Amelia, Ch 409- Ayane
<Dragon has been disabled. Scion hit all servers and backups simultaneously.> Khepri stated mechanically through our systems. A human who sounds more like a machine than the machine did. <Defiant and Hecate are already on it. Commanding the Dragon's Teeth to regroup at waypoint Alpha. You will regroup with the other defenders to prepare for a counteroffensive.>
I had no idea where 'waypoint Alpha' was, but my armor highlighted an automatic shunt option to go there. They really put effort into this tech. I simply accepted the offer and steeled myself against the vertigo of the transition drive.
The building I appeared next to had clearly been damaged recently. There was Yggdrasil mending its side from... whatever it was that left the massive crater in the side of the mountain. Yggdrasil was visibly flowing into the hole, healing the hole created in its seal around the planet, whichever of their planets this was. Alerts flashed in my suit, warning me of dangerous levels of radioactive dust in the atmosphere. Was this place hit by a nuke? No, that's unlikely. Nukes don't leave impact craters like this. Must be some kind of Tinker weaponry.
The Dragon's Teeth ships began appearing around me, most of them lowering to the ground. Some didn't have the resources left, they crashed instead. Their crews climbing out of the wrecked ships, either to inspect the damage or simply admit their defeat.
I landed as well, to recharge my armor and wait for instructions. The suit blinked its approval as it drank from the biomass below us, mending damage that had come from the tests I put it through.
Avalon's bug monsters started manifesting around us by the hundreds. I tapped into light amounts of Victoria's power, scanning the armies that were gathering themselves at this point. Their weaknesses, how to destroy it. How Scion might destroy them.
The Yangban had gotten here before me. I already had access to the best of their powers already. Specifically the one that amplifies the power of others. With that, and my own abilities, and this armor. I was functionally a one woman Yangban army already. They named it Legion, and inside it that's what I am.
I turned my attention to what was left of Dragon's forces. Without her to spearhead the operation, there wasn't much they could do in this battle. Still, they were extremely well trained soldiers with incredibly high tech devices. They would need to be the ones to win this war, if indeed it could be won, because no parahuman would be able to. They represented the hope of a humanity not manipulated by an alien monster.
As I analyzed those three and decided that no, unless Scion was vastly overestimated, they would not be enough, the fourth army arrived.
The Protectorate and numerous other parahuman teams were finally arriving. The monster capes as well. A great many wearing Pantheon's generic armor suits. I was proud to see my own nation on the field. They took places between the divisions of Yangban, the shared power enhancing field bolstering everyone beyond where they normally had any right to be. I joined with them, distributing my own, stolen, power boosting field amongst their shared, creating a chain reaction in a chain reaction. It would hold even after we split apart to do our own things, if only temporarily. Every little bit extra could be the bit that saved the world.
Chevalier's voice transmitted across all our armors, mine translated his speech automatically. <I will not lie to you. Today we fight the greatest threat the world has ever known. Greater than the Endbringers have ever been. You know the predictions, that we face the end of the world. That's not entirely true. We face the end of every world. Those we've built our homes in, those we've extended offers of brotherhood to, and countless billions more that will never be discovered in our lifetimes. The civilians, and those capes not brave enough to put their lives on the line, believe they can run, hide, ride out the storm. That, too, is a lie. If we fail, there will be nowhere left to run to.>
Well, that's a cheerful call to victorious battle, if I ever heard one. Guess he's going the Sun Tzu route. The man who fights hardest is the one backed into a corner. Or something along those lines, I never was much for ancient Chinese history.
<I say this to you, because you deserve to know. Whether you come here to fight for your loved ones, for yourselves, or simply because the alternative is to wait for oblivion, what matters is that you have stepped up in this time of greatest need. For this moment, perhaps the first in human history, the world is united. We stand here alongside our friends, our enemies, even the Endbringers themselves, ready to fight for everyone's wellbeing. I want you to look at each other, and this moment. And know that if Scion wins, there will be no one left to remember the significance of this moment.>
There weren't any cheers, not at the end of that speech. But the contemplation, the nods of understanding. It was a quiet form of brotherhood, but it was a brotherhood. If we gave any less than our everything, we'd be failing everyone. I took a slow breath. "Restriction unlock, powerstim authorized for use." The suit lit up a confirmation. I wouldn't use it yet, not until the battle began, but the drug was ready for me when I needed it.
<Everyone who's coming, identify yourselves by taking flight. We need that for the teleporter to track your positions.>
A necessary sorting process for me. This power I was about to use didn't seem to have an upper limit of mass, range, or difficulties in finding where I wanted to teleport to, but I at least needed to know who I was or was not supposed to be moving. I took a slow breath as the electrifying power of Glaistig Uaine washed through my body. What desires I had for those around me lessened as my powers amplified themselves. "The Charioteer, the Ferryman, the Psychopomp, the Conservator."
The ghosts appeared around me, amplified by the aura. Around me, hundreds of others took to the sky. Khepri's monsters remained grounded, but I knew they were meant to come with us. The Dragon's Teeth rose as well. Some of the ships were damaged, missing chunks of their hulls. I could only imagine what it felt like to their crews, being exposed to a raw shunt field like that, but if they wanted to die in honorable combat, I would not be the one to refuse them. I wrapped myself in the recursive timeloop of the Conservator, having him control my armor so it didn't run out of raw material. Without him, I couldn't do this for more than a minute. With him, I could do it as long as I needed.
In an eyeblink, we were faced with Scion again. He was in pitched battle with three of the Endbringers, with Eidolon and Glaistig Uaine running backup. That's where I belong, fighting alongside the most powerful human beings in the world. I flew forward to join the battle.
The wolf-Endbringer disappeared, but with Victoria and the Psychopomp's powers to guide me, I could see the path it took as it carved deep wounds into Scion. It reminded me a great deal of Black Kaze's power. I dropped the Ferryman's power, to conserve my strength. The Psychopomp teleported near Scion, hitting him with the full brunt of the pain inflicting power, bolstered by my augmentation. Scion staggered, then lashed out. The Psychopomp evaded, a combination of danger sense and teleportation, and hit Scion again.
While he was distracted, a morbidly obese silver Endbringer opened her mouth and a good chunk of Scion's body was reduced to dust. Another semi-female cybernetic Endbringer covered in dragonfly wings and mechanical parts fired a lightning based weapon that caused Scion's head to explode. An eyeblink later, he looked flawless and unharmed yet again. Psychopomp appeared to be having more effect. Why would Scion allow himself to do experience pain? Seems like an intentional design flaw.
I tapped into other power supplies, sending a stream of energy to join the rest of the firepower being shot at Scion. Turned out he was already immune to that attack, so I changed tactics. Ghostly duplicates of myself manifested nearby. Ten of them, each birthing a new layer of power enhancement aura. Moments later there were fifteen of them. Eighteen. Twenty. That was the limit to what I could achieve. In total effectively doubling all of my powers. I pushed as much of duplicated power into Psychopomp as I could, and briefly tapped Janus to teleport next to the Fairy Queen, herself.
She recognized my plan for what it was, immediately. One of her current ghosts, the Astrologer, vanished. In its place, a second iteration of the Psychopomp, inflicting the same agony attack upon Scion. Either alone should would have killed any ordinary person through heart failure. Together, amplified as they were, it distracted Scion enough for the others to really tear into him. A series of missiles came in, courtesy of machine covered Endbringer, splintering Scion's body to pieces that were rapidly consumed by her obese sister.
We're hurting him. We're legitimately hurting him.
"Shunt!" I screamed, vanishing to the other side, along with everyone who reacted in time. The viewer tech went blank, and when it restarted everyone not fast enough to make it across was dead. Scion appeared in our midsts immediately, firing a burst of energy at the ground. The attack itself didn't do much, but the cloud of blinding dust left most of us unable to see. I dived back as Scion targeted me. All my ghost duplicates dived in front of me, shields going up to absorb the damage they could. One after another they were annihilated by the golden energy that kept chasing me as I tried to evade. Then time halted around me.
The beam, only fifteen feet away, was frozen in place. No, not quite frozen, crawling along slowly. I was protected by a pillar of light, somehow. I took advantage of the respite to fly into the air, above the beam. I closed my eyes. "Release powerstim." With a single breath, my exhaustion faded, and I pulled together my forces yet again. Two subjective minutes that couldn't possibly have equalled a full second outside, the light pillar power vanished, and I was restored to normal time. The energy beam curved in the air and returned to chasing me. This time, I was ready for it.
My ghosts lined up, sticking their hands in the way of the beam. The power burned up to their arms, but it gave me the information I needed. I teleported back, away from the beam, and it continued chasing me. Another teleport, and a third. I teleported a few meters in front of Scion. His own energy ray struck him from behind, burning away another massive chunk of his body. It took several seconds for him to fully regenerate. I hoped that meant it did a lot more damage than it looked like, visually. Those energy attacks could hurt things that weren't actually there, like the summons I was using. Maybe Scion didn't bother to defend against powers only he could use.
Scion lashed out, a thousand streaming beams of energy firing in every possible direction, too many to count, let alone evade. Like trying to dodge all the individual raindrops in the middle of a hurricane. Chunks were cut out of my armor, burned away from my flesh. Time reversed for me, and I restored to physical health only to be carved open again and again and again. Pieces ripped from my flesh, returned as if nothing happened, and then ripped free again.
Around me, those far enough away to shunt in time did so, and those too close to react either died, or were made of sterner stuff than most. I focused on them so I didn't have to think about the pain I was going through as I suffered being destroyed and restored over and over again. How easy it would be to instruct the Conservator to retract his power, to allow myself to actually die. Khepri's monsters couldn't get close enough to help, no one could.
He didn't seem like he would ever stop.
A hulking silver brute broke through the haze of laser light where even Endbringers feared to tread, digging into Scion's flesh with claws of silver. His wings were wreathed in fires hot enough to burn even Scion. Scion struck back with equal fury, ripping off the dragon-man's arm. I focused, though the haze of pain, sending my spirits to just barely be in range of the silver dragon. He roared in primal fury as he grew even larger, his limb regenerating in mere moments.
The wings sprouted scythe like talons that impaled Scion. Scion retaliating by punching a hand into the dragon's chest and raking his arm through his torso, spilling gallons of viscera and liquid fire. But it was enough to distract Scion from continuing the lasers that had killed me countless times already. I wasn't sure how I survived the lack of pain.
I tapped Victoria's power, asking how to fight the Dragon. Calming him or making him tire, that was the key. Powers fueled by anger and the difficulty of battle? Well, it doesn't get much more difficult. And if he needs to be pissed to fight, I can do that. The Psychopomp moved in as close as was possible, hitting the dragon with its rage-induction-power. While my duplicates radiated power augmenting to both the dragon and the Psychopomp.
We were forced back as the flames kicked up into an inferno hot enough that it burned me from over a hundred meters away. Hot enough that even my summons were in danger of being destroyed.
The pair fought on, seen only by Victoria's life sense. It didn't work on Scion, but I could make assumptions based upon the flesh being torn out of the dragon, that the fight continued no less brutally than before. They spiraled to the ground, which started to melt before the pair even collided with the earth. But I already knew the dragon was losing. Scion had adapted, he didn't feel the heat and he was probably not being harmed by the physical attacks either. The dragon was another story, his rage continuing but his power diminishing. He would not survive this encounter. Another spirit for Glaistig Uaine, and by extension myself, to claim.
I ran through the list of other powers I was able to access, and found the pair needed to save him. The Charioteer's summon wrapped her arms around me, granting me invulnerability and a field that would annihilate anything I wanted. The Psychopomp reshaped matter from one of the destroyed Dragon armors, handing me a massive hammer of Tinkertech materials. And, last, the blood of one of the most powerful brutes in the world that could actually work with my powers, a birdcage resident known as Gavel, enhanced my strength even further.
I dived into the inferno, tracking where Scion should be by simple virtue of being the only place that wasn't the dragon and wasn't plasma or molten earth. Even with both Gavel and the Charioteer empowering me and shielding my armor, I felt the burning heat. Scion was slammed sideways, at speeds several times the speed of sound.
I gripped the dragon, and felt my hand burn as I pulled him out of the liquid fire he had created, and threw him clear. I went up moments later. The dragon man's flames dimmed quickly, and he started to return to humanoid form. He was unconscious moments after hitting the ground. I didn't know his name, I couldn't know how much good he did for us, but he saved my life and I saved his. One small victory, amongst all the dead.
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A/N- Three chapters left.
Why would credit matter? They want a kid? They get a kid. No different from adopting, which is what same-sex couples do in the real world when society allows them to get away with it.
