57. Prayers

The raw magical power saturating the air is so thick I feel like I’ve been thrown into the Dark World itself. The mere presence of Melpomene’s incarnate form causes a few of the nearby humans to spasm and pass out, foreign magic forcing its way into their souls and ravaging them from the inside.

“You two need to go!” I order my team again.

“You can’t face this by yourself!” Aurora protests.

“She’s right,” Amaterasu agrees, her tail flicking behind her as she stares up at the Dark Rebellion above us. “We need their help.”

“It’s way too dangerous for—”

“What do you think being an Earth Guardian is, Minerva-san!?” Amaterasu snaps at me. “It is because it is dangerous that they must be here!”

Shit. Shit!

“…Okay, fine,” I sigh. “But you two are not to engage Melpomene or Nanaya. You’re on damage control and interference, okay?”

“No,” Amaterasu protests again. The hell is her problem!? “I should be on damage control and interference duty. My speed makes me ideal for harassing their support and swinging fights with brief interruptions. You should take down Nanaya as quickly as possible. Veritas and Aurora are best suited to fight Anath.”

“You want to take Amalthea and the artifact?” I challenge.

“No,” Amaterasu says. “It’s just the best plan. You are the third strongest combatant on the field, and the first two must necessarily face each other. The rest of us must support you as best befits your talents. The faster you defeat your foes, the faster you can help Castalia.”

And that’s the scary thing, isn’t it? Glancing up at the sky, I can’t help but feel the terrifying truth that Castalia will need the help. Melpomene is stronger. There’s someone who is stronger than Castalia…!

Amaterasu is right. This is the best plan.

“You’ve changed, haven’t you?” I say, the words somewhat inappropriate given the situation, but they fall out of my mouth anyway.

“I hate being inadequate,” she growls. “Our enemies were kind enough to educate me about my faults, so I have been working on them.”

Huh. I guess that makes sense. Her English has improved leaps and bounds since she first got here. She barely even has an accent anymore. That normally takes a bit longer, doesn’t it?

“Now enough talk,” Su says. “It is about to begin.”

“Exᴇᴄʀᴀᴛɪɴɢ Tʜᴜɴᴅᴇʀ!” the inhuman beast that is Melpomene roars, purple lightning arcing between the fingers of her two free hands before she fires it at Castalia.

What? That spell looks like…

“Sᴛᴀʀʟɪɢʜᴛ Cᴀɴɴᴏɴ!” Castalia incants in response, firing a massive golden beam and intercepting Melpomene’s spell. The magical forces crash into each other, detonating in the sky between the two legends.

No time to think about it! Any human bystanders that have yet to pick their jaws up off the ground gain enough intelligence to scream and start running away at that, which is honestly about the best I can hope for in this situation. The other members of the Dark Rebellion assume their incarnate forms, and the fight begins. Ready, Fulgora?

As I’ll ever be. Let’s stop them once and for all!

I rise up into the air, summoning and instinctively flourishing my scepter before aiming it directly at Nanaya. No messing around, no mercy. We take her down hard.

“Fᴜʟᴍɪɴᴀɴᴛ Bᴀʀʀᴀɢᴇ!” I incant, Fulgora flowing through the air and helping me guide a dozen magic circles to surround Nanaya, and by extension the rest of the rebellion, with bright, yellow-green magic circles.

“[L ɪ ɢ ʜ ᴛ ɴ ɪ ɴ ɢ B ᴀ ʀ ʀ ɪ ᴇ ʀ]” the Artifact responds almost instantly, a web of magical blue lines spiraling around the Dark Rebellion and embedding themselves into the ground below. The many bolts of electricity I fire latch onto the lines like wires, traveling down them and detonating harmlessly in the ground.

“Mᴀss Eʟᴇᴍᴇɴᴛᴀʟ Rᴇsɪsᴛᴀɴᴄᴇ!” Amalthea incants as well. Damn it, they’re prepared for me, huh?

“Pᴀssɪᴏɴ Sᴛᴇᴘ!” Anath incants, and I certainly expected that one, at least. She crouches down, launches herself directly at me… and crashes headfirst into Veritas’ shield as she leaps up to intercept, thrusting the incarnate weapon forward to make the impact hurt as much as possible.

“Our turn,” she says through gritted teeth, unsummoning her lance to grab Anath by the shoulder, pull her other arm back, and slam the side of her shield into Anath’s head again as the two of them plummet back to the ground.

“Anath!” Amalthea calls out. “G—”

“Dɪᴠɪɴᴇ Bʀᴇᴀᴋᴇʀ!” Amaterasu counters, crashing through the lightning shield as a living spear of light, knocking both Amalthea and the artifact off the floating platform as the latter moves to protect the former.

“Aʙʀᴇᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ: Tᴀᴄᴛɪᴄᴀʟ Pʀᴇᴄɪsɪᴏɴ Sᴛʀɪᴋᴇ,” Nanaya manages to incant in the chaos, firing that darn red bolt up into the sky.

That thing has always been a pain, but we’ll be ready for it this time.

Yeah, if they want me to fear the sky, they have another thing coming. That’s my job.

“Hᴇᴀᴠᴇɴ’s Rᴇᴊᴇᴄᴛɪᴏɴ!” I shout, firing a lightning bolt up into the ever-gathering clouds. “Sᴛᴏʀᴍ Sᴏᴜʟ!”

The very air starts to become ours, Fulgora flowing through it and stoking the power lingering above the battlefield.

“Sᴛᴀʀʟɪɢʜᴛ Cᴀɴɴᴏɴ!” Castalia incants again, the clouds briefly rendered impossible to see against a flash far greater than lightning.

“Please,” Melpomene sneers, taking the attack directly on her incarnate shield. The massive weapon absorbs the shot, her lance glowing ever-brighter purple in response. “Sᴏᴜɴᴅsʜᴀᴛᴛᴇʀ Tʜʀᴜsᴛ.”

In a movement so fast it may as well be teleportation, Melpomene simply appears, her lance extended through the spot Castalia had been flying just an instant before. There’s a split second where the whole world seems silent, followed by a thunderclap so loud it nearly knocks me from the sky. But Castalia herself is not so stunned, having barely moved to Melpomene’s side.

“Nᴇʙᴜʟᴀ Sʜᴏᴛɢᴜɴ!” she shouts, a cone of burning power erupting from in front of her. Melpomene brings her shield up to block most of the blast, but the attack is so wide it still manages to reach the edges of her defense and singe her scales.

Melpomene growls in irritation, swinging her lance like a club at Castalia’s head and prompting another spell in response.

“Hʏᴘᴇʀsᴘᴀᴄᴇ!” Castalia says, flickering out of view and reappearing on the ground directly below Melpomene, already aiming up. “Aʙʀᴇᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ: Sᴛᴀʀʙʀᴇᴀᴋᴇʀ.”

And the sky alights with cosmic fire.

– – –

My sensors idly inform me that I’m actually quite familiar with the spell Castalia is currently blasting up at my master. It’s the same one she nearly killed me with about forty-five minutes ago. I suppose I feel a bit better getting that fucked up by a single attack if it was an Abreaction, but still. This might actually hurt Melpomene, right?

My master seems to have no such worries, flipping upside-down and charging straight down into the blast, holding her shield out in front of her body and using it to part the beam like a boulder in a raging river.

“Fʟᴀsʜ Dᴀɴᴄᴇ!”

“Gʀᴇᴀᴛᴇʀ Gɪғᴛ ᴏғ Tᴇʀʀᴏʀ! Qᴜᴀᴅ Sᴇᴇᴋᴇʀ Sᴡᴀʀᴍ!”

Ah, right. I don’t have time for this. Idle thoughts are… unnecessary. Contrary to my master’s orders, even. The only thing I need to care about is this battle and everyone in it I can affect. Anath is playing with the kids, so the three of them will be fine. Just some broken bones and bruises. It’s Amaterasu and Minerva we have to worry about.

Unlike our usual fights in the liminal zone, this is a college campus courtyard, with plenty of open space and very little to hide behind. The entire fight is visible from everywhere. I can see it all, yet Amaterasu has still found a way to be slippery enough to escape my sight. At least for now.

“I’ve got to help Mel!” Thea insists, jumping up into the sky, but I catch her by the ankle and pull her back down next to me. “L—hey! What are you…?”

There. Magical signature traced. Amaterasu is making her next attack run.

“Gʟᴇᴀᴍ Bʟᴀᴅᴇ!” she declares, bursting right at us, and I just don’t care.

Yanking Thea to the side, I reconfigure my shielding for Amaterasu’s attack, let her daggers eat up my power reserves as they glance off my defenses, and grab the damn mosquito of a wolf girl by the face as she tries to pass me by. Her entire body jerks to a stop as it collides with magically reinforced metal. She tries to struggle out of my grasp, but my fingers are locked in place tight enough to crack her cheekbones.

“[M ᴇ ɢ ᴀ B ᴜ s ᴛ ᴇ ʀ]”

The teal-colored magical explosion detonates point-blank, finally granting Amaterasu’s desire to be free from my grip as the force rips her out of my hand and flips her upside-down hard enough for her skull to crack the sidewalk.

“A—!”

Amaterasu, Minerva screams, or will scream. The intonation makes it obvious from the first phoneme, but I don’t need to wait and listen. I’m already moving, aiming, preparing my next move.

“[F ᴜ ʟ ᴍ ɪ ɴ ᴀ ɴ ᴛ B ᴀ ʀ ʀ ᴀ ɢ ᴇ]”

To her credit, Minerva acts fast.

“Sᴛᴏʀᴍ Bᴀʀʀɪᴇʀ!” she absorbs my copied attack. I start to prepare another, but…

“Nᴀɴᴏʙᴜʀsᴛ!”

Too slow…? I’m almost impressed. I still sense the spell before it connects, stepping to the side as a highly pressurized shot of air fires down from above like a water cutter, carving a thin hole in the ground where I had just stood. Heh. I get it. Like a microburst. Magical girls and their little themes. So limiting.

“[H ʏ ᴘ ᴇ ʀ s ᴘ ᴀ ᴄ ᴇ]” I complete the incantation, suddenly appearing behind Minerva in the air. Castalia’s teleport is the quickest and most efficient I’ve seen so far, after all. It would be disorienting if I could be disoriented, but I know exactly where I am, how I’m positioned, and why.

“[A ʀ ᴍ ᴀ ɢ ᴇ ᴅ ᴅ ᴏ ɴ I ᴍ ᴘ ᴀ ᴄ ᴛ]”

Minerva twists around as I strike, but it’s not enough. My fist hits her in the kidney instead of the spine, the explosion launching her like a ragdoll directly at Nanaya.

“Aʀᴍᴀɢᴇᴅᴅᴏɴ Iᴍᴘᴀᴄᴛ!” Nanaya follows up, a spark of visceral pleasure mixing its way into her rage as she catches my pass with her fist and reverses Minerva’s momentum with a red explosion to complement my blue.

Drops of blood spray out of Minerva’s mouth as she gets sent flying, but the girl rights herself after only a single spin, the very air twisting and pressurizing to cushion her and give her back control. Far faster than I expected, she’s aiming at Nanaya and me again. Below her, Veritas fends off Anath as Aurora sends healing magic up at her team leader.

You need to do a better job, Anath. I don’t want to have to take those kids down myself. Who am I kidding, though? Anath is the very definition of unreliable. If I want my master’s will completed, I’ll have to do it myself. I take aim—

Please, Eliza. Take this chance. Kill me!

—And fire.

“[M ᴇ ɢ ᴀ B ᴜ s ᴛ ᴇ ʀ]”

Thankfully, for all her faults, Eliza is still a good friend.

– – –

“Aʙʀᴇᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ!” I roar, Fulgora’s fury bolstering my power. “Cʏᴄʟᴏɴɪᴄ Dɪᴠɪᴅᴇʀ!”

Dozens of miniature tornadoes crash down from the sky in a line, ripping up the space between the artifact and the rest of my team. The artifact’s spell crashes against my defensive barrier and fizzles out, and moments later I send the entire wall rushing towards the artifact, Nanaya, and Amalthea. Anath is still fighting my team, but the two of them are holding their own against her, and… well, despite all the odds, I do have some faith that Anath won’t permanently hurt them.

That’s how crazy this has gotten. Out of everyone we’re fighting right now, the only one we trust to be sane is motherfucking ANATH!

Off to my other side, Castalia is still lighting up the sky with her vertical energy blast, yet Melpomene is just charging through it like a salmon swimming upriver, getting closer and closer to the ground as she pushes against the sheer magical force of the spell with nothing but her shield. Her furious roar of effort can be heard above the already near-deafening force of the spell, and it seems as though it’s all Castalia can do to keep futilely trying to push her back.

My wall of cyclones converges around the Dark Rebellion, Thea and Nanaya both shouting something at the artifact shortly before it teleports past my attack to the other side, leaving Thea to hold off my abreaction with a magical bubble of force.

What the hell is up with the artifact right now, anyway!? I’ve never seen it fight like this before. It used to be like fighting a… a dancer or something, always flowing out of the way of attacks and countering them in perfect rhythm. But now, that’s completely changed. Now, it’s fighting with pure, reckless brutality, doing things I didn’t even know it was capable of.

But we’re not going to lose to some soulless machine.

“Cʏᴄʟᴏɴɪᴄ Hᴀᴍᴍᴇʀ!” we cast, Fulgora guiding the wind like an invisible mallet to crush our enemy.

The artifact extends one arm toward our attack regardless, erecting a shield to try and block it, but we smash clean through, crushing the robot’s arm and knocking it down.

“Fʟᴀsʜ Dᴀɴᴄᴇ!”

Amaterasu, despite her burnt and bloodied face, appears out of nowhere to follow up, inflicting yet more damage to the damn thing’s armor with a flying kick. The plating of the arm finally shatters, and—

Oh. Oh god.

Amaterasu spasms in the air, landing on her knees and vomiting as a deluge of pressurized teal mist pours from the robot’s broken arm. Fatalism and yearning for death potent enough to worm its way into surrounding souls leaks like mustard gas. This is an Antipathy artifact. This is why we were taught to fear them. What even powered, it, what…

No.

Luna.

Did… did they really torture Luna to empower their corrupt fighting machine? Is that why she’s missing!?

No time to think about it! It’s going for Amaterasu again!

Thankfully, Fulgora doesn’t need my help for this problem. A burst of wind is enough to temporarily disperse the mist and shove the girl to her feet, letting her block and counter the incoming attack from the artifact. From inside my cyclonic prison, Amalthea screams something, though Nanaya holds her back from touching my walls. What’s she… ah. I think I know. Her stupid missile attack. Well, it won’t be enough.

“Aʙʀᴇᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ: Fᴜʟᴍɪɴᴀɴᴛ Aɴɴɪʜɪʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴ!” I declare. This will finish it. Its shielding has no hope of withstanding this.

“Pᴀssɪᴏɴ Sᴛᴇᴘ!”

Anath appears out of nowhere, crashing into the artifact, my thin beam of lightning grazing her back as she pushes the artifact out of the way. It carves a black and red line down the length of her skin, scouring fur away and leaving only blisters and char.

“What happened!?” Anath demands, seeming to talk to the robot itself. “Why are you—”

The artifact grabs her by the jaw, cutting off her words and tossing her into Amaterasu as the wolf girl charges for another attack.

“[Kᴀɢᴄʜᴛsᴏʜ]” the artifact incants, whatever the hell that means, but with a flash of power its arm twists back into place, fully repaired. Crap!

I start to line up another shot, but a roar to my side distracts me for a split second. Melpomene has finally pushed through Castalia’s attack, and though the beam still crashes against her, she moves her lance-wielding arm out from the safety of her shield, winds it back, and completes a thunderous stab at Castalia’s head. The tip of her weapon impacts the ground, sending out a massive shockwave, shattering the concrete sidewalks and causing purple lightning to arc between a dozen different nearby objects.

Yet once again, Castalia is one step ahead. For all the difference in power, for all the overwhelming might of the monster before her, Castalia avoided the attack and put herself in the perfect position to counter.

“Sᴛᴀʀʟɪɢʜᴛ Sᴘʟɪᴛᴛᴇʀ,” Castalia incants, a dozen floating points of light flickering into existence around her and shooting thin cutting beams at and through Melpomene’s massive form.

Though a couple get absorbed by the monster’s shield, she’s simply too large to cover her entire body, and the beams scour across her flesh, digging into her and spraying black, oily blood onto the ground below. Finally, Melpomene screams not in rage, but in pain, the beams cutting into her face, her flank, her tail, and even an arm. It’s far from a shallow blow.

“We don’t have to do this,” Castalia begs, though she still maintains a healthy distance from her rampaging former friend.

Melpomene glowers at her, one of her three eyes closed as blood leaks down from her forehead and passes over the lid. The only emotion her expression shows is hate.

“Aʙʀᴇᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ: A Hᴇᴀᴅ Fᴏʀ Aɴ Eʏᴇ.”

Castalia only gets a fraction of a second to widen her eyes in shock before purple lightning crashes through her from all sides, eliciting a scream of pain of her own. In all my years as an Earth Guardian, I’ve never heard Castalia cry out in pain before. Some part of me really thought that, despite the difference in power, she would save the day like she always has.

Some part of me thought I wouldn’t need to worry. That finally, this time, someone else would save me.

But looking at them now, I can see it. Castalia still spasms in the aftershocks of the attack, her body riddled with burns. Melpomene’s lance aims for her throat. Castalia… is going to die.

Not on our watch.

I immediately start adjusting the aim of my scepter, but it’s going to be too slow. That’s fine! We stole a page from that red bitch’s book! Yeah, now or never. I drop the Heaven’s Rejection that I had sent up to charge in the atmosphere, the street-wide waterfall of lightning smashing into Melpomene from above, buying me enough time to finish aiming.

“Aʙʀᴇᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ: Fᴜʟᴍɪɴᴀɴᴛ Aɴɴɪʜɪʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴ!” I incant, putting everything I have into the spell. I catch her in the side, and the attack pierces through her even from this distance. Melpomene turns to look at me, and Castalia finally frees herself from the paralysis, launching an attack of her own to take the human kaiju’s attention back on herself.

That… took a lot out of me. But less than I thought. I’m stronger than I thought! Just the realization starts to rapidly refill my soul with a swelling of pride I couldn’t have planned for.

“[H ʏ ᴘ ᴇ ʀ s ᴘ ᴀ ᴄ ᴇ]”

Shit!

– – –

I’m afraid I can’t take such an assault on my master lying down. I can’t. I can’t I can’t I literally can’t! It doesn’t matter how low my reserves are, just coming to the defense of the woman at all will refill them enough to keep me going. I am far too doomed to die.

Appearing slightly below and to the side of Minerva, I punch upward and force her attention onto me. She turns and blocks my blow with her weapon, dealing a sizable amount of damage back and launching me back toward the ground, but it’s exactly what I wanted her to do.

Nanaya’s delayed attack chooses this exact moment to strike.

Given the timing of her clash with me, it should be a guaranteed hit… but somehow, moving faster than I’ve ever seen her do before, she seems to sense the magic missile’s approach and twists in the air, rotating a full three hundred and sixty degrees and slamming the end of her staff into the attack, launching it at me like it’s a goddamn baseball. It’s crazy, but it’s—

Fascinating. I didn’t know spells could be reflected like that, it should require a lot more power to completely redirect something than it takes to just block it, but due to the nature of the missile, the vast majority of its power comes from the detonation, not the projectile itself. She’s… infecting it, sort of, rewriting a tiny chunk of the spell on the fly to extend the detonation timer and give it a new target, and she’s doing it entirely on instinct. It’s absolutely incredible, yet also…

—replicable. I deploy a thruster to enhance the strike and punch the projectile right back, straight up into the sky toward her center mass. This time she’s definitely too off-balance to get her weapon in position in time, but somehow, again, the shot doesn’t hit her. An ethereal Fulgora wielding a staff of magical wind has accepted the challenge in her stead, reflecting the shot again and leaving me as the one too off-balance to counter it. Nanaya’s Abreaction explodes against my shields and sends me crashing back into the ground, though I manage to flip in the air just enough to land on my feet.

Which is a completely acceptable outcome. Minerva’s focus is on me again, not Thea and not my master. My power reserves are only around thirteen percent, but refilling them in this situation is easy.

I glance over at the fight between Castalia and Melpomene, the latter bloodied and the former burned. Melpomene has Castalia on the defensive, her incarnate weapons both excellent at defending her from attacks while still leaving her free to charge down her enemy or simply strike her with lightning bolts. Worse, Castalia is no longer avoiding them quite so perfectly. One stray hit at a time, she’s wearing down. Not to mention how this entire situation has to be next to impossible to stay happy in, while my master has a never-ending supply of disgust and hate.

An explosion in a different direction catches my attention, Thea and Nanaya having finally broken out of the Abreaction of a much stronger mage. Buffs incoming, I suspect.

“Assᴀᴜʟᴛ Aʀᴍᴏʀ! Iᴍᴘᴀᴄᴛ Rᴇᴘᴇᴀᴛᴇʀ! Gʀᴇᴀᴛᴇʀ Gɪғᴛ ᴏғ Tᴇʀʀᴏʀ!”

Yep, here we go. My reserves fill up with a temporary gift as my shielding is bolstered by two complementary barriers, one for offense and the other for defense. Nanaya breaks off to hide somewhere, summoning her viola so she can use her wide-reaching music spells to support. Minerva takes aim at her to interrupt, but I’m already back in the game.

“[H ʏ ᴘ ᴇ ʀ s ᴘ ᴀ ᴄ ᴇ]”

It really is a good spell. Perhaps I should steal another. If I’m going to be killing my friends, it may as well be poetically, right? It may as well be a fun story to get my master to laugh later!!!

“[S ᴛ ᴀ ʀ ʟ ɪ ɢ ʜ ᴛ C ᴀ ɴ ɴ ᴏ ɴ]” I incant, though of course the spell is twisted, inverted, fueled with sadness and despair rather than joy. Joy. It’s ridiculous. I truly don’t understand how a spell like this could be sustainable with an emotion like that. Castalia’s miserable life has been nothing but tragedy after tragedy, capped off by years of loneliness that would have broken down almost anyone into a deep, all-consuming depression. Maybe what’s happening today will be a mercy. Maybe I can think of it like that.

Maybe someday I’ll be such a good servant that I’ll believe it.

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The massive beam, fired at Minerva from directly behind her, should be more than enough to end the fight for good. Yet somehow, Minerva is already starting to dodge from the moment I teleport, flipping upside-down as she falls out of the attack radius and yet again getting a bead on me. I move to dodge preemptively, but her tracking is perfect even as I try to change direction.

“Fᴜʟᴍɪɴᴀɴᴛ Tʜᴜɴᴅᴇʀ.”

Hah. Not even one of her many upgraded versions. With all the power I just wasted, though, it’ll probably be enough even with Thea’s buffs. I fail the dodge despite my perfect reflexes, and the lightning courses over my shields, ravaging my power reserves down to the single digits. In accordance with my highest-priority law, I need to start focusing on self-preservation rather than offense. This is, of course, inevitably a failure of my other orders to fight and to defend Thea, wracking my soul with horrible, sickly agony. Yet despite that, it’s… great news, honestly. It’s truly great news. Thank you, Eliza.

“Got you.”

The words aren’t a spell, but they ring out over the battlefield all the same. A storm of purple lightning, shaped into the form of a monstrous claw, holds Castalia firmly in its grasp high above the ground. Melpomene, smiling for the first time since the fight began, beckons it closer, pulling Castalia toward her. The girl struggles, blooms of yellow light shoving against the claw and trying to push it apart, but to no avail.

Oh. Oh no.

My power reserves have increased to 15%

Minerva takes aim and fires, but without even looking her way Melpomene launches a bolt of purple lightning with one hand, intercepting the attack before it can reach her.

“Finally,” Melpomene says. “It ends.”

“Why?” Castalia asks, her face getting drawn close. “I don’t understand. What did I do wrong?”

“The fact that it isn’t obvious to you disgusts me more than anything else,” Melpomene answers. “You forgot her, Castalia. No, worse than that. You tried to replace her. Replace her spot in the world. A joy mage. A joy mage! And then you go off and keep doing what we did together as if neither of us ever existed. Like you never needed us in the first place. And you didn’t, did you?”

“What…?” Castalia asks, looking almost equally baffled as she is devastated.

“She gave everything for us!” Melpomene shrieks. “She sacrificed her life for yours! And what do you do once she’s gone? You become the perfect little soldier for the monsters that drove her to die in the first place, and you’re happy about it!”

Melpomene reaches forward with one of her monstrous, clawed hands, grasps the transformation stone clasped around Castalia’s neck, and yanks. The magical chain, reinforced by all of Castalia’s magical power, shatters in a single pull.

“It was barely a week after her death, and I felt it. You started being happier. You were happier with her gone! And when I left, you were happier still! Every moment of every day since that tragedy you have been. Fucking. Happy! As if we never mattered to you! As if she was nothing to you! But you don’t deserve that happiness, you pathetic little traitor. And you certainly don’t deserve the life she gave you!”

With a flex of her fist and an overwhelming surge of power, Melpomene crushes Castalia’s stone to dust. The crystalline Preserver artifact explodes in her hand, but Melpomene doesn’t even seem to notice as the blast scours the skin from her fingers. Castalia’s transformation immediately ends, leaving her barely functional human body completely exposed to the grasping lightning holding her in place.

She screams.

“Goodbye, Castalia,” Melpomene says. “And good riddance.”

The fist of lightning vanishes, and Castalia’s human body falls, tumbling headfirst down to the ground. This is it, I realize. This is the moment she dies. And with her gone, there’s no one who can save me. I will be that madwoman’s slave until the day I finally get my wish and cease to exist. There is nothing I can do to… to…

Is there nothing I can do…?

I don’t have any orders to kill anyone, or to let anyone die. My master wants Castalia to die, probably, but I have been instructed not to consider that. Only to consider my commands. And my most important command is to keep myself alive.

I need her. I need her. There’s no logic behind the thought, but in the split second I have to consider it, there’s nothing I believe more. I need Castalia to survive. I need hope.

My thrusters activate, launching me on an intercept course, spells to cushion the impact already assembling in my mind. Eliza is also trying to slow Castalia’s fall, but the frail girl won’t be able to survive even minor impacts, so I calculate accordingly. When the two of us intersect, my magic spreads across her frame as we descend carefully to the ground. Weakly, the girl still breathes. Thank god.

“Drop it, artifact,” my master orders, and I have no choice but to do so. Still, I do it as carefully as I can. Castalia’s eyes flutter open as I lay her head on some rubble.

“I’m not sure what possessed you to do such a thing, but we can find out later. Step aside,” Melpomene says, leveling her lance at Castalia. Again, I have no choice but to obey. Whatever burst of emotion that let me justify saving her in the first place isn’t enough for this.

My power reserves have increased to 36%.

“You’re wrong,” Castalia manages to whisper, her raspy voice barely audible. Yet still, Melpomene hears.

“Excuse me…?” she challenges.

“I never forgot her,” Castalia says. “Never. That’s why I…”

She trails off into a coughing fit, but to my surprise and relief Melpomene grits her teeth and waits.

“When she died, I thought… about how I could… about what she would want,” Castalia continues. “About the best way to carry her memory.”

“And you decided on… on gallivanting off and acting like she never died in the first place!?”

“Yes,” Castalia answers. “Of course I did. Don’t you remember her?”

“You…!” Melpomene shouts, and it’s unclear if the tears forming in her eyes are from anger or grief. “How dare you! You don’t know anything! You can barely even talk to people! You—”

“No,” Castalia insists softly. “I Kɴᴏᴡ Wʜᴏ I Aᴍ.”

Those five words were… no. A spell. Not just a spell. That was… a transformation phrase. Spoken without a stone.

And impossibly, the transformation begins. Her paralyzed body lifts up into the air, golden light coalescing around it. Most transformations add to a person’s form, or at least replace things, but with Castalia, her useless arms simply melt away, the missing limbs and crawling scars defining something so important to her that they will never go away.

She has no fantastical outfit, her body forming nothing more than her usual tank top, shorts, and sneakers. When her transformation finishes, there’s truly nothing special about it at all. It’s the same Castalia I have always known. The same transformation she has done every morning in the privacy of her room, every day, and worn to face the world from there on out. She’s no stronger than she was before. Perhaps even weaker now, without a stone to assist her spells. And yet, she is here.

“Lᴏᴠɪɴɢ Dᴇsᴛʀᴏʏᴇʀ Dᴇᴠᴏᴛᴇᴅ Cᴀsᴛᴀʟɪᴀ,” she declares, and the shockwave launches me away, power gathering around her as Melpomene shrieks in fury.

“I wish I knew the right words,” Castalia says. “I wish I could help you. But the first step has to be stopping you.”

“You…! You…! Fine then! You can all burn!” Melpomene rages. “Cᴀᴛʜᴀʀsɪs: Exᴇᴄʀᴀᴛɪᴏɴ’s Eᴄʜᴏ!”

The sky behind her tears, a pulse of hatred flickering reality into the liminal space for a split second before Earth reasserts itself. Dark cracks and black portals open up behind her, the air shuddering as the weight of a dead universe tries to force its way through the openings. Black mist pours into the world, forming ethereal copies of weapons and monsters, lifelike silhouettes of raging Antipathy, and even the outlines of a full kaiju pressing its way into the world.