American Magical Girl - (DxD Human SI)

AN: Well... there was a delay...
Partly due to me watching the Nanoha movies again - damn are they gorgeous - and realizing that I could do the big magic spells better.
Let me know what you guys think.

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American DxD Magical Girl
Chapter 6

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This is the sort of thing that I decided to be a Magical Girl for.

There were so many things I could have chosen when I realized where I was, of what sort of world I was in. Pursuing the paths to power that I have, going out and intentionally using the title of Magical Girl, these were both a promise and an oath to myself.

Magical Girls have existed in so many incarnations, so many variations, and with so many different reasons for the hows and whys of their existence to unfold across fiction, but the one part that always stood out the most clearly to me, the most dearly to me, was how Magical Girls would always move to stand as a bastion of Hope against Darkness and Evil in the world.

Sometimes that darkness would be the darkness within themselves. Sometimes it would be the darkness inside others - their friends, their families, other Magical Girls, or within their societies. Other times it would be a Darkness that personified the absolute worst the world had to offer, of the sorts of fears that were birthed from and by cosmic horrors. Yet these girls would choose to stand before the Darkness in whatever form it took and boldly declare 'We shall have a Happy Ending!'

They did not always succeed. Victory was never assured. These girls would step forward anyway, choosing to be those symbols of Hope.

And today… I was choosing to step forward to declare that today was going to have a Happy Ending.

Even if I, like the Magical Girls whose footsteps I had chosen to follow, would need to grab reality itself by the throat, kick it in the balls, only to then drag it kicking and screaming into a future where that uncertain hope had become a foundational truth.

"This is not how I was hoping to meet you, Valerie." I told her sadly.

"Pay… Hurt…"

The pain and rage that echoed from those words hit with the weight of a physical gut punch, even as her ki screamed the mindless rage and grief she was suffering.

~chime~ ~"Protection."~

A dome of overlapping orange hexagons stopped the shadowy hand that was nearly twice my size cold as it tried to swat me flat like some bug. The shadowy mist that constantly bled from the creature's form flowed down onto my barrier, trying to seep through even as it corroded away the magic holding it together.

"This is going to suck."

Touki and ki come together under my feet to launch me out from under from my crumbling magic, going a bit further than I had expected. The rough landing was turned into a rolling tumble as a giant hand crashed into what had been my landing site.

Shadows wisped around the edges of the giant's form, leaving the details apart from its blood red eyes indistinct. Rays of the sun that barely managed to peek through the clouds seemed as if they were trying to burn away or solidify something, though my senses were lacking to tell what. They certainly didn't do anything to affect the 20 foot giant's ability to stretch its arms to unnatural proportions with unusual movements, as it was only due to my continued flailing with my improvised technique that I was able to barely keep ahead of its continued attempts to crush me.

My touki-enhanced shots were barely able to disrupt the haze that hovered around its entire form. The occasional combination of shots that coincided enough on a singular spot exposed something under the layer of shadow, though the darkness stitched itself back together too quickly for me to tell much else.

"Dare… Suffer…"

Her declarations hadn't stopped their own continued assault, each syllable always hitting like their own blow.

"Valerie! I came to talk to you! I want to help!" I call out to her.

For a moment she paused, my words seeming to have reached her.

"You… This…"

Only for her fury to redouble, something in my words triggering a sudden focus brought to a razor point on a single target.

Me.

I didn't even see the next blow before it was already blocked by the glowing hexagonal barrier directly in front of my face.

"Well, fuck."

I then found myself buried in the floor of a basement.

No recollection of the barrier breaking, no sound of shattering magic, nor any blow connecting.

Just suddenly… embedded in a stone foundation, broken rubble everywhere.

"You okay?" I hear Lint call from some distance away.

Or maybe that was just the ringing in my ears? Who is to know? I couldn't see her regardless.

"I…" my body breaks into a coughing fit, until I hack up something that I hasten to spit out. Finally able to focus enough to get moving, I pulled myself out of a seat customized for one. My Barrier Jacket seems to be mostly intact, though with multiple tears in my leggings and several cuts in both my jacket and dress.

"..think so?" I finish offering mildly. For taking a blow that sent me through at least 2 stone walls and embedded me into another, I was in surprisingly little pain.

"Great!" Lint cheered. "I am nearly finished here, then I have the group on the third floor left."

Oh, right! She was off rescuing people, and it seemed she was already half way done!

"Good work!" I congratulate her. "Where should I bring our shadowy friend?"

"Shadowy friend?"

"Oh, you missed her tearing her way literally out of the castle wall? Valerie - or at least I think it's Valerie? I'm assuming it's Valerie - has gone berserk. Not only did she get herself a giant armored kaiju body covered in Shadows that she is off playing wrecking ball with, but I think it affected her Sacred Gear too." I looked around the rubble scattered about the hallway I found myself in that seemed to be cutting me off from Lint, except I could see better than I expected?

"...isn't her Sacred Gear the Sepherioth Graal? Does that thing even have a Balance Breaker?!"

"No idea. More worried about getting her soul through this in one piece." I offered back, while looking around. The light coming through the hole my body made in the ceiling wasn't enough to explain it.

"Fair." She called out. "Try to keep the destruction to inside the castle, please. The first several prisoners I got out scattered once things really started breaking, so they are loose in the surrounding woods."

"Great." I called back. "That will be simple. Just keep the 20 foot rampaging giant inside the castle grounds - while keeping it from damaging the central tower - while also not letting it send the wall into the countryside."

"You got it! Knew I could count on you!" Her voice echoed to me, entirely too cheerful for this discussion. "There is also a ward blocking teleportation, if you can get around to taking that down too! I'll let you know when the tower is clear!"

I was being sarcastic Lint!

Also, if you are going to be this infuriating, at least let me see you being adorable doing it!

"Got it!" I answer distractedly, finally noticing that I am currently glowing white, thus lighting up the rubble around me.

Oh. Duh.

"Right, touki." I mutter to myself.

Or battle aura. As in the thing you wrap around your body.

That's why the technique wasn't working right. I realized with a start.

It was foolish trying to just rocket myself around via just external application of touki. The first thing touki was good for is fully encasing your body in it, and letting it enhance your physical baseline.

This sort of shit is why I have been looking for a proper trainer in the first place.

Next time I am going to get some proper training out of that woman.

I launched myself back to the surface, arriving to realize that it hadn't been my shield breaking that sent me into the ground. That blow was angled to have sent me through an outer wall.

Which means she had caught me completely flat footed when she spiked me into the floor.

I shudder, drawing my touki into a thicker layer over my skin even as I start trying to match it with the flow of my ki enhancing all my internal bits.

Spotting the shadowy giant chasing some random vampire, I hesitated.

It would be so easy to just run out the clock on getting the central tower evacuated by letting the dhampir vent her grief on the army of researchers and servants. Many of whom had very likely mocked and belittled the girl for being a dirty half blood.

But that isn't who I want to be.

I am here, as a Magical Girl, because I want to be a symbol of hope in this messed up world. To give hope to those stuck in horrible situations.

Even if they happen to be vampires.

And for Valerie, the girl who never asked for any of this.

I landed near the latest target of her ire - a 30-something looking vampire in a lab coat - who gleefully fled the instant her eyes were off them.

"Gasper is fine Valerie! He's okay! I can even take you to see him!"

I felt a spark of hope as I was visibly able to see Valerie process what I was trying to tell her. Hope that I can reach her and calm her rage.

"Lies… Me…"

A hexagonal wall of orange is the only thing that gives me enough time to dart away, the misty shadows surrounding her enlarged form eating through the collapsing magic moments later.

Then the chase was on.

Between my shields, and my slow refining of my technique for using my touki and ki for enhancement, I was able to stay roughly a half step ahead of a second trip into the ground via giant fist express.

Unfortunately, even a near constant stream of magical shots did little to wear through her shadowy armor.

Several attempts at focusing fire on a singular spot were enough to get something, which only led to some very concerning conclusions.

First, the Mist that constantly surrounded her seemed able to 'eat' away at anything it touched, being especially adept at weakening and corroding any source of power - especially magic - it touched. Her Shadows then fed off that to both repair and strengthen itself, though there was something underneath that was reinforcing everything that kept the touki lacing my spells from even slightly disrupting her constructs like they had the others.

Second, something was hidden that my ki could feel echoing every time a spell hit solidly enough that it would have disrupted something against the other vampires I had faced. Whatever the source, it was oddly reactive about how it felt to my senses, unlike the previous clashes which always felt like a direct contest of power and will.

Thirdly, what clear glimpses I was able to get when I managed to inflict enough damage fast enough to overpower the regeneration of the shadow armor certainly didn't look organic. Which, considering her Sacred Gear, opened up possibilities that legitimately scared me.

Possibilities like it being a solidified soul.

Worst case it was her own, stretched and warped under the power of her Sacred Gear to fit her new size.

Hopefully it was only someone else's that she had managed to simply shape and now wore as armor.

Her Sacred Gear, Sephiroth Graal, the Holy Grail sealed in Gear form, was capable of directly interacting with the soul, so it was possible. It still left a multitude of questions about how.

There was no way for me to know if this was some sort of Juggernaut Drive or Unleash the Beast - neither of which should be possible as the former was restricted to Gears holding the Heavenly Dragons and the latter was a rough equivalent dependant on the power of a fully contained creature. Hers was the Holy Grail so it failed to qualify for either, leaving it to more likely be some sort of bastardized or incomplete attempt at a Balance Breaker.

A Balance Breaker for a Sacred Gear that I had never heard any hint of actually having one.

Which just made her giant kaiju form even more terrifying.

It meant that this wasn't just her vampire powers cranked past 11, after being dosed with the blood of a - or most likely several - obscure and powerful creatures, unleashed together in a grief fueled berserker rage. No, it also has the power of a Longinus Sacred Gear behind it.

I struggled to continue keeping ahead in the chase, the improvements of my enhancements failing to keep pace with the speed of both her movement and her destruction, as I searched for some sort of edge while desperately keeping her away from still inhabited areas.

~"Nibble to Bits, Master."~

It took a moment to place the advice my companion offered, before I cringed as the memories of the advice from that woman echoed in my head.

If your enemy has too much reach, nibble them to bits! You don't have to start at the throat, just bite off what comes to you! Cut off what you can reach, then keep cutting! Keep cutting until you reach something critical! Then cut that too!

I might have considered that 'proper sage wisdom', if she hadn't been in the middle of mocking me for the second straight hour that I hadn't forced her to so much as shift her footing.

Due in no small part to her own reach advantage.

As infuriating as it felt following anything she suggested, it was still functional enough advice (and she was insanely skilled). I was just glad I had the timing down enough I didn't need to also juggle a shield for this.

*ca-chunk* a cartridge fired, and I spun the excess power into a proper spell.

~chime~ ~"Divine Shooter."~

A dozen orbs formed around my position with near perfect timing.

"Shoot!"

Power lanced out from the orbs as I dashed away, solid beams of glowing orange reaching out to intersect with the massive hand that surged to stop me. The beams continued to burn away at the hand, and the shadows protecting it, until they all converged and exploded, shearing through the shadows to the wrist.

Finally seeing the now bare hand, it appeared to be covered in its own fully articulated armor.

Or it entirely was the armor, like a mecha considering the scale involved.

I directed my dodges skyward as I shifted with the tempo of the ongoing chase.

"Run… Punish…"

Not my brightest move, as the shadow clad armored form Valerie inhabited shifted from thrusting attacks that attempted to grab or crush me to instead wide sweeping attacks that cut across the sky to sharply reduce the space I had to evade. The oddly fluid movements her Shadow offered her limbs as they stretched and bent nearly overwhelmed me, with the shadowless hand providing only the most minor relief even as the shadows began reclaiming it slowly.

"I don't want to fight you, Valerie." I called out to her. I didn't hold much hope that it would help - it had only made things worse so far, honestly - but I refused to not try.

"Catch… Pay…"

Her words continued to thunder through my senses. I had grown familiar enough with their effects, now, to be able to shrug off the worst of it.

Physically, at least. I wasn't sure I wanted to be able to shrug off the emotional impacts. Endure, yes. Shrug off…

My magic might be a thing of logic and reason, but I was not.

Passion, emotions, feelings were the heart of being a Magical Girl, and I was never going to let those go.

It didn't take long, being able to better leverage the ability to rapidly change direction and momentum in three dimensions that my use of platforms offered, before I was able to exploit her nearly mindless attacks to finally counter properly.

~"Ring Bind."~

Orange rings snapped into existence around the wrists and ankles of the mammoth form, locking them in place in an instant.

I instantly dove to the ground to claim a spot that put a particularly barren part of the sky beyond the castle as the rampaging dhampir's backdrop.

All but one of the rings silently dissolved into nothing, swiftly eaten away by her Mist.

"Never… Go…"

The last shattered and promptly both hands slammed down towards me, arms extending fluidly to reach.

*ca-chunk* a trio of cartridges fired, mana flooding out…

~"Multi Shield."~

into a trio of reinforced magical circles that were large enough to cover me completely that formed between me and the incoming limbs.

Not wasting a moment even as the haze already started destabilizing the first shield, I burst fired the remaining loaded cartridges in a flurry of building mana. My focus was quickly consumed by keeping the suddenly raging power contained enough for both of us to focus.

"Let's go, Razing Heart." I called out to my device.

~chime~ ~"Divine Buster."~

The rings of magical script spun into existence in an instant, nearly overloading from the excess mana I was currently channeling into the rest of the spell, as it was able to complete just before the last shield could give way in a crack that sounded like shattering glass.

An orb of orange power the size of my head formed in front of its magic circle, the sudden outpouring of mana from the fired cartridges surging to enlarge it even as additional rings of magical script spun faster to keep it contained and compressing it further.

"Shoooot!" I screamed, releasing the spell.

The rings spun as the power erupted away from me, the compressed mana surging force in a beam that sought to pierce everything before it as it rushed to try to even consume its massive target.

This wasn't the most mana I had attempted to put into a Divine Buster before, but it was by far the fastest I had attempted to gather it at once. With my twin weapons able to hold 4 shells each, I would normally only fired them off sequentially. Dumping the remaining 4 rounds as one was putting far more strain on both of us than I was used to.

Fortunately, it seemed the risk paid off, as the suddenly empowered attack was not only able to punch fully through the constantly wafting haze, it had completely scoured both arms to past the shoulders.

Good news? The Shadows were finally cleared enough to properly see what was going on.

Bad news? It seemed like I wasn't wrong about souls being involved.

The best I could tell using my current level of senjutsu, while the dhampir had kept her own soul mostly intact, Valerie had somehow grafted together discarded bits and fragments of other souls to fully encase herself in a massive moving suit of soul-bits that she had then managed to empower to move to her will, likely via Sephiroth Graal.

Longinus' are bullshit.

The arms retreated, returning to their normal proportions as the shadows empowering them were blasted off, finally revealing the soul-construct's 'natural' arms and hands in their armored form's glory.

Had she made a Gundam out of souls, then covered it in Shadow and Mist?!?

Not that I had long to enjoy the sight of my momentary victory, as the shadows were quick to start crawling slowly back over the exposed areas.

Then her jaw dropped open and she began to inhale. The feel of power billowed out as what appeared to be dark flames started building in the construct's throat and mouth.

A jolt of fear rammed down my spine.

Dragon Fire!

I had yet to be able to see an actual dragon use their breath attack in person, yet it was one of those things that was undeniable.

Well… that's one way to find out at least one of the types of blood she had been doped with.

I immediately took to the skies, desperate to get enough distance that the backwash of the attack wouldn't melt the surrounding castle, or simply kill everyone in the surroundings.

I had yet to reach what I hoped was a safe distance when the building power shifted, and I could feel a sudden heat as she unleashed the attack.

Lucky for me, it wasn't a beam.

Unlucky for me, it was a dark fireball even bigger than I was.

A couple quick jumps gave enough height before I dropped a shield for it to collide with before rushing away to escape the impending explosion.

Only… it tracked me.

"Shit!"

~"Round Shield."~

The large magical circle solidifies between me and the fireball. Only… so much heat and mist was radiating from the attack that the shield started to crack before it even hit, and completely shattered on impact.

~"Protection."~

The overlapping hexagonal barrier of my last active defense formed into a solid globe around me, even as the condensed ball itself makes contact and tries to shove me away into the sky at an odd angle.

Then it explodes in my face.

Ow!

When my vision cleared, I found I had bounced out of my initial impact crater, my explosion fueled flight sending me crashing through a series of trees from the surrounding forest.

Failing to see any fires, I can only assume I had gotten far enough before it caught me.

Groaning, I struggled to pull myself out of the shattered tree I found myself stuck in.

"Oh hey!" Lint popped out of the forest and was by my side, helping me stay upright. "You doing ok?"

I groan as I stretch and hear several things crack as they settle properly into place. I don't even bother looking over my outfit, already able to feel the wind cutting through my stockings that seemed more holes than clothing now and I was almost surprised that I had any jacket left after my impromptu lumberjack impression.

"Been better."

She laughs at me. "Well, the central tower is clear now. Also think I managed to get everyone else out of the castle - even the vampires, you owe me - though I didn't exactly go room by room to check."

"Yea, don't blame you… and thanks." I try to force as much sincerity as I can into the words, even as worn out as I feel.

She just nods, her bun that's not quite holding anything together anymore bouncing alongside her hair with the motion.

"Still got that teleport ward up, though. You need to get that knock out if you want the Church to be able to send someone to help clean this up in the next few hours."

"That's handy… do you think they could give us a ride out too?" I ask, hoping to be able to take it easy and just relax for a bit.

"Well… do you want to go to the Vatican?"

"Hard pass." Tough way it is then. Rather not deal with that sort of nonsense, even without the question of if they would let me leave.

She laughed. "That's what I figured. Don't blame you, especially if you got that dhampir with you."

"What about you? Heading back with them?"

"Nope! Current on assignment to watch over this troublemaker. They keep knocking over churches, monasteries, and even blowing up big stone buildings. Can you imagine? So I gotta ride her hard to keep her from blowing up the wrong things. Can't do that from the Vatican."

I raised an eyebrow at the insinuation, which she seemed oblivious to.

"Fair. You don't want to lose her in all the confusion." I eventually acknowledge, only a little mockingly.

"Exactly!"

"Well… guess I better wrap this up then."

"Have fun!" She waved.

I don't bother replying before leaving her behind, already dashing back towards the castle.

Taking advantage of the momentary lull, I crack open my pistols, letting the spent cartridges get ejected smoothly.

The original version of Cross Mirage - the one that I had based my work on - had let the entire barrel assembly also double as a 4 cartridge magazine that was reloaded by removing the barrels completely, and holstering the weapon would automatically affix a new, fully loaded, barrel assembly.

My ability to create things directly from magic, or by stored raw materials was far too horrible to even consider such a wasteful method even if replacing the barrels like that would greatly reduce the strain on the device itself. Instead I opted to just make them break-action, while still keeping them capable of holding 4 cartridges each. This allowed a slightly larger capacity while still allowing it to fire or even reload cartridges even in dagger mode.

I had considered switching to a revolver-style design, but I simply could not get it to work how I wanted.

Practicing with this configuration led to the realization that since I didn't need to line up a cartridge with a barrel - as I only needed them to be able to release stored power, not to launch anything - I had a fairly unique option for the dual pistol design I was using. I could fire all 4 cartridges at once rather than sequentially.

And from both guns simultaneously.

It would be a quick way to damage the device, maybe even destroy it, as even the best case would inflict incredible strain in withstanding the sudden surge. It made up for it with the incredible versatility it offered in an emergency.

"How many boxes do we have left?" I ask as I slot in the reloads and click my pistols closed.

~"Five fully charged boxes remain, Master."~

"Razing Heart, mark out…" I count out how many I need in my head… at least 8 for after, and probably another 8 for a finale… 4 more as spare reserve… a few more for just in case… "24 cartridges. Let's burn through 2 boxes to set up the finale, and let me know when I get to the last 2."

~"Yes, My Master."~

I smile at the almost affronted tone she responded with. This was definitely the most dangerous fight we had been in yet - only thanks to Lint focusing on testing and probing me during her ambush keeping that from being even close.

And Razing Heart didn't like losing any more than I did.

"Rraaaaaaa!!!!"

The shadowy giant's scream of rage rang out powerfully enough that I could see the power in the air starting to destroy the castle around her - even from a distance - and the effect slowly grew faster the longer she continued.

"Well, back to it I guess."

~"We can level it all from here, Master."~

"No, Razing Heart," I sigh even as part of me dearly wished I could take the advice. "We are going to finish this properly."

~"Very well, My Master."~

~chime~ ~"Blazer Mode."~

I smiled as she shifted form without prompting, her large hand cannon forms feeling properly weighty in my hands.

There was an odd sort of confidence that comes from knowing you don't need to hold back any more.

As I reappeared inside the castle proper - what remained standing of it - I started working to methodically burn through nearly 2 dozen cartridges.

Once I started being more generous with expending my limited resources, it became comparatively easy for my shields to withstand blows and for my counterattacks to beat back the encroaching wave of Shadow.

Not that the still berserk Valerie was making that easy for me.

Even with the Shadows burned off the limbs of her kaiju form, preventing any of the earlier devastatingly effective shape shifting shenanigans, the entire form was bursting with so much - and so many different types of - power that I began needing the improved shielding to simply keep up. Where before she had been reliant on the mist surrounding her form to just eat away at any magic I put in her way, now she was focused on straight overpowering them such that they weren't lasting meaningfully longer than they had when the entire mess started.

Turns out the core - likely where Valerie's body was located, though the whirlpool of power within the soul-stuff made it hard to tell - was roughly where the heart would be on a living 20 foot tall magical mech-like being. And any attempt to purge the Shadow from around there only resulted in those Shadows surging anew.

So I had to weave a careful balance of purging as much Shadow off of a building sized enemy as I could while it was actively trying to flatten me while raging about what I did (or at least, what she thought I did) to Gasper - I didn't do anything to him, woman! Calm your tits, you can get your femboy cosplay doll back later! I don't shout back at her, though it's tempting - without burning away too much.

The breath attack made its return when I made an aborted attempt to unleash another Divine Buster - only tried that once - as I didn't dare try to get into a beam struggle with the dhampir soul-mecha dragon kaiju.

Dumping the power instead into a Cross Fire Shoot that was heavy on the explosions prevented a repeated trip through the forest or its many trees.

~chime~ ~"It is time, master."~

*ca-chunk* went the final 2 cartridges, and I smiled as I could feel the mana hanging thick in the air.

~chime~ ~"Chain Bind."~

A half dozen magic circles formed around Valerie inside her soul construct before they shot out massive orange chains to catch her mid leap. The chains wrapped thickly around each of her limbs, locking them in place.

Another two wrapped tightly around the head, hopefully well enough to keep her imitation dragon fire locked away.

"I had really hoped I didn't need to do this Valerie." I begin telling her.

I thumb the release that popped my twin hand cannons open, the spent cartridges ejecting cleanly before I smoothly slot a fresh set into each and click them closed.

A sad smile graces my face at seeing her bound form, unable to move for the moment, even as she rages against the restraints.

Having moved to the point in the air above her that put the center of what used to be a proudly standing castle as a perfect backstop, I allowed my magic circle to spin itself into life at my feet, as a sphere of orange mana started condensing out of the air before me.

"I'm sorry I was not quick enough to prevent this. And I am looking forward to being able to talk with you properly when this is over." I tell her bound and struggling form, though I doubt she would remember any of it.

~chime~ ~"Starlight Breaker."~

*ca-chunk* *ca-chunk* the cartridges quickly fire off one at a time until all 8 of them have been spent.

While the mana from the cartridges flowed into the sphere, it gained a ring of magical script which seemed large enough to have been able to encompass the entire castle before it slowly started to rotate around the sphere as all the loose mana in the air started getting pulled in. The scattered bits of power, each sparkling like little stars as they were drawn from their hiding places, began to shoot towards the glowing orb of power that quickly reaches the full diameter of the circling ring, only to start compressing down on itself as the light of the stars continue to pour in.

A roar announced that the bound giant had broken the first chain binding its head. Shadow and Mist leaked out from her open mouth, red eyes blazing as she glared at the growing ball of power, the final chain restricting the construct's head's movement quickly fading away under the onslaught. Her jaw dropped open as she drew in a breath, the power quickly started building in her throat even as she radiated absolute defiance in the face of her current predicament.

"I need to stop you before you do something you'll really regret. So!" I call out to her, trying to force my sincerity through the rage muddling her mind with each word. "This is my full power! I am giving you everything I have! Let this calm your rage!

A normal sized magic circle spun itself into existence, looking tiny next to the ball of power that hung in the sky akin to a second sun, aimed at the suspended yet still defiant form

"Starlight… Breaker…"

Valerie unleashed her breath weapon as a beam, the roiling Mist and Shadow, mixed with the power of Dragon Fire, raced forth.

"Shoooooooooooooooot!!!!!"

A needle of power erupted from the glowing sun of suspended power, directed and focused through the comparatively tiny magic circle attached to it. Like the entire ocean suddenly trying to drain itself through a simple garden hose, the magic surged forth in an orange beam that quickly came to massively out-scale the circle directing it.

For the instant when the two beams met, it seemed for that one miraculous moment like they might be caught in a stalemate.

Then the moment shattered as the orange beam overpowered everything before it like a crashing tsunami overpowered a human trying to hold it back with their bare hands.

The orange river of power consumed the black beam, racing back to its source until it completely engulfed the kaiju-sized soul-suit. The chains keeping it bound were able to resist but for a mere moment before shattering and the river continued on to greedily devour everything, even the stone rubble and the castle it once came from.

The river grew, and grew, continuing to eat away at the stone foundations until it seemed like it was going to race past the walls and continue to consume the surrounding woods, only to quickly taper off and fade away before fully breaching the walls. Leaving behind a crater of scorched bedrock where a castle once stood.

I stood in the air, panting as the backlash of holding and controlling that much power hit me like a truck. It was all I could do to not fall from the sky, and Razing Heart had already popped herself open, ejecting the spent cartridges and venting her excess.

Something moved within the fading cloud that remained of my final attack.

"Valerie!" I yelled, instantly dashing forward.

"I got you!" I whispered reassuringly in her ear as I pulled her close, having barely caught her in time to slow her landing and ended up kneeling with her in a crater on the ground. "I got you. You're safe now. I got you Valerie. Everything is going to be okay."

The girl in my arms doesn't stir at my words as I pull her further into my lap, though her breathing seems steady. Using what skill I have managed to scrape together of senjutsu I lace my ki through her body as best I can.

Other than exhaustion and the side effects of a bad adrenaline crash, Valerie physically seemed in good condition. Her blonde hair is filthy and a complete mess, but even the mess and dirt from combat does little to detract from the physical beauty of her pale skin and face, while her clothes are only slightly less as torn as battered than my own.

But even I can clearly see the damage that has ravaged her soul.

While nothing appeared to be immediately life threatening, though still in urgent need of an actual specialist.

"How is she?" Lint asks as she arrives by my side, her hair partially down from its customary bun with twigs and leaves sticking out.

"She is alive and breathing, so that's good." I brush some of her blonde hair out of her face and try to get it into some semblance of order with one hand. "Her soul is a complete mess. Don't imagine the Angel of the Dead is still around and able to help?"

She shakes her head. "Not one that I know of."

"Just great." I sigh. There were depressingly few deities that touched upon the domains of the soul and death that were needed for this, and none of those in Europe could be trusted as far as Valerie could currently throw them.

Hades couldn't be trusted as an option, Hel was Loki's daughter and thus part of an entire bag of cats I didn't want to poke right now. Pluto was likely either another face that Hades wore or a Mantle that I simply didn't have the time to track down, and I couldn't remember which.

And as much as I might be willing to deal with the Tuatha De Danann normally, I wasn't going to risk getting even remotely near a fae with this.

That left only one deity I knew well enough to go to for this that didn't risk getting embroiled in the never ending drama of the Hindu, Celestial Court, or the Shinto.

"Hey Lint," I asked as I picked up Valerie in a princess carry and started walking towards the car, "did I get the teleportation ward this time?"

The exorcist looked between me, and the barren crater we still hadn't finished walking out of yet.

"Yes. Yes I think it's safe to say you did."

"Good!" I give her a slightly amused smile. "Hey, how's your Arabic?"

"Umm… passable, why?" She asked, visibly confused as she matched my pace.

"Because I am going to need a flight booked and last I was there the locals were shit at English." I informed her with an amused grin.