Chapter 73 - There Is No Outside
When Nothing There tears free of Eternal Meal's carapace, your preparations are long complete. They are greeted by a fusillade of emerald lights, the assembly of your manufactured soldiers firing from the safety of their perches scattered across your facility. The Abnormality leaps forth, dodging and weaving through the crackling bolts and charging into the crowd of machines assembled ahead. Your creations are strong, but even those suited for melee combat are no match for the shapeshifting Aleph's sheer might. They carve through the automata with ease, a streak of crimson against a sea of black and green. Your more expensive creations, those in the shape of your agents, have already fallen back. As you track the scarlet blur on its path of devastation, a black mechanical rifle appears with a crackle of electricity. You take careful aim and fire, the bolt of sizzling corrosive energy striking true and burning away a thin layer of the Abnormality's flesh. Effective, but not enough. You can already see Nothing There's body healing. Muscle and tendon flow over the minute wound, leaving no evidence that you ever did anything at all.
As Nothing There prepares to tear apart another machine, the great shrines flare with light. A titanic red hand rises from the earth beneath the Abnormality, hoisting it into the air before dissipating in time for the other three to activate. Massive tentacles of white smoke wrap around Nothing There, holding them in place and giving your forces time to clear the area. Twisted spikes of metal, dripping with malice, skewer the imitator from all directions. In the sky above, the eye of a long-forgotten god opens. The world below it becomes washed-out as pale blue light fills the air. Nothing There burns as you stare them down, ignoring the cracking sensation in your chest.
Your victory does not come just yet. Nothing There kicks off of one of the blackened spines piercing them, using the leverage to force themselves free and leap down towards you. A blade of hazy white tinged red, more whip than sword, appears in your hand to divert the first slash. Your opponent's strike carves a new canyon into the earth beside you, and before you can take advantage of the opening their other hand shifts into a vicious claw. Your wings crash down before the other Abnormality can attack, and Nothing There is forced to retreat to avoid the impaling barbs.
When your foe immediately reversed course back towards you, you know that your plan is progressing. The typical strategy to deal with Nothing There in the Facility was to have one agent, originally Ferris but Apollo and Arizona joined later after acquiring their higher-grade EGO, take all of the imitator's aggression while the rest of your staff lined up behind them to take free shots. Now, with Nothing There's full strength unleashed, there's nobody who could actually take the full brunt of their aggression. Nobody but you.
Your wings- not those created by Lobotomy, your physical wings- unfurl and fold over you to block the sudden shockwave as Nothing There extends a hand. The patterns across their surface flash, and a crystalline field of red energy flickers into place over your body. The attack doesn't touch you, although the area of your facility behind you is thoroughly demolished. Nothing There's follow-up punch is similarly ineffective, although your barrier already begins to crack and break apart. You draw up a sword of swirling pale light and fling it towards Nothing There's body, forcing them to dodge to the side to avoid being completely impaled. They circle around to behind you, and though you turn to face them their superior physical prowess would ensure a critical blow against an ordinary opponent. Unfortunately for the other Aleph, you're not restricted to the limits of ordinary biology anymore. Two of your tails lash out, flaring with energy. While neither connect, your opponent in again forced back, this time slower than before. The Intervention Field crackles around them as you lunge, taking advantage of the moment where Nothing There has not adapted to their reduced speed to score a long gash across their chest. The advantage lasts only a moment, and you are once again on the back foot a mere moment later.
The issues preventing you from claiming victory are threefold.
First, Nothing There's total immunity to physical damage. While you have access to enough esoteric forms of attack that you can still fight back, it makes clashing like this much harder. Nothing There doesn't flinch, they can't be effectively countered, even diverting their attacks is far trickier than it should be. Fortunately, you have enough tricks of your own to balance things out.
Second, Nothing There's regeneration. For something so difficult to hurt, it's downright unfair how quickly the imitator can recover from whatever wounds they suffer. In order to wear your foe down and get to the Soul Gems they've taken, you need to make your damage stick. Again, you have a solution for this. You don't actually need to down Nothing There entirely, you just need the Soul Gems out of them. Lobotomy is already allowing you to locate the Soul Gems within the Aleph's new, twisted form, and actually getting some hits in with your wings would speed the process up. Nothing There seems to have figured this much out though, because they've been careful not to let you so much as scratch them. Still, it's only a matter of time before you know where to strike.
Finally, there's the most insurmountable issue.
Nothing There is simply stronger than you.
Sure, there are many other Abnormalities more 'powerful' than Nothing There, and you are among them, but only the Beast of the Black Forest itself could be considered 'stronger' in a straightforward sense. Engaging Nothing There like this, in single combat, would eventually end in your defeat. Unfortunately, your current plan requires you to do exactly that for some time.
Nothing There's claws push past your guard and slam into your chest. Your fifth Physical Intervention Field shatters, and the monster's vicious nails tear into your body. Metal squeals and whines as it is torn from your body, but you give it no heed. You're an Abnormality, you can't die. And it wouldn't change anything if you could.
Seeing the Erosion Shield that appear around you, Nothing There strikes again with renewed vigor. If you still had a face, you would smile. In their eagerness to focus you down, Nothing There didn't take the time to question your actions. Didn't ask why you would use a defensive field against a form of damage they can't inflict. Didn't wonder why you chose to fight then one on one instead of having your creations swarm them. Didn't feel any suspicion as your draw them as far away as possible from anything important.
All that's left is to fire, and this step of the plan is over. Your creations are your will made manifest, with no need to even give orders for them to respond to your will. Even so, there is one thing left to do.
What was her reasoning again?
Ah, right. Calling your attack names is cool. And you're feeling particularly dramatic right about now.
"The tower shall scrape against the sky, and nothing shall remain on the ground. Render all creation to base, Last Helix!"
Nothing There stares up with their many eyes as the sky turns to emerald. Last Helix, a titanic artillery piece that could disintegrate armies in a single volley, rains destruction from above upon the Abnormality and the surrounding landscape. The crashing torrent of energy tears through your realm, turning the ground to dust and the oceans to chemical vapor. You teleport away just as your shield breaks, unscathed. Nothing There screams in a thousand voices as the onslaught erodes their flesh, blindly charging towards your last known direction. They escape the blast zone in time to impale themself on a titanic spike of black energy, hanging limp for just long enough for your wings to descend and stab into them.
"I actually feel rather silly now. Perhaps that was a little over the top?"
Nothing There tears free of the wings too late. Your agents fall in behind them, and you lunge straight ahead. This time, when your sword of swirling lights meets Nothing There's scything blade, they are the one to buckle. Their strength is already returning, flesh weaving back into place and wounds vanishing, but with the erosion still clinging to their body it is no longer faster than you can inflict new ones. Oversized appendages flash into existence around you, covering your openings and striking at your opponent's. An oversized worm bursts from the ground to block another crushing blow. Your agents are extracting their toll as well, weapons tinged a sickly viridian. In desperation, Nothing There tries something different. They wheel around towards your agents, hand outstretched. You remember clearly how many disasters were preceded by exactly this moment; the one baiting the Abnormality not holding their attention and the rest of the facility being exposed to their wrath. Now, it's exactly the opportunity you've been waiting for.
"Do you really think you can turn your back on me and get away with it?" you roar, throwing your whole body towards the other Abnormality. Your wings collapse together, infinity compressed into a single point that skewers Nothing There's defenseless back. The branches split once more within the Aleph's body, branching and splitting throughout the unnatural flesh in pursuit of one goal. Normally, such a maneuver would be ineffective against Nothing There. But after their durability has been reduced by constant erosion, their regeneration weakened by the God Delusion's gaze, their movements hampered by your agents? This is child's play.
You twist, your many feet digging into the earth, and tear the network of Soul Gems free of Nothing There's body in a single motion. The spear of light rips through the Aleph's side in a clean arc, scattering crimson through the emerald seas around you. Your wings spread, sending the Soul Gems scattered safely to the far corners of your realm. Nothing There reaches futilely, desperation abundant as their voices join together in a single, indescribable cry.
And yet, there is still one left. Kyoko's Soul Gem, buried deeper than any other. You continue to reach for it as Nothing There rampages forth, tearing through the defenses you've built with a manic fury. You teleport away and draw your wings down again, pressing them into the ocean of chemicals and signaling Last Helix to fire again. Otherworldly limbs hammer into the restrained Aleph, peeling away layers of flesh to reach the center. You feel yourself cracking from the exertion, but you pay it no heed. It doesn't matter.
Mountains of worms descend as Last Helix's barrage ends, burying Nothing There beneath their flesh. Still the Aleph rages, and still more come. You continue your work, digging through to find Kyoko despite the growing pain. You can feel yourself dying, dragging out your life for more strength. Too much, too soon for an Abnormality still unfinished. This too is irrelevant. You can take it. You can go further.
A distant voice cuts through the screams. A tiny, almost inaudible cry. The voice of someone who absolutely, without question, should not be here now. Cannot be here now. With what little strength is left in your body, you turn to see no one who could have called out. Confused, you raise your voice into the empty air.
"…Homura?"
And the world shatters.
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