8 - System Invasion

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“Ah, damn it, I’m late for class...”

“Yo! The hell are you doing here? Think you’re too good for classes now?”

“Nah, just got held up a little on my way here. Saw an advert.”

“What about?”

“Some type of soulful research institute. I mean, shit, I’m a soulful, right? And they promised really good money too. They said they’d pay me if I help them run some tests and collect more data.”

“Well, it sounds like a free bag.”

“They said it might take a few days though. I wonder if I’ll make it in time for the hackathon...”

“Hah, I’m sure the rest of the guys there are gonna be happy that you missed it.”

“And why’s that? I always suspected they didn’t like me, to be honest. That one girl I wanted to talk to the other day...she’s been acting a little weird too towards me.”

“It’s because you’re better than them. And not just better, but waaay better than all of them. You make them look like nobodies. I mean really, you won it three years in a row!”

“Yeah, I guess I’m not that bad at it...”

“Oh come on, don’t be humble now! We’re lucky that you’re not some agent or a criminal. You’re the best hacker I’ve ever known.”

‘Digital Overdose’ targets the brain. While the brain physically deteriorates due to being overwhelmed with corrosive information, the soul remains untouched - the lethality of the acclamation resides in damaging the target’s brain. The soul can persist for a certain amount of time before dying alongside the physical body.

Nachtvessel Alpha had a soul expression that allowed it to ‘hack’ any system. It was most dominant at hacking digital systems thanks to its ability to persist in a digital space, but with some effort, it could also take a shot at cracking ‘other’ types of systems.

The desperate soulful, trying to run away from certain death, stumbled upon his only gateway - which would at least allow it to take its killers down with it...

LV2 was mostly ruined, and barely stood still. Katya was exhausted and was already considering terminating the connection for good - abandoning the mech and the cause. Before it stood the soulfuls that managed to take it down through great force and perseverance.

“Ausra.” Oskar said, approaching her. “It’s completely incapacitated. We can finish it off.”

“Just look at them.” Katya thought.

“So happy to see each other, ready to attack me and kill me...”

“We were happy with Reiner too, you know?”

LV2 prepared to attack. It extended its palm, and the concentration of soul prowess increased rapidly. Oskar and Ausra braced for impact, preparing for the second round of their lethal feud.

“It’s only fair that I kill one of you now.”

“I’ll crush you with my-”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!!!”

LV2 tried to hold its own head so fast that it accidentally punched it. Sparks of soul prowess appeared next to it, as the mech started rapidly twitching, almost spasming. Ausra and Oskar didn’t dare approach or intervene, they just watched in awe and confusion.

“W-who are you?”

“What are you?!”

Katya’s distress was seen by Nightseer as well. Her body was semi-mobile, but her face was contorting, making expressions of disgust, fear and anger.

“Hey, g-get out!”

“What are you doing?! Get out of here!!”

“T-t-this is my place!!!”

Katya screamed. LV2 screamed too, but while its scream was intimidating, Katya’s own scream was authentic and terrifying, as if it was a desperate cry for help.

“Get out!”

“Get out of me!!!”

“Katya!” Nightseer yelled, violently shaking her body. “What the hell is happening? Snap out of it!”

He turned his attention to the monitors, and one by one, they began losing signal. Once the last one was shut off, Katya finally woke up, and she seemed completely and utterly helpless. She was shaking. Outside, at the base, LV2 was rapidly shaking, hitting itself, and contorting its body in ways dangerous enough to break it apart. But a few seconds later, it calmed down, or more specifically it looked like it was taking a breath.

“Katya! What happened?!” Nightseer quickly asked, trying to help her out of the bathtub. She only managed to get a few words out.

“He...” Katya slowly uttered, not having yet recovered from the shock. “He took c-control...”

LV2 unleashed a painful screech, and parts of its body glowed a blinding white. Parts of its damaged limbs were broken apart from the inside, replaced with fresh, now regeneration-compatible masses of soul prowess. The previously mechanical looking mech was half-replaced by a strange creature-like amalgamation. It changed so much it was hard to call it LV2 anymore.

“Did...did it transform? Seriously?!” Oskar asked, taking a step back. “There’s a second phase?”

“I don’t think it was that. It looked more like it got taken over by something.” Ausra said. “It was in pain.”

“Fucking damn it!” Oskar yelled, summoning his weapon and unleashing an electric arrow at the newly formed entity. It took little to no damage from the attack. “Ausra! How long until you can use your acclamation again?”

“Might take a while, it was pretty exhausting.” Ausra replied.

“Damn it...” Oskar thought, upset by the reply. “How the hell else are we gonna damage this thing?”

“What is going on here?” Jian asked, rushing over to the scene. She seemed startled when she saw the amalgamation that they were supposed to fight. “I assumed the fight had concluded?!”

“Something happened to it.” Ausra replied. She was fangirling over the captain when she first saw her, but after snapping out of it, managed to give a clear response. “I think something took control of it.”

“Took...control?!” Jian asked, even more surprised.

“No way...”

“It survived ‘digital overdose’?”

The truth was, it didn’t survive it. Whilst getting fried by Yuuka’s payload, it managed to locate LV2 and hack into it, taking control of the mech. Since it was being piloted remotely, it was easy for Alpha to intercept the connection.

Since Alpha was unable to properly process things with his mind, the mech, now imbued with his soul, acted purely on instinct. An instinct to fight and kill. However, the Heisei’s forces did not know about this crucial detail.

A situation that by no means should have naturally taken place

“This should be impossible.” Jian thought, taking aim at it. “Yuuka’s plan was flawless.”

“The blade went through and the space collapsed.”

“Captain, what do we do?!” Ausra asked, slightly panicking. She noticed the mech’s deadly gaze fall upon her, and she felt like prey in the claws of a relentless hunter.

“We run.” Jian said. “I thought I killed this entity inside the digital space, but... if it’s truly capable of surviving digital overdose, I haven’t the slightest clue what can kill it. We need to prepare another operation, this time, with all of the Heisei’s forces.”

“No way.” Oskar objected. “If we don’t kill it now, we don’t know what it might evolve into.”

“We’re gonna kill it!” Oskar exclaimed. He manifested his weapon and began throwing heaps of electric arrows at Alpha, none of which seemed to even come close to damaging it. Jian took aim at it, and while it was still going through a crisis of sorts, charged up and fired off a powerful shot at its head. It slightly bulged, and parts of its neck were ripped apart, but it started to regenerate.

“The fuck?!” Oskar was shocked and concerned. “The old one didn’t do this at all...”

“Whatever took it over upped its abilities.” Ausra said. She was having trouble maintaining her balance and standing still. “It’s probably gonna be stronger now-”

“Ausra!” Jian quickly rushed over to her as she briefly lost consciousness. “What is going on?”

“Ahh, Captain is holding m-me...” Ausra blushed. After realizing that it was probably not the best thing to say given the circumstance, she shook her head and tried to play it off. “I uhh, I kind of exhausted myself-”

“Watch out!!!”

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Alpha charged at the two, rapidly swinging its arm, not even trying to land a certain type of punch, just swinging it for the sake of swinging it and having something to hit the soulfuls with. Thankfully, however, the attack was intercepted by Oskar. He stood between them, halting the arm, as if rejected it.

“Oskar?!”

“I can hold it in place!” Oskar said, gritting his teeth in both anger and pain, pouring all of his efforts into the defense.

“It’s stupidly tough, and if it hits me, I’ll probably get crushed. The trick is, instead of blocking the attack, I have to make sure it doesn’t even touch me. This is where a magnetic field comes in.”

“I can’t let Ausra get hurt like that!”

Oskar took a step forward, as if walking through a hailstorm, pushing his way through an air that had been turned into gelatine. The mech itself was pushed back and almost fell over. It took a few steps back. Oskar held his hands out and amplified the magnetic field even more, except this time, it was much more concentrated, acting as a repulsive force that pushed it away and stabbed it like a spear.

“Captain! Get Ausra out of here!” Oskar called out, turning to face Jian. “I’ll stall it out!”

“Get down!!!”

Oskar turned around, and that callout probably saved his life. He saw the mech point its soul prowess cannon at him and prepare to fire. He quickly crouched down, and just as the future looked bleak, Jian destroyed the cannon with one shot. The mech regenerated it, and prepared to fire again, but at least now all the soulfuls were ready to dodge it.

Oskar ran off to the left, Jian, grabbing Ausra, ran to the right. The mech was focusing Jian, and Oskar took advantage of it - once again amplifying his magnetic field to the maximum. Alpha turned around and swung the whip-blade at him, but its many blades were halted. From behind, Jian kept firing more and more high-concentration shots, trying her hardest to chip away at it. Now, Ausra was on her feet too - she kept tossing more and more explosive pebbles and soul prowess slashes at Alpha.

Oskar forced his way closer to Alpha and struck it as hard as he could in the knee. His only way of dealing actual damage to it was the trick that relied on focusing his field in a certain point. Alpha sprung back, but immediately dashed in again, finding itself stuck trying to bypass Oskar’s defense.

“Damn it, this shit is pretty exhausting...”

Oskar suddenly let go of his field. Due to the size difference, Alpha’s punches were aimed slightly downwards. Once the field was dropped, Alpha, with all of its accumulated force, ended up shoving its fist into the ground. Oskar used it as a ramp of sorts to climb onto Alpha’s head.

He summoned his weapon and tried stabbing it. He had his field up against, and the whip-blade, while trying to strike Oskar, ended up chomping at the already destroyed terrain. Oskar tried stabbing it over and over again, but his efforts were in vain, the toughness was too much to overcome. He then stuck the blade between its jaw and shoulder, attempting to force pop the head off. But the more he struck at the other end of it, the less likely the idea seemed.

And eventually, the weapon gave up under the force, and was unsummoned. Oskar, confused for a few seconds, was grabbed by Alpha and tossed into the distance. The beam was aimed at him once more. Jian tried to take care of it, and unfortunately for her, Alpha, despite functioning on instinct, still retained its elite combat capabilities. It effectively sniped her with the whip-blade, injuring her pretty badly.

“Captain!” Ausra yelled, enraged. She tried to muster up her strength and open her divine acclamation again, but was interrupted by the blade striking her and knocking her away. Oskar, who was already injured, now found himself not only exhausted, but also injured.

The whip-blade struck him. He tried to keep his field up but not even that was enough. The field collapsed and Oskar was subject to the equivalent of being thrown into a blender. The blade struck him repeatedly, cutting him over and over and breaking his bones like toothpicks. Once the barrage was done, Alpha tried aiming the beam at him.

“F-fuck...I don’t have enough strength to block it...”

“Damn it...”

He tried holding his palm out to it, as if trying to copy its attack and fire back. But nothing was manifested. Nothing happened.

“Oskar!!!” Ausra yelled, throwing a somewhat large rock between them. “Watch out!”

The rock exploded, and this detonation was unlike any other - it felt more marvelous, more impactful, and more dangerous. It scattered into multiple smaller bombs and they all went off in a beautiful chain explosion, distracting Alpha and creating a solid enough smokescreen to buy even just a second of time for Oskar.

“Ichika told me about this technique. She made cluster bombs with ice, but to be fair, if anyone should be making cluster bombs, it should be me...”

She stood between Alpha and Oskar, who was barely staying conscious.

“What the hell are you doing?” Oskar asked her, coughing up some blood and observing the blood spurting out of his chest and stomach.

“Killing this thing.” Ausra said, determined. Her presence started flaring up again, but it didn’t really cross the point of becoming a divine acclamation.

“Focus, Ausra.” She said to herself.

“You’re only worth as much as the people you help.”

She faced off against the unpredictable beast at a distance. Alpha struck her with the whip-blade at a range, and while she dodged the first two attacks, the third one struck her legs. She quickly tossed a pair of bombs at it - not to act as a damage source, but as a smokescreen. She got up on her feet, through great pain, and charged at Alpha. She jabbed and kicked it at a distance, each attack being imbued with powerful explosive force. Alpha’s toughness did not waver.

Ausra tried to get closer to it and replicate the strategy which Oskar tried to use, but once she tried jumping and latching onto its head, she was struck down. She was effectively swatted away by the whip-blade, knocked towards the very spot where she swore to protect her dear comrade. The whip-blade’s third hit had quite some buildup to it, and Ausra, feeling unable to dodge it, decided to block it, but ended up having both of her arms broken.

The fourth one knocked her down, and the fifth and sixth ones began beating her down.

“Come on...get up!” She yelled at herself, trying to get up. She tried to prepare another cluster bomb, but couldn’t finish the job - the seventh strike was awfully painful and broke a few bones in her body. She couldn’t keep going if she didn’t try regenerating.

“No...Ausra...”

“Why are you doing this?!”

Oskar watched the beatdown commence, and it was getting more and more brutal by the second. Ausra lost her left arm completely as well, one of the strikes decapitated it. She was slowly being reduced to a puddle of blood, and he could do nothing to stop it.

“Stop...”

Ausra started to lose the energy required for even screaming out in pain.

“Stop...doing this to her..."

Oskar tried standing up, but couldn’t, his legs had given up on him. He needed to regenerate. He saw Alpha point the beam at him. Jian was temporarily out of commission since the wound she received was superbly dangerous. He saw Alpha’s hand light up, and he saw the beam spark.

“I thought you said you didn’t care about anything. That nothing in life excites you.”

“You...”

“ ✦ Get your fucking hands off of her!!! ✦ ”

He screamed those words so loudly that it felt like everything he’s ever said up until that point in his life was a whisper. His palms became the birthplace of a powerful beam of energy - not just one made up from soul prowess, but an electromagnetic beam enhanced with it. At the same time, Alpha’s own beam was fired. The two beams collided and began clashing against one another. Ausra couldn’t do anything, she just watched in amazement, and even smiled a little.

Oskar, enraged, kept on pushing against the beam, pouring more and more of his prowess into it. He didn’t even realize what he’d just done, but he didn’t even care about the technicalities of it, he just wanted to murder Alpha. The beam persisted, and as Alpha’s own output got weaker, it overwhelmed the mech’s beam and landed. Alpha’s arm was completely destroyed.

Alpha attempted to swing the whip-blade again, but Jian intervened - blasting that arm off completely.

“What is the situation?!” Jian said, blood still dripping from her mouth, and lots of it decorating her uniform. Her own exhaustion was getting to her too.

“Get Ausra and leave!” Oskar yelled. “I’ll kill this thing!”

“I’ll fucking kill this thing...”

“I’ll murder it! I’ll fucking murder it!!!”

“ ✦ Divine Acclamation ✦ ”

His presence flared, his silhouette sparked with great luminescence, and his hands became almost completely imbued with electricity. His eyes gained a bright shine, and a small light yellow halo appeared behind his head.

“ ✦ Howling Thunderstorm!!! ✦ ”

He extended his hand, and with one strung gust of force, pulled Alpha towards him. Once close, he slammed his right fist into it. Parts of the armor on its stomach were shattered, and Alpha flew a great distance. Alpha had already managed to regenerate both of its arms. Oskar chased it down, and Alpha fought back, the two, despite their size differences, struck each other hard and accurately. But now, Oskar was in the lead.

“Finally dealing some fucking damage!”

Oskar continued, to put it accurately, beating the shit out of Alpha, constantly rocking it with well-timed punches and kicks. Dodging to the side in response to Alpha’s haymaker, Oskar was caught off guard after seeing the whip-blade once more. He thought it would hit him and braced for impact, but was relieved to find out that it was halted by a magnetic field that he didn’t even remember putting up.

Oskar manifested his weapon and slashed the mech’s torso with it. He stepped back, and after quickly charging up an electric arrow, this one, tenfold more fierce than anything he had fired before, he released it and watched as the mech was not only pierced but also somewhat paralyzed.

Despite the limitations, Alpha managed to raise its hand. It prepared to fire off another beam. But Oskar wasn’t having any of it. He dragged Alpha towards him and raised him into the air. There, he remotely ripped the whip-blade off of it. He felt that accurately manipulating and amplifying the fields were as natural to him as breathing. In fact, in this state, he probably would’ve managed to pass through that gate without having to steal that flask.

He slammed Alpha into the ground, not just once, but constantly, over and over again without even thinking of taking a break. After beating it to a pulp, he raised it into the air again, and fired another astonishing arrow at it. It pierced its stomach, but couldn’t kill it off completely. As Alpha was slammed into the ground again and let go of, it managed to regain its footing and fire off a beam at Oskar.

Oskar took it head on. His own, albeit much more limited version of the EMP beam counteracted it, acting as a shield. The beam was dispersed, parts of it destroying the terrain in areas completely unrelated to the ongoing war. Once it calmed down, Oskar took the initiative again, and this time, he played not his part of the composition, but the final note.

The pure electromagnetic mass, enhanced with soul prowess to the brim, accumulated in his hands. It concentrated and transformed into a large bident - almost twice the size of Oskar, a perfect match for killing an opponent Alpha’s size. Alpha’s limbs and body, infected by the powerful electric currents, were paralyzed.

With all his strength, Oskar threw the bident at Alpha. Even though it tried to defend itself, the bident ultimately ripped through its defenses and stabbed Alpha in the head. This didn’t only paralyze him, though, as was originally intended. It completely killed it. It killed the last way of Nachtvessel Alpha persisting in this world, putting LV2’s botched self to rest.

Oskar took a deep breath.

He finally descended back down from the heavens, at least that’s what being in this state felt like to him. He carefully looked at Alpha, making sure it was dead. And then, he finally remembered about Ausra, and the reason he somehow managed to unlock a new height of power.

“Ausra!” He called, rushing over to Jian who held her unconscious body at a distance. She looked like a rat that had been run over by a tank. “How’s...fuck, how’s her condition?!”

“She’s fine. Her determination helped her buy some time while her wounds healed.” Jian said, carefully caressing Ausra’s head as if getting her to wake up. “It helped her quite a lot, actually. Something got her soul determination to go full throttle.”

“Yuuka, do you copy?” She said, touching her earpiece. “What’s the situation?”

“Uwaah, I wanna sleep...” Yuuka yawned. “Mr. Kamiki asked me a favor so I’m doing that now...”

“Regroup with the Thomas family members. We’re heading back to Krakow.” Jian said.

“No we’re not.” Oskar said. He was surprised at himself for speaking to his captain like that. “I mean...look, hey, she’s waking up!”

“Hmm?” Ausra said, confused as she finally came back to consciousness. She looked at Oskar, she looked at his acclamation’s modifications to his body, and she smiled. “Ah, you did it...”

“Yeah, that thing’s dead.” Oskar said, this time, surprised at himself for answering so eagerly.

“Nice.” Ausra said, fading back into an unresponsive state, this time, it was a deep and well-deserved slumber. “I knew I could trust you...”

Oskar couldn’t make much of those words, but deep inside, no matter how much he would try to reject it, he felt happy that she was alright. And he felt excited to tell Sakuto about what he just did too. And Jian, looking at Ausra and Oskar, was once again forced to observe a phenomenon that she couldn’t understand yet. She just kept doing her job and contacted Kaito Kamiki...