(Planet Earth, Year 1 A.I.; August 2023, 5 Months after System Integration.)
I stumble back to my feet after the brief lapse in consciousness.
Must’ve been a very, very brief trip to dreamland, seeing as though I’m not dead and our would-be executioner hasn’t yet dropped the guillotine or taken us back to his laboratory to be dissected as part of so sick science experint.
Chloe cos to a mont later.
She shakes her head as she forces herself back to her feet, using her swords as makeshift crutches to claw her way out of the dirt.
“Are you okay, Sera?” she asks.
“As well as I ever am in the midst of a battle, but I feel that’s going to go downhill real fast unless we find a way to start hurting this asshole, rather than being on the receiving end of the beating.”
“Oh,” that smarmy, condescending voice says.
“I thought you had–”
“Just shut the hell up already,” I say.
“Honestly, I’m surprised anyone could tolerate your smug attitude long enough to work on any sort of project alongside you, let alone willingly subordinate themselves to you.”
“Cheeky.
As expected, I suppose.”
The man crosses his arms and gives a contemptuous glare.
“Well, I take back what I said about hoping to make this quick.
I think that I’m actually going to enjoy this.”
I summon my swordstaff once more to try to block, but it’s for naught.
The movents are so fast and precise that I hardly have ti to react before he’s back on , his boot on my face.
Again I’m able to break free thanks to [Defiant Spirit], but that just leaves
drained of another 400 [Health] and no closer to breaking through his armor.
He grabs
by the throat and squeezes .
Hard.
My vision blurs, though in the instant of clarity, I kick my lower body up and attempt to squeeze his throat with my thighs.
The tal suit of armor buckles for the briefest of monts, but then rebuffs .
Squeezing tighter doesn’t avail , and throwing a [Lightning Sphere] does little more than elicit a bemused, condescending smirk before I’m ripped off him and tossed aside.
Chloe charges in, swords first, but is batted aside just as swiftly.
Really?
Both of us working together, with all of our buffs, and we’re still this powerless before this man?
Just…
What is going on here?
I check my Status, wondering if there’s so sort of notification or maybe I’ve been hit with so sort of debuff or abnormality, sothing that could explain the gulf in our power.
Sothing that Chloe can maybe heal with her magic.
But there’s nothing.
This is just raw power and expertise being used to dominate us beyond any hope to make up the gap.
“Sera?” Chloe asks.
“There’s sothing I want to try.
Can you buy
a couple minutes?”
“Easier said than done, love, but sure, I’ll hold him off as long as I’m able.”
Well…
Now or never, right?
I reach into the depths of my core and seize that golden mote of power.
My silvery cybernetics gain a golden sheen as my body repairs all its internal injuries.
A flood of pure power washes over , regenerating my nearly-depleted [Ether] core until it’s overflowing.
All of my muscles burst forth with overwhelming vitality, ready to be unleashed at a mont’s notice.
“Interesting,” he says.
“So this is the [Overlimit] state Henry spoke of in his research notes.
Fascinating indeed.
Very well, as thanks for showing
sothing new, I shall play with you for a short while.
At least until this state expires.”
I dash forward at top speed, and unlike before, I’m actually able to follow the man’s movents as he raises a hand to block.
I dive out of the way at the last second and aim for the exposed weakness on his side, but my attack is rebuffed as he floats up and out of the line of my attack.
I take to the skies in pursuit, channeling strikes of [Fire] and [Light] as I attempt to close the gap between us.
It’s a trap!
Sothing in my subconscious screams at , freezing
in place and causing my body to fly backwards.
The next instant, a sphere of lightning appears in the spot I would have been, violet discharges crackling the air and filling the dungeon with the sll of ozone.
Another one starts to form around , though I’m fast enough to extricate myself from the cage before it snaps shut.
The battle rages, though my [Overlimit] state has changed the fight only from one of being completely outclassed into a stalemate.
I’m able to put pressure upon the man in the power suit, but I’m unable to do more than scratch the surface of his armor, let alone deliver a decisive blow.
I power myself forward into the maelstrom of battle nonetheless, trusting Chloe, believing that she has a strategy that might be successful at defeating the seemingly undefeatable.
His fist collides with my spear, sending shockwaves echoing through the dungeon and sparks falling onto the ground below.
The booming is accompanied by screams in the distance, a reminder that the battle with Clara and the others is still ongoing further within.
“You must know this is futile,” he says.
“That power you have won’t last, and when it does, you will be as good as dead.”
“Well, I was going to be as good as dead anyway.
Might as well make this as unpleasant for you as possible.”
I slash toward his chest, and actually manage to cut through the outermost layer of his armor.
It starts to regenerate, but for the first ti, his supposed invincibility cracks.
He and his armor aren’t completely impervious; enough damage in a short enough ti will overwhelm it.
“A fool to the end.
Such a sha, really.
Imagine all that you could do with that power.
But instead, you throw it all away.”
“Defiant to the end.
And all I could do with that power?
Your words might not fall on deaf ears if you didn’t make a habit of enslaving your creations with those detestable chains.”
“I’ve only got about one more minute left,” I tell Chloe as I dodge another pair of uppercuts by the scales on my armor.
“I hope you’re gonna be ready.”
“Every second you can buy , love.”
I can spare only a glance toward her before the fight continues.
I’m not sure what new Skill she’s using, but it’s certainly one an order of magnitude more potent than all of those she’s demonstrated to this point.
For an idle instant between crashing blows at supersonic speeds, I wonder if what Chloe is doing is actually…
But then, how would that be?
I’m kicked in the side and thrown back.
Knockoff Iron-Man follows up with a one-two flurry of blows, and only a well-tid spin allows
to escape with my legs and abdon intact.
With a flash of [Blinding Beam], I try to buy myself a mont’s reprieve, but I find myself disappointed and out of breath when I fail even to disorient my foe.
He’s on
faster than the blink of an eye.
A punch to my lower back knocks the wind out of
and I’m sent flying, then cratering into the muddy floor.
My [Health] falls to barely more than a third of my maximum, and inhaling feels like sucking down volcanic ash with how much my lungs are burning.
My [Overlimit] dulls the pain, but with how much damage I’ve sustained, I’m…
I cough up a chunk of blood that briefly incandesces before smoking out.
A side effect of the [Crimson Heart]? Or maybe this is just what happens when I activate my [Overlimit] and try to draw too much power out of the stone?
“So, this is your limit.”
That sa sneer, that sa self-satisfied attitude, looking down upon .
It makes
sick.
I spit on his boots, then fire my strongest [Lightning Arrow] at point-blank range.
We’re both caught in the blast, although he suffers the most of the impact.
Not most of the pain, although, to my relief, he does stumble back for the briefest of instants.
Smoke billows from his suit; a few of the diodes on the surface flicker out and pop.
I’m kicked onto the ground.
I try for one last burst of [Seraphina Overlimit], hoping to channel the fus that power my body, but it’s pointless.
I’m spent.
It hurts to move, to breathe, to exist.
Damn it.
This is really how it goes?
What a fucking joke of a way to die.
His hands grab my throat.
I can barely manage a token resistance.
[Defiant Spirit] attempts to rebuff him, but it’s pointless.
As I am now, I can barely move.
One crush of my throat, thirty seconds of bleeding out while [Death Defied] keeps
tethered to this life, and I will die.
All that talk, all that power, all the responsibility I placed on my shoulder…
Well, as I said before, that and a buck-fifty is good for one last bottle of soda to wash down the bitter taste of defeat.
“You know, I think I changed my mind,” he says.
“I had originally planned to extract all this battle data from your corpse, but now that I give it so thought?
I don’t think I will kill you after all.
With an ability like that, you could be turned into a valuable asset once your will is properly brok–”
His sentence is cut off in a blinding flash, and his grip on my throat is broken.
Sparks of yellow lightning crackle from the massive gash in his suit of armor, followed by a trickle of blood oozing down his left leg.
He screams in a dramatic fashion unbefitting a true warrior; no sense of pride or cultivation of his own personal strength.
Too much reliance on all those fancy toys he throws about, and–
“What did you do!” he screams at .
“You–
You couldn’t have!
I saw it with my scanners!
You were completely drained.
You shouldn’t have the strength to even move, let alone break through my armor!
You… good for nothing, little–”
“Get on your knees and put your hands on the ground where I can see them,” Chloe says.
“And hurry.
I don’t want to see any funny business!”
The man, clutching his wound with both hands, turns toward Chloe with a scowl.
Then, his eyes light up in recognition.
“Of course,” he says.
“Why–
Why didn’t I see it before?
It’s so obvious in retrospect.”
He breaks out into maniacal laughter.
“I just didn’t think Henry had the gumption to actually go through such a thing.
A genius of the highest order, but ultimately too softhearted.
Too restrained by goodie-goodie notions of ethics and morality to do what was right.
To do what was necessary for the good of mankind.
For the good of the universe!
But his own daughter?
Maybe he really does understand the gravity of the situation!”
He turns to Chloe; she raises her swords in defense but the force of his charge takes her off-guard.
Whatever attack she just used— and I think I know what it was, as impossible as it appears to be— has drained her.
She still is able to mount a tepid defense, especially with his suit so damaged, but she’s being pushed back.
I want to help her, but there’s nothing I can do.
My eyes can’t keep up with their movents anymore.
My arms and legs disobey my orders to move.
Hell, it feels like I’ve got lead bricks for greaves, trying to drag
back onto the ground for an eternal dirt nap.
Only sheer willpower and a lot of fear for Chloe’s well-being keeps
from collapsing right here and now.
“Daryl, that’s enough!”
The armored man, whose na is apparently Daryl, grimaces at the sound of a voice I actually recognize.
Then, looking down at his injuries, he starts shaking.
“Damnit.
Too much damage,” he mutters under his breath.
“What do I do?”
He rushes over toward Chloe and grabs her.
“I’m only going to tell you this one more ti, Daryl.”
Footsteps echo from behind the shadow of a nearby column.
“Let go of my daughter before I lose what little restraint I have left.”
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