sigelphoenix

Title: When the World Stops Turning
Characters: Sae and everyone else
Warmakers Adventure: 26
Word Count: ~1900
Summary: The Guardians fight the final battle together.
Notes: Title comes from "At the Beginning" by Donna Lewis and Richard Marx. Dorky, but I couldn't resist.

From the moment Sae steps through the portal opened by the Mother of All Dragons, she is not alone. She has her sister beside her, of course, and Khag and Subaru at her back. Behind them rises an army hundreds strong, filled with people from all over Earth and M-Tor who are ready to invade Hell itself in order to defeat the devil threat to their planets. But also with them, distant or invisible, are the hopes of multiple planets, championed by the Guardians of Gaia Earth, who each go to complete their necessary tasks in order to secure victory against the devils.

It's strange to charge into combat without Gunnar beside her. Their practiced battle plan - he targets those enemies with strength on their side, while she uses her speed against those whose threat is in their numbers - has become an ingrained response. Sae has to remember that, this time, she is taking the lead in physical combat and carries the responsibility of neutralizing the largest threats herself.

But Gunnar's influence on her is still present in this battle, imprinted in her very flesh: in the skills and reflexes of her body, honed upon his during their training; in the combat styles she learned from him, through long instruction and repeated practice. Sae can almost feel him now, the muscles of his body that have guided and tested hers, the sound of his voice that has explained new techniques for her to wield. She calls upon one of those techniques now, lengthening the reach of her strikes, so that her scimitars move like scythes through grain, clearing wave upon wave of goblin and undead infantry.

The infantry are mere cannon fodder; behind them comes the Emporer Gor'thoklek himself, a pit fiend who rises above the soldiers with great beats of his leathery, bat-like wings. He unleashes an inferno upon the twins and their lieutenants, but they shrug it off, shielded by Reika's magic. Reika herself takes to the air, unfurling wings like those of an angel that counter the devil's, and answers his magical assault with one of her own.

Sae runs forward to meet the Emperor head-on, and feels Reika's magic continue to flow from behind her, the energy joining her blade to strike together at him. This will not be like Marseilles, when the Guardians teamed up on the pit fiend who attacked their castle, and Rex brought it down with his psionic powers. This time, there are just two Guardians to meet the devil.

As if summoned by the thought, a voice sounds in Sae's head, making her scimitars falter. She swears it sounds like Rex, whispering something like, "Come out and plaaaay ..."

Could this be some devil mind-trick? she thinks, and shakes her head to clear it, bringing her focus back to Gor'thoklek.

Between Sae's swords and Reika's spells, that Emperor is dead within seconds. The sight of his body dropping from the sky is so reminiscent of what happened in Marseilles that Sae wonders for a moment if that wasn't really Rex she heard, after all. Regardless, Sae hopes he and Kyoko are doing all right in the kirin compound.

She takes a moment to take stock of their forces. Subaru is taking on the last remaining major threat, an ice devil who has already downed some of their soldiers. Khag's khar war claws are visible as flashes of silver as they tear through some devil troops, but the bulk of his attention goes toward yelling orders, organizing the khar and human army into stronger defensive positions. The next wave of devils who attempt to attack them is rebuffed.

Sae gives a silent thanks to her lieutenant, and is about to turn to Reika to consult on their next move when she feels a lurch in her stomach, as if the ground beneath her was not there for an instant. Almost as if reality itself had shifted.

She laughs under her breath. The Sorceror must have succeeded in his task. The knowledge gives her an extra boost, as Reika takes her hand and pulls her into the air. Sae has no wings like her sister, but Reika's magic lets her fly beside her twin.

Reika is directing Subaru and Khag to hold the devil army back while the twins and a small, mobile force of soldiers fly to the castle with their trumpets: the trigger to release the Celestials from their contract, and hopefully the last factor needed to win the war.

In the meantime, Sae hears another voice in her head - for real this time - as Nariko cheerfully informs them that Asmodeus is about to crash their party.

The knowledge is startling, but the sound of Nariko's voice is comforting, assuring Sae that she and Miya must be all right. She has a strange three-way conversation with Nariko and Reika during their flight, sharing information and coordinating plans, as the obsidian shards that make up the castle loom larger and larger before them.

"Oh, and here," Nariko adds at the end, and suddenly Sae feels a rush of holy energy close around her body like invisible armor, and Nariko's voice disappears, just as they enter the unholy castle and find Asmodeus himself on the throne.

The lord of Hell is an eerily human-looking devil, with the face and features of a man, contrasted with starkly inhuman horns and blood-colored skin. He rests his chin on a fist, the other hand holding a ruby-colored rod that rests in his lap. Though Sae and Reika are invisible, he seems to see them anyway, and smirks. "So there are more of you," he comments casually, and raises his weapon, pointing it straight at them.

The lord of Hell opens with a magical assault. Reika engages immediately, drawing his power to herself and easily deflecting most of it, and keeping it entirely off of Sae and their soldiers. She can protect them all, as Sae cannot.

At least, not directly.

Be invincible.

"Asmodeus!" Her voice echoes throughout the throne room, filled with all the fury and old fears she has felt over the past year towards this threat to her world. Casting off her magical invisibility for a moment, she points her scimitar at him, staring down the curve of Cyrus the Great's blade, the holy crystal from Father Raballo at the base of the hilt, and the chrysanthemum symbol on the crossbar that marks the sword as her own. She stands before him - a Japanese schoolgirl, an angry catgirl, a champion of her Gaia - and yells her challenge.

"I am Gaia Earth's Conqueror, and I am here to take your kingdom!"

Asmodeus sneers. Sae charges him.

Boosted by magic and her own inhuman speed, she reaches the throne in less than a second. But as soon as she gets within range of Asmodeus, she stops short as if she hit a brick wall. The barrier is purely mental - an overwhelming compulsion lay down her weapons and kneel before the devil lord.

For one instant, her swords droop and her knees buckle. But only for one instant. I am the sister of Yanagisawa Reika, she thinks. You can't control me. With a feral scream of defiance, she straightens and launches herself at Asmodeus.

Asmodeus remains seated in his obsidian throne; his eyes, the color of dried blood, slide up lazily to look at her. He raises his dark ruby rod to deflect her blows, smug in his ability to dodge her. But I am Yanagisawa Mizuki's daughter, Sae thinks, and I am an inexorable force. Her blades dart around his defenses, cutting into his flesh and marring his immaculate appearance.

And - She twists her scimitar a little extra, changing the simple slashes into a carving of her name upon the very flesh of the lord of Hell. I'm Yanagisawa Otonashi's daughter too!

Asmodeus' composed expression breaks, and there is real anger in his eyes when he retaliates. He strikes her with the rod, so fast that he lands two solid blows, one after the other across her head. Sae stumbles back, blood pouring into her eyes. Father Raballo's magic kicks in then, sealing up the worst of her wounds and allowing her to catch her breath, even as she sees Reika's holy power rain down upon Asmodeus, preventing him from pressing his advantage.

But she is still reeling when the devil raises his weapon again, this time for a magical assault. She only has time to see a flash of red light, and feel the layers of magical protection that cover her like a blanket begin to shiver, as if a hard wind is blowing on them. Then she feels a surge of energy that she recognizes instinctively as coming from Reika, and the light is gone.

Asmodeus' face twists in fury at being thwarted, and Sae sees his eyes focus past her, upon her sister. She will make him regret that mistake.

"Don't look away from me," she snarls, bounding forward again. As she moves, she uses her thumb to flick open the capsule Gunnar had made for her scimitar, coating the blade in silver; it will last only seconds, but she holds to the hope that she will only need seconds. Nariko and Miya have harried this prey until he went to ground, Reika has crippled him with her celestial power, and now Sae will end him.

But weariness and blood loss take their toll, and she grits her teeth against weakness. A little more, a little more, a little more, she chants in her head as she pushes forward and raises her scimitar to strike. Asmodeus turns back to her, and she fears she is too slow -

"Come, child, you can do better than that!" sounds a voice in her head, and she barely has time to register that it's Father Raballo's before a new burst of energy flows into her muscles, pushing her overtaxed flesh to one last mighty effort.

She screams as the strain makes every limb burn, and her lungs feel fit to burst; her scream is met by Asmodeus' battle cry, as he raises his weapon against her. But he is too slow, and it seems he can only manage one swing for every two of hers. For every blow he manages to block with his ruby rod, new wounds sprout on his arms and torso, spattering Sae with dark blood. She tears into him savagely, turning her hands red and staining her face with his blood, unrelenting in her frenzy until Asmodeus slumps in his throne, the rod clattering to the floor.

Her first coherent thought is, Is it over? All of it - this battle, the devil invasion, the threat to their reality that has dictated the course of their lives for over a year.

Not quite. "May I have one of your scimitars?" Reika asks, and then, when Sae has handed her weapon over, uses it to decapitate the lord of Hell.

Their teammates arrive then. Nariko, Miya, Rex, Kyoko, and Ichiro emerge from an interplanar portal, grinning with the news of their victories. They look somewhat battered, but whole, and happy to meet the twins. Sae waits for one more, still, but the assured safety of these five gives her relief. If needed, they can join Gunnar against the Mother of All Dragons together.

But for now, Sae raises her trumpet, a gesture that matches that of her sister, their soldiers, and the other Guardians. Together, they blow a loud, unpolished, demanding note that calls back the long-absent Celestials, that says, Return to our world. That says, We'll let you.