Some new friends

Chapter 12

The girl jumps off the giant wand and curiously examines the enemy’s remains, scattered on the ground and under her weapon.

“Maybe if we gather all the parts together, Sir Valiansteel can pull his soul out? Oh, I haven’t even introduced myself yet, sorry!”

She grabs the massive object by the handle and effortlessly lifts it off the ground, causing chunks of flesh to fall off. She shrinks the wand down to its original size and shakes off the remaining blood, like a samurai cleaning his blade.

Then, she poses with her left hand on her hips, her right hand forming a peace sign on her forehead, and her wand floating beside her.

“I’m Clara Halverston, also called Celeste sometimes! But you don’t want to meet Celeste. This is your warning~! I’m Halo Unit’s magical girl vanguard! Tasked with protecting innocents, maintaining peace, and defeating evil, parading their battered corpses in front of their fellows as we mercilessly correct their ways. Nice to meet you!”

None of them could respond. The quick succession of shocking events has completely overwhelmed them. Astrea closed her eyes, and everyone’s expressions conveyed disgust, confusion and other things all at once.

Naoya was the first one to recover, not wanting the strange Knight to feel awkward.

“Uhhh, hello. We’re… no, they’re Cipher Unit. I’m Naoya, future Knight of the Order. Thanks for the back-up.” It was all he could say.

“Ohhh, you’re the Naoya that Sir Valiansteel was talking about? I read the file Captain Bellan sent me. Are you really from another world?” she eagerly asks.

“Yes, but I don’t think we have time to chat about that right now.”

Everyone regains their focus as the remains of the giant suddenly move towards each other, limbs and organs and blood gathering into masses of flesh and reforming into new bodies. Eventually, countless copies of the enemy surrounded them, each one still muscular but now looking more like a regular human. The Knights immediately prepare as the clones attack.

Naoya looks around, trying to find anything he could use to protect himself. Spotting a simple staff that Lance had conjured earlier, he races to grab the weapon as a clone runs at him, taking it just in time to swing towards the attacker, who flies away with Naoya’s hit. He examines the staff with a smile and proceeds to knock out a few more clones approaching him.

Realizing he couldn’t hide anymore, Naoya runs around the battlefield, weaving through the countless swarm of clones with his magic and the staff. Around him, the battlefield was chaotic- beams of light shot through the air, weapons sliced and shattered bodies, and even the environment was reshaped by their magical influence.

Eventually, the battlefield was quiet, with countless clones lying motionless on the ground, and the Knights victoriously standing above them. Naoya finds a safe rooftop to observe from, and he spots glowing shapes that look like animals running around the area.

“Naoya! Everything okay up there?” Greta asks him as she finishes the last of the clones.

“I saw some glowing animal shapes running around us. I don’t know what those are,” Naoya replies.

“Oh! That’s my teammate! We’re fine,” Clara shouts back.

An enormous mass suddenly flies towards them, and Naoya recognizes it as a ball of clones, their bodies clumped together and collapsing into a pile as it lands. Approaching from the same direction was a tall, muscular lady. She had thick brown hair tied in a ponytail, and what looked like bear ears on top of her head. She wore a fitted garment around her chest, exposing her muscular arms and torso, and a piece of clothing that had the Knight’s signature colors tied around her waist, covering her muscular thighs and shorts.

“That’s all of them I could find. Some tried to escape while you were fighting, so I sent my familiars to round them up,” the lady says as a glowing eagle spirit lands on her arm and turns into a ball of light, which she grabs.

“You must be Cipher Unit, right? I’m Anastacia von Skalbjorn, recon and vanguard for Halo Unit,” the lady introduces herself with a small curtsy using the garment on her waist.

“Wait a minute, von Skalbjorn? You’re-?” Lance starts, but before he could finish his question, Clara suddenly appears in front of him and tightly grabs his mouth.

“Yes, I am who you think I am, but please don’t mention it. You can let go of him now, Clara, hahaha…” The lady awkwardly replies, and Clara lets go of Lance, who was left frozen in fear.

“It’s an honor to fight with you. I’m Greta, this is Astrea, and that one at the back is Lance. We’re the members of Cipher Unit,” Greta bows as she introduces her team, and Naoya jumps down from the rooftop to join them, intending to ask who the lady was.

“What about him?” Anastacia asks.

Naoya stops in his tracks and introduces himself. “My name is Shiranui Naoya, Shiranui is the family name. I’m a new citizen of Valebryn and a future Knight.”

“Ohhh, you’re the Naoya from the assignment. The one that passed Sir Valiansteel’s test, right?”

“Yes ma’am. Captain Eiren gave me permission to tag along so I could watch the Knights at work”.

“Well, if you could pass the Sentinel’s test, you’re probably already qualified to join us,” she smiles, eyeing him up and down.

“Thank you, ma’am,” he smiles back, surprised at the sudden compliment.

Greta’s watch rings, and she quickly answers the call.

“How’s everything on your side?” It was Captain Bellan.

“We’ve successfully neutralized one of them, sir. Well, it’s not really just one,” she looks over at Astrea and Clara, who were gathering the clones into a deep hole in the ground, formed earlier from the giant’s initial escape.

“Great job, team. I’m including Halo Unit in our line. Hold on.” The captain goes silent, and after a few seconds, a different voice speaks.

“Can everyone hear me?” Captain Eiren asks.

“Yes, sir. Loud and clear,” Greta replies, and everyone gathers around to listen, including the members of Halo Unit.

“Alright, brief status report. A Noctis hideout was discovered and raided earlier today. Some operatives were captured on the spot, but as you saw, some escaped. Captain Bellan has captured four so far, I captured six, and you guys captured the cloner,” he explains.

“Excuse me, Captain, question. Does the explosion guy count as your capture or ours? Also, do all of the clones count — Aww!” Lance jumps in, which quickly earns him a smack at the back of the head by Greta and Astrea.

Captain Bellan laughs. “Thanks for that. Now, continuing what Captain Eiren was saying, our combined units have captured seven so far, and other units across the city have also been on the hunt. We don’t really have a solid number of how many operatives escaped, so keep a lookout for more of them.”

“Captains,” a new female voice joins in. She sounded quite mature, but also quite unmotivated. “Tessa here. I’ve been following someone who keeps possessing objects, trying to escape detection. I think I pissed them off because they’re not possessing small objects anymore.”

“Uhhh… That’s good, isn’t it? Did they surrender?” Captain Bellan asks.

“No, sir, they stopped possessing small objects; they’re possessing the buildings now and forming a giant golem. I think I need backup,” she nonchalantly replies.

Off in the distance, the group watches as buildings and structures start crumbling and forming into a large golem, growing bigger as they destroy everything around them. It stood taller than anything around it and moved towards the city walls, trying to escape.

“I’m on my way,” Captain Eiren says as his voice disappears from the call.

“Some of us are en route as well. The rest will watch over the captured clones,” Greta tells the captains and turns to her teammates. “Trey and I will provide backup. Lance and Naoya, stay here and guard the clones until the Squires arrive.”

“You don’t have to tell me. I don’t think I wanna go anywhere near that,” Naoya replies, deciding to observe the action from far away.

“I’ll join you! That’s a big evil waiting to get defeated,” Clara excitedly says.

“I’ll stay here so my familiars and patrol the area.” Anastacia summons several spirit animals around her, some familiar to Naoya like the eagle and the snake, and others he has never seen before. They all scatter in different directions.

The team splits up, and Naoya jumps onto the nearest rooftop, watching the golem continue its rampage across the city and grow bigger. He also spots what looks like a giant metal suit of armor, flying around the golem and throwing all sorts of spells and projectiles at it, trying its best to halt the giant’s movement to little effect. As soon as one part gets restrained or destroyed, it quickly gets replaced by new rubble. Naoya feels nervous about the situation, but then, he senses that something interesting is about to happen.

A bolt of lightning strikes near the golem, and a knight with an open book appears.

…

Tessa sits inside her armor, trying her best to contain the golem. But nothing so far has worked, and her ammunition was running out as well. She racks her brain for more ideas when suddenly, a bolt of lightning strikes near the giant, and Captain Eiren appears, his eyes glowing white while suspended high in the air.

“Fall back, Tessa.” His order was short and serious.

“Yes, sir. No need to tell me twice.” She turns to fly towards her teammates, relieved at her Captain’s arrival.

With no one left around the golem, he could finally begin. Eiren places the book in front of him and starts casting.

The golem stops moving as a dark blue tint sweeps across its surroundings, as if stained glass of the same color were blotting out the sun. Turning around to see a large portion of the city covered in the sapphire hue, it finds the source of the spell. A tiny little mage with an open book in front of it, hovering near its face. The golem doesn’t know who it is, but it knows that the mage is getting in its way, so it raises a massive arm made of rubble to punch the mage down to the ground.

But without warning, hundreds of bright, glowing lines suddenly appear from the mage and spread in all directions, running through every surface covered by the dark blue. As soon as the lines reach the golem’s massive body, it gets frozen in place, unable to move even its eyes. All it could do was watch as the tiny mage stripped away every single piece of rubble making up its body, causing immense pain to the Noctis operative inside. The mage uses it to reassemble everything, and eventually, all that’s left is the human body of the Noctis operative, still unable to move after experiencing the pain of its body being torn apart piece by piece. The sapphire hue and bright lines covering the city retreat into the mage’s book, and everything, including the once-demolished structures, is back to normal.