I didn’t blame her for being silent. To have witnessed the slaughter of an entire Redoubt, to be alive by the skin of her teeth— exhausted, missing an entire arm and her chest plating blown off so completely from her Slayer I could see the sphere housing her body. All that, only to hear me say I want to kill myself by fighting the very thing that eradicated a Redoubt. No, more like three given also it killed the members of Skull Beach and Spire Garden.
“You believe you can kill it?” asked the Resonator who saved me, Rojin; unlike Hanna’s heavy silence, Rojin sounded in complete disbelief. But I didn’t blame her. In fact out of the three of us, I was the one most in shock at my own suggestion. But in the same way I felt something when I held Chelsea’s weapon…I felt something in this golden spear.
“I believe I can try.” I said, handing it back to her.
“…I can not say I am convinced. Even with three Redoubts and my Havîn……”
“It’s still not dead, I know. But our options are limited.”
“Our options appear non-existent.”
I held my breath. I wanted to answer her, but in the short time I’ve been here the situation already seems impossible. When all three of the Redoubts were here and perished…just what did Senpai see that kept him fighting?
And I’m still here. I said I would kill it.
“—why?”
I closed my eyes, turning to the voice of the girl who finally spoke.
Why?
That’s what I asked of myself, and there were a thousand things she could have meant with that word.
For me, who’s barely been in this world for a week to come here…no. The Commander could have stopped me if she truly wanted. The only reason I was here is because no one expected the Endbringer to still be present after decimating Desert Oasis; common sense would have one believe the Endbringer would retreat after dealing such a cataclysmic blow to the ESDF. But common sense didn’t exist in this world. So to say something as arrogant and irresponsible as ‘I’ll kill it’…I must have sounded insane— suicidal.
Maybe no difference existed in a world lacking common sense.
“Why?” I said, repeating her question, mostly because I didn’t know how to answer it.
Maybe it was because she thought she wouldn’t get another chance to say it, or maybe the loss of blood made her delirious, weakening her inhibitions but…she thanked me for coming. And her sincerity echoed in the deepest parts of my soul.
The characters in stories never talk about this feeling…the weight that comes from receiving a simple thank you. Was it the weight of trust? Of reliability?
Or rather a weight I place upon myself?…because I want to continue being someone she can speak to.
“I think it’s simple,” I said, settling on the easiest of my answers, “it’s because you were the first voice to welcome me into this world…and I want to keep hearing it.”
Silence followed. A drawn-out silence where I felt her take my words, but not know what to do with them. I could almost see the gears of her mind and heart work in tandem with her Slayer, remaining silent for long moments until finally making a fist with the only hand she had left.
And walking towards me, she punched my chestplate with the force of a feather.
There was no weight behind her punch, and instead of pulling back she just…left it there. Her gaze not meeting my own.
“Selflessness and suicide are a needle thin line apart…there’s no point to saving me if you’re just going to die.”
“………………”
I know. I know that’s true. So I couldn't say anything against it.
“…I don’t want to be a hypocrite.” I said with a self deprecating smile. “So the only thing I can say is that I’ll try not to die.”
“That’s not for you to decide…!”
“No…it’s not.” I said, grabbing the delicate gears exposed on her shoulders. “So wait for me at Skull Beach with Lia. And when I come back—”
“SHUT UP!” she spat, hitting my chestplate with delicate but genuine force, “shut up shut up— shut UP!”
I widened my eyes in surprise. The dreary slur in her voice from earlier was gone, replaced with her characteristic sharp tongue and high-toned voice.
“Shut up!” she said with a final *clang* to my chestplate. “And don’t you dare utter another fucking word to me about leaving, got it!?”
Her words came from her lips, but they didn’t feel like her. They felt like the words of………oh.
“Seems we’ve come full circle. If I remember right, it was you that first told me to retreat with Lia when we fought the Rogue.”
“And you stayed! So what if I’m useless right now and so what if I can’t do anything!?— I’m not leaving you and fuck you if you think I will you goddamn retard!”
I felt the fear she tried to hide through her curses. But just beyond that fear was anger. Anger, indignation, exhaustion…gratitude.
“That’s kind of harsh,” I said, gently taking her arm, “aren’t you going to apologize like you did before?”
“Gch! You—you’re just!……fuck you!”
I felt my self-deprecating smile turn into a genuine one as a quiver in her voice betrayed her feelings of embarrassment. “Okay,” I said, setting her arm down. “You win. We’ll fight it together.”
“Hmph! Goddamn right we will!” she huffed, stepping away from my Slayer. I gave a wry smile as she climbed a nearby dune, her sunlight yellow visor scanning the distant battle between Senpai and Tezcacoatl, visible only as monstrous, otherworldly silhouettes. Alongside Rojin, with Chelsea still on her back, I joined her, and though the dust made it difficult to see clearly, what was glaringly obvious was the fact—
“ —Tezcacoatl’s injured.” I said, mouth agape. I couldn’t tell from fighting it before, but at this distance it was clear that two of its six limbs were jaggedly cut off. What’s more…
“It’s trapped.” Rojin stated, completing my thoughts. “That one called Senpai is not permitting it to escape.”
“The thing’s been frozen, amputated, maimed, incinerated, and lacerated. On top of all that it must have used up a lot of strength bombing the Redoubt. No doubt it could still kill any of us individually but…it probably doesn’t want to.”
I stared in disbelief. “Wouldn’t want to?”
“The first Endbringer, three years ago, retreated when it sustained too much damage, right?” Hanna explained, pointing at the monstrosity. “From that alone, regardless of reason, all we need to understand is that they know when they’re hurt. They know they can be killed and would rather run—”
“—than fight to the death!” Rojin said, slamming her hand into a fist. Before she seemed almost melancholic, receiving the good news must have made her energy spike back up. I would be surprised, had I not felt her emotions when I held her spear.
Not only that, I was also impressed with Hanna’s deduction. The few times she seems reckless stem from absolute life or death situations, but now that she’s had a moment to think, to recuperate, her analysis of the situation made killing an Endbringer seem…possible.
I gripped Chelsea’s weapon, Chansonnier, in my hand. It seemed to glow brighter than when I first held it in the spar against her, then again it didn’t have a name at that time. The singing from earlier…that must have been Chelsea— her life before arriving here. Were these feelings hers? A desire to protect the precious few people still alive— were her emotions affecting my own?
“Senpai is losing strength by the second; its eye is already weak so if I strike with enough force it might be enough to cripple, or hopefully kill it outright.”
“Much easier said than done. We are at the furthest end of its range which has given us respite, but the moment we approach, Senpai or not, it will target us.”
“Then we haul ass while Senpai can still fight! Chelsea’s weapon already has Resonance imbued into it and that gives us an edge.”
I stared at her in surprise— Resonance imbued into weapons themselves? I grit my teeth, now wasn’t the time to ask, but I couldn’t help the ominous feeling that came from still not knowing what Resonance is exactly.
“Anon.” said Hanna, reeling my attention back. “I have an idea so follow my—”
“Rojin!”
“I see it!”
Even while holding Chelsea with one hand, I was left awestruck at how she could throw her spear with such precision in a direction to which I could only vaguely point. It’s true I couldn’t see what exactly I was pointing to, but I didn’t need to. I felt it. A barely visible shade moving amid the dust, afraid. And that feeling connected with the two beside me.
“Anon!” Hanna shouted, her voice fading in the wind behind me. Rojin’s aim was otherworldly, piercing through no less than four of the tendrils aimed at the icy blue Slayer crawling through the sand.
But it didn’t pierce the fifth.
“AEGIS!” I shouted, throwing myself over the mecha. In those few moments I caught a glimpse of its face— white, with shades of arctic blue that reminded me of a glacier. Is this how so many of the Resonators came to be killed? Because the world shifts at a moment’s notice in battle?
But thank goodness her feelings of panic subsided, she wasn’t afraid anymore. Only…guilty.
“GYAAGGHHGHH!!”
My back. My back— this thing’s weight shattered through my weakened Aegis like plywood, hitting my mecha’s armor directly. I screamed, everything was incoherent, Even’s armor dented causing my own spine to feel contorted— rearranged. The adrenaline I’d been holding back burst like a dam through my veins, and as the tendril pulled itself back up I gripped Chansonnier with both hands, spinning around and swinging it upward, bisecting it.
“Anon!” screamed Hanna, her and Rojin catching up with us. “Anon are……Yukiko?” she said with disbelief. “You’re alive?!”
“I heard…a voice……calling for me to wake up.” she said between gulps of air. “Was it…you? I………thank you.”
“Save it! Anon let me look…shit…!”
“What…is it…?” I croaked.
“Your armor…it’s cracked and one of the wings on your Flight module is busted— SHIT!” she cried, striking the barren earth.
“Hanna…what on earth is going on?” asked Yukiko, reigning in her adrenaline.
“Senpai is fighting the Endbringer alone and we present are the only survivors.” answered Rojin. “Hanna seemed to have found a way to kill it, however…”
“It relied on his Flight module.” she said, crouching down. “It was my only idea for taking down Tezcacoatl once and for all. Without it…we might just have a better chance of cutting our losses and trying to retreat anyway.”
A heavy silence came over the small patch of land we found ourselves in; one thing went right, and another wrong. It seemed that for every one step we took, we’d backtrack three.
And in the sullen silence, an odd thought came to my mind, the analogy of rain and clouds used to describe Resonators in this world. The fact that, ‘Flowers do not care for the clouds, only their rain’.
This was the first time in my life I was in a situation with such quantities of death. They existed in my world too of course, in the form of war, but I’d never fought in one. Yet I did see the faces of those who did. They came back sullen, scarred, unable to drive lest a stray plastic bag on the road get mistaken for an IED. Psychologically speaking I should be the same way right now. Unable to move, speak, much less think coherently. But I can. And maybe I didn’t have a responsibility to see this sort of war through but…when I thought of Hanna’s tears hitting the porcelain sink, alone in a filthy bathroom…
…I………
“Someone else’s.” I said, remembering Senpai’s actions. Corpses littered the desert around us, and Senpai used them to create improvised explosives against the Endbringer. “Dead. Not devoured. Your mistake.” Hanna, too, used explosions to get herself skyborn after our fight with the Rogue, no Flight module needed.
“We’ll use someone else’s Flight module. It’s only one of my wings, right? We can make it by using someone else’s.” Hanna’s unmoving visor betrayed her emotions; suddenly she was thinking a mile a second, considering every possibility and consequence.
“Their deaths, no one’s death…should be in vain!” I spat, forcing myself to work through the pain. My back felt like ice, cold and fragile, but I stood up using Chansonnier as a crutch.
“We…we still have no guarantee Tezcacoatl would get hit by—”
“Does your plan call for it to be distracted?” asked the glacial-colored Slayer who seemed to have calmed down. “My…My wire alloy was strong enough to temporarily hold it. I still have enough to try again, though not to the same extent…”
“No, you are far too damaged, I will do it.” said Rojin with an outstretched hand. She laid the unconscious Chelsea down onto the sand. “You should protect your Redoubt’s captain instead.”
“Hanna,” I managed to say between breaths, “what’s your plan?”
Her golden visor fell onto each of us as she collected her thoughts, but before she could speak a single tendril the diameter of two enormous oak trees charged straight at us. Rojin must have seen it, because she spun Havîn around herself, gathering momentum before launching it, staggering the appendage as Yukiko threw something around it. I knew it was her wire, but the only hints I had to its sudden changes in direction were the movements she made with her hand before closing her fingers, forming a fist that forced the wire through its flesh, eviscerating it into hundreds of chunks of muscle.
“Time is not our ally,” said Yukiko, reeling in the wire attached to her wrist. “Hanna?”
“……Rojin, do what you can to help Senpai. Buy time, aim to immobilize it with Yukiko’s wires. Don’t fight if you can help it.”
“A colossal task indeed.” she cooed with an audible smile. She walked closer, taking in the state of an unconscious Chelsea. “‘Yukiko’ yes? If you plan on defending your captain, may you be so kind as to lend me your wire?”
The blue and white Slayer stared at Chelsea who remained unmoving.
“She’s fine, just took a bad hit to the head. But more importantly you’re hurt too, and aren’t made for this kind of conflict.” said her former friend. “Take care of her, like she took care of us.”
From within Yin, her Slayer, Yukiko stared at Chanteuse— the mecha of the woman who had mentored her when she first arrived to this world. She’d come to learn much about Chelsea in the five years she had been in this world, but even then, there was so much more shrouded in mystery.
“As a maid before my arrival, duty is not something I’m unfamiliar with. I was expected to put myself last, and this world is much the same.”
Delicately, she grabbed the crimson red arm of the mecha, hoisting Chanteuse’s body over her shoulders as she unclasped the wires attached to her wrists, handing them to Rojin.
“Therefore…should you return alive, allow me to make you a cup of tea as thanks. And, if you’re so inclined…” She whispered, the unspoken words caught in her mouth.
“Fine.” Hanna whispered with a hurried tone. “We’ll consider it. Just take care of her.”
Yukiko hesitated for a moment, but clarity returned to her eyes as she gave a firm nod and fled across the dunes— lengthy tendrils giving chase before Rojin cut them down and Hanna spoke her strategy into my ear.
“…Alright. Do you know where he is?”
“I have an idea. Let’s go!”
I nodded as we bolted to our destination, but not before turning back. “Rojin—!”
“Do not worry about me!” she interrupted, attaching Yukiko’s alloy string to her wrist. Through her words I could tell her lips were curled all the way to her ears; she sounded…unhinged. “I understand my role, and will provide for you as much time as I am able with Senpai.”
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
She flexed her wrist, testing out the new weapon and even tying part of the wire around the end of her spear, satisfied with the result. “Now then, my lovely Havîn— let us herald the DESTRUCTION OF TEZCACOATL!”
In feral hysteria she leapt into the fog of dust, becoming a bleak silhouette alongside Senpai as the two danced around the gargantuan nightmare that was Tezcacoatl. I could feel bursts of wind emanating from distant sparks in the darkened horizon, but they seemed far less powerful than the ones I saw before……of course they would be. Senpai, Rojin, Hanna, Yukiko…they must be exhausted. They’ve pushed far, far past their limits already— far beyond the defiance of common sense.
Hanna especially so.
To have come from her fight against a Spirit of Fire that left Lia in the medical bay, straight to the battlefield where an Endbringer would almost certainly kill her. That kind of rage…there was no way a human being could sustain it. Not without consequence.
“Anon.” rushed the girl in question, grabbing my arm. “We need to go.”
But as I met her gaze through that yellow visor, I could tell the only thing on her mind now was the slim, infinitely small possibility that we could survive this. That we could return to Skull Beach— the place she knows as home.
I cut off my train of thought, sprinting alongside Hanna, protecting us from the tendrils snaking in the dark, doing everything they could to trap and kill us in one fell swoop. But my back still screamed in pain with every slice, my injury from protecting Yukiko slowing me down; if Senpai and Rojin weren’t fighting it right now, then Hanna and I could never keep up the pace with which we ran. Craning my neck, I could see her consult a small screen on her forearm as we rushed in a wide arc around the Endbringer; given she was in worse shape than any of us I thought it was a miracle anything on her Slayer worked at all.
Gusts of wind carried grains of sand that pelted us as I strained my eyes to see the distant battle - the sun had already risen when I entered this cloud of dust, yet it still looked like it could be midnight. In fact, if Hanna didn’t have her screen both guiding and illuminating our immediate surroundings, I would have likely lost her.
“Here.” she said, stopping in front of a colossal wall of metal. But I recognized it right away, mouth agape.
“A Slayer? Who—”
“Heinrich.” she interrupted. “One of the few colossus Slayers the ESDF has, and one of two that were here to fight Tezcacoatl— the other colossus being from Spire Garden. They were right in front of the shot that eradicated Desert Oasis, so they died instantly.” she explained, proceeding to climb atop it. She motioned for me to follow, and using Chansonnier to help in my ascent, I followed.
“The impact probably flipped him around like this.” she huffed. I looked to my left, vaguely making out the shape of the massive mecha’s legs, realizing she’s right. Its feet were pointing downward, buried in the sand; but to my right everything above the middle of its torso was blown away. Literally nothing more than enormous edges of metal.
“What does that have to do with your plan?” I asked, finally joining her atop the colossus. She hadn’t explained her plan, only saying we had to find a colossus mecha. I made an observation of our surroundings: behind her was the Flight module, half intact— the massive quantities of fuel required for Colossus Slayers untouched.
“That shot blew open his torso, but fuel tanks for Colossus Slayers are attached at the waist.” she explained, chopping away at the metal plates covering the fuel, all made soft by the wind and heat. “If you really are going to kill Tezcacoatl…then this is your best shot.”
My eyes went wide, Chansonnier feeling unusually heavy in my grip.
“What…do you mean?”
“This is it, right? What you and Even were made for, and what we trained for those nights. Your specialty.” she yanked away a particularly lengthy piece of metal like a hangnail, panting after tossing it to the side. Her stamina was fast depleting, and I didn’t want her to explain and exhaust herself more. Because I knew what she meant— it’s what I had in mind too, when I said I wanted to try and kill the Endbringer.
“…having come this far, I can wager a guess as to what you’re planning.” I say, using Chansonnier to rip away the rest of the plating covering the fuel gauges. I feel Hanna give me a curious look, one I wasn’t familiar with. A new expression.
“I thought your Empathetic Connect doesn’t let you read minds.”
“It doesn't. But I have eyes and ears, Hanna, I’ve been paying attention to you. You mentioned needing a Flight module…” I glanced behind me at the bent and crooked metallic wing attached to my mecha’s spine. “…and mine is broken, so we’d need something to compensate. Like an explosion big enough to give me enough lift to use my specialty…preferably on an immobilized, distracted target.”
I stare at the exposed tanks beneath us— metallic cylinders as wide and tall as our Slayers, illuminated by a dull red light meant to deter anyone from getting close to what could easily turn into a terrain-altering explosion.
I looked up, returning Hanna’s gaze. And though I couldn't see her face through her Slayer’s visor, I felt it— a tiny, barely perceptible smirk.
“Didn’t know you paid so much attention to me. Should I be flattered? Or creeped out?”
“You’re only reckless when there’s something important to you on the line. Maybe I’m picking up on that habit, suggesting to kill Tezcacoatl myself…but I was never going to let you do this by yourself.”
She stared in silence at me as I trimmed away the last edges of armor. The small distance between us felt like nothing at all— I couldn't see her face or her body, but felt them there, as clear as day. No different than the times we trained, or ate, or talked in the week I’ve been here.
And in that short amount of time I’ve come to know her…come to trust her enough to put my life at stake. And it was in thinking this that she walked towards me in familiar silence.
“Don’t get cocky, kid…” she said, putting a finger on my Slayer’s chest, my connection to Even letting me feel the weight on my actual body. “…cause the same goes for me.”
Her words mingled with the harsh sound of armor hitting the metal beneath us. The few remaining pieces of her armor, removed by her own hand and tossed to the side as she walked behind me.
“Hanna, your armor! What are you—”
“I told you that the same goes for me. You didn’t have to come with me to rescue Lia, but you did. You didn’t have to come to my room to try and make me feel better, but you did. You didn’t have to come here and risk your own death…but you did.”
Without warning she ripped off my defunct wing and hopped onto my back, wrapping her left arm around my neck and shoulders. The fact she was missing her right arm alongside most of her Slayer meant she fit surprisingly well. My thrusters wouldn’t burn her when I activated them, and the weight of her Slayer barely felt like anything at all.
“Hanna…”
“We might die so just let me do this— let me be here for you, like you were there for me. Let me say that I won’t let you kill yourself or let you go alone. And if you have only a right wing, then I’ll become your left. Because right now, this is the very least I can do.”
“…become my wing?”
“You only have one, and so do I. So I’ll lend myself to you, and go with you as far as I can.”
I remember how heavy it felt carrying Lia, who’s Slayer wasn’t even designed for close quarters combat. And compared to her, Hanna, who was designed for CQC, felt frighteningly light. Yet…I smiled. Gently cutting open one of the fuel cells, listening to the sound of trickling fuel and placing plate after plate of broken metal on top of them, preparing for what comes next.
“And you’re positive this is what you want?”
“I am.”
“You’re stubborn.”
“I am.”
“…ready?”
She wrapped her arm tighter around me. I knew it was less that she needed to and more because she could feel my fear. And in her sincerity wished to tell me ‘I give you my word. And here…’
“…I am.”
I took a deep breath and relaxed my body; I didn’t need to communicate with Hanna via words any longer, nor did she need me to. I placed a particularly thick sheet of metal beneath us as Hanna threw a jagged piece of hardened slag into the air. And snapping her fingers, a small explosion appeared right above it, making it look like a small meteorite in its descent aimed at the small gap in between the sheets of metal we placed over the fuel tanks— a gap directly above the leaking fuel cell.
I took a ragged breath in, realizing only at the last moment I was gripping Hanna’s arm.
“AEGIS!”
I could neither see nor hear the shield being formed, but the immense g-force on my nervous system and gut let me know we had survived the cataclysmic blast beneath us and were hurtling skyward at velocities that made me want to faint. I was disoriented for the first few seconds, only able to focus on the sheer pressure applying itself to my body, practically immobilizing me— I couldn’t breathe. But opening my eyes I didn’t realize I’d squeezed shut, I saw it wasn’t because of our makeshift launching pad, but because Hanna had me in a choke hold to get my attention.
“You’re Flight module!”
She was right. I exhaled what little air was left in my lungs, forcing my body to accept the stress as my Flight module roared to life. My right wing spread outward, and from the corner of my eye I made out Hanna’s left do the same— stabilizing our trajectory.
“Cazhz-n zh-ou hear me?”
“Hanna! Our comms are back!”
“We’re out of that thing’s range, take a look!”
I found myself thankful once more at the abnormally loud sound of Hanna’s voice through our radio. I obeyed, and sure enough a thick plume of vertical smoke was following our ascent; one that distinctly looked as if it were born out of the infinitely dense particles of airborne dirt.
“It’s so bright!” I shouted, shielding my eyes from the bright rays of the sun. I knew it was morning, but was so accustomed to the darkness that my pupils burned trying to adjust to the massive amount of sunlight assaulting our senses in such a short time.
“Bear right, follow my lead!” I felt her mecha bear to the side, correcting our course, and followed suit. Soon not just the dust, but even the clouds were visible beneath us as we climbed a blue sky I never knew existed in this world. I’d only ever seen the sky as gray dusk and charcoal black, the only exceptions being faint rays of golden light that occasionally broke through the scattered clouds. Why was the world so dark? Was it the fault of the Endbringers?
I…would like to see this sky more often.
“Here is far enough! I can’t go with you any further!” I felt Hanna scream in my ear. I looked behind me, at those golden visors made brighter by an uninhibited sun.
“What!? Hanna- HANNA!”
“Keep the course! You can do this, I know you can!” she screamed, releasing my neck and leaning backward, prepared to freefall. “See you back at Skull Beach Anon! Don’t keep me and Lia waiting!”
I screamed as she let me go and I saw her Slayer, stripped over almost one hundred percent of its armor, fall towards the earth. But I couldn’t chase after her, lest the effort she put into this final, desperate attempt go to waste. So instead I grit my teeth and raised my head, gripping Chansonnier to my side as I felt my thrusters become weaker and sputter. But that was just fine, because I felt my body become lighter, and the ascent was easier as the pale blue sky turned indigo eventually turning back into a black sky I was familiar with.
And yet, one I was unfamiliar with.
I turned off my thrusters just before they ran dry, and was met with silence as I looked around me. At the twinkling, glittering lights dotting each of the unending horizons.
“………this is.”
Tiny, distant lights greeted my eyes before the sun’s rays, stronger than normal, caused me to raise my weightless arm. Even turned around almost on its own, adjusting our position as I looked down at the planet laid bare before an eternal audience of dotted lights.
Space.
It was odd that at that moment, somewhere in the back of my mind, I recalled a technicality taught in my astronomy class— I wasn’t quite in space, but in the upper layers of the atmosphere. What was it called again? The mesosphere? Exosphere? Was that one the highest? It sounded right.
I smiled at myself…or rather at the irony. Once upon a time there was a little kid who, not knowing the ways of reality, wanted to become a space hero. He gave up that dream, and soon thereafter on the dream of becoming an astronomer as reality settled in. One can’t do everything they set their mind to, and yet…here I am. Having been given the opportunity.
Was this okay?
“…guess I owe you thanks, God.”
I found myself praying. And in that prayer I found my answer as to whether or not I wanted to live a meaningless life of my own choosing, or a meaningful one imposed on me— I never had any choice. The moment I stepped foot in this world was the moment my life was decided. I never wanted to be here.
But I am…I can choose to make the most of it.
“Thanks…for granting that prayer.”
As I looked at creation laid bare before me, I remembered Hanna’s words: ‘Each Resonator has their own way of fighting…you and Even were made for short, intense bursts of damage.’ The memory of our time in training played in my mind as I gripped Chansonnier with my left hand, receiving similar feelings that had been imbued within the blade. Feelings of survival. The melodies Chelsea sang were created in the dark.
Because this world is devoid of sunlight.
“We use chants to channel our strength.” Chelsea had explained. “Thus, you must create yours.”
The opportunity to take the first step in ending the fight against the Endbringers…I was the one entrusted with it. I was.
I took a deep breath, and raised her crimson blade.
“…do not go gentle into that good night.”
There was a word that stuck with me, having watched so many Japanese animations; the reason being that it happened to describe my favorite time of day.
Hinode. Its meaning, ‘sunrise’.
My breathing steadied as I watched the sword glow, and memories of my time awakening in the early hours of the morning flooded my mind. Unlike others, I wouldn’t wake up at four in the morning for any meaningful reason like work or exercise…but because the world seemed like such a kinder place when the sun rose.
I remember seeing the moon fade into the sky as light dispelled the worries that came with the night. My anxieties, my inadequacies. When I saw the sun rise, it made me feel as though I still had an infinite number of possibilities before me. And according to the folklore surrounding Hinode, as the sun’s rays pierced dark forests, evil could no longer hide in the shadows. Spirits under the veil of night could no longer do harm.
The world once again became safe for humans.
“Lend to me your voice, Chansonnier!” I said clutching the hilt of the blade. There was no light to be found in this world; the closest thing was when the clouds parted just enough to reveal threads of gold that would struggle to shine and exist before disappearing in thin bands. The clouds having swallowed them once more.
“Lend me your voice, so my own may illuminate this world!” I called, my veins protruded against my skin, ballooning out in a way I’d never seen.
There was no light in this world. Thus…
“And you, my father, there on a sad height. Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears I pray!”
The poem wasn’t written for this purpose, the author wrote these words to encourage his father to survive illness. Yet, these are the words that came to mind now, for this chant— for this single, powerful strike in which I would stake my life!
I couldn’t feel my injuries anymore but rather a burning sensation in my palms that channeled through every vein in my body. And as the burning reached my eyes I dared glance up and found Chansonnier responding to my plea; the blade seemed to catch the pure rays of light shining upon us, harnessing it, transforming it into a poignant, ethereal flame that would not allow the existence of Tezcacoatl.
Or perhaps…these were my own newfound feelings in response to my duty. In response to choosing to fight for this world I was thrust into.
If the Endbringers were the reason darkness shrouded the world…right. That’s right.
It’s morning already.
“Do not go gentle into that good night!”
It’s time to wake up.
“Rage— rage against the dying of the light!”
I willed my thruster to explode, burning everything left in the fuel tank to accelerate as fast as I possibly could towards the earth. Immediately I felt the heat caused by re-entry collecting at the front of Even’s chestplate— I willed my still-fragile Aegis into existence only to see it shatter. I grit my teeth, calling it again and again and again as Even and I hurdled into the earth.
“Even!” I screamed, knowing my Slayer was listening. I hadn’t ‘spoken’ to him since the initial incident with the Rogue, but I knew he was here. “I intend to find out what and who you are!” I cried as my body burned— is this what Lia went through? Tears welled in my eyes, my stomach pushed against itself from the g-force making me feel like it’d lurch out of my mouth any second. Still I clenched my fists, feeling the veins around my heart tighten into a knot as I screamed.
“But right now……right now, I NEED YOUR HELP! EVEN!”
The blue shield glittered to life, momentarily fading in and out before the dull glow let me know that even if it’s permanent, the shield may not protect us from impact. But that was fine. It’s fine if we die.
I forced a smile, knowing my Slayer was behind me, but it disappeared as pain wracked my heart, spreading across my body using my own nervous system, causing me to lose my form.
My form.
I furrowed my brow, that’s right— an attack of this caliber needs to be better! Think— survive, emulate! Don’t just throw your life away, emulate the ones who taught you!
Fire torched my muscles as I readjusted my torso and legs for stability, and using the feelings imbued within Chansonnier, my body instinctively imitated her combat moves; during her fight against the Omega Behemoth everytime Chelsea attacked it, she spun, she gathering momentum to strike with everything she had!
“hhuaaAaAAGGHHHHHHH!!”
As Even maintained our fragile Aegis cracking like ceramic, I pushed our weight forward to gather momentum, gyrating the mecha, adding speed and force to our attack that would kill this Endbringer! Even if my eyes swelled from the pain, even if my veins threatened to explode inside me!
“GTCH—! GHYAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!”
I just screamed. My body burned, my spine would break any second and I couldn’t tell our direction. I felt dizzy, but didn’t need my sight, hearing, or sense of balance to receive their feelings. Faint directions, cries of passion and pain— Senpai’s, Rojin’s, Yukiko’s…Hana’s. If I’m receiving their feelings then they must be able to see me. They’re guiding my strike!
“—THE NIGHT ENDS HERE!!” I screamed at the top of my lungs.
I could make out the Endbringer trapped within wire through my spinning. I was going fast enough that the entire world was a panorama, and I could see everything at once. And what caught my attention wasn’t just the disappearance of the dust, or the colorful sky, but a golden trail of light that followed Even and I. A giant colonnade of light that broke through the clouds and the darkness.
A beam of unadulterated sunlight.
And for some reason I saw the time: ‘9:09am’.
“AGAINST THE ODDS— EVEN HEAVY IMPACT SPECIALIZATION!” I cried as I descended upon the Endbringer.
Thus, I swung Chansonnier.
“HINODE - THE MORNING SUN!”
Light coalesced into a single line before erupting back upwards as a pillar— and that pillar dissolved the darkness as it spread across the sky, clearing the horizons. Light blanketed the world— colors of gold became white as years worth of light descended unto the earth, revealing all that lay within it. The sands beneath me turned into crystals of clear glass as the sword cut through flesh, cleansing the multiple colors coating Tezcacoatl’s body into pure white.
And as a sky full of light illuminated the land, Chansonnier finished its aria, and I felt the sword reach the ground. And with it, a resounding cry of the monster’s last gasp of life dissipated like morning mist— evaporated by radiant rays of the morning sun.
I felt myself lose consciousness as I struck the ground— but in those few, brief moments of lucidity, just like how I saw the panorama of the entire landscape, I felt all things around me at once. I heard the loud and abrupt radio in my ear, signal having returned from the clearing of the dust. I could make out Annika’s voice specifically, screaming about mirrors before the cacophony of voices overlapped with the feelings of others to drown her out. Yes, emotions.
Anxiety. Disbelief. Adrenaline. Jubilation. Triumph.
I couldn’t feel my legs and had the vague notion they may not be there, but weightlessness overtook me. In my right hand I couldn’t feel the weight of a blade anymore. And as my head finally fell to my side an unfamiliar sight lay before me— in the middle of an expansive desert, beautiful and beige with sands scorched black beneath a blue sky and white clouds, was a hazy hexagonal flesh of varying colors brilliantly reflecting the light of the sun. A red mecha, holding a crimson blade, stood atop it— in front of a fuzzy, distorted mass resembling a pupil leaking out of an eye. She plunged her blade into it, and just like that, my eyes drifted shut.
“Congratulations. You have beared witness.” said a voice to my fading consciousness. “Yes. The clouds have dispersed. The flowers sated. For now. You have survived.”