chelsea could perceive it with her Prescience or real time senses. But she did perceive its scream— its name, once more— vivid in her mind. Surely…the others must have seen it as well?
“D-Did he do it?! Did Senpai—!”
“No…”
The thin ray of silver light vanished, revealing a further wounded, but still unsevered limb. One could see the strands holding it in place, but they appeared less strands and more…hexagons. Muscles, in the form of its body, the fibers were made of shapes instead of lines.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
It looked wrong. Wrong, in every aspect of the word.
It was something that didn’t make any sense. And yet…
“…I understand.” voiced Jericho in silence that seemed almost like awe. The sounds of battle in the background never ceased, but in sheer epiphany Jericho spoke over it. “Rojin and Chelsea’s weapons are extensions of their Slayers, and by definition, of their person. Their connection to the Resonance.”
Hanna’s eyes went wide, and she could tell the others caught on as well.
“Therefore it can ignore attacks with no Resonance, redirect those with little, and will be damaged by large quantities of it.” added Pendulum. “……meaning our abilities given to us by the Resonance would also be the most effective way to damage it.”
Their realization was cut short by a multitude of tendrils rising and incinerating the earth beneath them. With no warning, the horde of appendages broke through the surface as Hanna tackled Chelsea out of the way and Brin retreated alongside Rojin, who cheered gleefully and without shame. “My lovely Havîn has never let me down before— we are now equipped to kill the Endbringer!”
“B-But it can still absorb our attacks! If we use our abilities, it'll only add more tools for it to use!”
“Like we have any fucking choice! Rojin, distract it!”
As the bellicose Resonator followed her order, Hanna aimed her sword right where the Endbringer concentrated its healing— the nearly severed mirror. Wind howled as the normal, glistening blade embedded itself within the hexagonal muscle fibers, slowly devoured by it like flesh healing over shrapnel.
“Hanna…” uttered her former teacher, standing with difficulty. “You shouldn’t—”
“I get it.” she interrupted. “Anger is the first thing that’ll get you killed if you let it overtake you in battle. I remember.”
Rojin gleefully mowed down the unending tendrils, saving not just Hanna and Chelsea, but other Resonators in the process— whether intentionally or not. Brin had retreated next to the two, standing a ways behind them.
“But these things…these fucking things are the reason we’re here. And now that one is right in front of me!……call it tunnel vision.” she said, staring at the Endbringer. “But I’ve had two years to learn where to direct my anger.”
She raised her arm, warning Rojin to return. “Hell’s Belle specialization, Directed Blast!”
The just-visible handle of the sword glowed brilliantly. It seemed Rojin’s distraction did the trick, because enough flesh had healed over the sword that Tezcacoatl now had to reach within its own body to dig out what was the human equivalent of a splinter. It saw what was to come— exactly what the girl full of wrath had wanted.
“Stand back from that mirror! Concussive Flames— MAXIMUM OUTPUT!”
Hanna’s yield of the explosion was so great, so forceful but sudden that it inadvertently blasted away pieces of armor belonging to Spiral Garden’s Colossus Slayer, the one called Aster. But the detonation had done its job, demolishing chunks of hexagonal flesh from the newly healed limb and watering the earth with its lilac blood.
The momentary shift in focus was palpable: Hanna’s explosion was a signal flare. A banner. A rallying cry.
“Code Zero Pendulum to all Redoubts!” commanded Spire Garden’s captain. “We now have confirmation that the Endbringer is weak against direct Resonance attacks! I repeat, it will copy your ability but it is also the most effective method of attack! All Resonators— full use of your abilities is granted!”
A multitude of voices came via radio as confused optimism filled the field of battle. Suddenly, tendrils were chopped down, Slayers were able to evade attacks with more ease, and though likely illusions or Conjurations, even more Slayers appeared out of thin air.
Vibrations, both physical and ethereal, surrounded the dawning field. Hanna could understand what Empathetic Connect must be like as, for a mere few seconds, there was a palpable shift in energy as Tezcacoatl wailed and Slayers tore through Outsider flesh.
For a mere few seconds.
Chaos ensued as multitudes of tendrils erupted from the ground in a forest of writhing trees, surrounding Tezcacoatl and setting themselves alight as they attacked any Slayer within their range. Smoke began to obscure the area in thick clusters once more as ignited tendrils surrounded the main body in a frighteningly large radius.
“Hah-ahahaha! We are finally able to use our abilities and the enemy obscures our vision once more!” said the war-crazed Rojin, landing next to Hanna only to be separated by flailing attacks once more.
“Stay alert! It’s making use of its Clairvoyance!” warned Chelsea as she used Chanteuse’s sheath to stand. “To all Redoubts: leave the severing of mirrors to our Colossi, Clairvoyant, and senior Resonators! All others, attack from a distance or retreat into Desert Oasis!”
“Brin, behind you!”
The Slayer clad in purple armor didn’t have time to turn around before Chelsea threw herself at her. From just a few meters away, Hanna saw Chelsea block the fiery strike to her shoulder with a sheathed blade, but she couldn't fight the weight behind it.
“Captain!” screamed Brin as their leader was tossed into the smoke. Without vision or thought they ran after her, finding her intact body a hundred feet away before a squirming tendril sprung from the brown smoke.
“S-STOP IT!”
“Get a grip!”
A familiar voice; Hanna cut through the tendril, scorching her armor in the process. Brin thought she must have found another weapon amongst the wreckage of the battlefield as she knelt down next to Skull Beach’s captain.
She could feel it within her— the lives that were lost. The fear they felt before dying…
“Get a grip, Brin!” repeated Hanna, grabbing the mecha and hauling her up. “I told you to take her back! Snap out of your fucking daze and haul your ass to the Redoubt!”
“N-No…no……I—!”
“I’m not asking!”
“NO!”
She pushed her senior away from her. Taking advantage of Hanna’s brief confusion to activate her Flight module, disappearing into the dust without so much as looking back. Disappearing in the direction the exact opposite of their enemy.
“Brin— BRIN!”
Static. The girl had cut her radio signal entirely.
“FUCK!” she screamed, grabbing her former teacher and lifting her up from the dirt. From her leg she unclasped a gun she’d found in the carnage, her old one having been destroyed in her earlier fight against Ifnielis.
“Chelsea, wake up!” she blared to the unconscious pilot. “Wake up already DAMN IT!”
The Slayer lurched to the side, unloading a whole magazine into a tendril and razing it down to its base. Her thoughts were running a mile a second, observing what little she could around her, feeling the changes and shifts in the air, drowning out everything that wasn’t the immediate danger. She had to escape this dust— otherwise she’d be buried in it.
“Gcht!……like hell I’m going down like that!” she screamed. A fiery tendril aimed itself right between herself and Chelsea, and had she not dropped her captain to draw her blade, her arm alongside the rest of Chelsea’s Slayer would have been completely destroyed. With newfound freedom of movement, she threw her weight into a vertical slash only to cut clean through dust. “An illusion…!”
Her balance was thrown off by her attack, and in a violent thrust she twisted her body to change her fall into momentum, severing a solidified, burning tendril that came at her from behind. “It didn’t work on me this time…but that doesn't make this any easier!” she said with clenched teeth. The ignited tentacle was much tougher than she had initially thought, and cutting through it, Hanna found her newfound blade liquified from the fires the appendage coated itself with.
She dropped the handle, looking at the thick dust around her. It only took a moment for her to understand— she was trapped. Between the true and false attacks, her lack of visibility, and her downed comrade, she was unable to move lest she choose to abandon Chelsea entirely.
“Shut up. And don’t you say another word to me about leaving.”
“…damn it.”
That damn redheaded idiot. Who in the hell does she think she is, nearly killing herself for Hanna’s sake?
Another tendril sprung up from beneath Chelsea, but having seen the ground crack it couldn't be an illusion, and she caught it before the appendage could gain any momentum. Struggling against its writhing, the heat from its flames quickly wore away at the paltry armor she had left, and with no other choice she snapped her fingers, a blast forming at the thinnest part of the tentacle.
It allowed her to escape, at the cost of blowing away the rest of her chest plating.
“……damn it…” she said, standing up and approaching Chelsea. Her eyes burned, her lungs were heavy— she had just escaped a cage made of fire only to be thrust into a battlefield full of it.
………no.
No, she wouldn’t allow herself to think like that; she still had to go back and chastise that ridiculous redhead, but—
“……use…it….”
—she looked down. Even as she knocked on death’s door, Chelsea still gripped tightly to the blood red sheath.
“…Chann.so-nier….”
Chelsea had clumsily flipped herself upright, holding the sheathed sword to Hanna. Her weapon, the only one of two that could openly injure the Endbringer, offered like a parting gift.
She hated it. She hated it so much she couldn’t bring herself to properly speak. She stood there for less than a handful of seconds, yet her mind stretched the moment out into entire minutes. Her eyes took in the sordid corpses of destroyed Slayers around them; surely, she thought, Chelsea must have noticed them too. Willing to become a part of them.
She hated it.
She hated it but understood— this was a necessity.
“…only for now.” she said, taking the heavy weapon. “I’ll take you up on your offer, but only for right now. This is your weapon, so you’d better get up by the time I’m done with these things Chelsea!”
She unsheathed the blade with an audible echo as a swarm of the King Mirror’s appendages aimed for the injured Hanna and Chelsea, fire and smoke trailing behind them. The weapon felt heavy, far heavier than anything else she'd used in combat. But there was a surge behind it she couldn't quite place.
“I’ve had enough of this—! ENOUGH OF YOU!” a horizontal slash, the blade cutting through multitudes of flesh that caused the incinerated tendrils to fall around them. Its weight was too unfamiliar for her, and by all accounts the strike shouldn't have landed, but it felt like the blade had more reach than it should.
She picked up her Captain, leaving the sheath behind as she used her Flight module to help her navigate through the dust and smoke. The Endbringer, however, knew exactly where she was with every step she took. And with every step, it chased her— knowing, somehow recognizing, the weapon and Resonator that removed one of its mirrors.
Her movements were erratic; both in evasion of the tendrils and because of the state she was in. Every swarm was cut down by the borrowed blade, but at the same time every attack wore her down even more. As if simply wielding Chelsea’s weapon took more out of her than she could spare. And as she tore through another avalanche of tendrils, she found her speed suddenly, significantly dropping. Looking beneath her, she cursed.
Mud. Under the weight of two Slayers, Hanna’s mecha quickly lost speed, becoming molasses atop epoxy. She tried boosting her Flight module to zero effect— not only was it damaged but she had all but run out of fuel. Her normal Flight system wasn’t meant to be used in fights in the first place, let alone going so long without replenishing fuel.
“…you did this.” she said, dropping Chelsea in order to stop a flurry of attacks. Each swing ignited the blade, slowly making it hotter. “You did this— you did!"
The blade began glowing red just like the eyes of its original wielder, illuminating the area around them with a blood red glow. "I might die," she screamed, "but don’t think I’ll go gently! I won’t go without seeing you pay first!”
The muscles of her arm gave out, causing her swing to arc wide. And not managing to properly sever the swarm of tendrils, she lost balance, fallingl into the mud beneath her. Adrenaline coursed through her— catching herself with her free hand, she could almost feel the tendrils upon her before igniting an explosion that sent herself and Chelsea flying. But the distance mattered little, as the tendrils were unaffected and aimed towards her before—
“…frozen?”
In an instant, the flames surrounding the tendril were extinguished, the limb itself encased in clear ice before shattering. She strained her eyes to see beyond the dust, only for water running through and across the entire field of battle to greet her. Dumfounded, she scrambled through her memories to recall that Desert Oasis did have a river system, but it shouldn’t extend this far beyond the Redoubt’s border.
Something artificially changed its course.
“You nearly ruined the plan! Weren’t you listening?”
“We found them, but neither are in any condition to fight.”
The voices of Slayers whom she did and didn’t recognize. One landed next to her, while the other used his sword to further carve a path for the river.
“Rojin..?”
“I apologize for leaving you, but my assistance was needed and I was assured you would make it.”
“That explosion of yours could’ve altered the course of the water, and we only have so much we can freeze!”
Plan? Freeze?
With one last stab, the earth broke away, and the river flooded into a massive hollowed out trench running either direction before dust obscured its destination. “Jambuvanti in position! Whenever you’re ready Yin!”
……Yukiko. When did she get here? And more importantly, how much of the radio had Hanna tuned out? She focused on the voices in her ear, and surely enough, a familiar former maid’s voice came through.
“…zhh-t…ell Cryoconjuration Slayers in position. Senpai, Rojin, Hadal, Aster— you’ll get a few seconds at best and without the assistance of Chelsea, so please do use your time wisely.”
“Hur-ry it-up!” strained one of the Colossi, Heinrich. She looked down beneath them— the Colossus Slayers had been circling the Endbringer, dragging one of their weapons through the earth in order to create a massive circular trench around them.
And Tezcacoatl was right at the center.
Hanna’s gaze sharpened as the Slayer in front of her stuck his hand in the water, she thought that this sort of plan was exactly the sort she’d expect of a Slayer specializing in immobilization. Under Rojin’s protective blade she picked Chelsea up, carrying her towards what she hoped was a place out of reach for the tendrils.
“All Resonators in place! Initiating Five-Layered Cryo-Conjuration Technique— Mass Conquiesco!”
Though the smoke obscured it, Hanna could see a distinct shape take form around the massive Endbringer; white ice sprawled from at least five different points before gathering and freezing the water gathered in the trench, with three different channels leading directly beneath Tezcacoatl. The ice exploded upward, rising up his limbs; the flesh that began entangling the Colossus Slayers turned white, as did the bottom portion of the Outsider entirely.
“CONCUTERE!”
With a single phrase, mass quantities of ice shattered in a resounding echo across the battlefield as the once otherworldly entity became mortal, the collection of tendrils and appendages briefly disappearing from the world.
“GO!”
The one called Aster extended from his forearm a gigantic chainsaw, cutting into the Endbringer’s main body as Hadal, Heinrich’s Slayer, held onto the malleable flesh, locking their enemy in place as he impaled it with multiple spears, skewering its hexagonal body. Their attacks, particularly Hadal’s blades, were absorbed and reflected back, causing mass tremors across the edge of Desert Oasis’ territory as the weapon crashed throughout the grounds. But Aster’s chainsaw was attached to its body, unable to be absorbed, and the Endbringer couldn't escape Hadal’s grip.
“Rojin, Senpai—!”
Before her name was even uttered, Rojin ran straight to the beast. Using the fallen shards of ice as platforms to reach the main body., she carved through its flesh, reaching the nearly severed mirror as Senpai joined her in a pristine, ivory glimmer.
“Burn it to ashes my Havîn!”
The golden spear ignited itself with fire, burning through regenerated flesh and lodging itself into the eldritch monster as Senpai landed in the wound itself, his own sword in hand. Grabbing Rojin’s still-alight spear, he yanked it out of the flesh in a backwards flip that launched him into the air at the cost of the spear somehow disappearing from his hand.
“No matter…” he said, building momentum in the air. “…for you, too, shall attest to her tale.”
And in one fell swoop— like a ray of moonlight, his weapon cleaved through the second mirror the Resonators had tried to sever for so long. In one grand moment, as the second mirror came undone from the strands of muscle holding it to the main body, cheers sounded in Hanna's ears. Loud, heavy, and true screams of fulfillment. With a torrent of blood soaking the earth, the air became heavy with vibration she was sure came from the voices of the still-alive Resonators.
Until she heard Chelsea gasp. Then Senpai.
“Evacuate…the Redoubt!” managed to garble Chelsea through her radio. “The injured…and those from a distance!”
“Hadal, Aster. Position yourselves in front of its eye. Now.”
She didn’t understand— neither their orders, nor their gasps. She didn’t understand until she felt it. Resonating within her.
The symbol.
image [https://imgur.com/a/neRlknK]image [https://i.imgur.com/lHdnVhj.png]image [https://imgur.com/lHdnVhj]
The world became noticeably, indefinitely darker, in the literal sense of the word. As if an eclipse suddenly came over them, shrouding the world in an unnatural darkness. That’s when Hanna noticed— there were no more flames surrounding the battlefield.
Not even the afterglow of a dead ember remained.
Hadal quickly maneuvered his way around the Endbringer, the bottom-most tentacles still not having regenerated, and positioned himself behind Aster who was already facing the eye directly.
“What are we preparing for?”
“……the sun.” whispered Rojin.
Through the thick and heavy dust, an ominous vermillion color shone from the eye of Tezcacoatl. It was the only color in the near absolute darkness spreading over the Redoubt, blanketing the landscape.
“The last of the flames were absorbed by its body? Did we speed up the process by extinguishing the fires with the river!?”
An unknown voice spoke as Aster looked behind him, seeing what he was protecting, and shouted.
“It’s aiming for the Redoubt!”
“Aster, unfurl your shield and activate Immovable Object!" ordered Pendulum. "Hadal, if you have any defenses use them to their fullest extent now!”
From Aster's left forearm unfolded a gargantuan metal shield even taller than themselves. And in front of him, a brilliant, pale cyan energy glistened to life as both Colossi locked themselves into position behind two mountainous, titanic shields. The vermillion and cyan colors were all that were visible through the dark, dusty desert.
It was a beautiful sight, made paradoxical by the accompanied, frantic screams of the living.
And though Hanna said nothing, every cell in her brain cried out, searching at a chance at survival. With shaky but decisive steps, she grabbed Chelsea, sprinting away before lurching her hand behind a hill of pliant dirt. “Partial Output!”
A thin pillar of flame exploded from the ground, wholly blowing off Hanna’s forearm. Had she her armor, Hell's Belle would have been able to take the blowback of such a small explosion. But as she was now, her arm was a sacrifice much preferable to the alternative, and taking hold of her senior, she threw both her and Chansonnier inside before joining them in the makeshift foxhole.
Now she could only listen.
Listen, as fear gripped the desert, and the voices still on land described the flesh-like spear sprouting from Tezcacoatl’s eye, pulsing a dull red like a dying sun.
Listen as Aster and Hadal put themselves in front of its path. Some others frantic to either attack the eye, or run wherever they could.
Listen, as the King Mirror, Champion of the Endbringers, aimed for the Redoubt— where Peter, Machina, and every other Resonator including the injured lay. Unable to evacuate. Unable to be saved.
She listened, and heard the crying voice of her once dearest friend.
“…I’m sor—”
Hanna blacked out as her head struck the sides of the foxhole. They were buried alive as a cataclysmic earthquake juddered the world above them, as the earth couldn’t hold itself together.
No light sprung from the heat of the impact— and it was an unnatural thing to feel. A spherical blast of heat that carried death with it, boiling Resonators from the inside out before incinerating them completely, carried no light. Dark calcification. Fire, much how the blind would feel it.
Aster, with shield held high and behind the strong aura of Hadal's Aegis, was the first to feel its cruelty. Or perhaps not, as the spear melted through his Slayer, igniting all of his circuitry before exploding in grand darkness. But his sacrifice couldn’t even be seen, because the dark heat swallowed him. Swallowed the light his explosion produced. Hadal, too, had the spear run through him, but the explosion from a Colossus Slayer was already more than enough to send him flying— and as the spear impacted Desert Oasis, the winds played with him like a toy before offering him to the dark.
There was silence after the thunder.
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Silence.
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Silence.
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There was nothing but silence. And after many minutes, a single Resonator rose to bear witness to cataclysm. He saw, in the distance, a great desert, and cried aloud.
“Please, we can’t hold out any longer— they’re gone, they’re all gone!”
A great, empty desert. His throat was bloodied and hoarse— nothing was left.
“Send reinforcements! Send reinforcements! Senh-!hzdzzhht…”
A single tendril pierced his Slayer as his voice reached no one. Not a single sound echoed, and no one heard his death. Because the Desert Oasis Redoubt had been eradicated.
The Desert Oasis Redoubt was no more.