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Aegis - A Sci-fi Isekai.
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<p>[QUOTE="Houseman, post: 11913, member: 7"]</p><p>I was guided outside, and got to see some of my new surroundings. The building I came out of looked like a hospital, clean, white, and tall. The cement and grass looked perfect as well. Everything inside and out was pristine, sanitized. Looking around, there were other buildings, roads, and even cars. Every building was either rectangular, or square, and made of the same shining white brick. Apart from the bricks being the most striking feature, the buildings also lacked the sloped triangular roofs, giving the area an industrial feel.</p><p></p><p></p><p>I learned that we were at a military base, and priority was given to function, rather than form. The bricks were all created using Aegis, which is to say, they were willed into existence, and then assembled following designs. The entire compound and all the technology was made in the same way.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Leona and Mayu were one of the few remaining who have the necessary compatibility to use Aegis to create matter from nothing. Those who can use Aegis were called priests, and were given tasks related to creation. Those who also fought, like the sisters, were given the title warriors. These heroes were the most effective weapons against the Invaders, and the war effort was based around supporting these two groups.</p><p></p><p></p><p>It was assumed that I would be a warrior, since, in a past life, I was a great General. There was actually a statue of me in another city, apparently. I was depicted as holding up the head of an Invader, which I used as a sort of prototypical Aegis container. The word itself, as well as the scene depicted in the statue, derive from the myth of the Greek hero Perseus, who beheaded Medusa and used her head as a weapon.</p><p></p><p></p><p>I was taken, by vehicle, to a firing range at the edge of town, which was really just a flat slab of concrete, pockmarked by various impacts. I could see a faint green glow emanating from the ground and curving up above my head. The town was protected by this dome, not itself a physical object, but a shield of energy maintained by a group of priests. That I could see where it terminated meant that I was, quite literally, at the edge of town. Beyond that was considered a wasteland.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Leona was here, waiting for me.</p><p></p><p></p><p>“We’re going to be doing some target practice to see what you can do. Here, use this”, she said, handing me a vial of Aegis. “Every time you do something, a proportional amount of liquid is used up. This is your ammo, so be sure to keep track of it so you don’t run out. If you turn it sideways, you can see a numerical representation of how much is left.”</p><p></p><p></p><p>I did, and holographic numbers appeared on the side of the vial. ‘1000’, it read.</p><p></p><p></p><p>While I put the vial around my neck, Leona used hers to fashion a target some distance away. She also conjured a glowing bow and arrow, which she drew and fired. The arrow caused an explosion which turned the target into powder.</p><p></p><p></p><p>“Try to do something like that. Break the target however you want. Just use your imagination.” she said, building me another target, closer this time, for my benefit.</p><p></p><p></p><p>“Couldn’t I just…” I began, but then, to my surprise, the target exploded in the manner that hers had. I didn’t create a weapon or fire anything at it, I just thought about it exploding, and I did. I should be more careful with my thoughts so I don’t accidentally destroy something while daydreaming.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Leona was upset again. “You need to learn not to attack things directly like that! It doesn’t work on our enemies. Aegis is derived from their blood, and aegides can’t directly affect other aegides! That’s why you have to create a weapon first! Do it again”. She made me another target, even closer this time.</p><p></p><p></p><p>I thought about what weapon I wanted to create. It would need to be something that could strike from a distance, like a bow and arrow, but I didn’t know how to use those. A gun, maybe?</p><p></p><p></p><p>I materialized an actual gun. It wasn’t glowing like her bow, or Mayu’s sword. I looked at Leona, expecting her to scold me. Instead, she just shrugged. I aimed at the target, and attempted to fire, but the trigger wouldn’t move. Did I even make a real gun? Is this just a gun-shaped object? Or wait, perhaps I have to turn the safety off? Inspecting my creation, I pressed a switch which released the magazine, startling me when it fell to the floor. Wrong switch. Picking up the magazine, I saw that there were even bullets inside. Did I create all this? I didn’t even know how guns really worked, never having handled them in real life. To think that I could create something, but not even know how it works or what’s inside, that’s disturbing, to say the least.</p><p></p><p></p><p>I made the gun, the magazine, and the bullets vanish. It was all too complex for me. Leona yawned. I just needed something to attack the target with. I thought about all the different kinds of weapons I’d seen in games and shows. Then I had an idea. What if it wasn’t a weapon, but just an attack itself?</p><p></p><p></p><p>I took a stance I had seen in anime, and thought about saying the words, but thought better of it, since Leona would probably make fun of me. Instead, I skipped the preparation, just brought my hands forward. A green beam of light exploded from my palms, so bright even I had to close my eyes, so powerful that I felt pain in my teeth. I stopped emitting the beam as soon as I could, mostly out of surprise. The whole thing lasted about a tenth of a second.</p><p></p><p></p><p>When I looked at where the target used to be, but couldn’t find it. Instead, there was a gorge cut into the ground. It cut through the concrete and into the dirt below, and continued on past the edge of town, carving a crescent shape into a hill in the distance. The affected area shimmered with heat.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Feeling that I did something wrong, I turned to Leona to apologize, but she had already grabbed me by the collar and necklace, turning me to face her. She turned my necklace sideways to read the number. It still said `1000`.</p><p></p><p>“You didn’t use any? But you expended so much power! It was expected that you’d be more efficient at using Aegis than we are, but you still have to have used some of it. You can’t get something from nothing. Unless… Oh crap, this is bad!”</p><p></p><p></p><p>Moments later we were back in the hospital. She had teleported us there, apparently. I wasn’t ready for that, and felt dizzy, so I sat down on a bed behind me while she ran off. Moments later, she teleported back into the same room, this time with a doctor in tow. The doctor had closed her eyes, I noted, which probably helped with the dizziness. Was it really so urgent that seconds couldn’t have been spent walking normally from place to place? The thought itself was raising my blood pressure and heart rate, which probably wasn’t good in any context in which a doctor is involved.</p><p></p><p></p><p>The doctor checked my vitals and took my blood, then told me to lay down and try to relax before shooing Leona out of the room. I thought of Ria, and wondered what she must be doing right now. I could have probably conjured some magic mirror that would let me see her, but decided against it. What if she was in the bathroom or something? Those thoughts were not relaxing.</p><p></p><p></p><p>About a half-hour later, the doctor returned with some papers on a clipboard. Leona hovered over her shoulder.</p><p></p><p></p><p>“We noted this before,” the doctor said, “but you have Aegis in your blood. It’s normally toxic to us, so we attempted to flush it out, but that didn’t work. Actually, with the amount that you absorbed through your eye, if it were a problem, you would have been dead already. For us, just a drop on the skin would be enough to warrant a month’s stay, but since you and Ria are different, it’s fine. It’s a toxin to us, but you two could probably drink it like water and survive. Don’t do that, by the way.</p><p></p><p> But your cells seem to be absorbing Aegis, and bonding with it. From the blood sample we took, around a third of your red blood cells are… we don’t have a medical term for this, but your blood resembles the blood of the Invaders, which is where Aegis comes from. I’ll need to run some more tests to be sure, preferably tissue and bone marrow samples, but we think your body is actually producing Aegis on its own.”</p><p></p><p></p><p>Leona cut in. “And this is dangerous, because you’re using your own Aegis as a source of power, as opposed to the distilled form in these vials. Look at mine.” She held hers up in front of my face. It read `260`. “All the teleporting around I did used that much up. Going back in time to get you used up at least two whole vials. You can’t get something from nothing, so every time you use your powers, you’re using up your own blood. See how that’s a problem?”</p><p></p><p></p><p>I felt fine, but yes, I could see how that would be a problem.</p><p></p><p></p><p>“So until we know more,” the doctor continued, “don’t use your powers. Even if you were to use up a third of your blood, you might survive, but it could be that your tissue and bones are infused with Aegis as well. We noted that your eyeball was exposed to Aegis. We can probably assume that your optic nerve, and perhaps even your brain is affected. Using your powers could make your brain cells disappear, in the worst case scenario. But like I said, we need to run more samples to make sure.”</p><p></p><p></p><p>If this is happening to me, then… “Ria!” I exclaimed. “She might be in the same danger! You need to warn her too!”</p><p></p><p></p><p>“The warning hath already been received,” Mayu said as she entered the room. “The Princess is retired to her chambers. T’would follow that her ‘condition’ is less severe than yours, but through observation, we ascertained that her use of Aegis also comes from within.”</p><p></p><p></p><p>I sat back down, relieved. I didn’t even realize that I had stood up. I hung my head.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Someone put a hand on my shoulder. It was Leona. “I’m sorry I got you into this. Taking you from the past was my idea. Whatever happens, I’ll take responsibility for it. Even if it turns out you can’t help us, I’ll make sure you and Ria have good lives here.”</p><p></p><p></p><p>Something about those words made me suddenly aware of the gravity of the situation. Our old world was gone, destroyed by invaders from another planet. All our friends and families, everyone we ever knew were dead, 200 years in the past. Even we were supposed to be already dead, resting peacefully in a hero’s tomb. We were saved from that fate only to be the failed last-ditch attempt at saving the world. Is that really it? Are we supposed to just sit around and wait for the Invaders to kill us all when humanity inevitably runs out of Aegis?</p><p></p><p></p><p>I didn’t realize that Leona had hugged me. She had hugged me because I was crying. I think she was crying too. Even Mayu was looking away, holding back tears.</p><p></p><p></p><p>We were broken from our solemnity by some sort of alarm that made everyone in the room jump.</p><p></p><p></p><p>“Leona, to arms at once! Our camp is beset by the enemy!” Mayu shouted.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Leona let me go and wiped her eyes looking annoyed at something other than me for a change. “I’ve never even heard that alarm at this outpost. The barrier should keep them away, shouldn’t it?”</p><p></p><p></p><p>An explosion nearby confirmed that it did not. We could see the smoke from the window, being 10 stories up. I recognized the flat concrete plane from the firing range. There was, or used to be, a building next to it, but it was now obscured by smoke. I just happened to catch a nearby guard tower as it buckled and collapsed.</p><p></p><p></p><p>I turned around and Leona and Mayu were gone. The doctor excused herself, needing to make emergency preparations. For the first time since I came here, I was alone. But that also meant that nobody was around to tell me what to do.</p><p></p><p></p><p>I went to see Ria.</p><p></p><p></p><p>---</p><p></p><p></p><p>Taking the stairs this time, since the elevator seemed more risky, I stopped at Ria’s floor, which I remembered as being the penthouse. Coming in from an entrance near the elevator door, I didn’t see her in her huge bed. I thought she might be buried under a pillow or a plush doll, but upon closer inspection, I could see that she wasn’t in the room at all. Another explosion.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Her windows didn’t face the same way that mine did. If she were curious about the explosions, she would have to leave the room. I didn’t pass her on the stairs, so unless she took the elevator down, maybe she went to the roof? I decided to go up and check. If I didn’t find her there, I’d just use my powers to go to her. I didn’t care anymore.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Fortunately, I did find her on the roof. She was watching the smoke. She turned, and gestured me over when she heard my footsteps on the rooftop’s gravel.</p><p></p><p></p><p>She began as I approached. “Did the doctors tell you too?”</p><p></p><p>“Yes”, I replied.</p><p></p><p>She sighed. “It seems like only yesterday, but I still remember my lines”</p><p></p><p>“Your lines?”</p><p></p><p>“The play. I sacrifice myself to save everyone else. This situation is a little like that, don’t you think?” Her voice was distant, dream-like. The same things that were weighing on my mind were also weighing on hers.</p><p></p><p></p><p>“Unlike that play”, she continued, “I don’t have a duty to save everyone. The king and prince had given their lives for me, and then it was my turn. I barely know these people. This isn’t really my world. Our world”. She held my hand, as we watched the smoke together. “You’re the only one here who really knows or cares about me. And you’re the one who I care about the most. But you’re still here. If anything, I feel that I have a duty towards you. So I want you to decide. What do we do? How do you want us to live?</p><p></p><p></p><p> Like they say, we can live peacefully as civilians for the rest of our lives, or we can use up our bodies and fight. It’s our lives. We should decide what we do, not them.”</p><p></p><p></p><p>She turned to face me, grabbing my other hand. “Allow me to fight, and I will. Tell me to stay back, and I will. What should I do?”</p><p></p><p></p><p>I looked away. I wasn’t used to people relying on me like this. I looked towards the smoke. There were smaller explosions now, green bursts, visible in the distance. People were perhaps already fighting and dying while I was mulling over this decision. I hadn’t even thought about risking my life and fighting anyway, but Ria had already come to a resolution. She was looking toward me for direction, but in reality, I took direction from her. If she wanted to fight, then screw it, so would I.</p><p></p><p></p><p>“You’ve seen those vials they have?” I began. “They’re small right? We have way more blood than that.” She beamed. “Let’s go, Princess.”</p><p></p><p></p><p>---</p><p></p><p></p><p>Ria knew how to fly, apparently. I didn’t, so rather than have her try and lift me, I decided that I’d copy what Leona did and teleport instead, after telling Ria that I’d meet her there. I went back to the firing range, as a familiar spot. There were sounds of a battle nearby. The building that used to be there was crushed, and in its place stood a building-sized mix between a salamander and a dragon. It was black, and covered with some sort of thick coating. It reared up on its tail, revealing two columns of sword-like legs. Mayu could be seen batting them away with her sword and shield, while an arrow, presumably from Leona, struck its underside. It seemed not to react, and crashed down with its body, causing another plume of smoke. I ran towards it, clearing the smoke and rubble out of the way.</p><p></p><p></p><p>I found Leona first. She snapped at me, of course. “What are you doing here? We told you not to use your powers!” The Salamander-dragon swiped it’s fat tail at us. Leona moved to tackle me out of the way, but couldn’t make it in time. I wanted to block it, so I did, causing ripples to form through it’s thick hide. I swatted it away, causing a chunk of the hide to rip off, revealing a mechanical structure.</p><p></p><p></p><p>“Oh, this seems pretty easy. Can you not do that, Leona?” She had about three different emotions on her face, but before she could answer, Ria swooped down, punching the beast in what I suppose could be it’s head. It compressed, before rebounding off the earth and bouncing up above us.</p><p></p><p></p><p>“Heh, I didn’t think it would be that easy”, she commented, still hovering in the air.</p><p></p><p>“I know, right!?”</p><p></p><p></p><p>“Princess! Stop this at once!” Mayu objected.</p><p></p><p>“Stop me yourself”, she replied, sticking out her tongue, as the creature landed in the distance.</p><p></p><p></p><p>It bounced and rolled to a stop near the edge of the dome. “Hey Ria, watch this!” I called. Seeing that it was far enough away, and couldn’t cause any collateral damage. I hit it with the same beam I used before, but scaled back in intensity. The beam vaporized the rubber-like flesh off the mechanical lizard, stripping it to the bare metal. It looked like a centipede now. Parts of it were melting with a few legs falling off. It wasn’t moving.</p><p></p><p></p><p>“That was totally a move from some anime just now, wasn’t it? You nerd”, she teased.</p><p></p><p>I didn’t have a witty reply, so I turned to the sisters. “So, was that it? Is it over?”</p><p></p><p></p><p>I was met with stunned expressions. Mayu answered first. “For the while, yes, I think it to be so. Though, to be honest, I hath never beheld the death of a creature of this type”, pointing weakly at it.</p><p></p><p></p><p>“To be safe, we should move the body outside of the dome then, right? It looks like it got in through that hole over here” Ria pointed. Following her finger, I could see a perfect circle cut out from the dome. That was from my target practice an hour earlier. Oops.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Thankfully, I didn’t have any deaths on my conscience from that attack. I learned later that it was just structural damage, and a fuel tank that had exploded. After using our powers, Ria and I both felt fine. The doctors didn’t detect any loss of blood, tissue, or bone, and we consented to having more tests done. Together, Ria and I both made it clear that we were determined to fight, despite the risks.</p><p>[/QUOTE]</p>
[QUOTE="Houseman, post: 11913, member: 7"] I was guided outside, and got to see some of my new surroundings. The building I came out of looked like a hospital, clean, white, and tall. The cement and grass looked perfect as well. Everything inside and out was pristine, sanitized. Looking around, there were other buildings, roads, and even cars. Every building was either rectangular, or square, and made of the same shining white brick. Apart from the bricks being the most striking feature, the buildings also lacked the sloped triangular roofs, giving the area an industrial feel. I learned that we were at a military base, and priority was given to function, rather than form. The bricks were all created using Aegis, which is to say, they were willed into existence, and then assembled following designs. The entire compound and all the technology was made in the same way. Leona and Mayu were one of the few remaining who have the necessary compatibility to use Aegis to create matter from nothing. Those who can use Aegis were called priests, and were given tasks related to creation. Those who also fought, like the sisters, were given the title warriors. These heroes were the most effective weapons against the Invaders, and the war effort was based around supporting these two groups. It was assumed that I would be a warrior, since, in a past life, I was a great General. There was actually a statue of me in another city, apparently. I was depicted as holding up the head of an Invader, which I used as a sort of prototypical Aegis container. The word itself, as well as the scene depicted in the statue, derive from the myth of the Greek hero Perseus, who beheaded Medusa and used her head as a weapon. I was taken, by vehicle, to a firing range at the edge of town, which was really just a flat slab of concrete, pockmarked by various impacts. I could see a faint green glow emanating from the ground and curving up above my head. The town was protected by this dome, not itself a physical object, but a shield of energy maintained by a group of priests. That I could see where it terminated meant that I was, quite literally, at the edge of town. Beyond that was considered a wasteland. Leona was here, waiting for me. “We’re going to be doing some target practice to see what you can do. Here, use this”, she said, handing me a vial of Aegis. “Every time you do something, a proportional amount of liquid is used up. This is your ammo, so be sure to keep track of it so you don’t run out. If you turn it sideways, you can see a numerical representation of how much is left.” I did, and holographic numbers appeared on the side of the vial. ‘1000’, it read. While I put the vial around my neck, Leona used hers to fashion a target some distance away. She also conjured a glowing bow and arrow, which she drew and fired. The arrow caused an explosion which turned the target into powder. “Try to do something like that. Break the target however you want. Just use your imagination.” she said, building me another target, closer this time, for my benefit. “Couldn’t I just…” I began, but then, to my surprise, the target exploded in the manner that hers had. I didn’t create a weapon or fire anything at it, I just thought about it exploding, and I did. I should be more careful with my thoughts so I don’t accidentally destroy something while daydreaming. Leona was upset again. “You need to learn not to attack things directly like that! It doesn’t work on our enemies. Aegis is derived from their blood, and aegides can’t directly affect other aegides! That’s why you have to create a weapon first! Do it again”. She made me another target, even closer this time. I thought about what weapon I wanted to create. It would need to be something that could strike from a distance, like a bow and arrow, but I didn’t know how to use those. A gun, maybe? I materialized an actual gun. It wasn’t glowing like her bow, or Mayu’s sword. I looked at Leona, expecting her to scold me. Instead, she just shrugged. I aimed at the target, and attempted to fire, but the trigger wouldn’t move. Did I even make a real gun? Is this just a gun-shaped object? Or wait, perhaps I have to turn the safety off? Inspecting my creation, I pressed a switch which released the magazine, startling me when it fell to the floor. Wrong switch. Picking up the magazine, I saw that there were even bullets inside. Did I create all this? I didn’t even know how guns really worked, never having handled them in real life. To think that I could create something, but not even know how it works or what’s inside, that’s disturbing, to say the least. I made the gun, the magazine, and the bullets vanish. It was all too complex for me. Leona yawned. I just needed something to attack the target with. I thought about all the different kinds of weapons I’d seen in games and shows. Then I had an idea. What if it wasn’t a weapon, but just an attack itself? I took a stance I had seen in anime, and thought about saying the words, but thought better of it, since Leona would probably make fun of me. Instead, I skipped the preparation, just brought my hands forward. A green beam of light exploded from my palms, so bright even I had to close my eyes, so powerful that I felt pain in my teeth. I stopped emitting the beam as soon as I could, mostly out of surprise. The whole thing lasted about a tenth of a second. When I looked at where the target used to be, but couldn’t find it. Instead, there was a gorge cut into the ground. It cut through the concrete and into the dirt below, and continued on past the edge of town, carving a crescent shape into a hill in the distance. The affected area shimmered with heat. Feeling that I did something wrong, I turned to Leona to apologize, but she had already grabbed me by the collar and necklace, turning me to face her. She turned my necklace sideways to read the number. It still said `1000`. “You didn’t use any? But you expended so much power! It was expected that you’d be more efficient at using Aegis than we are, but you still have to have used some of it. You can’t get something from nothing. Unless… Oh crap, this is bad!” Moments later we were back in the hospital. She had teleported us there, apparently. I wasn’t ready for that, and felt dizzy, so I sat down on a bed behind me while she ran off. Moments later, she teleported back into the same room, this time with a doctor in tow. The doctor had closed her eyes, I noted, which probably helped with the dizziness. Was it really so urgent that seconds couldn’t have been spent walking normally from place to place? The thought itself was raising my blood pressure and heart rate, which probably wasn’t good in any context in which a doctor is involved. The doctor checked my vitals and took my blood, then told me to lay down and try to relax before shooing Leona out of the room. I thought of Ria, and wondered what she must be doing right now. I could have probably conjured some magic mirror that would let me see her, but decided against it. What if she was in the bathroom or something? Those thoughts were not relaxing. About a half-hour later, the doctor returned with some papers on a clipboard. Leona hovered over her shoulder. “We noted this before,” the doctor said, “but you have Aegis in your blood. It’s normally toxic to us, so we attempted to flush it out, but that didn’t work. Actually, with the amount that you absorbed through your eye, if it were a problem, you would have been dead already. For us, just a drop on the skin would be enough to warrant a month’s stay, but since you and Ria are different, it’s fine. It’s a toxin to us, but you two could probably drink it like water and survive. Don’t do that, by the way. But your cells seem to be absorbing Aegis, and bonding with it. From the blood sample we took, around a third of your red blood cells are… we don’t have a medical term for this, but your blood resembles the blood of the Invaders, which is where Aegis comes from. I’ll need to run some more tests to be sure, preferably tissue and bone marrow samples, but we think your body is actually producing Aegis on its own.” Leona cut in. “And this is dangerous, because you’re using your own Aegis as a source of power, as opposed to the distilled form in these vials. Look at mine.” She held hers up in front of my face. It read `260`. “All the teleporting around I did used that much up. Going back in time to get you used up at least two whole vials. You can’t get something from nothing, so every time you use your powers, you’re using up your own blood. See how that’s a problem?” I felt fine, but yes, I could see how that would be a problem. “So until we know more,” the doctor continued, “don’t use your powers. Even if you were to use up a third of your blood, you might survive, but it could be that your tissue and bones are infused with Aegis as well. We noted that your eyeball was exposed to Aegis. We can probably assume that your optic nerve, and perhaps even your brain is affected. Using your powers could make your brain cells disappear, in the worst case scenario. But like I said, we need to run more samples to make sure.” If this is happening to me, then… “Ria!” I exclaimed. “She might be in the same danger! You need to warn her too!” “The warning hath already been received,” Mayu said as she entered the room. “The Princess is retired to her chambers. T’would follow that her ‘condition’ is less severe than yours, but through observation, we ascertained that her use of Aegis also comes from within.” I sat back down, relieved. I didn’t even realize that I had stood up. I hung my head. Someone put a hand on my shoulder. It was Leona. “I’m sorry I got you into this. Taking you from the past was my idea. Whatever happens, I’ll take responsibility for it. Even if it turns out you can’t help us, I’ll make sure you and Ria have good lives here.” Something about those words made me suddenly aware of the gravity of the situation. Our old world was gone, destroyed by invaders from another planet. All our friends and families, everyone we ever knew were dead, 200 years in the past. Even we were supposed to be already dead, resting peacefully in a hero’s tomb. We were saved from that fate only to be the failed last-ditch attempt at saving the world. Is that really it? Are we supposed to just sit around and wait for the Invaders to kill us all when humanity inevitably runs out of Aegis? I didn’t realize that Leona had hugged me. She had hugged me because I was crying. I think she was crying too. Even Mayu was looking away, holding back tears. We were broken from our solemnity by some sort of alarm that made everyone in the room jump. “Leona, to arms at once! Our camp is beset by the enemy!” Mayu shouted. Leona let me go and wiped her eyes looking annoyed at something other than me for a change. “I’ve never even heard that alarm at this outpost. The barrier should keep them away, shouldn’t it?” An explosion nearby confirmed that it did not. We could see the smoke from the window, being 10 stories up. I recognized the flat concrete plane from the firing range. There was, or used to be, a building next to it, but it was now obscured by smoke. I just happened to catch a nearby guard tower as it buckled and collapsed. I turned around and Leona and Mayu were gone. The doctor excused herself, needing to make emergency preparations. For the first time since I came here, I was alone. But that also meant that nobody was around to tell me what to do. I went to see Ria. --- Taking the stairs this time, since the elevator seemed more risky, I stopped at Ria’s floor, which I remembered as being the penthouse. Coming in from an entrance near the elevator door, I didn’t see her in her huge bed. I thought she might be buried under a pillow or a plush doll, but upon closer inspection, I could see that she wasn’t in the room at all. Another explosion. Her windows didn’t face the same way that mine did. If she were curious about the explosions, she would have to leave the room. I didn’t pass her on the stairs, so unless she took the elevator down, maybe she went to the roof? I decided to go up and check. If I didn’t find her there, I’d just use my powers to go to her. I didn’t care anymore. Fortunately, I did find her on the roof. She was watching the smoke. She turned, and gestured me over when she heard my footsteps on the rooftop’s gravel. She began as I approached. “Did the doctors tell you too?” “Yes”, I replied. She sighed. “It seems like only yesterday, but I still remember my lines” “Your lines?” “The play. I sacrifice myself to save everyone else. This situation is a little like that, don’t you think?” Her voice was distant, dream-like. The same things that were weighing on my mind were also weighing on hers. “Unlike that play”, she continued, “I don’t have a duty to save everyone. The king and prince had given their lives for me, and then it was my turn. I barely know these people. This isn’t really my world. Our world”. She held my hand, as we watched the smoke together. “You’re the only one here who really knows or cares about me. And you’re the one who I care about the most. But you’re still here. If anything, I feel that I have a duty towards you. So I want you to decide. What do we do? How do you want us to live? Like they say, we can live peacefully as civilians for the rest of our lives, or we can use up our bodies and fight. It’s our lives. We should decide what we do, not them.” She turned to face me, grabbing my other hand. “Allow me to fight, and I will. Tell me to stay back, and I will. What should I do?” I looked away. I wasn’t used to people relying on me like this. I looked towards the smoke. There were smaller explosions now, green bursts, visible in the distance. People were perhaps already fighting and dying while I was mulling over this decision. I hadn’t even thought about risking my life and fighting anyway, but Ria had already come to a resolution. She was looking toward me for direction, but in reality, I took direction from her. If she wanted to fight, then screw it, so would I. “You’ve seen those vials they have?” I began. “They’re small right? We have way more blood than that.” She beamed. “Let’s go, Princess.” --- Ria knew how to fly, apparently. I didn’t, so rather than have her try and lift me, I decided that I’d copy what Leona did and teleport instead, after telling Ria that I’d meet her there. I went back to the firing range, as a familiar spot. There were sounds of a battle nearby. The building that used to be there was crushed, and in its place stood a building-sized mix between a salamander and a dragon. It was black, and covered with some sort of thick coating. It reared up on its tail, revealing two columns of sword-like legs. Mayu could be seen batting them away with her sword and shield, while an arrow, presumably from Leona, struck its underside. It seemed not to react, and crashed down with its body, causing another plume of smoke. I ran towards it, clearing the smoke and rubble out of the way. I found Leona first. She snapped at me, of course. “What are you doing here? We told you not to use your powers!” The Salamander-dragon swiped it’s fat tail at us. Leona moved to tackle me out of the way, but couldn’t make it in time. I wanted to block it, so I did, causing ripples to form through it’s thick hide. I swatted it away, causing a chunk of the hide to rip off, revealing a mechanical structure. “Oh, this seems pretty easy. Can you not do that, Leona?” She had about three different emotions on her face, but before she could answer, Ria swooped down, punching the beast in what I suppose could be it’s head. It compressed, before rebounding off the earth and bouncing up above us. “Heh, I didn’t think it would be that easy”, she commented, still hovering in the air. “I know, right!?” “Princess! Stop this at once!” Mayu objected. “Stop me yourself”, she replied, sticking out her tongue, as the creature landed in the distance. It bounced and rolled to a stop near the edge of the dome. “Hey Ria, watch this!” I called. Seeing that it was far enough away, and couldn’t cause any collateral damage. I hit it with the same beam I used before, but scaled back in intensity. The beam vaporized the rubber-like flesh off the mechanical lizard, stripping it to the bare metal. It looked like a centipede now. Parts of it were melting with a few legs falling off. It wasn’t moving. “That was totally a move from some anime just now, wasn’t it? You nerd”, she teased. I didn’t have a witty reply, so I turned to the sisters. “So, was that it? Is it over?” I was met with stunned expressions. Mayu answered first. “For the while, yes, I think it to be so. Though, to be honest, I hath never beheld the death of a creature of this type”, pointing weakly at it. “To be safe, we should move the body outside of the dome then, right? It looks like it got in through that hole over here” Ria pointed. Following her finger, I could see a perfect circle cut out from the dome. That was from my target practice an hour earlier. Oops. Thankfully, I didn’t have any deaths on my conscience from that attack. I learned later that it was just structural damage, and a fuel tank that had exploded. After using our powers, Ria and I both felt fine. The doctors didn’t detect any loss of blood, tissue, or bone, and we consented to having more tests done. Together, Ria and I both made it clear that we were determined to fight, despite the risks. [/QUOTE]
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