AN: First time promoting a snippet to a full thread. I did a full edit and update pass on the existing content, plus a new chapter bonus.
Let me know what you think!
~~~
American in DxD
Prologue
~~~
There are a great number of things that make me extremely concerned about my country. Things that just don't… exist in other parts of the world.
Like how just three days ago I had been doing some random online research at the Public Library in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
And today I find myself at a flea market in one of the districts - or was it actually a suburb? I hadn't checked, just giving the address to the cab driver, and promptly forgetting about it, while being incredibly thankful I hadn't needed to drive out in the unfamiliar city - of Dallas, Texas.
More specifically, I was surrounded by more different types of guns than I had ever seen in one place in my life.
Every single merchant here was more than happy to try to sell me - an obvious teenager clocking in at around 5' 10" (177 cm) tall with bright blue eyes and long, bright orange hair pulled into twin tails with cute bangs - literally anything I wanted.
Assuming I could afford it, naturally. They might all be red blooded Americans, exuberant to be getting a cute girl to handle enough iron to arm a third world country a dozen times over, but they still needed cash to pay for all their BBQ, beer, and bullets.
If it wasn't for the fact that I was in desperate need of some proper gear, I might be worried about such casual disregard for such pesky things as 'gun laws', 'weapon regulations', or even 'basic ethics'. Seeing as I was currently planning a cross-European trip with a final stop in Japan scheduled to be completed in less than 3 months to take my place as a 'foreign placement student' to the prestigious Kuoh Academy - yes that Kuoh Academy - I could hardly care less. Though I was desperately in need of enough firepower to deal with the pit of insanity and hormones that was High School DxD.
Stopping at the stall that had the identifying markers I had been looking for, I turned and looked up at the manager of Forest Gun Shop.
And up again.
Being only a couple inches shy of 6 feet in my current (new) form, I had basically no need over the last several days to actually look up at anyone, ever since waking here. Someone topping 6 and a half feet and able to do a reasonable stand in for a brick wall was a damned good reason to change that, and the shopkeeper had a cheerful smirk as he watched my reaction.
"Tina O'Neill." I offer alongside my hand. "With 2 L's. Here for some of your more… blessed collection."
"Jeb." He said with a typical southern drawl, taking my hand into his massive paw. "Jeb Forest. And I'd be happy to help the little lady do the Lord's work."
He chuckled, nodding at me having not reacted to the test - which only now did I notice was a test I was subject to, mostly due to the excessive amount of Holy objects around in addition to his phrasing - he released my hand only to clap his hands and spread them dramatically over the empty table.
Only he wasn't showing off an empty table, as it was instead covered in an entire array of different guns of a variety of models, alongside a row of empty hilts.
Except… these guns were based on the exorcist Light Gun. And like any Proper American gunshop, Jeb had taken the generic looking Light Gun and modified the hell out of it.
Repeatedly.
Aside from a couple - 'relatively' lightly modified - Light models, each of them had clearly been adjusted to offer a variety of different elemental effects, from basic elements like Fire, to stranger things like water or beer - sampled from multiple breweries, all definitely American made.
With a matching hilt for each specialized element. Because if there was anything more stereotypically American than a selection of exotic guns, it was a selection fo exotic guns with matching Lightsabers.
(Don't tell Disney.)
There were even a few that seemed designed to shoot actual spells via specially engraved bullets. Not what I imagined when I thought 'Gun Wizard', though it clearly had a market with the wide selection of spell etched ammo to choose from, though the claim that they 'needed no mana' probably helped.
Finally there was what I was here for - Mana Guns, or guns that you could channel your own mana through to fire and could control and customize the bullet effects on the fly with a bit of skill and practice. Something that elsewhere might be mistaken for a focus or a wand, but gun shaped.
I picked out a matched pair of black and white hand cannons that looked like they had been based off a more squared off Deagle, and relished the feel of them in my hands. Between the solid heft, the perfectly balanced weight, and the way they seemed to effortlessly just mold to my hands, they were amazing.
"Mama like~." I purred not-so-quietly to my new weapons.
Jeb laughed. "Those are some little guns for the little lady, I see. Only wanting the best for Tiny Tina, eh?"
I blushed at his teasing, and realized that my new pistols were probably the 2nd or 3rd largest handguns on the entire table.
"Only if you could give me a tiny discount too?" I countered with a slight smile.
He laughed, and we got down to the time honored tradition of haggling.
I made sure to also snag a pair of matching Mana Sword hilts, to Jeb's resounding laughter.
~~~
The gun shop had actually been my second stop at the open air flea market. The first simply being a nostalgic call back to all the times I had gotten bootleg anime and manga by the 100 episode packs from similar markets.
Except instead of bootleg anime or manga with questionable tier translations, it was for questionable quality digitizations of entire course loads of textbooks from several of the largest - or not so large - magician colleges and guilds both nationally and globally.
Or would that be 'internationally'? With all the different pantheons, religious groups, and other factions of this kitchen sink of a universe, and the untold number of pocket and sub dimensions, what would be a better term for the entire world plus attached pocket dimensions? And that's without going into the number of different underworld or heaven equivalents floating around.
With the entire collection of DVDs of formatted, digitized textbooks and my new pair of magical handguns(with matching lightsabers), I had the two main the foundational pieces of how I was expecting to survive the next semester in this hell world - magic (or magical tools) and the magic power(or mana) to power them.
That left one major type of power I still had available to me without having been born with it (such as a Sacred Gear, or a racial power, like youjutsu or demonic power).
Touki.
A power that anyone could unlock with enough effort, focus, and training.
Or I could instead double down and shoot for the moon. Instead of limiting myself to just the external expression of Ki, I could risk sanity to go for everything.
Senjutsu. The Sage Arts.
For all that the buddhas and youkai act and make claims like they are the only ones capable of mastering these arts, it was very far from the truth. At best they simply had a near universal basic level of proficiency that didn't require as strenuous training to acquire.
Like Touki, every living being is capable of learning to harness Senjutsu. Every continent, every mythology, every pantheon was full of myths and stories of individuals of legend capable of tapping into these powers and abilities. There are as many different ways to gain some access to the Sage Arts as there are pantheons and civilizations.
Based on what I could remember of the DxD timeline… I simply don't have the years needed to develop the skill normally. The 3 month window I was currently operating in was strictly tied to the monetary incentives linked to my scholarship at Kuoh, and were not anything plot relevant. So there was precious little to promise that just going with the flow would help me avoid the monsters that were currently roaming the world trying to start shit, leaving me simply hoping they weren't going to cross my path even before then.
So… I commissioned a Grandmaster tier seal expert to design my training tool, and found an artist capable of working with the appropriate grade of reactive ink to tattoo it directly onto my very being.
Deeper than just my skin.
I walked into the seemingly mundane trailer covered in drawn coils of a large feathered serpent floating around it that burned like a bonfire to what little mystical senses I currently had. The internal lobby of the mobile tattoo parlor was as exactingly clean and organized as I would expect of the quality of recommendations I had been able to find.
"Tina O'Neill, with 2 L's, for Q's 4 o'clock." I told the receptionist, who barely looked up from her book, only marking something down before absently pulling out a clipboard of paperwork for me to fill out. I took it with a bid of thanks as I retreated to a chair to fill everything out, and chuckled at the fact I was easily filling out more than 10 times the paperwork for my little bit of ink than I had for all the weapons I had gotten earlier. I turned it in once I finished, then withdrew the design from my not-quite bottomless bag that had been part of my first purchase of the day.
The design was of a paired primary seal with each side supposed to draw in an amount of raw, unfiltered natural energy freely littered with its natural impurities, then both halves would crash that energy into a central point as part of the secondary seal. The secondary seal would, after a slight delay, force a purge that would purify what it could, and eject the rest.
A tall woman with long blonde hair with an ornament with orange and green feathers, and bronzed skin, came to get me for my appointment. Handing her my copy of the design to compare against the one I had sent her previously, she gave me a large, sharp toothed grin.
"I can tell, you are going to be great fun!" Q told me, her green eyes sparkling as she finished going through my paperwork to start going over the final details. "You are sure you want to leave these parts open for adjustment, yes?"
"Yes, I'm sure." I confirm. "Can you make sure to leave me a copy of the instructions for how to make updated versions please?"
"Definitely! That won't be a problem." She turns to finish getting the enchanted inks ready as I bare the needed area for her to set the stencil and get comfortable on her chair.
Getting the seal to have a selectively variable output was something I had been initially hesitant about going through with, as it was exponentially more difficult to do correctly. Though if my instincts were even slightly on point about my current artist, skill was the least of my worries, so I opted for the best version I could.
Looking down at the stencil of the seal I was about to get permanently inked into my skin, I could only laugh to myself about the humor of this world.
~"Master, it would be easier to loot the building if it was leveled first."~ A cultured feminine voice chimed in English from the figure that Lint had finally tracked down barely an hour ago.
The suspected devil had been wrecking Church aligned locations for the past several weeks. And despite leaving gratuitous destruction in her wake, she had avoided any serious escalation by only taking common equipment and occasional prototypes.
For all they turned everywhere into desolate ruins in flashes of now trademark orange magic and explosions, they had been surprisingly non-lethal. They were even content to leave any Relics behind after simply inspecting them.
Non-lethal, however, did not mean harmless.
For all that there had not been any fatalities, dozens of teams of exorcists were still stuck in recovery. Rumors before she left had spoken of efforts to get the current Healing Saintess to personally make the rounds to prevent weeks of rehab leaving entire countrysides vulnerable. Lord knew what the devils, or even a resurgent pantheon, would do to attempt to gain a foothold.
The targeted building below both of their vantage point was that of one of the more remote monasteries in Budapest, tended to by a core team of local exorcists. It, like many previous targets, was not a place of note. Its existence was assured only from the cushion of being within one of the major hearts of power for the Orthodox Church.
Not that such a guarded location seemed to mean a damn. Targets in northern Italy and even inside London itself hadn't prevented attacks there. Even the most sanctified of locations suffered greatly.
It was almost as if Holy Ground meant nothing to this devil. But who else could be doing this? There had been no trace of Light Power for any Fallen, nor anything that could trace to any of the Magician Guilds.
Certainly no traces of any Fae, the only unaligned pantheon that had any presence in the lands along the path of destruction.
And without any traces of Demonic Power for leverage, the Church was forced to send someone to track the target down manually.
Days of scouring had led her towards Eastern Europe, and only a lucky break of catching a burst of the distinctive orange magic had gotten Lint her current lead.
Lord willing the other voice wasn't the rest of the devil's peerage ready to come through a summoning circle.
"We aren't here to loot the place." Her target, a tall woman with loose long orange hair, scolded the other voice in a distinctly American accent. "Just after a bit of information. I only need them to answer a few simple questions, just without them doing something stupid. That's all."
Now that was an invitation if she had ever heard one, an excitedly wide grin forming on the elite exorcist's face as she stepped out of her hiding place.
"Hey, I can do something stupid." Lint offered cheerfully, punctuated by firing her already drawn Light gun.
~chime~ ~"Protection."~
Orange sparks radiated off an overlapping orange hexagonal barrier as it deflected the Light bullet safely away the targeted calf.
"Or I can answer questions…" She cheerfully continued, seemingly uncaring. Until one looked at the excitement crawling across her face at the opening shot being handled so easily.
~chime~ ~"Setup."~
A blinding flash of solid orange wrapping around her target interrupted Lint, before the effects shattered off in a sparkling light show, revealing the other woman dressed in an entirely new outfit, complete with twin tails and a pair of small white double barreled pistols pointed directly at the red eyed agent of the Church.
"Or I could ask some questions." Lint's words trailed off in tones of curiosity and desire.
How this girl managed to instantly go from having her long hair loose while wearing cutoff shorts and a t-shirt to perfectly stylized twin tails fastened with black ribbon and a fancy combat outfit in barely a fraction of a second she had no idea.
Comparing her own short shorts and full jacket over a leotard to the foe's revealed choice of white sleeveless half jacket and armored skirt over black armless bodysuit with hip hugging skirt, it only took a moment for her to decide.
'Lint want~.'
Though if that 'want' was targeted at that technique, at that outfit, or at that bo- questions for later!
Dodging bullets now!
A pair of glowing orange orbs hovering on the muzzles of those pistols launched mini bullet like versions of themselves at her swiftly - though markedly slower than the normal bullets she occasionally trained herself against. The effect was a bit underwhelming… until a volley suddenly varied its speed to hem her in.
"Yes! That's what I'm talking about!" She cackled, Light sword igniting in her right hand to slice herself an opening as she spun through the attacks as she moved. Taking advantage of her enhanced speed, Lint dashed back and forth around the magical bullets trying to take her down.
An orb detonated nearby, only her enhanced reflexes avoiding a direct hit, buffeted her with its shockwave as it sent her flying away. A careful shift of balance used her training to turn the wild flight into a whirling defense as the exorcist used her blade to cut down another handful of orbs. The spinning defense turned into a frantic tumbling routine as the easily predicted orbs suddenly started to arc around to track her movements.
As a return burst of harassing gun fire was blocked by the same overlapping hexagonal barrier as before, Lint saw that she had been pushed back, and subtly herded over a hundred feet further from her target than she had started while being led away from the monastery.
"Oh this is great fun indeed!" She cheered, casually cutting through the final pair of orbs she saw actively tracking her. "I am quite glad I got to play with you today, even if you are a shitty devil."
"What?! Why would you… How would that..." The taller girl sputtered, cheeks flushing. "But I'm not a devil!"
"Really?" Lint asked, tone curious as she distractedly bounced the flat of her Light blade on her shoulder. "You destroy churches thoroughly enough to be one."
"Destroy churches? That's why? Fucking hypocrites!" Her enemy cursed, guard relaxing slightly at the continued pause in hostilities. "I never started any of those fights!"
~"Those buildings were in the way, Master"~ came the aristocratic voice from before.
Not that Lint could see where the voice was coming from. Not a summoning flier, based on the reaction from being called a devil.
"Shut it, you." The twin tailed girl ordered… her guns? "You are the last person I want to hear that shit from."
~"Yes, Sir."~
"..."
~"Releasing Firin-"~
"No! Cancel that! None of that!" The mage scrambled to order her companion. "We finally find someone capable of rubbing at least two brain cells together while not being a Darwin Award aspirent, I am not letting you ruin that!"
Ignoring further by-play of the screaming girl and her weapons, Lint was finally able to take in the battlefield properly.
Her target seemed content to stand on the unusually large magic circle as it hovered inches off the ground. Its concentric circles rotated in opposite directions under her feet while glowing the same orange as the dozen larger orbs that hung suspended around her.
The formerly pristine hillside facing away from the monastery was now in ruins. A trail of craters and destruction from dodged attacks dotted the landscape, leaving the grasses devastated, and trees destroyed in addition to the bisected trunks and diced tree limbs from her own defenses.
The crater of her near miss was over 5 feet across, and the white and black haired exorcist felt her heart rate spike at realizing that she could properly kick it up a notch.
"We could just have a normal conversation, you know. Like a couple of civilized people!"
Oops, she got caught being distracted. Looked like the argument between weapon and wielder had ended while she was busy getting excited.
"But that's boring." Lint replied happily. "How about instead we finish this little duel of ours? If you win, I'll even answer your questions!"
"...and if I lose?"
"If you lose…" Lint tapped a finger to her lips in thought, clearly having only intended the initial offer as bait. "I guess… I drag you back to the church and then you'll get to answer some questions?"
"You should not look so goddamn adorable while being that threatening..."
The exorcist wasn't sure what to make of that, so just shrugged cutely and smiled, inwardly more focused on being able get a proper fight.
"You know what? Fine." The American mage said after a few seconds of silence. "That's fine. Definitely fine. Totally going to be fine…"
The exorcist had an odd feeling like someone stepping on her grave.
"Razing Heart."
Just the name reverberated through the air, the feel of it sending chills straight down the spine of the supernaturally engineered exorcist.
~"Yes, My Master."~
The replying voice hadn't changed at all, still calm and refined, gentle yet firm. The guns they came from, however, seemed to have gained a distinctly sinister air.
Lint threw herself forward, reflexes trained and conditioned to be able to deal with high level devils being the only thing that saved her from being cut down instantly.
The exorcist cheered out loud at the thrill brought by the sudden increase in pressure, and started freely abusing her strength, her feet cratoring the trees she used as platforms to maneuver the battlefield. It took a moment for the sudden change in tactics to come into focus.
The orbs she had been dealing with previously had been slower - relatively speaking, they were still faster than thrown weapons - because they were being guided and controlled. The battlefield control alone that such tactics offered was more than enough to completely dominate mundane forces. And that was sheerly through the precision strikes, without any of the explosive options.
It was against mid-level supernatural threats that the flaws started to show. Once enemies got fast enough, it became really hard to land any hits. Without a reliable threat of getting hit, area control suffers. And without enough power to punch through defenses, everything else falls apart.
Aside from the explosions, most of the orangettes attacks from the previous exchange lacked the edge needed to make them a true threat.
Lint very likely could have just tanked entire volleys without care. Several of her siblings from back at the Institute would have, just to show off how strong they were.
Bunch of muscle brained idiots. Of all the enemies to just take free shots from, devils and mages were among the worst. Those were always the worst about having access to things that will screw you over unexpectedly.
Better to not invite that sort of trouble in the first place.
Now, however… size, control, and guidance had all been exchanged for raw speed. Especially dangerous was that those other factors had only been reduced, not removed. Some had enough power to turn tree trunks to matchsticks, and several others had retained enough of their tracking ability to turn several fairly clean dodges instead into nearly solid hits that had dug in painfully.
Little more than an annoyance at her current level, though the threat of death by a thousand cuts remained.
The final and fatal weakness of the mage's style, however, was that she needed to remain stationary while on top of a giant, glowing 'please attack me here' sign.
It was past time to kick things up a notch anyway, and see if this girl was just another boring glass cannon or had real weight.
Kicking off one last tree, Lint figuratively shot herself directly at the girl - with a few literal shots bouncing off that annoying shield - as she finally closed the distance and brought her sword down to disarm the mage.
~chime~ ~"Dagger Mode."~
Only for one of the guns to gain a glowing orange blade that formed in time to block the cut.
"Nice!" She cheered, to the larger girl's scowl. "I knew you could do it! Let's go!"
Not caring for a reply, the smaller girl danced around her opponent, blade flashing in constantly. Her foe managed to parry, block, or deflect enough strikes with their orange blade, or array of other defensive magics to keep all her insides… inside.
Barely.
Catching the glowing orange blade against her own, and the exorcist smirked at the mage over how poorly the fraying magic was holding together.
Rather than rise to the bait, the other girl sighed.
"I will let you in on a secret."
"Oh?"
"I am not left handed."
The exorcist looked from her face, to the gun turned energy sword in the girl's left hand, then back to her face again in confusion.
"What?"
~chime~ ~"One Hand Mode."~
The gun in the mage's other hand vanished and a twirl drew the hilt of a Mana sword - the unaligned equivalent of her Light sword that traded the consistent effortless power of an Angel's Light Power for a variable effect dependant on it's wielder's skill, power, and ability in Magical Power - the now pair of blades suddenly working in concert to push the supersoldier back.
"See, it is shit like this that makes me glad I was able to raid that gun show in Texas before I left." The other girl said in a way that explained… nothing.
Aside from the surprise, and sudden shift in rhythm, the second blade really did little to help the mage in close range. Especially against both a supersoldier and a sword specialist that outclassed her notably in both speed and skill. It took little time before little nicks started wearing through her defenses.
"Ha! First blood is mine!" The exorcist cheered at the line of blood she finally managed to draw on her opponent's shoulder, having finally gotten a cut fully through the pesky hexagonal shield.
"Dammit!"
"Definitely not a devil then." Lint noted, seeing the lack of allergic-type reactions or pained screaming.
"...thanks for clearing that up. Now if you would stop trying to cut me up?" The orange haired girl asked, continuing her defensive dance of trying to avoid further cuts while still remaining roughly on her magic circle.
"Mou~ What fun would that be?" The exorcist pouted. "It's just getting fun!"
Not that the fun was going to last much longer. The reactive shield that had initially given the mage such a solid defense seemed to have drained enough from the continued strain that it stopped appearing for minor strikes entirely. With only her skill with dual blades left, even the solid round magic shield that was enough to handle even her stronger blows wasn't going to be enough to matter.
'Or maybe not?' Lint thought when a cut towards a calf was completely rebuffed by the seemingly normal white thigh highs.
"Cheating!" She complained. "Boo!"
"Boo my ass!" The mage countered while jumping back to disengage.
"That's it! I'm adding proper sleeves." The other girl was looking over the cuts and marks that littered her arms. "Or at least longer gloves."
Looking over the completely sleeveless outfit with wrist length gloves, the exorcist could only nod in agreement. It was a rather large opening - ignoring, of course, the two different layers of magical protections that had been countered to leave those marks.
Before she could re-engage, she noticed a white wispy glow started flowing off the mage's skin.
"That's not magic, is it?"
"No. No it is not." Her opposite confirmed with the barest hints of a grin.
"Good." She said cheerfully, excitement shining from her crimson eyes as she flashed forward with her blade again.
It obviously was Touki, now that Lint got a proper look at it between swings. Fighting Aura, something that could easily push a well trained warrior up to an entirely new tier of power, was something that she had only previously seen on complete monsters of fighters in direct combat.
A label for which this girl - for all her skill at ranged magic - did not qualify.
Despite the boost she knew it gave… all that this mage was able to do with it was barely not lose.
"I have been curious," the mage huffed out, taking advantage of a lull to swap to a second gun-turned-sword after the Mana blade had nearly been cut in two, "if you understood my magic yet."
"It was rather impressive," The exorcist had no issues admitting, "though fairly weak against any decent level enemy."
'Like me' was left heard, though unsaid.
"Really needs a partner, though, since being stationary like that is way too big of an opening."
~chime~ ~"Round Shield."~
A large magic circle split the battlefield, a shield nearly a dozen feet across forming between them, causing the exorcist to hesitate re-engaging.
"So you haven't, not really. I am not sure if that makes me happy or sad." The mage shook her head, a single hand still holding a weapon stretched out towards the shield. "You have pushed me to reveal so many of my secrets and I just realized I do not know your name. That is really gonna bug me later if I don't ask now…"
"My name is Tina, by the way. Tina O'Neill, with 2 L's." The mage, Tina, gave a friendly wave with her otherwise free hand.
"And I am Lint. Lint Sellzen. Pleased to meet ya." Lint gave a slight bow, and cheery wave, amused at the current interruption to the decently enjoyable fight they had been having.
"Now see, all those attacks earlier? The ones you were easily able to handle? Those were just the basics, being manually casted. Not real spell spells. I had hoped that being able to keep up while fighting inside the spell would help me take it to the next level, but I guess I am not ready for that yet."
Lint's mind was racing.
Basics. The varying speed, the coordination of the shots, the number of attacks…
Manually casted?!
Wait, what?!
The large magic circle between them vanished.
~chime~ ~"Cross Fire Shoot."~
"Wait, what?!"
The dozen suspended orange orbs that Lint had been content ignoring, while fighting on top of an active magic circle, suddenly moved all at once.
All the features of the previous attacks? Size? Speed? Homing ability?
All on a completely different level - and fitting for the name of the spell - while seemingly being fired as if she was in the middle of the perfect cross fire of an ambush.
But Lint wasn't an elite exorcist for show. With ample practice against this exact style of attacks - even if they were stronger now - simplified things greatly.
It still took every drop of ability and skill to weave around attacks. Her sword was there, cutting her a way through its part of the deluge of attacks. The edge still sharp enough to cut through the spell work, stripping a handful of attacks of their power in the process.
That wasn't to say she made it out unscathed, as the shockwave of more than one missed attack still ripped through her, and at least one had solidly hit her arm with what felt like bone shattering force.
A pair of the attacks had even turned into beams - one of which she was able to deflect away from her face with her sword, while the other had managed to hit, burning into her calf from behind.
Though the damage didn't look as bad as it felt when the dust cleared enough to see. No broken bones, no burned skin. The bone deep ache and feeling of having been worked over by a truck was, if anything, worse without the expected physical evidence.
"Ouchie." She said tauntingly, with a cheeky smile despite the pain.
"Tch. I figured that wouldn't be enough."
~"Cross Fire Shoot."~
Already moving as soon as the other voice spoke, the exorcist was reminded why fighting competent combat mages sucked.
Rather than using a cloud of existing orbs, half a dozen new orbs spun into existence, forming a circle around the pair of guns aimed directly at her, before shooting forward in a wide beam.
Despite having already been dodging, a trailing beam that spun like a helix around the main beam was enough to rip out a massive chunk out back of her combat jacket with a glancing blow.
The second attack was actually easier to deal with than the first, thanks in no small part to being able to deal with it head on.
Not that Lint had any desire to deal with either again, as she again used the trees as high speed platforms to close in on her opponent.
~"Divine Shooter."~
Not that Tina was making it easy on her. The mage jumped away leaving a handful of small orbs forming then lancing out as beams that tracked her movements and could turn in unexpectedly sharp angles.
Deflecting several with her sword, and managing to side step all but a graze from one did little to slow her charge. The mage wasn't that impressive in melee, so all she needed to do was get into melee range while not holding back, and it would be over in an instant.
There! Taking a big step forward, she swung her sword down just right to force a block with the solid shield. Using the leverage from the expected block, Lint pivoted to reach in and…
~"Binding Shield."~
..get caught. Arm trapped, wrapped in chains that bound her to the suspended circle. Unable to follow as Tina jumped away.
"I really had been hoping to have just had a normal conversation, you know." The American sounded tired, exhausted even, yet still full of determination.
~chime~ ~"Blazer Mode."~
The twin double barrel pistols shifted. Barrels and frame melting together, shifting with the main barrel growing to over double its previous length. The frame itself had grown to match, becoming longer, larger, sleeker, all together more futuristic looking.
This was unusual. Sacred Gears were the only thing that she had come across in even her high level exorcist training that were even remotely like this. Except she had never heard of one that could grow from the size of a compact handgun to hand cannons over half again as large as her Light gun
~"Releasing Firing Lock."~
"But no, it had to be a fight. So here we are." The other woman continued solemnly resolute.
~chime~ ~"Loading Cartridge."~
*Ca-chunk ca-chunk* echoed from the hand cannons in unison, sending shivers down the trapped exorcist's spine as she could feel the building magical energy surrounding her opponent.
"You did promise to answer my questions after I won. So I am going to hold you to that. And so there is no confusion, I will not let this end as anything other than an unquestionable victory. And you will be answering my questions."
~"Divine"~
A magic circle spun itself into existence under the mage's feet, as another resolved into being centered on the muzzle of those massive cannons of handguns that were pointed directly at her.
Additional circles formed, looking like loops forming a tunnel leading from the building orange sphere of power directly to Lint's still bound form.
"So let's be friends after this, okay?"
~"Buster."~
The massive sphere exploded, and the blinding orange light of that concentrated magical power filled the small white and black haired exorcist's vision, even as she struggled to pull what Faith magic she could use to protect herself from the onslaught.
For a desperate moment it felt like the shield she had managed to pull together would hold, the Light colored shield seeming to hold the orange at bay.
Until that hope crumbled and died as the shield shattered, and the orange beam consumed her, and became her entire world.
~"I admit my calculations were off, master."~ Razing Heart said, from inside her standby form of a fancy looking white metal playing card.
I pause in working the conditioner out of my hair to raise a sceptical eyebrow at the concerningly out of character admission.
"Oh?"
~"It took more than six times longer than calculated for you to deal with all the targets at the church."~
I stop, looking over at the overly smug little shit of an intelligent device, before turning away to continue with my hair and enjoying the running water.
I knew she was messing with me. I knew she knew I knew she was messing with me.
Shit like this is why I bound the gem that functioned as her core with an X inside a circle, even in her card form. It didn't actually do anything, but symbolism made me feel better.
"Oh why did I have to get you?" I grumbled aloud. "Why couldn't I have gotten the original Cross Mirage? Or even the gentlemanly Bardiche? But noooo, I had to get the evil half sibling of the blood thirsty device that turned Nanoha from that caring little girl into the White Devil."
~"Praise me more, master."~
"Grrr! See if I get you that upgrade!"
~"Master will grant it to me for her own sake."~
I hated that the little shit was right. Despite nearly a dozen different prototype devices, with dozens of different configurations of basic spells, I ended up with the best compatibility with twin guns focused on shoot and bombardment configurations.
That Razing Heart happened to also have the best synchronization rate with me while being the most powerful and effective device AI I had managed to create to date did not help.
That she was still leagues behind what even the weakest of the Intelligent Devices could be expected to do in the world I was basing her on meant little. She stood as a testament to how far I had gotten in recreating the Midchilda and Belka magic systems from Nanoha, and getting them to function within the world of a shitty titty anime and its math based magic systems.
Not that I would admit that out loud. She already has a big enough ego.
"I hate you." I told my device instead.
~"Love you too, master."~
I finished rinsing off, and exited in just a towel before my new travel companion started to really wake up.
"Mrlglm."
Not that it wasn't a work in progress for the exorcist. With only my skill at healing, trying to treat the damage - even at the non-lethal setting - was going to leave residual aches.
"Good morning, sleepy head."
"mph?" A single red eye opened in the nest of blankets and pillows she had made of the bed in the cabin I had booked for the sleeper train.
"Where… am I?" The exorcist Lint Sellzen asks as she pops herself out of the blankets to get upright enough to look around the cabin, her white and black hair a total mess. I watched her face shift through a too-quick series of emotions as her red eyes tracked the darkened nighttime landscape as it moved past the train's window, before returning to me.
"Bitch, did you kidnap me?!" She accused in a more confused than angry tone.
"Bitch, I might have!" I matched her tone, before calming down and going back to drying my hair. "You did promise to answer my questions but then you rudely passed out. So I brought you with."
"Fair enough." She grumbled, before she dropped to sprawl on the bed. "Why are you so calm anyway? We are enemies, you know."
"We were enemies." I corrected, switching from drying to just brushing out my orange locks. "We're friends now."
"What." I could feel her raising an eyebrow at me sceptically.
"You were befriended, so now we are friends." I look at her over my shoulder. "Simple."
"What?" Her confusion lasted a moment before she shook her head and pulled herself into a seated position on the bed. "And what the hell was that magic? Fought with lots of magicians, usually lots of ice, fire, or lightning, and never magic like that."
"Probably because I'm a magical girl." I shrug. "It's something that I have been tinkering with for a while. Razing here," I motion to my device, currently floating above my shoulder in its stand-by card form…
~chime~
…that chimes on cue, the cute little shit, "helps quite a bit."
She stares at me with a strange look on her face that I couldn't quite interpret, eyes switching between me and the floating card as I finish putting my hair into twin tails, before turning to sit on the counter to face her.
"What?"
"You made your own magic style?"
I look at her confused, pointing at myself. "Magical… girl."
"But your own magic style." She said, like repeating it changed anything. "Why?"
"Because Magical Girl, obviously. Friendship through Superior Firepower!" I declare boldly, hand on one bare hip, the other pointed shamelessly towards the sky.
"What the hell."
"American Magical Girl." I clarified, without shifting position.
"Oh." She nods as if the world made perfect sense again. "That makes sense then."
That sudden of a shift… on one hand it was more than a bit disconcerting. On the other hand, an American. With Gun Magic.
…fair.
"Also, what the hell is that?" She cries, pointing at my hips.
"Oh?" I ask, a teasing smile forming on my lips, my hands drop down as I relax my pose, slowly trailing down the bare skin of my sides, then over my hips before drawing together. "Well. I am a girl. So this is my-"
"Not that, idiot, the tattoo! The tattoo!" She interrupts with her cheeks aflame.
I chuckle, my hands moving instead to trace the tattoo over my womb. Overall it was a fairly simple design, with the center being a very stylized bagua that had been adjusted to conceal the seal within, surrounded by a multicolored feathered dragon that encircled it, its mouth open like it was about to take a bite out of something at the bottom as it nearly reached its tail.
The artistry, however, was fantastic.
"Oh, this?" I trace the dragon with my finger across my pale, hairless flesh, enjoying the mix of interest and desire that plays across the exorcist's face as I slowly do so.
Magic really was convenient for all sorts of things, even if I hadn't been able to use my recreated schools of magic to do something like remove all my body hair below my neck yet. I'd eventually get it to the point I didn't need anything else, but I didn't mind 'cheating' on them for some utility spells.
Eventually I decided I had teased the poor church girl enough, as her eyes had continued to follow my finger as it slowly traced over the dragon from nose to tail, over and over. "It's a gift, and training tool. It is how I learned senjutsu."
Licking her lips as she processed that, her eyes not moving from my fingers. "Could I get that?"
"Hmm…" I ponder briefly, considering both the seal and the training I had gone through to continue functioning normally. "Probably? Wouldn't recommend it though, at least without finding an artist at least as skilled as the priestess - or aspect, or goddess, whichever they actually were - was to do it for you."
Her eyes shifted to lock onto mine at the mention of a 'goddess', burning with a sudden intensity that reminded me that this was still, in fact, a zealot of the Vatican, despite her cute features and until now adorable demeanor.
"What?"
I shrug, utterly unfazed by the bite in my new friend's tone. "I got this done with the blessing of the goddess - god? genders can get so confusing with deities - Quetzalcoatl. See this feathered serpent? Not sure if it was a priestess, just some aspect, or the god herself that actually did it. I just know it's blessed regardless. And I would seriously recommend against getting it without a similar sort of skill and blessing. I ended up effectively crippled for days and essentially bedridden for over a week with one."
She blanched at that. Apparently a week of bedrest wasn't the sort of training she considered fun?
Not that even I thought it had been a fun week. Dealing with your body actively rebuilding your meridians while awake to handle the damage from the sudden influx of potent and pure life energy was not something I would casually recommend. The week-long nausea and flu-like symptoms from having to deal with all the negativity and toxicity of the raw, unfiltered life force that the seal dragged into the body before violently purging it when you are too slow to cleanse it manually was even more unpleasant.
Great training though.
"It still kicks my ass when I crank it up, but I am skilled enough at this point that you don't really need one. I can teach you well enough with just Bouchujutsu."
"Bouchujutsu?" The way her face scrunched up in confusion at the unfamiliar word was utterly adorable. I was half tempted to push her down and give her proper demonstration, if only I wasn't unsure how she would react to that.
"Some call it 'the bedroom method'." I offer instead with a smile.
She blinked, before asking hesitantly. "But… shouldn't that require a man?"
"Only if you suck at it. The bedroom method uses the difference between the concentration of yin and yang between the partners. Within the most yin, there is yang, and within the strongest yang there is yin. So with enough skill, any difference is enough and it ceases to be an issue."
"Ummm…" She stuttered out, cheeks a brilliant red as the images danced through her mind.
"Don't worry though, it doesn't count as losing your virginity if it's with another woman." That's a thing that nun types worry about, right? Remaining pure and virginal? Like Artemis, the virgin Greek deity whose priesthood was entirely filled with lesbians.
Lint coughed, thumping her chest as she seemed to choke on something, then started slapping her cheeks with her hands as her breathing settled down.
"Right, I promised answers. So ask your questions. But first…"
She looked me up and down as I sat on the edge of the desk of our cabin.
"Can you put some clothes on?"
Her tone was entirely too familiar with having to make that request.
I looked over her barely there combat leotard, jacket and short shorts, and thought over what I remembered of the standard exorcist uniform from when Irina and Xenovia had ended up in Kouh town in the story.
If she had to deal with lots of exorcists that were meatheads like Xenovia, I could totally see that being a common thing.
I debated trying to tease her, or mess with her more, but decided to have some mercy. I had projects I needed to finish, and she was the one with the answers to help. So I shrugged, and pulled out a basic outfit of a white tank top, black short shorts, and a rainbow mini skirt and started putting them on.
"Also, could you please stop telling everyone the big secret?" She asked once I was most covered.
"Which one, that God is dead?"
"Yes." She hissed. "That one."
"They… didn't give you any of the actual details about who I actually told that to, did they?"
At her look of puzzlement, I continued.
"The only time I told anyone that secret was right before making them a eunuch." I paused, gauging her reaction. "Which I did only after they told me they would cleanse me of my sin…"
I give her the most flat look I can. "... with their dick. So I removed that problem, all without killing anyone."
"...Okay, that's fair."
"I certainly thought so."
I finished pulling up my thigh highs and started putting on my knee high boots.
"So, my questions. What can you tell me about Vampires?"
Vampires in the world of DxD existed in the crossroad of 'stupidly OP' and 'utter trash'. Between power over Mist, some of the most broken-by-default Shadow abilities despite not having a shadow of their own, and combat effective shapeshifting, they had one of the best racial kits in the entire setting. That they could then add to by drinking the blood of other species. Those boosts tended to be temporary, though it was certainly common enough for at least some of the effects to stick around.
To balance that out, they also had the worst set of weaknesses. Vampires had it so bad that getting reincarnated into a Devil actually reduced their weakness to both Holy and Light effects. And that's without additional things like the traditional issues with garlic, not being able to cross running water, needing to be invited into buildings, and needing to sleep in a coffin to heal themselves.
Oh, also being embroiled in the most sexist succession war in history.
But for my primary concern of 'how much of a useless parasitic race are they?', I got a resounding 'maybe?'
"So in short… Genocide, no. Mass purging, provisionally yes?"
The other girl in the train cabin sighed, clearly having grown rather resistant to my antics during our discussion. It had taken over an hour for her to fill me in and convince me that the reason why the Church - and the Vatican in particular - hadn't made a concentrated effort to just exterminate the vampires already was good enough for me to not make the attempt anyway.
Lint Sellzen was nothing if not a faithful exorcist of the Catholic Church, and member of this world's version of the Iscariot Organization.
"Provided at least some reasonable attempt at diplomacy is made, while innocents and civilians are left alone. Yes." She agreed, her words carrying the exhaustion of repetition.
"For as innocent there can be from a race that regularly hunts humans for sport and needs to feed off blood - feedings that frequently, though not necessarily, are to the death - to survive."
"Yes, that. " She agreed with me, seemingly glad to be finally moving on.
Turns out, vampires in this world are a bit like cockroaches - some of them would find a way to survive anything.
Including over a decade's focused effort by the Inquisition in the aftermath of the pause on the Great War nearly a millennia ago .
The chaos and bloodshed that came about when those scattered fragments returned to regain power was paradigm-shattering. The last attempt - not counting Van Hellsing, that crazy bastard had been more effective than the entire Inquisition in his lead up to, and cleaning up after, removing Dracula - had bumped into the numbers of the Black Plague before things settled down. So aside from culling any group that decided mass ritual sacrifice was a good idea, and fairly regular purgings of more extreme elements led to a tenuous status quo of the two major vampire houses keeping each other, and thus their entire species, in check.
That was… until one side ended up with access to the fucking Holy Grail.
The Sephiroth Graal, in addition to being a Longinus, was the strongest support and healing type Sacred Gear in existence. With a powerful and skillful enough user, it could completely remove any weakness from an entire species - and considering their weaknesses were essentially the only thing keeping vampire-kind from making a run at conquering the entire world…
I wasn't going to get too many complaints about going on a fun little walk through their countryside.
But first, Lint had insisted, I needed to meet with the Carmilla faction first. Because politics.
Hate politics.
I let myself fall backwards onto the bed with a groan, listening to the battle nun after she got her cell phone back.
"Yes, I managed to make contact with her. She's human, a mage. Tina O'Neill, with 2 L's."
I snort to myself, going through the memories I woke up with in this world. I hadn't replaced anyone so much as my memory had already been in control and just 'woke up' when directly confronted with evidence that this wasn't just an odd, though otherwise normal seeming modern world, but a world I knew.
So Tina O'Neill may not be the name on this world's original birth certificate, though it was legal enough to be correct at this point. And I already had the instincts to respond to it, smoother even than my old first name.
Figuring I had wasted enough time idle, I sat up and summoned a box of empty cartridges to my lap from my device as I tuned out the ranting of the exorcist as she found out the list of crimes of my 'victims' was a bit more extensive than I had mentioned.
As had been my 'punishments'.
I may not be a follower, but for all that the Bible consoled against murder, it was a mite bit fuzzier on things like kneecaps, and non-lethal magic had let me get… inventive.
~~~
I was pulled out of my focus on filling, charging, and sealing cartridges by the train's intercom alerting the passengers that we had almost arrived at the station. Storing the partially completed box in Razing Heart's inventory, I noticed that at some point after Lint had finished her phone calls and claimed a chair to watch me work.
I raised an eyebrow at her when she twitched upon finally noticing I had finished and started to unfold herself from the chair with a strange look in her red eyes.
"You really meant it, didn't you? When you called me a friend." She asked in a soft voice.
What part of that was confusing? We had a good, clean, honest fight. It was honestly a great fight, and she even forced me to figure out better ways to use Touki to keep up with her! Sure, I won in the end, with a proper beam of befriending even!
That's just the proper way for Magical Girls to make friends.
So why did treating her like a friend surprise her like this? And what had I done that had sparked the sudden realization?
"Of course I did. You are my friend Lint. Even if you are a religious zealot."
Lint puffed her cheeks out in a pout and scowled at me.
So cute!
She seemed more pleased than annoyed so I didn't mind, though she kept up her little glare until the train pulled to a stop. Due to the nature of the overnight trip, it was going to take a while for it to calm down enough to get out easily, so I was happy to just sit and enjoy the moment.
"What were you doing before?" She eventually breaks when her silent treatment has no effect.
"With the cartridges?" I ask, summoning the last partially complete box and pulling a trio of them out.
She nods, and takes the pair I offer her and inspecting them while I start filling the last one.
"These are Mana Cartridges. Whenever I have spare time and the spare mana, I use it to fill these so I have access to more power when I need it."
"Like with that big finale spell you used against me! Divine something or other?"
"Divine Buster, exactly!" I point at her. "Just like that. From what I can tell from talking with other mages online, I have pretty middling reserves. So I use these to make up for it."
Lint looks over the two shells that she has in her hands, obviously intrigued by the metal cartridges that looked like someone mixed a large magnum round with a shotgun shell. She compares the weight of them, looking a little surprised at how little extra the charged one seems to weigh.
"So how do they work?"
"Well, I based the original design off the way that Light Sabers hold Light Power." Which was technically true. I had the idea for the cartridge system from Nanoha, but I needed the Light weapons to actually have a design to iterate from so they could actually hold power.
"Unlike those, which hold their power and discharge it slowly like a battery, I needed something that could discharge all at once in a large, controlled burst."
"And since you are American, you picked bullet casings."
"Indeed, indeed." I chuckled with her. "I originally thought of using something like what was fired from under barrel grenade launchers, with shells the size of your fist, but decided those were entirely too big."
Lint considered the cartridge in her hand that she could easily wrap her hand around, and then her closed fist, before looking at me with wide eyes.
"Definitely American."
"Thanks!" I said with a smile, before I frowned slightly. "I think?"
She just laughed at me.
"So 'charging' them?" She asked.
"So, first I fill one with pure, unaspected mana. Once it's full, then I need to charge it so that it is ready and able to discharge as expected. Finally, I solidify a bit of mana at the end, making it temporarily inert so I can seal it shut." I match words to action with the cartridge in my hand. "Like so!"
I offer her the freshly sealed cartridge. The exorcist takes it, and compares it to the ones she already had in her hands.
"If it is that easy…" She asks, sounding uncertain.
"Why doesn't everyone do it?" I finished for her. At her nod, I continue. "Likely 2 reasons. First is efficiency. If I were to label the mana able to be released from this cartridge as '100 units', how many 'units' do you think I spent to charge it?"
"Umm… 200?"
"Try more than 500."
"But.." She starts counting visibly on her fingers. "... that's worse than 20%!"
"Exactly! I only charge them when I won't be doing much else with my mana, and I use the entire process to train my mana control and on manually controlling my mana regeneration. So it's great training." I give her a wide grin, happy to share my training ideas.
"Umm…" Lint gives me a concerned look. "Doesn't messing up manual mana regeneration have, like, really bad side effects?"
"Ooooh yea it does." I wince at the memory of doing so several times early on. For all that ki meridians and pathways for mana cores were different mystical structures, the feeling of those channels rupturing is painfully similar. "But then it becomes senjutsu training, so it works out as good training in the end."
She gives me a very concerned look, the sort I had seen past friends give someone before all the sharp objects suddenly vanished from around them.
"Anyhoo, the other reason is that it requires special equipment - and frequently modified spells - to be able to make use of the unaligned mana. You see, once it gets sealed like this, it will work only slightly better for me than anyone else. So it's an entirely extra set of things to train to be able to use it properly."
"Yet you do." She accuses.
"I'm always training. If there is one thing I love about traveling around Europe, it's the trains. I can get so much more training done without having to sacrifice any focus on driving."
"...that is probably the most American thing I have ever heard you say."
I shrug, not contesting it. American mass transit sucked.
"So I got in contact with the Carmilla Faction while you were… occupied. They promised to send representatives to meet us here for an early brunch."
I stand up and stretch, my hands straining to try to reach the ceiling before relaxing. "And how likely are they to try to start shit?"
She shakes her head. "They will be official envoys, so they won't."
"And the not so official envoys that will no doubt be following them?"
She gives a sharp grin. "Eh, about 50 50."
I frown. "That low?"
"We are women."
"And it's the Carmilla faction." I nod, before frowning. "You didn't contact the Tepes faction at all, did you?"
She gives me a look that could curdle milk from 100 yards. "Of course not."
Which means that they will likely be extra trigger happy to try to jump me once they realize I was literally just in contact with the Carmillas before walking into their territory. But if they attack first, then purging the entire castle is self defense.
A viciously happy grin fills my face as I finish gathering what supplies I had left out and slip Razing Heart into its device holster on the belt of my skirt, and turn to my companion.
"So… want to go with me for a nice afternoon stroll through the woods?"
The look she gives me is equally predatory to my own. "Oh fuck the hell yes."
My companion gave me a strange look before turning her eyes back to the road in front of her.
Lint had laid claim to the driver's seat as soon as I had gotten the keys for the current rental, citing concern about me probably driving on the wrong side of the road. Which wasn't much of a concern, considering we weren't in England and the rest of the EU drove on the proper, right side of the road.
Personally, I think just didn't want me to use the vehicle as a battering ram on the first vampire we came across.
Meanwhile I was in the passenger seat, Razing Heart laying flat in her card form projecting a small hologram of my combat outfit that I was making adjustments to based on other outfits designs I can stored previously. My arms still stung from all the fine cuts Lint had laced my arms with during our initial fight, despite them being completely healed hours ago.
"A 90 minute drive back home would barely be enough to get halfway across the state. Here it's enough to get you to the other side of the country."
Lint just rolls her eyes at me, before focusing on the increasingly steep mountain road.
After making my final adjustments - happy with giving my jacket short sleeves and gloves that covered my entire forearms for now - I slipped Razing Heart into my cleavage for safe keeping.
"So… was there some sort of power play I missed earlier?"
"How so?" The exorcist spared me a glance, obviously willing to engage now that I had stopped poking fun at her homeland.
"Well… a pair of vampires met with us in a building during the day. I'm not sure if that was some sort of bait, or if it was a flex that the meeting was during daylight."
She visibly thought it over for a bit. "Probably both? Supernatural politics can be weird with all the different instincts and crazy dick measuring shit people can get up to. I was there as an official member of the Church, so there was already some measure of understanding that allowed you - an unknown independent - to be treated so properly. Because they knew I wasn't going to let something stupid mess up such an easily traceable public meeting."
"Hmm… that's fair, I guess."
"They also probably had at least one teleportation circle nearby that could bring in squads of backup or to retreat through if you had decided that the room could do with more natural lighting."
"Oh… yea, I forgot about those. Been moving the mundane way for so long, and I still don't have a handle on any teleportation spells of my own, so I forgot teleportation is even an option."
Lint chuckled at that. "The Church doesn't like using them, outside of angels or emergencies. So it's only something that I deal with other people having when on missions."
"Great… another thing to put on my priority list." I mutter darkly.
"Oh?" The exorcist raised an eyebrow at me despite not taking her eyes off the road. "And what else is on that list?"
"Besides Teleportation?" I asked, before muttering into the window.
"What was that?"
"I said flight, alright?" I answered with a blush.
The exorcist laughed. "So even the mighty Magical Girl has massive weaknesses with basic things like aerial combat, huh?"
"I have answers for aerial combat, okay!" I protested with a flushed face. "I can use my magical circles as platforms to maneuver with, and I have basic levitation magics for casual usage. It just isn't what I'd call combat capable flight…"
"Huh… That's not nearly as bad as I thought." She said finally.
"It's most annoying in not having it as a good travel option." I whined. "I have to run everywhere currently."
"That makes sense." She acknowledges, as she starts pulling the car into a roadside rest area. "Well… speaking of running, this is our stop."
I look around, not seeing anything besides a building for restrooms and a scenic look out. "Really?"
"Yup!" Lint said, finally parking the car and taking the keys out. "The only roads that could bring us closer have wards to kill unregistered vehicles dozens of kilometers further out."
"...by 'kill unregistered vehicles' do you mean 'stops it from working' or 'blow it the fuck up'?"
My companion just shrugs as we finish stretching after getting out of the car. "Didn't ask."
"Wonderful." I mutter. "How far is it from here then?"
"Only about an hour or two walk."
I walk with her away from the few scattered civilians that are out to enjoy a pleasant day of late winter Romania, the biting cold cutting through my light jacket if not for minor use of ki to keep warm.
"Yea, not doing that."
I pull the card form of my device from my cleavage, holding it one hand before turning to the Church's supersoldier. "We'll go the fun way. You haven't seen the transformation properly yet, have you?"
She shakes her head with a smile.
"Very well!" I declare. "Let me properly introduce you to… Magical Girl Lyrical Tina!"
"Henshin!"
~Setup.~
The transformation sequence was a wonderful feeling, the touch of the magic pouring over my skin was like greeting an old friend. As the magic finished completely coating my entire outfit, my shirt, skirt, and boots turned solid orange before vanishing as they shattered into shards of colored light. Another pulse of the magic converted my underwear, socks, and hair bands into wisps magic particles, leaving my skin utterly bare, only covered by the lightly distorting the waves of my magic.
The feeling of my orange magic weaving itself together to support me in the form of a black dress that hugged my skin from my neck to mid thigh was sinfully comfortable. The power condensing into my jacket - now with sleeves that went all the way to my elbows - and skirt was like slipping on a warm cloak on a cool evening. The sequence slowly finished by materializing my white thigh high stockings, gloves - now covered with an armored plate and extending to my elbows, my boots, and even drew my hair back into twin tails with reinforced ribbons, my preferred style for combat.
As Razing Heart manifested herself as my twin pistols in my hands, the glow of my magic faded away.
I smiled at seeing Lint's stunned and utterly gobsmacked face, and holstered my pistols at my hips.
Glad you enjoyed the show.
"Well, my lady… shall we go for a walk?"
~~~
"When you said you were taking me for a walk… Part of me thought we would be doing a bit more, you know, walking." Lint yells at me, dodging a flock of crows that one of the vampires that greeted us had turned into when we hadn't immediately - and literally - bowed to them and his leader's orders.
Stupid sexist vampires. Like hell I was going to submit to getting drank from right off.
Lint shot a handful of crows, and sliced through a pair more, with her Light weapons as they passed her. It appears that these vamps had already gotten a Grail treatment, enough to at least remove their Light weakness, as the rest of the flock vanished into the mist surrounding us without pausing.
My own volley of spells were sent off after the pack of wolves his partner had turned into, though they did something once they had fully vanished into the Mist their leader had turned into to break the homing lock.
"I'll confess that I was expecting it to get particularly enthusiastic at some point, but I expected to at least get to the castle first." I yell, unleashing several more shots at a pair of dark colored wolves that had attempted to blind side me.
I barely got a yelp when the orbs detonated before the canines could fully vanish into the mist again.
"So… is this enough for it to be self defense yet?"
The Vatican supersoldier landed next to me, muttering a count of something under her breath. "..three, five, six, seven…"
As nominal guests, Lint had insisted that I abide by a set of guest rights that - for reasons eldritch to me - included a clause for a brief initial exchange if serious offense was given during initial greetings. And as the leader of the trio of vampires had followed proper protocol for declaring the offense with accompanying offer for peaceful resolution - which were both obviously contrived and flatly offensive - I was heavily restricted in my response lest I be the first to break Guest Rights.
Not sure who approved Guest Rights that included clauses that allowed for attacking guests while not provoking a war, but it did not surprise me that both vampire factions invoked them.
Not that we ever got past the prelude actually invoking those Guest Rights before they started shit.
"If we just killed them already, this wouldn't be an issue!" I complained.
She shook her head while turning towards me with a truly cheerful smile, and chirped. "It's fine! We can light 'em up now!"
I let the white aura of my Touki leak from my skin, and envelope my guns. "Fucking finally."
My red eyed companion seems to share the sentiment, as she blurred to vanish into the mist on her own, a glowing trail of her blade the only thing marking her passage as the sound of her cackling echoed oddly through the woods.
An orange magical circle formed itself under my feet as I turned to face an oncoming wave of strangely not-alive ki signatures. I spun through the calculations for a spell to blunt their imminent charge, trying to place-
~chime~ ~"Protection."~
A hexagonal shield imposed itself in front of the claws of Shadow that attempted to rip a chunk out of my spine.
"Thanks," I mutter to my device as I shoot the claw with a quick spell, infusing what touki I could into it.
I apparently did well enough, as the spell tore a hole through the shadow construct and it quickly lost cohesion.
The pack arrived, forcing me to throw myself into the misty woods, though not before detonating the present I had left behind directly in their faces.
"Tsk." The touki had leaked from the spell before it detonated, leaving a pair of affected wolves intact enough to heal through the blast.
The series of individual shots I took at the pursuing wolves as I kept bounding away from tree to tree continued being a mixed bag of results, though I was getting better bit by bit.
"Oh, duh." I said, almost facepalming a gun to my face. "I can't believe I forgot that I can 'fly'."
I shift my next leap to go up, peaking at the top of the treeline and forming a magical circle as a platform before I can begin to descend. Looking down from my new perch, I can't stop a silly grin from crawling its way onto my face as I watched the pack of wolves unable to reach me from the ground.
"Why didn't I think of this earlier?" I laugh, taking my time to better form my shots as I start picking off the pack with impunity. "This is so much easier!"
I cackle in glee as I continue to rain down destruction on the gathered bodies of vampire turned wolves, none of them able to do anything but ru-
"Oh Shit!"
~chime~ ~"Round Shield."~
A massive spike of shadow slams into my back, nearly throwing me off of my platform even with the last second shield. Light from the sparks of my magic contesting the shadowy construct brightens the forest, revealing an influx of wolves waiting for me.
"Ok, that's why I didn't -"
A second spike joins the first and instantly shatters my shield. The spikes smash me through the ground.
~chime~ ~"Protection."~
A dome of interlocking orange hexagrams sprung into existence, blocking the enraged pack as it lunged into the new crater containing my downed form.
Sadly, it did nothing to prevent the massive spikes of pure Shadow as they continued trying to drill through my barrier jacket in an attempt to do more than pin me to the ground.
"Fuck!" I swore, cursing my cockiness. It was all I could do to focus on reinforcing myself with touki and feeding my jacket more mana to keep it intact.
Feeding mana… to keep intact…"Oh, right!"
My entire outfit was made entirely of my magic. So I could try to keep all that magic contained to enhance my defenses… or…
"Barrier Jacket, purge!" I ordered.
~"Purge Blast!"~
I could use it to blow the fuck up.
My outer jacket exploded off of me, and I could feel how my touki responded. The touki I had been reinforcing myself with had echoed and reinforced the magic of the blast and had fundamentally disrupted the structure of the spikes that had been pinning me down.
I threw myself out of the crater, surprised to see a pile of bodies dissolving into shadowy mist next to me as I emerged.
"So touki fucks with your powers, huh?" I ask the misty woods, keeping an eye on the circling animal forms.
I smirked as the Mist itself seemed to thicken, drawing in closer around me as I started weaving a nameless spell. "Thanks for all the practice by the way. I couldn't have done this without your help."
I released the pulse of touki-infused mana, the simple shockwaves enough to break whatever cohesion the Mist was using to block all sight… and whatever was keeping the mana in the air locked tight.
An eager grin split my lips, the glow from dozens of newly formed orange balls of mana turning the overcast day to seem like it was under a noon day sun.
~chime~ ~"Cross Fire Shoot."~
The orbs shot forward, each taking their own paths as they zero in on their own targets. The pack attempted to split apart and dodge, but without the Mist being solidified enough to disrupt things they were only being cut down like wheat before a scythe.
"How dare a lowly human put up such resistance! And for that dirty half breed, no less!"
Out of the mists finally stepped the leader of the trio of vampires that had greeted us when we reached the forest near the castle that held Marius' research department. His regal outfit that had looked like it had debuted in some long past era's royal court was particularly scuffed and was starting to sport noticeable damage.
"You shall cease this foolish resistance, and submit yourself to the authority of Lord Marius at once!"
I could only blink in shock at the sheer audacity.
…and I'm an American.
"How about… no?" I instead offered blandly.
"As livestock under the authority of Lord Marius Tepes, refusal is forbidden!" He thundered.
I turn one of my pistols so I can look directly at the orange gem under the red X.
"I have had just about enough of this, don't you think so?"
~chime~ ~"Engaging Monster Protocols."~
~chime~ ~"Lethal Mode Engaged."~
I smile at Razing Heart's answer as something like concern - maybe even fear - flickered through the vampire's eyes.
~chime~ ~"Divine Shooter."~
A dozen orbs spawn in a circle in front of me before shooting out after the mouthy vampire, who quickly tried to shift back into mist to get away.
Only for the now properly touki-enhanced magic to rip through his fading form anyway, the positive life force naturally corroding away the undead's defensive magics that let it turn incorporeal. For all that these vamps had their weakness to Light mitigated, their inherently undead nature apparently remained unchanged.
The battered form of the vampire landed on the ground with a painful sounding thud, the scuffed outfit acquiring several large rents as blood seeped from slowly - though still visibly - healing wounds.
"Boss, this bitch is crazy!" A crow landed, shifting into a hybrid form of a battered vampire that kept crow-like wings and hands that were instead enlarged talons crouched defensively next to his leader, who had only just regained his feet.
A pair of wolves merged together on the leader's other side to form the final vamp of the trio, who was in only slightly better shape than his partner.
"Which b-"
Maniacal laughter echoed in from the surrounding mist before Lint seemed to just appear next to me, a smile stretched ear to ear on her face, lit sword in one hand, gun held firmly in the other. "Where is that good shit you promised, you bastards! Stop running away!"
"Oh, hey!" She turned when she noticed me and glomped me with a quick hug. "I had my doubts when you were dragging me here, but if this is what I can expect from you… you can take me out again any time."
I blushed fiercely at her energetic greeting.
Apparently my initial reading that this girl was more than than a few fight-sexual tendencies held some truth to it.
Or maybe a good fight and combat skill was a kink? Who was I to judge, really?
"Then shall we wrap up the opening act?" My mouth spouts off without checking in with my brain. Though I can't really complain with how cheerfully the exorcist beamed back at me.
"Razing Heart!" I called out.
~chime~ ~"Blazer Mode."~
The form of my twin pistols shifted, their form seeming to glow before the edges melt and grow to over triple their original length. The overall design shifted as well, changing from a rather basic modern look to something that would be seen more commonly in a sci-fi setting. Instead of looking out of place, the new form instead radiated a sense of barely leashed power begging to be released.
The look of indignant fury that had started to overtake the lead vamp's face vanished as the wave of power hit him, both of his henchmen already started splitting into their preferred animal forms.
"Hey, I got that trick figured out that I want to show you."
"Oh?" She sounded honestly curious even as she bounced lightly on her feet, eagerness not dimmed in the slightest.
The orange magic circle spins itself into existence at my feet, its dual concentric pattern rotating opposite from each other as normal. Dozens of sparks of power form in the air above me.
"Yep. Took a bit of practice to get everything to play together just right, but may I present to you - my touki-magic attack!"
~chime~ ~"Cross Fire Shoot."~
The sparks of power solidified into solid orange spheres marbled with white that lanced forward as solid beams of orange swirled with white that each seemed to move with a mind of their own.
Scattering themselves between a multitude of forms meant little to the overwhelming number of attacks. Even divided between the three fleeing vampires, there were more than enough to be a threat. The lines of power racing after them would curve and twist around to follow, only to abruptly turn at ridiculously sharp angles to suddenly close the distance.
It was worse once the duo of shapeshifters realized that the magic was aiming to maim and cripple, instead using the conservation of power to hit additional targets instead of ensuring the kills. Panic grew as touki-reinforcement forced the pain to echo through their magic in a way they couldn't ignore, only made worse by the sudden drain on their power from so many bodies attempting to regenerate at once.
Forced between throwing even more power into the endless drain of regenerating, or willingly sacrificing the power sustaining their extra bodies, they left the forest covered in dead and dying bodies as they fled.
Their leader wasn't nearly as lucky, as the only thing turning into mist did for him was make him an easier target once the first hit forced him into a corporeal form again. The follow up attacks systemically ripped through him, forcing him to endure repeated crippling and paralysing injuries as his healing fought to keep up. In the end, it did little beyond prolong his agony, as the final series of attacks obliterated his head and heart simultaneously, leaving him as nothing more than a splatter of blood across the forest floor.
"Nice~." The exorcist next to me purred at the sight of the carnage, before she looked greedily between her and my guns. "Hey, do you-"
"No more guns." I interrupt, physically painful as the words were. "I have a few other options, including a sword we check later to see if he'll work with you. Sound good?"
"Sounds great." She cheered.
"Do you want assistance with these two, or do you want to play with them some more?"
"Oh, I got it! Go! I'll catch up in the castle. Just leave some for me when I get there, will ya?"
"Will do."
She vanished in a blur of speed, squawks and yips of fright already filling the forest as she caught up to them.
I could only shake my head.
That girl had some of the strangest manic tendencies, but damn if it wasn't adorable as fuck.
I watched the splattered remains of the leader, noting the complete lack of healing with a nod. Then, with but a bit of focus, I reached out with my ki senses tracking only Lint at the slowly faded undead traces of her prey as the only other life I could sense was gathering of living and undead souls at the castle.
Taking advantage of the current lull, I checked over my current Barrier Jacket. Aside from the residual damage from purging the actual jacket of my outfit, I noticed little that a quick refresh of mana didn't resolve.
I held up my hand as I laced touki through the glove covering it, carefully comparing how the defensive structure interacted with the additional power.
Compared to the offensive spells, the defensive weave of magic seemed to demand a different type of balance to get the reinforcement from touki to 'stick' - for lack of a better word - properly.
I still wasn't sure how using both touki and mana - or even regular ki and mana - worked to enhance a spell. Based on the vampires, it seemed to give a spell more conceptual 'weight', not letting the gaseous Mist or Shadow simply ignore it like it would a more mundane physical attack.
So I was unsure if mixing the effects of the magic and touki into a single defense would be better or worse than stacking them together, even if it wasn't beyond my current skill level.
Dismissing it as an issue to investigate later, I resummoned my jacket, smiling as it settled on my shoulders again.
The walk to the castle proper didn't take long, with the vampire that had been controlling the Mists dead, and Lint off entertaining herself with the other two guards. The castle itself was a solid, stoutly thing, complete with a large wooden gate that was split down the middle, allowing for the doors to open outward.
Doors that were currently sealed shut.
"Well, well, well…" I say to myself as I placed my hand on the main gate to give it a solid push, and it remained firmly shut. The power of the wards reinforcing the wooden door hummed under my fingers as I gently probed them with my own magic.
I nod to myself, before taking a few steps back from the door, a Midchilda magic circle spinning to life under my feet.
"You ready, Razing Heart?"
~"Firing Lock Canceled."~
Chuckles started building deep in my chest, silently embracing the real reason that I kept using Razing Heart despite my regular protests, the feeling racing through me as we continued to operate in perfect sync.
~chime~ ~"Loading Cartridge."~
*Ca-chunk ca-chunk* echoed from both the twin hand cannons in my hands as they cycled multiple cartridges, already pointed at the wooden portcullis. The chuckles turned into outright laughter as a vertical ring of orange magical script spun into existence centered on my pistols, another pair forming to contain the building orb of brilliant orange power in front of me.
~"Divine"~
"Knock Knock, Motherfuckers!" I call out, my laughter erupting with a maniacal edge as Razing Heart and I unleashed the power together.
~"Buster."~
The door fought to remain strong, the wards working to try to keep my magic at bay. Except that at the heart of this spell was that fact that I had created it with the intention of being able to pierce the defenses of things even beyond divine beings, and for as strong as the door was, and as powerful as its wards were…
It didn't hold a candle to actual divinity.
The door shattered inward with a resounding crack, the wards shattering in a cascade of broken light, as the fragments of the door not obliterated by the wave of power were instead turned against the defenders as they ripped through anyone nearby without mercy.
"It will be alright, Valerie." I say to the crowd of scattered and wounded bodies in the inner courtyard of the castle, unsure if she will be able to hear me. "For I Am Here."
AN: Don't expect them to always come out this quickly. I will also be adding a threadmark for character (and device) portraits once I figure out how to actually do that... (I'm not a dinosaur, you are!)
~~~~
American DxD Magical Girl
Chapter 5
~~~
~ Marius Tepes ~
It was situations like this that made Marius Tepes, fifth in line to the throne of the one true faction of vampires, most lament the lack of respect he received in his current position.
If it weren't for his personal spies among the failure that was the Carmilla Faction, he would have only been alerted he was to have visitors after they had already knocked on the door of his castle. Not that he believed for an instant that the exorcist and her companion were here strictly to deliver a message from a childhood friend. No, he was certain it was the Church, and that they were after his research and his Holy Grail.
He could only thank whichever dark gods that favored him that they hadn't sent Griselda Quarta - or worse, Vasco Strada, he shuddered - after him. Those monsters were more than he would be willing to deal with right now.
Lint Sellzen, the current most likely candidate to replace Quarta among the top 5 strongest exorcists when she retired and product of that cursed Sigurd Institute, was bad enough, regardless of her gender.
His premier guards, cleansed of their weakness to Light, Holy, and even those pesky minor issues of crossing running water and needing invitations from their lessers, were widely spread throughout his other strongholds, leaving a scarce handful for this normally peaceful secret research facility. The few he had on hand were sure to be enough to deal with the likes of a threat of her caliber. For all that little Sellzen had worked hard to overcome the weakness inherent in her gender, the exorcist still failed to reach even the barest of what could be expected of a proper pure blood vampire.
And without the Light she wielded so freely being able to strip his kind of their rightful power, there would be nothing she could do to escape.
And once she and that companion she brought with her on this doomed errand were captured and brought before him, he will get the answers he deserved about who was behind this mess. And if he was lucky, one of them might even have a Sacred Gear for him to research and harvest.
It wasn't like Marius believed for even a single second that that pathetic half breed Gasper had survived. Nor that, in the unlikeliest of scenarios the boy had, the child was putting any effort into contacting that other disgusting half breed Valerie.
Marius hadn't had to order a single piece of correspondence destroyed, after all, so this was an empty excuse.
All he had left to do was figure out how to properly extract the Holy Grail from the pathetic being that others dared to call his sibling, and then the Tepes Faction would be his. Once he finally took his rightful place, and took control by putting an end to those pathetic upstarts in the Carmilla Faction, he would ascend by uniting the Vampire race under his control, as was his birthright.
Then, the world.
The castle shook around him as he could feel the stone around him crack. Then he felt the wards protecting the gate shatter.
A blade of ice felt like it carved its way down his spine as the series of magical protections he had invested fortunes into to protect his current sanctuary cracked and broke like cheap pottery.
Perhaps…
If those… creatures were here for the half breed, maybe he should go expedite their meeting?
Valerie had still clung to the hope of seeing Gasper again, hadn't she? And they were here because of him as well, weren't they?
A cruel smile found its way to his face as he went to a hidden corner of the research lab, and began pulling out jars of blood of various powerful monsters and beasts. Nothing he would dirty his tongue by drinking, but it wasn't for him anyway.
Now… where had he place his notes on Juggernaut Drive and inducing Balance Breakers?
~~~
Ancient castles just were not made for defending against modern firearms.
Even if I was only able to mimic them with my magic, with just my twin pistols that had returned to their smaller gun forms and effectively unlimited ammo. Long corridors with minimal cover and nothing that could stop my shots from penetrating, this was beginning to feel like shooting fish in a barrel.
If the fish would regularly charge to make bigger targets of themselves.
The only real defense the castle ended up providing was its tendency to act like a maze. Though even that was of little use when one had access to Sage Arts and were able to easily sense the ki of literally everyone in the castle at the same time.
Though a willingness to just blow holes through solid stone walls helped too.
So far I was content to let any of the ki signatures escape as I wasn't here on an extermination mission - currently, by all the gods above and below these monsters kept making that more tempting - and I didn't feel the need to punish serving staff for the follies of their nobility.
I was also unsure what to do about the faded and worn down ki of humans held deeper in the castle. I was expecting a hot exit once I got my hands on Valerie, so I wouldn't be able to escort them anywhere. And it would not surprise me if all the humans residing in this - in any of Marius' other - castles were so mind wiped and brainwashed that they were essentially still technically living ghouls. And I certainly didn't have the will, resources, or funding to support undoing that level of damage.
~"We could level the entire castle. That would make the search much easier, Master."~
I spare my device a flat look after finishing clearing the current room of Darwin award recipients.
"I am not potentially dropping tons of rubble directly onto the very girl I am here to save. Also… I don't want my first impression with her to be as someone reckless enough to repeatedly blast a castle to the ground just because I couldn't be bothered to walk around a bit."
~"The exorcist does not seem to mind, Master."~
I move to continue my search, refusing to rise to Razing Heart's bait, despite the heat in my cheeks.
It might be true that it would be faster to just blast away, knocking everyone out with non-lethal magic and leveling the castle in the process. But I was not willing to take the risk of accidents ruining this for me.
I shift my path as I feel Lint blitzing down an adjacent corridor, giving her a wave when she rounded the corner by literally bouncing off the walls.
This girl has entirely too much energy it seems.
"All cleaned up?" I ask.
"Yup!" She chirps, coming to a stop by me. "They really tried to make me work for it though. Crippling so many of their extra bodies really helped, so thanks!"
Lint, this is entirely unfair. Stop it. No one should be able to look that cheerfully adorable while talking so casually about slaughter and war crimes.
"Your we-welcome." I manage to stutter out, before jumping topics to distract myself. "There are a couple holding areas for what feels like humans. Is there something we can do for them?"
The white and black haired exorcist's entire body seems to pause as she tapped her lips with a finger from the hand holding her currently unlit blade. "Well, I guess I could gather them up and drop them a retrieval beacon for the Church. It won't do much, but it can create enough of a sanctuary that the normal vamps wouldn't be able to get to them before someone from the Church arrives."
I perk up. "That sounds perfect!"
She smiles at my cheer and nods. "It won't do anything against any that have their Holy weakness removed, but I haven't encountered any of those since the three outside."
"I don't think I have either. Though I am not sure if I would even notice at this point. No one even close to that power level, at least."
She nods and I gesture with one of Razing Heart's current bodies as the device AI brings up a crude wireframe mesh of the castle in roughly its current state. An area on the third floor near the central tower and another in the basement near the kitchens were marked.
"These are roughly where I am sensing the humans are being kept."
She raises an eyebrow at the display. "This is more of that senjutsu bullshit, isn't it?"
"Yup!" I pop the 'p' with a smile.
"Then I definitely need to learn that from you." She said, then turned beet red a second later as she realized exactly what she just asked for.
"It doesn't borrow or use anything from any of the pantheons, or other divinity, does it?" She asked in a desperate voice, clearly attempting to change topics.
"Not a drop." I assure her.
"Ok." She sighs and relaxes slightly. "Good."
"You could just ask Micheal." Her cheeks instantly turn beet red again.
So cute!
"Or Gabriel if that would be more comfortable for you." If anything, her blush spreads.
Okay, fair. Gabriel is like that here, isn't she?
Now I really want to get my hands on her… Focus Tina! You have a super cute exorcist in front of you right now!
Thanks me!
Phew, crisis averted.
"Let me know when you get in contact with them though, would you? I have a… list of concerns." That I didn't want to have to nail to a door to get any answers to.
Lint gives me a strange look, before agreeing and taking off to the kitchens in the lower levels.
I was able to track her movement fully this time by reinforcing my senses with touki before she left, as she went from a dead stop to a full sprint in an instant, running on walls to not slow down even after she vanished around a corner.
That's it! I'll just learn Shunpo instead if flight is going to be so stupid.
Well… that was two concerns tentatively dealt with.
I reached out again with my ki senses to try and narrow down where they might have stuffed Valerie. I didn't sense any active ki in any of the towers like I was half expecting, nor were there any that could be the mixed dhampir ki in a secluded room off somewhere.
There were a surprising number of 'mostly alive' ki signatures spread throughout the entire castle, intermingled with the undead ki of the vampires enough that was making it especially difficult to find her. Without having had another dhampir to use as a reference, I was only able to use guess work to narrow things down.
A sudden overwhelming surge of both ki and mana from a central area of the castle stole my attention.
The sound of stone shattering echoed as something large started physically tearing its way through the castle.
Blasting my way to an inner courtyard, I was able to watch as a giant form that was leaking a shadowy mist literally tore itself through a wall before its eyes that were glowing a brilliant blood red locked onto me.
"Betrayed... Gasper… Killed… Make… Pay…"
The voice of the giant echoed through what felt like my very soul with the amount of pain, rage, sorrow, and regret that laced every syllable.
"Let's go be Magical Girls, Razing Heart." I whispered softly.
~"Acknowledged. Magical Girl Mode Activated."~
~chime~ ~"Lethal Mode Disengaged."~
The monstrous form roared loud enough that it launched decent sized chunks the surrounding rubble towards me.
~"Good Luck, My Master."~
"Thanks, Razing Heart." I say as I look up at the towering and enraged form of the girl I had come here to save. "I think I am going to need it."
The idea of the Americas being scary got stuck in my head and this is what I managed to dislodge.
Grigori headquarters was quite large. Its inhabitants weren't evenly spread though. They tended to flock together and form cliques. Mittelt didn't like most of them, but she had to travel through one of the hangouts for a group of older fallen to get to the office where the fake ids were issued.
She tried to speedwalk past, only to catch their attention. One of the fallen didn't quite get in her way. He grinned in a manner that seemed tailor-made to be annoying.
"Where are you off to in such a hurry?"
Mittelt gave the group her best smug look of superiority.
"Azazel-sama gave me a mission to Nevada."
Mittelt was about to leave but the awkward atmosphere made her pause. She looked around at the suddenly sympathetic and pitying gazes.
"What? What is it?"
Another one of the fallen set his book down with an authoritative thump.
"Rule number one of visiting the Americas: Don't."
Mittelt was confused, but still managed a sneer.
"Seriously? Are you a fallen or a chicken?"
That had the entire room laughing. One of the other fallen wagged a finger at her in a way that made her want to put a light spear through his skull. He smirked condescendingly.
"It's easy to say that when you haven't met their hunters."
A few others piped up in agreement.
"Yeah. Those maniacs are something else."
"Freaking gun nuts."
"I met this fellow up in the Yukon. He had a stuffed Wendigo in his cabin. A F***ing Wendigo, stuffed and mounted like a trophy. He also wore a necklace of vampire teeth like some sort of supernatural Crocodile Dundee."
Another fallen let out a huff. He lifted his shirt to display a long, ugly scar running horizontally across his stomach.
"It's not just the hunters you've got to worry about. I got this scar investigating this place called Camp Crystal Lake. I was having some fun with this cute blonde and a freaking revenant appeared out of nowhere and nearly cut me in half."
His display triggered a competition as everyone began supplying their own stories.
"Chupacabra aren't that strong, but man are they fast. Sneaky too. I woke up with one 'this' close to biting my throat while I was visiting Mexico. I couldn't relax the entire time I was there."
"I had a mission to the US once. I was supposed to make allies among the magic users at Miskatonic University. You couldn't pay me to go back."
"I went to Jersey to investigate reports of a stray devil a while back. Whatever that thing was, it was not a devil."
"There's a rumor that South America is off-limits to all Grigori members. I'm not sure about the details. Just something about Tezcatlipoca liking the taste of our blood. Freaking unfair. Angels love it there."
"You've read about the Slender Man on the internet, right? He's real. We lost a team to him not that long ago."
The stream of tall tales cut off as the group turned toward the muttering fallen angel who was rocking back and forth in a fetal position. One of them coughed lightly and tried to change the subject.
"I had to investigate reports of humans with abnormal abilities in Florida. Turns out, some of the locals had mistaken a dragon for an alligator and cooked it into gumbo. Everyone who ate at the restaurant unlocked their touki."
Mittelt rolled her eyes.
"Okay, I know that one is made up. Eating dragon meat doesn't give you powers. For one thing, their meat is poisonous."
"Their cook knew a bit of voodoo. I didn't talk to them personally though. No way am I getting anywhere near a voodoo practitioner."
Mittelt stood up and flared her wings. She rolled her eyes at the group.
"Well if you're done making shit up, I've got a mission to do. Thanks for nothing, lackwits."
*A few weeks later*
Penemue paused as she saw Mittelt floating slowly down the corridor at a walking pace.
"Why have you been flying everywhere since you got back?"
Mittelt looked down, then gave Penemue a haunted look.
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.
~~~~
American DxD Magical Girl
Chapter 6
~~~
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.
Chapters like this make me wish I had a beta. I only went over the chapter... 7 days... 15, 20 times? And added/edited something basically every time?
Me: 2k words and out! This should be quick!
Muse: *smacks with hammer* try again!
Me: 4k and just a little touch up, should be simple
Muse: *hammer again* wrong!
Me: ...6k+ and still not everything I was wanting to get into it...
Muse: ...publish it
Also Muse: Get the next part written already!
Boss fights suck...
Ugh. This came to too good of an ending point, otherwise I would have stuffed the ending of the Romania leg of the trip into this as well.
AN: This was almost a recap from an outside(ish) perspective, but it just draaagged ooonnnn so I dropped it. And when I finally wrote the main event I wanted, I ended up getting over two thirds what I would have tried to force in otherwise.
~~~~
American Magical Girl
Chapter 07
~~~
~Maria Karnastein, Member of the Carmilla Faction~
Maria watched the pair of girls walk out of the woods, the taller mage carrying a blonde that was likely to be the dhampir half breed they had originally gone to meet.
Who had, apparently, been some sort of weapon the Tepes had been hoping to develop in hiding.
"That's far enough. We can take her from here." The older vampire called out.
The two humans paused and looked at each other before the orange haired mage in a battered looking outfit answered. "What do you mean by that?"
"That there," Maria nodded towards the dhampir, "is the daughter of King Tepes. While we appreciate what you went through to rescue her, we cannot allow you to take her away."
At the mage's incredulous look, she continued. "It would be best for her to stay with her own kind. If you must, think of this as just politics."
Something passed wordlessly between the exorcist and mage when they looked at each other in response to that, and the church girl almost broke down laughing. The mage just shook her head and gently handed off the passed out blonde girl to her friend.
"You have no idea what it is you are getting into." The human said, her shoulders relaxed as she strutted forward in an attempt to look intimidating.
If it wasn't for how utterly exhausted the girl looked, how close to empty the vampire could feel her mana reserves were, it might have been something other than cutely adorable combined with the earlier display of might that wiped out the castle.
Except for all its strength, that spell had taken an excessively long time to cast, removing it as a threat. Her magic was unusual, though it seemed like she was simply using raw power. Vastly inferior to the properly developed and refined power of the elemental magics most magicians preferred, which seemed an option she seemed lacking completely.
Worse still was the fact the girl currently lacked the amount of raw mana needed to make those types raw power truly threatening. Maria could hardly throw a rock into the building of any Magician's Association worth the name without hitting half a dozen people with over twice her full capacity.
At the end of the day, the mage was little more than a child.
She didn't even have a Sacred Gear. She was just a plain human!
"I think it's you that doesn't understand what they are getting into." Maria said before raising her hand and snapping her fingers.
From amidst the growing darkness of a winter's early twilight, Shadows lashed out from around the human girls. Chains quickly formed from the darkness, locking them in place.
A second later a pulse of mana echoed forth from the mage, threatening to disrupt everything until Maria flexed her will into properly reinforcing her chains.
"Huh." The completely unruffled mage said, apparently noticing the momentary lapse. "So it's the willpower aspect that causes you problems, not the life part? I was wrong then…"
Her companion almost seemed fondly exasperated by the other girl's uncaring reaction, even as the dark chains wrapped more firmly around her and the girl in her arm. All the while giving off absolutely no signs of concern.
Something itched about something being… off.
Instincts that had been honed over centuries were screaming that something about these two human girls, something about how they were holding themselves, how they were reacting, was not the reaction of prey - even dangerous prey - caught in a trap.
Lint Sellzen, the mostly white haired girl currently holding their half blood target, was a relatively known quantity. A product of one of the Church's supersoldier projects, she had forged herself into becoming among the top 5 best exorcists to ever emerge from its hidden halls - and the strongest to remain aligned with the Church.
Maria was under no illusions what would likely happen if they forced this to become lethal.
Lint had access to Seraphim imbued Light weapons, and existed within the realm of skill needed for exorcists to start tapping into Holy power at need. As much as high tier Light was a pain in the ass to deal with, Holy was exponentially worse and far above her paygrade.
It was why this was a simple extraction mission.
With just Lint and the target, it would be a simple matter to separate them long enough to vanish with their quarry, and likely minimal casualties.
"This is why I hate parasites."
Maria couldn't stop herself as she hissed. "You racist..."
"No, it's not because you are vampires." The orange haired mage countered instantly. "There are lots of ways you blood suckers could live in harmony just fine with the rest of society. Or even make it better because of you. It wouldn't even be that hard."
Some sparks start glowing a light, soft blue around the fingers of one of the mage's hands.
"If that's the case, you should be thanking us for- "
"You misunderstand." The mage cut her off, as more sparks gathered around that hand. "It is not what one does when they have nothing that makes someone a parasite. It is what one does when one has excess that truly tells the truth of what they are."
"Those Tepes bastards-"
"So instead you do… this." The scorn and derision in the young human's voice is nearly painful to her enhanced hearing.
Though not as painful as the soft blue sparks turn into flames that suddenly burned away her shadow chains.
Maria forced herself to not scream as she felt something in those flames scorch her slightly even as they burnt away her power.
"You barge in and just try to take with no care for anything else. Even if you get what you want, all that happens is it gets horded away, never to be seen again."
"That…" Her skin itched in the glow of those flames, in a way that was far worse than Light yet not as harsh as Holy…
"Sage…" she whispered in quiet horror.
Burns from Light could be healed, the weakness and destruction inflicted by Holy could be recovered…
But the purification that a Sage could bring didn't leave anything to be healed. It simply returned any undeath to the cycle of rebirth.
Except Sages were exceptionally rare - outside of deeply Buhddist, Taoist, or Shinto areas they were basically unheard of - and any of them that had trained their ability with Purification to the point they could burn away her power with barely a touch…
Maria snapped her fingers again, the chains vanishing, and signaled the team to stand down.
The little exorcist moved to stand next to, and just a step behind, the taller mage while carrying her treasure. The Church girl seemed to pick up something important just happened, but appeared to be missing the details.
Not too much of a surprise, as the last time Maria had seen Purification that strong was a well known Shrine Maiden from the Far East that had been using a ritual tool while being twice this girl's age. Whatever else this girl had been through, her training to get that strong already must be insane.
"We ask that you hand over Valerie Tepes to us of the Carmilla Faction so we may offer the assistance she deserves." Maria gave a slight bow with a professionally pleasant smile on her face. It burned a deep dark place inside her for the vampire to expose this level of… weakness to a human child, but not nearly as badly as that softly glowing ball of light blue flame would if it touched her skin.
"And if I say no?"
"Then we shall endeavor to find ways to… encourage you." Without direct force it would be a lot harder, though there were a lot of ways to hinder travel, especially through the mundane world.
"You will seek to indirectly hinder everything, and probably make any attempt to travel by mundane means an exercise in futility." The mage asked sullenly.
The vampire didn't say anything, though her smile widened a touch. It was nice when she didn't need to spell it out - or worse, actually go through the tedium of proving it.
"Alright Lint, let's go get someone to treat Valerie's soul damage."
"Soul damage?" Maria couldn't stop herself from blurting out.
The mortal glared at her. "The first of many reasons that we wouldn't have gone with you, even if there had been a remote possibility that you weren't about to do the exact same thing we just stopped."
She sighs, and signaled parts of her team to switch to prep distraction and diversions. "We still cannot allow you to leave our territory with the daughter of King Tepes. "
"You see… that's where you are wrong."
Something in the girl's tone was concerning, before a pulse of magic spiked above the mage's hand pulled everyone's attention. A moment later, a thick black tome appeared and dropped into her waiting hand. The tome itself had a cover of treated leather, pitched as dark as the deepest midnight, the binding and cover of which were dominated by an elaborate golden compass rose with gold trim.
The book smoothly opened itself in the human's hand, pages turning rapidly until they stopped on a page and the writing began to glow. A magic circle formed at her feet, similar to the ones that had been seen from her before.
Then the circle shifted, 4 smaller circles spun as they formed a square around the initial one even as lines of magical script connected the smaller circles together without intersecting the original circle.
"I might have misspoken when I told you before Lint that I can't teleport. I certainly can't, but… my little friend here," she waved the hand currently holding the obviously verymagical magical tome, "can. Accuracy is super shoddy, and takes a good while to cast. Super obviously, too."
The Church's agent giggles at the extremely brightly glowing magic circle that any vampire - or others even slightly aware of the supernatural - for miles would be able to sense easily.
"We have wards against teleportation. You will not find escaping to be so simple."
"Eeehh… Your wards haven't been updated in over a hundred years, so they are relatively useless." The mage smirks at some joke that the older vampire didn't understand.
"Bye!"
The orange light of the complicated circle erupts and when it fades, the trio is gone.
Maria wasn't sure if she wanted to curse or just be thankful that it hadn't devolved into a fight.
It was only then that the vampire realized the mage had never even drawn her weapons.
~~~
The light fades as the heat hits me like suddenly walking into a screen door made of warmth.
Very glad it was night during the rainy season here. Still really warm, but not so-hot-I-don't-even-sweat warm.
A quick wave of magic with the help of my Tome, and a barrier snaps into existence around us, pulling us into a copy of the local area including the local landmark I landed us near just out phase with normal reality. Mundane means wouldn't find us, though not hard to find with magical training.
I didn't exactly want the US military to show up, thinking we were doing something worth inspecting.
"Good job, Darkness." The text on the pages glows softly, before the book closes softly.
"Ugh, I hate sudden shifts like that." Lint complains even as she looks around, still holding Valerie close. "Where even are we?"
"Welcome!" I cheer, throwing my arms out to highlight the sand, dirt, and desert around, in addition to some power lines, a road, and a tall pyramid-looking building. "To the origin of your religion!"
I got a flat look in response.
Ah, the joys of messing with religious zealots with actual facts and logic.
"Welcome to the city where the first recorded actions of the god who became the God of the Bible happened!"
I turn and direct the exorcist's attention to the grand structure that had been behind her the entire time.
"May I present to you the Ziggurat of Ur!"
"WHAT?!"
This dragged on until it suddenly didn't. This fought pretty hard to get even to the 1k mark until tonight when it suddenly jumped to 2k without warning.
And this puts my total 'published' content on QQ to over 50k words for this year done before Christmas. I have roughly another 6k to hit that goal on SB/SV, so even if I don't manage it by Christmas, getting it before the new year should be simple. Which is definitely a record for me.
If I was counting just words written I would be close to double that(more if I count more than just the actual story content), but this still clocks in as the most words I have ever written for stories in a single year ever. Spent more than a decade beta/editing for a few authors, but this is the first time that I have done it as a writer. Its not quite the same challenge as a NaNo, but its still 50k words.
I also got the outline updated, and the next two stops to finish off this arc will answer a lot of questions that people have been asking, and also give a pretty solid marker for how much of an overpowered genius Tina is( or isn't). Really looking forward to getting to it as I continue to take an industrial drill to the foundation of so many aspects of canon.
AN: Its not Christmas for me yet but that is no reason to not give a gift to those already there. I considered adding the next section, but this is long enough for now. Maybe for an actual Christmas present?
Also blame Clacla for this coming out so fresh. I saw they commented when I was debating to post or wait, so now its getting posted.
~~~~
American Magical Girl
Chapter 08
~~~
"You have some of the oddest preconceptions about me." The woman before me said.
I hadn't expected things to be quite this… easy?
The Ziggurat of Ur was originally dedicated to the moon god Nanna( or Sin/Suen depending on Sumerian or Akkadian respectively). While he had some minor connections to the Sumarian Underworld, I was mostly interested in that it had historically genuine connections with Sumerian divinity.
That one of his daughters is attributed to being Ereshkigal's sister Ishtar(Inanna) was likely helpful.
After offering a prayer to a shrine I had created for the Queen of Kur, I had felt a prompting - not unlike that feeling when you catch a partial glimpse of something tantalizing and feel the need to move closer for a better look - to go down, so I carried Valerie down the long stairs and without noticing I arrived at an underground gate with Lint by my side. Seven answers to seven questions at seven gates later, and I was standing before one of the oldest known goddesses in human history - and as far as I knew - the first major god(dess) of the dead and underworld.
Ereshkigal herself.
The form she greeted me with when I passed the final gate was that of a long haired blonde in a black dress with a modest amount of frills. The skirt was drawn short, exposing long dark leggings and boots. With her hair pulled into twin tails and red eyes, she looked very similar to her Fate incarnation, except that her skin was a darkened bronze looking a bit more like her Alter, Ninkigal, as would be expected of a goddess of a people that lived under such a harsh sun.
"You… are going to need to be a bit more specific if you actually expect any sort of useful answer from me." I finally told her.
With Lint off making sure that Valerie was tucked away comfortably for now, I had a short while that I could answer with full honesty.
"I am a nearly forgotten goddess from a long dead pantheon. Yet you came to me. Instead of Hades, who could likely have fixed anything already, or Anubis who has been enjoying a revival and resurgence. Me." Her voice is filled with honest curiosity. None of the innocence or self-doubt that so plagued her Fate incarnation. She clearly carried the wisdom worthy of a goddess of her lengthy history.
"And then there is that."
I blink at her, completely confused.
She sighs and brings a hand to rub at her temple.
"Deities, especially in their Place of Power, are capable of sensing Faith and Belief in themselves. Especially when a mortal is projecting it as hard as you currently are."
"oh… uuuh, oops?" I offered lamely, hand covering my mouth as I blush rather strongly at the insinuation.
I liked both her and her sister in FGO, and despite parts of their personalities, I had found I really liked the core of both the Primordial Goddesses. Ereshkigal more so as I identified more with her personally, and death-aligned deities always fascinated me with how they represented the different ways people and cultures approached and appreciated the end.
So it was very likely that she was getting a lot of things based on my impressions of her Fate counterpart that seeing and sensing her divinity in person only made stronger.
"Yes. I am." She confirmed. "Though I can't say I mind overmuch. It is refreshing to feel such a strong belief after so terribly long."
A thought tickled my mind I couldn't resist. "Is this your real form?"
Her laugh echoed around us like a series of chiming bells. There was something unusually pleasant about it, even without the touch of divinity it carried.
"Those with divinity can find our forms more… malleable sometimes. It was not uncommon in the past to have a slightly different face for each city that pledged worship, despite being the same goddess under it all." Her words carried her amusement. "So you could say that this is my original form, or that it is not. In the end, and after so long, I couldn't not see this form in your projected Belief towards me and found it pleasing."
I smiled, glad she seemed to enjoy it, even as something in what she said tickled further at my mind. "What does happen to the deities when a pantheon falls out of favor?"
The blonde haired goddess looked me over with her piercing red eyes, her earlier humor slightly faded even as she looked for I know not what. Eventually she sighed and looked away, towards one of the many cages filled with the glowing light of souls that filled her territory.
"It varies. Many scramble to find new pantheons to join or new ways to find and spread worship and belief. It's not that a deity dies when mortals stop worshipping them, they just lose power and influence so many all but fade away to practically nothing over centuries."
"Because they lack the power of belief and worship to continue as they once had." I conclude.
The goddess smiled, raising a finger as she adopted a teaching posture. "Not quite. It is when they spend the Belief they have that diminishes them slowly. A god, once they come into being, does not need further belief or faith to exist. Instead it empowers them to be or do more, and can be spent to go even further."
"So when they run out of believers, these gods try to spend that which is empowering them to gain new ones… only to have each failure make it harder as they are left weaker, so they have to spend even more, eventually making them fade further and further into irrelevance." I can see each step as I describe it, especially with the egos of most holders of divinity.
"You are delightfully well informed on such topics for one so new to the supernatural." Ereshkigal praised me.
"That is also why you are still so strong, isn't it?"
"Oh?" Her only response is a raised eyebrow.
I had yet to be in the presence of any other divinity, but even I could easily tell she was strong. Strong enough that her facing a fully powered, grief stricken berserk Valerie would have been child's play.
The strength of the goddess from a pantheon so old that she featured in stories about the First Hero Gilgamesh, and so forgotten that we can barely read the tablets those stories are written on due to the language having been so long forgotten to time, at least among the mundane.
"The faith and belief of all those souls you safeguard is still yours, isn't it?"
"So very delightful. You are, of course, correct." A pleased smile crossed her lips. "Though that just makes me even more curious as to how you can so quickly grasp what is so far from the mundane?"
I can't bring my eyes to look at her face, a brush of warmth covered my face. "Game theory has come a long way for all sorts of things. There are common parallels to businesses, for example."
She laughs. "That would certainly do it, but it's not everything, is it?"
I continue looking over the different cages, studiously trying to avoid her knowing eyes.
"No, I am not reading your mind, child." She raises an eyebrow at me when my gaze snaps to her. "You are still projecting loud enough that I wouldn't need to."
"Dammit, fine…" I sigh, not really wanting to deal with this next bit. "I have memories. Memories of different worlds, of different possibilities. Most of it isn't remotely accurate, but it still gives me enough to recognize parts of this world I shouldn't normally have any idea of."
"...which is an answer to part of my previous question on why you came to me instead of Hades or Anubis. Because of my portrayal in one of these different possibilities."
I wince slightly at how close, yet far her guess was.
"Oh?" Humor fills her tone. "Avoiding Hades I can understand, that man is entirely too busy with his own things. But you didn't go to Anubis because…"
She looked at me with a growing smirk, as I felt more heat flood my cheeks as the weight of pregnant silence pressed down on me.
"...because I forgot, okay? I forgot he was likely to be a safe option."
"... And because of my portrayal in the other media."
"...and because I liked your portrayal in the other media." I admit quietly, even as her smile grew.
"It's also that you care!" I called out, before she could tease me further. "You take great pride in your work, but most importantly it's clear to me you care about those under your charge."
"Oh really?"
"You take your job seriously, guarding those in your keeping, and have refused to pointlessly waste the belief they left for you to soothe your own ego."
"That is not something you could have known without coming before me." Her words cut right through me.
"No…" I blushed while looking away. "I just had faith and believed in you."
"Hmm… Very well. I shall accept this final trial as completed for now." She turned away fast enough that I couldn't tell if there was a hint of a blush or if that had just been my imagination. "There is still the matter of what it is you expect now that I have granted you and your allies Rights as Guests."
My eyes widened at her outright acknowledging it, before I turned and bowed slightly as I formally addressed the goddess.
"We ask for safe shelter, and what training you are willing to provide during our time with you. Our companion, a dhampir named Valerie Tepes, has grave damage to her soul and we seek your aid in treating her."
"What is wrong with her that you would seek me out?"
"Valerie had awakened the Sacred Gear Sephiroth Graal, and was forced to repeatedly use it to the point it had already started to damage her mind. Then she was provoked into incorrectly or incompletely unlocking Balance Breaker, the backlash of which shredded parts of her soul. I used what skill I have in the Sage Arts to heal what I could, but she is far outside of my skill to properly treat."
"Such a troublesome toy that bastard provided." She muttered, before motioning me to continue.
"In exchange for your assistance, I would offer my assistance in helping to remind the world of you and your family's existence, tailored however you see fit."
"And how, precisely, do you plan to do that?"
"Well…" I admitted just a little sheepishly. "I am a Magical Girl. Once I talk with Serafall…"
I watched her face as the blonde goddess before me completed the obvious results of 'Magical Girl + Serafall', as a wide smile covered her face and she turned to walk towards where the other girls were staying.
"Very well, let's go see the results of the work of that little upstart."
~~~
A bit more exposition that I hope was at least interesting, while also pouring in some of the world building about why some characters look/seem like they are from Fate.
We have the start of the much calmer and chill downtime arc. Now that Tina isn't dragging Lint off from one fight to the next, its time for her to get some answers!
She might even like some of them!
(some of them might be age/content restricted in certain areas)
