Chapter 2: The Flying Castle’s Reprisal
Chapter 2: The Flying Castle’s Reprisal
1
The next day, after the night with the monkeys, the sky was clear, and Yu Ichinose’s breakfast that morning was a mouthful of grass and dirt.
“Takeda,” he spat, both literally and figuratively. “Doesn’t he ever get bored?”
About twenty minutes ago, Yu had been dragged into the shade behind one of the many inconspicuous buildings around camp. His mistake: letting Leading Private Takeda catch him out alone. The private claimed that the boy owed him the time Professor Chloe had so rudely interrupted yesterday. After many merciless whacks to the head and several sucker punches to the gut, Takeda concluded the beating by quieting Yu’s pained groans with handfuls of grass that he shoved into the boy’s mouth.
He never got back up. He simply laid there, tasting the earthy tang of dirt that never seemed to leave his mouth no matter how many times he spat. The look in Takeda’s eyes, the sheer apathy and thoughtlessness, still terrified Yu to remember.
“He’s been getting a lot less subtle lately.”
It used to be more underhanded. He’d make them get naked in front of everyone, force them to eat weeds, burn them with a lighter. But these days, it didn’t take much for him to get violent. It spoke to how far things had deteriorated. Physical abuse was simply part and parcel of everyday life.
The aching was starting to fade. Yu sat up and leaned against the building. He sighed.
“Looks like they got you worse than me.”
Yu looked at his full-formed friend. “Ijuin. Well, had to make up for yesterday.”
Ijuin rubbed his round gut. Apparently he’d gotten off easy—that is, easy enough for him to make his way all the way here by himself. A punch in the stomach or two.
He plopped down next to Yu. Together, they stared idly at the sky.
“This place seriously sucks.”
“Hey, Ichinose. Remember that glasses guy from the other day? Military arrested him.”
“What? Why?”
“He was sneaking in and stealing supplies from camp.”
“I hope they let him off with just a beating.” But compassion was in short supply lately. Yu imagined a black and blue corpse, but quickly stopped himself before it darkened his mood even more.
“We gotta make sure our escape plan doesn’t get out. Play it safe.”
“You said your family might be in Kyushu?” asked Yu.
“That’s what they said the last time I talked to ’em. And we’re in Kansai, so not too far from Fukuoka. I’d say that’s where we oughta be headed.”
“Sounds like a plan. I just wish we could take everyone with us. Everyone but the military guys, I mean.”
“I getcha,” Ijuin mumbled under his breath. “At least Aliya and Professor Chloe, y’know?”
The two heard a noise and quickly went quiet, praying they hadn’t been heard. Their hearts beat in their throats.
It was the young mother of the lost child they’d found.
“Hang in there,” she said, placing two cans of coffee in front of them, a precious delicacy. “And thank you.”
And then she left. She must have seen what Takeda had done to them.
Yu cracked the can open and took a sip. The cuts in his mouth stung, but the drink was sweet.
“I wish...” His eyes began to water. “I just wish I could help these people. I want to do what’s right.”
“I don’t know if it’ll help you with that,” Ijuin said, “but I do have some new info on that Replicant elf girl.”
An hour later, Yu was walking down the hallway of one of the research facilities alone. Professor Chloe had asked to see him that afternoon. He thought back to what Ijuin had told him.
“Get this. Last night, while we were doing the remote testing for the Mark III, I got into one of the research computers and took a peek at some confidential stuff.”
Yu remembered how his friend recounted the results of his hacking foray.
“...So a Replicant is basically what they call a ‘living access point.’”
“...They’re clones of elves who had some kinda telepathic ability or something, and they use that power to transmit special cloud data to the Asura Frame that unlocks its adaptive functionality. It’s usually something related to magic.”
“...Yeah, I don’t get it either. There were a ton of those complicated words and terms you know elf scientists use all the time, so a lot of it didn’t make sense to me.”
“...But if we can get Aliya and Professor Chloe on our side, we could take that Replicant girl and the Mark III and book it outta here! It’d be so easy. And we could protect people!”
Yu calmly stifled the excitement in his chest as he entered the office.
“Excuse me.”
Chloe’s office was on the third floor, although it would be more apt to call it a lab. She and her daughter lived in a larger room next door. The professor was standing next to the window.
“You wanted to see me?”
“Yu,” she said, “you accessed the Astral Library’s satellite data archive last night. Is that right?”
“Is it?”
The professor waved her hand and a stereoscopic image appeared above her desk. It replayed footage captured by a miniature drone of the Mark III transforming the Holy Shroud into a blade.
“I’ve seen the logs, but that’s redundant. The Holy Shroud simply cannot be unlocked without accessing the Astral Library.”
“It can’t?”
“No. It’s impossible. The last Devicer could only use the function twice in his entire career.”
“Um, okay?”
“What I want to know is what fancy trick you pulled to manage that during remote operation.”
Chloe stared straight into Yu’s eyes. He looked away awkwardly.
For a lab, the professor’s was surprisingly barren. Her spacious desk didn’t even have a mouse, only a thin monitor and keyboard. There were no documents, books, or references scattered across the floor, or anywhere for that matter. It was all digital. Everything could be instantaneously displayed with 2D or 3D holograms. In fact, the entire room was a motion-controlled computer. On the exterior, though, it was like a showroom, decorated with only the most fashionable furniture and tasteful decor. The dirty refugee camp had nothing on it.
The elegant room’s elegant owner exhaled. “I take it that means you’re clueless.”
“I’m sorry, it just kind of happened.”
“The queen...” Chloe muttered quietly to herself, “or the princess, I suppose I should say. Has she chosen him?”
“You mean the girl at the top of the observation tower?!” Yu blurted out.
“How do you know about her?”
“Uh, I...” He couldn’t help himself. “Sorry.”
The professor shrugged, unfazed. “Forget it, no need to explain. I think I can guess. Your nano-fitness levels have been climbing for a while now. It was only a matter of time before you got past security.”
“Aliya and Ijuin, maybe, but I’m nothing special.”
“The numbers say you’re right. But what if...” Her words trailed off. She produced a keycard from her lab coat pocket. “Here. Pay Her Highness a visit.”
“You’re just gonna let me?!”
“Yes. Allowing the two of you to meet may change something, and if that means I don’t need to protect her anymore then we’ll have no more reason to be here.” She flashed a devilish smirk. “What, you thought you were the only ones with a plan?”
Yu felt like he was walking on air. With both the professor and, by extension, Aliya on board with the escape plan, there was no reason left to hesitate. He arrived at the observation tower’s entrance before long and inserted the card into the slot next to the door. It slid right open.
“Yes!”
The place was barren, just like the time he and Ijuin had snuck in. Yu made straight for the elevator, rode it to the top, and approached the sleeper pod without delay. The elf girl slumbered before him.
“What is she?” he asked no one. “What even is a ‘Replicant?’”
“We are the keepers of the key of wisdom, the enlighteners of the child of man and elf—the Asura. Also, you look a bit lost. I believe I can help with that as well.”
Yu recoiled with a start. He’d heard a girl’s voice, clear as day. But how? He was the only one in the room. He looked at his right palm to see the ring of light glowing. Someone was communicating with him through the nano-augmented cells in his body. And that someone could be no one else.
Yu looked up at the pod. “Are you talking to me?”
“Indeed I am. I’ve been waiting for you—my fated one.”
The girl in the pod at last opened her eyes. They were sharp, almost almond-shaped, and distinctly elvish. But it wasn’t their beautiful, bright shade of blue that enchanted Yu. It was the power, the sheer spirit and passion that burned in them, unlike anything he’d seen before.
2
“Your fated one?” Yu echoed. “You’re not talking about me, are you?”
“But of course I am.” Tiny bubbles formed within the blue liquid and rose from the elf girl’s lips as they moved vaguely in the shape of words, but produced no physical sound. Yet somehow, a strong, dulcet voice resounded in Yu’s ears. “You are to be my future husband, and at last, destiny has brought us together once more. My affection for you has not waned since last we professed our eternal love in lives past.”
“D-Did we really do that?”
“It’s certainly possible. What’s important, though, is that you are my fated one. Of that I’m certain.” She cracked a grin that almost seemed playful, but it wasn’t snide like Takeda. This one was pleasant. Somehow, Yu didn’t mind her jokes. “Call me Ein.”
“Okay, but, er,” Yu stumbled over his words, “I hear some people call you ‘Replicant’?”
“So it would seem. I am not of a natural existence, ‘artificial,’ one might say, created for a grander purpose, but that’s of no importance right now. I would have your name.” Ein’s gaze didn’t waver. “What do they call the one who is to share my destiny?”
“I’m, um, Yu Ichinose. But I don’t know about all that destiny talk.”
“You know, Yu. I am something of the living equivalent to the Perfect Wisdom known as prajna. It’s not often that my intuition is wrong. You are worthy to succeed my sworn companion—the ruler of the skies—the third Asura.”
“Your sworn companion? You mean the Mark III?” Yu was getting used to the girl’s esoteric and confusing way of speaking.
“The one and only,” she affirmed. “Though, I must ask. Why do you not look at me?”
“Look where?!”
The girl called Ein was, put plainly, bare naked, and the liquid she floated in didn’t leave much to the imagination. She looked about the same age as Yu, and her pronounced curves were hard for the young man to ignore. Her figure was smooth, shapely, and without a single stray hair to be seen, even all the way down to—
Yu stopped. He couldn’t bring himself to ogle her so brazenly. At the same time, though, it was just as difficult to keep his eyes fixed to hers. Her fiery, dagger-like gaze seemed to overpower everything it came in contact with. It made Yu’s heart race.
“Look at me, Yu. I want to give you my everything, now gaze upon it.”
“Phrasing! What if someone takes that out of context?! Stop that!”
“I will do no such thing. What kind of fated one would I be if I wasn’t prepared to surrender my body and soul to you? I assure you, I am not being dramatic.”
Yu realized something strange as they bickered. He wasn’t a particularly shy person, but not exactly sociable either, and yet, here he was hitting it off with a girl he’d only just met. Perhaps they simply clicked. Or perhaps more likely, Yu thought, Ein was just that charming. There was something about her. Her confidence, her charisma, her openness. She was positively magnetic.
Finally, Yu gave in and resolved to at least look her in the eye (and only the eye).
“Wait,” Ein said abruptly. “Someone’s coming. Hide, Yu. I will pretend to sleep.”
“O-Okay!”
It didn’t take long for Yu to find a decent enough place to conceal himself in the cluttered observation deck. Moments later, he heard footsteps coming up the stairs. Two middle-aged men—the colonel and his adjutant. They came up to the sleeper pod and observed the naked elf girl inside. Perhaps a little too shamelessly.
“I just don’t understand.” The balding adjutant sneered. “A Replicant, you called it? What purpose could an organic counterpart serve to the Asura Frame’s onboard AI?”
The fifty-something-year-old assistant officer leered at Ein’s body, making sure to get an eyeful of her comely chest and the unmentionables below. His smug grin was starting to tick Yu off.
“It’s not our job to understand,” his superior replied plainly. “The only thing that matters is that as long as it’s with us, the elf woman has to cooperate. And not just the Mark III. Professor Chloe is strangely fond of this clone.”
“What’s so special about a clone? Couldn’t she make as many of them as she wants?”
“They can’t simply be reproduced. Only a few of these exist in the world. These...living, elvish computers. It’s complicated business.”
“Shame. She’s a pretty thing. She’d do wonders for morale.” The adjutant chuckled derisively, his unrepentant cruelty more than evident in that singular cold gesture.
The colonel’s stoic composure was just as reprehensible. “Keeping the men happy is important, but show some modesty. We can’t have society deteriorating to the point of using minors for...” He thought for a moment. “Wait, this clone has elvish physiology. Isn’t that right? Their kind live exceptionally long lives. I suppose we can’t use her appearance to judge her age.”
“She could very well be up there with Professor Chloe behind that face.”
“I hear that woman’s more than three centuries old. Freaks of nature, they are.”
“She’s definitely the oldest bag I know,” his assistant cackled.
They were incorrigible. The entire conversation was utterly asinine. Yu felt his body seethe with emotion. He quickly realized that it was anger. He was furious, absolutely boiling with rage at the sheer, disgraceful audacity of the two men to think that it was okay for them to belittle others for their gender or race. Just because they were different.
Yu wondered what the wisest course of action would be. Obviously, it was to wait for the men to leave and figure out how to escape with Ein. But just then, his own words echoed in his mind.
“I just wish I could help these people. I want to do what’s right.”
Something stirred inside him. Was it right to stay silent? Would he be able to face himself if he didn’t speak up and make his rage known, right this second?
Yu emerged from his hiding spot, marched right up to the men, and stepped between them and Ein’s pod. He became her wall. He made his presence known. And he would not be ignored.
“What in the hell are you doing here?!” the adjutant roared.
“You’re one of the junior laborers,” muttered the colonel. He was still too cowardly to commit to calling them what they were: child soldiers.
Yu wasn’t concerned about himself anymore. He wanted to scream at them, come what punishment may. To tell them how disgusted and fed up he was. But before he could—
“Something’s coming, Yu! Use the Holy Shroud!”
Following Ein’s warning came a fierce impact that shook the entire observation deck and sent chunks of reinforced concrete collapsing from the ceiling. Then, a torrent of blistering fire and a mighty explosion. Yu’s right hand glowed as particles of light began to spill out of it.
When Yu jolted awake, he found himself cradled within some kind of soft fabric—a strange, fluffy, yellow textile all around him.
“Where...” he groaned. “Where am I?”
“The Holy Shroud protected you. Very impressive, Yu.”
“What? I didn’t make it do that.”
“Then all the more so. The Shroud appeared and shaped itself of its own will, just to come to your aid,” Ein extolled. “You’re all I thought you to be and more.”
Yu searched for her, but could see nothing except for the yellow fabric still clinging to him.
“Why is it here, though? I thought it was part of the Mark III!”
“Because I granted it to you. I did not lend it. It’s yours, and it will be with you until your final breath.”
“This is getting weird,” Yu sighed in confusion as the cushiony cloth began to unravel itself. The magic, scarf-shaped fabric had enlarged itself to enfold his entire body. Once returned to its original form, the Shroud vanished.
There was no time to sing its praises, though. Surrounding Yu was nothing short of a hellscape. The walls of the observation deck, the glass, the ceiling, nearly everything had been decimated in the blast. Flames smoldered and hunks of rubble were strewn all over the floor. They’d been attacked. Possibly bombed.
A strange smell lingered in the air. Something unnerving, yet familiar to Yu all the same. It was charred bone and human flesh. He noticed two incinerated corpses nearby. They were wearing dress blues, scorched black.
Yu’s breath caught in his throat. The colonel and his adjutant were gone, just like that. But no bomb or missile could have reduced them to such a state.
“The Anomalies are back,” he quavered.
The observation deck, free from its walls, boasted a greater view from Gorogatake’s summit than ever before. Especially of the emerald aurora shimmering overhead. Its portal-keep, the colossal flying citadel that had been nothing more than a hazy mirage in the distance until now, loomed nearby atop a mountainous hunk of stone.
A dragon zipped by, skimming the tower by just a few meters. Red. Its bat-like wings dominated the sky. From snout to tail, it had to have been at least thirty meters long. The beast opened its maw and loosed a scorching storm of incandescent death at the ground below, the very same flames that had devastated the observation deck. Over the roar of the dragon’s flamethrower, Yu heard a particularly husky shriek as an unfortunate victim met their end. He could only pray that it hadn’t belonged to Ijuin.
“A nagaraja of crimson blood,” he heard Ein relay in his mind. “Still young, though. Rather runty for a red dragon.”
“Ein!” Yu cried, spinning around to her pod. Miraculously, it was in one piece. Several cracks marred the reinforced glass-like material, but Ein was unharmed. However, some of the liquid was leaking from the fractures, and just when it looked like it wouldn’t hold any longer—
The cracks in the material suddenly splintered and shattered into a magnificent fractal of shards. The curious liquid flooded out onto the floor, leaving only Ein inside, bare but safe.
“It is a strange day to finally join the world.” Ein leaped gracefully from the remnants of the pod, landing softly on a lone heap of rubble.
3
Yu found a box of singed military boots in one of the boxes that had survived the blast. He stuck them on Ein’s bare feet, then offered her his black button-up. Fortunately, it covered what it needed to.
The parts it didn’t necessarily need to cover, however, were the problem. The buttons struggled against her ample chest, and her radiant thighs were rather conspicuous, to put it one way.
“Still, you won’t look at me?” she questioned.
“Maybe when we get you some more clothes!” Yu spluttered back.
He maneuvered his way through the chunks of concrete, broken iron bars, and shattered glass up to the very edge of the ruined tower. One step away lay nothing but the void—thirty meters of open air between him and the ground. From there, he could see everything. The observation deck wasn’t alone in this nightmare.
The dragon spewed its fire. The flying portal-keep and its imposing ramparts levitated not even a kilometer from where Yu stood. Dozens of troll soldiers were terrorizing the camp below.
“The refugee shelter’s on fire!” he shouted in disbelief.
The former warehouse, the only safe haven for over a hundred unfortunate souls, was engulfed in flames. From the dragon surely, Yu thought, but then he saw the balls of fire soaring listlessly through the air. Fire elementals. They, too, were playing a part in the incineration. On the ground, the trolls continued their own barbaric march of destruction, swinging their giant axes and swords with wanton abandon, rending human combatants and civilians alike.
“Why?” Tears formed in Yu’s eyes. “Why?! Why now?!” He screamed at the top of his lungs, “Ijuin! Aliya! Professor! Where are you?!”
They couldn’t hear him. He knew that. But he called for them anyway.
“Are they your friends, Yu?” Ein stepped up next to him. “If so, then we should hurry. We need to descend and save them from this carnage! This tower could crumble at any moment!”
“Right!”
That word. “Save.” Just how was a middle schooler supposed to save anyone? Yu wasn’t a fighter, and he certainly couldn’t come to anyone’s rescue. Still, he ran. As fast as his adrenaline-charged legs would carry him. He flew down the stairs, skipping every other step, sprinted through the hallway, and leapt out the tower’s entrance in record time. Surprisingly, Ein managed to keep pace with him every step of the way. Yu knew he was a fast runner—he was confident of that, in fact—but Ein could trot with all the grace and speed of a gazelle.
“Where might your friends be?” she inquired.
“Um...” Yu hesitated. “This way, I think!”
Enemies prowled Gorogatake’s peak. Yu and Ein proceeded swiftly and carefully through the burning buildings and gored corpses strewn about. The dragon deliberately concentrated its attacks anywhere people started to gather. Yu tried not to think about all the people that were probably burning to death around them, or about how many had likely gathered at the blazing shelter for their lunchtime rations.
Yu suddenly stopped. “Oh my god.”
“Despicable.” Ein paused with him. “No mercy. Not even for children.”
They had frozen in front of what could have only been the handiwork of a troll. A massive pile of corpses, and a single sakura tree, yet untouched by the flames. A young boy hung from a branch by his collar. His eyes were lifeless, flesh dangling from his mangled stump of a leg.
“Why? What reason is there for this?!” Yu cried in incredulous anger.
“There is no reason,” Ein replied with a grimace of pure disgust. “The creatures you call ‘trolls’ ravage and consume what they please.”
The scene played out in Yu’s mind. A wandering troll, going about its heedless devastation, happens upon a boy who tempts the barbaric monster’s taste for human flesh. But a battlefield is no place for a meal. So what does it do? It nibbles off a leg for the road, then saves the rest on a convenient tree branch.
Yu finally recognized the boy. It was the lost six-year-old he and Ijuin had found.
His stomach churned. “I...”
Feeling uneasy on his feet, he looked down from the gruesome sight, where he found the other two. Cold. Gone. It was the young mother who’d given him the coffee earlier that day, cradling her younger son in her arms. They had no exterior wounds, so it had to have been some kind of magic. But whatever had killed them, their agonized expressions painted a picture of an exceptionally painful death.
“This is just...” Yu choked. He began to cry. “I can’t take this anymore. Was Tokyo not enough?”
That June. That hellish month last year, when the earthquakes came and the floods rushed in. When the rain fell without end, the rivers spilled over, and the wind tore through the streets. The coast, whipped by the salty ocean gales, had taken the worst of it. So many drowned, dragged to their death by elementals in the water. Not even puddles in the road were safe. The rain never stopped. Never.
No one knew exactly how many had died that month. Some said at least five million in the metropolitan area alone. Others estimated over ten million. Yu’s family was just another statistic.
“Yu!” Ein called. “Do you have a weapon? Ready the Holy Shroud, if not!”
Shocked back to his senses, Yu turned his gaze upwards. An axe-wielding troll wearing armor covered in soot and blood was approaching. The intimidating glower on its face and the pure evil in its eyes paralyzed Yu with a kind of affliction that no snarling wild dog could ever hope to elicit. Fear. Terror. Impending doom. And a twinge of anger. A rebellious sort of anger. Was this it? Was this thing going to be the end of it all?
Yu trembled. His legs could have given out at any second. And he glowered right back.
Pop!
Smoke rose from the barrel of a soldier’s Type 89. The soldier lay sprawled on the ground, one foot in the grave, only barely managing to point his gun at the enemy’s back. The troll collapsed on the spot. Its protection against firearms had run out just in time.
“Th-Thank you,” Yu stammered. “Wait!”
“Oh. It’s you. Waste of...a bullet.” Their savior, Leading Private Takeda, went limp.
The private had given Yu and Ijuin plenty of reason to plant a bullet in his back on more than one occasion, and the boys had often joked as much. But now, as the last of his strength faded, he was a silent husk. Along with the other corpses, his skin started to turn a necrotic black and blue.
“Poison. A magical toxin must be blowing in the wind. We should leave,” Ein suggested.
Yu nodded in agreement and the two took off. His tears continued to fall, but still he ran. He would not stop for anything this time.
He and Ein eventually came to Lab Four. It was only a matter of time before the blazing building completely collapsed, but that wasn’t their destination. Yu hurried to a hatch in the ground and frantically pried it open. They rushed down the metal ladder and sprinted down the corridor.
“Guys!” Yu shouted. “You’re all here!”
“Yu!” Aliya exclaimed.
Ijuin noticed him next. “Ichinose! Man, thank god you’re all right!”
They had arrived at the A-Type Exo-Frame Mark III’s underground hangar, where the man-made Asura was stored and occasionally underwent special testing and experiments. Yu had heard that it was the sturdiest place in the camp, aided by the fact that it was underground. This place, he was certain, would be the last to fall. It had to be the most likely shelter Aliya and Ijuin would escape to, and his hunch had been right.
The trio embraced each other, overjoyed that everyone was safe and sound. But then, Yu realized that he wasn’t quite as right about that as he had thought.
“Professor Chloe?”
“Yu... I see you’ve woken up our Sleeping Beauty. Thank you.” The professor was on the floor, leaning against a wall of the vast, empty testing space with her legs splayed out. Her lab coat was stained crimson.
A hideous gash extended diagonally from her left shoulder, all the way down to her waist. There was blood everywhere. Her face was sheet white and dark rings had started to form under her eyes, as if the shadow of death had already descended upon her. Ijuin hung his head, tears resting in the corners of his eyes, while Aliya clung to her mother’s side, painfully and repeatedly calling for her.
Ein approached the professor and knelt in front of her. “You served my source-mother in the homeland, didn’t you? I want to thank you for treating me well.”
“I only did what I had to, to make sure you were healthy and safe.” The professor smiled weakly. Her strength was gone. “So you’ve chosen Yu?”
“I have. I’ve already entrusted him with the sacred sarira. I can only hope that he chooses to wield it as I know he can.”
“I see... Yu.”
“Y-Yes?!” he stuttered.
“Through time and ages, across worlds and countless revolutions of the wheel of life, you found the princess.” Chloe spoke slowly and softly. She was normally so quick-witted and sharp when she prattled on about her theories, but now, each utterance seemed to require immense effort. “It cannot be a coincidence. Your meeting had a reason.”
Yu hung on every word. “A reason?”
“The threads of fate that brought you together were not woven serendipitously.” She stared deep into Yu’s eyes. “Please, never forget, Yu. Though the path before you may seem winding, bleak, and filled with naught but strife, she will walk it with you. All you need to do is choose the way you think is right.”
Yu met her gaze as his own words rushed back to him. To do what was right. “Professor, I...”
“I ask that you consider taking Her Majesty south. With Aliya, if you’re able. There’s a city of elves. A city on the water. Have you heard of it? You’ll find my brother there. He’ll—”
“Mommy!” Aliya cried, her voice cracking. Her mother could no longer hold her eyes open.
Chloe felt for her daughter and whispered as she stroked her cheek. “You do not carry the full blood of the Yakshia in your veins, my daughter. Your natural life will likely end long before our own. I was ready for that. I was prepared to be there when you took your last breath, but it seems our time together has been cut short.”
“I’m sorry, little one, but it’s not to be. Death is a journey we all must take alone. We will meet again at the end of samsara, my beloved. My sweet Aliya. My lost...sapling of Yakshia...”
With those final words, fitting for an elvish sage, Professor Chloe went silent and never spoke again. Aliya sobbed quietly while distant explosions rattled the ceiling. The Anomalies were still in full force.
“Won’t they give us a break already?!” Ijuin bleated. “They’ve gotta run out of time soon!”
“W-We shouldn’t get our hopes up. They’ve been storing magic for three months behind the boundary,” Aliya reasoned shakily between sniffles and tears. “Mom... Mom said they won’t leave any time soon.”
Yu felt anger smoldering inside him. Aliya was one of the most dedicated and steadfast people he knew. She’d already lost her father, and now here she was, trying to pull herself together while crying over the body of her mother. She deserved time to grieve the loss of her parents, damn it. Yu thought she was entitled to her sadness, but Aliya was focused on facing the cold reality of their situation before all else. He fumed at his powerlessness. How could he be so utterly useless?
He locked eyes with Ein. The elf girl nodded. I believe in you, her gaze seemed to say.
Yu wasn’t powerless. He turned to the gold and matte-black suit of armor on the hangar wall.
Ijuin’s eyes lit up. “Oh, the remote operation! Good thinking, pal! We’ll send those things packing just like—”
“No,” said Yu. “The only reason things went so well that night is because Ein was helping us. Remote operation can probably only do so much. Someone needs to wear it.”
“E-Ein?” Ijuin repeated, confused. “You mean that girl?”
Yu finally understood what Ein had been telling him all this time. Rather, the truth was he always had. He’d simply been denying it. Him? Impossible. Over eight hundred rejections and he was the one? He couldn’t bring himself to believe it. But now, if he was the only one, then maybe...
“So I just put it on, yeah?” he asked.
“Not quite, Yu,” Ein replied firmly. “To choose this path is to become one with the child of man and elf. To share your destiny with the Asura.”
Yu heeded her warning and made his decision: To hell with it all. No regrets. If he was going to do this, he was going all in.
The next moment, the Asura Frame on the wall dissolved into particles of light—adaptive nanofactors. The resplendent dust converged on Yu, and then—the gallant clatter of metal as jet black armor plated itself over his right hand. It belonged to the Asura Frame. The armorization had begun.
“Yu...” Aliya gasped.
Ijuin was flabbergasted. “Ichinose?!”
The Frame continued to equip itself onto Yu as parts materialized up his right arm and onto his left, clanking and locking together one after another. The process continued at his feet, up his legs, around his waist, along his chest and back, until, lastly, the helmet snapped shut around his head. When the metallic chorus was over, an ebony aegis covered every inch of Yu’s slim figure.
To complete the transformation, the yellow, scarf-like cloth that Ein called the Holy Shroud appeared all on its own and wrapped itself around Yu’s neck, with the ends dangling over his shoulders. One might really have mistaken it for a scarf at first glance, but it was clearly more than that. The two ends billowed behind the Mark III, never touching the ground, like living appendages. Or perhaps like a pair of long, thin wings.
4
Although the underground hangar was yet safe from the flames, the world above was ablaze. Through the furnace emerged Yu, piercing the inferno and soaring high above. He and the Mark III shot from the ejection port like a missile.
“The portal’s close,” Yu muttered. “I can’t believe I’m really flying.” And without a plane, no less.
Upon reaching the same height as the portal-keep, he stopped ascending and hovered in place. Altitude: 472 meters. Distance from the enemy stronghold: approximately 1.9 kilometers. The towering fortress’s status was designated as “Materialized” in English. All of this information, complete with various other numbers and accompanying strings of text, was at Yu’s fingertips, projected directly into his field of vision. He could see perfectly—the full 360 degrees—as if the helmet and visor weren’t even there. Anything he laid his eyes on, intel could be projected directly onto. From altitude, wind direction, and velocity to his own heart rate and body temperature—the incredible amount of information would have overwhelmed normal people, but Yu’s nanomachines seemed to allow him to make sense of it all.
And he wasn’t alone.
“I will interpret the Asura’s will. You need only focus on the battle.”
“Ein!” Her voice had reached Yu’s ears via his body’s nanofactors. “You’re augmented?”
“Indeed I am. I have inherited the Warrior Queen’s wit, and with it I will aid you. Lean on me.”
“I’m going to help too!” Aliya sniffled.
“I’m here too!” Ijuin chimed in enthusiastically. “Dunno what good I’ll be, but I’ve got your back!”
“Your presence alone is enough, human friend. It’s by the hearts of those we fight for that a warrior is made more than a mere soldier,” Ein said. “Understand, Yu?”
“Y-Yeah! Let’s just do this!” Yu wasn’t alone. That knowledge gave him the strength to spur himself on.
The ends of the Holy Shroud around his neck spread like wings, and Yu realized something as he rapidly descended. Bathed in the afternoon sun, the matte-black finish of the Mark III glistened with a golden radiance. A solemn and magnificent brilliance that Yu had never seen before dwelled within the Frame. It was also much more slender than he remembered—shorter and lighter, compared to its last wearer—but by no means weaker. He could sense a power as keen as the sleek edge of a katana slumbering within the black and gold suit.
Yu and the perfectly adapted Mark III landed and quickly encountered three trolls. He fired at them with the 12.7mm heavy machine gun he’d taken from the hangar. A weapon of this size was normally fired from a turret, but Yu shot it straight from the hip. However, several hundred rounds later, not a single bullet had reached its target.
“Yu! It’s Projectile Protection!” Aliya reported.
“Not even this works?!”
“Yu. Use your hands,” Ein said.
She provided no further hints, but it was plenty. Yu remembered what Ijuin had said: “Don’t think. Feel.” So this was what he’d meant. Yu could get behind that. He discarded the machine gun just as one of the giant, impatient trolls was swiftly bringing its warhammer down on the Mark III’s head. The gruesome lump of iron looked to be devastatingly heavy.
But Yu knew he didn’t need to bother dodging.
Otherworldly metal collided with the nanomachines, ringing out in a glorious knell. The Mark III didn’t so much as flinch. Yu couldn’t even feel the impact.
Yu held his palm up against the attacking troll’s armor. It emitted a shrill, mechanical hiss, before the Anomaly crumbled to the ground. The high-frequency waves of the Frame’s ultrasonic oscillator had blended the enemy’s guts, its brain—the very tissue of its every organ from the outside in. It only took a fraction of a second. The troll’s armor may have defended against plenty of blades on the other side, but it was useless against this attack.
“Watch out!” Ijuin shouted. “Behind you!”
“Believe in the Shroud,” Ein beseeched. “It protects you.”
“Yeah. I know.” As another troll brandished its greatsword behind him, Yu’s mind was clear. Soothed by the cloth around his neck.
The Shroud’s yellow appendages fluttered at his back. One stretched out and wrapped itself around the sword, halting its arc towards Yu, while the other struck the troll’s head, instantly breaking its neck.
“Just...” Aliya choked, still flooded with grief for her mother. “Just one more!”
Moments later, the axe-wielding troll sprinted towards him and prepared to attack, but the Mark III was quicker.
“Enough!”
Brimming with anger for his half-elf friend and the burning desire to get her away from the violence as soon as possible, Yu and the Mark III whirled behind the enemy lightning fast and delivered a meteoric strike—a volley kick. With the steady coordination and form of hitting an airborne soccer ball straight into the opponent’s goal, Yu’s armored leg made contact, shattering the defenseless fae’s lower spine. His body felt strangely light and reacted with an unfamiliar acuity.
Yu stared at the incapacitated foe beneath him. “My body just moved on its own. It’s fighting like it knows how! What is this?”
“Yu,” Ein called, “your melding did not begin when you joined today. You have been absorbing the Asura’s mind for much longer, learning the ways of battle and how to fight as one.”
“Like how I can mess with nanotech!” Ijuin said.
“The awakening experiments were gradually synchronizing Yu’s nanomachines with the Asura Frame,” Aliya surmised.
The enemies weren’t finished. A square window appeared in Yu’s view, displaying a great many heat signatures heading straight for the Mark III. About seventy in total. All trolls.
“Several Mind Talk spells detected!” Aliya frantically reported. “Your position’s been given away, Yu!”
Yu had a feeling that even against such overwhelming numbers, he could come out on top easily. But the sooner the fighting ended the better. He glanced at the sky and a new window promptly projected a close-up of the flying fortress. The most dangerous threat of all was still soaring through those clouds.
Seemingly sensing Yu’s apprehension, Ein’s voice returned. “If time is of the essence, I can unlock the Astral Library’s Doomsday Book Gospel and upload it to your Asura.”
“What?” Yu said, utterly puzzled. “I don’t know what any of that means!”
“Ichinose, Gospels are special words that open up advanced functions!” Ijuin explained.
“Correct. We elves have lost our magical powers here on Earth. However, we never lost our knowledge of the arcane,” Ein continued. “Through the appropriation, transmutation, and parsing of your world’s incantations and invocations, a grimoire was designed for the Asura. It is called the Gospel Code.”
“A...grimoire? This thing can use magic?!”
“Yes. The prana born of the Asura’s dharmachakra serves not only as a source of anical energy, but as a spring of miracles and enigma. I need only speak the Gospel.”
“Essentially, you can use a kind of faux-magic to artificially create phenomena!” Aliya clarified for the stumped middle schooler. Fixed to the center of the Mark III’s waist was a wheel—the Prayer Wheel—a superconductive generator capable of outputting tremendous amounts of energy. Somehow Yu knew that this was the “dharmachakra” Ein spoke of. “The observation tower was initially adapted to transmit the Gospel Code in order to intercept Anomalies invading from Primorsky Krai in Russia.”
“Oh! Yeah! The antenna!” Ijuin’s enthusiasm was not lost over the commlink.
This Book, or so Ein had called it, seemed to be their best option, but then gruesome images of the aftermath flashed through Yu’s mind. A barren battlefield, extinguished of all life and even the flames themselves. The troll army would certainly perish, but so would everything else.
“No! No doomsday anything!” Yu hastily rejected, fearful of the magnitude of such a weapon. “There could be other survivors!”
“True,” said Ein. “Yes, a very good point, Yu!”
“Any other suggestions, Ein?” Aliya asked in a fluster.
“This leaves us with one option,” she replied. “We must open Pandemonium’s door. Let’s begin, Yu. Take to your throne above the clouds!”
“On it!”
Yu activated the jet stream thrusters and took off. Majestically, he soared high into the sky as familiar English text began to scroll across another screen that had popped into his vision.
[Mantra Server Startup Complete. All PRAJNA running.]
[System Now Booting Spellbook “VAJRA-SEKHARA SUTRA”...]
Ein had begun to unlock the Frame’s potential.
Back on the ground, Aliya and the others had emerged from the hangar. It was only a matter of time before the flames reached the bunker, so they exited through one of its many entrances and took position somewhere relatively safe. The unearthly, emerald aurora rippled in the sky, lest they forget that their lives were currently in the hands of the floating castle.
“Nope, can’t see Ichinose anywhere,” Ijuin said.
Aliya nodded. “It’s a good thing we brought the HMDs.” Her heart ached as she donned the goggles and thought back to her mother, who they’d left behind.
Aliya’s nano-augmented abilities manifested in the form of perception. Her nanomachines possessed functions that could identify magic in her presence, and more recently this had evolved to include species of Anomalies as well. For all her senses, though, the super-powered suit tearing through the air evaded her sight.
The Head Mounted Display projected the Mark III from directly behind—in third-person. Aliya got a clear view of Yu mid-flight, before switching her goggles off and turning her gaze to their third companion. The girl’s name was supposedly Ein, and she was an elf. Just like her mother. Dressed in nothing but a black button-up and military boots, she simply stood there, staring up into the void.
“Can you see him?” Aliya asked hesitantly.
“No,” she replied. “But I can sense him in my heart. One day, you may learn to do the same.”
She closed her eyes and began to softly recite,
—Five elements resonate.
—Ten realms speak.
—Six senses comprise the words.
Ein sang that verse as a harp would a melody. Aliya had heard it before. It was a favorite among the sages, including her mother. The universe was made of earth, water, fire, air, and the void. Each possessed a voice, a vibration, thus giving form to language, for which the six senses become the basis of words within the ten realms of life—or so the meaning went. Supposedly, this famous passage captured the essence of how the elves viewed the universe and the place of language within it, but to Aliya, who only knew life in Japan, it merely struck her as esoteric philosophy.
It evidently had been a password of some kind, because the instant Ein spoke the final word, communication was established. English words scrolled across the bottom of her HMD goggles.
[Mantra Server Startup Complete. All PRAJNA running.]
[System Now Booting Spellbook “VAJRA-SEKHARA SUTRA”...]
Ein was using her nanofactors to access the Astral Library aboard the artificial satellite in geostationary orbit above the Earth’s equator. She then proceeded to speak the heaven-sent scripture known as the Gospel Code.
5
Yu and the Mark III hovered ninety-eight meters above the ground. Directly below him were the seventy-something trolls, each of their positions distinctly marked by the system with a bright red dot.
—Witness the truth. Envision vajra.
—See, says the Enlightened One, true strength in tathata.
—Give form to invincible serenity, flawless as the full moon.
“There! That must be the Gospel Code!” he exclaimed.
Powdery grains of light fell away from the Mark III—adaptive nanofactors. Every single speck was one of the countless ADAMAS nanomachines that composed the Asura Frame. True to their adaptive nature, the microscopic machines could join together to create a variety of shapes and forms, from unmoving armor to indestructible yet flexible rubber, or even textiles and fabric. Each unit was a computer, power source, and an energy tank all at once.
“Nanomachines that can transform into anything,” Ijuin marveled. “Almost like magic.”
“But in reality, their ability to instantiate—or to ‘cultivate,’ rather, is thanks to a magic-adjacent, created by elvish wisdom and innovation,” Aliya added in quiet awe.
The innumerable particles of protean, microstructing light coalesced into metal rings with a diameter of a little less than half a meter, tapered into serrated, razor-sharp edges. Their numbers were staggering. A data screen counted “7,042 Droids.” The myriad of rings floated around Yu, maintaining flight with the Asura Frame’s anti-gravity lifters.
A display designated the weapon: “MUV Chakram.”
“Yu, those are the Mark III’s auxiliary droids!” Aliya said.
“For real?!” Ijuin shouted excitedly. “Those are a part of the fifty thousand?!”
“Why do you think their codename is Pandemonium? The palace of demons is a fitting title for the little devils!”
“Yu, beseech the Asura,” said Ein. “Release the swarm by its name.”
“Its name? The Mark III has a name?” Yu asked.
“Take to heart and remember well the true name of my sworn companion, the King of the Storm. Hearken unto Rudra!”
“Rudra! Got it! Let’s do it, Rudra!”
At once, the thousands of rings hissed through the air, spinning as they cascaded towards the targets below. The ensuing massacre was instantaneous and decisive. Seventy trolls. Seven thousand rings. At about a hundred blades per enemy, the droids eviscerated them absolutely, the nanomachines slicing through their armor like paper. Their Projectile Protection spells were useless against the sheer numbers. Had there been more to fight, the droids would have surely sought them out on their own, but with the all-too-short bloodbath at an end, they simply returned to Yu, disassembled into base nanofactors, and reformed with the Mark III.
The battlefield was stained with what remained of the trolls. Torn skin and exposed viscera, cracked skulls and ruptured eyes, shreds of gray and white matter, mangled organs and blood vessels. Yu saw it all. A window in his view depicted everything in vivid detail from up close.
How easily he had incited a slaughter. Too easily. Yu’s stomach started to cramp in fear of what he’d done. It felt as if a rock was weighing down on his gut, and he had to fight the urge to heave.
And that was when it came. A deluge of hellfire engulfed the Mark III.
“I-It’s the dragon!” Ijuin cried. “Ichinose, are you okay?!”
“The anti-magic shell is perfectly functional!” Aliya assured. “Stay calm, Yu!”
“I’m trying my best here, but it’s really hot!”
The dragon continued to scorch the Mark III in midair. Yu sweltered inside the ADAMAS armor as his skin burned. Scanners indicated a temperature of 306°C outside the suit and a boiling 72°C inside.
“A dragon’s flames are just a kind of magic,” Aliya stated. “They can melt the armor off an aircraft carrier’s deck. You’re lucky the anti-magic shell is shielding you from the worst of it!”
“So in other words, you’re saying it’s holding back the part of the heat that’s all magic-boosted,” Ijuin said.
Yu moaned. “That’s great, but I don’t know how much longer I’ll last!”
Fear crept up Yu’s spine, when suddenly, a vicious force gripped the Mark III from its chest and back simultaneously. The pressure clamping it on both sides increased and the Asura Frame creaked under the growing strain. Everything quickly went dark. Yu could only assume that it was because of the intense force on the helmet, but that was all he could assume. He was being crushed by an overbearing weight, that much was certain, but he could have been caught in a hydraulic press for all he knew.
It hurt. It felt like his body would pop at any moment.
“What’s happening?!” he groaned.
“See for yourself.” Ein’s voice was accompanied with a digital window. It displayed a scout droid activation message, before revealing footage—likely being captured by one of the Pandemonium droids—of the red dragon, crunching and gnawing on the Mark III.
Yu remembered seeing the skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex one time, its massive maw that could have easily swallowed an adult human whole. In comparison, the red dragon was at least twice that size. And it was between the mighty jaws and ferocious fangs of such a fearsome beast that the Mark III found itself imprisoned.
“Guess it didn’t like that I wasn’t turning to ash,” Yu said. “This is bad.”
“Bad?” Ein echoed calmly. “Nonsense. This is our chance.”
Yu gasped. She’d given him an idea. He knew just how to turn these lemons into lemonade. A screen listing various types of weapons appeared in response to Yu’s stroke of genius: ultrasonic oscillators, high frequency vibroblades, electromagnetic contractors, among many others. He focused his gaze on a single one and selected it.
He took a breath, then turned all his rage, all his sadness for Professor Chloe and the people who had lost their lives into the greatest roar he could muster. He couldn’t save them, but he could at least avenge them.
Full power.
Yu squeezed every ounce of energy that the Asura Frame could churn out and jettisoned air from every thruster on its body. Then, he turned. He began to twirl his body around like a top inside the dragon’s mouth, picking up speed fast. The dragon, for all its raw might, was powerless to contain him. The wing-like ends of the Holy Shroud around his neck spun like propellers, and when Yu reinforced the makeshift rotor with a high frequency current, they became vibrating blades. The Shroud blended the beast’s flesh.
The dragon roared in unmistakable pain. Spitting out the Mark III, the two plummeted to the ground, but, Yu’s vision having returned, they both regained their balance midair before making a dramatic landing. Neither took their eyes off their opponent for a second.
The Mark III stared the Anomaly down, and it stared right back. A thirty-meter dragon versus the puny, armored soldier. Yu was outmatched, as far as size was concerned. His foe was the mountain, and he was the pebble.
“Didn’t the last Devicer use, like, extra gear sometimes that made him look like a Mobile Suit?!” Yu asked in a panic.
“Th-That’s right,” Aliya said. “The auxiliary droids would attach themselves to his arms and legs. Pandemonium series droids.”
“The Full-Armor form! Man, the figure was super popular!” gushed Ijuin.
“I could kind of use it right about now. That dragon’s pretty big.”
“Is that what you think?” said a third voice.
“Ein?”
“I, for one, think it’s horribly naive to mindlessly assume that larger weaponry is the only way to handle differences in scale,” Ein declared. “Er, rather, I don’t mean to speak ill of the dead, but that man’s skill as a warrior really is debatable.”
Yu kept to timid silence.
Ein collected herself. “You know the ways of dragonslaying already. There’s no need to falter now.” There was hope in her words. Expectation. She was excited to see what her new partner could really do.
The dragon produced a low, rumbling growl, flames licking between its fangs, ready to be unleashed at any moment. With its pointed teeth and powerful jaws, the monster wasn’t lacking for intimidating methods of attack. Its body alone was large enough to be a threat to anyone unfortunate enough to find themselves beneath its paws. A single swipe of its tail could launch the Asura Frame as well.
“I get it. I’ve already done it once before.”
There was one simple way to avoid the invincible reach of colossal opponents: get so close that it couldn’t use its size to its advantage. Yu grabbed the edge of the Holy Shroud and tore off a piece of the yellow cloth. The scrap grew, expanded, and swelled vertically. Excalibur Mode. The Shroud transformed into the very same blade as the one he had beheld that first night.
Yu activated the jet stream thrusters, wailing as he thrust himself directly into the enemy. The dragon met his approach with a stream of fire, but it was no match for the Holy Saber. Yu pierced the fiery sea in twain, dove for the beast, and planted the sword in its neck. It let loose a great howl of agonizing pain, rattling the Mark III. Pushing the Frame to its absolute limit, Yu drove the sword deeper, deeper, and deeper still, until his hands gripping the hilt nearly came in contact with the dragon’s scales. But even still, he didn’t relent. He’d bring the whole of the Mark III straight through its throat.
The Prayer Wheel in the Frame’s belt whirred at immense speeds. Then, power surged. Strength swelled inside the Mark III where Yu thought there was none left. “What is this? What’s going on?”
He couldn’t believe his ears. The whir of the Prayer Wheel had turned to chanting. Voices of both men and women.
“Gate Gate Paragate! Parasamgate Bodhi Svaha!” they chorused. “Gate Gate Paragate! Parasamgate Bodhi Svaha!”
It was the same odd lyrics that he’d heard Ein sing before.
“You’re doing it, Yu!” the elf girl cried. “The Asura is answering your spirit! Your prana is climbing!”
A pale light enveloped the Mark III. The suit crackled and sparked with lightning, searing the dragon’s body and its open wound as Yu pressed himself into the monster, burnishing the black and gold armor in radiant effulgence.
The dragon screeched in pain as it collapsed to the ground, though it hadn’t yet been felled. It continued to flail and wallow in its torment as it attempted to free itself of the torture by throwing the Frame off. Yu held fast and clung close to his blade.
Until, at last, the otherworldly reptile went still. With the dragon slayed, a messy corpse splayed on the earth, the Mark III ceased emitting electricity and returned to normal.
“It’s...” Yu panted. “It’s over.”
He heaved a heavy sigh. He felt no glory or valor as he lay next to his foe’s corpse. The adrenaline faded and a wave of exhaustion washed over him, followed by the uncontrollable trembling of the aftershock of battle.
The helmet, still steamy from the flamethrower earlier, was starting to feel claustrophobic, and the moment that thought crossed Yu’s mind, the wind brushed his face.
“This thing can do anything, can’t it?”
The black and gold suit acquiesced to his wishes and de-armorized into sparkling nanofactors that assimilated back into his body. Free of the stifling armor, he basked in the refreshing bliss. He took several deep breaths. Once calmed, Yu attempted to stand, but stumbled on his feet. Moments before toppling from the dizziness, someone caught him in their arms.
“Ein?”
“You fought well. You survived well,” she said. “This was your first battle, and yet you carried the day. I’m proud of you, Yu.”
“What?” he muttered in the Replicant girl’s embrace. “Isn’t this what you wanted from me?”
“I would have commended you for half of what you accomplished here, in truth.”
Ein held Yu tight, cradling his head close. Right into her ample chest. The soothing, gentle warmth eased his mind, until he realized just where that warmth was coming from. He tried to push away, but Ein’s grip was ironclad.
“Let me go!” Yu stammered.
“No. I want to hold you.”
“That was one crazy debut!” Ijuin cheered. “Way to go, Ichinose!”
“Agreed. You deserve recognition for defeating a dragon all by yourself. I’m sure...” Aliya choked up. “I’m sure mom would have given it to you.”
Friends stood around him. Too fatigued to put his emotions into words, Yu settled on a frail smile in place of a reply.
If only the fight were over.
Yu stepped away from Ein’s comforting presence and looked upwards. The wayward flying portal-keep wasn’t going anywhere, and the emerald aurora continued to boast its enchanting elegance. They were in a stalemate, but that stoppage time had to be made up somewhere. In the coming round, whichever side ended up on offense and which on defense, this was no time to rest.
“Guess we’ve still got a bit further to go.” The nano-armor replated over Yu’s body as he eyed the skyward castle.
A digital window opened and streamed zoomed-in footage of the fortress. On one of the castle walls stood a young man. A fae? His countenance was dashing, to be sure, and his rippling, blue robe gave the impression of a mage, along with the wooden staff he wielded. A turban adorned his head.
He locked eyes with Yu. Was he observing him? Suddenly, the man in the footage smiled, and without averting his gaze, his mouth started to move. It couldn’t be.
“Is he casting?” Yu asked. “Did he use a spell?!”
“Yu, I— This magic is off the charts!” sputtered Aliya. “I’ve just detected the Death spell! We’re all in danger!”
Yu acted without a second thought. He tore the Holy Shroud from his neck and at once the scarf-like appendage enlarged itself to the size of a blanket.
“Get underneath!” he cried.
His Frame-less friends huddled together and squatted down while Yu threw the Shroud over them.
“Please! Protect them!” he pleaded, and the Shroud gave off a faint glow in response.
Meanwhile, Death had already begun to fall from the sky. Glistening snowflakes twinkled in the air, blanketing all of Gorogatake’s peak. A single crystal carried with it enough damnation to consign one to the grave. Several of them came to rest on top of the Mark III and the Holy Shroud.
Ijuin gagged. “God, I’m gonna be sick! This is like, a hundred times worse than car sickness!”
“I feel like I’m about to spit up my insides,” Aliya moaned.
“Rest easy, friends!” said Ein, as calm as ever. “Had the spell taken us, we would have fallen into eternal slumber long before feeling queasy. We’re safe, Yu!”
Thanks to the anti-magic shell, he, too, was protected.
“We don’t have to keep taking this anymore.” They’d been walked over for years, but now it was different. Now, they could fight back. Spotting a hunk of concrete reinforced with steel, Yu held his palm out towards it and activated one of the Asura Frame’s long-range armaments, pulling it into his hand. “No idea if this’ll do anything, but no harm in trying.”
An electromagnetic railgun. With enough electric charge to create a magnetic field, just about anything could be a bullet. The Mark III fired the concrete chunk at over Mach 8, and it instantly reached its target 126 meters in the air. Just before hitting the mage, he waved his staff, and it exploded. The man smirked.
Yu saw the man on his screen mouth something. He could hear no sound, but the subtitles on-screen made his heart skip a beat.
“Soldier of Earth, you fight with grace. I honor you,” they read. Even interpretation wasn’t beyond the Asura Frame’s abilities.
The aurora above Maizuru vanished, and the phantom castle’s status changed from “Materialized” to “Aerial.” Together with the man on its ramparts, the portal-keep disappeared, a mirage in the desert.
The battle was over. But Yu’s work wasn’t done. He sprinted off, still fully armored. His companions were safe, but the devastation caused by the dragon and the trolls was widespread. And then there was the death magic.
“No,” he gasped. “He made it so far...”
He found the body of an elderly man. Unburned and untouched, aside from the snowy crystals resting on his corpse. He’d escaped the bloodshed, only to fall at the very end.
The air reeked of burning flesh. Mangled corpses and bloodstains dotted the mountaintop in every direction. Yu trudged through the atrocities while the scars of war were still fresh, sniffling inside the Asura Frame. He wouldn’t stop until his friends finally came looking for him some time later.
EXPLICATIONS
| THE PANDEMONIUM SERIES AUXILIARY DROIDS |
Ijuin: Talk about next-gen! High-tech nanomachine drones made just for the Asura Frames!
Aliya: Compared to the Marks IV and V, the Mark III in particular has the most variety in terms of the kinds of droids it has at its disposal.
Ein: Because your Mark III, Rudra, is the King of the Storm.
Aliya: In other words, it’s the commander of the droids’ air division. The Mark IV, Mitra, is the King of the Land, and the Mark V, Varuna, is the King of the Sea.
| THE TWELVE ASURA FRAMES |
Ijuin: So basically, the Mark IV commands the ground, and the Mark V commands the ocean. Then what’s the Mark VI’s deal?
Aliya: I...don’t remember, actually. It was definitely something unique.
Ijuin: I heard the reason we don’t get much merch on the other Asura Frames has somethin’ to do with trademarks, or branding, or whatever. The Mark IV and V are in Korea and China, and I think VI is...Russia? The fact that I’m such a nerd for this stuff and even I don’t know is a crime!
Aliya: Yeah, because there’s nothing weird at all about commodifying a weapon of mass destruction.
Yu: Now that you mention it, it’s not much of a military secret anymore, huh?
Ijuin: Hey, the US did it with the Mark I and II! Their Frames had figures and models and toys... All sorts of stuff! They had this classic giant robot vibe going on.
Aliya: The Mark I does look like they pulled it straight out of Gundam, doesn’t it? The Mark II went a little more compact, though, so that one reminds me more of Dunbine.
Yu: Hey, does that mean they’re stronger than the Mark III?!
Ein: (Smugly) Please, those were only stepping stones for Rudra and beyond. The Mark III has nothing to compensate for!
Ijuin: Well, if they pack the same punch, smaller’s definitely better.
Aliya: The greatest struggle of Asura Frame research was how to consolidate the same amount of power into something human-sized.
