Cantus Null: Fracture (Part II)

[November 27th, 12:10 JST]

Tochigi Prefecture – Abandoned Industrial Zone

The eruption tore the ground apart.

A jagged fissure split open as a burst of molten rock shot upward, hurling glowing debris through the air like a volcanic blast. The team scattered the instant Reina’s voice rang out — everyone except Yuzuriha.

The shockwave caught her full force. She flew several meters backward before crashing into a steel pole. Even if the debris hadn’t hurt her, the impact alone would’ve knocked her out.

“Yuzu—!” Emi shouted into the earpiece.

No response.

Before anyone could move, new sigil circles manifested around the scattered group, divided by the giant crater left by eruption.

Tempesta Unit reacted instantly. Their bodies and eyes flared with musical tattoos and sigils as their voice rose into a synchronized counterattack.

“Ars Aria: Terra Cantus.”

Mika moved first. Her sigils burst across the dirt, and stone walls surged upward, forming a small dome around the group in staggered layers. It caught the lingering blast of heat and the rain of molten fragments.

Reina and Nana didn’t waste the opening.

“Ars Aria: Fulminare Cantus.”

“Ars Aria: Solaris Cantus.”

Their voices blended with the others as their mana charged through the Veils. Lighting threaded through flame; the two Veils overlapped into a volatile haze. The dome-shaped Cantus Veil, invisible to normal eyes, now blanketed the entire compound. The air inside congealed, growing hazy as sparks of lightning crackled against the raw heat.

“Ars Aria: Aqua Cantus.”

With the Veils enhancing her, Emi stepped forward and raised her free hand. Sigil circles bloomed around the five lifeless Diva across the broken field. Water spiraled upward, folding into a seamless cage that wrapped around and locked them in place.

Emi’s voice followed, Misaki’s rising with hers.

“Ars Aria: Lux Cantus.”

“Ars Aria: Gravitas Cantus.”

Light tightened around the water cage, reinforcing it, while a gravity sigil formed above. Misaki drew the gravitational flow downward, forcing the girls to their knees under the combined pressure.

Reina steadied her breath.

“Momoko, go check on Yuzu. The rest of you—don’t stop singing. Hold them down.” Her voices stayed steady, but every note carried strain.

None of them wanted to kill these girls.

Whatever they had become... Reina prayed something human still remained inside. If there was even the slightest chance to save them, they would take it. For now, all she could hope was that they would keep the five restrained long enough for Takeshi and the Foundation staff to reach them.

She reached for her earpiece—

A sharp voice cut in.

“Something’s wrong. Their resonance is spiking. Are they... over-synchronizing themselves?”

The team froze.

Over-synchro.

They all knew the term. Its something that they were forbid to do

A Diva could force more power out of her D-Mic.

She could push her resonance past what her lungs, throat and body could withstand.

It wasn’t awakening.

It wasn’t Coda Cantus.

It was self-destruction by singing. And the signs appeared immediately

The give girls distorted song rose into a warped, violent pitch. Their bodies trembled as cracks spread across their skin like fracture porcelain. Blood trickled from the lines. They didn’t even blink.

Even under Misaki’s reinforced gravity well — amplified by two Veils — their knees trembled, but they kept rising. Inch by inch.

Emi gasped, sweat beading down her temple. “What—What are they—? Are they still human—?”

One of them, the blonde with a loose ponytail, lifted her hand and touched the glowing surface of the water cage.

A fractured sigil flickered across her palm—

The entire prison dissolved.

Not burst.

Not shattered.

Just... folded into dust between heartbeats.

Another girl — black hair falling over her shoulders — raised her arm.

A sigil circle appeared above the five.

Subtle at first. Then the air around her shuddered.

Violent vibration warped the space, fast enough to distort into visible ripples. Misaki’s gravity field flickered, then collapsed entirely under the interference.

Misaki’s face went pale. The violent vibration created a field that negated her pull completely.

The five girls stood as if nothing had happened — except for the obvious fractures in their musical tattoos and the slow bleeding from their cracked skin. Their expressions remained empty. Not a hint of pain.

Momoko’s voice trembled.

“Impossible... our attacks were under the blessing of two Veils!”

The blonde girl broke into a sprint, the remaining four following in perfect, soulless unison. Their emotionless eyes locked onto Tempesta Unit, like predators that didn’t understand fear or pain.

Reina instinctively summoned a lighting spear. She pulled her arm back, ready to throw — then froze.

Her heart lurched.

Kill them...? Even now?

That single hesitation nearly cost her life.

A brown-haired girl, her hair cut sharply at her jawline, formed a blazing fire lance and hurled it straight at Reina. At the same moment, the other four pivoted, each targeting the other girls of her team.

The blonde ponytail girl fired off multiple sigil circles around her body as she closed the distance toward Nana and Misaki. Nana braced to meet her head-on, but Misaki yanked her aside.

The steel gate behind them dissolved instantly into dust.

“Corrosion—!?” Misaki hissed, dragging Nana back.

Reina snapped out of her hesitation and launched her lightning spear.

It met the incoming fire lance mid-flight—

And the collision detonated in a burst of blinding heat and electricity.

Before anyone could regroup, the girl with short black hair slammed both palms into the ground.

The earth convulsed.

A shockwave erupted outward, lifting everyone off their feet. Only Mika managed to anchor herself. Her heel dug into the dirt, sigils flaring. She slammed her foot down, raising a chain of floating stone platforms for Reina and the others to land on.

“Look out—!” Emiko shouted.

Too late.

The long black-haired girl materialized in front of Mika. Her entire body vibrated unnaturally, air bending around her limbs as if reality itself trembled.

She swung.

Mika reinforced her arms with solid rock and dirt to block, but the jackhammer-like impact shattered her defenses.

Her feet shredded trenches through the earth. Then her body launched backward, slamming into a broken metal beam with a metallic shriek.

“Mika!” Reina cried.

No time to reach her.

The fifth girl with her purple twin-tail, ignited wavering sigils around her feet as thick black smoke poured out, blanketing the field. The air turned suffocating, visibility disappearing almost instantly.

“Ars Aria: Ventus Cantus!”

Wind sigils flared around Momoko. A roaring updraft spiraled upward, tearing open pockets in the smoke.

Then—

A sharp jump of flame.

The brown-haired girl lunged at Momoko, fist wrapped in burning sigils.

Nana’s sigils ignited the moment she saw it. She kicked off the ground, flames propelling her forward. Her right fist ignited as she threw her punch to intercept.

Both fiery fists collided a few feet in front of Momoko.

The impact blasted outward in a violent shockwave. Emi, closest to Momoko, tackled her down before the force could take her.

The one-sided clash ended instantly.

Nana’s raw power overwhelmed the brown-haired girl.

Her arm snapped.

Bones cracked.

The hand twisted into a mangled shape of flesh and shattered bone.

Yet she didn’t scream, she only staggered once, then slipped back into formation beside the other four with a blank expression. Her left hand still gripping the warped D-Mic as she hummed that twisted harmony.

Reina’s blood chilled.

Can I even call them human anymore?

Do we... have to kill them?

She knew one hard truth:

If she and Nana unleashed their full offensive power, they could crush the five of them. The fight would be over before it truly began.

But her remaining team members stood their ground, voices trembling yet steady as they kept their song alive through the pain. They didn’t stop. They couldn’t. A Diva’s power lived and died with her voice.

And they waited—

For the order that would decide whether they took a life.

Reina pressed her earpiece, trying to contact Takeshi, but all she got was static.

She glanced around. Wisps of the purple twin-tail girl’s black smoke still clung to the air, clinging thick around the edges of the battlefield.

Communication jamming... So this is what happened to the JSDF.

There was no time left to hesitate.

“We save them.” Reina’s voice steadied, though her smile carried nothing but bitterness. “We were given this gift—this blessing of Diva. So let’s at least give these girls the rest they deserve. Set them free.”

The rest of her team breathed out in relief. They’d know she wouldn’t ask them to kill.

Still singing, Reina stepped forward and charged. Her team surged beside her. The five girls rushed in with the same eerie synchronization, meeting the rest of Tempesta Unit head-on.

The blonde ponytail girl confronted Reina directly.

Reina cast a sigil above her. Lightning gathered in a tight spiral, sharpened by both Veils. She released it with pinpoint control, a devastating but non-lethal strike.

The bolt struck the girl’s limbs dead-on. Electricity wrapped around her body, burning deep into fractured skin. The corrosion user instantly dropped her warped D-Mic as her muscles seized. Her leg buckled; her arms fell limp. She collapsed backward, staring blankly into the sky as her nerves shut down.

To Reina’s left, Nana and Momoko clashed with the purple twin-tail.

Nana swept forward, flames erupting from her sigils. Her right swing collided with the black smoke, igniting it into a violent orange flare that illuminated the whole yard.

Momoko followed with multiple sigils spinning around the flare.

A protective wall of wind enclosed the explosion, containing the blast. Nana was shielded by her Cantus Major haze and left unharmed. But her opponent wasn’t as fortunate; the blast hurled her several meters backward. She crashed into a concrete wall, cracks splitting across her face as fresh blood seeped out.

The vibration user, the girl with long black hair, saw it and lunged for Nana.

Nana threw another flaming punch, but the girl’s entire body flickered in high-speed tremor. The vibration shredded the flame apart like dust.

She was inches from Nana when—

A black sigil circle formed above her.

Misaki’s gravity seized her instantly.

The girl slammed into the ground, pinned in place. With only one target to maintain, Misaki steadied her breath and narrowing her tone just enough to stay in sync with her team. The gravitational force tightened just enough to trap the girl without crushing her.

The last two girls clashed with Emi and Emiko—a whirl of water, light, fire, and stone. Their voices layered in controlled duet, gradually pushing the fire user and the earth user back. It wasn’t a clean victory, but enough to suppress them into a stalemate.

Reina exhaled, sweat sliding down her cheek.

With the right timing... even without Mika and Yuzuriha... they were holding.

She raised her right hand again, channeling her magic into the sigil as she prepared to paralyze the remaining four—

A sound cut through the battlefield.

A faint, eerie hum.

Reina froze.

The blonde girl, now paralyzed, D-Mic dropped. Her body still jerking with post-thunder-strain... was singing.

Her mouth moved mechanically.

Her expression didn’t even change.

No... she can’t—

The song was one Reina had sung once before.

The Coda Cantus.

But wrong.

This was distorted and off-tune.

As if the song was forced through a body that didn’t choose it.

“Neh’va serat, lo’rein thal...”

Reina’s blood drained from her face.

“Back! Get back!” she shouted, waving her team away.

The lifeless girl’s sigils cracked open, bleeding light.

“Eru venai, sil’thar aniel...”

Blood streamed from her eyes, mouth, and nose. Her voice clawed its way out of her, tearing her apart.

Reina screamed, “MOVE!”

“Kaer’na torah—”

The verse never completed.

Her body burst into a pure, blinding light.

The resonance imploded—

And the entire battlefield exploded in a white, consuming blast.