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Nier Automata (Re)Birth Chapter 63
🕑 Added 2024-03-20 17:00:05 +0000 UTCChapter 63: Dragonslayer
Alexander strode through the halls of the Bunker, androids hurrying around as they completed their tasks. It had been several days since Osaka had fallen, and the soldiers who’d escaped had joined the growing army protecting New Babylon. Bunkers, trenches, and enormous weapon emplacements kept the city safe, but Alexander was worried that it wouldn’t be enough.
Three thousand elite android soldiers were guarding the Bunker itself, and tens of thousands more were guarding the city and its surrounding territory, but that was just a drop in the bucket compared to the millions of Neo-Machines approaching.
Kyoto, Aomori, Sendai, and more had all fallen. All that was left were the defenses in Chiba, Saitama, Yokohama, Kawasaki, and Tokyo. Those five cities along with New Babylon and the Bunker were all that was left in Japan under the Terran Army’s control. If any one of them fell, then Purple Athena would have a direct shot towards New Babylon.
‘And that’s why we need White!’ Alex thought to himself. ‘Without her, we won’t survive the coming siege.’
It was no joke to say that the commander of YoRHa had kept the Terran Army in one piece, preventing regional commanders from taking their own actions that might have stretched the resources they had too thin. Her coordination was key to success for multiple theatres, and her tactical brilliance had turned the tide on countless battlefields.
Yet for the last few minutes, White was nowhere to be found! She’d been issuing orders in the command center of the Bunker when she’d suddenly frozen mid-sentence and then a few seconds later, fled!
‘I wonder what exactly happened?’ Alexander wondered. ‘According to one of the O-types, White received a message from somewhere, and just ran straight for her room after reading it! I’ve never seen her act like that!’
Alexander had been contacted by 6O shortly afterwards, asking him to track White down. The other O-types could run things well enough without her, but it was worrying to have their boss just leave like without a word.
As he was thinking this, he came to a stop in front of an elevator, pondering about his next destination. ‘If I was White, where would I go?’
The obvious answer was the commander center, since White was almost always there, but since she’d left that area, there weren’t many others to go looking for her at.
After thinking it over, Alexander stepped into the elevator and entered his credentials into the panel beside the door before pressing a button. There was a click and then the elevator took him to the top floor of the Bunker, where White’s personal quarters were located. That was the only place the human could think of where White would have retreated for privacy.
The hallway was empty as he stepped out of the elevator, and Alexander felt a shiver run down his spine. The only ones who lived in this area were the E-types and the commander, and ever since the war began, the former had been busy all over the frontlines along with the rest of YoRHa, keeping the enemy at bay.
Seeing this corridor be so devoid of life was unsettling, but he steeled his nerves and headed for White’s room, which he knew from the times he’d visited it to see Cleopatra.
He found White’s room easily enough, but to Alexander’s surprise, the door to her quarters were open, allowing him to peek inside. What he saw worried him.
White was hunched over on her bed, staring at a picture of Cleopatra on the wall with a look Alexander was all too familiar with recently. It was grief, and it was such a strange look to see on her that Alexander almost wondered if perhaps he’d stumbled onto somebody else by accident.
But no, White was unmistakable for anyone else, and after a moment of hesitation – as well as feeling guilty for intruding – Alexander stepped inside her room.
“White? Is everything okay?” he asked. She straightened up and looked at Alexander, surprised to see him at the door.
“I just received words that the Maw has fallen,” the Commander of YoRHa informed the Last Human, who stared at her in horror. “Antarctica is under siege. We will not receive any more supplies from there.”
“Oh, shit,” Alex swore in horror, eyes wide in disbelief. Around 60% of all munitions as well as other, more advanced, supplies the Terran Army and YoRHa used were supplied by Antarctica’s factories! If it had fallen, then the androids all over the world would struggle to fend off Purple Athena’s army!
“A new type of Neo-Machine destroyed the Maw,” White continued grimly, and Alexander listened closely. “I have the data taken from the confrontation with it.”
“That’s… some good news,” Alex said slowly.
“General Noir managed to destroy eleven out of twelve of them,” White said. “He did not make it.”
“Oh,” Alexander muttered. He’d never met the commander of the frozen continent before, but he did know Noir and White were connected somehow. Something about being built together? Or for the same purpose? That practically made them siblings as far as androids were concerned, and to hear that he’d fallen… Alexander now understood White’s reaction.
“I need to show this data to the Operators,” White said after a moment, standing up from the bed. “We need to be prepared for this new type of weapon.”
“Good idea,” Alexander agreed. “Come on, we can return together.”
White nodded her head in gratitude, and the pair of them left her room and returned to the command center. Their jobs were far from done, and the Terran Army needed both of them. It was time to prepare for Purple Athena’s next scheme.
&&&&&
Several days later, and the two Neo-Machine armies had gotten closer. They were within extreme range of the Terran Army’s artillery, but for the moment, they were content to hunker down and just wait, encircling the city.
There was something off about the way the Neo-Machines were acting, but he couldn’t put his finger on just what it was.
“What are they doing?” he asked, staring at the screens that gave an aerial view of the encroaching armies.
“Purple Athena has given the order to besiege us, so that’s what they’re going to do,” White informed him. “New Babylon… is no longer safe.”
“But the evacuation of the children and mothers is only halfway completed!” Alexander exclaimed in horror, turning to stare at White.
“I’ve given the order to relocate the remaining humans to an underground bunker beneath the city,” White said. “It will… it will keep them safe enough while we weather the siege.”
From the hesitation in her voice, Alex knew that this was a last resort, but what other choice was there? The Neo-Machines had broken through at Osaka and Aomori, and at that very moment were moving across the country in a two-pronged pincer movement towards Tokyo and New Babylon.
Bombing runs and a couple of orbital laser strikes had slowed the hordes down, but only barely, and the Neo-Machines were rapidly approaching the last lines of defense. At the pace they were going, Purple Athena’s armies would reach them by the end of the week.
‘And now that they’ve gotten close enough, they’ll be able to shoot down any rockets taking people to the Lunar Base!’ Alexander thought to himself with a grimace. A few more babies and mothers could be sent up, but not nearly enough to get all of them out of danger in the time they had left. They were trapped.
With a frustrated groan, Alexander ran a hand over his face. He wanted to be able to do something, but couldn’t. What was one human able to do in the face of such odds?
His attention soon drifted towards a different screen, and a new worry filled the young man. Gear Town was caught between New Babylon and Purple Athena’s armies, and the Machine Lifeforms were hunkering down, terrified. Worse, Blue and Pascal were still there, refusing to leave their fellow Machines behind to face the wrath of the mad goddess.
Evacuating the Machines had been low on the list of priorities for the Terran Army, even if the androids were allied with them, and they hadn’t been able to do much, other than take a couple hundred of the more childish and innocent Machines for safekeeping.
And now, it was too late. The Neo-Machines had suddenly begun moving faster than expected and trying to rescue the ones still stuck in Gear Town just wasn’t feasible anymore. Not with Antarctica also under siege and the precious supplies it usually provided unavailable.
However, as he was idly glancing over the screens, not really paying attention, something caught his attention.
“What the…?” he muttered, squinting in confusion as one of the screens was showing something rapidly approaching Gear Town. It was an old, primitive sonar-type detection array. Incredibly out of date compared to the newer stuff, but it still worked, and provided data.
A quick glance at the other scanners revealed that they weren’t picking up anything. Only the older sonar array seemed to have detected the blip headed towards the Machine settlement.
“White, what is that?” Alexander asked, pointing towards the holographic display in question.
Curious as to what he was talking about, White turned to look at the screen, only to frown.
“I don’t know,” she admitted. With a flick of her wrist, several more screens connected to the Bunker’s scanners popped up, and she began to examine the anomaly. “It’s not appearing on any of our other detection modules.”
White glanced over her shoulder towards the O-types. “Operators! Find out what’s happening!”
They scrambled to obey, analyzing the data as the blip continued to get closer to Gear Town. The tension in the air grew thicker, until it all felt hard to breath.
“Commander!” 55O called out after a moment. “The unknown flying object is using some sort of advanced cloaking system that is allowing it to bypass all of our modern technology!”
“How?” White demanded furiously.
“It appears to be a combination of Maso shielding and a complex electronics warfare suite,” 55O replied.
“Why is the primitive radar able to detect it, though?” Alexander wondered.
“Unknown at the moment, we will investigate this matter!” 55O assured the human.
“Well, now that you know where it is, direct the cameras towards it,” White declared. “I want to see what dares to enter our airspace unannounced!”
The Operators hurriedly began to work on that task, which was considerably easier. Directing the cameras that littered New Babylon and its surroundings to look towards the intruder, the Bunker soon had a clear view of what was trying to reach Gear Town with all haste.
“I-is that a dragon?” Alexander stammered, staring at the holographic image on display in disbelief as the screens shifted to show what the cameras had picked up.
“Yes,” White said simply. “It’s also the only survivor of the assault on the Maw.”
Alexander winced, instantly understanding why White’s grip had tightened around her weapon upon seeing it.
“I guess that explains how it and the others were able to sneak up on the Maw without the sensors picking them up,” Alexander hesitantly suggested. “It’s stealth system was too powerful.”
The Maw always upgraded its defenses and security with the latest technology, so it wasn’t a surprise that older systems had fallen to the wayside. Heck, even the Bunker almost missed it!
‘But why is the dragon headed towards where Blue and Pascal are located?’ Alexander couldn’t help but wonder. It didn’t make any sense. The rest of the Neo-Machines were keeping their distance, so why was this one unit going out of its way to do this?
“It’s going to destroy Gear Town!” Alexander exclaimed in horror a moment later as he realized why the dragon would be approaching the Machine settlement. He spun to face White. “We have to save them!”
“We cannot,” White replied.
“What?! Why not?!” Alex demanded.
“If we move any soldiers to intercept it, it will allow Purple Athena to encircle them and cut them off before they’re able to destroy the Machine Dragon,” White explained.
“But we have to destroy the Machine Dragon! We have to save Gear Town!” Alexander shouted. Then, an idea struck him. “If we leave it alone, it will only come after us, here. And if its companions were able to destroy the Maw, this lone dragon will be more than able to devastate our defenses here, and allow the Neo-Machines to invade the city!”
Alexander then jabbed a finger at the monstrous weapon about to attack their allies. “But if we destroy it now, then it would halt all of Purple Athenas plans! And if nothing else, we’d have eliminated a major threat to the city!”
“My answer is still no,” White said firmly. “We cannot send any forces to aide the Machines. Nor can we spare any. Gear Town will have to fend for itself.”
“No!” Alex exclaimed. “They’ll die if you do that!”
“My decision is final,” the commander said sharply, and Alexander puffed up, about to start shouting and pleading, when the doors to the command center opened up, revealing A2. She went unnoticed by White and Alexander as they stared each other down, but the rest of the room did spot her entrance, causing whispers to spread.
“Interesting conversation going on in here. Looks like I chose the perfect time to stop by,” A2 drawled, and Alexander and White both spun around to see the A-type leap off and land on the floor of the command center in front of the duo.
“Send me,” A2 ordered. “I can take care of it. And Alexander is right, we have to take that thing down before it can cause chaos for our forces.”
“How did you hear about this matter in the first place?” White asked, annoyed by the A-type’s presence.
“I like to keep an ear open around here,” A2 replied, giving a vague non-answer that had White scowling and muttering about upgrading security.
“What do you say, White?” A2 asked, folding her arms as she gave YoRHa’s commander a stern look. “Whatcha gonna do?”
“If it is only you,” White said after a moment, looking as if the very thought of agreeing to this pained her. “Then I’ll allow it.”
“Bitchin’,” A2 smirked. “This will be fun!”
“I’m coming with you, mom,” Alexander declared abruptly, stepping forward.
“Absolutely not!” White exclaimed, turning to him in disbelief. A2, however, simply stared at her son for a moment, before nodding her head.
“Alright. You’re gonna take your guards with you, and you’ll all follow my orders,” A2 said, and Alex pumped a fist while White stared at A2 in disbelief.
“What are you doing, A2?!” White demanded.
“He wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer,” A2 shrugged in response. “He wants to save his girlfriend and he’d find a way to do so one way or another. So, yeah, better to just say ‘yes’ and make sure somebody is watching his back instead of him sneaking out.”
“Blue’s not my girlfriend!” Alexander yelped, causing A2 to smirk.
“I never mentioned her,” she teased, and the Last Human huffed and turned away, refusing to meet his mother’s eyes.
“I won’t allow this!” White hissed.
“You don’t have a choice,” A2 replied. White trembled in fury, but A2 just stared at her, daring White to deny her son his desire.
And to everyone else’s shock, after a moment of intense glaring, White slumped, defeated.
“Fine,” she growled. “Do what you want!”
She then turned away and returned her attention to the screens. Alexander and A2 shared a look with each other, before hurrying off to get geared up for the mission.
&&&&&
“This is crazy,” 7E muttered to herself as she flew alongside A2, Alexander, and 23E towards Gear Town. Each of them were strapped into a flight unit, engines pushing them through the sky in the wake of the Machine Dragon.
“This is what Sir Alexander wants,” 23E replied simply.
“That’s what makes it even worse!” 7E whined. “He’s the Last Human! He shouldn’t be risking his life for mere Machines!”
23E didn’t saying anything, giving no sign that she agreed or not with her fellow E-type, causing 7E to huff in frustration.
“This is going to end poorly,” the twin-tailed Executioner muttered. “Mark my words!”
“Of course it will end poorly,” 23E agreed. “However, Sir Alexander is correct that leaving the Neo-Machine to do as it pleases is foolhardy and will only cause the Bunker and New Babylon problems in the future.”
7E grumbled at that, but couldn’t deny it, either. Meanwhile, A2 and Alexander were flying side by side as they hurried towards the settlement. Both were tense and silent, laser-focused on their mission to get to Gear Town ASAP before the dragon could.
Unfortunately, that was not to be the case, as the forest soon came into view, but so too did the mechanical dragon. It hovered in the air over the forest, a shiny and grim specter, and it opened its mouth. A roar, followed by a massive laser, rang out from the dragon, the latter tearing through several of the giant tree houses and setting a chunk of the forest on fire.
“Shit! We’re too late, it’s already starting!” Alexander growled, glaring at the draconic Neo-Machine as it began to attack Gear Town.
The Machines living below tried to fight back, but they were old models, and the dragon was simply too large and powerful. Its shields absorbed the attacks, and what few managed to slip through hardly even scratched the metallic scales.
“Open fire!” A2 shouted, and added a barrage of missiles into the firefight, sending a dozen of them towards the dragon. Alexander and his bodyguards joined in as well, and the missiles exploded across its body, distracting it from burning the town to the ground.
It turned towards them, and opened its mouth upon setting them, letting out a roar of challenge. A2 roared back and led the charge, blasting the dragon with the aerial unit’s laser cannons, the rest of three attacking as well.
Purple lights exploded and flickered and sparked as shields defended it all over, but the overwhelming number of projectiles was whittling the barriers down.
Furthermore, the dragon’s main form of attack, its terrifying laser breath, was surprisingly easy to dodge, as while it was fast, it had a long wind-up time, and there were a lot of tells to alert the fighters.
‘If we were on the ground, it’d be a different story,’ Alexander mused as he swerved to the side, evading another laser blast. ‘But up here with it in the skies, our aerial units are just as fast, if not faster, and more maneuverable.’
“You’re able to handle our regular weapons, it seems,” Alexander muttered. “Well, let’s see how well you can stand up to this!”
He raised a hand, and maso gathered in his palm. But instead of a deadly laser, Alex sent forth a spinning drill that slammed into the dragon’s side, grinding and tearing at its shields.
With a sound like static and breaking glass, the dragon’s barrier was shredded, and the maso drill punched into its side, creating a massive wound in its side. Unfortunately, the barrier flickered back to life a moment later while Purple Athena reached through her connection with the Neo-Machine and repaired the hole, making it impossible to attack the same spot twice for the same effect, but Alexander grinned as he had still managed to hurt it. It could be defeated!
“Nice shot!” A2 said, complimenting her son. Not to be outdone, she charged in, the aerial unit’s beam-saber drawn. A2 landed a flurry of blows upon the dragon’s wings, damaging one, but sadly not enough to destroy it and force it to land.
Roaring as it pulled away, the Neo-Machine dragon raised its head, aiming upwards towards the heavens. From its maw an enormous beam of maso shot upwards, and for a terrible, heart-stopping moment Alexander feared it had been aiming at the moon. Thankfully, the beam did not nearly reach that high, barely scraping past lower levels of the mesosphere before stopping.
That brief moment of relief instantly faded as the laser seemed to expand and then branch off into numerous smaller forms.
Observed from orbit, it looked as if a massive and spectral purple spider lily had bloomed to life above the Earth, only for its ‘petals’ to break off and come rushing back down to earth my unholy meteors of light and maso.
Without waiting to see what happened, A2 grabbed her son’s arm and dragged his closer towards the dragon.
While this may have seemed paradoxical, as normally one wouldn’t want to get close to the giant Neo-Machine, the incoming rain of lasers was carefully aimed by the dragon to avoid it. Thus, being closer to the enemy was actually the safest place to avoid the wide-area attack.
7E and 23E didn’t catch on as quickly. Both tried to weave between them while raising powerful maso shields around their flight units, but one of the falling laser spears crashed into 7E, shattering her shield in an instant and exploding violently, sending her plummeting down into the forest below, her flight unit ruined and pouring smoke.
23E did not get hit, her speed superior, but the wild dodging she had to do meant she was completely distracted and unable to do anything else while the lasers fell around.
“7E!” Alexander exclaimed in horror, watching the E-type plummet out of the sky.
“Focus!” A2 snapped as she continued dragging him along. Forced to look away in order to deal with fending off the dragon’s claws and tail now that they were up close, Alexander nodded and drew his blade.
He had thought long and hard about what sort of weapon he wanted to use, and while he liked the weapons used by YoRHa, he found he preferred European style long and straight swords.
With a flourish, Alexander presented to the world the sword known as Hope. It was a hand a half style long sword with a bright silver blade made from the finest nano-composite materials available, with a golden hilt and guard. Embedded in the pommel was a diamond, laser-etched by POD 42 and enchanted by Emil to act as a focus for maso.
Blazing white energy erupted around the blade of his sword as Alexander channeled his power through the weapon, and he raised it at the dragon.
“Come on, beast of Purple Athena! Face me, if you dare!” he shouted in challenge, and the dragon’s eyes flashed purple. It didn’t hesitate to lunge forward, jaws open to try and bite him, but Alexander jinked to the side and brought his sword down, slashing Hope across its face.
His empowered blade carved a deep grove through its head, bypassing the maso shields on the dragon and destroying its left eye in the process. Even though the damage was repaired a moment later by a burst of maso courtesy of Purple Athena, the dragon still started to thrash around furiously, forcing Alexander to retreat.
Yet while he moved back, A2 dove in, Faith striking the dragon’s extended neck. It failed to cut deep, leaving behind only a centimeter wide cut, the barriers still strong enough to turn aside her weapon, but a scratch was a scratch. If nothing else, death by a hundred cuts was still death.
“I’ll kill you!” 23E screamed, hurtling towards the dragon, her scythe raised to try and avenge 7E while also firing off a bunch of missiles at point blank range.
Her mad attack seemed to work, as 23E managed to deal a devastating blow to the dragon, hacking off its right leg when the missiles temporarily broke its maso barrier, and Alexander noticed that unlike last time, the limb did not, in fact grow back, nor did it instantly reattach. Instead, it dropped out of the sky like, well, a piece of scrap metal. Why?
‘Could it have something to do with the fact it was separated from the body entirely?’ Alexander wondered. ‘We’ve seen other Neo-Machines pull themselves back together after being dismembered, though. Perhaps the limb was simply too far away from the body? Could that be it? Is distance a factor to the healing ability Purple Athena can grant her minions?’
Watching the dragon chase after 23E, Alexander studied its movements while taking close note of anything else that might lead to him finding a way to kill it. ‘It uses the grav-units within its wings to hover and fly,’ he noted. ‘And it’s fast in a straight line but has trouble turning.’
As he observed the dragon twist out of the way of his mother’s sword strike, he saw for a brief moment the way its back was exposed, and then when 23E came back around with her scythe, the shields vanished for a second before returning.
‘The shields aren’t regenerating as fast as before,’ Alex noted. ‘Odd. Is it running low on power?’
A reckless idea popped into his head, but it was the only opening he’d seen so far. Not wasting another second, Alexander shot forward, weaving around the lasers until he came within arm’s length of the Neo-Machine.
First, he sent a hail of maso bullets from his aerial unit, the barriers screaming before shattering, and Hope letting out a keening wail as the maso-enhanced weapon bit into the dragon’s right wing. The Last Human’s weapon tore into metal and ceramic, ripping through it and cutting the wing completely away.
Without the grav-units contained in the limb the dragon was no longer able to stay aloft, and it tumbled down from the sky, crashing into the forest. Yet as it fell, the dragon’s tail lashed out, striking the engines of Alexander’s aerial unit.
“ALEX!” A2 screamed in terror as she saw him fall with the dragon.
Although momentarily worried, he remembered ‘Wait, I have magic!’ and called upon the vast reserves of maso inside of his soul. Alexander surrounded himself in a gravity bubble, vastly slowing his descent and allowing him to land safely within the outskirts of Gear Tear.
“That… was too close,” he panted as he unstrapped himself from the flight unit. Stepping away, he gave it a once over with a critical eye. “Hmm… doesn’t look too badly damaged. Only the engines are busted. A T-type should be able to patch it up in an hour or so.”
Satisfied, Alexander looked around, taking in the scenery and trying to figure out where he’d landed. The rain of lasers from earlier had been brief, but the devastation it left behind was utterly horrific, vast swathes of the forest left littered with craters while fires raged throughout.
He currently stood in one of these holes, sweating a bit from the blaze surrounding the edge of the crater.
“Got to find Blue… and Pascal and the others!” Alexander said, hyping himself up. “Come on, let’s go!”
He floated out of the crater with a quick little spell, and then created a defensive barrier around himself to keep the flames and heat from reaching him. With that, he strode into the woods, heading towards Gear Town.
As he advanced through the burning forest, the sound of crashes and explosions put Alexander on edge, causing him to nervously look around.
‘It’s just the sound of trees crackling and popping,’ he told himself. ‘Ignore it!’
What was harder to ignore were the other noises. Screams and roars shook the branches surrounding him, sending ash and leaves fluttering to the forest floor. The dragon was still alive, not that he’d expected the fall to actually take it out. And it was still trying to attack the Machines in Gear Town based on the terrified exclamations he could hear.
It wasn’t long before the Last Human reached the entrance to Pascal’s settlement, and his heart dropped. The place was devastated. The Neo-Machine had bombarded it for a whole minute unopposed, and left it in ruins. Several Machines lay amongst the debris, partially melted or out-right charred into unrecognizable masses of twisted, molten scrap.
There was some good news, however. Plenty of Machines had survived, and were desperately trying to put out the flames with bucket chains and water-spewing hoses and pipes. Sadly, their efforts would likely end up being futile. The forest was going to burn down completely, and Gear Town would join it in the ashes.
“Pascal!” Alexander exclaimed, spotting a familiar Machine directing the flow of workers.
“Alexander?” Pascal uttered in surprise upon turning to see who had called out to them.
“Yes, it’s me!” he said. “I came here to help as soon as we discovered the dragon coming for your town!”
“Thank you,” Pascal said, putting a hand over her chest.
“Pascal, you have to order an evacuation,” Alexander urged, glancing around at the devastation. “Gear Town… it’s gone.”
“I-I cannot,” Pascal replied, shaking her head. “I won’t leave! Not while I can still save it!”
“Save it? Pascal, there’s barely anything left!” Alexander cried, waving a hand at the fire that was consuming everything. “You need to take everyone who’s left and leave! Head to New Babylon and join us there!”
“I was forced to abandon my home once before,” Pascal said softly. “Never again.”
“You don’t have a choice!” Alexander exclaimed. “The forest is going to be burnt down and take everyone with it!”
“Then I will burn, too!” Pascal shouted, and Alexander took a step back in shock.
“Y-you don’t mean that, right?” Alexander begged. “Who is going to lead the Machines without you? Cleaver? Blue?”
“They wouldn’t do a bad job of it,” Pascal replied, turning away from the human. Then, after a pause that lingered far too long for Alexander’s liking, she said, “I will tell the others to evacuate.”
“Thank you,” Alexander said, letting out a sigh of relief.
“Please, find Blue,” Pascal urged, before turning away and walking off to spread the word. Alexander nodded and sprinted off into the depth of the town, moving through the streets with a purpose.
“Blue! Blue! Where are you?!” he called out, his voice distorted by the crackling blaze that surrounded him.
While rushing through the town, he spotted a familiar flash of blue, almost invisible amidst the smoke. He immediately changed direction, heading for his friend without hesitation.
“Blue!” Alexander exclaimed in relief, spotting the ribbon-wearing Machine. There was even her tiny pet dragon, Olive, fluttering around her head.
She turned to him and waved a hand cheerfully as he approached, seemingly uncaring of the blaze that was consuming her home.
And, now that he was closer, it seemed that the forest-green dragon Blue had adopted wasn’t flying around her. No, it was attacking her, repeatedly ramming into and clawing at her head with great gusto!
“Alexander!” Blue called out brightly. “How are you?”
“Blue? What is… what’s going on?” Alexander asked, confused and a little unnerved by her response.
“I am doing well! And I am so happy to see you again, Alexander!” Blue declared. Olive hissed furiously at her and kept trying to hurt her.
“Shoo! Go away!” Blue said disdainfully, smacking the dragon aside when it tried to bite her again. It tumbled across the dirt, though the blow hadn’t been that debilitating, and Olive recovered quickly, climbing up onto Alexander and coming to rest on his shoulder, his distaste of the human put aside for the moment.
“You’re not Blue,” Alexander realized with mounting horror.
“What do you mean, Alexander?” ‘Blue’ asked curiously, tilting her head to the side. “Of course I’m Blue!”
“No, you’re not!” Alexander shouted, Olive hissing angrily in agreement. Then, it hit him, and he pointed an accusing finger towards her. “You… you’re Purple Athena!”
Blue’s arm fell to her side, and she twitched as if experiencing a seizure before her eyes flickered and started to glow purple.
“How did you know?” ‘Blue’ asked, a note of frustration in her tone. “I downloaded her memories and personality perfectly!”
“No you didn’t,” Alexander immediately countered. “Blue would never hurt Olive! And she certainly wouldn’t just stand and watch as her home burnt to the ground around her!”
He then pet Olive on the head, the dragon accepting it stoically. “And it seems the little guy here was able to notice something was off as well. So clearly, you and I have vastly different definitions of ‘perfect.’”
“How cruel,” Purple Athena whispered. “But at least I know you love enough to be able to tell it’s me regardless of how well I’ve tried to hide it.”
“Again with that ‘love,’ stuff,” Alexander groaned. “Athena… no, you know what? Forget it. Just let Blue go. I have other things to do today.”
“Hmm… no, I don’t think I will,” Purple Athena said with a shake of her head.
“Athena!” Alexander growled. He took a step forward, only to freeze in place as the ground started to tremble.
“Seems like it’s already here. Try and stay safe, my beloved,” Blue said, before waving farewell at Alexander. She then vanished in a flash of purple light, disappearing from the street.
“What?! NO!” Alexander shouted in horror, Olive screeching furiously as she escaped, kidnapping Blue’s body in the process.
Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do. He ran forward, trying to trace the spell back to wherever Purple Athena had gone from the spot she’d vanished from, but whatever teleportation spell had been used was unknown to him, and he didn’t have the time to sit there and spend hours scanning it.
As he stood up, fists clenched at his side as he ruminated on his uselessness, Olive began shrieking, and Alexander’s own danger sense began to tingle. Without waiting to find out why he was suddenly feeling the way he did, Alex trusted his instincts and leapt away from the spot. And just in time, too!
One of the massive trees nearby exploded as something big and metallic burst through its trunk, sending burning splinters flying everywhere. A quick shield protected Alexander and Olive from the shrapnel, and he kept running away from the scene. A glance over his shoulder revealed that it was the dragon! It was back!
A second figure blurred through the air, following the dragon and launching a brutal barrage of strikes onto the Neo-Machine. Alexander was just barely able to make out his mother hacking at the dragon, her speed far beyond what he normally saw from her. A2 was also missing her flight unit, although if that was due to it being damaged or if she’d simply discarded it in order to fight the dragon up close and personal, Alexander had no idea.
Neither one seemed to be aware of their surroundings as they clashed, causing immense destruction to the treehouses. A2 and the dragon continued clashing with each other. Due to missing one of its wings, the dragon was forced to fight on the ground, and that was where the A-type excelled, leaping from tree trunks and vaulting over roots and branches to maneuver around the dragon. Every blow she managed to deliver healed thanks to bursts of purple maso, but the energy shields were completely gone now, utterly non-functional.
“Mom!” Alexander exclaimed, seeing her fighting evenly with the dragon. He sometimes forgot A2 was one of the most powerful androids ever built, and had years of experience when it came to fighting seemingly overwhelming odds.
Every strike A2 delivered, every blow she landed, caused the draconic Neo-Machine to weaken. No matter how much maso Purple Athena pumped into her servant, there was only some much stress the materials it was made of could take.
As Alexander watched A2 sever one of the dragon’s legs for the eighth time, the limb did not reconnect when a burst of purple maso arced out from the dragon’s main body, and instead began to crumble to metallic dust, stressed to the point of breaking.
Sensing weakness, A2 jumped into the air, taking advantage of the dragon suddenly stumbling when it tried to walk on its no longer existing leg. A2 unleashed a barrage of shockwave slashes, tearing and peeling away a huge amount of metallic scales that revealed the dragon’s core hidden within its chest. Then, without letting the wounds heal up, A2 kicked off of the air and descended towards the giant Neo-Machine like a silver-haired meteor.
The Machine Dragon let out a terrifying screech as A2 plunged her sword deep into its core, piercing it. She then leapt back as it crumpled to the ground, sending up a cloud of ash and dust as it thudded lifelessly onto the streets of Gear Town.
“Mom!” Alexander shouted, running over to her, Olive still clinging to his shoulders.
“Alex!” A2 exclaimed, relief flooding her as she saw her son standing there unharmed. She moved forward to hug him, but he stopped her, holding up his arm to bar her way forward.
“Not now, mom!” he shouted. “Blue’s been possessed by Purple Athena and kidnapped!”
“WHAT?! How dare she?!” A2 growled, frowning at that. A sense of fury and indignation bubbled up within her. How dare Purple Athena do this?! Attacking the forest and going after somebody she cared about! Pascal and Blue were friends, and to learn that this had all been orchestrated by Purple Athena just to kidnap her son’s girlfriend?! That would not stand!
A rumbling behind her, snapped her back to the present, and she shot a glower over her shoulder at the Machine Dragon as it rose back up, its wounds mending with the unnatural glow of purple maso.
“I pierced it’s damn core! How is it still moving?” she demanded incredulously.
“It’s not repairing itself!” Alexander gasped in horror as he saw the maso start to grow agitated and unstable. “It’s turning itself into a giant bomb!”
He immediately turned to A2. “We have to get out of here! If it blows, it will level the whole forest!”
A2 grimaced. “The dragon destroyed my flight unit,” she revealed.
“We have to find 23E, then!” Alexander said. “Do you know where she is?”
“I don’t know!” A2 replied with a shake of her head. “We lost contact with each other when we were fighting the dragon!”
The amount of maso pouring from the ruptured Neo-Machine core increased abruptly, and it started to twist reality. The dragon’s body disintegrated into silvery dust, leaving the cracked core hovering in mid-air, pulses of maso tearing up the ground and causing the flames to change colors.
“Run!” A2 ordered, and the duo took off, booking it in a desperate attempt to escape the blast.
They were not fast enough, and Alexander could feel the swell of power rising behind them. Without hesitating, he stopped running and spun around, facing the blast while throwing his hands out, white maso of his own pouring forth, forming a large dome-like barrier around the dragon’s core. Of course, an ordinary barrier would not be enough to stop it, so he reached for the most complicated type of magic he could perform: Chronomancy.
White clashed with purple as the core could finally take no more abuse, and detonated. Alexander gasped and fell to his knees from the strain, but his barrier endured. Powerful Time magic surged around him, slowing the explosion from the broken core down to a crawl, until it looked like it was almost frozen in place.
Keeping his hands outstretched towards the trapped explosion, Alexander let out a cry of pain as he tried to contain the expanding wave of destruction within his barrier of altered time. The sheer amount of maso he was channeling burned the flesh of his hands and arms, and he felt something wet start to dribble down his nose, but he kept forcing his own maso energy into the barrier.
“ALEX!” A2 screamed, rushing over to his side when she realized he wasn’t beside her anymore. Olive hissed frantically, worried for the boy.
“I-it’s fine! I-I can do this!” Alexander said, voice wavering.
“Alexander! A2!” Pascal’s scratchy voice called out to them, and the leader of Gear Town appeared from the smoke, riding his little hover-car thing.
“H-hey, Pascal, decided to f-follow my advice?” Alexander said, managing to give the old Machine a weak laugh.
“Grab on!” Pascal urged, holding out a hand as he swooped in towards them, and A2 grabbed her son around the waist and then leapt up, grabbing hold of Pascal’s hand.
The Machine hauled them up to safety inside his vehicle, then pushed the throttle on his ride, shooting forward as fast as it could go away from the contained blast.
“Thank you,” A2 said, her voice heavy with emotions.
Pascal said nothing, only giving her a shallow nod in response, before turning back to stare sorrowfully at the forest and the buildings as it all burned.
A couple moments later, without Alexander to sustain it anymore, the barrier around the broken core failed, and the explosion finally went off, reducing what was left of Gear Town, along with a large chunk of the surrounding forest and part of the amusement park, to a smoldering crater. So many years of hard work, erased in an instant.
The shockwaves tossed the little vehicle around, but after some quick reactions and expert piloting courtesy of Pascal, they recovered, and continued back towards the safety of the Bunker.
In the distance, a silvery tide surged across the land as hundreds of thousands of Neo-Machines that had previously been immobile began to march towards New Babylon.
“So it begins,” A2 muttered, giving a hateful, death-filled glare towards the approaching army, Olive hissing furiously at the Neo-Machines while Alexander nodded weakly.
One way or another, the end of the war was coming. The question was, who would stand as the victor?
