//------------------------------// // Chapter 29, part 1: Siren Dame // Story: The Bridge: A Godzilla-MLP Crossover // by Tarbtano //------------------------------// =============== Harmonium Nexus =============== Harmony narrowed her vision and ushered forth another pulse from her horn as she stood before the window to the human realm. Having been watching the sirens and kaiju closely, she’d seen Enjin coming and had been trying to give Monster X and Aria forewarning of its arrival the first moment she saw it. But unfortunately, like trying to push a bubble underwater, something was keeping her from reaching out to the group. Something was keeping her power from influencing the realm, and that observation was the most startling for her. It meant someone was blocking her. As for who, they weren’t slow to make their presence known. A low voice echoed across the ethereal chamber, more akin to several voices speaking in unison from multiple directions than just one tone. “I suspected someone of importance was tied to the tree…” It muttered as a hazy shade filtered across a majority of the dimensional window. The visual of Aria and Monster X was blotted out by an invasive nothingness that swallowed up half the window. A second portal to another realm revealed itself, having been forcefully opened on top of the first and being responsible for Harmony’s communication being cut off. Her words of warning had gone to another source, another realm, and someone had been listening. An energy spike the likes of which the harmonic nexus had never encountered began to gush out of the dimensional black hole. A heavily distorted, blurry mass of pure mana and physical mass began to step through the window. Harmony’s hooves clicked across the glassy walkway as she backpedalled away. A figure, heavily obscured by a black energy shroud and a blurry image of its body, stepped onto the platform. Multiple sets of eyes, the only part of its body with any clarity, opened and looked about its surroundings. The intruder’s visage bore a distinct outline, one broad nasal horn flanked by two bull-like brow horns. A long tail lined with several spines slithered out of the portal and thumped against the glass walkway. While still not nearly at full strength, the lord of Zenith’s presence was wrought with waves of unnatural power that seemed to taint the very air around it. The Avatar of Extinction, Bagan had arrived. Harmony didn’t need to be told what she was looking at. She’d suspected there was a master pulling the strings to the recent ploys, and now he stood before her. She winced slightly from a gnawing chill, a highly unusual feeling for someone like her. Far from a normal cold, the snowless blizzard was clearly an unnatural aura that passively accompanied the eldritch; for even she could sense it was coming from Bagan himself and not the portal. Still, the incarnation of the realms’ world tree held her nerve as well as her ground. Bagan locked all of his eyes upon Harmony as the portals behind him resettled to an even split between Zenith and the human realm. One set of eyes mounted on the shoulders glanced over at the visage of Enjin as it dropped down in front of Monster X and Aria. “I suspected you’d be watching that conflict, if you existed. Tracking down this realm was difficult, so I made sure I’d get your attention and draw this place close enough to Zenith.” Bagan spoke in a disturbing calm. He’d gambled from the beginning there might be some sort of celestial or magical higher ups in this realm as there had been on Terra. An overseer much like he’d been once. True, Enjin’s deployment had mostly been an endeavor to acquire the kaiser energy. But, as Bagan had correctly guessed, the Aspect’s arrival would cause enough logistical trouble in that realm that it would require someone he suspected existed to draw in closer. Close enough that her realm got near enough to Zenith that Bagan could open a second portal without burning too much energy. With them both connected to the human realm, all he needed to do was patch the tethers together. With eons of experience, Bagan never was one to just have one plan at a time. Harmony tilted her head up and let her radiance shine, pushing back the wayward energy and cold emanating off of Bagan. She brokered a stoic expression and retained all of her focus without a hint of faltering. Bagan wasn’t the only experienced immortal in the realm. “So, I presume you are the one who brought the kaiju here?” “The apes were the ones who begot that folly, I needed only take the reins away from them. Their slight will be corrected in time when I return to Terra.” As it spoke, Harmony detected a spike in its energy output. It was mana, much like Mothra Lea’s or the Shobijin, but in a far purer form that was magnitudes more potent than even the former’s. Even without a direct, active comparison she could tell the entity before her was easily four times stronger than the guardian moth; and this was just its passive output. That monstrosity in the human realm was easily one of the most powerful forces there, but it was merely a fraction of the whole. And, something told her this wasn’t even the full extent of itself. “And allow me to guess that you chose to invade this dimension and its accompanying realms to regain your strength?” Bagan turned its head away from Harmony, casually looking back over at the standoff between his hunter and its quarry. “Invaded is a misnomer. But, I do plan to grant this place and the realms tied to it a gift as I restore myself, before I return to Terra. It has worked thus far and I am not without gratitude.” “And, what might that gift entail?” An eerie silence passed over them for a short while. One by one, each of Bagan’s sets of eyes looked back at Harmony as he stood still, the action done in a disturbingly unnatural manner that wasn’t helped by Bagan never raising his voices above a tranquil stoicism. “The inhabitants of these realms have souls, do they not? I shall unbind them.” The horrific realization slowly dawned on Harmony, granting Bagan the first genuine reaction he could get out of her as her eyes widened and jaw dropped slightly. In an instant her brow furrowed and the avatar’s glow intensified. The white and bright purple light overtook her eyes and she spoke with a shaking tone that would make the royal Canterlot voice seem like a whisper. “You. Will. Not!” Her declaration shook the nexus realm with a gust of wind that was soon chased by a wave of energy flying free from Harmony’s pronged horn. The white wave crashed into Bagan, who turned and dug his hand into its forefront. Brilliance crackling along the invader’s arm, he physically grasped the crescent of magical energy and stopped its forward advance. He then shifted his stance and tossed it into the space off to the side of and below the walkway. The blurred visage of multi-rowed fangs with liquid shadow drooling out from between them snarled, Bagan advancing forward to stampede towards Harmony. ============= Human Realm ============= Enjin stoically began to advance upon Monster X and Aria, the latter two attempting to keep a distance by backpedalling in tandem with Enjin’s steps. Monster X held a low voice, keeping an arm outstretched in front of Aria and pushing her back with it. “Run. Now.” Aria Blaze however, be it by her own pride or the influence of Kaizer Ghidorah’s power, wasn’t feeling keen to oblige too quickly. “No! If I can fight, I can help!” She snapped, her eyes already flashing with a ruby glow. Monster X’s low tone shifted to a growl. “Don’t make me repeat myself, Aria.” “And don’t try to make me go anywhere!” Before Monster X could retort, the pair had to spring into action due to Enjin moving at a quicker rate than an impeccable stride. It lunged forward with a balled first, forcing X and Aria to spring back with a levitation assisted leap to get clear of the blow that shattered the rotting corpse of an old tree. Splinters and decaying bark flew out every which way as the two fell back into dodging Enjin’s continued attacks. Monster X rolled himself along a leaping strike aimed at Aria, ramming his elbow into Enjin’s temple to try and force it back. He had to resort to grabbing its forearm with his free hand and snapping his hips to get enough force to equalize Enjin’s relentless advance. “Your!- Training isn’t done yet! Monster X grit his teeth during the struggle, his feet sinking into the packed snow. Aria however wasn’t staying still. With X diverting the blow, she forgoed her need to dodge and with her necklace and eyes flashing, landed a strength enhanced leg sweep into a mule kick that broke Enjin’s stance. The siren lurched forward together with X, shoving the dark being back and over a steep incline. While stumbling a bit, Enjin easily grabbed hold of the gravel laden ground and righted itself. Aria’s attention however, wasn’t solely on the kaiju in front of her as it was the one taking a unified guard stance beside her. “And it won’t be if this thing kills you! You’re not at your best either X, you’ll need the help!” Monster X and Aria backed up as Enjin clawed its way back up the incline’s drop off. “We’re not fighting it yet. On my signal, go and run fast as you can back to the hotel and get your pod to ready our escape.” “What about you?!” “I’ll distract it for a moment, then break off and follow. I’ll be only a short distance behind you. One of us has to keep this thing occupied and your cousins wouldn’t believe me if I showed up alone and not you.” Monster X lowered his voice, shifting his position to put himself between Enjin and the siren. “So. Get. Going! I can hold it off for awhile. Then I’ll be right behind you… Don’t make me repeat myself again Aria. Your time will come.” Aria Blaze sneered, but the glow around her still red eyes dissipated somewhat. She dropped her guard and half turned around, mumbling just loud enough for Monster X to hear. “... Be careful you idiot, I still want that last lesson.” “I’ll make it a promise. Now go!” He barked with a partially turned head, having long since lost his patience as was evident in his tone. Aria Blaze’s expression never faltered from a scowl, but she nevertheless made her turn and sprinted away at a surprising speed. Enjin’s eyeless mask trailed her and sure enough, the smoking shadow started to charge forward in a collision course with Aria. It cut across a small clearing bordering a lake, starting to gain on her due to the shorter distance traveled. Or at least it would have had it not been for the black and white blur coming up beside it. Monster X leaped off a fallen log and twisted around on a curtain of gravitons whilst outstretching his leg. The jumping axe kick caught Enjin on the back of the head, snapping its neck forward and driving its entire body in a downward arc to place its face into the ground. The stun was only momentary, but having to pick itself up did stall it just long enough for Monster X to run past it. Aria Blaze heard the commotion and glanced back, seeing Monster X running after her and swatting his hand through the air to signal her to keep running. She smirked at the still rising Enjin, turned her head and kept running through the adrenaline rush. Just when he got four meters away from the Aspect however, Monster X jumped and spring boarded off a broad tree trunk. Turning himself around mid-air, he came to a sliding stop facing Enjin. Enjin’s mask bled inky blackness along its crack through the middle, Monster X’s kick having smashed it head first into a snow-buried boulder. The darkness was sucked back into it, mending the crack as it was drawn back into the Aspect. Enjin cracked its neck stoically as its sternum pulsed with a burning light, lines of energy that reminded Monster X of magma flows crossing over its body in an almost runic-like manner. Monster X’s eyes glowed dimly, the irises crackling with golden energy that signaled a gravity distortion. With the surrounding snowfall and his scarf flapping in weightlessness, he put himself into a guard. It would take Aria Blaze about three minutes of high speed sprinting for her to reach the edge of the parking lot to the hotel bordering the national park. Adrenaline and focus died down enough for her mind to wander and the siren looked behind her, expecting to see her ally sprinting up the forest to meet her. She had wanted to gloat about outrunning him, but her smirk vanished when a few seconds ticked by without any sign of Monster X. Quickly snatching out her phone while frantically looking through the sea of trees in hopes of spotting his black and white attire, she speed-dialed Adagio. “The person you have dialed is unavailable. Please leave a message at the tone!~ PUUUUUOOOWP!” “Adagio pick up and get ready! I’m almost to the hotel! It’s here-!” The phone was still receiving when her ears and siren heart picked up the muffled but unmistakable rumble of a distant explosion, one that had traces of a very familiar energy. Aria froze as the only sound she could hear now was the low static fizz of the answering machine, her eyes widening. Monster X wasn’t just doing a quick skirmish to hold it off, he wasn’t coming at all. Aria’s face twitched as her brow lowered. -He tricked me. He knew I wouldn’t run from the fight, so he lied… THAT FU- Aria’s angered grip tightened to such a degree she crushed in the casing on her phone before dropping it. =============== Harmonium Nexus =============== Harmony held her stance and the barrier put out by her horn rigid despite sliding back across the walkway, sparks bursting out from her hooves’ contact points as she held back the neon blue onslaught. Her shield split the bulk of the force behind the mana beam in two and sent it shooting off in either direction beside her. Still, her barrier could only hold up for so long, the blizzard of energy burning through it like a jet of flame through wood. Casting a spell upon herself, the source of the elements that bore her namesake turned her form intangible and phased through the floor to dodge Bagan’s attack. Not stopping his assault, Bagan just adjusted his aim and raked the mana beam across the glassy walkway, trailing it along after the high speed, violet light he interpreted as Harmony’s location. Eventually losing sight of the vanishing light trail he’d been firing at, Bagan wasn’t aware of Harmony, who now had several of her hair braids undone and was looking a tad scuffed up, phasing out of the floor behind him until she’d stomped her hooves on the walkway. Glimmers of light raced through the walkway like electricity across a circuit board. The tiny arcs of power begot enormity, gigantic tree roots similar in coloration and texture to the Tree of Harmony, burst from the floor and coiled around Bagan in a spiral. Just as they formed a solid wall that started to crush its way inwards, the God of Extinction smashed his palm into the ground and mentally recited an incantation. Glowing runes of long forgotten magic native to Terra burned their way across the root system, singed trails stretching out from the runes themselves outwards across the majority of the roots’ mass. With a single thrash of the tail, the rotten and burned roots simply crumbled apart on impact; turning into nothing more than a cloud of dust. Mentally holding up a curtain of energy above him to block and force away the debris, Bagan readied his response. Honed upon a simple command, Bagan’s horns and claws sparked with a mystical brilliance. -Shatter- With a mere clap of its hands giving the order, a wave of mana charged magic flew out of Bagan in all directions. Every piece of the realm for a wide radius, save the portion of the walkway he was standing on, erupted and fell to pieces like it was hit by a shockwave. The walkway blew apart and cracks of black emptiness formed in the starry void around them. Harmony was sent flying back briefly, disappearing in a bolt of light as she teleported away before she could be knocked off the walkway. Several hundred meters away from Bagan now, she pressed her horn to the ground and halted the shockwave. Advanced telekinesis took hold of some portions of the walkway and stray starlight, pushing them back into their proper places; the act thereof looking like the shockwave played in reverse. Pooling her energy out of the repaired walkway and back into her horn, Harmony reared up on her hindlegs. A beam of light shot upwards from her pronged horn and crown. After shooting up an enormous distance, the beam halted and was molded into a shape, no longer resembling a beam of magic as much as it did a sword blade composed of light itself. Commanding the blade dozens of times longer than herself, Harmony lowered her head and swung it along parallel to the walkway. The sweeping dawn of energy swiped towards Bagan, who attempted to put up an energy shield to block it but either didn’t have the time or raw power necessary to do so fully. Despite taking a glancing hit from the blade in his shoulder however, the deity’s barrier was enough to take away much of the sword beam’s momentum and deflect it away after getting hit more seriously. With his index finger glowing with a malign energy, Bagan slashed a symbol into the air in front of him and swiped at it before Harmony could take another swing at him. The light and space around Bagan was swallowed up in a darkness so thick it looked less like blackness and shadow and more like a nothingness in space itself. The black void swelled up as it swallowed the mass around it, briefly pausing on contact with Harmony’s return swing. Sparks and arcs of energy shot out from the blade, but the massive gravity well caused by Bagan’s pool bent the straight length of the sword. Force on both sides increased, but just as the light shone into the darkness, so too did Bagan’s veil twist Harmony’s blade into a spiral before tearing it free from her horn and engulfing it. The nothingness spread out like a plague despite the energy blasts Harmony shot at it, the storm only swallowing them up. She halted her onslaught and thought fast. The goddess knew she couldn’t cut through the veil, as it engulfed her ranged attacks. -Only solution then is an ouroboros scenario, make it engulf itself!- Levitating up numerous sections of the broken walkway and telekinetically redirecting some of the intact walkways into a new shape, Harmony formed two structures. A long straight line in front of herself, and a circle outside the void’s radius. With her crown of elements glimmering, an encompassing light washed over Harmony from horn to hoof. She sprinted forward, rapidly compounding her speed by the millisecond until she was nothing more than a streaming blur of blinding radiance. Teleporting herself onto the circular track with her full momentum, Harmony banked into the turn and ran dozens of laps around the track within the span of just a second, and had done so hundreds of times by the time the spreading void reached the track. At that point the trail of light behind the speeding deity had grown so solid that it formed a wall. The light barrier spread above and below the track into a sphere to form a shell around Bagan’s void. Harmony, still a mobile mass of light and pure magic, teleported back to the walkway proper and slid to a halt whilst turning herself around to look at the spectacle. Nothingness and light were in constant flux, ebbing and flowing like rapidly shifting tides. Gradually, the twin masses shrunk more and more as they engulfed one another, before dissipating entirely. The only problem was despite the walkway it had been standing on surviving, Bagan was not in the former epicenter. Thankfully Harmony knew all too well that a singularity such as that wasn’t enough to have done in her opponent, the coldness she could still detect was proof of that. Savviness might have saved her ichor, as a distant flicker of light that turned out to be a portal opening a far distance away was her only warning. An unharmed Bagan burst out of a new portal that opened up right behind her. Still in her speeding state, Harmony easily was able to dodge out of the way and sprint off to clear a distance. Bagan pulled his hand free of the cracked walkway, unfettered by the display. Magic glowed within the deity’s palm before he pressed it into the glassy floor. A new rune momentarily flickered across the surface, fading as a line of energy shot through the floor and into a space of its length directly in front of Harmony. The smoothness of the ground quickly metamorphosed into a liquid slurry that caught Harmony by her hooves like tar. Snagged to the ground, the glow accompanying Harmony’s form vanished and she struggled. Jolts of energy shot through Bagan’s eyes and shoulder spikes. The openings on the bottoms of the shoulder protrusions glowed with a sapphire blindness before ejecting multiple barrages of diamond shaped energy bursts. The salvo of mana charges shot into the starry realm before arching up and raining down on Harmony’s position. At the last minute, her body was consumed with a brilliance and split apart moments before the hellstorm came raining down on her with a rolling thunder. The smoke cleared in time. Spheres of light, six in number of different colors, flew back into each other from the corners of the realm. They spun around briefly before colliding, the ensuing flash of light revealing a staggering Harmony at their epicenter. Her mane had come completely undone and her eyelids and head were hung at half mast, glimmering light leaking out from several spots of her body like trickles of blood. Shrugging off the strain upon her, the goddess flashed with brilliance. Upon a booming shout, a shockwave of energy shot through the entirety of the realm. Several star points of light were ripped from the sky, more and more following suit. A chain of the heavens was formed and swung at Bagan like a lash. While he tried to block it, the rupturing of the floor beneath his mass destabilized as Harmony’s telekinesis tore it apart. With ichor dripping down her face and a powerful scream that echoed across the realm, Harmony snapped her energies together. The chain swung around Bagan’s distorted face, throat, limbs, and tail to bind them all together, sending the titan plummeting into the void. Bagan’s rumbling bellows echoed through the realm in a gradually diminishing volume. Harmony slumped back on her stance and stumbled a bit, heaving for breath. This realm of hers’ main locale, the location of the fighting, might have been large but it had it’s limits. Falling off the path however? That was a direct drop straight into enormity that very well might not have an end. And those chains she snagged her foe in were to bind evil. Fellow deity or not, those with a black soul weren’t breaking free or pulling out any escape portals any time soon. She sat back on her haunches at the entrance to the memory hall, looking over at one of the memory windows. One of the very same Celestia had walked young Twilight through, it had become active during the fighting; most likely from the sheer magic output by both titans. Except it wasn’t one of her memories. The haze on the moving image was evident of age, but it was clear enough to distinguish its features. A group of humans and human-like creatures Harmony didn’t recognize stood in a crowd. Besides their pale hair and dark skin, even the humans were far less colorful than what the goddess was used to. Behind them was a magnificent city, one far more akin to the Crystal Empire in construction than the one she’d observed King Caesar in. Just looking at the fantastic architecture and mythic glow some of the buildings gave off was a large clue to the major difference between this city and any other human settlement Harmony had seen in the realms of the kaiju or realms of her own. This one had magic. And its source revealed itself. Hovering above an assortment of humans moving through the crowd was a mass of light that could best be described as a burning, blue crystal. A similar light was emitted by the necklaces many in the crowd were wearing, most of which were fading away much like the dimming crystal. They carried the heart of their island city to a cliffside rimming the edge of the city, setting it down and waiting. They didn’t need to wait long. A mountain rose up from the seafloor on the other side of the cliffs, slowly ascending straight up as not to cause a tsunami from water displacement. Harmony’s eyes widened with recognition of a triple horned crown atop the gargantuan. Her opponent stood calmly in front of the crowd, same in shape but differing in color from how Harmony had seen it. A far cry from the distorted mass of blurry darkness, this titan carried itself with a gilded presence and coloration to fit a regalia. It reached towards the crowd, energy glimmering across the mammoth talon tipping its index finger. With careful movements, it traces a rune into the air directly in front of the large crystal, before pressing the tip of its claw to its surface and pushing the rune into it. In an instant, the crystal reignited with more brilliance than it ever had before, the city bursting with more life and light by the moment. The crowd erupted in cheers and praises as the titan backed away, almost looking like it was smiling briefly before wading back out to sea. Harmony briefly flashed likewise, before her face became sullen. There was so much she didn’t understand about the invader, but she knew enough to know that they hadn’t always been this way. The other memory panels flickering on were proof of that. A time of three entities, land, air, and sea; standing against a firestorm and holding the carnage back. The group seeing the continents move and shift as the celestials zoomed by, watching the first fish swim in the seas. The trio, now one, marching across a barren landscape. With an etching of a rune and exertion of magic, plant-life began to spring back up over the charred wastelands; growing over a graveyard of massive skeletons. Another of a giant paw gently helping pull a newborn Mothra free of the eggshell stuck on her head. Then that same paw blocking a graviton onslaught aimed at the now adult Mothra and her counterpart, a horned shadow looming over a young pair of ghidorahs. And finally, a young she-ape walking on her hind legs, cowering in fear of a massive, blackened entity near a fruit tree. Before any transgression could be made; a gilded titan grabbed the demonic force and pulled it away, lifting it up by its throat and destroying it into smoke as it was exorcised. That same hand then carefully nudged the primate back onto her feet before turning away. The chants from the first memory played in the background. “Reijuu! Reijuu! Reijuu!” Harmony dipped her head and closed her eyes, sighing. She’d won, and that was why her expression was one of despair. It all was necessary, casting the monstrosity into the void; lives had to be saved. But these memories weren’t ones of a destroyer. They were ones of a protector. In another position or time, they easily could have been her’s. Now her mind was left wondering just what had happened to her foe. Had he been corrupted by something? Controlled by someone else? It had to have been something strong, something she hadn’t ever seen or encountered before. Seemed impossible! Had he gone insane? He seemed perfectly rational of mind, however wrong he was. Then what had happened?! Why had he changed? Harmony shook her head, now wishing she’d tried to find some method to change him back to how he had been before. -If I hadn’t divided up my power long ago, maybe I’d have been strong enough to restrain him there and figure out what was wrong. Strong enough to fix what was wrong. Now I have to condemn a former hero to a void…- It was two observations that snapped Harmony out of her dread induced stupor. The first was the fact more and more memory panels were lighting up, despite the opposite being more likely given Bagan was plummeting further and further away from them. The second was a certain memory that lit up. One of the titan watching a sunrise over the edge of the planet. A sunrise it was watching from just above the surface of the moon, glowing wings spread from its shoulder spikes. Bagan could fly via magic... A gnawing chill shot through the hall as a large mass hovered up from the side of the walkway. Bagan rose up from the depths with an enraged snarl evident over its blurry maw. Wings of energy emitted from the ports on each shoulder spike, only partially held down by the star chain Harmony had bound him in. Bagan flexed his form, energy crackling across his surface as the chains became taut. Harmony only narrowly had enough time to jump up and surround herself in a bubble shield when Bagan thrashed his form and shattered his bonds, sending its remains flying every which way. With light eclipsing his eyes and maw, Bagan threw open his jaws and emitted a physical and psychic roar that shook the dimension with a tidal wave of cold blizzard winds and malefic sensations. In an instant the entire hall was blotted out with the deafening roar; the air wrought with painful emotions and a consuming cold, and a whirlwind of heinous memories. Memories of serenity and benevolence literally going up in flames. What once taught a congregation of guardian moths was now standing atop a mountain of their remains, and quickly adding to it. Mu, Ninai Kanai, Lemuria, Shambhala, and half a dozen other centers that would hold parades for their protector’s arrival were now all wiped out within hours, their screaming, pleading citizens begging to know what they had done wrong before they were atomized mid-sentence. Not so much as a stray plant or bacteria was left. Eventually the images overloaded the windows, the panels becoming coated in stress fractures before completely shattering. Bagan climaxed his attack with a glowing light from his maw. Raw mana drooling out of his fangs, the deity fired an enormous beam that engulfed Harmony and her shield. Harmony strained behind her shield, sliding back on the floor from the sheer force despite trying to hold her ground. The physical and mental onslaught was taxing her every fiber just to hold back. Some of her coat began to singe and the screams of those Bagan had killed invaded her mind from the fallen windows. Her crown and each of the gems atop it glowed to their apex, each element working to their limit just to keep Harmony from being mentally and physically overpowered. Bagan knew how strong she was, even with the Elements only recently returned to her and the suspicion she’d divided her power even further by ushering out that box. Had he sent anything under his command here, even sending both Mizu and Doragon at once or deploying Ghidorah would have been suicide. He had come himself, because the reward was too great of a chance, and with the battle taking place in her realm, he was the only one who’d stand a chance. It takes a god to kill a god. Honing his energy, Bagan began to walk forward and increased his energy output. Outside of her realm, one by one, each of the Elements of Harmony began to crack. Honesty was challenged with the vision of the first attack, the sinking of Thule moments after its monarch had invited Reijuu into the city. Generosity was worked to its limit by the vision of Bagan stepping on a begging, now screaming crowd. Loyalty and Laughter found themselves taxed by Bagan vaporizing a citadel that bore his image in patronage. Kindness found itself splintering as forest and urbanization alike were glassed from the onslaught, billions of lives, human and animal and beyond literally going up in smoke. Even Magic was taking blow after blow as Bagan rampaged across Terra, wiping one nexus of that world’s magic after another. Harmony was forced onto one of her forelimbs’ knees, tears staining her eyes as the flashes of betrayal and devastation filled the hall. Out of the corner of her wincing eye however, she spotted something. Drifting freely after the fight destroyed the part of the walkway it was anchored to, the portal to Zenith and the human realm had veered close to the fight and was floating off to the side. There was movement at the half of the portal leading to Zenith, Harmony spotting a trio of figures approaching the point of view with a familiar color palette. Face contorting from the effort, she threw her hoof to the side and sent a wave of magic to the portal. For a brief moment, just as Gigan, Irys, and Megalon reached the Zenith portal, Harmony forced it and the human world portal together to create a link. Bagan was quick to realize what she’d done, but was too slow to cut off the connection. Silencing his assault with a bellow, he shifted his magic to the human world portal. While unable to cut it off, he was able to partially redirect the end location in the middle of the transfer, flinging the trio miles away from Enjin and Monster X. With a glare, he looked back at Harmony with all sets of his eyes; just in time to see the worn unicorn smirking back at him. ============ In the Portals ============ Irys and the cyborgs whirled through the flurry veil that composed the portal's transitional phase. They’d hopped in the moment they saw the portal inside the throne room, needing only a glance of Monster X confronting the shadow beast to know where it lead. Fate had played Bagan an irony, in that not only had his attack on Harmony left the portal to Enjin’s tether visible; but the trio actually thought the dimensional window was meant for them. “So nice of Boss Ball to give us a free ride here!” Megalon chirped, spinning around the spiralling void alongside Irys and Gigan, squealing like he was on a slide. “How’d he know we were coming?” Gigan, nonchalantly crossing his arms despite flying down the spiral backwards, just shrugged. “Wouldn’t be surprised if he heard our discussion. Magic isn’t anything that makes sense and he’s basically a god anyways. Wouldn’t think about it too hard.” “Any game plan once we get there?” “Sniff X out with energy sensory. He shouldn’t be too hard to pick out from the humans there if we’re close enough. The portal showed some forest so we should end up near there.” “And if we’re not?” “Then I know someone who knows the area and could help us cover more ground a lot quicker than walking.” “Who?” Irys sighed, not wanting it to come to that as there was one friend she had she didn’t want to rope into this situation. Humans were too fragile for this sort of thing most of the time. Still, desperate times called for desperate measures. “I’ll tell you more if it comes to it, but her name is Sunset.” Irys saw a familiar light ahead at the nexus of the void. She readied herself alongside the cyborgs, Megalon stopping his back first slide and righting himself as Gigan turned himself around. They barreled into the light and exited the portal. Despite leaving the void however, they could still feel air rushing past them. They quickly analyzed their surroundings, seeing not a forest but a neighborhood. Gigan’s sunglasses and Megalon’s goggles flashed with light, systems booting up and running several scans. Unable to do the same, Irys glanced over to the two to her sides. “You two picking up anything?” “Negativo!” Gigan was about to state the like when a sudden realization dawned on him and caused his head to snap down and observe they were airborne despite the lack of wings or thruster rockets. “Wait, why are we still flying? Couldn’t do that last time.” Irys had the same realization dawn on her, looking down and then back at her cohorts with pursed lips and wide eyes. Megalon cut her off before she could speak, pointing ahead of them in the direction they were tumbling in. “Guys we’re heading for a wall!” Irys and Gigan looked away from each other and peered forward. Sure enough, they were barreling directly at a small apartment building. Irys and Gigan froze up, speaking in deadpan tones. “Yep… This is gonna hurt.” “Good eyes Meg…” “......WAAA-!” The seconds ticked by, then all three kaiju started spazzing out midair. Megalon whirled his hands around, converting his mechanical fingers into a pair of drills and pointing downward for a fist first nose dive. Irys frantically flapped her now wingless arms, the length of fabric between her sleeves and hips working like a makeshift wingsuit but only barely managing to slow her down and shift her course. Gigan shrugged, crossing his arms in front of himself as he tried to aim his tumble towards a window. Sunset Shimmer sighed to herself, turning off the shower faucet and wrapping a towel around herself. Try as she may to be happy about having gone to a good movie premiere with friends, thoughts of another friend was driving a deep unease through her mind. Irys’ sporadic appearance and disappearance was worrying her. Still thinking the albino was from a broken home and not having found a trace of Irys despite looking everywhere in the area surrounding the alley, in either sweep she did before and after the movie, the situation gave Sunset more than a few plaguing thoughts she didn't want to have. Her confusion over the situation regarding her friend wasn’t helping matters. A frown crossed Sunset Shimmer’s face as she chewed on her finger. -You vanish behind a statue, then reappear in a comic book. Then you show up again in the city, and vanish without a trace… Irys, just what the heck is going on with you? Are you from Equestria too?- Sunset Shimmer shrugged, shaking her head in a defeated manner. A hot shower alone hadn’t helped calm her nerves like she was hoping it would. -Maybe I should have stuck with the girls, got them to help. You don’t need to keep doing everything yourself Sunset.- Celestia’s former star student rolled her eyes, stepping out of the shower. -Looks like you’re still a rookie at this friendship gig after all.- She had just taken a step off the bathroom mat when a new sound perked her attention. At first it sounded like distant, muffled voices beyond her wall. Then it quickly morphed into a gaggle of yelping outside her window. It was fortunate she forgot to put the bath mat close to the shower, as the long stride she had to take to step onto it put her out of range when someone came crashing into the bathroom window and fumbled through it. Gigan, groggy from the impact but otherwise okay, stumbled to his feet with the dislodged window frame still stuck around his neck. Sparking in a few spots, the cyborg whacked himself on the side of the head to reorganize his visuals and put his glasses back in place. Sight returned to him in time to see a screaming woman with a towel wrapped around her conking him on the head with a hair dryer. Either due to the fact the dryer had just been plugged in when Sunset Shimmer hit him with it and it subsequently shocked him, the lingering daze from smashing through the window and face planting into the sink, or his new phobia of hair care products thanks to Mane-iac, the Nebulan cyborg was stunned momentarily and Sunset fled out the door. Having watched several human horror movies, Sunset Shimmer was savvy enough not to run to her room in case of a home invader; instead grabbing her cell phone off her table and rushing for the apartment’s front door. As soon as she opened the wooden door however, she saw familiarity. Irys was outside the glass gate door just beyond the wooden one. Or rather, her impromptu wingsuit had slowed her fall enough that she collided with the door instead of hitting the ground and was still plastered cheek first into it. Irys groaned groggily, sliding off the glass and falling onto her back. She lifted herself up a bit, putting a hand to her head and shaking off the spinning freefall the world was in. If colliding with a door hurt her any, she didn’t show it upon seeing the slack jawed, eye twitching Sunset. She cracked a grin upon seeing a geode hued choker, her old necklace, around Sunset Shimmer’s throat. “Sunset!” “Wh-Whaaa Irys?! What is going on?!” Sunset Shimmer lifted her head after seeing a dark object out of the corner of her vision. There was a hole rimmed with unchurned dirt in the backlot lawn. And it was talking. “I’m O-kay!” Was the only forewarning before the earth on another spot pushed up. Megalon emerged with an uproar of thrown dirt, popping his torso out of the ground like some sort of giant gopher. “WHAT?!” She belted, motioning to a waving Megalon. Sunset Shimmer spun around at the sound of rabbling coming from behind her. Gigan stumbled out of the bathroom, slurring his mumbles into incoherent grumbling as he tried to adjust his cracked glasses and pull the broken remains of a hair dryer and window frame off his head. “WHAT?!” Sunset yelped, her eyes widened as she advanced back, Irys catching her in a loose hold and putting herself between Sunset and Gigan. Irys chuckled awkwardly, this certainly not being the way she expected going to Sunset for help if it came to it. “Ehe, nice to see you again Sunset… Meet.. myyy...new friends…” Sunset Shimmer’s face shifted away from surprised and into a deadpan. Taking in a deep breath while closing her eyes, the former unicorn flared her nose and snorted out whilst looking back at the albino, who was rubbing the back of her own head with a grin plastered onto her maw. Said grin contained a pair of long fangs that helped confirm many of Sunset’s suspicions, as last she checked inch long canines weren’t normal for humans. She pointed at Irys with a half leer, using her other hand to hold up her towel. “... You have some explaining to do, missy…” Gigan trudged over to them, pulling the window frame off his neck and tossing it behind himself. “Look lady, I don’t like most people and most people sure as Daiei-” “Hey!” Gigan ignored Irys’ retort and nonchaleontly continued. “-don’t like me. I’m assuming you’re the ‘Sunset’ Irys mentioned earlier so that’s why I’m even bothering speaking to you. We’re in a crisis scenario right now so I’ll cut to the chase to avoid the unnecessary.” He grumbled, snatching his glasses off and Sunset Shimmer yelped slightly. The cyborg was leering at her with a pair of robotic eyes that more closely resembled camera lenses than orbits. He did so while flexing his mechanical fingers, unsheathing the retractable wrist blade that stood in for his scythes and letting it pop in and out from between his hand joints irritably as he spoke. “Yes, we’re not from this realm. Yes, we just crashed into your residence after Irys mentioned you. No, we weren’t trying to do that; and no, that doesn’t matter. What matters is we got a teammate in peril and Irys mentioned you could help us somehow. So, am I going to have to ram my metal plated skull through another wall of yours to get a quick answer outta you, or am I just wasting time and am better off cutting my way out of this place and be on my way?!” He snapped, ushering a slight wince from Irys and Sunset; the former tightening her hold on the latter and would have been trying to hide the girl in her wings if she still had them. Gigan snorted, retracting his blade but maintaining a stern glare on his face. Sunset Shimmer looked between the older cyborg and the younger one, who’d hauled himself out of her lawn and was approaching without bothering to dust himself off. She looked to Irys. The albino’s grin from earlier faltering and flatlined, the nearly closed eyed nod she gave Sunset was a nonverbal confirmation of Gigan’s assertions. “S-Sorry, we didn’t mean to drop in on you like… this… And I’m sorry for running off earlier...” She muttered, looking away while doing so before looking back at Sunset with a plea practically written on her face. “Look, I know this whole mess is confusing and I didn’t want to drag you into the thick of it, but a friend of ours is in real danger and he’s too far away for us to reach on foot easily and we don’t know which way to go. We need to-” Sunset Shimmer closed her eyes and waved her hand upwards and towards Irys’ face to shush her. In truth she was used to most of this level of craziness by now through her own accord. No student of Princess Celestia, let alone an adoptee, ever had much degree of normalcy in their lives. “Say no more. I’ve had my suspicions ever since I saw you three in a Power Ponies comic. First, give me a minute to dress so I don’t turn into a human icicle out there. And secondly, you’re going to tell me what exactly I need to do to help…. I’ll be back.” Sunset Shimmer affirmed before nonchalantly marching past Gigan and to her room. The kaiju trio looked at each other as the door snapped shut. Megalon, seriousness never being a sticking point to him, was quick to voice his opinion. “Iiiiii like her! She’s got a good weirdness filter!” He quipped with a clap. Gigan meanwhile shrugged and looked over at Irys out of the corner of his lenses for eyes. “You sure about this Irys? I’m not exactly a human person.” “She’s as much the reason I got my new flock with you all as X and you two are. We can trust her, I know it.” ================ Back in the Forest ================ Monster X bit back the pain as he dodged to the side, avoiding the brunt of Enjin’s strike but still getting its claws raked across his chest and shoulder. Rolling along Enjin’s arm, Monster X smashed his fist into its face. Immediately following up with a mule kick that snaked around Enjin’s guard and connected with its jaw, the former Xilian hit the Aspect hard enough he could hear its mask crack and jaw pop out of place. He’d noticed something about it when it recoiled and rebounded from his strikes, current and past. The resistance to injury and ability to mend itself all seemed toned down slightly, it took longer to heal back the damage than it did before with a marked difference from how it was at the hospital. Each time Enjin mended a wound, it seemed to convulse slightly in a manner he hadn’t seen it do before. Monster X didn’t know about the Aspect's structural degradation, but he was noticing the effect it was having. -Something’s changed. It’s not as strong as before.- Monster X shoved through his kick and knocked Enjin away. Whirling around with trails of light streaming from his eyes, several graviton flares sprung forth from him and detonated on Enjin’s form. The shadow reeled back, smoking more than normal and obviously damaged. Ignoring the holes in its chest as it regained its footing, the demon lifted and hurled half a fallen tree trunk at Monster X. Focused on recharging as he did so, Monster X dove to the side to dodge the missile and was soon set upon by Enjin. Like a boxer he weaved and dodged around the slower Enjin’s haymakers and would-be power blows with only scratch damage at best. Moving inside of a haymaker and blocking Enjin’s arm, X sneered and rammed multiple jabs and backhands into Enjin’s still cracked mask and exposed torso. While physical blows didn’t do much damage in truth, it was helping pummel Enjin down between times Monster X could charge up to fire upon it. It was enough to keep Enjin from healing up entirely between the times Monster X could use his beams again, which seemed to be the only thing doing any noticeable harm. Enjin struggled to recuperate and reinforce against the damage incurred, but the mix of its degradation and Monster X’s relentless assault with both physical and energy attacks was making it difficult to adapt to the harm it was subjected to like before. It was taking too many types of different hits in too rapid a succession. As Enjin tried to grab hold of its opponent to crush him, Monster X snapped his shoulders and hips, sending several full force uppercuts into Enjin’s chest and widened the previously blasted holes. A gravity assisted jumping knee to the face was enough to knock Enjin’s neck off kilter and force it away. The shade didn’t even have time to snap its head back into place before several quick fired graviton flares exploded against it. Sent flying back and crashing through a tree, Enjin rolled across the forest floor. Monster X held his fists at his sides as he levitated up into the air, eyes still blazing. His original plan had been to just blitz Enjin and hit it as hard as he could to slow it down, then fall back to Aria like he said he would. But, when he saw he could actually hurt it now, plans changed. Now, he just opted to try and kill it then and there. Ducking out of the way of a mana grenade Enjin had thrown at him and turning around as its resulting explosion turned a tree to splinters, Monster X called out and unloaded on Enjin’s still rising form. He must have blasted it at least eight or nine times before he had to stop. Falling out of the air, Monster X fell to his knee huffing before the smoke cloud before him. Keeping his eyes locked on the obstruction as a breeze blew it past, X’s eyes narrowed when they saw burning lights and blackness inside the smoke. Enjin lay half slumped on the ground, heavily damaged. Parts of its mask seemed to be crumbling or sloughing off, only held to the face by strands of half melted blackness. The torso itself was practically turned outwards and covered in holes, most of the ribs blown off and only obscuring, rather than covering, the glowing core of energy in the central torso. Most of the stomach region was see through and one of the legs had been blown off at the knee, explaining why it couldn’t stand; and its right arm seemed dislocated or partially ripped off at the shoulder. Enjin looked torn up, damaged, and spent. Monster X swallowed back his own tiredness, reigning in pools of gravitons before his eyes and taking aim at the core, figuring firing upon its insides would incur more damage. But Enjin wasn’t done yet. Monster X held an advantage over it because it hadn’t managed to greatly damage him despite the exertion tiring the Xilian out somewhat. X was much more nimble and now out in the open instead of inside an enclosed hospital, the Aspect of Land couldn’t land a hit. Couldn’t at least, in its bulky base form… Enjin lurched forward in a very inhuman manner, planting its hands into the ground. Swells of energy rapidly built up around its core and hands, a tremor kicking through the dirt and snow being the only forewarning. Enjin’s shadowy composition convulsed and bent, limbs twisting around and bending back into place as excess bulk was either evaporated or refitted to regrow its leg. The shadow practically turned itself inside out and back again, refitting itself into a sleeker, thinner form. Whereas the last state was gorilla-like, built for raw power and a sturdy constitution; this new state was leaner, longer limbed; and more closely resembled an uncanny mix of mandrill and human. It crouched down on the dirt like a spider, long limbs digging into and bracing against the ground below. Taken aback by the new form change but not letting it destroy his focus, Monster X fired his beam attack. Just as they were about to connect however, Enjin sprung to the side in a pounce. Moving so fast it seemed almost like a blur, the Aspect swung around the misfired attack and charged Monster X. Quickly taking hold of the gravity around him, X jumped off the ground and tried to levitate up to a safe distance. Unable to fly but undeterred, Enjin sprinted up to and springboarded off a tree trunk and tackled him out of the air. While he did manage to grab Enjin’s swiping hands by the wrists and kick it away, he didn’t get a chance to land and take a breath before Enjin was upon him again. The two were soon trapped in a melee deadlock, blocking, striking, and dodging each other blow for blow. Monster X more than Enjin was forced onto the defensive. While his opponent’s sheer force seemed to have decreased, its agility and speed had more than doubled. The hits didn’t hurt as bad, but he was getting hit with a lot more. Amongst the melee deadlock, X’s eyes sparked and Enjin’s palm glowed as they drew energy from their respective power sources. In a single, swift motion from either side, Enjin grabbed X by his jaw and pointed his eyes away as X did likewise to Enjin’s wrist. Both energy attacks fired off behind their target, the combined shockwaves shaking the forest and throwing up masses of gravel, snow, and wood all around. Monster X, more affected by his ear bursting explosions, tried his best to fight through the disorientation and free himself from Enjin’s cold grip before his foe either choked him to death to broke his neck. He only attained partial success, a few kicks to the chest to sunder Enjin’s foundations followed by twisting his legs around Enjin’s arm and whipping around, managed to free him from the choke hold; but no sooner than he was free he was tackled to the ground mid-recovery. Pinned beneath the Aspect, Monster X’s ringing hearing fizzled back to normalcy as he found himself having to deflect and block an onslaught of punches and strikes. Raising its arms up at blurry speed, Enjin brought down both of its limbs with a double hammerfist. Monster X caught both arms by the wrist, but the strength contest was clearly a struggle. Enjin tilted its head silently, bending its arms around to point its knuckles at Monster X’s chest. Now working with a worse angle of leverage due to his elbows being flared outwards, it took all of X’s strength just to slow their descent. The knuckle spikes mounted on Enjin’s fists extended several inches, descending to a degree that they began to stab into X’s chest. Gritting his teeth and tasting his own blood from a stream flowing down his face, Monster X jolted his hips forward and repeatedly rammed his knee into Enjin’s head and back to try and loosen its hold to little avail. Falling back to a last resort, the red upon Monster X’s eyes became engulfed in gold from an energy charge. Likewise, Enjin’s now reduced ribcage glowed and crackled with energy that raced across runic lines across its form. Taking aim there, Monster X knew that regardless of if he just fired or they both did, firing the flares point blank like this would probably hurt him just as bad. But it was either that, or fight the losing battle against the claws that were slowly stabbing their way through his pectorals and threatening to go through his ribs. Before either could fire however, an air-splitting wail shot over them. It was the precursor to a blast wave of golden energy, gravitons and magic combined, crashing into Enjin. Sent flying off of Monster X, the black and white kaiju stole his chance and fired at the Aspect mid-air. Enjin, propelled by both blasts, smashed through the ice sheet of the nearby lake and sunk beneath the surface. Monster X, gasping for breath to slow his pulse, staggered to his feet and managed to stand for a few moments before the pain and fatigue caused him to collapse. Fortunately, a pair of arms caught him in the middle of his tumble and held him up. X needed only a glimpse of the dark purple skin to know who it was supporting him. “Thought I told you to- urgh- run.” He grunted, breath a bit unsteady from the stab wounds on his chest shooting pain through his torso each time. Normally Aria would have given a snide or snarky retort to this as per her usual. But the mutated siren was completely silent as she looked Monster X’s injury list over. Feeling a warmth on her hand she had pushing on his stomach to help prop him up, she looked down at her palm and spotted the redness leaking onto it. Her eyes widened slightly as she brought her shaking hand up, the metallic scent of X’s blood filling her nose. Her wide eyed expression persisted as it looked to Enjin, who was busy clawing itself out of the lake. Her lip quivered momentarily as the siren’s heart necklace crackled and sparked with energy, the golden glow beginning to completely overtake the red in all but the fringes. Muscles convulsing and tensing up, Aria Blaze’s expression shifted into a snarling sneer with pure rage overtaking her face and body language. And if there was anything that got Kaizer Ghidorah’s power going, it was fueled indignation. Taking hold of X, Aria Blaze put him behind her this time and faced off against Enjin, ripping her hoodie off. Enjin paused and stood its ground to analyze the newcomer and mend its body. Gravity twisted and bent as Aria swayed in her movements, manipulating the gravitons like water currents. More and more kaiser energy began to trickle out of her siren heart. Her snarl ruptured, a mix of a wail, roar, and scream tearing into the evening air as the flood gates on the siren heart broke. Aria’s form was engulfed with runaway magic and kaiser energy, out of control gravity thrashing around and alternatingly throwing or crushing anything near it. The energy sense Enjin had skyrocketed to the highest it had ever detected in this world. Likely because this world hadn’t seen an outburst of power like this since the Fall Formal. Aria Blaze’s joints cracked and popped, her skin turning a dark shade of fuchsia with golden scales wisping into existence on her arms, neck, under eyes, brow, and jaw. Her hair lengthened noticeably, sprouting a long ponytail while losing her star ties. Gold completely overtook the former green in her hair, the already dark purple becoming a jet black indigo. Twin, draconic horns with alternating black and gold stripes crowned her scalp. Growing several inches taller, the siren opened her glaring eyes; black sclera ringing blood red irises that in turn circled slitted pupils. Finally, as she levitated into the air, energy collected across her back. The spheres of light condensed and flicked out, a pair of wings and a set of twin tails made of golden energy bursting into existence. The transformed siren scowled at Enjin. She’d fed off Kaizer’s power, and now she’d become a kaiser herself. Aria cracked a simultaneously bloodthirsty and crazed grin, flashing the fangs that her canines and premolars had morphed into. Enjin pounced forward with a lunging strike. While nicked by the blow, Aria avoided most of it with a wing flap-assisted back step. She whirled around, gravitons and wing power amplifying her movements as she snapped her hips and drove a down swinging haymaker into the side of Enjin’s face that planted the Aspect in the ground. Shooting herself forward with a wave of gravity, she grabbed hold of Enjin’s nape and cut a trench into the gravel with her foe’s face before letting go and kicking it away hard enough to make a small shockwave. Enjin pinwheeled through the air for a bit before grabbing hold of the ground and regaining its bearings. This new foe didn’t have the same skill as the last one, but it made up for that with plenty of raw power. And unlike X, who was worn out from fighting down its base form, the kaiser siren was fresh. A less direct approach was needed. Making use of its speed, Enjin took off to the side, sprinting on two feet for a short time before vaulting over a fallen tree and circling Aria at high speed on all fours. Aria landed and turned about, keeping her guard facing the blurry shadow as best she could. It suddenly diverted its path, pouncing forward and diving past Aria while throwing out its knuckle spikes for a swing. Remembering the form taught to her, the siren turned around the hit; skillfully dodging it. Enjin ran around for another lunge, this time managing to punch the siren in the gut at the cost of Aria grabbing onto it. Yanking Enjin’s arm back, she rammed her elbow into Enjin’s cheek region. The mask upon its face, already severely cracked from the haymaker and drag, chipped and began to crumble. A brutal melee ensued. Monster X’s instruction rang through her mind as time seemed to slow down around Aria. She did take some hits, but being drowned with anger and lacking in fatigue, her given instruction was helping her land and block far more than she took despite Enjin’s boosted speed. It helped that with Kaizer Ghidorah’s raw power backing her up, she was hitting harder than a tired X was. Keeping to the unorthodox and following through quickly, she succeeded a cross-jab-cross combo with a roundhouse kick that completely shattered Enjin’s mask and cracked whatever approximation of a skull it had. Enjin leaped back to get out of range. The remains of its mask sloughed off with the motion and revealed a blurry simian face beneath it. Locking the black pits that stood in for its eyes upon Aria, Enjin gripped and pushed its busted snout back into place with a sickening crackle. Fixing its face and snapping its jaw into socket, the beastial Aspect let out a low bellow. Runes of light flushed across its body like magma flows, several of them lining Enjin’s now exposed snout and face. Smacking its palm to the ground, a tremor ripped through the earth as Enjin drew the energy from both below and inside its chest into a palm. Aria shot up into the air to dodge the mana grenade thrown her way, soon shifting to constantly keep darting and swimming across waves of gravitons to avoid getting hit by the continued volleys. Each time Enjin drew power into one hand and tossed it away, it just repeated with its other paw to maintain a continuous barrage. Getting an idea as she flew out of the way of an explosive that destroyed a boulder behind her, Aria snapped herself around and outstretched her hand towards the still airborne rubble. With a strong sweeping motion, she gripped the gravitons emitted by the stones and flung them at Enjin. Having several dozen kilos of rocks being thrown at it did cause Enjin to have to pause its attack, but having half a forest hurled at it forced it to retreat and dodge. Aria Blaze cracked a crazed grin, throwing her arms out and back to and fro, her gravity born telekinesis sending everything laying on the ground from chunks of boulder, to gravel, to torn or blasted off chunks of trees rocketing towards Enjin at various speeds. Sprinting on all fours and hopping to and off of various trees for cover, Enjin had to focus on dodging rather than counterattacking for a time. With growing speed however, the blurry shade took a 180’ degree turn on a dime by springboarding off a tree and pouncing onto and off of a hunk of tree trunk that had been thrown at it. The siren braced as it lunged towards her, only for a flash of golden light to flare up from her side. Spiraling graviton flares shot through the air, impacting and detonating on Enjin’s approximation of a hide; blowing it off course and up into the air with a trail of smoke. Aria Blaze shot a look downwards to the source, seeing a wincing Monster X supporting himself on a tree trunk. Biting back his pain, he called out to her. “Ene-rgy attacks hurt it worse, use those!” Aria put her hands above her siren heart and pooled the energy out of it. Seeing she needed time to charge, X watched Enjin as it fell. Having been given a chance to catch his second wind, he sprung back into action. Charging over to Enjin as it fell, Monster X growled and tackled it with a shoulder ram to knock it off balance. Shrugging off a return blow to his hip, X slugged it across the face to turn it around and grabbed onto it from behind, ratcheting one of its arms behind its back as he hooked his free arm around its neck. The two struggled, Enjin forcing its foe to use all the strength he had just to keep a hold of him. With its free arm, Enjin repeatedly rammed its elbow back into Monster X’s gut to try and force him off; but X powered through it. After all, Aria was almost ready. Golden surges ignited across her gem and shot up into her eyes, gold blotting out the red. Needing no command to know it was time, Monster X grunted and kneed Enjin in the back of the leg just before he spun around. Tearing Enjin off its foundations, Monster X wrung the Aspect around before tossing it up into the air. Outstretching a hand, Aria clawed at the air in an upwards motion and altered the gravity in tandem with her movement; ripping Enjin up higher to get a clear shot. Eyes glowing, she built up her breath. With a shout, the energy flew down into her mouth and was propelled by her voice, graviton torrents firing from in front of her mouth like lightning bolts. The torrents struck Enjin dead on with a brilliant explosion. Enjin tumbled out of the smoke cloud, now missing a leg and having sustained damage to its other. Unfettered and unable to tire, it ignited its body and charged a pair of mana grenades at Aria. With another swiping motion, she yanked the falling Aspect back into the air and charged her own attack. This time both of them let loose their respective energy base assault at the same time. Balls of burning red and orange clashed with a river of golden, but an amplified roar and scream from Aria overpowered Enjin’s attack and shoved all three energy blasts into it. This time the resulting shock wave and smoke cloud were significantly bigger. Enjin, still smoking and burning, tumbled out of the blast but was far more heavily damaged this time. Both of its legs and lower torso were gone now, along with its right arm past the elbow and the left arm seemed to be only dangling from a few threads of attachment. Curiously enough, as it sailed through its arc, it didn’t seem to be healing despite its core flashing with a frantic light. The Aspect of Land fell through the air, looking to the ground and outstretching its remaining arm. Whatever it was trying for, Aria wasn’t allowing it. Flying forward and grabbing onto Enjin by its sole remaining limb, Aria glared at the voids it had for eyes. Her heart shining to a blinding degree, the ghidoran siren snarled with raw power lighting up her mouth and eyes entirely. Taking in one deep breath, she held the struggling Enjin in her grasp and fired point blank. The graviton torrents ripped through roaring Enjin’s body, completely obliterating it from the wrist down. It was several long seconds before she cut off the attack that burned a hole into the mountainside hundreds of meters away from her. Enjin’s wrist and hand crumbled away into rapidly evaporating dust that blew away in the wind generated by Aria’s wing beats. All that was left of the Aspect was the formerly glowing light originally mounted inside its chest. The ball of burning light dimmed away, revealing it to be an amber like oval bead roughly the length of a soft ball. It tumbled to the ground, the blinking light going out like glowing lava cooling. By the time it hit the ground, it was inert. Aria Blaze held her guard as she hovered down to it, looming over the dud core as it lay slumped in a small pit of crushed gravel and churned snow. The unearthly cold and aura of primal fear Enjin’s presence wrought was gone, replaced by winter’s comparatively warm chill. The core was dead. Far away from the conflict, Adagio Dazzle snuck about near Canterlot High School and Sonata Dusk held down the fort in the van. The elder siren moved around the edge of a building with her glowing siren heart guiding her. -Huh, looks like Sonata was onto something after all. The magic traces here are a lot stronger than elsewhere across town.- As she rounded a corner, now hearing voices far up ahead, Adagio’s mind was soon plagued with thoughts of why she’d come here. Namely why she’d come here one siren short. Her lip pushed up into a slight sneer upon remembering how her cousin acted out, disobeying her and throwing her across a room. She could practically smell it then, the power boost Aria had gotten that was driving Adagio into a spite given how her pride just wouldn’t swallow one of her subordinates exceeding her. It was the main reason she’d come here in such a rush, to follow a lead that might help tip the scales back in her favor. After all she was the oldest, the best singer, and the one who kept the lead all these years, obviously she needed the best by default! The voices were becoming a bit clearer now, Adagio advancing on a lit window on the first floor that her ears and heart told her was the right direction. -We’d always been a three tone chorus with me in the lead, and she goes off and breaks that because she can’t keep herself in line!- Still, as she closed in, flashes of emotion and memory were gripping most of her attention and sent her sneer into a flatline. Times of ages past in the eastern seas. A very lonely time for her family. -We’d always been a three tone chorus with me having the lead, because most of the time there was only three of us…- The edges of Adagio’s jaw began to wince slightly into a frown, recalling Aria storming out on her again. True, Aria was just a cousin by blood and Adagio did often let Sonata get away with more loopiness than Aria did because the blue siren was her little sister; but that extra closeness by biology never did amount to much in her mind. Adagio Dazzle was a stuck up, scheming, controlling, arrogant sea witch with a huge sense of entitlement. Still, no matter what level of snideness, control, or insults she gave the two; it didn’t change that she had to care on some level. Facts were facts that she, Sonata, and Aria were the only three sirens ever in existence. They had other family of course, but for the longest time it wasn’t just they, the sirens three, but just “they” period. Her mother had gone right after Sonata was born, but in truth Adagio was so young she barely remembered anything of her other than the colors she passed to her sister. Most of her early memories were of her Aunt Hymnia. Least up until that storm… Adagio walked to the window and robotically looked inside. If she were paying any attention she’d seen the conversing forms of five young women and a young man helping them set up in a music studio. “Thanks for the practice room Flashie, but why’d you pick here? Kinda outta the way.” “The wall thickness helps dampen noise from outside and the place was unused otherwise… So, you sure Sunset was okay? You said she ran off pretty quick after the movie.” “Been thinkin’ about that myself. But, I’m sure if she’s set on somethin’ of her own business, best leave her to it.” Adagio’s stood still, half her face illuminated from the edge of the window. A quiet sigh slipped out of her nose, the siren’s mind occupied by memories of Hymnia superimposed with both flashes of Aria in those early days and ones of her earlier today, the quiet little cousin nestled up against her replaced with a snarling hatred directed at Adagio herself. Trickles of shame came over Adagio Dazzle, looking down to and holding her necklace while rubbing her thumb over its face. She was Adagio Dazzle, the oldest, largest, and greatest of the sirens. She was the leader, because they never saw their aunt again after that storm. Someone had to take charge, keep things together. Adagio saw her frowning reflection in her gemstone. -She was your responsibility Adagio, your family… And now you’ve driven her off into hating you.- The oldest siren shrugged, shaking her head slowly as the five in the room beside her began to build up a musical beat. “Adagio Dazzle, what have you done?...” Just as her gemstone began to build up a slight glow, a shout called out to Adagio from around the corner. Accompanied by pounding footfalls, Sonata Dusk’s yelp raced over to her sister. “‘DAGI! IT’S ARIA!” Adagio snapped around in time to see her sibling swing around the corner, grabbing onto her by the shoulders to keep the younger siren from colliding with her. Sonata’s already light blue skin looked pale as a sheet. She was holding up Adagio’s cellphone, which she had left in the van, up with a quivering hand. Clicking the replay button, the phone parroted its last recording. “You Have- One- New message! First message!- “Adagio pick up and get ready! I’m almost to the hotel. It’s here-!” There was a low rumble in the background along with the noise of Aria breathing. Just as Adagio thought she heard a low growl, a loud crumbling noise that sounded like breaking plastic preceded a blank tone. The message repeated again, but Adagio didn’t need to hear the full recording again to be filled with dread and sheer terror. Feeling her own hair stand up on end, Adagio ignored the growing music behind her, gripped Sonata by her arm, and bolted for their van. =============== Harmonium Nexus =============== The eclipse of light receded across the harmonic nexus, Bagan’s mana beam and Harmony’s magic barrier shorting out. The unstoppable force had been halted and the unbreakable shield had faltered. They’d been at this for far longer than it seemed, time moving differently in this realm than it did most others. And still, the result was an indisputable impasse. Bagan closed his jaws, glowing smoke trails of energy streaming out between his teeth and from his shoulder spikes’ wing vents. Harmony struggled in her breath, the remains of her shield fracturing away into glowing dust. The overseer of Equestria had seen better days. Each of the Elements mounted on her crown were cracked through the center and her mane had come almost completely undone. Scuff marks and glowing cuts, which more closely resembled fracture marks upon glass then they did flesh wounds, were scattered across her body. Bagan too was covered in injuries, the locations of which were harder to make out however because of the visual distortion accompanying his form. And yet, both refused to give any sense of faltering. The nexus realm around them was all but torn apart, a vast majority of the walkways torn asunder, black blotches that swallowed up any light engulfing large patches of stars; and all the memory windows were shattered to dust or broken fragments floating aimlessly through the air. Bagan rose up to his full height, looking upon Harmony for a time before turning around and walking towards the portals. Harmony, a bit confused, tilted her head slightly and took a step after him. For something as deadset as he seemed, the oddity of Bagan just walking away from the duel was eyebrow raising. “Weren’t you attempting to kill me?” Bagan took no pause, nonchalantly heading back for the portal to Zenith that hovered just to the side of the surviving walkway. “You truly are my counterpart in this realm, I expected such resistance and now realize I lack the strength to kill you presently. This won’t be the last time we meet.” Harmony stopped her advance as she felt something click under her hoof. Looking down, she saw she was stepping on a shard of a memory window. This particular one displayed Reijuu calmly sitting on a mountainside as a newly metamorphosed Mothra perched herself on the blunt of his horns while happily chirping. “Wait.” Harmony spoke in a calm voice. Bagan stopped in his tracks. While he didn’t look back to see it, Harmony’s expression had shifted considerably. From a stressed glare she cracked in battle to the minor befuddlement of earlier, now the best worst to describe the look on her face as she relaxed her brow and let her lips droop was, sadness. “If you truly are my counterpart on Terra, then you were very different once. The memories show it. Your world’s magic might be different, but I recognize some of the spells you used as similar to Lady Lea’s abilities… You were the one who taught her family magic, aren’t you?” “I respect your position but not your ploys. These facts should matter to me why?” “Because if you were the one who taught them, taught most souls magic in your world…” Harmony spoke solemnly, levitating up the memory shard and sending it slowly drifting towards Bagan. Bagan turned his head slightly to look his own past in the face. “These aren't the memories of a monster, they’re of a hero. A hero to how many countless lives in how many ages passed on your world?... This change in you was recent, wasn’t it?” Bagan seemed to regard his memories for a time, giving Harmony a tiny glimmer of hope. Or at least some until Bagan slowly gripped the memory shard and crushed it into sparkling dust that fell off into space. The titan spoke in a whispered tone, neither prideful or strong; but quiet. “I was lied to for over four and a half billion years. Not again... The past is dead to me...... I will go through with my plans, and nothing in Equestria can halt it. Out of anyone in your realms, you stood the best chance at stopping me. Had you been at full strength you probably could have overpowered me in the state I’m in. But, you divided your power. Gave it to others with elements and chests. My return and purge is inevitable....” “I divided my power three times and gave it to those who needed it, because I was afraid I might do what you have if I kept it all myself… Please-” Harmony pleaded, taking several steps towards the bloodthirsty deity ahead of her. “-you have to stop this madness, this war between worlds before there is more bloodshed on either side! You’re right, I can’t stop you and I can’t stop this. But you can! You don’t have to do any of this, you can choose. Choose good again.” A silence passed for a time. Bagan turned himself around halfway and saw Harmony, now right up next to him. She was still covered in fractures and wounds, but a tiny smile was stretched across her lips. Bagan’s monotonal chorus of a voice never changed beat or pitch, an unnerving level of mixed emotions evident. “You would honestly offer me forgiveness, mercy, in light of what you know I have done and must do?..” Harmony held up a hoof to him, shaking her head a bit. “I offer it in light of what you could do... You once were the greatest good for your world, spending over a millennia of millennia watching it and its life prosper under you. You can do that again. Equestria is a land for second chances.” Bagan waited for a time, looking towards her hoof. Amongst the blurs and distortions going across his body, Harmony spotted him moving his closest arm to her. There was no swipe of the claw or blast of magic, instead Bagan lifted up his hand and put it to Harmony’s hoof; fingers wrapping around it in a gentle hold. It pressed up against it, and pushed it back down to the ground before moving away. Harmony's lips parted into a small frown and she looked up, seeing Bagan had closed all of his eyes for a moment of contemplation. “Extinction comes to all, and it’s the only finality. You ask of me to turn to your concept of good again, yet I see no evil in my actions.” He muttered quietly before shaking his head, no boast in his tone. The God of Extinction pulled away and turned back to the portal. “This encounter served three purposes. Firstly, confirming your existence and your connection to this realm’s world tree. Thirdly, optimally kill you if I could in this state. I achieved two of the three.” “And… what was the second?” “Look around you, your realm is in tatters.” Harmony regarded her vast surroundings and realized now just how much damage had been done to her chamber. Able to perceive the Tree of Harmony itself, her eyes briefly whited out as she checked. Harmony gasped quietly, seeing the tree in barely any better shape than her realm. Branches were drooping, cracked, or completely snapped off. A jagged scar had been cut right through the central trunk, snaking around the alicorn’s symbols. Every single one of the Elements of Harmony was cracked through the middle and chipped along their edges. The Elements and the Tree’s once lustrous glow had receded considerably to a few stressed pulses and sparks. Only the chest, a part of herself she’s completely removed from the Tree like the Elements before it, remained completely intact and retained its brilliance. Bagan’s voice played over the sight. “Did you think I was ignorant to you whispering in the ears of others? I might have missed the word given, but I knew what the source must have been. If my hypothesis is correct and this realm is truly tied to that world tree, any damage here would be reflected upon it and cut off its connection to the other realms. Judging from the collateral this place has sustained, you won’t be communicating with or warning any soul for some time now. I had several plans set out for this time, and I only needed to win once. When I make myself known to your protectorates, you won’t have warned them ahead of time” Truth was present in his word, Harmony going over the damage in her mind and noting how long it would take to repair all of it. Her realm was tied to the dimensional singularity, the Tree of Harmony. The Tree could repair itself overtime, mending the nexus, but it would be a while. Even though she’d managed to survive the assault, Bagan had still won. The aforementioned deity started back on his course. Following Bagan’s resumed motion to the portals, Harmony glimpsed something from the other half of portal. The sight of Aria, still very much alive but in a state Harmony didn’t recognize, standing over Enjin’s dulled core gave her some measure of hope. She might have failed to defeat Bagan, but Enjin at least had been stopped. “It seems your hunter underestimated some powers in my realm. You won’t be adding a second victory to your rank today.” Bagan regarded the vision of the fallen Enjin for a time, before stoically raising his arm towards the portal. There was a brief energy crack and the god’s eyes lit up with a flash due to the mass energy transfer shooting through the portal before Harmony could cut off the flow with a wall of magic. Bagan recoiled his hand, not showing any pain from the blast wave that shot over him and looking out of the corner of his facial eyes at Harmony. “It has already been done…. When I am fully restored, I will be thrice the strength I am at now. Make peace with that end, I will come for this realm last.” And with that, Bagan disappeared back into Zenith. Forestalled and defeated, and yet still victorious. ============== Human Realm ============= Monster X managed to struggle back to his feet, requiring a moment’s respite to recover his balance and stability enough to not fall over again. He gained his sight to a black angel looming over Enjin’s ‘corpse’. The flashing core that had once been the shadow beast’s heart must have gone out, but that didn’t stop the empowered siren from brimming with lingering wrath. She repeatedly screamed and blasted the core, deepening the crater it had sunken into. Yet despite her wrath, the dull gem refused to fracture. Even from this distance, X could feel the flurry of anger propelled gravitons distorting all that was whirling around him. He walked forward, each step requiring him to shield himself from the onslaught of energy with his own power. “Aria!” The winged, horned siren in question momentarily flinched and stopped her attacks. Even though she didn’t turn around, X could tell from her tone that she was spitting venom. “It’s. Dead.” She sneered in a manner that X couldn’t tell if her disdain was at the battle or, as the back of his mind entertained the thought, frustration at her foe dying too quickly for her liking. He didn’t see all of her battle, but it was clear that through the unending rage she was enjoying herself; but whether if it was from the power or born of bloodthirst eluded him. It caused the action of putting his hand on her shoulder to be done with no small amount of caution. “Then calm…. down….” He muttered in a quiet voice, masking his worried excitement and readiness to spring into action. Several long moments passed, but X’s prayers seemed answered by Aria relaxing her erratic energy output. The kaiju could still sense the siren’s enormous power, but it was now more or less back under a controlled anger and rational. Aria Blaze shrugged, rolling her shoulders and new wings. Eying her changes, Monster X cracked an eyebrow as he took his hand away. “I see you’ve become quite the fearsome creature.” Aria Blaze’s scowl shifted with a smirk, clenching a fist and flexing her arm as she admired how powerful she felt right now. She had reason to be happy, after all this was a dream realized. She’d wanted to get strong enough that nothing could ever hurt her again. That desire ironically lead her on the path to where she was now. And despite all the trauma these kaiju had caused her; in her eyes, she’d succeeded. Her smirk flattened when she heard a tired shrug behind her. There were several footsteps leading away as Monster X turned and walked away several paces, beginning to distort gravity as he focused his energies. “But, with it dead; you know what this means for our alliance…” Monster X muttered in a stoic tone. Aria Blaze spread her wings to their fullest, taking several wing flap assisted jumps back to clear a good five meters between her and Monster X. Both siren and xilian spun around to face the other like a pair of pistol duelists, Monster X bending his knees and lifting his arms into a fist clenched guard as Aria Blaze levitated a meter off the ground with a similar stance. Both of them charged an energy attack, gravity distorting so much that the falling snow all around froze in place or started drifting upwards. Monster X made his eye beams ready, taking note of Aria’s brightly glowing gem. It seemed to have grown blindingly luminous for a moment, before dimming significantly. Enough so that the glow didn’t obscure Aria’s face. A far cry from the initial sneer crossing the siren’s face, instead the now black and gold sea witch was frowning in a downtrodden manner. Speaking quietly despite the menacing glow forming within her eyes and throat, Aria paused. “We don’t have to do this.” “You have to protect your family, and I have to follow my orders. This was inevitable.” She really wanted her words to be different and have them born of a snarl. She had every right to be enraged at Monster X, both for pulling this stunt and being a threat to her and her family. The gem’s contained energies, her very power source, they demanded she be spewing her aggression and hatred right now towards anything. The typically unbridled wrath that gave her the new coloration had such a nature, so logically hers shouldn’t be any different. And yet, it was. Memories of the past days, all the extended hours she was stuck with this alien monster from another realm played through her mind. Aria remembered the frustration at his teaching methods and harnessed malice when he pushed one of her buttons. But, topping that, she remembered the good of it. Her improved martial arts, the talks that kept her level, the feeling of nostalgia when he taught her how to levitate. She had every reason to attack and all the will to fight him if he pulled that trigger, but that didn’t mean she wanted that to happen. “... If you’re so assured, then why are your hands shaking?” Monster X finally took his attention briefly off the siren and onto himself. True to her word, he had muscle spasms and the shakes all over his form; like his own body was fighting his decisions. He looked back at Aria, half expecting the siren to having seized the temporary distraction to attack. Instead the glow had faded down to barely a quarter of its original strength, at this point only obscuring her eyes and siren heart itself. She’d relaxed and dropped her raised guard, letting her arms fall to her sides. Aria lowered herself to just slightly above the ground, keeping the tips of her toes several centimeters above the snow. Monster X slowly did the same with his own guard, straightening his legs and rising back up to his full height in a calm manner. He took a step forward and she levitated herself closer. They repeated the action again, and again, and again. At two meters apart, their respective energy glows died away entirely. At one meter apart and at each other’s eye level, they stopped and froze in place. Aria started to reach towards Monster X’s face, causing him to narrow his eyes a bit and take a step back with a clenched fist. Aria paused for a moment. Monster X loosed his first, the siren waiting a moment to continue reaching out. Her fingers started to pressed against and curl around the edge of his mask. There was a glint in the crater behind Aria when Bagan’s energy transfer had gone through. Monster X instantly tensed up and he lurched forward. “ARIA LOOK OUT!” She tried to see what he was reacting to as he tried to shove her out of the way, but both were too slow. Within a fraction of a second a mass of tendrils burst out of the ground and ensnared Aria around her torso and wings. Enjin’s glowing core had revived and was reeling in the siren. Fiery, magma hued tentacles wrapped around her and siphoned away more and more of her energy, tearing it off her body and carrying it to the dilating core. Having enough slack and fighting every step of the way, Aria roared whilst whipping around and expelling bursts of gravitons and plasma. She fired at the tendrils and core, but just as the core survived her original onslaught, it’s tendrils were enduring the energy blasts. Monster X caught back up to them quickly, grabbing Aria around her midsection and yanking in the opposite direction. His efforts however, born of both brute strength and his own power, failed to do much more than slow down the rate the siren was being pulled in. Aria was making no small effort to free herself either, rapidly flapping her unbound wing whilst swiping at the growing number of tendrils that were attempting to wrap around her throat and limbs. While she was able to cut a few with a combination of force and her newfound claws, there were simply too many. They were only about three meters from the epicenter now, Enjin’s revived core now easily the size of a large car. Eviscerating itself down the middle from top to bottom, the tendrils began to uproot themselves from the ground and pull Aria towards the innards. Horrific realization washed over the siren, despite her raging survival instincts going ballistic. She grabbed onto her siren heart and tried to turn herself around some. “X!” She shouted, the kaiju in question having stubbornly refused to let go despite the futility. By now his feet had dug trenches into the snow and gravel, flashes of golden light shooting past Aria as Monster X fired around Aria to hit Enjin with several explosive barrages of graviton flares. Aria grabbed him by his jaw before he could fire again, using all her strength to twist herself around to partially face him. Despite all the strain and stress, the transformed siren’s face was nearly flat and unreadable. It was her eyes that bore the most expression, and that stopped Monster X in his tracks. She looked scared. Wincing from the effort, she slipped her necklace off herself and put it on the kaiju’s neck. Still holding onto his head as she hovered close, Aria muttered only two words. “Don’t lose.” She spoke with a quiet tone, before grunting through her teeth and throwing the kaiju off her. With no one holding her back and her own efforts stopped, Aria was quickly drawn into Enjin’s core. The two partially opened halves snapped shut after she and the tendrils were drawn in. The glowing oval’s brightness rapidly grew and it levitated further and further off the ground. A few moments of sparking was the only warning sign before a massive blast wave of energy shot out of Enjin. Trees all around were bowled over or snapped at the trunk, with tons of gravel, dirt, and snow being thrown in all directions away from the epicenter. Lacking a firm footing, Monster X was hurled backwards into the lake behind him hard enough break through the thin ice. Earthen mana was torn free from the ground and converted into dozens of tons of dark magic, solid shadow forming up around the core that was compounding by the moment…. A minute later and a kilometer away, a van’s brakes screeched upon it coming to the peak of a towering, long bridge that straddled two high plateaus bordering the lake. Adagio and Sonata wasted no time scrambling out of it and into the frigid cold outside, that seemed even more so than usual. Hands upon their necklaces, they held them up and meandered around to figure out which direction their gems were glowing brightest. It wasn’t a tested idea, but in light of Sonata finding Aria’s discarded phone both she and Adagio had flown into full panic mode. Driving in a direction they thought she might have gone, their stop had been brought upon by their siren hearts beginning to experience pulsating lights and power surges. They could only have hoped that meant a siren nearby had been exerting large amounts of magic so Adagio prayed it meant they would use them a jerry rigged compass to point the way to Aria. And if it was Aria exerting all that magic, something they’d been careful to conserve since they got here, it only heightened Adagio’s terror as it meant her cousin had to have a good reason for it. Like fighting for her life. What they were met with however, was the resounding crash of a blast wave petering out into a curtain of air that passed over them. The sound of trembling earth. Any surviving trees were knocked aside or simply crushed as a fifteen story shadow pushed through them. While it’s form was now devoid of the kabuki mask and was more akin to an upright simian than a humanoid, it only took Adagio a second to recognize it as the monstrosity from the hospital. Words of days passed played through her shocked mind, word of beings of great power. Kaiju. And it was looking right at them. Enjin stood tall and regarded the bridge. For a moment, it sensed a dim energy signature in the lake, but the siren’s arrival had gotten its attention. It was currently being powered by a mix of kaiser energy and a siren’s magic, but seemingly only half of what it’s captured prey had been putting out. Denied of its full size, the Aspect of Land had been reduced down to a mere 50 meters in height. And with its time running out in this realm, it needed to maintain stability long enough to complete the rest of its mission. It craved energy. The other two sirens lacked kaiser energy, but they had far more magic than the norm of this world. They would do. The feeling of terror Adagio felt as the walking mountain started to advance towards them was only compounded by the panicked observation that the rapid blinking her gem was giving to her. She thought it was evidence of her heart pointing towards her cousin, and reached a horrified realization when it reached its apex upon her pointing it at Enjin. Breaking out of her stupor, she grabbed her little sister and practically threw Sonata into the van. Revving it up and flooring the accelerator, they just barely reached the far edge of the bridge when the high beamed headlights caught a black blur devouring the land in front of them. Enjin had closed the distance with a lunging swat, cleaving its arm through the historic bridge and one of its support beams. Twisted metal and stone flew off in all directions and several flying debris cracked the windshield. Stomping on the brakes, Adagio rapidly ran the wheel around to divert their course. The van nearly rolled over, popping up on only half of its wheels at two points during the sharp turn and grazing the side rail with a shower of sparks. Reigniting the engine, Adagio’s eardrums nearly burst from the sound of Sonata screaming in trepidation as Enjin dragged its arm out of the bridge and took another swat at them. Her sibling’s cries were blotted out by the shrieking of twisting metal as another section of bridge the van rolled over was snapped off. They had just began to cross the slight arch in the center that marked the middle when the sound of Enjin wiped out all noise. It was so loud that it seemed impossible, carrying a curtain of sound and frigid air that shattered all the van windows and seemed to replace all conscious thought with primal fear. Adagio could only manage to throw on the brakes before Enjin cut off their escape by caving in the other side of the bridge, trapping them on the sole remaining section. Inside the lake, Monster X’s body sunk down to the deep lake bottom. Knocked half limp by the blast wave and unable to swim, he could do nothing but sink down in slow motion amongst a cloud of silt. Upon his neck, Aria’s necklace began to crackle and pulse dimly. Unseeing eyes blankly stared up at the surface far above. He saw not the broken ice sheets on the surface, felt not the icy cold of the water or the extensive pain of his injuries. The only sensory input X could feel was a voice. A quiet, singing voice that wrapped around him as Aria’s heart began to usher a consistent glow. Jolts of energy began to spark out of it, causing Monster X’s body to twitch. A gloved hand reached up and clutched the glowing heart. ============ Reader Works! ============ Showing off the beloved creations of the best readerbase a guy could ask for!~ -Dark God's Fury- by Kahnc While not in the Amalgam'verse canon, Kahnc is a solid writer who has used elements of Bridge's kaiju version for his own works. Have a gander! Check out the newest installments in the first Bridge Spin-off, Humanity's Stand Chapter 11 - by SMJames Here's Zeroviks making Xenilla's human form go a mix of Kamen Rider and Super Sayain! FallenAngel4514 introducing the Dark Hunters, complete with a couch (and a prequel!) AstralAnomly and IceStormy presenting us with a gorgeous pair of pictures of Bridge's main two fandom ships CrashedEileen helping bring in the diabetes! Pyrus-Leonidas once again proving his skill with his illustrated series for my "Godzilla meets Gorgo" short! Mayozilla opening bunches of shipping lanes here! DragonBlitz85 giving us a series of stylized group and individual shots, set to music! Isaacholt proving you can flip most anything, even chromosome! Our own PMB-Brony giving us a mix of adorableness and an unofficial crossover with the other big G-MLP crossover here on FimFic Superior-Doc-Fossil a.k.a DinoCam1795 putting the Bridge pics to an anime opening!