“Damn, we’ve really gotten into a bad mess this time,” Arisu said, craning her neck to talk over her shoulder.
“Isn’t that always the case?” Her partner said wryly, appearing from nowhere. Arisu kept her eyes closed, gathering her power. Behind her eyelids, she glimpsed brief flashes as Seina fought with their vampiric foe. While valiant, Arisu feared it wouldn’t be enough. Seina was still too green and inexperienced.
“Don’t worry about Kiyojiro and Botan. I left them somewhere safe,” Charity said.
“Another one of your schemes? Are you planning something?” The Wicked Queen asked, peeking open her eyes. Her partner had always taken the long view, using time streams centuries ahead for one plan or another. Arisu, however, only peeked minutes at most in the future. She hated knowing what was going to happen. It made fights dull. It sometimes made Arisu consider her gift a real bother.
Her partner only smiled in response, a twinkle in her eye. Arisu smiled back, despite the desperate nature of their situation.
“Gah!” Seina howled in pain, Arisu grimaced as her new friend took a nasty blow with the vampire’s trademark sword. Kaguya had sliced her in half, blood pooling in floating bubbles as the two sides separated.
“Fine. We don’t have a choice. We need to join now.” While Seina would be fine, it’d take time to reconstitute herself. Arisu stretched out her hand, ready for what would likely be their last battle. This would probably destroy them both, but the Wicked Queen and her partner didn’t do half-measures. If this destroyed them, so be it.
“You know me, Arisu,” Charity replied. “It’d fight through hell and back with you, always. We’re a team, whatever the cost.”
“Thanks, sister.” Damn, was her voice breaking up? Now wasn’t the time for sentimentality. With a clap, they clasped hands.
With a glow, Charity’s body changed form. In her place, Arisu held a small golden key.
“So you’re doing it, eh?” Kaguya said, drawn by the spectacle. Nothing slipped past her old friend’s notice. She watched, cloaked in her cowl of darkness, curious what would happen next. “I predict only a .0005 percent chance you won’t just implode into dust.”
“I don’t care about fate, destiny, or odds,” Arisu said, inserting the key into her brooch. “I make my own. That’s my power, to change defeat to victory!”
“Love Change! Fate Crush! The fool too stupid to realize she can’t win!” Power enveloped her in wisps of rainbow light. Already, she felt the transformation go horribly wrong, pain wracking her body as her own power tore her atoms to shreds. But Arisu only smirked, accepting the pain wholeheartedly. She welcomed it as penance for her foolishness and inability to kill a friend. She would never make that mistake again. This time, she’d finish what she started. The Wicked Queen embraced the pain, using it as an anchor.
The rainbow light cleared, revealing Arisu’s new form. Her dress had expanded outward, becoming more frilly with pink ribbons across flowing hair. The reds of her dress switched to a blinding white, devoid of any corruption. A golden crown embedded with purple-colored jewels sat perched on her head, ordaining Arisu as the queen she was. Hanging behind her was a golden halo, framing the Wicked Queen in golden, radiant light, shining like a brilliant star.
“Of course,” Kaguya said, both amused and annoyed. “No matter how hopeless the timeline, you find a way to thrive.”
“Amazing,” Seina said, a grimace on her face. Tears gathered at her eyelids, overwhelmed by the shock and pain of getting cut in half. “Such majesty.”
“Pull yourself together, Seina. You’re not finished.” Arisu said, a smirk twisting the side of her mouth. “You’ve barely tapped into your power.”
“Huh?” Seina blinked in confusion. But Arisu didn’t elaborate, the cosmos trembling as Kaguya blocked the Wicked Queen’s sudden incoming punch.
“Still have your might, eh?” Kaguya said, mouth twisting in pain. Her shadow aura wavered under Arisu’s holy power, protecting its user from the worst of the blow. “But still pathetically weaker than before.”
A blade slashed over Arisu’s head, just missing a deadly decapitation. But the Wicked Queen showed no fear, using her staff to block the next blow. The newly formed bells attached to its head clanged as it blocked another deadly strike.
“I forgot how annoying those bells are,” Kaguya said, face grimacing. It wasn’t surprising. Their chime was anathema to evil creatures, with many weaker foes dying just from the sound alone. They exchanged further blows, the vampire queen impossibly quick, but Arisu held her own.
“This is getting us nowhere.” Kaguya scowled. With Seina’s bubbles glowing like a sun, it limited her ability to drain her opponent’s strength and use her illusions. Switching gears, she targeted a new opponent.
“Woah!” But Seina wasn’t as helpless as she seemed, bubbles appearing in the vampire’s path. From how the vampire avoided them, Arisu guessed it’d be bad news if they connected. It bought Seina the precious seconds she needed for Arisu to rescue her. Their weapons clashed as Kaguya’s blade scraped past Arisu’s staff.
“Hmph.” Kaguya said, impressed by her foe’s sudden save. But she kept up her assault on Seina, hounding the magical girl relentlessly. It blocked any attempt to rejoin her halves together. They still shifted around randomly, making them almost completely unpredictable.
“Fine then.” Seina used a free hand to command her sunlight bubbles to dash at Kaguya, each attack coming at impossible angles. By transforming some into speed bubbles, she used them to accelerate her other bubbles to impossible speeds. Arisu joined the effort, obstructing the vampire’s attempts to dodge the deadly bubbles.
“Tsk,” Kaguya grunted in annoyance as a sunlight bubble flew past her shoulder, just missing her. Her pale skin sizzled, the near contact leaving ugly welts. While her darkness cloak protected her, it flickered under the intense glow of deadly sunlight. Another attacking bubble burst to pieces, distracting her enough for Arisu’s staff to cave in her rib cage.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“I have to hand it to you,” Kaguya said, amused. “You seem to have me cornered. Perfect. This makes the battle more fun!”
“What is she planning now?” Seina said as her two halves finally combined, the flesh rejoining as they touched, the wound vanishing like it’d never existed. While still in terrible shape, the girl was recovering.
Instead of responding, the Vampire Queen entered a dance, her hips shaking as her sword entered, integrating parallel movements with her hands and feet. “It’s time for a scene change, somewhere where even light can’t touch.
“Wait, don’t you dare!” But Arisu’s realization came too late as reality shattered, the axis of the multiverse succumbing to the void. A darkness purer than any shadow swallowed them.
“Is this nothingness?” Seina said, her tone frightened. Her orbs had become tiny pinpricks of light, a speck in the every-encompassing nothing.
“So it seems. So this is the void between universes?” Arisu said, shuttering. Nothing existed here. No sensations, no sound, no wind, nothing. It was like her every sense had gone blind. It was shocking how much one missed the cold biting against your skin or the background annoyances like screeching cars until they were gone. While space was empty, it at least had some substance to it. But this was just nothing. The void only had a single constant, the stomach twisting wrongness of Kaguya’s draining aura as it choked the life from them.
“Oh my…” Seina said, lost for words at the sensations of the void. Even the coldness of space had vanished. “Wait, what about Mr. Kiyojiro and Botan!” She said, alarmed.
“They’re in Starlight Dream’s core. Even Kaguya can’t destroy that. They’re likely fine.” Or at least Arisu hoped so.
Laughter surrounded them, coming from everywhere, yet nowhere. Arisu clutched her head, the pain of the sound stabbing into her brain. With the vampire queen’s ability to manipulate reality, it was impossible to tell if it hadn’t only been their imagination. In the void, Kaguya held all the power. Worse, thanks to Mei’s madness. Little of physical reality even existed anymore to return to.
Pain exploded across Arisu’s body as thousands of blades tore her to pieces, each destroying her very atoms, trying to savage the soul. The Wicked Queen only snorted in amusement, clipping Kaguya with a sudden punch. Even with all her senses neutered, she wasn’t helpless. The vampire’s draining aura gave her position away. Pain slashed across her chest as she dodged past a blow that would have sliced her in half.
“Gah!” Seina screamed as she fell victim to Kaguya’s next attack, blood gushing from a sudden chest wound. The girl flailed as she struggled to defend herself. Trapped without her usual senses, the rookie magical girl panicked, falling into the vampire’s game.
“Ouch!” Seina said as a sudden punch rattled her skull from someone she’d presumed was an ally.
“Stop panicking and use your head,” Arisu said, guarding Seina with her body.
“Okay, but you didn’t need to hit so hard,” Seina said, grumbling as she rubbed her sore jaw. But alertness had returned to the girl, paying better attention to her surroundings. “Why are you smirking?”
“Simple, we’re in a place devoid of time,” Arisu replied. “Her timeline-controlling power is almost useless here.”
“But doesn’t that also make your future seeing ability useless?” Seina asked wryly.
“Somewhat, but I can fight. Unlike our opponent.” Arisu said, smirking.
“Amusing,” Kaguya said dryly, finally dropping her shadow cloak. “But this arena devoid of light and hope suits a creature of darkness like myself. Shall I show you why?”
Seina gasped as Kaguya drove her sword into her chest, blood bursting from her back in a stream. The globs of crimson shifted and morphed, each one graining its own form. Before they could even blink, countless Kaguya clones had appeared, each wearing a smug, amused expression.
“Not this trick again,” Arisu said, sighing.
“You can clone yourself?” Seina regained some of her panic.
“From each drop of blood. Thanks to the energy I’m draining from you, I can keep producing them almost indefinitely. And better yet, they possess all my abilities. Have fun!” As one, the Kaguya clones sprung on them while the Prime Kaguya watched in amusement.
---
“What’s happened here?” Bathiko said, voice catching in her throat as she found Starlight Dream reduced to rubble, the center of the entire cosmos reduced to little more than a glowing rock.
“What have the magical girls done?” Tears stung her eyes, outraged by this tragedy. Her mind returned to more innocent days, when she’d only been a fairy pup. She’d loved exploring the crystalline buildings with her brother, spending countless hours playing hide and seek within their towers. Days, of course, that came to an abrupt end when a magical girl butchered her brother for fun. Take and kill, that’s all what magical girls did.
Her feet gently landed on the core of Starlight Dream, pleased the light of existence hadn’t faded at least. Legends said as long as the core glowed bright, life across the wide cosmos would thrive forever.
“Is someone there?” A frightened voice said, startling Bathiko. From an opening in the rock, a tiny white shape poked its head out. Her fur stood on end when she saw it was a magical girl.
“Please don’t hurt us! We’re just hiding! We have nothing to do with nothing!” An unfamiliar fairy said in a terrified squeak.
“Who are you?” A firm, more confident voice said. Much to Bathiko’s surprise, a human walked out of a cave. A friend of Seina’s? Why was he here? “Are you with the Devil Princesses?”
“Never.” Bathiko spat, temper flaring. “I’m no friend of them. What happened here?”
“It was Mei. She destroyed everything to topple the Needle of the Cosmos.” The man replied with remarkable calm, considering he was facing down a magical girl. “It released Kaguya’s true form in the process. She’s fighting Seina and the others right now.”
“The Devil Princesses.” Bathiko gripped her hand so hard blood dripped from her palm. Her voice cracked as the reality of the situation crashed upon her. “That means, my people, the fairies are gone.”
“No, the fairies are safe. Seina evaluated them before the battle happened. As for the other magical girls? Besides you, none have shown up.” The man said, misunderstanding Bathiko’s words. It rankled being compared to one of those monsters, but an understandable confusion.
“Thank goodness.” Gratitude washed over Bathiko’s heart, eternally grateful for Seina’s forethought. But should she spare the girl once everything had concluded?
No, I can’t spare her. For the sake of everyone, all magical girls must die. And thanks to Bathiko’s efforts, most were. She paused as she considered the man’s strange words. “Kaguya’s true form. What do you mean?”
The man did his best to explain the situation. He revealed that the fourth Devil Princess was actually a vampire, and she’d pulled the Devil Princess’s strings to topple the Needle of Cosmos to free her real body. Only one Devil Princess remained, the rest defeated by Seina’s group’s valiant efforts. Unfortunately, the last member’s power was beyond unreal, terrible even to someone with Seina’s might.
“And where is everyone now?” Bathiko extended her senses, but sensed no magical girls. With Seina’s remarkable abilities, she should have detected something.
“I think they’ve fallen into the void.” The fairy said. “I’m not sure if they’re even still alive.”
“The void?” How annoying. How was she supposed to find someone in an endless sea of nothingness? Whatever, if this vampire was the root of all their troubles, then Bathiko would destroy them. Then finishing the other surviving magical girls shouldn’t be difficult.
“Hold on. Where are you going?” The fairy said alarmed, as Bathiko turned to leave. “You can’t just leave us here!”
“And what are your intentions? You haven’t said you’re an ally.” The man said, narrowing his eyes. His sharp senses noticed something odd about this new magical girl.
“I have no intention of hurting you,” Bathiko replied, not answering the question. “And you can leave anytime you want. Why are you still here?” It surprised her they’d even survived Starlight Dream’s destruction. The core must be protecting them from the void.
“Because there’s nowhere to go! Everything’s destroyed! And I’ve never left Starlight Dream before. Where can I even go?” The fairy said.
“Stay here. It’s the safest place in the cosmos.” Without another word, she disappeared back into space. Bathiko decided she’d return later and find them a new home somewhere.
“Is Seina stupid? Why did she even bring those two?” Bathiko removed the pair from her mind, flying to the gaping hole in reality. This must be where Starlight Dream’s dimension had collapsed.
“Here goes nothing.” But Bathiko wasn’t worried. If Seina still lived, her power would allow her to find the girl anywhere, even in the total nothingness of the void.
“Finally, my people will have a better future, free of magical girls.” And Bathiko would be their enforcer, preventing any more magical girls from existing. Peace would be restored to the cosmos. She, the ultimate assassin, would succeed, whatever the cost. Pleased with her vision of a better future, Bathiko charged into the gap in reality and whatever doom it might portend.