[Midchilda – Old industrial area] [December, MC 074]
It was quiet now.
The echoes of explosions had completely died away.
Ash was falling like snow, gently covering the ruins of what was once the old industrial area with a sheet of gray and white. In the sky above, Elric Thorn hovered motionless and smiled.
Enemy forces in disarray. Secondary objective will be completed as soon he finished slaughtering surviving Bureau Troops.
Starting Impulse Search.
There were more survivors then he had thought. Many previously detected magical signatures were still there.
Impossible! Final Judgement was an anti-army, wide-area artillery spell. Every single living being down there should have been reduced to ash.
The spell had failed!? For what did he use all this magical energy for!? Elric gritted his teeth audible.
Do to usage of highly concentrated Mana the combat capability was reduced to 74% and host body showed signs of fatigue. Linker Core fluctuation minimal. Normal combat could still be commenced.
Fine! Then he would simply slaughter every single person here one by one! He would-
Lock-on warning!
A hail of pink energy crashed into his shield, the force was enough to make Elric tumbling backwards, then a girl in white shot past him with high speed. Such power, she must be at least a Type-7 mage, if not 8! How could TSAB hold this kind of mage in reserve?
Ah, he recognized her. Takamachi, Captain, Wizard rank S+ when limiter released.
Of course! They had her limiter active until now!
The blades which slid out of his Device, crackled with red energy as he turned to face the attacker. The next attacks already arrived, but not from Takamachi. He blocked the incoming hammer strike with the shield he formed with his left hand and the incoming sword strike with his blades. Foolish Guardian Programs, striking you and your masters down was his programming.
As he thought this, he finally realized.
Of course! So this is how they lured him here. The magical signature of the original enemy: Ancient Belka!
It was her doing. This damned tanuki!
Elric was smiling as he turned right towards the sword wielding knight. He kicked leftwards, hitting Vita's chest and pushed her away. Signum broke away from him but he simply followed, keeping her in arms reach and slashed at her with the three short blade extensions of his Device. Signum was too close to use her sword effectively, she was forced into defence. Sparks flew every time his blades came in contact with Levantine, small cracks started to appear on the sword and it was only a matter of time before one Elric's slashes would break through her blocks.
Looks like 74% was more than enough to deal with a Guardian Program of this level.
A powerful blow scratched his back, followed by a beam of pink fired by Nanoha that smashed into him, causing cracks to appear on the left side of his barrier jacket and pushing him to the side until he was able to create a barrier to block the rest of it. Vita that had made her successful attack on Elric's back already retreated, now followed by Signum who used the chance to escape his melee range.
Now energized metal balls and the burning, snake like blade of Levantine collided with his barrier, dancing around it and attacked again and again. Elric frowned. Why did they switched to range attacks even though Belka-style Guardian Programs were more effective in melee battle?
His gaze quickly scanned the surroundings. The TSAB signatures retreated in all directions. Strange, they should join the attack in bringing him down, this would be a logical step. So why would they retreat from this area and only leave a small group of attackers behind?
His eyes widened as the still human part of his brain realized what reason they would have. The dark AI that had overtaken his brain agreed with his reasoning. Less mobile armed forces retreated to minimize casualties that would occur if a wide-area attack spell would be fired directly at him!
His gaze jolted upwards. There behind the clouds, energy was gathered in the sky. He recognized the Ancient Belka magic as soon as he saw it. He knew she was there.
Hayate Yagami was designated primary target, prime orders were absolute. The most favourable outcome will be achieved.
He abandoned his barrier and darted upwards, smashing his shoulder on one of the metal balls. He ignored the pain, gaining speed. Followed by the curses of the little redheaded Guardian Program, he gained more and more altitude.
Hayate was nearly finished with her spell preparations, even at full speed he would not reach her in time. Or so they thought.
He had managed to come close enough, one Shadow Jump was enough the teleport him to her.
The eyes of the small woman widened in shock as he appear directly in front of her surrounded by dispensing black magical particles that made it look like he stepped out of black mist, his arm raised to give a blow against the unprotected mage. Or so he thought.
As soon as he tried to slash at her, he felt a yanking sensation inside his right shoulder socket. His forearm didn't move anymore, like it was frozen solid to the air.
"What?" it was the first word he had spoken since he arrived at this place. He looked at his unmoving limb. Chains of blue and green had entangled his forearm. For a heartbeat confusion was all he felt, then rage began to boil inside of Elric.
There they were, the last two of the useless Programs, faithfully at their mistress's side, delaying only the inevitable. He swore that he would crush them all, until not a single trace remained.
"Fate!" Only a single shout. A signal as well as a warning for him. Yellow slashed at him. Acting out of instinct, he preformed another Shadow Jump, teleporting away.
That was too close, high concentrated energy like this could-
The cold thoughts of the machine that had consumed most of Elric's being was interrupted as blood sprayed Into his field of vision.
Impossible! He was hit? His nose filled with blood, his face was slashed open. Had he jumped a little later, his head would have been split into two.
Elric was not even able to form his next thought as the girl in black was already in front of him, striking down with her two swords at the same time. Elric blocked with his blades, but surprise and the ferocity of the attack smashed him downwards.
He braked mid-air but again she was on top of him.
Fast! Visual processing could bearly keep up, slashes from two directions at the same time made it hard to block with just one weapon. Damn it!
Sparks of red and yellow rained through the air as they exchanged blows.
Elric was unable to block all of Fate's attacks. Chips of his Barrier Jacket flew off whenever Fate broke through his defence.
He clicked with his tongue and teleported. Not away like last time, but close behind her. Not surprising after too many uses of Shadow Jump, but still faster than normal movement and hard to block.
Fate spun around to him and raised both her swords to catch his overhead swing. But it never was Elric's intension to hit her with this attack in the first place.
As soon his blades made contact with hers, his knee came up, smashing into Fate's stomach. She gasped for air and bend forward. This was when the armoured back of Elric's left hand smashed into her face, spinning the girl around in the process. Fate recovered fast and jumped forward to avoid his blades as he slashed at her exposed back. The attack grazed her, three fine cuts appeared in her lightweight Barrier Jacket.
There was no escape! Elric darted after her, now that he had smelled blood, but a gigantic hammer smashed down on him and send him crashing into the ground far below.
Pain. His still intact, but crack covered, Barrier Jacket had absorbed most of the impact, but he had received too many small injures already. Ah, it hurt. It was enough pain to make a grown man pass out. But the thing that controlled his body was completely unaware of something like pain and so Elric stood up again.
Combat capabilities unchanged. Enemy attacks unable to damage main systems. The most favourable ou-
An arrow hit his breastplate, and nearly cracked it completely open. The impact smashed him back to the ground.
This was bad. Enemy combat capabilities had been underestimated. Tactical advise had been given, but was discarded in favour of self collected combat data over possible wrong personal estimation found in host body's memory.
Warning! High-energy bombardment-attack fired by primary target. Redirecting all energy for defensive usage.
Elric extended his arm towards the sky, bringing up an empowered shield. The wide beam of brilliant white crashed down on him.
The pressure pushed him into the dirt, all around him the ground burst open. But the shield held. There was no prob-
Warning! High-energy collection detected. Bombardment-attack from secondary target "Takamachi" imminent.
Pink joined white. The pressure nearly doubled, the unprotected ground started to boil. Elric himself pumped more and more energy into his cracking shield but it was not enough, it just was not enough.
Warning! Bombardment-attack fired from secondary target "T. Harlaown ". Shield condition critical.
As the yellow beam arrived, the shield was simply shattered and the ground around Elric exploded. His Barrier Jacket was smashed as the vortex of energy engulfed him.
Emergency! Defensive systems not responding! Combat capability has fallen under 30%!
Emergency! Main Core is receiving damage! Data loss detected!
Error! Tactical Memory not responding!
Commencing Self-Repair… Failed! Unable to access Backup do to data corruption!
Error code: 337-BQH-443-KJL-955
Heavy damage in Main System detected!
Commencing Self-Repair… Failed! Self-Repair System not responding!
Fatal Error: Main System is shutting d-
As the crimson core in the middle of the black Device cracked, the cold thoughts of the AI were silenced immediately. All that was left were blinding light, confusion and pain.
Elric Thron was able to scream again and finally passed out.
The "Time of Carnage" had come to an end.
==========
[Vedir, Capital] [September, MC 076]
"Uh…" Elric groaned as he slowly opened his eyes again. The dark hospital room became an usual sight.
"Time?"
[0417, my Lord.]
He had slept only for about half an hour? Why did he-?
"Urg!" as he tried to sit up, a burning pain shot through his stomach. "Ah, yeah, I was stabbed…"
Damn, the painkillers seemed to lose their effect. Defeated, he sank back into his pillow.
He couldn’t get up and now with this throbbing pain, sleeping seemed a lot harder. Maybe he should call for a nurse to… no, he disliked taking unnecessary medication, I didn't hurt that much.
"Carnage? What is the earliest memory you have?"
[First activation by TSAB Device Meister Jester Calistian at TSAB Armed Forces HQ, Cranagen, Midchilda at 1527 on the 12. day of October MC 075. Registration of TSAB Special Combat Operative Elric Thorn as Master commenced 16 seconds after activation.]
"Nothing before that?"
[No, my Lord. There is no data available prior said date.]
"I see…" Elric let out a sigh and closed his eyes, maybe he would just fall asleep later.
But really… Waiting for sunrise was boring.