2025-01-17: Third Gate Open
- Log: Third Gate Open
- Cast: Yuliana Kafim, Elisa Kafim, Rena Lancaster, Koji Kabuto, Leina Ashta, Sayaka Yumi, Anita Rosetta, Li Yao, Kaworu Nagisa, Naoko Suzuki, Shelby Korts, Aurora Dusk, Murasaki El-Amari, Liam 7-020, Lucine Azul, Lilium Valerie, Liam O'Maol Chonaire, Violet Miyazaki
- Where: Earth Orbit, Opposite Lagrange Point 4
- OOC - IC Date: January 17, 0100
- Summary: The Empress at the End of All Things fully manifests into reality as a 3500-kilometer woman, as large as the Moon -- which causes massive tidal flooding across the Earth as such a large gravitational body suddenly manifests. She opens a portal to the Sun, in an attempt to tear it into pieces She can devour, infecting its light with a green glow which spreads an Omnisphere-silencing Void Aura across existence and deep into space. But Yuliana, in the Threshold Queen EMPTEAR, distracts Her from eating the Sun... while everyone else has the impossible task of killing the God of the Void. All Yuliana's enemies and friends -- alongside their unlikely ally Elisa, in the Paradise Queen DELACK -- come together to defeat the Empress's heart, Eliminscion, as the Empress addresses them through said heart. Together, the people of the world are able to sever Her heart from Her body, and the strength of the Earth Sphere sets Her ablaze as She crumples.
KTS: Elisa Kafim has deployed in Paradise Queen DELACK. KTS: Liam 7-020 has deployed in Type-4 Akashima 'Balor'. KTS: EN Barrier activated! KTS: Naoko Suzuki has deployed in NS-2 Sukeban Kiseki. KTS: Will Barrier activated! (But will not apply until relevant Morale threshold.) KTS: Lucine Azul has deployed in Dianthus Mk. 3. KTS: Anita Rosetta has deployed in XVF-25I Svipul <GERWALK Mode>. KTS: EN Barrier activated! KTS: Li Yao has deployed in GNF-00XNH Yulong. KTS: Shelby Korts has deployed in MSN-03 Jagd Doga <Korts Custom>. KTS: Murasaki El-Amari has deployed in MVF-M11C Murasame (MS Mode).
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Their preparations are finally complete.
The second North Pole incident proved that the Empress is willing and able to break through into this reality. At that time, She targeted the weakest point -- but they have no proof She won't try again, succeed again. That is why a team of scientists and engineers have come together to lay a trap.
The inert red Psychoframe iceberg from Denver Colony, now resting beside the Silent Castle, was recently reactivated when it took a trip to the Void to avoid destruction at the hands of the Junius Seven drop. Violet has joined Rena, Anita, and Lavnadim in taking that Psychoframe, using their knowledge to create a massive explosive device. It will free any psyches drawn back into the stone -- and the force of the psychic explosion will weaken existence, hopefully enough to let Yuliana open the Gate and remain functional afterwards.
But they weaken it at a specific point, their operations set up on an abandoned mining asteroid opposite the moon's orbit. The closest Lagrange Point is 3 -- but they're almost opposite Lagrange Point 4, at a point in the Earth's orbit which is almost entirely deserted. With no celestial bodies nearby to hide them from the sun's light, Sayaka Yumi and Koji Kabuto have set up Photon Amplifiers to flood this area of space with Photon Power -- meaning the Void first has to carve through it to pour out.
Naoko and Shari, meanwhile, are behind a large green spire, studded with hundreds of untreated Green Fold Crystals. They hope to absorb enough of the Empress's essence to trap Her, here in this empty arena they've chosen.
And Yuliana and Elisa...
"Emptear," Yuliana invokes for the last time, blindfold clouding her sight, bracelets set about her wrists and ankles, "get set."
| Llyph ot th'ioll |
| EMPTEAR |
| Y-yth'yollyshy-k... OK |
| Ll:o sh'jsth'ianish llkh'ioll |
| Tiallth'ou-j llkh'ioth'you |
Threshold Queen EMPTEAR rises, into the empty void of space, and she is not alone. Arriving with Emptear is a towering behemoth of Voidframe, a 66m mobile suit in luminous green and jet black. Despite its titanic size, this mobile suit is graceful, moving carefully through space with six arms, each of which is powerfully set, terminating in a hand with fingers just a little too long. Two legs and numerous maneuvering thrusters propel it, and at its head there is a great crown. The eyes are vivid green and pulse with power. Each of its hands is seemingly empty of weapons--but only seemingly. In the Photon Power's light it glows with Voidly radiance. Paradise Queen DELACK has deployed for the first and perhaps last time.
Emptear reaches, with those claws which move too much like hands, to the others. Behind them, Wendy commands the remaining Protivisny; they will go to the Void, or they will go to death in glory, and either would satisfy those kaiju's hearts.
"When it is done," Yuliana says, "we will dance. And..." She pauses, gossamer, "... thank you."
Everyone has to get well clear of that explosion, when it's set off -- both Rena and Anita, keeping an eye on ground zero, and those engineers currently set up on the Ra Mari II, floating on the perimeter away from the danger as they monitor it all. (Parminder's there, too. He has already made six comments on Lahvi's dad bod.) The explosion is staggering -- and the only people left at the centre are the Queens, Delack and Emptear, protected from the blast by Elisa's magics.
"Elya," Yuliana says, softly, reaching Emptear's massive claw out to a robot six metres taller than hers. "Shall we dance?"
Controlled by their own body's movements, their dance at the epicentre of destruction is a strikingly human performance, twirling out and coming back together. Supported by one of Delack's six arms, Emptear arches her back, bending backwards like a supple willow. Another of Delack's arms reach into that void at Emptear's chest, drawing from her a delicate black flamberge. That blade serves to carve the air just as Emptear's dancer's cloth does, as Elisa draws on her wife's powers to extend them with her own magic.
So many cuts, placed so close together...
Space trembles and quakes.
"There!" Emptear exclaims, as she springs back. "She comes!"
OST: https:'www.youtube.comwatch?v=LNsAbtsG0l8 Homestuck - Black Hole Green Sun
And emptiness rifts into space, emptier still than the vacuum around it, starless and cold. A great hand -- six times the size of Emptear and Delack, titans though they already are -- breaches through the black hole, and then another. They hook five-jointed fingers, and PULL.
Wider.
Wider.
Wider.
"Get back!" Yuliana screams, panic creeping into her voice, as Emptear blasts away from the epicentre at full speed.
That asteroid with Shari and Naoko's precious beacon finds itself dwarfed, impossibly, as a massive head -- made from so many different heads -- tears itself from nonexistence. The Empress's face is built from a thousand faces, a woman broken a thousand times over, reshattered, reformed, and broken again. Mouth after mouth after mouth forms Her vast, yawning jaws. Her hair is formed from snakes, great serpentine dragons which snap and bite. Her head impacts that asteroid, tiny against her, and doesn't even slow. The rock itself becomes a bauble in Her hair, the beacon impossible to spot with the naked eye, so small is it against Her. Will it keep Her here...?
She does not stop. Impossibly, Her shoulders wrest from space, as four arms climb, one after the other after the other after the other, out from Her black hole. Two long legs follow, split at the shins to create four pointed feet and jagged heels. She sloughs off of Herself, with a thousand serpentine weaving figures, great Lamias clawing at existence. Immediately, it becomes apparent that Yuliana's fears of Her manifesting over Tokyo would have been catastrophic for the Earth; She is too large.
She stands as tall as the Moon itself -- a full 3500 kilometres. Her size is impossible, incomprehensible, beyond any foe this reality has yet offered. Down below, on the Earth, there is screaming -- because a massive body like Hers has immediate tidal effects on the planet's waters. Waves swell, and townships flood, every coastal city under immediate threat. A dozen high operations rooms are flooded with panic as scientists shout the ramifications: if a mass of that size persists by the Earth, it may be knocked from its very orbit by the gravitational pull. The Earth needs one Moon -- a second, added so recklessly...
Thanks to Shari and Yuliana's combined efforts in creating a translator, when the Empress speaks, the words are twisted back into OCU English by the program they've distributed amongst the defenders. It's a touch crackly, with a spot of lag -- but it means that everyone can understand Her when She says, "I AM FREE. YOU HAVE FAILED. NOW DIE. "
And those words come from a particular Lamia-geist, a woman of six hundred metres who snakes out from the Empress's left breast. There, speaking to them, is Eliminscion: the Empress's heart. Perhaps, if they struck at Her...
But before anyone can think to try their theory, one of the Empress's impossibly-vast hands, on Her main body, rises up -- and grasps at the Sun, as Her primary mouth unhinges, yawning wide enough to swallow colonies with ease. A hundred tongues which squirm from Her mouth are themselves hands, grasping and reaching.
The Empress's hand clutches to a fist. Another black hole opens, on the far side of the Sun.
And Yuliana, attuned to Her desires, screams: "NO!"
From that portal, a hundred spectral hands reach out, to grasp around the Sun, expanding in size ten-thousandfold in an instant. Where those horrible green spectres grasp it, the Sun itself turns a sickly shade. And their sensors -- if not their cameras -- might pick up the way those hands grasp, and pull --
-- only for a blinding-hot handful of plasma to appear in one of the tongue-claws of the Empress's maw, pulling it in as Her jaws detach to chew it.
She would rip the Sun to shreds... and eat it entirely. She tears those chunks from the Sun, and teleports them to Her spread maw; fragments fly away from Her claws, shining bright and hot in space.
That green poison has spread across the Sun, now. The light of the Sun itself amplifies the Silence of the Void; wherever it floods the Earth Sphere, all psychic resonance dies out, foiling the whole world's attempts to connect with each other through the Omnisphere. It is as if Yuliana is everywhere, all at once -- though Yuliana's aura has always been something she's invoking from somewhere else.
'Somewhere else' is here, now. And soon, the Sun will go out, and the Earth will tumble from its axis, and everyone will die.
"I -- I won't let you!" Yuliana cries, as she flies up, up, towards the Empress's maw. "Everyone! I think I can hold Her hunger back -- you have to defeat Her!" She begins to twirl, the power of her dance distracting the Empress's hungry claw-tongues as they try to seize her instead. The Sun remains grasped in that horrible, spectral embrace... but so long as Yuliana can keep Her busy, there might just still be hope.
There must be hope. They have worked so hard, preparing for this final battle. They must succeed, or all is lost.
Their battle is not quite as high up as Emptear's -- but Eliminscion rises, Her thirteen arms rising up like the hood of a striking cobra as She bares her fangs and unfurls a great set of draconic wings from Her back. Her legs truncate, snakelike, in that tentacle writhing from Her main body -- with heart-muscle threads curled in and through, making it clear just where this shattered part of Her spiralled from. Tentacles writhe at Her hips, like a horrible organic skirt, and eight eyes crowd Her face.
" INSECTS," She howls, and even the six hundred metres of Eliminscion's body would prove that true, let alone the background picture which is simply more and more and more of Her.
It's time to save the world.
KTS: Aurora Dusk has deployed in GNX-603T GN-X. KTS: Kaiju Navi has deployed in The Empress's Heart ~ ELIMINSCION. <Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Lavnadim is here, on the Ra Mari II, to see the design through and handle anything else that comes up during the battle. His wife, the Admiral Eight Orlodhari, is not. Despite her strident efforts to be involved... Her doctors insisted that exposure to that much Void energy as far along as her baby is could be catastrophic. She has had to content herself with going over the plan over and over, and entrusting the Ra Mari II to Captain Maina. And the Ra Mari II is indeed here, a red behemoth of a ship on which stand many engineers.
Parminder's comments get a, "It is the body of a father! That is dad bod, no?"
But Emptear and Delack--Yuliana and Elisa--dance. They dance the dance that could end a world, Delack's six arms all cradling her wife until it is time to draw the blade--and then... Then. They cut.
Agonizing moments pass. The culmination of so much, here, at the end. And nw...
Delack, too, boostsback with Emptear, full speed to evade the hole in reality at this time. She waits, her unnecessary breath held--
The Empress comes. Elisa feels her Power sing to her, feels the tug and pull against her own body. Already, the Empress seeks simply to absorb Elisa within Delack, without even having to try. Yuliana is attuned to the Empress's desires, but so too does Elisa understand in the next moment, as she snaps up her head and Delack's moves with it. Her every motion is translated.
"NO," she roars, and Yuliana goes to give them hope. Yuliana...
"Do it, my darling. We shall triumph together."
Meanwhile on deck, Shari Loom shouts, "FUCK YOU, MONSTER! WE'RE GOING TO END YOU FOR GOOD!" Then she transmits over the radio to Naoko, "I'm counting on you. ...You're my best friend. Come back alive, OK?"
On the ship, Lavnadim narrows his eyes. Captain Maina stares forward. And Elisa...
DELACK rises above the battle plane, extending six great weapons in her six great clawed arms, each resplendent with the energy of the Void. "No, Empress," Elisa says. "You have failed. Your wife is DEAD, and shall never be returned!"
"AND I SHALL BE FREE!"
Delack adopts a ready stance, standing as if on something though there is Nothing. Her many arms, her mighty body, her armor; all gleam in the mixing of Proton Power and Voidly energy. "For I am more than you! WITNESS!"
Delack rushes forward suddenly with every weapon, hacking away in melee against Eliminscion, making herself an open and obvious target. An axe slams for a tentacle; twin swords, for the face. A spear to thrust into Eliminscion's body. Delack is agile and terrible.
"IT IS YOU WHO WILL DIE, EMPRESS! BY MY HAND!"
KTS: Elisa Kafim targets Kaiju Navi with Elegant Killing Arsenal Battering Whirl! KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to engage guard against Elisa Kafim's Elegant Killing Arsenal Battering Whirl! KTS: Kaiju Navi successfully reacts to Elisa Kafim's Elegant Killing Arsenal Battering Whirl, taking 3280 damage! KTS: Elisa Kafim begins a Formation attack! <Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
Rena feels strange, seeing the crimson Psychoframe crystal from Denver Colony again. A thing that had her trapped in it; a thing that had trapped many other souls inside of it, too. But those souls are freed, now, and it is a tool to be used today. And they do need a tool.
After all, it is the end of the world.
Golden light of Photon Power bathes the Gaia Gear Alpha; some of it is tinged green with the fold crystals' light. The teal-and-white machine has both green and dark blue light pouring from it; Voidframe to match the Emptear's, Psychoframe that it's always had.
Rena exhales, softly, as the red Psychoframe crystal detonates. The Gaia Gear Alpha is a distance away, near Svipul and the Ra Mari II. She glances at Anita's machine. "Hope this works, Annie," she says, and her voice has a nervous pitch.
Yuliana and Elisa dance...
...and a hole is torn open. The Empress' hands widen it further; Rena's eyes widen as she sees it. The size of the Empress is astronomical scale. Her 360-degree display is lighting up with warnings from Terminal's operatives. The way that She reaches for the sun.
"Shit!" she screams after Yuliana.
She looks at Eliminscion; Yuliana's words echo in her ears. Then, she nods. "All right!" she cries out. "This is it! Let's put a stop to the Empress, here and now!"
She tenses for a moment as Delack rushes in. But, today, that terrible power is on their side. Rena exhales, then.
The Gaia Gear folds up into its waverider mode -- legs and arms folding in, nose cone folding out -- and the thrusters fire. It shoots off, a white and teal blur, that has twin trails of blue and green motes trailing after. Rena leans forward in the cockpit.
"You've spent long enough in my dreams," she says. "And I'm done sharing them with you. They're mine, again!"
Rena's thumb slams down on the fire controls. Four needle missiles drop off the Gaia Gear's wings. The points ignite, a brilliant red, for armor-piercing -- and the missiles going screaming in for Eliminscion.
KTS: Rena Lancaster has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Rena Lancaster's Newtype activates! KTS: Rena Lancaster targets Kaiju Navi with Needle Missiles! KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to engage guard against Rena Lancaster's Needle Missiles! KTS: Kaiju Navi moderately reacts to Rena Lancaster's Needle Missiles, taking 4410 damage! KTS: Rena Lancaster completes the Formation attack! <Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
The Photon Amplifiers and Shari and Naoko's bait-beacon are not the only devices installed here to help in this dire confrontation.
Transitioning the majority of the lab's engineering department to manufacturing colonies in Side 4 was a massive leap forward in developing the new armour alloy. The gifts of having Whispered friends solved the dilemma of the reactor output and stability. Even still, they just barely managed to complete armouring the newborn Mazin before crunch time, and the only tests they've done have been in virtual space simulations.
Hopefully, there will be time enough to get the teething problems solved before he arrives at the fight.
"Sayaka," Koji says into his helmet mic as he seals the full-face version of his winged helm to his normal suit, "I'm calibrating the new Pilder now. We should just make the launch window."
He clambers into a scarlet, hyper-streamlined jet craft, settling into the bowl-like cockpit seat.
"I'll see you at the rendezvous point. I love you."
Polarizing the craft's canopy, he changes frequencies. "Colony control, this is PPL-KP1. Ready to initialise launch sequence."
"Copy that, Doctor Kabuto. Good luck out there."
"Thanks. Kaiser Pilder, launching!"
Frontier Colony IV's fighter hangar opens, and the catapult volleys the crimson control vehicle out into the empty, star-speckled black. Koji hauls back on the yoke, beginning to transcribe a loop around the O'Neill cylinder.
"Frontier IV Control: MAZIIIIIIN GO!"
Another hatch opens on the colony's dorsal surface, and the fledgling Mazin rises up, much like its brother from the Lab's pool, support gantries preventing it from drifting away towards Earth as Koji inverts the Kaiser Pilder over its empty head, lining the sharp nose up and pulling a lever that folds that nose apart and brings the wings in to streamline the vehicle's profile for docking. A laser line locks in, and autopilot takes over, drawing the craft inexorably in to the cranial dock.
"PILDER ON!"
Magnet clamps lock in, and a cold yellow light flashes from the new Mazin's eyes. The support gantries break away as it flexes and strides forward across the Colony's hull.
Taller and heavier than Mazinger Z, this Mazin's silhouette is both streamlined and sharper than the Castle of Iron's, with drill flukes coiling around its forearms, but the most obvious difference is its chest emblem - the wing design is curved and more draconic, and the wings meet in the middle, connected by a spherical ruby nearly the size of one of this colossal machine's palms. A crackling 'Z' emblem lights up in this jewel in Photonic light that then spreads out across the machine's frame.
Yet the launch sequence is incomplete - one more piece of the puzzle remains. "Colony Control," Koji orders, throwing switches on the Pilder's console to manage the input/output flows, "Deploy Kaiser Scrander!"
Another support gantry behind the machine rises up, lifting up a crimson flight unit with a much broader wingspan than the Jet Scrander, wings folded up behind the unit as it's slid in, magnetic clamps locking it in to the armoured back of the robot. The wings unfold and spread, revealing a curved and jagged silhouette that is fully devilish.
The Next-Generation Mazin, with the power to surpass God and crush the Devil, is born:
MAZINKAISER.
((OST: https://youtu.be/u6ik00tvHag))
"Optimising flight velocity," Koji reports. "Opening thrusters for Emergency Interception speed."
The Photonic corona surrounding Mazinkaiser intensifies as the Castle of Iron's Successor leaps from the hull of Frontier IV.
"Accelerating to rendezvous. LET'S GO, MAZINKAISER!"
A bright yellow streak arcs its way across Earth's skies.
====== ======
INSECTS, the condemnation rings out soundlessly across space, and Koji winces, teeth rattling in his skull from the sheer speed Mazinkaiser has achieved. He flicks a couple of switches under the console to his right, adjusting the Scrander's thruster burn until the shuddering subdues to a more comfortable jostle.
"Spoken by someone who's never been on the other end of an angry fire ant," he mutters, flipping his comms open. They crackle more than a little, distorted by his machine's velocity. "All units, standby! Mazinkaiser on approach!"
The Empress's colossal body, and her living heart extruding from her chest, loom overwhelmingly in his canopy. A collision seems imminent.
The Kaiser Scrander's wings spread wide, gleaming in the Photonic corona, as Koji carefully tilts the machine into an Aileron Roll, and opens the throttle wide.
"SCRANDER CUTTER - RANBU!"
Trails of light, straight-lined, criss-cross around the Empress's limbs as Koji steers Mazinkaiser into devastating flyby attacks, weaponising the Scrander's bladed wings, before rocketing away from the Empress's form to pivot and float there, light burning in the empty space influenced by this creature of the Void - a beacon of righteousness against wrath.
"Get away from my solar system!" Koji roars, Mazinkaiser pointing in challenge at this moon-size entity. "Sayaka! Let's DO THIS!"
KTS: Koji Kabuto targets Kaiju Navi with Scrander Cutter Ranbu! KTS: Kaiju Navi engages evade against Koji Kabuto's Scrander Cutter Ranbu! KTS: Kaiju Navi successfully reacts to Koji Kabuto's Scrander Cutter Ranbu, taking 3600 damage! KTS: Kaiju Navi has deployed as a Boss for 15 opponents.
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
"I was under the impression you'd cooperate."
"And I have? I take full responsibility for everything that occurred on the grounds of the Photon Power Labs with the fugitive Yuliana Kafim." Leina Ashta said sedately to the auditor. "The staff were completely unaware. I utilized my clearance from my time as Shiro Kabuto's girlfriend and exploited their trust in me to facilitate secret meetings with her."
That she managed to text a certain Doctor to destroy all the files they had on record, and the security chief to destroy the footage of Yuliana before she smashed her phone's SIM card... well, she hopes they haven't gotten probable cause for a warrant.
"That's a load of bullshit, Leina." Kenanji added, bluntly, from his leaning position off to the side. "We're trying very hard to find a reason to cut a deal for leniency - and you're making things more difficult for us. You don't really believe you'll escape consequences this time, do you?"
Leina's eyes flicked towards Kenanji, as she folds her hands together. "I do not." "You do." He countered, "You think you're too important, this deal is too important - that we're not going to throw the book at you."
"I don't think that at all." She said softly, "I work for Benerit, everyone is replaceable here."
"You're goddamn right. So help us. Give us something so we don't replace you."
There's a sigh out of Leina, and a tired smile, "You're going to need Singularity-02 soon."
The man moved far faster than she expected, as he grabbed her by the hair, forcing her to stare at him, "You're playing games. I know what you said about the world maybe ending any day now." As her face grimaced in pain from the gesture, "After everything you just did, there's no way you seriously think we'll authorize that!"
After all, what crisis would be big enough, specific enough?
"I do." She says, pained, "I do."
The man gives her an furious look, which turned passingly incredulous as he looked her in the eyes, until eventually. "Goddamnit." He let go, as she rocked back in relief, "Put her back in her cell."
-=-=-
She was floating in the microgravity cell when he came again, this time with an escort of several other guards. "We have questions." Leina was staring at a vague point on the floor, facing in that direction. "About the entire MOUNTAIN of Psychoframe that's just helped your Witch friend bring that - THING the size of the Moon into reality.
"Is there time?"
"We're going to MAKE time before we decide to send you out there in that fucking Gundam." He said as he pushed inside, and with one motion, the two were up against a wall, his arm against her collar bone, forcing him to look at her, "You knew. You knew they were going to do this. I am sick and tired of you Gundam pilots acting like they're special!"
Leina's sea green eyes looked at him for several long seconds, "... That's not what this is about. You know we're on the same side... we just have a difference of opinion on how to do this job."
"Stop pretending you know what's going on inside my head!" He said as he roughly pushed her against the wall, "Every single time you met with her, you were betraying us! We're quite certain they caused this! Along with all of your bleeding heart friends at the Photon Power Labs! How do we know you're not about to betray us again if we deploy you in something we don't even think should exist against something that they brought here!?"
"... I came back didn't I? You wouldn't have let me go into that park if you thought I wouldn't." Her look became one of frustration, "I didn't become a Witch Hunter to leave a trail of bodies of people who have gone through worse than me behind me. Always... it's been to protect what's important. That's what the deal was always about - defending people from the indefensible."
A beat.
"What's important right now, Commander?"
Some tense seconds pass, one, two, three, feeling the pounding of his heartbeat through his wrist, against her collar.
"You're more Witch than Witch Hunter." He finally decides, before letting her go from the wall, and grabbing her wrist, kicked out of the cell, with her in tow behind him. "Goddamn you Doctor Nabo... for not letting us close the book on your world."
-=-=-
The touch of fingers was tenuous, like it was uncertain.
"Sorry it's been so long." Leina said quietly with a suit that still fit like a glove, in a cockpit seat that felt too familiar.
There were already phantom sensations in the spots where she knew the needles would be coming. "Two years. ... This was the choice we made after the box was opened. And nothing's turned out like I wanted it to, I don't mind if you feel resentful."
That was the moment she felt them again, grasping tightly, with firm warmth.
OURS
A single sensation of solidarity that was different from two years ago. She knew now it wasn't her, not really. Just feelings she left behind, intermingled with hers, unified within it, not even really sentient - just mysterious and wonderful
And yet she couldn't help but feel misty eyed.
"Whatever happens - I'm glad we'll be together for you. Ready?"
At her beckoning, the chair shifted backwards, and she felt the needles sink in - but so too did her world grow larger, widening, expanding, changing.
Just like the world itself.
Special? No. I'm only a part of this world.
The Banshee, began to shift, expand, changing, it's horn splitting into the iconic V-Fin as armor revealed gleaming plates of Psychoframe. They shine bright orange, before the glow changes into a vivid green. Even in the distance - she could feel it, like a black stain upon reality.
Just like them.
Humanity has always been scared of parts of the world that they themselves created.
"... Let's show our Cathedra escort how to truly fly."
The thrusters fired azure trails of propellant, but within moments, they changed into prismatic, sparkling light unto the world, as she flew forward.
Within moments, Cathedra had completely lost track of her, other than as a blinking dot on their sensors hurtling towards L3 and L4. But that is the least of their concerns - as a hundred spectral hands reach out towards the sun itself.
-=-=-
The Banshee's thrusters brake hard, and by all rights at this speed, her body should be liquefied, but the momentum is almost entirely arrested without any conservation into her body.
She arrives - without even a sign that anything happened within Cathedra to her other than being deployed for the battle.
"<Terrifying isn't she? But... we're with you, Yuliana.>"
The end could always come, in their bed - in an instant - perhaps that would be merciful - but she'd rather be awake for it. She'd rather be fighting. She'd rather be here.
Elisa is shouting and Leina listens to her assertion of agency, identity - freedom. She was never taken to as far a place as Elisa was - and for a moment, her heart goes out to her.
Part of her has never regretted so much opening wide her consciousness to the world as in this moment, feeling the all consuming creature that is in front of her, with tendrils that would end all that she's loved and ever known.
No. Just people. Do you remember?
It's an ideal that's hard to hold onto, she's felt this before, and even from afar it shredded at her sense of self, but - here, behind the Psychoframe, she feels like even if her voice is quiet amidst this hatred.
But she has one. And she can use it.
Just like you.
"<What a thing to declare over the comms, Rena.>" Leina says after a moment, less of a tease in her voice than she wants it to be, seeing such a thing, "<Almost like you want them to stay ~private~ between you and someone else.>"
The Banshee draws its armament, holding it as she flies towards the unfathomably large being that was once human, azure light trails as it pivots around, and the condenser at the end of the energy seeming positively small compared to it's unfathomable size.
"<I'd tell you to repent in hell - but you already rule one of your own making.>"
When it fires, despite the vacuum of space, sound carries like light across the comms - across a long crackling stream, small in size.
BSH-SHOOM
That scythes into the once person who would destroy the sun with a greeting of heated plasma, nearly 10,000 degrees at the center right at the place where their heart once might have been, for the worst case of indigestion that an insect might deliver to a god.
"<So disappear from all of their lives - forever!>"
Leina's perception does a double take on the Mazinkaiser, eyelashes fluttering. "Of course you did." Hopefully they both survive this, but even if they do - she suspects they'll both have more than just explaining to do.
For now she says nothing to him, that's a tomorrow problem - as in, if tomorrow ever comes.
KTS: Leina Ashta has deployed in RX-0 Unicorn Gundam 02 Banshee <Destroy Mode>. KTS: Leina Ashta has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Leina Ashta has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus. KTS: Leina Ashta targets Kaiju Navi with Beam Magnum Shot! KTS: Lilium Valerie has deployed in YF-777SA Seraph <Fighter Mode>. Kaiju_Navi has changed Boss level to 16
KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to engage guard against Leina Ashta's Beam Magnum Shot! KTS: Kaiju Navi moderately reacts to Leina Ashta's Beam Magnum Shot, taking 5490 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.
It's been a long month of preparations - not just on the part of the Photon Power Labs, but everyone. It's not an easy thing to try to ensnare an actual goddess and feel confident about it - but they have their window of opportunity. They just have to take it. And at a time like this... they can only place their faith in Yuliana and Elisa Kafim.
As she monitors the readings from the Photon Power Amplifiers, Sayaka isn't sitting in the cockpit of her beloved battle partner, Aphrodite Areia... as much as she'd like to see things through to the end with her. But Sayaka is pragmatic as she is sentimental... and Mazinger Z's Astro Scrander stands the best chance if they're taking the fight to space.
It begs the question of where the person who usually sits in this Pilder might be, but... they have a trump card waiting in their hands. "Got it, Koji," Sayaka affirms, when she hears her partner's voice... and even after all this time, she can't help but blush at what he says next. "I... I'd tell you it's way too dangerous to say something like that when the fate of the world is at stake. But I know you're not the kind of person to say it and not make it through." She smiles, even considering what they're about to do. "I love you too, Koji."
It's like Sayaka can feel her heartbeat in the anticipation of it all. Everyone has their role to play... and if they're going to make it, they all have to play theirs to perfection. That tension doesn't fade when Emptear arises along with Delack - even if they're here to help. "Good luck Yuliana... Dr. Kafim. Make it count." She whispers, as they begin to dance. Last time something like this happened, the world nearly ended, but this time... they're doing it to stop the world from ending.
Sayaka's own focus is shattered at Yuliana's call to 'get back!' and she braces herself to make a sharp turn with the Astro Scrander to et out of the way in time. What emerges is beyond even her imagination - the monstrous form that the Empress has become. The Empress, who was once just as human as Elisa Kafim is. She speaks, and it sounds so familiar. "You're free... but don't think we've failed just yet, Empress. MAZIN GO!" Mazinger Z, the Castle of Iron raises its arm in challenge. And flanked with it, is the Emperor that will surpass God and crush the Devil. Mazinkaiser. "Koji..." Sayaka whispers, with sheer awe in her voice. "Let's show her what a Mazin can really do." Even the Banshee... Cathedra must understand the grave threat this is, though Sayaka is sure not without some convincing from Leina.
Perhaps even the most stubborn of Super Robot spirit is feigned to a certain point - but what else can you do when faced with such incomprehensible horror? Their entire galaxy would be nothing without its Sun, and this Empress makes it look like child's play. "I hear you, Yuliana. We'll do what we can!" Sayaka nods -- before turning her wrath on Eliminscion.
"You've bathed in your hatred and anger for too long. If you really think this is what is what it means to be free, then we'll fight for our own! PHOTONIC MISSILES, GOOO!" And as Koji boldly charges with the Scrander, the missile tubes on Z's Astro Scrander open up, firing a looping circus of missiles that even a Variable Fighter would be proud of, each lighting up the space around it with Photon Power. On their own, nothing for the Empress to worry about - but when Koji and Sayaka fight in perfect sync... "Yeah. Right behind you, Koji!!"
---
Near one of the shelters haphazardly set up on the Moon, a red haired girl looks up into the 'sky' that is space, seeing the terrifying planet-sized woman that now occupies it - knowing intuitively that this must be the 'Goddess' Elisa Kafim spoke of. She wasn't able to participate in the fight, her unit still undergoing internal repairs after it was smashed around at Magallanica. She has to trust Aurora and Lilium will fight their hardest. And rather than cursing her own powerless, Flay Allster only hopes that if Elisa Kafim is up there right now... that the lessons they shared with each other helped bring her own clarity on what she must do.
KTS: Sayaka Yumi has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Sayaka Yumi targets Kaiju Navi with Photonic Missile Circus! KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to engage evade against Sayaka Yumi's Photonic Missile Circus! KTS: Kaiju Navi poorly reacts to Sayaka Yumi's Photonic Missile Circus, taking 3533 damage! KTS: Sayaka Yumi rattles Kaiju Navi, making its next maneuvers more difficult. <Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.
It's her first time working with a material like this. It's her first time working on anything of this scale, too. ...And she certainly has her misgivings, given the pain it has caused Rena and so many others in the past. But right now, this is what they need, so Anita will contribute everything she has to ensuring that it works.
And now...
"...Yeah, me too." Anita replies with a nod toward Rena. She inhales. Even Anita is nervous. What happens today dictates the course of the world going forward.
It explodes, and Elisa and Yuliana dance together - and space trembles.
And then, She emerges. She, vast and terrible, impossible in size and form.
Anita exhales sharply. Whatever she could've said dies in her throat. What can you even say, looking upon something like that - and knowing that you have to fight it?
...And they are given a sense of urgency, immediacy, as the Empress reaches out her many hands to swallow the sun.
Well, there's only one thing for it.
"Right behind you." Anita says, as Rena cries out. This is it. Here and now is all they have - time to use it to its fullest.
The Svipul races alongside Gaia Gear's waverider mode in Fighter Mode before unfolding as it draws close enough. Beam vulcans blaze to scatter across Eliminscion, Svipul racing back and forth to make itself a moving target. She might just be an insect compared to the Empress, to Eliminscion, even, but even a fly can prove difficult to swat.
"I've got too much riding on the future to let you have it... And you've got no place in it." She says.
KTS: Anita Rosetta targets Kaiju Navi with Vulcan Barrage! KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to engage evade against Anita Rosetta's Vulcan Barrage! KTS: Kaiju Navi poorly reacts to Anita Rosetta's Vulcan Barrage, taking 3900 damage! KTS: Anita Rosetta begins a Formation attack! <Pose Tracker> Li Yao has posed.
If Emptear is the queen of the day then that would make the Yulong the royal guard intending to protect the Emptear. It's pilot, Li Yao, watching the events unfold out in space before him and having to come to terms with reality ahead of him. The opponent of the day just produced a black hole, and is the size of a moon, and here he was about to fly up to that monster and punch it in the face. The simple reality is that, he should not have quit smoking a few weeks ago.
The battlefield was no places for regrets though as he sends a passing message on to Yuliana as things begin to start, < "Remember to breathe child and keep a focused mind. After all this you can let emotions rule you.">
WIth his only immediate advice to give he turns his attention to the enemy before him broadcasting out into open space for the enemy to hear, <"Insect you say? An ant is 50 times stronger then it's body should allow." > The old man trails off as Yulong gets into a fighting position, <"You better hope that I am not an ant or this will be a truly disappointing fight.">
The Yulong flies at the empress, doing it's best to avoid any interference to reach the bulk of it's main body. Then just as planned out the Yulong rears back it's fist and throws a strong right punch right at the Empress.
KTS: Li Yao targets Kaiju Navi with Wu Xian Llu Long: Dragon's Strike!
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
If there is any time at which the Mark.06 should have been deployed, it is certainly now. Unfortunately, those who authorize its deployment have other ideas and ambitions, and are as ever short-sighted.
Kaworu cannot entirely blame them. He knows what his role is and the scenario to which he is bound. He will do his best to help his friends deal with the Empress, but ultimately, he is merely a supporting character in this particular story.
Even so, he will support to the utmost of his considerable capabilities.
So he had reassured his first and foremost friend some time ago, before the Ra Mari II had left Magallanica but after Unit-Beta and Akashima had been loaded onto it as a handshake mission between NERV and... more space-friendly organizations.
"The world isn't really going to end, is it?" Shinji frets when they had met briefly at Eight's apartment, holding one of her babies and comforting Aarmi, as much for the baby's sake as for his own.
"No. It won't," Kaworu tells him with that implacable certainty of his, smiling.
Shinji smiles back, though it isn't wholly convinced. He was an Evangelion pilot for too long to not be keenly aware of the possibility. "Then... I'll see you again, right?"
"Yes. We will always meet again."
Shinji breathes a little breath that lets out some of the tension in his body. Their gazes linger on each other for a while longer; then Kaworu heads out to join up with the Ra Mari II, where Evangelion Unit-Beta is being loaded.
That memory also lingers, brief as it is, in Kaworu's mind as he watches the explosion from within Unit Beta's entry plug, her visuals pouring in information as the dance begins, as the Empress pours through.
And pours through.
And pours through.
And...
It's only appropriate for a goddess to be the size of the Moon, he reflects. He remains calm--but this is not something he can smile at. As the Empress speaks her message, his silver eyebrows furrow. As the Empress begins to materialize a black hole, as she spreads out those expanding hands to devour the sun, as Yuliana bids them all defeat her, Kaworu grips Unit Beta's controls. Together, they launch.
It's only when Elisa shouts her own defiance at Her--no, at her--that he does smile again. "We'll all support you," he transmits to her. "This fledgling cycle must be ended before it can end everything else."
Similarly, when he sees the Mazinkaiser jet across space to join in the battle with a goddess on a scale that many would struggle to comprehend, Kaworu takes a brief moment to admire it and the implications of its arrival. "What a reassuring sight," he murmurs of the machine that is both God and Devil. There are many allies rallied here to fight against this most existential of foes, and he's glad for all of them, but there's something a bit special about that one to Kaworu.
Though Unit Beta has launched, she does not try to close with the Empress. The wing engines flare from her back, launching glimmering orange-iridescent wings. At her fingertips, too, glimmers a similar light--but stronger, broader, stretching out for kilometers, blossoming much like those wings but on a far greater scale. They, too, are visible on Earth--or they would be if Kaworu were not using the Empress to eclipse himself. He knows his role. It is not yet time. For now, there are two hearts here, and both of them reject the Empress, those shining appendages aiming to block her away from the Earth as if in admonishment.
"I'm sad for you, and all you have experienced," Kaworu says softly, gazing upon her awful, aweful might. His silver hair shifts subtly in the LCL of Unit Beta's entry plug, as if those primordial waters were churning like the ocean around him. "But you must not be any longer."
KTS: Kaworu Nagisa: Will Barrier Activates. KTS: Kaworu Nagisa targets Kaiju Navi with Rejection! KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to engage guard against Li Yao's Wu Xian Llu Long: Dragon's Strike! KTS: Kaiju Navi moderately reacts to Li Yao's Wu Xian Llu Long: Dragon's Strike, taking 3600 damage! KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to engage guard against Kaworu Nagisa's Rejection! KTS: Kaiju Navi successfully reacts to Kaworu Nagisa's Rejection, taking 3330 damage! KTS: Kaworu Nagisa rattles Kaiju Navi, making its next maneuvers more difficult.
<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
The preparations are indeed complete... in so far as one can prepare for something like summoning a God from another dimension and destroy them once and for all. With the knowledge that if your part in it fails, a lot of people are definitely going to die. No pressure, no big deal!
Spoilers: this is a lie. Naoko is feeling the pressure intensely. Even if she's done everything she could to help Shari in the construction of the greatest anti-Void Goddess solution that two Whispered minds could conceive of, somehow this still isn't of absolute reassurance. If she survives, maybe one day she'll be able to laugh it off, describe it as the most serious case of stage fright ever, playing down the level of sheer terror in the pit of her stomach as she performs the final checks on her Arm Slave.
>"Hey, Nova. You got this. Stay cool, keep your mind on what you wanna accomplish. We're with you all the way."<
>"Believe in yourself, Nova. You're ready for this. Sukeban, Uriel and I will make your wishes come true. Stay strong."<
Sending a quiet mental word of thanks to her ever-present AI companions, Naoko takes a deep breath. It's true, she's not alone. Not here, in the machine she tailor-made to perfectly suit her abilities, and not out there, where many friends, acquaintances, perfect strangers, even former enemies will lend their support to finally end this threat. Even Koji Kabuto's masterpiece is here! She's already gotten the fangirling out of the way earlier, but Mazinkaiser is quite the sight for sore eyes, to put it mildly.
And yet... when the rift is torn open, and the Empress emerges, her breath catches. While there had been a brief mental glimpse before, and a description had been relayed, this is the first time that Naoko actually sees what it is they're dealing with. For once, reality entirely exceeds the limits of her imagination. Ariel and Uriel do what they can to calm the Whispered's mind... but it takes Shari's voice to fully bring her back to the here and now, reminding her of what's important. And the more direct part of the role that she's chosen to play. She takes a moment to collect herself, to be able to sound self-assured when she responds to her best friend.
"...You got it, Shari. Don't worry about a thing. She won't lay any of her hecked-up fingers on our work. Just focus on your part, and I'll focus on mine."
With that, green light crackles off the purple frame of her Arm Slave, dwarfed by most machines on the scene, let alone the gigantic form of the Empress, but fueled by all the considerable power of her will. Spreading its arms, Sukeban Kiseki simultaneously spreads a translucent, almost invisible barrier around the immediate area, shielding the spire that is certain to draw the Empress's ire before long. It won't fall... not so long as she's here.
"...you won't get through. No matter what, you'll never get through me! You'll pay for what you've done... I won't let you harm her ever again! MABOROSHI BEEEEEAM!!"
With those words, the Sukeban Kiseki's visor flashes, before unleashing what starts as a simple, straightforward emission of green light, but expanding in size manifold as it approaches its target, intended to draw a burning line across whichever part of the writhing tentacled mass it's able to reach.
KTS: Naoko Suzuki has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Naoko Suzuki: Will Barrier Activates. KTS: Naoko Suzuki targets Kaiju Navi with Maboroshi Beam! KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to engage charge against Naoko Suzuki's Maboroshi Beam! KTS: Best Defense! Kaiju Navi successfully reacts to Naoko Suzuki's Maboroshi Beam, taking 3225 damage! KTS: Naoko Suzuki bypasses Kaiju Navi, preventing it from Guarding the next attack! <Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.
Always with worry, or with a flat distant stare, always --
When Yuliana Kafim is involved, Shelby Korts can do little more than stand with her arms crossed and mouth in a flat line. All she can do is argue, or try to offer different points. To extremely aggressively offer a thumb drive with a mix-tape of some pirate recordings of punk music; recommend a vintage store through grit teeth for a good collection of old merchandise; or make dinner for everyone during the hunt for Jona and the flight of the Phenex.
And now, it's time to save the world.
It's probably not too horribly unusual to see a collection of various Mobile Suits deploy from the Ra Mari II, but among their number is a Jagd Doga, pristine and upkept even as engineering and development march ever-forward, the Zeonic machine painted a clash of knockout pink and a rich dark black that threatens to swallow light, making it cut an almost ghostly silhouette in the light of the (now-being-assaulted) sun.
Squatting on a Base Jabber in order to gain speed en route, Shelby *feels* the world torn asunder seemingly moments before it happens-- her hand abruptly slamming against the console to keep her from screaming over the comms as Silence does not fall, but rises from the depths-- and it is hungry. Somehow, each exposure does more to her than the last; the sudden baffling of her senses feeling more like someone detonated the world's largest flashbang right in front of her face.
The Jagd Doga nearly breaks formation with Terminal forces from the sudden lilt and slant to one side; Shelby's mind and senses and skull contending with the deafening cacophany of Nothing-- but she manages to compensate with shaky hands and sweat. It feels -- so wrong --
"Yeah," she breathes through clenched teeth, "it's time to finish this."
Shifting it's stance on the Base Jabber, the Jagd Doga's shoulders pivot and swing, panels opening up in the shoulder-shields and firing an aggressive spray of missiles to join the salvo!
KTS: Shelby Korts targets Kaiju Navi with Missile Barrage! KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to engage evade against Shelby Korts's Missile Barrage! KTS: Kaiju Navi successfully reacts to Shelby Korts's Missile Barrage, taking 3780 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Aurora Dusk has posed.
"WHAT THE FUCK?! WHAT THE FUUUUCK!?" The words and the volume are definitely not common to situation rooms, or high officers, but considering the circumstances, it's understandable that refrains like this echo in many little rooms.
Those circumstances being the GIANT WOMAN THE SIZE OF THE FUCKING MOON coming out of nowhere.
"SHE'S EATING THE SUN?! OH GOD WHAT THE FUCK!?"
Analysts scramble to analyse and then are reduced to watching and wailing. Officers in the dark part of the world are woken up in the night by emergency phone calls. Teeth are gnashed and hair is torn. And arriving on the scene- a full complement of battleships, courtesy of the Gaia Sabers. Gathered up from... well, anywhere, really. It's not so much a battlegroup as a mob of panicked, huddled ships. And their leader?
"..." Captain Vert, sitting anxiously in his chair, says nothing. The bridge bunnies, at their stations, say nothing. Colonel Ashcroft, hurriedly dragged out of bed, says nothing. What words could capture the gravity of the situation? Everyone already understands simply by looking, the gravity of the situation and its implications.
Eventually, words. "Target in range," announces an operator. Vert gives the order.
"Engage."
The guns on the gathered, mismatched ships roar to life, firing on the Empress with all their might. (It's not nearly enough.) The equally mismatched mobile suit complements disgorge from the hangars, trying their best to stay in formation, speeding towards the Empress's heart. Aurora is among them, in a GN-X that, to be honest, she commandeered. She knew that there was going to be a final battle, and she made sure the Colonel knew, but she didn't know this would happen.
The awful, deafening nothing is... nothing. It's like Yuliana is everywhere. The bridge crews are horrified, but Aurora is familiar with Yuliana. This nothing is nothing to her. She grits her teeth and presses onwards. She sights her target and opens fire, beam rifle bursting.
KTS: Aurora Dusk targets Kaiju Navi with GN-X Beam Rifle Burst Fire! KTS: Aurora Dusk has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. <Pose Tracker> Murasaki El-Amari has posed.
What the hell am I doing?
Murasaki thought to herself, as she watched the impossible unfold yet again. Marian had sent her up into space, having lost most contact with Cagalli after the failed wedding.
Now, she supposed she was interrupting another wedding. Or...the destruction of all life, she wasn't entirely certain, Terminal needed to be better about sending briefing notes to their more far flung and government tied allies. As her Murasume shot out from the Ra Mari II and transformed into its flight mode, the voice of that...woman, who she fought with at the Lunar Mobile Doll factory with Captain Lancaster. The woman who reached out and touched her mind...she thinks, there's a lot about that night that got really fuzzy afterwards.
When Yuliana did it again, the fear in her voice concerned even Murasaki, remembering her being a lot more confident, and angry, and hurling horrible energies around. Murasaki's head started to hurt as she saw the monstrosity in her cockpit's display. Nothing that big and alive could exist and yet it did. She sighed, watching the far more powerful machines screaming past her. She needed to figure out what was happening with the Inazuna Gundam, this flying into fights between Gods as an ant nonsense was going to get her killed one of these days.
She started to do a slow turn at full speed in the Murasume, hoping to maybe attack a finger, or something. What could possibly be the weakpoint of this thing? Stop it from eating the sun? It's only 147.18 million kilometers away, she might be able to get there in just under twenty years.
Targeting information comes into her computer. Hit the Eliminscion, why not? Her pipper went over the monster's head and she pulled the trigger, and a spread of green energy bolts fired out from the Murasume's rifle!
KTS: Murasaki El-Amari targets Kaiju Navi with Type 72 Kai 'Ikazuchi' Beam Rifle Rapid Fire!
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
The trap is set. The snare has been baited. Now, all that remains is to lure the Empress out, and end her.
Liam rests in the microgravity of the Balor's cockpit, his hands on his thighs. He breathes, as slow and easy as he can, as the support staff finish their final checks. Not for the first time, he looks up at the printed pictures he's taped to the space above the controls. Scenes from his new life. He and Lucine smiling together, on a visit to a temple garden in Japan. Lucine standing on the balcony of their apartment. Pictures of Koji and Sayaka, clipped from the news. An actual picture of Lua he took himself, because that one has an authentic smile. Kaworu, and Shinji, even Eight--and so many others.
"Countdown's on, Lu," Liam says. "Kaworu, I'm ready." As ready as he'll ever be. Is it possible to be 'ready' in the face of something like this?
Liam so, maybe. He thought that the Empress' hand might prepare him for the scale involved. He thought wrong. More and more and more of her pours out of the rift--a body bent and broken across the fabric of the Void. Terror clutches at his heart. Sour bile rises in the back of his throat.
"Mother of God," Liam says, "she's eating the Sun."
That's what's at stake here--the end of everything and everyone in the solar system. Liam takes a breath, swallows, and locks the main cameras onto ELIMINSCION and the body-landscape surrunding her.
"Target acquired," Liam says, his voice tightening. Adrenaline washes through his system. The world seems to slow around him, slightly, as his metaneural augmentation activates. "She's shown us her rotten heart, and we'll rip it out of her!" Elisa's rage and defiance resonate with his own. The Balor raises its right arm. Energy pours into the converters, then into the megaparticle generators. Bright light ignites in the bore of its arm cannon. A spray of megaparticle fire erupts from within, spilling out across the Heart's massive body.
Two signals--one familiar, and one almost-familiar, catch Liam's eye. "What...?" he whispers, as the Banshee rockets into view. Then, a Mazin...? Two Mazins. Mazinger Z, and something else.
"Hell of a sense of timing, Leina," Liam says. "And you, too, Koji."
KTS: Liam 7-020 targets Kaiju Navi with EL-444P Variable-Output Cannon Array - Snapshot! KTS: Liam 7-020's Tactical Intelligence activates Focus! KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to engage evade against Aurora Dusk's GN-X Beam Rifle Burst Fire! KTS: Best Defense! Kaiju Navi successfully reacts to Aurora Dusk's GN-X Beam Rifle Burst Fire, taking 2775 damage! KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to engage guard against Murasaki El-Amari's Type 72 Kai 'Ikazuchi' Beam Rifle Rapid Fire! KTS: Best Defense! Kaiju Navi successfully reacts to Murasaki El-Amari's Type 72 Kai 'Ikazuchi' Beam Rifle Rapid Fire, taking 3375 damage! KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to engage guard against Liam 7-020's EL-444P Variable-Output Cannon Array - Snapshot! KTS: Kaiju Navi successfully reacts to Liam 7-020's EL-444P Variable-Output Cannon Array - Snapshot, taking 3440 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
The Nadesico, still stuck on the other side of the planet, will be no help here. Even if enough time passes that Earth's orbit completes its turn, they've already gotten embroiled in mountains of political tape.
After all, as Leina dealt with herself, why should anyone come to the aid of two witches? By the time the sun's light will be affected, it'll be already too late. The interwoven threads of politics and global alliances may as well be the chatter of a few lonely anthills, unnoticed by the universe.
------------------------
< ".... I'll do my best. The Dianthus was just repaired at the Photon Power Labs... it's on the Ra Mari II, as am I, with others." > Lucine responds to the video chat window in the bottom right of her display. < "..... Don't worry, Minato. Liam's with me. He just let me know we're about to the deploy. The Nadesico likely will need to keep things calm on the surface--" > Lucine looks up, as the Empress enters, like the unveiling of a corpse flower, giant and imitating.
< "Lucy-Lu..." > Minato's concerned face waits there. < "... she's made her entrance, hasn't she?" >
Lucine looks back down. < ".... Yes. We're counting down to deployment. Wish us luck, okay...? And... thank you, Minato. And... everyone on the Nadesico. You guys... I... I wouldn't be the person I am, without all of you." > Tears begin to pool in the corners of Lucine eyes. < ".... Can you tell Ruri something?" >
< "Of course." >
< ".... Thank you, for opening that door for me, that terrible day." >
------------------------
The future of humanity exists in the hands of those who are able to assemble, whether it's to buy time for others to intervene, or take the danger head on.
.... The least of these may be Lucine Azul, pilot of the Dianthus, a minuscule unit The Dianthus, having spent the last few days being repaired at the Photon Power Lab from a recent terrorist attack, is as good as new.
< ".... The entire solar system will collapse if the Empress goes through with this... We'd all be turned into refugees... Earth, the colonies, Mars, the asteroid strip, Jupiter, and beyond... if we even are able to survive." > Lucine's yellow eyes reflect the light of her screen, as she flies close to Kaworu and Liam's units, like an accompanying fairy.
< "Leina!" > The second arrival is one Lucine is equally glad to see. < "You came!" >
'Get away from my solar system!' Koji's yell may as well be a battlecry.
< "For our future!" > Lucine yells, as the Dianthus readies its arbalest. < "Liam, Kaworu, I'm going to try to crack its armor!" >
The Dianthus shoots out with a line of bright magenta light; just one of many that have been released.
It'll be a group effort, but altogether, perhaps....
< "Liam, I love you." > This line, is for Liam alone. Just in case Lucine doesn't get another chance to say it.
KTS: Lucine Azul targets Kaiju Navi with Argen-21 Beam Arbalest Snipe!
<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.
Elsewhere, closer to Lagrange Three itself, a tiny, unmarked asteroid base is having an absolutely horrible day.
Sirens blare. A large tank sits conspicuously empty. Black paint is hastily applied to identifying markings. A voice booms over the hangar's intercomm--"Get it done in fifteen minutes at the most! Don't bother with the funnels! If we don't get everything we can out there now, they'll never be useful anyway!"
In the control room overlooking it, an atmosphere of general panic grips the hearts of all.
"Total mass approaches lunar scale!"
"Fire the emergency orbit correction thrusters! Keep us in position as long as possible!"
"Target has been engaged by several units! Long-range scans show some kind of anomaly on the other side of the sun!"
A woman in sunglasses grabs a man with a pocket protector by his shirt collar, screaming obscenities in his face. Another woman in a labcoat furrows her brow, gaze fixed on her terminal's screen. And still the clamor continues--
"Administer Oxycodone, slow-release! Keep the subject's heartrate within 50BPM of the target rate!"
"Bring forward the canopy plating! Switch transformation programming to leave it in place in all modes!"
"Maintaining consciousness suppression! Activate body in Secondary Mode!"
"Cross-check digital muscle memory files while you still have the chance! Temporarily purge all irrelevant data!"
"Keeping suit G-pressure at minimum of five--we don't want her coming apart in there!"
"Last chance to back out, Doctor--This might be the best chance we'll ever have to gather combat data outside of a performance setting, but if you don't think her body can take it--" The woman in the labcoat shakes her head, raising her hand to silence the concerned operator. "She can take it." Her expression darkens. "And if she can't, there's a good chance it won't matter anyway... Announce the unit's deployment to the forwards team as a prototype Variable Doll! Engineering team, are you done obfuscating the Seraph's identification yet?"
And so.. and so...
A Variable Fighter, painted in solid black, screams out from one void--and towards the other one. To an outside observer, it seems to lack a cockpit canopy--An armor plate that admittedly follows a similar form factor is in its place instead. It's moving fast, though; almost certainly too fast for a manned unit. It cleaves a path through the center of the allied formation, even as its control systems are being briefed:
[TARGET ID DESIGNATED BY DATALINK: EMPRESS.]
[PILOT STATUS: [PILOT STATUS: SECONDARY OPERATION MODE]
[B-SONG SYSTEMS STATUS: OFFLINE]
[COMBAT SYSTEMS STATUS: OPERATIONAL]
[DIRECTIVES: ENGAGE TARGET 'EMPRESS' AT DESIGNATED WEAKSPOT. PRESERVE UNIT INTEGRITY. PRESERVE SUBJECT INTEGRITY.]
Without diverting from its course, the probably-automated unit's missile bays split open--and a torrent of micro-missiles streams out, homing in directly on Eliminiscion even as the Mobile Weapon shoots right past her at speeds far in excess of what the Natural human eye could follow, rapidly turning a hundred eighty degrees with its engines still burning to come around for another pass...
Floating as if in a dream, Lilium Valerie opens her eyes. Everything feels... cold. And dark. And at the same time, is Nothing. But still Everything. Her body aches... but it's a distant ache. Like it's happening to someone else. Somewhere else. Maybe it is, and this is a dream...
And by an outside window at Asticassia, a young woman with purple hair and bright yellow eyes rests her hands on a window, staring out at the rampaging god.
"Oh... it can happen in the world outside, too..." Toikou muses, unable to look away.
KTS: Lilium Valerie targets Kaiju Navi with Skystreak Missiles Direct Fire! KTS: Kaiju Navi engages guard against Lucine Azul's Argen-21 Beam Arbalest Snipe! KTS: Best Defense! Kaiju Navi successfully guards Lucine Azul's Argen-21 Beam Arbalest Snipe, taking 4275 damage! KTS: Lucine Azul completes the Formation attack! KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to engage evade against Lilium Valerie's Skystreak Missiles Direct Fire! KTS: Best Defense! Kaiju Navi successfully reacts to Lilium Valerie's Skystreak Missiles Direct Fire, taking 3450 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
" MONSTER ?" Eliminscion echoes, as Her eyes turn to the edge of the battlefield. "YOU ARE. THE GIRL WHO KILLED EVERYTHING . I WILL GRASP YOU DELIBERATELY." She addresses the Ra Mari II, but surely She is speaking to Shari Loom.
... it at least means that She does not hurl horrific magics towards the ship carelessly, as She turns to the units before Her heart. She's... saving them, for later.
At the Empress's vast maw, Emptear dances a barrier battle, as she holds Her back from Her consumption. Delack is there, slicing below, with Leina pressed into the Banshee... and Mazinkaiser, she notes, sparing a moment to be impressed. (With Mazinger Z, too!) Yuliana has to hold Her back from eating the sun -- a threat she once levied around Liam, as the spirit of the Void grasped her tightly.
She could not know it was the Empress's intent.
"YOU ?" The Empress howls, as DELACK lifts her six sacred arms. "I AM YOU, AND YOU ARE ME. COME TO ME." And in a way, Delack does -- spear-first.
"INTER LOPER," She adds, as Eliminscion's gaze falls on the Gaia Gear Alpha. She recognises Rena. That's... not a good sign. Those needle missiles blast into Her side, at the precise point where Delack's spear entered. It would be a blow to sunder most ships... but the Empress is no mere ship.
But there, embracing the Photonic power of the sun... is Mazinkaiser. Her four arms are battered by Scrander Cutter, and any reasonable force would be felled by it. That She is not disarmed is a testament to how much God there is, right now, to be surpassed. "ALL IS MINE," She roars, in a grim echo of Elisa's own horrors.
Roaring -- screaming -- it's all the demesne of the Banshee. Leina's Beam Magnum fires, and this, again, should have by every rights felled both Her and all the space around Her in a single blow. And, be fair: there is a hole, now. A hole straight through Eliminscion, exposing where the Beam Magnum bored into the Empress's main body, only to stop somewhere in the middle. ... it stopped, somewhere in the middle.
"I SEE YOU ," Eliminscion says, as Her wretched eyes fall on the Banshee and Leina. (And.)
The power of the sun is turned against Her again, as Mazinger Z's Photonic Missiles enter the fray. They find their target against one of Her arms, where Mazinkaiser cut at them, and the boiling blasts explode into those carvings. "I HATE YOU ," She cries.
Another insect flies in -- the Svipul. "THE FUTURE IS MINE," She cries, as Anita's beam vulcans pepper the hard scales of Her belly. "ALL TIME IS MINE TO GRASP. YOU HAVE FAILED ME , AND YOU WILL SCREAM. I WILL FEED ON YOUR SOLAR SYSTEM, AS I DID TO THE TIME WHICH WAS. AND I WILL USE MY POWER TO RETURN. I BEGIN AGAIN."
"They did nothing to You!" Emptear screams, her radio picking up Anita's defiance -- though she herself is far away. "If You are angry -- You are angry with me!"
"YOU FAILED ME MOST OF ALL," the Empress snarls, Her voice tearing through existence, violently. "TRAITOR TO YOUR SELF. YOU WILL NOT DIE QUICKLY. "
"I will not die at all!" Yuliana insists, a promise she made to so many people, and at least right now she can be seen holding her own. She can be heard, through her radio, breathing quite deliberately; Yao's advice doesn't fall on deaf ears.
(Listen closely to her radio, and you might even hear the tunes of Shelby's pirated punk music pumping through Emptear's heart, keeping Yuliana focused on her dance.)
The Yulong flies right past Eliminscion, surprisingly -- to find the place where Her heart connects with Her impossibly large body. There, Yao draws his robot's fist back, and punches. It is the greatest tragedy that the Empress at the End of All Things does not fall to Her knees at such a blow -- but Eliminscion turns, to look at him, so it seems She felt it. "SMALL CREATURE," She says, and sounds, if anything, a touch confused beyond Her fury.
"YOU." Anger enters Her voice again, as Eliminscion turns the head of Her heart back to Unit Beta. "YOU ARE NOT SMALL, SMALL THING. YOU ARE AN ELEGANT LIAR." Unit Beta rejects Her, and Eliminscion throws Her head back, with a wordless roar.
But perhaps the Empress did not fall to Her knees because it is difficult for Her to move from this spot; why else would She have to reach out through that wretched black hole to consume the sun, instead of simply going there, where Her attackers could not follow? As Murasaki knows, it's millions of kilometers away -- an easy trip for a God, but not so much for man. And the reason for that lies in the asteroid still caught in the snakes of Her hair -- the device which Naoko and Shari worked on, together. And with the Sukeban Kiseki's shielding, those snakes won't be able to bite it in half, when they inevitably realise what's binding Her.
The Empress isn't the only person wielding green here, either -- because the Sukeban Kiseki fires off her Maboroshi Beam, scouring at the writhing tentacle mess of Eliminscion's hair. Those snakes hiss at Naoko, instead, as Eliminscion turns to her. "ANOTHER ," She roars, recognising the Whispered's own wound in the world. "YOU WILL PAY FOR HER SINS AS ALWAYS YOU HAVE."
And when Eliminscion is battered by the Jagd Doga's missiles, Eliminscion turns to Shelby, instead. "YOU ARE THE WATCHER BEYOND THE WAY," She remarks, and in that one horrific moment, Shelby may realise... that when she was assaulted by Her memories, when the Riptime Dragon Istantarik showed them all Her previous timeline, the Empress must have been aware of her gaze too.
There are many, many groups currently saying 'WHAT THE FUCK', or at least a more military-discipline version thereof. Captain Vert is surely doing as best he can, under the circumstances... but even all those ship guns can't fell Eliminscion, as She towers. "BRING ALL YOUR SOLDIERS," She howls, beckoning. "GUILTY, ALL."
The Murasame strikes at one of those five-jointed fingers, and it curls in response to the blow, more green employed against Her. "MY PEOPLE ," She beckons, to Murasaki. "WE ARE BOTH OF ORB. STILL YOU QUARREL..." How could a being like this come from the Orb Union?!
"I HAVE SHOWN YOU MY HEART," Eliminscion bellows, as Liam's Balor fires its megaparticle cannon. "IT IS NOT A KINDNESS." Just as Elisa bared her heart to Major Pham, years ago... what lies at the Empress's heart is maddening.
"I WILL CONSUME THE MACROSS ARKS," Eliminscion promises Lucine, as she frets about how many refugees will be left when there is no sun to warm them. "ALL WILL DIE." The Dianthus snipes at the hard armour of Her belly, scaled like a dragon -- at precisely the point where Anita's beam vulcans fired. One of Her vast scales is blown off, easily the size of a mobile suit itself. She has hundreds more.
Lilium's Variable Fighter pours out those micro-missiles, and though the ship moves too fast for the human eye, it is not too fast for Her eyes. Her cheek is blasted, with those missiles, as She turns the other one inadvertently -- the missiles arriving slower than the ship flies. " DREAMS WILL NOT SAVE YOU," She howls, as Her vengeful spite reaches into that dreamlike state to visit horrors upon the only-arguably-conscious pilot inside. The horrors She can visit on the body, in dreams, are a thing Yuliana is intimately familiar with...
... but everyone else has far more physical threats to worry about. Both Mazinkaiser and Mazinger Z will find themselves grasped at with two of Eliminscion's four arms, far closer little sun-snacks, as another rises and thrusts its palm outwards. Horrific magic twists, much like Elisa's, meeting Rena, Leina, and Anita with blasts of power. The snakes at Her head bare their fangs, and then fire them, each a gravity well travelling straight for Murasaki, Liam, and Lucine. Her great eyes glint, as she looks to Kaworu, and more of that green-black energy crashes down straight on Unit Beta. Behind Her, Her draconic wings beat, sending a gust of magic to destroy Naoko, Aurora, and Shelby -- before the locust vents along Her spine flare open, crashing dozens of those massive bugs down to meet Yao with all the danger of an insect. Finally, Her remaining throws a lightning bolt of horrific magic at Elisa, with all the anger of a woman for the mirror.
KTS: Kaiju Navi targets Murasaki El-Amari, Liam 7-020, and Lucine Azul with Prominence! KTS: Kaiju Navi targets Naoko Suzuki, Aurora Dusk, and Shelby Korts with Oblivion Wing Endless Night! KTS: Kaiju Navi targets Lilium Valerie with Melt! KTS: Kaiju Navi targets Koji Kabuto with Hand of God! KTS: Kaiju Navi targets Sayaka Yumi with Hand of God! KTS: Kaiju Navi targets Leina Ashta with Declaration of Heaven! KTS: Kaiju Navi targets Rena Lancaster with Declaration of Heaven! KTS: Kaiju Navi targets Anita Rosetta with Declaration of Heaven! KTS: Kaiju Navi targets Kaworu Nagisa with I Am That I Am! KTS: Kaiju Navi targets Li Yao with Locust Vents - Swarm! KTS: Kaiju Navi targets Elisa Kafim with Wrath! KTS: Lilium Valerie has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Leina Ashta has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Rena Lancaster engages evade against Kaiju Navi's Declaration of Heaven! KTS: [Mirage] Rena Lancaster's Voidframe activates, and she slips into a mirage. KTS: Best Defense! Rena Lancaster successfully reacts to Kaiju Navi's Declaration of Heaven, taking 0 damage! KTS: Leina Ashta fails to engage Evade against Kaiju Navi's Declaration of Heaven! KTS: Leina Ashta successfully reacts to Kaiju Navi's Declaration of Heaven, taking 4860 damage! KTS: Kaiju Navi begins a Formation attack! KTS: Anita Rosetta has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Anita Rosetta has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Anita Rosetta engages evade against Kaiju Navi's Declaration of Heaven! KTS: Anita Rosetta's EN Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Anita Rosetta successfully reacts to Kaiju Navi's Declaration of Heaven, taking 3520 damage! KTS: Elisa Kafim engages block against Kaiju Navi's Wrath! KTS: Elisa Kafim moderately blocks Kaiju Navi's Wrath, taking 3919 damage! KTS: Lilium Valerie accepts Kaiju Navi's Melt! KTS: Kaiju Navi melts Lilium Valerie's armor. KTS: Best Defense! Lilium Valerie successfully reacts to Kaiju Navi's Melt, taking 0 damage! KTS: Lucine Azul has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Sayaka Yumi engages guard against Kaiju Navi's Hand of God! KTS: Sayaka Yumi successfully guards Kaiju Navi's Hand of God, taking 5610 damage! KTS: Lucine Azul engages evade against Kaiju Navi's Prominence! KTS: Lucine Azul poorly reacts to Kaiju Navi's Prominence, taking 4800 damage! KTS: Shelby Korts has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Shelby Korts engages guard against Kaiju Navi's Oblivion Wing Endless Night! KTS: Best Defense! Shelby Korts successfully guards Kaiju Navi's Oblivion Wing Endless Night, taking 3450 damage! KTS: Kaworu Nagisa has activated the Trust Spirit Command. KTS: Kaworu Nagisa fails to engage block against Kaiju Navi's I Am That I Am! KTS: Kaworu Nagisa's Will Barrier activates, negating 1500 base damage. KTS: Best Defense! Kaworu Nagisa successfully reacts to Kaiju Navi's I Am That I Am, taking 3075 damage! KTS: Kaiju Navi begins a Formation attack! KTS: Koji Kabuto has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Koji Kabuto has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Liam 7-020 fails to engage Intercept against Kaiju Navi's Prominence! KTS: Liam 7-020's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Critical Hit! Liam 7-020 poorly reacts to Kaiju Navi's Prominence, taking 5160 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Kaiju Navi's Ace Attacker activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Kaiju Navi's Defiance activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: Murasaki El-Amari has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Murasaki El-Amari fails to engage Evade against Kaiju Navi's Prominence! KTS: Critical Hit! Murasaki El-Amari poorly reacts to Kaiju Navi's Prominence, taking 5760 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Kaiju Navi's Ace Attacker activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Kaiju Navi's Defiance activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: Koji Kabuto fails to engage charge against Kaiju Navi's Hand of God! KTS: Best Defense! Koji Kabuto successfully reacts to Kaiju Navi's Hand of God, taking 4950 damage! KTS: Li Yao fails to engage evade against Kaiju Navi's Locust Vents - Swarm! KTS: Critical Hit! Li Yao poorly reacts to Kaiju Navi's Locust Vents - Swarm, taking 3960 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Kaiju Navi's Ace Attacker activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Kaiju Navi's Defiance activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: Kaiju Navi rattles Li Yao, making his next maneuvers more difficult. Murasaki El-Amari transforms to MVF-M11C Murasame (MA Mode)
KTS: Liam 7-020 has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Liam 7-020 has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Liam 7-020's The Hound activates! KTS: Naoko Suzuki engages parry against Kaiju Navi's Oblivion Wing Endless Night! KTS: Critical Hit! Naoko Suzuki poorly reacts to Kaiju Navi's Oblivion Wing Endless Night, taking 4600 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Kaiju Navi's Ace Attacker activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Kaiju Navi's Defiance activates, causing Sparkle! <Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"H-Hey," Rena complains to Leina. "I-I didn't mean it like that!" She cracks a smile, though -- and gets a good, long look at the Banshee. It brings back memories; they're not all bad ones.
"C'mon," she says. "Let's show Her what for, yeah?"
The Gaia Gear Alpha flies in with the Svipul. Her eyes shift -- looking towards the Valkyrie for a moment -- and then she looks back forward.
"I'm counting on you," she tells Anita.
There's a look at the Sukeban Kiseki -- then a smile. Rena nods. "Good work, Nova!" she calls out, before she looks back at Eliminscion.
"Interloper?" she asks. "I'm no interloper... and the future doesn't belong to you!"
Magic hurtles for the Gaia Gear. It suddenly splits into two afterimages, green particles of Voidframe light exploding outward. The blast of energy shoots between them.
Then, they recombine.
The waverider unfurls; legs come out, arms unfold, and the head pops out. The Gaia Gear reaches over its back, drawing its beam rifle free, and takes aim -- then fires a trio of blue energy blasts for Eliminscion.
KTS: Rena Lancaster targets Kaiju Navi with Beam Rifle Burst!
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
If Elisa knew Leina felt kindness of all things towards her... Well, she does know that. And it has not dampened her own fury and resolve. So when Rena speaks of dreams, Elisa calls, "Yes, sister!" Sister in the Void? "Claim your heart for your own! Destroy that which binds you!"
She sees the power of Mazinkaiser next, senses as much as sees on the many displays within Delack's cockpit--she need not be blindfolded, unlike her wife. "...Yes, Koji Kabuto," Elisa intones. "We shall indeed surpass God herself. For we... have more than only divinity on our side!"
Elisa has no psychic ability to sense Flay Allster's regard for her, to understand that at this moment she is thinking of her and their conversations. But she has internalized those lessons. She has perfect clarity as to what she must do.
...And what she will do, if it becomes necessary. If Yuliana is in too much danger...
But that she keeps at the back of her mind at the moment.
Instead she nods to Sayaka's words in ehr cockpit, and Delack nods along with her. She understand. This is no true freedom.
Leina could have been a great Witch indeed. But she is not, to Elisa's reckoning. But Li Yao, royal guardian, is at her flank, and she is secure in the old man's wisdom and power. ...But secure, too, is her knowledge that her first friend is here. The cycle that must end... "Yes. For our sake, and for the world we share... even if I will not share it much longer," she answers Kaworu with dark Power--but to her shock, it is not mere words that she seems to communicate to him. She communicates something more, a feeling that is within her that she cannot entirely identify. "...Yes. I, too, have stake in this world..."
But it is not Elisa who is addressed next. Shari hears Naoko's answer from her position with the other engineers. She listens. And she hears her on the radio, too... "I will," she says back, putting on an air of easy confidence. ...But it's her anger that shields her from the terror, really. So when the Empress retorts to her, Shari just smiles. "...Looks like I got her mad," she says to the other engineers.
Anger, and affection for the one person who fights for her quite like this.
Elisa feels the Empress's will pull at her once more. "YOU FAILED YOURSELF!" Elisa calls. "You failed from the very beginning, for you lack the Power to save your wife! No matter how many times you begin again, she will never be her!"
But the Empress's magic comes to Elisa, as well. Struck by her own Power, Delack is knocked backwards even as she sends her Void barrier forwrd to block the lightning. It is almost too much, and she begins to drift. "I--" she calls, "I... will not... become--LESSER!"
Delack begins to drift into Eliminscion's orbit inexorably--until Elisa extends her hands towards the Earth on one side. "I... have prepared for this!"
Green light SHOOTS up from the Earth suddenly, from the very bottom of the ocean where she once seeded her own essence at the base of an undersea volcano. It pulses, pouring from the atmosphere in a fifty meter wide column and slamming into Delack, infusing her with energy and power once again.
"HA HA HA," Elisa exults. "The very EARTH shall strike against you, Empress! My Power has grown beyond only Yours!"
So she begins to make arcane gestures in each hand, each one intricate but done at the same time. Within her cockpit, six arms work in perfect time.
"O infinite Void! O Energy of the Earth!" Elisa calls, and her voice crackles across frequencies. "Be shaped by My will! Rise against your Mistress, and show Our power! Defend Yourself!"
Elisa's mecha suddenly becomes--no, always was--the center of a grand ritual circle, and runes blaze into being in a ring all around her as she Conjures. A dragon--the Void Dragon Ivnerre, that once erupted over the Macross fleets. It crashes towards the Empress's heart, roaring its furor at Eliminscion.
"My creation!" she calls. "I grant you new life! Strike at our shared enemy!"
KTS: Elisa Kafim has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Elisa Kafim has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Elisa Kafim has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Elisa Kafim targets Kaiju Navi with Horrid Conjuration - Profane Entity!
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
Hands that end in tentacles descend on Mazinkaiser as the Empress At The End Of All Things announces that "ALL IS MINE."
"KAISER KNUCKLE!" Koji roars in defiance, and Mazinkaiser's drill-fluted forearms begin to spin at terrifying speeds. He dives towards the grasping hand, spinning the new devil machine in a whirling, bladed dance. Plates snap away from the Kaiser Scrander's wings, but their edges remain sharp, shredding tentacle after tentacle as he tries to push his way closer to the Empress's heart, Eliminscion.
... There's a LOT of hand and arm to chew through, turns out.
"No, this is MY solar system! My sun! My Earth... and my machine! MY MAZINKAISER!" He roars again, as 'Kaiser's eyes flare to a blinding white. "Take this! Koushiryoku BEAAAAAAAAAM!"
The familiar eye lasers of the Mazin family erupt from Kaiser's brow, but rather than that comforting faint gold they are a piercing white, golden waveforms rippling almost imperceptibly in the beams, tightening until they become indistinguishable as Koji amps the output to create a searing, coring lance of light towards the Empress's heart.
The Pilder continues to rattle with the exertion of the fight. He alters the intensity of the clamps keeping it in place, watching Elisa's machine contort spacetime to conjure forth one of her own horrors - the very dragon that was among the impetus for him to return fully to battle - to aid in her rebellion against her former, deific self. Sayaka in Mazinger Z, giving it everything she has.
... And over in the distance, Leina in the black-and-green Banshee, a sight that makes him grit his teeth in equal parts concern and pride. "Give her hell, you two," he mutters, squeezing his firing trigger even tighter to maintain the beam's cohesion.
KTS: Koji Kabuto targets Kaiju Navi with Koushiryoku Beam - Kaiser Glare! KTS: Kaworu Nagisa has activated the Resupply Spirit Command. <Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
Lucine and Liam both call out to her, with Liam remarking on her punctuality, and she replies softly.
"<...I try to be punctual when witches the size of the moon appear to eat the sun.>"
Perhaps noone here will ever know she was called a witch today. Perhaps. It is just another thing for her to deal with, the idea she has so much in common with people like them than...
Still she doesn't have the heart to tell him, most all Colonies run on Solar Power and have no propulsion. Without the sun, nothing can survive this save any Macross Colonies that replaced their fold drives.
Leina's face, with the orange faceshield of her helmet down appears on Rena's screen in that moment, and while she's pressed to a cockpit chair, Rena can see in the tint, her winking.
"<Something to motivate you for later.>"
And the ghost of a wry grin, despite her concentration, "<Sure... after you.>" Seeming to have something in mind as Lera takes the first move, and Koji... Sayaka... part of her smiles. Despite how dire the situation is, he really is the same isn't he?
"<... Who do you think you're talking to? Judau would never let me hear the end of it if I didn't.>"
She can already hear him complaining about the Empress as if her coming here was Earth's fault which... well, kinda.
It's quite a thing, for the Beam Magnum to stop in the center - but the Empress has so much mass, and it's not the first time she's seen the Beam Magnum cease. One of those times belonged to Emptear in fact.
She sees her?
And I know you - Elisa Dian.
The blast of horrid power is met by the Banshee jerking out of the way to the side, but the beam comes far too close, and the Magic of the Void melts something that should not be along the edges before a Psychofield flares, preventing further damage in that shine of green light.
Everything you've done.
Yet as the Gaia Gear transforms into the Waverider, the Banshee, lacking it's Armed Armor DE simply flares it's thrusters, moving forward at a speed that would be unsafe, if not for the drugs coursing through her systems, moving in opposite direction.
She is large - that gives her many advantages, but the Banshee suddenly hurtles through space, crossing the breadth of her body far too quickly, the G-Force pressing against her as she spirals across the length of the Elminiscion, as Rena takes aim, she takes a different approach to split the Empress' attention so she can take the shot.
"<She's no traitor. You are. Your wife failed you... and in turn, you're failing Yuliana.>"
But she does not merely fly. Everyone sees the purple spiral that follows the fast moving mobile suit, as Minovsky fire appears over the the entirety of the thing. The Eliminiscion glows brighter as trails of purple splash like water from a firehose all over her.
"<Your entire existence as this - has been failing her. Because...>"
And burn - burn like napalm in the infinite expanse of space.
"<...before you even knew her - you made the choice to fail her!>"
Perhaps it is not merely her body, she wishes to burn.
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
"You will need to be. As will we all," Kaworu replies to Liam. He does not have photos; for someone like him, they're unnecessary. But it's a lovely thing for Liam, and he's pleased to be counted among his self-empowering photographs. And sure enough...
The Dianthus zips over to join the two of them. So small, even in a normal battle, she may as well be a microbe next to the Empress. Even so, she speaks recklessly and bravely of breaking through that armor. That always brings a smile to Kaworu's lips. "Very well. We will be with you," he tells Lucine.
They have many allies, after all. He turns a look towards the Banshee in particular, riding alongside the two Mazingers, though it can only be in passing. Yes, there are a great many incredible weapons on the stage this day. One of them expresses her stake in the world.
Kaworu smiles at her ruefully, with a pang of sadness that often accompanies reminders of other sorts of cycles. She shares more with him, and he shares more with her in turn, communicating on a level unique to the two of them. "I'm glad that we were able to share this before the end," he replies. Because, unlike Shinji-- "I don't know if we will meet again."
An elegant liar, the Empress calls him. Kaworu gives her a thoughtful look. "Do you think so? But you yourself can be small and large at the same time. I see no contradiction."
Sometimes, two different things can be true at the same time, even when they seem to contradict.
Just like how, for all her divine power, the bulk of the Empress's rage is expressed in thoughts, feelings, words. It's only once she's rejected all of the rest of them in turn, swearing extinction and projecting nothingness, that she emanates a physical manifestation of the Void. Kaworu and Unit Beta are far from exempt, that Void energy crashing into them headlong and cracking darkness against capillaries of light. She remains in one piece, but her wings stagger as she slumps afterwards.
"Do not lose heart," Kaworu reassures Unit Beta from within her. "We are together."
Unit Beta raises her head, silver hair cascading over her shoulders in a disarray, much unlike its usual long, straight glory. Then she stands upright in space, ankles tucking together, and reaches out both hands and splitting them to either side of her to form her body into a cross. The multi-kilometer-wide auxiliary wings flare around her like a four-pointed star--or, perhaps, like a second cross--before they stretch out to lock around one of Eliminscion's head-snakes, to lock in around it and crush it in its strange grasp before it can spit many more gravity wells at Liam and Lucine (and Murasaki, but for Kaworu, that's incidental).
KTS: Kaworu Nagisa targets Kaiju Navi with Longing! KTS: Leina Ashta targets Kaiju Navi with Armed Armor BS Spread Shot! KTS: Murasaki El-Amari has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Aurora Dusk fails to engage evade against Kaiju Navi's Oblivion Wing Endless Night! KTS: Aurora Dusk moderately reacts to Kaiju Navi's Oblivion Wing Endless Night, taking 4140 damage! KTS: Kaiju Navi rattles Aurora Dusk, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to engage charge against Rena Lancaster's Beam Rifle Burst! KTS: Kaiju Navi successfully reacts to Rena Lancaster's Beam Rifle Burst, taking 3960 damage! KTS: Rena Lancaster begins a Formation attack! KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to engage guard against Elisa Kafim's Horrid Conjuration - Profane Entity! KTS: Kaiju Navi successfully reacts to Elisa Kafim's Horrid Conjuration - Profane Entity, taking 6020 damage! KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to engage evade against Koji Kabuto's Koushiryoku Beam - Kaiser Glare! KTS: Kaiju Navi poorly reacts to Koji Kabuto's Koushiryoku Beam - Kaiser Glare, taking 3300 damage! KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to engage charge against Kaworu Nagisa's Longing! KTS: Best Defense! Kaiju Navi successfully reacts to Kaworu Nagisa's Longing, taking 4875 damage! KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to engage guard against Leina Ashta's Armed Armor BS Spread Shot! KTS: Best Defense! Kaiju Navi successfully reacts to Leina Ashta's Armed Armor BS Spread Shot, taking 4960 damage! KTS: Aurora Dusk has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Aurora Dusk's I've Accepted the Machine that I Am activates! KTS: Koji Kabuto has activated the Rouse Spirit Command. KTS: Koji Kabuto's The Rush of Battle activates!
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.
More and more allies continue to pour in to face down the Empress - many of them familiar - friends, allies, comrades, others not so familiar, but appreciated to see nonetheless. All of their strength will be needed if it's going to be enough to surpass a Goddess. Seeing the Banshee is still worrying at a time like this - but along with her concern for Leina, there's respect - Sayaka knows how strong she is, too.
Dethroning the Empress is Elisa's battle just as much as it's the entirety of the Earth's battle - and she encapsulates it all at once by wielding the power of Earth against her. Sayaka doesn't let herself get distracted, but she does look impressed as she channels it to create a Dragon - this time as an ally. Despite the eldritch power, it's only natural for a scientist to respect how far another's research has come... especially since it's for good this time.
Conversely, the Empress makes her anger very much known to all of them. Sayaka braces herself for it - as a hand comes flying for Mazinger Z and Mazinkaiser alike. "You can hate us all you want! It's all you've got left!" Sayaka shouts back, raising Mazinger Z's Iron Cutter to meet it. "You've spent so long in that darkness, it's only blinded you!" As the Empress does with Mazinkaiser, Z's arm meets a much longer arm... but it isn't enough. The Super Alloy New Z that forms it doesn't exactly shatter... but it does crackle at the impact, a rare sight indeed. The Castle of Iron reels back for once, but even as it does, Sayaka is already preparing for her next strike.
"I'll give her that and more. Koji - Leina, I'm going in! WHIRLING CUTTER!" Instead of leveraging the damaged Iron Cutter blades, the wingtips of the Astro Scrander itself become blades, Sayaka hurling one as a glowing boomerang, before using the opening of Koji and Leina's Koushiryoku Beam and Armed Armour to slice through God's Hand.
KTS: Sayaka Yumi targets Kaiju Navi with Whirling Cutters!
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
"I love you, Lu," Liam says. Notably, he does not respond in kind on the tightband. Reckless, perhaps, but in the face of the end, he can't bring himself to care. He laughs, and adds, to Leina: "Yeah. I'm glad you're here. Her, too." He hasn't forgotten about the ghost in the machine.
The Empress speaks. "Nothing about you is kind," Liam snarls. He understands the Empress' speech even without the translator, but it feels... good, to speak to the monster, and know she understands. "You'd kill EVERYONE, and it STILL wouldn't be enough for you!" His eyes scan ELIMINSCION's form, and he takes his lip between his teeth. More firepower. More. Everything. He can't hold anything back.
Gravity rips from the Empress' fangs. The Balor's head snaps up, and Liam fires back with the only weapon he can: the heat gun. Infrared radiation sweeps through the void, but the Empress' fury punches right through it. It SLAMS into the Balor's chest like a colossal wrecking ball, hurling the massive machine backwards. Bits of armor plating peel off to drift in the void. In the cockpit, Liam looks up at the photos.
"We're breaking this cycle," Liam says, "and that means breaking you." His throat tightens. Can his parents see him, now? "And whatever you ripped out of Mars's past, we'll break that, too." Liam takes aim again, and the glow within the Balor's gun intensifies. "My name is--my name--" It sticks in his throat for a moment, as the shreds of conditioning give way.
"My name is Liam O'Mail Chonaire..."
<Pose Tracker> Liam O'Maol Chonaire has posed.
"And I'm going to end this. For everyone!"
Liam pulls the trigger again. A searing burst of megaparticle fire rips free from the Balor's gun, aimed right for center mass of the Empress' heart.
KTS: Liam O'Maol Chonaire targets Kaiju Navi with EL-444P Variable-Output Cannon Array - Steady Shot! KTS: Liam O'Maol Chonaire's Tactical Intelligence activates Focus! KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to engage guard against Sayaka Yumi's Whirling Cutters! KTS: Critical Hit! Kaiju Navi poorly reacts to Sayaka Yumi's Whirling Cutters, taking 6600 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Sayaka Yumi's Hot-Blooded Temper activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Sayaka Yumi's Light of the Future activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: Sayaka Yumi completes the Formation attack! KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to react to Liam O'Maol Chonaire's EL-444P Variable-Output Cannon Array - Steady Shot! KTS: Kaiju Navi successfully reacts to Liam O'Maol Chonaire's EL-444P Variable-Output Cannon Array - Steady Shot, taking 4410 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Li Yao has posed.
The bugs fall upon Yulong and there is no avoiding them without giving up the ground Yao made of getting to the heart of the matter. Instead teh bugs land and begin to rip away at the armor and any exposed wires of the Yulong are becoming spaghetti for the parasites of the empress. The Yulong does its best to peel away the bugs from it and toss them aside.
At the same time Yao speaks to the entity that he is doing his best to stop,<" I am sorry. I am sorry for those that wronged you , I am sorry for those that did not support you. I am sorry for the sacrifices and loneliness you suffered. No one deserves such an existence. "> That is when Yulong's sensors detect a large six legged beast flying this way and Yao smiles.
Yao continues to talk as the Yulong withdraws slightly, waiting to join up with the approaching dragon, <"However the two of them have found happiness and allies. They have conquered the loneliness you suffer, the fact that they do not face you alone proves it. No matter what happens now they have already beaten you. "> The Yulong sees the dragons and flips through the zero gravity of space to land on the void dragons back.
<" In the end you're just jealous."> Yao says with a grin as the Yulong dips its hands into the mixture of GN-particles and void energy as the hands of the Yulong take on the same aura. <"It's time for you to abdicate your thrown and fade away. Allow me to help you.."> As the dragon approaches the heart the Yulong dashes off the back of the dragon and uses his aura infused hands as claws to slash at the heart.
KTS: Li Yao has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Li Yao has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus. KTS: Li Yao targets Kaiju Navi with Wu Xian Llu Long: Dragon's Claw! KTS: Can't find an attack from li yao. KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to engage guard against Li Yao's Wu Xian Llu Long: Dragon's Claw! KTS: Best Defense! Kaiju Navi successfully reacts to Li Yao's Wu Xian Llu Long: Dragon's Claw, taking 4500 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.
Anita smirks at Rena's flustered comment.
"You didn't?" She comments. It's a nice moment of levity before this, a battle that'll decide so much.
"Same to you, Rena. Let's show her what she's forgotten about the people of this world." Anita replies with a nod.
And battle is joined. They strive against the impossible - that which would consume the entire solar system.
"What she said." Anita replies, as Rena declares that the future doesn't belong to the Empress. "Yeah, I'll admit... I'm terrified. But I'm not going to scream for you. I don't owe you anything."
She shakes her head, taking another deep breath.
"We're taking it all back. The world's moved on without you - and the only thing left for you is your ending." She declares.
Horrific magic rains down blasts of power, and the Svipul weaves through them. Avoiding them entirely is almost impossible. She winces at each one that manages to clip the Svipul, the Variable Fighter rocking with each hit, but the Pinpoint Barrier holds firm. She's not sure it can weather a direct hit...
So she'll just have to make sure She doesn't land one.
The Svipul accelerates, folding back into Fighter Mode. It races across space, making circles and dodging across the battlefield in an impressive display of acrobatic piloting. It's also a distraction - to make it difficult for her to focus on her, even as the Svipul's gunpod turns to open fire on Eliminscion. Missiles from beneath the wings soon join the barrage to keep up the attack.
KTS: Anita Rosetta has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus. KTS: Anita Rosetta targets Kaiju Navi with Dazzling Acrobatics!
<Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.
'You are the Watcher Beyond the Way.'
"I don't even-- know what-- ghh--"
Despite the rising fall of the Silence, there's something inside Shelby that still manages to perceive Her presence, through all the terror and the void, and the Void, and the Eliminscion; reality stretches into a perpetual line-- a thought? a memory? A moment-- where now she can feel the gaze that turn('d/s) in her direction in the fight with Istantarik here and now.
Everything inside her head *hurts*.
"But I can see how small you really are." Shelby Korts says, her eyes briefly distant-- unfocused.
Reality snaps back like a rubber band, just in time for the moon-sized catastrophe to send fel winds of power toward her Mobile Suit. Even as her senses struggle and scream, Shelby has enough time to present her forearm-mounted shield in defense, the rippling waves of power and force shredding and burning the hull of the Zeonic machine.
Springing off the Base Jabber, the Jagd Doga's verniers flare to life, allowing the machine to maneuver more freely than riding the space-sled. Lining up the gatling rifle, the barrels spin up and thrum through the machine before unleashing a savage barrage at the hulking wings of the Eliminscion!
KTS: Shelby Korts has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Shelby Korts targets Kaiju Navi with Beam Gatling Gun Constant Barrage! KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to engage evade against Anita Rosetta's Dazzling Acrobatics! KTS: Kaiju Navi successfully reacts to Anita Rosetta's Dazzling Acrobatics, taking 3920 damage! KTS: Anita Rosetta begins a Formation attack! KTS: Anita Rosetta rattles Kaiju Navi, making its next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to engage evade against Shelby Korts's Beam Gatling Gun Constant Barrage! KTS: Kaiju Navi successfully reacts to Shelby Korts's Beam Gatling Gun Constant Barrage, taking 4158 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
Given that the Sukeban Kiseki is only as powerful as its pilot's will, anything that reinforces that is more than welcome. Naoko finds the time to give a thumbs-up in the general direction of Rena's machine. She hasn't seen her Terminal friends for a while, given her assistance at the Photon Power Labs for the past month and change, working towards this very effort. As much as she enjoyed putting her skills to the best possible use, returning to some semblance of normalcy will be nice as well. Presuming they all live, of course - she refuses to believe otherwise.
She'd be lying if she claimed she wasn't going to miss working with Shari, though. It's so much easier to work together with someone who is entirely on the same wavelength. But there will be other opportunities... if she has anything to say about it. For work and fun, both.
Naturally, the Empress isn't taking any of this lying down. Even with the shield, it would be reckless to just sit there and try to tank the magic sent her way. Focusing her will, Naoko yells loudly, putting force behind the barrier as she mentally pushes back against the magical blast. While the repulsion effort is ultimately successful, it wasn't instant, leaving room for a momentary cold sweat as the two forces collides. Naoko's certainly sweating after that, none of what her machine does comes without mental strain on her part. This will quickly become a problem if they can't manage to speed up the containment process.
"...About as fair as I expected," she retorts with false bravado, to the Empress's assertion that she would pay for something that she had nothing to do with. That sure seems to be a bit of a recurring theme. Not that it really matters, when everyone would be equally doomed by a failure here today.
Watching Mazinkaiser out there is heartening at least, doubly so fighting side by side with Mazinger Z. But when her gaze slides over to Elisa... her slightly panicked voice carries over to Shari on their private line.
"H-hang on a second, is this okay? Using Void creatures against, like, the ultimate Void creature, is that something we should be worried about?" She worries that this might lead to a fight over control of that creature, she's not exactly looking forward to having to play Kaiju Pong on top of everything.
Be that as it may, she's here to help keep the Empress contained. She has to stay where she is, unable to move very far away from the spire while she keeps it shielded. But that doesn't mean she has to be a sitting duck, there's certainly a way that she can more actively assist with that effort.
"The only reason you're even here is because you're an unbelievably sore loser. But this is the last rematch you're getting! You've lost again, and this time you're going nowhere! COSMIC CAGE!"
With a wave of the Sukeban Kiseki's arms, threads of green light begin to form around the Empress, weaving into surprisingly effective bindings considering their total lack of physical matter. There's no way she could ever hold down her entire body, but that isn't necessary - they're already doing that through different means. Hindering attacks is the main objective here, delaying resistance and buying everyone more time. It doesn't hurt that everything Sukeban Kiseki does is anathema to the Void, however. Well. It doesn't hurt Naoko.
KTS: Naoko Suzuki targets Kaiju Navi with Cosmic Cage!
<Pose Tracker> Aurora Dusk has posed.
"Hold steady," say the Captains to their ships. "Stay in formation," say the Lieutenants to their squads. The fingers of the beleaguered bridge crews dance across their consoles, desperate pilots pull their joysticks to and fro... and at the centre of it all, Vert feels like the man of the hour.
It's not a good feeling.
It'd be egotistical for him to be stuck in his own feelings, he thinks, when everyone else is fighting too, and his crew needs him right now. The weight on his shoulders is surely the weight on the shoulders of all present. Next to him, the special forces colonel lights up a cigarette with trembling hands, and he doesn't spare the focus to complain. What's a little smoke on the bridge when a demonic god is trying to consume humanity?
Aurora isn't paying attention to the chatter around her. She's busy trying not to die, weaving from side to side, trying to avoid the Empress's attempts to kill her with the rest of the planet. But even so, she hears Liam declaring his name. Such strength, in his voice. It's something new about him for her to learn.
Perhaps it's unfair that she gets to learn about him and he doesn't get to learn about her story, but it's for the best. She cannot open that gate. Literally, she can't. She doesn't think she'd be able to tell him the whole story if she tried. Maybe she can talk about some things, though. Little, non incriminating things.
No time for that. Think about it when the battle's over. By now, Aurora has drifted together with the only people around she knows personally here, flying in... not formation, really. It's too chaotic to call that. But she and a few other machines that didn't know better than following her are perched nearby, trying to add their fire to their own, blasting the Empress's heart with all their might.
Aurora sees the Seraph, too. It's hard to recognise. But that machine seems familiar to her, somehow.
KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to engage evade against Naoko Suzuki's Cosmic Cage! KTS: Kaiju Navi successfully reacts to Naoko Suzuki's Cosmic Cage, taking 3960 damage! KTS: Naoko Suzuki anchors Kaiju Navi, preventing it from Evading the next attack! KTS: Naoko Suzuki rattles Kaiju Navi, making its next maneuvers more difficult. <Pose Tracker> Murasaki El-Amari has posed.
Murasaki's eyes go to the size of saucers as she sees a horrible, horrible death approaches her. She wasn't really much for science class but she did remember the term "Spaghettification" was a thing and it sounded very, very unpleasant. She yanked the transformation control back as the Murasume snapped back to a jet fighter like form, and the primary thrusters to full capacity. A bite it felt, ripping one of the wings off, as her mobile suit struggled to avoid a very, very rapid squeezing. Luckily she was in the void, so aerodynamics were far from important. She made another circle, trying to keep her calm as another massive, horrible monstrosity of arcane arts appeared, allegedly allied to their cause...for now.
"Yup, I do not get paid enough for this." She hissed, rolling back over to face the Empress's avatar. From the remaining wings, missiles begin to slide off the racks, blue flame sending them towards their target, the Eliminscion's limbs!
<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.
This isn't right. This isn't right. This isn't right. Thisisn'trightthisisn'trightthisisn'trightthisisn't-
Lilium tries to scream, but no sound escapes. HHer body is coming apart--
--The cheering of a crowd, a full auditorium--
--The black hole consuming the sun, endless darkness--
--A tiny fighter tears through her body, her mind is struck and explodes--
--Junius Seven falls to Earth, she feels like she's drowning--
"N.. no... NOOOOO!!!"
The Control System's mouth opens, but no sound escapes. It tries to scream. It fails. It tries to scream. It fails. And, back in the control room--
"Subject's quantum brainwaves are exhibiting abnormal behavior--she's under direct psychic attack!"
"-She's in secondary Mode, that shouldn't matter--Heart rate is spiking!"
The Doctor crosses her arms, staring downwards... and then sweeps out a hand. "Administer sedatives! We can handle some loss of precision, but not her forcing herself back into Primary Mode! Vitals Team, stand by for a possible Cardiac Reboot--charge pacesetter implant for two discharges in sequence! Control Team, sharpen those turns--we'll be injecting additional blood to compensate for the G-increase!"
A new alarm sounds, and her attention turns to the Seraph's systems readout. Her eyes grow wide. "What the hell...?"
[B-SONG SYSTEMS: OFF'ONLINE]
Lilium sprints down an endless hallway. Was this her old high school? The facility she'd been taken to? Somewhere else? She hears a stampede of feet behind her. She's too scared to turn--but suddenly, she feels less alone. She bursts through a door, and finds herself face to face with... something. Staring at it drives her mad. She has to. She can't look away. She can't look at what's behind her.
"Increasing strength of Vocal Lockout--her voicebox still hasn't healed enough to risk a song!"
"Bringing the unit around for another pass--the interference has widened the turning radius significantly!"
The Doctor types at her controls in a panic, desperately trying to figure out what's happening to her creation--when suddenly, the readings stabilise. She rises to her feet, quickly taking command of the situation."-Write it off as a sensor malfunction! Inspect every part of the system when she gets back, including the parts built into the subject--we'll need to strip her down for maintenance afterwards anyway!"
"I don't... I don't know what you are--but this is our world!"
With little to no context for events, barely even awake... trapped in a nightmare by the Empress' power, Lilium finds herself compelled to taunt her anyway.
"We're not giving it up! Not for you, not for anyone! Not until we have a peace we forged with our own hands!"
"How could we give it up before we could even take the Stage for ourselves?"
Lilium doesn't understand why she feels like she has to draw the Empress' ire so--or how she knows the name for what torments her, for that matter--but even still, Something compels her to try.
KTS: Aurora Dusk targets Kaiju Navi with GN-X Beam Rifle Focused Onslaught! KTS: Lilium Valerie targets Kaiju Navi with Goad! KTS: Murasaki El-Amari targets Kaiju Navi with Wurger' AAM Pods Targeted Barrage Fire! KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to engage guard against Aurora Dusk's GN-X Beam Rifle Focused Onslaught! KTS: Kaiju Navi successfully reacts to Aurora Dusk's GN-X Beam Rifle Focused Onslaught, taking 4814 damage! KTS: Aurora Dusk completes the Formation attack! KTS: Passive attacks besides Pass require accept. KTS: Failure in +defend. KTS: Kaiju Navi accepts Lilium Valerie's Goad! KTS: Lilium Valerie goads Kaiju Navi, reducing its Intuition drastically. KTS: Best Defense! Kaiju Navi successfully reacts to Lilium Valerie's Goad, taking 0 damage! KTS: Can't find an attack from lilium. KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to engage evade against Murasaki El-Amari's Wurger' AAM Pods Targeted Barrage Fire! KTS: Best Defense! Kaiju Navi successfully reacts to Murasaki El-Amari's Wurger' AAM Pods Targeted Barrage Fire, taking 4125 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
< "... I wouldn't say appear to... I think they're literally doing it." > Lucine can't help herself, grinning as she makes an off-handed quip to Leina.
The Empress's words are no laughing matter however, and quite baffling, somehow being exact and vague, all at the same time. But for Lucine, there is no denial of what the Empress intends.
< ".... I don't intend on letting it come down to the Macross colonies..." > As if Lucine could decide herself, with the Dianthus placing its thumb on the scale of fate.
The reality may be a little harsher. < "Incoming," > Lucine hisses urgently, less foresight than actual observation. Something this large will telegraph all its attacks, but there is little advantage; the moment those snakes bare their fangs, there is little time to plan a proper reaction.
"Kgh!" The Dianthus attempts to roll out of the way, but gravity is hard to overcome. Dianthus's vitals caution the teal blue-haired pilot, but the Photon Power Labs' repair job takes a little more than that to be decimated entirely.
Unit Beta's angelic wings briefly stifle any oncoming gravity wells, giving Murasaki, Liam, and Lucine a chance to escape. < "Thank you, both of you." > She remembers how Kaworu referred to Unit Beta as a partner.
Flying out of range of that immediate attack, Lucine's stomach lurches as the brief flash of a familiar face-- well, a familiar kaiju. < ".... Ironic." > Lucine knows that Void dragon, and whether intentional or not, she finds its appearance here humorous after the Empress's threat moments earlier. < "Or is it... poetic?" >
'We're breaking the cycle.' Liam speaks, his voice filled with its own sort of gravity, and Lucine's heart sings. 'My name is--my name--'
Even she didn't know his last name, even if she knew he remembered it. She had offered him her own if he ever needed a placeholder.
"Liam... O'Mail Chonaire...." The pilot says the name in her own cockpit, testing the sounds on her tongue.
The Dianthus swoops ahead towards one of many heads, trailing streams of glittering dust, making a cloud of stardust that felt like what her heart felt in that moment, rather than the mech attempting to simply confuse an opponent.
< "I love you... Liam O'Mail Chonaire!" > There may be some shakiness on Lucine's pronounication, as if his last name was the first time she's ever spoken it. But it doesn't lessen the joy in her voice as it's spoken aloud for all to hear, as Lucine doesn't restrict this to tightband this time, just as Liam had done earlier.
KTS: Lucine Azul has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Lucine Azul has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Lucine Azul targets Kaiju Navi with Lunate Crown v.2 Cloud Forest!
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"VOID - TOUCHED," the Empress notes, gazing upon the Gaia Gear Alpha as it warps in space. Her beam rifle fires, and cannot possibly miss its mark, so broad is her target.
But Her fascination with Rena's closeness ends, sharply, as Elisa incites Her wrath further. "NO!" She screams, over Her lightning. "SHE WILL YET LIVE ! THIS FAILURE IS AS NOTHING , AND NOTHING, MINE TO COMMAND!" She draws Elisa in, inexorably -- "COME! MY WILL BE DONE!"
But Elisa has more than a God's strength to draw on, now. The Empress roars as the Earth itself empowers Delack. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" She demands, as the very first dragon Elisa summoned wrenches itself back into existence. "IVNERRE...!!"
She reaches up, to grasp at Ivnerre with two of Her vast hands, only for the Earth-empowered dragon to slip through Her grasp and tear at Her face. She screams, and when finally She swats Ivnerre away, two of Her eight eyes are gouged and bleeding.
Kaiser Knuckle punches along one of Eliminscion's massive arms, tearing a white-hot trail down Her wrist and up Her arm. "MAZZZINKAISSSER," She hisses, like one of Her serpents or dragons, as She looks to his glowing eyes with the six remaining to Her. Koushiryoku Beam is a terrible power, and it blasts into Her scaled chest, searing away those scales.
"SHE IS MINE ," the Empress howls, to Leina. "AND MY WIFE WHO IS MINE WOULD NEVER WRONG ME. SHE LOVES ME. THIS FAILURE HAS FORGOTTEN HER PLACE . SHE WOULD NOT LOVE ME AS SHE SHOULD. DAMN HER CHOICE . NOT MINE. " Trails of purple wash over Eliminscion, though, and the napalm-like fire burns at Her scales, weakening their structure. "YOU CANNOT WARM MY HEART," the Empress screams defiance, to Leina. "ONLY SHE COULD."
The Empress is small and large, though -- Delack herself is proof of that, were you to ask Her. Unit Beta's(?) wings curl around Eliminscion's hair, and one of those snakes is crushed to nothing, folding in on itself as if pressed by a massive force instead of airy, light feathers. The others hiss, recoiling away from those wings, as if afraid.
'Be not afraid' was never uttered, this day.
"YOU ARE," the Empress cries. The words hang in the air.
"DANGEROUS."
But it's not just Kaworu who is. Sayaka looks to the damaged scales Eliminscion wears, and sees an opportunity. Whirling Cutter takes the wings of her Astro Scrander and creates a weapon from them, crashing forward into one of God's own wrists -- the middle of the joint still glowing from the received might of Kaiser Knuckle. Those wings scream against Her scales, for a moment, throwing up a flare of energy which might have been sparks were these weapons at human scale -- but this is nothing less than Photon Power, made manifest. And with a great howl, Mazinger Z's WHIRLING CUTTER! finally carves through, leaving one of Her vast hands dangling uselessly as something more like the sinews of cardiac muscle than skeletal muscle can't quite keep it seated. "YOU!" She cries, enraged further. "I DID NOT GIVE YOU PERMISSION TO CHANGE ME !"
Not 'maim'. 'Change'. It's that same sick logic which saw her mutilating Yuliana's body in her dreams -- just to find the form which would best save her.
"LIAM O'MAIL CHONAIRE ," the Empress growls, turning Her baleful attention to the Balor. (Distantly, Yuliana's radio echoes: "... O'Mail Chonaire...?") The Empress roars: "MARS IS MINE BY MARRIAGE. MY WIFE WAS BLESSED. THROUGH THIS BLESSING, I AM EMPOWERED TO SAVE HER." Why... would Mars give Her those powers...? She doesn't explain -- because She howls in pain, as the Balor's megaparticle gun fires straight for Her heart's heart, exposed by Koji's Koushiryoku Beam.
"CHHHH... JEALOUSY?" Yao, empowered by the heart of the dragon himself, tears at Eliminscion's back. He knows just where to strike, even in a lamia like this -- to dig at Her heart from behind, just as the others do from the front. Together, they carve a hole straight through that wretched creature -- though, impossibly, She still stands. "JEALOUSY IS A VIRTUE. SO IT IS, TO TAKE. I WILL TAKE EVERYTHING FROM YOU!"
But Anita insists the world's moved on without Her. "NO!" She screams, and it begins to be possible to imagine Her screaming in defiance, rather than tyranny. "I WILL NOT FAIL MY WIFE!" The Svipul strafes along Her face, and Eliminscion turns, to swipe at her -- successfully distracted, for crucial moments.
"I AM NOT SMALL," the Empress snarls, to the Watcher at the Way -- the unwilling medium, Shelby Korts. "I BROKE MYSELF TEN THOUSAND AND TEN THOUSAND TIMES TO BECOME LARGE ENOUGH TO SAVE HER." Those wings flare out, but the purple fire clinging to them weakens the membranes -- and the Jagd Doga fires a long line of holes into the skin stretched between each finger.
But before they can lash out to strike the Jagd Doga, those wings are encircled in a Cosmic Cage, crushing them against Her back. "WHAT?!" She screams, as Eliminscion's body twists in space. "I SEE IT WAS YOU WHO BOUND ME! YOU INSOLENT WRETCH!" She didn't know who was pinning Her to this point in space -- until now -- and She's furious.
If only Yuliana were staying longer -- she's an expert at opening Gates. But Aurora must reckon with her personal Gate herself, in the end, as she fires her GN-X beam into the Empress's exposed heart-chamber, that cored tunnel through Her exposing Her weakest parts. "GUILTY," the Empress condemns her -- and those she flies with.
"MONEY WILL BE OF NO CONCERN TO YOU SOON," the Empress assures Murasaki, even as the Murasame's missiles fire on Her dangling hand, expertly targeting the dangling muscle to completely sever the limb. It's a good thing she did, because they might notice the way that cardiac muscle was starting to snake down, reaching out to reconnect what Sayaka had put so much effort into slicing. Thankfully, Murasaki's a good shot -- so the hand flies off into space, rather than down towards Earth. If it falls into Earth's gravity well, though... "YOU!" She screams, with fury. "I -- WILL PAY YOU RESPECT -- THAT YOU AND YOURS TOOK MY HAND. IT IS THE LAST PAYMENT YOU WILL RECEIVE."
But the Empress at the End of All Things said She came from Orb, before all this happened. Why would She say that..?
... because the Empress was once a woman, and that woman was half-Meltrandi. And Meltrandi all share a unifying trait: it was a songstress who reached them. Even without her song, Lilium's voice shakes the Empress, still. "A PEACE YOU HAVE FORGED? IMPOSSIBLE! YOU ARE --!"
Her ire is stolen, though, by a declaration of love. "YOUR HUSBAND ," the Empress says, for She has forgotten the stage before it. "YOU FIGHT FOR... ARGH!" She screams, shaking Her head as that stardust-fire from Dianthus showers Her remaining eyes.
"... ENOUGH!" She screams, as she swipes them clear. "YOU ARE STRONG. I WILL END THIS, NOW." Another of those black holes opens, as Eliminscion's jaw unhinges, Her heart's own claw-tongues grasping out as spectral claws reach out to grasp at Leina, Rena, Anita, Kaworu, Lilium, Aurora, Shelby, Yao, and Liam. It's the same hunger She displayed to the Sun, on a smaller scale -- and they know from observation that She means to drag them through that awful blackness into Her gaping maw.
Lucine, Murasaki, and Naoko will find another problem, as She lifts one of Her remaining hands to cast an awful spell, sending crushing force towards each of them. Meanwhile, Sayaka and Koji are met with spells much like them -- but each delivered at the end of the remaining two of Her fists, Her knuckles blazing with green Power.
And Elisa... Elisa is met with that horrible pull into Herself, calling, screaming, demanding she return to the Goddess who made her.
KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to engage guard against Lucine Azul's Lunate Crown v.2 Cloud Forest! KTS: Best Defense! Kaiju Navi successfully reacts to Lucine Azul's Lunate Crown v.2 Cloud Forest, taking 4350 damage! KTS: Lucine Azul rattles Kaiju Navi, making its next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Kaiju Navi targets Leina Ashta, Rena Lancaster, Anita Rosetta, Kaworu Nagisa, Lilium Valerie, Aurora Dusk, Shelby Korts, Li Yao, and Liam O'Maol Chonaire with World Eater! KTS: Lucine Azul's Morning Star activates! KTS: Kaiju Navi targets Lucine Azul with Horrific Spatial Rend Blast! KTS: Kaiju Navi targets Murasaki El-Amari with Horrific Spatial Rend Blast! KTS: Kaiju Navi targets Naoko Suzuki with Horrific Spatial Rend Blast! KTS: Kaiju Navi targets Sayaka Yumi with Horrific Spatial Rend Point Blank! KTS: Kaiju Navi targets Koji Kabuto with Horrific Spatial Rend Point Blank! KTS: Kaiju Navi targets Elisa Kafim with Mine! KTS: Leina Ashta's Puru One activates! KTS: Leina Ashta has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Rena Lancaster has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Lilium Valerie has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Rena Lancaster fails to engage react against Kaiju Navi's World Eater! KTS: Rena Lancaster moderately reacts to Kaiju Navi's World Eater, taking 7812 damage! KTS: Kaiju Navi roots its unit, coming to a standstill and leaving it vulnerable. KTS: Lilium Valerie has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Leina Ashta engages react against Kaiju Navi's World Eater! KTS: Best Defense! Leina Ashta successfully reacts to Kaiju Navi's World Eater, taking 0 damage! KTS: Kaiju Navi roots its unit, coming to a standstill and leaving it vulnerable. KTS: Koji Kabuto fails to engage parry against Kaiju Navi's Horrific Spatial Rend Point Blank! KTS: Koji Kabuto successfully reacts to Kaiju Navi's Horrific Spatial Rend Point Blank, taking 4692 damage! KTS: Anita Rosetta fails to engage react against Kaiju Navi's World Eater! KTS: Critical Hit! Anita Rosetta poorly reacts to Kaiju Navi's World Eater, taking 7812 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Kaiju Navi's Ace Attacker activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Kaiju Navi's Defiance activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: Kaiju Navi roots its unit, coming to a standstill and leaving it vulnerable. KTS: Lilium Valerie engages react against Kaiju Navi's World Eater! KTS: Critical Hit! Lilium Valerie poorly reacts to Kaiju Navi's World Eater, taking 7812 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Kaiju Navi's Ace Attacker activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Kaiju Navi's Defiance activates, causing Sparkle! KTS: Kaiju Navi roots its unit, coming to a standstill and leaving it vulnerable. KTS: Elisa Kafim fails to engage evade against Kaiju Navi's Mine! KTS: Elisa Kafim moderately reacts to Kaiju Navi's Mine, taking 5220 damage! KTS: Kaiju Navi anchors Elisa Kafim, preventing her from Evading the next attack! KTS: Aurora Dusk fails to engage react against Kaiju Navi's World Eater! KTS: Aurora Dusk poorly reacts to Kaiju Navi's World Eater, taking 7812 damage! KTS: Kaiju Navi roots its unit, coming to a standstill and leaving it vulnerable. KTS: Kaworu Nagisa fails to engage react against Kaiju Navi's World Eater! KTS: Best Defense! Kaworu Nagisa successfully reacts to Kaiju Navi's World Eater, taking 0 damage! KTS: Kaiju Navi roots its unit, coming to a standstill and leaving it vulnerable. KTS: Sayaka Yumi has activated the Trust Spirit Command. KTS: Sayaka Yumi engages charge against Kaiju Navi's Horrific Spatial Rend Point Blank! KTS: Best Defense! Sayaka Yumi successfully reacts to Kaiju Navi's Horrific Spatial Rend Point Blank, taking 3417 damage! KTS: Liam O'Maol Chonaire fails to engage React against Kaiju Navi's World Eater! KTS: Liam O'Maol Chonaire poorly reacts to Kaiju Navi's World Eater, taking 7812 damage! KTS: Kaiju Navi roots its unit, coming to a standstill and leaving it vulnerable. KTS: Naoko Suzuki fails to engage charge against Kaiju Navi's Horrific Spatial Rend Blast! KTS: Naoko Suzuki's Will Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Best Defense! Naoko Suzuki successfully reacts to Kaiju Navi's Horrific Spatial Rend Blast, taking 3525 damage! KTS: Lucine Azul has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Murasaki El-Amari has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Murasaki El-Amari engages evade against Kaiju Navi's Horrific Spatial Rend Blast! KTS: Critical Hit! Murasaki El-Amari poorly reacts to Kaiju Navi's Horrific Spatial Rend Blast, taking 6240 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Kaiju Navi's Ace Attacker activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Kaiju Navi's Defiance activates, causing Sparkle! Murasaki El-Amari transforms to MVF-M11C Murasame (MS Mode) <Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"Sister?" Rena murmurs in response to Elisa, before she shakes her head. "Right--well, I don't plan to let her take me!"
She glances at the Banshee, then; Rena's head tilts for a moment. "I'll keep it in mind!" she says.
Then she looks sideways at Anita. She flashes a smile, through the video feed. It's visible through the helmet of her normal suit. "Might need a hell of a punch to get it to sink in, but I'm sure we can manage."
Her eyes are back on the Eliminscion, as the Empress rages at Elisa's dragons. She grits her teeth, and shakes her head. "I might have a piece of the Void in me,"she says.
She exhales. "But I'm a lot more than that!"
The Gaia Gear Alpha is reached for -- clawed into -- by those great claws. They slash into the white and teal armor, leaving gashes along its torso and sparks erupting. The Mobile Suit rises up, sea blue motes of blue light erupting from it.
"Your time passed a long time ago," she says. "Your universe did! The future is ours to decide, now!"
The beam rifle aims down. Rena draws a bead.
And then funnels burst away from the Gaia Gear, too. She shoots them at once, and the shots all rush in. The funnels fire, while the Gaia Gear Alpha sweeps up through the middle of all dozen of them, then aim the beam rifle for the Eliminscion's head.
The barrel extends -- and then she shoots a blast of energy straight for it.
KTS: Rena Lancaster has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Rena Lancaster has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Rena Lancaster targets Kaiju Navi with Shooting Star!
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
There is a grim satisfaction on Koji's face as the Empress announces his machine's name, acknowledging his work.
"This creation of mine... Would not exist if not for you," he explains, still frantically throwing levers as the beam of light from Kaiser's eyes winks out. "If not for the threat you pose to the world, I would never have built this machine - and that means Mazinkaiser was built to destroy you!"
Howling in fury, the Empress has another fist descending upon Kaiser to strike it, and Koji lifts both the Mazin's arms, still whirling like drills, to catch it fists-to-giant fist, while pushing back with the Scrander's powerful thrusters.
The strain sends alarms screeching in the Pilder cockpit, Super Alloy New-Z-Alpha screaming noiselessly under the conjoined pressures. A catastrophic explosion is surely imminent if he keeps this up.
Instinctively, Koji changes tactics, pulling a lever that starts Kaiser's fists counter-rotating against the spin of its forearms. "TURBO..."
Steam - no, smoke - erupts from Mazinkaiser's forearms as the pressure builds. Koji leans forward on the flexing, bike-handle yoke of the Pilder, thumb triggers pressed down hard as the paired counter-rotation intensifies. "SMASHEEEEEEEER..."
At the last possible second before overload -
"PUUUUUUUUUNCH!"
- he pulls the triggers behind the yoke and hauls back, and the smoke billowing from Mazinkaiser's elbows is revealed to be rocket thrusters, blasting Kaiser away from the strike as its twin fists surge forwards, spinning and burrowing down the arm to strike Eliminscion's head square on twice over!
KTS: Koji Kabuto targets Kaiju Navi with Double Turbo Smasher Punch! KTS: Lucine Azul fails to engage evade against Kaiju Navi's Horrific Spatial Rend Blast! KTS: Lucine Azul successfully reacts to Kaiju Navi's Horrific Spatial Rend Blast, taking 4160 damage! KTS: Can't find an attack from that player.
<Pose Tracker> Aurora Dusk has posed.
"Jealousy... is a virtue?" ...Well, that's not something Aurora expected to hear. It wasn't directed at her, but everyone can hear the Empress here. Jealousy as a virtue. Aurora turns the concept over a little before she stows it for later.
There's no time for that. She has to fight. One thousand arms reach out, and it feels like claws raking against her soul. Her machine is being pulled into that awful maw, and it feels like her soul is following suit...
Aboard the Clean Shot, Vert does the honours. Standing from his seat in terrified excitement, he declares: "It's weakening! Focus fire now! The exposed heart!" His breathless declaration is carried to everyone in the battlegroup, and probably everyone on open comms too. Aurora definitely hears. The ships all open fire in tandem, and Aurora... sees an opening. Tearing herself free of the claw, she drives her machine into the monster's chest, flying alongside Mazin... something. (Her mentor always wanted to fight alongside Mazinger, she dimly notes, through the battle and stimulant haze.)
Mazinger... Well, it looks like Mazinger to her, is a Mazin. GN-Xs are GN-Xs. Perhaps it's reckless of Aurora to do what she does next.
She flies straight down through the chest cavity and drives her swords straight into the Empress's heart. "Go to Hell where you belong and trouble Yuliana's soul no more!"
KTS: Aurora Dusk has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Aurora Dusk targets Kaiju Navi with GN-X Beam Saber Through And Through!
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
Leina mysteriously, cuts her comms for a few moments after the Empress senses the void in Rena - and Rena confirms it back.
In the midst of battle she can't tell her 'ixnay on the oidvay' on anything that might be recorded and studied by Cathedra but you know - they have bigger problems than legal trouble right now.
It is so difficult to maintain her sense of self amidst this steady maelstrom of hatred. It pounds into her head - hatred, hatred of Yuliana. All the ways she wronged Leina Ashta come back to her, one by one - despite or no because of the persistent effort, but it goes deeper, trailing all the way back through her life.
To ten years ago, to the feel of an rusted pipe against her neck. Did someone like that really deserve the credit of being a child? The mercy of wanting to be her sister?
But as the fingers upon her tremble before the Empress' howling wrath, Leina laces herself to it, in the strange bond they share, anchoring to that. All the pain - the hurt - it caused.
Hate and love are not opposed. All the ways you love someone - you can hate them too for entirely different reasons. That's part of the messy state of being human, and just as the Empress hates Yuliana for not being the woman she once knew, she loves the woman that once was.
And that's what she seizes upon.
She would. She did.
The young Newtype insists, feeling wise, to how Yuliana Dian once hurt Elisa Dian so badly, badly enough that she's carrying that hurt with her to that day, unable to escape that hatred.
And as the spectral tongue-claws descend, what happens next is that the Banshee throws it's arms out wide, and a Psychofield stretches out, enormous enough that the claws strike it...
... and are deflected against the strength of that feeling. The love and hate - all combining together within a warm prismatic glow of geometric fractals spreading from a cloud centering upon it.
The tongue-claws crash against it, again and again. The field holds however - just long enough that her 'kiss of death' to devour her fails.
"<I know I can't.>" She admits to the person in front of her. Perhaps she's not really too far gone, like Leina once thought Elisa was... but it doesn't matter. "<Too much is at stake to even try. ... Not like with Yuliana. I made selfish call - after selfish call so she could live a life without people like you being any part of it. People are probably dead now because I chose to try - and keep trying.>"
Perhaps in a sense, it's her confession, even if it worked out - she still doesn't know if it was the right choice. It was merely her choice - and she did it for herself.
"<I won't give you the same benefit. That's also my choice.>"
Her 'bar' is typically much less than someone trying to eat the sun. That's just where they are today.
The moment however she sees an opening, the field drops, and each arm spread out wide suddenly sprouts a beam saber, and the Banshee surges forward to try and bring down each Mounted Saber upon the side of her tongue - bared to the world, to try and carve part of it out of her terrible maw as she draws it along it - too perilously close to the mouth, and banking away.
"<Yours was to steal the warmth from anyone and everything you touch.>"
An emotional parasite, that's what she's accusing her of being - even beyond her trying to eat the actual sun.
KTS: Leina Ashta targets Kaiju Navi with Beam Saber Rush!
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Yes... Sadness. This is a moment of utmost importance--but there is sadness isn't there? Elisa understands this, too. "...I have never..." Elisa inclines her head, and Delack's inclines with it, though only Kaworu hears--feels--her words. "I am glad. And I do not think we will. Remember me, as I will you."
But she taunts the Empress next, "Ha ha ha! Did you never have a friend in the Void, Empress!?" She knows the answer.
It is Sayaka who bends her mind next. As Elisa continues to fight, continues to channel her Power into Ivnerre, she hears Sayaka. She smiles, and the wicked sight of Delack smiling greets the world, too. "You are too correct, Dr. Yumi," she answers her.
And then she watches Liam. She watches him fight back, looking through. Breaking the cycle...
"Yes, Liam O'Maol Chonaire," Elisa says to her former enemy. "Grasp your identity with your own hands! Destroy her, and become free, as I will be!" An encouraging(?), perhapss scary note in her voice as she adsd to Lucine, "Fight for your love! Show me... the strength of humans!"
Li Yao speaks kindness, and if not for Kaworu, Elisa would find it alien to consider for the Empress. As it stands... she understands.
"I hold only rage for her," she admits. "Hatred, myself. But... I accept you, Li Yao. And I agree. We have already won."
She turns her head for a moment towards the Svipul at her words, and she smiles still. Delack does not have the normal amount of teeth.
Ivnerre tears out eyes. Elisa calls, "Ivnerre! Retreat, that you might Live in our new domain!" Ivnerre, as directed, sails away on six wings from Eliminscion's grasp, but not away from the battle; the great Dragon hovers then, beside the Ra Mari II. ...It is unsettling to the crew, but it does not attack. It is... helping?
But it's fair to worry, as Naoko does, and Shari answers, "We talked about it before the battle. ...The energy she left on Earth is infusing it enough that the Empress's will can't get it. Think of it like... The Empress has power over green things, and Elisa painted herself and her kaiju blue. It's like that." Pause. "...Besides, if something goes wrong, we'll find a way to fix it. Right? We always do."
They didn't, in that one timeline. But this one, they're together!
Murasaki, indeed, does not get paid for this, and Elisa probably won't be here in the near future to give her more money for it. But she darts out of the way of more missiles to ensure they hit the Empress herself without her getting between the two.
"YES!" Elisa calls to the Empress. "They are STRONG! And through Yuliana's 'heart' and their own, they have chosen to oppose you! They fight for their lives!"
"Lives, of those once powerless, once irrelevant, once inconsequential--that have become more! I see it, now! I see the Power in each of them!"
But it seems that this may be her final defiance. Delack is pulled bodily, all sixty six meters meters of her, into Eliminscion's gaping maw. "I WILL NOT PERISH!" she demands, and then--
Then, there is silence from the unit. Only Kaworu will know for certain that she still lives.
The battle continues on for long moments. Others fight. Others do the best they can. And when Yuliana calls to her again--
Light blazes from a mountain.
Light burns from the depth of the ocean.
Light seethes from a high plateau.
The green-and-blue light of Elisa's essence anchored to the Earth finally surges back to the Empress, releasing the Earth itself from the Void's touch. And suddenly, from within--A thud that echoes through photon power and Void space somehow, as a spiked, flanged mace of pure Void energy some twenty meters tall smashes free from the Empress's body. DELACK--Elisa Kafim--returns from the place where she was held. Delack's beautiful, jeweled armor is melted. Her incredible limbs show bare metal beneath; even Psychoframe is twisted. But still, with all six hands, she grasps weapons. The next is a sword as wide as she is, held in two of her hands. She cuts and cuts and cuts until she cannot.
"I!" Elisa shouts, "AM MORE!"
And with everything she has, with claw and sword and axe and spear and will, Elisa hacks away at her greater Self.
KTS: Elisa Kafim has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Elisa Kafim targets Kaiju Navi with Elegant Killing Arsenal - Sixfold Annihilation! KTS: Li Yao fails to engage react against Kaiju Navi's World Eater! KTS: Li Yao successfully reacts to Kaiju Navi's World Eater, taking 7812 damage! KTS: Kaiju Navi roots its unit, coming to a standstill and leaving it vulnerable.
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.
Sayaka smiles, a brief, subtle one - as Liam breaks the cycle of his conditioning, and remembers, and announces who he really is, and Lucine in turn pronounces her love for him. Those two managed to figure things out a lot sooner, she thinks... it's nice to see. Delack's smile - and Elisa Kafim's - is a much less subtle thing, but Sayaka doesn't think badly of it. They're in agreement for once, after all.
"You call this change?" Sayaka asks, as she tries to wrap her head around the Empress's twisted logic. "All things change, Empress. That's what it means to live!" She adds, trying to keep Mazinger Z on balance to face whatever the Empress throws at them next. Seeing the fist whirl back to strike the twin Mazins once again, Sayaka knows she can't dodge it in her position. Mazinger Z's chest swings forth to take the blow - and it is beaten, the Breast Fire emitters smashed apart by the sheer impact. The Pilder swings, too, Sayaka feeling the canopy shake. But the the Photon reactor that powers Mazinger Z still shines. Damaged as it is, unlike the Empress, its heart remains.
Leverging the impact to face down Eliminscion again, Sayaka continues her train of thought. "But that's not all. All things come to an end, too!" She sees Mazinkaiser reel back, those fists spinning and spinning. Sayaka pushes forward two control sticks, Mazinger Z matching its descendent's pose. They're in perfect sync right now. Koji said Mazinkaiser was a machine built to destroy the Empress. And they'll all do it together.
"ROCKET!" Both fists fly along with the Turbo Smasher Punch, not packing nearly as much of a punch as Mazinkaiser's, but matching them in resolve. "PUUUUNCH!" The Empress wielded four arms against them, now she has to contend with four more coming her way.
KTS: Sayaka Yumi has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Sayaka Yumi targets Kaiju Navi with Rocket Punch!
<Pose Tracker> Kaworu Nagisa has posed.
Kaworu smiles when the Empress decrees him dangerous, those petal-wing-star-crosses unfurling back to encircle him and Unit Beta like a vast and brilliant corona. Or, perhaps, a halo.
"As are you," he replies graciously, as one does when receiving and returning a compliment.
"One day, as always, I will receive my reckoning for being what I am. Today is yours; that's all."
In the same way, when Elisa acknowledges that they will probably not meet again, he nods once in acceptance/resignation. "I will," he promises. "I am glad we could be friends, Elisa."
My name is--
"Liam O'Mail Chonaire," Kaworu says slowly, ponderously, as if savoring each syllable on his tongue. He does not need to eat and so has no need for taste, but he can choose to taste, and he tastes for a long moment before he smiles, long and slow. "...I'm proud of you."
This name is his to reclaim, at long last. The only thing that held him back for a significant amount of time was himself, and now he has overcome even that barrier. It's only fitting that Lucine in turn declares her love for him for all the hear. It's a mellifluous sound that cannot be shouted out, even by the Empress's howls, even by the spectral claws she vomits up out of her maw. Unit Beta sails with precision and speed, pirouetting out of the way of the claw-slashes in a dance to support Yuliana's, utilizing a gravity all her own.
But then he sees that she aims to draw the others into her maw by doing precisely that to Elisa. She is seemingly devoured, and Kaworu and Unit Beta still. Yet he can indeed sense her life, still beating in defiance within, and it is admiration, not despair, that drives them to stop. Claws now encircle them, drawing them into the void--but the lights of his and her hearts now spiral around their physical forms, his to the left, hers to the right. They spark and spiral, forming a nebula in miniature. Jealousy is a virtue, she claims, and Kaworu can only smile at her sadly as his soul aches. He understands her pain in this moment far too well. He's committed his share of sins out of jealousy, too... Elisa is his friend, and she is a piece of the Empress; he cannot bring himself to hate her, however hateful she may be.
"Do you hear that...?" he asks the Empress, even as she decries others over and over again, even as she insists that only a proper version of her wife can fill her heart. "It's not only their loving hearts. There are so many pulses that beat to the rhythm of love on this world. Yours did too, once upon a time. I know you cannot hear them anymore, and that we must end you for the sake of our love, but... ah... may you be lulled to peace by their rhapsody...!"
And then, like a cosmic bullet, the entirety of the tiny-by-comparison Evangelion ignites. Within her, Kaworu hums a vibrant, triumphant melody, an ode to the joy of love and life. The instant that light ERUPTS from within to reveal the Delack and its many-armed form, Kaworu and Unit Beta likewise erupt with light that SHOOTS them forward to pierce through the Empress's exposed heart--a double underscore with Aurora for the many exclamation points that are Elisa and everyone else's weapons.
KTS: Kaworu Nagisa has activated the Resupply Spirit Command. KTS: Attack 7 cancelled. KTS: Kaworu Nagisa has activated the Resupply Spirit Command. KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to engage evade against Rena Lancaster's Shooting Star! KTS: Critical Hit! Kaiju Navi poorly reacts to Rena Lancaster's Shooting Star, taking 7480 damage! KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to engage guard against Koji Kabuto's Double Turbo Smasher Punch! KTS: Critical Hit! Kaiju Navi poorly reacts to Koji Kabuto's Double Turbo Smasher Punch, taking 5500 damage! KTS: Elisa Kafim has activated the Prospect Spirit Command targeting Kaworu Nagisa KTS: Kaworu Nagisa has activated the Resupply Spirit Command. KTS: Kaworu Nagisa has activated the Enable Spirit Command. KTS: Kaworu Nagisa targets Kaiju Navi with Angel Dive! KTS: Kaiju Navi engages evade against Aurora Dusk's GN-X Beam Saber Through And Through! KTS: Critical Hit! Kaiju Navi poorly reacts to Aurora Dusk's GN-X Beam Saber Through And Through, taking 5500 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Aurora Dusk's Hands Stained the Colour of Wrongdoing activates, causing Insight L1! KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to engage guard against Leina Ashta's Beam Saber Rush! KTS: Kaiju Navi successfully reacts to Leina Ashta's Beam Saber Rush, taking 4230 damage! KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to engage evade against Elisa Kafim's Elegant Killing Arsenal - Sixfold Annihilation! KTS: Best Defense! Kaiju Navi successfully reacts to Elisa Kafim's Elegant Killing Arsenal - Sixfold Annihilation, taking 5700 damage! KTS: Elisa Kafim roots her unit, coming to a standstill and leaving her vulnerable. KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to engage evade against Sayaka Yumi's Rocket Punch! KTS: Kaiju Navi poorly reacts to Sayaka Yumi's Rocket Punch, taking 5700 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.
The Empress' clawed tongue reaches out to entrap the Seraph, tearing into the fighter's hull--reducing even its frankly absurd velocity to almost zero in an instant. One of its forwards-swept wings is almost torn clean off, and a missile bay is left without its doors. Worse, however, is the way its claws seem to tear into her soul--into the dream her true self is trapped within.
She feels her body coming undone, her soul unravels, her world inverts and--
Hands--whose?--grab her from behind, pulling her--the cuts deepen, the wounds scream in pain with their own voices, but she's pulled free.
On the control room's monitors, the Seraph is still similarly entrapped.
"-Cardiac reboot is ready to initiate at any time! We've sent a transformation program to initiate on a delay--it'll be in Battroid mode by the time she's restarted!"
The woman in the labcoat nodes gravely, before making another sweeping command--"Flatline her in five seconds, then defibrillate in no less than ten! Don't let your margins of error exceed half a second!"
A command is transmitted, and suddenly the Seraph freezes--and a distinct tone fills the control room as its pilot's heart stops. In those ten seconds, Eliminscion's jaw draws terrifyingly close--but the unit's thrusters swing down to form legs, and arms are deployed from under the wings--and a head emerges from its back, nosecone folding down to form a torso.
Lilium doesn't turn around, unable to take her eyes off whatever is in front of her--but the presence behind her is... comforting.
"YOU ARE --!"...
Within the dream-turned-nightmare, Lilium smiles. Even if she didn't know what was going on... Even if she couldn't sing with her true voice...
"Oh... I'm not alone anymore... now that You're here, with me..."
"Do You Remember..?"
The control room's display monitors light up in various shades of green. The restart has gone through--the Seraph's control module's heart is beating once again. The Battroid flies downwards, long-barrel gunpod drawn... and places a single high-powered shot in Eliminscion's heart from all the way outside of the tunnel leading to it.
Lilium Valerie transforms to YF-777SA Seraph <Battroid Mode>
KTS: Lilium Valerie has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Lilium Valerie has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Lilium Valerie targets Kaiju Navi with GAU-16S Final Shot! KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to engage guard against Kaworu Nagisa's Angel Dive! KTS: Kaiju Navi moderately reacts to Kaworu Nagisa's Angel Dive, taking 7280 damage! KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to engage guard against Lilium Valerie's GAU-16S Final Shot! KTS: Best Defense! Kaiju Navi successfully reacts to Lilium Valerie's GAU-16S Final Shot, taking 4425 damage! KTS: Lilium Valerie roots her unit, coming to a standstill and leaving her vulnerable.
<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.
Rena flashes her a smile, and Anita offers a grin in return.
"A hell of a punch." Anita echoes. "I think we owe her that much, anyway."
The Empress screams her defiance. Her exclamation that she won't fail her wife. Anita frowns.
"She failed you first. And now she's gone, and she's never coming back. It's time to let go." Anita replies.
The Empress declares that She will end this. A black hole opens and Eliminscion's jaw unhinges. The claw-tongues emerge to reach out and grasp them.
"They're trying to draw us in...!" Anita hisses through gritted teeth. The Svipul folds back into Fighter Mode to reduce the amount of area they can grab, moving back and forth to try and shake them. They grasp, and pull, and tear - and for a moment, it feels like the machine doesn't have the power to fight against them, that this is the end.
But the future is their to decide.
This isn't the future she chooses. The proof of the future she chose lies plain on Rena's finger.
Anita shouts and the beam vulcans blaze to tear through the claws. She performs a barrel roll, freeing herself from them - and then she begins to charge.
The Empress's heart lies bear to the world. She has her target.
"I won't let you take away everything we've strived for. You might be an Empress, and you might've suffered... but that doesn't give you the right. We're not going anywhere!" She says. She dodges and weaves through space, around every obstacle the Empress throws at her, beam vulcans blazing as she races toward her destination.
The Gungnir SC beam cannon emerges over the Svipul's shoulder. Energy builds, but rather than firing it or drawing it like a spear - it forms a long blade where it stands. And alongside it, the Pinpoint Barrier sparks to life. It forms around the Svipul, forming from a single point.
Alongside it and the beam lance projected by the Gungnir SC, the Svipul itself becomes the spear Anita casts at the Empress, and the Svipul accelerates to charge the heart -
- to pierce it, and fly right through to the other side.
Anita Rosetta transforms to XVF-25I Svipul <Fighter Mode>
KTS: Anita Rosetta has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Anita Rosetta has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Anita Rosetta has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus. KTS: Anita Rosetta targets Kaiju Navi with Spear Mode - Daring Charge! KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to engage guard against Anita Rosetta's Spear Mode - Daring Charge! KTS: Best Defense! Kaiju Navi successfully reacts to Anita Rosetta's Spear Mode - Daring Charge, taking 4800 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Liam O'Maol Chonaire has posed.
Tears prickle at Liam's eyes as Lucine speaks that name. His name. It makes it feel more real. The Empress thunders his name, and Liam remembers why you don't give your name to the Others. He thinks better of it. He won't smear the Others by comparing them to the Empress, and she can't possibly threaten him any worse than she's threatening him now.
"Mars belongs to the Martians," Liam shoots back, "and you're shit at sharing." His eyes dart back up. The camera zooms in on the hole he sees in the Empress' defenses, a hole in her heart revealing the heart beneath. So many hearts, and not the slightest bit of empathy.
Claws erupt from the Empress' mouth. The Akashima jets back, twisting to evade the first few, but there's so many. Armor crumples and shreds away. Liam tenses his jaw until the bones creak as his machine jukes back and forth. Each impact rocks the Akashima, throwing it around like a doll. The arms wrap around the Balor and drag it inwards, towards all those jaws. Liam fires the jets in furious pulses, but the Empress' grip is relentless, and her hunger is inescapable.
CRUNCH
The jaws close on the Balor's waist. The lower half of the machine has disappeared into (one of) the Empress' mouths.
But Liam's transmission comes through nevertheless.
"...Thanks, Kaworu," Liam O'Maol Chonaire says, over the alarms ringing in his cockpit. Pause, breathe. Another moment to recover and breathe as he watches Delack disappear into the Empress' maw. "Lu. Breaking out the big gun. Crossfire time." They've fought together plenty. She'll know what to do.
The Balor's free hand grips the Empress' lower jaw, and WRENCHES. It starts to slip free, and as it does, it pivots, aiming downwards. Light boils within the aperture of its cannon as Liam's machine shoves off the Empress' face and sails free. The Balor takes aim and fires. First comes an electromagnetic field--a containment bottle. Then comes the stream of positrons, a charge of antimatter firing down into the Empress' heart.
"No gods," Liam hisses. "No queens, no emperors!"
KTS: Liam O'Maol Chonaire has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Liam O'Maol Chonaire targets Kaiju Navi with EL-444P Variable-Output Cannon Array - The Terrible Gaze! KTS: Liam O'Maol Chonaire's Tactical Intelligence activates Strike! KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to engage evade against Liam O'Maol Chonaire's EL-444P Variable-Output Cannon Array - The Terrible Gaze! KTS: Kaiju Navi poorly reacts to Liam O'Maol Chonaire's EL-444P Variable-Output Cannon Array - The Terrible Gaze, taking 7300 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
'MARS IS MINE BY MARRIAGE. MY WIFE WAS BLESSED.' Yet another, who wishes to take Mars as their own. At this point, it just feels like another pint of fuel for the burning fire in the Martian's heart. < "_Mars is not yours to take._" >
'YOUR HUSBAND.' For a moment, the Dianthus slows. Her h-h-
'Fight for your love! Show me... the strength of humans!' Elisa's love is not one Lucine would care to emulate, but she'll take the inspiration. Even the Empress finds a part of herself in Liam and Lucine's brazen declaration, and in it, Lucine finds where her needle can poke... if she strikes quickly enough.
< ".... We're not the only ones that fight for it!" > Not by a long shot, from all that she's felt, and still feels, from so many here.
The massive hand that swipes at Lucine separates her from the main part of the crowd, along with Murasaki and Naoko. "...!" Tossed out, the Dianthus regains control over its momentum, allowing Lucine to turn her view towards the Empress.
And her heart leaps in her throat, as she sees the lot of them swallowed. Some she knows well, many of them having taught her a little of what it meant to be a pilot, a person, and an adult, while a few she has yet to know, a promise of things to come. Some she holds dear to her heart, in their own special ways, having gotten to know them further.
They all radiate their own drives and wants, but unite as one from afar, like a field of flowers swaying in the wind.
And all of them scrape at her heart, to see them begin to fall into that maw, especially--
"Liam...!"
.... But the Balor, or at least, the part with Liam, is still there, albiet hanging out of the Empress's mouth.
Crossfire time. < "... Right, on it!" > The Dianthus zips in, knowing how to coordinate with Liam on an instinctual level by now.
Liam's shots are punctuated with a single one of the Dianthus's own, strong and true, slicing past the Balor with space to spare towards the now bared heart.
< ".... Our fate and our love is in our OWN HANDS!" >
KTS: Lucine Azul targets Kaiju Navi with Argen-21 Beam Arbalest Orion Shot!
<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
Shari's explanation framing things as a Kaiju repainting makes good enough sense, though Naoko still complains, "Could've at least made it actually blue then, color-coding is important." Even though she's been throwing around green beams herself, that's obviously different. Still, she has to agree, "...Yeah, you're right. We'd handle it." She's never had much trouble claiming that she'd work a miracle, but it's particularly easy to be confident when they can work together. Which is a miracle in itself, given how many circumstances had to align for Naoko to be here together with Shari at all.
Mentally grappling the Empress's wings to her back is yet another taxing mental expense for Sukeban Kiseki's pilot. However in doing so, Naoko made one slight miscalculation. With her actions, she gave away where the binding efforts came from.
"...What. You didn't know?!" And this baffles her, to the point that, in spite of herself, she bursts out into laughter. "Really? You didn't notice that until now? I thought your entire deal was seeing everything!"
She is aware though, that she should really count her blessings, as this may have been the only thing keeping the Empress from immediately nuking the spire with everything she has. Which is now a clear and present danger.
Forced to release that effort in the wake of retaliation, Naoko instead fights back against the crushing force applied to her machine, strengthening the barrier by willing it to remain un-crushed. Knowing that if her confidence slips for even a moment, if she even slightly believes that her machine getting crushed would be a possibility, that's the moment where it could actually happen. She holds out, for now, but even with all the mental bolstering her AI partners provide her with, it's only a matter of time before she becomes too fatigued to keep this up.
Now or never, she figures. She has to opt for the nuclear option now, or she'll end up targeted by the nuclear option herself.
"Hey, Shari?" she begins, but changes her mind as soon as she starts the transmission. "...Never mind. Just watch this." No talk of 'if this goes badly'. It won't. She needs to be completely convinced that it won't.
Sukeban Kiseki's hands move towards its chest, the green glow surrounding it rapidly converging upon that point. Becoming brighter, and brighter...
"Hey, Empress! I just want you to know one thing!"
The Arm Slave opens its arms wide, its energy output continuing to rise, green turning so light as to be almost white. Its barrier falls away - Naoko knowingly taking a risk of offense over defense. It'll be fine. This won't fail. It can't.
"I am Naoko Suzuki, Miracle Worker! And you made the worst mistake in the universe - messing with someone I care about!!" Naoko's will fueled thusly, Sukeban Kiseki strikes a pose which - let's not mince words, it's obviously the Breast Fire pose, what could be better to go with an ultimate attack?
"GALACTIC! BREAST! FLAAAAAAARE!"
The resultant discharge is of massive size, one that should be completely impossible for such a small machine. But that hasn't stopped it from throwing spectral fists many times its own size before, it's not about to start obeying the laws of physics now. All that matters is that Naoko is aiming to piece the heart of the Empress with an energy blast large enough to do the job, so that's exactly the thing that is being willed into existence.
KTS: Naoko Suzuki has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Naoko Suzuki has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Naoko Suzuki has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Naoko Suzuki targets Kaiju Navi with Galactic Breast Flare!
<Pose Tracker> Murasaki El-Amari has posed.
Murasaki tries to evade the crushing force, slamming the Murasume back into MS mode. She's too slow unfortunately, and the right leg of the Murasume is crushed like a tin can, the rear back thrusters ripping it off at the knee in a desperate attempt to survive.
"Yup, yup, gonna die gonna die, getting crushed by a giant woman normally sounds fun but not like this." Murasaki hissed, trying to keep things jovial as the crushing terror of the world.
Her damaged Murasume lazily tried to get into position, waiting for the GN-X to extract itself from the core before firing off an aimed shot from her beam rifle.
Maybe?
Just maybe?
KTS: Murasaki El-Amari targets Kaiju Navi with Type 72 Kai 'Ikazuchi' Beam Rifle Shot! KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to engage evade against Lucine Azul's Argen-21 Beam Arbalest Orion Shot! KTS: Kaiju Navi poorly reacts to Lucine Azul's Argen-21 Beam Arbalest Orion Shot, taking 5700 damage! KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to engage evade against Naoko Suzuki's Galactic Breast Flare! KTS: Kaiju Navi poorly reacts to Naoko Suzuki's Galactic Breast Flare, taking 7100 damage! KTS: Naoko Suzuki roots her unit, coming to a standstill and leaving her vulnerable. KTS: Kaiju Navi fails to engage charge against Murasaki El-Amari's Type 72 Kai 'Ikazuchi' Beam Rifle Shot! KTS: Kaiju Navi successfully reacts to Murasaki El-Amari's Type 72 Kai 'Ikazuchi' Beam Rifle Shot, taking 3040 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Violet Miyazaki has posed.
Onboard the Ra Mari II...r
"Go for it, Yuliana. You're not fighting for some... ridiculous charnel house. You're fighting to see what your own will and desires can accomplish in this world... and beyond." The purple-haired woman smiles subtly.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"MORE?" The Empress demands, as Rena insists she's more than the Void inside her. "IT IS THE MOST OF YOU! ALL TIME IS MINE TO CONSUME!"
The Gaia Gear Alpha is piloted by Rena Lancaster, though. She's going to marry a sniper -- so she's picked up a thing or two about drawing beads. Distracted by those funnels, Eliminscion doesn't notice, for critical moments, that She is marked.
Fire.
And the shooting star BLASTS into Eliminscion's temple, gouging a great hole into the side of Her head. She roars, throwing Her great head back, and Her efforts to consume them all forgotten with a headache fit for the Gods. The only tragic thing is the way She turns back to them, after She screams Her pain to the world; a God is not felled by the same blow which would kill a man.
But Rena does not fire alone.
"DESTROY ME?" She asks Koji -- asks, as if for a moment She is forced to contemplate the possibility. "I AM FOREVER!" Even so, Mazinkaiser catches Her vast fist, impossibly, dwarfed many times over. It exists because of Her, and its strength was made to surpass Her. Smasher Punch rams down Her arm, splitting it into ribbons, and blasts into Her jaw. It shatters, and Her lips hang down over ragged, broken musculature, tongue-claws lolling from it.
It doesn't stop Her from speaking. "HELL IS EMPTY," She bellows, as Aurora's GN-X barrels in. " I AM HERE. " But with Her arms otherwise occupied, She can't swat Aurora away in tome to stop her from flying inside of Her --
She isn't built like a human. If a human had a hole through their chest, you would see heart, lungs, perhaps the top of a liver. This -- this is all made of awful, writhing muscle, because it's all heart. All of Her. The tunnel through Her pulses and clenches, pumping something which hasn't been blood for many aeons... and when Aurora thrusts her blade in, what she carves from that muscle is black ichor.
"SELFISHNESS IS ALSO A VIRTUE." The Empress... advises Leina? No -- perhaps She only wishes to enforce Her viewpoint on this world. (As She always has.) "YOU HAVE CORRUPTED WHAT IS MINE. SHE WAS MINE TO SAVE. JUST LIKE YOUR MOTHER YOUR CHOICES WOULD TAKE HER FROM ME! TO A LIFE WHERE SHE DID NOT APPRECIATE THE EFFORT I BLED!" Yuliana Dian never went back to Sayla... but Yuliana Kafim asked Leina for help. And the Empress blames her for it.
The Banshee jets forward, to Eliminscion's shattered jaw. She slashes at those tongues, carving a long gash up the side of Her cheek, crossing over Her gaunt cheek-bones. And though She snaps at her... Eliminscion, at least, has no more tongues left to grasp for anyone.
Anyone else, that is.
She's successfully consumed one of them.
Up above, the Empress's main head has had some of its tongues cut out, too -- though these are far more massive, and so it is far more of an undertaking, even for Emptear's reality-carving ribbon. But that dancing super robot staggers, halting, for a grief-stricken moment, when she realises that Eliminscion has dragged Delack into her gaping maw. "ELYA!" She screams, bereft. "ELYA!!" Through Emptear's eldritch eyes, she sees Mazinkaiser break Eliminscion's jaw -- and she sees the Banshee carve through Her lips -- but where, where, "WHERE?!"
Her distraction might have ended her -- but Unit Beta dances a supporting dance, and in those moments where Yuliana is shaken, spectral feathers glimmer to carve every tongue which would grasp her with the sharp gaze of a dozen staring eyes.
And as Kaworu protects his friend -- and his friend's wife -- that light blazes. The Earth itself denies Eliminscion, as DELACK smashes herself free from Her elegant throat. "E--Elya," Yuliana says, her voice trembling. "D-don't scare me so..." She shakes her head, and lifts a hand, to Kaworu. "I'm all right! Thank you, Kawochka!" She continues dancing, dedicated to her own task. She has to keep going -- Violet believes in her, too.
Eliminscion cannot say the same. She is nothing but distracted, as Elisa tears into Her with all the power of the Earth at her fingertips. Her throat is torn to ribbons, and Her sternum is carved to bits, slashed by the blade which Delack drew from Emptear's heart.
"MORE... THAN ME?" Eliminscion demands, of Elisa. "BUT... IF YOU ARE NOT MERELY PART OF ME..."
Eliminscion shatters Mazinger Z's Breast Fire emitters, but She can't shatter Mazinger Z's heart. Yuliana has always held Rocket Punch in high esteem... and that means, to the Empress, that it was always competition. It might just knock Her hand away instead of carving right through it, but when that Rocket Punch meets Her face, Her nose is shattered in an instant -- as if Sayaka had slapped Her personally. "THE ONLY END IS WHAT I DECREE!" The Empress at the End of All Things screams, well-bloodied.
But She is the Empress at the End of All Things.
For the first time, She finds Herself reckoning with Her title.
"I DO NOT UNDERSTAND PEACE," Eliminscion cries, as Kaworu asks her such considerate questions. "LOVE IS STRIFE AND CONQUEST." And perhaps he is uniquely positioned to appreciate the wounds beneath Her callous declaration, even as Unit Beta ignites, soaring around Delack to slice into the exposed muscle of Her heart. He, too, will find She bleeds black ichor.
Is that... how She remembers love?
"RIGHT NOW...
I can feel your gaze,
though you're not here with me.
And in my body a warmth begins to glow.
Right now, I believe in your love...
So won't you please..."
For just a moment, Her voice sounds almost Meltrandi, truly Meltrandi, not that warped horror forced back into OCU English by the program which Shari is spreading to all the present machines. But that eldritch existence reasserts itself, as Eliminscion screams: "NO! I WON'T ACCEPT MY WIFE WATCHING ME FROM FAR AWAY! I CAN'T! I COULD NEVER! SHE PROMISED WE WOULD BE TOGETHER...!"
It's not the Battroid's shot which shoots the Empress in the heart, not truly -- though certainly it is also literally true. Lilium reminded Her of the tune, and Her memories did the rest.
"I WON'T LET GO!" She screams -- She wails, in response to Anita's own logic. "I CAN'T LET GO! SHE SAID I WAS SPECIAL! SHE SAID SHE NEEDED ME! SHE SAID SHE'D BE MINE, IF ONLY I PLEDGED MYSELF TO HER! AND SHE IS MINE! SHE IS MINE!" It's not just Kaworu who can see the wounds, evidently... but Anita isn't about to let the Empress's pain drown out her happiness.
Anita aims, and throws her spear -- a spear made from her own self, her own determination. She flies down into the Empress's exposed heart... and keeps drilling, down, down, through the cuts which Aurora and Kaworu carved, flying down the muscles which connect Eliminscion to the Empress's main body.
With a blast of power, the Svipul tears out from those ligaments, weakening Her heart's very connection to Herself.
The Balor, meanwhile, puts pressure on the Empress's jaws as well. Liam rips himself free, and then fires down through the channel which Anita carved, through the sword-strokes Kaworu and Aurora made. Antimatter fills the chasm, with a great, horrific explosion. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" She screams, enraged.
And, perhaps, afraid -- particularly as Dianthus remembers Orion, blasting her own sniper-eye shot through that chasm. "ALL IS M INE T O T A K E," She screams defiance, but Her voice comes ragged, through the translator, now.
"NAOKO... SUZUKI." The Empress repeats her name, as Sukeban Kiseki charges a terrific amount of energy. "I COULD NOT SEE YOUR TREACHERY." Galactic Breast Fire floods the wounded connection between Heart and Body, and the Empress screams.
"YOU... IMPUDENT..." But She is too wounded to scream at Murasaki's attempt at levity, that Lamia-form sagging even further as the Murasame lends its Beam Rifle to the assault.
Any one of those attacks would not be enough to fell Her -- but She must withstand them all. And She finds, as the combined might of everyone's attacks blow Her heart clean away from Her body, that She cannot.
She thought She was immortal.
"NO!" The Empress cries, with Her body's lips, as even the strength to consume is sapped from Her. One spectral hand withdraws from the sun, and then another, and then another -- exposing strips of white-orange light to the world, again, as Her influence falls away. Little gaps, at first, glimpses of hope -- but soon entire patches, entire quarters, and then that black portal closes, millions of kilometers away.
Her severed hand ignites in the blue flames of the Earth -- just as Her heart does. Her body, meanwhile, begins to crumple in on itself -- a gigantic mass which was never designed to be so large, now lacking enough magic to sustain Her form. "I AM THE EMPRESS AT THE END OF ALL THINGS," She cries, in hopeless defiance.
"If You stand at the End of All Things," Yuliana says, as Emptear drifts back from Her crumpling form, "I am sure You will meet Yourself, soon."
"NO...!"
But Her rage is impotent, and Her fury dies to nothing, as Her crumpling, massive form ignites with that same blue flame. It burns, and burns, and burns to nothing.
And God is dead.
KTS: Really eject? [Enter `yes' or `no'] KTS: Ejection aborted. <Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"Next time I'll bring the spray paint," Shari says dryly to Naoko. But the battle is going on, and--
"Naoko..." Shari hears her stop. "Yeah!" she calls back. Watch this. "I've got my eyes on you!"
Naoko does her best. Of course she does. And Shari's heart leaps into her throat as Naoko's barrier fades away. "Naoko," she murmurs, radio off, to no one but the other engineers beside her."
The worst mistake in the universe--
Shari's face goes red. She's the inspiration for Naoko's ultimate attack! This is a new stage in their relationship!! "Naoko!!"
But with Elisa: "I too am glad," Elisa says to Kaworu, and only Kaworu. "...My friend." The warmth she once thought impossible from her cold heart is there. Not the blazing bonfire of a Lilim's heart, perhaps, but not so cold as the Empress, either. Elisa has found her own way, her own path.
All things change, says Dr. Yumi. And Elisa recognizes it. She recognizes its truth. That once, it is what she--Elisa Kafim, not only the godshard--believed. "...Yes," she says. "YES!" once she is out of the Empress's maw. "Change is what it means to live! Stasis is weakness, Empress!"
Elisa and Kaworu strike as one. Perhaps it will be enough.
No gods, no queens, no emperors. Liam makes his stand. And Elisa smiles, within Delack's cavernous cockpit. She can see Svipul as she goes. And Lucine calls that they are not the only ones. ...Yes. This, too, is true.
"I am not," Elisa says to Eliminscion. "I am indeed more. ...Because of my wife. Because of my... friends. Because of my enemies! Because of all who have touched our lives, and because of the life I had before YOU took it from me!"
But then she sings the lyrics. She knows them. But... She cannot accept the truth. She cannot accept a promise broken. For the first time, Elisa--and Kaworu will recognize it--feels... pity, for her creator. "You do not even understand your greatest motivation..."
But she cries out. She is defiant. She knows. And Elisa stares at the crumpling form of her maker, that she once was.
And finally...
"I am free," Elisa murmurs. "I AM FREE!" she shouts, and Delack shouts it with her.
"And I..."
"...I owe a debt," she says. "For it was not by My power alone that I was freed..."
Delack turns, towards Emptear.
"...There is more we must do, my darling."
And they both know it to be true.
"...Goodbye, my Self," she says then, looking to where the Empress and her Heart once were. "I... shall not repeat your mistakes."
"This I swear." And Ivnerre roars, in triumph.
KTS: Kaiju Navi's The Empress's Heart ~ ELIMINSCION has been disabled. <Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
Mazinkaiser breaks Eliminscion's jaw, and Mazinger Z strikes her across the face. The combined might of everyone assembled here falls down on the heart of the Empress At The End Of All Things, and inevitably, 'All' expands to include its own ruler.
It would be gauche, Koji thinks, to program the dismembered fists to high-five on their way back to their machines. But he imagines it anyway, steering Mazinkaiser's arms back to their elbow sockets while watching the limp, moon-size body disintegrate in blue flame.
The prototype has held together. Mazinkaiser has survived its first battle.
He hopes that it is also its last.
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
Anger, pure- raw boils out at the accusations. This hateful husk of what was once a woman before her, but - an abused and hurt woman.
YOU
ARE
WRONG
It is not two voices, it is one adding themselves to the other, in the steadying grip upon her in the chair. It is a declaration screamed to the heavens, not just on her choices, but on the Empress herself.
For if they die today, at least she will imprint that upon her forever, for in this moment she reveals...
"It was always her choices. All I did was let her know she had one - again - and again. No matter how much you tried to take them away." And in her cockpit, despite herself, she manages a smirk, because... "All that power - and it wasn't enough to overcome my family's stubbornness."
A gift - and a curse. In this moment that stubbornness is a gift from a wager against the universe, given to her by her brother - her mother, her life.
However, in the moments after... it reveals, that they won't die. And Leina Ashta feels something else, a profound... pity. For her soul is bound to two people she'll always love, but knows without a doubt she should never be with.
Her soul will never let go, so it was up to her to make that choice too.
"She'll always be a part of you... and you her. For better or worse."
That's something she knows, even beyond her ability to sense a woman she never met, even to this bond dipped in hatred and unhealthy attachment.
"It's time for you to go now."
Some people can't - won't make that choice themselves.
So they make that choice for her.
And as her form crumples, Leina Ashta thinks of the woman she once was, abused and broken down until she was this thing.
"... I hope some part of you finds peace."
She says softly, as she feels that moment - when she burns - because even now... she won't let go... holding on even until that attachment burns her to ashes.
The Banshee begins to shift back in that moment, it's chair shifting forward, as it's glow fades, until it becomes a strange, jagged horned unicorn.
They survived, they all lived.
Two souls are leaving to take responsibility - and so must she for the choices she's made.
"... What comes next is gonna suck." She says softly, her eyes misting up as the face plate raises, and she dabs at her eyes. A problem dealt with - but so many more remain. Yet... to have problems, that's the human condition.
To be without them...
... well that wouldn't be living at all, now would it?
"But maybe after..."
Maybe after - she'll figure this out, and actually give her turn of being happy a try. For now she needs a moment to put a brave face back on. Just... a moment.
<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
At the end of it all... Naoko is slumped over, breathing heavily. She'll need a moment to catch her breath if she is to get the barrier back up. However...
"...Is it over?" It seems to be over. Thank goodness. Looks like she will actually be allowed to take that breath.
There was a satisfaction, in hearing confirmation that she had been a blind spot to the Empress. It's likely what kept her safe all this time. She can thank Uriel and Ariel for that... who she made herself, but thanking herself would be weird.
Only then does it start to dawn on her what she just said. 'Naoko Suzuki, Miracle Worker.' She never announced herself as a Miracle Worker using her real actual name before. Feels... kind of good, actually.
"Phew. Glad that worked out," are the first word Shari hears from Naoko next. "Would've been pretty embarrassing if I went 'watch this' and then got vaporized."
The fact that she can talk like that and isn't deathly embarrassed already probably means that she hasn't quite stopped to think about everything that she said back there in the heat of the moment...
<Pose Tracker> Lilium Valerie has posed.
<poem>
"...Target is down."
A room full of people collectively breathe a sigh of relief, and then fall silent for a moment. Just a moment.
"Check our positional drift--we need to stay within Side 7's territory!"
"Shut down Secondary Mode! Bring the Seraph back under autopilot on an indirect course!"
"Prepare medical response to landing bay--we need her out of that cockpit and into surgery as soon as she's landed!"
"Back up combat data to central sever--file it to our main systems and the files for Plan Twenty-Three!"
And it goes on, and on. The woman with sunglasses scowls at the man with a pocket protector. "-Nearly got our star killed and her implants unrecoverable[...]added weeks to the delivery date[...]really worth it for a bit of combat data?-" The woman in the labcoat does her best to filter out their argument, standing to address the room. She claps her hands together.
"Good work, everyone--We'll need to pull double shifts to repair the damage to the subject and Seraph, but it was damn good work. We'd be getting honors for this, if they could publicly acknowledge our involvement." She pauses for a beat. "...If cathedra gets uppity about the 'Unmanned Weapon', tell them it was something old we were keeping here and launched out of panic. Not technically incorrect, after all..."
And as the Empress burns away, the Seraph wordlessly reverts to fighter mode and sets off back to its Undisclosed Development Site.
And; back inside her dream, Lilium rests peacefully.