46. Confrontations

Light overtakes my form, swirling around me and forming my outfit as Fulgora’s broken body is replaced with my own. Small and sleek, dressed in soft gloves and a flowing skirt, I am the very picture of a magical girl. But I’m more than just an idea aliens stole from old cartoons.

I am an Earth Guardian! And I won’t lose again!

“Bʀᴀᴠᴇ Pʀɪɴᴄᴇss Dᴜᴛɪғᴜʟ Mɪɴᴇʀᴠᴀ!” I shout, and though the spell blasts Nanaya away, she doesn’t waste any time regaining her footing and launching forward in a renewed assault. She’s a close-range fighter, after all, and I’m a lot smaller than Fulgora, with a spell set that focuses much more on long-distance attacks. But of course, it’s not really a problem. Nanaya is forgetting something very important.

I’m still here, bitch!

“Fᴜʟᴍɪɴᴀɴᴛ—”

Use a fake aim to make her dodge.

“—Sᴛᴇᴘ!”

And teleport behind her!

“Aʙʀᴇᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ: Hᴇᴀᴠᴇɴ’s Hᴀᴍᴍᴇʀ!”

Nanaya twists around and barely summons her viola in time to block, but the force of the impact with my gunstaff is still enough for the thunderclap to explode in her face, damaging her through her guard and sending her careening through the air. Now, I aim down the length of my weapon for a real shot. I fire a tiny glowing dot, barely visible and largely powerless. It strikes true on Nanaya’s chest, doing nothing on its own, but before I even finish speaking the words of the spell, I’m raising one hand towards the skies. That shot was just to tell the magic where to go.

“Aʙʀᴇᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ: Hᴇᴀᴠᴇɴ’s Rᴇᴊᴇᴄᴛɪᴏɴ!”

Nanaya tries to dodge, but it’s already too late. A massive thunderbolt falls from the sky and smashes her into the ground, crushing and electrocuting her all at once. The earth explodes where she lands, pain wracking through her body… though it’s far from time to let my guard down. Even on her hands and knees, the woman glares furiously at me from the corner of her eye.

“Fᴜʟᴍɪɴᴀɴᴛ Tʜᴜɴᴅᴇʀ!” I follow up, not wanting to give her even a moment to recover as I take to the skies, but despite the pain arcing through her body she manages to dodge, pushing off the ground with her hands and springing into the air. She summons the bow of her viola, drawing back the string like it was the weapon of the same name, and gathers magic into a brilliant red arrow that forms itself already nocked.

“Aʙʀᴇᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ: Tᴀᴄᴛɪᴄᴀʟ Pʀᴇᴄɪsɪᴏɴ Sᴛʀɪᴋᴇ,” she growls, the arrow growing to several times its former size before she launches the shot straight up into the air. I track its ascent, but it rapidly becomes little more than a red speck in the sky and I have no choice but to take my eyes off of it and keep them on Nanaya instead. She’s too dangerous of an opponent to ignore.

She flies after me as I try to make distance, harrying me with smaller energy arrows as I fire back with bolts of lightning. We dance through the air with each other, always fighting to gain an advantageous position and repeatedly missing each other by a hair’s breadth.

In the distance behind us, Melpomene and Castalia perform an eerily similar dance, albeit over a much broader scope at far faster speeds. They rarely fire at each other, each refusing to commit as they size each other up. Both of them are keeping one eye on our fight, too, and I realize that either of them could end it in an instant in favor of their side if given a chance. Yet they’re both content acting as nothing more than a deterrent for the other… why, I wonder? Castalia was confident she could take Melpomene, wasn’t she?

We’re probably in her way. Let’s end this fast.

Yeah, alright. Keeping this as a stalemate is in no one’s best interest. Time to commit.

You sure about this? It messed us up pretty bad the first time.

You can’t say it wasn’t effective, though. And it’s a field control spell; if we’re going to use it at all, it’s better to use it early so we can have it up for the entire rest of the fight.

Alright. Alright, let’s do this. I’m definitely good and mad.

And I’m terrified. Let’s kick her butt. Fulgora and I take a deep breath, draw deep from inside ourselves, and say the words.

“Cᴀᴛʜᴀʀsɪs: Cᴏɴғʟᴜᴇɴᴛ Sᴜᴘᴇʀsᴛᴏʀᴍ!”

Nanaya’s eyes go wide as I take our fight from zero to a hundred in three simple words, but we’re committed to this. We’re going to beat her. A surge of magic floods the air around us, forming into dark clouds that swirl and twist overhead, the herald of a violent storm. The wind picks up, its raging gusts an extension of my body and mind, letting me feel everything, be everything. I slam down on Nanaya, a downburst slapping her out of the sky like the back of my own hand as lightning gathers ahead.

She’s endangering the entire world, helping the corrupted mine for dark artifacts. But more importantly than that, she hurt Aurora. She hurt Veritas. We will not allow her to threaten them again! NEVER AGAIN!

“Aʙʀᴇᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ: Sɪʟᴇɴᴛ Dɪᴀsᴘᴏʀᴀ!” Nanaya roars, turning the whole world a perfect pitch black, slinking silently through the air to attack me from behind. But I’m not blind here, not anymore. We are the storm!

“Tᴡɪɴ Fᴜʟᴍɪɴᴀɴᴛ Tʜᴜɴᴅᴇʀ!”

My aim is true, both bolts arcing through Nanaya at once before getting joined by a third from above. My foe cries out in pain, a vicious smile forming on my face. More! Again! Don’t let up! Alone, we might be weak, but together, we are stronger than her!

Nanaya strikes her bow across her viola, causing out a painful screech that pierces through the quiet of her own abreaction. Around me, the black shadows shift, coalescing together into humanoid shapes, ethereal yet solid against the wind.

“Sᴏʟᴅɪᴇʀ’s Éᴛᴜᴅᴇ,” Nanaya declares, and despite the storm battering her once more into the ground, she absorbs the fall on her multi-jointed legs and begins to play her viola.

It’s a simple piece, starting with low, long notes as the shadow forms line up, wispy replicas of rifles forming in their hands. I drop a row of lightning bolts on top of them, blasting them apart, but more keep forming around me, aiming their weapons to fire. Nanaya’s music speeds up, going up and down the scale in increasingly frantic ways before an entire ring of them surrounds me and fires.

I drop down, the bullets of darkness whizzing over my head and the shadows all killing each other in the crossfire, dropping dead and disintegrating into mist. But just as quickly as they disappear, more form around me. My target clearly needs to be Nanaya. She sidesteps a lightning bolt as I fire one her way, continuing to play, while the next shot I fire gets intercepted by a quickly formed shadow. Her attack isn’t very dangerous, but it’s not supposed to be, is it? She’s just stalling for time. The moment my Catharsis runs out, I’ll be completely spent, and she’ll win.

My turn, then.

Agreed. The wind at my back, I launch myself directly at her, staff swinging with as much intent to disrupt her music as to actually hit her. She’s not quite as focused of a combatant while in the middle of playing a song, but she’s still no slouch. My falling strike misses by a hair, but overly committed attacks like that aren’t anywhere near as much of a problem when you have spells like Fulgora’s.

“Lɪɢʜᴛɴɪɴɢ Aʀᴄ!” she shouts with my mouth, and our weapon is instantly accelerated into a follow-up attack. “Round two, bitch!”

No need to be rude! Nanaya winces as she blocks our strike with her forearm, lashing out with a kick that we fly over, making a jab at her head as we pass by. But Nanaya splits her conjoined arm, catching our strike with her now-free hands and yanking us in.

“Aʀᴍᴀɢᴇᴅᴅᴏɴ Iᴍᴘᴀᴄᴛ!” Nanaya casts, bringing her knee up towards our head. We barely manage to drop our weapon and evade in time, though her strike still detonates in the air, sending us flying into a wall. The shadow soldiers summoned by her song appear as a firing line in front of me, unleashing a hail of bullets that break against my chest, tearing holes in my incarnate armor and stinging like an absolute motherfucker.

Nanaya herself isn’t idle either, as an instant later her foot is on course to smash me through the wall entirely. It’s time. On instinct, we gather our magic, Fulgora and I casting together.

“Tᴡɪɴ Lɪɢʜᴛɴɪɴɢ Aʀᴄ!”

My body seems to split in two, with me dodging left and a short-lived construct mirroring my movements right, each of us avoiding Nanaya’s strike on either side. And just as quickly as we dodge, we attack in sequence, two versions of my incarnate weapon striking Nanaya on either side. She blocks them both, but I finally hit the hand holding her viola, forcing her to miss a note and ending her spell. In response, she grabs one of the incarnate weapons again… but it’s the wrong one, my mirror self dissipating at the spell’s end and leaving me free to bury my shin into her stomach.

The impact strikes her directly in the densest cluster of crystals growing out of her, which hurts like hell, my leg getting torn up from the impact. But the strike is devastating. Nanaya vomits up blood as the blow connects, dropping both parts of her incarnate weapon and causing her to tumble backwards, completely disoriented. Now is the time! Finish her!

I command the storm, a torrent of wind crushing her as four lightning bolts descend from the heavens on top of her head. And just for good measure, I line up my staff, and…

What?

The world is red, my head is ringing, and I can’t feel anything but pain. I’m tumbling through the air, the shockwave of some unknown explosion having flung me away from Nanaya at the final moment. The attack she launched into the air! Damn it! This whole fight, I’ve been ready for surprises, but it came down right at the perfect moment, the instant I was focused entirely on offense. That was… that was bad. That almost took me out in one shot.

Almost. But not quite. The storm still rages.

The storm still rages! And even with my vision blurry, my body unsteady, and my broken sense of balance trying to spin me every which-way, I can feel her. I know where she is. With the sky above still charging, I line up my shot.

But she speaks faster.

“Cᴀᴛʜᴀʀsɪs: Oᴍɴɪᴄɪᴅᴀʟ Wʀᴀᴛʜ.”

The all-consuming darkness of Nanaya’s Abreaction, the space beyond, and even the air of the very storm I control… all of it bursts into flames. Fire roars through the atmosphere, choking out the atmosphere and hungrily grasping for flesh to devour. I move my storm, creating a swirling barrier of air around me, but the fire presses in, clawing at everything, trying to destroy everything.

Even Nanaya has been set aflame. But she stands tall regardless, the fire only burning her slightly faster than she can heal. It’s all I can do to keep the flames away, my Catharsis battling hers for dominance.

“I trusted them too, you know,” Nanaya says with disturbing calm. “I was an Earth Guardian, in body, mind, and soul. When they told me I was doing something noble, doing something great, and wise, and just… I believed them with all my heart.”

The fire roars and the storm roars back, the entire liminal zone around us slowly but surely getting devoured by the flames. Maybe… maybe even literally. Between the flickers of burning light, I could almost swear I see glimpses of Earth, and perhaps somewhere that is most assuredly not Earth. But with the fire illuminating it all, how could it look like the Dark World?

“And so they used me up, risking nothing and demanding everything as all goodness in my life burned to ash around me. And they looked to me, and they said: this is right. This is the correct way to use power.”

The flames burn hotter as Nanaya’s rage spikes, her pinprick eyes staring through me with unyielding hatred towards something neither of us can see.

“It is,” Nanaya says, “a lesson I have learned well.”

The fire screams, the harrowing sounds of men, women, and children burning alive. The cries start out loud, startling me, but the true horror comes from the moments after, where the pain gives way to death, and despite the unrelenting agony there is no more energy left to cry out in pain. The smell of burnt meat wafts in through my storm.

“The Dark Rebellion—or the Corrupted, as you know them—are good people, by and large. Even Melpomene has her moments, as ultimately they all want nothing more than what’s best for the world. They have good reasons for doing what they do. We all have good reasons to distrust the Preservers. It benefits me to espouse the same virtues, but alone in the darkest of nights, I know the truth of myself. I do not care about saving the world. All I want is for the Preservers to burn.”

I’m holding on by a thread and I know it. Only the abject terror of the screaming fire around me keeps me going, but my Catharsis is running on fumes. I had my moment. I’m almost spent.

“They. Deserve. To BURN!” Nanaya shouts. “TO BURN LIKE MY FAMILY DID! TO BURN LIKE THE MEN I SLAUGHTERED! TO BURN LIKE EVERY CHILD LOST TO THEIR SELFISH, EGOCENTRIC INSANITY!”

Peeling open my barrier of air, the heat presses in on me, boiling me despite my defenses. I have to hold on, I have to hold on, but I can’t!

But we have to.

We have to!

“You know nothing, you idiotic child!” Nanaya rages, her composure utterly lost. Skin blackens, then ashens, and ultimately flakes away off her face, the fire consuming even its master, and she doesn’t even seem to notice. “But you will. We will not let you destroy what we’ve found! Not today! Today, the world finally gets to know the truth! Today, after so long, we finally hurt them in a way that matters!”

Spittle would be flying from her mouth if the flames hadn’t already burned it dry. It’s a miracle she’s still speaking. She’s killing herself with her own attack. We just have to hold out! Just a little longer! I know. I know! But my eyes are flickering closed. My fear and anger are drying up. The most I feel right now is… pity. She’s in so much pain.

No, don’t think about that! We have to hate her! We have to fear her! Come on, remember Veritas and Aurora!

I love those kids.

And she hurt them!

I know. I know she did. I’m trying, but… I’m spent. I’m spent, Fulgora. I’m sorry. We got so close.

I… damn it. I can’t even be mad about it. Is this the end?

I guess we’ll see. I’m not really afraid of it either way.

I can’t fly anymore, and when I land on the ground I just about collapse on the spot. My Catharsis, having used up every last drop of my emotions, finally ends. The flames return, and they hurt, but… I’m just so tired. I can’t… I…

“[M ᴇ ɢ ᴀ B ᴜ s ᴛ ᴇ ʀ]”

Backup? Already? And for the enemy team. I guess it doesn’t really matter, I… huh? Wait.

The shot that pierced through the flames… just hit Nanaya. The yellow orb of energy bursts against the side of her head, knocking her over and knocking her out immediately. The fire disappears, though the blackened ground and devoured remnants of liminal buildings remain, as do the the countless burns that have chewed through Nanaya’s flesh. Or at least, they remain until Nanaya’s incarnate form breaks, deactivated by her unconsciousness, and her body returns to its prior state, her tattered suit replaced with an old cloak and cloth bandages.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

And then, the humanoid artifact appears, walking over the smoldering ground without difficulty. It leaps over to Nanaya, gingerly picking her up before the lingering heat can sear itself too deeply into her non-incarnate skin.

Oh. I see. It’s here to prevent Nanaya from killing herself. That makes sense. I guess I’ll still die here; the toxic fumes and burning ground aren’t survivable for my human self, and it won’t be long before I can’t even hold onto who I am anymore. I won’t even care about something as important as that, at least until I rest. So I’ll die in my sleep. Heh. Not the way I was expecting to go, even if it is on a battlefield.

The artifact turns to me, its crystalline yellow eyes utterly expressionless as it shifts Nanaya onto a translucent floating platform. Amalthea’s spell, I realize. I guess she didn’t fight, so maybe she was controlling the artifact? That would make sense.

Oh hey, the artifact is walking closer to me. That’s good. Quicker than burning to death. It reaches down and… also lifts me onto the platform? Huh?

It’s saving me?

That’s weird, Fulgora comments, and I barely manage to agree before I pass out.

– – –

All things considered, I gotta say: two suicidal magical girls is two too many. Especially when they’re both my friends.

When it became pretty clear no one was coming after Thea, she and I agreed I should return to provide backup. So I did, only to find a massive fire tornado obliterating several blocks. Scans quickly indicated that Nanaya was the source of the destruction, and that it was entirely indiscriminate and actively killing her. So I knocked her dumb ass out. What the hell, woman? I thought you were smarter than that.

…Though maybe I shouldn’t have. Nanaya is a person with a lot of self-control, who doesn’t show a lot of emotion. But a catharsis, by definition, is an outpouring of repressed emotion. Of course it was going to be scary coming from someone like her. The last time she lost control of her emotions she nearly murdered two kids. …And this time, she nearly murdered one kid, or at least whatever the hell Minerva counts as.

…So now they’re both unconscious on the platform spell I stole from Thea, having thoroughly beat the shit out of each other. It was kind of painful watching Eliza look at me and just assume she would die. I could see it in her eyes. And she just… didn’t care. I could feel that she didn’t care. That poor girl is not okay.

But whatever! She’ll be alright. As long as I can get her out of this active war zone, anyway.

“It’s fun, right!? Right!?” Anath shrieks with delight, the screeching sounds of metal against crystal ringing out like machine gun fire as she and Amaterasu exchange blows.