Nanoha and the rest of the leaders were in the meeting room at the top of Nanoha’s skyscraper when Rev’s message came through. “…No…” Empress Twilight said, grimacing. “Something’s got her…”
Minna swallowed hard. “I see violence… Fire…”
An aide ran into the room. “We’ve defused a bomb in the basement! Someone was trying to destroy this building!”
“Who put it there?!”
“We don’t know, the bomb was just barely discovered!“
Everyone started talking all at once in frantic shouts mixed with more than a few obscene gestures. They were all silenced when Rev’s second message came through on Roland’s authorization. “STOP FIGHTING NOW! I WAS BEING CONTROLLED BY A FLOWER, EVERYTHING I SAID WAS A LIE! STOP!”
“That’s not enough…” an Aradia said, shaking her head. “It’s already started…”
Nanoha whirled around, fire in her eyes. “O’Neill, the Austraeoh is equipped with large-scale crowd control protocols.”
O’Neill nodded. “Yes ma’am. It is against policy to use them on our own people. Even on an enemy, it is not a step taken lightly. The approval…”
“How long do we have until English arrives?” Nanoha asked.
|> Forty-three minutes and seven seconds.
Nanoha pointed Raising Heart at O’Neill. “Stop this rebellion at all costs. I don’t care how many regulatory security barriers you have to illegally bypass.”
“We’ll be brainwashing our people,” O’Neill said.
“I know. And I want everyone to know this order comes from me and me alone. If anyone is to be judged for this, it is me. Do not voice your support for it – it is an order and you had to follow it.”
Minna looked at her with fearful eyes. “…You’re going to destroy yourself…”
“Yes,” Nanoha said, tightening her grip on Raising Heart. “I’m aware. But we don’t have time.”
|> If we take an action this questionable the plan could be in jeopardy. We no longer have the pure track record.
“And if we let them run rampant we lose our support,” Nanoha said. “No more discussion. Nala, I know you’ve just deduced what my plan is, don’t tell anyone.” She pointed at O’Neill. “Go. Now. Fix this.”
“Yes ma’am.” O’Neill said. He and Minna teleported to the Austraeoh a fair ways above the City. All of the ship’s spectral rods began to charge. The people in the City saw this and decided it couldn’t be good, though only a few knew what it was actually doing. Some of the surface-to-air weapons stations began to turn toward O’Neill.
“Nala, lock down all the weapons.”
|> Done wherever possible. Many were overridden.
Lances designed to melt through impervious alloys struck at the Austraeoh’s shields, battering the feat of Merodi engineering with defenses that had been designed to face Lord English. The immense shields of the ship held – but they wouldn’t for long.
The rest of the fleet charged weapons, preparing to fire upon the city.
“DO NOT FIRE!” Nanoha shouted. “WE ARE NOT GOING TO ATTACK OUR OWN!”
A few bullets went off – but most of the ships obeyed Nanoha’s order. It quickly became clear that a handful of them were not under the control of loyal individuals. These quickly turned their guns on the Austraeoh.
The loyal ships arranged themselves like a wall, physically surrounding the Austraeoh and protecting it from damage. Chief among these was the Emperor of Mankind’s personal warship, its physical armor so bulky it just took the damage.
Not all ships fared as well. Many exploded, sending toxic rain down on the City below. Many places that had been unharmed by the mobs were suddenly covered in rubble and on fire. Immense trails of smoke began to rise into the air, darkening the already eerie twilight.
Someone – they never found out who – managed to complete a Kamikaze run on the Austraeoh, flying straight through the wall of other ships and impacting the flagship’s shields at relativistic velocity. The shields fell, allowing the explosive debris of the ship to impact the Austraeoh directly. One of the flagship’s many volatile drives was hit, specifically one where the safety protocols hadn’t been updated to the physics of the New World. The back half of the Austraeoh went up in pink-blue flames.
But the spectral rod still had enough power to fire.
A blue pulse of energy launched from the crumbling Austraeoh, hitting the base of the Dark Tower. The magic expanded into a swirling dome of mental magic power, quickly covering the entire City, including the air above it. Sure, there were many beings who were immune to such conditioning – but the vast majority of citizens were still just regular people. In an instant, all their impulses to attack, to fight, to run were just removed and they felt slightly empty inside. The will to fight was sapped out of them.
Policing forces could take care of the violent ones who remained.
But the damage was done. There were steaming craters where buildings had once stood. The great flagship of Merodi Universalis was slowly descending to the roses below, no longer suitable for flight or combat, the back half of it completely destroyed. Fires raged in several different districts, and the outer wall had a few holes in it.
The defenses had been scrambled. The City was vulnerable.
O’Neill and Minna sent out a report – they would be staying on the Austraeoh to help with the massive loss of life on the ship.
Nanoha let out a sigh. “I’m going to the wall. Nala, prepare to execute the plan as best you can.”
|> Contacting everyone needed…
Nanoha took in a deep breath. “Make it very public knowledge what I’ve done. It’d help if some of you expressed dissatisfaction with the way I handled myself.” Nanoha looked out the window at the sky. “It’s best that way.”
She teleported away, appearing on top of the City Wall Lord English was approaching. By luck, this area of the wall hadn’t seen any damage from the battle in the sky. She had no doubt Lord English would gladly march right into the best defended area…
Monika appeared next to her. “You’ll be joining us then?”
Nanoha nodded.
“Good luck.”
“We all need luck,” Nanoha breathed.
Renee was suddenly next to them, chuckling. “You haven’t the foggiest idea how luck actually factors into this, do you?”
Nanoha ignored her.
~~~
With every step Lord English took, the ground shuddered. He moved with more weight behind his limb than an anvil dropped from a farmhouse roof, embedding deep tracks in the ground regardless of its composition. He did not slow in mud, sand, rock, metal, or more exotic ground. It was always methodical, slow, and deliberate.
The mechanical motions were easily more terrifying than a lightning-quick opponent. He gave them time to think – think about how much suffering they were about to endure. It would be brutal, it would be devastating, and it would be agonizingly slow.
He would give them every chance to stop him. And he would prove he could take them, even at their best. The smoke he saw rising in the distance gave him mild pause – what could possibly have attacked them? Should he slow down, just to give them time to recover?
No… The area he was approaching was untouched by the devastation. They wouldn’t be putting much stock in their military organization anyway since they knew it wouldn’t work. He could make his point the same this way. It was a negligible risk.
He took another step forward, his red Cairo Overcoat billowing in the wind. This was the moment he entered the range of the City Wall’s turrets. The weapons themselves were cube-shaped, their main body split up into eight sections. On the forward face four barrels large enough to be sewage main pipes glowed a soft red that quickly heated up to blinding white the moment English came into view. Each barrel fired four shots a second, the projectiles themselves composed of a mixture of solid tungsten rods, white burning plasma, and burning death enchantments.
English took the hits. He could not keep up his mechanical pace with bullets almost larger than him tearing his body apart, but he did not stop moving forward. Even with the very ground beneath his feet giving out and shattering with every shot, he moved on.
Other turrets locked on to him and fired. Most were of the same basic design of the first turret, but a couple were outfitted with more exotic and experimental weaponry. There was a yellow ring beam designed to keep him from moving – it didn’t. There was a wild burst of electricity that was designed to disassemble his molecules – that turned out to be completely temporary.
All of these attacks were enough to keep English from progressing forward. With a grunt, he held out the Black Thirteen staff and attacked. There were no bullets, no flashes of light, no sign anything had happened beyond an increase in activity within Black Thirteen’s dark orb. The multicolored spirographs within turned faster and faster, until the critical systems of all the turrets attacking English experienced random debilitating failures at the same time. They powered down, sending messages demanding maintenance.
English continued his walk. Occasionally one of the turrets would re-arm itself and make another attempt, but he would fire a beam of energy from his mouth to completely disable it.
He was allowed to make it all the way to the Wall. He pulled back a fist, preparing to be jumped by all the forces the City had at its disposal.
The single punch was enough to completely destroy not only the wall, but two blocks of buildings behind the wall – including the area where most of the standard army had been waiting.
As hefty a loss as that was, it did not stop the counterattack. Every ship in the fleet appeared in a domed-circle formation around English and unleashed their entire arsenal, backed up by the long-range weapons and spells offered by every race English could have ever imagined, and then some.
It was more than enough to kill him several times over. But he rose again, and again, and again.
The ships knew this – they refused to stop their attack. If it was possible to keep him stuck in a permanent cycle of death and rebirth, they would take it.
“HONK!”
He unleashed the sound that had heralded the end of many universes. As the last being with any true eldritch power within him, reality around him bent and twisted into impossible shapes. People grabbed their heads in agony as the shouts of Black Thirteen and the Crimson King’s power were inserted into their minds. Structures collapsed as their supports became like jelly, while others were folded into other dimensions that had not existed prior to that moment. Ships fell out of the sky like meteors, smashing into the ground like dollops of pudding.
Many of those fighting had seen things like this before. Seen the unbelievable mind-bending powers of those who could manipulate reality with ease.
There was only one difference this time.
They didn’t have any reality manipulation of their own to fight back.
They were helpless as English reduced an entire square mile of the City into mush. Most of the ships in the Fleet were disabled if not outright destroyed. The army was ineffectual to the point of being laughable.
Lord English took a step.
This prompted several thousand Aradias to appear around him. Among their ranks were a roughly equal number of Chaos daemons that had managed to survive the transition to the New World. Leading the charge of these two armies were the Emperor of Mankind in all his glory and Tzeentch.
Everything attacked at once. The daemons, while completely adjusted to the physics of the New World, were more than able to deal with being converted back into eldritch form through attacks from English. The Aradias were able to counteract English’s own power as the Lord of Time, allowing the daemons to move in.
Tzeentch appeared behind Lord English, laying his hands on Black Thirteen. “I’ll just take this!”
Lord English shoved all the knowledge he could into Tzeentch’s mind. Tzeentch had not been to the room at the top of the Tower, so he could not handle it. He screamed – but he held fast to the black artifact. He wasn’t about to let something as petty as pure undiluted madness stop him from doing something!
The Emperor of Man rammed a powerful, holy blade into English’s chest. He himself shimmered with a bright Divine power, awakened through English’s own nature. “Problem?”
“NO.” English said. He tapped into his strength and pulled his arms to his chest, the motion throwing the Emperor and Tzeentch to the side. He grabbed hold of Black Thirteen again and pointed it at the Emperor.
Before everyone’s eyes, he decayed into a skeleton. He didn’t die – Death was around somewhere, not that English cared – but the Emperor was out.
However, the Emperor still spoke. He had never removed that text-to-speech device.
“LOOK UP.”
English looked up just in time to see the Emperor’s personal ship fall from the sky onto the cherub’s face. He was able to withstand the crushing impact, lifting the miniature city and throwing it into an undisturbed section of the actual City’s wall. The explosion was bright enough to be seen from under the cloud layer of a nearby gas giant. Many were blinded or vaporized simply from proximity to the blast.
English stabbed his claw behind himself, taking Tzeentch out of the picture before he could try something else.
While he was retracting his arm, Roland of Gilead went through the Gunslinger’s creed in his mind in an instant too fast for most people to register. I do not aim with my hand; he who aims with his hand has forgotten the face of his father. I aim with my eye. He held the point between English’s two seizure-inducing eyes carefully in his gaze. I do not shoot with my hand; he who shoots with his hand had forgotten the face of his father. I shoot with my mind. He shot from instinct, naturally pushing all his power as the hero into the single, seemingly-normal bullet. A bullet infused with so much importance it was ready to kill anything. I do not kill with my gun; he who kills with his gun has forgotten the face of his father. I KILL WITH MY HEART.
The bullet sailed true. It touched English’s forehead, breaking the skin…
Lord English’s hand was already there. He caught the bullet.
Roland didn’t stop shooting – and his companions joined the effort. Spades and Caliborn launched a seemingly endless spray of golden bullets from guns Lord English himself had created and designed.
Up until about one second ago, Caliborn had been considering betraying everyone. It would have been nice to team up with his future self and lay waste to the world.
But, as stupid as the young cherub was, he knew how to read his own expression. Even if it was on an insanely ripped skull monster version of himself, he recognized the particular brand of hatred in the ever-changing eyes.
Lord English saw no use for Caliborn.
Caliborn roared. “FUCK YOU, I’M THE BEST ANYWAY! I HAVE ALL THESE BITCHES EATING OUT OF MY HA-”
Lord English was already behind Caliborn, a fist embedded through the young Lord of Time’s chest. “YOU ARE A FOOL AND AN EMBARRASSMENT.”
Spades hit Lord English over the head with the scepter form of his weapon. “Hey! Remember me!?”
“YES.” With a dismissive wave of his hand, he tossed both Spades and Roland far away. Then he cut them both in half for good measure.
Mlinx drove a spear into Lord English’s back. Somehow, he had missed the pink demon. Somehow still insignificant, yet so important… The contradiction angered English. He whirled around.
“Death punch,” Saitama deadpanned.
Lord English thought he knew what agony was.
He discovered that moment that he knew nothing of true agony.
The One Punch hit English with the force of several Big Bangs all forced in one direction. Everything behind Saitama suffered nothing more than a light gust of wind while English – and everything behind him – faced the fires of creation. The One Punch would go on to travel the New World and vaporize every planet it came across with ease.
English’s body was stuck in a perpetual pattern of rebirth and death just within the force of the single punch.
“Death punch,” Saitama said again, increasing the energy tearing away at Lord English.
Could he reach the maximum energy density?
It was certainly possible. Lord English couldn’t risk that. But he knew this trick from before – he could try to take Saitama’s ‘win’ away, but Monika would just give it back to him. So… he asked Black Thirteen where she was.
As it turned out, she was several miles away, deep beneath the ground. That would have kept him from her under normal circumstances, but she had a fire of ka within her so powerful that he could connect directly with the power of Black Thirteen.
With a sharp motion, she felt herself become a completely normal human girl.
Saitama was next. He lost the power of the punch and Monika’s conditioning. He was suddenly just an ordinary man – nothing more than a ragdoll.
“STARLIGHT BREAKER!”
Lord English’s still-regenerating form moved to defend against the attack – but he failed to realize that was exactly what Nanoha wanted him to do. While he moved, she canceled the spell and grabbed hold of Black Thirteen.
Instantly, Black Thirteen transformed its surrounding weapon shape to be identical to the design of Raising Heart, giving Nanoha dual lance devices. One white, one black.
Lord English roared in rage. He was already behind Nanoha.
Then Nanoha was already behind him, jabbing Black Thirteen into his back. “You won’t be doing that anymore. Fate’s Dawn.” Black Thirteen and Raising Heart activated at the same time, blasting Lord English with a zebra-like attack. He fell back, screeching.
“Lord English, I’m going to be your end,” Nanoha said, pointing both devices at him. “I was there when you first rampaged. I saw you kill my best friend, Hayate. I watched you destroy so, so much. I helped decide the fate of the House Juju with the other Seats. And I have built this City in order to destroy you.” She smiled mischievously. “And now I have crossed a line they will not let stand. I’m set up to go out with a bang.”
Lord English saw what she was doing. He had already lost his ability to manipulate ka through Nanoha’s use of Black Thirteen, so he fell back on the Crimson King’s eldritch tentacles to attack Nanoha. He found that these were blocked by Arceus and… Saxton Hale. Somehow. The remaining Aradias filed into formation behind him, along with a previously unused Sparkle Census army.
“Not even going to charge my attack,” Nanoha said, raising her devices up. “Absolute Starlight Breaker.”
Lord English twisted into a truly eldritch form, though instead of the Crimson King’s sharp eye, his essence was that of a spirograph that couldn’t decide on a single color. It charged Nanoha at full speed.
“Nope!” Hale said, readying a punch.
“You have no quarter here!” Arceus shouted.
“FOR EXISTENCE!” the Sparkles shouted, using their magic to pull on English as hard as they could.
Nanoha’s attack launched. The power of Black Thirteen was impossible to look at – tearing through reality like it was nothing. Everyone’s vision became static. All sensation was garbled.
But, eventually, reality returned. The dust cleared. Arceus and Hale lay on the ground, distorted by Nanoha’s attack. Many Sparkles and Aradias had fallen – most of whom were not protected by Death. He could only keep so many.
English…
Was perfectly fine. His hand was shoved through Nanoha’s chest from behind. He had removed her still-beating heart and held it within his claws.
Nanoha stared at the representation of her own life. She had made a miscalculation. She had unleashed an attack at English… in only the standard three dimensions. He’d folded himself into an eldritch plane and appeared behind her. With Black Thirteen, she could have stopped him. She could have taken him and driven him all the way to the Dark Tower.
But she’d made a mistake.
With his free hand, Lord English took Black Thirteen back. He gently set Nanoha on the ground, allowing her to hold her own heart in her hands.
He took no small amount of pleasure from the tears that began to roll down her face. She knew she needed to keel over, to pass out – but she couldn’t. She couldn’t. Lord English wasn’t letting her have respite.
“WISH ALL YOU WANT, YOU WILL NOT DIE HERE. EVEN IF YOUR SKELETON RELEASES YOU. YOU WILL NOT GO OUT WITH A ‘BANG’. YOU WILL WHIMPER FOR ETERNITY.”
Nanoha let out a despondent wail – looking like a young, lost child in a world too big for her. She could only hold her own heart and suffer.
Lord English turned and walked away.
The City had failed to stop him.
~~~
Rev downed another magic-restoration nut-bar and continued across the crater of devastation the battle against English had created. Bodies were everywhere – a large number were Aradias and Sparkles, so far distorted or dead that she could not help them.
At least it was better than the edge of the crater, where the bodies of those fighting were mixed with those of civilians. Even several miles away hadn’t been enough…
She looked into the sky. Despite the smoke in the sky, she could still see the light from one of the planets Saitama’s punch had destroyed. She had thought things would feel better if the twilight of the City gave way to something bright, but the red light only filled her with dread.
The priest shook her head – don’t get distracted. She ran to a form of one of the heroes. Arceus. Damaged beyond recognition, but with a soul clinging fast because it wasn’t allowed to go anywhere. Death’s really outdoing himself… She pressed her horn to Arceus’ face, filling him with the healing magics she knew so well. His limbs reformed and the fire returned to his eyes.
“…We lost,” he said, standing up shakily. When Rev moved to ease the leftover pain, he shook his head. “Nanoha needs you more than I. Go.”
Rev did not see Nanoha until Arceus gestured toward her. The sight reminded Rev of some things she had seen in demonic religious cults. There was a hole in her chest that had already bled dry, coloring the dress of the White Devil a deep, horrid crimson. Her body was empty, and her skin an unnatural color, making it look like something from beyond the grave was clutching to the beating heart. Rev didn’t know how it was still beating – there was no blood – but beat it did, it being the only brightly colored thing still on Nanoha.
Her face was distorted in agony. All the water in her body was gone, so she could no longer cry.
Rev knew without a doubt that this was one of those curses. Had this taken place in the old multiverse, Nanoha would have been stuck like this for eternity.
Rev thanked God the New World didn’t allow them anymore. She trotted up to Nanoha and laid a healing hoof on the woman. Her heart shot back into her body and the chest cavity healed over. The color returned to her skin, eyes, and hair. Raising Sights lifted itself off the ground and placed itself in her hand.
The first thing Nanoha did now that she had control over herself again was fall to her knees. She clutched her chest with her free hand. “Wh… wh… wh…”
Rev put a hoof on her shoulder. “It’s gone. His curse can’t hurt you anymore.”
Nanoha looked to Rev like a scared child. “…He could make a new one. If he gets to the Tower… He could… do that to everyone…”
Rev lowered her head. “…We’ve got to try something else.”
“That was it,” Nanoha said, her eyes slowly losing focus on Rev. “Fleet’s gone, army’s gone, defenses are gone, and…” She looked at her trembling hands. “We… we can’t fight anymore.”
Rev sighed. “You have backups…?”
Nanoha heard screams and explosions in the distance. “…That would be those failing. This was our best shot…”
“There has to be something…” Rev said, biting her lip.
“Don’t… blame yourself. You didn’t make a mistake. You were controlled.” Nanoha looked at her hands. “I had him. I had him. I...” She started crying again.
Rev gulped. If the great Nanoha Takamachi was crying out of fear…
“Do I really have to come out here and tell you it isn’t over yet?”
Nanoha, Rev, and everyone else who had some consciousness about them looked up to see none other than Renee herself striding toward them, somehow not bloodied at all from any of the carnage she was walking through.
“…Why have you come to mock us?” Nanoha asked.
Renee ignored her. “It’s not over ‘til it’s over, people. Lord English hasn’t entered me yet; you’ve still got plenty of time to stop him. So what, your first plan didn’t work. If you know me, you should have expected this. And all those backups you had? Technically part of the first plan. So the chips are down and it looks like you’re up shit creek without a paddle.” She smirked. “Which means it’s time for you to give it another shot.”
“I can’t fight,” Nanoha said, gulping.
“…Are we sure the answer is fighting?” Rev asked. “I mean…”
Renee shrugged. “I won’t say. What I can say is that there are other heroes whose haven’t taken their swing at things.” She looked to the sky. “Who knows when one of them might arrive?”
Nanoha blinked. “I… Right.” She shakily took her phone out and called Death. “Death…? You should release some of those who are healed and… not able to fight. We… should be prepared for others. Keep close watch. Report everything to… to…” She gulped. “…O’Neill and Minna. They should be… fine. Thank you.” She hung up.
“Good call,” Renee said with a smirk. “Now come on, we should go watch the show.”
Nanoha shook her head. “I really sh-”
Renee levitated Nanoha onto her back. “And every Tower cultist everywhere screamed as their dreams were crushed.” She rushed off in a gallop after Lord English. “TO THE SHOW!”
~~~
I knew as soon as we entered the city.
I saw all the plotlines. All of them that had been hidden up to that moment – but right then, every last one was open to my perceptions. Eve and Corona… the Sweeties… the fleet… the City…
The only thing I couldn’t see was how this would end.
I really didn’t know.
But I could try to make it turn out one way.
“Holy skewered balls…” Mattie said, eyes wide. “What happened down there?”
“Lord English,” I said, stopping our flight through the air with my telekinesis. I took out my notebook and started scribbling. “Their plan didn’t work. We’re up next.”
Nettle looked at the supertask device on her arm. “…He won’t let us get close enough.”
“I’ve got a plan for that,” I said, continuing to scribble. “Daniel, you’ll find that what you need to do is down in that district. You will be injured down there, but don’t worry, you will be taken care of. Sunny, I need you to go with him so you don’t die a Redshirt.”
Sunny blinked. “Okay. …I seem to be told to leave a lot.”
“I’m sorry, it’s the role you have. Mattie, Everykid, Nettle, you’re with me. We’re going to face English together.”
The Everykid blinked. Then she cycled a finger around her ear.
“Yes, I’m crazy, but they’re already desperate, and we’re going to be the Deus Ex Machina. Death should be able to recognize the four of us as important and save us thanks to the Emissary and Nanoha. We won’t have much in the way of backup.”
“Just four people against the strongest thing to ever exist?” Mattie shouted with a laugh. “I’ve heard of keeping the ratio as even as possible but this is just ridiculous.”
“Exactly.” I smirked. “It’s so crazy it just might work.”
“…Dammit. Well, I haven’t felt English ram his fist inside me before, so this might at least be an interesting experience.”
The Everykid let out a deep breath, put on the green-visor sporting time hat, and nodded in agreement.
“Nettle, you are key to this,” I said, turning to her. “I can’t understate how important you are to this plan. Do you understand?”
Nettle nodded. “I… Just need to get him trapped in the supertask. Keep him still for two seconds and… done. I just… I don’t know how…”
“That’s working in our favor, remember?”
Nettle gulped. “…Right.”
“Right. So let’s do this.” I flew forward, taking the Everykid, Mattie, and Nettle with me. We flew high over the sky of the burning City below.
I refused to let myself look at that. I needed to look at what was important in the eyes of ka. If I didn’t, I would make a mistake, and everything would fall apart. I had to distance myself so I could manage everything.
I felt the contract on my soul lighten when Death found us. It was something, at least.
“Everykid, you’re first. Be unexpected,” I said. “Mattie, back her up.”
The two nodded. The Everykid dropped from the sky and focused all her mind into her parasol. She shot right at Lord English from above – activating her time hat at the last minute to royally confuse English’s attempts at defense. She got a solid hit on his head with her parasol.
He looked at her in annoyance and punched – but she was suddenly on top of his fist, blowing him a kiss. A potion appeared in her hand and she threw it into his face, where it exploded.
No damage.
And he was already behind Mattie.
“Balls, usually takes them a bit longer to figure out I’m editin’ stuff…” He punched at her – but she was just gone, suddenly a fair ways away sitting at a sewing machine table that hadn’t been there a moment ago. “Ah, hello darling, allow me to steal a line from my counterpart for a moment. Wanna buy a dress?”
English let out his brutal roar of corruption. Everykid and Mattie vanished for the entire duration of the noise, appearing back only after the attack had abated. “Hey, kid, I bet he finds that annoying, what do you think?”
“Mhm!” the Everykid responded with a nod.
English punched Mattie, but she twisted overtop of his arm. English stomped in her direction, but she was behind him. English let out a beam that destroyed several buildings, but Mattie counterattacked with her dual pain whips. English pointed Black Thirteen at her – except it was the Everykid instead, who had no meta abilities to remove.
English narrowed his eyes.
“What?” Mattie said, smirking. “You weren’t prepared for the Queen of Montages? Too unusual of an ability for you? Darling we haven’t even started.”
English was in a junkyard and Mattie was dropping a car on him. English was in a spa and Mattie was ripping all his nails out. English was in a dressing room, forced into a dress Mattie had made that was way too small. English was in Mattie’s personal dungeon, facing the might of repeated whips.
English activated Black Thirteen fully, shattering the comic montage and returning all of them to the City.
“Right. In that c-” English rammed his claws through Mattie’s side and threw her to the side, spraying blood everywhere.
Mattie coughed. “Well, painful, I’ll admit, but not all that unique… six out of ten, not worth it.” She tried to edit herself into a standing up position but found that didn’t work. “Balls, there goes my viability.”
“That was more than enough,” I said, teleporting White Nettle onto the back of Lord English’s head. With a half-panicked shriek, she rammed the supertask gauntlet into English’s back.
But he was already away from her. The maximized explosion ended in two seconds, destroying absolutely nothing. He shot her with a beam of energy, but I deflected it with my magic.
He went after me next. He didn’t waste any time – he took out Black Thirteen and pointed the scepter at me. I retaliated with a beam of intense energy… and he took away Twilence’s power. She had thought she would be able to work through the sudden loss of her sight and Awareness, but it had become such an integral part of her that she staggered when it was gone.
No more a Prophet, no more Aware, no more the Muse of Ka. She couldn’t even remember what her story had been about… She’d written something! This wasn’t it, she was sure of it, but she had taken it as a possibility this would happen. What coul-
English launched a burst of energy from his throat right at Twilence. She had nowhere near enough awareness to dodge – barely able to send off a few magic bolts before taking the brunt of the attack on her body. She went flying back, eyes rolling into the back of her skull.
“TWILENCE!” Nettle yelled, standing back up. She raised the gauntlet again. All I have to do is… is… She faltered, receding from the monstrous form of Lord English. Fear took over, replacing all thoughts. She lost control of her eyes, bladder, voice, and legs all at once. She crumpled to the ground.
Lord English pointed a finger at her, planning a special heart-shot just for her. He fired.
The Everykid caught it with her body. She lit on fire and fell down at Nettle’s side, unmoving.
Nettle wasn’t aware enough to even think that the Everykid’s soul was protected. Her emotional state simply went from ‘afraid’ to ‘enraged’ in an instant. The bow made of her papery tendrils unfolded into their full form, glowing with a cosmic white power that went for miles.
And this had been Twilence’s plan all along: to awaken the Downstreamer.
This worked like a charm. She wrapped the tendrils around Lord English, and to his surprise he found he couldn’t break them. With a roar, Nettle pulled her body forward and rammed the supertask gauntlet through his skull. Pool balls and eldritch waves rippled out of Lord English, trying to get her off – but she wasn’t going anywhere.
She only needed two seconds to end him permanently with the supertask.
The explosions began. First, a single second incinerated him completely, then half a second, then a fourth, and so on until it became too fast to discern what was happening. There was nothing but light enveloping the form of Lord English.
Nettle knew something was wrong when two seconds had passed and the explosions were still happening. It took her a whole second to realize Lord English was slowing the supertask gauntlet’s perception of time. The explosions slowed enough for English to twist his head sharply and tear White Nettle’s arm off, severing the supertask gauntlet from her possession.
He put it in his mouth and destroyed it with one bite.
White Nettle looked at the bloody stump that was her arm. She screamed in panic – but then her arm was suddenly healed. No gauntlet, but no pain either.
“That’s right… I’m a Downstreamer…” She looked back up at Lord English. “I’m the Downstreamer!”
English punched forward. White Nettle snapped her fingers and made him trip. He stood back up and enveloped her body in a beam of energy – but nothing happened.
He decided he was done with this. He pointed Black Thirteen at her and asked it to incapacitate her, no questions asked.
She didn’t budge. She sneered at him – and pointed at one of her tendrils that had extended itself all the way to the Dark Tower. “My ancient Dark artifact is better.”
“IT WILL NOT BOW TO YOU.”
Nettle narrowed her eyes. She didn’t need it to bow to her – just offer some aid. She tapped into the Tower – and saw. She could see the wavefunction equations of every single particle within Lord English’s body… every last result with absolute certainty. She pointed a finger at him and slowly but surely began burning him away one particle at a time.
But his Unconditional Immortality would not let him die. She could not destroy all the parts of him that demanded it be true. It was a rule of the Tower, and she could not override it with her current level of connection.
She growled. “Fine then…” She used her loose tendrils to push Lord English back and she proceeded to look around for something else…
Her ritual. She could use that. Twilence was here… Monika was here… Arceus was here… John didn’t exist though – but Lord English himself could probably take the place of that aspect of the prophecy. All she needed now was…
…the Prophet. Who was dead.
“Dammit, where am I going to find a substitute for him…” Nettle muttered. “It failed last time because he wasn’t legitimate…” She shook her head. “Doesn’t have to be perfect, I just need to get control of a small part. Just enough to remove him…” She used her tendrils to grab Twilence, Monika, and Arceus. She created a spirograph construct around her, circling herself with their three essences. She pulled on Lord English, using his essence to tap into the Tower.
And she found it. A switch she could flip a-
Black Thirteen embedded itself in her chest and sucked the information out of her mind.
She looked to Lord English – he had found out how to escape from her tendril’s grasp. He grabbed all of them in his free hand and threw her to the ground with them. Had she been a real Downstreamer, this would have done nothing.
But she was just a woman who had awakened part of what she once was. The pain was real, too real for her to overcome. She crumpled to the ground, screaming.
Lord English stomped her flat just to make sure.
For the first time since he’d begun his attack, he let out a sigh of relief. That had actually been close.
But Nettle was out of the picture now. He could continue his march.
~~~
Daniel sat in a bed situated near a window in one of the buildings that were still standing. He heard all the reality-warping sounds stop – but he still felt the thud thud of English’s footsteps.
They didn’t win.
He let out a sigh and lay down in the bed. The fight out there wasn’t his. But if that wasn’t what he was here for…
What was the purpose? Twilence had told him it would be here… But all he’d found here was a bed and a place to hide out while the City crumbled. Sunny had set up a perimeter around the place and was doing what she could to help nearby relief efforts while never leaving Daniel’s proximity for long.
There was something he needed to do… It was so close…
What was it?
“Come on…” he mumbled. “I just need to get this over with…” He sighed. “There’s no way this is worth it…” He coughed – once again feeling like his heart should just give out from the strain. But it kept beating, but only barely.
“Not worth it, love?”
Daniel’s heart skipped a beat. He slowly looked up to see… her. A beautiful white coat, fashionable hat with a simple bow, and a sparkling blue eye. Her artificial one was broken, but he didn’t care.
“Renee… You’re…”
“Daniel, love… I’m gone,” Renee said with a sad smile. “I wouldn’t want you to get your hopes up after waiting so long.”
“Then… how?”
“…Does it matter how? I’m here now.” She walked up to him and put his old, tired face in her hoof. “Here for you.”
“Why…?”
“…I felt shunned,” Renee said, looking into the distance. “It wasn’t about which side was better. It was about who could support me. You… you were sick. You couldn’t.” She smiled warmly. “But that’s in the past. You’re back.”
Daniel choked. “I… I don’t belong here…”
“You… are right,” Renee admitted. “But was all the pain worth it?”
He looked at her – and smiled. “You would be worth all the pain I’ve ever had, and then some.”
Renee giggled. “Oh, love… I’m not worth that much.”
“To me you are.”
She shook her head and sighed. “…I’m sorry, I was weak.”
“And I was angry. We both made mistakes…”
“Yes… We made a lot.” She looked deep into his eyes, tears beginning to form in her cheeks. “But now… Now…”
“It doesn’t matter, like you said. It’s just now.”
She let out a sad chuckle. “Yes. It’s just now.” Her smile vanished. “…I’m waiting, you know.”
He nodded slowly, saying nothing.
“You’re so tired… I… I shouldn’t have…”
“Yes, you should have. I understand.” He grabbed her face. “And I know what comes next.”
She breathed in – and kissed him.
He went limp in her hooves. Gently, she used her magic to lay him back down on the bed. She pulled the sheets over him.
There was a peaceful, content smile on his face. And there it would remain.
Renee turned around and left the room, meeting up with the people in the hall who had been listening to the whole thing: Nanoha, Rev, Roland, Jenny, Twilence, Nettle, Mattie, the Everykid, and Sunny.
“…What was that?” Nanoha asked, voice trembling.
“I’m not a completely heartless bitch,” Renee said wiping the last tears from her face. “…Stories need closure just as much as they need conflict.”
“But you lied to him.”
“He didn’t care. He got to see her again. I just did what she would have done… and gave him his ending.” She looked Nanoha in the eyes. “I can’t know if there’s truly something beyond or not. For all I know, she really is waiting.”
“…You don’t know?” Jenny asked.
“How could I?” Renee asked. “My domain is what I am a part of. If there’s more… I’m not a part of it.” She shook her head. “There’s more to everything than conflict, tragedy, and amusement at the plights of others.” She looked back at Daniel. “I also appreciate beauty, closure, and peace.”
Twilence looked at her. “You still chose to give it to him and not others.”
Renee smirked sadly. “Yes. I did. I still use her mannerisms and her elegance… I inherited her connections as well. He deserved better than rotting away in a bed with no one around. So I got him here. You can wail and complain all you want about all the others I’ve killed, and you’d be completely in the right. Short-sighted, but right.” She paused. “Come on, I want to show you all something.”
She teleported them into an area of the City that had experienced extreme carnage. Bodies were littered everywhere, buildings had been reduced to rubble, and many people were screaming in agony from wounds that wouldn’t kill them. Couldn’t kill them.
Rev automatically moved to start healing those screaming, but Renee held up a hoof to stop her. “Watch.”
She did. And, slowly but surely, she saw them. People who were hurt moving through the rubble, using whatever strength they had to dig up those who couldn’t help themselves. They had no special magic, no power whatsoever, and they were still doing everything they could to help.
“That guy in the robes there was a militant Tower cultist just half an hour ago,” Renee said. “The person he’s helping is an anarchist. In a minute, they will be pulling one of Starbeat’s loyalists out. And over there is Caliborn, a being everyone here will recognize as Lord English. And yet, look what’s happening.”
Several humans and ponies were bandaging up Caliborn and giving him potions. He took all these things with a confused, distant expression on his face.
Roland narrowed his eyes. “This doesn’t forgive everything.”
Renee chuckled. “No, it wouldn’t. But I wanted to remind you, I’m not evil. I’m just the architect of everything you see. I’m sadistic, cruel, and amused by the plights of others, yes. But I also am the source of all beautiful relationships, closure, and random acts of kindness.” She turned to look at all of them closely. “…I appreciate the impossible. The outlandish. The kinds of things that defy the odds. The incredible. Good, bad, some undefined mixture of the two, it doesn’t matter. I can’t think of a better description of myself than this place right here.”
Twilence moved to the front of the group, looking Renee in the eyes. “…We can’t judge you.”
“But you have,” Renee said. “Or, you could say I have. Set up a little war based on my own criteria to see what happened.” She gestured to the sky, showing them the many planets swirling in the red glow of Saitama’s explosion. “This is what happened. You were all a bunch of absolute morons along the way here. But you were my morons.” She pointed at herself. “What you see is what you get.”
Twilence shuffled her hooves, unsure of what to say.
“Oh, look at you… You have what you wanted, and now you’re lost.”
“…I still feel… free.”
“You aren’t. But if you win, you might be.”
Twilence smiled softly. “I caught that ‘if’. I, for one, fail to see how you could call it satisfying to have Lord English win.”
Renee waved her hoof back and forth indecisively. She turned to Nanoha. “Why are you so scared of me showing more than the sadistic brute side of myself?”
Nanoha didn’t respond.
“I am a complex being with many different sides, High Sovereign. I decidedly enjoyed watching Lord English torment you, making you wish for death. I enjoy your broken, resurfacing childish exterior. I also enjoyed it when you triumphed over your enemies and found happiness with family.”
Nanoha flinched.
“You fear me because you don’t want to think it’s possible. That everything comes from the same source.” She shrugged. “It’s true darling, just deal with it.”
“…So, what now?” Twilence asked.
“She won’t tell you,” Jenny muttered.
Renee rolled her eyes. “You’ve got another shot coming up.” She pulled out her phone and handed it to Twilence. “You know what to do.”
Twilence looked at the phone and nodded. She dialed and put it to her ear. “Hey. Just the seven of them. That’s it. That’s your best shot.” She hung up.
Renee nodded. “I kept the nearby observatory untouched. Let’s go watch in unfiltered HD action!”
~~~
Lord English stepped through the inner city limits and into what remained of the Field of Can’-Ka No Rey. The roses scraped his feet with their perfect tips, their color not altered in the slightest by the ominous lighting. With every step, pain shot into English’s feet.
But he saw the door of the Dark Tower before him. With Black Thirteen, it was guaranteed to open to his will. It was only a few minutes of walking away.
He considered running or teleporting, but he knew that would end the streak he had going. He couldn’t risk it. Not when he was this close.
He was under no illusions that he had won. There would no doubt be another hurdle he had to face.
But, for the next little while, he marched completely unimpeded. They had lost all will to fight him, instead rushing to help each other. Pathetic. Most of the City was unharmed by his straight rampage, and they weren’t even doing anything! They admitted defeat too easily. They should have fought to the very last man.
When he was in control that was how things would always be. To the last breath, no matter what.
He sensed a carrier ship coming up from behind him. He knew exactly who was in it via Black Thirteen. He let them pass overhead without so much as a pity glance.
They teleported seven people down. Exactly seven – no more, no less. They would be the last line of defense between him and complete victory.
Pidge. Jotaro. Flutterfree. Vriska. Pinkie. Corona. Eve.
“PROTAGONISTS.” He said. He stopped walking forward and took them in.
There was the insignificant Pidge, essentially there for no purpose other than to fill a slot. She was of no concern, but she could serve as a judge of the overall team morale. Jotaro, the big guy, usually the one who did the fighting for the Primary Team, but here he was actually one of the weak ones – though the Passion could have some interesting side effects if English wasn’t careful. Flutterfree was in nearly the same boat – she had been able to harm English before with the Rage, but he would no longer be susceptible to something so simple. Revelation would be pointless at this stage.
Vriska… The bitch that sealed him in the House Juju in the first place… He would experience great pleasure tearing her apart limb from limb. Her luck would run out eventually, and she couldn’t take it from him. That infinite-sided die was the only thing she had even remotely dangerous to him. It had already failed to work on him once.
Pinkie, the Aware. He’d fought her before, and she’d lasted the longest out of all of them. But, in the end, she wasn’t actually powerful – just slippery, like that white unicorn earlier. He could take her ka-based powers away in an instant.
Corona and Eve, two sides of the same coin, the patrons of both sides. Fire, empathy, eternity, and a slew of bizarre powers that would take too long to list. Ice, friendship, magic, and a much more balanced psyche. A powerful duo whose names had gone down in history as the faces of the largest war to ever exist.
All of them taken together were absolutely nothing compared to him. He had fought gods, world-enders, demons, and even a Downstreamer on his way to this leg of his journey. He had flicked people like this away like bugs all day. They should have been nothing.
But he knew better. These were the protagonists. And everyone always loved an underdog story…
“You don’t have to do this,” Eve told English. “You could turn around and leave. I wouldn’t try to stop you. You don’t need ka to forge your own path.”
He looked at her quizzically. Did she really think she could talk him down?
“You can go and freely conquer. I bet you could create yourself a sizeable empire before the Tower vanishes completely. Then you’d be a king of an actual nation. You wouldn’t have ka helping you get to your place – you will keep it under your own power. Isn’t that better? As it is, you’re just as much a slave to it as the rest of us.”
Corona nodded. “If you let it go, you can be free. We wanted to be free so horrid things wouldn’t happen… But part of freedom is the freedom to do evil. You want to be the villain. So why not leave so you can become a real villain? Not one arbitrated by some force of ka, but by your own will.”
“I WILL BECOME THE TOWER.”
“And the Tower is defined by its creations,” Pinkie added. “You’re not free now, and you won’t be free if you get what you want. Ka is a two-way street that traps everyone. There are no winners.”
English paused. Then, for the first time in as long as he could remember, he laughed. It was a horrendous sound that filled everyone in earshot with a sense of dread.
“YOUR WORDS ARE POWERFUL AND YOUR TONGUES SHARP. BUT HOW DO YOU EXPECT TO CONVINCE ME… WHEN I AM ALREADY HERE?” He pointed at the Tower. “THIS IS THE END. TO TURN AROUND WOULD BE… UNSATISFYING.” He stood up tall, Cairo overcoat blowing in the ominous wind. “I AM THE VILLAIN. I HAVE EMBRACED THIS ROLE. I WILL SEE IT OUT TO ITS END.”
“Villains are defeated,” Pinkie reminded him.
“AND I WILL SUFFER DEFEATS. BUT I WILL ALWAYS COME BACK. I WILL RETURN. THIS REQUIRES KA.” He hefted Black Thirteen into the air. “YOU ARE THE FINAL HURDLE.”
“Well, you tried,” Vriska told her friends. “I’m impressed you even got him to think, so you can consider that a win.”
Eve ruffled her feathers. “We have absolutely no chance of holding a candle to his power.”
“Trillion-to-one odds,” Pinkie said. “I like those chances, how about the rest of you?”
“Seems par for the course, really,” Pidge added.
“We really do end up in these sorts of situations a lot…” Flutterfree commented.
“Yare yare daze…” Jotaro said with a nostalgic smile on his face.
Corona laughed. “We’re all hopeless dorks.” She spread her wings and lit herself on fire, drawing the Master Sword. “Let’s show him what we’re made of.”
Lord English asked Black Thirteen a simple question. How many can you take care of in an instant?
Pidge clutched her heart and dropped to the ground.
“…Well that’s just not fair,” Pinkie pouted.
“Wasn’t going to be of much help anyway,” Vriska said, summoning the infinite-sided die into her hand.
“Vriska!” Flutterfree gasped.
Vriska chuckled. “When are you going to learn, Flutterfree?” Vriska jumped into the air. “You can’t remove all the bitchiness.” She threw the die at English.
She would never get the roll she had gotten last fight again, that card had already been played. Instead, it was a series of tungsten rods that transformed into snakes as soon as they entered English’s body. Decidedly uncomfortable, sure. But nothing that could even slow him down. He let out a roar intending to vaporize her, but she dodged. She brought her sword down between his eyes.
He grunted, twisting his head and biting down on her leg. There was poison in his teeth, but such things didn’t matter in this rushed conflict. She ignored the pain and threw her fluorite octet into his face, blasting him with a series of thumbtacks to the eyes. They bounced right off.
“Huh. Guess they actually are pool balls. Another of existence’s big mysteries, solved.”
He threw her to the ground and prepared to flatten her – but he had to deal with Star Platinum hitting him upside the head and Flutterfree trying to remove Black Thirteen from his grasp. Had she been doing it physically, she would have gone mad – but she was using Lolo. And Lolo was well known for having meta effects. The purple spirograph of the Stand surrounded the inky black orb, complementing the red and green spirographs within.
Lord English had the ‘machinery’ around Black Thirteen transform into a bow shape. Flutterfree was not surprised by this, pulling out her own bow and meeting the arrow head on. Light hit darkness – and lost. The bolt shot Flutterfree down with ease.
…But her Rage kept her moving. She jumped back and drove her wings not into him, but into the weapon that was Black Thirteen. She suffered heavy blows to her mind, but the truth of Rage kept her grounded just enough to fix her blades and pull.
It would have done nothing had Pinkie not hit Lord English with a warhammer the size of a small mansion. He lost his footing and Black Thirteen was torn from his grasp. With a series of “ORA ORA ORA” he was distracted even further.
“NOW!” Corona and Eve shouted at the same time. A burst of ice, fire, light, darkness, and two separate Stands hit him all at once, pushing him towards the now open doors of the Dark Tower.
If he was thrown in there without Black Thirteen, he would be trapped until the Tower fell.
He would lose.
All it would take would be a simple roar to push them off him… Nothing difficult…
Except that Corona had placed a hand to his forehead, activating her empathy powers.
“Normally at this point I try to talk things out, to understand who I’m fighting better,” Corona said, pacing around the dark expanse that was Lord English’s mindscape. “But I’m not going to do that today.” She snapped her fingers, forging a direct connection to the part of Lord English that was eldritch. She had a lot of experience with this sort of thing: Majora, Nyarlathotep, and more. She would burn his brain with his own absurd power.
She had expected the difficulty to be similar to that. She only had to keep him stuck in his mind for a couple of real-world seconds, after all.
She hadn’t expected him to be able to shove her out of his mind with the equivalent of a mental grunt. She went flying, breaking up the freeze-flame attack she and Eve had going on him. He reached out and grabbed the rim of the doorway to the Tower.
Pinkie tried to knock him into the Tower – but he was already behind her. He slapped her to the side, prompting a squeak to emanate from her overly cartoony body. He jumped to the frozen form of Flutterfree, tearing Black Thirteen from her with a swift yank. He backhanded Vriska so hard every one of her ribs were flattened, while he pointed Black Thirteen at Pinkie.
“Well, ponyfeathers, I’m useless now,” Pinkie said, dropping her chainsaw. “So how about you n-” Lord English rammed his hand through her body, prompting candy-red blood to squirt everywhere. “...Grk…”
He shot two pool balls into her eyes for good measure, just to make her feel it. Then he lit Vriska on fire, forcing her to experience the constant agony he had experienced when Saitama had been on him. Jotaro was as simple as teleporting behind him when Star Platinum was punching - his back snapped like a twig.
All that remained were the two of them. Corona Shimmer and Evening Sparkle. Lifelong friends. Unwilling enemies. The extremes of existence right before him…
They had created a swirling tornado of every power they had at their disposal. They no longer had a plan, they just knew they needed to attack. To push him into the ground. To win.
He clapped his hands and they fell like flies.
And that was it. He had defeated them. He was done.
…Why did he hear sarcastic clapping?
He turned to face the Dark Tower. Renee was sitting in front of it with a decidedly amused smile on her face, clapping. “Well done. You beat a bunch of rag-tag misfits who were far, far below your power level. And they almost had you for a second there! Brilliant.”
Lord English narrowed his eyes. He pointed Black Thirteen at the Dark Tower, preparing to force it to open for him.
Renee kicked the door with her hoof and it opened unceremoniously. “There’s no need for that. Come on in, make yourself at home. That is what you want, isn’t it?”
Lord English lowered Black Thirteen and glared at Renee. Very slowly, he nodded.
Renee chuckled, and turned to walk into the darkness. She soon vanished from his perceptions.
For a moment, Lord English paused to look up – to see the orb of the Earth above him. Somehow, it still seemed blue despite the appearance of everything else.
A breeze blew through the field of roses, giving it an appearance akin to a sea of blood.
With a deep breath and a tightened grip, Lord English took a step forward. The roses still pricked his skin, but they were nothing compared to the sensation the Tower gave him. The closer he approached, the more he felt it calling him. Demanding he enter.
He marched forward, laying his hand on the front door. It felt wrong, like it was both dead and alive, and that was just the way it should have been. It would serve him well.
One more step, and he was fully inside. The doors closed behind him all on their own, slamming shut with a noise so loud and final everyone within the City heard it.