Prologue: Cry Havoc!
-Rover-
The Dreamless shrieked above, wings unfurling. Its body was all pale chitin streaked through with glowing purple veins, its shape almost cruelly human, its hair a similar shade to the Havoc energy crackling along her arms and sword.
"Now!" Jiyan's voice carried over the storm. His spear swept wide, wind howling at its wake.
Rover moved with him. Her blade, covered in annihilation, cut in a black arc across the Tacet Discord's torso. Sparks of shattered matter flew, each stroke eating away at the Dreamless' chitinous armor.
The fight had been raging long enough that her lungs burned and her muscles screamed, but Havoc dulled the pain, and the new attribute she gained minutes ago filled her with newfound adrenaline.
The Dreamless answered with a scream, wings beating once to blast them both back. Its claw-like hands lashed down like guillotines, the sheer weight of its limbs cracking stone and shattering rubble into dust.
Rover slid under, rolling hard across her shoulder, her sword dragging sparks as she came up and slashed for the joint of its knee. The Havoc coated blade hissed as it tore through matter, leaving black burns across the Dreamless' white armor.
A shriek of pain made the surrounding frequencies tremble, as portals of Havoc energy formed in the air. Beams of Havoc instantly homed in on Rover, but before she could dodge, General Jiyan appeared before her, a green dragon of roaring wind coiled around his weapon, jaws opened as it constantly deflected the lasers.
"Dodge!" Rover shouted, as the Dreamless suddenly appeared above them, claws poised to stab them.
Without hesitation, Jiyan moved, his feet coated in Aero energy as he leapt to the side, narrowly avoiding the attack that shredded the ground beneath him.
The Aero dragon coiled around his spear flared brighter, and with a swift spin, he hurled it at the recalibrating Calamity-class Tacet Discord.
The point-blank strike sent the Dreamless staggering back, and Rover seized the opening. The ground cracked beneath her as she sprinted forward, Havoc wings bursting into being to lift her into the air.
Her blade glimmered with an eerie purple light as she prepared a wide, decisive swing—
Until gold eyes caught the Blade of Extinction suddenly materializing in the Dreamless' hand.
Between dodging and missing this prime opportunity to fell a dangerous opponent, Rover's choice was clear.
I'm not alone! The Blade of Extinction that was descending towards her head was interrupted by a familiar cyan-coloured Aero dragon, sending it flying and leaving the Dreamless wide open
Rover's blade honed in on the Calamity class TD's vulnerable Tacet Core. This strike would end it, she was sure—
A pale hand reached out from the side, fingers closing around her blade as if it were no more than glass. Thumb and forefinger pinched the annihilating edge, holding it still, stopping it inches from the Dreamless' core.
Who! Her unsaid question was answered by a soft, feminine voice.
"Please…go easy on this child. She was only following her Mother's orders."
Rover's eyes snapped to the side, and what she saw left her stunned.
A…human?
A young woman, hair dark and straight down to her back, dressed in a loose baggy top with a simple shirt beneath, black pants torn at the knee. Her eyes, Rover had never seen anything like them. Red, ring within ring, like ripples in still water after a stone was thrown. Across her face ran scars, one jagged line slashing through the bridge of her nose, another curling down her left cheek, sharp and pale against her skin.
Rover opened her mouth to question who the newcomer was, but she was beaten to it, and given the answer by someone she didn't expect.
"MOTHER!" The Dreamless' scream shook the air, its frequency bursting outward like a tidal wave. Rover was thrown back, hitting the ground in a roll that nearly snapped her shoulder. Jiyan landed beside her, his grip tightening around his spear in preparation.
The girl floated down, standing upon the Dreamless' hand as if she belonged there.
"That…is the Ovathrax?" Jiyan's voice was as confused as it was tight.
And Rover didn't blame him. She had read the files in the Grand Library of Jinzhou City Hall on Ovathrax. The Threnodian of War had appeared before, precisely three years ago, in what is now known as the Battle Beneath the Crescent. The battle had left survivors, survivors who had seen and even described what the Threnodian looked like.
According to them, Ovathrax appeared similar in appearance to the Crownless. Only, it was darker and far greater in size. Where the Crownless' armour was white, the Threnodian's was black.
So, its current appearance was more than surprising, but it wasn't without theories.
"Could the Threnodian have absorbed enough human frequencies that it… became indistinguishable from one?" Rover voiced aloud the most plausible scenario.
General Jiyan's jaw tightened at her words, and she could see that he too, had the same thought. "It's the only possibility. Crownless and Dreamless are Whisperin-class TD's. They consume humanity's frequency to take its shape. And as the one that created them, it's reasonable to assume that Ovathrax has a similar classification."
A soft chuckle interrupted their conversation. "General, no, Jiyan. Don't you know it's rude to talk about a woman like she isn't here? Hah~ no wonder you're still single."
Rover's eyes narrowed at the familiarity in the Threnodian's tone. It was eerie in how naturally it seemed to imitate a human. The General had a similar reaction too, brows furrowed.
A thought appeared in her mind, Is the Threnodian being affected—!!!
Rover didn't finish the thought. One moment Overthrax stood upon the Dreamless' hand. The next, she was in front of her, pale fingers reaching for her face.
Her instincts screamed. Rover twisted, blade flashing up in a desperate parry. Sparks spat between steel and skin as she shoved herself sideways.
Jiyan's reaction was not far behind, his spear thrust for Overthrax's chest, wind surging around it.
It hit nothing, as Ovathrax slipped back, landing lightly a dozen meters away.
The fight began without much fanfare.
Rover came in first, Havoc energy pouring into her blade until it hummed like a live wire. She slashed fast and heavy, purple arcs tearing the ground as they came. Jiyan struck from the side, his spear drawing lines of cutting wind that howled loud enough to split stone.
Ovathrax blocked with a conjured sword, the weapon crackling into being in its hands with a flare of Havoc energy. Its movements were sloppy, deflections that were more reaction than thought, steps taken on instinct. Yet even so, she moved fast, too fast, steel ringing against steel in a rhythm Rover struggled to keep up with.
A pistol appeared in its other hand, conjured from nothing, Havoc-light burning in its chamber. It fired once, a crack of annihilation. Rover ducked, feeling the bullet's heat shear across her shoulder.
Jiyan closed the gap, spear carving a crescent of wind. Overthrax twisted, parrying the shaft with the flat of her sword, then firing another Havoc round point-blank. Jiyan spun his spear, the wind shield deflecting the shot.
Rover didn't miss the flying Tacet Discord above them that began to descend to help its 'Mother'.
But, to her and the General's surprise, Ovathrax commanded the Dreamless, "Don't interfere."
The Calamity class TD froze in its place, like a puppet, it seemed that all its motor functions were overridden.
Rover exchanged glances with the General, and they both shelved this information for later.
Both Resonators dashed at the Threnodian, Rover cutting in from the right, the General from the left.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Another burst of Havoc-charged bullets tore through the air toward the green-haired General. The sudden switch from single shots to rapid fire caught him off guard, forcing him to halt and throw up a shield of Aero energy to deflect the barrage.
Rover, too, faltered for an instant, as Ovathrax had hurled its sword straight at her, the unexpected move making her abruptly dodge to the side.
These few seconds in which they were both distracted was enough for Ovathrax to do what it needed to do.
Havoc energy pulsed around its hand, and from it grew a massive greatsword, black and chained, its blade burning with dark flame, the hilt wrapped tight in steel shackles.
"That weapon…." General Jiyan's voice cracked.
Ovathrax's red-ringed eyes slid to him.
He spoke through clenched teeth. "The former Midnight Ranger General… Geshu Lin's greatsword."
A smile curled up the Threnodian's lips, and in an instant, its hand holding the broad blade blurred, releasing a crescent shaped slash of Havoc energy at Jiyan, sending him flying.
Seeing the Threnodian of War distracted, Rover gritted her teeth in anger and appeared behind it in a burst of speed, a scythe alive with Havoc energy erred for Ovathrax's heart.
Yet, once more, flesh met steel.
Ovathrax caught the tip of the scythe with its bare hand without even looking, fingers closing around the Havoc reinforced. Only this time Rover's eyes widened as she noticed the faint shimmer around its skin, a layer of Havoc energy laced tightly over each finger, cancelling and resisting the annihilating power of her own weapon.
Before she could even recoil, the scythe was pushed aside with a flick of strength that jarred her shoulders, and then everything blurred, she couldn't tell if it pulled her forward with that same hand or if it simply appeared inside her guard, but suddenly the Threnodian was close enough that the world narrowed to its scarred face and red-ringed eyes.
A cold feeling settled on the side of her neck, and it didn't take long to realise that Ovathrax's mouth was against her neck. Then, she felt it. The sting as teeth broke skin, the warmth of her blood drawn out in a slow, steady pull.
It wasn't pain that snapped her back, but the intimacy of it, the wrongness of being fed upon by something that wasn't supposed to even be human. Heat flared through her body, her Havoc energy shuddering with it, and instinct took over. Rover jerked hard, struggling, muscles straining as she twisted against the Threnodian's grip.
A growl from the throat sounded in her ear as it pulled back. Its lips and chin were stained dark with her blood, its red-ringed eyes boring into her own gold ones.
"Just stop moving," It said, the irritation and hunger clear in its voice, "And let me have a drink. I'll stop this war after."
Rover's struggling instantly ceased, her eyes wide at the ironic promise from the Threnodian of War.
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A/N: Had this idea for a while that I was finally able to put together in a way I liked. What better way for a War Devil to debut than in a battle.