Their Joint Fear

Rainbow Mode

It was the difference between her and a true Magical Girl. A gap that she could never overcome through her own power.

Aka’s mind drifted through the void on the edge of consciousness.

As long as her suit functioned it would prevent any physical injuries from killing her. That’s why Rose had been so willing to hit Aka with everything he had. It was the only way to put her down.

Once the rate of damage dealt exceeded the rate of recovery and pain nullification of the suit, the body would shut down due to stress. Báisè had made this point very clear to Aka throughout their explanations, singling her out even.

Not that she could blame them.

Even while in this condition, the suit allowed them to remain in a lucid state, able to traverse their own mind. The first time Aka had been here, she thought the monster that conked her on the head had sent her to a different dimension somehow.

Aka had a body in this dreamscape, but she couldn’t control it, at least not in any meaningful way. She felt like she was floating in a stream, underwater. Her stream of consciousness above her, below her, to her sides, running all around her like a tube.

She hadn’t entered this place of her own volition, so she was just being dragged along for the ride.

She inhaled, the void entered her mouth, then sighed, vacating her mouth. The void tasted of nasty nothings.

Her head arched back, the void making a gushing sound as it seemed to pick up velocity, flying over the edge of a cliff. She knew what it meant; for once, she didn’t care to fight it. It would only prolong the inevitable.

Her body remained still, even as she was flung off the side. Falling back first, she fell through the void with eyes closed.

***

“Ahhh!”

“It’s the end times!”

“God has forsaken us!”

Cries echoed out all throughout the city. People crying over loved ones trapped under fallen debris. Cars honked in desperation as they tried to escape the ensuing battle.

In the center of the city, a four-headed wyvern stood. Its body towered over even the tallest of skyscrapers. Its talons tore through the streets and cars like they were made of paper. Its wings created tornadoes and typhoons with a single flap. Its fiery breath razed an entire city block, leaving nothing in its wake.

All that were left to defend the Earth from this threat were the 4 Magical Girls of this planet: Magical Rose, Báisè, Yellow, and Aka.

Unfortunately they were not operating at full capacity. Báisè’s robot assistants were currently escorting civilians to vehicles they had modified to allow for mass transport of civilians out of the city. Meanwhile, Rose was unable to make any more clones, using all of his reserves to look for survivors through the rubble and areas where Báisè’s robots could not reach.

Still, Aka wasn’t sure if it would make much of a difference if they had them. The wyvern’s destructive capabilities would tear through their battalion of Rose clones and Báisè drones with ease, and it’s not like their presence would add a noticeable amount to the fire power currently held either.

Báisè arm guards opened up, revealing a total of six rockets, all twice as thick as their arms. They all fired at once at the wyvern, who responded by just swatting them away with a gust of wind from its wings.

All the rockets exploded uselessly in the air after being blown off course, and one of them was unfortunate enough to explode right next to a lifeless skyscraper. A chunk taken out off its side, the upper half of its floors came crashing to the ground, right above the four heroes.

Aka stamped her right foot down in front of her, taking on a wide stance as she reached her hands high up into the air.

“Aka, be loose!” Báisè reminded her.

The building half landed upon Aka’s outstretched hands, glass shattered due to the sudden jolt, and she buckled slightly under the weight in order to allow it to decelerate smoothly instead of stopping all at once. A looser, more flexible stance was better for catching falling objects than a rigid and stiff one, as Báisè had been keen to tell her.

“Now smack it out of the sky!” Rose commanded.

With the building half in her hands, she took a step forward, and another. The weight on her shoulders became easier and easier to hold with each step. Faster, and faster, she made a beeline toward the wyvern.

Of course, the wyvern wasn’t going to let her do as she pleased. It pulled back all 4 of its heads, ready to disintegrate Magical Aka with its plasma breath.

“Not on my watch!”

Báisè’s arms locked together, with their unon machinery spinned, turned, and expanded into a fully functional cannon with them as the base. Their visor locked onto the wyvern, telling them exactly where to shoot.

“Fire!”

*WSHHHHHH*

What came from the cannon was no bomb, cannonball, or magical attack. Just a simple net, its only defining features being its large size and razor sharp wires.

The wyvern, stuck charging its plasma attack, was caught off guard by it. The net spread around its body, trapping its arms close to its body. No longer able to flap its wings, the wyvern fell to the ground.

Though this did not discourage it one bit. Its attack would destroy all of them once it let it loose from its mouths.

“Terrific Thousand Thunders!” Yellow cried to the heavens.

Dark storm clouds formed, crackling with ominous intent. Then, as the rumbling reached its apex, a thousand lightning bolts rained down from the sky. Such an attack would be far too dangerous under normal conditions, endangering lives with lightning bolts falling randomly from the sky.

However, Báisè’s netting had one other hidden feature: it was a superconductor. All thousand lightning bolts rained down upon the wyvern without wavering.

Her lightning attacks had done little to damage the wyvern’s thick hide before, but with the razor wire netting cutting into its flesh, it allowed the lightning to electrocute it from the inside.

The wyvern’s body continued its unwilling dive bomb to the ground, twitching from the barrage of lightning bolts’ after effects.

Aka made sure to capitalize on the opportunity her friends gave her. Having reached her full speed, she launched the skyscraper from her hands directly at the wyvern’s falling body, and then leaped onto its trailing end.

As the building passed over the wyvern’s falling body, Aka leaped up from its side. Her thrusters on her back and right arm heating up, they fired jets of flame behind her, propelling her downwards in assistance with gravity. Her hand smashed into the skyscraper, sending them both careening to the ground as a single object with even greater speed and mass.

Together they crashed into the wyvern, which was smashed between Aka’s attack and the ground, causing the latter to crater beneath it.

The wyvern, now pinned under 100,000 tons of building, struggled uselessly. However, there was no time to celebrate, it would heal itself if they wasted this opportunity.

“I’ll take it from here!” Rose declared, raising his sword to the sky.

The wyvern tried to aim its heads to fire off its attacks, but with its necks pinned beneath the rubble, it couldn’t navigate them together as it needed.

“It’s over! Heart Breaker!” Pink hearts fired from the tip of Rose’s sword at the wyvern. As they collided with its body, the hearts cracked into jagged halves, bathing the wyvern within a pink light.

Rose increased the intensity of his attack, causing the pink light to expand further, enveloping the wyvern entirely. The light burned bright with the passion of a thousand suns, before fading out of existence in a single flash.

The wyvern’s body disappeared within the fading light, and left behind four monsters, the Dark Lord’s generals to be specific.

“It appears the last trick they had was actually working together,” Báisè commented, adjusting their shades.

“Fragile teamwork like that won’t stand against true friendship though,” Yellow added.

“Oh can it!” Wrath shouted, still on his back, unable to move in the slightest.

“We don’t have to, we won!” Aka cheered, taking the chance to sit up on his chest.

“You all are deserving of death!” Judgment screamed, vainly struggling to move.

Aka stretched her legs out to use him as her footrest, making sure to add a yawn to really get their egos running, which worked like a charm.

Silence and Fear remained quiet in spite of their comrade’s outbursts. Aka expected that from Silence, who had never uttered a word no matter how many times they clashed, but Fear was always up to trade quips.

“Well, what should we try to do?” Yellow asked, “Try and purify them of the Dark Lord’s influence?”

“It doesn’t work that way,” Rose replied, “our power can’t save people who willingly submitted to his powers.”

“So what should we do then? Just lock them away?” Yellow asked.

“That’s what we’ll have to do for now,” Báisè answered, “thankfully I built a cell to do just that, four of them in fact.”

“That just leaves the Dark Lord himself,” Rose said.

“He’s here,” an unrecognized voice rang out.

All of them turned to see Silence’s lips closing shut, a chill running down each of their spines. A dark mist began to roll into the city.

“I’m picking up some strange readings,” Báisè said, their visor’s HUD showing new data that they were trying to analyze and process.

“Everybody stick together,” Rose commanded.

Yellow and Báisè were quick to huddle back-to-back with Rose to cover their blind spots.

“Aka, come on!” Yellow hollered, worry apparent in her voice.

“It’s fine, it’s 4 on 1, there’s nothing we should have to fear,” turning towards Fear, she continued, “seeing as we’ve already beaten him up.”

“Aka!” Rose barked.

“Alright, com- uhh!!!” Aka coughed up blood as she buckled over.

“Aka!” They all screamed.

How had she even been hurt? Aka could understand getting knocked off guard, but she’d always been able to identify the source of the pain as it occurred.

This attack had been so intense, the damage throughout her body so instant, she wasn’t even aware of the origin of her pain.

Finally, her eyes came to view the open hand sticking out from her torso, having cut halfway through the side of her body.

“Apologies, it appears my act of mercy has only prolonged your suffering,” a voice whispered into her ear.

“Sire!” The four lords shouted in unison, attempting their best to get to their knees.

“Save it! The punishment for your final failure will come at another time.”

They hung their heads solemnly, consumed by the dark mist that surrounded them.

‘When had it grown so thick?’ Aka thought.

“It appears I've underestimated you lot,” he replied, standing up to his full height, pulling Aka’s feet at least a yard off the ground, “take this as a token of my apologies.”

With a flick of his wrist Aka was flung to the group. Yellow ran forward to catch her, Báisè’s robots on the ready to administer medical aid.

“I’ll hold him off, you get Aka to safety!”

Rose lunged forward at the Dark Lord, his sword poised to run him through.

*CLANG*

His sword stopped dead in its track, the Dark Lord’s pinky blocking the tip from advancing any further. He let out a laugh as he flicked his index finger, sending a burst of dark energy forth, knocking Rose straight into a building.

The Dark Lord’s laugh grew even deeper, as the surrounding shadows echoed it around him to spread his joy throughout the battlefield. “So that was your leader? I think I’ll be able to deliver unto you the swift deaths you all deserve, now that I better understand your capabilities.”

Rose jumped out from the building, not letting himself be beaten down.

“Báisè, has everyone been evacuated?”

“Yes!”

“Then I don’t have to hold back!”

A pink light spread in a circle tangent to Rose’s blade. The light broke apart and solidified into copies of himself that surrounded the Dark Lord from all sides.

The clones all dived upon the Dark Lord, aiming to buy as much time as they could.

***

Aka panted, the pain coursing through her body. Her wound still open, showing almost no signs of recovery.

“Her wound isn't closing up, what’s going on?” Yellow asked, worry creeping into her voice.

“Anti-magic,” Báisè replied quietly.

“Huh?”

“I can only assume its anti-magic from these readings. It’s preventing the magic of her suit from reaching the damaged area of her body to repair it. It will take time for the remnants of the anti-magic to disappear, but the wound will close up eventually. The suit’s will keep her alive until then by filling in for the missing faculties.”

“Okay Aka, keep strong, Báisè said you’re going to make it!”

Aka appreciated hearing the good news, even if she wasn’t in the best state to be keeping up with technical jargon.

“We have to get her out of here,” Rose landed before them.

“No!” Aka shot up, realizing her mistake too late as the pain coursed through her body.

“Don’t argue, you’re in no shape to fight! You’ll only slow us down!”

“You need me out there! This is exactly what Báisè said I was meant for, when the foes got too strong and we needed one big attack to end it all!”

“If Aka thinks she’s good to fight, then I’ll support her!” Yellow declared.

Aka gave a look of appreciation toward her.

“Statistically speaking, it’s our best chance for victory. The Dark Lord's body is constructed of pure anti-magic. The only way to destroy him for good is to flood him with an even greater source of magic.”

Aka was further surprised to see Báisè come to bat for her as well.

“Okay,” Rose responded, “but Aka, you’ll have to stay on the sidelines charging your attack. No matter what happens, keep doing that!”

“Got it!”

“We’ve got our plan, everybody, keep him busy until Aka’s ready to let her attack loose!”

***

“I grow tired of your games!” The Dark Lord declared, crushing another of Rose’s clones within his grip.

“Ripple of Despair!”

Rings of energy emanated from the Dark Lord in quick succession, destroying all the clones upon contact.

“Now, fight me for real!”

“I will,” Rose replied, lunging forth again. The attack was ferociously strong, but telegraphed.

Aka shivered as she charged her attack. Just a single strike could end Rose’s life without warning, could he afford to take such a risk?

The Dark Lord laughed, holding his pinky up to block it again.

*KSHHH*

A tiny trickle of blood trailed along the blade of Rose’s sword, before dripping off the edge to the ground. His sword had pierced the Dark Lord’s stomach, not even a half inch deep, but still, it pierced it.

The Dark Lord’s face showed his utter disbelief, which turned into anger in an instant.

“Argh!” He swatted at Rose like a bug, but he had already jumped back.

“You will learn that even the most beautiful rose has its thorns!”

Rose shot forth without hesitation, this time with an overhead strike. A fierce power was behind that blow, but it was even more easy to read than the last attack. Even Aka was worried about his reckless behavior. How could he fight like that alone?

The Dark Lord punched straight at Rose’s face, ready to puncture it straight through. However, despite his dead-on aim, it only whiffed Rose’s air. A puzzled expression appeared on his face for a split second before a twinge of pain overtook it.

Rose’s sword cut down the length of the Dark Lord’s body again, leaving a shallow, but rather long cut through him.

Rose again leaped back before he could counterattack.

The Dark Lord wiped his finger down the length of his cut, as if to verify its existence.

“Your thorns are rather annoying. It appears I’ll have to pluck it from the source.”

“Try if you might, the result will be the same!”

Rose leaped forth again, this time with sword pointed back for a telegraphed side sweep.

This time the Dark Lord did not move a muscle.

Rose swung into his midsection, this time digging into his body a good two inches before the blade stopped.

He attempted to jump back, before noticing his mistake: His sword stuck in the Dark Lord’s abdomen. His grip was still tight, so his body could only flail in the wind before his feet returned to the ground, still planted in front of the Dark Lord.

The Dark Lord grinned, darkness gathering around his fist as he punched forth at Rose.

“Share the Suffering!” Aka cried out. A red light enveloped her and Rose. This was her only chance to save him.

“I know your tricks!” The Dark Lord shouted, though Aka knew it wasn’t to her.

Suddenly, his punch curved, changing trajectory. Aka wondered what was going on, why would he intentionally whiff his attack? However, as his arm fully extended out, a wave of dark energy exploded from his fist, knocking not only Rose back into a building, but Yellow and Báisè as well.

Aka screamed in pain as her magic took effect. Her left arm and leg twisting around and around, the bones and muscles tearing within them under the stress as they hanged limply from her body.

Share the Suffering allowed Aka to share the damage her friends would receive, to keep lethal blows survivable, and increase the damage Aka was able to deal with her own attacks. The damage that had been done to Aka though, she didn’t even need to look over, but she did anyway to see the broken bodies of her friends littered upon the street.

“The plan was simple but effective. I must say, I wish my subordinates had half the intelligence you lot possess, then I wouldn’t have to handle this myself. Your leader, the only one who could damage me, would appear to fight me one-on-one. One moving at unrivaled speeds around the Earth, while carrying the other who would redirect my blows in a split second.”

Aka was surprised, she had never seen her friends plan this maneuver out. Yet they had executed it without issue against the Dark Lord. Which only made his ability to counter it all the more chilling.

“Of course, the only issue was how easy it was to identify your plans. What do weaklings always attempt when matched with overwhelming power? To stick together. You fools, it only makes you all the easier to exterminate. Still, I must give praise for these two cuts you delivered unto me. They were the first and last time anyone has damaged me. I think it’s time we ended this though.”

“NO!” Aka yelled.

The Dark Lord turned toward her, “Oh, it’s the bug who I failed to kill properly. By the looks of it you have one last ditch effort don’t you?”

“I’ll end it now, with this one strike!” Aka screamed, holding back tears. Her right fist burned even brighter, her red flames turning blue as the heat increased.

The Dark Lord only laughed at Aka’s declaration. She bit her lip to keep her working limbs from wavering.

“I apologize, that was quite rude of me. I recognize the power you hold, I commend it even. But the strength of your attack matters not, it will never wound me.”

“What, because you’ll dodge it like a chicken?” Aka goaded, getting desperate.

“Oh no, in fact I’ll stand right here for you as long as you feel is necessary. Just to prove my point.”

Aka’s body tightened, her wounds ached, it was her one and only shot, and it had been handed to her as an act of pity by her enemy.

Soon, her right hand sweat and tingled, it felt like it would melt under the intensity of her own flames that continued to consume it.

“You’ll regret this! All of this!” Aka’s gauntlet and back thruster fired up, using her one good leg she catapulted herself off the ground straight before the Dark Lord’s figure.

She landed beneath him, her body low to the ground, balanced upon one leg. Her body moved in one smooth motion to bring her back to her full height as she delivered an uppercut straight to the jaw of the Dark Lord.

“Hell’s Haymaker!”

An explosion was released upon contact, sending him into the sky as she fired a jet of fire that consumed not only the Dark Lord, but the entire sky in an instant. It was Aka’s most powerful attack to date, and she could not afford to hold anything back.

The flames roared and crackled, slowly evaporating all the clouds within the sky due to its intense heat. But it still was not satisfied, reaching past the atmosphere into space itself, where its loud screams finally became silent.

The tail end of the flame pointed towards the sun, and the force it exerted that direction caused the very Earth itself to retreat away from the sun, moving its orbital path out a fair distance.

Aka knew she was probably overdoing it, but she didn’t want to take the slightest chance. She could only take solace in the fact planes were not flying in the sky due to the invasion of the Dark Lord, and that the birds seemed to know now was not a good time for flight.

Explosion after explosion fired from her fist, adding to the flame above her, keeping her burning hopes alive.

Eventually, even Aka couldn’t withstand the power of her own attack, a series of explosions finally knocking her back several feet.

She could only sit on her ass as she saw the flames continue to burn high into the sky. Eradicating the Dark Lord within it. Aka could only sigh in relief.

“Ahahahaha!”

“No,” Aka whispered, staring in disbelief as the Dark Lord’s visage burst forth from the flames like a demon within hellfire.

With a single flick of his wrist, the red flames turned black, cold, and lifeless. With another, they were slowly absorbed into his body. As the last flicker went dark, he landed on the ground, not a scorch or burn present upon him.

Aka tried to get up, only to fall down on her stomach. She desperately needed to run, and her body could only do its best by crawling with her right arm and leg along the ground, dragging her useless left side with her.

*CRUNCH*

“Ahhhhhhhh!” Aka screamed, her leg trampled beneath the foot of the Dark Lord.

She was then pulled up off the ground by her right arm with enough force she felt it’d be ripped out of her socket. Her broken legs and arm dangling uselessly beneath her, all she could was stare at the Dark Lord directly in the face. Trying to suppress her desire to yell in terror.

He continued to hold her up by her arm, not saying a word, just looking over her body with intent eyes.

Aka could no longer handle the silence. Finally asking the single word she could muster: How?

“What was that?”

“How?” Aka squeaked out a bit louder this time.

“Quite simple really, I consume fear. Your attack, it was nothing but the last desperate kicks of a scared and wounded animal.”

Aka’s head hung down in shame. She had ruined the one chance had given to her because of her fear, because of her weakness.

She found her cheeks tightened and her head forced up by the Dark Lord.

“You should look people in the eye when they’re speaking to you. Especially when they’re offering you an opportunity.”

Aka couldn’t respond, even if she wanted to.

“How would you like to join me? Your destructive capabilities would make a fine asset to my cause. I could destroy this universe galaxies at a time, rather than having to waste time killing planets off one by one.”

“Why?” Aka asked, reduced to one word questions.

“It’s quite simple really, it’s the exact feeling I’m sure you’re feeling right now. The hatred towards me, towards this unfair, uncaring, undesirable universe. Life is nothing but pain and torment littered with false illusions of joy and happiness, that all ends in a moment of death. I just wish to accelerate everything to its natural end destination, to save them the trouble of living.”

“Now, what do you say?”

“No!” Aka choked out, despite knowing it’d seal her fate.

“I see, so you’ve chosen an early death,” his fingers tore into Aka’s chest, exiting her back with her heart in hand, “an understandable choice, really.”