The Attack

Lily Aranea sat alone in her office, carefully reading over a report. The New Republic’s war with the so-called Second Empire was going poorly. Several more of their outposts had been destroyed by attacks and their forces had once again failed to deal any substantial damage. Still, the war must go on. The Empire had to be eliminated, no matter the cost.

Just then there was a knock on her door.

“Come in.”

Adam Gray promptly entered, bowing once. “Madam President, apologies for the impromptu visit.”

“It’s fine, Adam, and you don’t need to be so formal. You’re my fiance after all.”

“Um, yes, of course.”

“Anyway, you’re just who I wanted to see. I think it’s time we settle things with the Empire once and for all…”

“Actually, there’s something else I’d like to discuss first.”

“Hm? All right, spit it out.”

“It’s about the captured Gwehrtain Angel, Velvet. We haven’t made any progress at all with her.”

Lily sighed. “As I thought. Those ones are all so stubborn it seems. It’s a miracle we managed to trick Ava into helping us.”

“Well, I wouldn’t exactly say I tricked her…”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say. Still, whether we like it or not, their power is invaluable. If only we could just slap inhibitors on them.”

“Yes, but we can’t use the inhibitors on the Gwehrtain Angels. They’re just too powerful.”

This was an extremely well-guarded secret that not even Ava knew about. The inhibitors could control almost any living doll, but the most powerful ones like the Gwehrtain Angels were immune to its effects

“Are you sure about that?” A devilish smirk spread across her face. “Dr. Argent seems to think otherwise.”

“What?”

“He’s developing a new kind of inhibitor. Something even more powerful and less intrusive that could work on the Gwehrtain Angels without them even realizing it. And it gets better…” With glee, she continued, “Once his research is complete, it’ll even be able to work on humans.”

“No way…!” Adam stepped backwards in shock.

Lily laughed. “Believe it. If only my idiot father or that moronic George Sun could see me now. With Dr. Argent’s technology, not only will the Republic control dolls, we’ll control the most powerful dolls, the Gwehrtain Angels. With all four under our command, we’ll be unstoppable, the world will be in our hands. All will submit, and those who don’t will be killed or controlled.” A loud, throaty cackle sounded out throughout the room. After composing herself, she focused and returned to the task at hand. “Now, let’s discuss the Empire. I want full mobilization and complete annihilation.”

***

“Discovered checkmate.” Felix moved his knight out of the way of his rook, opening up a direct line of attack to Velvet’s cornered king.

Velvet, clearly annoyed at having lost again, changed the subject, ”Oh, look at the time. We should get to bed.”

“All right, fine…”

The two had searched through their room and found a chess set, so they decided to play a few matches to kill some time.

“You know, I’m surprised you’re only a beginner at chess. They say that Gwehrtain was a grandmaster.”

“I don’t know about that, but Father used to play it a lot with Akira. I was never really interested, though.”

“Hm, really?” Ava mentioned Akira too. Was she another Gwehrtain Angel? Felix thought. “This Akira, Ava brought her up, right? I assume she’s another one of your sisters?”

“Yes, that’s right. The first of the Gwehrtain Angels. She was a real busybody and very bothersome.” Velvet thought back to all the times Akira would barge into her room while she was reading or give her unwanted hugs. It was really annoying at the time, but now she couldn’t help but smile.

“You had quite the family it seems.”

“...Yes…” She had quite the family. Father was gone, Ava had lost her way, she didn’t know where Akira was, and she could only hope that Edea was dead. If only things had turned out differently, but at the same time, it wasn’t so bad. She would have never met Felix if things had gone differently. Although, that made her wonder something. “Felix, what happened to your family?”

“My family?”

“You said you were born here, yes? What happened?”

Felix slumped over and sighed heavily. “I don’t have a family, not anymore…” He paused, and before Velvet could ask a follow-up question, he said, “Look, I don’t want to talk about it, all right? Let’s just get to bed.”

Before they could dwell on it further, however, a loud explosion rang out. Felix rushed to the window only to see the building in flames.

Velvet jumped up beside him. “What’s going on!?”

But before they even had a chance to theorize, a voice came over the loudspeaker. “Attention all units. We are under attack. This is not a drill. Proceed to defensive positions and prepare for immediate combat.”

“An attack!?” Who could it be? The Empire? This wasn’t at all their style, though, but who else could it be?

“Felix! What should we do!?”

Whoever was behind this didn’t matter right now. What did is that this could be their only chance to escape. “Come on, Velvet! The whole base is in disarray, so let’s bust out of here! Blast down that door!”

“Got it!”

Velvet charged up a shot and released it, blasting the door into tiny pieces. The two stepped over the remains and took a look outside. It was absolute chaos. The troops guarding their room had already left, and the entire base was scrambling, desperately bracing themselves for the attacker. Thanks to the chaos, they hadn’t even been noticed yet, so slipping away would be a cinch.

Felix and Velvet ran down a hallway, but as Felix turned a corner, he grinded to a halt as a man slammed right into him and latched on.

“H-help me…” The man could barely stand and was holding onto Felix as if he were a piece of driftwood in the middle of the ocean. Blood was pouring from holes all over his body.

“What the hell happened!?”

“It was… A doll… She killed us all…! Man, doll, it didn’t matter… Those tentacles…!”

Upon hearing that last word, Velvet ran ahead.

“Velvet!? What are you doing!?” Felix tried to follow her, but he couldn’t shake off the man.

***

Edea summoned hundreds of magical projectiles and rained down hellfire upon the Doll Corps headquarters. Such a powerful attack was unthinkable for any normal doll, but Edea had the mana of hundreds stored within her. Each spell landed, causing a massive explosion and setting fire to the building. With this one devastating surprise attack, the entire Doll Corps would be thrown into crisis, becoming easy pickings.

She burst through the front door, summoning two dark tendrils that pierced the guards before they could react. As the other soldiers in the room took aim and fired, she moved the tentacles to put the still breathing guards in front of her, using them as meat shields. They soaked up every shot, and as the soldiers ran out of ammo, she threw them aside like ragdolls and launched forward, piercing one of the soldiers in the neck with her sword, and as the other soldiers in the room shot at her yet again, she jumped up, cutting clean through her victim’s neck and going high into the air before firing off a dozen spells, sending several to each soldier in the room. They didn’t even have time to realize what was happening before their bodies were ravaged by Edea’s magic.

Edea fell gracefully to the ground, admiring her handiwork. In only a few short moments, she had turned the Republic’s best into a pile of barely recognizable corpses with brutal efficiency.

However, her eye caught one straggler, crawling away on his stomach like a worm. She approached him, and as her heels clicked on the ground, he writhed his body faster, hopelessly trying to escape, but his movements were halted as Edea plunged her blade deep into back.

He cried out in pain. “P-p-please…! P-please don’t kill me…!”

“Oh?” Edea knelt down and looked into his eyes. “Are you asking for mercy?”

“Y-y-yes…! P-please…!”

Her grin stretched from ear to ear. “Then I’ll be happy to oblige.”

Edea summoned her dark tentacles, and penetrated each one through a different part of his body. He cried out as each tentacle mangled him, and as Edea sucked out every drop of his lifeforce, his screams turned to whimpers before he became cold, still, and lifeless.