Welcome to the War [Chapter XIII]

[Silver Eyes]

Everything was going according to plan.

Argus and Amoura had been trained and lectured far too much by their Rankas to not see this coming nor ignore the new resources available as a result. With Amoura still missing, it was left to Argus and Sparda to carry out the plans they mapped out. The tunnels the lizard demons dug were salvageable, and the two hybrids succeeded in rerouting them to a safer location outside the city.

And Sparda's use of the Nightmare to make it look like most of the town was being slaughtered had proven to be a perfect distraction.

Many were unable to escape. Some unfortunate souls were trampled, shot, dragged down by the mermaid, and just about any other way someone can go in this war. But The Nightmare bolstered the numbers just enough to distract from the survivors that were currently being evacuated by Argus and Michael. Both had their powers greatly weakened by the generators, but they were able to keep themselves and others hidden thanks to The Dark Knight's help.

Sadly, the number of survivors was a lot slimmer than they had hoped. It was better than none, but one could wish for a happier outcome.

"Ready?"

When the last of them filed down the tunnels, or what they thought was the last, Argus held up a remote, flipped open the cover and stared down at the switches.

"Time to make them pay."

He flipped the switches one at a time.

---

Numerous explosives detonated beneath the soldiers. The series of tunnels dug beneath the city--coupled with modifications from the dopplegangers--were unstable enough if, should they be violently disrupted, will cause large portions of the surface to cave in.

And that's just what happened.

Streets fell under, specifically the wider ones where Amoura and Argus expected large armies to file through. Buildings fell over, crushing or blocking others off from advancing.

That will have to do for now.

---

"Rowen!"

"On it!"

Jenna pulled back another arrow, Rowen lit it with holy fire, and the Huntress let it fly. A loud screech, like that of a hawk, sounded off before the fire and arrow burst into the likeness of a bird of prey. It drew close to the ground, pulled up to become parallel with it, and began to leave trails of holy fire in its wake to slow the abominations.

That's when the earth began to fall.

That distraction was perfect for them to relocate to plan on their next move. Jenna set down another illusion with an arrow and they quickly made their escape.

[Sparda]

There it was. The sudden thunderous explosions, that sank whole streets and shook all of Hallowton to its foundations, drew a smug grin to the lips of the Dark Knight, now on a journey across the city to track down these null generators. For all of Isafaro's technological prowess, of which these null fields were as fine an example as any, the primal force of the Waking Nightmare was beyond their power to challenge; and he'd been using it this whole time to make Isafaro's soldiers think they'd been killing more civilians than they had actually claimed.

The rest were on their way to safety through the underground tunnels that he and Argus had expanded all the way out as far as where the Crystal Expanse once stood. Sparda only hoped that they had saved as many as possible, and dealt the invaders a sizeable blow, with this gambit.

As he bounded from rooftop to rooftop, alley to alley, the demon spotted a squad of soldiers retreating into a sturdy, seemingly fortified building. As good a location to set up shop with a null generator as any. Smirking, the Dark Knight turned about and sprinted in. Ahead of him, the Nightmare fastened its dread clutches around the building and its inhabitants...

The clearance had taken less than a minute, each and every soldier either turned upon by one of his own under the horrifying hallucinations of the First Aspect's power or rent into so many pieces by the demon that the body was unable to mutate. Taking care to dismember each corpse as thoroughly as he could to prevent their mutating, Sparda sought out the generator.

It was a rather large, spherical device in one of the top rooms, supported upon three thick legs. The faint shimmer of a green energy shield danced across its gleaming metal surfaces and illuminated controls.

It didn't last long.

With a barrage of monstrous punches and kicks, the Dark Knight laid into the machine, battering its shield down in moments with his immense strength. Its integrated alarm had tripped upon the first hit, but stayed up for maybe ten seconds before Sparda had defeated the shield and begun punching great holes into the device until the lights blinked off and the droning hum of its activity died away. Sparda wasted no time in ripping the machine to unsalvageable pieces before he made his escape, moving on as quickly as he could.

Maybe a minute later, the infantry team drawn by the alarm had reached the gutted machine - and were incinerated as the whole building exploded, gutted by the grenade Sparda had left behind. He, Argus and Michael had planned extensively for this inevitable battle. Now their schemes were coming to fruition, and he was intent on capitalising as soon as possible. With each generator that had fallen, he could feel his infernal powers returning to him...

[Raal]

Raal felt vibrations in his ears as he neared the tower. Was that a source? The demon couldn't tell. He felt energy being returned to him upon the destruction of a couple generators, and it was enough to create a force that shoved the sniper tower down onto the ground with a gesture. Nobody would even come close to the tower due to the snipers in it right? Wrong. The fortified tower split open like an egg, causing the interior null generator to be exposed to the air. There was the source of the weird vibrations! Using what energy he could convert without tiring himself out early, Raal gave one good psychic blast, a faint purple energy wave shooting forward to puncture the shield and pop the generator like squishing a grape, metal flying all over the place.

The alarm went off, and he quickly bounded away before they found out who did it. His power was not at full, but he could at least help out a little bit. Raal still felt the restrictions of the majority of the generators that were still active... but he at least was able to shove tall buildings down with a push. That's all he could really do with his powers at the moment, was shove objects.

He bounded right past Sparda in plain view, using a kinesis wave to send Isafaro soldiers flying through the air, as if they just grew wings and took off. Raal hopped away again without hesitation, searching for another of those sphere machines. He had hit a gold mine in that sniper tower when all he intended to do was take out the snipers themselves. Maybe he could find more like that.

[Ayen]

Vulture recognized the brain path waves the blimp was picking up down below when the Waking Nightmare became more aggressive in its assault against his soldiers. Many of his people back in Isafaro had been infected and taken under for study. The General brought the radio back up to his mouth and spoke,

“Switch to equipment B. I repeat, switch to equipment B.”

The remaining soldiers and tanks on the ground activated their secondary equipment; an invisible force similar to the energy from the Downward Spiral now plagued the area. It was able to block the effects of the Waking Nightmare and returned their brain patterns to normal. The equipment was created from the technology of the Downward Spiral and made possible by Luca Valentine's assistance. In addition to protecting their minds the energy also reverted back any changes made to the reality around them.

There were two soldiers down below that stood out from the rest; black masks covering their faces and brown trench coats over their uniforms. They approached the blocked path caused by the wreckage and looked to each other.

“Teleport?” asked Soldier A.

“Teleport,” answered Soldier B.

They looked back to the wreckage and then warped to the other side.

---

"What do you see?"

Before Ayen could answer he was cut off by interference. A strange force he never felt before was blocking him from forming the telepathic link with Vulture and before he could say anything else, the two soldiers dressed in brown appeared in front of their position and looked them over.

“Princess Lori, I presume.” said Soldier A.

“You're coming with us.” said Soldier B.

Ayen quickly placed himself in front of Lori, the electricity flowing freely through his body as he prepared to do battle against the unnamed Vulture's soldiers.

“Which one do you want to fight?”

“Dunno. Flip on it?”

Soldier A pulled out a quarter with Vulture's face on it (smug bastard) and the Vulture insignia on the back.

“Whoever wins get to fight with the nice young lady over here.”

Soldier A pointed to Saturn and then flipped the quarter, covering it in his hand before looking at his partner.

“Call it.”

“Tails!”

When Soldier A revealed the coin Soldier B could see it landed on heads.

“Better luck next time.”

“Best two out of three?”

“No time.”

Soldier A walked over to the right and stood across from the Soldier of Silence eying her clothes (or the lack there of) as Soldier B remained standing before Ayen.

“Aren't you a little under-dressed?” Soldier A asked Saturn.

“Forgive me for asking this, but are you a boy or just a really flat chested chick?”

Ayen responded with a wave of electricity, and even though his aiming was perfect the electricity divided and continued on not even touching the soldier.

“That didn't answer my question...”

[Der-Sprecher-des-Wahnsinns]

After the explosions there was an intense silence at first, then over the tree tops three highly advanced Vtol Aircrafts shot for the killing grounds of Hallowton. Yuna would suddenly feel the heat on as it's main cannon came to life shooting over 50,000 degree's of laser in her direction.

The other two craft suddenly stopped and went into hover mode one of which targeted Sparda and released all 30 missiles from its ready bay. The other circled the field where Arix and the Knight stood but it soon lost interest as it's focus too went on Sparda lighting up the area around him with the laser.

The Power armor team pushed up leaving the Strait Jacket to deal with Arix. The Shield team had been scattered slightly, some of them had fallen underground, some dead, but a handful of them pushed ever more forward to the castle.

"Is that so?"

The Strait Jacket turned all in one stride he mumbled so quickly under his breath it sounded like gibberish, "Grant-me-the-power-of-chaos-EXIST!" A huge arch of energy shot from his cannon toward Arix. The arch itself was a good 15 foot tall and around it dug into the ground as it fired.

"By the way, I never like to leave my enemies not knowing who I am before they die. I'm Isaac McCall, Sorcerer."

[.:Amilia:.]

"Yeah that's so!"

Arix's swords Aura grew strong making the pressure around him extremely dense. As the Chaos shot arced it's way toward him, he twisted his body backwards in a full spin crossing his blades as he did, when his foot planted flat he slashed both swords left and right, the initial explosion dug his foot into the ground.

The Duel Judgment wave of energy smashed with Chaos causing smoke and light to bellow from the meeting point, however it stopped the energy in its tracks until McCall stopped firing.

Arix stood staring through the haze at McCall, "I'm the Rockstar of Hell, Arix Himura." It was his turn, he ran directly forward at the Strait Jacket and in range his right handed sword came to life swinging in a controlled arch releasing the pressure of his Ktonos.

[Yuna]

Yuna immediately began evasive maneuvers, flying behind an emptied building to use as cover against the Vtols before coming back around and having Valefor fire off several powerful energy beams in retaliation. Her mission to scout out the generators from above just got a whole lot more complicated.

[Hotaru]

Saturn held up the polearm in her hands, the sharp pointed edges of the blade at the end now aimed at the soldier standing across from her, as she observed the man to see what he would do. Unlike Ayen she wouldn't attack head on against an unknown enemy as her first and foremost job was to protect the children, and now the sole heir of Hallowton. The first move would be the soldier's.

[Queen Lori]

Lori remained hidden behind Ayen and Saturn after the men made their intention known that they were going to abduct her. She wished she could have been more useful but a physical confrontation was way outside her character. It was already against her nature just giving orders that had to do with war and violence when deep inside she was a creature of peace. But this time conflict was unavoidable.

[Ayen]

“Here's your damn answer!”

Since Ayen couldn't electrocute Soldier B he would just have to magnetize his surroundings. Magnetizing the nearby rubble of the burning building, he hurl the rubble towards the soldier, who in reply smashed the rubble into smaller pieces and continued his charge for Ayen. Ayen tried to see if a point blank charge of his electricity would work but something was causing interference and he took a hard right hand to the face knocking him down.

Soldier A would punch the ground causing it to tremble beneath Saturn's feet to make her lose balance before closing in with a clothesline.

[Hotaru]

Saturn spread her feet, and maintain her level of balance prior to Soldier A closing in on her position to attack. As soon as his arm came the Soldier of Silence ducked underneath and swung the polearm in an upper-cut formation to knock him back and follow up with a downward slash when she stood up.

[Queen Lori]

"Ayen!" Lori dropped down by Ayen's side and placed a hand against his cheek before looking up at the soldier with tears in her eyes. "Why are you doing this? What have we ever done to you?"

[Der-Sprecher-des-Wahnsinns]

"A pleasure!"

Arix moved forward so swiftly, he raised the cannon and yelled very quickly, "Power and soul, protect me! EXIST!" When Arix's attack hit, it would bank hard against a blinding shield protruding from the front of the cannon. One of the shells in his armor flew out now extinguished.

"Those who are wrathful shall be punished! I call on full annihilation! EXIST!" Arix would find himself looking down the barrel of a monster, the shot would fire and dig into the ground, the blast was so large that if you stood on the mountains far off in the distance you'd of seen it's glimmer.

---

The Vtol following Yuna banked hard flipping to the right but easily keeping stabilized as it too fired it's beam. But at the same time it unleashed hell firing off a group of five missiles from its left side toward the flying summoner.

---

The power armor team and shield team had finally arrived at the castle. But a young man stood in their path. He walked his way from the front courtyard cracking his knuckles, "Well then. I wasn't expecting my god to set me straight in the middle of a battlefield."

The shield team opened fire on him, he would draw both of his custom pistols and skirt the area so fast that he was just a black blur to them. Two shots fired from his weapons, neither of them were normal pistol rounds as they hit the shields and exploded. Their holy power alone tossed the shield team about but he wasn't done yet.

He took cover and reloaded two new shells into the underbarrel of the guns as the power armor team dug into strategic areas to murder him.

[.:Amilia:.]

The only thing between himself and total annihilation was quick thinking. When he saw the power up time on the cannon and heard the man uttering an incantation he stepped back turning as he did and used the full momentum to release the power of his left arm.

By that time the Annihilation shot was split by the final judgment that he released from the tip of his left handed blade. The energy arched causing an explosion that would push himself and McCall away from one another. However Arix just stood there staring between the gap as the smoke cleared with a smug smile on his face.

"This just got interesting."

[Sparda]

Rounding a corner onto another rooftop, Sparda was immediately faced with a pair of hulking VTOL jets. A third had banked off to take on the great monster flying overhead, with what seemed to be a young woman upon its back; the demon fixed his gaze on the two now staring him down.

The first opened up with a huge volley of missiles that screamed through the air, bearing down upon him as a wall of explosives. Grinning, the Dark Knight extended his right hand outwards, his namesake sword called to him in a flash of crimson fire, before he launched himself skyward at the missiles - and rode them.

Just as the second jet opened fire with its gatling laser, tracking the demon, he leapt from missile to missile as they careened past him, using them as stepping stones and bounding skyward towards the VTOL that had fired them. Behind him, the erratic mess of missiles was caught in the laser crossfire and exploded one by one, and Sparda allowed the shockwave to propel him over the jet.

One downward swing of his blade unleashed a pressure wave that cleaved the craft in two.

Immediately, Sparda turned his attention to the second fighter, small stepping stones of compressed demonic energy appearing beneath his feet as he sprinted at it, leaping to and fro to duck around the barrage of laser fire. The second jet too fell before his blade as he closed the distance and carved the cockpit in half lengthways, pilot and all, before slicing it clean off the rest of the fuselage.

As he allowed himself to fall back to the surface, set on continuing his hunt for the null field generators, he turned in the air to face the jet that was chasing the flying beast and, waiting until the monster was out of his line of fire, swung his sword at the aircraft. The crescent wave of energy released from the demonic steel rocketed across the battlefield in an instant, set to rend the jet apart before the pilot could react.