Mao grimaced as she ducked around behind a corner and a wolf-like thing leaped past her into the empty street ahead of her. She emptied the remains of her clip into the creature and reloaded as she stepped around the corner to see another monster pushing its way forward.
Out of another alley further along the street, two of her troopers dodged out, pursued by a small swarm of insects that glowed in the night like fireflies but looked more like wasps. Her eyes widened briefly, and she realized that she didn't have anything to handle insects.
Which was when a cloud of smoke whipped through the area, wrapping about the mutated insects and presenting itself as a sort of thick and insubstantial wall between the humans and the animals.
Glancing briefly over her shoulder, Mao looked to see the form of Mara reaching out toward them, looking grim as she stood beside Persephone.
"We need to get more organized," Mao called back. "There's a lot of more of these things than I expected."
As she spoke, the monster she'd noted earlier was trying to push through the thick smoke and choking as it did so. Mao took a moment to gather its position in the thickest part of the smoke, which seemed to be clumping around the creature, and then casually shot a few pistol rounds into its head.
"The entire forest will be cursed," Persephone noted. "There will be thousands of these monsters crafted out of the adult animals of the forest. It will take decades before it is safe for casual travel and more normal animals return to the area."
In the background, the sound of a helicopter gunship landing washed over the scene for the moment, the gunner stepping out quickly and moving up toward Mao.
"Sergeant Major," he said, snapping a brief salute. "These beasts seem to be falling back into the trees, but we've confirmed they're on all sides of this village."
Mao nodded, remembering that the village was in the middle of the hilly forest from what she'd seen on the pass over. She looked over to one of the buildings she'd just been taking refuge behind and proceeded to climb up to the top of the roof.
It was a much easier ascension than she'd expected as she ricocheted from one building's wall to the other until she was up top at a place where she could see the fighting going on.
Naiki was finishing off a fight with one of those dragon creatures along with two other Rakshasha. Unfortunately, the Demon AS had been hidden in the trees and was now swarming with these mutated animals and not in an easy place to reach.
Elsewhere, she could see a one-armed woman rather casually tossing about tornadoes and smashing monsters with her rugbeater. Another woman was elsewhere finishing off the stragglers of the small horde of creatures with a ribbon that seemed to be on fire.
*****
Add to that the handful of Rakshasha and her own squad of troops, and she had a fairly good idea of what they had available. And it wasn't all that much.
"So, what would our Captain do in a situation like this?" she wondered.
"The primary benefits of Project Ainur is that a recipient Whispered doesn't have to worry about losing their individuality to Resonance ever again," Tessa explained. "The modifications basically act like a psychic filter, letting some information through, but keeping some out."
"You've given yourself a firewall," the Intelligence divisions director noted. "And does this now limit your ability to develop technologies."
Tessa smiled.
"Not at all," she said.
*****
For a moment, she was distracted by a flitting awareness of what was happening where Naiki and Mao were. More specifically, she was finding herself idly taking in the tactical situation.
Coming back down from the building with a single leap, landing in a roll that she'd performed many times over, Mao moved over to join Mara and Persephone.
"Okay, I've got both helicopters, one's probably running low on fuel right now, and seven soldiers still fit for combat," Mao noted. "I think I saw five Demons in what I guess is a soldier's uniform."
"That's about what we have on hand," Mara noted.
"And Naiki along with two human martial artists I saw," Mao said.
"And approximately thirty thousand assorted Nidhog civilians and humans mixed," Persephone noted idly. "Most of whom are injured in minor to severe manners."
"These things seem to be showing some thought," Mao said.
"Yes," Persephone said. "I would assume that means that my daughter is present somewhere and observing."
Mao's eyes widened.
"Okay, so...Domains and Realms," she asked.
*****
"Actually," Tessa said. "I've found it much easier to find the information I want when I want it without extraneous information. I suppose this limits the chances for a spontaneous realization, but it makes the ability more reliable."
"Can you give any specific example of how this would be an improvement," one of the skeptics asked.
"Imagine for a moment," Tessa noted. "A Whispered finding herself in a sort of tactical situation where an enemy is behaving uncharacteristically. If they wanted, they would be able to access my ability to analyze the tactics and strategies."
"So they would let you take over for a moment?" someone asked.
"Maybe in the past," Tessa said. "In this case it would be more like receiving an electronic report and being able to read it on the spot. What they would do with that information would be dependent on the character of the person involved. I tend to focus rather on avoidance of necessary conflict, for instance, and some people are a bit more...combative."
Ranma looked at her as she sensed something behind the woman's tone of voice. As if she weren't exactly speaking in hypotheticals.
*****
Hecate smiled as she looked below at the mass of Demons, a pleasant bonus to this attack, and humans gather in the center of town, trying to consolidate their lines against her beasts. Just like she'd expect of the average group of fodder given a bit of breathing room.
There wouldn't be enough Rakshasha down their to really stand up to what she was bringing, and there would be even fewer humans capable of doing anything. The Demons wouldn't be able to escape with Nidhog down, being unable to return to Nifelheim and unable to bounce off the dimensional barriers to do a long distance teleport.
No they were stuck where they were.
The sheer numbers of Demons and traitor-Gods had to explain why the first wave was so unsuccessful at getting anything done. Still, this would be a massacre, perhaps she would even step down herself to engage in the slaughter first hand.
With a self-satisfied smirk on her face she gave the mental command to her beasts to charge forward and she stretched out her fingers, adjusting the grip on the artifact blade in her hand.
*****
"There has to be another way," one of the villagers was saying.
"Yeah," Mao noted. "We can all get eaten by monsters. It's just stuff, you can get it back."
"We shall be on hand to help rebuild," Belldandy promised.
"Everybody keep their head down," Mao called out to the large crowd of civilians over a loudspeaker. "This is going to get dicey."
Mara glanced over toward Mao and smiled.
"I have to say," she said. "I like this plan."
"Of course you do," Kurumi noted irritably. "Things going boom is a Demon's stock in trade isn't it?"
"I think there are examples of that breed in all three species," Persephone noted.
*****
Hecate was at the lead of the newest wave of monsters, several of her stolen relics equipped and ready for a fight that she was sure was beneath her notice.
She turned a corner and looked to see a horde of humans and Demons mixed together and staring fearfully at the monsters swarming in from all directions.
And then, in an instant, practically the entire group in front of her vanished in a massive cloud of smoke.
Hecate blinked in confusion and surprise as it seemed that every demon present teleported away from the town, taking the humans with them, despite her early assertion that they couldn't teleport far under current circumstances.
She barely had half a second to notice that a handful of individual who'd been around the edges remained behind when explosions started ripping through the town around her.
The first few were probably standard explosives, but then it went on like dominoes. She watched as a small plastic device nearby her erupted into fire and force, wrapping around her as she raised the sword in her hand to ward off the attack.
Even as the artifact pushed the mundane explosion around her however, she saw the force of the explosion bend downward into the ground, seeking out the gas mains which erupted into a tumultuous wall of fire that came in an overwhelming flow over her beasts.
The smoke and shrapnel flew and twisted in the air with lethal accuracy that she herself was hard pressed to push off and keep from inflicting some form of serious injury on her.
Meanwhile those animals that weren't being ripped to pieces by the shrapnel, burned by the fire, choked by smoke or otherwise torn apart, were finding themselves seized with sudden and crippling pain.
"Mother," she muttered with narrowed eyes as the display ended.
She watched as the cleared slightly, being held above for further use, and took in who was left facing her.
Five Demons and one traitor-God that she recognized as Nifelheim residents. Two of them were category two, but the rest were category three. She took a moment to consider their Realms and the God's Domain.
Traps. Ash. Imbalance. Illusion. Debris. And the God's Domain was Conflict.
And with them two other Demons she hadn't expected to see.
Mara, 1st Category Demoness of Smoke and Naiki Satomi, whose Realm she wasn't familiar with yet.
Then she noticed her mother, Queen of the Dead, the Iron Queen. Beside her was Urd, Goddess of Fate, 2nd Category only as a formality. She had the skill and power of a 1st Category, only her denial of the promotion kept the added benefits of a 1st Category out her hands.
Beside them were two powerful sources of human Chi, sisters by their auras. One of them a cripple.
Then there were seven humans led by an eighth that suddenly took in all her vision.
The human at the head of their little band had facial marks like those of the Gods and Demons, and yet she had no trace of either species's blood. The aura that she had showed that the marks were not faked.
Humans had discovered the next step.
As the small group moved in around her, she readied her sword and scanned about.
"Daughter," Persephone said. "I urge you to surrender and face judgment for what you've done."
"In case you haven't noticed, Mother," Hecate said. "I'm barely scratched by your little trap here. I'm wielding Durandal and wearing Anansi's cloak. These aren't the only relics I have on hand."
Her eyes drifted toward Mao as the soldier took up a position of cover supporting the martial artists and Demons moving to surround her.
"Yeah, that's right," Mao said. "Go ahead and stare Flipper."
"What did you just call me?" Hecate asked irritably.
"Flipper," Naiki said harshly. "And I'd rather you didn't surrender. That way I can take your head to my mother."
"Where'd you take the rest of the filth?" Hecate demanded, ignoring Naiki deliberately.
"They've been gone about thirty minutes," Urd said. "Seems like some of the humans found one of the hidden worlds."
Hecate's mouth twitched, she hadn't even considered a dimensional teleportation to somewhere other than the three main worlds.
"It is time to surrender," Persephone noted again.
Slowly she shook her head and smiled.
"I have more six hundred thousand years of experience as a warrior," she noted. "Einherjar, Angel of Wrath, Eye of Ra. I've been the foremost of all such things. And I have not allowed myself to die and be reborn more than once. What do you think you can take me with?"
She looked toward her mother and Urd.
"A bureaucrat and a slacker?" she asked before turning to Mara. "An incompetent Faustian who couldn't perform as a Shadow and five Rakshasha recruits?"
Then she looked toward Mao, Natsume and Kurumi.
"A freak upstart, a cripple and a mortal hero with a bevy of warriors?" she asked.
Then looked toward Naiki.
"And the worthless half-breed trash of a pathetic soul too weak to defend themselves?" she asked.
"Face it, you have nothing to truly threaten me with," Hecate sneered.
And that's when Naiki rushed in, breaking their formation to start the attack. Spinning as she came in, black lines trailed behind her as she called on the Yamasen to call forth crescent blades launching out ahead of her.
Hecate smirked as she slashed outward with Durandal in her hand, the divinely sharp blade slicing through the pishogue vacuum blades so that they dissipated harmlessly. Naiki came in behind, a wavering black blade of energy in one hand as she tried to copy what she'd seen Ryuu using earlier.
The Harpe slashed out, destroying the fragile blade and just barely passing by Naiki as she ducked under the weapon last instant. That left her unbalanced and Hecate easily swiped her feet out from under her.
On her back, Naiki was already moving to return to her feet, until Hecate's foot slammed into her side. The Goddess's eyes were turned another way, however, as two demons came in on either side of her and she had to step away from Naiki to face this new attack.
There was a casualness about her still as the Goddess turned to unleash a blast of raw mana against the oncoming Demons, who only managed to survive as a row of trees erupted between her and her targets.
The smoke came down out of the sky moving to attempt to cling to the Goddess as Mara worked her own Realm. Ash was mixed in as one of the minor Rakshasha aided the Demoness in her attacks, but the ash and smoke seemed to peel off the cloak of the trickster spider that Hecate had stolen.
Before the Demons and other humans reached melee range, Mao and her soldiers fired a stream of automatic fire, hoping to catch the Goddess unprepared.
In a flash she stomped her feet down, raising a wall of pure black energy that blocked the bullets and sent them careening back into the crowds of warriors.
The sound of crackling above alerted Hecate to one of Urd's bolts striking downward and she stepped aside of it, holding out Durandal to catch some of the energy and swirl it away from her towards a Demon and one Mao's soldiers.
It struck them both, sending them flying backward to lie still.
The wind started to pick up around the field and she glanced to see the human sisters performing some sort of combined chi attack. Frowning at the absurdity of even challenging her she lashed out with a blast of energy against the two sisters, only to find it blocked as Naiki entered the fight again and raise an shield of vacuum blades to cut through Hecate's attack.
Demons entered briefly into melee range around Hecate, each taking one strike and leaving the area around her as quickly as possibly in scattered directions. One didn't get out of reach fast enough and Durandal neatly sliced through his neck to send his head rolling to the ground.
Then Natsume unleashed her attack down through the heated spiral of Kurumi's ribbon, it slammed into Naiki's back, but the Demoness merely let it pick her up and carry her forward, spinning as she did to add vacuum blades to the blast.
Automatic gunfire called some of her attention again, as did the various pishogue, mana and chi assaults that slammed down into her. When she turned around to face Naiki's launched approach, it was to find the shark-girl's feet inches from slamming into her face.
Contact was made and the Goddess rolled back, Durandal flying out of her hand briefly before she lashed out and a thread from her cloak zipped out to grab the weapon. A red, flaming ribbon reached the sword that had beheaded Medusa first and whipped out and away from the battle.
Rolling back away, Hecate found her feet and lashed outward at the people around her, sending her power out in a rain of raw energy in hopes of catching many of her attackers.
Mao ducked just in time, but grimaced to see one of her squad's head evaporate from a strike.
Naiki and Natsume were then in Hecate's face. The human swinging out with her rugbeater and trying smash it into the Goddess's face.
Hecate merely smiled indulgently as she dodged the masterful attacks casually and idly shifted her wait to send Natsume flying out across the field. In almost the same motion she passed between all of Naiki's attacks and opened a blast of pure energy almost straight into the half-Demon's chest.
Naiki struggled up to her feet, a trickle of blood from her mouth as she clutched at her chest and looked toward where Hecate was driving the fight forward, following as Mao and the others fell back.
Kurumi and Natsume were back in the fight already as Naiki still struggled, the sister mistresses working in a even tandem that still failed to break the millenia old mastery of the woman they were fighting. Instead, their assault quickly became a mere attempt to survive and not be struck.
Still, they were doing better than Naiki had up to now.
The Satomi Demoness was about to go back into the battle when she noticed where the battle was moving just at that moment. They were almost in position, best to get ready.
Mao and her soldiers fell back evenly, securely as the two Tendos were thrown violently out of the battle with the Goddess, there extra decades of experiencing saving them the injuries that Naiki had suffered.
The smoke continued to swirl, stinging occasionally at Hecate's eyes as Mara supported the fight along with Persephone, who continued to raise barriers to stop her daughter's attacks.
With a smirk, Hecate glanced at the Demoness and Goddess as she continued to walk forward, throwing about the lesser attackers like rag dolls. With a casual gripping and pulling motion, a nimbus of energy appeared behind her mother and Mara slamming into their backs and smashing them down into the ground.
Gritting her teeth, Mara reached over toward Persephone and both vanished in a puff of sulfur smoke before Hecate's next attack could do more to them.
The Goddess continued to smirk as the two sisters fled away from her approach and the Demons and humans alike broke and ran full out away from her. Some part of her told her that this was too easy, that they were retreating with too much precision to truly be panicking, but it was blinded by her hubris.
She was dealing with humans and Demons for the most part, nothing more.
Mao lingered at the back of her retreating formation sending bursts of fire at Hecate as she moved from cover to cover. She kept the smile off her face as she looked to see her survivors getting into position.
Hecate stepped forward into a circle of debris, failing to notice the Tendos in the middle of another combined assault as Naiki took a deep breath and reached out toward the earth. The Goddess did start to notice the tremors around her feet, however, but deciding it was weak, she only turned about to give Naiki an arrogant glance rather than looking at the circle of eight claymores the girl was rising out of the earth around Hecate's feet.
"Here goes," Mao whispered as she ducked around a corner to reach out and arm the mines.
"Hecate! You'll pay for your crimes!" a voice called out.
A far too young voice that was not a part of Mao's plan. Glancing out, she had time to see a young Demon girl, looking about twelve years old. And she was reaching out with her hand arrogantly at Hecate, apparently inhibiting the Goddess's actions somehow judging by the way the woman was suddenly struggling to move.
They were both there, far too close to seven armed mines that would trigger with the first person to trip their sensors.
"Hel-chan," Natsume shouted out, moving out of position from her combination with Kurumi.
Kurumi herself looked up to see Natsume starting to pass around her.
Urd, who'd been preparing to drop a bolt of power out of the sky, let the power fizzle away with a curse as she saw the Demoness on the field where she shouldn't be.
Naiki let the earth go and was dancing into the Yamasen instead, moving carefully as she herself eyed the child on the field.
In the next second, an explosion ripped upward around Hecate as the Goddess stepped forward, knocking into one of the armed claymores. Six more explosions followed in a split motion afterward as a small body was thrown clear of the sudden burst of smoke.
The smoke collapsed inward at Mara's insistence to reveal Hecate sprawled out unconscious, blood trickling out from where something, most likely one of Naiki's vacuum blades, had severed her left leg at the knee but left it mostly cauterized. Besides that she was covered in bruises and cuts all over.
Mao was running out of cover, cursing up a storm as took in a visual measure of everyone's status. Naiki was collapsing down to her knees, obviously heavily injured despite managing to get her part done for the last attack. Natsume was untying her sister's ribbon from around her legs. Mara was sitting down and breathing deeply.
And then there was the body that had been thrown clear of the explosion, apparently at just the last moment as Hel was dizzily sitting up and appeared to have broken her crippled leg judging by how badly it was bending.
Which brought Mao to look at the other body at the center of the explosion.
Persephone was at the woman's side, and trying to heal the wounds she'd suffered. But it was a losing body. The martial artist's battle aura had prevented her from being obliterated, but her concentration had been split toward saving the girl on the field and keeping her sister out of harm.
The protection had been incomplete and there were too many injuries for Persephone to heal her quickly enough.
"Kurumi!" Natsume said, coming to her sister's side. "Why...for a Demon?"
"I didn't save the Demon-kid," the woman said hoarsely. "I saved you, big sis..."
And she didn't finish the word.