“That’s it?” our opponent— who still refuses to na himself— says.
“For one who carries Seraphina’s data within her, I would have expected a little bit more than that.”
He did give a little bit of interesting information earlier.
First, that he is involved in the Legion, and pretty high up, given he’s ntioning their so-called leader Renault by na.
By first na, at that, and not ‘leader’ or ‘commander’ or any other such title he might have seen fit to give himself.
He also ntioned that Renault was in possession of a ‘cybernetic Seraphina’, and I can’t help but feel that this was the sa one that Clara showed
that picture of…
Hard to believe it hasn’t even been ten days ago; life moves so fast.
In short, the Legion and its top brass are intimately tied with Project Seraphina, and Chloe’s father seems to be the dissenter out of their original team.
I have my suspicions, but until we get a chance to talk with Chloe’s dad, I don’t want to jump to any conclusions.
“This guy is really pissing
off!” Chloe says.
“I can’t wait to knock the rest of his screws loose!”
“We need to remain calm.
He’s goading us, and we can’t give him the satisfaction or the tactical advantage.
Besides, he gave us a lot of information in his little rant earlier.
Maybe we can even use it against him.”
Chloe refreshes my [Saintess’s Cloister].
“I’ll leave figuring that out to you.”
I take the lead, bolstering my mobility at the last second with an [Impulse] glyph.
I charge into the leader’s chest with everything I have, only to once again be batted aside like I was just so much dust before the wind.
I continue unabated, this ti with Chloe joining in.
Dozens of strikes go out with each passing second, and yet, between the two of us, we’re the ones getting pushed back.
[Morningstar’s Triumph] is completely silent, aning this guy’s level is no higher than 72.
But thanks to the armor he wears which seems to react even before I start to move, I’m completely unable to break the man’s defenses, and Chloe’s strikes are no better.
I try phasing out with [Dinsional Slip], hoping to play with the timing in an attempt to throw him off balance, but even that doesn’t work.
[Dinsional Rift] proves no more capable at breaking through his defenses.
Whatever sensing abilities he has, between his own personal Skills and those woven into that contemptible suit of armor, they eclipse even my own.
To think that such has been possible within my class’s paraters.
How foolish of .
Still I continue, keeping up the pressure.
Loath though I am to use it so long as there is a chance otherwise, I do still have the power of [Seraphina Overlimit] in my back pocket.
Given that none of the other bots have shown the ability to tap into the Overlimit state, perhaps it will be unexpected.
Then again, depending on how well they understand my data and the underlying power buried within ??The Anomaly??, this guy might already have contingency plans in place to deal with that as well.
“You see,” he says, having grabbed both of us by the back of the neck.
“This is the importance of research and having proper data.
All of your fights to this point.
All of the Skills you have displayed.
Seeing how you fight, how you utilize the power you have.
Even the directions in which you dodge and the way you bounce back from hardship.
“It was Sun Tzu who once wrote that if one knows their enemy and themselves, that they can step into a thousand battles without fear.
But you two simpletons, who charge in blindly like fools, will find that your victories are sparse indeed.
Ah well, here I go again, philosophizing, when I said I’d make this quick.
Well, I shan’t keep my other guests unentertained.
It has been quite the experience, but alas.
I will send Henry your regards when he finally shows his face.
Perhaps then he will be better prepared to listen to reason.”
Thanks to my reinforced body and high [Vitality], I’m able to withstand a good twenty minutes without oxygen, and probably longer still if I weren’t winded from the battle.
Still, I find this chokehold unwelco.
One aspect of [Defiant Spirit] I’ve not showcased to anyone is the resistance to grapples and other restrictions on my physical mobility.
No doubt this asshole expects
to try to phase out of this layer of reality, where his next trap is already waiting.
Instead, I sheathe Filia back in my [Inventory] and wait for him to make another mistake.
I feel [Defiant Spirit] ready to activate and break
loose of the man’s chokehold, but I don’t use it just yet.
“Chloe.
Be prepared the mont I make my move.”
“You have a way out of this?”
“I think so, but I’ll need you to trust .”
“Forever and always, my love.
I’ll be ready the mont you act.”
“Really, now.
I thought you would be a bit more rambunctious than this.
As unruly as you were earlier, I figured I’d have to beat you within an inch of your life to get you to surrender.
Maybe the errant data is more aware than I’d first thought.”
“I guess you don’t know as much about
as you think you do,” I say, head lowered, feigning submission.
“Oh, I know what I need to know about you, in exquisite detail.
Although there is one question I still don’t have an answer for.
How did you manage to assimilate one of my hand-designed [Crimson Hearts] into your own body?
Not only that, but you also managed to completely overpower and then shatter the binding spells I’ve placed on it.
Don’t bother answering; I’ll ply the answers straight out of your corpse!”
I free myself from the visegrip just as he’s about to fling us both into the nearby cliff.
I try to free Chloe, and barring that, at least get in a good hit while he’s surprised.
But no, that fails as well.
Despite my montary rebellion, I’m knocked aside like so much garbage and flung face-first into the dirt below.
My mind fades as consciousness slips from .
Not even enough ntal fortitude to activate my [Overlimit], almost as if I’m being suppressed despite my Skill which should make it trivial to overco it.
It must be like back in that last dungeon.
So sort of alteration to the natural laws of the world which doesn’t trigger [Defiant Spirit].
Damn him to the deepest hell!
Interstellar Space, Aboard the Spacecraft Boundless, Year 13,369 A.I. (14 Weeks after Seraphina’s Awakening)
I stand in awe, looking at the monitor as Madison steps onto the ship’s hull.
Despite the vacuum of space eating into her, she is completely unaffected, existing as comfortably in the cold of interstellar space as she does in her office back ho.
This doesn’t change for more than an instant even as the Boundless’ subspace drives activate and pull us into the deeper layer.
Further shielding along the inner hull of the ship leaves the passenger spaces fixes a portion of conventional space, allowing the rest of us to travel in comfort.
I don’t know the exact details; curiosity gnaws at
but I suppose I shall wait until Madison is done here to ask her.
Her aura remains calm yet focused.
Her eyes radiate determination unbounded.
Her posture is perfectly balanced between offense and defense; when I gaze upon her form and analyze it for any signs of weakness, I find nothing.
Just the implacability of the absolute before the storm.
My heart races thinking about her, about getting to see for the first ti just what she’s truly capable of when she goes all out.
With [Divine Blade Luminaria] in her right hand, she channels an overwhelming amount of [Ether], forming a blade of light that stretches on for what must be hundreds of even thousands of miles.
In the void of subspace, there is no sound, but through the monitor, I see her lips moving, so subtly that I imagine none of the crew would have seen it had they not been actively looking for it.
“Watch , Seraphina, and study the flow of [Ether] through my body as I fight.
Commit my movents to mory; later, we will work to have you learn this technique in the weeks to follow.”
I stare with widened eyes, trying to sense the movent of [Ether] through my teacher’s body as she prepares for battle.
The Void Beast she spoke of appears in the distance.
Geotry and physics seem re suggestions to this creature from beyond ti and space.
Its body, amorphous and undulating, shaped vaguely like a squid, but constantly in flux, distorting its own appearance.
It phases in and out of this level of existence as well, as though it is native neither to conventional space nor to subspace, but to so layer even deeper.
Or perhaps, sowhere outside the manifold of spaceti altogether.
Madison’s posture changes.
Her knees lower and what must be thousands of points of [Ether] congeal in her core, then spread out to cover her entire body.
Then she vanishes.
That sa instant, the beast roars.
Kaleidoscopic… blood… lymph… so sort of internal structure of the beast radiates out in a series of unfolding fractals which boggles my mind as I try and mostly fail to make sense of them.
Madison is standing face to face with a creature which stretches on for tens of thousands of feet at least, towering over her, our starship, everything.
But still her confidence remains untouched.
She disappears again just as another attack lashes out, this ti severing one of the tentacles from the beast.
Then again, in succession.
All so fast I can’t track her movents.
So fast even the monitor’s slowdown function fails to assist .
And before I can try to process and figure out what has happened, she moves thrice more in succession, her sword never dulling, her [Ether] reservoir seemingly without end, and the Void Beast now losing another of its myriad, ever-changing appendages.
Not able to glean any insight from my eyes, nor from the flow of [Ether] that moves through Madison’s body, I turn to my own Skill, [Anomalous Decryption], and will it to identify the nature of the Skill she has been employing to such terrifying effect.
My jaw nearly drops; what terrifying and awe-inspiring power she has.
No wonder she is considered the strongest in the entire star system, a demigoddess in capability if not in fact.
[[Lightspeed Confluence (Rank XCVI)]: Transforms the user’s body and any equipnt into a beam of light, then launches oneself instantaneously in a chosen direction.
Deals severe magical [Light] damage to any target(s) hit by the strike.
Chainable up to [Rank / 10] tis (rounded down).
Cost of [Lightspeed Confluence] scales with duration and decreases with Skill Rank.]
How do you stand up to a creature able to travel at the speed of light?
It’s… not possible.
That’s the only conclusion I can reach.
Nothing can travel faster than light, dinsional shenanigans aside.
Maybe it is possible to counter the ability; [Skill Crumple] could, although at a massive [Ether] cost.
Other than that, it’s either…
taking on that hit and suffering I don’t even want to think about how much damage.
Or sohow noticing the attack coming in the split second it takes for her to gather [Ether] and activate her ability, and deflecting it maybe?
Maybe with a mirror?
In either case, the battle continues for minutes, and then into over an hour.
Madison grows tired; even she has her limits, and using such a powerful Skill so many tis is pushing her to her limits.
She has other Skills as well, most of which combine [Light] type magic and sword arts together.
Illusions and other forms of trickery form the remaining strand of her demonstrated abilities, deception against all those who think they understand her true ability and in doing so underestimate just how monstrously capable she truly is.
The battle ends.
Madison looks like she’s had many better days.
Her sword arm is only half attached to her torso; her left arm is little more than a stump.
Countless surface wounds dot her body, and there’s at least three gaping flesh wounds in her right leg, paynt extracted from the forr void beast for the bountiful Experience it has given her.
Even her weapon and her armor are affected, although both will naturally repair themselves thanks to the magic woven within.
The ship shifts back to conventional space and Madison makes her way inside, and from there, back to the Captain’s Quarters, where I have been watching all this ti.
“I got a little overconfident,” she says.
“Been so long since the last ti I fought a creature that powerful.”
She looks
in the eyes; despite the state of her body, her focus and will are unshakable.
“Never underestimate your opponent.
Always assu they have another trick, so technique yet unrevealed or even known, and are waiting for the right ti to use it.”
“I understand, Madison,” I say.
“Good.
Now, I’m going to head to the dical bay, and after that, I’m going to ascend before we make it to Arbarra.
I know that’s not ideal, and it’ll leave you alone, but–”
“Please, Madison.
Do what you have to do.
In the anti, your battle and your Skills have given
a lot to think about.”
Reviews
All reviews (0)