TEARS OF THE NORTHERN WIND
CHAPTER 13
The dragons roared and attacked Nanoha in unison. The Ace was under pressure, having been forced to do everything she could to outwit the dragons while dodging relentless attacks fired from the ground by Halcyon. Armstrong, could not approach her as he, too, was busy fending off Halcyon’s relentless melee attacks.
“If I keep on dodging like this, I won’t be able to finish this now!!” She continued dodging all the attacks the dragons were aiming at. Neither the beast, nor Halcyon, were showing any sign of tiring down, as they kept throwing everything at the Ace.
Finally Nanoha had it enough. “Exceed Mode is not just for show!!” she shouted and called forth the Blaster Booster Bits. “Blaster Three! IKKE!!” The bits combined and formed a funnel-like projection shooter around Raising Heart, and their energy combined with Nanoha’s Linked Core.
“DIVINE... BUSTER!!!”
The overly powerful Divine Buster hit one of the dragons, and a chain reaction followed as Nanoha destroyed the Narulian beasts in row, one dragon after another. The attack dissipated soon afterwards, and all that was left of the dragons were only dust.
Nanoha turned to Halcyon. “...” She reloaded Raising Heart and aimed it at the humanoid. Her eyes were glowing coldly as she glowered at Halcyon. “Enough of your resistance, Halcyon. Stop doing this now.”
Halcyon was appalled. She could not believe the balance of power was shifting away from her. In fury she fired multitudes of Plasma Lancers, Eis Sarg and Reppuken at Nanoha, attacking the ace from every angle she could reach. Nimbly, despite under intense fire, Nanoha dodged all the attacks, counterattacking those he could not outrun with Blaster Bits-aided Accel Shooters.
“Useless!”
Halcyon turned around, and was knocked out of her attacking move as Armstrong kicked her on the chest. He charged Forneus in lightning energy and pounced at the Lost Logia, repelling more and more of the humanoid’s attacks with Plasma Wall.
Armstrong had come close to Halcyon.
“Zankantou!”
And he cleaved Halcyon into halves with a hard vertical spinning slash.
“RAIKOU GIRI!!”
The attack, instead, hit Halcyon’s duplicates, yet nevertheless her face was showing a level of fear unlike anything else after barely dodging the killing blow by a hair’s breadth.
Armstrong returned to the battlefield. “Halcyon!” he shouted and pointed Forneus at Halcyon. “If you’re really intending to destroy this world, then I shall prevent that event from happening!” Halcyon became too enraged and fired a Divine Buster that was swiftly cleaved after Armstrong swung Forneus into the particle beam. The “ojiichan” returned fire and counterattacked with a hundred or so Voltage Shooters, which hit Halcyon so hard she was soon knocked out of the air. Armstrong wasted no time and cast Lightning Bind onto the humanoid, preventing her from crashing into the ground (and, subsequently, escaping).
“I will… never lose… to you human…” Halcyon spoke, her voice started to become distorted and mixed with synthesized sounds, and moaned as the magical bind tightened. “Even if… my body is destroyed… I shall not give in…” To Armstrong and Nanoha’s surprise Halcyon twitched and moaned seemingly in pain as she clutched her head. “My body! What’s happening to my body?”
“[Halcyon’s automated defence program has overtaken her body! Be careful!]” Yuuno warned.
Without warning Halcyon, having been overtaken by the automated defensive program and her rage, broke free from Lightning Bind and fired a gigantic Divine Buster at Nanoha. She did not see it coming, and when the pillar of light was three feet before her face she was already preparing to fire a defensive Divine Buster.
“Shin! CRESCENT STORM!!!”
The Raising Storm-lookalike enclosed Nanoha and absorbed the monstrous Divine Buster into the wall of wind. Shocked and appalled, Halcyon was hit by five consecutive Kami Reppuken fired from inside the Crescent Storm and was sent far away from the ‘storm cage’.
The dusts dissipated. And the caster of the Crescent Storm revealed himself to all those who could see.
“M… master Hikki?!” Halcyon gasped.
Dazed, stunned but otherwise unharmed. He stood before Nanoha in defensive posture, magic symbols spinning in front of his palms. “Took a long time for the device to calibrate with my power,” Hikki spoke and dropped his hands. “You okay?” Nanoha could only nod, too shocked at the unexpected, almost dramatic, entry. “Well, save the thanks for later,” he said and turned his attention to Halcyon. “That lady needs to learn a thing or two.”
“Impossible!” Halcyon fired Plasma Lancers at the apparently unprotected Hikki, and was horrified as he effortlessly swiped the projectiles away from him with Reppuken. “You’re supposed to be dead!”
“Dead?” Hikki wagged a finger as to say ‘no’. “So explain why you wanted to protect me so much from everyone. I bet you’re just lying to yourself, aren’t you?” Halcyon fired another Divine Buster, which he effortlessly dodged. “I don’t know what grudge you have against Nanoha, and I don’t know why you wanted to kill her so badly,” he spoke. “But… but she has nothing to do with this.”
“But she wanted to harm you!” Halcyon protested.
“It was you who wanted to harm everyone!” he screamed. “You thought by eliminating everything on this world you would fulfill your duty as a Servant, but you were wrong!” He paused, noticing that Halcyon began to lose faith in her beliefs. “Enough of all these, Halcyon. Father had told me everything about you. You want to live with me, right?”
Halcyon frowned. “Master Hikki, I…” Before she could finish her sentence, she writhed and screamed in deafening pain, her body become visually “distorted” by encrypted codes. It continued, even while residual magic energy encircled her in colourful ribbons until they wrapped the humanoid. Slowly the Queen of Dark Gale transformed into an entirely different entity.
“What the hell?” Hikki gasped. “Halcyon!”
Halcyon disappeared. What had replaced her was a bio-mechanical monster that came as if from the lowest level of Machine Hell. “What kind of thing is that?!” Nanoha exclaimed.
“God help us,” Armstrong murmured.
Its demonic wings flapping, the flame-coated whip cracking, the monster roared and started its attack sprees. It breathed fireballs, shot lightning bolts and spewed ice shards at Hikki in blind fury, cracking whips all the way to hit its tiny target. The Gale Whistler dodged but was unable to return fire due to the ferocity of the attack. “This is the defensive program Chrono Falken had told me,” he thought and charged at the monster but was stopped dead by the monster’s whiplash. He called forth the gale sword he had used in the fated duel against Nagalintar. “This is not fair. You! Give her back to me! NOW!” The monster roared and swung the whip at him. The Gale Whistler dodged, counterattacked and repelled the whiplash, unable to get close to it or Halcyon.
“He can’t beat that monster alone!” Nanoha shouted and prepared the Blaster Bits for another firing run; the ferocity of the fight between the monster and the Gale Whistler, however, prevented her from aiming. Armstrong, too, did not open fire as dust was blocking his line of sight. “Damn it! We can’t even get close!”
Hikki evaded the monster’s whip, and was jumping high over its head. He saw what looked like a glass box on the monster’s forehead, and noticed the glimpse of Halcyon sealed inside. “That’s her!! Now! Kami Reppuken!” To his horror, the temporary device malfunctioned and his energy started going out of control. “Damn it! Not at this time!”
“Hikki! Behind you!!”
Unknown to him, the monster caught him with the flame whip and flung him deep into the ground. The impact was massive, and although he survived Hikki was experiencing excessive pain. The monster brought him back to its vicious mouth, growling in menace at the unwanted interference.
“Crap. Now what?” he groaned.
“CHESTOOOOAAA!!!!!”
The monster’s hand was severed after Armstrong cleaved its limb with Divine Voltage. As soon as he was set free, Hikki made a quick recovery and leapt onto the monster’s head. He approached the glass casing, punched the protective layer and pulled Halcyon out of the cavity.
“I have her now! Both of you, do whatever you have to do!!” He jumped to safety, and both the Aces delivered powerful attacks onto the monster, sending it deep into the ground. He landed, and, with Halcyon still securely held in his arms, he knelt and put the locket-shaped device on her neck. “Should I do this? Sealing Halcyon forever?” he whispered, and watched as the locket glowed. “Mother, what would do if you were in my shoes?”
“Master...” He looked down. Halcyon had woken up, and she was smiling weakly to him. “Your order... Master?” she asked, her voice as soft as a wind chime, a striking contrast from how she sounded when she was “that merciless”.
“Halcyon wasn’t your real name, was it?” Halcyon could only nod. “Then what did mother call you back then?”
Halcyon smiled widely at the question and wound her arms around his neck as she whispered, “you are my Master. You can call me anything you desire.”
“I have no time for that, but...” He paused as to stare into Halcyon’s bright eyes. “I’ll call you Widuri. Is it alright?”
“[Hikki! What are you doing? Seal her this instant!]”
Hikki did not answer Nagalintar, as he was sunned after Halcyon gave a soft kiss on his cheek. “Thank you. You really are Master Bayu’s beloved child, the true Gale Whistler.” The humanoid Unison Device into the air and clung onto Hikki’s hands as shining gauntlets; at the same time of the “unification” she changed his dresses into a Holy Orders uniform.
“Unison complete. Executing Battle Mode.”
The transformation was brief, and it completed just in time the monster lost control over itself and fired random shots everywhere. Nanoha and Armstrong had been knocked out of the air, the former spinning out of control before Hikki caught her. “That’s the second time I saved you,” Hikki said as he held Nanoha in his arms.
“Hikki! You... changed,” Nanoha gasped. “What has happened?”
“I’ll tell you later,” he said and put her back on the ground. He, then, turned his attention to the berserk monster. “Let’s see what you’re really made of, Widuri.”
“Certainly, Master.”
He turned to a direction, as if looking at someone from faraway. “Sorry, Father,” he told Nagalintar, “I know you’re watching, but this time, I have to finish whatever that has started.”
“[...]”
“Are you angry at me?”
“[It cannot be helped, after all. Go, Hikki. You know what you must do.]”
He grinned. “Well, then,” he spoke and cracked his fists. “Whoever here wants to taste the fury of the storm?”
He jumped at the uncontrollable monster and fired torrents of Reppuken that barraged the monster from altitude; he changed mode of attack and proceeded to pound the monster in close range.
“DEADLY RAVE!!!”
Hikki attacked. And in less than a minute, hundreds of precision-based attack with thousands of pounds of destruction severed the monster's internal organs and disrupted its vitals, and the monster was pushed across the battlefield as Hikki ended the manoeuvre with an energy blast onto the monster's chest.
“Eat this!!!” Hikki fired a Kami Reppuken at the monster. The crippled artificially created beast lost its left limb as the projectile cut through. Hikki fired another Kami Reppuken that destroyed the monster’s horns before ending the manoeuvre with a gale arrow.
“I’m not done yet!” He pounced at the stunned monster. “Squall!! BREAKER!!” The powerful point-blank punch destroyed the monster’s barrier and sent compressed energy into the monster’s body, severely damaging its vitals. He jumped away from the monster as Nanoha and Armstrong each fired Accel Shooters and Sacred Edges at the monster.
“[Regeneration energy is detected from the monster!!]”
“What?” Hikki, Nanoha and Armstrong looked at the monster, appalled to see it growing back limbs and reattaching horns. “Alright. What are we supposed to do now?” Hikki demanded.
“I really don’t want to do that again...”
Hikki turned to Nanoha. “What are you talking of?”
“It’s just like the last time...” Nanoha clenched the staff of Raising Heart. “When Yami no Sho appeared and threatened to destroy the world, we... we were forced to fight her and...” She looked at Armstrong. “Isn’t there anything else we can do, Ojiichan? Isn’t there anything... to end this?”
Armstrong lifted Forneus. “Unless we have a better alternative, then history is going to repeat itself.” He looked at himself, Nanoha and Hikki. “Fate and Hayate haven’t recovered yet. Looks like it’s up to the three of us to end this atrocity.”
“[Humans, I have words to speak with you.]” Nanoha and Armstrong were startled when Nagalintar’s voice echoed inside his head.
“[The beast – or defensive mechanism system as you choose to call – cannot be destroyed by all regular means. It must be first cut off from all contacts with the timeline.]”
“Are you kidding me? We don’t have the kind of ability to seal the monster,” Nanoha interjected.
“[My son will help,]” Nagalintar replied.
“Father, you took away the Chronograph power. How am I supposed to Time Halt the thing?” Hikki replied in shock. “Even if... Widuri can help, I don’t know how.”
There was a slight chuckle as Nagalintar revealed the answer.
“[Neither did your mother, and yet she defeated me when we first met. If she could do it, so can you.]”
Hikki was doubtful. “How?”
“[Revealing it to you would be unfair to both of them,]” Nagalintar replied.
“[You have to learn to solve the problem yourself.]”
“We don’t have much time for that!” Armstrong barked when the monster suddenly hurled itself towards the trio. Panicked, Nanoha aimed Raising Heart at the monster to fire a desperate Divine Buster, but Hikki had already acted firsthand and fired massive Kami Reppuken salvoes onto the monster. The attacks brought the monster off track and crashed into a hill instead.
“Casting Gleipnir Strings.”
Hikki threw the magical chains at the monster and bound it onto the ground, denying its movement. “If I can’t do this...” He opened stance and pounced at the monster. “THEN NOBODY ELSE CAN! SQUALL BREAKER!!!” Again, the single-hit punch broke through the monster’s defence, but this time Hikki went further and continued with a devastating Deadly Rave attack run.
“ORA-ORA-ORA-ORA-ORA-ORA-ORA-ORA-ORA-ORA-ORA!!!!”
Hikki ended the manoeuvre with his third Squall Breaker and left the monster crippled. “The monster has lost its defensive capability! Now!” Taking no risk of not complying, Nanoha fired the Blaster-aided Divine Buster, while Armstrong’s Divine Voltage Forneus extended to a great length and slammed onto the monster. The force of the combination attack destroyed the monster’s outer shell and exposed its core to the outside world.
“Forneus, Plasma Wall!” The Device shot plasma-generated energy barrier at the core and sealed it from the outside world. Nanoha did the same and cast spelling binds to further restrict the core’s movement. “If what the Dragon God said is true, then all we have to do is...”
They turned to Hikki; by now he had opened his arms in a stance reminiscent to that of Time Halt. “I know I no longer have the Chronograph power inside of me,” he spoke, even as the gales inside his hand turned colour to crystal clear. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t kick ass as usual! Widuri!”
“Entering Jentayu Mode.”
“Let’s end this once and for all!” he declared.
“HISSATSU!!”
Everything happened too fast. Hikki had already pounced into the barricade, and was flying away from the core, the crystal gale enveloping the heart-like entity in ribbons. He landed far from the core, hand lifted as to let the wind ribbons to undo themselves.
“Can you hear it?”
His fingers snapped.
“The voice of the whistling gale?”
The gale ribbons disintegrated, and together brought the core into its demise as they dissolved in thin air and, as Nagalintar had mentioned, “erased” from existence. At the same time, remains of the dragons, as well as the hemispherical dome that had encased the area since the start of the battle, began to disappear.
(“The whistling gale...” Nagalintar murmured as he watched the battle from a distance. “The only ability that could counteract my Chronograph power. And also... the only ability to be passed down to generations through bloodline.”
He chuckled when he remembered the event that led to the witnessing of the whistling gale. “Bayu....” He looked up into the night sky, where the northern lights had appeared to illuminate the darkness. “Our child has grown up to a person you had longed to see.”)
Hikki dropped onto his knees. The execution of all the attacks had drained most of his energy, and he had only a little to keep his consciousness. “That was... almost close...”
“Master Hikki!” Widuri disengaged from Hikki and took back her humanoid appearance. “Are you alright?”
He signaled a thumb’s up. “You already know, right?” He gathered his breath and gazed into Widuri’s eyes. “Say, Widuri.”
“Yes, Master Hikki?”
“I...” He lost consciousness and fell onto her. “...I think I need to sleep...” The Unison Device was startled, as so did Nanoha and Armstrong who had rushed towards him. Halcyon, formerly the Queen of Dark Gale, could not say anything as Hikki involuntarily wrapped his arms around her as to seek protection from her.
“Master Hikki...” She giggled. As gently as she could muster, she cuddled the sleeping boy. Tears slowly fell down her cheeks and dropped onto Hikki’s face. “I’m so sorry for hurting you, Master...” she whispered and tightened the embrace.
Then she smiled. “...and thank you...”