So I was thinking about Indestructible Core and just what it might mean for Nepgear.
----*Beware Possible Epileptic Trees*----
The first thing that needs noting is that as we saw in FATAL GEAR and later BLOOD GEAR Nepgear isn't human anymore. Instead she
is her Core:
Metal rends, and half of it is flying away as the seemingly unstoppable blade goes right through the rest of you like your made of paper. Blood and dust flies from the titanic wound, as you are literally cut in half lengthwise.
You feel no pain... and the incredible light that your Core Purge had revealed floods from the wound... and you know no more.
Anastasia lies on the ground in two separate locations. Her blood leaks slowly, dyeing the black glass she rests on red. A small orb of light shines weakly halfway between the two halves of her body, and as you watch bits and pieces of her break off into light to be drawn in by the tiny little orb.
Now this isn't particular surprising since Nepgear's "body" is just a magical construct:
Her grin is vicious. "The third type is when the Magical Girl apparently replaces her Human body with a magical construct as well as using a spare magical body for combat."
And for a moment you find yourself staring at her with incomprehension. When it dawns on you, you actually drop your cup.
"As far as the lab coat can tell, you no longer have an actual human body."
but still important to remember.
The next important thing to grasp is what exactly Armored Core and Core Containment are
doing. We know that mechanically speaking they make Nepgear harder to damage and capable of surviving more damage respectively but how do they do this? Frankly not much is said on this topic
however based upon what we know I
suspect what's going on is that Armored Core and Core Containment are quite literally what they say.
That means that Armored Core represents the
actual armor, well it's technically
magical armor rather traditional metallic armor as seen by:
You barely make it to the door when two zombies outright tackle you to the ground.
(Rending Jaws: 25 Base Damage, no dice, +15 Grapple = 40 Total Damage
Rending Jaws: 25 Base Damage, no dice, +15 Grapple = 40 Total Damage
Solid Core: 85 Base Resilience, +9 Dice = 94 Damage Reduction
0 Total End Damage: Armored Core Negation)
"Gah!" Your shout draws attention, but its too late as the two zombies pile atop you. But their jaws are stopped by your golden barrier, unable to break through.
, with the grade, IE: Iron/Steel/Mythril/Adamantium, of Armored Core representing the strength of the armor, which fit's with the material theme, while the Level would represent how many layers we have.
Similarly Core Containment would likely represent the containment field that keeps Nepgear's Core from undergoing a rapid unplanned release of energy (IE: exploding). Each Level therefore would mark a strengthening of the field making it capable of withstanding more stress before rupturing. Incidentally this would explain
why Core Purge causes HP damage since it basically involves intentionally weakening the field to allow energy to explode outwards*. Purifier Beam meanwhile
doesn't cause HP damage since it's a release valve actually built into the system and so involves no messing around with the containment field.
*Think of it like a
Nova, yes
nova not
supernova, but instead of energy building up to the point where it can't be contained and the excess explodes outwards it's more dropping how much energy can be contained to
make the excess explode outwards.
So with this in mind what would Indestructible Core do? Especially since it replaces both Armored Core and Core Containment? Well to my mind it does
exactly what it says. In other words I think Indestructible Core
literally makes Nepgear's Core
indestructible.
Now some of you are probably thinking "Hold on! Wouldn't that make her super-OP?" and to that my answer is
yes it would make her super-OP,
if it was just that. However just because her Core can't be destroyed doesn't mean you can't just destroy her body, which Nepgear is kinda useless without.
I have two ideas for how things would play out at that point, both amazingly trauma filled. The first is simply that Nepgear would be stuck as her Core, in what form this would take IDK, until she recreates her body, it is a magical construct after all, which is actually surprisingly similar to the Gaia's WEAPON's ability:
Gaia's WEAPON
-Angel WEAPON automatically resurrects at a specified location upon death.
except Nepgear would be displaced temporarily (IE: it would take time to rebuild her body) instead of spatially (IE: shows up somewhere else).
The second idea gets rather meta but ties into a few loose threads we've seen floating around. Such as why Nepgear's dreams are called "Reflections through the Kaleidoscope", why Rei dreamed about
exactly what happened when Nepgear died, how Gehaburn ended up inside Rei, or why we can generate xp from updates that Nepgear didn't actually live through (IE: Dead Ends). Basically every time Nepgear "dies" because her Core remains intact it slips through her clear connection to the Kaleidoscope and merges with another Nepgear from a timeline either slightly behind hers (IE: Relive failures mode) or slightly different to hers (IE: Memories of her failures mode).
Not quite sure how it would interact with Nepgear's Health and Resilience though. Probably work by re-purposing the defense shield to protect Nepgear's body and adjusting Health to represent her body's ability to function. They could then either both be controlled via Levels in Indestructible Core or her shield could be through Indestructible Core and her body through Levels in No Longer Human, representing her upgrading her magical construct body. Core Purge wouldn't even really need rejigging, or at least
much rejigging, since the HP cost would instead represent the damage being done by all that unleashed energy.
