Rani POV - Nasuverse, Moon, Far Side, Sakura Labyrinth - 2030 AD
The battlefield becomes even more chaotic as the battle between the two Irregular Masters and their forces grows in intensity.
I focus my attention on Oda Nobunaga, who circles overhead, one matchlock beneath her feet, the other steady in her grip as she watches the battle continuing below.
Mirko drives forward again, forcing Nero to guard high while Chun-Li shifts in perfect rhythm with her, sealing angles before they even fully form.
At the same time, Sara Pezzini's Witchblade adjusts constantly, metal reshaping to anticipate Aestus Estus' arcs.
Behind them, Tsubaki, Reika, and Aika resume their chants, dark sigils flaring in layered formation as they launch all kinds of spells and curses to harass Nero.
They are no longer testing the water; they are executing precise orders and going for the kill.
Nero laughs as she parries a strike from Mirko and twists away from Chun-Li's follow-up kick, but even from here, I can see that her breathing is heavier.
Her steps are a fraction slower, her swings are not as sharp as before, and the damage is clearly accumulating.
As she continues to circle overhead, Nobunaga finds the opening she was searching for, and without any hesitation, she fires.
The shot is not explosive nor loud, but it is extremely precise.
The bullet slips between two parries and slams into Nero's side, making her grunt as the impact disrupts her footing for half a heartbeat.
That half a heartbeat is enough as Chun-Li steps in, extends both hands forward and yells, "Kikoken!"
She quickly generates a condensed sphere of energy and shoots it at the stalled Nero.
Unable to react in time, Chun-Li's condensed sphere of energy crashes into Nero's sternum with a dull sound.
It does not tear through her armour, but the force detonates outward, stunning her mid-motion and sending her backwards.
At the same time, Mirko, who leapt up in the air at the same moment Chun-Li stepped in, is already above her and calls out the name of her technique, "Luna Fall!"
She then uses her incredible leg strength to kick downwards while she is above her opponent, making her heel descend like a falling meteor.
The impact drives Nero straight into the reinforced arena floor. The ground does not shatter, but a massive circular depression forms beneath her as the Authority of the Concepts absorbs the shock.
For a brief moment, everything is still, then Nero's body fractures under the force of this blow until light starts to seep from the cracks, and then she shatters into motes of golden light.
Silence spreads outward, and several of the women who killed Nero lower their guard, all except Oda Nobunaga.
Her eyes narrow as she notices that something is off and tries to warn her allies, "Don't relax...!"
But it is too late as the motes of light quickly gather and condense and in an instant Nero reforms in a flare of crimson brilliance, as good as new, as none of the damage she sustained before can be observed.
Then Nero smiles sharply but does not speak and quickly moves before the opponents, stunned by her sudden revival, can react.
Instead of re-engaging Mirko, Chun-Li, or Sara Pezzini, she bursts forward in a straight line, slipping between them with a sudden acceleration that tears up the ground beneath her boots.
In response to that, Oda Nobunaga clicks her tongue and fires again, bullets curving unnaturally as they fly toward their intended target.
However, Nero deflects two, twists past a third, and one grazes her shoulder, but she does not slow down; instead, she accelerates even more.
Her target is clear. The supporting mages who continually harassed her with their spells and curses.
Tsubaki is the only one who reacts and tries to chant, but she falters as Nero appears before them and delivers one precise, fast swing.
Aestus Estus traces a perfect arc, leaving behind a red trail.
Aika and Reika are cut down almost simultaneously, one's head is sent flying while the other is cleanly bisected, making the upper half of the body fall in one direction and the lower half in another.
Luckily, their bodies dissolve into motes of light before they can touch the ground and maybe before they can even fully register what happened to them.
However, Nero's counterattack does not end here as she now looks at Tsubaki with a wide grin on her face, and once again she swings her crimson sword, ready to claim yet another life.
Once again, Tsubaki is barely able to react to Nero's movements, and it seems that her fate is sealed until a metallic whip lashes out and wraps around Nero's blade.
Watching that scene, I realise that Sara Pezzini was able to react at the same time, Oda Nobunaga issued her warning and chased after Nero, but seeing that Reika and Aika had already fallen, she made an instant decision, letting her Witchblade morph into a metallic whip and swung it just as Nero was attacking Tsubaki.
Having successfully caught Nero's Aestus Estus, Sara Pezzini grins and forcefully yanks the whip Witchblade so that the killing stroke for Tsubaki never lands.
At the same time, Nero pivots instantly, abandoning the target and lunging toward Sara instead.
But my focus on the battle is broken as behind me, two figures materialise in flashes of light; they are the recently deceased Reika and Aika.
Shortly after that, Aika immediately collapses to her knees, gasping heavily, hands trembling while muttering, "I… I died…"
Reika appears beside her a second later. Her expression tightens, but she remains composed. She kneels immediately and pulls Aika into a steadying embrace and reassures her, "It's fine. It's fine. You're fine. It's over. That didn't even hurt that much. We were lucky that it was over in an instant. I wasn't so lucky the first time I experienced that."
Aika's breathing is ragged, but she clings to Reika as if grounding herself in reality.
For a moment, I watch them while thinking, 'Death is not an abstract concept in this battle. They have clearly experienced it. However, it also isn't permanent...'
Then I turn back to the battlefield and see that Nero is re-engaged by the group of women who continue their coordinated assault, but the pressure has changed.
With Aika and Reika gone, the harassment from the rear has lessened. The layered curses and delayed detonations that once restricted every angle of movement are no longer hemming her in. The air feels different as she has more room to manoeuvre now.
Tsubaki stands further back than before, one hand pressed against her chest, breathing unevenly. The shock of nearly being cut down still lingers in her eyes. A faint sigil flickers at her feet, unstable, her chants slower and less precise than earlier.
She is still supporting, but she is no longer dictating the battlefield.
Sara Pezzini is the first to close the distance this time.
The Witchblade ripples across her arm, reshaping from segmented armour into a serrated short blade that extends over her knuckles. She steps in from Nero's flank, aiming not for a killing strike but to force her attention sideways.
Mirko lunges a heartbeat later, refusing to let the tempo slow. Her foot digs into the reinforced floor, and she launches forward in a blur of white and muscle, throwing a straight punch meant not to land, but to force Nero's guard high.
Nero obliges, making Aestus Estus snap upward in a flash of crimson steel, deflecting Mirko's blow. At the same time, she twists her torso just enough to let Sara's serrated edge scrape across her side instead of biting deep.
Sparks scatter as Mirko converts her momentum into a rising knee aimed at Nero's ribs.
This time, Nero pivots instead of absorbing it.
She steps inside the arc of the knee and drives her elbow toward Mirko's exposed flank. The counter is sharp, economical, almost lazy in its confidence.
But then Chun-Li intercepts as she slides in low, her foot sweeping toward Nero's planted leg in a precise attempt to break her stance.
Nero hops just enough to avoid the sweep, but that fractional lift costs her balance, which Mirko capitalises on immediately.
Her heel comes down in a descending axe kick.
Nero rolls forward rather than backwards, the blade of Aestus Estus carving a red crescent through the space Mirko occupied a heartbeat earlier.
Sara adapts instantly.
The Witchblade liquefies along her arm and lashes outward as a metallic whip, snapping toward Nero's retreating shoulder. The tip catches, wrapping briefly around Nero's forearm.
For a split second, they are locked.
Nero's eyes narrow, then she twists sharply, pulling Sara forward instead of resisting. The sudden reversal drags Sara off her footing, forcing her to dismiss the whip and reform the Witchblade as a bracer to absorb the follow-up slash that would have opened her from collarbone to hip.
The impact sends her skidding back several meters.
I realise then, 'They're adjusting. Before, Nero had only been reacting to their attacks. Now she is choosing and is able to act.'
Oda Nobunaga fires again from above.
This time the bullets don't simply curve toward Nero's centre mass, but split paths mid-flight, one targeting the sword arm, the other the leg Mirko had just attacked.
Nero slashes one from the air. The second grazes her thigh, drawing a thin line of gold that evaporates almost instantly, but her expression tightens.
She isn't ignoring the damage anymore.
Behind the front line, Tsubaki forces herself to speak through trembling breath. Dark sigils flare into existence and several narrow bolts of condensed shadow streak toward Nero's blind spot.
The projectiles don't aim to kill, as Nero's Magic Resistance makes it impossible, so they aim to herd.
Chun-Li steps in with a rapid series of palm strikes, each aimed at nerve clusters and joints rather than armour. The strikes flow like water, continuous and unbroken, forcing Nero to give ground for the first time since her revival.
But she gives ground deliberately.
As Chun-Li presses, Nero suddenly stops retreating and drives forward instead, her shoulder slamming into Chun-Li's guard. The impact sends a shock through the martial artist's frame and disrupts her breathing for half a beat.
Mirko is already airborne.
She spins horizontally, both legs extended in a brutal rotating kick meant to catch Nero between temple and collarbone, but Nero ducks under it.
Her blade lashes upward, grazing Mirko's boot and slicing through fabric, not a killing blow but a reminder.
Sara re-enters from Nero's rear left, the Witchblade reforming into twin hooked extensions that attempt to trap Aestus Estus between them.
For an instant, steel meets living metal.
The Witchblade constricts, making Nero's sword halt mid-arc.
Then crimson light surges along Aestus Estus, and the force of it blows the hooked extensions apart, sending fragments of reshaped metal scattering before they snap back into Sara's arm.
Without the constant pressure from layered spells and delayed curses, Nero is reading them.
Adapting between exchanges instead of being overwhelmed by simultaneous threats.
She drives forward with a flurry of slashes, no longer targeting only the closest opponent. Each strike flows into the next, arcs overlapping, forcing Mirko, Chun-Li, and Sara to separate rather than maintain their tight formation.
That separation is what she wanted.
Oda Nobunaga fires again, three shots in quick succession. Nero spins, cloak flaring, and deflects one with the flat of her blade. The second grazes her shoulder. The third strikes her side.
She staggers half a step, and instead of retreating, she smiles, then she surges straight toward Sara.
The acceleration tears a shallow trench in the reinforced floor.
Sara braces, the Witchblade expanding into a full shield that blooms like metallic petals across her forearm. Nero feints high and drops low, sweeping Aestus Estus toward Sara's legs.
Chun-Li intervenes, her kick intercepting the blade mid-arc. The collision sends a tremor through her body, but she redirects the momentum upward, buying Sara enough time to roll clear.
Their teamwork remains sharp, but it is reactive now.
For a brief second, Mirko, Chun-Li, and Sara stand equidistant around Nero, circling.
Tsubaki's weakened sigils flicker at the perimeter, no longer a cage but a warning line.
They are still outnumbering her, but they are no longer overwhelming her.
Nero rolls her shoulder once, testing the accumulated strain. Her breathing remains heavier than before her first defeat, but controlled.
She looks between them, eyes bright with something that borders on exhilaration.
This is no longer a desperate defence but a duel fought against multiple blades, and she thrives in it.
Mirko shifts her stance. Chun-Li adjusts her footing.
Sara lowers her centre of gravity, the Witchblade pulsing faintly as if alive and eager.
Above, Oda Nobunaga reloads with calm precision.
The formation reforms, but looser this time, each of them is aware that one miscalculation will give Nero the opening she is searching for.
I realise then that the suffocation is gone and in its place is something far more dangerous. Space.
Meanwhile, at the centre of the battlefield, the clash between the two Champions escalates.
Jayr's Spiral Cosmo burns brighter, streaks of gold tracing the air with every movement. Ledram's Darkness thickens into a tangible mass, shadow constructs forming and dissolving in rapid succession.
Suddenly Jayr presses forward, raises his hand, aiming at Ledram and starts chanting in what I can easily recognise as Greek, "To sumbolaion diakonêtô Moi, hê krystallinê basileia. Epigenêthêtô, taiônion erebos, haiônie krystalle. (Let the covenant serve me, the crystal realms! Be reborn, thou ribbon of irritation, thou everlasting crystal.)"
As soon as the "everlasting crystal" part is spoken, the area around Jayr becomes frozen solid, and Ledram's figure is instantly encased, immobile in pillars and spikes of ice.
It is clear that after a few exchanges, the advantage now tilts toward Jayr's side.
On top of that, his spell doesn't end here as he continues to chant, "Pāsais zôais ton ison thanaton, hos ataraxia, Kosmikê Katastrophê!! (To all life, is equal in death, which is unrest! Cosmic Catastrophe!!)"
With the final passage, "Kosmikê Katatrophê", the target is completely frozen, and from what I can observe from here, the temperature has reached the absurd level of absolute zero.
Then Jayr seems to snap his fingers and command, "Brich...! (Break...!)"
But, the next instant, from within the encased ice, the Darkness surges from within Ledram's body, making the absolute zero ice crack.
Then shadow and substance collapse inward around him as the Darkness answers his host's intent, and it hardens, condenses, crystallises into its absolute form.
Black armour erupts across Ledram's body, first forming in layered plates that swallow his silhouette in jagged edges and flowing shadow before they adjust and compress.
Not in the form of crude plating anymore, but layered, interlocking slabs of solidified Darkness, seamless and oppressive.
Glowing yellow and green orbs ignite within the armour's structure, embedded like malignant stars, pulsing in slow, deliberate rhythm, leaving only a small portion of his forehead and hair exposed, the rest of him sealed within an impenetrable shell.
The power spike is immediate as Ledram breaks free, while frozen fragments are scattering all over the place, and even the very air around him bends.
Jayr halts mid-motion and adjusts without hesitation.
As the battle pace shifts once more and becomes something heavier, more violent, but at the same time also more pure.
Neither speaks as they no longer need to before they clash once more, generating a shockwave so powerful that even the very reinforced ground beneath their feet cracks.
But despite the terrifying yet at the same time awe-inspiring spectacle of the cataclismatic battle between the Champions, suddenly my attention is drawn back to the Digimon front as the balance there begins to falter.
I observe Bancho Stingmon thrusts both arms forward and calls out, "Bakuraiten!"
Making dozens of bug-shaped mines scatter outward in erratic arcs, and I notice a few of them forcefully explode whenever they hit something, forcing Ledram's group back.
However, Elsa reacts instantly as she waves her hand, and in response, the temperature plummets.
The mines freeze mid-flight, suspended in crystalline prisons before shattering into glittering fragments, but freezing them requires focus, and Exceed V-mon capitalises as he makes his move while yelling, "Force Blade!"
Brilliant energy blades extend from his claws as he dives, aiming to carve through Elsa before she can reset.
However, a flash erupts in front of him as Sara Connor's arrow detonates in a burst of blinding light, making Exceed V-mon painfully roar, as his vision is momentarily obscured.
At the same time, Elsa forms ice beneath her feet, sliding away just as his claws slice through empty air.
Following that, Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune surge forward together.
Sailor Uranus raises her hand above her head as streaks of energy gather in her hand from the air.
Sailor Uranus then closes her hand on it, and a ringed sphere begins to form. When the energy sphere is fully formed, she hurls it toward the ground in the direction of the target while yelling, "World Shaking!"
At the same time, Sailor Neptune lifts her arms above her head and brings them down, sending a ball of blue energy shaped like the planet Neptune toward her target while yelling, "Deep Submerge!"
The World Shaking sphere moves through the ground, causing an earthquake, then rises above the ground, in accordance with the position of its ring, and combines with Sailor Neptune's Deep Submerge.
Then the two energy planets orbit around one another as they continue to advance toward their target.
Wind and oceanic force crash into the blinded dragon, slamming him into the arena floor with enough force to rattle the reinforcement grid.
Elsewhere, the remaining Sailor Guardians converge on Goddramon.
Sailor Mercury summons a globe of water, which then splits into several streams that shoot toward her target while she calls out, "Mercury Aqua Mirage!"
Sailor Mars summons fire and surrounds herself with it. She then absorbs it in her hand and throws the fire while exclaiming, "Mars Snake Fire!"
The thrown fire then changes form into the shape of a snake and attacks her target.
Sailor Jupiter brings her hands together, gathering lightning from her tiara to form a disc-type of electricity and throws it towards the Digimon while yelling, "Sparkling Wide Pressure!"
Lastly, Sailor Venus puts out her hand and shouts, "Venus!" Causing the symbol of Venus to appear and unleash a flurry of yellow sparkles.
The sparkles appear to gloss onto her lips and give her orange lipstick. She then kisses the palm of her hand, forming a yellow heart.
Shouting, "Love and Beauty Shock!" She throws it, and it circles her, multiplying into several hearts, then back into one glowing heart that moves to hit the enemy in an explosion of yellow light.
Their combined assault engulfs the golden dragon in layered elemental fury; however, Goddramon answers calmly, "Shoukan."
He claps his hands, and then he spreads his arms wide.
The next moment, from the blue vambrace on his right arm, a dragon made of living fire comes out and starts to hover around him, while from the red vambrace on his left arm, a dragon made of living electricity is released that also starts to hover around him.
Those two dragons hovering around Goddramon quickly start to spin in front of him at a very fast speed, forming a blue and red shield.
The Sailor Guardian's combined attack crashes into the red and blue shield and is quickly dispersed in violent bursts of light that unleash a devastating countershock that sends the Sailor Guardians crashing to the ground.
Shortly after that, Goddramon cups his hands and draws them to his side as he concentrates his holy energy into a single point between his cupped hands in preparation for his powerful God Flame.
Soon, all the energy between his hands is so concentrated to the point that a small sun seems to have appeared between them and shines so bright that it illuminates the whole arena.
If released, that attack will easily erase them; however, Sailor Pluto appears beside Sara Connor, firmly gripping a long, silver staff, which is topped with a heart-shaped finial containing a pink gem.
The staff features intricate detailing, including key-like designs along its length that remind me a bit of Ledram's Keyblade.
Suddenly, I hear Aika behind me gasp and exclaim, "The Garnet Rod!? Isn't it this way too soon!?"
This is followed by Reika, who comments, "Maybe, but if Setsuna doesn't use it now, Minako, Makoto, Rei, and Ami are going to be taken out."
From their tone, I realise that what Sailor Pluto is about to do is going to be very dangerous, likely for both Jayr's Digimon and the user herself.
Sailor Pluto raises her Garnet Rod, which starts to shine brightly as she calls out, "Time Stop!"
Time suddenly halts within the battlefield where everyone but Sailor Pluto and Sara Connor, who is touching her body, but strangely not for us within this spectator area, which allows us to continue to observe this peculiar state.
However, soon I notice that we, Sailor Pluto, and Sara Connor aren't the only ones unaffected as Jayr and Ledram continue to exchange moves despite the fact that the time should have been frozen.
At this point, I feel it again, that impossible distortion that Hermes cannot parse.
Meanwhile, within that suspended instant, Sara draws her bow, quickly gathering an uncalculable amount of energy and light, forming an arrow of pure light before she releases without any flourish or declaration.
The arrow becomes a thin beam of concentrated light that pierces straight through Goddramon's chest.
The next moment, time resumes, and for a heartbeat, nothing happens, but then fractures spread across his colossal form as the holy energy he was gathering disperses.
Shortly after that, he shatters into motes of light just like Aika and Reika before.
Those motes of light scatter into the sky before condensing into a small, familiar shape beside me.
Patamon appears, blinking in disorientation.
I glance at him only briefly before focusing back on the battlefield where Jayr is mid-swing.
His armoured fist is about to hit Ledram's face, but the instant Goddramon shatters, his Spiral Cosmo flickers, just slightly, making his strike waver by a fraction, but because of that, Ledram's Keyblade nearly catches him across the torso.
Jayr adjusts instantly, twisting and redirecting his momentum into a shielded block that forces Ledram backwards.
He does not roar nor does he falter, but his eyes narrow, a clear sign that he felt it and is shocked by the unexpected loss, making him mutter, "... So Patamon was taken out, huh."
At the same time, Patamon realises what happened and says, "Damn... Somehow they hit my Digicore! What a nasty sensation... Luckily, even if the Concepts didn't revive me, I would have still been able to survive by regressing into my Digitama state, but that is truly a last resort that I'd like to avoid."
Then he looks around, and as soon as his eyes land on Reika, he smiles, flaps his ears and flies toward her while saying, "Oh, you are Kitani Reika, right? Can I have a signed photo? I'm a huge fan!"
Suddenly, his eyes open wide, and he adds, "Please don't tell Jayr that! He doesn't want me to watch those forms of art, he believes that I'm too young for that..."
Kitani Reika is stunned for a few seconds before she chuckles and says, "Oh my...! Fine, after this battle is over, I'll give you that signed photo."
While this is happening, the battle does not slow.
Across the field, several of the Sailor Guardians are gathered around Sara and the now severely weakened Sailor Pluto, who looks on the verge of death.
Suddenly, Sailor Pluto's body also shatters into motes of light; clearly, her Time Stop has a steep cost.
Then, for a fraction too long, their focus shifts away from Exceed V-mon, who is recovering from the combined strike and Bancho Stingmon.
That is the mistake as Bancho Stingmon vanishes, moving with a burst of speed and reappears behind Elsa, calling out the name of his move, "Bloody Finish."
His drills pierce straight through her torso, making her body dissolve into shards of frozen light.
A few moments later, both Elsa and Sailor Pluto appear beside, their expression stunned but still composed.
At the same time, the battlefield grows smaller and more condensed with fewer participants.
I watch as Jayr pushes forward again, Spiral Cosmo roaring brighter than before, as if daring the battlefield itself to escalate further.
This is the single that the battle still hasn't reached its climax, and is only going to get worse.