The Trinity Infiltration Team Strikes!

On the other side of Trinity, Dige was conflicted. On the one hand, he needed to drop a few more bombs on a few places to prep the walking fortress for demolition, but on the other, he really wanted to kill Akira. The sight of his bullets ripping that bastard’s torso open was one of the happiest moments in his life. He could almost feel the grudge egging him on, asking him to finish the job, but that wasn’t to come just yet. He had to be patient and light carefully. There were enemies everywhere, all very upset at his wanton murder spree, and the fuse was delicate.

“Get down here, dwarf!” They roared. “Come down, so we can eat you!”

A tempting offer, but Dige figured it was time to take his leave, so he flew out the gap between the carapace and the leg and let the explosives shut them up. 

Once he was back on solid ground atop the fortress, the dwarf took a breather. All of this magical concentration, the fighting, the bomb planting. It was all very embarrassing, but for now, he had stopped the fortress from moving. That would leave his brethren to plant the real explosives in the spider’s belly. That would be the end of Trinity, so long as the group lived that long.

Dige felt a rumble in his feet. His legs were tired, and the weight of his equipment truly brought him down, but it wasn’t his fatigue. Something was stirring beneath the fortress city’s structure until, like a worm burrowing out of an apple, a serpent blew out of Trinity’s side. 

If the fortress was 400 meters in length, this serpent was looking to be a kilometer long. No, two. Make that three. While most of the serpent was a translucent cloud of energy, a physical reflection of its mana power, its solid structure was many times the size of the dwarf, its head tentacles the size of the towers surrounding him, its mouth the size of city gates. Its eight eyes had their sights trained on him.

“I had to think what kind of creature could brush off that autocannon,” it said, the sound carried by its earth-shaking roar. “This wasn’t the toughest opponent I had to face, but I’m sure it’s more than enough.”

One of the tendrils smashed into the ramparts, tearing them apart with overwhelming force and forcing Dige to get airborne again. The dwarf unleashed the power of his autocannon into the creature’s face, but the firepower wasn't enough. There was too much skin to go through. Akira became bulletproof through pure mass. 

Another swing went for Dige, and he barely dodged. His newly found flying skills were put to the test against an onslaught of tendrils, with each strike threatening to smack him out of the sky, or worse. The dwarf tumbled through the sky, up becoming down and vice versa. 

He had to concentrate. This fight was familiar. This fight was haunting. In his blurred vision, the dwarf could see a familiar visage. It wasn’t the same type of serpent head, but it enraged him all the same. He was not weak like he was back then. He was strong now!

Suddenly, he heard a little chirp in his ear. He almost forgot what it sounded like.

“Dige, is that you!?” Marine said. “What are you doing? What is that thing!?”

“Blue-haired girl?” Dige grunted. “I’m a little busy right now, so-.”

“My name is Marine! And listen, we’re going to go save the heroes from that fortress."

Dige wasn’t sure before if he needed further motivation, but nothing sparked his jets like those words. It was the best thing she possibly could’ve said to him. 

The Soul Lighthouse remained still, eerily so. The calm ripple denoting activity in the stream had vanished. The water stopped flowing. Black stains spread across the once bright construct like a mold. This was all disregarding the massive leviathan tongue-out dead in the center of the room, making it hard to enter or leave. The room was falling apart by the minute.

The sisters each had a share of the lighthouse, both duties in maintaining it and the portion of power it held as the spiritual connection to Glynn’s World. Marine only had a fourth of what was needed to maintain its function. Elbeth was the primary giver, as expected of the oldest sister, and she was unconscious on the floor, drifting further into an endless sleep as the corrupting wound sapped her of immortal life. Rani was only behind by half an hour, at most.

“C’mon, sis,” she uttered, her voice weak. “Give your power to me. You don’t need to stay here. You’re useless.”

“No, I’m going to save you! Both of you!” Marine dragged her with all of her might. “Don’t lie to me, Rani!”

“El would’ve done it, too. We only made fun of you because we love you.” Rani coughed red. “Sorry, that was a lie. I’m such a bad sister.”

“Just shut up and lie right here. Leave everything to me.”

This performance was meant to be a trio dance. It wasn’t something the sisters had practiced much. There wasn’t much use for it, and the point of all three performing was so that any mistakes could be covered by the others and wouldn’t tank the spell. That only meant that Marine had to move perfectly. Why? She thought. Why must these kinds of situations rely on musical performances?

The Astral Plane was their world, and Glynn’s World was their stage. It wasn’t theirs originally. That much she could admit, but it was their home. It could not be replaced by anything else. The lives of its people, its 600-year history. That was their doing. Everything part of their being was reflected within its beautiful nature. There was no way some mercenaries were going to take that away from them.

Marine alone activated the incantation, moving her body to a diegetic, out-of-space rhythm, and extracted the magic from her siblings, their essence flowing into her. It almost brought her to tears. Their thoughts and memories came as well, and they were the truth, but she bore it and continued, and the power of the three goddesses flowed down.

Flying high by cumulocloud, the mortal witches and warriors of Glynn’s World dove upon Trinity like falcons. They aimed for the neck, where they could spot the easiest entrance into the fortress. They could also see the massive serpent and the small flying hunk of metal dueling the creature with speed and maneuverability. There were a few guesses on who that could be.  

Kuroni and Tama were the first to land, followed by Swell and Gerthwyn. These shock troops laid into the hundreds of demons amassed for their arrival and diced them with precise fury. The old veteran, who was too impure for the cumulocloud to carry, rode Gerthwyn in her massive bear form as they charged into battle, overpowering demons with goddess-empowered strength, while Tama and Kuroni cleared hallway after hallway until their ammo ran dry. After that, they took to the sword, moving with imperceptible speed.

Khylee and her sisters disembarked second and scoured across the dead halls to sense the appropriate directions. Their smell wasn’t as strong as Lupa’s, but their targets had strong odors nonetheless. 

Lastly, the mages landed, plus Cordelia. It only took a minute of running until the cats found their first conduit. The red orb pulsed inside.

“Alright, who’s going first?” Rani asked.

“Out of the way!” Cordelia answered. “I’ll free him.”

With a swing of her enchanted sword, she cut the conduit in two with ease. While the incantation required them to use more natural spellcasting to heal the soul, Glynn’s World had its versatility. It was better to test this on the first try, the princess argued.

And despite a fresh cut on his chest, Hideyoshi's body reformed at an accelerated pace with Elbeth’s magic flowing through him. However, not much else came with him.

“Oh, did I do it wrong?” Cordelia mumbled before getting smacked aside by a bear.

“Monkey-man!” Khylee meowed. “You’re okay!”

Perhaps, but as soon as he looked down, he wasn’t. “What happened!? What are you doing here!? The battle!”

“There’s no time,” Vel said. “We only have a few minutes.” 

The warriors scattered for the next target, but the beastmen took the opportunity to clothe the hero. Gerthwyn’s cloak would suffice. It disappeared when she transformed anyway.

“Do you have any idea where we are?” he asked. 

“Do you know where you’re at, Sarugami?”

“That’s not the point! You gotta get out of here before-!”

The boy was shushed with a grizzly bear paw. “You’re such a soft boy. That’s why I came back.”

“We love our monkey-man!” Khlyee and her sisters added. “You’re part of the sisterhood.”

“And we don’t abandon a fellow beastman, right?”

"I'm not a beastman!" It was almost enough to make the swarthy teen cry, so he did. “Dammit! I love you guys so much!”