To make people actually remember, here's it once for posterity: Minako is nonbinary and uses they/them. This message will be pinned so you people stop getting it wrong and pissing me off. If you get it wrong in the future I'm going to be much less nice, considering you have to scroll past it just to read the quest.
"This...isn't great," you say. "I know it's fucked up. It's real fucked up." You look at the both of your friends. You're mostly just thankful that Reika has enough of her meds to keep up her hormone therapy, despite how the city's going to quickly get real bare real fast, and that Hiro is going to be as safe and far away from this city as possible.
"You remember that witch from a few weeks ago, Reika?"
She says nothing, but you can tell that she's nodding. She remembers.
You ask. "That was...yeah. That's more than just a monster thing. It's not just a creature we kill. It's what magi are supposed to turn into."
[=]
In another part of the city, the bridge to Kasamino collapses. A red line of molten magma rips through the center of the structure, shredding through metal and ripping into concrete supports as the wires holding it up snap. The entire bridge splits in twain, collapsing into the sea in a rain of debris.
At the end of it, Akane slaps her hands together. She nods to a person to her right, who promptly takes some of the falling debris with a pull of her hands. A magical wall erupts into place, stretching fifty meters into the sky with the magi of Mitakihara atop the structure. Portculli are raised, structures are fortified, and the water below churns.
There is now a wall at the north side of Mitakihara.
[=]
"Again, that's the way of things. At least...it was." You raise your soul gem. "I found a way to fix it." You smile. "I kinda lucked into it, but I think there's a way to solve that problem for good. Not that it's...gonna be easy. It's never easy. But I can do it. I think we can do it."
[=]
Sayaka Miki-Sakura crosses the top end of the wall. She flicks her hair around as her cape flaps in the wind and she keeps watch over the battlements.
'How's info team?'
There's a flash of light from below the Walpurgisnacht seed. 'We're good!' says Yuki, who keeps watch.
'Artillery?'
In another part of the Northern Wall, a series of openings are readied. There are cannons lining the back of the wall, ready and waiting for firing. Some of them look like old world war artillery cannons, others like massive ballistae, and yet others just piles of cars picked up from the streets.
'Artillery is loaded! We're ready to rain hell.'
She nods at that. Another turn. 'Flank and Strike?'
Both her wife and Tomo answer. 'Waiting.'
She smiles...and then she feels a twinge. Her mouth twitches a bit before she pulls a cigarette out of her pocket and...
'Wait.' Sayaka blinks. She turns around, and it takes her a second to look through the buildings down below; she can hardly see anyone there...
Then she finally notices her wife sitting on a building, staring directly at the cigarette in Sayaka's blue gauntlet.
'...Ah. Shit.'
[=]
"I did it because I thought I'd understand. Thought that I'd get all this bullshit just immediately, but it's still a confusing fucking mess." You scoop some more ice cream. "So really I just...I kind of briefly wanna forget, y'know? Pretend I'm normal. A little."
"I mean, I know that." You roll your eyes. "But that doesn't mean I don't...I don't want all the baggage that comes with it."
[=]
'Nah. It's okay.' Her wife whips out a lighter,as two other hands reach out and put their own cig into her mouth. 'I didn't quit that well, either.'
Sayaka visibly slumps. 'Oh, fuck me.' She pinches the bridge of her nose. 'Are you fucking kidding me I thought it-'
'You really don't have any room to criticize me on this.'
Sayaka makes an exasperated groan. It's loud enough that several of the magi around her immediately turn and ask what's wrong before she just raises a hand and says "It's fine, don't worry about it."
They don't believe her , but they still get back to work; there's more to worry about at the moment.
'You're right and I hate it.'
Below her, Kyouko's already smoking her cigarette. She huffs once, then twice, then lets out a large cloud of ashen smoke. '...Man I thought you'd be disappointed that I didn't quit.'
'I thought you'd hate it if you realized I picked up your bad habit.'
Kyouko laughs, and even from all the way up here Sayaka swears that she can haer it ringing in her ears. 'I mean, I do, but...what can you do, man.'
[=]
You're now eating your bowl of ice cream and it's as delicious as ever, because it's ice cream. But you also don't know what's going to be left of the town.
You kind of trailed off after Reika tried to make a point about normalcy, but it...fell a little flat. And she's looking away from you now.
You think she knows it didn't work with you. And your powers tell you you're right.
"If there's anything left, though..." You look at Reika. "The best thing you and Hiro can do for me is just...keep yourselves safe, okay? You got families and friends other than me."
"Well, how about this, then," Reika says as she puts her hand on your shoulder. "Don't fucking die. Got it?"
You give her a thin smile, and to your right, Takane grips your hand tight.
[Q] "... not. I'll try not to die."
-[Q] "Do not or do, there is no not trying?"
--[Q] "Yeah, that quote I just botched is ancient even by mama's standards."
Sayaka and Kyouko finally overcame their denial that each other smokes. This is like, a big arc coming to a close.
CHAPTER 3 - FINALE - The System Only Dreams In Total Darkness
The wind howls today, and Lady Rin could not be more excited. Her teeth glimmer as the bridge between Mitakihara and Kasamino collapses, as a wall is erected between the two cities. She hadn't bothered to put up her own barrier. She is, after all, not the one being invaded. There is no need to protect against an assault that'll never arrive.
To her left, her chariot rides. The wheels spin in the air as her driver floats in the open sky. "Lady Rin?"
"Ah, we still have yet an hour or two." Lady Rin says, with a raised hand. "Let them prepare. They need to be lucky for the entire battle. We only need to be lucky once."
It's a quote she had heard, but she's not certain of where it's from. But as far as Rin is concerned, she is going to liberate a people. A few violations of the soul. A few laws broken. A few crimes committed and a few people dead.
But what's one or two deaths in the grand scheme of things? The world is a machine that chews lives away; she is about to chew away a few more in favor of changing things for good. For the world is Hers to correct.
The Incubators have failed, and she is not stupid enough to think that they believe in her. Rather...they think she is to fail.
She will prove them wrong.
Because she already knows she has the strength to handle the Seed. She knows how to empower herself with the souls of the fallen. She knows how to hold the souls of the dead, the souls of the living, and the souls of the future.
Endings are fun, aren't they? Well we ain't quite there yet but I like endings a lot.
I feel like they can feel anticlimactic and kind of underwhelming, despite the rest of the story building up to this massive showdown. Why is that?
I feel like a part of that is a need to either escalate or a loss of the original themes of the work. For an ending to truly feel satisfying, it needs to feel like it was built up to. Like the rest of the story was leading up to the final showdown. Like everything that happened was going to lead up to this.
Cause and effect causes a domino effect that all build up to this one massive collapse.
And then a bright beam of green light blew off Rin's head.
"Thanks Yui" said Sayaka, "it's so helpful we had a meguca who specialises in sniper magic."
"I couldn't have done it if she wasn't standing in a flying chariot... What now?"
"I dunno, ice cream?"
Beautiful ending for this chapter. The music fit so well, too.
What I'm thinking right now, though, is that iiiiiiiis there a tiiiiiiny little small possibility that Rin's sister became meguca and witched and Rin has been using her sister's Seed to empower herself while keeping her sister's corpse in their room all this time.
It starts an hour after the last train leaves Mitakihara.
The snowfall grows more intense and the sun turns a dull yellow in the sky. The wind howls as October begins to feel more like January.
Your name is Kyouko, and you stand with your wife on the wall. Your cigarette burns to the butt before you toss it over the edge. "Shit, I feel so fuckin' stupid about that."
"About what? Because we both kept that particular secret from each other." Sayaka presses a hand through her hair. "That was so dumb."
"No, no, I mean just..." You sigh. "I was supposed to've quit. I thought I did and all that. Then it uh..." You transform quickly to get the smell out. "Yeah, I just did. I ain't as strong as I thought."
"I...hrm." Your wife stares forwards. She huffs her own cigarette, then tosses it out into the bay. "Yeah. I guess that's the lesson of the past few weeks, isn't it."
"We aren't as good as we thought?"
"Yeah." She sighs. "We're not as good as we thought. And now we're here."
"If you're about to get upset about that woman from last night-"
"I could've talked her down."
"No, you couldn't have."
"Yes, I could have." Sayaka whips her head towards you. "I could've fucking talked her down but I was too pissed off. You talked someone down and I couldn't have done that because I was too goddamn angry to."
"Except she tried to kill our kid. There's more than a reason to be pissed." You grimace. "...you think Rin sent her-"
Sayaka swallows. "No doubt. She's heartless."
"You don't become a cult leader by actually having empathy. You fuckin' fake that shit or else it eats you alive."
Sayaka grimaces and you immediately feel a little bit bad for dredging up your past. It's a dull ache for you, a little prick from years ago that you've learned to ignore. But for her it's a reminder that her wife's been hurt. Really, really deeply hurt. And you don't like having her worry about you.
Then she talks. "I...no, I'm not surprised by that. An easy excuse for a war."
"She just wanted to have an easy talking point to the rest of The Glow. I mean, the Inner Circle ain't super mind-controlled. And Oriko said they were having...well, did she say they had doubts?"
"They were her voice of reason, yeah. And she used a martyr to-"
She's cut off when a chunk of the wall is ripped asunder. A cloud of dust and cone of debris spray across the buildings behind it, devouring rows of empty apartment buildings. A second explosion hits, then a third, and this time you can see exactly what's causing it.
They're chariots. Riderless, empty chariots.
You take a step back. 'ARTILLERY! GET READY!'
With that, Akane glances ahead, eyes narrowed as streaks of light rip across the bay. She raises her hands, opens her mouth, and bellows with supernatural force, her vocal cords as strong and powerful as any of her other muscles as she screams across the city. "READY!"
The artillery begins to rev up. Further down, you see a gigantic cannon, faint in the haze of night, readying itself as a yellow light shimmers at the tip. Mami's own form of artillery.
"AIM!"
Machines clank and grind as you turn out towards the bay. The civilian boats are ruined, the air stock-still. A glance to the right shows that the mountains have lights; an impassable natural barrier that nobody was able to build infrastructure for now shows the faint light of soul gems. A small number of infiltrators.
You hope Akane can see them.
"FIRE!"
The barrage is split between the ocean and the mountains, seemingly where you are. A ballista bolt the size of a tree trunk rockets towards the distant peaks, screaming at hideous speed before smashing into the wall. Rockets roar across the bay, cars and trucks and buses being thrown at Mach 2 as Mami's cannon slowly clanks into place.
A few scant groups at the front, already trying to cross the bay, are immediately met with a wall of fire. There is no easy path forwards; plumes of water the size of buildings rocket upwards, and each shockwave makes the water churn and roil. There is no way for anyone to cross the bay, no easy way for someone to swim.
Except...you're dealing with Magi.
A squadron of people begin to rise, led by a woman with six wings and myriad eyes. A chariot rolls beside her, wheels turning in the air. To her left, a magi that looks less like a person and more a beacon of golden light.
They are immediately assailed by a storm of gunfire, red-hot raindrops crashing headlong into blades and barriers. The mess of wings around Rin splits and splinters into a cloud of metal shards, which envelope her and her entourage. The artillery begins to split before Akane shouts.
"SHE IS A DISTRACTION! FOCUS ON THE WATER!"
The fire immediately turns away from Rin...save for one. The largest gun, Mami's cannon, continues to fire upwards. Each shot is blocked by Lady Rin's wings, deflected as they split the skies with beams of yellow light and the echoing howl of gunfire.
'She's trying to get to the Seed!'
'She is, but it's a deliberate pull! She's trying to split our fire even more than it already is!'
You glance to the side of the mountains. There is a limited amount of gunfire happening, but already, the slopes are covered in clouds of dust and debris. The trees covering the side have been flattened, stone and greenery alike stripped of life and made a deep, dark grey. Each consecutive shot makes the mountain less and less passable, as anyone now attempting to cross has to try and do so over the peaks.
Your team is already crawling over the mountain; you made sure of that, but they're moving slightly slower than anticipated. You curl your legs. "I'm heading into position. I'll be back, Sayaka."
Sayaka moves to retort, then she remembers the plan. She bites her tongue. "Right. Right, Kyouko." She swallows. "We'll get through this."
"Yeah. We fuckin' will." You smile back before you grab the back of her head and she grabs your cheek.
She stares into your eyes as you break off the kiss.
"I love you."
"Same." You grin, then flex your hands. Eight more reach out of your back, each holding their own spear as your shimmering golden armor erupts over your body. You take a step back, then fly off towards the mountains.
You have a fucking job to do.
[=]
Your name is Mami Tomoe. And you are firing at a monster in the sky. You are directly disobeying orders. You are directly ignoring Akane's call to stop firing.
You are firing and firing and firing, and your gem is not going dark.
...
That's right. Your gem is never going to darken, ever again.
So you slam your hands into the top of your artillery cannon. The massive, train-sized barrel balloons, splitting into three. Your hands flex, your fingers twisting as you pull your hand to the right. A comically-long string of shells rolls out across the ground, each shot large enough to crush cars and splinter concrete.
On top of it, you grind your foot into the top of the chamber, your armor shimmering and gleaming as you stare upwards.
You hope that they can see you from up there.
You hope they're terrified.
"TIRO APOCALISSE!"
And then you fire.
Your gun is deafening. Each shot threatens to shatter glass before threat becomes promise and the buildings behind you have their windows shattered and broken in. Lampposts near you are knocked aside as each shot of your cannon roars into the sky, as each brass casing slams into the ground. Some rounds smash cars, some bounce across concrete, some smash into walls.
And what started as a few wayward shots become a barrage of hellfire.
Up above, Lady Rin's previously lackadaisical deflections become much more frantic, and then two bodies split from the main line.
One is a chariot. The other is a golden woman of light.
[] Keep up the attack. [DIFFICULTY 3] (You want this gamble to pay off)
[] Get off the gun. Now. [ACCURACY 2] (It's not worth it. Bail. Now.)
