Blood That Flows

[Nanya]

For a joke/convenient concidence, this feels strange mostly because you already gave Ixpelia a reason for blocking/unlocking her magic.

Even if holo-Jail would be right I don't see why Nove would keep the slime for years after StrikerS (or why the same kind, as apparently it was a custom work of his)

For the first one, I guess I should have made it clearer that since they're in a lot more danger than before, Ixy would try to remember her old magic, even at the risk of what happened happening again.

For the second, um...

I guess it was sentimentality on Nove's part.

:unsure!::unsure!::unsure!:

Not really sure, it just came to me is all.

 

[Mega1987]

Mariemeia: That's ONE way to pull a split.... Ouch!

Odin: *got a de-aging ray-gun with him.* Composite ability for Ixy-

Ixpellia: For the last time... IT'S IXPELLIA! *unloads Blades of Fury as Odin.*

Odin: *Ignores Ixy as he got turned into a living pin cushion.* Skewered, Yet again... *sighs* I'm no Dante and Ixy, *gave Ixy a Death Glare.* get used to it. Your name is a mouthful for some.

Mariemeia: And why you got that ray-gun again, little brother?

Odin: Just in case you made another smart alec response... and Cinque need her playmate.

Mariemeia: *gulps* I'll be good.

Odin: Yeah, right. <_<

Me: And Arashi needs to be taught with the family ninja art. XD

Odin: If he survive this mess and get home in one piece.

Me: With L-sama spoiling her grandchild? He'll be in one piece.

Mariemeia: And Jail's MAD tech gone right... Screwy bastard.

Odin: Agreed.

Me: Let's not try to discuss His sanity, okay?

Mariemeia and Odin: Right.

 

[Nanya]

Oh, hey, you know, I think I used to write something awhile ago...

*looks*

Yep, I did.

______________________

"Duclis!" Pokota yelled as he raced through the trees of the forest to catch up to his old friend. "Get back here!"

Looking back over his shoulder, the Beast man smirked and slid to a stop as he spun to face the rabbit. "Well, well, prince." He said in a slightly mocking tone of voice. "It's been awhile, hasn't it?" Red energy formed and crackled in front of both of his hands before taking the form of energy blades. "But it doesn't matter, does it? We both know that nothing can be done now."

"Just because..." Pokota was cut off as he had to duck an energy blade that nearly bi-sected him. "What?!"

"Oh, I learned how to control this power quite a bit since we last met." Duclis narrowed his eyes as the energy blades in his hands seemed to change. "I can't use magic with this thing on me, but that doesn't mean that I can't tear you apart."

"I had no choice, Duclis! You know that!" Pokota swung his hands out to the side. "If I didn't do that, then who knows what would have happened!?"

"Yes, but it doesn't matter now does it?" Duclis took several steps forward. "This is where it ends, old friend. Taforashia is no more and we'll be nothing more than dust in the footnotes of history."

Pokota took a nervous step backwards as Duclis rushed forward. "Well, fine!" Pulling down the zipper on his front, Pokota pulled out a sword handle. "Light come forth!"

Duclis' eyes widened as the blue-white blade of the Sword of Light hummed into existance and cut through his red blades as if they weren't even there. Leaning back, Duclis growled as he saw some strands of hair float away from his body. "Damn," he slapped his hands together as a ball of energy formed between them, "you!"

Pokota's eyes widened as the energy sphere morphed into a long pole with a spiked tip on the end. "Raywing!"

"Tsk." Duclis growled as his make-shift spear cut through nothing but air. "Don't think that will save you." He growled at the stuffed rabbit, who was floating higher into the air. Before Pokota could react, Duclis swung his energy spear backwards fast enough that a wave of energy erupted upwards, sending up dirt, rocks and even parts of trees up after Pokota.

Grunting and crossing his ears in front of him, Pokota hoped to ward off this eruption of debris and energy long enough to get a clean shot at Duclis. At least the Sword of Light, even if it was just a replica, was able to keep his body from being shredded from the energy as it washed over him. “Stop this!” Pokota yelled after the energy subsided and pointed one ear at Duclis. “Val Flare!” He glared as the sphere of fire roared down towards Duclis, slamming into his body with no visible effects.

“Do you really think that's enough to hurt me?” Duclis chuckled as he continued to rise up at Pokota, an energy sword in each hand. “You know I'm immune to magic with this on me.”

“But not this!” Pokota swung the Sword of Light down at Duclis, who stared in shock as the humming blade seemed to descend in slow motion for his body.

“Fool!” Duclis growled and swung his blades up, connecting with the Sword of Light in a clash of red and blue energies.

Pokota's eyes widened, he thought that the Sword of Light would cut through anything that the Zannafar armor could create with ease, but yet those red blades were not only holding off his sword, but keeping him from hitting Duclis' body. “How?!” It shouldn't have been possible for anything created by the Zannafar armor to block his... 'Wait...' To the rabbit's utter shock, he saw that he was destroying the blades, but every time one was destroyed, a new one would form in its place instantly, keeping the Sword of Light away from Duclis.

“So, figured it out?” Duclis grunted as gravity finally aserted itself and pulled him down to the ground where he landed in a crouch before jumping backwards to avoid Pokota's follow-up dive bomb strike. “I've learned quite a bit since we last met.”

“You know that armor will kill you, right?” Pokota held his weapon up and pointed at Duclis, who had energy forming around his hands.

“If one has a strong enough will, or enough power, they can force even the mighty Zannafar to bend to their will, regardless if they're a manbeast, a Mazoku or even a little child.” Duclis held his hands up and grinned as more and more energy swirled around them. “Would you like to see what else I've managed to learn in the time since we last met?” Letting out a roar, the tiger man thrust his hands forward in rapid motions, sending out dozens upon dozens of red arrows rushing at Pokota.

Twirling the Sword of Light in his hands for a moment, Pokota started swinging in an arcing X pattern, yelling loudly as he deflected and cut through the projectiles as they got near him and causing small explosions which caused a bunch of dust and dirt to get kicked up as a result.

Panting softly as he recovered from the attack, Pokota grinned into the smoke. “Is that it?”

“Not at all.” Pokota's eyes widened as Duclis suddenly seemed to form in front of him out of the smoke, a red energy blade swinging down at the rabbit's prone body. “Die!”

(---)

“You!” Zuuma growled as he seemingly melted into a shadow. “Do you think you can stop me this time? Your friends aren't nearby, you're caught in my trap of darkness.”

Nila swung her arm to the side, causing a strong wind to kick up as she spun and jumped back. “Dangerous.” She whispered, wondering where the assassin was at in all of this.

Zuuma narrowed his eyes as he looked at Nila, he didn't know why she was leaning forward slightly while reaching behind her, but he supposed it didn't matter, he had her now. Holding up his left hand, three blades appeared between his index finger, middle finger and thumb. Bringing his arm down in an arc, he watched in grim satisfaction as they flew silently through the air towards his target. Once she was out of the way, he would go deal with the others, one at a time. Probably that redheaded brat who used that sword of darkness on him last time they met.

His eyes widened in anger and surprise when Nila pulled out a blade from behind her and swung upwards, deflecting his thrown knives with ease. “I see, you're more than I thought.”

Nila swung her sword forward, smiling to herself as she cast Blade Haut. She had no doubt Zuuma was already on the move, but Blade Haut was an Earth spell that acted like a shock wave with homing properties. Even if he could avoid it, the shock wave would follow him for some time.

“Clever girl.” Zuuma muttered as he dodged to the side and noticed that the spell was following him. He had to admit, whoever taught this sorceress was in a league of their own when it came to magic, he doubted that even some sages could do something like this. 'Still, every spell has a weakness.' Narrowing his eyes, he turned and ran straight at Nila. 'And it's hard to keep a spell going if the caster dies, isn't it?' His bladed gloves seemed to shine in the darkness as his pupils shrank in anticipation for what was to come. 'Prepare yourself...' All he had to do was aim for the head, even the craftiest spellcaster couldn't do much without that.

(---)

There was a scream and a tearing noise that echoed throughout the forest for only a moment.

“Tsk, I missed.” Duclis narrowed his eyes as he saw Pokota still alive and mostly well. Mostly well because he was currently missing both of his ears. “Still, you're a lot less dangerous when you're missing those, aren't you, your majesty?”

Pokota could only glare at Duclis as the beastman took a step forward. He might have been able to cast magic without his ears, but it was safer for him to use them, since it kept explosions that could consume him to a minimum. At that moment, however, Duclis, with one glowing red blade, looked like he had glowing red eyes and the sky seemed unnaturally dark.

“Sorry, old friend,” Duclis held his blade up, “but I can't have you interfering anymore, so, goodbye.” Pokota screwed his eyes closed and tensed up as Duclis brought his blade down again. He couldn't believe he was going to die like this, in this stuffed animal body and not in his real body.

“WHAT?!” Pokota opened his eyes and gaped as the blade was almost touching his face. Leaning his head to the side, he could only stare as Duclis was encased in a thick layer of ice.

“Sorry I'm late.” Pokota turned and sighed in relief as Lyos walked out from behind a tree. “Had a hell of a time trying to find you two after dealing with all those Lesser Demons.” Narrowing his eyes while holding up Banisher, Lyos stepped forward while Pokota quickly got away from Duclis, who was struggling to get free. “Now then, I wonder if I can shatter that armor if it's frozen solid.”

The next thing any of them knew, a powerful wind suddenly picked up and several sharp objects slammed into the ground between Lyos and Duclis, some of them hitting the ice and cracking it in several places and allowing Duclis out of his prison.

“Feathers?” Pokota stared, wondering who could attack with feathers.

“Are you alright, master Duclis?” A voice from above spoke up as a figure descended to the ground.

The figure was thin and wore some sort of black robe with gold trim along the chest and legs, the head was similar to that of a bird's head, but it was just bone, no flesh covering it, and on the back were a giant pair of crow's wings that were bigger than the creature was.

“Mazoku, I assume?” Lyos narrowed his eyes as the creature nodded. “So, which of the three Lords do you belong to? I'd like to know which Lord to send my complaints to after dealing with you.”

“I serve under Lord Gram, I have no idea what you're talking about.”

Duclis snorted and rubbed his nose. “Melphis, I'll leave them to you.” He turned to leave and ignored Pokota as the damaged rabbit yelled at him to stop.

“Melphis, huh?” Lyos held Banisher out to the side. “You're working with that Mazoku who's causing problems for us?”

“My orders were to keep him from being killed, nothing more.” Melphis held its arms out to the side as it started to levitate into the air.

“To that, I have to tell you something.” Lyos smirked as water spun around his blade quickly. “How about a quick Hyrdo Shower?” Lyos quickly thrust Banisher into the air and grinned as it suddenly started to rain around them.

“GAH!” Melphis screamed in pain as the water caused its feathers and body to boil and burn.

“What the hell?” Pokota stared at Lyos. “What did you do?”

Lyos smirked as he watched Melphis fall to the ground, screaming in pain. “Simple, I just made it rain Holy water.” He looked at Pokota and laughed at the rabbit's dumbfounded look. “Hey, it works pretty good, I'd say.”

“This...” Lyos spun around in shock as Melphis struggled to its feet, “is not... The END!”

Lyos and Pokota both took a step backwards as Melphis suddenly glowed black and increased in size, going from the size of a thin human to the size of a Dragon.

“That is a big bird.” Lyos muttered as he saw the transformation fully. Melphis looked completely like a crow, except for the head, which was still a skull, however its wings were crossed in front of its body for the moment. “Damn, I thought that would have worked.”

“Maybe if you used a whip instead of a sword it might have.”

Lyos gave Pokota a dirty look. “Is this really the time to make such jokes?” Before Pokota could respond, Melphis threw its wings open, revealing each one was somewhere between three and four meters in length, as well as a face on the stomach.

Oddly enough, the face reminded both Lyos and Pokota of a dog with an underbite.

“Well, I have to admit, you are a pain, but this is the end.” The stomach mouth spoke while grinning.

“So says you.” Lyos thrust Banisher up into the air again. “Hydro...”

The skull mouth opened up and let out an incredibly loud and high pitched screech that had both Pokota and Lyos staring in shock for a moment before falling to the ground and screaming in pain.

The stomach mouth chuckled as the skull mouth continued to screech loudly. “Hurts, doesn't it? Human bodies are so fragile and foolishly designed, being mostly liquid and if you use the right sound pitch, you can make water boil easily.” Oh, he knew they couldn't hear him. “Even that stuffed rabbit is hurting since it hits the right sound to make you have to cover your ears, but what good is it when I can cause the liquid in your ears to boil and burst?”

Even if Melphis wasn't the strongest Mazoku, this ability was quite useful for dealing with the more annoying insects that challenged his master. It was just too bad that Gram made him watch Duclis, that guy wasn't nearly as interesting as he had hoped he would have been.

Oh well, a few more minutes and these fools would both be dead and he could deal with the others properly.

A moment later a tree crashed into Melphis' skull head, causing him to stop screaming as his head jerked to the side. “WHAT?!” The stomach mouth couldn't hold back his shock, both from the tree and the fact that it was able to stop his attack. “Who daregarrrgle!?!” It was a bit hard to speak properly when a second uprooted tree trunk slammed into his stomach mouth. Sure, it didn't hurt him, but the shock was so great that he couldn't help but wonder what the hell just happened.

“God, that screaming was annoying!” Nove growled as she rushed to the group.

“Hmm, a sonic attack?” Jail's voice was more subdued than usual. “Interesting, not just any sort of sonic attack, but a microwave attack with the sonic waves, so painful noise and boiling fluids all in one. Impressive.”

“You probably wouldn't think it was so impressive if you were flesh and blood again.” Uno pointed out to him. “Wait a second, sonic attack and we're in gems...” Even if she had no blood, her face did a good impression of someone suddenly paling. “Wouldn't that destroy us?”

“Oh yes, it would.” Jail nodded as Nove grabbed Pokota and rolled up to Lyos to help the man up, despite his pain. “In fact, I guarantee that we'd be erased if not repaired quickly enough from such an attack.”

Mephis broke the tree in his stomach mouth and glared at Nove. “That didn't hurt, you know. But, seriously, who in the nine worlds of pain throws a bloody tree at their enemies?!”

Nove glared and pointed her gun knuckle at the Mazoku. “Oh, shut up!” Hundreds of energy bullets flew out through the air, tearing into the Mazoku's body with ease. “Damn.”

“Hahahahaha!” Melphis grinned at her. “Do you think that hurts? Now then, how about you join them and die?”

“Hey, Nove?” Jail spoke up. “Look at your gun knuckle for a moment.”

“Huh?” Nove blinked as parts of her weapon were flashing blue. “What the?”

Jail grinned at her and looked up as Melphis' skull mouth opened up. “Hurry up and press the lit up areas, otherwise we're all going to die.”

“Dunno what this is going to do, but...” Nove quickly complied as Melphis started screaming again. Nove grimaced and pointed her gun knuckle up and fired again. When nothing came out, she thought that she had failed and they were going to die. 'Dammit...'

“IMPOSSIBLE!” Melphis screamed and Nove blinked as she realized something important. “WHAT DID YOU DO?!”

Jail threw his head back and laughed with his arms spread wide. “I prepare for most anything. Including sonic-based attacks. All I had to do was make it so that the sound that Nove's gun knuckle makes is the same sound that you're emitting, but at a slightly out of phase with your attack, and they cancel each other out.” A grin threatened to take over his whole face as the Mazoku flapped his wings nervously. “And it seems that your microwave attack is tied to your sonic attack. Do you wish to fight now?”

Melphis growled at the hologram on Nove's ankle. “Tsk, whatever, I've still got more than...” Two pieces of metal suddenly found themselves in his eyes, causing him to scream as they burned his Astral body.

“I'm sorry, I believe the answer you're looking for is, please don't murder me, Lady Ixpellia.” Uno nodded as she recognized the blades in Melphis' eyes. “Now then, you can stay here and die, or leave, either way, we win.”

“THIS ISN'T OVER!” Melphis screamed as he disappeared.

Nove dropped her arms and sighed as she ended her attack. “Doctor, why didn't you tell me about that one?”

“It never came up.” Jail shrugged and looked at Lyos, who was holding his ears and groaning. “But I think your friend is still hurt.”

Pokota rubbed his ears and looked up at Nove, who was ignoring him to check on Lyos. Well, he supposed he couldn't blame her. He just couldn't hear, but it looked like Lyos was still in a lot of pain.

Of course, he had another problem, how was he going to get his ears fixed?

He blinked as his ears were suddenly just in front of him. Looking up, he nodded as Ixpellia smiled and picked him up. At least he could see a tailor to get fixed up soon.

Or so he hoped.

“Lyos,” Nove shook him lightly. She sighed when he reacted and nodded. “Alright, come on,” she helped him to his feet, “let's regroup.”

“What?!”

Nove sweat-dropped. Well, she couldn't blame him, that attack that he suffered through probably caused his ear-drums to burst. She just hoped that they could be fixed.

 

[Mega1987]

Odin: A Yoda wannabe is now with the party.

Me: Damn for the cliffy on Nila's fight against Zuuma.

Val: Can it. it's been so long Nanya updated BTF...

Me: I say we kidnap more Muses for his muse to feast on.

Odin: Nanya's Muse is no cannibal, NEET.

Me: As if!

Elane: And the Mad scientist have done it again.

Mariemeia: And I wash wishing that the flying buzzard fainted after getting hit with the tree.

Odin: Or Nove saying "Flock off, feather face! Or you can stick around and find out the hard way.". *shrugs.* What? No love for DMC1 reference?

 

[Filraen]

You know, this is the second random upgrade to Nove this arc... at least this time is sightly less unbelieveable.

 

[WarChild]

Well, this is a surprise. Didn't notice as I was busy looking at different fanfics that caught my eye.

So, figured out what you wanted to write after losing most of your material?

 

[Nanya]

Well, I knew what I was going to do, generally speaking, it's just I lost notes on specific characters.

Thankfully, I had help getting some of my notes back through talks I had with Holyknight, so that was a help.

 

[Nanya]

Hey! An update!

________________________________

Zuuma's eyes narrowed behind his mask as his hands passed through where Nila's head was supposed to be. But instead of his clawed hands tearing through flesh and bone, he felt the cloak on his hand, but no resistance as a tearing sound was heard. 'I missed?' Zuuma thought to himself as two hands grabbed his outstretched arm and pulled down as two feet drove into his stomach and flipped him over before pushing him away and causing him to flip through the air and send him out of the Dark Mist.

“Dammit!” Zuuma cursed as he put his hands on the ground to flip around and landed on his feet. That sorceress was a lot stronger than he thought, but then again, she was still in his Dark Mist field and he could get back to her at any time. Looking at the brown over-cloak on his clawed gloves, he snarled and tore it off. 'This is why I hate hooded cloaks.' They were just too damn easy to hide things like weapons, how tall you were, and other things if they were loose enough. As he turned to the Dark Mist, Zuuma suddenly felt the urge to step away for some reason. He wasn't sure why until the Dark Mist seemingly tore itself apart revealing Nila Vesnire as she held a black, crackling sword in her hands.

“I must admit,” she said softly, so softly that he had to strain to hear her words, “if not for that boy, I would never had thought to use the Ragna Blade to cut through your darkness.”

Zuuma didn't answer her as he looked her over. The woman was wearing short boots, red-brown pants that looked pretty tight on her body, a light colored short-sleeved shirt, a sleeveless jacket over it and her hands were covered by the what had to be the weirdest gloves that Zuuma had ever seen in his life. The tips of her thumb, index and pinky fingers were completely exposed while the ring and middle fingers were covered up, and he could see that the gloves left part of the back of her hands exposed. But what really drew his attention was her hair. From behind, it wasn't that long, just barely brushing against her shoulders, though the hair color threw him off, most of it was bright red with the ends of her hair being bright yellow in color. “You...”

She turned to look at him and Zuuma frowned as he saw that her right eye was covered by bangs, preventing him from seeing it clearly, but her left eye was, from what he could see, a bright red color. “Please don't accuse me of being her. I got tired of it after the eighth time that I heard it.”

Zuuma snarled as the energy dissipated, revealing her long sword. “Before I kill you, how is it that you can use that spell like you do?”

Nila gave him a light smile. “The Ragna Blade isn't that uncommon. Even that boy can use it, but I'm the only one with enough skill to mold it to this blade without destroying the sword.” She grabbed the sword with both hands and narrowed her visible eye at Zuuma.

Zuuma jumped up as Nila's sword glowed for a moment and she stabbed the tip into the ground. “Bephis Bring.” The sorceress grimaced as Zuuma avoided the hole that popped up where he had been a second ago.

“Tsk... We shall meet again, sorceress.”

Nila could only frown as Zuuma was surrounded by Dark Mist for a few moments before disappearing completely. “Blast.”

“Nila! I'm here and..!” Vivio blinked in shock as she saw Nila standing there, completely unharmed. “Um... Where's the...”

“Fled.” Nila turned to look at Vivio, who looked at her in surprise. “And, yes, I am aware of who I look like.” Sheathing her sword, Nila made her way to the remains of her tattered cloak and grimaced as she picked it up. 'This is going to be a pain to repair.' She thought to herself.

“Um...” Nila turned to look at Vivio. “You just...”

“I know,” Nila nodded at the young blonde. “I am tired of being reminded of that fact, even if it is amusing to have bandit groups cry in fear when I run into them and slaughter them.”

Still, Nila was bothered by one thing, why did Zuuma flee? From what little she knew of him, he didn't seem the type to flee unless he was completely outmatched.

(–-)

Some distance away...

Zuuma glared at Duclis. “If it wasn't for the pay...”

“I know.” Duclis nodded as he thought about the last battle. “But you're doing everything right. I don't want anything linked back to me when this is over.”

Zuuma snorted as he stood up. “That won't be a problem, that woman, however, must die.” Duclis looked at him as he started to walk away. “Seeing her, my blood boils in rage over what happened.”

Duclis had no idea what was going through the assassin's head, and he didn't care too much, so long as everything they had planned didn't end up backfiring.

(–-)

“That was a GOOD nap!” Corona smiled as she stretched out the kinks in her back. “Hello, Zanny!”

”Quiet you, I still can't believe you made me do that.”

Corona giggled at the Demon Beast's anger, well, she supposed that she couldn't blame him too much, after all, it had to be boring waiting for her to wake up. “So, do you wanna go kill and destroy now, boy? Huh?”

Zannafar snorted as it stood up and shook its body. ”That you're even still alive annoys me to no end, human.”

Corona put her hand to her lips and giggled. “You have no idea how... Happy that makes me.” She turned to see Balmung walking to her and Jörmungandr standing only a bit behind it, looking around. “Good, we're all here and...” She trailed off as some bushes shook. She didn't know why it caught her attention at all. “What is...” She gasped and fell to her knees in shock as she saw who stumbled through the bush. “But... No way... You... That Mazoku killed you... Rio...”

“Corona!” Rio smiled as she hobbled over to the stunned girl, ignoring the flaming golem, towering giant and liquid-like dog. “Oh thank god! I thought I wouldn't see you again. It was so hard to climb out of that chasm.”

“You...” Corona shook her head and trembled. “You're dead, I saw you.”

“What are you talking about, Corona?” Rio smiled at her while closing her eyes. “I'm perfectly fine.” She finally got close enough to Corona and grabbed the girl's hand. “See?”

”Finally, something to eat.”

“NO!” Corona yelled as she glared at Zannafar, causing it to stop in its tracks and glare at her as it stepped back. “No hurting Rio, ever!”

“See?” Rio smiled as she knelt down next to her friend and took her hand and placed it on her stomach. “There's nothing wrong here. I just wanted you to know...”

Corona's eyes widened as she felt something warm and wet on her hands. Trembling and paling, she looked down to see her hand getting coated in blood.

“My death is your fault. You didn't stop the others from abandoning me.”

“R...Rio..?” Corona didn't know if her eyes could get any wider as Rio's body suddenly started to decay rapidly, turning into bones in front of her before turning to dust. “No... no... NOOOOOOOO!!!!”

A circle formed under Corona's body as black lightning crackled outwards, striking at everything around her. “Zanny, Balmung, Jörmungandr,” Corona stood up, tears falling from her eyes as they glowed with hate and power, “kill... EVERYTHING!” When Zannafar asked her what to kill, she pointed to the West. “That town, there's one there, we're going to destroy it, and move on, EVERYTHING MUST DIE!”

Zannafar grinned and raised its head to the heavens. ”FINALLY!”

(–--)

“Good work, Pawra.” Gram smiled as he watched the events unfold through his scrying glass. “Now we just need to see what they can really do.”

This... Was going to be fun.

 

[Rising Dragon]

You really enjoy the tormenting, don't you?

 

[Mega1987]

Carona is BTF!Illya...

Zanny as sane!berserker...

weeeeeeeeeee


and Where's Azreal(from NGE) when you need a mind rape?

 

[Rising Dragon]

You mean Arael.

 

[Nanya]

In the Blue Universe...

Teana sighed as she saw Subaru packing her clothes. “Are you sure that running away is the best idea?”

“I'm not running away, Tea,” Subaru smiled, but to Teana it was void of the usual happiness that her friend had, “Voltz told me to take a vacation and not come back until I could concentrate on my work.”

Teana sweat-dropped, remembering the call that she over-heard Quint receive the other day. “I suppose you don't need to destroy any more equipment, huh?” She sighed when Subaru didn't even acknowledge her response. “It's not your fault, you know.”

“If I had... I could have...”

“What?!” Subaru gasped as Teana grabbed her by her arms and spun her around to glare at her. “Get warped with Nove and the others? Make everyone worry about you as well!?”

“I don't know!” Subaru looked away, shame on her face. “But at least I could have made sure that they were okay.”

“And then we'd be worried sick that you died on us.” Teana practically growled as she let go of Subaru and walked out of the room. “Go on! Go take a vacation! Don't even think about how badly the rest of us feel because we couldn't stop what happened. No, it's fine! I'm sure if you had been there you would have been able to make all the difference.”

“Tea...” Subaru reached out to her but stopped as Teana turned to glare at her.

“If you think, for one minute that you disappearing would have made your mom or dad rest easier, then whoever gave you cyborg implants gave you a faulty brain.” She snorted when Subaru visibly grimaced and walked out of the room. “Baka Subaru...”

“Don't be too hard on her.” Teana nearly tripped over one of the toys on the floor when she heard Ginga's voice. “You know how tense things have been...”

Teana nodded as she picked up the toy and tossed it to Ginga. “Tell the kids to pick their toys up.” Ginga caught it without even nodding. “How's your parents?”

“Dad wrapped himself up in work and I think mom is trying to not think about what's going on too much.” Ginga looked over her shoulder and sighed before turning and walking into the kitchen. “Still, I think Wendi took it the hardest.”

Teana winced, yeah, she didn't think that Wendi would take it good when she found out that Nove disappeared. “What about the others?”

“Most of our sisters think Nove will be okay...” Ginga trailed off as she poured herself a glass of water. “I think Tre's upset though.”

“What makes you think that?”

Ginga smiled slightly after drinking the water. “Because Sein told me that Tre's been pretty grouchy for the past few days, mumbling something about more training and working harder...”

“Oh...” Teana didn't know what to say to that.

Ginga sighed as she caught Slyph float into the room, a depressed look on her face. “How many times have I told you...”

“I still wish I had been awake.”

Teana rubbed her head and sighed, she had honestly tried to explain that it wasn't their fault, but seriously, did anybody think that they could have made a difference in what happened?

A flash of pink entered her mind and Teana sweat-dropped, nodding to herself. If anyone could have made a difference, it would have been Nanoha. “I just hope she's not doing anything stupid.” She sighed at the look Ginga gave her and turned around to go talk to Subaru again. As much as Teana hated how stupid Subaru was being, it really wasn't right to make her feel worse about it.

(–)

Hayate gave Vita a small smile as the two of them went over wedding preparations. “It's so nice.” Vita blinked and turned to her in confusion. “Seeing you, all grown up, getting engaged and preparing for a wedding.” Vita blushed while smiling at her. “You haven't even set an exact date yet.” She giggled when Vita looked away, flushed. “I'm the parent, I get to tease you.”

“I just want to get the preliminary stuff out of the way first, so that when we finally set a date and everything, it'll go much faster.”

Hayate nodded as they went back to looking over designs and trying to get good match ups. “You know that this doesn't have to be super fancy.” She blinked when Vita nodded and sighed. “Is something wrong?”

Vita shook her head and stood up before pacing in front of her. “It's just... Arrrgh!” She grabbed her head and started moving her fingers rapidly, mussing her hair up. “It's just, I'm a bit worried, I want something really special, but I don't want it to be too fancy, but I don't want to disappoint Verossa and I just...” She trailed off as she felt Hayate's hands on her shoulder. “Dad?”

Hayate pouted and gave her a flat look. “You still call me that,” she sighed before smiling softly, “Vita-chan, I'm pretty sure that he won't be disappointed at all with your plans, well, other than telling him that he couldn't help with this part.” She winked at the taller redhead. “After all, I'm sure that if anyone knows how to make a wedding fashionable and fun, it's Verossa.”

Vita blinked and smiled as she heard that. “Thanks, dad.” She raised an eyebrow in confusion as Hayate suddenly giggled. “Um, what's so funny?”

“I just realized, my future son-in-law is also my honorary brother.” Hayate laughed and ran out of the room as Vita yelled at her before giving chase.

“Vita, phone for you.” Reinforce held her arm out, offering a cell phone to the aforementioned girl, as Hayate ran behind her, giggling, “and, dear, we talked about this.” She gave Hayate a dry look as the brown haired woman tried to look innocent.

“Thanks, mom.” Vita took the cell. “Hello? Ah! Verossa! We were just... Oh?” Vita's eyes widened. “Really? Your sister... Alright, thanks. Wait, what? You mean...” Vita gulped and paled as she turned to see Hayate grinning at her evilly. “Uh huh, I guess dad and Carim planned the whole thing, huh? Alright, see you tomorrow then, dear, love you.”

Reinforce sweat-dropped as Hayate started giggling. “You and Carim already had everything planned out, didn't you?”

“Well...” Hayate trailed off, smiling as she pivoted and walked towards her room. “Not everything. We still need to get Vita-chan's dress made up, the cake fixed up and a few other small things.”

“And I'm going to be a dress up doll tomorrow.” Vita deadpanned, getting a wince from Reinforce. “Dad! You could have warned me ahead of time!”

Hayate gave her a flat look. “And give you time to come up with an excuse to escape? Not on your life.”

Reinforce held her hands up as Vita looked at her pleadingly. “Don't look at me like that, young lady, you know how your father gets when she's in this kind of mood.” When Hayate shot back about not being a man, Reinforce giggled, it was so fun teasing her.

Vita shook her head as she heard Kyouka start crying and sighed, “at least Shamal doesn't have to deal with this.”

(–)

Biting back a sneeze and grimacing, Shamal looked up and blinked as someone she didn't expect walked into her office. “Kuma? What are you doing here?”

The man grinned and lifted his shades up to reveal his eyes. “Miss Shymal!”

“It's Shamal,” the blonde deadpanned as she narrowed her eyes and sighed in exasperation. “Even after all this time together, you still get my name wrong. Why, I might get the wrong idea and think that you just like to tease your girlfriend for no good reason.”

Kuma chuckled as he rubbed the back of his head. “If I started saying your name correctly, then others would expect me to do the same, and some of the reactions I get are hilarious.” Suddenly he clapped his hands together and grabbed Shamal's hands. “But enough about my poking fun at overly serious people, I want you to join Ami and Kyrie with me today!”

Shamal blinked slowly. “I would, but I have the two of them scheduled for an appointment today, plus I need to...” Shamal was silenced as Kuma put a finger on her lips, causing her to glare at him.

“One, the girls asked me to ask you to join us, and two, there's this really great place that you need to see, and finally,” Kuma pulled his finger away from her lips, “you haven't had a day off in almost three weeks.”

Shamal sighed and scratched her head. “Guess Nanoha isn't the only one who works too hard sometimes.” When Kuma nodded, she rolled her eyes. “Fine, fine, I'll reschedule with some people.” Thankfully she didn't have too many appointments that day. “Just give me about ten minutes.”

“Sure, but that's longer than what it'll take us to get to the picnic spot.” Kuma laughed as Shamal rolled her eyes. “I'll wait for you in the car with the girls.”

Shaking her head, Shamal wondered what she saw in him. “Then again...” She blushed, he was rather pretty and nice, plus those car rides were lots of fun. Though she still wished she could have gotten one of her other family members to join her on the ride at least once. Thinking about that for a moment, Shamal sweat-dropped at the idea of her family riding in any car driven by Kuma. The man could probably kill an elderly person from the stress of his driving alone.

A few minutes later, Shamal was trying to remain calm as Kuma tore through the streets in his pink super car.

“Oh hey! It's the Riot Force building!” Kyrie pointed excitedly in front of her as she rode in the backseat behind Kuma.

“It's times like this that I am glad this car has bucket seats and a divider.” Amitie sighed as she leaned back in her seat. Sure, Kuma was going about five times the speed limit and any crash would likely kill all four of them in an instant, but she still felt safe. The car wasn't smoking, on fire, creaking, groaning, strapped with a bomb that would explode if they slowed down below a certain speed, or attacking them with lasers, saw blades or tentacles after all.

“Sometimes you just have to remember that if you try to take in too many details, you can miss the big picture, and even if you don't miss the big picture, you can lose sight of it by being too distracted by little things that come up, so I always try my best to go as fast as I can because reaching the goal as soon as possible leaves me open for more room to get more stuff done, but if you just try to organize all the details as much as possible, you'll never get to the final goal in any reasonable amount of time and sometimes you have to just go and force yourself to go further and further,” Kuma grinned as he turned to the left sharply, causing the car to tilt onto the passenger side wheels, eliciting a scream of fear from Shamal and laughter from Kyrie before the car settled back down onto four wheels. “You see? We're fine, and we're almost out of the city.”

“I... I see that.” Shamal was panting, her hand over her chest. “That was way too sharp.”

“Oh please! This car can go twice as fast and still make that turn easily!” Kuma laughed as he shifted gears and drove onto the freeway.

The car jumped and Amitie frowned from the sensations. “Either you just hit a giant hole, or you blew out an axle.”

Kuma frowned and looked at his speedometer. “Well, even if I did, it wouldn't be the first time I blew this car up this week, now would it?” Laughing, he drove off, even if he did slow down a little bit.

'At least I'm not seeing plaid anymore.' Shamal thought to herself as she tried to calm down.

(–)

Elsewhere...

”You seem upset for some reason, Sette.” Mr. Snuggles said as he rested on the tall cyborg's head as she walked down the street. ”What's the matter?”

“I was... Talking to Suzuka about you the other day, she said that you were a kitten when she was nine years old.” Sette didn't sigh, she was better than that, no, all that she did was shrug her shoulders and let out a small huff of air. “That was... Fourteen, almost fifteen years ago. Even if the doctor extended your life with cybernetics, you are not long for this world are you?”

Mr. Snuggles narrowed his eyes and stood up before leaning forward so that he could look Sette in the eyes. ”Is that what's bothering you?” Sette nodded and winced when Mr. Snuggles whacked her on the head with his tail. ”So what?”

“But... I do not wish to see you die.” She reached up to scratch him on the head.

”I might live to only see tomorrow, I might live another ten years, I don't know.” Mr. Snuggles slid off of Sette's head and onto her breasts, twisting so that he landed paws first. ”We're born, we eat, breed, live and die, that's what happens to all of us. Though,” Mr. Snuggles grinned evilly at Sette, ”some of the animals around the house that I've killed don't even get to do all of that.”

Sette sweat-dropped, remembering the time he brought home a dead squirrel. “Yes, mom was not happy with you.”

”I'm a cat, even if I'm smarter than most.” Mr. Snuggles rolled his eyes. ”But that's not the point, Sette. One day I'll be gone, I know that, unlike most animals, I actually get to think about that. So, I want you to stop worrying about it, Sette.” Mr. Snuggles jumped off of Sette's breasts and onto a fence next to the sidewalk. ”After all, you haven't seen all of my tricks yet.”

“I suppose not. By the way, did you ever catch that red dot?” Sette did not smirk, but a small smile did grace her lips as Mr. Snuggles arched his back and hissed.

”I swear, I shall find that dot and murder it!”

Sette looked at her cat for a few more moments before grabbing him off of the fence and hugging him against her breasts. “Just promise that you will stay with me.”

Mr. Snuggles calmed down and closed his eyes. ”For as long as I can.”

“Thank you.” Sette whispered to him.

_________________

Before anyone asks, I was asked to check up on the others back on Mid-Childa... And I realized that this was a good spot to stop.

Hope you enjoy it.

 

[Mega1987]

Speed Movie Reference... weeeee (that's before someone pointed to me the space balls part.)

Oh Vita... You shall not escape the Cosplay Duo. bwuhahahahahaha

we all live and die, Sette... just don't tempt Fate for try a darwin's award to hasten it...

 

[Filraen]

Very nice, it almost makes one forget Nanoha is taking advanced magic lessons from Lina and being worried sick about Vivio; and all the troubles the ViVid cast has is in Lina's homeworld.

(As sarcastic as it sounds, it's supposed to be a compliment)

 

[vic-vic]

Yay! The long-awaited udate!

I agree with Filaren: it's nice to see the reaction of Nakajimas. After all they lost not one sister but two, if we count Einhart. Hayate's part was much more light-hearted, though poor Vita - even on her happiest day she can't catch a breath.

 

[bhl88]

Poor Shamal. If Kuma teaches her how to drive.... Then the city would go up in flames xD

 

[Nanya]

Early Christmas present for all of you.

Just in case I don't update again in 2 days.

____________________________________

Back in the Red Universe...

Lyos grimaced as the healing spell worked his ears over. It had taken a bit over an hour to get back to Gyria to get to a healer. “Urgh, I think they're still ringing.” It might not have taken as long as it did, but he was having trouble with his balance for some reason. “Still, don't know why I couldn't stand up after that screaming...”

Nove rolled her eyes as she looked at him from across the room. “Because, you dummy, your sense of balance is located in the liquid in your ears behind your eardrums.” Well, it was more complex than that, seeing as equilibrium was made up the eyes, ears and sense of space working in perfect harmony, but explaining that would have taken a bit more time than Nove wanted to deal with. “Anyway, stay here, I need to go check on some stuff.” She walked past Lyos and patted his knee twice.

As she walked out of the room, she was greeted by Nila, still without her cloak, who held a finger up to her lips and pointed to a room. Looking in, Nove saw Arashi, Ixpellia, Vivio and Einhart all sleeping on one bed and sweat-dropped. “Shouldn't they be on different beds?”

Nila shrugged and motioned for Nove to follow her. “I do not know. But they are young and a nap will not hurt them.”

“I suppose not...” Nove conceded, not even bothering to ask where Pokota was, since they dropped him and Nila's torn cloak off at a tailor to get repaired while injuries were being taken care of. Nove frowned and grabbed Nila's shoulder and turned the other redhead to get a good look at her face. “...Oh my god...” Nove's eyes widened as something in her mind clicked.

Nila gave her a flat look. “I am not her, please do not call me her.”

“You're the reason those bandits freaked out when they saw me!” Nila blinked in surprise as Nove laughed to herself quietly. “Sorry, when I first arrived here there was this group of bandits that showed up and accused me of being someone else and freaked out before I had Vivio blow them up.”

“Ah,” Nila nodded and went over to a chair to sit down, “I do go bandit hunting once in awhile. My master once told me that bandits are good practice for using magic.”

“Who is your master?”

“Ah, I... Cannot tell you, my master wishes to remain a secret.”

Nove nodded and started walking towards the door. “Anyway, Nila, keep watch on them and don't let them wander off until I get back, okay?” Nila nodded as Nove walked outside.

“Now then...” Nove frowned and wondered why she didn't do this before. “I'm such a stupid idiot.”

“Not really.” Jail's voice came from her wrist where Jet Edge was wrapped around her arm. “You were focused on one thing, so the obvious answer didn't come to you until it nearly ran you over.”

Nove nodded and rubbed her eyes. “Mom is going to be so disappointed in me when she hears about this.” That was if she managed to survive the events on this planet, but she didn't want to think about that. “Damn, the Bureau was right to list this planet as a SS class threat, weren't they?”

“Seems so,” Jail nodded as Nove made her way through the streets, “so what are you going to do next? The safest bet would be to get to this Seiryuun that Lyos offered to take you to before.”

Uno popped up next to Jail and gave Nove a smirk. “I still say you should get laid if you don't want to die a virgin.”

Nove blushed and glared at Uno. “Will you STOP bringing that up!?”

Uno put her hand over her mouth and laughed at Nove's expression. “I'm just looking out for the well being of my baby sister, is that so wrong?”

“Urgh, I swear, if you were physical I'd smack you for that.” Nove grumbled as Uno laughed at her. “Ah!” Nove's eyes lit up as she finally came upon her target. “Just what I was looking for.” Now all she had to do was get some information and she would be set.

(–)

“So,” the Duchess turned around to glare at Duclis, “you took Zuuma and several minor demons, among other things, to deal with some interlopers, but you come back here, completely defeated?”

“I admit, it's not my best showing.” Duclis conceded to the young Duchess. “The Knight of the Aqua Lord is better than I thought, not to mention that one of them has the Sword of Light.”

The Duchess frowned as she processed that information. “The legendary sword that slew the Demon Beast Zannafar hundreds of years ago and freed Mipross Island from a Mazoku's curse, that Sword of Light?” Duclis nodded and she sighed before pointing her fan at Duclis, “and this is why we gather intelligence before rushing off into battle. Is there anything else you wish to discuss with me?”

“The bandit killer,” Zumma, who was leaning against a nearby wall with his arms crossed, spoke up, “is with them.”

“The bandit killer?” The Duchess raised an eyebrow in disbelief. “Oh please. She died years ago, it's probably someone who looks like her in the stories and using her reputation to appear scarier than she really is.” Both Zuuma and Duclis looked at her, shock on their faces. “Don't give me that look,” she huffed, “the bandit killer disappears when facing Hellmaster Phibrizzo, then somehow reappears to drive off Dark Star and disappears again, only to reappear to fight off a piece of Shabranigdo?” Putting her hands on her hips, she walked away from them. “Do you take me for a fool?”

“Where are you heading?” Duclis tilted his head in confusion.

“North, I plan on dealing with these interlopers personally with the new magic tanks.” She turned and scoffed at the two of them. “Since you two are so incompetent, I might as well do it.”

After the Duchess was gone, Zuuma stepped away from the wall. “When she puts it like that, it does seem unbelievable that woman is the Bandit Killer...” His eyes narrowed as his body trembled, “but I know what I saw, I know who I saw. Even if her hair is a little different, she is still the same person who did that to me.”

“Don't you have your other business to attend to?” Duclis asked as he walked out of the room.

“I have it taken care of,” Zuuma looked up as Melphis dropped in from the ceiling. “Speaking of taken care of...”

“Those...” Melphis panted hard, “humans are more dangerous than I thought.” The bird-like Mazoku looked up as Zuuma put a hand on its shoulder. “I should have no trouble with them the next time though.”

“Of course not.” Zuuma nodded to the creature. “Tell me something, does your master know that you survived?”

“I have yet to report to him, why?” Melphis wondered why it seemed like Zuuma was grinning at him. The Mazoku's eyes widened as it saw Zuuma pull an item out from his pocket. “That... You can't.”

“He can't,” Duclis intoned from behind the Mazoku, “but I am, and I will.”

The last thing Melphis felt was an energy blade stab him from behind. “Maaaassstttteeeerrrr Gram!” It screeched as Duclis slashed up, cutting the body and forcing the Mazoku's energy to start spilling out.

“Hurry it up, will you?” Duclis frowned at Zuuma as the pendant went to work. “I don't know where you got a pendant to do that.”

As the Mazoku's essence was absorbed by the pendant, Zuuma just grinned behind his mask. “Amazing what being a rich businessman on the side can uncover when you hire people to dig around ancient battlefields.”

Duclis nodded and walked away, leaving Melphis to be absorbed by that pendant. He never would have thought that an ancient holy relic from a thousand years ago was still able to work. 'Still...' This would give them quite the advantage in what was to come.

(–)

“Master?” Pawra looked at Gram, who frowned suddenly. “What's wrong?” Her tail twitched behind her.

“Nothing,” Gram shook his head, “just thought I felt something unusual is all.” Looking through his crystal ball, he grinned as he saw his pet project destroy yet another settlement. “I wonder,” Gram chuckled as he watched the titanic mountain golem go to work, “how much further will you go, dear?”

Pawra blinked as her master suddenly disappeared. “Mraw?” Shrugging, the catgirl Mazoku walked over towards the window before curling up in a sunbeam and taking a nap.

(–)

“Is this all you can do?” Gram grinned as he materialized behind Corona. The girl turned to glare at him. “Oh my my...” He chuckled as he looked at her. “I can't even tell you're wearing the Zennefa Armor.”

Corona's eyes flashed red and her white hair fluttered in the non-existent wind. “Did you come to talk, or die? I can probably kill you now.” She narrowed her eyes and held out Brunzel as Gram laughed at her. “Well?”

“Perhaps you can,” Gram nodded as her personal golem, Balmung, walked up behind her, “but that's not why I'm here. Surely you would love to have another Zannafar, wouldn't you?”

Corona crossed her arms over her chest and looked away. “I have Zanny, why do I need another one?”

Gram shrugged and turned to leave. “Fine, but your friends are going to leave you. Already they're moving to find a way home without you.” A smirk crossed his face when he felt Corona's interest spiking. “Surely you wouldn't want to let them... Leave without paying you back for what happened to your friend, right?”

“But you...” Corona started before Gram whirled on her, glaring as a powerful aura surrounded him.

“You still think that I killed your friend? Are you a fool? It was them! Had they been willing to turn over the information I was after, your friend would still be alive right now and you would have been able to live in peace.” His aura disappeared and he faded from sight. “Of course, if you don't care about your friend's death, then I have no more need for you.”

Corona took a step forward before clutching at her head and groaning. Images flashed through her mind of Rio being there, smiling at her, encouraging her on, helping her gain confidence in fighting arts even though Rio was much better than she was before the final images of Rio, with a hole in her stomach falling over a cliff and walking up to her and falling apart. “Wait... WAIT! COME BACK!”

“Yes?” Gram smirked as he formed right in front of her. “Did you have a change of heart?”

Corona panted as she fell to her knees. “Please... That other armor...”

”What are you doing? You have me!”

Corona turned her head to glare at the Zannafar, who suddenly found itself backing off several steps. “Quiet, Zanny...”

Gram chuckled and held up his hand, above it, another silver breastplate appeared in the air. “This is another completed Zannafar Armor. I wish to see what you can do with this one. Maybe with the two Zannafar, a Zennefa and your golems you could kill me, after you take care of your former friends.”

“What friends?” Corona's voice became soft as she held a hand up to touch the armor. “Friends don't let friends die. Friends don't let friends get captured. And friends...” Corona snapped her head up, “don't abandon friends!” She screamed, her eyes blazing with power as she worked over the Zannafar Armor to do her bidding.

Gram disappeared, grinning to himself the whole time. “Of course, little girl.” If he was right about her, he wouldn't need his master's previous toys, he could just bring this girl to his master and she could do what was needed.

(–)

Back in Gyria...

Nove nodded at the salesman, an older, fairly robust man who looked to be pretty fit despite his large belly. “Thank you for seeing me.”

The man smiled at her. “No problem, miss. So, how can I help you today?”

Nove jerked a thumb at the automobile she was standing next to. “I don't know much about these new things, but I would like to know more.”

The man nodded as he and Nove went over to the hood of a truck. “Now then, what is it you wish to know?”

“Well...” Nove clapped her hands together. “How do these things start? Do you need a crank or something?”

The man laughed and motioned for her to follow him to the cab. “A crank? That's silly. I know this technology is new and all that, but it's really simple.” He opened the door and revealed the inside, causing Nove to blink as she took it in. “As you can see, this is a two-seater, but anyway, you just take a key, like this,” he pulled a random key out of his pocket, “and you put it into this slot here.”

“I.. See...” Nove frowned and blinked as she saw something that looked like an arm brace or a pressure cuff to measure blood pressure. “What's that?”

“Ah! A little secret of these things we sell to wizards.” The man winked at her. “This is a magic cuff, it allows the wizard to use his or her own magic to make the truck, that's what this is called, go faster than it can normally.”

“Normally?” Nove raised an eyebrow as the man pointed to some glass in front of the wheel.

“Normally this can go, at most, as fast as a horse at top speed. However, with that magic cuff, you can go double that speed, depending on how much magic you're willing to give up.”

“I... See.” Nove nodded slowly and looked down at the pedals. “So, what do those two things do? And what's with those weird things?”

“Those are pedals, you use the long one to accelerate and the short one to brake.” Nove nodded in response, “as for those things, why they're what allows magical power to flow through this whole truck. The reason you need a key is so the magic flow can go unimpeded.”

“I... See...” Nove frowned. “These things use magic, but how does that work for someone who doesn't have magic?”

“Ah!' The man laughed and reached down to pull on a lever, causing the hood to pop up. “Come, I'll show you.”

As the man walked towards the hood, Nove's frown was deepening. 'This is way too coincidental, something's not right here.' As she walked around front to look at the truck's engine, her suspicions only deepened. “Are these moving parts?” The man nodded at her. “But how do they keep from grinding or locking up?”

“Magic.” The man winked at her. “See, all vehicles use this new magic engine, it draws upon magical energy to move, power itself up and everything else. It's a wonder that they came out as fast as they have. But they're expensive right now.”

“I see...” Nove scratched her chin, “but if they run on magic, wouldn't it be hard for wizards to fight with a bunch of these running around?”

“Not at all.” The man shook his head, before tilting it to the side as Nove leaned in to take a closer look at the engine. “Why, engines like these consume so little magic that a first year magic student would only have trouble casting something like a Flare Bit, which is so worthless of a spell no one uses it except to start small fires.”

The man had to admit, the redhead was very pleasing to look at, especially from behind.

Nove pushed herself back and raised an eyebrow at him. “Sounds like you were a wizard at one point yourself.”

“Guilty,” the man nodded as he gestured for Nove to step back so he could close the hood, “was an adventurer in my younger days. Only knew the basics and got into a fight that nearly got me killed. Ended up quitting and settling down here after that. Lucky for me, I've been able to live a decent life like this.”

“I see...” Nove's voice sounded a bit on the timid side, which was unusual for her, “so, how much is this?” She winced when she heard the price, “holy damn! I could probably buy a mansion for that price!”

The man shrugged, “probably, but we do offer rental services.”

“Do you mind if I look under the truck?”

The man shook his head and grinned as Nove got to her knees and slid forward before flipping over and looking at the underside of the truck. 'This makes no sense at all, how? How is this possible?'

After a few moments, she slid out from under the truck and blinked as the man offered her a hand up. “Is there anything else I can do for you?” The man smiled as Nove nodded at him.

“Yes, how does the engine keep powered if there's no magic around it?”

The man held up a finger and grinned at her. “There's magic runes engraved into the engine and moving parts. It keeps it from locking up and powers it up at the same time.”

“I see... So the key makes it so magic flows to the engine and powers the runes?” The man nodded at Nove's assertion.

“Yes! That's it exactly! The runes are rather ingenious! Someone made it so that they generate magic when in use, but absorb magic when not in use.” He shrugged at her disbelieving look. “Don't ask me, that's how it works.”

Nove was silent for a few moments. “Thank you, do you mind if I look around?”

“Of course not.” Nove nodded and walked off, leaving the man to grin as he stared at her retreating form. “Damn, if only I was twenty years younger.”

Nove twitched as her cyborg hearing picked that up. “Shit,” she grumbled, “does everyone have to ogle my ass or something?”

“Well, I don't know why not...” Uno spoke up and grinned at her. “Sein was always telling me how much she enjoyed groping your rear and breasts.”

Nove slapped herself in the face. “Sein gropes little girls who haven't reached puberty yet, if there were more guys around, she'd probably grope their asses and crotches too.”

“Nove...” Jail popped up, looking seriously at her. “Are you thinking what I'm thinking?”

“That these cars are way too similar to the cars we have on Mid-Childa?” Nove frowned as she looked at several more trucks and cars. “Yeah, this can't be a coincidence. Someone had to have been in our universe and came here and built these things. But the only one who could have done so is Mr. Zelgadis and I don't think he'd do this,” nor did she think he had enough skill to do this without years of training.

“Yes, it doesn't make much sense to me either.” Jail looked around as Nove moved towards what seemed to be a hybrid between a car and a pickup. “Are you going to do what I think you're going to do? And with a station wagon?”

“Doc, I'm a former terrorist, you taught me to do what I'm about to do.” Jail chuckled as Nove took a breath and closed her eyes. ”Hey! Nila, are you there?”

“Nove? Why are you contacting me?”

“Is Pokota there?”

“Yes, but what does...”

“Is Lyos okay?”

“Yes, but why are you...”

“Grab everyone and meet me in front of the healer's.”

“Nove, what are you doing?”

“Don't ask questions, just do it and be prepared to move.”

Nila was silent for several moments before sending a reply. ”I hope you know what you're doing.”

“Trust me, just get ready.”

“Very well. How long do you need?”

“I'll be there as soon as possible.” Nove cut the connection before jumping into the station wagon that was parked next to the street.

“Ah! Miss!” The man ran up to her and smiled. “Is that the one you want?”

Nove walked over to him and smiled as she slinked up next to his body, pressing herself against him. “Yeah, it is... And... I'm sorry for what I'm about to do.”

The man was gulping, he hadn't thought that the girl in front of him was a harlot, but damn if she didn't have a gorgeous body, he wouldn't mind some time with her. “And that is..?”

“This.” The next thing the man knew, Nove's hands slammed onto either side of his head, causing him to black out and fall to the ground in a heap. “Sorry about that.” Nove muttered as she got into the car and grabbed the wires. “If this is anything like the trucks back on Mid-Childa...” Nove muttered as she went to work with the wires, pulling a few out and after a few moments of fiddling with them. “Okay, I just hot wired a car the same way I'd do back on Mid-Childa, something is really weird.”

“You know, the longer you stay here the longer someone can stop you.” Uno pointed out as Nove slammed the door shut and slapped the magic cuff onto her arm. “But you don't...”

“I don't think it needs specific magic, my I.S. still gives off a magical signal, just not a common one, you know.” Nove countered as she put the station wagon into drive and took off, leaving the salesman knocked out.

(–)

Pokota, his ears sewn back together, frowned as he waited on Nila's head. “What are we waiting for?” Nila didn't have her cloak as it had been, as she had feared, totally unfixable.

Vivio was rubbing her eyes and yawning. “Still sleepy.” Even if she was a clone of Olivie, she still was young and needed sleep.

Ixpellia rubbed her eyes to get the sleep out of them. “I am surprised how...” She stopped talking as a car pulled up. “What the?”

“Nove?” Lyos opened the passenger side door as Nove motioned for them to get in. “What's...”

“I stole this station wagon and I think the guards are chasing me and we need to get out of here now!” Nove hissed with urgency. “Unless you want to be left behind, get in and be quiet!”

It took all of twenty seconds to get everyone inside. Vivio and Einhart took the back seat with Arashi sitting between them while Ixpellia and Nila hopped into the trunk area and sat down with Pokota still on Nila's head while Lyos got into the passenger side seat.

A moment later the car was peeling out of Gyria and heading South.

“Do you know where you're going?” Lyos asked her.

“South! I already found out that a road leads from here through Kalmaart and into Saillune before ending in the Coastal Alliance States, that's where you and Pokota were going, right?”

“Well, yes, but...” Lyos trailed off as Nove shook her head. “What's wrong?”

“All of our problems started when we ran into that Mazoku before we met you. If it was just one run-in, that would be one thing, but then he kept focusing on us and the attacks of that guy that beast man and that ninja guy are happening too often. I want to stop this so we can work on finding Corona and then getting back home.”

“You think they're in the Coastal Alliance?” Pokota leaned in close as he listened in on the conversation. “But that's crazy! There's lots of places here on the continent.”

“Well, crazy or not, it's what I think.” Nove sighed as she drove down the road. “All you guys get some rest,” she undid the magic cuff and put it down, “I can go at least three days before I need sleep.”

“Don't push yourself.” Lyos grumbled as he settled down before blinking as Nove squeezed his hand. “What?”

“I need you to stay awake when it gets dark. I need someone who can watch to make sure we don't hit anything while I focus on the road.”

Lyos raised an eyebrow and nodded, sure, it was hours from sunset, but she made a point. “Mind if I sleep until then?”

“Sure.”

 

[vic-vic]

Another update of good story. Hm, so Nove remembered that it's not something new for her, breaking laws, and now she decide to wento to counteroffence. But now she had Duchees and her armored company as upcoming adversaries, it would be great read.

Though poor Corona, seems that now she complitely off her rockers.

 

[Mega1987]

damn.....

Nove pulls of a GTA.

then we got more PMMM mind raping level for Corona....

and I want more of it!!!!!

 

[Nanya]

A few hours later, Arashi woke up from his nap and blinked, before nearly screaming loudly at what he saw. Nearly because a hand snapped around and slapped over his mouth. “MMMPH!?”

“Calm.” Nila said softly as she kept Arashi from waking Einhart, Vivio and Ixpellia up from their naps. “It is surprising, but you do not need to scream.” She held her hand over his mouth as he nodded and waited until he relaxed. “Better?”

“Yeah.” Arashi sighed as he looked down. Vivio using his chest as a pillow didn't really surprise him, she sometimes did that when they were worn out at home. Einhart using his shoulder as a pillow was surprising, he didn't think she would do that. Well, that and she apparently drooled in her sleep, his shoulder was all wet by now. But even that paled in comparison to Ixpellia, who had, sometime in the past few hours, crawled out of the way back and was laying across his, Einhart's and Vivio's laps, sound asleep. “When did...”

“For the past hour.” Nove spoke up softly as she tried to stay on the road. “Didn't you know that's what happens to anyone who sleeps in the middle seat of a car?” Arashi shook his head and Nove smirked. “Get used to it if you wanna sit in the middle. Happens to me all the time.” Granted, it was Aston and Cecilia that tended to that, though Subaru would sometimes join in, and considering how grabby and clingy the blue haired girl was, it made for a... Very uncomfortable ride some times.

“Urgh, getting hungry.” Pokota grumbled as he leaned over the seat. “Are we near a village or something?”

“It is getting late.” Lyos spoke up as he saw the sun starting to descend past the mountains to the West. “Well, even if we wanted to eat, we'd have to find something to kill. And, honestly, Nove, I could use a break myself, sitting for hours doesn't suit me well, my body's cramping up.”

“Yeah, we'll stretch in a few minutes, seems there's a village just outside of your eyesight.” Nove smirked when Lyos confirmed he couldn't see anything head of them. “I've got pretty good eyes.”

“Too bad you could never win any stealth games.”

Nove twitched as the memories came back to her. “Un-nee, I told you, Sein cheats. I don't have x-ray vision, you know, and she can meld with walls easily.”

Uno covered her mouth as she tried to hold back her laughter. “Sein, hide and seek champion three years running now.”

“Yes, but if there is a village, there should be a place to eat.” Nila spoke up softly. “Shall we stop there for the night?”

“You speak a lot more without the hood on.” Pokota grumbled as Nila shrugged. “Seriously, at first I didn't even know if you could talk, how the hell did Lyos ever communicate with you?”

“I've worked with her a lot in the past, Pokota.” Lyos rolled his shoulders, “mostly on treasure hunts, raids or some random quest that has us end up in the same area for some reason or another.”

Nila shrugged as she moved to sit up on her knees. “I have my secrets, I prefer not to speak if I do not need to.” Plus she found most people to be annoying and not worth talking to most of the time.

“Understandable, anyway, Arashi, wanna wake the girls up? We'll be at the village soon and we can get some food.”

“Where's the food?” Vivio suddenly sat up, looking around. She blushed as Arashi, Pokota and Nila gave her a funny look. “What? Whenever someone says food, it's usually time for dinner.” Plus she was getting hungry now that she thought about it.

“Even sis doesn't jump up that fast when someone says food,” Arashi deadpanned, “and she eats a lot.” Vivio grumbled but didn't try to refute it, Nanoha-mama did eat a lot at times.

“Mughl...” Ixpellia tried to speak as she rolled over and blinked while looking up. “Why is my bed moving?” She finally got out after several attempts at talking. Rubbing her eyes, she moved until she was sitting on Arashi's lap. “Where are we?”

“Not far from a village, you'll be able to get out and stretch.”

Ixpellia nodded, still looking sleepy before leaning back against Arashi and falling asleep again.

Arashi just twitched as Vivio giggled at him. It wasn't fair, even if Ixy didn't weigh that much, her hip bone was digging into his leg and he could have sworn it was starting to fall asleep. He looked at Einhart when she suddenly grabbed him and squeezed his arm in her sleep. “Numblum.”

Vivio giggled as Arashi groaned and latched onto his arm. “Oh please, Arashi-sama, be gentle to us innocent maidens.” Arashi would have given her a dirty look if Ixpellia didn't roll slightly and practically bury her face into his neck as she dozed off.

“Stop watching romantic comedies, Vivio.” Nove shot back at her, “they're rotting your brain.” Vivio just stuck her tongue out in response.

Behind them, Nila fought the urge to laugh as she rolled over so she was sitting down with her legs outstretched and her back against the seat.

(–)

Looking at her latest Zannafar, Corona nodded, sure, she had to wipe out all the fish in a nearby lake, there had even been a few wolves that got caught up in fueling the suit, and what did she care about those villagers for? They attacked her first! Just because she had her first Zannafar and golems trash the town, was that any reason to try and kill her with arrows and pitch forks?

She had to admit, this one was... A bit weird, even to her. “Kind of looks like that King Ghidorah from that movie I saw.” Well, other than it looked like it was made out of water and it had no wings, but it had three heads. “Hmm, you need a name, I can't call you Zanny, I have Zanny and Zenny, you need a name though.” Frowning, she closed her eyes and tried to think of a name. “Grammy? No, stupid. Dammy?”

”Bah!” The wolf Zannafar spoke up as he walked forward. ”This thing isn't even a match for me, much less... WOAH!” Zannafar growled as he jumped back from one of the heads as it turned to attack him. ”You really want to die!?”

The three-headed Zannafar let out a loud scream and stomped towards the other one.

“Zanny! Zilla! No fighting!” Corona yelled, her eyes glowing as both Zannafar stopped, shuddered and backed off from one another. “Now, let's go!”

”Where?”

Corona opened her mouth, before blinking and sitting down. “...I have no idea.” Wasn't the answer supposed to come to her naturally? Where would she go from here? Where was here? A loud stomp distracted her thoughts and she looked up to see Balmung pointing to the South. “Wait... We came from there, right?” The golem nodded as Corona jumped onto its hand before she was put on its back. “Well then...”

Before she could speak more, a loud grumbling sound was heard from her stomach and she pouted. “I need food.” Narrowing her eyes, Corona motioned for Balmung to take her to the destroyed village. “First food, then revenge!” After that, she would probably take a nap or something, she wasn't sure.

(–)

As he got out of the car, Arashi stretched and groaned as he felt his muscles, as tight as they were, rebelling with the act. “Finally!” Taking a step forward, he found himself flat on his face and groaned in dismay. “Stupid... Sleeping... Feet.”

“I'm sorry.” Einhart said she she helped him up. “I didn't mean to...” The girl was blushing, both because she couldn't believe she drooled all over him in her sleep, and because she had been sleeping against him for so long.

“I, too, wish to apologize.” Ixpellia helped Arashi to his feet. “I was more exhausted than I thought and you were comfortable.” Arashi nodded as they helped him walk feeling back into his legs and feet.

Vivio pouted as Pokota was using her head as rest. “Can't you fly?”

“Yeah, but it's easier to just ride on people's heads.” Pokota grinned as he leaned over and looked Vivio in the eye. “Besides, it's only for a couple of minutes, so relax.”

Nila nodded to Lyos as he helped her out of the car before grabbing Banisher off the floor of the car. “You could leave it.”

“Even if I could call it from anywhere, I feel almost naked without it.” Lyos rolled his eyes as Nove killed the engine and stepped out the car. “Anyway, let's get some food and hope they have a place to sleep.”

“Sounds good.” Nove stretched and winced as her back popped. “Okay, now I remember why I don't like driving for hours at a time.” She shook her head and rubbed her eyes. “Forgot about highway hypnosis.”

“Huh?” Nila and Lyos asked in confusion.

Nove closed her eyes and waved her hand as she rubbed her eyes. “It's a symptom of driving too much, you tend to focus too much on the road and you end up up either being lulled to sleep or black out.”

“...That doesn't sound safe.” Lyos muttered, this girl was driving? The way she was talking, it sounded like they were lucky to be alive at that moment.

“It's not, but you don't know how to drive, do you?” Both Nila and Lyos shook their heads. “Thought so.” Nove rubbed her eyes again. “Besides, I can just ignore it if I'm in Combat Cyborg mode.”

“...Combat what?” Lyos asked, causing Nove to freeze as she realized what she said. “What's that?”

“...Just think of it as a state of mind where I can focus.” Both Nila and Lyos nodded and Nove sighed in relief. Explaining how she wasn't completely human would have been a pain.

“Come on!” Vivio yelled back at the three of them. “We're hungry!”

“Coming!” Nove yelled as she ran to catch up with them.

Nila bit her lip and looked at Lyos. “Do you believe that?”

Lyos shrugged and shouldered his blade. “Even if she was lying, she has her reasons, if it keeps her from sending us off a cliff, I won't complain.' Besides, it didn't seem like it was a bad thing, even if it sounded weird.

 

[Mega1987]

damn....

I got a sinking feeling that SHIT will meet FAN....

seriously...

followed by FUBAR and Murphy....

 

[Nanya]

Before anyone asks, I've had this next part planned for some time actually.

Also, Happy New Years.

_______________________________________________________________________

Hours later, Nove found herself in the hotel room that she was sharing with Nila. She was just grateful that there were three spare rooms available. If this was some sort of trashy and cheap novel or piece of fiction, she honestly would have expected something along the lines of a honeymoon suite as the only room available. After making sure that the car was secure, Nove had skipped out on a bath, stating she just wanted to go to bed.

But that had been awhile ago and she was still no closer to getting to sleep. “Urgh, this sucks.”

“I could find a few music files to play.” Jail spoke up from the dresser. “I think I could find something here...”

“Don't bother.” Nove grumbled as she threw her arm over her eyes to try and get some rest. “Most of the stuff is rock, pop music or a variant of it.”

“What about this stuff?” Jail held a file in his hand and opened it up. “Huh, unnamed music, I wonder...”

Nove groaned as she heard the music coming out of her device. “Okay, I think I'm going to need to talk to Yuuno if I get home about his device hacking into other devices and leaving cheesy porn music behind.”

“And just how do you know that it's porn music?” Uno raised an eyebrow as Nove stiffened before her face turned as red as her hair. “My sweet, innocent little sister, leave her alone for a little bit and she's lookiing at porn.” Uno wiped a fake tear from her eyes. “They grow up so fast these days, don't they?”

Nove groaned and thumped her head on the bed several times. Sometimes she wondered if Uno's teasing was natural or exaggerated from the programming. “Tell me something, doc, will we make it?”

Jail was silent for several minutes as he thought about the question. “Will we survive, be sane or in one piece?”

“Yes.” Nove lifted her arm to look at him. "I lost Rio, Corona's missing... I don't... How can...”

“I don't know, Nove.” Jail shook his head. “I honestly don't know. Even if you could get away, I don't know how long it would be for, you and the others caught this Mazoku's attention, and you have other things to worry about too.” He sighed as Nove groaned and rolled over to face away from him. Jail was about to speak up when there was a knocking on the door. “Come in!”

“Nila, you didn't need to knock, it's not like I have anything you haven't seen before.” Nove muttered as she looked at the wall and tried to find a way to get her mind to relax.

“Maybe, but I don't think you'd want me to see you without clothes on.” A male voice spoke up and Nove rolled over and sat up, staring as Lyos walked into her room. “Nila kind of forced me to come in here. So, you seemed pretty distracted when we were eating.” At least that's what Nila had told him, he barely noticed, though, if he thought back on it, she had been rather quiet the last few days.

“I'm just...” Nove put her hand to her head and rubbed it. “I don't know.”

“Oh?” Lyos put his sword up against the wall and walked over to the bed when she motioned for him to sit near her. “Something getting to you?”

“I don't...” Nove groaned and slapped her forehead. “I'm so fucking sick of this! I'm scared that something bad happened to Corona, I had to watch Rio die in front of me, I'm trying to keep from freaking out and I have to keep Vivio, Einhart, Arashi and Ixy alive, but I've done a bang up job of that, haven't I?” Nove was punctuating each point with various arm thrusts and snarls. “Look at me. I was supposed to be able to fight against Mazoku, I was trained to do so, and I can't do a goddammed thing! What's the point?! Now there's an assassin after all of us, some weird cat person and knowing my luck, the next time we get into a fight, another one of those kids are going to get mangled and then I'll probably just...”

“Calm down.” Lyos grabbed her shoulder and she looked at him, anger and confusion in her eyes. “You've done well so far, most people would have been dead already. I've actually done some bodyguard missions in the past that ended up with a lot more people dead than what you've had so far.”

“I'm just...” Nove hugged herself. “Scared, okay?” Lyos looked at her in shock as she laughed to herself. “Yeah, look at me, big, bad Nove, someone who fought the Ace of Aces head on is scared of what's happening.” The redhead trembled while laughing. “Isn't it funny? I mean, I committed terrorism on Mid-Childa, I helped attack several people, I was even part of an attack that ended up with my sister getting kidnapped and one of her superior officers getting hurt, but this...”

Lyos was silent as he looked at her trembling and fighting the urge to cry. “More than what you're used to?” Nove nodded and sniffled. Lyos awkwardly placed an arm around her shoulder and was surprised when Nove turned and pressed herself against him. “Even around here, dealing with Mazoku can be harsh.” He was glad that there was that truce going on right now. Mazoku mostly just caused mischief and grief right now, though he had no doubt if any rumor of Shabranigdo being able to return again that most of those same Mazoku would turn vicious and start civil wars or attack major kingdoms again just because they could.

Nove trembled and looked up at him. “You handle it well, don't you?”

Lyos shrugged, he didn't think he handled much well. “I try my best.”

“Better than me, I bet.” Nove grumbled softly. What more could she do? It wasn't like she had access to stuff like that Dragon Slave that Pokota could use. She looked at Lyos and bit her lips as he said her name. “Lyos...” She surprised him by pulling him down on top of her. “Just shut up, please? I...”

“Are you sure?” Nove blushed hard but nodded. “Alright then.”

(–)

The next morning...

Vivio looked at Nove in confusion as the redhead got the car started. “...Is it me, or does Nove seem more relaxed than usual?”

Sitting next to her, Arashi shook his head. “No, seems that way to me too.” Ixpellia, on Arashi's other side, nodded, though from the way Nove was acting, plus the look that was on Lyos' face, she had a pretty good idea as to what happened last night.

Behind them, Nila just smirked as the car roared to life. 'I love it when a plan comes together.'

“Alright, let's go!” Nove proclaimed as the car started to take off. After last night, she did feel a lot better.

“So, just a straight shot South from here should take us to the Coastal Alliance states.” Lyos pointed out as they pulled out of the village and onto the main road.

Nove nodded, glad to get the show on the road again.

(–)

Near the Northern boarder of the Coastal Alliance states, the Duchess narrowed her eyes as she ordered the tanks and her troops to stop. Moving any further North could be seen as an act of aggression and she didn't need to deal with that. “We'll wait here.” There was a rocky outcropping just to the North, but otherwise everything was flat around them. “Move the panzer tanks apart, animal tanks get into spear formation, troops, be ready to move on anyone who comes this way.”

“Yes ma'am!”

“I will not fail like those fools did.” The Duchess muttered darkly as she turned to wait.

 

[Rising Dragon]

Blood That Flows: now with enough sex to make up for the utter lack of intimacy in the Nanoha canon.

 

[vic-vic]

I think there is nothing bad for Nanoha's cast to have healthy relationships. And upcoming meeting with Duchess would be intersting to read.

 

[Nanya]

“Dammit...” Nove grumbled as she pulled the car off the road and parked it. “Everyone get out.”

“Huh?” Arashi blinked as he, Vivio and Ixpellia were jostled awake. Some people might think they were sleeping too much, but if there wasn't anything to distract them, they might as well sleep. “What's going on?”

“Seems we got a blockade ahead.” Nove answered as she got the car to turn off. Getting out of the car, she stretched and groaned as she felt her muscles stretch with the motion. “I'm not in the mood to let the car get destroyed by what's ahead anyway.”

Lyos pulled his sword out of the backseat and shouldered it. “And what are we facing?”

“Looks like two large tanks, some of those weird animal tanks from before and a bunch of soldiers.” Nove shook her head and rubbed her eyes. “Anyway...”

“More magic tanks?” Pokota grimaced, wondering why his country had to have that technology in the first place. “Shouldn't be too hard, but what about those new ones?”

“I'm calling them tanks, but they're more like heavily armored boxes on treads.” Everyone looked at her in confusion. “You'll see when we get there.”

(–)

Corona let out a burp as she finished the food that remained in the village. “That was good, a bit bland, but then again, everything exploded!” She giggled as she looked around the remains of the small village. “Oh wow!” Her eyes lit up as she saw a large green gem in the middle of the room. As she got closer, she realized it wasn't just green, but it had a yellow tint, making it seem like the colors blended together perfectly. “So pretty...”

A sudden image of Rio flashed through her head and she suddenly grabbed her head and took a step back, groaning in pain. “No...” Tears welled up in her eyes as she realized what she was thinking of. “No... NO!” Screaming in pain and suffering, Corona started grabbing random objects and throwing them around. “NO!”

Trembling with rage as she walked out of the remains of the house, she looked at Balmung. “Zanny, Zenny, Balmung! Get on Jörmungandr!”

”What now?” The wolf Zannafar grumbled as he followed Corona and the Hydra Zannafar towards the mountain sized Golem.

Corona grinned as her eyes glowed scarlet. “They're all going to pay.” Her voice was crazed as Balmung lifted her up and flew upwards towards the chest while the Zannafars ascended towards the upper parts of the knees.

(–)

Gram chuckled as he watched Corona. “Her development is coming along nicely, wouldn't you say, Pawra?”

“Mraw?” The catgirl Mazoku tilted her head. “I guess, I mean, if she was being groomed to be turned into a Mazoku, she's doing okay...”

Gram chuckled at the catgirl. “She's a young child, who has pure Black magic poured into her, plus...” He grinned as he held up a ring that matched the one that Corona was wearing. “My own personal twist.”

“Oooh!” Pawra jumped up while clapping, her tail swished behind her in excitement. “Can we... Can we keep this one before breaking her?”

“I wonder how she'll react when she realizes that she killed her former friends for nothing.” The comment was casual, but the sheer malice in the room was anything but.

“Master Gram, do you need that...” Pawra trailed off as Gram shook his head and smirked while leaning forward. “So, then why?”

“It amuses me, that's all.”

(–)

Back at the Coastal Alliance boarder...

“You weren't kidding when you said that it was a giant armored box.” Lyos muttered as he and Nove looked over the rocky outcropping to see the battlefield. The non-animal tanks looked like two square boxes stacked on top of one another, except for the front, which reminded Lyos of an exaggerated arrowhead for some reason. “What's with those weird wheels?”

“Treads.” Nove frowned as she took a closer look. “This is just absurd.”

“Looks like you're right, Nove.” Uno spoke up as Nove and Lyos slid back to sit against the rock. “The technology is too similar to ours.”

Nove nodded, while it was nice to see technological advancement, this was way too fast in her opinion. “So, I've never been much for planning how to fight this situation, any suggestions?”

“Blow them all up!” Vivio, in her adult mode, thrust her fist into the air. “That way they can't fight back.”

“I agree.” Nila nodded to the blonde and then looked at the group. “Blowing them up would be the quickest way.” She looked at Pokota and a thought came to her. “In fact, Pokota, how about you blow them up from here?”

Pokota grinned and flew over to the rocky outcropping, revealing himself to the Duchess below. “Hey you!” Behind him, Nove slapped her forehead. “For robbing Taforashia, I'm going to make you pay!”

Down below, the Duchess frowned, she knew he was yelling, but she couldn't hear what he was saying. “Get into formation everyone!” She snapped her fan closed and narrowed her eyes as she saw the rabbit doing something. “Magic Tanks, defensive grid, now!”

“Ma'am!”

“Let's see what you've got, rabbit.”

Up on the ridge, Pokota grinned as he chanted. 'This will smash them but good.' He thought to himself.

”Darkness Beyond Twilight,
Crimson Beyond Blood That Flows,
Buried in the Stream of Time,
Is Where Your Power Grows.
I Pledge Myself to Darkness
Against the Foes that Stand
Against the Might Gift Bestowed
In my Unworthy Hand.
Let the fools who stand before us be destroyed
By the Power You and I possess!”

Pokota was chuckling as he thrust his rabbit ears forward, a red sphere of total destruction rushing outwards from his ear-palms as he did so. “DRAGON SLAVE!”

Watching the red sphere of destruction descend on her, the Duchess merely closed her eyes before pointing her fan at one of the tanks. “Increase the defenses, now!”

“Ma'am!”

“Activate the diffusion... Now!” A small smirk came to her face as her soldiers complied with their order. She resisted the urge to laugh, though just barely, this would be... Fun.

Pokota watched in shock as his Dragon Slave slammed into some sort of wall and exploded violently. “WHAT?!” There was no way, nothing could withstand a Dragon Slave, nothing! Even fortified cities exploded when hit with a Dragon Slave, how could something stop it out here in the middle of nowhere?

“Well that's... Disheartening.” Lyos muttered, he had seen it, he couldn't believe it. “What the hell?” He openly gawked as the explosion faded and the dirt and dust cleared to reveal a completely unhurt Duchess. “That's total bullshit!”

“So... Who's up for surrendering?” Pokota turned to look at the others as he asked that question.

Jail, meanwhile, was frowning as he looked at the barrier. One of the things he did like about being a program at that moment was the ability to see through things like explosions and zoom in on what he was interested in. “Vivio, dear,” the blonde looked down at Nove's foot where Jail's hologram was, “would you be a dear and fire a magic stream at the lady down there?”

“What good would that do?” Vivio asked and looked back at the woman between the tanks as she was turning away to say something to her troops. “Even the Dragon Slave didn't do anything.”

“I know, that's why I want you to fire a beam into it, I need to take another look and explosion doesn't last long enough for me to know what happened.” Jail looked up and smirked at the girl. “Unless you want to just give up and hope they don't kill us.”

Growling, Vivio held up her hand and a multi-colored orb formed in the palm of her hand. “Fine! Sacred Cluster!” Thrusting her palm forward, she watched as the orb shattered into fragments, each one soaring towards the barrier, shattering as it connected with it. “You happy?”

“Interesting...” Jail muttered as he continued to watch the barrage. “Diffusion and absorbtion, I see now.”

“Huh?” Nove looked down at him. “What do you see?”

Jail chuckled at the confused looks he was getting. “Well, she's following the laws of thermodynamics, energy, especially that of magic, just can't go away, the shield that's surrounding her seems to disperse magical energy as it gets close, similar to an AMF, but anything that doesn't just scatter hits a barrier that seems to absorb energy and send it somewhere, probably those two tanks to the side.”

“AMF?” Lyos scratched his head. “But, how does that work? Even major protection spells can't fully stop a Dragon Slave.”

“Well, think of the diffusion that happens as a thick forest and arrows are shot into the forest, trying to hit someone that ran in, most of them aren't going to get through, but some can, the barrier, however, is like a magnet, pulling the arrows away from the target, in this case, the spell just crashes because it runs out of energy.”

“But even an AMF can't stop a really strong spell.” Nove pointed out, “But wait, the AMS did, but that was massively amplified by a Unison Device.”

Jail chuckled at the question, “yes, but what if the energy that was powering the spells was sent to the Gadget Drones to further power the AMF?” Nove's eyes widened as she realized what he was talking about. “Besides, I'm not surprised this happened.”

“How are you not?” Nila frowned as the troops started to move forward. “They come.”

Jail smirked at the Sorceress. “Simple, the magi-tech cars and trucks that people use to travel use the same principle, just on a smaller scale.”

“Well...” Lyos muttered as he unsheathed his sword, “that's just fun.”

________________________

Really, you'd think I had this planned or something, huh?