Pyramid-like barrier collapsing under the pressure of the Hellfire coating her fingernails, Rachel’s vision penetrated the veil hiding spiritual forces, giving her an unfiltered look at the hundreds of threads the Priestess used to transfer any damage done to another party.
“Rachel, can we talk about this?!”
Dozens of occult-like playing cards flew toward Relica’s outstretched hand, the panicking woman falling in slow motion as Yomi’s energy burned through her White Lunar Pool. This was more than [Mental Acceleration]’s effect; the power of a Baroness of Hell now flooded and twisted her system.
“Talk about what?”
With her intense red pupils and shimmering, obsidian clover eyes opened to all the phenomena typically hidden from mortal view, Rachel saw Relica in a new light. She was certainly prepared to deal with just about anything with her precast spell deck and the weird occult symbol floating above her head, which wasn’t her own power. Although, that ‘anything’ didn’t include a Baroness from Hell.
Scarlet locked up as Rachel spun into action, moving out of reach in the blink of an eye as her giant hammer swung off her shoulders, Hellfire sparking across its surface.
“Rachel, the hostages!”
The spiked flat end of her hammer passed right through Relica’s chest just as the shaky-eyed terrorist became a flickering shadow, teleporting away in fright. The hostages didn’t matter; Yomi’s corrupting force severed every link Relica had made.
“Are all free,” she answered, twisting the hammer to her shoulders again as she turned to stare at the bewildered vamp girl. “She used a shadow double to escape three floors above us… which happened to be on fire for some particular reason. Your work?”
“Fiona’s…”
“Ah. That reminds me. Here you go…”
Taking the unconscious little woman out of her pocket and handing her to the stunned girl, Rachel’s vision narrowed upon seeing the controlling nature of the black collar around her throat. Its internal magical circuits were totally fried, rendering it useless, but it wasn’t hard to see Relica’s plan.
Corrupted Nia was gleefully informing the half-dead Unicorn that she’d freed all the hostages. Now, Relica was defenseless, and the hounds were closing in from all sides as Selvaria jumped into the sea to go after their submarine; its decoy tricks would be less likely to work against the Leviathan.
Scarlet looked winded as she took Fiona, cradling her in her hands. “What do I do?”
“Hmm.” Rachel’s gaze lifted to the ceiling, smelling and hearing the smoke from the Fairy’s rampage; there was a magical scent to it she hadn’t experienced before, thanks to her many Baroness abilities. “Help Maria evacuate the building before the fire spreads here. I have some personal business to handle.”
The cruel stigma of allowing one’s prey a moment’s rest before shattering that sense of security tugged at Rachel’s chest as she reached up to crush Scarlet’s choker. A desperate victim was the easiest to exploit secrets from, and it seemed she did have some connections to the UK.
She chuckled upon listening to the woman make contact with a rather interesting party through her deck of spells.
[20 Seconds Remaining]
[Hell Step III]
[Hellfire Cloak III: Active]
“Ack—extract!” Relica coughed through the smoke, stumbling to the window while sending a pulse of dark magic to shatter the glass and allow the suffocating clouds an exit. “You wanted information on the Scarlet Hand? Then get me out—Rachel?! Wait!”
A flash of crimson lightning and black flames brought her to the center of the blazing inferno, a distance away from the Priestess to further instill fear. Striding forward, she twirled her weightless hammer around her hand as Relica stumbled against the window, throwing out spell after spell that was effortlessly absorbed by Yomi’s cloak.
[14 Seconds Remaining]
“You really have no loyalties, do you?” Rachel mused, dozens of the occult cards burning away as she strolled through the natural fire, blood magic spells, and seals the woman threw at her. “Have you exhausted all of your options?”
“I know the truth about Scarlet now!” Relica screamed, face blanching as the spiritual binding threads she sent burned away before even touching her skin. “It’s a lie! It’s all been a lie!”
[9 Seconds Remaining]
“Oh…” The familiar popping sound Daran made when teleporting pricked her ears as magic words, spoken with an English accent, brought Relica’s literal knights in shining armor. “The British are coming? How ironic.”
Rachel’s grin fell as Scarlet’s voice burned a reality into her mind, and three shimmering knights with a robbed elderly man came between them.
“Wait, Rachel,” Scarlet cried from three floors below, the crackling of flames between them raising the hair on her tail. “Relica tried to kill you when you were nine!”
The night of the car accident flooded Rachel’s tainted thoughts, a cruel twist of fate that had changed the course of her entire life condensed into a single face. The emotional torture her mother suffered, the division between her dad and uncle, and the anger that had fueled her until now all merged into one answer: the insane, dark-haired terrorist in front of her had damaged her entire family.
To her, time came to almost a standstill as [Accelerated Mind] activated.
[4 Seconds Remaining]
[2 Seconds Remaining]
Standing utterly still, Rachel allowed the information to seep through her with the miasma of Yomi squeezing the air from her lungs; the memory of her bloodied cousin in the seat next to her, the tears and cries of her mother and aunt, the sirens that eventually came.
Pressure welled up and compressed her chest as all enjoyment and amusement in seeing Relica squirm evaporated. She’d suspected as much, but it was another thing entirely to have it said aloud.
Free hand rising to press against her breast, Rachel’s heartless eyes met the fully armored men that emerged from a flare of blue light, directly between her and her enemy. Every pounding drum against her ribcage brought reality closer to her chilling heart, prickles cascading down her arms. As it turned out, she wasn’t satisfied with a swift ending.
Nia…
[1 Second Remaining]
Her little rabbit’s malicious giggles echoed through their shared connection, and more Hell Force flooded her veins, bringing with it a pain and backlash Eostre said would come in the form of harsh spiritual fatigue, but she didn’t have time for that.
[Lunar Spike - Hell Moon - Yomi: Active]
[31 Seconds Remaining]
Breathing out a long stream of air, time still crawling to her focused mind, Rachel met the blue-gray eyes of the holy knight’s leader as he set himself against her. A purifying aura surrounded him, a cross on his colorful armaments that made Rachel’s skin tingle, but it was pitiful compared to the power of the Hell Moon.
She didn’t glance at the two knights beside him, wearing similar gear although far less potent, and the wizard in the back was possibly stronger than Relica herself as he lifted a staff bathed in magical energy to repel her. Yet, at this moment, none of it meant anything to her.
“May the shield of Avalon protect us!”
Pain shot through Rachel’s soul, and she ignored it. All sound died as the blue pulse was met by her own shockwave of spirit-disrupting forces that rippled through space, penetrating the shell in an instant as she took a step forward, turning the fire around her black and spreading Yomi’s pollution throughout the room.
[Hell Pulse III: Yomi]
“M, she’s too powerful! Dammit, I knew dealing with this witch was a mistake we’d regret. K, V, pull yourselves together! Stand strong!” the silver-armored knight shouted as his fellow defenders crumpled to the ground under Yomi’s waves. “Take them and go!”
The elder winced, barely able to keep himself from falling unconscious as Relica’s panicked eyes rolled into the back of her head. She crumpled to the ground under the pressure of the red electricity that overpowered the wizard’s ward.
“You have to buy me time! We have our orders. Augmentanium antel—what?!”
[Spiritual Lock III: Yomi]
“I’ll handle it!” The man jumped forward to meet her, using a divine energy so pitiful compared to the deities she’d just been in the presence of. His spiritual layers were bolstered with defensive walls to contend with her, but Rachel was done playing with her food, and they would not escape. “We need that inf—what happened?!”
The wizard’s wide eyes lifted to her in shock as his staff’s life flickered and dimmed. Yomi’s tainting touch twisted the floorboards and ignited the air with toxic pollutants as she cut them off in a sealed space, making the wizard and knight falter against the harsh presence she emitted.
“You’re not leaving,” Rachel dispassionately stated, flickering to the knight’s side. “And you need to get out of my way…”
He choked, dropping his sword to put all his power behind his rising shield, radiating light as her heavy hammer met the aegis. The black flame-wreathed maul melted through the holy force, slamming into the man’s breastplate to erupt in a pulse of Hellfire on impact.
A concussive burst of foul air whipped the black flames into a frenzy as the savaged holy man was thrown four buildings to tumble across a park, mythical armor breaking away with the corruption bathing him.
“Galahad!” the wizard screamed as the foul air whipped the blaze into a frenzy, and he held up his flickering staff to create a protective blue shell by channeling all of his mana into it. His shaky gaze was upon the massive hole of black flames showing Galahad’s path through the disintegrated concrete and steel. “Such potent evil… You are a real devil.”
His shell bent inward as she stepped through it to leer down at him, the other two knights only just barely kept safe by the ward the wizard was maintaining.
“Glad you took notice,” Rachel whispered, her anti-spiritual wave swiftly draining the Legend’s reserves as Yomi’s pollution began to set into his staff. “Why make an attack on the US?”
She wanted to drag the woman’s soul into Hell itself, yet that wasn’t an option without its severe consequences, and Rachel was certain the Priestess would end up there anyway if she twisted and burned the witch’s soul with its corrupting flames.
“No, I don’t care why the UK wants—”
Rachel paused as the old man glanced between the two faltering knights and the hole where Galahad had been thrown through, gritting his teeth as Nia crawled through the floor like the devilish imp she was to grin at the shaking men.
“Take the bitch…” he snarled, throwing Relica outside of the shield with surprising strength. “She has vital intel, but starting trouble with the US military and devils wasn’t in the immunity agreement.”
[21 Seconds Remaining]
Rachel grinned, fire flicking off her black fingernails as she moved to snatch the woman by the throat, yet the moment she closed off the woman’s airway, Relica’s eyes flew open, radiating a malevolent force that matched her own.
Gut tightening, she squeezed tighter as spikes of blood cut through her Hell Cloak, drilling into her veins, and a smirk twisted the woman’s lips, whispering, “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Rachel. I’ve heard so much…”
She didn’t need to ask the entity controlling Relica who she was, the blood had been a dead giveaway. “Veronica.”
“Hmm-hmm-hmm.”
A cyclone of crimson liquid encircled them, and Relica faded away, leaving her on a flat pool of reflective blood in a black abyss overhead. She’d now entered a mental battle with the stalker cultist.
Her lips twitched at the interference, intense gaze drifting to the bright-eyed, curly blonde-haired girl that rose out of the sea, holding her elbow behind her back. “Piss off.”
“Sorry, Rachel!” she chirped, doing surprisingly well at countering Yomi’s taint to break the mental attack. “I still need Relica, so you’ll have to wait a little while longer before getting your vengeance. I’m super impressed at how strong you got, though! She was right… You are a problem.”
Flexing her fingers, Rachel streamed out a heavy puff of air with a humorless chuckle; whenever she’d simulated combat with this girl, she’d always lost when in Scarlet’s body. Relica wasn’t Scarlet, though.
“You are awfully confident. You can’t beat me like this, Little Leech…” she stated, fighting through her screaming muscles, spirit, and exhausted mind to force her way toward the giggling girl. “How did you even end up in Relica?”
A shiver ran down the blonde’s frame, nose twisting with hate. “Leech… I’m not a leech or a stalker. You’re the one that siphons off everyone’s luck here, Little Bunny.”
Rachel tried not to show her frustration at the girl’s intrusion and taunts. “Funny. So, who are you again?”
“I am Scarlet’s true friend.” A dagger of shared disdain passed between them. “I have been groomed since I was born for this role. I’m the only one that can save her. Who are you? You’re only using her. The moment things get rough, you’ll abandon her like everyone else. It’s your fault that everything fell apart in the first place.”
Figuring she could get some answers from the cultist by her attitude, Rachel put a hand on her hip and laughed. “Ah, yes, I’m the biggest bad there is in this story, Little Stalking Leech that could never take a hint. Face it, you creep Scarlet out. She’s never going to like you or see you as a friend because you took everything away from her. Give it up! You’re the villain living inside of her.”
Veronica’s rainbow-painted fingernails tightened into her palm, but her tight red eyes wore a smirk. “Me? No. Hehehe. You are so much worse than someone like me, and you don’t even see the ripple effect of your existence.”
Now utterly thrown for a loop, Rachel’s eyebrows came together as she searched her memory. “Okay. Enlighten me. Wait… I get it,” she snickered at the blonde, Yomi’s taint and misfortune’s threads spinning in her fingers as a cruel tilt came to her mouth. There were vulnerabilities in this girl she was trying to hide. “If you can’t become friends with Scarlet…”
“You don’t know anything about me. You’re the white hare of misfortune, so I wouldn’t talk.”
Rachel shrugged helplessly. “I mean, I felt discriminated against before, but damn, am I feeling some hare hate recently. It’s not hard to see your whole life is meaningless, and you don’t have a place in this world without Scarlet. Talk about pathetic. You’re just a useless… mmgm.”
Rachel winced as her vision blurred, and she felt her consciousness giving away.
“Hah-haha… Say what you want… you still lose,” she whispered with a tight twist of anger touching her nose. “Until next time.”
[1 Second Remaining]
“No… Nia!”
Dropping to her knee, eyes drooping, the world returned to normal, yet Nia didn’t respond; at some point, when Veronica was distracting her, she’d lost consciousness. Somehow, Veronica must have convinced the UK wizard to complete the extraction. All the blonde needed to do was buy enough time for everything to run its course.
“Dammit… I’ll find you,” she growled, cursing The System as her spirit completed the final expansion from the Legend Quest. She couldn’t hold out any longer.
[Level Up - Level 11]
[1 Stat Point Added]
[1 Stat Point Available]
[1 Feat Extension Added]
[1 Feat Extension Available]
[Level Up - Level 12]
[1 Stat Point Added]
[2 Stat Point Available]
[1 New Equipable Feat Choice Added]
[1 Equipable Feat Choice Available]
Her Hellfire cloak sputtered as she saw the wizard in the corner, a knocked-out Relica and two of his knights with him; in a flash of blue light, they vanished, and the combined fatigue of the Legend’s Quest pulled her into a deep abyss.
The last thing she saw was Scarlet, appearing out of the shadows. “Rachel! Rachel, what happened?! You were winning when I—Rachel?!”
* — * — *
A quake ran through Scarlet’s bones as all of Rachel’s black flames, crimson lightning, and polluted energy around the space extinguished, and her spirit began to weaken. Thick, glowing blood stuck to her clothes, and there was slight damage to her clothes, but she couldn’t see any puncture holes in her skin.
“No! No, no, no! Rachel, you can’t… Rachel!”
She’d been invincible only a moment ago, and fear gripped her belly as she picked the fallen hare up, uncertainty gripping her when Rachel’s hammer vanished in sparkling white light.
“Little Fang? Scarlet, talk to me!”
“A-Astra! Astra, what do I do?! Rachel—I think she was stabbed! Maybe she was poisoned!” She looked through the walls, searching for a solution as the burning building became more unstable, no longer mixed with Rachel’s corrupting powers. “Maria’s too exhausted to heal her right now—she’s barely standing, and… and Rachel’s—everything—she’s so weak all of a sudden! She’s losing blood! What do I do?!”
“Aye, if Rach is in trouble, uh…”
Saint Barbara’s soft yet decisive voice came over the channel. “Carry her to the medics on the largest ship, Scarlet. What about Relica?”
Shadows embraced her as she teleported into the open air, vision scanning the field and looking for anyone who looked like a doctor on the distant ship with her enhanced eyes.
“These knights and a wizard showed up to save Relica—Rachel sent one flying, b-but—Rachel was so strong, and then she collapsed out of nowhere!”
“Breathe, Scarlet,” the Army Legend urged. “You can’t help Rachel if you’re panicking.”
“I know, I know!” she cried, teleporting higher and holding the hare tighter against her body as they began to fall again. “All of them but one got away—wait, I see it!”
“It’s hard to hear you over the wind,” Barbara returned as a few shadow skips brought her onto the deck of the ship, a flurry of activity; in the distance, she saw Selvaria’s giant fin dip below the surface of thrashing waters. “MI6, I assume. Astra, if there is someone we can question—”
“Already ahead of ya, Cap!”
Scarlet supported Rachel’s head while jogging to the medical crew on the uneven boat, bringing a stretcher. A young man held out his hand as she neared, a faint green light illuminating it as the magical healer assessed her condition.
“Make room! Make room… Shit.”
“Is it bad?!” Scarlet whimpered, fangs biting into her bottom lip. “Her insides look bad!”
Barbara’s cool tone helped soothe her turbulent emotions.
“What’s Rachel’s status? Keep right and follow the sea monster; she’s spotted something.”
The doctor offered her a forced, encouraging smile, speaking through the channel they were on as Barbara finished giving orders. “She’s not great. I can’t see any wounds outside her body, but inside is another story. That being said; I, umm, I think with some spot treatment and over a few days, there will be an improvement.”
He ran his glowing palm over the areas where her clothes were ripped, closing them with some visible effort. “I know it doesn’t sound scientific, but her spirit needs time to rejuvenate. I don’t know how, but she’s holding on.”
Scarlet’s focus darted to the sky. “The moon! We need to keep her in sight of the—ack!”
She bit her tongue as a worried voice took over Astra’s coms. “Is my daughter alright?! What happened?!”
“She’ll be fine, Ms. Park,” Barbara insisted, the mother’s husband heard nearby.
“Let’s let them do their jobs, Molly.”
“I want to hear it from Scarlet! Scarlet, is… How is she?”
Swallowing the lump in her throat and trying to block out the shouts and sloshing sea, Scarlet looked over the unresponsive hare. “She’s… breathing shallowly, but they say she’ll pull through in a few days with some healing. Maria should be fine tomorrow evening to help… maybe.”
“Thank goodness… Please, Scarlet, stay by her side. I’d feel a lot better if you were with her.”
“I will…” Scarlet sniffed, heat rising in her throat at the emotion in the woman’s voice. There was something she could do; she could stay with Rachel and support her.
“Thank you for being there for my daughter… Thank you, Scarlet.”
Saint Barbara cleared the airway. “Ahem. What is the status of the knight Rachel attacked?”
Lt. Mateo’s gruff voice came over the channel. “In a damn rough shape on first inspection… Burns I’ve never seen before, and most of his gear’s rusted straight through. She must have sent him through three or four buildings, at least—the guy looks like he became a human meteor—but he’s still breathing… somehow.”
“Call for a medivac immediately! Load him on the helicopter. We’ll question him when he wakes up. What the hell is the UK doing here with a terrorist like Relica? Dammit. This went from a simple gang war to terrorism and foreign military affairs.”
Remembering the Fairy in her pocket, Scarlet panicked and gently extracted her. “Oh, umm, please be okay… Did I hurt her?”
“Is that… a person?” the doctor mumbled, carefully holding the tiny young woman in her hand as the other man checked her condition. “Heavy bruising… and a hairline fracture on her left leg, but we should be able to clear that up. She’s also a bit malnourished—”
“Sugar!” Scarlet interjected.
“Excuse me?”
“Sugar,” she hastily insisted. “Fiona needs sugar to live.”
“Hah. Well, we have a moon bunny and sugar fairy, huh?”
Scarlet swiftly shook her head. “She’s a hare, not a rabbit—it’s important!”
“Okay! Okay! Help me get a place set up so we can treat her until we can move to a better location.”
Holding Rachel’s arm to stop herself from shaking, Scarlet stabilized her as the pair lifted her up on the stretcher to bring her to a place that was out of the way from the general bustle on the deck. She was thankful that the Fairy would recover from the rough treatment she’d received, which made all of this easier to swallow.
Maria would be able to do more tomorrow, no doubt. The kids were all saved due to them buying enough time for Rachel to get back. Hopefully, Selvaria would capture the submarine before they escaped because she knew Rachel would be pissed if the woman managed to escape.
Still, the mystery about what happened to the hare and how she’d gotten so insanely powerful in less than twenty minutes was the buzz of the radio as the various combat zone activities died down, turning their sights to the rolling sea and Leviathan.
Whatever weird technology the UK submarine was using was messing with all the radar equipment, and a new type of decoy device was making locating the vessel impossible by standard methods. The blockade had kept them in deeper waters, but things weren’t looking good.
* — * — *
Selvaria breathed as she jogged down the alleyway to the beach, trying to pace herself. Power flooded her body when Rachel came through, giving her all sorts of new goodies she hadn’t had a chance to go through yet after reaching Level 8.
“In and out… In and out… Slow… Why am I so heavy on land?” she cried before stumbling and falling down the stairs to the beach as the tiniest bit of emotion touched her voice.
Spine spikes digging into the concrete and sand, she lay there for a second in a daze. Had she imagined it?
“Hello? Damn.” Voice as monotone as ever, a new sense of hope filled her with the prospect of expressing emotion again. “Well, dust yourself off, and go get some swordfish.”
Forcing herself up, she continued her jog to the sea as a blast of noise brought her spinning in a circle to see a black meteorite punch through four buildings to explode against the park to her right.
“Huh. Probably Rachel. It’s her style,” she huffed, returning to her jog. “In and out. In and out.”
A tear came to her eyes as she made it to the water; she was already pooped after all the previous exercise, and getting back up to the street had been a chore with how fast Astra’s drone was, but now she was back in her element!
Diving inside, she felt as if chains binding her to the ground broke free, and a powerful beat of her caudal fin propelled her away from the shoreline, spaying the beach. Weaving left and right, she grinned as the ocean opened up before her, and she entered deeper waters.
[Creature of the Fathomless Void X: Activated]
[Feats Augmented to Kaiju-class]
Body expanding, her fangs glistened as her sharp underwater vision penetrated the blue, yet she slowed to a stop as hundreds of weird sonar pulses pinged off her senses. Slowly rising to the surface, she observed the weird sight. In the distance, she found something that couldn’t be right: hundreds of submarines moved through the waters. It was impossible.
A spark of realization came when a torpedo went straight through one of the subs and went out the other side: they were decoys. A grin spread across her monstrous mouth at the easy solution.
Dipping back under, her tail flung water in a geyser as she picked up speed, heading right for the war zone. Excitement spurred her on faster when the military ships moved to follow her lead. If they were illusions, then all she had to do was act as a monster torpedo.
[Seawater Pool II - D-tier]
She lowered her head upon nearing one, passing right through it, breathing in deeply upon getting into a good position, her plates lit up. Electricity ran along her back up to her mouth as she pulled in liquid, charging and condensing the particles with the static bouncing around her jaws.
The submarine illusion she was hiding inside fizzled out, energy destroying whatever device had created it, and revealing her as the bulky vessel vanished. She breathed the shimmering, aquamarine laser at a sweeping angle to pass through dozens of fake subs.
[Kaiju Breath Augmentation I - Ion Cutter]
She laughed as she continued to search for the weirdly elusive submarine, her Seawater Pool increasing her size and power with every second she spent in the ocean.
[Seawater Pool II - 57%]
[Seawater Pool II - 58%]
[Seawater Pool II - 59%]
All of the submarines split off in different directions, the crew probably in a panic as she bullied their retreat. Her aim was becoming better as she discovered where the illusion devices were located on each sub, allowing her to direct her Ion Cutter to take them off the field.
[Leviathan Sense I - C-tier]
Yet, as she neared deeper waters, ready to follow these villains to their layer if need be, Selvaria came to a sudden stop, sniffing the water as she caught onto a synthetic smell she hadn’t picked up a moment before.
Her glowing aquamarine eyes penetrated the blue to an inconspicuous place where no submarine sat, but now she saw a shift in current; there was something big unseen there, moving slowly so as not to draw attention to itself.
Ho-ho! You thought you were tricky, but you can’t fool a kaiju of the sea. Found you!
Mouth peeling back, she changed course, heading right for the vessel she knew was there; electricity sparked along her spine as torpedoes shot out of nowhere to sink her. They didn’t know who they were dealing with.
Ion Cutter ripped through the straight-moving projectiles, exploding and disrupting the cloaking field around the submarine as her beam cut a thin line up the hull; it wasn’t powerful enough to destroy the armor, which was fine. It was more fun this way.
Making it to the tail of the vessel, its propellers increasing their speed, she flipped around in a summersault, blade-liked fin cleaving it in two. Alarm bells rang off in her head as multiple hatches slid open, dumping a ton of little balls around them that released high-pitched shrieks.
Wincing at the brain-rupturing sound, she backed away as Saint Barbara’s torpedoes finished the job, exploding against the hull and sending a concussion of displaced water to disrupt the noisy devices as flashing lights suddenly blinded her.
“You’re so annoying!” she snarled, rubbing her eyes before charging forward, only seeing vague outlines of the submarine. “You’ve already lost! Just give up already…”
Using all her strength, she forced the damaged sub up to the surface, its crew sealing off the areas that were blown open. She’d found MI6’s escape sub. No villain was getting away from her! Only… she discovered a little problem once she got it above water. There was a big, open, empty compartment.
She transformed into her human half as the US ships pulled up to board and rescue any survivors. Entering through one of the openings they hadn’t managed to seal in time, she shut it herself to keep the tube from sinking back down.
Looking up from her underwater position, she saw a young man trapped and unable to get to a safe location; he only had a limited amount of air. It was right out of the scene of a movie!
Dun-dun. Dun-dun. Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun…
“Boo!”
“Aaaah!”
Poking her head up through the water while showing her sharp-toothed grin, the man flipped out on sight, flailing and trying to climb onto one of the bunks that wasn’t submerged to use as a barrier.
“Get away from me!” he shouted with his posh British accent.
“Hehehe. Chomp! Chomp! Where is the terrorist? Maybe I won’t eat your toes first. Yeah, because, eww, that’s gross, but I do what I must for the mission.”
“What?! You talk?”
“Of course I do. Now spill, villain, before I open a new hole. Hmm?” She punched the nearby wall, indenting it. “Hmm?”
“I won’t talk!”
“Haaa. Thought not… Guess I’ll look around.”
“Wait, you can’t—”
His voice faded as she ducked under the water and circled back to the large open hatch, rubbing her chin as she watched the feet of the crew, kicking to stay afloat as the place filled with water. There was no doubt in her mind that there had been a second sub, and it probably had invisibility, too.
Darting out of the vessel, she rubbed the back of her neck with a low groan, sending bubbles above as she looked into the deep blue. Her sensing range wasn’t that big for picking this thing up yet, and they proved good enough to avoid detection thus far.
Shoot. I guess the bad guy did get away… Rach is going to be pissed.
“Haaa…”
Launching up to fly out of the water and land on Saint Barbara’s deck, her stomach squirmed as she left a small indentation in the steel upon landing, barely able to keep herself from tumbling off again.
Liquid absorbing into her body, Selvaria was happy to see her more grown-up figure was back after absorbing so much seawater. She saluted the captain with one hand as the other kept her stable.
“Captain, I’ve come to report!”
“How many survivors?”
“Oh, uh, probably a bunch, but Relica, Adele, and the main villains seem to have gotten away in a mini-sub with cloaking technology, Ma’am. I don’t know if I’ll be able to find them. I don’t know when they left, but probably a bit ago. Orders?”
“Dammit,” she whispered, staring over the slowly sinking submarine. “A mini-sub while the main one caused all these distractions. MI6 pulled a fast one on us. Rescue the crewmen as prisoners… this is far above my pay grade. Protocol says we need to prioritize their lives, but once you’re done, do a—Selvaria?”
“Uh… I’m not… feeling so good.”
Her vision swam as the saint put her finger to her ear. “What do you mean you’re feeling dizzy, too, Astra? Maria collapsed? Scarlet’s fine… Astra? Shit. I want medics and eyes on the Mythickin!”
“Ugh…”
It was all she heard as Selvaria’s eyes rolled back, and she fell over the deck and into the ocean, mind slipping into the endless sea. At least she’d done good this mission. She’d made friends. They wouldn’t leave her at the bottom of the ocean… right… Right?
Pyramid-like barrier collapsing under the pressure of the Hellfire coating her fingernails, Rachel’s vision penetrated the veil hiding spiritual forces, giving her an unfiltered look at the hundreds of threads the Priestess used to transfer any damage done to another party.
“Rachel, can we talk about this?!”
Dozens of occult-like playing cards flew toward Relica’s outstretched hand, the panicking woman falling in slow motion as Yomi’s energy burned through her White Lunar Pool. This was more than [Mental Acceleration]’s effect; the power of a Baroness of Hell now flooded and twisted her system.
“Talk about what?”
With her intense red pupils and shimmering, obsidian clover eyes opened to all the phenomena typically hidden from mortal view, Rachel saw Relica in a new light. She was certainly prepared to deal with just about anything with her precast spell deck and the weird occult symbol floating above her head, which wasn’t her own power. Although, that ‘anything’ didn’t include a Baroness from Hell.
Scarlet locked up as Rachel spun into action, moving out of reach in the blink of an eye as her giant hammer swung off her shoulders, Hellfire sparking across its surface.
“Rachel, the hostages!”
The spiked flat end of her hammer passed right through Relica’s chest just as the shaky-eyed terrorist became a flickering shadow, teleporting away in fright. The hostages didn’t matter; Yomi’s corrupting force severed every link Relica had made.
“Are all free,” she answered, twisting the hammer to her shoulders again as she turned to stare at the bewildered vamp girl. “She used a shadow double to escape three floors above us… which happened to be on fire for some particular reason. Your work?”
“Fiona’s…”
“Ah. That reminds me. Here you go…”
Taking the unconscious little woman out of her pocket and handing her to the stunned girl, Rachel’s vision narrowed upon seeing the controlling nature of the black collar around her throat. Its internal magical circuits were totally fried, rendering it useless, but it wasn’t hard to see Relica’s plan.
Corrupted Nia was gleefully informing the half-dead Unicorn that she’d freed all the hostages. Now, Relica was defenseless, and the hounds were closing in from all sides as Selvaria jumped into the sea to go after their submarine; its decoy tricks would be less likely to work against the Leviathan.
Scarlet looked winded as she took Fiona, cradling her in her hands. “What do I do?”
“Hmm.” Rachel’s gaze lifted to the ceiling, smelling and hearing the smoke from the Fairy’s rampage; there was a magical scent to it she hadn’t experienced before, thanks to her many Baroness abilities. “Help Maria evacuate the building before the fire spreads here. I have some personal business to handle.”
The cruel stigma of allowing one’s prey a moment’s rest before shattering that sense of security tugged at Rachel’s chest as she reached up to crush Scarlet’s choker. A desperate victim was the easiest to exploit secrets from, and it seemed she did have some connections to the UK.
She chuckled upon listening to the woman make contact with a rather interesting party through her deck of spells.
[20 Seconds Remaining]
[Hell Step III]
[Hellfire Cloak III: Active]
“Ack—extract!” Relica coughed through the smoke, stumbling to the window while sending a pulse of dark magic to shatter the glass and allow the suffocating clouds an exit. “You wanted information on the Scarlet Hand? Then get me out—Rachel?! Wait!”
A flash of crimson lightning and black flames brought her to the center of the blazing inferno, a distance away from the Priestess to further instill fear. Striding forward, she twirled her weightless hammer around her hand as Relica stumbled against the window, throwing out spell after spell that was effortlessly absorbed by Yomi’s cloak.
[14 Seconds Remaining]
“You really have no loyalties, do you?” Rachel mused, dozens of the occult cards burning away as she strolled through the natural fire, blood magic spells, and seals the woman threw at her. “Have you exhausted all of your options?”
“I know the truth about Scarlet now!” Relica screamed, face blanching as the spiritual binding threads she sent burned away before even touching her skin. “It’s a lie! It’s all been a lie!”
[9 Seconds Remaining]
“Oh…” The familiar popping sound Daran made when teleporting pricked her ears as magic words, spoken with an English accent, brought Relica’s literal knights in shining armor. “The British are coming? How ironic.”
Rachel’s grin fell as Scarlet’s voice burned a reality into her mind, and three shimmering knights with a robbed elderly man came between them.
“Wait, Rachel,” Scarlet cried from three floors below, the crackling of flames between them raising the hair on her tail. “Relica tried to kill you when you were nine!”
The night of the car accident flooded Rachel’s tainted thoughts, a cruel twist of fate that had changed the course of her entire life condensed into a single face. The emotional torture her mother suffered, the division between her dad and uncle, and the anger that had fueled her until now all merged into one answer: the insane, dark-haired terrorist in front of her had damaged her entire family.
To her, time came to almost a standstill as [Accelerated Mind] activated.
[4 Seconds Remaining]
[2 Seconds Remaining]
Standing utterly still, Rachel allowed the information to seep through her with the miasma of Yomi squeezing the air from her lungs; the memory of her bloodied cousin in the seat next to her, the tears and cries of her mother and aunt, the sirens that eventually came.
Pressure welled up and compressed her chest as all enjoyment and amusement in seeing Relica squirm evaporated. She’d suspected as much, but it was another thing entirely to have it said aloud.
Free hand rising to press against her breast, Rachel’s heartless eyes met the fully armored men that emerged from a flare of blue light, directly between her and her enemy. Every pounding drum against her ribcage brought reality closer to her chilling heart, prickles cascading down her arms. As it turned out, she wasn’t satisfied with a swift ending.
Nia…
[1 Second Remaining]
Her little rabbit’s malicious giggles echoed through their shared connection, and more Hell Force flooded her veins, bringing with it a pain and backlash Eostre said would come in the form of harsh spiritual fatigue, but she didn’t have time for that.
[Lunar Spike - Hell Moon - Yomi: Active]
[31 Seconds Remaining]
Breathing out a long stream of air, time still crawling to her focused mind, Rachel met the blue-gray eyes of the holy knight’s leader as he set himself against her. A purifying aura surrounded him, a cross on his colorful armaments that made Rachel’s skin tingle, but it was pitiful compared to the power of the Hell Moon.
She didn’t glance at the two knights beside him, wearing similar gear although far less potent, and the wizard in the back was possibly stronger than Relica herself as he lifted a staff bathed in magical energy to repel her. Yet, at this moment, none of it meant anything to her.
“May the shield of Avalon protect us!”
Pain shot through Rachel’s soul, and she ignored it. All sound died as the blue pulse was met by her own shockwave of spirit-disrupting forces that rippled through space, penetrating the shell in an instant as she took a step forward, turning the fire around her black and spreading Yomi’s pollution throughout the room.
[Hell Pulse III: Yomi]
“M, she’s too powerful! Dammit, I knew dealing with this witch was a mistake we’d regret. K, V, pull yourselves together! Stand strong!” the silver-armored knight shouted as his fellow defenders crumpled to the ground under Yomi’s waves. “Take them and go!”
The elder winced, barely able to keep himself from falling unconscious as Relica’s panicked eyes rolled into the back of her head. She crumpled to the ground under the pressure of the red electricity that overpowered the wizard’s ward.
“You have to buy me time! We have our orders. Augmentanium antel—what?!”
[Spiritual Lock III: Yomi]
“I’ll handle it!” The man jumped forward to meet her, using a divine energy so pitiful compared to the deities she’d just been in the presence of. His spiritual layers were bolstered with defensive walls to contend with her, but Rachel was done playing with her food, and they would not escape. “We need that inf—what happened?!”
The wizard’s wide eyes lifted to her in shock as his staff’s life flickered and dimmed. Yomi’s tainting touch twisted the floorboards and ignited the air with toxic pollutants as she cut them off in a sealed space, making the wizard and knight falter against the harsh presence she emitted.
“You’re not leaving,” Rachel dispassionately stated, flickering to the knight’s side. “And you need to get out of my way…”
He choked, dropping his sword to put all his power behind his rising shield, radiating light as her heavy hammer met the aegis. The black flame-wreathed maul melted through the holy force, slamming into the man’s breastplate to erupt in a pulse of Hellfire on impact.
A concussive burst of foul air whipped the black flames into a frenzy as the savaged holy man was thrown four buildings to tumble across a park, mythical armor breaking away with the corruption bathing him.
“Galahad!” the wizard screamed as the foul air whipped the blaze into a frenzy, and he held up his flickering staff to create a protective blue shell by channeling all of his mana into it. His shaky gaze was upon the massive hole of black flames showing Galahad’s path through the disintegrated concrete and steel. “Such potent evil… You are a real devil.”
His shell bent inward as she stepped through it to leer down at him, the other two knights only just barely kept safe by the ward the wizard was maintaining.
“Glad you took notice,” Rachel whispered, her anti-spiritual wave swiftly draining the Legend’s reserves as Yomi’s pollution began to set into his staff. “Why make an attack on the US?”
She wanted to drag the woman’s soul into Hell itself, yet that wasn’t an option without its severe consequences, and Rachel was certain the Priestess would end up there anyway if she twisted and burned the witch’s soul with its corrupting flames.
“No, I don’t care why the UK wants—”
Rachel paused as the old man glanced between the two faltering knights and the hole where Galahad had been thrown through, gritting his teeth as Nia crawled through the floor like the devilish imp she was to grin at the shaking men.
“Take the bitch…” he snarled, throwing Relica outside of the shield with surprising strength. “She has vital intel, but starting trouble with the US military and devils wasn’t in the immunity agreement.”
[21 Seconds Remaining]
Rachel grinned, fire flicking off her black fingernails as she moved to snatch the woman by the throat, yet the moment she closed off the woman’s airway, Relica’s eyes flew open, radiating a malevolent force that matched her own.
Gut tightening, she squeezed tighter as spikes of blood cut through her Hell Cloak, drilling into her veins, and a smirk twisted the woman’s lips, whispering, “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Rachel. I’ve heard so much…”
She didn’t need to ask the entity controlling Relica who she was, the blood had been a dead giveaway. “Veronica.”
“Hmm-hmm-hmm.”
A cyclone of crimson liquid encircled them, and Relica faded away, leaving her on a flat pool of reflective blood in a black abyss overhead. She’d now entered a mental battle with the stalker cultist.
Her lips twitched at the interference, intense gaze drifting to the bright-eyed, curly blonde-haired girl that rose out of the sea, holding her elbow behind her back. “Piss off.”
“Sorry, Rachel!” she chirped, doing surprisingly well at countering Yomi’s taint to break the mental attack. “I still need Relica, so you’ll have to wait a little while longer before getting your vengeance. I’m super impressed at how strong you got, though! She was right… You are a problem.”
Flexing her fingers, Rachel streamed out a heavy puff of air with a humorless chuckle; whenever she’d simulated combat with this girl, she’d always lost when in Scarlet’s body. Relica wasn’t Scarlet, though.
“You are awfully confident. You can’t beat me like this, Little Leech…” she stated, fighting through her screaming muscles, spirit, and exhausted mind to force her way toward the giggling girl. “How did you even end up in Relica?”
A shiver ran down the blonde’s frame, nose twisting with hate. “Leech… I’m not a leech or a stalker. You’re the one that siphons off everyone’s luck here, Little Bunny.”
Rachel tried not to show her frustration at the girl’s intrusion and taunts. “Funny. So, who are you again?”
“I am Scarlet’s true friend.” A dagger of shared disdain passed between them. “I have been groomed since I was born for this role. I’m the only one that can save her. Who are you? You’re only using her. The moment things get rough, you’ll abandon her like everyone else. It’s your fault that everything fell apart in the first place.”
Figuring she could get some answers from the cultist by her attitude, Rachel put a hand on her hip and laughed. “Ah, yes, I’m the biggest bad there is in this story, Little Stalking Leech that could never take a hint. Face it, you creep Scarlet out. She’s never going to like you or see you as a friend because you took everything away from her. Give it up! You’re the villain living inside of her.”
Veronica’s rainbow-painted fingernails tightened into her palm, but her tight red eyes wore a smirk. “Me? No. Hehehe. You are so much worse than someone like me, and you don’t even see the ripple effect of your existence.”
Now utterly thrown for a loop, Rachel’s eyebrows came together as she searched her memory. “Okay. Enlighten me. Wait… I get it,” she snickered at the blonde, Yomi’s taint and misfortune’s threads spinning in her fingers as a cruel tilt came to her mouth. There were vulnerabilities in this girl she was trying to hide. “If you can’t become friends with Scarlet…”
“You don’t know anything about me. You’re the white hare of misfortune, so I wouldn’t talk.”
Rachel shrugged helplessly. “I mean, I felt discriminated against before, but damn, am I feeling some hare hate recently. It’s not hard to see your whole life is meaningless, and you don’t have a place in this world without Scarlet. Talk about pathetic. You’re just a useless… mmgm.”
Rachel winced as her vision blurred, and she felt her consciousness giving away.
“Hah-haha… Say what you want… you still lose,” she whispered with a tight twist of anger touching her nose. “Until next time.”
[1 Second Remaining]
“No… Nia!”
Dropping to her knee, eyes drooping, the world returned to normal, yet Nia didn’t respond; at some point, when Veronica was distracting her, she’d lost consciousness. Somehow, Veronica must have convinced the UK wizard to complete the extraction. All the blonde needed to do was buy enough time for everything to run its course.
“Dammit… I’ll find you,” she growled, cursing The System as her spirit completed the final expansion from the Legend Quest. She couldn’t hold out any longer.
[Level Up - Level 11]
[1 Stat Point Added]
[1 Stat Point Available]
[1 Feat Extension Added]
[1 Feat Extension Available]
[Level Up - Level 12]
[1 Stat Point Added]
[2 Stat Point Available]
[1 New Equipable Feat Choice Added]
[1 Equipable Feat Choice Available]
Her Hellfire cloak sputtered as she saw the wizard in the corner, a knocked-out Relica and two of his knights with him; in a flash of blue light, they vanished, and the combined fatigue of the Legend’s Quest pulled her into a deep abyss.
The last thing she saw was Scarlet, appearing out of the shadows. “Rachel! Rachel, what happened?! You were winning when I—Rachel?!”
* — * — *
A quake ran through Scarlet’s bones as all of Rachel’s black flames, crimson lightning, and polluted energy around the space extinguished, and her spirit began to weaken. Thick, glowing blood stuck to her clothes, and there was slight damage to her clothes, but she couldn’t see any puncture holes in her skin.
“No! No, no, no! Rachel, you can’t… Rachel!”
She’d been invincible only a moment ago, and fear gripped her belly as she picked the fallen hare up, uncertainty gripping her when Rachel’s hammer vanished in sparkling white light.
“Little Fang? Scarlet, talk to me!”
“A-Astra! Astra, what do I do?! Rachel—I think she was stabbed! Maybe she was poisoned!” She looked through the walls, searching for a solution as the burning building became more unstable, no longer mixed with Rachel’s corrupting powers. “Maria’s too exhausted to heal her right now—she’s barely standing, and… and Rachel’s—everything—she’s so weak all of a sudden! She’s losing blood! What do I do?!”
“Aye, if Rach is in trouble, uh…”
Saint Barbara’s soft yet decisive voice came over the channel. “Carry her to the medics on the largest ship, Scarlet. What about Relica?”
Shadows embraced her as she teleported into the open air, vision scanning the field and looking for anyone who looked like a doctor on the distant ship with her enhanced eyes.
“These knights and a wizard showed up to save Relica—Rachel sent one flying, b-but—Rachel was so strong, and then she collapsed out of nowhere!”
“Breathe, Scarlet,” the Army Legend urged. “You can’t help Rachel if you’re panicking.”
“I know, I know!” she cried, teleporting higher and holding the hare tighter against her body as they began to fall again. “All of them but one got away—wait, I see it!”
“It’s hard to hear you over the wind,” Barbara returned as a few shadow skips brought her onto the deck of the ship, a flurry of activity; in the distance, she saw Selvaria’s giant fin dip below the surface of thrashing waters. “MI6, I assume. Astra, if there is someone we can question—”
“Already ahead of ya, Cap!”
Scarlet supported Rachel’s head while jogging to the medical crew on the uneven boat, bringing a stretcher. A young man held out his hand as she neared, a faint green light illuminating it as the magical healer assessed her condition.
“Make room! Make room… Shit.”
“Is it bad?!” Scarlet whimpered, fangs biting into her bottom lip. “Her insides look bad!”
Barbara’s cool tone helped soothe her turbulent emotions.
“What’s Rachel’s status? Keep right and follow the sea monster; she’s spotted something.”
The doctor offered her a forced, encouraging smile, speaking through the channel they were on as Barbara finished giving orders. “She’s not great. I can’t see any wounds outside her body, but inside is another story. That being said; I, umm, I think with some spot treatment and over a few days, there will be an improvement.”
He ran his glowing palm over the areas where her clothes were ripped, closing them with some visible effort. “I know it doesn’t sound scientific, but her spirit needs time to rejuvenate. I don’t know how, but she’s holding on.”
Scarlet’s focus darted to the sky. “The moon! We need to keep her in sight of the—ack!”
She bit her tongue as a worried voice took over Astra’s coms. “Is my daughter alright?! What happened?!”
“She’ll be fine, Ms. Park,” Barbara insisted, the mother’s husband heard nearby.
“Let’s let them do their jobs, Molly.”
“I want to hear it from Scarlet! Scarlet, is… How is she?”
Swallowing the lump in her throat and trying to block out the shouts and sloshing sea, Scarlet looked over the unresponsive hare. “She’s… breathing shallowly, but they say she’ll pull through in a few days with some healing. Maria should be fine tomorrow evening to help… maybe.”
“Thank goodness… Please, Scarlet, stay by her side. I’d feel a lot better if you were with her.”
“I will…” Scarlet sniffed, heat rising in her throat at the emotion in the woman’s voice. There was something she could do; she could stay with Rachel and support her.
“Thank you for being there for my daughter… Thank you, Scarlet.”
Saint Barbara cleared the airway. “Ahem. What is the status of the knight Rachel attacked?”
Lt. Mateo’s gruff voice came over the channel. “In a damn rough shape on first inspection… Burns I’ve never seen before, and most of his gear’s rusted straight through. She must have sent him through three or four buildings, at least—the guy looks like he became a human meteor—but he’s still breathing… somehow.”
“Call for a medivac immediately! Load him on the helicopter. We’ll question him when he wakes up. What the hell is the UK doing here with a terrorist like Relica? Dammit. This went from a simple gang war to terrorism and foreign military affairs.”
Remembering the Fairy in her pocket, Scarlet panicked and gently extracted her. “Oh, umm, please be okay… Did I hurt her?”
“Is that… a person?” the doctor mumbled, carefully holding the tiny young woman in her hand as the other man checked her condition. “Heavy bruising… and a hairline fracture on her left leg, but we should be able to clear that up. She’s also a bit malnourished—”
“Sugar!” Scarlet interjected.
“Excuse me?”
“Sugar,” she hastily insisted. “Fiona needs sugar to live.”
“Hah. Well, we have a moon bunny and sugar fairy, huh?”
Scarlet swiftly shook her head. “She’s a hare, not a rabbit—it’s important!”
“Okay! Okay! Help me get a place set up so we can treat her until we can move to a better location.”
Holding Rachel’s arm to stop herself from shaking, Scarlet stabilized her as the pair lifted her up on the stretcher to bring her to a place that was out of the way from the general bustle on the deck. She was thankful that the Fairy would recover from the rough treatment she’d received, which made all of this easier to swallow.
Maria would be able to do more tomorrow, no doubt. The kids were all saved due to them buying enough time for Rachel to get back. Hopefully, Selvaria would capture the submarine before they escaped because she knew Rachel would be pissed if the woman managed to escape.
Still, the mystery about what happened to the hare and how she’d gotten so insanely powerful in less than twenty minutes was the buzz of the radio as the various combat zone activities died down, turning their sights to the rolling sea and Leviathan.
Whatever weird technology the UK submarine was using was messing with all the radar equipment, and a new type of decoy device was making locating the vessel impossible by standard methods. The blockade had kept them in deeper waters, but things weren’t looking good.
* — * — *
Selvaria breathed as she jogged down the alleyway to the beach, trying to pace herself. Power flooded her body when Rachel came through, giving her all sorts of new goodies she hadn’t had a chance to go through yet after reaching Level 8.
“In and out… In and out… Slow… Why am I so heavy on land?” she cried before stumbling and falling down the stairs to the beach as the tiniest bit of emotion touched her voice.
Spine spikes digging into the concrete and sand, she lay there for a second in a daze. Had she imagined it?
“Hello? Damn.” Voice as monotone as ever, a new sense of hope filled her with the prospect of expressing emotion again. “Well, dust yourself off, and go get some swordfish.”
Forcing herself up, she continued her jog to the sea as a blast of noise brought her spinning in a circle to see a black meteorite punch through four buildings to explode against the park to her right.
“Huh. Probably Rachel. It’s her style,” she huffed, returning to her jog. “In and out. In and out.”
A tear came to her eyes as she made it to the water; she was already pooped after all the previous exercise, and getting back up to the street had been a chore with how fast Astra’s drone was, but now she was back in her element!
Diving inside, she felt as if chains binding her to the ground broke free, and a powerful beat of her caudal fin propelled her away from the shoreline, spaying the beach. Weaving left and right, she grinned as the ocean opened up before her, and she entered deeper waters.
[Creature of the Fathomless Void X: Activated]
[Feats Augmented to Kaiju-class]
Body expanding, her fangs glistened as her sharp underwater vision penetrated the blue, yet she slowed to a stop as hundreds of weird sonar pulses pinged off her senses. Slowly rising to the surface, she observed the weird sight. In the distance, she found something that couldn’t be right: hundreds of submarines moved through the waters. It was impossible.
A spark of realization came when a torpedo went straight through one of the subs and went out the other side: they were decoys. A grin spread across her monstrous mouth at the easy solution.
Dipping back under, her tail flung water in a geyser as she picked up speed, heading right for the war zone. Excitement spurred her on faster when the military ships moved to follow her lead. If they were illusions, then all she had to do was act as a monster torpedo.
[Seawater Pool II - D-tier]
She lowered her head upon nearing one, passing right through it, breathing in deeply upon getting into a good position, her plates lit up. Electricity ran along her back up to her mouth as she pulled in liquid, charging and condensing the particles with the static bouncing around her jaws.
The submarine illusion she was hiding inside fizzled out, energy destroying whatever device had created it, and revealing her as the bulky vessel vanished. She breathed the shimmering, aquamarine laser at a sweeping angle to pass through dozens of fake subs.
[Kaiju Breath Augmentation I - Ion Cutter]
She laughed as she continued to search for the weirdly elusive submarine, her Seawater Pool increasing her size and power with every second she spent in the ocean.
[Seawater Pool II - 57%]
[Seawater Pool II - 58%]
[Seawater Pool II - 59%]
All of the submarines split off in different directions, the crew probably in a panic as she bullied their retreat. Her aim was becoming better as she discovered where the illusion devices were located on each sub, allowing her to direct her Ion Cutter to take them off the field.
[Leviathan Sense I - C-tier]
Yet, as she neared deeper waters, ready to follow these villains to their layer if need be, Selvaria came to a sudden stop, sniffing the water as she caught onto a synthetic smell she hadn’t picked up a moment before.
Her glowing aquamarine eyes penetrated the blue to an inconspicuous place where no submarine sat, but now she saw a shift in current; there was something big unseen there, moving slowly so as not to draw attention to itself.
Ho-ho! You thought you were tricky, but you can’t fool a kaiju of the sea. Found you!
Mouth peeling back, she changed course, heading right for the vessel she knew was there; electricity sparked along her spine as torpedoes shot out of nowhere to sink her. They didn’t know who they were dealing with.
Ion Cutter ripped through the straight-moving projectiles, exploding and disrupting the cloaking field around the submarine as her beam cut a thin line up the hull; it wasn’t powerful enough to destroy the armor, which was fine. It was more fun this way.
Making it to the tail of the vessel, its propellers increasing their speed, she flipped around in a summersault, blade-liked fin cleaving it in two. Alarm bells rang off in her head as multiple hatches slid open, dumping a ton of little balls around them that released high-pitched shrieks.
Wincing at the brain-rupturing sound, she backed away as Saint Barbara’s torpedoes finished the job, exploding against the hull and sending a concussion of displaced water to disrupt the noisy devices as flashing lights suddenly blinded her.
“You’re so annoying!” she snarled, rubbing her eyes before charging forward, only seeing vague outlines of the submarine. “You’ve already lost! Just give up already…”
Using all her strength, she forced the damaged sub up to the surface, its crew sealing off the areas that were blown open. She’d found MI6’s escape sub. No villain was getting away from her! Only… she discovered a little problem once she got it above water. There was a big, open, empty compartment.
She transformed into her human half as the US ships pulled up to board and rescue any survivors. Entering through one of the openings they hadn’t managed to seal in time, she shut it herself to keep the tube from sinking back down.
Looking up from her underwater position, she saw a young man trapped and unable to get to a safe location; he only had a limited amount of air. It was right out of the scene of a movie!
Dun-dun. Dun-dun. Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun…
“Boo!”
“Aaaah!”
Poking her head up through the water while showing her sharp-toothed grin, the man flipped out on sight, flailing and trying to climb onto one of the bunks that wasn’t submerged to use as a barrier.
“Get away from me!” he shouted with his posh British accent.
“Hehehe. Chomp! Chomp! Where is the terrorist? Maybe I won’t eat your toes first. Yeah, because, eww, that’s gross, but I do what I must for the mission.”
“What?! You talk?”
“Of course I do. Now spill, villain, before I open a new hole. Hmm?” She punched the nearby wall, indenting it. “Hmm?”
“I won’t talk!”
“Haaa. Thought not… Guess I’ll look around.”
“Wait, you can’t—”
His voice faded as she ducked under the water and circled back to the large open hatch, rubbing her chin as she watched the feet of the crew, kicking to stay afloat as the place filled with water. There was no doubt in her mind that there had been a second sub, and it probably had invisibility, too.
Darting out of the vessel, she rubbed the back of her neck with a low groan, sending bubbles above as she looked into the deep blue. Her sensing range wasn’t that big for picking this thing up yet, and they proved good enough to avoid detection thus far.
Shoot. I guess the bad guy did get away… Rach is going to be pissed.
“Haaa…”
Launching up to fly out of the water and land on Saint Barbara’s deck, her stomach squirmed as she left a small indentation in the steel upon landing, barely able to keep herself from tumbling off again.
Liquid absorbing into her body, Selvaria was happy to see her more grown-up figure was back after absorbing so much seawater. She saluted the captain with one hand as the other kept her stable.
“Captain, I’ve come to report!”
“How many survivors?”
“Oh, uh, probably a bunch, but Relica, Adele, and the main villains seem to have gotten away in a mini-sub with cloaking technology, Ma’am. I don’t know if I’ll be able to find them. I don’t know when they left, but probably a bit ago. Orders?”
“Dammit,” she whispered, staring over the slowly sinking submarine. “A mini-sub while the main one caused all these distractions. MI6 pulled a fast one on us. Rescue the crewmen as prisoners… this is far above my pay grade. Protocol says we need to prioritize their lives, but once you’re done, do a—Selvaria?”
“Uh… I’m not… feeling so good.”
Her vision swam as the saint put her finger to her ear. “What do you mean you’re feeling dizzy, too, Astra? Maria collapsed? Scarlet’s fine… Astra? Shit. I want medics and eyes on the Mythickin!”
“Ugh…”
It was all she heard as Selvaria’s eyes rolled back, and she fell over the deck and into the ocean, mind slipping into the endless sea. At least she’d done good this mission. She’d made friends. They wouldn’t leave her at the bottom of the ocean… right… Right?
