Chapter 23: Death Wish: Part I

Chapter 23: Death Wish: Part I

The top floor of the mall was dominated by the huge, circular room in its center that contained the shielding station, and it was beautiful.

The room was designed like an outdoor garden with high, towering walls, and most of the floor consisted of a mixture of grass, flowerbeds, and stone paths. Small hedges and marble half walls partitioned off the various areas, and a smattering of benches and tables gave plenty of areas for people to relax and enjoy the sights. Statues, dozens of them, were scattered across the room, all of different Magical Girls in heroic looking poses. Adding to the atmosphere was the glass dome that made up the rooms ceiling, and I was sure on a night with stars showing, the room would look otherworldly.

Of course, while all of it looked nice, what really put the room together was the shielding station. Or, rather, it was what was housing the technology that created the shield.

A giant aquamarine crystal rose from the ground in the direct center of the room. It was easily twenty feet tall, and was wide as a bus at the base before gradually tapering off to a point at its peak. The crystals edges were rough and unevenly cut, giving it a natural, asymmetrical look. Combined with the glass dome ceiling, I was sure the crystal was dazzling during the day with the sun shining down on it.

As it was, it merely glittered from the various lights hanging around the room, which might have been for the best. As distracting as the crystal already was, I didnt need more light reflecting off it while I was fighting.

I sighed, glancing around the room once again. Taking the area from the few Anathema guarding it had been easy, but stressful. Selene had gone ahead of me to the main security room and closed all four of the thick security doors leading into the room except for one that shed left only slightly open. With the doors sliding shut from either end of a wall, it left a narrow opening that Id been able to shoot through as they came at me. Most had died on the run up to the door as they funneled towards me and made themselves easy targets, and the ones that hadnt had either perished trying to squeeze through the door or on the retreat back when they realized they werent going to make it through.

Between that fight, clearing my way to the shielding station, and taking out a few Anathema patrols as I gathered the supplies I needed, Id taken out twelve more Anathema. Five Fomorian Hounds, three Forsaken Ghouls, two Giant Cavern Wasps, and two new types I hadnt seen before.

The first was a Fomorian Spinethrower, a hedgehog looking creature covered in spines with four long, serrated tails and a turtle-like head. Each of the tails ended with a dozen of thin, finger-length tendrils that Selene told me the creature used to pull out and throw the spines growing from its back. Id not experienced it, because Id ambushed and killed the monster before it could do much more than spin around to face me, netting me a nice twenty points.

The second new Anathema Id faced was a Lesser Lashbat. It was little more than a ribcage with wings and a tail that ended in a blade. It reminded me a lot of a manta ray, just with bone spikes sticking under its body. Apparently, its preferred tactic was to dive bomb its prey and whip its bladed tail at someone as it flew past. That, or it latched onto their face with its protruding ribcage.

Again, I hadnt had to experience it. The Lashbat had been in the shielding station room, and Id shot it down from behind the door the second I saw it coming at me. A single lucky hit had been enough to ground it, the bullet shredding through the meat of one wing and rendering it basically immobile. After I dealt with the rest of the Anathema charging the door, Id gone and finished it off for fifteen points.

In total, Id earned 125 points. Before Id left the shelter, Id spent twenty points of my thirty on 300 rounds of ammunition and an additional five magazines, bringing me down to ten points. Adding the points Id earned from the Anathema on the way up, that gave me 135 to work with, and Id spent every last one buying only what I absolutely needed. I hadnt even bothered buying new Zenith enhanced clothing, or even wasting any time washing out the blood soaking my jeans. I wanted every second I could to get my preparations in order for the battle to come.

The battle

I shivered, and Selene glanced up at me from the bench we sat at. The center of the room was slightly raised in a circular shape, and a half wall helped divide the central area of the room from the artful garden around it. We sat at one of the many benches that had been placed along the dividing wall so people could sit and look at the dazzling gem. Interestingly enough, the crystal technically wasnt the shielding station, it was merely a defensive barrier and conduit for the magitech held deep inside of it. The crystal was supposed to be hyper durable, capable of withstanding damage from all but the strongest of Anathema.

[Is there something wrong?] Selene asked me, and I shook my head.

No I was just thinking Do you think we can really hold out for five minutes?

[Using the strategy we developed with Error Machina, yes. After personally examining the security doors, however, Im afraid I would have to agree with his worst-case assessment. If we simply closed them, they would only be able to withstand Anathema below level fifty. Anything higher would be able to damage them significantly, and level 100s would not face much issue tearing them down. The doors are built two inches thinner than regulation, Im afraid. Though, I find it hardly surprising considering the other corners the malls management decided to cut.]

The stump of my left arm itched, and I resisted the urge to scratch at it.

Will the Anathema be smart enough to go for the door we leave opened, though? I asked, trying to distract myself. They havent seemed that smart so far. Why wouldnt they just attack the doors?

[They might at the beginning, but once they hear the gunshots and notice other Anathema heading in one direction, they will follow suit. At lower levels, they may be rigid and unimpressive in their tactics, but they still have a base, animalistic instinct they follow. Part of that is to go through the path of least resistance. Even when a higher level anathema is acting as a coordinator or commander, it is the behavior they immediately turn to.]

Okay, I looked down at my Umbra sitting in my lap and ran my thumb idly over its side.

A tense quiet settled between us, and I found myself fidgeting. There was a pressure in my chest, a tightness that wouldnt go away whenever I looked at Selene. It had been building ever since we left on our mission, getting worse and worse with each passing moment. I knew I had to say something, but I wasnt sure there was anything I could say. Not to make things better, at any rate.

Which meant there was only one option left.

Selene, I whispered. Im Im sorry. That youre stuck here with me, and that you have to die, too.

Selenes head snapped to me, her body freezing, and I suppressed a flinch. She stared at me for a long moment, and I found it hard to breathe. The pressure in the air felt exactly the same as just before Id left the shelter, when Officer Oh and Sergeant OMalley had helped me refill all my empty magazines with the ammo Id purchased. The atmosphere had been stifling.

While Sergeant OMalley had simply seemed subdued, Ji-woo had been strained. Shed been overly nice whenever she was talking to me, but her voice had always had a thin, thready undertone to it, like she was one wrong step away from snapping. It had made the hurried few moments I spent in the shelter almost unbearably tense.

Even her words as I left still made me shiver.

Ill see you when this is all over, all right?Follow current novels at novelhall.com)

Id only nodded in response, even though I was pretty sure we both knew how this was going to end. I knew I should have said something else, to make it easier on her, but I hadnt been able to find any words or the courage to say them.

It was that same pressure I felt now, and as I saw Selenes tails begin to resume their gentle swaying, I took a deep breath and braced myself. Whatever Selene wanted to say, I would hear it. Shed been bound to me, after all. It hadnt been her choice to do this, and if she had gotten any other girl as her Guardian, she would probably have had a good chance of escaping with them.

Instead, shed gotten me, a Dark Magical Girl who couldnt even use her Astral Shift.

Shed gotten the worst luck being assigned to me.

So I looked down at the floor, hunching into myself with the knowledge that I was the one who doomed her.

It was my biggest regret about all of this, and no matter her response, I would hear it. I owed her that much.

[There are two things I would like to say,] Selene began, her voice calm and oddly analytical. [First, even should you die, I still will most likely survive.]

I snapped my head up in shock, meeting Selenes gaze with wide eyes.

Even saying the word tasted funny. After all the odds that had been stacked against me leading up to this moment, it felt ridiculous. Besides, what had hope ever done for me? Things were what they were, and wishing for something to be better didnt make it so. What was so wrong with just accepting what was and continuing to move forward?

Besides It hurt a lot less than constantly getting your hopes up only to have them ripped apart.

[Do not discount hope, Mai,] Selene murmured, her voice soft as clouds. [There is a reason it is one of the quintessential emotions of a Magical Girl. To be a Magical Girl is to be the bringer and very essence of hope. To those that have lost everything or fallen to fear, hope shows them the path forward, freeing them from the barbed shackles of despair. It is more than just a salve to the broken, it is a fire. A burning desire that spreads through them and gives them strength to strive forward, a hand reaching to grasp the light they have been shown. To hope is to not just survive, but to live and defy. So dont give up just yet. Youre a Magical Girl, and sometimes, all it takes is a little hope to turn magic into a miracle.]

Before I could respond, light blossomed down on us.

I jumped up in surprise, looking up through the glass dome as flares of light began to shoot up into the night sky, glowing like multi-colored stars. Red, blue, green, yellow, white, pink, and purple. Hundreds of stars flew into the night sky and shone down on us, their light reflecting off the crystal in a rainbow of colors that painted the room. I stared up in wonder at the sight for a moment before the shock wore off.

Selene? I asked, my hand gripping tighter around my gun.

[Those are emergency flares from the spell Star Flare,] Selene whispered in something like reverence. [It is a common spell, one every Guardian is urged to take in case of emergency. All it does is send a flare of light into the sky, moving through even solid surfaces unhindered. Its normally used by Guardians to signal an emergency, that they need backup. It can also be used as a signal for other things, of course, but this]

What? I asked, shifting my weight nervously as Selene went silent. What does it mean? Is Error trying to tell us something?

[I No, I dont think so,] Selene shook her head. [I think I think the Guardians of Arcadia are trying to say that even if you are alone, they stand with you. An alert must have been sent out about your Death Wish. I believe that this is their response. That even if you fight alone, they will still be standing with you. They know what you are doing, and you are honored for it.]

I blinked up at the lights, a numb warmth spreading through me.

That was No, they didnt even know me. Why would they even care? I was just some nameless girl doing what any one of them would, so why? Why would they go out of their way to do something like this? I was nothing to them.

So why would they do something so beautiful?

One of the stars, a green one, blinked out of existence, and just like that, all the others followed suit. The return of the night sky was striking in its darkness, and the inside of the room suddenly felt dim without the extra lights reflecting off the crystal.

Um I licked my lips. Do Do we have time to go back to the shelter and ask Error what that was about? I dont think it seemed more like a message.

[Im afraid we dont have time. We would only have fifteen minutes to run down there and back, which would only be possible if we had a straight shot with no Anathema on our path. Even if we took the elevator down, I doubt we could make it back up in time. We never scouted the area around the first floors elevator banks, so we would have to move carefully to get to the shelter no. I just dont think we have the time. It would depend too much on if there was a clear path and how many Anathema there were.]

I bit down on my lip lightly, nodding along. Selene was right. We had just over twenty minutes before the third floor shelter lost power, and it would take five of those minutes for the shield station to restart. It just wasnt enough time, not without risking both my life and everyone in the shelter.

[I really do believe it was meant as encouragement and an acknowledgement, if it helps. If the miasma in this zone wasnt so thick, Im sure Error could have sent us a message or even used some of his magic to aid us, but]

Miasma? I frowned.

[Ah, yes. Long explanation cut short, miasma is negative mana, that is, magical energy with a negative alignment. It is what the Anathema are made of, and they have trouble surviving without it. Usurpation Zones are bubbles of that miasma, and the more Anathema in the area or the stronger they are, the more miasma there is. It has the side effect of interfering with things such as long-distance magic. Although Error is much stronger than any one Anathema in this zone, there are so many I doubt his magic could affect anything here from his position at Guardian Command.]

Oh I blinked. I hadnt even realized that magic could work like that. I hadnt really thought too deeply on what exactly a Guardian like Error would even do, but I suppose it made sense there were ways for him to assist even from the back. If there wasnt, it would kind of be a waste of a Guardians potential.

[At any rate I am afraid its time.]

Cold slithered through my gut, and I took in a sharp breath as I froze. Anxiety electrified my muscles, turning them into live wires pulled so tight it felt like they could snap at any moment. All the mental barriers Id built up over the past forty minutes vanished for the briefest moment, and fear stabbed an icy blade deep into the center of my heart.

This was it, and I knew how it ended.

I didnt want to die.

But I didnt want to let hundreds die even more.

I moved forward, and just like that, my mental defenses were back in place. The fear took a backseat, whispering behind the heart-pounding anxiety. I readjusted my grip around my Umbra, the weight reassuring me as I went forward.

Near one of the faces of the crystal, just in front of the stairs leading down to the garden area of the room, there was a pedestal made of smooth marble. It was a little over half my height, a perfect cylinder sticking from the floor with a tilted, oval shaped top. I walked up to the pedestal as Selene had instructed me previously, and after I tucked my gun under my left armpit, I placed my hand on it.

Glowing blue lines suddenly appeared, crisscrossing over the pedestal like circuits, and a low humming sound came from seemingly nowhere. After a moment, holographic screens appeared in front of me displaying various menus, readouts, and alerts. I looked over them for a moment, hesitating as I tried to read through the various information.

[One moment. Ill highlight the correct options through your HUD.]

A second later, one of the buttons appeared to glow, and I pressed my finger against it. To my surprise, the holograms were actually made of something physical, making it easy for me to press through the various options without having to worry about my finger going through the display. A few more button presses later, mostly going through a bunch of warnings that tampering had been detected in the power supply, and I was finally left with one message in big letters.

Are you sure you wish to restart the Reality Reinforcement Shielding Station?

I stared at the message for a second, swallowing down the tightness in my throat.

[Weve got this, Mai,] Selene assured me, her voice filled with complete certainty. [Weve prepared. All that is left is to put the plan into action.]

I nodded. She was right. There was no point in hesitating any longer.

I pressed the button.