44. Unbelievable

“Hey, Anath, maybe we should—” Thea valiantly attempts, but her words are, of course, in vain. The Dark Rebellion’s most feral member has already leaped forward to attack a magical girl head-on. Amaterasu’s ears flick straight up on her head and she rushes forward to intercept, the two of them clashing in the middle. Anath’s rough crystal arm blades catch on Amaterasu’s incarnate daggers as they stare each other down.

“I love your little doggie ears!” Anath tells her brightly.

“Shut up!” Amaterasu growls back, heaving Anath away. “Gʟᴇᴀᴍ Bʟᴀᴅᴇ!”

“…Wait, why are you acting upset?” Anath asks, narrowing her eyes as she ducks a swing from Amaterasu’s enlarged, glowing weapons. “They’re cute!”

“I’m not proud of my corruption!” Amaterasu snaps at her.

“Huh?” Anath asks. “What are you talking about?”

The two of them exchange a few blows, Anath remaining bewildered but overall having a pretty good time. Amaterasu clearly isn’t, but like, fuck her anyway. Thea and I stand around somewhat awkwardly as the two of them continue, hardly even using any spells as they try to whack each other to death.

“This is so stupid,” Thea mutters.

I have to agree, but I’m not sure if I should intervene. I’m pretty sure I’m a more effective fighter than I was when I last fought Amaterasu, and I’m tempted to see if I can match her without Thea’s insane buffs. I’ve got a better handle on spells than I did before, and way higher energy reserves, at least for now. But I’d prefer not to waste those energy reserves. Nothing about this situation is likely to make me very happy.

Amaterasu definitely has Anath on the back foot, but Anath isn’t in her incarnate form so I imagine that’ll be coming out soon to even the tides. I asked her why she doesn’t just start in her incarnate form when fighting like everyone else (except Melpomene, I guess) and she said “This way I get to have a second phase! Like a video game boss! Isn’t that so cool!?” Suffice it to say, I don’t think anyone will ever get that girl to stop marching to the beat of her own drum.

“Pʀᴇᴛᴛʏ Wᴀʀʀɪᴏʀ Pᴏᴡᴇʀ Uᴘ!”

Oh hey, there she goes. Gotta say, Anath’s transformation phrase is hilarious. It sounds like something she picked when she was eight and never bothered to update after her incarnate form stopped being a small girl in a dress and started being Anath the Hedgehog Original Character Do Not Steal.

“Rʜᴀᴘsᴏᴅɪᴄ Bᴇᴀsᴛ Cᴏɴsᴜᴍᴍᴀᴛᴇ Aɴᴀᴛʜ!”

And there she is, in all her blue-and-yellow glory. The squirrel-kitsune monstrosity that is Anath’s incarnate form picks up the pace of the fight, flipping the metaphorical table and putting Amaterasu on the back foot. Buuuut I have no doubt that Amaterasu will pull some spell out of her ass to take back momentum, and then Anath will counter with one of her own, and on and on and on until the two of them are passed out on the floor, at which point I’ll just grab Anath and take her home.

“This is so stupid,” Thea sighs.

[LunaLightOTK]: Anath looks like she’s having fun, at least.

Thea’s laptop lets out a quiet beep in her arms, so she unfolds it and reads the message, sitting down and putting the device in her lap so she can type.

[WrenchWitch]: Are we sure she’s not having a manic episode, still? She sure looks like she is.

Hmm. Well, I’m not a psychiatrist or anything, but she does seem different from the last time I saw her fight. A little more defensive, a little more focused. It’s not a big difference, but it’s a difference.

[LunaLightOTK]: I think she’s in control of herself. The real question is whether being in control of herself will keep her out of trouble.

[WrenchWItch]: That’s a good point.

“Your tail is pretty too!” Anath calls out between blows. “Do you use conditioner?”

“Don’t mock me!”

“I’m not!” Anath insists. “Do you think my incarnate form would have this many tails if I didn’t like them?”

“Not everyone is as eager as you to be turned into some lowly beast!” Amaterasu snaps.

“Well yeah, but you are!” Anath insists. “Why would your incarnate form have such cute wolfy bits otherwise?”

“Because of Dark World corruption, fool!” Amaterasu answers.

“What? That’s not how that works,” Anath says. Which, what? I was under the distinct impression that was exactly how it worked.

“Anath, what are you talking about?” Thea asks, sharing my confusion.

“That’s not how it works!” Anath insists. “I mean, the Dark World can give people extra parts, but that’s for their material body. Incarnate forms are totally different! You know that, your incarnate form has way less cool monster bits than your normal body. I’ve seen Su-san’s human form, and she doesn’t even have any ears! Not good ears, I mean.”

“You do not get to call me Su-san,” Amaterasu growls, exchanging a few more blows.

“Okey-dokey, Su-chan!” Anath responds brightly.

Amaterasu snarls furiously and attempts a reckless lunge, which Anath sidesteps easily. Is she actually doing this on purpose? Making Amaterasu angry to weaken her? It honestly wouldn’t even be that huge of an effect; Amaterasu’s magic is aligned northwest, while anger is just west. The energy loss would be significant, but less so than it would be for most magical girls.

“Wow, you might be even more like me than poor Fulgy is,” Anath comments, dancing backwards.

“We are nothing like you!” Amaterasu roars. “We did not abandon our duty to follow maddened, selfish whims! I have my disagreements with Fulgora-san, but there is no question that she is skilled and dedicated to the protection of this planet.”

“It’s not like I want to destroy the planet,” Anath pouts. “But you guys should really try out selfish whims sometime. I think it’d do you a lot of good! That’s why I’m fighting you. It’s the only thing you actually let yourselves be proud of.”

“You think you’re helping us?! You really are insane.”

“Nah,” Anath says, a little sadly. “I think I’m just really bad at it. But don’t worry, Su-chan, I’ll keep trying!”

“Please don’t,” Thea chimes in.

“But I want to!” Anath responds cheerfully. “It’s fun for me too!”

And then she and Amaterasu crash into each other again, and our front-row tickets to the idiot wars start paying off once again. Honestly, both of them do have extremely similar fighting styles, being close-range brawlers with feral undertones that rely on instinct and speed more than technique.

It’s probably at this point that a manic Anath would be getting herself exceptionally fucked up and beat nearly to death through her own reckless behavior, and it certainly seems like Amaterasu wants to do that, but Anath’s current fighting style looks more like she’s playing with the other girl than anything. It’s a violent game, to be sure, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s tallying up the blows she lands as points scored. That said, I’m not sure if she’s winning the game, and frankly I’m not even sure if she wants to.

I’m probably going to have to step in. One way or another, Anath certainly isn’t taking things seriously, and she’s not winning decisively enough to ensure we’ll actually get home. Sure enough, she leaves an opening for Amaterasu that the wolf girl immediately capitalizes on, kicking Anath away and sending her sprawling across the asphalt. But rather than leap onto her opponent and capitalize, she sheathes her daggers. Oh! Is she going to… no. No, wait. That is a terrifyingly familiar stance.

“Cᴀ—”

Ooh, I don’t like that syllable. I don’t like that syllable at all.

“—ᴛʜᴀʀ—”

Yeah, fuck, goddamn it, no no no! She’s aiming to hit all three of us! I jump in front of Thea and yank her to her feet, but it’s too slow, I can’t get her out of the way in time.

“—sɪs: Nɪ—”

“[Gʜʀᴀɴᴛᴀғ]” I counter, the Antipathy word for shield empowering my natural defenses and extending them into a disk in front of me as I hold out my arms. Thea’s eyes go wide as she realizes what’s happening, and she pulls out her tome.

“—ɢʜᴛsᴘʟɪᴛᴛᴇʀ.”

“Gʀᴇᴀᴛᴇʀ Gɪғᴛ ᴏғ Tᴇʀʀᴏʀ!” Thea shrieks, flooding my reserves with temporary energy as the white-hot cone of annihilation floods outwards from Amaterasu’s drawn blade. I can’t tell where Anath is anymore, but I can’t protect her. I can’t even take a single step from this spot as the sheer, overwhelming force behind the attack threatens to blow me away, shield and all. I curl my toes and dig into the ground as I do my best to hold back the assault.

Temporary reserves at 37%.

Temporary reserves at 24%.

Temporary reserves at 11%.

Temporary reserves depleted. My power reserves have been reduced to 46%.

“Gɪғᴛ ᴏғ Tᴇʀʀᴏʀ!”

Temporary reserves at 15%.

Temporary reserves at 4%.

Temporary reserves depleted. My power reserves have been reduced to 33%.

“Gɪғᴛ ᴏғ Tᴇʀʀᴏʀ!”

Temporary reserves at 15%.

“Gɪғᴛ ᴏғ Tᴇʀʀᴏʀ! Gɪғᴛ ᴏғ Tᴇʀʀᴏʀ! Gɪғᴛ ᴏғ Tᴇʀʀᴏʀ! Gɪғᴛ ᴏғ Tᴇʀʀᴏʀ!”

Thea is screaming out spells as fast as she can, over and over, and it’s just barely not fast enough to avoid my personal energy stores from plummeting towards zero at a rate I’ve never had to experience before. Ha. If only I was a green mage right now. Not that I’m not burning all my fear anyway. I feel almost lightheaded from how I’m pumping every last emotion into desperately trying to survive. Thea’s eyes are scrunched shut, not just because of how petrifying this all is, but because the sheer amount of light still bleeding through my shields is probably enough to scour her retinas permanently blind if she looks for more than a fraction of an instant.

Yet eventually, the attack subsides, leaving the liminal space scoured white. Blocking that one attack was nearly a hundred and fifty percent of my total power reserves by itself. I had to structure my shields inefficiently to cover Thea as well, and I probably could have designed a more specialized barrier to dramatically improve effectiveness given I’ve already seen the attack once before, but… there was no time. I need to do a better job of cataloging enemy attacks and determining optimal counters to all of them, or else I won’t be able to protect—ah! Anath! Where’s Anath, is she alright!? Oh god, there’s no way she could have taken that attack and survived!

Looking around, I don’t see her anywhere… which is not a good thing, because there’s a distinct chance her incarnate form just got vaporized. The residual northwest magical energy in the air makes it nearly impossible for me to lock onto any discrete signals, especially one so closely aligned like Anath’s, but I should be able to find her anyway! Where is she, come on, where is she!? Null on visual, null on magical, null on lidar or any other terrain scanner, just some weird readings on the vibrometer that are probably just everything on the edge of the attack radius completely collapsing… oh, god.

This is going to start an all-out war, isn’t it? Melpomene’s going to murder Amaterasu if Nanaya doesn’t get to her first. I stare at Amaterasu as she pants for breath at the origin point of all this annihilation, glowering furiously at me for having the audacity to not roll over and die for her. Sweat pours down her face. The last time she used her Catharsis, she collapsed soon after. She’s managing to stay standing for now, but I doubt she’ll be able to put up much of a fight. The question is: what do I do about her? How do I damage control here?

I can mourn later. For now, I have to—

“Eek!”

Amaterasu suddenly yelps in surprise as the ground underneath her collapses into a pit, a familiar furry hand grabbing her ankle and yanking her down into the ground. Oh! Oh!

“You missed,” Anath says, and I can hear the grin on her face. “That attack was so strong! Not fast, though, and I am fast. Knocking me down isn’t really immobilizing me, ya know.”

Amaterasu’s only response is what I assume to be some very unflattering words in Japanese. I’ll look ’em up later. Thea practically collapses in relief next to me, falling to her hands and knees with an exhausted huff. I leave her on the not-boiling ground and carefully step over to where Anath has Amaterasu pinned against the inside wall of her little tunnel. …Oof. It looks like our resident squirrel didn’t get out of things entirely unscathed after all. One of her legs is a burnt, charred mess, with the foot being entirely unrecognizable. A few of her tails are little more than charred stumps, too. She’s only supporting herself by bracing against the tunnel walls with her forearms and balancing on the other leg.

She has, of course, decided to brace herself with her arms on either side of Amaterasu.

“I like you,” Anath declares, and then Amaterasu passes out. “Oop!”

Anath tries to catch the girl, which causes both of them to tumble like an upturned sack of potatoes, collapsing against the cramped walls of the tunnel Anath somehow dug from her prior location all the way underneath where Amaterasu was standing. I guess I can see a few ways she could accomplish that with her magic, and it would have easily been hidden beneath the smokescreen of Amaterasu’s overwhelming magical output.

Amaterasu is definitely stronger than any one of the three of us, but she’s not all that effective at using her power. Anath is right; that really wasn’t a great time to bust out her Catharsis. She had the space to pull it off, sure, but all of us had enough time to prepare countermeasures. Countermeasures that the monsters she’s used to fighting wouldn’t have access to, by and large, but still.

“Anath, leave the Earth Guardian alone and let’s go home,” Thea sighs, standing a little shakily.

“Can we bring her with?” Anath begs. “Pleaaase? It would be so good for her!”

“No, and no it wouldn’t,” Thea scowls. “How are you so good at empathy and so terrible at people?”

“I dunno, how come you’re bad at both?” Anath asks, and so I kick some molten dirt down into her hole. “Ack! Appfflph—”

“Don’t be a jerk,” Thea scowls, blushing a little. “It’s not my fault I’ve only had three other people to talk to my whole life. At least you kept sneaking out to Earth to talk to humans.”

“Ooh, I should have done that more,” Anath realizes. “That would have been fun! I mostly just hung out with Jim, though. He’s so nice.”

“Let’s just… let’s just go home and get Nanaya to look at you. Luna, could you take Amaterasu somewhere… relatively safe?” Thea asks. “I don’t wanna just leave her in a hole while everything melts around her, and you’re faster than me.”

I nod, squatting down to accept Amaterasu as Anath does her best to lift the girl up into my arms. She falls out of incarnate form as we jostle her, the last of her residual energy running out now that she’s unconscious. With her in my arms, I quickly run back to the edge of the liminal space, drop her off on a nearby park bench, and sprint back to the Dark World before any other magical girls get any bright ideas.

Back at the castle, I head up to the main room to find Nanaya finishing up on healing Anath’s various injuries while the squirrel herself chows down on a stack of sandwiches, probably also made by Nanaya. The most responsible member of the Dark Rebellion who only occasionally attempts to murder children glances up at me as I enter, a scowl on her face.

“Luna,” she greets me cordially. “I hear you managed to survive a Catharsis.”

“Only thanks to Thea’s help,” I respond. “I’ll be more prepared next time.”

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“Hopefully there will not be a next time,” Nanaya comments.

“Well yeah, but like, come on. There’s gonna be a next time.”

“Mmm.”

“Need any help, Nana?” I ask.

“I am almost finished,” she responds. “I believe Melpomene was looking for you.”

Oh. Joy.

“I’ll go find her, then,” I say, immediately doing just that. She’s in her room, of course. All our best conversations seem to happen in her room. I trudge upstairs, doing my best not to look like I’m walking off to get hanged. Is this it? Are the chains going back around my neck already? There’s no way to know until I get there and feel them start to choke me.

I head upstairs, walk down that familiar hallway, and enter her room, shutting the door behind me. The privacy spell activates. She’s at her desk in front of me, reading through various scrawled papers of notes, chewing lightly on the clawed, crystalline tip of her thumb.

“…Luna,” she greets me after a moment, pulling herself away from whatever she was reading. “Hello.”

“Hey, master,” I greet her flatly, and she winces.

“…About that,” she grimaces. “I wanted to make sure I emphasized that your participation in this mission is optional. You probably heard it’s likely to be important, and I didn’t want you to… be forced to make a decision you didn’t want to. You mentioned that added clarity would be helpful in these matters, so… yes. Here it is.”

Oh. Huh. Really? …No. No way.

“…What’s your angle here?” I demand.

“Wh… angle?” she blinks, seeming genuinely confused. “I just told you, I… I made a mistake with you, Luna.”

“Then own up to it,” I tell her.

“I… I can’t,” she insists. “But still, I—”

“This mission isn’t just important because it’s what you want,” I say, cutting her off. “It should be some pretty major ruins, right?”

“…Yes,” she confirms. “It’s the same fragment that disgorged those kaiju near Denver a few months ago. Fragments have to be very large to create a kaiju, and they’re usually signs of major population centers for the Antipathy. The miasma will be abnormally thick there, but it could potentially hold all the answers we’re seeking. I think we have to risk it.”

“Then I’m going with you,” I tell her simply. “I still care about the others, and I care about protecting Earth. This would be a dumbass choice for me to opt out of, and you know it. Did you think I was going to forgive you if you faked being nice enough? Please.”

“I… Luna, that’s not…” she tries, but I’m not buying it.

“A fragment like that will be heavily guarded too, won’t it?” I barrel on. “You might be strong enough not to need the help, but the others could still be in danger. Not to mention how badly you’ll need me to actually translate anything you guys manage to find there. I’m definitely going. When do we leave?”

Melpomene sighs.

“…As soon as the others are ready,” she says. “The fragment likely hasn’t converged yet, but it will be a bit of a trip. It’s still quite a ways south of here, so we’ll be leaving the city.”

Oh! Huh.

“Do we know anything about the magical girls that will be guarding the place, then?” I ask.

“…It doesn’t really matter,” Melpomene dismisses. “I’ll be there, so they won’t be able to stop us.”

“And if Castalia’s there?” I ask. “It is the big kaiju fragment they called her out of retirement for.”