Chapter Text
“Woah! That was a big one!” Nejire looked off into the distance as dirt and debris went flying into the air. “Do you think we should go help, Ryukyu?” She looked over at her teacher with big eyes, which some would compare to “puppy-dog eyes.” It was almost as if she wanted to get more involved in the war.
Both girls were hovering above the ground, at about the halfway point of the convoy to guard the less powerful soldiers, while the Shadow team pushed deeper into Russian territory and while the Ravagers remained at the coast to shell anything that came close.
“We expected a National-Rank. You and I can't handle that, we’d just get in the way.” Her eyes were sunken and red with veins. She hadn’t gotten much sleep. In fact, she’d barely taken her armor off to relax.
“But if it was a trap, we might be able to help the soldiers! Keep the fight contained to just the National-Ranks!”
Ryuko put a hand to her ear. “Admiral Mori, permission to help the forward-operating squad?”
The comms crackled heavily, buzzing in and out due to Ryukyu and Nejire’s high Mana stores. They were pretty adept at controlling their Mana, limiting the effect it had on real world technology, but it was still difficult to create technology that could hold up to S-Rank or higher powers. In fact, it was a very high-profile issue that was growing rapidly. The “Mana Singularity” posited that eventually, there would be too much Mana in humanity to have a technological society. There would be too much Mana filling the air for even basic technology. In recent years, wifi signals and computers had begun to show signs of disrepair, slowing down and sometimes breaking.
“Permission… granted… up… you.”
“He said it’s up to us,” Ryukyu relayed, interpreting the breaks in communication.
“Well, what do you wanna do, teach?” Nejire asked. “Should we-”
In the distance, another explosion of dust and debris shot into the air, looking more like a mushroom cloud than anything else.
“Yeah, let’s clear the perimeter… and stay out of the way…”
*******
Moments Earlier:
Momo couldn’t react in time. Quaresha’s physical speed went far beyond anything Awakened Humans had achieved. The only reason she survived was because the armor Miruko was wearing also went beyond anything Awakened Humans had achieved.
Shoving her to the side, Miruko took the brunt of the blow, flying through dozens of walls and eventually slamming into the rocket on the launchpad.
The colony ship, fuel, embryos, genetic databases, seed vaults and more, combusted in an instant, exploding in a plume of smoke. At the very least, it alerted the surrounding area. The soldiers and Katya’s family took off running, and Kaina was informed that someone inside the building was stronger than Miruko herself. Not quite what she expected to see.
However, being the soldier she was, she immediately adjusted her aim. Using her eyes to see through all the material in the way, she fired without hesitation at the godlike being who had just wrecked one of the world’s strongest physical attackers.
All things considered, Kaina didn’t even expect to hit her mark, but instead, the bullet ripped into her skull. Before it was even halfway through, the round exploded, spraying the woman’s brain matter all over the control room and Momo. In fact, Momo was the reason Kaina didn’t fire at full power, she would’ve been caught in the crossfire. It was something she’d shortly regret.
“What the hell happened?!” She yelled, descending into the wrecked mission control to check on Momo.
“Came out of nowhere…” Momo said, shaking off the debris. “Is Rumi okay?”
“Yeah I saw her getting back up.”
“It was a bunch of bugs that like…” Momo gestured with her hands, like that of a blob taking form. “Just made a person.”
“You think she was our National-Rank?”
“Prob-”
“Oh, dears, I’m nothing like a National-Rank.”
Momo and Kaina looked in complete disbelief as the decapitated body of Quaresha pushed itself to its feet. Its head rebuilt itself from the neck up within seconds.
“Uhm… is she a Shadow? Nothing else has this sort of regeneration, right?”
“It’s not like National-Ranks can survive decapitation. Most Chaos Inhabitants can’t either.” The two kept their eyes squarely on the Insectoid Queen while Beru and Igris appeared behind her.
Quaresha’s body was bisected by one of Igris’s swords at the waist and her regenerating head was sliced to ribbons by Beru.
“How shameful that one of my own brood would turn against me!” She said, turning to face Beru with her cut up face, flesh hanging loosely from all over. “I suppose I have to teach you a lesson.”
Beru, who didn’t seem familiar with the woman, merely responded with, “You smell bad.”
That set off Quaresha like nothing else. She grabbed Beru by the throat and leapt straight up, flying through the hole Kaina created. Igris followed them, as did Miruko and many of the other Shadows. But before Momo could join the fight, Kaina stopped her.
“I could be wrong. It could be that she just doesn’t give a shit about defending herself since she can regenerate, but I don’t think her senses are very good.”
“Neither are her defenses, at least compared to someone like Nine…” Momo trailed off as an idea sprung to mind. “Okay… buy me some time, we’re gonna need to vaporize every atom if we’re gonna kill her.” There was no debate to be had. Quaresha was clearly insane, and there was no reasoning with that level of power.
“Heard. We’ll test the limits of her regen,” Kaina ran to secure a good sniping position, while Momo called one of the Wyvern Squadron to her side, leaping on and seemingly away.
Quaresha’s energy signature was so immense that Momo was forced to create a brand new comm system inside the Wyvern as she flew away. But with newfound knowledge, it was possible. She called an American number, one that would shortly connect her to someone very important. “This is Empress. I have… a proposal…”
*******
To say the battle was chaotic would be an understatement. Whereas the fight with Nine was more like an intellectual battle, exchanging information and trying to wear down the opposition, this was just a complete slugfest.
Fists, blades, and talons were flying so fast that the pressure waves they were creating began to shear away the rest of the launch site. Throwing the debris into the air like a tornado, it almost looked like the fighters had their own gravitational field. For anyone else, it would be an impossible shot. For Kaina, it was a Tuesday, and it was extremely satisfying.
After battling with Nine and being made ineffective by just his shields and reactions alone, it felt euphoric to thread the needle of the debris field and take off one of Quaresha’s arms. Of course, it regenerated at an ungodly pace, even beyond the Shadows’ regeneration speed.
However, Quaresha’s surprise at her missing arm confirmed to Kaina that she was not a good fighter. She didn’t have the senses necessary to battle men and monsters who spent their life on the brink of danger and death.
Nine was a man who put together a strategy that could outpace pretty much anyone, and had the senses to back it up. Quaresha was just a big dumb hunk. Even someone like Miruko, who’s entire battle persona was bashing someone’s skull in, had better reactions, senses, and battle intelligence. But sometimes, skill couldn’t overcome raw power.
Flying at mach speeds, Igris and Beru speared Quaresha through the torso, slamming her into the already devastated landscape below. Taking advantage of the brief moment, Behemoth brought his fist down, like the skies that attempted to crush Atlas.
Not waiting to see if the Monarch of Plagues would rise again, Kaisel and the two Wyvern jets remaining began to pelt the crater with explosive rounds and beams of pure energy. Kaina joined in, firing several full power shots, creating blasts that would’ve made even Kamish whimper.
“You struck my Soul?!”
Kaina whipped around just in time to get backhanded by Quaresha. She was torn to shreds, but very much alive. Kaina felt her cheekbone fracture, as she hit the ground, unable to maintain Omni-Movement in the face of such raw power. All things considered, it was lucky she escaped with just that injury.
“She’s toying with us… That’s why her senses are so lame… and why she didn’t just kill me outright. Whoever she is, she spent her life crushing people underfoot. She doesn’t have a sense of actual danger…” Kaina cupped her cheek, making sure the break wasn’t too serious. “But she did react negatively to being hit by Draconic Magic, which struck her Soul. That’s gotta be the key to killing her.”
Before Quaresha could continue her assault against Kaina, Miruko’s leg took off her head. Chaining together kicks like it was a fighting game, she continued to segment her body, kicking off limbs or blowing holes in her torso even as she regenerated.
Kaina used her eyes to focus in on Quaresha, seeing a strange nervous system in place of a regular Soul. There was no “center-mass” unlike a human Soul which was just a blurry blob in the middle of someone’s chest. She had no idea what to target, so she started with what made the most sense, the area around the head and neck.
Miruko, despite not having any communication with Kaina, knew exactly when to dodge, where to avoid. Her senses were so fine tuned that she knew where Kaina was aiming before she even fired. All the while, she continued to break down Quaresha’s body with Beru and Igris slicing away.
Kaina’s bullets flew through the metaphysical mass that was the Soul of Quaresha. Her attacks cut through the thin “veins” that connected Quaresha’s Soul together. But even when severing the “neck” of the Soul or attacking the head, the strands simply pulled themselves back together.
“Enough!” Quaresha’s cut up vocal chords let out a disturbing shout as she, with a single pulse of Mana, sent the Shadows and Miruko flying backwards.
Just like before, Behemoth attempted to crush her into the ground. This time, Quaresha raised her claws to the sky, cutting through Behemoth’s Shadowy flesh like it was tissue paper. The hole in his hand allowed her to shoot through, and up into the sky.
Insectoid wings, not unlike Beru’s, were emerging from her back as she raced to Behemoth’s head. He attempted to swat her out of his airspace, but he was too large to accurately target her.
Unbeknownst to Kaina or Miruko, Behemoth had the Skill, Soul Impact. His attack had also reached Quaresha’s Soul and that greatly annoyed her. Looking at Behemoth’s hand, Kaina noticed it was not growing back.
“She can stop Shadow Regeneration!” Kaina yelled at the top of her lungs, causing Igris and Beru to realize the severity of the situation. The entire time, she potentially possessed the capacity to kill them, even in their Shadow form. She lifted her rifle to try and intercept the Insect Queen before it was too late, but before she could, the pain in her cheek flared into unimaginable agony. It was as if someone poured molten metal directly inside of her.
Miruko, Igris, and Beru were similarly stuck on the ground, either in pain, or seemingly paralyzed. Kaina noticed a black substance spreading through Miruko’s veins where she had been hit earlier, and the Shadow’s energy appeared to dim.
“Monarch of Plagues…” The title flashed through Kaina’s mind. It was a plague that could stop anything in its tracks, even Shadows. Whatever was affecting them, it was in their blood, and more than strong enough to overcome their base resistances to natural disease and sickness.
In the blink of an eye, Behemoth’s head was torn through, a massive hole where his face once was. Like a felled tree slowly falling, he began to fall victim to the clutches of gravity, collapsing into the earth and causing the ground to shake violently.
“Is he dead?!” Kaina only knew the Shadows as indestructible soldiers. She knew that she was mortal and that this conflict could end with her death. However, she felt certain that the Shadows would - even in the event of mass losses for Japan - eventually win the war. Maybe he would still be able to regenerate if the poison was cleansed from his body, but there was also the possibility that he was just… dead. For a second and final time.
“Now to kill you,” Kaina heard Quaresha’s voice just above her. “Then I can continue toying with my prey! And after that, the Shadow Monarch will see the effigy of death I’ve painted, just for him!” She sounded giddy, like a schoolgirl that was head over heels for a boy in her class. But instead of that love translating to care and respect, it became a twisted visage. Quaresha was the sort of girl who became a stalker.
Kaina couldn’t let that sort of person get close to Izuku, no matter what. And yet, she was paralyzed on the ground, made into exactly what Quaresha desired. She was easy prey. Regardless of her strength, her Apex Skill, she was just an ant beneath Quaresha’s boot.
Recognizing the situation, hordes of Shadows began to pour out of Igris, every last one that composed the Shadow Army. Kaisel, the Wyverns, Null, Quasar, Vexor, everything. Like droves of zombies clawing their way from the grave, they stormed out like a tsunami of black mass. They were capable of overwhelming any country in the world, any Hero, anything.
Quaresha was unimpressed. With a wave of her hands, she sent out countless thin needles, like a wave of shadow-seeking missiles.
Every Shadow, including Momo’s, as soon as they were struck with the needle, began to collapse, paralyzed just as the rest were.
“You see? This is the power of a Monarch!” She bent down, grabbing Kaina by the face. With the poison in her veins, her blood refusing to coagulate, her and Miruko were bleeding out of their eyes, nose, mouth, and even their very pores. They wouldn’t live much longer. “You don’t deserve to stand beside him! You’re nothing!” She raised her clawed hand, but not to slash at Kaina. Instead, it was to catch Ryukyu by the throat.
“More pests!” Quaresha spat. “You don’t even have an Apex Skill.”
Ryukyu gagged as Quaresha tightened her grip around her throat. She knew she couldn’t handle Quaresha, she knew it was a death sentence. But at the very least, she hoped to buy some time for the stronger fighters to recover. She was just happy she managed to convince Nejire to stay behind.
“No need to bother with you.” Her other arm carved through the air, aiming to take Ryukyu’s head off. The draconic woman closed her eyes, prepared for the end. It never came. All she could hear was the sizzling of flesh.
“Sorry Quaresha, but I made a promise,” A man with white hair and white clothes stepped out of a Gate, his hands burning with gleaming silver flames. He had created a pocket of heat around Quaresha’s arms, completely severing them at the elbows and freeing Ryukyu.
She collapsed to the ground, gasping for air as she looked up at the white-haired man. She barely recognized him without the scars, but she still did recognize him. “T-Touya?”
“Not quite,” The man muttered, waving his hands again. A Gate appeared underneath Ryukyu, sending her falling into… somewhere. It closed almost immediately.
“You dare betray us?!” Quaresha screamed, her arms struggling to regenerate.
“Nah, I’ll still go along with whatever Antares tells me. But I made a Soul Vow with my vessel. That girl has amnesty.” His eyes narrowed. “I dare you to test that.”
Quaresha, for the first time, had fear in her eyes.
“I’ll leave you with this little reminder,” Touya, or rather, Baran, stepped back through his Gate with a final wave of his hands.
Quaresha’s entire body erupted into a torrent of flames. She screamed in agony, her voice once more distorting as it was burned away.
Kaina, through her haze of bloody tears, could see that both Quaresha’s body and Soul were burning away. They were still regenerating, but at a much slower pace. It was clear that the fiery attack was not meant to kill her, just warn her. Which meant that Kaina, Miruko, and the Shadows only had moments before she recovered.
“What can we even do?!” Kaina’s mind raced, looking for ways out, but she came up with nothing. Truthfully, she only had one hope, and the outcome wasn’t up to her.
“AHH… Arg… ugh…” Quaresha emerged from the flames, scarred and breathing heavily. Her flesh wasn’t regenerating as much, leaving her as a demonic-looking burn victim. Her elongated shape and unnatural eyes made her truly look like a Villain.
“Baran… You’ll pay for that!” She screeched, looking back over at Kaina. “YOU! This is your fault! I’ll-” For the third time, Quaresha was cut short from killing Kaina.
A laser beam, as thick as 2 meters in diameter, completely engulfed Quaresha, further searing her flesh. As the beam continued to hold the Monarch in place, Kaina felt someone grab her and lift her into the air. It was Momo, riding on the Wyvern jet.
“That was too close…” She said, injecting something into Kaina’s side as she similarly grabbed Miruko.
“It’s… not working?” Momo had injected a coagulant into the two, alongside several other drugs to try and counteract the poison or plague or whatever it was. An Awakened Human’s body could handle a lot more than a regular human, their kidneys and liver wouldn’t fail with excessive chemicals. So Momo continued to inject them with whatever she could think of.
Kaina could tell it was slowing the advance of the poison, but it wasn’t healing it or reversing it. She looked around in a daze, spotting a dozen triangle-shaped aircraft, all made of Shadows and hovering around Quaresha and firing red laser beams continually at the spot she was standing.
Kaina recognized them as AY-X2s, America’s specialized high-hypersonic stealth bombers. They could cover the distance between America and Russia in just a few minutes. In fact, the longest portion of their journey was just getting off the ground and accelerating. “How…?”
“I offered to return them to America as Shadows if they let me borrow them. The idea of immortal planes that could patrol their airspace 24/7 was alluring,” Momo answered, looking into the center of the beams. Quaresha was still alive, regenerating even as she was disintegrated.
“We need… to kill… her Soul too…” Kaina barely managed to spit out. “I’m sorry…” Her breathing was labored, she knew that even if they killed Quaresha, she would still die from whatever the Monarch had inflicted her with. “Tell… Izuku…”
“You think you’re getting off that easy?” A gentle voice said from behind Momo. “I still haven’t taken you on a date.” Izuku smiled down at Kaina. “I owe you that much.”
“Wha- How?” Kaina asked for the second time in 20 seconds.
A mechanical looking Gate stood behind Izuku, letting through Setsuna before closing. “It’s a long story!”
Kaina immediately felt like she could breathe again. As the barrier that Raia put up began to fade, Baruka’s influence on the rest of the Shadow Army returned.
[Skill: Kanidaru’s Blessing]
Again, it didn’t outright cure whatever was inside of Kaina or Miruko, but it fought back fiercely, stemming the progress and giving them some relief.
“We need too…” Miruko attempted to sit up, but Izuku put a hand on her shoulder. “Just rest. I’ll finish this.” The girls wanted to protest, but they saw something in his eyes that told them to lay back down. A sense of calm washed over them. The knowledge that he was there made them believe him. Everything would be alright.
Using Gravity Magic, Izuku descended to where the beam was holding down Quaresha. He called off the bombers, connected to them through the System. It allowed Quaresha to crawl out of the pit, made of molten rock. “My… my king! My love! I have done all this… for you! For my-” She stood on shaky legs, only to find herself on the receiving end of a haymaker from Izuku. Her head twisted 180 degrees, the weight of his blows too much to handle. Even worse for her was that it struck her very Soul as well.
Izuku’s Apex Skill granted him plenty of Magical options, such as Gravity Magic, or what could be considered most important in that moment, Soul Magic. He wasn’t just striking her body, but her Soul at the same time.
“Wai-” Another blow slammed into her stomach, then another to her throat, then another dented her chest in. She couldn’t keep up.
Finally, unbound by the limits of the Mosaics, Izuku began to fire on all cylinders. Each and every blow carried the weight of a mountain, propelled faster than even she could react. He was moving at such speeds that it looked like he had hundreds of arms. Both her Soul and body were being blown away faster than they could grow back.
With a final blow, only Quaresha’s head was left on the ground, begging for mercy.
“No! No please!”
“I don’t know who you are, or why you’ve done what you’ve done. But I do know you attacked my home. And you hurt my family.” His eyes shone down on her without care.
For the first time in her very very long life, Quaresha felt immeasurable fear. She felt the cold presence of death breathing down her neck.
“I’m… a God…” She whimpered. All this time, she’d been chasing death and destruction to impress her object of desire, only to find that he was disgusted by her. And now, she was on the other end of that ruination, of oblivion.
“Doesn’t matter. Death doesn’t discriminate.” Izuku raised his fist one last time, fueling it with Gravity and Soul Magic.
Quaresha’s head was completely obliterated, along with the last remnants of her Soul… or at least… most of her Soul.”
“Izuku…” Kaina weakly choked out, pointing to one of Setsuna’s clones, who were helping out the Shadows, or the soldiers who got caught in the massive shockwaves.
At first he couldn’t see what she was pointing out, but a tiny glimmer of light soon caught his eyes.
Quaresha was pitifully weakened. She was less than an Awakened Human. She couldn’t just take whatever body she desired. She needed the weakest Magical housing unit. In this battlefield, Setsuna’s clone fulfilled that role.
“NO!” Izuku shouted.
Setsuna looked around in confusion, unable to spot the threat as it entered her body.
The clone began to writhe, her flesh transforming and molding itself into a new frightening visage. It kept Setsuna’s original appearance, but with a bit of Quaresha’s flare built in. In other words, it looked like an evil Setsuna.
“HAHAHAHA! I told you! I am a God! I cannot… move?”
“Man you guys really are dramatic,” Setsuna deadpanned from up on the Wyvern jet. “All she’s done is trapped herself inside one of my bodies.” She waved her hands and the Quaresha clone began to dance like a puppet. “I’m pulling the strings now, bitch! And as my first order, you’re going to cure everyone!”
Quaresha, eyes wide and completely out of her own control, invoked the Magic that powered her poisonous abilities. Almost instantly, Kaina and Miruko fell limp, their bodies freed of whatever Quaresha cursed them with.
The Shadows also began to move once more, and much to Izuku’s relief, even Behemoth began to regenerate, pulling himself from the cratered earth.
“And secondly!” Setsuna snapped her fingers.
It wasn’t apparent what she had done at first, but with Izuku’s senses reaching out into the forest, he could feel the Russian soldiers fall over. Their hearts were still beating, but something had been removed from their bodies. They were cured of whatever control Quaresha had over them.
Quaresha couldn’t have known that Setsuna’s newfound control would allow her to completely crush her Soul, keeping it tiny and weak as she took control of her powers. It wasn’t official, but in a roundabout way, Setsuna had become the new Monarch of Plagues.
Everyone fell onto their butts, letting out heavy sighs as the dust settled and as Yuri Orlov, still encased in his barriers, shouted. “Is it safe to come out now?!”
Izuku and the others exchanged giddy smiles. Relief at being alive, at being reunited. “Wow… we’ve got a lot to catch up on, huh?”